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God's Unmerited Favor - Part 1 (Luke 1:26-38)
17 Plays4 months ago
Sunday Message recorded 14 July 2024
by Associate Pastor Josh Shell
First Baptist Church -- Columbus TX
1700 Milam St.
Columbus, TX, USA 78934
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Transcript
Introduction and Significance of Baptisms
00:00:06
Speaker
That was awesome, amen. Have you all had a good morning? I sure hope so, because I don't think there's any better way to start off a Sunday morning than with baptisms in an incredible time of worship. um it Oh, man. Oh, yeah. Okay. That's great. That's great. If y'all didn't go to camp with us, that doesn't make any sense. But for those of us who went to camp, it makes total sense. So it's great to be with you guys this morning. And man, like I said, there's no better way to start off the morning with baptisms.
Personal Experience and Encouragement for Believers
00:00:39
Speaker
I mean, after all, that's a great commission, right? To go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
00:00:46
Speaker
When we see baptisms, that means that we're seeing the work of God moving in the lives and the heart of people. And that's an incredible thing. And I'm just going to share this. I wasn't planning on going to, but it just came to my mind that Steve Tyson and I actually just got the opportunity on friday Friday to go witness one of our buddies get baptized. And you know I was under the impression it was just going to be him. We were going to go out to a lake and watch him get baptized. No, this is church congregation down at Eagle Lake. I don't remember the church name. Do you remember the church name? The CW is the pastor, that's all we know, right? But anyway, so, coming to fight out was 30. 30 people were getting baptized. And so, to say, would we have a tendency to look out in our country, in our world today, and a thing like, man, Satan's really got a hold on it. Our generation our next generation's done for, or whatever, fill in the blank with however you may feel, but we serve a mighty God. who is not dead, he is alive, he is active, and he is working in the hearts of his people. And he's working in the hearts of those who are lost.
Exploration of the Book of Luke: Miracles and Key Figures
00:01:51
Speaker
come Here comes the hard part. We ask the body of Christ to have a part to play in that. So what are you gonna do about it? where What is our part?
00:02:03
Speaker
when it comes into fulfilling God's addictive plan for mankind, right? Jesus came. He came. He conquered sin. He conquered death. He rose again in victorious. He's now seated at the right hand of the Father, preparing a place for us. But now He has commissioned us to go to be the hands and the feet. So again, what are you going to do about it? What are we going to do about it? And this morning, though, we we're going to be jumping back into the series that we started with the book of Luke. OK, so if you have your Bible, soon you can open those back up to the book of Luke. We're going to be at chapter one. And I was just going to say this. We've seen a lot of miracles this morning, right? One more miracle is if I get through this sermon on time.
00:02:51
Speaker
so Man, y'all got jokes this morning. This is great. This is great. um But I'm really excited about this just because when ah when we're talking about baptism, talking about our our part in fulfilling God's plan and His redemptive plan as the that's the body of Christ, there's no better example than than right out of the gate in chapter one of Luke of of an older couple, Zachariah and Elizabeth, and then another young lady that we're fixing to encounter today, Mary.
00:03:26
Speaker
who God called on special mission to fulfill, to be a part of his redemptive plan. And we see two different answers, but they both ultimately come out to fulfilling God's purpose and God's plan for his redemption. And so if you guys can recall back, I'm just gonna do a brief recap, okay? Generally brief, okay? So in Luke chapter one, we see Luke opened up this introduction of one, his whole purpose of this book, if we can recall, is to bring certainty into uncertainty. to bring certainty into uncertainty. We see that in verse four, it says, when he's talking to most excellent Theophilus, which was most people believe that you can either discover it as an individual or a group of people. But it says that, he says, I write these to these things to you that you may have certainty concerning the things that you have been taught.
00:04:19
Speaker
And the things that have been taught is the good news of Jesus, right? the The life, the mission, the purpose, the fulfillment of scripture in Jesus as Messiah. And so he's writing these things to give not only theopolis, but us certainty when it comes to things that we've been taught. Then it goes into verses five through 20, right? And that's when we get introduced to this all to this elderly couple, Zachariah and Elizabeth. Zachariah was a priest of the division of Abijah. And Elizabeth was a woman of the lineage of Aaron who was was barren her entire life. and then But this is what scripture says about both of them. Both were righteous and walked blamelessly in all the commandments and the statutes of the Lord.
00:05:06
Speaker
That's an incredible feat, right? And then it says that they were both advanced in years. Okay, so this is just some of the information he gives us to describe them. Now Zachariah, a little bit more, goes on and says that Zachariah was a priest and that his division was on duty and was chosen by Lot. He himself was chosen by Lot to enter into the temple of the Lord to burn the ah the off the the offering of incense, right?
Zachariah's Doubt and God's Limitless Power
00:05:29
Speaker
And then, so he goes in and while he's in there, he gets this incredible encounter with this angel named Gabriel. Gabriel then he appears before Zachariah at the right side of the altar and he announces this coming pregnancy of his barren wife Elizabeth.
00:05:48
Speaker
Okay? His barren wife of elderly age to their son, John. And this is how Gabriel describes this coming child that they're going to have, John. And this is it says, many will rejoice at his birth, for he will be great before the Lord. And he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God, and he will go before him in the spirit and the power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the father to the children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready for the Lord of people prepared." It's a pretty incredible description of a child that sticks to be born to you in an elderly age, right?
00:06:31
Speaker
And he goes on, as a result of this, Zachariah hears all this and you see his response in these verses, you say, whoa, are you so are you sure about this? Like, I'm old, my wife is old, she's barren. How is this possible? But yet with God, all things are possible. Right? So for some of you in this room, you come into this place either today or you've come in here before, or you're just going throughout life and you're questioning whether or not God has a purpose and a plan for you because of the circumstances that are surrounding you. Right? Now, I get it. Not many of us or none of us in here are priests, right? We're not in Zacharias shoes.
00:07:11
Speaker
But at the end of the day, here in just a minute, what we're going to see is we can relate, though, to another young woman who God is going to reveal a plan with, not as Mary. And we can relate to Mary. Right? But I just want to ah to kick us off with this if this. If you're in this room today and you feel like God does not have a plan for you or a purpose for you, and that or you're too far gone, or that you're not coming from the right place or the right position, whatever the case may be, let you need to let you need to just allow you just need to get Satan out of your head. Okay? Satan is going to do everything in his power to convince you and to deceive you into thinking that you're not worthy of the favor of God.
00:07:53
Speaker
And that's why this, this this the title of the message today, and and even going to next week, Lord willing at Victor lives and preached next week, is God's unmerited favor. It's God's unmerited favor.
00:08:08
Speaker
And so as as we see, though, God is allowing or He's choosing to use people to fulfill His divine plan, and we are also included in this. So if you're in this place today and you feel uncertain about the plan and the purpose which God has for you, allow the Spirit to come into your life and to convince you and to to allow it to lead you in confidence in this.
Fulfillment of Prophecies: Birth of John and Jesus
00:08:31
Speaker
Because we all have a part to play in God's gift to plan as His people, right?
00:08:38
Speaker
But it goes on, right? So Gabriel gives this vision, gives this prophecy of of Elizabeth being pregnant with John and Zachariah's result is questioning it. And because of his questioning and not trusting in God's plan, God chooses to silence Zachariah and he goes back to Elizabeth and Later on, Elizabeth becomes pregnant to where, and then she keeps herself hidden, right? So I'm really, I'm missing some of the detail here, but the ultimate thing here is that as a result of his doubt, God chose to silence Zechariah until the fulfillment of which Elizabeth would give birth to John, right? And if you jumped ahead to verses 57 through 66 in chapter chapter one,
00:09:22
Speaker
receive this fulfillment of Gabriel's vision of the birth of John. And as a result of the birth of John, ah they Elizabeth pronounces the name that which would be given to him, and and the people are like, wait, you don't have anybody in your family named John, so why are you naming him John? And then God un, he opens the mouth of Zechariah, and he says, no, his name is John. Right?
00:09:45
Speaker
OK, so, um but his name is John. And so we see this beautiful picture of God's divine plan coming to fruition in Zachariah and Elizabeth live. But that's only the, as we said, that's only the forerunner of who is to come in the next encounter. And that is with Jesus being born of Mary, right? So that's what leads up to today's passage in verses 26 through 38. We're going to be looking at the annunciation or the announcement from Gabriel to Mary regarding the birth of Christ. And there's four things that I want us to see out of this passage. We're not going to be able to see all these today, but we're going to try to get through as much as we can. There's four things I want us to see within this passage that I hope will truly relate to us as God's people today is that, one, is the timing and the place of this passage and when it takes place with the encounter of Mary.
00:10:36
Speaker
Because again, a lot of the times we think that we're like, for us, it's, man, I'm from a small town in Columbus, Texas, with with no one in my family that is prominent. I don't mean that disrespectfully, but I'm just saying like, we have a tendency like, man, I come from a small town family, God ain't gonna use me for anything. I'm just gonna be stuck here the rest of my life. But that's such small-minded thinking. Because God has a plan and purpose for those who walk according to His will and according to His plan and according to, and um and by faith, right? So the first thing is time and place this passage. The second thing is yeah I want us to look a little bit more intently at the recipient within Mary.
00:11:16
Speaker
Because we have a tendency of looking at Mary and thinking like, man, Mary was just this this incredibly blessed, favored woman of God. No one compares to her because she was a part of this miraculous miracle of this divine conception and giving birth to the Messiah. But the reality is that Mary was no different than you and I, inherently. She was a broken, sinful woman, just like you and I are broken and sinful today. But again, because of God's unmerited favor, he looked down and said, I want to use you as part of my redemptive plan for mankind. And we see what we will ultimately see is that Mary's response is different from Zechariah. She does question, but within her questioning, it's by faith and obedience, she submits and becomes a servant to the living in God.
00:12:06
Speaker
And then the third thing is I want us to look a little bit more at the announcement. Gabriel's announcement of the coming Messiah and the implications, which is the fourth thing, the implications that it has for all of us as believers. So those are the four things I want us to unpack. So if I want to read to us these verses, verses 26
Mary's Faith and Obedience
00:12:23
Speaker
through 38. So if you don't mind standing with me in honor of God's word, we'll read these together.
00:12:34
Speaker
In verse 26 it says this, In the sixth month the gay the angel Gabriel was sent from God to his city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph of the house of David. And the virgin's name was Mary, and he came to her and said, Greetings, O favor, when the Lord is with you. But she was greatly troubled at the saying and tried to discern what sort of greediness might be. And the angel said to her, do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb in in your womb in a barer son. You shall call his name Jesus. And he will be great and will be called the son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ofest father David. And he will reign over the house of Jacob forever. And his kingdom, there will be no there will be no end.
00:13:23
Speaker
And Mary said to the angel, How will this be, since I am a virgin? And the angel answered her, The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore the child to be born will be called Holy, the Son of God. And behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her whom was called barren. For nothing will be impossible with God. And Mary said, Behold, I am the servant of the Lord. Let it be to me according to your word. And the angel departed from her. me pray Let me pray for us. Lord God, we just thank you so much for your truth. Father, we thank you for your unmerited favor.
00:14:08
Speaker
that despite our brokenness and our sinfulness, you still the desire you still have a desire to use us for your good and perfect plan. And Lord, I pray that as we look at these individuals, Zachariah and Elizabeth and Mary, Lord, that we will discern the things that you have for us, the implications that you have for us, and that we can learn from their encounters and their faith and their obedience. And so Lord, prepare our hearts. And may you speak to us through your word today is in Jesus name, amen. Thank you, you guys may be seated.
00:14:51
Speaker
So the first thing I want us to look at within this passage is the timing in place by which this encounter happens. Okay, so first we have Gabriel, this angel, who's a messenger from God who appears to Zachariah and Elizabeth. If you guys don't remember, there was a time period where God was silent, right? So in the Old Testament, the last prophet that was spoken to was Malachi. And after Malachi, because of God's, because of the way that he saw his people and their disobedience and their unfaithfulness, he was silent for over 400 years.
00:15:26
Speaker
It was a 400 year period of silence. This is called the intertestamental period, where God did not speak to any of the individuals, whether it was by Holy Spirit, by prophetic word, by angelic messenger. God remained silent for 400 years until he spoke to Zechariah. So when you think about the encounter with Zechariah and Gabriel in the temple, you kind of you kind of get a better sense of why he responded the way he did. Right, as an elderly priest, he's in there, he's been praying for his wife, he's been barren their whole life, and he's in there just burning the offering to the incense, and then out of nowhere, Gabriel appears, standing at the right hand of the altar. That's pretty shocking. Right? And another fun fact about Gabriel, the only time that we ever see him actually appearing in scripture is we only see it three times. One to Zechariah, one to Mary, and then one in the Old Testament. Do I remember who it was to? Daniel.
00:16:24
Speaker
And all three times it was prophetic messages leading up to the Messiah coming. And so again, when you think about this encounter with Zechariah and Gabriel, it really should bring into reality of like, okay, how would I have responded? If God was silent for 400 years and then I didn't know where He came to spoke to me. At an old age and then he was going to tell me that my wife who's been burying her whole life and she's also elderly was going to give birth to a son. I probably would have responded the same way. Am I the only one in the room who would do that? Okay. But all I have to say is 400 years of silence and then God then now comes back and he speaks to Zachariah.
00:17:07
Speaker
Okay, so again, for the first time 400 years, he finally speaks to humanity. and then But he doesn't just speak to Zachariah, but now he is speaking to Mary. Six months after Elizabeth is pregnant, he goes and he appears before Mary and has a very similar conversation. Now, the difference is is that with Elizabeth, she was barren, right? Meaning that she was unable to have children. She was not a virgin, but she was, she they attempted to have children and were not able to because God would not allow them to. Whereas Mary, this is different because Mary is a virgin, okay? And so with this, the some scholars put her age, we have a tendency to think of Mary as like, you know, a young adult, 19, 20, but no, many scholars put her at the age between 12 to 14 years old.
00:17:56
Speaker
Because back then, in first century culture, they didn't have the same kind of age brackets that we do today. They don't go from being a toddler to a child, from a child to a preteen, preteen to teenager, teenager to whatever, then to an adult, right? um I'm just kidding, sorry. but All I had to say is they didn't have those things. So as soon as they were able to to take on responsibility or to for a young woman when she was able to conceive, she becomes an adult. And she then goes to fulfill her purpose, right? So for her, this is ah this is a pretty big deal. And as the scripture tells us is that Mary was betrothed to a man named Joseph, who is from the House of David. And I also read in this is that the age range for Joseph
00:18:41
Speaker
was not the same age range as Mary. Joseph was actually a little bit older. When I say a little bit older, did some scholars say he was between 30 to 40 years old, okay? So this is this is a ah crazy encounter here, right? But the reason why I want to bring up the time and place is this. So with Zachariah and Elizabeth, they were in Jerusalem in the temple. God sent Gabel to speak to them there, right? A place of prominence ah to a person of position in Zechariah, right? But then he goes from that to then approaching Mary.
00:19:16
Speaker
a woman, a young woman of humble estate from a city called Nazareth, right?
Divine Purpose and Humility
00:19:24
Speaker
Nazareth, according to Jewish custom, was a city that was about, I see I saw anything from 40 miles to 80 miles outside of Jerusalem and it was known to be a a shoddy outpost on the way between two port cities of siren tiais or a Tyre Sidon. So there was nothing about Nazareth that was appealing, that was fruitful, nothing, right? a lot Actually, they said that in Nazareth was oftentimes overrun with Gentiles and Romans. So for the Jews, that was a big X on the map to say, let's stay away from Nazareth.
00:20:03
Speaker
Right? Which ultimately is why we see one of the disciples, Nathaniel, later on, I think it was in first or it was in John chapter one, verse 46, where he is, when Philip is approaching him, he about the Messiah and how he came out of Nazareth, and Nathaniel's response is, can anything good come out of Nazareth? It's because of that right there. It was it was had a reputation that was not appealing, right? It was this shoddy little outpost town. So God went from speaking to Zachariah and Elizabeth in Jerusalem, the holy city, the chosen city in Judea, to now going to this podunk town, if you will, outside of Jerusalem, to call a young girl who was from no prominent estate, Mary.
00:20:51
Speaker
Some of y'all in the room are like, man, I get it, right? I get it. Growing up, I mean, I'm from a bigger town in Georgia, Warner Robins. It's an Air Force space or Air Force town. So it was a little bit bigger than Columbus. My high school was about, I mean, the town of Columbus is about the size of my high school. But all I'd say though is growing up, I was like, man, how is Guy gonna use me? When I came to know the Lord, I was like, man, um I'm soft spoken, I'm insecure, all these things. But yet, when we choose to submit to the will of God, when we choose to follow in obedience to the calling which he has in our lives as believers, he can do an incredible thing. I would have never, I said this before, I never expected to be to be able to stand right here in the pulpit to be able to declare a message to you guys from the Lord. Some of you guys are like, yeah, I wish he wouldn't do that either.
00:21:47
Speaker
But it's an incredible honor. It's an honor to carry the cross of Christ. It's an honor to carry the favor in which God has bestowed upon us. And that's exactly what we ultimately see here in Mary. So again, it doesn't matter. who you are, where you're from, what demographic you're from, what city you're from, what title you may have or what religious promise you may have, none of that. None of that matters. When God looks at you, he sees your heart and he says, does this person have a heart of obedience or a heart that will reject me? Is this person going to be faithful or is he going to be unfaithful?
00:22:26
Speaker
and He desires to use every single one of you in this room today. That's why baptisms are so so incredible. There's no power in the baptism other than the testimony, right? But what's powerful about it is the salvation that has been completed within the heart of the individual by recognizing their sinful state, surrendering it to the Lord, and submitting to the will of God. That's what baptism is about, submitting to the will of God and following obedience to baptism.
00:22:53
Speaker
So again, wherever you are at, it doesn't matter if you're from Columbus, it doesn't matter if you're from Haiti, it doesn't matter if you're from Texas, which is ah apparently you guys say is God's chosen state. Or if you're from Georgia, if you're a hick like me, right? It doesn't matter where you're from. God desires to use you and he wants to use you in a very, very mighty way. But he goes on, right? So this let's look at the second thing here with the time we have, Mary. So he chooses Mary who, as we said, was betrothed to Joseph and was from humble abode, right? Humble estates. There was nothing about her that was that stood out in society. And the angel came to her and said, greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you.
00:23:42
Speaker
But she was greatly troubled at that saying and trying to discern what sort of greeting this might be. So her response in itself is is a testimony and ah and to what we've just been talking about, right? For this angel Gabriel to appear to her to say, greetings O favored one, the Lord is with you. She's like, wait a second, do you know what you're talking to? Like, I'm no one. But this is the incredible thing about this. This phrase, oh favored one, and it's funny, I was talking with Victor about this earlier this week, and I was like, should I bring this up? I was kind of nervous cause because by me fixing to say this, it makes you it kind of makes me cringe, right? Because when we talk about Mary, when we think about the prominence of Mary, and again, the the way that God used her, for me to say that there's nothing special about Mary, it's like, ooh, that's weird, right?
00:24:34
Speaker
But the reality is is that there there really was nothing special about Mary other than the fact that she was obedient. But the reason why people hold her to such such high esteem is because of this phrase right here. O favor when the Lord is with you. A lot of times we take that phrase out of context and we think that as as if Mary and herself was capable of of of achieving God's favor. And because of that, there is an abundance of favor in Mary that she can then bestow upon to others. which is not true. The reason, this phrase here, or favor one, is from the word, um I feel like I'm gonna mess it up. It's from the root word charis, or haris, if you want to announce it that way, is harateo, right? This word harateo, which means, sorry, I'm getting ahead of my notes, so I'm gonna get there.
00:25:29
Speaker
That means to have ah to make graceful, to pursue with grace or to compass with favor or to honor with blessing. So God looked at Mary and said, it's not that you're capable of my favor, that you deserve my favor, but rather he's looking at her and says, I'm going to bestow favor upon you. I see you and I'm going to use you for great things. Does that make sense?
00:25:59
Speaker
What's absolutely incredible about this is that this same word, hareteo, that is used in this verse is only used one other time in scripture. And this is found in Ephesians chapter one. And listen to how Paul uses this phrase, because I don't think you're gonna catch it at first. I'm gonna pick up in verse three, but it's actually in verse six. It says this, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love, he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will.
00:26:37
Speaker
to the praise of His glorious grace which He has blessed us in the beloved." That phrase right there where it says, with which He has blessed us, is the same word that describes Mary. That's the only two times in the New Testament when we see this word used. is to describe the favor that was bestowed or blessed upon Mary, and then in context of what Paul's talking about, those who have been blessed and have been shown favor in the family of God, the believers. You and I who are in Christ. There's a, I'm gonna read a quote from,
00:27:14
Speaker
Charles Swindoll, he says it this way about this particular phrase. He says, the greeting favor one is simply emphasizing that Mary was a recipient of God's unmerited favor, a pattern for other believers who would be the recipient of God's free grace.
00:27:37
Speaker
So the reason why Mary's encounter here is absolutely incredible. It's like, yes, God would use her for in a miraculous way to have this immaculate conception and to be able to be the one to bear the Messiah, to raise the Messiah.
Call for Reflection and Trust in God's Plan
00:27:51
Speaker
But what's incredible about Mary here is that when the favor is bestowed upon her, it's her humble submission to it. Did you guys catch that when when she was when she responded? If you jump forward to the end of this passage, right? Verse 37 says, for nothing will be impossible God. That's what Gabriel was saying to her. And Mary said, behold, I am the servant of the Lord. Let it be to me according to your word.
00:28:22
Speaker
I am the servant of the Lord. That word in the Greek is called doulas, means bond servant. not that then is It's not a sense of a servant or a slave that is that is forced into captivity, but rather it's one who is willingly submitting themselves into the servanthood of another. So Mary here is saying, you're bestowing favor on me. Though I am a virgin, though I am young, though I'm not qualified, though I don't meet the or check all the boxes, but I will serve you. I will submit to you. I am your servant. Let your word be done according to what you've said. There's a lot for us to learn from Mary here.
00:29:09
Speaker
And this is absolutely incredible response. And especially if you can compare it to that of Zachariah, right? So if you go back and and you look at that encounter, Zachariah's like, dude, I'm old. You can't, this is impossible. It's physically impossible. And as a result of his lack of faith, what happens? His mouth is silenced. right, until the fulfillment by which Elizabeth would give birth. And then God and opens his mouth and we see what happened after that, right? But with Mary, she says, hey, I hear you. I'm gonna submit to it. So my question to us this morning as we wrap up our time is, where are you at?
00:29:52
Speaker
Where are you at in your faith right now? Where are you at in your walk with the Lord? Some of you in this room may not even have a relationship with Jesus. And I pray that today will be the day that you choose to surrender to that, because the Lord desires to have a relationship with all of His children, with all of His people, with all of His creation. It's all of you in this room. All of you are made in the image and the likeness of God. And He desires to have a relationship with each and every one of you. And so I pray that if that's you, that you will highly consider opening your heart to the reality of what God is wanting and what God is willing to do with you and in you and through you. But for those of you who are in the room who are sitting here and you have a, who profess that relationship with Jesus and you are stifling the spirit, you're not allowing the spirit to move in you and through you, I pray that you will really self-analyze, that you will soften your heart to be having a heart like Mary.
00:30:47
Speaker
To understanding, sure, there's nothing special about me, but the fact that you chose God to bestow favor upon me because you looked down and saw me, I will surrender. I will submit. See, that's the thing. It's not about you seeking God, it's about the fact that God has already sought you.
00:31:10
Speaker
And you have to, when you when you recognize that and surrender to it, it opens the realm of reality and opportunity for God to use you in ways you never thought you'd be used. It's not about you. It's about what God has wanted to do in you and through you.
00:31:29
Speaker
So again, where are you at? Some of you guys are just like Mary. Some of you guys are faithfully walking to the Lord. And I pray that you will continue to do that. that you continue to be used by God, that you continue to be His hands, His feet. Do not let the world, do not let Satan tempt you, deceive you, disqualify you in any ways. Keep running your race.
00:31:52
Speaker
But I really do pray that we will stop and analyze where we are at. Because God has a mighty plan and He is not finished with His people. He will not be finished until Christ returns. And while we have this period of great grace, I pray that we as the body of Christ take full advantage of taking the gospel to those who are lost and that we that we will be the hands of he He's called us to be. So again, where are you at? Do you count yourself worthy of God's unmerited favor? Because that's where that i mean that's where the question starts. Do you count yourself worthy?
00:32:34
Speaker
Because a lot of us in this room, at one point in our lives, we thought that we weren't. And the reality is, is guess what? You aren't worthy of it. But God is god is bestowing it upon you, regardless of whether or not you're worthy. Just like you did with Mary. Just like you did with Zachariah and Elizabeth. Do you think Elizabeth thought she was worthy? Being barren her whole life? But God used her. And so I'm gonna ask the musicians to come back.
00:33:04
Speaker
We're gonna go to this time of invitation. And if there's anybody in this room who needs to come and talk to me, that's great. I would love to have a conversation with you. um But if you need to come down to the altar and pray, please come and do that. If you need to pray right there in your seat, do that. But invitation, it's time for you to work things out with God. And I pray that's exactly what we'll do. So will you guys pray with me?
00:33:30
Speaker
Lord God, we just come before you and again, we thank you for this morning. What an incredible morning it has been with the testimonies of those who've gone before us in the baptisms and how you are working in their lives and how they are choosing to be obedient and following you and believers baptism.
Conclusion and Call to Action
00:33:46
Speaker
And I pray God that you continue to use them in mighty, mighty ways. But Lord, I pray that that through those testimonies and through your word this morning and through the testimony of Zachariah and Elizabeth and Mary, Lord, that you will pierce and penetrate the hearts of those who are in a place of a feeling unworthy, in a place where they feel like they're not capable or that you that it's not achievable. But God, I pray that you'll meet them right here today and that you'll soften their hearts to the reality of the fact that you do love them
00:34:17
Speaker
You do desire to have a relationship with them that you've already prepared the way for them through Jesus. That they will surrender to His will and that they will surrender to Him as King and Lord. But Lord, just be with us this morning, be this time of imitations in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
00:34:37
Speaker
This is a ministry of First Baptist Church, located at 1700 Milam Street, Columbus, Texas.