Unusually Normal

God doesn’t just hover at a distance in the Christmas story. He names a town, names a person, sends a messenger, and speaks a word that collides with what feels “normal.” We open Luke 1:26 and walk slowly through Gabriel’s announcement to Mary, paying attention to the shock of being called “highly favored,” the fear that follows, and the deep comfort tucked inside a simple command: fear not.

From there, we trace the promise to its center: Jesus Christ, the Son of the Highest, the King on David’s throne, the Savior whose kingdom has no end. We talk about why “With God nothing shall be impossible” is not a slogan but a faith statement anchored in God’s track record from Abraham onward. We also name a real danger for modern life and even church life: letting your day-to-day experience become your final authority, as if God can only fit inside your box.

Then we bring it home. Mary’s answer, “Be it unto me according to thy word,” becomes a blueprint for the kind of faith that heals, steadies, and moves a person to action. We connect the message to the exhaustion many people carry, the cycle of guilt, loneliness, and chasing temporary highs, and we give a direct invitation to call on Jesus for salvation and a new identity. If you’re hungry for revival, real joy, and a faith you can actually live on Monday, press play, share this with a friend, and leave a review so more people can find it.

(Recorded Live on December 10, 2025 at Grace Baptist Tabernacle in King, NC)

Transcript

Welcome And Luke Reading Setup

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Hallelujah. Amen. Good to gather in the Lord's house together tonight. Hallelujah. And good to have you with us around the world as well. Especially several new people joining us on YouTube multiple times every week. And we're thankful for that. We're glad to have you with us. And glad to be reaching people both right around us and also reaching people halfway around the world as well. And so we'll be in the Gospel of Luke tonight. And we'll start in verse 26. And it's one of those same times where the Lord sequeled Sunday's message. But he didn't tell Pastor Chris. Amen. Glory to God. Amen. Hallelujah. And so this will be a little bit of a different view on the Christmas account, I guess you might say. But um the birth of Jesus and the announcement of Gabriel to Mary. And at least I've never heard it preached this way. But I believe the Lord has something both for the lost tonight and for his church tonight at the same time. Amen. And so we'll come into it in verse 26. And in the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee, named Nazareth, to a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph of the house of David, and the virgin's name was Mary. And now this was completely normal to God. This was the Lord God Almighty being the Lord God Almighty. This is the God who is love, and the God who is faithful, and the God who is true, and the God who is good, and the God who is holy. This is God being God. What's normal to God is what's really normal. No matter what the world says. What's normal to God is normal. And this is normal. And so God is being God. God dispatches the angel Gabriel, who was freshly returned from an encounter with Zechariah and his wife Elizabeth, and freshly returned from that. And God sends him back again down to Israel. And you'll notice that God sends Gabriel to a specific city in a specific region to a specific young lady who was espoused to a specific man who was of a specific house, and this was a specific time. Completely normal to God. God

God Knows You Specifically

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absolutely knows you. This would not be the first time nor the last time that the Lord would do this sort of thing. He comes to specific people in specific situations, specific time, specific place, specific purpose, specific word. So glory to God. God knows you better than you know yourself, my friend. God loves you more than you love yourself. God has a passion for you beyond any sort of human passion, beyond any sort of worldly passion. God has a specific word for you tonight. He's coming to you, and you're a specific person, you're in a specific place, you're in a specific circumstance, in a specific region, in a specific city, in a specific time and place, and you're just going about your life. Mary's just going about life. As a young Jewish lady. And the angel comes into her. And then the Lord speaks. And my what a word he had. Started with hail, thou art highly favored. The Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women. And this word, um, this is a cheerful greeting. Uh the word looks a little bit like the word for grace in the Greek. This is a cheerful, joyous, bursting in, life-filled greeting. Um, and and and it went on, you know, highly favored. The Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women. Oh, now, now, doubtless, in Mary's case, you know, God was certainly culturally known. Um, you know, especially in this time, in this place, in this history, um, you know, among the Jewish people, they knew um, yeah, there's a God. Um, yeah, he he spoke of what I mean. We honestly haven't heard from him for 400 years. But but way back there, um, yeah, back um Abraham, yeah, God talked to him. And then uh then Isaac and then Jacob, and then there was um Joseph. Um God, God's he, you know, God, man, did he use Joseph? And then my, we we got up to the time of Moses and Aaron, and God was speaking everywhere. You know, God's given the law, God's pillar of cloud, pillar of, you know, and then we had the prophets and the prophets and the prophets. And then it went from being out here somewhere to God is speaking to me right now. Oh, and it got different. You see, this to the human experience, this is abnormal. This doesn't happen. Um, even in a lot of churches today, um you know even in this church, um, when God starts speaking, wait a minute, wait you know, he's the Wednesday night guy, that's the Sunday morning guy, we have a Sunday night, and we we have we know how to deal with these people. But when God starts speaking, it's passionate, it's direct, it's immediate, and it's powerful. When the Lord starts to move, the glory of God starts to move. And then, you know, Mary, um, you know, she's coming in, um, a highly favored woman of God. Um, just like, you know, we heard of a you know, a priest, and he was a righteous man. Yeah, we we had this, you know, the same thing. You know, it's it's just not normal for God to talk. This is a highly favored woman. The Lord is with her, and she's blessed among women, and when she saw him, she was troubled. This is this is a word. This was a great disruption.

When God Speaks It Disrupts

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Among the people of God, God speaking was a great disruption. Even when God led, see, God can't win. God led with a joyful, cheerful, pleasant blessing. And she's still troubled, and then um she went back and she just she's human. This does not compute. Kind of started casting in her mind, started trying to reconcile what's in front of her with all of her experience, with all of her knowledge, with all of her feelings, with all of everything that she had heard and seen and believed and taken in and experienced up to that point. She starts to reconcile two things that can't be reconciled. Cast in her mind what manner of salutation this should be. I mean, it's it's a simple one. It's joyful, it's happy, it's good, it's blessed, the Lord is with you, highly favored. And she's like, What on earth is this? Normal to God, abnormal to people. God's not supposed to do this. Even when it's good, God's supposed to stay in his box. But the problem is, God is God, and God's coming to bless, and God's coming to announce, and God's coming excited, and God's coming passionate. And the angel kept on speaking, hallelujah and amen. And I wonder how if the angels ever got tired of saying this sort of thing. Say it all the time. Fear not. And the angels, you know, a little while, yeah, the shepherds again, fear not, fear not, fear not, fear not, Mary. For you have found favor with God. And behold, you shall conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shall call his name Jesus. He shall be great, he shall be called Son of the Highest, and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David, and he shall reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there shall be no end. Mary, you are going to conceive the Son of God. You are going to conceive a king above all kings. You are going to conceive the Messiah of Israel. You are going to conceive someone who's will be great. There's no one like him before, no one like him after. You are going to conceive the Savior of humanity and mankind's past, present, and future. Hallelujah. Favor with God, King of all kings, Lord of all lords, the throne of his father David. Moses talked about him. All the way through David, all the way through the kings, builds up for generations, and now Mary. This is God's time, and you are God's woman. And my friend, it it goes on. You know, Mary said to the angel, How shall this be? Seeing I know not a man. And then the angel brings in the Holy Ghost. Hallelujah and Amen. The Holy Ghost. I I don't know if anyone ever heard of Holy Ghost before this. Amen. You know, the Holy Ghost shall come upon you, and the power of the highest shall overshadow you.

The Promise Of Jesus The King

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Therefore, also that holy thing. I love that word. That there's never been anything like this. This is going back to what the Lord said to the woman in the garden. That holy thing which shall be conceived, born of you, shall be called the Son of God. And then, my friend, look at look at this. And behold, your cousin Elizabeth. See, the Lord knows. The Lord knows our position, that his speech to us, we we are that separated from God. Now, when God shows up, even in a lot of churches, when God shows up, and when God draws near, and when God rises up in his people, there are times when his people need a little human encouragement. Behold, your cousin Elizabeth, she hath also conceived a son in his old age, in her old age, and you know she would bear. But she has conceived a son. And this, right now, Mary, she's six months pregnant. For with God, see, I love how how God He's He's the Lord. And yet He takes this human view. He with God nothing shall be impossible. I know you're separate from me. I know this is strange. I know this is just doesn't make sense to you. I know you've heard about it for a long time. I know you've probably gone and they probably read these verses in the synagogue that talked about this. You've probably heard rabbis, you've probably sung songs, you've gone up to the temple, and you you've seen the temple. Um, you've seen everything, you've heard people talking about Moses. And now I'm standing right in front of you, and I'm speaking, and you're blessed, and you're highly favored, and you need a little human encouragement with it. And you need to be reminded. You see, this ought to take you right back to Abraham and Sarah. Because the Lord said something real similar. With God, nothing shall be impossible. This has proceeded out of the throne of God, and it shall come to pass. And with God, remember, church, nothing shall be impossible. Because God said it, and my friend, you might be in a position, God said it a long time ago. He said it decades ago. Oh, it's still just as good. Just as much out of the mouth of God as when man he told Abraham one day, you know, this people are going to come out of you, they're going to be in Egypt for like 400 years. But all the way through that 400 years, my word's still good. It is proceeded out of the mouth of the Most High and is coming directly to you. And with God, nothing shall be impossible. Why? Because God said it. God's not going to say something that's impossible for him to perform, he's not going to make a promise that is impossible for him to perform. Hallelujah and amen. So, my friend, turn your eyes to the Lord today. Turn your eyes to the Lord. Because, my friend, this is humanly unusual, but it is the plain working of God. And my friend, there's a danger. There's a deadly, deadly, deadly danger in resting on your human experience.

With God Nothing Is Impossible

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On resting on what your eyes have seen and what your ears have heard in this life. Resting upon the day-in, day out normal of what you know to be true. And no one's doubting that. No one's doubting that you have a day-to-day normal. You have knowledge. Um, you know, we here in America, we have a you know, a cultural, you know, rhythm. There are things we do every day, you know, and you just kind of go through your day. Um, you know, in Mexico and Japan and, you know, Europe, um, you know, down in Australia, things there's the same thing. There's a culture, there's a rhythm, there's a shared cultural knowledge, there's a shared cultural sociology, there's a shared all this stuff that's shared, and we just know it to be normal. But my friend, God is not of this world. God is not of your culture, God's not American, um, God's not Mexican, God's not Japanese, God's not Brazilian, he's not German, he's not Canadian, um, he's he's not he's not of any human culture, and yet he is God. And so when God breaks in, and when God starts speaking, and when God interrupts you, you you you have you have a a moment's choice. How are you gonna respond to him? How are you gonna respond? And so we saw Mary, and she just says, Behold the handmaid of the Lord, be it unto me according to thy word. Now she didn't understand holy thing born of you more than anybody else. She wasn't, you know, somehow above other women. Um This is a what we in America would call a girl. And she just takes it and says, Well, behold, the handmaid of the Lord. You're my Lord, and I'm your servant. Be it unto me, according to your word. It's just a simple faith. No matter how unusual it sounded, no matter how abnormal this was. She never probably never heard the term Holy Ghost again. I mean, but God is saying it. And so, amen. God is saying it so joyfully, sweetly, and simply, yes, and amen. Be it unto me. And my friend, that's that's a sweet thing. That right there will change your life. That right there will bring you a lot of healing. That right there will remove all anxiety. Remove all fear, um, remove all uncertainty, remove all loneliness. That right there. Remove all gloom, doom, and despair. That a simple faith. Because my friend, you you look around yourself and you see just constant cycles of death, constant cycles of gloom and doom and despair, especially in America. You just see a lot of anger coming out of folks. You just see a lot of this the effects of loneliness and the effects of isolation and the effects of um you know just just despair, the effects of lust, the effects, and people have their good days, and people have their not so good days, and they're the ones who are kind of judging themselves, and so um, but I'll tell you where it goes. I mean, there's a separation from God, and it goes inevitably to death. And my friend, God is breaking into your life now, and he's saying, I did this a long time ago. What does this mean for you? This is the greatest expression of my heart for this world that's ever been made, it's ever will be made. The day that I came to you,

Be It Unto Me By Faith

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the day that I personally took on flesh to come for you, not to destroy you. Yes, I am a king, yes, I am Lord, yes, I am your God, and that does not mean I am here to destroy you. That means I am here by my authority, passion, will, and love to save you, to save you from a never ending cycle of death, to save you from hell itself, and to give you by my word, eternal life, to give you by my word healing. By my word, forgiveness. By my word, a joy. A joy that is not situational. Because joy is not situational. Now you can be just as aggressively, assertively joyful in a dark, dark place as you can in the middle of a church service. You're the same person in church, and you're the same person over there. And there's no contradiction. There's no fear, there's no beating down, there's no shame. And bless God, people see it. Bless God, people respond to it. Bless God, they don't know what they're responding to, but they're responding to something. They're responding to the light of the world that just walked into their workplace, that just walked into their house, that just walked into their restaurant. They're responding to Jesus, the light of the world. And my friend, what cycle do you know? Your experience has taught you. You've had your good days, and you've had your bad days, and you've had a lot of brokenness along the way. You've had a lot of letdowns. You've had a lot of hurt. You've hurt other people, and other people have hurt you. And then you you get something like this. And you can't put it into words. You get something like this. And you don't know what it is. It doesn't compute up here. You don't know why, but you feel somewhat ashamed. You don't know why, but all of that the guilt starts to be there. But you you see all the life over there. And you know that you want it. My friend, I'm I'm here to tell you you're in the presence of the holy. You're in the presence of the holy, and all of a sudden you start realizing how unholy you are. That this is what the holy is saying, and this is what the holy is doing. The holy is not here to destroy you. The holy is not here to strike you down. The holy is here to make you to be holy. The holy is here to give you life and not death. The holy is here to heal, and the holy is here to save, and the holy is here to cover, and the holy is here to adopt, and the holy is here to reconcile. The holy is here. Um you'll you'll be delivered from these constant cycles of death. But that's just the beginning. You have a life of walking with God, you have a life of being in Christ and Christ in you. You have a life, a life that you never dreamed to be possible. A life without the constant burden and the constant buzz and the constant hum and the constant pull to death. You have a life that that doesn't diminish, it doesn't go away. It's not just an experience. You know, people get excited about movies, people talk about movies, people talk about uh TV shows as one big TV show, everyone's waiting for like New Year's Eve, you know, and it's finally gonna end after five, uh I don't know how many years. But you know what? 15 days, 30 days after it ends, no one's talking about it anymore.

From Cycles Of Death To Joy

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No one cares, really. Um, it's just YouTube clips, you know, again and again, and bad-looking memes and stuff like that. And it's just, you know, it kind of gets pulled into the undertow of the internet. And then it's on to the next thing. The next thing. Oh boy, we got these movies coming out in April. Why we got these movies coming out in May? And then we see them. We got these songs coming out, and then we get tired of hearing them. On to the next thing, on to the next thing, on to the next thing. The whole time you're drowning. The whole time. You know, it the the the hurt always comes back. Uh the high always wears off. You always you go into the movie theater, you always walk out. You know, and there's the real world again. Because he just took a few minutes to escape. And you really bought into it, and you're really into it, and then the reality comes crashing back in again. Am I talking about something you understand? Something you live? God's telling you there's something better. God's telling you there's a better way. Why should you die? Why should you die? You know what I named my son Jesus? I named him salvation. I named him Savior. And that's what I do. I'm coming up to you to save you. Yes, theologically speaking, you're you're saved from the wrath of God, but you're also saved from that cycle of death. Why? Because that's not who you are anymore. You wake up every day, you're a saint. You know what that means? You're holy. If you're in Christ today, like right now, you're holy. No matter how you feel, no matter what you think, no matter what you've done, no matter what you haven't done, you're holy. By the word of God and the power of the Holy Ghost, because of the blood that Jesus shed, and that the Father accepted, you are holy. So you're a saint. You're also adopted, you're also an heir, you're also a bondservant, you're also part of the bride of Christ, you're also part of the church. You are the pillar and the ground of the truth in this world. You are salt and you are light. And that's just about 15 20 seconds. But that's what you are. Oh my friend, do you believe these things? My friend, my lost friend, do you do you want this God? Are you sin weary? That's a good old term. Are you s are you sick of the sin and sick of the guilt? To the point where you will humbly call upon the name of the Lord Jesus to be saved, and say, Jesus Christ, save me a sinner and make me a saint. Because my friend, you know, Mary didn't stop there, and that's you know, the angel departed, Gabriel departed. Um, but look at verse 39. And what a picture this is. And Mary arose. Miracle of miracles. Mary arose. She didn't just get over it. It wasn't just about that experience with the angel, because the experience ended, and she went to bed, and she woke up, and and you know, the the world kind of kept on churning along. But she went somewhere different. This is kind of what we skip over in the Christmas story, amen. Uh, she went, she arose and she went to the hill country, and she did it with haste, into a city of Judah, and entered into the house of Zacharias and saluted Elizabeth. This was about 60, 70 miles south of Nazareth, uh, of Galilee, of you know, where she was. Um, she goes, and that that was no small thing in those days, and you have to kind of wonder what the neighbors thought, and you have to kind of wonder what Joseph thought. Yeah, you know, what you know, what was going on? All of a sudden, you know, she she's she's gotta get up and she's gotta go down to Judah. Bless God and amen. It wasn't just about the experience, it wasn't just about Gabriel and seeing Gabriel and hearing about this and hearing a good message and hearing about how, oh, yeah, I am highly favored, and yeah, the Lord is with me. But man, church, this is old testament. This is still old testament. Um, she is she she just heard about the Holy Ghost, but you have the Holy Ghost inside of you. And she got up and she went, and she did something,

Mary And Elizabeth Confirm The Word

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and she went and she in the house of Zecharias and saluted Elizabeth. And it came to pass when Elizabeth heard the salutation of Mary, the babe that was given of God to Elizabeth leaps up, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost. What on earth? Filled with the Holy Ghost. Her baby got filled with the Holy Ghost, she got filled with the Holy Ghost, and she starts speaking out. See, the Holy Ghost starts moving, and people start doing stuff, speaking out with a loud voice, and she starts echoing what the Holy Ghost gave Gabriel to say. Blessed are you among women, blessed is the fruit of your womb. Whence is this to me that the mother of my lord, Elizabeth knows who this is. She didn't know before. The Holy Ghost told her the mother of my Lord should come to me. For lo, as soon as the voice of your salutation sounded in my ears, the babe leaped in my womb for joy. And blessed is she, Mary, this is you. Blessed is she that believed. For there shall be, oh, bless God, church, there shall be a performance of those things which were told her from the Lord. Oh, what a meeting this was. What a sweet confirmation for Mary. And what a word is it for us today. You see, she she got up and she spoke. And as soon as Mary spoke, as soon as Elizabeth heard, something happened in Elizabeth. And Elizabeth spoke. Back and forth they went because Mary would Mary would sing. Back and forth they went, back and forth they went. Oh, church, what a life the Lord has for you. My lost friend, what a life the Lord has for you. Tell me, do you see misery here? Tell me, my lost friend. Do you see crushing bonds of legalism here? No. Do you see anything less than joy here? Do you see anything less than a living hope here? Do you see anything less than healing here? Elizabeth was an older woman at this time. And yet the Lord may and she wasn't able to have children before this time. But the Lord took care of that. And what a child she bore. Do you see anything less here than life and life abundantly? Because I'm telling you, it's not just for these women. The church isn't like a bunch of you know special people. We don't have some sort of hidden knowledge. We didn't get really good at morality. We didn't get really good at you know self-discipline. We didn't get really good at that. And then kind of earn our way. I'm not telling did a moral code do this? Did morality do this? Did law do this? Did humanity and human culture do this? No, we got a word from God through an angel. In the Old Testament time. Now you're getting a word from God through the church, which is the New Testament time. And that word from God is just as sweet and just as powerful and just as loving. Um, the God who blessed is she to believe, my friend, if you that's you tonight. Blessed are you who have believed. For there shall be a performance. Oh my lost friend. Everything the Lord said is true. The blood is true, the Holy Ghost is true. The life is is life, and it's abundant and it's full, and it's joyful, and it's free. Believe on the Lord, and there shall be a performance of those things which were told you from the Lord tonight. My friend, if our musicians will come forward. Um, my lost friend, you have only to call upon the name of Jesus. Um, not about giving a lot of money, not about memorizing a Bible, uh, not about um going to church service after church service. But my friend, if you happen to be in a church building tonight, well, hallelujah. But if you're in your living room, if you're in your car, if you're you know behind a phone somewhere, um where wherever you are, the Lord is there.

Call On Jesus Revival And Closing

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And the Lord is with you. How do I know he's with you? He's the one talking to you. So of course he's with you. Speak back to him. Let the faith that's in your heart come up into words and call upon him, ask him to be saved. Um, my friend, if you know, and some folks that you know especially have trouble with that. Again, because we're not used to God speaking, and so we're not used to speaking to God. Borrow God's words. Lord, perform these things, make me a saint, forgive me, make me new, make me different. I love you, I want you. Come into my life, please. Behold me. Behold me, your servant, behold me, your handmaid. See, it's not really about the words, it's about the faith. But my friends, speak to the Lord tonight. And may it be in faith. Because, my friend, he won't he won't despise you, he won't throw you away, he won't push you away. He'll save you. He'll make you new. And you'll be right right there with Mary, right there with Elizabeth. Yeah, the Lord is true. Amen. And church, um, what a time to arise. What a time to go forward. What a time to walk in faith. Um, no matter what that means for you. You see, church, um, the thing about revival is that before revival happens, the church is asleep. Sometimes it's asleep for a long time. Sometimes it's bound up by strife, it's bound up by hurt, it's bound up by old wounds and old addictions. Um because um, you know, one terrible day you went with the devil instead of the Lord. But when the Lord comes to you, it might seem strange. But if it be of the Lord, tell you what, it'll never contradict the word. It'll never add to the word, it'll never subtract from the word. And you'll be able to see it in the old testament and the new. So I invite you, if you see if you think this message is weird, test it. Try it. You know, I I believe John as much as you do. Try it. See if it be of the Lord. And if it be of the Lord, blessed are you who believe it. Amen. And so, thank you for being with us and share these. Um, thank you for all of you who are you know watching these and sharing these and liking these and sending these out. Thank you. Um, and more even more than that, get in touch with us. Um, we want to hear from you, we want to hear your responses, uh, we want to hear um how we can pray for you. Uh, we want to meet you in person. And so feel welcome and feel expected and feel encouraged to come and meet us in person here in team. And thank you for being with us and may the Lord continue the which we bless us.