Fear Not, God Can Do Miracles, Part 2

The American Bible Society did research in the last year of Christians across America and their habits of being in God’s Word on a regular basis. It’s the lowest interaction with Scripture in anytime in the history of America among Christians.

I will tell you that if you are not in God’s Word there’s no power. It’s not about trying hard or wanting or – it just, it doesn’t work.

The Spirit of God takes the Word of God, He digests it in your soul, He creates power and new desires, He transforms your mind, and He change you from the inside out. And it’s like a car that doesn’t have any gas. No Word, no power.

And this isn’t like some guilt trip. This is like do you want to just keep having a form of godliness, but deny its power? Mary says, “Be it unto me,” how? “…according to Your Word.”

And then notice, she does something. Faith isn’t a feeling. Faith isn’t intellectually agreeing. She didn’t go, “Well, well, that’s really wonderful. I guess I’ll sort of sit around here and wake up one morning and find out when I’m pregnant.”

Remember? He gave her a sign. “Elizabeth, supernaturally, she’s already six months pregnant.” Look what Mary does: I’m going to go find out if it’s true. “At this time, Mary arose, went in a hurry” – where? “to the hill country, to the city of Judah and she entered the house of Zechariahs and greeted Elizabeth.” She’s going to trust God and then confirm. That’s what He wants you to do, that’s what He wants me to do.

Notice what happens. “When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greetings, the baby leaped in her womb; and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. And she cried out in a loud voice, ‘Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! And how has it happened to me, that the mother of my Lord would come to me?”

What do you think that did for Mary’s faith? Now, wait a second. I got this visit from an angel, I’ve been thinking about all these issues. I walk in and she declares that I am the mother of her Lord? Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding! Affirmation.

And then it goes on, “For behold, when the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby leaped inside my womb for joy.” And get this one, “And blessed is she who,” what did she do? “believed that there would be a fulfillment of what had been spoken to her by the Lord.”

What we have gone through so far is the familiar historical record of God the Son becoming God in the flesh so that He might come to deliver me from my sin, my selfishness, and all my dysfunctions, to break the power of sin in my life, and to actually pay for my sin so that whoever would believe could have eternal life now that would go on forever and ever and ever regardless of what is happening in the world or what is happening in your world.

And with that, how - one by one - can we get rid of these frames? You know? I’m not saying don’t watch the Warriors, I’m not saying it’s wrong for your kid to get on Santa’s lap, I hope you have some good food, I hope you watch a couple movies. I’ll tell you, they’re going to kiss at the end and it’s all going to work out. I hope you have some fun. You know, right? I hope, I hope there is unity.

But you know what? What God really wants to do, what He really wants to do, not for someone out there, for you, He wants you, this season to believe that He does the impossible and He wants to do the impossible for you and He wants you to get out of all those frames and see that picture, that reality, power, supernatural. And to follow Mary’s example in such a way that not only you would experience a miracle, but you would become the kind of miracle that literally people would say, over time, there’s no explanation for how you have changed except for Jesus.

So, let’s look at the text. The message: There’s a virgin birth. Isaiah 7:14 says seven hundred years before it happened, it was predicted this child would be born of a virgin.

The command? “Fear not; call Him Jesus.” Guess what. That’s the command for us. Anybody a little concerned about the world situation? Anybody concerned about the political situation? Anybody concerned about the neo-Marxism that is invading? Anybody concerned about the disintegration of the family, the sexual confusion, the struggles and mental health? I don’t know about you, but you get past thirty trillion dollars’ worth of debt, you think this thing might not be too stable, right? “Fear not.” And the name of Jesus, she carried the name of Jesus into her world. That’s our calling.

The baby’s identity: clearly the Messiah. Wonderful Counselor, Eternal Father, Mighty Warrior, Prince of Peace. That’s who He is. And He lived inside of her. And if you’re a follower of Jesus and turned from your sin and received Him personally, that’s who lives in you.

And His agenda is not: be a nice person. You know, give a couple sweatshirts and a coat and feel better about yourself. Be a little bit nicer at work. All that stuff is fine, but it misses the point. He wants to revolutionize your life from the inside out so you could be a miracle. He wants you to come like Mary, and say, “I don’t bring anything to the table, I’ve got really deep issues, I’m in desperate need of You, and whatever You want me to do, I can’t. But I’m open and I’m willing.”

He wants you to believe what she believed, that miracles actually can happen.

Again, in the whiteboard of your mind, are you ready? What is the most impossible situation in my life right now? Blank. Would you please fill that in? Right now. Fill it in. What is it? Nothing gets dynamic until it’s specific. Silly prayers. “God, make my life better.” How would you ever know if He did?

What are you struggling with? What needs to change? Who do you care about? What do you need? That’s the message of the Christ-child. It’s miraculous, it’s supernatural, it’s an intervention. There’s power, real power, power to change you, power to change the world, power to take the evil aimed at you and use it for good.

Mary’s response is a model to follow. When she hears, “Greetings, favored one.” Do you remember her response? It’s she’s perplexed.

“God, You’re speaking to me?” Have any of you, like, maybe you’ve been in church but reading the Scriptures in the morning or at night or sometime and you’re reading something and you sense God speaking to you and you go, “Wow! I have no idea what this means.” Anybody?

I’ve had that thousands of times. By the way, that’s normal. Unfortunately, my experience is, when Christians open the Bible and they read something, “I think God is speaking to me and it’s perplexing and I don’t understand it,” we jump to, “I guess I’ll never be able to understand this.” No, no, no, no, no. This is written for us regular people. But you have to keep pressing in. She’s perplexed.

My wife, we were talking this morning and we get up early and have coffee and, nothing super spiritual but just connect. And this morning we were talking about the message, because she is very generous to listen many times before you ever get it as I’m trying to figure out, Lord, exactly what do You want to say and how?

And we were talking about being perplexed and she goes, “You know…” it reminded me this morning, we have an anniversary coming up I think next Saturday it’ll be forty-five years. Kind of a big one. Well, if you know our story, you talk about a miracle. And uhm,
and so, because of, it’s too long and I won’t go into the background, but because of her situation and us trying to figure out whether it was God’s will and with all the other dynamics, she just got to where, God, I’ve just got to know. I’m perplexed. You know, I love Chip and I’m a single mom, I’ve got these two little boys and I was abandoned and I just got to know.

And she sat, literally, she took things literally. She would pray in her closet. And she heard in her mind, “You’re going to marry Chip on December 16th of this year.” And she got up out of her closet and went and found a calendar and found December 16th; it was a Saturday. He said, “Saturday, December 16th.” And, you know, you have to know her. It was like, Oh, okay! I mean, that’s where, Okay! I got it! Perplexing, but God spoke.

She had never told me, by the way. And so, it worked out and I was finishing my orals for grad school and the only day, that was on Friday, that Saturday and then all the people in our ministry were heading off. I said, “Well, honey, I’m sorry, but it’s a little tight, but December 16th is the only day we can do it.”

Are you experiencing that? Do you understand that she is not unusual? She’s not super, she’s not a saint, she’s a regular, desperate, single mom saying, “God, is there any hope? I just came to know You after this guy left me for some other woman. I don’t have any money. And some guy named Chip comes and, man, he’s so up and down and he’s afraid to marry and we don’t know Your will. I need to know. I’m desperate.” That’s who God speaks to. Are you desperate?

And then she was willing and then she trusted. That’s what Mary did.

Second, she was confused.

“How can this be?” Okay, maybe I’m only fifteen or sixteen, but I know enough to know: man, woman come together, baby. How is this going to work?

Notice she didn’t say, “If it could work,” unlike Zechariahs. Are you willing to be confused sometimes? I was a basketball coach, convinced I would be a basketball coach all my life, playing ball around the world, and God tells me after college and graduate school, now I’m supposed to be in ministry, and I [was] just - confused.

A) I don’t want to go to school anymore, I’m not smart enough to be a pastor, I’m not holy enough to be a pastor, certainly You’ve got a lot better people. And I think if I could have heard the Lord’s voice in heaven, He would have said, “I’ve got lots of a lot better people. But a lot of them I can’t get to get in the game. You may not be all that, all, you know, but so far, you’re a pretty naïve, desperate son of an alcoholic that I spoke to and when I have told you: This is what I want you to do, you stammer, you stutter, you struggle. But at the end of the day you feel like that’s the only option.”

Mary says, “I don’t know how.” But notice next she surrenders. “Be it unto me according to Your Word.”

Would you get out of the trees and the pressure and the presents and the food and who is coming into town and the office parties and what movies you’re going to watch and expectations and all that framing, framing, framing, framing. And would you get the picture down inside your heart and mind and realize the miraculous, all-powerful, all-knowing God has intervened in human history with supernatural power and He wants to meet you and He wants to use you and He wants to change you and restore you and forgive you and it all starts with: whoo. “Be it unto me.”

There are some of you that you are good church people, you intellectually believe in Jesus, you’re not born again. Your life doesn’t revolve around Him. By the way, this is no condemnation. You don’t read the Bible very much, you’re actually nicer than most people, you’re probably even pretty moral, you’ve got some issues and everyone has issues. You think God grades on the curve.

And you think if you come to church and it’s a good feeling that somehow, someway everything is going to be okay. And everyone thinks you’re great and everyone thinks you’re nice. You’ve got inner, unresolved issues, you don’t have supernatural peace, and here’s the deal. There’s a form of godliness, there’s no power.

All I want to say is, let’s get rid of the frames so that some of you would say to the Lord’s gracious gift, “I would like the Holy Spirit to live in me.” And like Mary, I confess I fall short. I believe that You died on the cross in my place and rose from the dead. And, Jesus, You said that You stand at the door of my heart and knock and if any man, any woman would open the door, You said You would come into me and forgive me and live with me forever.

And if you have never done that, He brought you in this room to receive Him. And it will not be easy, but it will be wonderful and it will be eternal. And for others of us, we have just, we have been around so long, we have made some big surrenders, but all of our stories are in the rearview mirror. You haven’t taken any risks lately, you haven’t stepped out a lot lately.

Personal confession, I speak to lots of large groups and pastors and, you know, I know the Bible pretty well after all these years. And, but I recognize in terms of sitting down with someone and actually sharing the gospel in a very clear, personal way, I just, as I was studying this and just some other things in my life I thought, Lord, it’s easy to talk to a big group of people. That’s not very threatening. And my physical therapist, who I began to build a relationship with, I just, I said, “Lord, would you cause him to ask me a question that I could really tell him about Jesus?” And then my very last appointment I said, “Lord, would You, would You allow me to tell him the real story of the gospel?”

It’s not a story, it’s not a myth, it’s not a metaphor. He is real and He loves us.

And so, the final thing she does is she rejoices. And she sings this amazing song about God’s faithfulness and how she’ll be remembered. And as we close, I’d like you to go to the last page and I just want you to answer these questions as honestly from your heart as you possibly could. But let me ask you:

What did you learn about God’s sovereignty that frees you from fear? The wars, the economy, the jobs, the downsizing, all the rest. A sovereign God has a plan for you and for the world. And He is looking for Marys to bring about His purposes.

What did you learn about God’s faithfulness to His promises to give you hope? I mean, people waited for a long time. Messiah, going to come, do this, do that. Yeah, sure. After four hundred years a lot of people said, “No way.” He fulfilled all three hundred and sixteen Old Testament promises about His first coming.

Can I, just give you a stern warning? Jesus is coming back. Are you ready? He will fulfill all of His promises. He always does. And a new reality, there won’t be any frames about anything and He wants you to be with Him.

Third, what did you learn from Mary? You know, if you just went through and said, “Okay, it’s okay to be perplexed, it’s okay to be confused.” And in the midst of it all, and you don’t understand: surrender.

And finally, just the parallels that quiet her fears quiet mine.

God spoke to her - God spoke to us; the Holy Spirit dwelt in her - if you’re a follower of Jesus, the Holy Spirit dwells in us; she was to bring salvation to the world - we are to bring salvation to the world. That’s why this big event coming up is so important. That’s why, you know, one of my neighbors that I have been talking to is asking to meet and just have coffee and talk. And then surrender and obedience unleashes God’s miraculous power, peace, and joy. And joy isn’t from getting all the toys, going public, finally finding the right person.

Joy is the byproduct of embracing God’s purpose for your life.