Christmas Wonder part 2 The Wonder of Surrender

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1 1 Christmas Wonder part 2 The Wonder of Surrender Lifeguard and water rescue. The person drowning has to surrender to the lifeguard or rescuer. If they do not surrender, then you cannot help them. Time in Indiana when the mom convinced her son to jump off the diving board and when he did the mom panicked and the lifeguard had to jump in and save both of them. I. The birth of surrender. Mary Surrendered Luke 1:38 26 In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, 27 to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin's name was Mary. 28 And he came to her and said, Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you! 29 But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be. 30 And the angel said to her, Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. 31 And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. 32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, 33 and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end. 34 And Mary said to the angel, How will this be, since I am a virgin? 35 And the angel answered her, The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy the Son of God. 36 And behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren. 37 For nothing will be impossible with God. 38 And Mary said, Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word. A. Unpack Luke 1 Luke 1:4 1 Many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been fulfilled [a] among us, 2 just as they were handed down to us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses and servants of the word. 3 With this in mind, since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, I too decided to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, 4 so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught.

2 B. The birth of surrender starts with the word of God. 1. The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. a. Something supernatural is going to happen Mary. b. This is something that is beyond you. c. This is the work of the Holy Spirit. d. What was the word of God it was the Holy Spirit will overshadow you and you conceive and give birth to a son He will be holy. He will be called the Son of God. e. You will carry him Mary You will give birth to him Mary. 2. Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your Word. C. Word - Rehma. 1. All of our surrendering to God starts with the word of God. a. You can count on that. b. You can bank on that. c. It is locked down. d. It is sure. e. It is in place. 2. You can be sure of that. D. Surrender without fear. 1. The angel says to her, Do not be afraid 2. Why would the angel say to Mary Do not be afraid? a. Because Mary was afraid. b. Why else right. c. God comes to us and says look, I ve got something for you that is different than what you are experiencing now. d. Altogether different for you When You hear it don t be afraid. e. Surrender without fear. f. Boldly surrender. E. Surrender moves trust up in the line ahead of fear. Life Guard you must surrender to the lifeguard. F. You can t surrender unless you stop fighting. 1. Fighting your way to the top is not surrendering. 2. Surrendering is allowing the life guard to come up under you and embrace you and lead you to safety. 2

3 3 G. Mary said Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word. 1. This is what you said. 2. I believe it. 3. I receive it as for me. 4. I surrender to what you said about me. 5. I surrender to what you said was for me. 6. Let it be to me according to your word. H. The birth of surrender begins with. Let it be to me according to your word. 1. The beginning place of a surrendered life is agreeing with, holding on to, embracing, receiving as you own what God says. 2. Let it be rock solid like a mountain in your life not like a cloud. Application What about you this morning? These things have been written so that you can know with certainity. You can know with certainty. I. The birth of surrender. II. The Joy of surrender. Joseph Surrendered Matthew 1:24 18 This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. 19 Because Joseph her husband was faithful to the law, and yet did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly. 20 But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21 She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins. 22 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: 23 The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel (which means God with us ).

4 4 24 When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. 25 But he did not consummate their marriage until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus. A. Unpack the text. 1. Joseph had his own plan. 2. This was what he was going to do and this was how he was going to do it. 3. It seemed like a reasonable plan. 4. No one would fault him right. 5. It made sense. B. Then God came in with a new piece of information. 1. There were some things that God knew that Joseph did not know. 2. In other words, Joseph did not have all of the information. 3. Joseph was responding to the situation without full understanding. 4. Joseph was basing his decisions on his understanding of the situation. 5. God s perspective has a way of changing your opinion. C. That s exactly what happened to Joseph. 1. God had an extraordinary reason for Joseph s life. 2. God had a supernatural purpose for him. 3. But, Joseph needed God s perspective. 4. Joseph needed God. D. Joseph only knew that Mary was expecting a child. 1. Joseph knew he was not involved in that. 2. This birth would be different than all other births. 3. God makes impossible things possible. a. Like.. splitting the Red Sea so a nation can walk across to the other side where there is safety. b. Like.. cause manna to be outside of tents every morning. c. Like. Make ax heads float. d. Like.. walk on water. e. Like.. multiply loaves and fishes to feed 5,000. f. Like.. cause virgins to have babies. Joseph s struggle we don t know about the conversation or anything else. He had to say yes to God. He had to surrender.

5 5 E. Joseph s response. 1. When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. 2. You were created to live a life of surrender to God. 3. There is joy that comes from immediately surrendering to God. 4. For you to experience this kind of Joy you have to say YES. 5. Yes to surrendering to God. 6. The JOY follows the YES. Application You only know what you know. Ask God what he knows. Ask for God s perspective. What is God s plan? Application 1. Once Joseph knew he embraced God s plan and surrendered with Joy. 2. He took Mary home to be his wife. 3. He fully embraced the surrender to God s plan. 4. Surrender is a joy. 5. Why would you try so hard if you knew there was a better way? 6. Surrendering with Joy is fully embracing God s plan for you with confidence. 7. You can confidently surrender knowing that you were made to live a life of surrender. Joy of surrender. Don t see surrender as a heavy weight. Surrender means pressure is off, weight is lifted, The master is in charge. I now can embrace surrender to God with JOY. Not only joy but strength comes with Godly surrender. I. The birth of surrender. II. The Joy of surrender. III. The Power of surrender. A. Elizabeth and Martha s meeting. Luke 1:43

6 39 At that time Mary got ready and hurried to a town in the hill country of Judea, 40 where she entered Zechariah s home and greeted Elizabeth. 41 When Elizabeth heard Mary s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. 42 In a loud voice she exclaimed: Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear! 43 But why am I so favored, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? 44 As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. 45 Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfill his promises to her! 1. Elizabeth hears Mary s voice. 2. Unborn John leaped in Elizabeth s womb and Elizabeth is filled with the Holy Spirit. 3. Why am I so favored, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? 4. Elizabeth immediately declares that Jesus is Lord. 5. Elizabeth surrenders. John the Baptist Surrendered Luke 1:76 And you, my child, will be called a prophet of the Most High; for you will go on before the Lord to prepare the way for him, B. Unpack text. 1. Back Story 2. Elizabeth and Zachariah was 3. Zachariah is prophesying about his son. 4. This is what will happen. C. Explain who John was and what John did. 1. John s mother and Jesus mother were relatives 2. The word there means close relative probably cousins. 3. That means John and Jesus were related as well. Family members. 4. Jesus and John no doubt grew up around each other in some capacity. John 1: John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! 30 This is the one I meant when I said, A man who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me. A surrendered life is a powerful life. 6