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DECEMBER SERMON SERIES: MARY CHRISTMAS - " Mary: Woman of Faith" - December 6, 2016 - Senior Pastor Scott Christenson

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St. Paul's Lutheran Church Orange, CA

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let me start today by asking you a few questions raise your hand if any of these apply to you how many of you have ever been overwhelmed by the hand life dealt you where you faced a circumstance in life where you were sure you did job have the maturity or the experience to deal with it raise your hand if that's ever happened to you quite a few okay how about this one to figure out what in the world God was doing in your life raise your hand if you ever felt that alright how about this one how many of you have ever believed at some give me in your life that God was calling you to do something even though by your own evaluation you were one of the least capable persons in the world for that job raise your hand right one more how many of you have ever felt that life had gotten so totally and obviously Beyond control that you just threw yourself on God's mercy and prayed the most famous one word prayer of all-time help how many of you ever done alright as expected I saw a lot of hands on all of those questions because these are pretty common experiences for all of birthdate and because that's true that mean interested in this new sermon series Merry Christmas looking at the life of Mary the mother of Jesus because that's her Story 2 I wanted to start with those today because I'm concerned that some of you here today may think that you're not all that interested in a sermon series on Mary you're not against it perhaps but when you heard the title you didn't immediately jump up and down and say all this is going to be great I'm going to learn a lot can be really relevant to my life today  you see the truth is we Protestants don't really know what to do with Mary for three reasons I think first because her experience in life was just so incredibly unique that we start to think it's your relevant to us  I mean after all none of us ever have or ever will be chosen to be the mother of God or anything even remotely like that  Mary experienced some things that we never will author Max Lucado captures this so well in his famous book God came near and in chapter 1 of that book he list25 when's that he would like to ask Mary and I I don't have time to share l25 with you but let me just read you a few of them I think you'll get a kick out of them and I think they'll illest my point a pretty well here they are these are questions he would like to ask Mary how did he respond when he saw other kids playing during the service in the synagogue 20 shot rainbow did he ever mention a flood when he saw a lamb being led to the water did he act differently how did he act at funerals did you ever try to count the stars with him and seed did you ever accidentally call him father  are my favorite evolve did you ever think that God eating my soup  we get the idea it's easy to dismiss her experience as a relevant to us just because it's unique  secondly I think we don't know what to do with Mary so often because in the Protestant church we talked far more about what we don't believe about Mary a Visa V the Roman Catholic Church then about what we do  we don't believe that she was will you conceive a we don't believe that she stayed a virgin her whole life we don't believe that she should be prayed to we don't believe that she still makes appearances on Earth today and that's fine but what do we believe  perhaps worst of all we don't know what to with Mary because we have sentimentalized her  especially this time of the year she has become for us just another part of the commercialization of Christmas more of figure in the front yard manger scene than a model for Christian discipleship today and that's really too bad because the truth is we can learn soul from her  and especially from this little text in Luke 1 a Mary was hardly the person that anyone would have expected to be chosen to be the mother of God  she was not famous  she wasn't even from a well-known town oh you noticed Luke has to explain to his readers in verse 26 where Nazareth even is she was not sick full by any worldly standard she really wasn't old enough to be Bible scholars have estimated married to be as young 12 years old here certainly no older than 16 even she was play Spike Gabriel's announcement that she was highly favored by God I mean she couldn't imagine why verse 29 says she on third what kind of greeting this might be an interested in make any sense to her  certainly not to her of all people and the problem we have with the story is that unfortunately we already know how it ends  because we know about it all ends up fine in the end we far too quickly pass over the trauma of this announcement to Mary who was old enough and smart enough to realize that this announcement was or at least could be a death sentence for her she knows the truth that she had done nothing wrong but no one else would should be branded an adult now that's not a good thing in our day either but it was far more serious in Mary's day Deuteronomy 22 for example says this if a man happens to meet in a town of Virgin pledged to be married and he sleeps with her you shall take both of them to the gate add town and stone them to death the girl because she was in a town and did not scream for help and the man because he violated another man wife you must Purge the evil from among you even if she could somehow escaped that consequence Mary had to know that this would bring terrible consequences to the life of her child  Deuteronomy 23 for example says this no one born of a forbidden marriage nor any of his descendants may enter the Assembly of the Lord even down to the 10th Generation so the very least she would certainly be subjected to a normal real questions and false accusations about her integrity and her faithfulness for her whole life  so you can see why I say if you've ever been overwhelmed by the hand life dealt you you can relate to Mary or if you've ever struggled to figure out what in the world God was doing in your life you can relate to Mary or if you've ever been called by God to do something that you weren't sure you could actually do you need to ponder Mary story because this is what her life was all about it's about surrendering yourself to God when life gets towed out of control that's what Mary did in the face of this unbelievable uncontrollable undesired life-altering event  she made the most astounding statement to infect  1st and verse 34 how will this be and then Envy 38 may it be to me just as you have said I want to suggest you this morning that this is exactly what we all must learn to say as we Face the challenges and struggles of our own lives let's talk a little bit about those two statements first how will this be Mary as the angel since I am a virgin I have to tell you I used to struggle with this little line here the reason I struggled with it is because if you read this account and it's con next you'll find that this is not the first time that something like this has happened in the Gospel of Luke  in fact just before did this little account we're reading this morning the same Angel Gabriel appears to Zechariah the future father of John the Baptist and wife tells him that his wife is going to conceive even though she's too old for that sort of thing and Zechariah responds no way very similar to Mary he says this how can I be sure of this I am an old man and my wife is well in years  know when Mary does this a chapter later Gabriel says in essence well let me explain it to you  put one sec Araya says it he gets punished  Gabriel Tim mute you might remember for quite a while and I never really understood that why does she get punished and she doesn't until I realize that there is in fact a big difference between Zechariah and Mary's responses  Mary is speaking out of faith when she says how will this be  she's not saying I don't believe you  she say I do believe you just show me how that's going to work  but Zacharias response is exactly the opposite when he says how can I be sure of this he's clearly speaking out of unbelief  he's basically saying I'm not sure I do believe you prove it I think this is such a helpful distinction for us to observe because when we struggles in trials in life when we get overwhelmed our sinful tendency is to respond to God more like Zechariah  then like Mary when things going away that we don't like or at least don't expect suddenly we're so sure that God's promises can be trusted after all  someone we love get sick really sick  no the sudden we're not so convinced anymore that God works all things for good for those who love him or our marriage hits a rough patch and we fall into hopeless thinking and we're not so sure that all things are possible with God or money gets tied to a job gets lost or something really really expensive needs fixing on our house and we you're so quick to question God's faithfulness and provision  of course none of these things I just mentioned even begin to compare with what Mary faced and that's what makes her second statement so remarkable I am the words servant she said may it be to me as you have said say that more modernly Mary said to Gabriel no problem Bring It On  this is why I've titled this mess Mary woman of Faith because this is a tremendous demonstration I think of what real faith is  Christian theology often described Faith as composed of three key components in the first component is knowledge got if you got you got to know some things you can't say I have faith but who's Jesus right I mean in this case Mary knows God's promise that her pregnancy is sign of God's favor not a punishment  what does a second component of Faith that's called a cent which means that you don't no the thing but you believe that the knowledge part is true and Mary does believe that it's true and yet we see that knowing it and believing it's true is not enough because Faith always has a third component and the third component is Trust not just I trust the promise but I trust the one who gave me the promise  in other words having faith means I act in accordance with what I know to be true not in accordance with my fears  and that's what Mary does here  and this is where so many of us gets stuck in our lounges today we know the promises of God and we may very well believe that the promises of God are true but we forget to trust Promises of God  we stood and we worry instead of doing what we ought to do which is to get down on our knees and pray and say God I trust you on your servant and I'm going to force myself to think and act as if you're going to come through for me  because I know you will no I have to be very careful here because the sermon could quickly devolve into a great big Guilt Trip I don't want you to think that I'm simply saying you know go home and quit being like Zacharia and go be like Mary that is what you should do if course but that's not really the point it isn't all up to you  and we know that because the focus of this text not marry  it's God  Luke 1:26 to 38 is the story really about God about God's grace and God's presence and God's provision and God's amazing promises so clearly this text is designed to encourage you not guilt trip you it's not simply saying look at how incredible Mary is here you should your act together and be more like her  what it's really saying is look at how great her God is your God too  and what he did in her life he can do in your life also that's the message when you're not the mother of God but as a baptized child of God you are highly favored also you may not have the exact struggles that Mary had but the Lord is with you to whatever your struggles are  you're not placed with the threat of being stoned to death perhaps but whatever your fears are you can stop being afraid because you have found favor that's the point that whatever your life challenging situation is it's all the same the prom pictures of God apply to you too because nothing is impossible with God  no matter how bad things no matter how dire matters appear no matter how hopeless you feel you can still trust God because we're talking about the God who made a virgin conceive we're talking about the God who raised Jesus Christ from the dead  we're talking about God who rules the universe with simply a word  nothing is impossible with God nothing and he loves you more than you could possibly imagine that means you can trust him and trust in God means that we do what Henry now and wrote about shortly before his death he wrote a fantastic little book called sabbatical Journeys where now in talks about some of his friends who were trapeze artist  they called themselves the flying rude pause what a great name they told Henry now and that there's a very special relationship between flyer and turn on the Trap Beats the flyer is the one who lets go  and the catcher is the one obviously who catches  and as the flyer swings high above the crowd on the trapeze the moment comes when he must let go and he shout into the air and his job his only job is to remain as still as possible and wait for the song Hands of the catcher to come and pluck him out of the air  what are the flying reveles told in this sentence the flyer must never try to catch the catcher the flyer must wait in absolute trust so the catcher will catch him  but he must simply wait friends we all experience times in our lives where we have to wait for God to catch Mary story teaches us the good news  the God always will he always will best bar hits in Prague heavenly father I'm sure that in this room today there are many who are just like that trapeze flyer who are anxiously waiting for you to come and catch them  Father help us all to wait in apps blue Trust  knowing that your promises are true and true for us and that you love us more than we will ever know help us to rely on you and have faith in you  and say with Mary may it be to me just as you have we ask it in Jesus name for his sake

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DECEMBER SERMON SERIES: MARY CHRISTMAS - " Mary: Woman of Faith" - December 6, 2016 - Senior Pastor Scott Christenson

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