You Don't Have To

don't cuss at you, give them a big hug. I want you to turn around and give about four or five hugs all over the room. Hey, congratulations Elevation Columbia on your new building. Congratulations to all of our locations. You made it to church. Congratulations to you. You made it through another week, You made it to another day. Come on, how many are grateful to be in the number one more day? That's my section right there. I found my section right there. Who better be glad they're

not on the front row. We would never get out of worship. I saw some rowdiness over and here too. It was weird because you know, Christmas season is supposed to get stuffy everybody gets real busy and hateful. No greater way to tell Jesus Happy Birthday than to run up our credit cards, get stressed out and hate everything.

So we kind of try to make it countercultural. And I like to take a little extra time during worship before I preach as we lead to the holidays, just because the seed of the Word of God is always pure. But if the soil of your heart is not plowed, you can't receive it. And one thing that I do understand is that sometimes it takes us a lot to get to church. And you know, if you're watching online, Oh man, you've already had three distractions, haven't you. You

already had a virus pop up on your PC? And what are you gonna do about that? Well, let's just block it all out, because all the hell that you have to go through when you get home doesn't stand a chance. In this place. For the next few minutes, while we preach God's words, I want to bring Heaven down to your heart for a few minutes. So just for the next half hour or so, half hour or so, I want to preach a thought to your heart today

from the Christmas story. And I do also want to say what JJ said, I assume all of the campus pastors and our online team thank you for your remarkable generosity. Of course, our year end offering comes all the way to the end of the year, but I want to thank all of you who already stepped up and gave artrificially faithfully. Man, God's gonna use that in a great way. Thank you. Thank you. Always feels weird saying thank you because I know you didn't give it to me or

for me. You gave it to God. And one thing I know about God, he will not be outgiven. So be expectant for Him to do things in your life over the next few weeks. I don't know who this is for, man, I got to get to my scripture. I'm just taking so much time doing this. But God can do something at the end of this year that will make all the hell you went through all year long irrelevant in the scope of it. And I don't even know what it's gonna be. It could be a perspective.

I noticed that God has been blessing me with better perspective the last few days. I can't explain it, just been opening my eyes, like look at that. Woke up this morning super early to pray for you, humble brag, and saw both of the boys vehicles still in the driveway and thought, thank you Lord for bringing them home safe again. Another day, another night, and you have to stand next to my daughter during worship today. Y'all don't know this, but Abby was a co writer on that song,

same God. I'm not giving her any royalties. Here's our contribution. When we wrote the song, Originally it was I'm calling on the God of David, I'm calling on the God of Jacob, I'm calling on the God of Moses. And I always wanted to put a woman in the song, but I couldn't figure out how to do it. I thought it was kind of, you know, kind of lopsided to just have all men in the song. And I showed Abby the demo and she said, I love that song. Why isn't there a woman? And it was a confirmation.

I didn't even tell her that I'd felt bad about it too. And I called my buddy Pat Barrett, and we had already recorded the song that was the bad part about it, and we decided we needed a verse about I'm calling on the God of Mary, whose favor rests upon the low ly, and I love what it says. I know with you, all things are possible, big things, little things, pretty things, ugly things, things seen, things unseen. All things are possible. And we're going to share from

a scripture that coincides with that. In Luke chapter one, I'm going to read a very lengthy part of this Verses twenty six through forty one, but you can handle it. I also leaned over to Abby and said, next year, me and you were singing O Holy Night together as a duet. Get ready, She rolled her eyes. We'll see, we'll see. It's a voluntary offer. Pray about it. Wasn't the music beautiful? Today? We got the best. Oh, we got singers that sing so good. You can't even tell

if they prayed or not. They just sound so good. I think that's the Holy Spirit, or it was the vocal chords or both. But I thank God for our team. I'm excited about the Christmas services December twenty second through twenty four. That's Christmas at Elevation dot Com. Now it's time for the scripture. Luke chapter one, verse twenty six. In the sixth month of Elizabeth's pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee. I'm gonna

come back to that. You'll forget it because I'm gonna read so much, but that verse is coming back. He sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, the town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a 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. That's why I had you tell your neighbor the Lord is with you. I want you to see how it felt to talk

to an angel. And verse twenty nine says I could preach that goodn't I? Mary was greatly troubled. Whoa, whoa, whoa. I thought he said something that was nice. In a compliment with the abill says Mary was greatly troubled. Did you know you can be highly favored and greatly troubled at the same time. Come on, not let you know what I'm talking about her. I'm gonna start citing specific things in this room. You can be anointed and addicted. You can be saved and struggling. Yeah, you can be

grateful and a gossip. You can be favored and afraid, and just because you feel afraid sometimes doesn't cancel out the favor in your life. I want to tell somebody today, the favor doesn't care about your feelings. When God has a purpose for your life, He's going to do his work what he's gonna do, no matter how you feel about it, no matter you're mood about it. But you get to decide if you want to be a willing participant. So Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered

what kind of greeting this might be. But the Angel said to her, do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. You are to call him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over Jacob's descendants forever. His kingdom will never end. What an interesting beginning for

a kingdom that will never end. The virgin womb of a woman change the world. Now watch this, she hears all that. In Verse thirty four says, how will this be, Mary asked the angel, since I am a virgin, and the Angel answered, the Holy Spirit will come on you. The power of the most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. Even Elizabeth, your relative, is going to have a child in her old age, And she who was said to be unable to con is in her

six month. Watch God do stuff that people said he couldn't do. Watch God do stuff that people said he couldn't do, she who was said to be unable to conceive his in her six month. For no word from God will ever fail. Well, since you put it like that, I am the Lord's servant, Mary answered, may your word to me be fulfilled. Then the Angel left her, and at that time Mary got ready and hurried to a town in the hill country of Judea, where she entered

Zechariah's home and greeted Elizabeth less verse. When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. All right, now, I'm gonna give your title. I got good news for you today. This is gonna be the best holiday message you've ever heard in your life. Look at your neighbor and tell him my title. You don't have to. Didn't that feel good to hear that? All the stuff you gotta do

between now and December twenty fifth. Look at your other neighbor, the one you really wanted to talk to all along, but you were just being nice to that guy, and tell them you don't have to. Let's give God praise in the place. Come on, if you want to, you don't have to. You may be seated if I start preaching in a minute. You want to stand back up, you can, but you don't have to. Now. The Lord was convicting me recently because I was going through a

list of responsibilities. And the responsibilities I was listing were formerly prayer requests that I had prayed. It was little baby prayers that I prayed that were now full grown jobs. And I noticed something in my language, and the Lord really checked me on it. Everything had got to in front of it, everything everything, And I would love to tell you that it was just the things that I didn't want to do. You know, I've got to and I'm not going to say something I don't want to

do because it might offend somebody in the room. You know, I would never say I've got to preach, but well, sometimes it does feel like that. You know the people are coming, and as you know, I gotta, I gotta get ready, I got to. And sometimes I want to go watch my kids play volleyball or wrestle and and I say I got to go to Grandstattional. I don't think there's anything you know wrong about that the semantics

of stating things. I don't ever want to be one of these vocabulary police Christians that when you say I got lucky, I got a parking space, they say there's no such thing as luck. You're blessed in highly favored. It's like, no, listen, Actually, if God probably wants me to get some extra walking, so he probably did not give me the parkings base close to the front door at the gym, that doesn't even logically make sense. It was just luck. But in all of the got tos,

I realized, sometimes I lose my get to spirit. Okay, And I don't know if the season and the pressures and demands thereof have stripped some of the delights for you, But I just found recently that everything felt like a got to, even stuff that I love preaching to you supporting my kids. I even said to my barber, I gotta go uh, because I got date night with Holly, and I got to go on this date night. Got to go on date night with Holly. I would have killed seventeen men to go on a date with her

when we were in college. I would have slipped their throats and prayed for resurrection. But you like that? Why did you like that? That's the loudest applause We've got

all days for throats slitting imagery. Well, maybe you need this message too, because there can come a point in all of our lives where the God, who has graciously given us so many good gifts, begins to feel to us either like a silent benefactor that we forget to think, or an obligator rather than a bringer of the good news of the Gospel, who has set us free from the law of sin and death, and has graciously given

us all things richly to enjoy. For if He gave his own son for us, and did not spare him, but gave him up for us, how will he not much more give us all things? But a lot of the gifts that God gives us become prisons. Because our perspective is so overwhelmed by the pressure. Everybody say pressure, because I know you got some pressure. I got some pressure.

And what we're trying to establish in our time together today in my sermon, and what I thought I would try to help you to do before you go into the next few weeks, this YEurope, and see what God has for you in twenty twenty five, look alive in twenty five, before you get all that going, I thought I would try to get you back to realizing that you've got a God who didn't have to give you anything that he gave you. And it's not good to have a god to spirit when you serve a get

to God. One of the things I love about the passage that we read today was the sense of privilege that Mary seemed to receive this invitation to carry the Son of God with And I know that it must have also felt like pressure, But somehow she was able to view the pressure of carrying the sinless son of God in her virgin womb as a privilege, and so

she accepted that assignment. But one of the things that pressure will do in your life is not only turn things that you used to delight in into things that you actually dread, which I could preach a whole sermon about that, but it could also if you're not careful, it can turn things that you ought to praise God for into things that you feel pride about. That is often when we feel the heaviness of our responsibility. You know, somebody's got to put these Christmas lights up, somebody's got

to make all the plans. Somebody's got to decide whose house we're going to eat at. Somebody's got to figure out who's going to bring the macaroni. And I don't really want Susan to bring it because I don't like her macaroni, and I think it's kind of dirty and it's kind of a little too cheesy. Somebody has to keep the cheese ratio in the macaroni together. I mean, the whole universe is kind of hinging on it, isn't it.

And then we come to something like this And it only takes one sentence to shift Mary from how in the world to let it be? And I thought that was so powerful when I read it. I thought it was it was so amazing and so admirable of Mary to go from how are we going to do this? To let it be just like you said. And I think there is something powerful about when you get a

real word from God that you can't explain it. It's subtle, it's usually not visible to other people's eyes, but something shifts in a moment when God speaks and you go from I've got to to He's got this, and you can't even explain how you got there. It's an invisible path you take, and you've been there before. You've gone from there's no way I'm going to do this to I don't really know how I did it, but it's done.

You've been in seasons of your life where you've looked at your schedule and thought, I'll be dead at the end of this. Breathe in, breathe out in the devil's face, just to let him know he was a liar for everything he said. You weren't gonna make it through. In twenty twenty four, there were some things, Oh, I feel like preach him that you look got out in front of you, and when they were in front of you,

you were afraid. But now they're behind you. If you were afraid when they were in front of you, shouldn't you give God praise now that they're behind you. And the truth is, you wouldn't believe what I'm standing on today because I could have tripped over it. But somehow God turned what I could have tripped on into something that I'm standing on and I have a testimony. Free Pentecostal people give God a tambourine praise because I'm saying. I'm saying that if Jesus came into the world through

a virgin wound, there's nothing he can't do. Now, it's important theologically speaking for Jesus to be born of a virgin, first of all. And you want to take down notes to show your friends that you actually came to church like a doctor's excuse or something, write down this. He came through a virgin because he had to be clean. He had to be clean, and if he were born with a human father, he would carry the seed of the sin of Adam. So it had to be a virgin.

That's not just a Catholic thing, that's a clean thing. The unclean cannot be redeemed by the unclean. The only thing that can redeem the unclean, that's me, that's you, is a clean thing that's not me, that's not you. So in order for God to redeem you. He had to send a clean thing into the earth, and the only way for it to be a clean thing was for it to not come from Joseph. It had to come from God. Jesus, if he had been born through Joseph in Mary's womb, would not have been able to

pay the price on the cross. So he had to be clean. And then he also had to be born of a virgin, not only because it was prophesied that he would be, but because he wanted to come close. I mean, you do understand that Jesus could have come repelling from the staircase of Heaven, gone straight to the cross, and skipped all the storms on the Sea of Galilee. There was no rule that said God had to send

Jesus as a baby. But I think one of the reasons that he sent Jesus as a baby to a virgin womb is not only because Jesus had to be clean and because Jesus wanted to be close, but because He also wanted Jesus to get credit clean close credit the Three Seeds of Christmas. That Jesus was clean, born of a virgin, not of the seed of a man, but the seed of God. The perfect, spotless lamb of

God who takes away the sin of the world. The lion of the tribe of Judah, who rolled back the stone and stood up with the keys of death, hell and the grave. He was clean, he was close. And the thing about a virgin having a baby is she can't take any credit, and neither can the man. Why ain't taking time to explain about a virgin having a baby? Pastor Stephen on Christmas? Because obviously God thought it important enough that he started the entire Gospel story with it.

And I wonder if it's because he wants you to realize that this thing did not start with you, so this thing doesn't have to be sustained by you. I wonder if why you feel so much unnecessary pressure is because you're trying to sustain something that you didn't even start. I mean, how much did you have with being born the first time? Not too much. I mean, you came on out eventually, but you didn't take much credit, did you. I don't even know why we're singing happy birthday to you.

We'll I'll be singing happy birthday to the one who pushed you out. But see, we like to take credit for stuff and then that spills over into our Christianity because we didn't have anything to do with being born again either. If you want to get down to it, I mean most of us in here we tried so hard to push God away. It's not like we had some awesome resume to present to the redeemer of the universe, all the reasons why he should recruit us for his service.

Now that's not your story. The matter of the fact is you were dead in your sin, but God. And so we come to the Cradle of Christmas realizing that the reason Jesus was born as a baby from the womb of a virgin and a place called Galilee of the Gentiles, was so that when God got done doing what he was going to do through Jesus, nobody else would get the glory, and nobody else would get the praise, and nobody else would get the credit. Because I'm not

clean and I wasn't close. But here came Jesus and just the right God. This is my Christmas devotion. Let me preach it like I feel it. I was lost without anyone to guide me. I was blind and couldn't see. I was nobody. I had nothing to bring to the king that was of word. I had no crown to place on his head, and he took a crown of thorns for me. For you see, he deserves all the credit, all the credit. By the way, if you start giving God all the credit, he'll start taking more of the stress.

All right, let me really preach to y'all. Now. There was a group of preachers who came to visit us about a year ago, and one of them wanted to know, what do I do about critics? What do I do about critics? What do I do about critics? I said, I have no idea, I've never had one. What are you speaking of these critics? I find people loving and generous in their interpretation of all of your No, actually, what I said is if you want to survive criticism,

you have to change your relationship with praise. He said, No, I'm not asking about praise. I'm asking about critics. I said, yeah. But if they have the power to praise you, then they also have the power to pull you down. So when people praise you, don't take it too seriously. They just hadn't got close enough yet. When people criticize you, don't take it too personally. They just don't want you to see that big old plank sticking out of their right eye. So they're talking about a speck in yours.

And either way you slice it, it's the same principle. I thought we were talking about Christmas. We are. Remember that what started in the cradle ended on the cross, And we know so much about Mary that Mary doesn't know about Mary yet. We know that she initiated Jesus's first miracle when she said, get ready and turn this water into wine. And Jesus said, woman, my hour is not yet come. And she said, well, you don't have

to remember my title. You don't have to. But she turned to the servants and said, do whatever he tells you, and man, the wine started flowing when that woman spoke. Wow. We know about Mary that she became frustrated with Jesus's popularity because she felt that it kept him from being intimate with his family, and stood outside the door saying, he's going crazy. Go in there and tell him he's

going crazy. We know that although Mary was frustrated, though, she would not forsake Jesus, for she was there at the foot of the cross with one disciple named John when her son died. There are some things about Mary that Mary doesn't know yet, and yet she accepts. Ah, this was beautiful for me to see the promise of God to her virgin womb. Now, I don't know what you noticed when we read, and I don't know how

close you pay attention. When I read the scripture, I noticed sometimes we have to go back to it because when I'm reading it the first time, you're kind of getting oriented. Go back to verse twenty six for a moment. Can we study. We're gonna do a lot of singing next Sunday, so I'm gonna get all the study part in this Sunday so you'll be ready. This word's gonna help you get ready for everything you got coming up this week. To elbow your neighbor and say you don't

look ready yet, this word's gonna get you ready. Though. Now, in the sixth month, in the sixth month of Elizabeth's pregnancy, verse twenty six, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee. We need to talk about two things in this passage. We need to talk about who is Gabriel and what is Galilee. I'll do it in reverse order. Galilee is the place where Jesus is going to do the majority of his ministry. He will not

die in Galilee. He will die in Jerusalem, but he will minister and base his operations thirty years from now out of Galilee. He will calm storms on the sea of Galilee. He will heal the blind eyes in the region of Galilee. It's going down in Galilee in just about thirty years. And God is setting all of this up through a girl, and he sends an angel named Gabriel. Gabriel is not a minimum wage angel. There's only two angels in the whole Bible that we know the names of. Michael.

Michael is the fighting angel. Michael is the Mma angel. Michael choke you out. Michael is a cauliflower ear angel. Michael is a guy you don't want to mess with. And Gabriel, he's not the fighting angel. He's to fill you in angel. He's the angel. You'll remember this who came to Daniel and explained to him about the prophecies. He brought him clarity in Daniel chapter eight and nine. And then we don't see him again for a long time, and we see him go to Galilee. But before he

goes to Galilee, he goes to Jerusalem. That's why I read you the verse where it said it was the sixth month of Elizabeth's pregnancy. Now Elizabeth was a relative of Mary, and her husband was named Zachariah. And Zachariah was a priest. And one day Zachariah, the priest, who was very old, went into the temple to burn incense, as it was his duty to do by the lots

that were cast. And as he's there burning incense, an angel shows up right there by the altar and said, Zachariah, I know you, I know you hadn't felt like your old self in quite some time, buddy, But get ready, you're about to have a baby. And Zachariah said, but I'm old. And Gabriel said, but I'm Gabriel. Ooh, ooh ooh. I felt that on my spine spinal column when I

said it. But I'm Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I don't care how old you are, and I don't care if you've put all the baby clothes away from all the times you tried before. See Zecharia and Elizabeth had never had a baby. Her wound was barren. She was advanced in age, even though she was of the line of Erin, even though she was a very significant person. As her husband stood in Jerusalem burning incense, the angel Gabriel showed up to say, you're

about to have a baby. Zechariah said, it cannot be. I'm old, And he said, because you said that, and because I'm Gabriel, and because I stand in the presence of God and you don't, and because I come from Heaven and you don't shut your mouth. You're not speaking again until the baby is born. And when the baby's born, you're gonna name him John. When everybody asks you, why John, say, because I'm Gabriel and I came with a message from God.

And Zechariah came out of the temple smelling like incense smoke, but not able to say very much. And Zachariah had to learn sign language real quick coming out of that temple, because everybody wanted to know what happened, and why were you in there so long? Kind of weird. You were in there a long time, Zachari don't take that long,

delight incense? What was going on in there? Zachar isiser, But that's been six months ago, And that makes sense because of course, the angel Gabriel, the messenger, Abriel, the clarifying angel, Gabriel to fill you in and tell you what God's about to do. Angel. Of course he would show up to a priest in a place like Jerusalem. Why Jerusalem was the center point of Jewish worship. I expect to see Gabriel at the temple in Jerusalem speaking

to a priest. I expect to see Gabriel standing at the threshold of the place where the offerings and the sacrifices were made. You expect to see Gabriel in a place like that. What I didn't expect was six months later to see that same Gabriel, one of only two angels whose names we know in scripture, one of the arch angels in scripture. Sure, what I didn't expect was to see Gabriel show up in a place like Galilee. Let's talk about Galilee. Galilee is seventy miles from Jerusalem.

Galilee is not considered very significant by the people who live in Jerusalem. Galilee is mixed with Jews and Gentiles, so the religious customs are questionable at best. It was referred to as the land of Darkness. I'm not surprised to see Gabriel show up in the temple where the priest is burning incense. That seems like something worthy of

Gabriel's time. But I am surprised to see Gabriel show up six months later for a special appointment with a girl whose name would not even be known had Gabriel not shown up to tell her what she was carrying in a place called galilee, where nobody even found worth

putting on their itinerary when planning an important trip. All that I said to say this, God's to show up in some unexpected places in your life in this season, and don't be too surprised, because God is not bound to the customs and traditions that people are bound to. And God doesn't just show up in holy families and holy knights and silent nights. For the king that we served before he went to a throne, he stopped by

a manger. And I want to speak to somebody this Christmas season who is going through a galilee in your family. I don't know exactly what that means to you, but perhaps you do. Maybe it's a galilee in your relationship with your children. Maybe it's a galilee in your relationship with your wife. Maybe it's a Galilee in your own emotional despondency. Galilee can be a dark place. Galilee can

seem like an insignificant place. Galilee can become an insecurity, so that you begin to think that no one as important as God would have time for someone as in significant as me. Which is why I read you Luke, Chapter one, verse twenty six. Now God sent an angel named Gabriel to a place called Nazareth, in a region called Galilee. I announced to you this day, Gabriel is coming to Galilee. You hear me. At Dove's nest. You hear me. You can't be with your children this Christmas

because you're in recovery. Gabriel is coming to Galilee. You hear the voice of the Lord. Now don't listen to my voice. Listen to the voice of the Lord. Some of you are bereaved this season. Gabriel is coming to your grieving. Some of you have been betrayed in this season of your life. Gabriel is coming into the betrayal because God is sending him. And when God sends Gabriel, Gabriel has got to go. See. I want you to understand that when God speaks a word he does not

consult circumstances. When God speaks a word, he does not consult circumstances. I'm gonna say it again for the lady in the back of the room. When God speaks a word over your life, when God speaks a word over your destiny, when God speaks a word over your future, when God speaks a word over your relationship, when God speaks a word over your baby, when God speaks a word over your life span, when God speaks a word

over your generational impact. When God says Gabriel, go, Gabriel doesn't get to say to God and not go into Galilee. That's only humans that do that. That's only humans that do that. We disobey, We get stubborn, we don't want to forgive because we've been heard. Gabriel goes where God says God. So what I'm trying to get you to see is that the miracle of Christmas is that I could not get to God. My sin was great. Christmas is not just sentimental for me. It is salvation to me.

My life is on the line.

I'll give you ten more seconds to praiser, all right, let's practice ten more seconds to praise him, eight seconds to give him credit. Top seconds to let the stress going freaks who won hot five your neighbor and say, Gabriel's coming, Yeah, Yeah, Gabriel's coming. Gabriel's coming. God is gonna give you clarity about that thing in your darkness. God is going to give you perspective about that thing in your darkness. God is going to give you provision

for that thing in your darkness. Gabriel came to Galilee. Aren't you glad about that? It makes me think if I get a little depressed, I can call on Jesus, I can call on Heaven, I can call on the angels. I can call on the light, even in the darkest place. Because Gabriel, this is it. Gabriel came to Galilee, and he came to Galilee to get it ready for somebody greater. Y'all don't like good preaching anymore. Oh that's delicious right there. He came to Galilee to get it ready for something greater.

And yet isn't it amazing of God to start something so great as the salvation of the world. Think of all the great things that would happen in Galilee, Think of all the great things that would happen at the cross, think of all the great things that would happen on the other side of the empty tomb. And yet he started something so great in something so small as a baby. As a baby makes me think that God wanted me to know that He can hold me too. I mean, think about it. We'll give it to you like the

Lord gave it to me this morning. Think about the fact that the Angel told Mary not that God would descend from the skies like thor But we'll wrap himself in a little baby flesh and all of the attendant idiosyncrasies of a baby, and he came like a baby. He came like a baby, which means that he had to be held by humans. Now, sometimes we need a practical sermon. Sometimes we just need to revel and marvel in the glory of God. Watch this, that heaven was

held by humanity. That's amazing. And he didn't have to do it. Jesus was fully God and fully man. So the choice that he made to be held by human hands was not of necessity. It was of love. The heavenly King, the most High God, held by human hands. Oh, I wish you could see it like I see it, because I see that the reason that Heaven had to be held by humans was so that humans could be held by Heaven. The Lord wanted you to remember that

you are held. This season that you are held. You're like, yeah, I've been held. Hell has been all up in my life. I have been No. No, I'm saying, held by the hand of God. When I look back, I see it so clearly. Satan came from my soul. But the Lord said, no, I've been held by the hand of God. I've been hidden by the hand of God. And this is what we call the invitation of incarnation and theological terms is that heaven was held by humanity so that humanity could

be held by it. And just to remember, as you walk through your life that you are being carried. Give him the credit for carrying you. Thank you, Thank you every step and arrival, every step and announcement that God is not through with me yet. Hell this Mary would hold heaven in her arms. She held heaven. But I think that the secret to Mary, and I thought about calling this sermon I make Mary moves And it was so dumb. I shouldn't have told you that I thought

about calling it. That might as well have has let that out. But one thing she said that I thought was so powerful. And I know, Holly, your favorite verse is Luke one thirty eight, but my favorite verse is Luke one thirty four. Her favorite Let me show you her favorite verse, verse verse thirty eight. I am the Lord's servant. May your word to be me be fulfilled? Right, that's here my favorite one, verse thirty four. How that's my verse. How don't act like you're not living with

some howls in your house? How am I gonna make it through this whole month without cussing somebody out in Japanese? I might learn Japanese just to cuss somebody out in Japanese acting like this? How am I gonna pay for all this crap? Go back to my earlier point credit? How am I ever gonna catch up if I keep on consuming like this? How now Mary isn't asking that she's not spending money at the mall. She's trying to give birth to the Sunna came? But I thought, get

have some coming grundm with Mary. How let me ask a question, how many of you are living in a how right now? In a how right now? Anybody online? Honest? I think the purpose of the Christmas story is not just in being held, but it is in being humbled, humbled that Jesus, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped Philippians two five through ten. He emptied himself, He humbled himself, taking

on the form of flesh of a servant. So Jesus humbled himself, and so did Mary, and so must you and I? How will this be? How am I gonna do it? Without drinking again? How am I gonna do it without having a nervous breakdown? How am I gonna do it when I wasn't raised and taught? How am I gonna do it when nobody in my family ever did? How am I gonna do it at this age and stage of life? How am I gonna do it when I can't even feel God when I'm in church? How

will this be merry? Ask the Angel, since I am a virgin, valid question? Powerful answer verse thirty five. The Angel answered, how many of you would like to have an appointment with an angel so you could get some answers for your how today? Come on, say, I want an appointment. I want an appointment with Gabriel so he can tell me how I'm supposed to put up with this mess. I want an appointment with Gabriel so he can tell me how I'm supposed to fix this mess.

I want an appointment with Gabriel so he can tell me whether I should stay or go. I want an appointment with Gabriel so I can ask him what to do about this trauma that happened a long time ago, and it stayed in my life even though the trial is over. I want an appointment with that angel. And I thought it was crazy that when the Angel answered verse thirty five, he didn't really say how, He just said who. Thank you Jesus. The answer to how is a who. Put the verse on the screen and let

me preach us home. Now, the Angel answered, holy Spirit will come. Now we got something better than Gabriel. Now we got something better than an angel. Because I don't have an angel standing next to me today. Touch your neighbors say you're not an angel, But I do have the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit is my answer to the question called how. The Holy Spirit speaks up when the lies are raging in my mind, and the Angel answer, the Holy Spirit will come on you, and

the power of the Most High will overshadow you. I read it again, The Holy Spirit will come on you. This promise is for you, baby, This promise is for you, man. This promise is for you. The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the most High will overshadow you. The power of the most High will overshadow you. The power of the most High will overshadow you. So I hear you saying I don't know how, and I hear God saying you don't have to see you do not not have to know how. If you can get

a glimpse of who. Everybody's saying like an owl, SAYO, that's what I know. That's what I'm hope in. That's what I stand on, that's what I rejoice in. Help me preach, and I'll get you home in time for lunch. That's what I know. That's what I'm talking about. That's why I'm worshiping. That's why my hands are lifting, not because I know how, because I know ooo oooh, the Lord's bringing it back to my mind everything I studied

to preach to you this week. He was telling me how sometimes in your life you get so caught up in how that you miss the power of who, and you get hung up on how, and you're gonna end up like Zechariah, old bad knee Zechariah incense burn and stay in the bathroom temple too long. Zachariah talking about I should have kept my mouth shut because God knows how, and you don't have to. Wouldn't that be wonderful news.

Let's put ourselves in Mary's shoes for a moment. Can we, just for one moment, pretend that this has happened to us? We are not expecting an angelic villa visitation. We haven't even got our wedding registry set up yet. And God is talking about a baby, and the Lord says, you're pregnant and you're gonna give birth to the Son of God, no pressure. And Mary's like, I got to, No, I get to. Oh, I get to. So I appreciate you giving me these kids to raise God. I appreciate you

giving me this church. I appreciate you giving me the because I appreciate you giving me this department. I appreciate you give me this opportunity. But what do I do with the pressure? And this is so powerful? Man? Oh, it's so powerful to me going through her mind or a million questions because she's already engaged to Joseph. How do you tell your fiance, Yeah, I met this guy named Gabriel, but he's an angel. Don't worry. He's an angel named Gabriel. How do you tell your husband that

you're pregnant and he knows it wasn't him. How am I going to tell him? Well, look over in Matthew chapter one when you get home, because Mary, I know you can't figure out how you're going to tell Joseph, but you don't have to a little bit after Gabriel got done telling Mary she is going to have a another angel popped up and told Joseph, hey believe her. You don't have to convince anybody. You don't have to

prove anything to anybody. You don't have to stop trying to defend yourself to people who aren't even paying attention. Stop having imaginary arguments with hypothetical opponents. You keep your heart right with God in this season. You don't have to tell them anything about red states, blue states, none of that. That doesn't even have to come up. Let me tell you something about the arguments that are gonna happen around your table this holiday season. All right, this

holiday holiday season, around your house. Let me tell you about the arguments that you want to win. You don't have to You don't have to win an argument. All you gotta do is complete your assignment. Man. I was so stressed out one day having a bunch of people over, and my friend said, what do you think they're expecting when they come over to the house. I said, I don't know. They said, you have one job. Nobody drowns

in the pool. I said, it's that simple. They said, yeah, you have to create some magical moment, but you know it was I figured out what it was. I feel pressure to perform because in my job, in my line of work, you expect me to have something to say, and it needs to kind of make sense, and it needs to be something that you probably couldn't have thought of on your own or else. Why did you get the ice off the windshield to come hear this stuff?

But wouldn't it be prideful of me to think that a good God who has angels like Gabriel would need a messenger like me to be perfect to speak his word to you? Wouldn't it be stupid? Wouldn't it be wrong? Wouldn't it be crushing for you to live under the debilitating weight of how when it's never been about how, It's always been about who. And here's what God has been doing in our lives. Some of us in this

season we have been humbled by how. That's it. We've been humbled by how because we thought it was going to turn out one way and it's going a completely different way. And it doesn't mean God isn't doing what he's going to do, He's just not doing it. How you want it, and you are being humbled by how You need another example, Okay, think about the nation of Israel who was standing before a giant named Goliath with

swords and spears. And when it came time for God to take out Goliath, he did not use a sword or a spear. He used a slingshot. Why so that the army would know that it is not by sword or spear that God saves. So he used a shepherd with a slingshot to bring down a giant. Because God will use the how to humble you. God will put you up in front of a red sea. He will

put a stick in your hand. You will be looking at a sea, hearing the clatter of chariot wheels behind you, wondering like Mary wondered, how how am I gonna make it across? And God will speak to the insignificant thing in your hand, and he will cause you to stretch the thing in your hand over the thing that you can't go through, because He wants to humble you in the how Jesus could have come to the earth anyway he wanted. Jesus could have come to the earth like Simba.

Jesus could have come to the earth in a supernatural way. But the hands that hung the stars in space were held in a virgin womb. We're held by Mary's hands. We're held by the nails of the cross. Why God humbles you by how so that when he does it, there will be no confusion about who's doing it, because if you do it, you got to keep doing it. But if He began a good work in you, help me breach now, because I feel somebody's help coming. God said,

I'm using the how to humble you. And that is why he came as a baby, so that you would be humbled by the how. And when you are humbled by the how, now you can be helped. Yeah, I feel like help is going to come to you this Christmas season. You didn't count on help that you forgot about. I don't know how. You don't have to. And some of you have been saying I can't do this alone. And God is saying you don't have to. For what the Angel said to marry God, I feel your presence.

The Holy Spirit is saying to you, the Lord is with you, and I have to do this alone. You don't have to make these decisions alone. The Holy Spirit will help you. The spirit who brought Jesus to Mary is the spirit that lives in you, and the Holy Spirit will help you. And I want to pray for people today who are hung up on how right now. That's fine, but just remember that God isn't going to show you how, because he wants to show you who. So I want us to flip our prayer everybody's standing

at every location. As the Lord instructed me, I have imparted to you today this great revelation of grace that you don't have to You get to carry Christ this Christmas season. And I dare you to go back to this week with a little bit different attitude. I mean, don't go back quoting dis sermon to your wife or your boss. Tell me the word of the Lord is, I don't have to Well, you're gonna get fired and you can't tie, and we have to shut the church down.

Don't do that. Listen to me. Listen to me. There's some stuff that you are carrying that you are not meant to carry, and it's causing you to forget about the Christ that you are called to carry. And I love being practical and I love breaking it down. And one of my friends asked me the other day. I love when you preach stuff. It gets me excited. You tell me about Galilee, you tell me about Gabriel, but tell me how and see the thing about it is.

I don't have to, because if you would get still for just one moment in the presence of God and humble your heart, the Holy Spirit will overshadow you and the hand of God will hold you. Now this is optional. You don't have to give your next few weeks to God at the end of this year, but his hands

are ready if you want to. You don't have to take any time over the next few weeks to thank God for the promotions that he brought in your life this year, for the friends that he brought in your life this year, for the enemies that he held back from destroying you this year, from the sickness that he left it lifted off of your life this year, From the way that he averted the situation this year that it could have gone another way. You don't have to thank God for any You don't have to, But the

Gospel says, you get to. This is our privilege to carry the presence of God. And I was just thinking about another Mary. You remember in scripture where Mary and Martha had Jesus in their home. Do you know this story in Luke chapter ten? And Mary was sitting at the feet of Jesus and Martha was trying to get some work done around here, and Jesus was teaching, and Martha was bossing, and Martha thought Jesus would take her side, said, tell my sister Mary to help. No, this is a

different Mary. But look what Jesus said about this Mary in Luke ten forty two. And I think this will be a pretty good mission statement for you and I too. Martha, Martha, you are worried and upset about many things, but few things are needed. Wait a minute, don't you see all this work I have to get done. You don't have to. You don't have to. Ninety eight percent of your list is optional. Yeah, you get to, you get to And

watch this. He said, There's only one thing necessary, and Mary has chosen what is better and it won't be taken away from her. So I'm just gonna beg you and implore you on behalf of Christ. Do not give yourself over to things at the end of this year that can be taken away so easily. So easily. So, Lord, as we come to you today, I am aware that there are some who are under the sound of my voice, whether in person or separated by miles, who are in a galilee of sorts. And we thank you today that

your message knows no bounds. You can enter any situation, you can enter any dysfunction, you can enter any trial. But Lord, for some of us just running around with the spirit of obligation when we serve the God of good news and grace. So I thank you, Lord for the way that you are resetting our hearts in your presence. Recalling on you, God, the God of Mary, whose favor rests upon the lowly. We know with you all things are possible. We lift our hands to heaven. Now go

ahead and lift your hands to heaven right now. If you know that you are held by the hands of God. Oh God, my God, I need you, Oh God, my God, I need you now, how I need you now? Thank you for joining us. Special thanks to those of you who give generously to this ministry. Is because of you that this ministry is possible. You can click the link in the description to give now, or visit Elevation Church Slash podcast for more information. And if you enjoyed the podcast,

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