Ready. Set. Hope!

Hope is the highlight of the Christmas story. 

This week the podcast is focusing on the story of Mary, the mother of Jesus and remember that the good news of great joy is for ALL people.

Here are 3 takeaways:

True strength and significance are found in surrendering to God. Surrender can be tough—especially for those of us who like to be in control!  Mary’s story reminds us of the power found when we say “let it be.”  Believing that we are ambassadors of God’s love for the world is where we find our purpose and strength. 

Your purpose and worth aren’t defined by what you do or what others say. It is easy to believe lies spoken over us. We all need someone in our life—like Elizabeth was for Mary—to remind us of who we really are and speak God’s truth over us.

God’s faithfulness gives us hope even in the hardest times. Whether you’re celebrating or struggling this season, the Christmas story reminds us that God is with us in every circumstance. 

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Transcript

0:00

Hey friends, On the podcast, I'm sharing a sermon I preached when I was a pastor- that power thoughts give us joy and hope. I hope that you enjoy this, and if you do, please share it with somebody. Merry Christmas. Welcome to the Live A Vibrant Life podcast. I'm life coach Kelly Tibbitts and each week I'll be here to encourage and equip you with the tools you need to grow in self-awareness and invest your best energy in your dreams and your purpose. I believe self-awareness changes everything. Let's get started. In surrender, we find strength and significance those are great words aren't they? But how many of you agree with me, they're a little hard to live out. I find surrender hard because I like my own plans. Does anyone else have a calendar that's a little past capacity. It would be nice if everything just sort of worked the way you wanted it to. A few weeks ago, My daughter and I, going to take the train in. go see a concert in Boston. And we get there and I'm just proud of us. Like we've done all the things we've gotten there. You need cash to get into the train garage Did you know that? And I don't carry cash. Do you? We had$0 between us. I had friends who I talked to that night and they're like scraping quarters out of their car. I don't even have$8 in quarters. Like I have no cash to get into the garage. Not only that, I thought I'd be smart and like just really pair down my purse. I don't even have a debit card. I have one credit card and I'm driving around trying to figure out how to get a cash advance on my credit card. We got our cash and we get there and we get onto the train and do you know what happened? Has this ever happened to you before? It was like a divine appointment. I get on the train and I meet Margot. And Margot does not know how to do any of the few things I know how to do, like find your ticket on your phone. That's how Ticketmaster sends it to you. And we just have this beautiful conversation the whole way in. It was one of the most powerful nights of my life, to sit with thousands of people and sing the words to a song called I Surrender All. All to Jesus. I surrender. I surrender all. I meant it, but I do what most of you do as well We forget, don't we? We forget The truth of who God is. That's why I'm so thankful for scripture. Today we're going to talk about the surrender of Mary. I don't know how old you are, but you've probably been hearing this story every single Christmas for most of your life. My prayer is that God would take a word or a phrase from this message and dig it deep into your heart for this Christmas season. God is calling you and I to the same thing. To be able to rest in his goodness. And know that we can surrender and find our strength in him. We're going to start in the book of Luke chapter one. Did you ever wonder how Mary's story ended up there? This book is written, by Luke. What many scholars think is Mary sat across from Luke. And she said, let me tell you what happened. Let me share the story of what God did for me. We're going to look at Mary's strength. And Mary's significance. Because here we are over 2000 years later and we're still talking about a teenage girl from Palestine and that would never have happened without the power of God in her. If you open the Book of Luke, it starts with Luke explaining why he's writing the story. He goes back a little bit. There's another important woman in this story, and her name is Elizabeth. She's the cousin of mary. So he's going to give a backstory on who Elizabeth is. She's married to a priest named Zacharia. He's a man of significance, and Elizabeth is finally pregnant. And in that time, having a child is so important for the significance of a women. In Luke one Elizabeth is about to have a son. Mary is not married. She's engaged, which is almost legally the same thing, but she's not married. She has a future with Joseph, and something changes. I feel like that's how it happens for all of us. We're just walking our day to day life. We have a plan. We think this is where I'm going. This is two years and five years in 10 years, in 20 years. And all of a sudden something comes and we have to decide in that moment can we surrender? If I had known while I was driving around it was all going to work out. I was going to get on the train and I was going to meet somebody. It was going to be beautiful. Would I have had more peace? I hope so. I have to be aware of his presence. God is with me. He gives me his peace, Luke 1:26 in the sixth month of Elizabeth's pregnancy, this is Mary's cousin Elizabeth. God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a village in Galilee to a virgin named Mary. And she was engaged to be married to a man named Joseph, who was a descendant of King David. Gabriel said, greetings favored woman, the Lord is with you. Do you see that Greetings, favored woman, the Lord is with you. Look at how Mary responds. Confused and disturbed. Mary tried to think, what does this angel mean? I think she had a plan and all of a sudden an angel is here and it might be disturbing her plan. The angel says, don't be afraid. Mary, you have found favor with God. You will conceive and give birth to a son and you will name him Jesus. He'll be very great and he'll be called the son of the most high and the Lord will give him the throne of his ancestor david. He will reign over Israel forever. His kingdom will never end. 2000 years later, we are still celebrating this kingdom of God. Mary says to the angel, how can this happen? I'm a virgin. The Holy Spirit will come upon you. The angel says The power of the most high will overshadow you and this baby born to you will be holy. He'll be called the son of God. What's more your relative Elizabeth has become pregnant in her old age, people thought she was barren, but she conceived a son. She's now in her sixth month. And this, is a word I want you to take with you today. What does this mean to Mary? It means she is being told by God something that she couldn't even begin to ask or imagine. She's being asked to surrender these plans for a different plan. Do you notice that the angel didn't say, Mary, this is what happened. The Holy Spirit overtook you and you are now pregnant? No. The Holy Spirit will do. You know that she gets to still have an answer here. What does she say with words of wisdom? Let let it be. Let's look at Mary's response in verse 38. I'm the Lord's servant. May everything you have said about me come true. In other translations it's simply this- let it be. As you walk through this Christmas season what you're going to need is a confidence that goes deep into your soul that God's favors with you. He loves you. You can say something as simple as let it be. Take a deep breath in and breathe out and say, let it be. May everything you have said about me come true. And the angel left her. What we see in this scripture is surrender. Mary, giving up the hopes and dreams and whatever else that she thought would be the most important, and saying to God, your will be done I may not understand, but I know that you are good. That is what the good news is for us. We can surrender today to a God who is good, to a God who is powerful, to a God who loves us. My next word for you is that in surrender we find significance. There was a path for Mary that she could almost see. As she walked through life, she could see this good man, Joseph, and this ability to come and be together and have a family and do the things that her brain could comprehend all on its own. God saw her. The angel said, you have found favor with God and you will be the one that brings Christ into this world. Do you know today that you bring Christ into this world? You are the only one that knows the people you know. You are the only one with the influence you have, and you get to do this. You get to bring Christ into this world. So how are we going to do this? How are we going to walk in this Christmas season in surrender, walking into our significance? Another word for significance is purpose.. Do you know what happens as we're walking through life? Lies are spoken over us, and we begin to believe lies instead of truth. If you had 30 minutes today, you could probably take a notebook and fill it up with things that people have said. You could bring it to God and say, is this true? And he would say, no. I know who you are. You're highly favored and you're loved, and you're wanted, and you're his son and his daughter. Maybe for some of us in this season that feels so dark and so alone and so painful. We need to be reminded of our purpose. We need to go back and remember that little first grader or second grader that knew to the core of who they were, that. They were made on purpose by a God who loves them. My favorite reason why we meet here together every week, and that is that children are being spoken over and told who they are in Christ. That's the reason I stand here today. People said, I see this in you. I think this about you. We're going to help you move towards the purpose that God created you for. That's what you and I get to do We get to remind people of their purpose, of their significance. Mary's was found in her surrender. Luke chapter one, verse 41. Mary going to see her cousin Elizabeth, because the angel told her that this miraculous thing that nobody would believe was true. Elizabeth was going to have a child. And the scripture says, when Mary walks into the room and says hello to Elizabeth, Elizabeth's child leapt within her. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and she gave a cry and she exclaimed to Mary. God has blessed you above all women. Your child is blessed. Why am I so honored that the mother of my Lord should visit me? When I heard your greeting, the baby in my womb jumped for joy. And would you look at this verse with me?"You are blessed because you believed that the Lord would do what he said." If we don't go deep into the scriptures, we are unable to realize the significance. Elizabeth is married to Zacharia and he is an important priest. And so Elizabeth is actually the person of significance in this story. But when Mary walks in, God has flipped the tables. Mary is the mother of Emmanuel, God with us. And in Elizabeth's body John the Baptist recognizes Jesus and he leaps for joy. Elizabeth is able to proclaim truth over Mary. I think Mary did what you and I do. Took a step forward and then began to wonder, could this be true? Could I be the mother of the long awaited Messiah? The angel said Elizabeth would know. Go to her house and see. Do you have friends like that who come alongside you and put their hand on their on your shoulder and say, you know what, you are who God says you are? Because we need that. I wouldn't be here today if my life wasn't full of people who kept saying, I know you don't see it yet, but we see what God is doing. Mary needed that. She needed to go to Elizabeth and have Elizabeth remind her, Mary, I know right now you don't believe it, but I'm going to speak it over you. My baby lept with joy because you believed the Lord would do what he said. This is what I want us to take with us today. Don't look to the left or the right in your life and look by sight. Allow the faith of God to be what moves you forward. You are made on purpose. It is okay to surrender your life to the God who made you and loves you. He will never leave you. He will never, ever forsake you. When those hard moments come, you are not alone. In Luke, chapter one, we see Mary preach, are you ready for it? Verse 46. Mary responds. Oh, how my soul praises the Lord, how my spirit rejoices in God, my savior. How my spirit rejoices in my savior for he took notice of his lowly servant girl. And from now on, all generations will call me blessed. I've been, walking this path as the executive pastor here for three years. It's not easy for me to lead. There are people who walk in a room and everyone's like leader, and people love to follow them. I just, I don't find it easy to lead. What I love about Mary's story is I don't think she found it easy. But God was with her an d called her. and she was faithful. What God blesses is our faithfulness. He blesses when we believe what the Lord says He does it in a powerful and mighty way. And we all get to celebrate HIM. That's what I love when she says, all generations will call me blessed she's not being arrogant. She's not pointing out, oh, hey, guess what? I was a servant girl, but now I'm the mother of Jesus and you're all going to call me blessed. What she's saying is the truth. Here we are 2000 years later. And we look at her and say, wow, Mary. You got to be the mother of Jesus. This is not an arrogant Mary. This is a humble Mary saying, wow! God. All generations will call me blessed because of you. The mighty one. He's holy and he has done great things for me. And he shows mercy from generation to generation to all who fear him. And that word has two meanings. It does mean fear him. I think if we were at the top of a mountain and a giant thunderstorm came through, we would understand a little bit about the fear of the Lord, but it also means to be in awe of him. I think sometimes when we walk through the Christmas story, year after year, we lose the awe-of here is a simple servant girl and God used her to bring Emmanuel to us. In our surrender, we find our significance. We continue on through Luke chapter two. This is where it gets a little more familiar. If you've watched Charlie Brown, you've heard this story. I want to go to verse four where it says, Joseph by now has brought Mary to the town of Nazareth and Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem. They've moved along where God has called them to. He's gone to Bethlehem to register with Mary because a census has been called. You know what happens? Their firstborn son is born and he's wrapped in cloth and placed him in manger, and the shepherds come. What I love here is in 2:16, it says, the shepherds come and they find Mary and Joseph and the baby. And when they've seen him, they leave and they go tell everybody what happened. But Mary, Luke 2:19 says, Mary kept these things in her heart and she pondered them. Any moms here? I'm a mom of older children. It's so easy for me to get emotional over this verse because of Taylor Swift. Has anyone seen her Christmas tree video Oh my goodness. So she's made a beautiful Christmas song, showing videos of herself as a little kid with her mom going to pick the Christmas tree. And I am just crying. Because I remember going to pick the Christmas tree with little kids who wanted the big one that didn't fit in the house. I know what it's like to ponder. I know what it's like to treasure. I know what Mary's feeling right here. Mary, you're blessed because of your faith. Mary, you're going to be the one who brings Emmanuel to rescue the people and bring them back into relationship with God. Mary. You're going to be the one who holds this baby in your arms. But a few verses later, Simeon is going to proclaim, and it's not all going to be easy. It's one of the hardest things you have to teach your children, isn't it? Life is not going to be easy. No matter how much we try to protect them and keep them safe. Mary pondered the truth of God in her heart. God was faithful. Do you know what Mary needed? She needed strength. Some of you need strength right now and some of you need strength and a bright hope for tomorrow. That is what I want to remind you. In verse 48 and 49 in chapter one, Mary said you took this lowly servant girl, but from now on, all generations will call me blessed. Strength is going to come when we remember the great things that God has done. We're the ones who get to go out with the strength of Jesus and go proclaim the good news that Jesus Christ was born. So what does that mean for you and I today? I think it means different things for each of us. Were walking through life and we're thinking and feeling and doing life completely differently than the person next to us. And let's be honest, that's what makes Christmas so hard, right? You're sitting around a table and this person, you're like, why do you think that? And why do you do that? There's joy in being together as family, but it can be so hard. So today I want to give you a few words, and not all of them are for you, but I hope that one of them is for you. You can surrender to the God who made you, who loves you,. The God who is good. You can find your significance in the purpose that he has made for you. And you can find your strength in him. Sometimes that strength is going to be found with the people who come alongside you and hold you up while you're crying. At other times, the strength is going to be the person who just takes one moment and sends you an email or a card. Or the blessing of bringing you a coffee when you didn't even know you needed one. God is just that good. Some of us- we're sitting here and the Christmas season is feeling overwhelming, and we're losing our ability to just rest in the joy of Jesus. God didn't love Mary anymore or less based on anything she did. He loved her and she knew it. Some of us give and we give, and we burn ourselves out. Your significance is not found in anything you do. If you stopped doing things today for the whole rest of your life, and you laid in bed and you received the love of God, do you know that's enough? That you are special and unique. God has given you a word. Do not be afraid. Some of us are going to say, but I am afraid. Any of you afraid. I'm afraid. What does surrender look like to you? Does it look like you can say, let it be. In this world, you will have trouble, but take heart, have courage, have peace, have strength, surrender. Jesus has overcome the world. That is the good word that Mary brings for us today. Mary treasured these things in her heart. Mary chose to surrender. Thank you for joining the Live A Vibrant Life podcast. I hope our time together encourage you and will equip you with the tools you need to move into the vibrant life you desire. I'm here to help you live a brave, creative, purpose-filled life. And if you'd like to learn more. You can follow me on Instagram or Facebook, Kelly tibbits life coach, or visit my website kelly tibbits.com. I look forward to connecting again soon.