FBCWest 637 | Submissive Servant
Recorded On: 12/15/2024
Bulletin
Hymn # 81 “O Come All Ye Faithful”
SCRIPTURE READING – Psalm 21:22 & 23
Giving of Selves and Our Offerings
OFFERTORY PRAYER
OFFERTORY MUSIC – Pru Hungate
Praise and Worship
“Angels We Have Heard on High”
“What a Glorious Night”
“He Shall Reign Forevermore”
Proclamation of the Word
Message by Pastor Joe
“Submissive Servant”
PRAYER TIME / Time of Reflection
“O Come, O Come Emanuel”
Benediction “Egypt”
Acknowledgements and Announcements
Sermon Notes
Luke 1:26 – 37 What the Lord has planned for Mary
Luke 1:38 Behold the bond-servant of the Lord, Humble and submissive
James 4:6 & 7 Be humble and submit to God
Matthew 25:14 – 30 We are Christ’s slaves and will be rewarded or condemned by our use of His talents
Scritpures
Transcript of Service
What if you were asked by God to do something that you thought was impossible? But if you agreed to it, you could be subject to a very painful death or at minimum being ostracized by your community and losing the relationships with people very close to you. Would you say yes or would you say no? It's easy to ask that question when those consequences aren't facing us. We're going to take a look at someone today in the Bible who was asked that very question. And we will see the response, not only just the response, but the humility to things, and sometimes there's a reaction that may or may not be justified. So I'll give you an example of personally.
For a long period of time, I heard the preacher who is preaching, and he would, especially when he'd make it a point, he would yell, and that's just his style of preaching. As a result, my reaction was when I would make a point, I would drop my voice. Now, that's a problem because when you drop your voice, sometimes people can't hear you, but it was a reaction to what I had heard and didn't want to be that. So that's why I had the microphone I do now, because it used to be I had a lapel mic, and when I dropped my voice, I would turn my head, and then you couldn't hear it even more.
Well, I have another reaction, if you will, and that's going to be on this person that we're going to talk about today.
The overreaction is because there are denominations and people who take a look at this person, Mary, and describe her inaccurately.
They view her as the Virgin Mary in the sense of that's the way she always was,
and clearly the Scriptures deny that. They also give her a statement of the mother of God, and she's not.
God existed before her and after her. But there is something that we should learn from her.
Because of that overreaction, I want to discuss with you the things that we should learn from her, and apply to our lives. No, there was a one-time event where a young lady gave birth to the Messiah.
All the way back from Eve, when Cain killed Abel and Seth was born, she was expecting maybe Seth was the one to set them free from their sin. And especially the women of God always looked to be maybe that person who would usher in the Messiah.
And that's a one-time event, but there is something that Mary's life can teach us that is over and beyond that. And so if you look in your Bibles at Luke chapter 1 verse 26, it says this, "Now in the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city in Galilee called Nazareth." Now I am often asked, "Do you really think Jesus was born on December 25th?" Well, I don't think he was born on December 25th. Part of the reasons why December 25th was picked was that there was a pagan holiday, and it was easy to have a Christ mass on the 25th, and then another way you wouldn't get in too much trouble.
But this gives us a clue. It says, "In the sixth month, the angel Cain."
It doesn't give us a perfect clue because there are two six months, if you will.
There is the civil new year for Israel, and that's in late September, October.
And then there's the religious year, which starts at Passover.
So I'm not sure which of these six months he's talking about. So if you take six months, the six months, and then you add nine months, you're talking 15 months. So probably the angel showed up, if it's in the civil period time, and you add 15 months, you're talking about December.
If it's the religious year, you're probably talking about March, April, and so they're probably talking about maybe May, June of his birth.
That's all the clue I can give you as to when Jesus was born.
It's a nice tradition that we do it on the 25th. There's nothing wrong with it. It's not counter-biblical. So we celebrate on the 25th. But now you have my answer to when Jesus was born. So now in the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city in Galilee called Nazareth
to a virgin engaged to a man. And I want to stop there.
It says, "engaged to a man whose name was Joseph." That's too weak a word for what happened.
Even betrothal is a little weak. Basically, they were married contractually.
But that contractual agreement lasts for about a year, and then there would be the actual final ceremony and then the consummation of the marriage. So what the writer here, what Luke is telling us, is that she was in a legal marriage that hadn't yet been consummated or finalized. So she was more than engaged, but not yet his wife, if you will. So she was engaged to this man and she was a virgin, or the descendant of the David, and the virgin's name was Mary. So that gives us who we're talking about. Mary, who's living in Galilee, she's betrothed, contractually committed as the wife of Joseph. And they both live in Nazareth, as religious leaders will later say, "Can any good thing come from Nazareth?" And in coming in, he said to her, "Greetings, favored one or highly blessed one." Now, once you get this greeting is not just, "Hi, you're doing well." It's, "You are highly blessed. You, this one, the Lord is with you."
So that's his greeting. That's his salutation. "You are highly favored. You are highly blessed. The Lord is with you." Mary is a thinker.
Because most people would be responding to the fact an angel just showed up.
She was very perplexed at this statement and kept pondering what kind of salutation this was.
Now, first off, when you kind of get the idea, because I used to think, "Well, an angel just showed up." You ought to be like freaking out that an angel just showed up. Except when you take a look at some of the scriptural times when angels showed up, angels mean messengers of God.
These are spiritual messengers of God. So I'm not saying they're people.
But when you look at when the angels came to Abraham and guaranteed that within the year, Sarah would have a baby, they laughed, but they weren't freaked out by the angels.
When those people went to Lot, nobody was freaked out that they were angels. As a matter of fact, the people of Sodom wanted to have their way with them, put it in a nice way, and lot protected them. But again, no one was freaked out. And then there are times in the scriptures that say that we are to be careful because sometimes we entertain angels unaware. And if they were such that they would freak us out, we would know they're angels and we'd be aware of it. And I believe there were at least two times in our congregation where angels showed up and we were unaware, but we believed that there were angels afterwards. And so I used to think, well, she should be freaked out by this, but no, many people in the scriptures weren't freaked out when they came into counter with angels. But she's thinking, what kind of, what type of greeting is this? I live in Nazareth. I'm not special in the sense of anybody would think, Oh, you're going to write a history about me or that, or that I'm royalty or that I'm wealthy. What would anybody think that I would be highly favored and that God would be with me? Cause I live in Nazareth as other people will say, could any good thing come from Nazareth? And so you can see that she's thinking about these things, which makes her different than so many other people. They just react. She ponders in her heart. What's he talking about? And the angel said to her, do not be afraid, Mary. So there is some trepidation here. And it may be, why is he saying this? Cause I don't see it. Or he's an angel and he's appeared to me. What's going on for you have found favor with God. So this is again, the second time he says you have found favor with God. And again, unfortunately, most of us think favor of God means we have a really big bank account and that we're famous and that we are influencers or whatever that we are. And that's how we are, quote unquote, favored with God. Because if you listen to enough TV evangelists, you think the only way God benefits you is if you make a lot of money and she's obviously not a wealthy person, but she has found favor with God and behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son and you shall name him Jesus or Yahshua, the Lord saves. So he's giving her the plan of God. The plan of God for your life, Mary, is that you are going to conceive even though that you're a virgin and you're going to bear a son and this son is going to be named Yahshua. The Lord saves. And he goes on and says, and he will be great and will be called the son of the most high. And the Lord God will give him the throne of his father, David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever. And his kingdom will have no end. This Mary is God's plan for your life. You are going to deliver the son of God.
And that son of God is going to rule and reign on his father, David's throne, not just for a year or two, not even for a lifetime, but forever. And his reign and his kingdom will have no end. That's a pretty big plan. And Mary said to him, to the angel, how can this be since I'm a virgin? So she goes, how is it that I can conceive and have this son of God when I've not known of a man? How is it that this can happen? So she's, she's trying to figure these things out again. She's a thinker. She understands what her current condition is. And she's thinking what it is that the angels is telling her that God's plan for her life.
The angel answered and said to her, the Holy spirit will come upon you and the power of the most high will overshadow you. And for that reason, the holy child shall be called the son of God.
You see right from the start, there is no doubt that Jesus is the son of God.
He's God incarnate. He is God with us. He is God.
Yeah. And so he's saying, this is how it's going to happen. Mary. So he's given her the plan and he's given her the execution of that plan. And then he's going to give her a little help for her faith. And behold, even your relative Elizabeth was your cousin has also conceived a son in her old age. And she who was called Baron is now in her six months. So there is this sense that just like Sarah was well past her ability to conceive that a child Isaac laughter was given same with your cousin Elizabeth. And she, when everybody thought was too old to bear a child and called her Baron, the Lord intervened in her life for that purpose. So Mary, here is some evidence that you can hold on to faith that what I'm telling you is true and inaccurate.
Then he says this, or nothing will be impossible with God.
He's given her what he thinks is she thinks is an impossible task. How can an virgin give birth,
which has been predicted in the old Testament and he's given her the plan. And he said, even that thing that you think is impossible with God, it is not impossible or nothing is.
Now I want to stop there because Mary's going to give her give an answer, but I want you to think about what this situation entails.
If she becomes the in her womb, the son of God, she is married legally to Joseph, Joseph, which means if she were pregnant, everybody would think that she committed adultery.
And if she committed adultery, she would be in perfect. The town people would be perfectly
entitled to stone her to death. So it would end her life in a very painful manner.
If it didn't end her life, what would happen was that the community would ostracize her.
Because she would be an immoral person. And it would also impact her marital relationship with Joseph because rightfully thinking he would think that she was unfaithful and would want to divorce her. These are all the things, the consequences of the response that Mary would give in response to this plan of God for her life to possibly die, to be ostracized, to be viewed as an immoral
woman and then divorced by her husband. That's what she's laying on the line. That's what God is asking her to do for her life. But I thought God's plan for my life was to have a wonderful life, that everything would be just peachy keen and wonderful, that I'd be wealthy and everybody would like me and that I would just speak and crowds would want to fall down and worship the Lord. And the angel saying, this is what plan and what it was, what would be her response to all these people? I'm still a virgin and God came to me. We don't even believe people when we say God told them X, Y or Z. We think they're crazy. That's exactly what everybody would say if she tried to justify what had happened to her. She's crazy. But I want to note, she'd have noticed what she says. And Mary said, "Behold the bond servant of the Lord. May it be done to be according to your word." And the angel departed from her. She said, "Behold," and even that the bond servant, the bond slave, that's, she said, recognized that I am the slave of the Lord. Whatever the Lord wants to do with my life, he can do it because I'm his.
She is humble. She's not saying, "Well, I wonder how blessed I am that God is highly favored to me and everybody's going to call me blessed and it's wonderful." No, no. I am God's bond slave. I am God's servant. Whatever my God ordains is right. He can do with me as he wills.
And that's the thing we should learn from Mary. Whatever God wants from us, we should say,
"I'm your servant. I'm your slave. May it be done to me according to your word."
You see, my overreaction was wrong in the sense of because people called Mary things that she wasn't, we don't see the things that Mary was and how we should emulate her and to say, "Like her." Whatever you say, Lord, you can do. I want you to take a look at James chapter four.
And it says this, "But he being God gives a greater grace. Therefore it says, God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble." Notice that Mary was humble.
Behold the bond slave of the Lord. And in these trying times and in these things that Mary would risk life for and relationship for, God is going to give her greater grace because of her humility.
And we likewise should be humble. It's not, "Well, I'm the child of God and whatever." No, I am the child of God, but I am humbled by it because of who I am and who he is. And then it says this, "Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you." What I want you to say, "Submit therefore to God." Mary was a submissive servant and God has called us to be submissive servants, to submit to God. Now I left out in the scriptural references,
but the scripture also tells us that we are to submit one to another.
It's one thing to submit to God, but God's plan for our lives is to submit to one to another. But I'm too special for that. God gives greater grace to those who are humble.
So he tells us that we are to submit to God just as Mary did.
Jesus gives a parable in his... And I want to use this to drive home the point. And it is found in Matthew chapter 25, starting with verse 14. And it says this, "For it is just like a man about to go on a journey who called his own slaves and entrusted his possessions to them. To one he gave five talents to another two and to another one, each according to his own ability, and he went on his journey. And immediately the one who had received the five talents went and traded with them and gained five more talents."
In the same manner, the one who had received two talents gained two more.
"But the one who had received the one talent went away and dug a hole and in the ground and hid his master's money."
Now, after a long time, the master of those slaves came and settled accounts with him.
The one who had received the five talents came up and brought five more talents, saying, "Master, you entrusted me five talents to me. See, I have gained five more talents."
His master said to him, "Well done, good and faithful slave." Notice he's still a slave. "You were faithful in a few things. I will put you in charge of many things in or into the glory, I'm sorry, the joy of your master."
Also, the one who had received the two talents came up and said, "Master, you entrusted two talents to me. See, I have gained two more talents."
His master said to him, "Well done, good and faithful slave. You were faithful with a few things. I will put you in charge of many things in or into the joy of your master." Notice the slave who had five talents and the slave who had two talents. The master says, "I'm going to put you in charge of many things." Notice the slave who had four talents.
What a person may be given as far as talents, God still blesses all the more.
And the one also who had received the one talent came up and said, "Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow and gathering where you scattered no seed." He has a really high opinion of his master.
"And I was afraid and I went away and I hid your talent in the ground. See, you have what is yours."
But his master answered and said to him, "You wicked, lazy slave."
Now notice the master did and denied the charge. He said, "You knew that I reap where I did not sow and gathered where I scattered no seed. Then you ought to have put my money in the bank and on my arrival, I would have received my money back with interest. You could have at least done that so that I would have had more than just the single talent that I left you. I could have buried it in a hole myself.
Therefore, take away the talent from him and give it to the one who has the 10 talents."
So God blessed the one who was diligent in doing what God had given him to do. "For to everyone who has more shall be given and he shall have an abundance.
But from the one who does not have, even what he does have shall be taken away.
Throw out the worthless slave into the outer darkness and in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth."
Why did I use this parable?
Most of the time we take a look at it and we look at talents and we change money as talents to talents as far as abilities and God gives you the ability to sing well or to to make money or to do whatever the talent may be and we view that as talent.
Or sometimes it's God says,
"If you believe in your heart that God raised Jesus from the dead
and confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord, you will be saved." If you take what He says and believes it, you take an investment in what His Word is. If He tells us that we are to love one another as He has loved us and we don't do that, we have not invested His talents in our lives.
If we do not submit to God as He has called us to do, then we have buried the talents in the dirt and said, "Well, you gave me my life and here it's back." No, no, you gave me my life and I took your Word, your actual plan for my life
to rejoice always, to pray without ceasing and everything to give thanks for that is God's will for your life. If you do the things that I have instructed you, then you have taken my investment and you are now changed and you are different and being different, the world will see what my hand in your life does and that I do in fact exist.
What is a testimony that God exists? Yes, the beach and yes, the mountains and yes, the stars in the sky, but it also ought to be that I have submitted my life to God and I am changed and you can see that, that my submission to God is a testimony and that my testimony may be not that I'm wonderful and rich or powerful or influential, but whatever your will is for my life, here I am, your bond slave, do as you please.
Mary, everyone will call her blessed,
but she was blessed before that night because the angel said,
"Highly favored one, blessed by the Lord."
"No one else may have known it and the world now calls her blessed because she delivered the Messiah,
but I call her blessed because she submitted herself to the will of God,
regardless of the potential for her harm, regardless of the potential for the harm of her physical life or her name or her reputation."
And said, "God, that's up to you."
And so when we call ourselves Christians, the world may say,
"Well, you may be one of those people who needs God, I don't. But I am guilty I need God because I'm a sinner and my only salvation
is by His plan of using this woman who submitted her life to the Lord, gave me salvation."
Yes, we celebrate Christmas day, December 25th, but the fact is this, that the Lord is with us. He is our Emmanuel because the word of the Lord says that this one who ascended to heaven also lives in our hearts.
So even today, we can sing about Emmanuel.
So come, O come Emmanuel, for those of you who don't know Him, I pray that you would submit to God
and that you would have that relationship with Him. And for those of us who have already acknowledged that He is Emmanuel, that we do more than just sing Christmas songs, that we 365 days a year give testimony, "Lord, what you ordained is right."