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Better Together

God's Christmas Promise to YOU! - Episode 1121

December 15, 2025 | S7 E1121 | 52:34

God's Christmas Promise to YOU! - Episode 1121
Why did Mary say "yes" to God? During a season of darkness and oppression, God launched His rescue mission to save a hurting world. On the first Christmas, our Eternal Hope was born--Jesus is the fulfillment of every promise. | TBN Prayer Line: 714-731-1000
#Christmas #Jesus #Worship #Faith #Miracles #PromisesofGod #Messiah #Hope #Eternity #Humility #Submission #Redemption #Gratitude #VirginBirth #Prophecy #Surrender #TrustGod #Timing #Obedience #LaurieCrouch #CeCeWinans #SheilaWalsh #LisaHarper #KalleyHeiligenthal

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Better Together | God's Christmas Promise to YOU! - Episode 1121 | December 15, 2025
  • - for thousands of years, the world waited for the messiah,
  • 00:00:00.023 --> 00:00:03.493
  • And then a young woman says yes to god's plan, and a
  • 00:00:03.493 --> 00:00:07.530
  • Savior is born.
  • 00:00:07.530 --> 00:00:08.932
  • Christmas reminds us that god always keeps his promises.
  • 00:00:08.932 --> 00:00:12.168
  • Come on, let's talk about it.
  • 00:00:12.168 --> 00:00:13.837
  • ♪ (music playing)
  • 00:00:13.837 --> 00:00:41.297
  • - so when i found out that i was pregnant with our first little
  • 00:00:42.499 --> 00:00:45.368
  • Baby, it was right before christmas time, 2014, wow,
  • 00:00:45.368 --> 00:00:52.775
  • It's a little blurry now, but you get that test back and
  • 00:00:52.775 --> 00:00:56.079
  • There's nothing like it because you know conceptually
  • 00:00:56.079 --> 00:00:57.514
  • Having a baby changes everything.
  • 00:00:57.514 --> 00:01:00.049
  • But when you're holding that test, you realize in a whole
  • 00:01:00.049 --> 00:01:05.155
  • Other way, i'm-- something, everything's
  • 00:01:05.155 --> 00:01:07.023
  • About to change here.
  • 00:01:07.023 --> 00:01:08.291
  • And i'll never forget going to my first appointment and
  • 00:01:08.291 --> 00:01:12.462
  • Thinking, is there something wrong?
  • 00:01:12.462 --> 00:01:14.063
  • I don't have the bump yet.
  • 00:01:14.063 --> 00:01:15.098
  • Where's the bump?
  • 00:01:15.098 --> 00:01:16.132
  • You know, i'm only, what, seven, eight weeks
  • 00:01:16.132 --> 00:01:18.168
  • Along, you know?
  • 00:01:18.168 --> 00:01:19.335
  • But conceptually, mentally, i'm aware everything's
  • 00:01:19.335 --> 00:01:22.639
  • Changing, but on the outside, nothing looks different.
  • 00:01:22.639 --> 00:01:24.974
  • Everything else is the same, and i'm holding this secret on
  • 00:01:24.974 --> 00:01:28.845
  • The inside.
  • 00:01:28.845 --> 00:01:30.079
  • Well, i go to the appointment, and i was shocked through
  • 00:01:30.079 --> 00:01:32.649
  • Every pregnancy, it never gets old.
  • 00:01:32.649 --> 00:01:34.851
  • They go in, they listen to the heartbeat, you know, they
  • 00:01:34.851 --> 00:01:37.487
  • Measure your belly, and then they kind of say, well, good.
  • 00:01:37.487 --> 00:01:40.790
  • Everything looks great.
  • 00:01:40.790 --> 00:01:41.758
  • Any questions?
  • 00:01:41.758 --> 00:01:42.926
  • And i just thought, surely there's something else we
  • 00:01:42.926 --> 00:01:46.029
  • Should be covering here.
  • 00:01:46.029 --> 00:01:47.130
  • I'm growing i don't know how to do this.
  • 00:01:47.130 --> 00:01:50.867
  • I'm not, tell me, what am i doing wrong?
  • 00:01:50.867 --> 00:01:53.169
  • What should i do differently?
  • 00:01:53.169 --> 00:01:54.437
  • And it's this miracle that starts so small and you expand
  • 00:01:54.437 --> 00:01:59.576
  • And you grow with it.
  • 00:01:59.576 --> 00:02:01.744
  • And i think there's so many profound parallels as we're
  • 00:02:01.744 --> 00:02:05.014
  • Talking about christmas this week that jesus would come
  • 00:02:05.014 --> 00:02:09.452
  • In that way.
  • 00:02:09.452 --> 00:02:10.787
  • And i think mary getting this proclamation, you know, she's
  • 00:02:10.787 --> 00:02:13.856
  • This visitation from angels and you know, in luke 1 we
  • 00:02:13.856 --> 00:02:17.560
  • Have, "greetings oh favored one, the lord is with you" and
  • 00:02:17.560 --> 00:02:21.364
  • She is understandably you know terrified but i think about
  • 00:02:21.364 --> 00:02:25.168
  • How mary fostered this information this promise that
  • 00:02:25.168 --> 00:02:28.905
  • Came as a seed.
  • 00:02:28.905 --> 00:02:30.506
  • The seed form and you know when you're pregnant before
  • 00:02:30.506 --> 00:02:34.777
  • You're even showing you begin to make these life changes
  • 00:02:34.777 --> 00:02:37.580
  • Your diet needs to adjust, you rest and you sleep more, and
  • 00:02:37.580 --> 00:02:40.883
  • You're not lifting heavy things, you're checking in
  • 00:02:40.883 --> 00:02:44.988
  • With the right people, doctors.
  • 00:02:44.988 --> 00:02:46.656
  • And mary's progression here of being visited by you know this
  • 00:02:46.656 --> 00:02:50.960
  • Angel and she asks a really great question i think i would
  • 00:02:50.960 --> 00:02:54.764
  • Be asking as well, so how?
  • 00:02:54.764 --> 00:02:56.966
  • How is this going to happen?
  • 00:02:56.966 --> 00:02:58.835
  • And she ends with, "i'm the servant of the lord let it be
  • 00:02:58.835 --> 00:03:05.408
  • Into me according to your word." - wow, right.
  • 00:03:05.408 --> 00:03:07.310
  • - and then we get to this glorious song, mary's song.
  • 00:03:07.310 --> 00:03:10.346
  • But i think about what she must have done between the
  • 00:03:10.346 --> 00:03:14.417
  • Fear that would have been there.
  • 00:03:14.417 --> 00:03:17.654
  • Well, i'm a young girl, i'm not married.
  • 00:03:17.654 --> 00:03:19.622
  • How is this all going to happen?
  • 00:03:19.622 --> 00:03:21.491
  • And the answer is kind of not the step-by-step guide of how
  • 00:03:21.491 --> 00:03:25.828
  • She's going to live the whole rest of her life this way.
  • 00:03:25.828 --> 00:03:28.965
  • And she, with openness, embraces this promise.
  • 00:03:28.965 --> 00:03:35.071
  • - it's so interesting that at the end of the old testament,
  • 00:03:35.071 --> 00:03:37.707
  • There's 400 years of silence, you know, of jewish people who
  • 00:03:37.707 --> 00:03:42.478
  • Were waiting for messiah, who were praying.
  • 00:03:42.478 --> 00:03:46.716
  • But god wasn't speaking anymore.
  • 00:03:46.716 --> 00:03:48.151
  • It wasn't speaking through the prophets.
  • 00:03:48.151 --> 00:03:49.852
  • There was just the silence from god.
  • 00:03:49.852 --> 00:03:52.422
  • But when the angel came and made the announcement on the
  • 00:03:52.422 --> 00:03:56.392
  • Hillside that christ was about to be born, it was the answer
  • 00:03:56.392 --> 00:04:01.698
  • To prayers from generations of people who had poured their
  • 00:04:01.698 --> 00:04:05.201
  • Tears into the ground, and god had finally spoken again.
  • 00:04:05.201 --> 00:04:09.539
  • And that one night split history into two.
  • 00:04:09.539 --> 00:04:14.177
  • That's how we recognize we have before the birth of
  • 00:04:14.177 --> 00:04:16.446
  • Jesus, and we have after the birth of jesus, his birth
  • 00:04:16.446 --> 00:04:20.149
  • Changed everything.
  • 00:04:20.149 --> 00:04:22.318
  • - what did she do to create this ecosystem for the promise
  • 00:04:22.318 --> 00:04:27.890
  • And the way that we do when we're carrying these babies?
  • 00:04:27.890 --> 00:04:31.461
  • What did she do to go from this place to this soul
  • 00:04:31.461 --> 00:04:36.265
  • Magnifies the lord, this prophetic declaration from the
  • 00:04:36.265 --> 00:04:40.002
  • Deep of her.
  • 00:04:40.002 --> 00:04:41.304
  • And she is declaring who this messiah is and it's not the
  • 00:04:41.304 --> 00:04:44.974
  • Messiah that was expected.
  • 00:04:44.974 --> 00:04:46.943
  • I mean, but she's sensing this, picking up on this,
  • 00:04:46.943 --> 00:04:50.380
  • Prophetically about jesus, the messiah, who's growing
  • 00:04:50.380 --> 00:04:54.517
  • On the inside.
  • 00:04:54.517 --> 00:04:55.752
  • And i can't help but think her ecosystem of asking the
  • 00:04:55.752 --> 00:04:59.088
  • Question, how, but with an eagerness to listen, an
  • 00:04:59.088 --> 00:05:03.659
  • Eagerness to, i'm not this contrary, not resistant, but
  • 00:05:03.659 --> 00:05:07.830
  • Listening, and then this open-handed, let it be unto me
  • 00:05:07.830 --> 00:05:10.833
  • As you've spoken.
  • 00:05:10.833 --> 00:05:12.201
  • I don't get how, i don't know the details here.
  • 00:05:12.201 --> 00:05:14.871
  • What's another ecosystem that she did?
  • 00:05:14.871 --> 00:05:16.672
  • She went to elizabeth and she's surrounded by people who
  • 00:05:16.672 --> 00:05:21.744
  • Had a vision for this promise where others maybe didn't.
  • 00:05:21.744 --> 00:05:25.681
  • How do we know that?
  • 00:05:25.681 --> 00:05:26.883
  • Elizabeth addresses her the same way the angel did.
  • 00:05:26.883 --> 00:05:30.319
  • "blessed are you among women, favored one." elizabeth is
  • 00:05:30.319 --> 00:05:35.224
  • Picking up on the supernatural nature of this seed form of
  • 00:05:35.224 --> 00:05:40.663
  • The promise on the inside and mary burst forth
  • 00:05:40.663 --> 00:05:45.001
  • With this proclamation.
  • 00:05:45.001 --> 00:05:46.636
  • And i just think what an example for us when we're
  • 00:05:46.636 --> 00:05:50.106
  • Carrying these promises, these declarations from the lord,
  • 00:05:50.106 --> 00:05:53.876
  • Where we may think this sounds crazy and how are we going to
  • 00:05:53.876 --> 00:05:57.380
  • Get from the promise to the fruition?
  • 00:05:57.380 --> 00:05:59.982
  • What does this look like?
  • 00:05:59.982 --> 00:06:01.484
  • I think there's so many points in here of how she carried
  • 00:06:01.484 --> 00:06:06.656
  • Herself that would result in mary's song of magnifying the
  • 00:06:06.656 --> 00:06:10.960
  • Lord, of declaring who this christ child is before he's
  • 00:06:10.960 --> 00:06:15.431
  • Even out in the world.
  • 00:06:15.431 --> 00:06:17.834
  • There's just something so extraordinary about mary's
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  • Heart, this surrender of, i don't know what this all looks
  • 00:06:20.269 --> 00:06:23.940
  • Like and the cost could be really great, but i trust you.
  • 00:06:23.940 --> 00:06:27.777
  • And not only do i trust you, i am bringing this exaltation,
  • 00:06:27.777 --> 00:06:33.015
  • This magnifying of the lord with gratitude, why?
  • 00:06:33.015 --> 00:06:36.586
  • Because i know the works of your hands.
  • 00:06:36.586 --> 00:06:38.588
  • I don't know how this one's going to end, but i know that
  • 00:06:38.588 --> 00:06:41.324
  • It's good because i've seen the god of abraham,
  • 00:06:41.324 --> 00:06:43.860
  • Isaac, and jacob.
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  • I've known your faithfulness in that story, and i know that
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  • It's going to be true for me.
  • 00:06:48.865 --> 00:06:50.166
  • And you see her pulling from this past and singing it as if
  • 00:06:50.166 --> 00:06:54.871
  • It is her story because it is.
  • 00:06:54.871 --> 00:06:58.341
  • - there's so much to be gleaned from mary as this word
  • 00:06:58.341 --> 00:07:02.578
  • Is given to her and not an easy one.
  • 00:07:02.578 --> 00:07:05.581
  • And it makes me wonder today, what has it been like for you
  • 00:07:05.581 --> 00:07:10.386
  • Carrying promises when nothing's showing?
  • 00:07:10.386 --> 00:07:14.056
  • There's no evidence to the world around you.
  • 00:07:14.056 --> 00:07:17.460
  • And you're entrusting the lord to do.
  • 00:07:17.460 --> 00:07:20.429
  • He is doing the work to create and to form on the inside.
  • 00:07:20.429 --> 00:07:25.701
  • But we need to kind of posture ourselves in agreement.
  • 00:07:25.701 --> 00:07:31.340
  • What has that process been like for you?
  • 00:07:31.340 --> 00:07:34.210
  • - you know, one of the things i think is fascinating is when
  • 00:07:34.210 --> 00:07:36.612
  • I was a teenager, i was in a classical choir.
  • 00:07:36.612 --> 00:07:39.081
  • And so we sang that magnifica.
  • 00:07:39.081 --> 00:07:40.616
  • "my soul doth magnify the lord and my spirit rejoices in god,
  • 00:07:40.616 --> 00:07:43.719
  • My savior.
  • 00:07:43.719 --> 00:07:44.954
  • For he has regarded the lowliness of his handmaiden."
  • 00:07:44.954 --> 00:07:47.323
  • And i think her response to the angel isn't, well, how
  • 00:07:47.323 --> 00:07:52.962
  • Incredible am i?
  • 00:07:52.962 --> 00:07:54.196
  • Her response is, i have no clue how that could happen.
  • 00:07:54.196 --> 00:07:59.468
  • And it doesn't change who i am.
  • 00:07:59.468 --> 00:08:01.470
  • It just helps me understand more who god is.
  • 00:08:01.470 --> 00:08:03.773
  • Because i think the lord usually asks us to do things
  • 00:08:03.773 --> 00:08:06.409
  • That we think, there's just no way, lord.
  • 00:08:06.409 --> 00:08:07.877
  • For me, the key to mary is one thing, and it's she said yes.
  • 00:08:07.877 --> 00:08:11.981
  • To me, saying, yes, changes everything.
  • 00:08:11.981 --> 00:08:14.684
  • Changes everything.
  • 00:08:14.684 --> 00:08:15.551
  • - and it's an immediate, yes.
  • 00:08:15.551 --> 00:08:18.421
  • I love to compare and contrast hannah's song.
  • 00:08:18.421 --> 00:08:22.458
  • You know, hannah's struggle with infertility, totally
  • 00:08:22.458 --> 00:08:25.161
  • Different story, because everybody wanted her to get
  • 00:08:25.161 --> 00:08:27.096
  • Pregnant.
  • 00:08:27.096 --> 00:08:28.264
  • Because her sister wife, panina, was fertile myrtle,
  • 00:08:28.264 --> 00:08:30.733
  • And had all these kids.
  • 00:08:30.733 --> 00:08:31.834
  • And hannah's like, i just want one child.
  • 00:08:31.834 --> 00:08:33.669
  • I just want one child.
  • 00:08:33.669 --> 00:08:34.971
  • But the parallel is between when god hears hannah cry and
  • 00:08:34.971 --> 00:08:39.909
  • She became pregnant with samuel she sings a song that
  • 00:08:39.909 --> 00:08:43.112
  • Is so similar to mary's magnifica and both of them
  • 00:08:43.112 --> 00:08:47.116
  • Were just astounded by the goodness of god.
  • 00:08:47.116 --> 00:08:49.752
  • I can get it in hannah, because she's older and she's
  • 00:08:49.752 --> 00:08:53.656
  • Spent a long time waiting on the lord.
  • 00:08:53.656 --> 00:08:56.392
  • Mary's response you know, to have that kind of faith that
  • 00:08:56.392 --> 00:09:00.129
  • Young i think that will always be one of the wrinkles in the
  • 00:09:00.129 --> 00:09:04.066
  • Chirstmas story that slays me and i will tell you there's
  • 00:09:04.066 --> 00:09:07.370
  • Times when i see missy at 16 with this fresh faith that if
  • 00:09:07.370 --> 00:09:12.274
  • I'm not careful in mine, mine becomes rot.
  • 00:09:12.274 --> 00:09:14.844
  • So i do love you talking about how do we, how do we steward
  • 00:09:14.844 --> 00:09:20.049
  • That miracle when no one else sees it yet.
  • 00:09:20.049 --> 00:09:23.219
  • And i think hannah and mary in those songs show us the first
  • 00:09:23.219 --> 00:09:27.089
  • Step is thank you.
  • 00:09:27.089 --> 00:09:28.724
  • Thank you, thank you, thank you.
  • 00:09:28.724 --> 00:09:30.693
  • This is not on my deservedness.
  • 00:09:30.693 --> 00:09:32.662
  • It's because you are a good god.
  • 00:09:32.662 --> 00:09:35.665
  • I love that phrase, to steward a miracle.
  • 00:09:35.665 --> 00:09:38.868
  • First of all, it means you recognize you didn't give
  • 00:09:38.868 --> 00:09:41.337
  • Birth to the miracle.
  • 00:09:41.337 --> 00:09:42.672
  • To steward a miracle is almost like shepherding a miracle.
  • 00:09:42.672 --> 00:09:45.841
  • You know, god was the author of the miracle.
  • 00:09:45.841 --> 00:09:48.277
  • And you just want to carry it in a way that gives him glory
  • 00:09:48.277 --> 00:09:52.515
  • And allows other people to recognize that is a miracle.
  • 00:09:52.515 --> 00:09:57.153
  • There's no way that person gave birth to that.
  • 00:09:57.153 --> 00:09:59.388
  • But look at why they're stewarding.
  • 00:09:59.388 --> 00:10:01.590
  • So it's being a conduit for the glory of god.
  • 00:10:01.590 --> 00:10:05.895
  • - and i think the best way to see anything come to full
  • 00:10:05.895 --> 00:10:08.864
  • Fruition is to keep your eyes on him.
  • 00:10:08.864 --> 00:10:11.367
  • I think that's what she shows us, you know, to look
  • 00:10:11.367 --> 00:10:16.305
  • At his greatness.
  • 00:10:16.305 --> 00:10:17.440
  • You know, like you said, i don't know how this is
  • 00:10:17.440 --> 00:10:19.675
  • Going to happen.
  • 00:10:19.675 --> 00:10:20.976
  • And what i love what you said when you found out you were
  • 00:10:20.976 --> 00:10:24.413
  • First pregnant, it's like the miracle is going to happen.
  • 00:10:24.413 --> 00:10:27.817
  • God is in control of that.
  • 00:10:27.817 --> 00:10:30.119
  • And a lot of times we think we have to do something, you
  • 00:10:30.119 --> 00:10:33.556
  • Know, but it's keeping our eyes on him.
  • 00:10:33.556 --> 00:10:35.891
  • And saying yes, but worshiping your way through.
  • 00:10:35.891 --> 00:10:39.695
  • - and prophesying, prophesying.
  • 00:10:39.695 --> 00:10:45.334
  • You hear the word of the lord and standing on that and
  • 00:10:45.334 --> 00:10:47.603
  • Prophesying.
  • 00:10:47.603 --> 00:10:49.238
  • You know declaring what i love so much about it is it's
  • 00:10:49.238 --> 00:10:53.709
  • Also joy filled.
  • 00:10:53.709 --> 00:10:56.879
  • So the first thing she says, my soul rejoices and god, the
  • 00:10:56.879 --> 00:10:59.381
  • Angels declared joy to the world.
  • 00:10:59.381 --> 00:11:02.885
  • You know, all the, jesus was bringing joy to the world.
  • 00:11:02.885 --> 00:11:09.892
  • For all people, the good news of the gospel of jesus.
  • 00:11:09.892 --> 00:11:12.661
  • I think declaring and believing and prophesying,
  • 00:11:12.661 --> 00:11:19.969
  • Like mary did, mary took that word.
  • 00:11:19.969 --> 00:11:23.072
  • She pondered that in her heart.
  • 00:11:23.072 --> 00:11:25.274
  • She probably spoke with her mouth so many times.
  • 00:11:25.274 --> 00:11:28.344
  • It wasn't probably just that one song.
  • 00:11:28.344 --> 00:11:30.980
  • She probably sang that all the time, and that's what we
  • 00:11:30.980 --> 00:11:33.749
  • Need to do.
  • 00:11:33.749 --> 00:11:34.984
  • When we get something from god, we need to declare it.
  • 00:11:34.984 --> 00:11:37.353
  • We need to sing it.
  • 00:11:37.353 --> 00:11:38.254
  • We need to believe it.
  • 00:11:38.254 --> 00:11:39.388
  • We need to throw our everything into it, because
  • 00:11:39.388 --> 00:11:41.791
  • That's what he has planned for us.
  • 00:11:41.791 --> 00:11:44.026
  • It's not a question.
  • 00:11:44.026 --> 00:11:45.294
  • God told mary, this is what's going to happen to you.
  • 00:11:45.294 --> 00:11:48.430
  • And so when we throw our hands up and say yes, we can change
  • 00:11:48.430 --> 00:11:51.801
  • The world.
  • 00:11:51.801 --> 00:11:53.469
  • - i do love that she says, how can it be?
  • 00:11:53.469 --> 00:11:56.806
  • And so i do love that luke tells us, she was a little
  • 00:11:56.806 --> 00:11:59.542
  • Discombobulated at the beginning.
  • 00:11:59.542 --> 00:12:01.043
  • But then, yeah, her response, may everything that you've
  • 00:12:01.043 --> 00:12:05.080
  • Said be unto me.
  • 00:12:05.080 --> 00:12:06.315
  • I might say, may the easiest stuff you've prophesied be
  • 00:12:06.315 --> 00:12:09.285
  • Unto me, but she just, this, i mean, extraordinary faith.
  • 00:12:09.285 --> 00:12:13.622
  • I love that you brought up elizabeth, because i think
  • 00:12:13.622 --> 00:12:16.258
  • Sometimes in my life, i have not been as wise, and god has
  • 00:12:16.258 --> 00:12:20.196
  • Given me the seed of a miracle.
  • 00:12:20.196 --> 00:12:22.064
  • And i've been too quick to show the seed to people who
  • 00:12:22.064 --> 00:12:26.001
  • Didn't speak life over it.
  • 00:12:26.001 --> 00:12:27.570
  • And i think that it's simple, but it's profound that she
  • 00:12:27.570 --> 00:12:31.540
  • Knows, i need to go to an older, wiser believer who will
  • 00:12:31.540 --> 00:12:36.879
  • Steward the miracle.
  • 00:12:36.879 --> 00:12:39.515
  • You know, sometimes like i saw a woman recently at a women's
  • 00:12:39.515 --> 00:12:41.584
  • Conference she had a baby it was three weeks old she had
  • 00:12:41.584 --> 00:12:45.354
  • Brought the baby to the conference, and i didn't get
  • 00:12:45.354 --> 00:12:48.457
  • To carry missy i mean i'm so grateful i became a mom
  • 00:12:48.457 --> 00:12:52.027
  • Through the miracle of adoption but even as a woman
  • 00:12:52.027 --> 00:12:54.730
  • Who's never carried a child i wanted to go don't bring that
  • 00:12:54.730 --> 00:12:58.200
  • Three week old around these two thousand women like get
  • 00:12:58.200 --> 00:13:00.569
  • That baby to safe place.
  • 00:13:00.569 --> 00:13:02.071
  • Because i think that that's still so precious and i think
  • 00:13:02.071 --> 00:13:06.275
  • For people who are listening to our conversation this week,
  • 00:13:06.275 --> 00:13:10.746
  • And maybe are new believers or they have something in their
  • 00:13:10.746 --> 00:13:13.816
  • Life that feels real precious but kind of small that's in
  • 00:13:13.816 --> 00:13:16.986
  • Seed form, be careful not to take that to people who will
  • 00:13:16.986 --> 00:13:21.023
  • Speak words of death.
  • 00:13:21.023 --> 00:13:22.391
  • Take that to older believers.
  • 00:13:22.391 --> 00:13:25.628
  • Take that in confidence to people who are safe, who will
  • 00:13:25.628 --> 00:13:28.397
  • Steward that, who will pray with you and for you, because
  • 00:13:28.397 --> 00:13:31.734
  • Sometimes i'm not wise about god whispers something to me,
  • 00:13:31.734 --> 00:13:35.804
  • And then i use a megaphone and tell the world.
  • 00:13:35.804 --> 00:13:37.973
  • And it's like, wait and let it grow.
  • 00:13:37.973 --> 00:13:40.576
  • - and i love too, like, elizabeth's posture here is
  • 00:13:40.576 --> 00:13:44.413
  • One that's so profound to me as well.
  • 00:13:44.413 --> 00:13:46.882
  • It was somebody with more wisdom, with life behind her,
  • 00:13:46.882 --> 00:13:51.086
  • But you look at her journey with zechariah, and it's,
  • 00:13:51.086 --> 00:13:53.889
  • Again, it's very different from mary's.
  • 00:13:53.889 --> 00:13:56.258
  • And i just think how profound that instead of this thing
  • 00:13:56.258 --> 00:14:00.896
  • That could turn cold or like, oh, look how easy it was for
  • 00:14:00.896 --> 00:14:03.499
  • You even though i did get the promise, my
  • 00:14:03.499 --> 00:14:05.501
  • Story was different.
  • 00:14:05.501 --> 00:14:06.302
  • I could withhold.
  • 00:14:06.302 --> 00:14:07.403
  • - she could have been kind of elder brother
  • 00:14:07.403 --> 00:14:09.204
  • And been jealous.
  • 00:14:09.204 --> 00:14:12.508
  • - that could have happened.
  • 00:14:12.508 --> 00:14:13.742
  • And in fact, she concludes with and blessed is she who
  • 00:14:13.742 --> 00:14:15.878
  • Believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken
  • 00:14:15.878 --> 00:14:18.580
  • To her from the lord.
  • 00:14:18.580 --> 00:14:20.082
  • Now, where was the point of contention before it was in
  • 00:14:20.082 --> 00:14:24.386
  • The belief?
  • 00:14:24.386 --> 00:14:25.354
  • It was in that, could this really be?
  • 00:14:25.354 --> 00:14:27.723
  • Could god really do this?
  • 00:14:27.723 --> 00:14:29.425
  • And the recognition, the wisdom, maturity of elizabeth
  • 00:14:29.425 --> 00:14:33.062
  • To regard her, to encourage her.
  • 00:14:33.062 --> 00:14:35.331
  • And i'm like, i do think that immediately after that, mary's
  • 00:14:35.331 --> 00:14:39.501
  • Proclamation, i think it has a lot to do with elizabeth
  • 00:14:39.501 --> 00:14:43.472
  • Partnering in that way, the humility of elizabeth to see,
  • 00:14:43.472 --> 00:14:48.110
  • Because, i mean, humility is all over in this song.
  • 00:14:48.110 --> 00:14:52.247
  • It's all over in this story.
  • 00:14:52.247 --> 00:14:53.582
  • It's, you know, mary being this humble servant, and
  • 00:14:53.582 --> 00:14:57.619
  • Toward the end, he brought down the mighty from the
  • 00:14:57.619 --> 00:15:00.322
  • Thrones, exalted, those of humble estate, he's filled the
  • 00:15:00.322 --> 00:15:03.459
  • Hungry with good things, and the rich he's sent away.
  • 00:15:03.459 --> 00:15:06.195
  • He's remembered to help israel, that there's, the
  • 00:15:06.195 --> 00:15:10.232
  • People who are privy, the people who are holding this
  • 00:15:10.232 --> 00:15:14.003
  • Miracle are the humble ones, whether they were born into
  • 00:15:14.003 --> 00:15:17.639
  • That or they've fought for something and had to step
  • 00:15:17.639 --> 00:15:21.543
  • Into, this was different than i expected, but i celebrate
  • 00:15:21.543 --> 00:15:24.780
  • Your victory as i celebrate mine.
  • 00:15:24.780 --> 00:15:27.383
  • You can see where the lord is hovering.
  • 00:15:27.383 --> 00:15:30.452
  • You can see what he's highlighting, and it's the
  • 00:15:30.452 --> 00:15:34.390
  • Humble, given over reality of the people at play here.
  • 00:15:34.390 --> 00:15:39.061
  • - i love the fact that god picked mary of all people, and
  • 00:15:39.061 --> 00:15:44.133
  • She knows it.
  • 00:15:44.133 --> 00:15:45.200
  • She's like, who am i that you would choose me?
  • 00:15:45.200 --> 00:15:48.404
  • What it means to me is that god will use anyone with a
  • 00:15:48.404 --> 00:15:52.174
  • Willing yes.
  • 00:15:52.174 --> 00:15:53.042
  • God will use anyone who surrendered.
  • 00:15:53.042 --> 00:15:55.577
  • Mary's posture, like, i don't really know how this is going
  • 00:15:55.577 --> 00:15:57.980
  • To work, but let it be unto me as you have spoken, that's the
  • 00:15:57.980 --> 00:16:02.184
  • Qualification is just a laid down, surrendered heart.
  • 00:16:02.184 --> 00:16:06.088
  • And the beautiful thing is, anyone can do that.
  • 00:16:06.088 --> 00:16:08.857
  • I can do that.
  • 00:16:08.857 --> 00:16:09.858
  • That doesn't matter where you came from.
  • 00:16:09.858 --> 00:16:11.326
  • It doesn't matter your education.
  • 00:16:11.326 --> 00:16:13.128
  • Doesn't matter what you make annually.
  • 00:16:13.128 --> 00:16:15.064
  • Anyone can give a yes to the lord and say, i don't know
  • 00:16:15.064 --> 00:16:18.667
  • What this looks like, but i trust you.
  • 00:16:18.667 --> 00:16:20.769
  • And may it be, as you have said.
  • 00:16:20.769 --> 00:16:22.971
  • So the fact that god chose mary to me, should be a great
  • 00:16:22.971 --> 00:16:27.342
  • Encouragement to any one of us.
  • 00:16:27.342 --> 00:16:29.878
  • - one of the things i love most about elizabeth, and we
  • 00:16:29.878 --> 00:16:33.682
  • Read about her in luke's gospel, is that even though
  • 00:16:33.682 --> 00:16:37.319
  • She was going through some really difficult things in her
  • 00:16:37.319 --> 00:16:39.588
  • Own life, she obviously was a woman who kept her heart open
  • 00:16:39.588 --> 00:16:43.092
  • To the lord.
  • 00:16:43.092 --> 00:16:44.393
  • So whenever mary showed up on her doorstep with her news,
  • 00:16:44.393 --> 00:16:48.630
  • There was an instant celebration, an instant
  • 00:16:48.630 --> 00:16:51.366
  • Recognition, this is god at work.
  • 00:16:51.366 --> 00:16:54.436
  • Sometimes god's timing is confusing, you know you kind
  • 00:16:54.436 --> 00:16:56.872
  • Of look at how the lord is working in somebody else's
  • 00:16:56.872 --> 00:16:59.041
  • Life and you think well lord what about me, i've been
  • 00:16:59.041 --> 00:17:01.410
  • Waiting for a long long time, i just want you to know it
  • 00:17:01.410 --> 00:17:04.613
  • Does not mean god loves you any less.
  • 00:17:04.613 --> 00:17:07.049
  • And as you look back i promise you will find god's
  • 00:17:07.049 --> 00:17:10.285
  • Timing is perfect.
  • 00:17:10.285 --> 00:17:13.822
  • - celebrate christmas with our community.
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  • - we want you to join the conversation and connect with
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  • Us on social media.
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  • - ask a question, share a prayer request, and make
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  • Friends with women all over the world getting
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  • Better together.
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  • - let's keep the conversation going.
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  • You can find the better together podcast on your
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  • Favorite listening platform, subscribe today.
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  • ♪ (music playing)
  • 00:17:36.009 --> 00:17:39.816
  • - and i think god's timing too, just, there's so much
  • 00:17:40.884 --> 00:17:44.387
  • Between mary and elizabeth to understand about god's timing.
  • 00:17:44.387 --> 00:17:48.158
  • Because mary was not expecting this, when suddenly
  • 00:17:48.158 --> 00:17:51.361
  • Came upon her.
  • 00:17:51.361 --> 00:17:52.662
  • Elizabeth had been persevering for a year after year, after
  • 00:17:52.662 --> 00:17:56.366
  • Year, after year.
  • 00:17:56.366 --> 00:17:57.667
  • And even the fact that zechariah was in the temple,
  • 00:17:57.667 --> 00:18:01.070
  • Was making the offering at that particular point.
  • 00:18:01.070 --> 00:18:03.406
  • I mean, there were thousands of priests that went with a
  • 00:18:03.406 --> 00:18:05.074
  • Lottery, the fact that god throws him on that day to
  • 00:18:05.074 --> 00:18:09.212
  • Be in there.
  • 00:18:09.212 --> 00:18:10.480
  • It just makes me think, as long as we have to wait a lot
  • 00:18:10.480 --> 00:18:12.949
  • For the fulfillment of what god has spoken to us, but to
  • 00:18:12.949 --> 00:18:15.618
  • Keep showing up and to keep being faithful and to keep
  • 00:18:15.618 --> 00:18:19.055
  • Believing.
  • 00:18:19.055 --> 00:18:19.989
  • - because it'll come right on time.
  • 00:18:19.989 --> 00:18:21.891
  • - yes, it'll come on time.
  • 00:18:21.891 --> 00:18:23.760
  • - yeah, i wonder how much the kind of the pivot point of
  • 00:18:23.760 --> 00:18:27.664
  • Such surrender from mary, to me, it almost feels like that
  • 00:18:27.664 --> 00:18:31.734
  • Verse 38, and mary said, behold, i'm the servant
  • 00:18:31.734 --> 00:18:34.904
  • Of the lord.
  • 00:18:34.904 --> 00:18:35.939
  • Let it be unto me.
  • 00:18:35.939 --> 00:18:37.707
  • According to your will, i wonder how much he even began.
  • 00:18:37.707 --> 00:18:41.678
  • Yes, there's a stewardship reality, but that surrender to
  • 00:18:41.678 --> 00:18:44.547
  • That level.
  • 00:18:44.547 --> 00:18:46.182
  • I wonder how much he just began to work.
  • 00:18:46.182 --> 00:18:49.485
  • The things where our posturing could never even get us there.
  • 00:18:49.485 --> 00:18:52.155
  • Even the ecosystems are important to set up, right,
  • 00:18:52.155 --> 00:18:55.124
  • For the promises for all that, but ultimately, this is the
  • 00:18:55.124 --> 00:18:58.628
  • Work of the lord.
  • 00:18:58.628 --> 00:18:59.896
  • I think our most important moment here, our joining hands
  • 00:18:59.896 --> 00:19:04.267
  • With god, is in whatever you say and everything you say.
  • 00:19:04.267 --> 00:19:09.272
  • Let's do that one, you know?
  • 00:19:09.272 --> 00:19:11.541
  • And i just think, and she didn't wait and
  • 00:19:11.541 --> 00:19:13.910
  • Debate with him.
  • 00:19:13.910 --> 00:19:15.078
  • She didn't say, you know, give me all this time, she
  • 00:19:15.078 --> 00:19:17.013
  • Surrendered herself, submitted underneath the word without
  • 00:19:17.013 --> 00:19:21.284
  • The comprehension or understanding.
  • 00:19:21.284 --> 00:19:24.153
  • - so by surrendering our will, saying, not my will, but thine
  • 00:19:24.153 --> 00:19:28.157
  • Be done, that's how he gets his promises through us, to
  • 00:19:28.157 --> 00:19:32.395
  • Us, and it's just a beautiful thing.
  • 00:19:32.395 --> 00:19:34.864
  • But surrender takes a lot, because we've got to lay it
  • 00:19:34.864 --> 00:19:38.334
  • All on the line and just give it to him and watch
  • 00:19:38.334 --> 00:19:40.637
  • What he can do.
  • 00:19:40.637 --> 00:19:42.672
  • - i always wonder, you know, the verb there when it says,
  • 00:19:42.672 --> 00:19:45.575
  • Y'all know what a word nerd i am, but when the angel
  • 00:19:45.575 --> 00:19:48.411
  • Promises the holy spirit will come upon you.
  • 00:19:48.411 --> 00:19:51.314
  • Because in that culture, the pagans believed in virgin
  • 00:19:51.314 --> 00:19:55.318
  • Birth, kind of virgin birth.
  • 00:19:55.318 --> 00:19:56.586
  • They believe that the pantheon, the greek little
  • 00:19:56.586 --> 00:19:59.255
  • Gods would have relations with human females and
  • 00:19:59.255 --> 00:20:04.327
  • Get them pregnant.
  • 00:20:04.327 --> 00:20:05.295
  • And so that was a type of virgin birth.
  • 00:20:05.295 --> 00:20:07.764
  • So we hear in our culture virgin birth and we're like oh
  • 00:20:07.764 --> 00:20:10.500
  • Well that's only in the christian tradition, in mary's
  • 00:20:10.500 --> 00:20:13.336
  • Culture they actually there were legends of virgin births
  • 00:20:13.336 --> 00:20:17.674
  • With zeus and a woman etc. you know hercules was a
  • 00:20:17.674 --> 00:20:21.644
  • Technically a virgin birth but where gabriel says no this is
  • 00:20:21.644 --> 00:20:25.248
  • Not going to be like anything you've ever heard of, is when
  • 00:20:25.248 --> 00:20:27.917
  • He says when the holy spirit will come upon you it's not a
  • 00:20:27.917 --> 00:20:30.920
  • Physically intimate term.
  • 00:20:30.920 --> 00:20:32.188
  • It's he will come alongside you and it's the exact same
  • 00:20:32.188 --> 00:20:35.858
  • Verb that he gives the disciples at pentecost in
  • 00:20:35.858 --> 00:20:39.128
  • Acts chapter 2.
  • 00:20:39.128 --> 00:20:40.330
  • And so i always wonder, because luke doesn't give us
  • 00:20:40.330 --> 00:20:44.467
  • All the details, i always wonder what happened in the
  • 00:20:44.467 --> 00:20:47.303
  • Immediacy of gabriel saying, the holy spirit is going to
  • 00:20:47.303 --> 00:20:52.075
  • Eperachomai you.
  • 00:20:52.075 --> 00:20:52.942
  • He's going to come alongside you.
  • 00:20:52.942 --> 00:20:54.811
  • And i wonder what in that moment spiritually happened to
  • 00:20:54.811 --> 00:20:58.247
  • Her mind and our heart if there was a little bit of an
  • 00:20:58.247 --> 00:21:02.752
  • Unveiling and she went like i don't need to know any more
  • 00:21:02.752 --> 00:21:05.555
  • Answers i just felt the presence of god in my spirit
  • 00:21:05.555 --> 00:21:08.391
  • In the same way john did backflips in elizabeth's tummy
  • 00:21:08.391 --> 00:21:12.028
  • For joy and she knew this isn't gas.
  • 00:21:12.028 --> 00:21:14.163
  • He's jumping for joy.
  • 00:21:14.163 --> 00:21:16.366
  • I wonder what wasn't written that mary experienced that
  • 00:21:16.366 --> 00:21:20.870
  • Settled her to go whatever you say, i'm in.
  • 00:21:20.870 --> 00:21:23.673
  • That, i don't know, that eperachomai clue always makes
  • 00:21:23.673 --> 00:21:27.910
  • Me curious.
  • 00:21:27.910 --> 00:21:28.811
  • No more questions, just let it be.
  • 00:21:28.811 --> 00:21:30.446
  • - but also, i'm in awe.
  • 00:21:30.446 --> 00:21:32.548
  • Because i think sometimes we forget how young she
  • 00:21:32.548 --> 00:21:34.984
  • Was, you know.
  • 00:21:34.984 --> 00:21:36.452
  • And both her and elizabeth, it shows that there was a
  • 00:21:36.452 --> 00:21:40.890
  • Relationship.
  • 00:21:40.890 --> 00:21:41.891
  • They had to have a relationship.
  • 00:21:41.891 --> 00:21:43.659
  • That just doesn't come out of, oh, okay.
  • 00:21:43.659 --> 00:21:47.430
  • Because you don't get to that level of surrender just from
  • 00:21:47.430 --> 00:21:51.200
  • An experience.
  • 00:21:51.200 --> 00:21:53.469
  • - but relationship is key, isn't it?
  • 00:21:53.469 --> 00:21:54.904
  • - but you're right.
  • 00:21:54.904 --> 00:21:56.239
  • The lord must have been moving on her heart from when she was
  • 00:21:56.239 --> 00:21:57.840
  • Just a little girl.
  • 00:21:57.840 --> 00:21:59.075
  • It would be fascinating to know what she was like, just
  • 00:21:59.075 --> 00:22:03.413
  • As a little lamb when she was just growing up and how god
  • 00:22:03.413 --> 00:22:04.747
  • Was molding her and seeing in her.
  • 00:22:04.747 --> 00:22:06.249
  • Preparing her for that miracle.
  • 00:22:06.249 --> 00:22:08.217
  • Someone who would say yes.
  • 00:22:08.217 --> 00:22:09.752
  • There was somebody a couple months ago and said something
  • 00:22:09.752 --> 00:22:12.989
  • That really challenged me.
  • 00:22:12.989 --> 00:22:14.657
  • He said, courage is not hard.
  • 00:22:14.657 --> 00:22:16.392
  • And i'm listening, thinking, what else are you
  • 00:22:16.392 --> 00:22:18.661
  • Going to say?
  • 00:22:18.661 --> 00:22:19.529
  • He said, it's simply saying yes.
  • 00:22:19.529 --> 00:22:21.664
  • When it comes to feeling god is speaking something to you,
  • 00:22:21.664 --> 00:22:25.101
  • The courage is simply saying yes.
  • 00:22:25.101 --> 00:22:27.370
  • - that's right.
  • 00:22:27.370 --> 00:22:29.238
  • - yes to someone who you totally trust.
  • 00:22:29.238 --> 00:22:31.474
  • But you're right, mary must have started
  • 00:22:31.474 --> 00:22:33.810
  • That journey earlier.
  • 00:22:33.810 --> 00:22:35.678
  • - well, and there she's echoing hannah and deborah.
  • 00:22:35.678 --> 00:22:40.082
  • - she knew the stories.
  • 00:22:40.082 --> 00:22:43.519
  • - so she knew the stories of the scripture.
  • 00:22:43.519 --> 00:22:45.521
  • And cece it would be interesting to know how she
  • 00:22:45.521 --> 00:22:49.692
  • Was raised, because you better bet she knew the oral
  • 00:22:49.692 --> 00:22:52.728
  • Tradition, because she was surprised by gabriel.
  • 00:22:52.728 --> 00:22:56.165
  • But most i would have fallen out and she engaged, she had
  • 00:22:56.165 --> 00:23:01.237
  • The presence of mind to ask the question, her belief
  • 00:23:01.237 --> 00:23:04.707
  • Didn't just start in luke 1.
  • 00:23:04.707 --> 00:23:07.844
  • I bet as a little girl, she did love temple.
  • 00:23:07.844 --> 00:23:10.813
  • She did love the psalms.
  • 00:23:10.813 --> 00:23:12.248
  • She did love going to the high holy feast.
  • 00:23:12.248 --> 00:23:14.617
  • - because you have the maturity of saying yes, but
  • 00:23:14.617 --> 00:23:17.587
  • Also the childlike faith of saying yes.
  • 00:23:17.587 --> 00:23:20.623
  • They're working together.
  • 00:23:20.623 --> 00:23:22.492
  • - i can put myself in her shoes and wonder if there was
  • 00:23:22.492 --> 00:23:26.195
  • This oscillating between, as you mentioned, like, i'm the
  • 00:23:26.195 --> 00:23:30.766
  • Chosen one of all of everyone, and that could, you know, that
  • 00:23:30.766 --> 00:23:34.303
  • Could get to your head.
  • 00:23:34.303 --> 00:23:35.605
  • I also, for me, if it was me, i'm, i would be sitting here
  • 00:23:35.605 --> 00:23:39.141
  • Wrapped up and what are they going to think about me, fears
  • 00:23:39.141 --> 00:23:41.444
  • Of being misunderstood, misinterpreted, and like, is
  • 00:23:41.444 --> 00:23:44.947
  • There a scarlet letter?
  • 00:23:44.947 --> 00:23:46.282
  • I mean, stoned in her culture.
  • 00:23:46.282 --> 00:23:48.251
  • They would call them married because they were considered
  • 00:23:48.251 --> 00:23:51.254
  • Married when we would call it in our culture engaged.
  • 00:23:51.254 --> 00:23:54.557
  • So it's like he had put a ring on it, but they hadn't
  • 00:23:54.557 --> 00:23:57.894
  • Consummated their relationship.
  • 00:23:57.894 --> 00:23:59.762
  • And so during that point of the marriage progression, she
  • 00:23:59.762 --> 00:24:04.901
  • Had every right to be stoned civilly by their culture.
  • 00:24:04.901 --> 00:24:08.070
  • So that's the other thing is, she's saying yes, and death
  • 00:24:08.070 --> 00:24:11.541
  • Could be imminent.
  • 00:24:11.541 --> 00:24:14.710
  • He chose a young woman who was betrothed to a guy named
  • 00:24:14.710 --> 00:24:18.915
  • Joseph but wasn't married.
  • 00:24:18.915 --> 00:24:21.284
  • Knowing it would take a lot of faith to say, yes.
  • 00:24:21.284 --> 00:24:25.955
  • I will lean into your plan, and so of course in the
  • 00:24:25.955 --> 00:24:29.659
  • Sovereignty of god he knew what his response would be.
  • 00:24:29.659 --> 00:24:33.229
  • But big picture, he always chooses the unlikely to pull
  • 00:24:33.229 --> 00:24:37.700
  • Off these incredible miracles and i think part of that is to
  • 00:24:37.700 --> 00:24:41.971
  • Dismantle our idea that you have to be perfect, and you
  • 00:24:41.971 --> 00:24:44.707
  • Have to really be good at what you do in order to be used in
  • 00:24:44.707 --> 00:24:49.178
  • God's kingdom purposes.
  • 00:24:49.178 --> 00:24:52.081
  • - and that the lord would ask that of her.
  • 00:24:52.081 --> 00:24:55.151
  • I know.
  • 00:24:55.151 --> 00:24:56.485
  • It's just, if i'm not careful, sometimes i can look at these
  • 00:24:56.485 --> 00:24:59.388
  • Stories and kind of the very glowing sort of, like,
  • 00:24:59.388 --> 00:25:02.658
  • Nostalgic, happy, cozy way.
  • 00:25:02.658 --> 00:25:05.528
  • But this is like, i mean, there's so much
  • 00:25:05.528 --> 00:25:08.130
  • Going on in this.
  • 00:25:08.130 --> 00:25:09.131
  • There's genocide.
  • 00:25:09.131 --> 00:25:10.433
  • I mean, there's like, herod is going after every firstborn.
  • 00:25:10.433 --> 00:25:13.135
  • So there is so, there's so many dynamics at play here,
  • 00:25:13.135 --> 00:25:16.606
  • Death and in the midst of it, this promise of life, who
  • 00:25:16.606 --> 00:25:19.609
  • Ultimately is coming to bring life forevermore.
  • 00:25:19.609 --> 00:25:22.578
  • But the context here is savage.
  • 00:25:22.578 --> 00:25:25.181
  • It really is.
  • 00:25:25.181 --> 00:25:26.282
  • And i just, i think, yes, on a reputation level.
  • 00:25:26.282 --> 00:25:28.884
  • And then as you're saying, the implications here, it's not
  • 00:25:28.884 --> 00:25:32.688
  • Just shame.
  • 00:25:32.688 --> 00:25:33.990
  • There are far reaching, you know, potential consequences.
  • 00:25:33.990 --> 00:25:38.394
  • And i just, i don't know, sometimes it can be easy for
  • 00:25:38.394 --> 00:25:40.997
  • Me to think, well, if god calls me to something, well,
  • 00:25:40.997 --> 00:25:43.599
  • Then it's gonna feel comfortable, and then i'll go
  • 00:25:43.599 --> 00:25:45.701
  • Viral, and then everyone will applaud me and finally see how
  • 00:25:45.701 --> 00:25:49.872
  • Amazing i've been this whole time.
  • 00:25:49.872 --> 00:25:51.941
  • And it's like, really, this is not the storyline, and the
  • 00:25:51.941 --> 00:25:55.378
  • Lord's not afraid of that.
  • 00:25:55.378 --> 00:25:57.046
  • But we can pull away, i think, from that reality.
  • 00:25:57.046 --> 00:26:00.149
  • We can let things become very glowy, very nostalgic.
  • 00:26:00.149 --> 00:26:04.186
  • And then when it comes to us, we rebuke the thing that the
  • 00:26:04.186 --> 00:26:06.756
  • Lord is doing.
  • 00:26:06.756 --> 00:26:07.990
  • We can say, surely it's not, and do all of our everything
  • 00:26:07.990 --> 00:26:11.293
  • To cast it down.
  • 00:26:11.293 --> 00:26:12.595
  • He's like, no, i've worked for a long time to get you here.
  • 00:26:12.595 --> 00:26:14.563
  • This is exactly the place.
  • 00:26:14.563 --> 00:26:16.399
  • This is the plan.
  • 00:26:16.399 --> 00:26:18.434
  • And i am in this.
  • 00:26:18.434 --> 00:26:20.169
  • And i just think, man, the wisdom to know the difference,
  • 00:26:20.169 --> 00:26:24.040
  • Just because something is uncomfortable, just because
  • 00:26:24.040 --> 00:26:26.475
  • Death feels like it's looming, my reputation completely
  • 00:26:26.475 --> 00:26:29.278
  • Slayed out in front of me.
  • 00:26:29.278 --> 00:26:31.514
  • It doesn't mean that the lord's not in it, and there's
  • 00:26:31.514 --> 00:26:33.916
  • Not this plan that's so much more far-reaching.
  • 00:26:33.916 --> 00:26:37.586
  • That's such a great point.
  • 00:26:37.586 --> 00:26:40.723
  • - you know, probably what i love about mary's story is she
  • 00:26:40.723 --> 00:26:43.459
  • Was saying yes to something that was really
  • 00:26:43.459 --> 00:26:47.196
  • Unknown to her.
  • 00:26:47.196 --> 00:26:48.264
  • She had probably no idea what was going to happen
  • 00:26:48.264 --> 00:26:51.634
  • In her life.
  • 00:26:51.634 --> 00:26:53.035
  • She gives birth to the messiah.
  • 00:26:53.035 --> 00:26:55.871
  • And to say that her life was just beautiful from then on,
  • 00:26:55.871 --> 00:27:00.076
  • Yeah, she got to walk with jesus all those years.
  • 00:27:00.076 --> 00:27:02.712
  • But then it ended in a very terrible, horrible way for her
  • 00:27:02.712 --> 00:27:07.049
  • With jesus dying on the cross.
  • 00:27:07.049 --> 00:27:09.385
  • But her yes was everything.
  • 00:27:09.385 --> 00:27:12.488
  • It meant everything for the world because jesus was going
  • 00:27:12.488 --> 00:27:16.092
  • To rise again.
  • 00:27:16.092 --> 00:27:17.393
  • And so we never know what our yes says yes to, when god is
  • 00:27:17.393 --> 00:27:25.301
  • Asking for us.
  • 00:27:25.301 --> 00:27:27.336
  • And just to know that it can change the world.
  • 00:27:27.336 --> 00:27:30.306
  • So give him your yes today.
  • 00:27:30.306 --> 00:27:32.942
  • I love the walk of faith that we all get to live.
  • 00:27:32.942 --> 00:27:37.246
  • And it's not easy, and it's a narrow way, right?
  • 00:27:37.246 --> 00:27:40.349
  • But it's almost like god says, i'm going to do this.
  • 00:27:40.349 --> 00:27:44.920
  • And you say yes.
  • 00:27:44.920 --> 00:27:47.189
  • Perfect, let's go but then he's going to strip everything
  • 00:27:47.189 --> 00:27:51.026
  • Else away.
  • 00:27:51.026 --> 00:27:52.094
  • And it's going to look completely impossible to
  • 00:27:52.094 --> 00:27:54.964
  • Everyone around you.
  • 00:27:54.964 --> 00:27:56.298
  • And you're like the only one standing there going,
  • 00:27:56.298 --> 00:27:59.368
  • I still believe.
  • 00:27:59.368 --> 00:28:01.237
  • Because he is going to get the glory.
  • 00:28:01.237 --> 00:28:03.439
  • Whether we like it or not.
  • 00:28:03.439 --> 00:28:05.808
  • You know, and our job is to stand and believe.
  • 00:28:05.808 --> 00:28:07.810
  • But i love that we get to do that because then it shows god
  • 00:28:07.810 --> 00:28:12.615
  • In such a magnificent way.
  • 00:28:12.615 --> 00:28:18.420
  • And that, i think, is where mary found herself.
  • 00:28:18.420 --> 00:28:20.456
  • She said, this is impossible that you would stoop down and
  • 00:28:20.456 --> 00:28:24.527
  • Choose me.
  • 00:28:24.527 --> 00:28:25.761
  • Only me and i am the least likely, and you're going to
  • 00:28:25.761 --> 00:28:33.068
  • Birth god in me.
  • 00:28:33.068 --> 00:28:35.971
  • - and i love that you brought that up, and you said it is
  • 00:28:35.971 --> 00:28:39.475
  • Not always comfortable because we are 2,000 years plus past
  • 00:28:39.475 --> 00:28:43.379
  • The incarnation, and now mary is just painted in some
  • 00:28:43.379 --> 00:28:47.983
  • Circles as almost deified herself.
  • 00:28:47.983 --> 00:28:50.352
  • But she wasn't then, because we forget his own town, his
  • 00:28:50.352 --> 00:28:55.891
  • Own village, he grew up in nazareth, 200-300 people.
  • 00:28:55.891 --> 00:28:58.394
  • They rejected him.
  • 00:28:58.394 --> 00:28:59.728
  • You better bet they rejected mary too.
  • 00:28:59.728 --> 00:29:01.297
  • Then she loses her firstborn to a cross.
  • 00:29:01.297 --> 00:29:04.233
  • And so her life was hard.
  • 00:29:04.233 --> 00:29:06.302
  • We see her now through the lens of modernity and go, oh,
  • 00:29:06.302 --> 00:29:09.138
  • Blessed is mary.
  • 00:29:09.138 --> 00:29:11.073
  • Can you imagine how much side-eye she got for the rest
  • 00:29:11.073 --> 00:29:15.077
  • Of her life, but yeah, an angel.
  • 00:29:15.077 --> 00:29:17.546
  • The rest of her life was difficult for saying yes.
  • 00:29:17.546 --> 00:29:21.350
  • Carrying the miracle cost her everything.
  • 00:29:21.350 --> 00:29:24.086
  • - so let me ask you this then, people watching, thinking how
  • 00:29:24.086 --> 00:29:28.324
  • Do you develop that kind of heart in this world, that
  • 00:29:28.324 --> 00:29:32.328
  • We're living which is so bizarre and so full of hatred,
  • 00:29:32.328 --> 00:29:37.433
  • And anger, and competition, and polarization, how do we
  • 00:29:37.433 --> 00:29:41.637
  • Develop a mary heart like that so that when god does come and
  • 00:29:41.637 --> 00:29:47.676
  • Lay something on us, we say yes?
  • 00:29:47.676 --> 00:29:51.046
  • And even when it looks like it's all going wrong, we
  • 00:29:51.046 --> 00:29:53.148
  • Continue to stand and say yes.
  • 00:29:53.148 --> 00:29:55.751
  • How do we do that?
  • 00:29:55.751 --> 00:29:57.920
  • - for me, it's not forgetting what he saved me from.
  • 00:29:57.920 --> 00:30:00.890
  • I don't bring much to the table, but gratitude.
  • 00:30:00.890 --> 00:30:04.627
  • And in his kindness, he has never allowed me to forget
  • 00:30:04.627 --> 00:30:08.764
  • What he's redeemed me from.
  • 00:30:08.764 --> 00:30:10.065
  • And even in his discipline, he's been merciful.
  • 00:30:10.065 --> 00:30:12.835
  • And so i think as long as i'm always able to recognize what
  • 00:30:12.835 --> 00:30:17.172
  • A wretch i was, it's amazing grace, it keeps me saying yes
  • 00:30:17.172 --> 00:30:21.277
  • Because i wouldn't have chosen me.
  • 00:30:21.277 --> 00:30:23.279
  • I've heard too many sermons on "don't look back," and i'm
  • 00:30:23.279 --> 00:30:26.115
  • Like what are you going to do, throw out deuteronomy?
  • 00:30:26.115 --> 00:30:28.284
  • All of deuteronomy is look at what god has done, look at
  • 00:30:28.284 --> 00:30:30.653
  • What god has done, look at what god has done.
  • 00:30:30.653 --> 00:30:32.388
  • I don't want to ever forget what he's redeemed in my life.
  • 00:30:32.388 --> 00:30:36.592
  • ♪ (music playing)
  • 00:30:36.592 --> 00:30:38.694
  • - it is so important to live a life of gratitude because when
  • 00:30:38.694 --> 00:30:43.299
  • You're living a life of gratitude, you understand, you
  • 00:30:43.299 --> 00:30:47.970
  • Get a chance to see how wonderful god is, because
  • 00:30:47.970 --> 00:30:51.507
  • You're more focused on what he's already done, who he is,
  • 00:30:51.507 --> 00:30:56.312
  • And for some reason we love to focus on what we're waiting on
  • 00:30:56.312 --> 00:31:02.351
  • Or what we're praying for.
  • 00:31:02.351 --> 00:31:04.186
  • But today i want to encourage you to look at who god is, and
  • 00:31:04.186 --> 00:31:07.623
  • What he's already done.
  • 00:31:07.623 --> 00:31:09.625
  • And that will give you a spirit of gratitude and also
  • 00:31:09.625 --> 00:31:15.297
  • Allow you to see the kindness and the goodness of god.
  • 00:31:15.297 --> 00:31:18.267
  • - you look at a promised messiah.
  • 00:31:18.267 --> 00:31:23.072
  • You look at the joy of heaven murdered on a tree and i'm
  • 00:31:23.072 --> 00:31:26.308
  • Never going to be cost to that degree, i'm not going to out
  • 00:31:26.308 --> 00:31:33.949
  • Passion that, i'm not going to out surrender that.
  • 00:31:33.949 --> 00:31:36.752
  • But jesus did and i think exactly the holding current,
  • 00:31:36.752 --> 00:31:40.656
  • The o god will you show me again the scars on your hands
  • 00:31:40.656 --> 00:31:46.395
  • And the length you went for me, and let it be personal,
  • 00:31:46.395 --> 00:31:49.531
  • That was for me, that was so that i can live this life
  • 00:31:49.531 --> 00:31:53.669
  • Different, and then i go on and i'm with you.
  • 00:31:53.669 --> 00:31:56.005
  • Like, you did that for me, you did that for my family.
  • 00:31:56.005 --> 00:31:58.674
  • And it will never cost me even close to the sacrifice that
  • 00:31:58.674 --> 00:32:02.444
  • The son of heaven made in coming like this, human form,
  • 00:32:02.444 --> 00:32:07.649
  • Like enduring contractions to be delivered into this mess of
  • 00:32:07.649 --> 00:32:12.721
  • A manger, living life the way that he did and then
  • 00:32:12.721 --> 00:32:16.091
  • Crucified, like, as a criminal, i'm never going
  • 00:32:16.091 --> 00:32:19.528
  • To get close.
  • 00:32:19.528 --> 00:32:20.829
  • And if it feels like my ego is like a big cost to me, then
  • 00:32:20.829 --> 00:32:23.198
  • Let it be.
  • 00:32:23.198 --> 00:32:23.966
  • Do you know what i'm saying?
  • 00:32:23.966 --> 00:32:26.502
  • Like, let, then if it feels like we live misunderstood or
  • 00:32:26.502 --> 00:32:29.605
  • There's, there's things in life that we wouldn't have
  • 00:32:29.605 --> 00:32:31.640
  • Asked for, but it's for the glory of jesus.
  • 00:32:31.640 --> 00:32:33.675
  • It's our honor when we hold that present in our lives,
  • 00:32:33.675 --> 00:32:38.947
  • What jesus did, exactly like you're saying who he's been to
  • 00:32:38.947 --> 00:32:43.052
  • Us, but what he endured for my sake, i will never outdo him,
  • 00:32:43.052 --> 00:32:47.189
  • I will never outdo him.
  • 00:32:47.189 --> 00:32:48.891
  • - no way, no way, no way.
  • 00:32:48.891 --> 00:32:50.826
  • And i just think, i think you just have to, in order to have
  • 00:32:50.826 --> 00:32:54.396
  • That heart and to be able to say yes and be yielded, you
  • 00:32:54.396 --> 00:32:59.301
  • Just gotta get to know him.
  • 00:32:59.301 --> 00:33:00.836
  • - absolutely, and you gotta keep getting to know them.
  • 00:33:00.836 --> 00:33:03.572
  • You know what i'm saying?
  • 00:33:03.572 --> 00:33:05.040
  • No matter how long you walk with them, there's still so
  • 00:33:05.040 --> 00:33:08.310
  • Much of him that you have to learn.
  • 00:33:08.310 --> 00:33:10.712
  • And i just think that because even here sitting here
  • 00:33:10.712 --> 00:33:13.682
  • Talking, we think about, like you said, looking at jesus,
  • 00:33:13.682 --> 00:33:16.952
  • When you say we've withdrawn ourselves, it's like we
  • 00:33:16.952 --> 00:33:19.221
  • Stopped looking at him.
  • 00:33:19.221 --> 00:33:20.489
  • But even for mary, it was before jesus.
  • 00:33:20.489 --> 00:33:22.758
  • So having that relationship with the father god is most
  • 00:33:22.758 --> 00:33:26.995
  • Important.
  • 00:33:26.995 --> 00:33:28.297
  • You know, because that is the only way you're going to be
  • 00:33:28.297 --> 00:33:32.234
  • Able to yield and keep yielding without hesitation is
  • 00:33:32.234 --> 00:33:38.240
  • Knowing that he is who he says he is.
  • 00:33:38.240 --> 00:33:41.710
  • He will do what he says he will do and that he loves us
  • 00:33:41.710 --> 00:33:45.347
  • With that everlasting love.
  • 00:33:45.347 --> 00:33:46.815
  • And that's the thing.
  • 00:33:46.815 --> 00:33:48.083
  • I just love it when we're all faced with stuff like this
  • 00:33:48.083 --> 00:33:52.321
  • Makes no sense at all.
  • 00:33:52.321 --> 00:33:54.590
  • But you know what?
  • 00:33:54.590 --> 00:33:56.458
  • You know the end from the beginning, i don't and there's
  • 00:33:56.458 --> 00:33:59.495
  • Some things he will not show us yeah it's going to take
  • 00:33:59.495 --> 00:34:03.432
  • Total trust, total love, total knowing.
  • 00:34:03.432 --> 00:34:09.705
  • Knowing that he's faithful, he would never do anything
  • 00:34:09.705 --> 00:34:16.378
  • Without purpose he would never do anything to hurt you
  • 00:34:16.378 --> 00:34:18.780
  • Everything, is for your good.
  • 00:34:18.780 --> 00:34:22.951
  • - i think one of the hardest things in life is when you
  • 00:34:22.951 --> 00:34:25.754
  • Don't understand what god is doing.
  • 00:34:25.754 --> 00:34:28.123
  • Maybe you prayed for something in particular, and as far as
  • 00:34:28.123 --> 00:34:30.792
  • You can tell, god has said no or just hasn't answered, and
  • 00:34:30.792 --> 00:34:33.662
  • You don't know what to do, and it doesn't make human sense.
  • 00:34:33.662 --> 00:34:37.966
  • That's one of the greatest challenges.
  • 00:34:37.966 --> 00:34:39.301
  • It's why we're called to live by faith and not by sight or
  • 00:34:39.301 --> 00:34:43.372
  • By feeling.
  • 00:34:43.372 --> 00:34:44.640
  • And that's why i think it's such a gift to the lord when
  • 00:34:44.640 --> 00:34:47.142
  • You and i can determine, even in the midst of a storm, that
  • 00:34:47.142 --> 00:34:50.312
  • We're going to worship him, even before we see the dawn
  • 00:34:50.312 --> 00:34:53.081
  • Break, because we know who he is.
  • 00:34:53.081 --> 00:34:56.852
  • - just to kind of put it in today's world, how important
  • 00:34:56.852 --> 00:35:00.689
  • It is to train your children up in the ways and the
  • 00:35:00.689 --> 00:35:04.293
  • Knowledge of god.
  • 00:35:04.293 --> 00:35:05.794
  • I mean, mary even says at the end, she says, because he can
  • 00:35:05.794 --> 00:35:08.697
  • Never forget to show mercy, she knew that he has helped
  • 00:35:08.697 --> 00:35:13.435
  • His chosen servant she was a servant already.
  • 00:35:13.435 --> 00:35:16.605
  • Israel keeping his promises to abraham and to his descendants
  • 00:35:16.605 --> 00:35:21.944
  • Forever so she knew there was a promise.
  • 00:35:21.944 --> 00:35:24.413
  • She knew we need to raise our kids knowing the god of
  • 00:35:24.413 --> 00:35:27.983
  • Promise, knowing his word, to where that yes is like
  • 00:35:27.983 --> 00:35:34.356
  • Absolutely i'm here for it, let's go.
  • 00:35:34.356 --> 00:35:36.225
  • - and they know why they're saying yes and they know who
  • 00:35:36.225 --> 00:35:38.860
  • They're saying yes too.
  • 00:35:38.860 --> 00:35:40.162
  • - i think david really had it right when he said, i would
  • 00:35:40.162 --> 00:35:46.068
  • Bring you an offering or a sacrifice if that's what you
  • 00:35:46.068 --> 00:35:49.071
  • Wanted, but what you really want is a broken and contrite
  • 00:35:49.071 --> 00:35:52.074
  • Heart, one that is available, you want a yes from me.
  • 00:35:52.074 --> 00:35:56.345
  • And i look at the story of jesus, we see mary, we see
  • 00:35:56.345 --> 00:35:59.982
  • Elizabeth, anna and simeon it's all of these yeses, and i
  • 00:35:59.982 --> 00:36:03.619
  • Think that's what moves the heart of god as people willing
  • 00:36:03.619 --> 00:36:06.188
  • To to look and say whatever it is may it be unto me as
  • 00:36:06.188 --> 00:36:09.791
  • You have spoken.
  • 00:36:09.791 --> 00:36:12.761
  • And so i think what we do is is the reminder of we could
  • 00:36:12.761 --> 00:36:17.866
  • Give him all of these grand things all these things that
  • 00:36:17.866 --> 00:36:19.468
  • We assume he would want.
  • 00:36:19.468 --> 00:36:21.436
  • But really the one thing he's asking for is our hearts is
  • 00:36:21.436 --> 00:36:25.307
  • Our availability, our trust, and our leaned in, yes.
  • 00:36:25.307 --> 00:36:27.075
  • Let's give him what he's asking for.
  • 00:36:27.075 --> 00:36:31.880
  • - be the first to know all the latest better
  • 00:36:31.880 --> 00:36:34.750
  • Together updates.
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  • ♪ (music playing)
  • 00:36:41.723 --> 00:36:42.009
  • ♪ (music playing)
  • 00:36:42.009 --> 00:36:50.099
  • - trusting god's promises will give you a fresh perspective
  • 00:36:51.267 --> 00:36:53.670
  • Because it really has a way of eliminating all of the other
  • 00:36:53.670 --> 00:36:58.107
  • Voices, all of the other noise that will bring confusion,
  • 00:36:58.107 --> 00:37:02.578
  • That will discourage you.
  • 00:37:02.578 --> 00:37:04.914
  • When you just begin to just take god at his word and
  • 00:37:04.914 --> 00:37:08.384
  • Totally trust him.
  • 00:37:08.384 --> 00:37:10.353
  • Then the pressure lifts because you understand that
  • 00:37:10.353 --> 00:37:13.189
  • God is faithful, he is not a man that he should lie, and if
  • 00:37:13.189 --> 00:37:15.992
  • He said it, he's going to do it.
  • 00:37:15.992 --> 00:37:18.361
  • ♪ (music playing)
  • 00:37:18.361 --> 00:37:24.200
  • - i love everything about this.
  • 00:37:24.200 --> 00:37:25.401
  • You know, mary's song is the longest spoken words of a
  • 00:37:25.401 --> 00:37:28.438
  • Woman in the new testament, you know, and it was forbidden
  • 00:37:28.438 --> 00:37:32.008
  • To be saying in places.
  • 00:37:32.008 --> 00:37:34.010
  • The history of it is just kind of shocking, isn't it?
  • 00:37:34.010 --> 00:37:36.512
  • And then you just read it.
  • 00:37:36.512 --> 00:37:38.414
  • And i love the part in it where it says the mighty one
  • 00:37:38.414 --> 00:37:41.517
  • Has worked a mighty miracle for me, his name is holy.
  • 00:37:41.517 --> 00:37:47.523
  • Holy is his name, he's bringing jesus.
  • 00:37:47.523 --> 00:37:52.061
  • Man that's the biggest miracle of all.
  • 00:37:52.061 --> 00:37:55.098
  • - for me practically at the moment like this week this
  • 00:37:55.098 --> 00:37:58.334
  • Week in terms of keeping that kind of heart i was telling
  • 00:37:58.334 --> 00:38:02.238
  • Cece this morning when we're kind of getting ready that we
  • 00:38:02.238 --> 00:38:04.640
  • Just have had a busy week.
  • 00:38:04.640 --> 00:38:05.975
  • I think we're probably all had a busy week.
  • 00:38:05.975 --> 00:38:08.144
  • I was tired coming in here and then yesterday my flight from
  • 00:38:08.144 --> 00:38:11.748
  • Dallas was cancelled.
  • 00:38:11.748 --> 00:38:12.949
  • And then the next flight was cancelled and then it was
  • 00:38:12.949 --> 00:38:14.684
  • Like, you'll have to move from dfw to lovefield, go to a
  • 00:38:14.684 --> 00:38:17.320
  • Different airport, this would be the better airport
  • 00:38:17.320 --> 00:38:18.988
  • To get in.
  • 00:38:18.988 --> 00:38:20.189
  • And then i wake up this morning and i'm just tired,
  • 00:38:20.189 --> 00:38:22.458
  • You know, i'm just like, lord, i'm tired.
  • 00:38:22.458 --> 00:38:23.826
  • So what i've learned is the power of worship in the midst
  • 00:38:23.826 --> 00:38:28.231
  • Of the what's not working.
  • 00:38:28.231 --> 00:38:29.565
  • So, cece, on my iphone, i have all your albums, but this one
  • 00:38:29.565 --> 00:38:34.437
  • Song, is he worthy?
  • 00:38:34.437 --> 00:38:38.107
  • So i'm sitting at the end of the bed and i'm like, lord,
  • 00:38:38.107 --> 00:38:41.344
  • I'm tired, and i listen to the words, and it's like, i mean,
  • 00:38:41.344 --> 00:38:44.847
  • By the end of it, i'm on my feet because,
  • 00:38:44.847 --> 00:38:47.450
  • Yes, he's worthy.
  • 00:38:47.450 --> 00:38:49.986
  • And it's good for us to remember these things.
  • 00:38:49.986 --> 00:38:51.387
  • Yes, it makes such a difference for me
  • 00:38:51.387 --> 00:38:53.423
  • At the moment.
  • 00:38:53.423 --> 00:38:55.391
  • - that's awesome.
  • 00:38:55.391 --> 00:38:56.259
  • It's awesome.
  • 00:38:56.259 --> 00:38:57.126
  • So thank you.
  • 00:38:57.126 --> 00:38:58.461
  • - in my own life, worship is a huge part of my faith journey.
  • 00:38:58.461 --> 00:39:02.899
  • Even like this morning before i came over to the studio,
  • 00:39:02.899 --> 00:39:07.036
  • Better together.
  • 00:39:07.036 --> 00:39:09.205
  • I was really, really tired.
  • 00:39:09.205 --> 00:39:10.306
  • It's been a busy few days, a busy few weeks, a
  • 00:39:10.306 --> 00:39:13.209
  • Busy few years.
  • 00:39:13.209 --> 00:39:15.812
  • And i found myself kind of struggling a little bit, but
  • 00:39:15.812 --> 00:39:19.415
  • Wanting to be here and wanting to be able to share whatever
  • 00:39:19.415 --> 00:39:22.585
  • God puts in my heart with you guys.
  • 00:39:22.585 --> 00:39:24.587
  • And so what i did was i put on worship music in the room
  • 00:39:24.587 --> 00:39:28.458
  • Where i was staying.
  • 00:39:28.458 --> 00:39:29.692
  • And there's just something about joining in with others
  • 00:39:29.692 --> 00:39:33.162
  • And remembering how awesome god is, no matter
  • 00:39:33.162 --> 00:39:36.365
  • What's going on.
  • 00:39:36.365 --> 00:39:37.800
  • I love that.
  • 00:39:37.800 --> 00:39:39.101
  • I love that when jesus taught his closest friends to pray,
  • 00:39:39.101 --> 00:39:41.637
  • He said to them, pray our father who art in heaven,
  • 00:39:41.637 --> 00:39:45.308
  • Lord, hallowed be thy name.
  • 00:39:45.308 --> 00:39:46.676
  • Before we ask for anything else, before we do anything
  • 00:39:46.676 --> 00:39:49.745
  • Else, we tell god how much we love him, and it shifts
  • 00:39:49.745 --> 00:39:53.616
  • Something inside of us.
  • 00:39:53.616 --> 00:39:55.351
  • - but i think the word of god, communication with the lord,
  • 00:39:55.351 --> 00:40:00.056
  • To me, prayer is like, it used to be on my to-do list, now
  • 00:40:00.056 --> 00:40:04.160
  • It's on my who i am list.
  • 00:40:04.160 --> 00:40:06.262
  • Because it's just, you know, it's relational.
  • 00:40:06.262 --> 00:40:08.931
  • That's right.
  • 00:40:08.931 --> 00:40:10.233
  • And then, because i think to the level that you trust god,
  • 00:40:10.233 --> 00:40:13.736
  • I think trust is what love looks like.
  • 00:40:13.736 --> 00:40:15.938
  • It's like i can say i love you, lord, but you know what?
  • 00:40:15.938 --> 00:40:19.141
  • I trust you.
  • 00:40:19.141 --> 00:40:20.943
  • I don't get any of this.
  • 00:40:20.943 --> 00:40:22.712
  • And apparently those around me don't get it either.
  • 00:40:22.712 --> 00:40:25.047
  • But i've heard you speak and i trust you.
  • 00:40:25.047 --> 00:40:28.951
  • - and obviously that's why elizabeth didn't have
  • 00:40:28.951 --> 00:40:32.355
  • Any pushback.
  • 00:40:32.355 --> 00:40:33.589
  • It wasn't i've been faithful and, you know, but she had
  • 00:40:33.589 --> 00:40:36.959
  • Trusted god in the dark.
  • 00:40:36.959 --> 00:40:38.427
  • And she knew he's a good god.
  • 00:40:38.427 --> 00:40:41.030
  • So i will give him immediate obedience because you don't
  • 00:40:41.030 --> 00:40:43.799
  • See any hesitancy with her saying, blessed are you, who
  • 00:40:43.799 --> 00:40:48.538
  • Carries the christ.
  • 00:40:48.538 --> 00:40:49.639
  • You see this immediate response to her cousin.
  • 00:40:49.639 --> 00:40:54.110
  • Which would make it almost if there was going to be
  • 00:40:54.110 --> 00:40:56.612
  • Jealousy even worse.
  • 00:40:56.612 --> 00:40:57.880
  • It would be different if it's this kid she's never before
  • 00:40:57.880 --> 00:40:59.982
  • And she goes, oh, she's, she's just of a different, you know,
  • 00:40:59.982 --> 00:41:03.252
  • Some different tribes, some different, she knows mary.
  • 00:41:03.252 --> 00:41:06.289
  • And she had to have spent so much time in god's presence
  • 00:41:06.289 --> 00:41:10.560
  • When she wasn't getting what she prayed for.
  • 00:41:10.560 --> 00:41:15.531
  • That she went, far be it for me, to tell god what to do.
  • 00:41:15.531 --> 00:41:19.835
  • He has always been a good god, even when i couldn't see
  • 00:41:19.835 --> 00:41:22.204
  • Around the corner.
  • 00:41:22.204 --> 00:41:23.506
  • So it all comes back to what you're saying, cece, it's time
  • 00:41:23.506 --> 00:41:26.275
  • With god.
  • 00:41:26.275 --> 00:41:28.945
  • - to anyone who has been given a promise by god and you're
  • 00:41:28.945 --> 00:41:31.547
  • Still waiting because it feels like, i am not seeing
  • 00:41:31.547 --> 00:41:34.183
  • It play out.
  • 00:41:34.183 --> 00:41:35.318
  • This doesn't seem to be happening in front of me.
  • 00:41:35.318 --> 00:41:37.086
  • This all starts in the heart of god, and he is the one to
  • 00:41:37.086 --> 00:41:43.192
  • Carry it to fruition.
  • 00:41:43.192 --> 00:41:44.794
  • That's not on us.
  • 00:41:44.794 --> 00:41:46.128
  • It's on him.
  • 00:41:46.128 --> 00:41:46.929
  • So what do we do in the meantime?
  • 00:41:46.929 --> 00:41:48.431
  • We stay close to him.
  • 00:41:48.431 --> 00:41:50.166
  • We looked to him, we trust his timing is perfect.
  • 00:41:50.166 --> 00:41:53.669
  • He is all that we need, and whether or not this thing is
  • 00:41:53.669 --> 00:41:57.873
  • Happening the way that i thought or in the timing that
  • 00:41:57.873 --> 00:42:00.142
  • I'm hoping for, i can know he still delights in me, just
  • 00:42:00.142 --> 00:42:04.447
  • Like he does in the moment when it all happens, he loves
  • 00:42:04.447 --> 00:42:08.050
  • Me the same, so i'll be held here in his love
  • 00:42:08.050 --> 00:42:11.220
  • In the meantime.
  • 00:42:11.220 --> 00:42:13.556
  • - elizabeth had just experienced a miracle.
  • 00:42:13.556 --> 00:42:16.492
  • And that's why it's so important, like you said, to
  • 00:42:16.492 --> 00:42:19.562
  • Watch who you share things with.
  • 00:42:19.562 --> 00:42:22.131
  • Because when i've just gotten a miracle, and i hear you got
  • 00:42:22.131 --> 00:42:25.701
  • A miracle, there's no room for jealousy.
  • 00:42:25.701 --> 00:42:28.671
  • I'm so ready to rejoice with you, you know what i'm saying?
  • 00:42:28.671 --> 00:42:31.307
  • I'm carrying the same thing you can.
  • 00:42:31.307 --> 00:42:32.975
  • Come on, come on, and so you're in the spirit.
  • 00:42:32.975 --> 00:42:35.878
  • I'm sure elizabeth had to be in a place of gratitude...of
  • 00:42:35.878 --> 00:42:39.048
  • Humility, like understanding how awesome he is.
  • 00:42:39.048 --> 00:42:42.118
  • I think another practical thing, too, is, like, we don't
  • 00:42:42.118 --> 00:42:45.688
  • Know all the nuances of these backstories.
  • 00:42:45.688 --> 00:42:48.224
  • But, again, like we've been saying, we have some hints at
  • 00:42:48.224 --> 00:42:52.161
  • Mary's upbringing, elizabeth.
  • 00:42:52.161 --> 00:42:53.462
  • But i think when we talk about surrender doing great things
  • 00:42:53.462 --> 00:42:57.066
  • For god, we wait for, like, the big one.
  • 00:42:57.066 --> 00:42:58.701
  • We wait for the big mary moment.
  • 00:42:58.701 --> 00:43:00.536
  • But it's like these things in history with god knowing him
  • 00:43:00.536 --> 00:43:03.105
  • Is in the little day in, day out, the small decisions, the
  • 00:43:03.105 --> 00:43:07.376
  • Decisions to turn on the music and say, hey, oh my soul,
  • 00:43:07.376 --> 00:43:10.613
  • Bless the lord.
  • 00:43:10.613 --> 00:43:11.781
  • We will bless the lord today.
  • 00:43:11.781 --> 00:43:13.416
  • It is in getting to know him through tiny steps of trust,
  • 00:43:13.416 --> 00:43:18.921
  • And i do believe he sets us up for that.
  • 00:43:18.921 --> 00:43:21.390
  • And we can miss them, he gives us so many chances.
  • 00:43:21.390 --> 00:43:24.126
  • He's so good at it, but all these little daily moments, i
  • 00:43:24.126 --> 00:43:28.264
  • Think tune our heart to stay soft and to be further soft
  • 00:43:28.264 --> 00:43:31.901
  • And so when the big moment comes, we have a history with
  • 00:43:31.901 --> 00:43:35.638
  • God, we have that track record of who he is and a softened
  • 00:43:35.638 --> 00:43:40.276
  • Heart to his voice and a quick movement to follow.
  • 00:43:40.276 --> 00:43:43.579
  • I think day in and day out, even asking him, hey, what
  • 00:43:43.579 --> 00:43:47.950
  • Does it look like to keep my heart so soft to the sound of
  • 00:43:47.950 --> 00:43:50.986
  • Your voice and quick obedience?
  • 00:43:50.986 --> 00:43:52.955
  • Not let me think, i'll get back to you, give me five to
  • 00:43:52.955 --> 00:43:55.291
  • Seven business days.
  • 00:43:55.291 --> 00:43:56.392
  • Fast obedience, i think he sets us up to have a
  • 00:43:56.392 --> 00:44:01.363
  • Heart like mary.
  • 00:44:01.363 --> 00:44:02.531
  • I think he sets us up to have a heart like elizabeth.
  • 00:44:02.531 --> 00:44:05.234
  • And he knows elizabeth's story is going to take something
  • 00:44:05.234 --> 00:44:09.338
  • Different.
  • 00:44:09.338 --> 00:44:10.506
  • Her process to keep her heart soft is going to be
  • 00:44:10.506 --> 00:44:12.808
  • Tailored to her.
  • 00:44:12.808 --> 00:44:14.009
  • And mary's is going to be tailored to her, but he's a
  • 00:44:14.009 --> 00:44:16.846
  • Good shepherd, aware of all of his children and how to
  • 00:44:16.846 --> 00:44:20.616
  • Actually grow us into that maturity, into that place.
  • 00:44:20.616 --> 00:44:24.453
  • And i just wonder if we asked him every day, how soft is my
  • 00:44:24.453 --> 00:44:29.792
  • Heart to you today?
  • 00:44:29.792 --> 00:44:31.227
  • Where am i at?
  • 00:44:31.227 --> 00:44:32.461
  • Would you make me interrupt my- make me interruptible
  • 00:44:32.461 --> 00:44:35.364
  • To you, god.
  • 00:44:35.364 --> 00:44:36.665
  • Whether it's for a big thing or a seemingly small one, the
  • 00:44:36.665 --> 00:44:40.836
  • Posture of my heart needs to be, let it be unto
  • 00:44:40.836 --> 00:44:43.305
  • Me as he's spoken.
  • 00:44:43.305 --> 00:44:44.840
  • My answer is yes, to the big, to the small you have me.
  • 00:44:44.840 --> 00:44:50.112
  • - you know, it's in those mundane moments that god
  • 00:44:50.112 --> 00:44:52.581
  • Builds you.
  • 00:44:52.581 --> 00:44:53.949
  • And he gives you the character that you need.
  • 00:44:53.949 --> 00:44:56.185
  • And he strips away things that are not like him, and he pours
  • 00:44:56.185 --> 00:44:59.288
  • Things in you.
  • 00:44:59.288 --> 00:45:00.589
  • And so when you yield in the small things, then you're
  • 00:45:00.589 --> 00:45:03.492
  • Ready for the big things.
  • 00:45:03.492 --> 00:45:05.261
  • And a lot of times we want to jump to the big things.
  • 00:45:05.261 --> 00:45:07.630
  • And i believe i heard, i don't know if it was christine kane,
  • 00:45:07.630 --> 00:45:10.666
  • I heard somebody say years ago, how god develops you in
  • 00:45:10.666 --> 00:45:13.836
  • The dark room.
  • 00:45:13.836 --> 00:45:15.404
  • And so many times we want to be seen and we want to get to
  • 00:45:15.404 --> 00:45:19.208
  • The big stuff.
  • 00:45:19.208 --> 00:45:20.509
  • But trust me, trust them in the mundane times and begin to
  • 00:45:20.509 --> 00:45:24.613
  • Say yes and allow him to mold and shape you into what he's
  • 00:45:24.613 --> 00:45:28.918
  • Called you to be so that when the time comes you'll have the
  • 00:45:28.918 --> 00:45:31.787
  • Character to stand when the curtains go up.
  • 00:45:31.787 --> 00:45:36.325
  • - i just think there's so many rich dynamics here that when
  • 00:45:36.325 --> 00:45:40.396
  • We actually pause to dive in and spend a little bit of time
  • 00:45:40.396 --> 00:45:44.533
  • Talking it over and not just the, you know, the fast
  • 00:45:44.533 --> 00:45:47.903
  • Children's book version, there's such depth here.
  • 00:45:47.903 --> 00:45:51.407
  • And not just for the christmas story, but our everyday lives,
  • 00:45:51.407 --> 00:45:55.244
  • Life with god, the mystery of heaven coming here to us.
  • 00:45:55.244 --> 00:45:59.448
  • And i've always thought it's so funny.
  • 00:45:59.448 --> 00:46:01.150
  • These hymns that we sing, these christmas songs are so
  • 00:46:01.150 --> 00:46:05.454
  • Theological, so profound.
  • 00:46:05.454 --> 00:46:07.256
  • I'm like, let's bring them into, let's bring
  • 00:46:07.256 --> 00:46:09.058
  • Them into september.
  • 00:46:09.058 --> 00:46:09.892
  • Let's bring them into april. why?
  • 00:46:09.892 --> 00:46:11.227
  • Because this is pertinent for every day.
  • 00:46:11.227 --> 00:46:13.729
  • Mary's song, magnifying the lord, that sort of surrender.
  • 00:46:13.729 --> 00:46:18.133
  • I need that in the middle of july, just like i need that on
  • 00:46:18.133 --> 00:46:21.737
  • December 25th.
  • 00:46:21.737 --> 00:46:22.872
  • So could i just pray for us and for those watching.
  • 00:46:22.872 --> 00:46:25.908
  • God, we just ask that you would do that in us.
  • 00:46:25.908 --> 00:46:28.911
  • Father, would you make us available to you, god, soft
  • 00:46:28.911 --> 00:46:32.548
  • To your heart?
  • 00:46:32.548 --> 00:46:33.749
  • Father, would you build a history in us with you, that
  • 00:46:33.749 --> 00:46:37.253
  • We would know your voice, we would know the stories of old,
  • 00:46:37.253 --> 00:46:40.456
  • That we would hunger after knowing you in your word, the
  • 00:46:40.456 --> 00:46:43.792
  • God of abraham, isaac, and jacob, who has been faithful
  • 00:46:43.792 --> 00:46:47.830
  • For a thousand generations and that we would see and say with
  • 00:46:47.830 --> 00:46:51.700
  • Full assurance, and you are faithful to me, no matter what
  • 00:46:51.700 --> 00:46:55.938
  • It looks like, no matter the cost, no matter how it
  • 00:46:55.938 --> 00:46:58.607
  • Postures me or what may appear to be happening, that we are
  • 00:46:58.607 --> 00:47:03.145
  • Your servants and you have regarded us.
  • 00:47:03.145 --> 00:47:05.814
  • God, we thank you that because of jesus, we are highly
  • 00:47:05.814 --> 00:47:09.852
  • Favored, we are thoroughly blessed.
  • 00:47:09.852 --> 00:47:12.988
  • We thank you, god, for your son, thank you, jesus, for
  • 00:47:12.988 --> 00:47:17.660
  • Saying yes.
  • 00:47:17.660 --> 00:47:18.727
  • And would you teach us to say yes like you did?
  • 00:47:18.727 --> 00:47:22.231
  • God, the obedience that we see in jesus, the surrender we see
  • 00:47:22.231 --> 00:47:26.802
  • In mary, god, build it in us.
  • 00:47:26.802 --> 00:47:28.971
  • Make it soft in us, father, that we would be tendered to
  • 00:47:28.971 --> 00:47:32.708
  • Your voice interruptable during our day to prize you
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  • Above all other things, god, and to the dreams in your
  • 00:47:35.377 --> 00:47:41.083
  • Heart the promises that you've spoken over our lives, god for
  • 00:47:41.083 --> 00:47:44.853
  • Those of us here and those listening and watching i
  • 00:47:44.853 --> 00:47:47.556
  • Declare full fruition in the name of jesus fulfillment over
  • 00:47:47.556 --> 00:47:51.894
  • Every promise that you've spoken and god that you will
  • 00:47:51.894 --> 00:47:56.165
  • Posture us to give a yes every day of our lives in the name
  • 00:47:56.165 --> 00:48:00.336
  • Of jesus.
  • 00:48:00.336 --> 00:48:03.906
  • - connect with us on social media and let us know how our
  • 00:48:05.074 --> 00:48:06.642
  • Team can pray for you.
  • 00:48:06.642 --> 00:48:09.745
  • ♪ (music playing)
  • 00:48:10.212 --> 00:48:16.385
  • - has it ever bugged you that moses didn't make it in the
  • 00:48:16.385 --> 00:48:18.487
  • Promised land, i mean be honest, we hardly ever admit
  • 00:48:18.487 --> 00:48:20.889
  • This in small group but it always bugged me that moses
  • 00:48:20.889 --> 00:48:24.660
  • And he was a good guy i mean apart from the murder rap.
  • 00:48:24.660 --> 00:48:27.696
  • He faithfully led the israelites for 40 years, and
  • 00:48:27.696 --> 00:48:31.166
  • Then they get right to the promised land.
  • 00:48:31.166 --> 00:48:33.602
  • I mean, he can see it.
  • 00:48:33.602 --> 00:48:35.337
  • It's right there.
  • 00:48:35.337 --> 00:48:36.739
  • And god says, because you hit the rock, and then you showed
  • 00:48:36.739 --> 00:48:42.544
  • Your anger, i'm going to bury you here on mount nebo.
  • 00:48:42.544 --> 00:48:45.381
  • You're not going to make it into the promised land.
  • 00:48:45.381 --> 00:48:47.816
  • I thought, goodness gracious, those israelites were so
  • 00:48:47.816 --> 00:48:50.085
  • Difficult to lead.
  • 00:48:50.085 --> 00:48:51.587
  • I probably would have been whacking israelites.
  • 00:48:51.587 --> 00:48:53.055
  • So it's always seemed unfair to me.
  • 00:48:53.055 --> 00:48:54.790
  • I know god is good and his ways are above ours, but it
  • 00:48:54.790 --> 00:48:56.859
  • Just has never seemed right to me that moses, that great
  • 00:48:56.859 --> 00:49:01.563
  • Leader, didn't make it into the promised land after
  • 00:49:01.563 --> 00:49:04.600
  • Faithfully leading god's people for 40 years.
  • 00:49:04.600 --> 00:49:07.636
  • But then you get to the transfiguration, in mark's
  • 00:49:07.636 --> 00:49:10.939
  • Gospel, chapter 9, and it says jesus, james, john, and peter,
  • 00:49:10.939 --> 00:49:17.079
  • They ascended a high mountain.
  • 00:49:17.079 --> 00:49:18.881
  • That was on the northern shore of the sea of galilee,
  • 00:49:18.881 --> 00:49:21.050
  • Probably mount hermann.
  • 00:49:21.050 --> 00:49:22.584
  • They can see most of the promised land.
  • 00:49:22.584 --> 00:49:24.720
  • It's the most scenic view.
  • 00:49:24.720 --> 00:49:26.455
  • It says jesus became radiant, intensely white.
  • 00:49:26.455 --> 00:49:30.626
  • That's not hyperbole.
  • 00:49:30.626 --> 00:49:32.728
  • Jesus was glowing white, incarnate jesus.
  • 00:49:32.728 --> 00:49:36.398
  • And suddenly there appears next to jesus in bodily form,
  • 00:49:36.398 --> 00:49:41.637
  • Moses and elijah.
  • 00:49:41.637 --> 00:49:44.940
  • So moses did make it into the promised land.
  • 00:49:44.940 --> 00:49:49.011
  • He just got to stand next to a glorified jesus on this
  • 00:49:49.011 --> 00:49:52.781
  • Amazingly scenic spot and see most of the promised land.
  • 00:49:52.781 --> 00:49:57.619
  • Y'all, if we could interview moses right now and say, would
  • 00:49:57.619 --> 00:50:01.890
  • You rather have walked into the promised land with three
  • 00:50:01.890 --> 00:50:05.027
  • Million sweaty ingrates, or door number two, would you
  • 00:50:05.027 --> 00:50:08.697
  • Rather trust than the sovereignty of god, the way
  • 00:50:08.697 --> 00:50:11.767
  • He's written your story is infinitely better than you
  • 00:50:11.767 --> 00:50:15.037
  • Could have dreamt it.
  • 00:50:15.037 --> 00:50:17.372
  • You know that after standing next to jesus, moses would say
  • 00:50:17.372 --> 00:50:20.709
  • Door number two, i trust god.
  • 00:50:20.709 --> 00:50:22.678
  • The way god has authored my story is infinitely better
  • 00:50:22.678 --> 00:50:27.216
  • Than my grandest dreams.
  • 00:50:27.216 --> 00:50:29.151
  • God's ways are always higher.
  • 00:50:29.151 --> 00:50:31.320
  • They're always better.
  • 00:50:31.320 --> 00:50:33.422
  • So god doesn't delay his promises to give us less than.
  • 00:50:33.422 --> 00:50:37.126
  • It's always more than.
  • 00:50:37.126 --> 00:50:40.529
  • - stream full episodes of better together on demand.
  • 00:50:40.529 --> 00:50:44.633
  • Go to bettertogether.tv to stream all of our latest
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  • Conversations.
  • 00:50:48.704 --> 00:50:50.706
  • ♪ (music playing)
  • 00:50:50.706 --> 00:50:50.706