God’s Perfect Timing, Our Required Surrender: A Review of ‘When The Time Was Just Right’

[00:00:05] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]:
Good morning.
[00:00:06] You can have a seat.
[00:00:07] Good to see you all.
[00:00:09] Why don't we all pray?
[00:00:14] Lord, as we just sang those words, who else is worthy?
[00:00:16] Truly, the only answer is You, Jesus.
[00:00:20] You are worthy of it all.
[00:00:21] You are worthy of our praise.
[00:00:23] You are worthy of our lives, of our finances, Lord.
[00:00:27] Lord, You are worthy of our attention.
[00:00:29] You are worthy of our worship because You have done the most important thing
[00:00:34] that ever needed to be accomplished, and that is the forgiveness of our sins.
[00:00:38] God, we just pray that you would speak to us through your word as we open up the pages of Scripture.
[00:00:44] Lord, that it would be illuminated to us through the power of the Holy Spirit.
[00:00:47] Only you can do that.
[00:00:48] So fill us, we pray.
[00:00:50] We pray you would speak to us again.
[00:00:51] In Jesus' name we ask.
[00:00:53] Amen.
[00:00:54] Amen.
[00:00:55] Good to see you all.
[00:00:56] Can we thank our worship team one more time for leading us?
[00:00:59] Thank you, team.
[00:01:02] Well, we're going to be in Luke chapter 1 if you'd like to turn there in your Bibles.
[00:01:06] And a couple of quick announcements I want to let you guys know.
[00:01:09] First of all, tonight at Harvest Riverside we are going to be having our tree lighting service.
[00:01:14] This is going to be a lot of fun.
[00:01:16] It starts at 5 p.m. and I want to invite you guys to come on out for it.
[00:01:20] It's free.
[00:01:21] There's no charge.
[00:01:22] and it is going to be a blast.
[00:01:24] Man, I tell you what, this is actually our ninth consecutive year of doing them here in California.
[00:01:29] Maui just celebrated theirs, their second one ever last Sunday.
[00:01:34] They had a great time as well, a lot of fun.
[00:01:36] I know they were stoked.
[00:01:37] I hope you guys over Maui enjoyed that one.
[00:01:40] Sorry we couldn't be with you hopefully next year.
[00:01:42] but it looks like it was just incredible a lot of families a lot of people from the community coming out and we're going to be expecting the same thing tonight at Harvest Riverside and next Sunday night for Harvest Orange County we're also going to be holding the tree lighting there so make sure you invite people man this is a great way to get people onto the church campus maybe they don't want to come to the Christmas Eve service maybe you've tried the last few years they don't want to join you for whatever reason well
[00:02:07] a lot of times they'll come to an event like that oh it's in the church parking lot okay maybe i won't catch on fire if i go in the church parking lot that'll be okay right hey invite him to it it's going to be a great time and then you know what it gets him comfortable coming and then hopefully you will be able to invite him to the christmas season service you never know you praying for him who you're going to invite that's tonight at harvest riverside next sunday at harvest orange county the 14th also we'll let you know for you ladies
[00:02:33] We have an amazing event coming up that's going to be just for you girls.
[00:02:36] It's the Virtue Christmas Coffee.
[00:02:38] It's December 10th at Harvest Riverside and December 11th at Harvest Orange County.
[00:02:44] It's going to be a lot of fun.
[00:02:45] We have Jenny Lesko coming up to speak.
[00:02:47] Jenny is Levi's wife, who's been a great friend for many years, of course.
[00:02:51] And Jenny is a great speaker.
[00:02:52] And so you want to come on out and join us for this.
[00:02:55] There's also going to be a fun little
[00:02:57] What do you call it?
[00:02:58] Like a little market.
[00:03:00] I think they call it the Lovely Market.
[00:03:02] It's very lovely.
[00:03:03] They have fun little handmade crafts and different things and really actually some great stuff there.
[00:03:08] So fun place to go and do some shopping that supports some great local vendors.
[00:03:12] That'll be Harvest Riverside, December 10th.
[00:03:14] Harvest Orange County, December 11th.
[00:03:16] And then over on the island of Maui, it's going to be happening for you guys on the 15th.
[00:03:20] and you're going to also have a great time it's a different speaker over there that is going to be awesome one of the gals from over on the island and your host pastor will let you know a little bit about that after service well with that we're going to be looking at luke chapter 1 as i mentioned let's uh
[00:03:36] Let's open up and talk about that a little bit.
[00:03:39] As you know, last week my dad talked about John the Baptist, the birth of John the Baptist, or rather the prophecy of John the Baptist going to be born.
[00:03:48] Gabriel spoke to him and we learned about that in the message title was The Story Before the Story.
[00:03:56] Really interesting.
[00:03:57] You know the story.
[00:03:59] We heard it last week.
[00:03:59] If you didn't, you need to go tune into the message.
[00:04:01] Elizabeth was really old.
[00:04:04] Zacharias was really old.
[00:04:06] And having a baby was very unlikely for them at this stage in life, right?
[00:04:10] But the angel Gabriel came and appeared to them and told them that it would be so.
[00:04:16] It's a beautiful, redemptive story because this is a couple that was barren.
[00:04:19] They were unable to have children.
[00:04:21] This had been their prayer for many years, to have a descendant, to have a child, to have a son.
[00:04:27] and the angel Gabriel came and appeared to them and told them it would be so and really this is the Lord granting them the desires of their heart ultimately because of their faithfulness because of their faithfulness specifically Luke says that Zachariah told the angel I'm an old man and he he kind of doubted here right he kind of doubted he said I'm an old man and my wife is well along in years how can I be sure this will happen I love this I mean you just have to look at things sometimes we just read
[00:04:56] The pages of Scripture, we just take it at face value.
[00:04:59] But look at the absurdity of this picture here, right?
[00:05:02] Who had been praying for a child for their entire marriage?
[00:05:07] Zechariah and his wife, Elizabeth.
[00:05:09] Zechariah and his wife, Elizabeth.
[00:05:12] And who appears to tell them that this is going to be granted to them?
[00:05:15] An angel of the Lord, Gabriel.
[00:05:19] And Zacharias is like, okay, right, so I've been praying for this.
[00:05:23] God heard my prayer.
[00:05:24] Here's an angel from the Lord coming and telling me that he's going to answer my prayer.
[00:05:29] But how can I be sure?
[00:05:30] What confirmation can you give me?
[00:05:31] What proof do I have?
[00:05:33] How about that there's an angel coming and appearing to you, Zacharias?
[00:05:36] Let's start there.
[00:05:36] And Gabriel actually kind of corrects Zacharias here, kind of rebukes him.
[00:05:41] He basically says, are you kidding?
[00:05:43] I am Gabriel.
[00:05:44] I stand in the presence of God, and you have the audacity to doubt?
[00:05:48] And what did he do?
[00:05:49] He struck him with muteness.
[00:05:51] He struck him with muteness, and you'll need to listen to the message from last week if you didn't yet, but you know the rest of the way the story goes.
[00:05:58] Well, what's interesting is this appearance from Gabriel.
[00:06:02] broke what is called the 400 years of silence.
[00:06:07] For 400 years, God had largely been silent to the people of Israel.
[00:06:13] That means that no prophet spoke with a, thus saith the Lord.
[00:06:16] There was no new scripture, no new revelations, no angels appearing, no public miracles, no fresh word from God.
[00:06:25] 400 years of silence.
[00:06:28] But that doesn't mean that God wasn't aware and that God was actually not working very intentionally.
[00:06:33] In fact, God was anything but inactive.
[00:06:36] You see, for the last 400 years, God had been working behind the scenes, keeping His promises and ultimately preparing the world for Christ for the perfect moment in history.
[00:06:47] And this is what the Apostle Paul referred to as in Galatians 4,
[00:06:51] When the fullness of time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law.
[00:06:59] The timing of Jesus' birth was not just a random moment in history.
[00:07:04] It was masterfully orchestrated by God at just the right time.
[00:07:09] God's timing is perfect, and that's what we're going to see in our text today.
[00:07:14] The things that God put in place in order
[00:07:17] For Jesus' birth to be maximized and to accomplish the greater goal of preaching the gospel and saving the world, there needed to be some things put in place.
[00:07:27] For starters, one of the most important things that happened before Jesus was born was the Roman Empire was now the conquering ultimate superpower of the ancient world.
[00:07:38] They dominated.
[00:07:39] And under their domination, something was put in place called Pax Romana.
[00:07:44] That translated simply means Roman peace.
[00:07:47] Roman peace.
[00:07:48] Peace enforced through strength.
[00:07:50] And as a result, there was a unified legal and political system that stretched across the known world.
[00:07:55] Roads were patrolled.
[00:07:56] Borders were stable.
[00:07:59] Widespread war was distant.
[00:08:01] And for the first time, international travel was safer and easier than it had ever been.
[00:08:07] That's a significant thing.
[00:08:08] That meant that messengers and merchants, and soon Christians and missionaries,
[00:08:13] could move freely across vast nations without constant fear.
[00:08:17] They could go and preach this message of the gospel.
[00:08:20] Along with that piece came Rome's Roman road system.
[00:08:25] Over 250,000 miles connected the ancient world, cities, and provinces like never before, all leading, of course, to the capital of Rome.
[00:08:34] Never before were people able to travel so easily.
[00:08:37] Now it was primarily built for
[00:08:39] Prophets, Prophets, Prophets, Prophets, Prophets,
[00:08:59] They didn't know that they were actually building an infrastructure that would carry the most important message of all, the gospel of Jesus Christ.
[00:09:07] The apostles would one day walk these same highways to Asia Minor, Greece, and even Rome.
[00:09:12] Letters like Romans and Corinthians and Ephesians would travel these routes spreading truth
[00:09:17] throughout the ancient empire.
[00:09:19] So there was Pax Romana, there was the Roman road system, and then perhaps most importantly of all was a shared common language called Koine Greek.
[00:09:28] This was a language that was adapted and embraced across the ancient world.
[00:09:32] You can thank Alexander the Great and the Greek empire for that.
[00:09:36] The universal language of trade and everyday life.
[00:09:38] Our entire New Testament was written in Koine Greek, making it the message, ultimately making the message of Jesus
[00:09:46] And so ultimately, while heaven did seem silent, the reality is, God was setting the stage.
[00:09:56] Roads were built, stability was established, and the language was unified.
[00:10:00] And into that world, God sent forth His Son.
[00:10:05] And my message title today is, When the Time Was Just Right.
[00:10:08] When the Time Was Just Right.
[00:10:10] And we're reading now in Luke chapter 1, starting in verse 26.
[00:10:14] Let's read together.
[00:10:16] Now in the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph of the house of David.
[00:10:26] The virgin's name was Mary.
[00:10:29] And having come in, the angel said to her, Rejoice, highly favored one!
[00:10:33] The Lord is with you.
[00:10:34] Blessed are you among women.
[00:10:36] But when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying and considered what manner of greeting this was.
[00:10:42] And the angel said to her, Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.
[00:10:46] And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a son, and you shall call his name
[00:10:52] Jesus he will be great and he will be called the son of the highest and the Lord God will give him the throne of his father David and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever and of his kingdom there shall be no end
[00:11:07] Amazing.
[00:11:08] Let's pause there.
[00:11:08] That brings us to point number one.
[00:11:10] Number one, God is always on time.
[00:11:12] God is always on time.
[00:11:14] Let's examine this incredible exchange for just a moment.
[00:11:16] First of all, it's the angel Gabriel.
[00:11:19] There's only three angels mentioned in the pages of Scripture.
[00:11:22] Do you know who they are?
[00:11:22] It's Gabriel.
[00:11:23] Who's the other one?
[00:11:25] Michael.
[00:11:25] And then who's the other one?
[00:11:27] Lucifer.
[00:11:27] Very good.
[00:11:28] That's right.
[00:11:28] Josh.
[00:11:29] No, Josh is not an angel.
[00:11:30] Thank you, Dad.
[00:11:35] So Gabriel, one of the only named angels in all of the Bible, appears to Mary.
[00:11:41] In fact, he's an archangel.
[00:11:43] And he says to her, Rejoice, highly favored one, the Lord is with you.
[00:11:46] Blessed are you among women.
[00:11:48] And when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying and considered what manner of greeting this was.
[00:11:55] Mary was troubled.
[00:11:57] Oh boy, what am I in for here?
[00:11:58] Why is there an angel appearing to me?
[00:12:00] This is going to be significant for sure.
[00:12:02] She was troubled, she was afraid, she was confused, but she was also highly favored.
[00:12:08] I think if you asked Mary in that moment,
[00:12:12] Is this a good time for you to become pregnant?
[00:12:15] She would have said, this is not an opportune time for me to become pregnant.
[00:12:19] I am not married.
[00:12:20] I am poor.
[00:12:21] I am young.
[00:12:22] This is not an ideal situation, right?
[00:12:25] She knew.
[00:12:27] That if she was to become pregnant, as the angel Gabriel was saying, that without a husband, this was not going to be an ideal time.
[00:12:35] Ultimately, if she was unmarried to Joseph and she became pregnant, she would have a reputation.
[00:12:41] She would have a stigma that would ultimately follow her for the rest of her life.
[00:12:46] This was not a good time for Mary to have a baby.
[00:12:49] This was not an opportune time.
[00:12:51] If she was going to have a baby that was not Joseph's, at least, you know, and it was going to be from the Lord, I mean, ideally, you would think, like, okay, maybe I could get married to my husband so we have kind of that cover, right?
[00:13:02] So, like, we could avoid the appearance that I got pregnant out of wedlock with maybe a child that's not his.
[00:13:07] I mean, seriously, consider that.
[00:13:09] Imagine people asking her, Mary, whose baby is that?
[00:13:12] And what's her response?
[00:13:14] Gods, right?
[00:13:17] I'm carrying the Son of God?
[00:13:18] Okay, Mary, I think you're drinking the lake water there in Galilee.
[00:13:25] It's a crazy picture.
[00:13:26] She was poor.
[00:13:28] She was unmarried.
[00:13:29] She was young, probably around 14 years old.
[00:13:32] Any one of us would have objected and said that God's plan was flawed.
[00:13:36] Oh no, there's no way.
[00:13:38] There's no way.
[00:13:38] God, you got something wrong.
[00:13:39] You got the wrong person.
[00:13:40] You got the timing wrong.
[00:13:41] Come back in a few years.
[00:13:43] You know, this makes sense.
[00:13:43] Great.
[00:13:44] I'm all for it.
[00:13:45] But again, our point here is that God is always on time.
[00:13:51] God knew the challenges, but His timing is perfect.
[00:13:54] And what Mary and Joseph didn't know and realize was that the world was being arranged through empires and languages and roads for this very moment.
[00:14:04] This moment
[00:14:06] The angel Gabriel was appearing to Mary was thousands of years in the making.
[00:14:11] All the way back in the Garden of Eden we see the first prophecy of the Messiah.
[00:14:16] One will come to crush your head and you will bruise his heel.
[00:14:21] Long before Rome roads, or a town called Nazareth, or a Mary and Joseph, God actually revealed the exact timeline when Messiah would come.
[00:14:31] Nearly five centuries earlier, during the captivity of Daniel and ultimately the Israelites into Babylon, you remember that story?
[00:14:39] You remember Daniel in the lion's den?
[00:14:40] Yes, that Daniel
[00:14:43] Gabriel, the same Gabriel, came and appeared to him and gave him a vision.
[00:14:48] Gave him a vision of basically the timeline of when the Messiah would come.
[00:14:54] He gave him this very important message.
[00:14:56] God sent Gabriel to Daniel to unveil a prophetic calendar of exactly when the Messiah would be revealed, when he would come.
[00:15:05] It was God's way of saying, Daniel,
[00:15:08] Even though you are in captivity because of ultimately Israel's disobedience and their worship of false gods, I am giving you an idea of what's going to happen.
[00:15:20] I am giving you hope.
[00:15:21] You're not going to stay in captivity forever.
[00:15:23] Yes, a deliverer will come.
[00:15:25] I'm going to send you my son.
[00:15:26] Even in judgment, God was saying, I am still working and everything is on schedule.
[00:15:33] In a difficult season, God gave His promise.
[00:15:36] And Gabriel revealed to Daniel something called the 70 weeks prophecy.
[00:15:40] Basically, 70 sets of seven years, 490 years or so, would pass from the command of
[00:15:48] of Artaxerxes telling Nehemiah to go rebuild Jerusalem, the clock would start to tick.
[00:15:56] And from that time, the 70 weeks prophecy kicked in.
[00:15:59] That was given in Nehemiah chapter 2, again under King Artaxerxes.
[00:16:03] And from that moment, that clock started ticking.
[00:16:06] For centuries, scholars studied this timeline, looking at it, trying to figure out exactly when it would arrive, knowing they pointed to the general time of Jesus' life and ministry.
[00:16:16] But what is staggering
[00:16:18] So when the math is carefully traced, it doesn't just land in the approximate era of Jesus' life.
[00:16:23] That would be incredible.
[00:16:24] No, it lands on the very day of the triumphal entry when Jesus rode into Jerusalem and for the first time He accepted their worship, He accepted their praise, and the title, the Son of David, which was a messianic title.
[00:16:38] This was the first time.
[00:16:39] You remember, Jesus was always saying, don't tell anybody about what's happening.
[00:16:43] Don't call me that, right?
[00:16:45] My time has not yet come.
[00:16:46] The time had come, and it was that exact date.
[00:16:49] Jesus arrived exactly on time, not early, not late.
[00:16:53] Right on time.
[00:16:55] And so when Gabriel appears in Luke chapter 1, it's not random.
[00:17:00] It's not coincidental.
[00:17:01] It's not because it's convenient or random selection that he appears to Mary.
[00:17:05] It is prophecy and he arrives exactly when he is supposed to.
[00:17:09] Guys, what kind of God does that?
[00:17:11] What kind of God does that?
[00:17:13] A God outside of time?
[00:17:14] A God outside of history?
[00:17:16] A God who calls His shot 173,880 days in advance and calls eight ball corner pocket, right?
[00:17:24] That same God cares for you.
[00:17:26] That same God cares for you.
[00:17:28] He knows your impatience.
[00:17:30] He knows your struggle.
[00:17:31] He knows your infertility.
[00:17:32] He knows about that wayward son.
[00:17:34] He knows what's going on in your life, and He hears your cry, and He cares for you.
[00:17:41] If God can orchestrate empires and synchronize languages and a road system and set prophetic calendars in place hundreds of years in advance, then He can handle your timeline.
[00:17:55] He can handle your requests.
[00:17:56] He is not late.
[00:17:57] He is not distant.
[00:17:58] He has not forgotten you.
[00:17:59] He is always on time, and you can always trust Him.
[00:18:04] Now Mary, she didn't know all this.
[00:18:06] She was just a young girl.
[00:18:07] Now likely she knew the stories from Daniel and she knew that there was going to eventually be a Messiah that they had hoped for.
[00:18:13] But did she know this time in history was when the Messiah was due?
[00:18:17] I doubt it.
[00:18:18] I doubt it.
[00:18:19] But what is her response?
[00:18:20] Let's look now at verse 34.
[00:18:23] And then Mary said to the angel, how can this be since I do not know a man?
[00:18:27] and the angel answered and said to her the Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the highest will overshadow you therefore also that holy one who is to be born will be called the son of God now indeed Elizabeth your relative has also conceived a son in her old age and this is now the sixth month for her who is called barren for with God nothing will be impossible and then Mary said and you should underline this in your Bible if you haven't already
[00:18:56] And then Mary said, verse 38, Behold, the maidservant of the Lord, let it be to me according to your word.
[00:19:03] And the angel departed from her.
[00:19:05] And that brings us to point number two.
[00:19:06] God's timing requires our surrender.
[00:19:09] God's timing requires our surrender.
[00:19:11] This right here is why Mary is held in such high regard in Scripture, right?
[00:19:16] She didn't know Daniel's math.
[00:19:18] She didn't see the significance of the Roman road system being developed and the common language and Pax Romana and all that stuff.
[00:19:24] No.
[00:19:25] All she knew was an angel of the Lord appeared to her and said, this is God's will for your life.
[00:19:29] And what was her response?
[00:19:30] Behold, the maidservant of the Lord.
[00:19:32] I'm your girl.
[00:19:33] Here I am, Lord.
[00:19:34] Send me.
[00:19:35] Let it be to me according to your word.
[00:19:37] Wow, that's powerful, you know?
[00:19:39] That's powerful.
[00:19:40] Do you know what that's called?
[00:19:41] That's called surrender.
[00:19:42] That's called submission.
[00:19:43] That's called obedience and embracing God's plan for your life ahead of your own.
[00:19:48] That's something we all need to do.
[00:19:49] Now, we don't have an angel coming and appearing to us every day, right?
[00:19:54] Maybe not ever for some of us, most of us in our lives.
[00:19:57] Angels not going to appear and give us a specific plan for our lives.
[00:20:00] That's revealed to us in God's Word.
[00:20:02] But we are all called in the same way to surrender our own plans, submit our own will, and say, God, your will be done, your kingdom come.
[00:20:12] How many times do we think we know what's best for us and we pray for a certain outcome or we pray for a certain timing or something to go exactly according to our plan but then as we pray and we ask God for these things He answers it completely differently than what we had asked for and what do we realize?
[00:20:30] God's way was better.
[00:20:32] God's plan was better, and we're so fortunate that God does things according to His schedule and not our own.
[00:20:38] Every time God answers my prayer differently than the way I had asked Him to, every time it's because He either was protecting me from something, or He was accomplishing something greater in my heart on a scale that I wasn't even praying for, or the Lord redirected my heart to something better every single time.
[00:20:59] As you pray, it's not about God bending to your will, it's about you aligning your will with God, right?
[00:21:07] I've actually heard some people say, you shouldn't pray at the end of your prayer, your will be done, your kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven.
[00:21:14] Because then it just negates your entire prayer.
[00:21:17] I would argue the very opposite.
[00:21:18] That's the most important part of your prayer.
[00:21:20] Because our hearts are flawed, our hearts are jaded.
[00:21:23] We think we know what's best, but we don't.
[00:21:26] Submit your plans to your loving God, again, whose timing is always perfect, who goes beyond space and time and understands things on a level that we do not.
[00:21:36] Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God, right?
[00:21:43] We should all pray this when we are talking to God about our plans or even our concerns.
[00:21:48] Let it be to me according to Your Word.
[00:21:52] And is this not what Jesus Himself taught us in the Lord's Prayer when He did say, Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
[00:22:00] That is surrender.
[00:22:01] It's dependence and trust in God to be the good Father to you whose plans for you who go beyond the creation of the world.
[00:22:10] Let it be to me according to your word.
[00:22:13] Now before Gabriel came to Mary, again we learned last week that he appeared to Zacharias.
[00:22:19] Gabriel, the angel, appears to Zacharias and tells him, God has heard your prayer for a son and your wife will become pregnant.
[00:22:26] And Zacharias again, he says what?
[00:22:28] He says, how can I be sure this will happen?
[00:22:31] As if the angel Gabriel was not proof enough.
[00:22:33] This was some kind of elaborate hoax or trick.
[00:22:36] But this was ultimately because
[00:22:37] Zechariah and Elizabeth had been praying for a child.
[00:22:41] He said, God has heard your prayer.
[00:22:42] This has been your request, Zechariah.
[00:22:45] Whatever you want to call that, that Zechariah said that to Gabriel, how can I be sure this will happen?
[00:22:51] You can call it a lack of faith.
[00:22:53] You can call it ego.
[00:22:54] Ultimately, as a result, Gabriel strikes Zechariah with muteness.
[00:23:00] Balance that.
[00:23:01] Compare that to Mary's response.
[00:23:04] Both of them had an angel appear to them, tell them that they were going to become miraculously pregnant.
[00:23:10] It didn't make any sense.
[00:23:11] It was a little bit scary.
[00:23:12] Zechariah says, how can I be sure this will happen?
[00:23:17] And Mary says, behold, the maidservant of the Lord, let it be to me according to your word.
[00:23:23] That is the big difference right there.
[00:23:26] Zacharias was this amazing man of God, and he understood the pages of Scripture.
[00:23:31] He was a priest, and certainly he studied these things, but he doubted the Lord.
[00:23:36] Mary believed and submitted herself to the will of God.
[00:23:39] Jesus said in Mark chapter 8 whoever desires to come after me let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me for whoever desires to save his life will lose it but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospels will save it for what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul
[00:24:00] God's timing isn't always convenient.
[00:24:03] It doesn't always come at the perfect time.
[00:24:05] It doesn't always happen when we would like it to.
[00:24:08] His plan sometimes doesn't take your feelings or opinions into consideration.
[00:24:12] And sometimes it doesn't protect your reputation.
[00:24:15] And it can actually be difficult to follow the will of God.
[00:24:18] But I can tell you, it is always better.
[00:24:21] God's plan for your life is always better than your own plan.
[00:24:25] It's always better.
[00:24:26] Can you say that?
[00:24:27] God's plan is always better.
[00:24:30] That doesn't mean easier.
[00:24:31] That doesn't mean easier.
[00:24:33] That doesn't mean more fun.
[00:24:35] That doesn't mean painless.
[00:24:37] It means better in the way that eternity defines better.
[00:24:40] And doesn't that matter the most?
[00:24:42] Because surrender doesn't mean God makes everything comfortable.
[00:24:46] It means God makes everything count.
[00:24:49] It doesn't mean that He makes everything comfortable.
[00:24:51] It means He makes everything count.
[00:24:53] Mary didn't get comfort.
[00:24:56] She didn't get comfort.
[00:24:57] She got shame.
[00:24:58] She got embarrassment.
[00:24:59] She got a cross for her son.
[00:25:02] But she also got Jesus.
[00:25:04] And that's ultimately where surrender leads us to.
[00:25:07] It leads to Christ, where he says, not my will be done, right?
[00:25:12] Nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.
[00:25:15] Psalm 84 10 reminds us, for a day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere.
[00:25:21] I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of the wicked.
[00:25:27] God's plan is always better.
[00:25:28] Jim Elliot,
[00:25:30] A missionary who was killed, amazing story, he said this, he is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.
[00:25:40] That's what we need to do.
[00:25:42] He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep.
[00:25:46] What can we not keep?
[00:25:47] The trappings of this life.
[00:25:49] Our age, the things that God has blessed us with.
[00:25:52] We want to hold on to all these things.
[00:25:54] We want to hold on to our materialistic lifestyles, our comfort.
[00:25:58] He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.
[00:26:02] You cannot lose your relationship with God.
[00:26:05] Listen, I would rather walk through the valley of the shadow of death holding the hand of God than to walk on the mountaintop of blessing and pleasure without Him.
[00:26:18] The Psalmist says, you show me the path of life in your presence, its fullness of joy and pleasures forevermore.
[00:26:26] Let's look now at verse 39 and bring this to a close.
[00:26:29] Now Mary arose in those days and went into the hill country with haste to a city of Judah.
[00:26:36] And she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth.
[00:26:39] And it happened, when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, that the babe leaped in her womb.
[00:26:44] And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit, and she spoke out with a loud voice, Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb.
[00:26:53] But why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me?
[00:26:58] And that brings us to point number three, finally, our obedience.
[00:27:15] has a radius.
[00:27:16] Our obedience has a radius.
[00:27:18] I love that when Mary hears the good news about her elderly cousin Elizabeth, she immediately gets up and goes and sees her.
[00:27:26] Now we should note the distance between Nazareth, where Mary lived, and the area where Elizabeth lived, somewhere in the hill country of Judah, is around 70 to 100 miles depending on the route.
[00:27:38] 70 to 100 miles on foot in your first trimester.
[00:27:42] Pretty crazy.
[00:27:43] So guys, next time your wife is pregnant and she asks you to go get something from the fridge, you can just remind her that Mary solo climbed mountains and rivers and avoided, you know, avoided bandits and wild animals with haste, mind you, with haste.
[00:27:57] Just saying.
[00:28:01] But don't miss what's happening in these verses.
[00:28:05] Mary enters the home and she greets Elizabeth.
[00:28:08] The baby leaps in her womb.
[00:28:09] Ladies, only you know what that would be like, having the baby leap within you.
[00:28:14] And Elizabeth immediately, at the sounding of Mary's voice, is filled with the Holy Spirit.
[00:28:20] That's amazing.
[00:28:21] Last week we heard again that Gabriel told Zacharias that his son John would be filled with the Holy Spirit while he was in the womb.
[00:28:30] There you go.
[00:28:30] Here's the fulfillment of that.
[00:28:32] Luke 1 15, he says, For he will be great in the sight of the Lord and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink.
[00:28:39] He will also be filled with the Holy Spirit even from his mother's womb.
[00:28:43] What we are reading about here is a pre-incarnational witness.
[00:28:49] Before John ever preaches repentance or behold the Lamb of God, he first leapt for joy at the presence of the Messiah while both of them were still in the womb.
[00:28:59] The first person to recognize Jesus was an unborn baby.
[00:29:03] That's pretty amazing.
[00:29:04] Jesus would have still been in his first trimester.
[00:29:08] Listen, our obedience, it has a radius.
[00:29:10] It becomes a blessing to others.
[00:29:12] Mary was filled with the Spirit of God.
[00:29:14] John the Baptist leapt for joy.
[00:29:16] Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.
[00:29:18] All because Mary submitted herself to the Lord's plan and walked three marathons uphill, right?
[00:29:25] So we've looked at what Mary did, but now I want to close and ask you, what is God asking you to do?
[00:29:31] What is God asking you to do?
[00:29:33] What areas in life is God calling you to submit or to surrender?
[00:29:39] Let it be to me according to your word.
[00:29:42] That should be the moniker of our lives.
[00:29:44] God, let it be to me according to your will, according to your word.
[00:29:49] What is God calling you to do?
[00:29:50] What areas is God calling you to submit and surrender to Him?
[00:29:55] It could be that you need to make that forgiving phone call to that family member or a friend you've held a grudge against for years, right?
[00:30:02] Now some of you, you struggle with forgiveness.
[00:30:04] Man, that's a tough one, Jonathan.
[00:30:05] You don't know what people did to me.
[00:30:07] You didn't know how they betrayed me, how they ripped me off, how they sold me out, how they betrayed me.
[00:30:12] This is hard.
[00:30:13] Listen, I understand to a degree.
[00:30:15] I've been hurt as well.
[00:30:16] I've had to forgive.
[00:30:17] And I was talking to my dad about this one time.
[00:30:21] And he shared with me something that really helped me understand.
[00:30:23] He said, forgiveness doesn't mean that you have to make yourself vulnerable again and again only for them to go
[00:30:31] and take advantage of you all over again, right?
[00:30:34] It means you release them from that debt.
[00:30:37] There's a big difference there.
[00:30:38] I thought forgiveness meant, hey, my friend borrows 50 bucks from me and he promises me he'll pay it back.
[00:30:44] And then he never pays me back.
[00:30:45] And then he says, hey, can I have 50 bucks again?
[00:30:47] I thought forgiveness meant you just have to keep giving them money over and over, right?
[00:30:50] You have to keep making yourself vulnerable.
[00:30:52] Now remove money from that equation and talk about your emotions right your feelings you have to let that person into your life you have to invite them over for dinner no you don't but it means you release them from that debt do you pray for them and when you think of that person yeah maybe your heart is oh man they're not doing so great but your heart breaks for them and you see the brokenness in them and you pray for them listen Jesus tells us we need to forgive as we have been forgiven it's been said that when you forgive you set a captive free yourself
[00:31:22] Maybe God is calling you to forgive someone who hurt you long ago.
[00:31:26] It's possible that that person may not even be alive anymore.
[00:31:29] Can you forgive someone that isn't alive anymore?
[00:31:31] You can.
[00:31:32] You can for sure.
[00:31:33] You can release them from that debt.
[00:31:36] Maybe God's calling you to forgive.
[00:31:38] Maybe God's calling you to move on from that sinful habit that's quietly been shaping your future.
[00:31:45] It might be that sinful habit is a
[00:31:47] Sin of greed and discontentment.
[00:31:49] You're constantly looking at the next thing.
[00:31:52] You're constantly thinking about the stuff you don't have, and you find yourself just bored with the things you have, and you love buying packages on Amazon, right?
[00:32:01] You love getting all those things, opening the stuff up, and then you just open it up.
[00:32:05] Okay, well, just put it on the shelf with all the other garbage that I ordered, right, that I don't even care about.
[00:32:10] It could be that you have greed, you have discontentment, you're not satisfied with what you have and you're constantly looking for the next thing.
[00:32:17] Being addicted to buying frivolous stuff that gives you a momentary thrill, constantly looking at deals online, online shopping, shopping in stores, trying to buy stuff online or in wherever.
[00:32:28] Is it possible that you are doing that to numb yourself from something or you're distracting yourself from something that you need to do more?
[00:32:36] It could be that you are sinning by constantly just buying stuff and again being discontent.
[00:32:42] Maybe you are dealing with a pattern of sin that is sexual immorality, pornography, premarital sex.
[00:32:50] These are areas the Bible is explicitly clear on.
[00:32:53] It says you need to flee from sexual immorality.
[00:32:56] Run from these things.
[00:32:57] Literally run away and don't look back.
[00:33:01] Maybe it's a pattern of drugs or alcohol and these things have a grip on you and you see the damage it's causing.
[00:33:07] You just like it too much.
[00:33:09] You're in the throes of it.
[00:33:10] Man, I just, I like it.
[00:33:11] I like getting my fix.
[00:33:12] I like having, you know, a couple drinks after work.
[00:33:15] It's not that big of a deal, right?
[00:33:16] Can you not go without a drink?
[00:33:19] Can you forego having that drink?
[00:33:21] Or is it just going to be too much?
[00:33:22] It's all you can think about.
[00:33:23] Listen, I would say to you, it may have a grip on you, and you need to move on from that pattern.
[00:33:28] You've got to run from that.
[00:33:29] It's only going to get worse and make things harder.
[00:33:32] It could be that you're committing a sin of omission.
[00:33:35] You know what a sin of omission is?
[00:33:37] There are sins of commission, which are explicitly breaking God's laws and His commands.
[00:33:42] But then there are sins of omission, which are not following God's commands and not following His laws.
[00:33:48] You're choosing to not give.
[00:33:50] You're choosing to not read your Bible.
[00:33:52] You're choosing to maybe not join that Bible study, that small group.
[00:33:56] Or you're choosing to not share your faith because you're just too busy or you're afraid.
[00:34:02] Or you know that once you start, you're afraid you're going to like it, right?
[00:34:06] And you're going to have to give up the comfortability of sitting on your couch and the lifestyle that you're living, right?
[00:34:12] Maybe that really is the underlying factor of it all.
[00:34:15] is our comfort, right?
[00:34:17] The Christian who is comfortable is not likely to be the Christian who is growing.
[00:34:22] Too many Christians are satisfied with comfort when God is offering us conquest.
[00:34:27] We are called to be more than conquerors, not couch potatoes, not sitting around just being comfortable doing the things that only feel good.
[00:34:34] Comfort is the enemy.
[00:34:36] We choose so many times to scroll rather than read, to binge watch rather than pray, to shop rather than give.
[00:34:44] to consume when we should evangelize.
[00:34:46] And what does that make us?
[00:34:47] It makes us apathetic.
[00:34:49] It makes us fat.
[00:34:50] It makes us bored.
[00:34:51] It makes us sinful and distant from God.
[00:34:53] And frighteningly, our comfort actually could lead us to hell.
[00:34:57] It is true.
[00:34:58] Obedience and surrender are always costly, but it has a ripple effect.
[00:35:04] It has a radius.
[00:35:06] Look at what Mary did.
[00:35:08] Look at how it impacted the people around her.
[00:35:10] Immediately, just in the first chapter of her hearing these words from the angel Gabriel.
[00:35:16] Let it be to me according to your word.
[00:35:18] But then go on.
[00:35:19] What does her obedience result in?
[00:35:21] So many amazing blessings.
[00:35:24] Obedience and surrender are always costly, but there is a ripple effect and there is a radius.
[00:35:31] So listen, you may today be here and you say, I want to be a good father.
[00:35:36] I want to be a good father to my children.
[00:35:38] I want to be the father that I never had.
[00:35:40] Or I want to live up to being a father like the father that I had.
[00:35:43] Or my grandfather, oh, he was such a great man.
[00:35:45] I could never be like that.
[00:35:46] Listen, you want to be a good father?
[00:35:47] Obey God.
[00:35:49] Obey God.
[00:35:50] Commit yourself to scripture.
[00:35:52] Commit yourself to following the principles that are outlined for you in God's word.
[00:35:56] Listen, you want to be a good employee?
[00:35:57] Submit yourself to scripture.
[00:35:59] Follow the word of God.
[00:36:00] You want to succeed in life and have a great marriage or be a great aunt or have the respect of your neighbors and friends?
[00:36:06] Write this phrase over your life.
[00:36:09] Let it be to me according to your word.
[00:36:11] Submit yourself to God's plans.
[00:36:19] Now it could be that you're here today and you've heard the Lord speak to you, but you don't yet have the hope of God's perfect timing because you've never fully surrendered your life to Him.
[00:36:30] You don't have the hope of heaven.
[00:36:32] You don't have the hope of being forgiven of your sin.
[00:36:35] You may believe in God, you respect Jesus, you may like the idea of heaven, but you've never said from the heart, let it be to me according to Your Word.
[00:36:44] I surrender myself.
[00:36:45] I submit to You, God.
[00:36:47] And here's the truth.
[00:36:48] You don't get the peace of God's timing until you receive salvation that Jesus paid for.
[00:36:55] Jesus didn't just come on time.
[00:36:58] He came for you.
[00:36:59] He came for you.
[00:37:01] He knows what you're going through.
[00:37:03] He knows what's happening in your life.
[00:37:04] And He lived the sinless life that you couldn't live.
[00:37:08] He died the death that you deserve to die.
[00:37:10] He rose from the grave to give you the life you could never earn.
[00:37:14] And just like Mary had a moment of decision, just like Zacharias had a moment of faith, you have a moment right now.
[00:37:22] Not tomorrow, not when life slows down, not when you clean yourself up, not when it's convenient, right now.
[00:37:29] The Bible says,
[00:37:30] Today, if you will hear His voice, harden not your hearts.
[00:37:35] Listen, you don't need better timing, you need a Savior.
[00:37:38] And if you recognize that God is calling you right now and you feel that tug on your heart, that awareness that you are not with Him, listen, that's not coincidence, that's God's grace.
[00:37:48] That's the Spirit of God speaking to your heart.
[00:37:49] And so I want to ask you, if you were to die tonight, do you know for certain that Heaven would be your home?
[00:37:56] If the answer is anything less than a confident yes, today could be your day of salvation.
[00:38:02] Jesus is ready to forgive, He's ready to restore, and He's ready to make you new, and that is what He asks us to do today, is what Mary said, to surrender, to surrender.
[00:38:15] Lord, not my will,
[00:38:16] Let's pray.
[00:38:21] Father, we thank you for your word.
[00:38:31] We thank you for the amazing examples we find in Scripture and Elizabeth and Zacharias and Mary and Gabriel and Daniel.
[00:38:39] These amazing figures we see in the pages of the Bible, Lord.
[00:38:42] We see ourselves in some of these stories.
[00:38:46] It's hard not to.
[00:38:47] And we're just thankful, God, that we ultimately have something that they didn't have quite yet.
[00:38:53] and that is your Holy Spirit.
[00:38:55] God, you convict us and convince us of what your will is for our lives.
[00:38:59] Help us to be obedient, to submit ourselves to your plans ahead of our own.
[00:39:04] God, we do ask that you would just renew our spirit, renew our consciences to just have an extra level of sensitivity when you are prompting us
[00:39:14] to go and speak to that person to go and jump into your word to go and participate in church in a deeper level lord help us to be more sensitive to that and it would be undeniable that it is your spirit that is prompting us and not just our emotions or our feelings but lord it would be so clear that you are moving us help us to have that lord
[00:39:36] And while our heads are bowed and our eyes are closed and we're praying, if that's you and you want to put your faith in Christ, you want to know that you're going to go to heaven when you die, you want to be forgiven of your sin, just pray this prayer out loud after me wherever you are.
[00:39:49] Pray this now.
[00:39:52] Lord Jesus, I know that I'm a sinner, but I know that You are the Savior who died on the cross for my sin.
[00:40:02] I thank You for living the perfect life.
[00:40:05] Because I couldn't.
[00:40:07] I thank you for dying in my place and taking that sin upon yourself.
[00:40:15] And I turn from my sin from this moment forward.
[00:40:20] In Jesus' name I pray.
[00:40:22] Amen.
[00:40:23] Amen.
[00:40:23] God bless you that prayed that prayer just now.
[00:40:25] Congratulations.