You are invited to stop looking at your current struggles and start trusting in God's plan for your future. Just like Mary, you can choose to believe that you are highly favored even when you don't feel it. Today is the day to raise your hand and receive the grace that is waiting for you.
Welcome to the Real Church podcast. Our mission is for you to know the love of Jesus and live out your God given purpose. Now join us and listen in to the latest message from pastor David John Phillips.
Christmas. So let's turn to Luke-1. *Luke-1*. We're gonna go through a bit of the Christmas story, and I think that this will mean something to you. *Luke-1:26* it says, in the sixth month of Elizabeth's pregnancy God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, descendant of David.
The virgin's name was Mary. The angel went to her and said greetings You who are highly favored, the Lord is with you. Verse 29. Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this may be. I don't know about you but I'd probably be greatly troubled as well if something showed up in my room or wherever that was.
I don't know if it was a bright light or if it was just like an angel in the form of a man or something and told me those words that they told Mary in the middle of what Mary was going through it says that Mary was greatly troubled and in in English or in the NIV it says and she wondered. Now I went back and looked at the original text because a lot of times the original text is a little more colorful and a little more specific than exact to what was actually happening and in the original text it says that that that word wondered is actually she debated and reasoned. So it's it's wonder to debate and to reason. Don't we do the exact same things a lot of times in our life? When God wants to do something *supernatural* in us and through us and around us and when it starts to happen or when he speaks that he's about to do something we do the exact same thing that Mary did because we are conditioned to see the natural instead of to rest in the supernatural what he says but if God is really God then he is supernatural.
So if he's gonna move in our lives he's not gonna move in our lives in a logical natural way that is normal what we're used to. He's gonna move in a way that's in his character and his nature which is supernatural, superseding what is logical to us. And because we're conditioned to look at the natural and the logical, when he begins to move we do the same thing that Mary did in the moment. We debate and we reason in our mind with what our circumstances look like. What is going on around us instead of what he says.
Now check this out. What was going on around Mary? Why would she debate and reason in her mind? Mary just look at the context. Mary, it said, we believe, scholars would say, Mary was probably between 12 and 16 years old when this happened.
So she's a young girl. She's a very young woman when this as this is going on. Mary in 2000 years ago in this society, you know, women, especially young women like this, didn't have the same rights and same values and every everything the same abilities and freedoms, let's say, that we the the women here in America would have. Right? They were kinda less than if you will.
So she's got that working against her. Number 2. She's a Jew. She's in Israel at the time and they're under Roman occupation so a whole other nation is occupying this and really taking a lot of advantage of the Jews and she's seen that all of her life because it's been going on for a long time and before the Romans were were the Greeks that they were over that area okay? And and and actually too you know they hear these stories from long time ago that that they are the you know God's chosen people and and that there's gonna be a Messiah and there's gonna be a savior you know and the Messiah just simply means deliverer.
Delivering them from their captivity. Delivering them from what they're that they're experiencing but all she sees is oppression not deliverance. Can you put yourself let's put our self in her shoes, this 12 to 16 year old girl in that time. Not to mention that the god of old that she had heard about, because she was a Jew, she'd heard all of the stories probably growing up, hadn't actually spoke to anyone. He had been silent.
It was almost like heaven was wrapped up for 4 over 400 years. That's like back in the early 16 hundreds from now, 400 years ago. Can you think about that? If God hadn't spoke for that amount of time, and then all of a sudden 400 years later a 12 to 16 year old little girl, young woman is there and something shows up in her room or wherever it was and said you are highly favored. Wait a second.
I'm the opposite of highly favored. I'm held down but yet you're telling me I'm highly favored and it says the Lord is with you. Wait. What? I've never felt the Lord with me.
It doesn't look like the Lord's with me. He's not with our people and yet I'm a 12 to 16 year old little girl and you're telling me the Lord is with me? Naturally, logically it would seem that she had every right to debate and reason in her mind but God doesn't work naturally. He works through nature supernaturally and he spoke through this angel saying the Lord is with you. Maybe we've done the same thing.
You see God God supernaturally says when you don't feel loved, when you don't feel like God is there, maybe maybe you've lost your husband or people all around you are saying all of this stuff about you and you feel unloved and you feel far from anything, you don't feel like yourself and God says I love you. Really? Do you see what's going on in my life? How could you say that? Naturally it doesn't feel so.
Maybe you debate and reason your mind. God says I wanna bless you. I have a future for you and you just look at your circumstance and you look at your past and you say is that really possible? See, God wants to do supernaturally in you and supernaturally through you the same things that he was doing in and through Mary, we'll get to that in a second. We, a lot of times, do the same thing Mary did.
We debate and reason, but we have to put our mind not on what we see because our future is not defined by our present circumstance like we like to think. Our future is not defined by what happened to us in the past or what we came from. Our future is defined by God's supernatural word, and he has the supernatural ability to change your natural circumstance and change it to his supernatural reality because he loves you, because he cares about you, because he could have a future for you, because he says he paid the price for you so that you could have relationship with him and understand what it means when he says, **"God with us"**. That's pretty amazing. Let's keep going.
We got through 2 verses. 3. Alright. So Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what what kind of greeting this may be. But the angel said to her, "do not be afraid" Mary.
I love how the angel just keeps going. Despite our doubts, God keeps speaking to us despite what we've said. He keeps reminding us over and over and over until what happens next happens in our lives. So the angel keep keeps going. Do not be afraid Mary for you have found favor with God.
The fact that the angel said do not be afraid means that Mary was afraid and a lot of times when God speaks supernatural things in our lives that he wants to bless us, he has a future for us it's something that's not natural, not logical for us to grab on to. We hold on to what we see and what we feel in the moment but God doesn't live by feeling and we shouldn't either. We live by what he says over that and so when he says something that is so out of our comfort zone, it's so not normal to us that he loves us, that he cares about us, that he's got a future, that he's calling us to start this or he's calling us to start that. He's calling us to stay here or to move there and it's just so crazy. A lot of times a lot of *fear* wells up.
But what is fear? Fear is simply not trusting him. Fear is being out of control. There's no fear in love. Love always trusts.
Perfect love casts out fear. That's God. So do not be afraid. You have found favor. What that word favor by the way is the same word for grace.
*Grace* is getting what you don't deserve. Before when it said that you are highly favored, that means you are you're about to get a lot of what you don't deserve and a lot of times that scares us too because we're used to earning stuff but in God it's receiving not earning. That's how we walk forward in him is we trust what he says and we trust what he speaks and we trust in his goodness even though we don't deserve it and we walk forward even though we're not in control because we're receiving what we didn't. Does that make sense? Work for?
That's grace. That's favor. That's his radical kindness. So the angel goes on. You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus.
He will be great and will be called the Lord or be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David. He will reign over Jacob's descendants forever. His kingdom will never end. Everybody say never.
That's amazing. Now here's Mary's response. Verse 34. How? How will this be, Mary asked the angel, since I am a virgin?
I mean, we have this picture that Mary is this and she's amazing. Don't get me wrong. I'm not downplaying Mary, but I'm just saying she was a she was a person. She's just a person. And she has the same doubts and same fears but yet she carried Jesus.
What was she looking at? How can this be? I'm still a virgin. She was looking at the natural. I hadn't done anything to deserve this.
I haven't done anything to make this happen. How is this possible? A lot of times when God wants to do something miraculous in your life, when God wants to show you something it's gonna be more than what you've done and it's gonna seem like it's there's no possible way because God is supernatural and he specializes in the *impossible* because he radically loves you. He wants you to experience his life, not just what you can come up with yourself. Because self life results in self destruction.
But trusting in his life results in life for you and for everyone around you. How? Let me tell you how. Check this out. Verses 35 through 37.
The angel of the Lord answered, the Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the most high will overshadow you. So the holy 1 will be called the son of God. Even Elizabeth, your relative, is going to have a child in her old age, and she too was said to be unable to conceive in her sixth month. Verse 37, the NIV says, for no word from God will ever fail. ESV and other versions say, for with God, all things are possible.
Because there's such a big difference, I went back and looked the original because I like to, and it actually literally says, the word of God is not impossible. The word of God is not impossible. Though it seems impossible in the natural for God to love you with what you've done. Though it seems impossible for God to forgive you because you don't feel like you can be forgiven. Though it seems impossible for you to have a relationship with the God of the universe, he says it's possible.
The word of God is not impossible, but it requires something. Look look at the next verse. I am the Lord's servant, Mary answered. May your "word to me be fulfilled". Then the angel left her.
What was Mary's posture? *Reception*. You spoke this to me. I receive it. The word of the Lord is not impossible, and he will never force himself on you.
He will never force you to walk with him and what he's planned for you. You can continue getting what you deserve based on what you've earned. Or you can say I surrender. I trust that you want to do the supernatural in my life and through my life. You want to walk with me.
You want to know me. So because I believe what you say about me and what you say about the world and that you're you're good, I'm gonna say like Mary. I'm gonna take up the posture of reception. I'm gonna receive your word. I'm your servant.
Let your word be done unto me as you say it. That's the Christian life. That's every aspect of the Christian life. Receiving his word, what he said. Who is the word?
*Jesus*. *John-1:1*, in the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God. He was with God in the beginning, and the word became flesh and dwelt among us. Jesus Christ, born of a virgin, he set aside Philippians-2 says he set aside his godhood. Why?
For you. He wrapped himself in flesh. What does that mean? He wrapped himself that word sarx is the original word. He wrapped himself in everything that you experience, every desire, everything that that you have gone through in your life.
Think about Jesus as a young boy growing up, seeing everything that we experience in this world, every temptation, every hardship, every struggle. He's been there, and he's experienced everything that you've gone through, but yet he overcame so that you can trust in his ability to overcome and not your own. He can have empathy and compassion. You can trust him because he's been there. He wrapped himself in everything that you've experienced.
Born poor, born in a in a stable as this humble you'd think that the king of of heaven and earth would come mighty and and no. He was born in a stable, born humble from humble beginnings, lowly. Why? To show you that he understands. Riches, he's had everything.
He he owns everything, but he understands the poor too. He understands you. He's been there. And though you may not feel it, he says to you, just like he says to Mary, you are highly favored. The Lord is with you.
But I've done that. It doesn't matter. But I've been it doesn't matter. But they said, it doesn't matter. You are highly favored, which means you have the ability to receive what you haven't worked for, which you could never earn on your own.
If you could earn it, that's religion. This is relationship. This is God coming to us, not us coming to God. That's the point of Jesus. Any religion that's teach teaches us about your works is from the pit of hell.
Yeah. I said it. It's about us laying down our ability to work for it and receiving what he did, and it changes us from the inside out. How? Like Mary said, by the Holy Spirit.
What happened to her physically happens to us spiritually. Holy Spirit will overshadow you. Reminds me of Acts-1:8. You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and you will be my witnesses to the "ends of the earth". To Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, to the ends of the earth.
When we receive his word, we're receiving Jesus. God comes to live inside of us. We why? How? Not because we've done anything but because his spirit, his power is overshadowing us just like it did Mary.
And Jesus lives on the inside. Now our life, like Mary's life, spiritually not physically produces Jesus in every aspect as we receive from him. *Love*. What what what what did Jesus life what what was that? What did it produce?
Everywhere he went, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, meekness, self control. What would it be like to live a life full of that? Complete freedom. Freedom in him. Not having to to constantly be in control, but being able to follow him and him giving you the freedom because you're in relationship with him to live the life that he's and that you have been designed for.
You are designed to live like that. And when we live outside of our design, there's turmoil. When we live outside of the understanding and the reception of Jesus there is a lack of peace. There is a lack of joy. There is a lack of everything that comes with Jesus.
And that's that's at the beginning. That's receiving Jesus for the first time but that's also after we receive Jesus and then we choose. God's called me. "God's calling me" to to step out of my comfort zone and go here. God's calling me to step out of my comfort zone and stay here.
God's calling me to start this or God's calling me to start that and I heard his word but I gave up on his word a long time ago because I looked at my circumstances. I looked at the natural instead of trusting the supernatural and receiving it and continue to receive it every single day of my life. I've been there. I'm still there sometimes. I'm just a dude.
But I'm learning every single day to grow in my relationship with Jesus. I'm learning to receive and look past what I see and focus on his word because I know that's what's best for me and as I do that I produce Jesus in my life and everybody else when I speak they hear Jesus and they're drawn to him. It produces Jesus in their life and it's amazing. It's wonderful. That's Christmas.
Emmanuel. God with us. That's why he came. That's why he died. That's why he was crucified on the cross so that your crap, your sin, the junk that you have done in your life you wouldn't have to carry anymore but but he took it on himself.
He took your sickness. He took your disease. He took your hurt. He took your shame. He took everything.
The way that he was crucified. The way that he died. The way that he was beaten. It was all specific for a purpose. When this when he was being beaten by by the the cat of 9 tails and and his flesh was being ripped off it says by his stripes you are healed.
The ailments in your body, the things that you've gone, he paid the price for. When he was carrying the cross through the streets of Rome, I mean not streets of Jerusalem he was carrying the cross naked, bruised and bleeding completely naked and everybody's mocking him and spitting on him. You think you're the king of the Jews? You think you're coming to save us? You think you're the Messiah, the deliverer?
They're spitting on him. Why is he doing that? He's taking your shame. Every ounce of shame that you've ever felt in your life you didn't have to feel because Jesus already took it. When he died on the cross when those nails were were stuck in his hands and each side he's broken and bleeding he's sitting there.
He's taking your guilt. You murdered people? Raped? Lied? Cheated?
Stealed? Little sins? Big sins? How about just pride? Thought you were good enough.
You didn't need him. He took that too. Everything. He loves even me. Even you.
Why? Because he's supernatural. We don't deserve it. It's *grace* what you don't deserve. What does it take?
He didn't just stop there. He 3 days in the grave, but he conquered death, rose again 3 days later. Why? Because he didn't deserve that. He didn't have to pay the punishment for sin.
He paid the punishment for our sin. But death couldn't hold it because he didn't deserve to. He overcame it. When he rose again showing that when we receive him, we receive his life. We no longer live by our effort.
We live by his because we're overshadowed by his presence, by his spirit. Man, that's good. And I just have this knowing that there's people in here that have never experienced that and experienced it but ran from it. And it's time to "run home". They didn't come here just because it's Christmas.
You thought you did. You came here to business. Let's close your eyes. Bow our heads. God loves you so much.
God cares about you so much. God wants a relationship with you. He wants you to experience his life and his future, that he's got plan for you so much. If you've never experienced that, you're far from that, and you know, man, some about this message, some about this church, some about this music, some about these people. I just know what this guy on the stage.
I don't know how I know. I don't understand how just like Mary didn't understand how. I'm I'm reasoning with it in my mind right now that hey, this isn't logical. This isn't possible. But at the same time it just keeps coming.
God just keeps pricking my heart. There's something inside of me. Something in my gut that's saying what this man's saying is true and it's not just from him it's from God and he loves me. And right now I'm choosing for the first time to not fight it anymore. I'm gonna receive it.
Is that you? Would you look at me? Would you raise your hand so I can see because there's light in my eyes? Would you raise your hand high? I'm ready to receive this, Jesus.
I see. Who else? I'm ready to receive this Jesus. I saw you. There's more.
He's not gonna force you. But Mary made a statement. It was a "moment of decision". It was an important part about a moment of decision. It's a it's a stake in the ground.
And from now on, I'm moving forward. Why do you raise your hand? Why do I have you raise your hand? Just to make a moment of decision like Mary did. Who else?
It's time to receive Jesus. He's not gonna force you. He's not gonna pressure you. But I just wanna give you the opportunity 1 more time. I'm not gonna call him.
Anybody else? Raise your hand. Wonderful. Let's pray. Those that raised your hand, let's pray.
If you're online right now listening, let's pray. Pray this and meet it with everything you have inside of me. And let's let's all say this together just to kinda support them. God, I recognize I need you. Come on.
Let's say it together. God, I recognize I need you. **"I receive you"**. I receive what you did for me. I believe you died for me and you rose again.
You have forgiven me. I receive that forgiveness. Thank you, Jesus. You call me favored. You call me your son.
You call your daughter. I receive that. Help me to live for you every day. I wanna follow In Jesus' name. Let's stand together.
We're gonna sing a worship song. If I could get Jerry and Heidi, Phil, Kenny, you guys could come up and just kinda spread out the floor across the earth. See, I believe there's a lot of people in here, that God's spoken to you, God's challenged you, God's told you some things. You don't believe it yet. Maybe you just need some prayer.
Maybe there's some stuff going on in your life and you're looking at this current circumstances instead of looking at what God's saying about it, and that's a that's that's tough, but we're gonna pray with you to help you to see to encourage you. So we're gonna sing a song, and during this song, if you need prayer for anything in your life, there's a mighty men and women of God. They'll pray for you and encourage you. Take a step forward. Let's worship together.
And after this song, I'm gonna close it out. Father, thank you for the children.
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