The Annunciation of Christ, Part 3

Our Most Gracious Heavenly Father as we gather together on this Lord's Day, we are grateful For how you have worked out the events of our lives to bring us where we are today And Lord on this Mother's Day, we are grateful that you gave us the mother that you did And thank you Lord for her energy and her gifts And thank you Lord that you designed her for us And we recognize Lord that as the sovereign ruler of this universe You are over all and so we submit to you and thank you Lord for The mothers that you've given to us and thank you Lord that on this day We can look at Mary and understand her call in life and And from looking at her we can begin to better understand our call in life as well in Jesus name Amen To reveal your Bible if you would to the first chapter of the book of Luke the first chapter of the book of Luke This is the first time in the last 12 years of our church that I have not done a specific Mother's Day message Usually I do a portrait of a specific woman in Scripture and it's a portrait of prayer a portrait of praise a Portrait of perseverance a portrait of patience and the list goes on and on and on you can get those Tapes in the tape department if you want to look at them But this day we're going to do something a little bit different because we are in the text of the gospel of Luke and we're talking about Mary and Because we are I didn't think it would be good for us to depart From this woman and what God does in her life because what she says in verse number 38 is the key to womanhood or the key to motherhood or If you will the key to manhood and that is she recognized that she was a servant of God and That she wanted to do whatever the Word of God said That that's the essence of greatness.

That's the essence of Christianity That's the essence of what a great and godly mother is She recognizes herself as a servant of God and she will do whatever God says to do But more on that in a moment The other reason I'm staying in the text today is because it is a profound text when it comes to the identity of Jesus Christ our Lord and Mom, if there's one thing you need to do just one thing you need to do You need to be able to tell your children who?

Jesus is If you cannot do that Then you're a motherhood And your ability as a mother It's all for naught Because the essence of your responsibility is to teach your children about who Jesus is Let me illustrate it for you this way This past week.

My son came to me on Monday afternoon said, you know dad I'd like to go hear Josh McDowell He's gonna be at one of the churches in the area. And so I want to go listen to him speak He's gonna speak on on the Da Vinci Code now He wrote a book on the Da Vinci Code, which is a very good book if you had not seen it yet It's very good It's written in dialogue form But it does a very good job of helping you understand the essence of what the scriptures teach versus what the book in the movie teaches But he asked if you could go hear him.

I said sure and So he came back that night and he explained to me what took place that evening And two things stuck out most in his mind the first was this He said this is Josh McDowell Said that you know, we get angry at Dan Brown because he wrote the book the Da Vinci Code or we get angry at Ron Howard because he directed a movie about the Da Vinci Code and Josh McDowell said these words he says but you're angry at the wrong people You need to be angry at yourselves Because when your children come home from school or Come back from reading the book or come back from seeing the movie You can't tell them Who Jesus is?

Folks that's a powerful statement. He put the responsibility back on mom and dad You can't define for your children who Jesus is you can't defend the scripture and because you can't you ought to be angry at yourselves Not at those people who write the books or direct the movies You know what he's right the unfortunate thing is That the majority of those people Go to churches where the Word of God is not being taught They get that cotton candy theology They get that that fly-by-night sermon where the Word of God is not really being taught this past week Joel Osteen my favorite smiling preacher was on the today show and She asked him about some of what the critics say and he said these words to Katie Couric this week on the today show that I thought was very profound.

He said, you know Katie. I'm an encourager and in our church, which has 40 plus thousand every weekend at our church. We seek to encourage people He says I don't get lost in the maze of theology Now you can't encourage anybody To encourage someone is to instill courage in them you can't instill courage into anybody without instilling God into them and Theology is all about God. But folks. That's what preachers are preaching today And so when people are asked questions about God, they can't give the answer The second thing that my son thought was very intriguing was that he asked the people in the audience And of course, there were people on the outside watching on a big screen as well as people in the auditorium He asked them who here knows what the tetragrammaton is and he says four people raised their hand He says I was the only one on the outside who raised my hand and he goes I looked around and nobody was raising their hand and There were three people in the auditorium who raised their hand One of them was Jeff McLuhan who's sitting right back there in the back.

He was there He says I didn't know who the other two were and you know what? Think about that. If someone asked you do you know what the tetragrammaton is? How would you answer? Now if you've been to Christ Community Church, you should know how to answer that question If you don't you miss you miss those Sundays or you were sleeping through the sermon, okay? If you've been in Harold Frazier's class, you know what the tetragrammaton was because he spent a lot of time talking about that It's very simply Exodus chapter 3 verse number 14.

I am Who I am It's the name of God those four Hebrew consonants that make up the name of God I am who I am And you know what the important thing about that is he says that is his memorial name That is how he's supposed to be remembered from generation to generation And we got a whole slew of people sitting in a church who can't identify who God is by understanding his name And it's no wonder we are in a heap of trouble in our families and in our churches is because we don't even know who God is and The Bible says in Hosea 4 verse number 6 my people are destroyed for lack of knowledge What's going to destroy your family is that you don't know God what's going to destroy your church?

Is that you don't preach and teach God so your people don't know God Daniel 11 32 says the people who know their God Will stand strong and do great exploits People who know their God will do great things for God people who do not know their God won't do anything for God It's as simple as that You need to know who? God is And if I can impress one thing on you as a mother today You need to be able to teach your children about God my mom. She taught me about God She made sure I was in church she made sure I memorized my Bible she made sure I read my Bible every day and she made sure I knew who Jesus Christ was and I have her to think More so than my father For that emphasis because she was with me every day And mothers, what do your children know because of you do they know God Because you've taught them God Can You tell your children when they come home from school when they come back from the movie theater from watching the Da Vinci Code if they?

Go or reading the book of by Dan Brown. Can you tell them why it's wrong because of who Jesus is or you lost? Because you don't have an answer you need to have an answer You need to be able to articulate the truth John 17 17 my word is truth the Lord God said So I thought it best for us to stay right in Luke chapter 1 because we need to understand the identity of Jesus Christ our Lord it's Absolutely critical that you understand the nature of the virgin birth of Jesus Christ our Lord Because our Christianity depends upon the virgin birth of Jesus Christ If Jesus was not born of a virgin He is not God if he's not God he cannot save if he cannot save you will die in your sins you need to understand the essence of the virgin birth and You need to be able to defend the virgin birth to those people who ask you because it's central to the divinity of Jesus Christ our Lord So all those things coming together helps me say look folks We need to stay right where we're at because mom if there's one thing you need to teach your children You need to teach him who Jesus is And if you can't teach him that you can cook good meals.

You can be a great seamstress You can have a part-time job make lots of money. You can do many marvelous things for your kids But if you can't teach him about Jesus, you're gonna fail as a mother You will Because everything else will pass away But only one thing lasts forever That is God his word and the people who know their God And you need to be able to teach him that so important now If you're here today, and you don't believe that Jesus is God Then you can be certain that Satan has blinded your eyes because that's why people don't believe that Jesus is God very simply this 2nd Corinthians 4 says and Even if our gospel is veiled is veiled to those who are perishing in whose case the God of this world who is Satan has blinded the minds of the unbelieving that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ who is the image of God Jesus is the express image of God Christ The Messiah is God in the flesh if you don't believe that Satan has blinded your eyes He's put a veil over your eyes so that you cannot see the truth and The only way that veil can be removed is for you to understand the essence of God's Holy Word And what it says about the virgin birth of Jesus Christ our Lord When we celebrate Christmas Christmas is not a celebration about the infancy of the Son It's a celebration of the deity of the Son That's a celebration In Luke chapter 1 is the annunciation of The Christ we've been talking about it.

We've already talked to you about the announcement It began with the manifestation of an angel the angel Gabriel who came to Mary in a town called Nazareth in Galilee In the manifestation of that angel in and of itself was a miracle because there had not been a miracle in over 400 years And with that manifestation came a salutation Hello, Mary You've been graced by God In this angel Gabriel would explain to Mary that she had been bestowed All right, what had been bestowed on her was the grace of Almighty God And with that salutation came a proclamation Because angel the angel Gabriel told her that she would conceive and she would give birth to a son and his name Would be Jesus Yeshua which speaks of his saviorship and he will be called great it speaks of a sinlessness and not only that But he will be called the Son of the Most High which speaks Primarily of the sovereign rule of God Himself his sonship and he will sit on his father's throne and he will rule forever and ever which Speaks of the future of the Son and what God's plans are for his own Son Jesus Christ our Lord that was the Announcement we spent two weeks on that announcement today.

We're moving from the announcement to the astonishment Mary's astonishment from the astonishment to the accomplishment how it is that that virgin birth is actually going to occur and Then we're going to look at the abandonment.

That is Mary's abandonment to the will of God and conclude with saying mom That's how you need to be need to abandon your life to God as a slave of the Living God Designed only to serve and submit to his will That's where we're at that's the introduction Luke chapter 1 are you there? hopefully you're there if not quickly turn there because we're gonna pick up the narrative in verse number 34 because this is the Astonishment and Mary said to the angel. How can this be since I am a virgin? This is the astonishment.

How can this be two things? I want you to notice about the astonishment number one is her concern and number two is her condition She is concerned Because she doesn't understand She's not like Zacharias earlier in chapter 1 where Zacharias was marked by unbelief and the angel caused him not to be able to Speak or hear for nine months because he didn't believe the word of the angel It's not that Mary didn't believe it's that she didn't understand How it could be accomplished because she says I am a virgin I've never known a man.

I'm only 12 13 14 years of age. I'm not very old at all So how can this possibly be? She wasn't able to comprehend it she would say you know I Could understand that if you're telling me that Joseph and I are gonna get married and then and then we're gonna conceive and and then we're gonna bear a child and this will Be the holy offspring I can understand that because I know how babies come But to tell me that I'm gonna conceive at this time while I am a virgin I don't get it I Don't get it. This is beyond anything.

I can imagine. This is beyond anything I know why because of her condition she had not known a man She was a virgin and Folks this is important for you to grasp Because Mary asks a question Now did she know the Old Testament Did she know and we don't know this we know that when we talk about Mary's song the Magnificat over in verses 46 and following she knows a lot about the Old Testament Did she know Genesis 3 15 Way back in the Garden of Eden when God gave the first promise about the coming of the seed that would crush the serpent's head That the woman would have a seed There's only been one time in the history of man that a woman is that a seed because the man is the one who carries The seed right not the woman the man carries a seed but God said in Genesis 3 15 that the woman's will have a seed and that seed Will crush the head of Satan Now how did the Jews miss that The Jews have reinterpreted Genesis 3 15 to let you understand that the seed the serpent are the Gentile nations and the seed of the woman is the nation of Israel and That Israel would crush The Gentile nations it ultimately become the victors.

That's how they translate Genesis 3 15 The problem with that is the word for seed the woman's seed Is singular not plural So they have to do spiritual gymnastics around the text to come up with that interpretation, but that is the rabbi's interpretation of Genesis 3 15 Did Mary understand Genesis 3 15 did it Mary understand that Isaiah 7 verse number 14? That there will be a sign God was going to give a sign and A young woman or a virgin shall conceive and bear a son and you shall call his name Emmanuel in other words, you shall call his name God with us Did she understand Isaiah 7 14 now the word virgin and Isaiah 7 14 can be translated young child The word Alma which specifically is virgin is used nine times in the Old Testament eight times It specifically refers to a virgin The Jews would tell you that Isaiah 7 14 refers to a young woman a Young woman not necessarily a virgin but Matthew 1 20 and 21 gives us the divine interpretation because of Matthew 1 20 and 21 it uses the Greek word Parthenos which can only refer to a virgin and so we have a divine translation of Isaiah 7 verse number 14 that this Young woman will be a virgin and she will have a child now Remember the Prophet Isaiah said and the Lord God will give you a sign Listen a woman having a baby is no sign Women have babies all the time, right?

what's the sign the sign is that a virgin will conceive a virgin will bear a child and the name Will be called Emmanuel. So did Mary know Genesis 3 15? Did she know Isaiah 7 14? I Don't know maybe The rabbis today Translate those verses different, but there is one verse that you can talk to any Jew about and convince them That a virgin will conceive the very child That verse is not used very often at all. In fact, you won't you won't even find this verse on a Christmas card You'll find Isaiah 7 14 on a Christmas card You might even find Genesis 3 15 on a Christmas card, but I've yet to see a Christmas card with Jeremiah 3122 on it And if you want to talk to a Jew About what it means that a virgin will conceive the verses Jeremiah 31 22 turn there with me if you would for a moment, please See pastor, isn't this Christmas stuff?

Yeah, it is. But you know, it's Christmas all year round here at Christ Community Church But you need to understand what the Bible says because folks you've got to be able to explain to people who Jesus is You got to tell your kids who Jesus is They need to know that I shadowed out that Jesus is God in the flesh Jeremiah 31 22 for the Lord has created a new thing in the earth a woman will encompass a man That verse right now right there is taught by the rabbis that the Messiah will not have an earthly father Now this is important Because the Bible says the Lord has created Barah to create Out of nothing for the Lord has created a new thing Something that has not been created before Something is going to be completely different And what is that that a woman will encompass a man What's so new about that Simply this the phrase Man, or a man is translated again in chapter 32 verse number 18 About God who shows loving-kindness to thousands But we pay us the iniquity of fathers into the bosom of their children after them.

Oh great and what's next phrase? Mighty God same phrase in Jeremiah 31 22 El Gabor in 3122 it's gay bear which means a mighty warrior a woman shall encompass a mighty warrior Now we know from Isaiah chapter 9 verse number 6, which by the way is on your Christmas cards That a son will be given and a child will be born You will note the son is not born Why can't the son be born Why is the child's born the son can only be given because the son has always existed. How do we know that? Because the Bible tells us and Isaiah chapter 9 verse number 6 that the name of the son that's given is The same name as the name of the child that is born Wonderful counselor next phrase El Gabor mighty God The son that's given the child that's born has a name.

The name is El Gabor. The name is the mighty God and You go on to say he also has the name Prince of Peace and Everlasting father or best translated father of eternities that means listen that the son always existed and was not created because the son is the originator of Eternity you cannot be the originator of eternity unless you yourself have an eternal existence See that in The phrase in Jeremiah 31 22. Is that a woman a new thing something's going to be created that's a new thing in the earth and What is that a woman shall encompass a man the word encompass means to surround and the rabbis say that's one of two things One is that is the woman will surround the man encompass the man by holding him in her arms or By having the man the mighty warrior within the womb and being encompassed in the womb now folks Jeremiah 31 22 is the best Old Testament reference on the virgin birth of Jesus Christ our Lord Because God is going to create a new thing say wait a minute.

I thought you said the son wasn't created. He's not He's always existed But the child was If you know when it was created simply this Sacrifice and offering thou hast not desired But a body thou hast prepared for me Who prepared a body for the Son God the Father prepared a body for the Son There was a specific body that would be created for the Son to dwell in Folks, that's the incarnation That's Hebrews 10 verse 5 by the way, of course, I just read that there was always a plan and All of that comes to fruition in this chapter Luke chapter 1 This is the great astonishment.

This is how Mary says. Well, how can this be? I'm a virgin And she had a concern because of her condition and rightly so And so you move from the astonishment to the accomplishment. How is this actually going to happen? And the angel Gabriel explained to her verse 35 back to Luke chapter 1 says this The Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you and For that reason the Holy Offspring shall be called the Son of God First of all, let me give you the resource from the resource the result and then we'll look at the reassurance But this is the accomplishment it begins with the resource the Holy Spirit the text says will come upon you and The power of the Most High will overshadow you El Elyon the text literally says That the Spirit is El Elyon in other words.

The Spirit is God Jesus is God the Spirit's God and the Father himself is God But the Spirit will come upon you how would he do it? Well because he's El Elyon he will overshadow you Now that's important Why is that? Because the word overshadow same word used in the Mount of Transfiguration When God came down and overshadowed them Same word used in the Old Testament when the glory of the Lord would come down in the sanctuary and overshadow them This is the resource This is a divine accomplishment This goes against Mormon theology that teaches that the Father in heaven Which they call Elohim came down and had physical sexual relations with Mary so that son would be born That's not what Luke chapter 1 says It says specifically that the Holy Spirit Will overshadow you that's how it happens It's a supernatural act of God Where God will overshadow the Spirit of God will overpower the whole event and cause it to take place This is nothing new for the Spirit of God The Spirit of God was the agent of creation way back in Genesis chapter 1 right?

Creating everything out of nothing So now we're going to create a child out of nothing Why because it's a new thing in the earth and the woman shall encompass a man But before the woman encompasses man, the Spirit of God will encompass her will surround her will influence her Will engulf her The child will be conceived and the child Will be born in the result for that reason The Holy Offspring shall be called the Son of God For that reason because the Holy Spirit comes upon you and creates this new thing The offspring now will be called the Holy Offspring Offspring Folks you can look through the annals of time every child that's been born has been born unholy except one the Son of Man the Son of God I Know you think your children are cute and they probably are I?

Know that I think my children are cute, but none of them are holy children Every one of them are unholy they are unholy offspring David said in sin did my mother conceive me? Speaking of the natural consequences of sin that at the point of conception. He was a sinner but Jesus is sinless and Because the result will be the Holy Offspring He will be called the Son of God Now we spent time talking to you about this last week and we have spent time talking to you Over the months many times about this and we will continue to address this throughout the book of Luke Because this is what Jesus calls himself, and this is why they killed him Because he claimed to be God Because he was the who he asked the Son of God Which we've told you has nothing to do with origin We asked always deals with Preeminence always deals with position always deals with equality You need to understand that folks Because you need to be able to talk to the Jehovah's Witnesses You need to be able to talk to the Mormon people you talk to people who don't believe in the version birth of Christ They don't believe that Jesus is God They simply do not know the original language.

They do not know theology. They do not know the text He is the Rios of God he is the equal to God that's why he's the Holy Offspring That's why he is sinless. That's why he's the son of the Most High God. That's why he is called great That's why he's called Yeshua Jehovah saves because he is the Savior of the world see that And so I thought for a moment There's so many verses that talk to you about concerning the fact that Jesus is God if you go back to the Isaiah 43 11 It says that God is the only Savior, but in Matthew 1 21 It says that Jesus is the Savior Isaiah 43 14 says that God is the Redeemer But Galatians 3 13 says that Christ is the Redeemer Isaiah 43 15 says that God alone is holy, but Luke 1 35 says that Jesus Christ is holy Isaiah 43 15 says that God is the Creator John 1 1 2 3 says that Christ is the Creator Isaiah 43 15 says that God is King Revelation 17 14 says that Christ is the King of Kings Deuteronomy 6 verse number 13 says that only God deserves worship Hebrews 1 6 says the angels worship Christ Isaiah 45 23 says that every knee shall bow unto God Philippians 2 10 says that every knee shall bow at the name of Christ Isaiah 42 8 says that God will never give his glory to another and John 1 14 says that Christ is the fullness of God in all of his glory Say well pastor.

I didn't get those verses tape window. It's all right there You see folks when you read in the Old Testament you read the New Testament Jesus is God and if you don't believe that be assured of this Satan has blinded your eyes Sync with these four three and four That you do not see that Jesus Christ is the express glory of the image of God That he is God in the flesh See that Satan's objective Satan does not want you to believe that Jesus is God Because once you believe Jesus is God you're saved from your sins if you do not believe Jesus is God you will die in your sins and you'll go to hell That's the truth Say that sounds awful harsh, but that is the truth It's imperative that you understand the identity of Jesus Christ our Lord We told you last week that all these books on the New York Times bestseller list all about Jesus, but nobody knows who Jesus is Why because they won't go to the book to search for the answers This book has the answers And so what we have We have the announcement from The angel Gabriel We had the astonishment on the part of Mary and then we have the accomplishment.

This is how it's gonna happen and Then you have in that accomplishment you had the resource the Spirit of God will overshadow you the power of the Most High will encompass you you have the result the Holy Offspring the Son of God and then you have the Reassurance and God is so good to Mary because he reassures her of what's going to take place listen to what the Spirit of God says or the angel says to Mary in verse 36 and Behold remember the word behold stand amazed Be astonished Mary you think you're astonished be astonished at this Even your relative Elizabeth has also conceived a son in her old age And she who was called barren is now in her sixth month Now listen folks.

This is the reassurance from God through the angel Gabriel to Mary That she would be reassured of the greatness of God look at the next verse for nothing will be impossible With God For nothing will be impossible With God Now Elizabeth she had a nickname.

Her nickname was barren Elizabeth talked about that earlier in Luke chapter 1 That was her nickname because to be a Jewish woman and not have any children Would be a stigma upon her and her husband Zacharias and we told you she was up in age late 70s early 80s no children and all of a sudden She and Zacharias are gonna have a child And the angel Gabriel told Zacharias. This is what's gonna be told him what the name of the child was gonna be It's gonna be called John and Zacharias and you will have a child and Now the angel Gabriel says to Mary, you know what remember barren Elizabeth?

She's no longer barren She's gonna have a child And and Mary would know how old Elizabeth is and she would know about her nickname and the stigma attached to her and realize it now she was in her sixth month Six months and the angel said That nothing is impossible with God Now you'd have to remember that every Jewish girl knows the story of Abraham and Sarah You can't talk to a Jewish girl today who doesn't know the story of Abraham and Sarah they know that and They know that one day the angel the Lord with two other angels came to the tent of Abraham And the angel the Lord said to Abraham when I come back a year from now You will have a son And Sarah was on the backside of the tent not seen Physically with the eye and the Bible says that she laughed in her heart she laughed thinking to herself I'm 90 years old I'm not having a baby And look at Abraham.

He's a humbered. He's way up there man. He's way out of this league You're not gonna have a kid. What are you talking about? In the angel the Lord said to Sarah, why did you laugh And what did you say? I didn't laugh Not me. I didn't laugh because don't know you laughed Why'd you laugh? For nothing is too difficult For the Lord and you know that state of the negative this one stated in the positive And So Mary's mind would already begin to realize the the greatness and the power of Almighty God's at work Abraham and Sarah named their kid Isaac, which means by the way laughter right They laughed at what God could do because God does the impossible And I guess it because it's Mother's Day you need to know women that that God can do the impossible What you think is impossible God can accomplish and only God can you cannot And you need to trust God for the impossible things in life Because God tells Mary through the angel Gabriel with me it can be accomplished And that leads us to point number four The abandonment And this is so rich with meaning to understand this young girl and her Willingness to give her life away Listen to what she says and then we'll notice what she doesn't say The Bible says these words And Mary said behold the bond slave of the Lord Be it done to me according to your word And the angel departed From her Be it done to me according to your word She said Behold the bond slave of the Lord That's how she saw herself She would say it again later on in Luke chapter 1 She saw herself as a slave of Almighty God.

Now this word used doulae is the exact Same word in the Greek Septuagint of the Old Testament Which says in 1st Samuel chapter 1 on four different occasions By Hannah that she was a maidservant or a bond slave of God Do you think that Mary knew the story of Hannah and Elkanah in 1st Samuel chapter 1 Because she too was barren and was unable to have children And she would appeal to the Lord God of Israel and she would appeal to him as His bond servant as his maidservant as a slave of Almighty God And in the back of Mary's mind, this must have been what was happening to her she recognizes as Hannah was so she is Just a servant of God To be used by God in any way And Then she says be it done to me according to your word Whatever your word says You do I'll obey I'll follow Well, that's the essence of true womanhood right there I'm a slave to you God And whatever you say to do i'll do Now notice what she didn't say Which probably most of us would have said You know, I I appreciate what's going on here and I and I and I kind of blessed that that i'm in this position But could you do me a favor?

Could you tell joseph? Who's going to explain it to my betrothed Who's going to explain to the man that i'm engaged to Not yet married to that. I am now going to be pregnant and have a son Who's going to tell joseph she didn't say anything like that does she Now the angel gabriel does Or the lord speaks to uh, matthew, uh, not matthew. Um joseph in a dream in matthew chapter one. Remember that Matthew chapter one And joseph her husband being a righteous man and not wanting to disgrace her verse number 19 desire to put her away secretly Now you can either divorce your wife or you could stone her And because joseph was a righteous man, he didn't want to kill mary.

So he's going to divorce her He's going to put her away secretly But when he had considered this behold the angel of the lord appeared to him in a dream saying joseph Son of david do not be afraid to take mary as your wife for that which has been conceived in her is of the holy spirit And she will bear a son and you shall call his name jesus For it is he who will save his people from their sins Now all this took place that was spoken by the lord through the prophet might be fulfilled saying Behold the virgin shall be with child and shall bear a son and they shall call his name emmanuel Which translated means god with us and joseph arose from his sleep And did as the angel the lord commanded him and took her as his wife To get married And Kept her a virgin Took her as a wife But treated her as if they were still betrothed That means he took her as his wife but had no intimacy no sexual relations with her Until she gave birth to a son He kept her a virgin until Meaning that after the birth of christ she was no longer a virgin So the perpetual virginity of mary is out the window if you're roman catholic Because she no longer was a virgin after the birth of christ Well, we know that the other brothers and sisters the bible tells us about that So you see the lord knew When you say to god lord You do whatever it is you want to do God will take care of everything else She didn't say are you gonna tell my mom and dad Can you imagine me going home?

Hey mom, guess what i'm gonna have a child but joseph's not the father In fact, nobody's really the father just gonna just gonna happen because the holy spirit's gonna encompass me and i'm gonna be pregnant Nobody would buy that you wouldn't and neither would I So, how is that going to take place did she say, you know gabriel I appreciate if you go tell my mom and dad so they can understand too Who is going to protect my integrity Who is going to protect my purity Who's going to proclaim my virginity Who's going to stand up for me?

Who's going to make sure that my name isn't muddied? Who's going to make sure that my name isn't taken through the mud and destroyed in my town? Who's going to protect me? Mary didn't say anything like that. Did she? Because you know that just wasn't really important to her Because that's god's responsibility Why is it we feel the need to protect ourselves to defend ourselves To always say but yeah, yeah, yeah, but wait, that's the way it was that's not what happened. We always want to protect ourselves Here's mary who will be disgraced ridiculed mocked in her own hometown And yet Be it done unto me according to your word I'm your slave lord Do whatever you want to do and I will follow To be honest with you, I can't think of a better mother's day message than that one For as a mother as a wife to be able to say lord, I am your slave Whatever you want to do in my life you do Whatever you want to do through my life you do Be it done unto me according to your word That's right, yeah father god we thank you for today and Just the greatness of your word And ask and pray that lord all of us would understand who jesus is Because father we need to be able to explain to people That jesus is god in the flesh Because he's the savior of the world and only god is the savior And we need to be able to explain to people the way of salvation.

And Jesus said, that there is no other name under heaven given among men whereby you must be saved. It's the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. For he is the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes into the Father but by me. So we ask Lord that you would go before us and for each woman in this room today, may they be blessed because of their commitment to say to you, I am your slave, Lord. Be it done to me according to your word, in Jesus' name, amen.