♪ Tis the season to be jolly ♪
♪ Fa la la la la, la la la la ♪
♪ Tis the season to be jolly ♪
♪ Fa la la la la, la la la la ♪
♪ Sing the ancient Christmas carol ♪
♪ Fa la la la la, la la la la ♪
- Well on behalf of my entire family,
my bride and best friend Amy,
my six children, my two son-in-laws, my one grandkid
and!
My second grandchild that's on the way in the oven
as we speak.
(congregation clapping and cheering)
I want to wish all of you the most merry
and faith-filled Christmas.
It's one of the greatest honors of my life
for the 23rd consecutive year
to talk to you out of God's word
about celebrating the miracle of the virgin birth
as we honor God who became one of us in Emmanuel Jesus,
God with us, we celebrate His goodness today.
And I'm honored to take a little bit of time
to break open God's word with you.
We are in a message series.
It's called Travel Light.
And we're talking about letting go of some of the things
in this world that hold us back spiritually.
Today what I want to do is I wanna let Luke chapter one
speak to us about letting go of control.
If you're new with us, we're a participatory church.
It's no fun without you.
I'd love all of you to participate,
all of our different churches.
I'm curious, how many of you would say honestly,
that there's at least one area of your life,
some of you it'll be a lot of areas of life,
but there's at least one area of your life
that you love to control?
Raise your hands up right now.
Raise 'em up, raise 'em up.
One person, that's two hands up in the air right there,
you look like you're worshiping.
If you find yourself tempted to reach over
and lift the hand of the person sitting next to you,
just understand God is about to speak to you
about letting go of control.
If you wouldn't mind today at all of our churches,
just in honor of the reading of God's word,
would you mind just standing to your feet?
And we wanna read it big portion of scripture
from Luke's gospel as we celebrate
the birth of God's son, Jesus.
This is from Luke chapter one.
I'll start in verse 26, this is God's word.
In the sixth month of Elizabeth's pregnancy,
God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth,
a village in Galilee to a virgin named Mary.
She was engaged to be married to a man named Joseph,
a descendant of Kind David.
Gabriel appeared to her and said,
greetings, favored woman.
The Lord is with you.
Confused and disturbed,
everybody say confused.
- [Congregation] Confused.
- And disturbed.
- [Congregation] And disturbed.
- Mary tried to think what the angel could mean.
Some of you right now as we're gathered together,
you may be confused about something going on in your life.
I wish this were not happening.
Why am I here?
I never thought I would experience this.
You're disturbed.
I can't handle this, I don't know what we're gonna do.
I'd like to take control.
I need to figure this out.
Why in the world is this happening?
I never thought at this point I'd be experiencing
what I'm experiencing right now.
Mary was confused
and disturbed.
Don't be afraid the angel told her.
For you have found favor with God.
You will conceive and give birth to a son.
And you will name Him,
the name that is above every name,
you will call Him Jesus.
He will be very great.
And will be called the Son of the Most High.
Mary asked the angel.
But how can this happen?
I'm a virgin.
The angel replied, the Holy Spirit will come upon you
and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.
So the baby to be born will be holy.
He will be called the Son of God.
And Mary responded,
this is not convenient for me.
(congregation laughing)
It's not in my five year goals.
You have no idea if this happens,
then I will be pregnant in my wedding gown.
I paid a lot of money and I want to look good
in my wedding photos!
Mary responded.
I am the Lord's servant.
May everything you've said about me
come true.
There's another version, translation of this,
I like is the ESV,
the English Standard Version,
translates the verse like this,
then Mary said,
behold the maidservant of the Lord.
Then, she quotes,
the Beatles.
(congregation laughing)
Let it be.
Everybody say let it be.
- [Congregation] Let it be.
- Let it be to me according to your word.
Disturbed.
Confused.
The angel speaks and she says let it be.
What don't you greet a few people around you
and just say let it be
as you work your way back to your seats today.
Let it be.
(congregation talking faintly)
I'm not a mind reader but I can already tell,
that there are some of you thinking this is the perfect
message for my spouse.
(congregation laughing)
Right?
This is for my mother-in-law.
I'm so glad they're gonna hear this one.
You're gonna think, I'm not controlling.
I'm just aggressively helpful.
(congregation laughing) Right?
I'm not controlling, I'm just thoroughly organized.
Listen some of you, you're wound so tight,
you make coffee nervous.
(congregation laughing)
You wanna control everything.
Your kids know it.
You want to control what they look like,
where they go, who they hang out with,
what they do, what they make on the ACT,
where they go to college,
who they're gonna marry,
how many grandkids they're gonna have,
how they're gonna take care of you when you're old.
You want to control them, your spouse.
You're wearing them out.
How you chew.
How you dress.
What you say.
What you watch.
Where you go.
How you load the dishwasher.
How you vacuum, of course vacuuming is important.
It must be done with parallel lines, never crossing.
And you must get all the way up to the edge.
If you don't do that, you do not honor God.
We do everything that's under the Lord,
we vacuum just right.
Praise God, from whom all blessings flow, right.
You wanna be in control.
Some of you, you really want
to control what people think about you.
Social media is your greatest weapon.
You get to show them the life you want them to see.
Filtered, edited.
It took you 37 attempts to get the Christmas photo
by the tree.
You almost gave away a kid and divorced your spouse,
you were so mad at each other.
#Blessed!
(congregation laughing)
Talking about myself.
(congregation and Craig laughing)
It's funny because the more you try to be in control,
the more you fear loosing control,
the more you fear losing control,
the more you wanna be in control.
It's why today what I wanna do is I wanna give you
just one thought, one big idea,
a simple thought to remember
but not a simple thought to live.
To live this out, it takes faith.
But on the other side of your faith,
let me promise you,
you will always see the faithfulness of God.
The God who is with you.
The big thought if you're taking notes is this,
I hope you'll understand.
That you don't always have the power to control.
But you do always have the power
to surrender.
Let me say it again.
You don't always have to power to control,
to make him do what you want to,
to make her behave like you want,
to get your marriage where you want it to be,
to get your finances in line finally,
to get your future just lined up,
to get your health where you want it,
to have your kids do everything you want them to do.
You don't always have the power to control.
But you do have the power to surrender.
When we talk about this an angel appears
to the virgin Mary,
a lot of people hear this and think,
well it was easy for her.
She was Mary after all.
There's statues named after her.
There's cathedrals named after her.
You know, she's the Virgin Mary.
No, when the angel appeared to her,
we have to recognize, she was the ordinary,
every day, average teenage girl.
Just a regular kid.
Some scholars would say she was 13 or 14,
maybe 15 years of age.
She had hopes and dreams just like any other little girl.
She was dreaming about getting married.
She didn't have any options like, you all do.
She couldn't like snap the cute guy she met at,
you know, youth camp or whatever.
There was no Match.com.
She couldn't go on Christian Tingle or whatever
the version's called, she's gonna meet somebody.
She's got a limited community to choose from.
And she would have been like any other girl.
She wanted a guy with just a few simple basic qualities.
Women really don't have a lot their asking for.
Just a basic, a few simple things.
She wanted someone most likely, who was strong.
And handsome.
And charming.
And drove a nice donkey.
(congregation laughing)
A newer model, it's reliable, nothing fancy.
A good job.
A man with a bright future.
Someone with strong hands and a soft heart.
Someone's whose close to mom but not a mama's boy.
She wanted a guy that was bold yet humble.
Someone's whose decisive yet flexible.
Well groomed but not obsessive.
Somebody that was fit but did not
post topless Instagram posts.
Men, stop it in the name of the Father,
the Son and the Holy Sprit, you will answer to God for that.
(congregation laughing)
(laughing) She wanted someone that had big goals
yet was easy going.
Someone that made her feel safe but was a little dangerous
and liked chocolate covered strawberries,
long walks on the beach and old movies.
Whatever it is, most of all,
she wanted a guy that was Godly.
This would be the man
that would the daddy to her children.
You know, whatever it is, I'm just making this up,
but she had dreams.
She'd meet him and he'd propose to her
on the Bethlehem bridge.
And the photographer would
get the perfect Instagram moments, okay.
They'd get married in Jerusalem gardens,
you know, and they would slow dance
to Thinking Aloud, it'd be perfect.
Whatever it is, they'd have two kids.
A boy and a girl.
The boy would be named Joey Junior.
The girl would be named Ava or Olivia,
they couldn't decide quite yet.
They'd have a dog, not a cat.
They'd watch Netflix and chill,
every night of the week, at least four nights.
Who knows, whatever, okay.
(congregation laughing)
She had hopes, she had dreams
and the angel comes to her and says,
no, no, no, God has something different for you.
Disturbed and confused.
Some of you, you kind of had a plan.
Some hopes and some dreams.
You were done at two kids and you got a bonus round.
You didn't see that coming.
Or the opposite, you hoped for three kids.
And you found that you couldn't conceive your first.
And you're disturbed and confused.
You thought the job was the perfect job when you took it.
You had no idea that the company would eventually
be downsizing and now you're not sure
you're gonna keep your job
and you're barely paying your rent right now.
And it's weighing on you.
It could be a relational issue.
Your marriage isn't where it's suppose to be.
There could be an empty chair
at the Christmas table this year.
The person that was there last year
and for whatever reason,
they're not there this year.
And you never thought it would happen.
It could be a health issue.
It could be a financial weight.
It could be any number of things.
You're disturbed and you're confused.
They didn't think, this is the way it would be.
You're like Mary.
When you think about Mary,
she didn't know the end of the story.
Like, she didn't know, three decades later,
that Jesus would be on the cross and that he would die
and then God would raise him from the dead
and all the angels would sing,
and he'd ascend up to heaven
and then he'd sit at the right-hand of God, the Father,
she didn't know that.
And you don't know what's going to happen
in your particular situation.
She had a choice to make.
You don't always have the power to control.
But you do always have the power to surrender.
She had to make a choice
between her dreams and God's destiny.
She had to make a decision between her plans
and what appeared to be God's purpose.
She had to choose between her control
and God's calling.
And what I love about Mary is this.
Even though she didn't understand the plan,
she trusted
that her Father had a purpose.
God's doing something.
He's doing something.
You always have the power to surrender.
What's interesting to me when I think about it is
there's no such thing as what I call, partial surrender.
Like you're surrendered to Jesus.
You're surrendered like I give up, it's all yours.
Or you're not.
There's no like degrees of surrender.
Like, ah yeah, I'm 87.5% surrendered.
Like I trusted him to save my soul
but I'd still like to you know, fool around.
NoT giving Him that.
I trust Him to make my past, you know, okay.
But I can't trust Him with my money.
I trust Him to give me peace when I'm hurting but
not with my kids!
These are my kids!
There's no such thing
as partial surrender.
What is our desire to control rooted in?
When I look at all the different areas of my life to control
and believe me when I tell ya,
I'm preaching to me today, okay.
My desire to control is rooted in a lack of faith.
The more I found myself trying to control,
the more I over-estimate my ability to control,
the more I under-estimate the power and the goodness of God.
It's not easy as I told you.
Because everything in culture tells us,
you gotta make it happen.
If it's gonna be, it's up to me!
I gotta get in there.
I've got to be strong!
I've got to manipulate it.
I've got to make it happen.
But Jesus says something that is diametrically opposed
to everything that culture says.
Jesus says, if you cling to your life,
in other words, if you try to be in control,
you're actually going to lose it.
But if instead, if you give up your life,
if you surrender it for me, Jesus said,
you will find it.
In other words, to fully follow Jesus is,
to surrender control.
Let it,
be.
The interesting thing is this,
surrendering control is not just a one time decision.
And back in 2012,
I surrendered control to Jesus and it's all good, okay.
It's a daily choice.
It's a daily choice.
And when we look at Mary's surrender,
what is so interesting is
every time she chose to surrender something,
she eventually saw evidence of the faithfulness of God.
Watch again and again.
Think about it, okay.
You're a virgin and you're gonna be pregnant.
I'm just being honest with you, okay.
I'm dating Amy.
She comes up and she says, the Holy Ghost got me pregnant.
We got problems, right?
(congregation laughing)
She's gotta tell Joseph this.
And she says let it be, she surrenders.
And what does God do?
She doesn't know he's gonna do it
but God then sends Gabriel the Angel,
who appears to Joseph in a dream and says,
this whole thing is legit.
She surrenders, she sees the faithfulness of God.
People around town, you know they're whispering.
Oh yeah, Mary.
I saw her donkey over at his house at two in the morning.
We know what they were doing.
Ah huh huh huh huh.
And she's shamed for this.
And then what happens?
The Holy Spirit confirms it to her relative Elizabeth,
this is of God.
And they're some comfort there.
You just think about all the different times
Jesus is missing at the age of 12.
You ever had a kid missing somewhere?
Like ah, they're panic.
And we surrender him to you.
And where do they find Jesus?
They find him teaching adults.
Oh yeah, we forgot, he is the Son of God.
He does things like this.
There you are God.
You think about whenever Mary
is giving birth.
She's nine months pregnant,
riding on a donkey.
Can't find a Holiday Inn.
No Motel 6.
There's no rooms.
This is not ideal.
She trust God.
He provides a stall.
A cave,
next to farm animals.
Not ideal.
Shepherds show up to worship.
Oh yeah,
God is with us.
God is with us.
Herod, the King, gets word.
Who is this baby?
We've got to make sure he's dead.
Think about this?
The king and all the forces
want to kill your baby.
Every day, Mary, God I trust you with my child.
I trust you with my child.
On the run, fleeing to Egypt,
I trust you, I trust you, I trust you.
How do you pay the bills when you're on the run like that?
I don't know.
I trust you.
Three Wise Men show men and bring payment.
Gold.
Frankincense and myrrh to worship the Son the God.
And I'm reading into it.
But gold will help you when you're on the run.
I surrender.
Faithfulness.
Fast forward.
Jesus knows what's gonna happen to him.
He is the Son of God.
He's a in garden in Gethsemane and he's agonizing,
knowing what's about to happen.
He's agonizing.
The pressure is so intense.
If you look at it scientifically,
his capillary bursts, blood comes out of his brow,
that's how intense it is.
He cries out to his daddy, his Heavenly Father.
And He says, if there's any other way
that you can remove this cup.
What he's talking about is the cup of suffering
that's coming, remove it.
Then what He says, is the exact same Greek word
that his mother said,
when she said, let it be,
he said the same thing,
let it be your will, God.
And not mine.
And He goes to the cross.
And His mother Mary looks at Him on the cross.
And you gotta understand this.
He's beaten so badly that
he doesn't even look like a human being.
And a mother,
don't romanticize her as the Virgin Mother,
a mother, okay.
Moms, mother, sons.
We have two sons, four daughters.
My oldest two daughters, they got married.
And they was like, oh this is great, okay.
Some girl likes my son,
who is this girl!
It's like, phyco Amy, where'd that come from, okay?
(congregation laughing)
Mother, son, right. (laughing)
Her son.
They're spitting on him.
Cursing him.
As He's suffering.
Jesus could have acted and taken control.
He could have called legions of angels.
To wipe them out.
Give them all hemorrhoids, that's what I would have done.
(congregation laughing) Like ah.
I'll show you.
And what did Jesus do?
He said, Father into your hands,
I commit my spirit.
And He surrendered.
Let me ask you a question.
I'm gonna come a little closer.
'Cause there's too much separation from us.
God, left heaven and came to Earth.
I'm leaving the stage.
And coming to the second and third row.
Hi.
What's your name? - Rachel.
- Hi Rachel, I'm not gonna embarrass you.
Just relax. (congregation laughing)
I promise.
I just didn't want to be in your space
without saying hi, Rachel.
I'm curious.
What is it?
That you're trying to control?
That God wants you to surrender?
I can't force you to do this today.
But I want to create an opportunity
where perhaps God can do something special.
There's near your seats, somewhere around you,
there's a little piece of paper.
You might look for it, it looks like this.
If there's a burden on your heart
and I don't know what I might be.
It could be a relationship.
It could be a marriage.
It could be a child that you're aching for.
It could be a bad diagnosis.
It could be that financial weight that's just crushing you.
It could be a fear.
It could be a hurt.
Because of something that you've lost.
It could be an addiction that you just can't seem to beat.
It could be the guilt
that you're carrying from something that you did
that you can't undo, whatever it is.
If you would like,
I wanna invite you just to write that down
on the piece of paper.
And in a moment, we're gonna worship God with our giving
and you might give God something different today.
You might choose to give Him the burden
about what you're trying to control.
Scripture says, first Peter 5:7,
cast your cares, all your worries and anxieties on Him,
your Father because He cares for you.
What's so special to me about the story of Mary is this,
is the angel appears to her and what did the angel say?
The angel said the Lord,
is with you.
He's with you.
Who is Jesus?
He's also called Emmanuel
which means God is with us.
And I hope you'll feel that today.
That God is with you.
I'll try to explain this as best I can.
I told you earlier that I love you
and some of you will probably think,
but you don't even know me, okay.
It's true but there's a spiritual responsibility
that I feel as your pastor.
And I care more than you can ever imagine.
The weight that Amy and I feel
and we bear that burden in prayer so often.
And we agonize before
every time we share God's word.
Because we want you to find life in Christ.
We care.
God cares.
But here's what I had to realize in preaching this message.
I can't control you.
At all.
I would love it if I could talk to you into it.
I could preach in a powerful way
that would help you to say, yes, I choose to surrender this.
Because when you surrender,
here is a promise,
is that our God,
can do way more
through your surrender
than you can ever do through your control.
He can do way more.
That which is on your heart,
is always better in His hand.
So what I had to do as I do realize this,
I can't control you.
I can't force, I cannot make it happen.
So, Amy and I, in prayer, have simply surrendered you.
To the work of the Holy Spirit.
That'll trust that maybe perhaps, He'll do something.
I'mma say it.
I'mma set the table.
I hope that you want to feast
on the goodness of God.
But only His spirit can move you to surrender.
You don't always have the power to control.
But you do always have the power to surrender.
And I promise you God can do way more
through your surrender
than you can ever do through your control.
So Father we ask,
that you would do what only you can do today.
Work in the hearts of the people that you love so much.
Show them God that you are with them, that you are good.
That you are here.
And God on the other side of their faith,
I know they'll see your faithfulness.
All the churches, as we're praying,
nobody looking around,
those of you who would say,
I have something to surrender today.
God help me to surrender to this person,
this situation, this concern, this burden,
whatever it is, help me surrender this to you.
If that's you, just in a moment of faith,
would you just flip up your hands right now.
Just flip them up all of our churches.
God I thank you, I thank you, I thank you,
that your spirit is doing what no person has the power to do
but you're touching hearts right now.
And in the same way Mary said it,
and the same way Jesus said it,
and the same way they lived it God, help us say it
and help us live it.
True surrender, not partial surrender,
true surrender, let it be God.
Not our will.
But your will be done.
Knowing that sometimes it's not easy, not what we what.
We'll be disturbed, we may be confused.
But God ultimately,
even if we don't understand the plan God,
we trust you, your character, your goodness.
We trust that you always have
a purpose.
Help us surrender God.
As you keep praying today,
nobody looking around,
give everybody just this private moment.
There's some of you,
you're gonna recognize
that you're trying to live a partially surrendered life.
There's no such thing.
Others of you, there ain't no sign of surrender in you.
And something's happening right now.
You're sensing maybe the love of God.
Maybe His presence.
Let me tell you what that is.
That's His goodness, that's His loving kindness.
Fear's not gonna drive you to Him
but His loving kindness is gonna draw you to Him.
He is so good.
He left heaven to come to Earth.
Jesus was born of a virgin.
Why does the virgin birth matter?
Let me try to explain it as simply as I can.
If Jesus had been of an Earthly father,
he would have inherited this sin nature of a human being.
But because he was born of the spirit of God,
he didn't inherit the Earthly sin nature.
But he inherited the heavenly spiritual nature.
Therefore He was all God and all man,
all at the same time.
He was without sin, He was innocent,
He was the lamb of God
and that's why He could die as the perfect sacrifice.
For the forgiveness of our sins.
And that's what He did on the cross.
He surrendered and God was faithful.
God raised him from the dead, why?
So that anyone and this includes you,
no matter who you are, no matter what you've done,
no matter how dark your past is,
no matter how many questions that you have,
no matter who you are,
when you call on the name Jesus,
that name that is above every name, God hears your prayers.
He forgives your sins.
He makes you brand new.
You're not a better version of you,
you're different, you're new.
The old is gone, the new has come.
In all of our churches, there are those of you,
you recognize, today is the day of your surrender.
No more control.
I give it up, I give you my life.
Forgive my sins, I turn to you.
All of our churches, those who say yes,
I turn from my sins,
I surrender my life.
I give it to you Jesus, that's your prayer!
Lift your hands high now!
All over of the place, lift them up now!
Leave them up if you will.
Up here, praise God for you and back here
and over there, my goodness, leave them up.
Right back here.
Wow. (congregation clapping)
Both of you, all of you over here and back over here.
Back in this section, my goodness.
Praise God for you, back over here.
Way back in the back.
Church, I think you ought to worship
a little bit more than that.
(congregation exclaiming and clapping)
Church online, you click right below me.
All of our different churches, right back over here,
saying yes.
As God is doing a work today,
would you simply pray with those around you.
Everybody pray aloud, pray Heavenly Father,
- [Congregation] Heavenly Father.
- Forgive all of my sins.
- [Congregation] Forgive all of my sins.
- Make me new.
- [Congregation] Make new new.
- I surrender.
- [Congregation] I surrender.
- To you Jesus.
- [Congregation] To you Jesus.
- Be first in my life.
- [Congregation] Be first in my life.
- My Lord. (congregation talking faintly)
My savior. (congregation talking faintly)
My friend. (congregation talking faintly)
Fill me with your spirit.
- [Congregation] Fill me with your spirit.
- So I can believe to you.
(congregation talking faintly)
Follow you.
Live for you.
Show your love.
My life.
Doesn't belong to me.
I give it all to you.
Thank you for new life.
You have all of mine.
In Jesus name, I pray.
I need somebody to celebrate right now at church.
I need somebody to worship God and welcome
all of these amazing people born into God's family.
(congregation clapping)
(upbeat music)
- Hey thanks again for joining us
here at Life Church.
You know, it's always our heart to see you
continue to grow in your relationship with Christ.
And one of the best ways for you to do that
is simply by going to Life.com/next.
They will be met with all kinds of different resources
to help you take your next step
in your relationship with Christ.
Another great way to continue to grow
is to check out all of the videos we have here
on this channel.
We have lots of messages from Pastor Craig Groeschel
that we know will make a huge difference in your life.
Again, thanks for joining us.
And we'll see you next time.
(upbeat music)
For more infomation >> 20/12/2018 11:08 (R. Rio Grande do Sul, 395 - Pituba, Salvador - BA, 41830-141,) - Duration: 5:01. 
For more infomation >> 20/12/2018 12:04 (R. do Imperador, 54 - Calçada, Salvador - BA, 40445-030,) - Duration: 3:19. 
For more infomation >> 20/12/2018 11:20 (R. Edístio Pondé, 65 - Stiep, Salvador - BA, 41770-395,) - Duration: 2:23. 
For more infomation >> Eric's Christmas Eve Forecast 12-14-18 6pm - Duration: 5:52. 
For more infomation >> Special Report With Bret Baier - Monday, December 24 - Duration: 46:28. 
For more infomation >> ชำแหละเหตุผล "ลิเวอร์พูล" ชุดปัจจุบันเจ๋งกว่าฤดูกาล 2013-14 - Duration: 3:03. 
For more infomation >> 20/12/2018 11:03 (R. Ceará, 174a - Pituba, Salvador - BA, 41830-451,) - Duration: 5:00. 
For more infomation >> Challenge Smart
For more infomation >> Socks of love: This Dallas teen doesn't want anything for Christmas. She wants to give back to sick - Duration: 2:40. 
For more infomation >> Flash flood doesn't dampen Christmas spirit in Everman - Duration: 2:29. 
For more infomation >> Christmas sneaking up on shoppers - Duration: 1:40. 
For more infomation >> The Wise Guys Christmas Special 12/24/18 7PM | December 24, 2018 Breaking News - Duration: 47:30. 
For more infomation >> Stock Markets See Worst Christmas Eve Session Ever - Duration: 2:16. 
For more infomation >> Mittar Pyare Nu - ਮਿੱਤਰ ਪਿਆਰੇ ਨੂੰ - DHUR KI BANI - Heart Touching Voice - Duration: 6:14. 
For more infomation >> A local woman giving out hot cocoa - Duration: 1:59. 
For more infomation >> Test Drive Unlimited 1 ~ Just drive with Music 2 - Duration: 18:41. 
No comments:
Post a Comment