WEBVTT 00:00:00.020 --> 00:00:02.388 Let's pick up our bibles before we're seated tonight. 00:00:02.388 --> 00:00:03.563 I want to get into the word. 00:00:03.563 --> 00:00:07.825 Just a quick, simple word to encourage you. 00:00:07.825 --> 00:00:15.208 Before we eat together and have fun together, let's say this together Say Heavenly Father, I celebrate Jesus. 00:00:15.208 --> 00:00:25.829 You're the reason we're here, jesus, and we're so glad you came the first time and we recognize you're coming the second time. 00:00:25.829 --> 00:00:28.585 We give you our hearts tonight. 00:00:28.585 --> 00:00:31.948 We thank you for all you're doing in our lives. 00:00:31.948 --> 00:00:35.341 In Jesus' name, amen. 00:00:35.341 --> 00:00:38.024 You can be seated If you brought your bibles. 00:00:38.024 --> 00:00:39.643 Some of you didn't, and that's all right. 00:00:39.643 --> 00:00:41.371 We're just gonna keep it simple tonight. 00:00:42.179 --> 00:00:47.253 I'm gonna read some excerpts out of the Christmas story. 00:00:47.253 --> 00:00:54.262 I'm not gonna read the whole thing, but Luke, chapter one, most of the verses, in fact all the verses I'll be looking at. 00:00:54.262 --> 00:00:57.167 There's one out of Matthew, but let's look at Luke, chapter one. 00:00:57.167 --> 00:01:17.879 We're gonna start with John the Baptist's parents, zechariah and Elizabeth, verse five Luke one five there was in the days of Herod, the King of Judea, a certain priest named Zechariah. 00:01:17.879 --> 00:01:34.266 So the course of Abba and his wife was of the daughters of Aaron and her name was Elizabeth, and they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord, blameless. 00:01:34.266 --> 00:01:43.430 And they had no child because Elizabeth was barren and they both were now well stricken in years. 00:01:43.430 --> 00:01:52.406 And then so there came the angel to appear to Zechariah as he was doing his priestly duties. 00:01:52.406 --> 00:02:01.447 And in verse 13, it says, the angel said unto him fear not, zechariah, for thy prayer is heard. 00:02:01.447 --> 00:02:03.186 I want you to take note of that. 00:02:03.186 --> 00:02:12.409 Thy prayer is heard and thy wife, elizabeth, shall bear thee a son, and thou shall call his name John. 00:02:12.409 --> 00:02:16.268 All right, then we'll skip down to verse 26. 00:02:16.268 --> 00:02:25.788 And that same angel that appeared to Zechariah asked to tell him about his baby boy. 00:02:25.788 --> 00:02:29.223 That was on the way, verse 26,. 00:02:29.282 --> 00:02:53.429 And in the six months so Elizabeth was six months alone the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin espoused to a man, or patrofed, in other words, an arranged marriage to a man whose name was Joseph of the house of David, and the virgin's name was Mary. 00:02:53.429 --> 00:03:00.734 And the angel came in unto her and said hail thou that are highly favored. 00:03:00.734 --> 00:03:03.564 The Lord is with thee. 00:03:03.564 --> 00:03:05.890 Blessed are thou among women". 00:03:05.890 --> 00:03:12.808 And when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying and cast in her mind what manner of salutation this should be. 00:03:12.808 --> 00:03:20.034 And the angel said and her fear not, mary, for thou hast found favor with God. 00:03:20.034 --> 00:03:27.789 And then said Mary verse 34, under the angel how shall this be, seeing that I am not married? 00:03:27.789 --> 00:03:37.560 And verse 35, the angel answered and said unto her the holy ghost shall come upon thee and the power of the highest shall overshadow thee. 00:03:37.560 --> 00:03:44.509 Therefore, also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. 00:03:44.509 --> 00:03:47.000 And behold thy cousin, elizabeth. 00:03:47.000 --> 00:03:56.299 She also hath conceived a son in her old age and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren. 00:03:56.299 --> 00:04:05.295 She was called barren and for with God, nothing shall be impossible. 00:04:06.502 --> 00:04:13.936 And I just wanted to focus in on these four people and just to entitle. 00:04:13.936 --> 00:04:16.439 The message is simply it pays to serve God. 00:04:16.439 --> 00:04:18.639 I said it pays to serve God. 00:04:18.639 --> 00:04:33.009 Many, many wonderful lessons, wonderful principles that we see in the Christmas story, but I wanted to focus on these tonight, especially with our young people in the room. 00:04:33.600 --> 00:04:35.928 You know, god said with God, with God. 00:04:35.928 --> 00:04:39.908 Or the angel said about God with God, nothing shall be impossible. 00:04:39.908 --> 00:04:47.420 You know, jesus said that two different times and then another time he said a different version of it all things are possible With God. 00:04:47.420 --> 00:04:48.586 All things are possible. 00:04:48.586 --> 00:04:55.584 I mean we need to realize that God is mighty and he can change things. 00:04:56.680 --> 00:05:07.627 And so, when I'm looking at Zacharias and Elizabeth, they served God, they were righteous before God, they were blameless and all the law. 00:05:07.627 --> 00:05:08.865 That wasn't easy to do. 00:05:08.865 --> 00:05:29.860 They lived in a time, kind of like our time, when most of Israel was backslid, Most of Israel was far from God, and yet in the midst of that, they honored God, they served God and God heard their prayer, even though it looked like for a while that he hadn't heard their prayer. 00:05:29.860 --> 00:05:37.220 I mean, cause she was old, she was past childbearing age, but with God, nothing shall be impossible. 00:05:37.220 --> 00:05:39.567 Don't give up on your prayers. 00:05:39.567 --> 00:05:42.059 I mean, you know this is our greatest year. 00:05:42.059 --> 00:05:43.718 Yet Some of us have had breakthroughs. 00:05:43.718 --> 00:05:45.519 Maybe some of us are still waiting. 00:05:45.519 --> 00:05:48.867 Don't give up, just serve God. 00:05:48.867 --> 00:06:07.240 You remember this morning when I was sharing out of Hebrews, chapter 12, and I mentioned the verse and that's another reason why I'm kind of followed up with this message tonight and we saw this that we should serve God acceptably, with reverence and godly fear. 00:06:07.882 --> 00:06:11.190 We live in a time when lots of people don't serve God. 00:06:11.190 --> 00:06:25.588 Even good church going people about their idea of serving God is just going to church, but in between, there's not much fruit, there's not much in the way of honor toward God, and so now's the time that we need to step up. 00:06:25.588 --> 00:06:26.944 It pays to serve God. 00:06:26.944 --> 00:06:30.646 Bairness turned into a baby. 00:06:30.646 --> 00:06:32.322 Praise God. 00:06:32.322 --> 00:06:35.850 Maybe you feel a little barren in your prayer life. 00:06:35.850 --> 00:06:37.927 Listen, I tell you, just keep serving God. 00:06:37.927 --> 00:06:43.749 God is gonna come through for you, not just any baby, but a great prophet. 00:06:43.749 --> 00:06:50.485 And when Jesus bragged on him later in life, he called him the greatest man that ever was born of a woman. 00:06:50.485 --> 00:06:55.307 But yet he said those that are at least in the kingdom of God are greater than he. 00:06:55.307 --> 00:06:58.168 So that tells you what he thinks about the church. 00:06:58.168 --> 00:06:58.629 Amen. 00:06:58.629 --> 00:07:03.850 And so now we'll turn our attention upon Mary. 00:07:05.500 --> 00:07:17.980 Now, mary was a young teenage girl, and it says that she was betrothed to a young man named Joseph, and that typically happened. 00:07:17.980 --> 00:07:20.718 This was normal for young Jewish girls. 00:07:20.718 --> 00:07:22.576 They had arranged marriages. 00:07:22.576 --> 00:07:28.177 The only difference between her and most other marriages is that I believe the Holy Ghost arranged her marriage. 00:07:28.177 --> 00:07:31.458 I mean, just look how God got into this family. 00:07:31.458 --> 00:07:35.480 First of all, her cousin, which was very, very important. 00:07:35.480 --> 00:07:41.519 That lineage was important, you know, to prepare the way for Jesus, john the Baptist. 00:07:41.519 --> 00:07:44.235 And then you know her lineage. 00:07:44.235 --> 00:07:49.716 You know, she was betrothed to a man who, joseph, who was of the lineage of David. 00:07:49.716 --> 00:07:50.875 It was the house of David. 00:07:50.875 --> 00:08:00.362 That had to happen so that the Messiah would be the son of David, and so God was not random. 00:08:00.362 --> 00:08:15.951 God selected these people, and I believe God has selected us to live in some of the most critical times in history, the history of the church he selected. 00:08:15.951 --> 00:08:17.317 You could have lived any time. 00:08:17.317 --> 00:08:19.437 God could have had you live any time. 00:08:19.437 --> 00:08:21.016 I don't believe God is ever random. 00:08:21.016 --> 00:08:27.052 I believe we're here with a very, very specific purpose, as was they. 00:08:28.430 --> 00:08:44.818 And but this young girl probably about the age of 12, she began to get prepared to be the wife of Joseph, and that meant that she had to be separated and cleansed and she had very strict preparation. 00:08:44.818 --> 00:08:48.500 There was absolutely no contact between her and Joseph. 00:08:48.500 --> 00:08:51.799 There was nothing untoward going on between them. 00:08:51.799 --> 00:08:59.062 They were apart and she was just being purified and prepared and taught. 00:08:59.062 --> 00:09:05.999 And you know, we know from other writings not the Bible, but other writings who she was. 00:09:05.999 --> 00:09:23.538 She was the daughter of one of the scroll keepers of the scroll in the synagogue, so she spent her early days around church, if you will, around the synagogue, and her father was a man of the word. 00:09:23.538 --> 00:09:27.517 He kept the scrolls, I mean the Bible, the manuscripts. 00:09:27.517 --> 00:09:28.298 He kept them. 00:09:29.409 --> 00:09:31.938 And so have you ever read Psalm 119? 00:09:31.938 --> 00:09:36.715 You know, psalm 119 is really Jesus talking about himself. 00:09:36.715 --> 00:09:39.614 And where did he get that idea? 00:09:39.614 --> 00:09:40.918 On Mary's knee. 00:09:40.918 --> 00:09:48.292 Mary taught him who he was because why she had a revelation from the angel Gabriel, who he was. 00:09:48.292 --> 00:09:54.759 And she got that revelation out of the Word of God, which her parents in turn gave her. 00:09:54.759 --> 00:09:56.615 So they were people of the Word. 00:09:57.090 --> 00:09:58.255 God was not random. 00:09:58.255 --> 00:09:59.976 He didn't just find a girl over here. 00:09:59.976 --> 00:10:01.716 Oh yeah, she looks like a likely. 00:10:01.716 --> 00:10:04.596 No, I'm telling you it pays to serve God. 00:10:04.596 --> 00:10:07.735 It pays, amen. 00:10:07.735 --> 00:10:08.599 It doesn't cost. 00:10:08.599 --> 00:10:12.461 Sometimes it seems like it costs to serve God. 00:10:12.461 --> 00:10:18.976 Sometimes it'll cost you friends, sometimes it'll cost you relationships, but you know what it pays to serve God. 00:10:18.976 --> 00:10:26.018 And payday doesn't come on Friday, it doesn't come at the 15th and the 30th, but payday always comes, amen. 00:10:27.370 --> 00:10:32.298 And so notice then, here she is, this little pure teenager, probably about 15. 00:10:32.298 --> 00:10:36.941 You know, she knows it's time to get married. 00:10:36.941 --> 00:10:43.480 They got married early in those days, and so about 15, 16, she's gonna be his wife. 00:10:43.480 --> 00:10:49.154 And so the angel appears to her and says oh, there's a different plan. 00:10:49.154 --> 00:10:54.096 You're gonna have a baby and that baby is gonna be from the Holy Ghost. 00:10:54.096 --> 00:10:55.571 She didn't doubt. 00:10:55.571 --> 00:10:57.131 She said how? 00:10:57.131 --> 00:10:58.513 That's all she said. 00:10:58.513 --> 00:10:59.234 She didn't doubt it. 00:10:59.234 --> 00:11:08.341 But then, when the angel told her how, he said be it unto me, according to the Word he said, she yielded herself. 00:11:08.341 --> 00:11:10.761 Now think of the implications of that. 00:11:10.761 --> 00:11:14.942 Here's a young teenage girl, unmarried, and she's found with child. 00:11:14.942 --> 00:11:16.159 Let's go back to Matthew. 00:11:16.159 --> 00:11:22.864 I want you to see how much it pays to serve God. 00:11:22.864 --> 00:11:26.783 Matthew, chapter one, verse 18. 00:11:27.075 --> 00:11:34.211 Now, the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise when his mother, mary, was espoused to Joseph, in other words, betrothed. 00:11:34.211 --> 00:11:38.322 In other words, she was gonna have an arranged marriage. 00:11:38.322 --> 00:11:49.192 Her parents had gotten with the parents of Joseph and they had struck a bargain, and I believe all of it was by the Spirit of God. 00:11:49.192 --> 00:11:58.427 And so when that was the case, before they were married, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost. 00:11:58.427 --> 00:12:01.908 She turns up pregnant. 00:12:01.908 --> 00:12:07.554 Now, you know, in the natural, I mean, who is gonna believe this child? 00:12:07.554 --> 00:12:10.855 Who's gonna believe her story? 00:12:12.822 --> 00:12:24.928 And so Joseph, her husband, being a just man and not willing to make her a public example, so notice his reason for wanting to end the engagement. 00:12:24.928 --> 00:12:36.073 He was willing to let her off the hook of the arranged marriage because she was pregnant and he did not want to expose her to evil. 00:12:36.073 --> 00:12:39.414 He did not want to humiliate her in public. 00:12:39.414 --> 00:12:43.927 Look at the kind of man Joseph was. 00:12:43.927 --> 00:12:45.995 Doesn't say he was jealous. 00:12:45.995 --> 00:12:47.835 Doesn't say he was angry. 00:12:47.835 --> 00:12:50.772 It says he wanted to protect her. 00:12:50.772 --> 00:12:52.836 Are you with me now? 00:12:52.836 --> 00:12:55.222 Oh, glory to God. 00:12:55.222 --> 00:12:56.467 It pays to serve God. 00:12:56.467 --> 00:13:07.489 And so he was not willing to make her a public example and he was minded to put her away quickly. 00:13:07.489 --> 00:13:11.370 But while he thought on these things, thank God he didn't act quickly. 00:13:11.370 --> 00:13:14.385 Thank God he thought about it. 00:13:14.385 --> 00:13:17.254 Pretty heavy decision for a year. 00:13:17.254 --> 00:13:22.602 He didn't make a decision for a young, young couple these are teenagers making these kind of decisions. 00:13:23.554 --> 00:13:25.979 While he thought on these things, behold the angel of the Lord. 00:13:25.979 --> 00:13:33.019 When you take the angels out of the birth of Jesus, I mean you take a lot of the supernatural out. 00:13:33.019 --> 00:13:37.174 I mean angels were appeared to people. 00:13:37.174 --> 00:13:59.988 But the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream saying Joseph, thy son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary, thy wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost, and she shall bring forth a son and shall call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins. 00:13:59.988 --> 00:14:09.514 Now he's a man of the word, he knows the Bible and he knows that the angels talk about the Messiah. 00:14:09.514 --> 00:14:13.785 Just think about how momentous. 00:14:13.826 --> 00:14:15.811 There came a time in history. 00:14:15.811 --> 00:14:25.354 They'd been looking for the Messiah for a long time and now you mean to tell me my wife is gonna bring forth the Messiah and I'm gonna be his earthly dad. 00:14:25.354 --> 00:14:30.102 I'm gonna be his earthly, not his biological dad, but his earthly dad. 00:14:30.102 --> 00:14:33.815 Wow, there's nothing impossible with God. 00:14:33.815 --> 00:14:35.404 Are you with me now? 00:14:35.404 --> 00:14:37.538 Praise God, praise God. 00:14:37.538 --> 00:14:41.062 It pays to serve God. 00:14:41.062 --> 00:14:44.120 So Jesus is coming again. 00:14:47.035 --> 00:15:02.601 And if his birth and everything that happened to his, about the story of his being born the first time, was wrapped up in angelic visitations, I mean, you know, later on, I mean the angels appeared to the shepherds. 00:15:02.601 --> 00:15:07.884 The angels, you know, they let the wise men know that Jesus was being born. 00:15:07.884 --> 00:15:10.302 I mean, god didn't keep it a secret. 00:15:10.302 --> 00:15:19.225 He didn't even keep it a secret from Herod, and Herod wanted to kill him, but God went around Herod and didn't allow it. 00:15:19.225 --> 00:15:20.219 Are you with me now? 00:15:21.815 --> 00:15:33.283 So I believe, at the same way, that we're gonna see a lot of evidence when Jesus comes again and I believe what we're seeing, a lot of what we're seeing the difficulty are the birth pangs of the coming of the Lord. 00:15:33.283 --> 00:15:34.980 I believe that he's coming soon. 00:15:34.980 --> 00:15:38.764 So my message tonight, quite simple, is it pays to serve God. 00:15:38.764 --> 00:15:53.264 Let's be people of integrity, let's be people of our word, let's cling to the word, let's cling to the Holy Spirit and let's serve God acceptably, with reverence and godly fear. 00:15:53.264 --> 00:15:53.985 Amen. 00:15:53.985 --> 00:15:55.307 It pays to serve God. 00:15:55.307 --> 00:15:57.408 Come on, lift your hands and receive the word tonight.