Fulfilled: The Chosen King: Heard & Hurried with Pastor Clayton Tyner

Welcome to the Medicurch Podcast.

My name's Clayton.

I'm the pastor here at Medicurch.

And my hope is that today's podcast finds you at the perfect time in your life, that God uses it to inspire and enlighten you.

I hope that you enjoy today's message.

I want to welcome you in.

I want to thank you for being here.

If you're new with us, my name is Clayton.

I'm the lead pastor here at Meta, and we are going through the Gospel of Luke.

This is Luke's historical account of the life of Jesus.

We are in the first section of Luke's gospel.

We are calling that the Chosen King.

These are the birth narratives where we learn not only the intention for Jesus coming, but all that happened to prepare the way and how we can begin to live in light of who Jesus was prophesied to be.

It's very interesting.

We've been learning just in a few weeks that when the angel Gabriel showed up to Mary, the mother of Jesus, his ultimate prophecy for Jesus' future was not that Jesus would grow up to be Savior, although we know Jesus is our Savior.

Gabriel did not tell Mary, your son will grow up and die on a cross, although that is a central part of his story.

He did not tell her, your son will grow up and be a healer, although we believe that Jesus is our healer.

What he said to Mary is your son will be great.

He will be the son of the Most High, and that he will be the last and final chosen king to end all kings, that he will be the king who reigns forever and ever.

Amen.

That is the prophecy given to the mother of Jesus about who Jesus will be.

And we know and believe that Jesus is enthroned in heaven right now as the king of the universe.

There have been many men who have worn crowns on earth who were the king of a province or a territory or a nation, but no one is the last and final chosen king but Jesus alone.

He's not the king of a given country, he's not the king of an area or territory, he is the king of the universe, and he is the king that all earthly kings must bow to.

And so one of the things that we don't do at Metachurch is get on stage and pretend like this movement isn't operating in a unique cultural space.

And so there's a lot going on in the world, and we are not a Christian cult who comes into our building and hunkers down and ignores everything that's going on.

And so let me mention quickly, you know this uh Israel and Iran are in a new war.

Like as we speak, there are missiles falling and hitting in the middle of Israel.

And so why does that matter?

Well, it matters in part because almost the entirety of the text of our scripture is set in the context of Israel.

It matters because the prophecies of the return of Jesus mostly center around Israel.

Now, if you came to service, whether you're here in Helotus or online, if you came to hear from a prophet about the date, month, and hour of Jesus' return, you are going to be sorely disappointed, all right?

I don't know what I'm doing today for dinner, all right?

I don't know.

And anybody who tells you they know, I promise, wants to sell you a book, okay?

They don't know either.

Jesus said, nobody knows.

Our job is to stay ready.

Domestically, there is a lot of tension.

Even in our city, San Antonio, there's a lot of tension.

And it's very interesting because some churches have what would appear to be the luxury of monolithic thought, which means that for the most part, everyone who comes and sits in the seats, they think the same way.

They have generally the same world experience, a lot of times the same ethnicity, they almost all vote the same way.

And so they can come into a Sunday service and be like, so we all know how we feel about this, right?

I don't actually see that as a luxury.

I think that the movement of God's people is meant to be diverse, that it is meant to look like the city that you inhabit.

And uh, we don't have that at MetaCurch, which means you are surrounded by people who think differently on political issues than you, who voted differently in last year's election.

And this begs the question of what do we do when the culture gets stirred up on political, cultural, and social issues, and we exist in the most important movement that has ever touched God's earth.

How do we get along?

How do we continue moving together?

It's very interesting.

Just this week, I had people who reached out to me and they were on wildly opposite sides of the most prevalent cultural issues today.

Politically, they viewed these completely differently from one another.

And both of them were asking questions like, what would Jesus do about this?

And how would Jesus want me to behave in this scenario?

But because of their backgrounds, because of their worldviews, because of their life circumstance, they come at it from completely different sides of the political spectrum.

So I had good conversations with them.

Number one, I just appreciated that they reached out for wise counsel.

All of us should do this.

If you don't have wise counsel in your life, you need to get in the Christian community.

You need to join a life team, get around people who you can bounce some ideas off of.

I have mentors, I have wise counsel, I have people I go to to make sure I'm not thinking crazy about things, to make sure I'm thinking biblically about things.

I had great, nuanced conversations with these people on completely opposite sides of the aisle.

And yet, here's the amazing thing about following Jesus.

I got to the end of that conversation, and my advice to both of them, as different as they were in approach and belief, my advice was identical to both of them.

You are a believer in Jesus.

Jesus is the king, and so whatever you do, whatever you say, whatever attitude or disposition you bring to it, make sure the kingdom is your priority.

You can be all the way right politically, all the way correct culturally, all the way spot on socially.

And if you're doing things to distract from the kingdom and divide the kingdom and push people away from the kingdom, you can be all the way right and you're wrong.

Either God is real or he's not.

Either Jesus is king or he's not.

And if Jesus is king, then his kingdom becomes our priority against everything else.

And so be active if you want to be active.

But if your response to someone who thinks differently than you culturally or politically, is division, you're wrong.

And let's say this.

I promise we're gonna get to Luke, but let me just say this.

Let's say you're right.

Now, all of you can't be right because half of you disagree with half of you, okay?

But let's just say you're correct, you're the one who's correct.

If you are correct and you are like biblically correct, and you are spiritually correct, then your desire is for someone to be correct like you are.

But if you approach them with division, if you approach them with anger, if you approach them without the fruits of the spirit, if you approach them in your flesh, if you approach them in sin, all they are going to do is double down on wrong.

What you need to do is what Jesus did, which is keep relationship open, the kingdom, the priority, and then you will allow God to change minds.

Let me say something that's so good you might want to write it down.

If you are the source of their change today, you will be the source of their resentment tomorrow.

If you keep relationship open, then God will bring correction.

And if you don't approach social, cultural, political with the attitude of I could also be wrong, you're not ready to have the conversation in the first place.

You might be wrong, and God may need to correct you, and so be very, very careful.

And I see Christians who bear the name of Christ, who have Jesus in their profile on Instagram, and they're creating division and hatred and anger.

And so, what's different?

You can't tell me my priority is the kingdom of Jesus when you're willing to hurt the kingdom of Jesus to try to build the kingdom of America.

So we must do something different.

Have conviction, be informed, be active if you want to be active.

But if you position yourself against God's kingdom, you're gonna stand in front of your king someday with regret.

And so, how do we do this?

We learn who the king is.

We're going, I mean, painstakingly through Luke's gospel.

I tried to pre preach 20 verses, I couldn't do it.

I caused traffic jams.

I tried to preach 10 verses, I couldn't do it.

Traffic jams.

So I'm at like five verses today.

There's so much here.

But we have to know who the real Jesus is because he's our king, and the expectation is that we're gonna follow him.

And so we're digging in.

And today we are looking at Elizabeth and Mary's reaction.

We asked the question last week: how do I step into my calling?

You were created on purpose, you were created with purpose.

You may not know this, but Jesus is our King.

Jesus is also the agent of creation.

John says in his gospel, everything that was created was created through Jesus, and not one single created thing was created apart from Jesus.

So your King is also who placed your purpose inside of you, and he will give you the instructions and the calling to follow him into that purpose if you're listening.

And so we went through Mary's response to the angel Gabriel, piece by piece, very intricately looking, how do I step into my calling?

And we came to a very painfully obvious conclusion, which is you have to say yes.

When Jesus moves, when Jesus calls, when Jesus asks, you say yes.

And so, what that means is that the answer to the question was hidden in the question itself.

Let me show you.

How do I step into my calling?

You take a step, and faith, often we think faith works in miles when it works in inches.

So we want the whole picture.

It's like I want to be married and successful and wealthy and happy, and right now I'm broke and single and depressed.

And it's like you want to go miles, but you got to start with inches.

Little steps of obedience.

It's the few inches between you and the word of God that stays on the shelf because you're not opening it for yourself.

It's the approximately 18 inches between your heart that God keeps trying to soften and prompt and speak to, and your head that is so filled with worldly wisdom that it talks you out of the prompting God put on your heart.

Sometimes faith doesn't happen in miles, it happens in feet.

Like the 20 feet between your bedroom and your living room, and you're on the bed and your spouse is on the couch, and you already know that you lost the argument, but you're so mad you're not gonna give them the satisfaction of knowing that you know that you're wrong.

It's a little prompting to get up and make things right.

Sometimes we want faith to operate in miles and it operates in meters.

Yes, God works in the metric system as well.

It's two houses down, it's a neighbor that you know is hurting, but you just don't know how to show up.

And God hasn't given you the full picture.

You don't even know how you're supposed to help.

You just feel prompted to knock on a door.

And you're like, look, I'm a nice guy, but I got a lot of tattoos, and I kind of look like a scary guy if you don't know me.

So I knock on the door and you think I'm there to sell you drugs.

It's like, no, God just told me to knock on the door.

I just, do you need something?

Can I help you?

Can I mow your yard?

It's like, man, these little steps of faith.

And so last week we saw Mary's response to the angel, and the angel told Mary all kinds of just unimaginable things, you know.

You're a virgin, but you're gonna conceive, you're gonna give birth.

Your son will also be the son of God.

That's a lot.

He will sit on the throne of David, he will be the last and final king whose kingdom has no end.

That's a lot.

Really, in that, there's a lot that Mary was like in awe, but there's no actionable steps.

It's just wait, have faith and wait.

But there was one thing the angel said that was actionable, something Mary could do something with.

And that was in verse 36 last week.

Gabriel said this, and consider your relative Elizabeth, even she has conceived a son in her old age, and this is the sixth month for her who is called childless.

Elizabeth is Mary's much older cousin.

She's righteous, she's a woman of God, they live very far away.

As a matter of fact, it would have been about 90 miles.

It could be shorter, you could cut through Samaria, that'd be incredibly dangerous for a young woman to do.

So probably Eliz uh Mary had to go from the north of Israel and go down the Jordan Valley and go down to the south of Jerusalem, where Elizabeth lived.

90 miles, it would take at least seven days, this journey through valleys, over mountains, very treacherous.

But there's something she can do, a prompting she can follow.

And so Mary is our template for taking a step into our calling.

In Luke chapter 1, verse 39, it says, In those days, that's an ancient idiom, it just means right away.

Luke 1:39

In those days, Mary set out and say it with me, and hurried.

Okay, that was terrible.

Uh Holotis, if you would help us out.

Uh, let's try again.

In those days, Mary set out and hurried to a town in the hill country of Judah where she entered Zechariah's house and greeted Elizabeth.

One one actionable item.

The only prompting she could do anything with, other than just have faith and wait, and immediately she hurries to go and see Elizabeth.

Here's what Mary did.

She's our template.

Mary heard and hurried.

Mary heard from God and hurried to obey.

So here's a question.

What if it's actually that simple?

What if the life you want to live and the relationships that you want to have, and the career where even if it's not your dream job, you wake up every morning feeling inspired because you know that God has something for you as you drive into your workplace?

What if the mental and emotional health, what if the physical resilience, what if the parenting, what if the marriage, what if everything you are looking for and longing for at the deepest part of who God created you to be?

What if it is all waiting for you to just hear from God and hurry in obedience?

And we can get lost on either side of this.

Number one, we have to start hearing from God, and I just hear it all the time.

It's like God never speaks to me.

And here, here's all I have to say.

No, God has spoken to you.

If you if you study the history of the word of God, it is miraculous in itself how God preserved and protected his word.

Did you know for most of human history, almost everyone was illiterate?

Did you know that until the 16th century there was no printing press, no one had a copy of their own scriptures unless it was dictated by hand?

For 2,000 years, the people of God have heard from God, and virtually none of them had their own set of scriptures.

And if they had their own set of scriptures, they could not read them for themselves, which means we stand uniquely in the scope of the church's history without excuse.

We complain the most about not hearing from God, and for 1700 of the 2,000 years, Christians would have tripped over themselves to have access to the words of God like we have.

We have to hear from God for some of us, the voice of culture, the voice of society, the voice of politics, it's so loud and so overwhelming we have no space to hear from God.

Are we seeking him in his word?

Are we seeking him in prayer?

Are you aware that prayer is not just asking Jesus for the cop not to pull you over on the highway?

Are you aware that prayer is a conversation that requires listening at least as much as you talk?

Can I tell you a good way to operate?

If you are wiser than somebody, then you have permission to do more talking than listening.

It's kind of a catch-22 because if you're actually wiser than them, you'll probably end up listening more than you talk.

But if you have the wisdom in the conversation, they should hear from you.

If you're sitting with someone wiser than you, more experienced than you, more successful than you, further along in marriage than you, a better parent than you, then listen.

And yet we approach God in prayer, we do all of the talking.

The God of the universe, the locust of wisdom itself, and we're like, God, and you wouldn't believe what else?

And God's like, if I would just speak into that, hang on, God, let me tell you something else.

And another thing that happened, we just go on, bro.

It's like, here's 10 things you need to fix, and 10 things I'm mad about, and 10 more things I'm confused about.

And God's like, Can I get a second to answer?

You cannot hear from God if you never listen to God.

We are drowned out.

We're on our phones, we have no bandwidth.

Man, I'm guilty as well.

About three months ago, I heard from God right before I walked on stage to preach.

I mean, right before I heard from God, delete Twitter.

And bro, let me just tell you, I know it's not called Twitter, but till the day I die, I'll call it Twitter, alright?

It's like the best decision ever, man.

We're just like, man, I never hear from God.

War, fights, sex, Satan, the devil.

It's just like, of course not.

We can't hear from God because we're prideful.

This one's tough.

Bro, I start preaching like this, and I think either revival's coming to Metachurch or there's gonna be six people by the end of this series.

We don't hear from God because we think we can do a better job than God.

And none of us would say that.

But we don't have to say it.

It's like God spoke the entire universe into creation, but somehow we think we've got a better plan for our career than God has.

We're constantly frustrated when things don't go how we want them to go.

It's the very temptation that caused the fall in the garden.

You can be like God.

You know this?

It's Father's Day, happy Father's Day to all the fathers.

Like, you know this?

You raise kids.

It's like kids hit a certain age, they get out of that innocent age, you know, and you gotta start putting boundaries on them.

Every boundary you put on your kid, if you're like a new parent, spoiler alert, it's gonna be totally not fair, all right?

This isn't fair.

Why's it gotta be like that?

Nobody else and everybody else, they hit like eight or nine years old, and you can see it behind their eyes, they walk away from a conversation and they're like, these idiots, you know.

If I were the parent, I would be.

It's like, well, you're not, because you're not experienced enough, you're not wise enough, you don't know enough.

God hasn't given you this position.

We know that with our kids.

We can watch them, uh, it's so stupid, so uh, you know.

And then we're like 40, full grown, kids of our own, career 401k, got a mortgage we're paying, and things don't go the way we want, and we're like, God, it's so unfair.

You always do that.

Why can't I have what they have?

And I mean, it makes sense, like God is our father, we are his kids.

And the same way your kid is like, this is so stupid, it's so unfair, and you're like, you just don't see it.

You haven't lived enough, you don't have the God is up there like, bro, if I gave you everything you want, you'd be dead in a second.

We don't hear from God because we want to be gone, we don't hear from God because we're insecure.

Every single thing that markets to you, which we are marketed to every single nanosecond of the day, marketing is to make you insecure.

That's the purpose.

If I can make you insecure, then I can sell my good or service as the thing that will bring security to your life.

We can't hear from God because we're insecure and we're looking for our security down here on earth.

We have to begin to hear from God.

There's two sides of the equation we hear and we hurry.

And some of us are beginning to hear from God, and maybe you're New at this, but you're like, I'm actually in the word for myself.

I'm worshiping God.

I'm listening.

I'm practicing silence.

I'm getting in solitude.

I'm creating margin in my life.

So I can sit in the presence of the Lord.

I can I can ask God questions and listen and really try to hear.

I'm in community.

I got on a life team.

I'm hearing God speaking through other people.

I'm under the word.

I don't miss Sunday service.

So the proclamation of the word from spiritual authority comes into my life.

I'm hearing from God, but we don't hurry to obey.

My kids have had to hear me, you know, say all kinds of things.

One of the things I've said throughout the years is delayed obedience is disobedience.

You might want to write that down.

Delayed obedience is disobedience.

If I say, hey, I need you to take the trash out, I don't need you to go on a seven-day prayer retreat and think about it.

The trash is full, I want it at the curb.

Delayed obedience is disobedience.

And I'll tell you, there are cultural factors at play here.

In the last couple of years, I bet I've read four or five books all about do not hurry, never be in a rush, make sure you rest, take care of yourself, do not get overstimulated, make sure you have a wellness routine, make sure you practice Sabbath.

All of those are good things in context.

The problem is that becomes so much a part of our cultural zeitgeist that God prompts us to obedience, and we're like, God, do not rush me right now, okay?

I am I'm overwhelmed, I do not want to rush.

We're strategists, you know.

Uniquely, we think about the future.

We're so affluent, we're not worried about dying every five seconds from like a plague or lack of food.

So we're thinking out, you know, and we're like, God, I got a plan, and I know you're prompting me to do this, but it's kind of in the way of the plan I already had.

And so we don't hurry, and hurry is seen as bad.

And so I'm giving you a countercultural teaching straight from the word of God when God asks you, hurry.

I just imagine, like, if Moses was in 2025, God brings him down to the edge of the Red Sea, and the Egyptian army is pressing him behind him, and God is like, Moses, that's you know, the God voice, right?

Moses, extend your staff over the water.

And Moses is just like, God, I am really overstimulated right now.

This feels like a lot, bro.

I need a massage if I get a massage, really.

I need I need a cold plunge and then sauna.

And what you do, God, is you do cold sauna, cold sauna, and then my mind, right?

Because my my serotonin levels are really high right now, God.

I read a book, my serotonin levels are so high, I can't think straight.

And God's like, I asked you to do it, do it.

And we have this aversion to quick action.

Well, if I if I rush, I'll make a mistake.

Maybe.

I wish, I pray, I hope for a church that is willing to make mistakes because they're obeying so quickly.

See, you cannot follow Jesus and stand still at the same time.

Religion has done this to some of us.

Some of us grew up in religious environments where God is angry and God is mad at you, and God requires perfection.

We hear from God, but we are so terrified to move, we just stand still and wait for the end of the world.

It's like Jesus will come back, and at least I won't have screwed anything up.

It's like, no, dude, you are currently screwing up by standing still.

Please fail because you're trying so hard to obey God.

So, what does it mean?

We hear from God and we hurry.

Maybe you feel like God is calling you to a new career path.

Does this mean you show up Monday morning and hand in your two-minute notice?

It's like, hey, God told me I'm out, bro, I'm out.

It was good working here.

See ya.

Hearing and hurrying does not mean foolishness.

Faith usually doesn't happen in miles, it happens in inches.

I mean, I have people come to me pretty consistently, very unsatisfied with their job, or maybe they're feeling called to something new in their career.

And so my question is always like, all right, what steps have you taken?

You want to step into your calling?

Step into it.

And usually the answer is, I've done nothing.

I've thought about how much I hate my job and how much I want to do this other thing.

It's like great.

Next time I see you, I want a resume.

It's a step.

After you make a resume, get online.

See if anyone's hiring.

It's a step.

Send it an application, it's a step.

Go for an interview, it's a step.

Go to the second interview, it's a step.

Talk to people who are in that field, it's a step.

See what happens is if we're willing to take steps, God brings affirmation with movement.

It's like I feel called, you feel called to be the mayor of San Antonio.

Take 20 steps, and then if you only get 20 votes, the Lord has spoken.

You weren't meant to be the mayor.

It's not the affirmation you want, but it's affirmation.

You send out 20 applications and get 20 rejections, it's not what you wanted, but it's affirmation.

God will speak as we move because God is always moving.

And so let me give you some uh tips and tricks.

God will speak to us first and foremost through his word.

And you need to know alongside that, this miraculously protected and preserved word of God, that God will never speak against his word.

How do I know if God's speaking to me?

Well, God has given us these filters, and his first filter is scripture.

Uh, there's what's called the law of non-contradiction.

People see that as a philosophical idea.

It's an idea rooted in God Himself.

God is singular, God never ever contradicts himself.

And so I have couples in crisis and they come in, and a lot of times they want help and they have hope and they believe in their marriage.

And sometimes, you know, 30 minutes in, I realize what's actually happening is you just want a cosign from spiritual authority to get divorced.

If you've done that, I'm not here to shame you.

I'm saying you're actually not unique at all.

And look, the word is rich.

The word has carve-outs.

Like if someone is unrepentantly having affairs in their marriage, there is a carve out for divorce.

If someone is abusing you, if someone abandons you, there are carve-outs for that.

That's not usually what's happening.

Usually what's happening is you have fallen out of love and you cannot stand each other anymore.

And so Christians know how to play the God card, you know?

They will show up like, you know, it's just not what it was, and you know, we're just fighting all the time and everything.

And, you know, I just really feel like the Holy Spirit is calling me to divorce.

And I'm just like this.

No, I hurt for you, but I have hope for you.

Because as long as there's God, there's hope.

But you're never gonna walk into your best life going against the words of God, and God is never going to speak against himself.

And so sometimes God's word doesn't explicitly line by line lay out a cultural or social problem.

We've got a lot of cultural heat around immigration right now.

There is no, like, you know, second immigration chapter three where you can just see exactly.

And so you look at the character of Christ and how you should handle these things, and you search the scriptures, and then you go to wise counsel, which is why you need Christians alongside of you who are further along in their walk than you, so you can get wise counsel.

This is why there is structure in the body of Christ.

This is why there's leadership in the body of Christ, this is why there's pastors in the body of Christ, so you can get wisdom, so you can say, test the spirits, here's what I think God is saying to me.

But if you come in and say, here's what I think God is saying to me, and it's against the actual word of God, there will be loving, gentle correction.

Either God is God or He's not.

Either Jesus is the King or He's not, and if He's the King, we line ourselves up to His commands.

And so we hear from God and then we hurry.

I don't care about the culture, I don't I don't care about the typical strategy, I don't care about the wellness plan.

We do not delay obedience to the promptings of the Lord.

I was at a funeral yesterday for a guy I don't know, I know his brother.

This guy who passed tragically in a wild freak accident in his early 40s was a man of God.

He had so much impact on people that his actual funeral was in North Texas and it was being live streamed to San Antonio.

And there was a picture as you walked into the funeral, and without context, you wouldn't really understand it.

But the picture told a story, and the pastor shared this story at the funeral that when Stephen uh had a heart for the homeless and he was doing homeless ministry, and he met a woman who was homeless and she was wheelchair bound, she had no shoes, her socks were wet, night was coming, and it was going to get cold outside.

Without hesitation, Stephen took off his shoes and took off his socks and removed her socks and put his socks and shoes on her feet.

And I don't know this, and Stephen has passed, so I can't ask him, but I bet he didn't even get far enough down the train of thought to realize for the rest of the evening he would now be barefoot in a very dangerous area of town.

He obeyed so quickly, regardless of consequence, because God spoke to him, he heard, and he just hurried.

I was so inspired by that.

I go to a funeral Saturday and it's speaking to me about my sermon on Sunday.

I'm gonna tell a thousand more people this Sunday to let you know life is short.

It's like, God, I know you're really prompting me to do this or to start this or to change this, but I'll get around to it.

Maybe not.

You're not promised tomorrow.

Jesus is actually coming back.

I'm not a prophet, okay?

But what I know is things are heating up in Israel.

If you came here to know the exact month, date, and hour that Jesus is coming back, you're gonna be sorely disappointed.

I don't know.

But what I know is Jesus is coming back, and when he comes back, I do not want a laundry list of promptings from God that I have delayed my obedience on.

I want to stand before Jesus like you said, take off my shoes, and I took off my shoes.

I don't want to just slide in.

I want to hear, well done.

You heard amidst all the distraction and division and nonsense and hatred and cultural forces and demonic powers, you made space to hear from God and you hurried in obedience, you just took steps.

All of us want this like unique calling, and I believe that actually does exist for everybody.

Like we have our big, big picture calling, that we are the ambassadors of God, we are building the kingdom of God, we are building the local church, which is God's vehicle for his presence on the earth.

All of that is us.

What if we are not hearing our unique, powerful, specific callings because we have not yet proven that we can put ourselves in submission to the clear callings that God has already given us in Scripture?

We want our specific, tailor-made, custom fit calling from God, but we have not submitted ourselves under what God has already revealed to us in His Word.

You do not need the clouds to part and angels to come down to know that you have to love your enemies.

Jesus told you to do that.

You won't talk to people who don't vote the same way as you.

You're not in submission to the revealed word of God, and now you want him to give you something special.

You do not need thunder and lightning to know that you cannot just hand your kids over to the ways of the world, you have to actually discipline and parent and set boundaries around them.

You do not need a miraculous sign to know that you have to self-sacrificially serve your spouse.

It's already in the word.

If we submit to his word, we prove we're ready for something bigger.

We're ready for something tailored to me.

I've proven my submission to your word.

I've proven to trust you when it makes no sense.

I spent too long on this verse, but we have to hear from God and hurry.

And the life you desire is on the other side of that.

There's no shortcuts, bro.

You just have to submit.

And it doesn't work in miles, it happens in little steps.

90 miles from the north of Israel where Mary is to the south of Israel where Elizabeth is, but it didn't start with 90 miles, it started with a step.

It started with going, the angel told me a lot, the one thing I can do something about is I can pack my bags.

That's a step.

I can tell my family I'm going on a trip, that's a step.

I can let Joseph know I'm gonna go see Elizabeth, that's a step.

And I can walk out of my front door.

That's the one step that leads to the affirmation that you're seeking.

Let me show you.

In the next verse, verse 41, it says, When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the baby leaped inside her, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.

Let me tell you what's happening.

Mary takes steps of faith, Elizabeth gets affirmation.

What did the angel tell her husband Zechariah?

All the way back in verse 15.

The angel said, The baby John will be filled with the Holy Spirit while still in his mother's womb.

That's a wild statement.

You see, in the Old Testament, before the resurrection of Jesus, people were not filled with the Holy Spirit like believers are in the church age.

We are now the temple of God.

We are now the tabernacle where the Holy Spirit lives.

In the Old Testament, the Spirit lived in the temple.

The Spirit lived in the tabernacle.

But every once in a while, people would get a unique filling of God's Spirit.

It wasn't like us in the church age.

If you put your faith in Jesus, you are sealed by the Holy Spirit.

In the Old Testament, people would get unique fillings for a specific purpose or for prophetic decree, meaning they were filled with God's Spirit to speak the very words of God.

Watch what happens in verse 42.

The beginning of verse 42 says, Then Elizabeth exclaimed with a loud cry.

Now you don't have to know this, but I'm gonna tell you because it connects to the filling of the Holy Spirit.

That phrase, then she exclaimed with a loud cry.

In the Greek, that is anaphoneson croge magale.

That'll be on the test, write that down.

Anaphoneson croge magale.

That is Greek.

In the Old Testament, Septuagint, written in Greek, when that phrase is used, it is use of the Old Testament prophets.

The crying out of the very words of God Himself.

Elizabeth in this moment becomes a prophetess.

What comes in the rest of our section today are the words of God spoken through Elizabeth.

Watch.

Affirmation.

Then she exclaimed with a loud cry, Blessed are you among women, and your child will be blessed.

A two-part blessing that is connected.

Ladies, you don't have to like this, uh, but you do have to understand in that cultural context, 2,000 years ago, this ancient Semitic blessing, blessed are you among women, and blessed is your child, blessed is the fruit of your womb.

What this referred to is a woman's level of blessedness was attached to the ultimate greatness of the son that they gave birth to.

Which means that the mother of King David would have been one of the most blessed women in all of Israel's history because he was one of the greatest men, Moses' mother, the mother of Joshua.

They were blessed at a higher level because of the greatness of their sons.

What Elizabeth is prophesying is that Mary will be uniquely blessed, higher than any woman who has ever walked the earth, not because of her own merit, not because of something intrinsic in her, but because no one will ever birth a greater son than Jesus Christ.

If that isn't crazy enough, listen to now the prophet Elizabeth in verse 43.

She says, How could this happen to me that the mother of my Lord, capital L Lord, should come to me?

That word Lord is the Greek word curios.

If you look in the Old Testament, the name for God, the God of the universe, the one true God, the name in Hebrew is Yahweh.

In the Septuagint, the Greek Old Testament, Yahweh is translated into Greek, capital K curios.

Elizabeth becomes the first person on earth, a woman disgraced for her entire life because of her barren womb, becomes a prophetess, inspired by the Holy Spirit to be the first person on earth to point out that God, Yahweh, has come to earth.

Mary is blessed not because of her own skill, not because of her resources, her poverty, not because of who she has been or what she has done or what she has accomplished.

She is blessed first and foremost because of the miracle that is inside of her.

If you're a believer in Jesus, you are blessed, not because of your skill, not because of your status, not because of your influence.

You are blessed because the miracle of salvation that is inside of you.

You are powerful because of the God that is inside of you.

You have purpose because of the spirit that has sealed your life.

Here's the last thing that Elizabeth says.

For you see, Mary, when the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby leaped for joy inside of me.

Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfill what he has spoken to her.

When you hear and you hurry and you take steps of faith, affirmation comes.

Mary heard from the angel Gabriel, and immediately she headed to Elizabeth, which means Mary has been pregnant all of a week and a half.

Now, if you've ever been pregnant, you know, seven to ten days in, you probably don't yet realize you have conceived.

In most circumstances, you don't show any signs.

This is 2,000 years ago.

Mary cannot run to CVS and pee on a stick.

All right?

But what does she get?

Affirmation.

Next week, we're gonna see Mary burst into this song of worship.

Overwhelmed, right in front of her, her cousin Elizabeth is uniquely filled with the Holy Spirit and begins to prophesy, not just over her life, but over the life inside of her.

Barely a week old, a little zygote.

If you start hearing and hearding and taking steps of faith, people are going to begin to affirm things inside of you that you don't even perceive yet.

Spiritually minded people are going to start calling gifting out of you that still is laying latent in your heart.

People are going to begin to prophesy a future over your life that you have not even dreamed or imagined for yourself yet.

If you just hear and hurry to take steps of obedience.

Verse 45 Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfill, that God would actually.

Do what he has spoken.

We're in this together, we're in the word together, we're going through Luke together.

Inside the house is Elizabeth's husband, Zechariah.

The same angel Gabriel came to Zechariah and Mary, proclaimed miraculous conception to both of them.

Mary believed Zechariah did not.

Zechariah is a priest and is an elder.

Mary is a young, uneducated woman.

I don't think Elizabeth is putting her husband down, but the fact is she has a husband who is mute.

God has taken his voice away because he did not believe.

And why does she say Mary is blessed?

Number one, because of the miracle inside of her.

And number two, because she was willing to hear and hurry, to take steps of faith.

Mary, you are blessed because an angel came and told you something unbelievable and you believed it anyway.

Mary had every reason to doubt her calling, and I bet you do too.

The same God who was moving and speaking and doing miracles back then is moving and speaking and is desperate to do miracles today.

Can we make space in our life to hear from him?

And when we hear, can we put aside our excuses and put aside our pride and put aside our insecurity and put aside our enlightenment and the way things should go and our strategies and devices?

Can we hear and hurry?

You have no idea the life that is waiting for you on the other side of taking some steps of faith.

You don't have to see the whole picture.

In fact, you almost never will.

God has shown us the end, which is his eternal kingdom, he has invited us into between now and here.

And if you will take steps of faith, you will see more and more.

And in your lifetime, you will begin to see things that you just can't imagine.

And as a movement that is growing and expanding here in our city and beyond, we will see things together that we simply cannot imagine.

As we close, let's pray right where you're at, across our venues.

You bow your head and close your eyes, create a little bit of space for the believers in the room.

There are two sides to this template.

We have to hear from God.

Are you making space to hear from God?

Are you seeking Him?

Are you overwhelmed by the things of the world?

How do you create that space and get some spiritual discipline in your life?

God is desperate to speak to you.

Think about that.

The God of the universe is desperate to speak to you.

It's time that we listen.

Maybe you are hearing from God, but you're very hesitant.

There is no room for hesitation.

Jesus said, the kingdom of God is for those who put their hand to the plow and keep their eyes forward on Him.

Those who look off to the left, who look off to the right, who are distracted, hesitant, and afraid will fall short.

Not of eternal life, but of maximizing your life here on earth.

It's time we hear and learn to hurry.

In a world telling you to go slower, I'm here today, telling you, speed up.

Hear from God, take a step, see what happens.

Before we close, I want to talk to those who do not yet have a relationship with Jesus.

You've never had a moment in time where you've made a conscious decision that Jesus is your only hope for today and for eternity.

I want to invite you to make that decision today.

If that's you, my guess is that the Holy Spirit has gripped your heart, that God is leading you into relationship.

The problem you have is your sin, all the ways you've gone against God.

It separates you from a perfect God, but God loves you so much, He sent Jesus to this earth, God in human flesh.

He paid the price of those sins by dying on a cross.

And he proved that he could take death out of the equation by rising again.

And all he asks is for your faith.

And so, with everyone's eyes closed, if you're ready today for the first time to put your faith in Jesus, I want you just across our venues to raise your hand.

This is a symbolic gesture.

By raising your hand, you're saying, Today I choose to put my faith in Jesus.

Amen.

For those who raise a hand, God sees and accepts your faith, which means your sins are forgiven.

You've been adopted into the family of God forever and will have eternal life with Him.

And what I want to do is help you acknowledge this moment through a very simple prayer.

So if you raised your hand, I want to ask you to repeat this prayer with me.

And I'm gonna ask all the believers across venues to pray out loud as well.

Let's pray like this.

Jesus, today I choose to put my faith in you.

I believe you are God that you died for my sins and rose from the grave.

I thank you for loving me and forgiving my sins.

Now let me pray over you.

Jesus, we give you all of the glory for what you're doing.

We pray for strength to just have the courage to make room for you, to hear from you, and then to find our steps as you call us and prompt us and lead us to obedience, that we would follow you.

I thank you for those who made the decision to put their faith in you.

And I pray that they would experience all that you have for them during their time on earth.

We love you.

Pray these things in Jesus' name, and everyone said, Amen.

You guys give the Lord a hand.

Thanks so much for listening to the message today.

If this was helpful to you and you want to help us get the word out, you can subscribe to this podcast.

You can rate and review or share it with your friends.

If you want to get connected further with what MetaCurch is doing, you can go online to metachurch.tv.

There you can learn how to take next steps.

You can learn where our different venues are at if you ever wanted to visit, and you can also give financially to help push this movement forward.

Man, I love you guys and I hope you have a great rest of your day.