HOLY MOMENTS: The Power of Saying “Yes”
Pastor Steven Osborne
Transcribed by DaVinci Resolve 18.6
Divine Appointments
Anybody out there that has had a divine appointment? Anybody got saved before? Have you given your life to Jesus Christ? Was there a moment where the Holy Spirit… okay? At least there’s four of us. So let me tell something exciting to all of you that don’t know Jesus that maybe today you will have a divine appointment, amen?
If you are saved, if the Holy Spirit has drawn you in and maybe there was a day, you know, that you really gave your life to Christ, that’s a divine appointment, amen? And when we think about our lives, my life is full of so many divine appointments where you just even look back and you’re like, “Oh God, you are so good. I’m so grateful that you are in control of my life.” You know, there’s just people that he connects you with at the right place, at the right time, and things happen, and then it’s like, “Wow, God, thank you for setting that up. What a divine appointment.”
You know, just thinking about the speaker. And again, even when you give your life to Christ, a lot of times it’s not just… we think, “Oh, it’s this one event or speaker,” but the Lord sets us up, right? He prepares our hearts. And God’s timing is perfect.
And just, you know, grew up in the church and then junior year of high school, there was a speaker, and he made this invitation, and I had a divine appointment that day with God, where my life was turned upside down, and it was truly changed. And that’s a moment that I will never forget. I had a divine appointment with God when He called me into ministry. It was a divine appointment how I met my wife. It was a divine appointment and moment when Hailey was born and you’re in the hospital. So our lives are full of these sacred divine moments. Amen? And so now let me ask you again, who of you have had divine moments and experiences? Okay, a little bit more. So good, I’m glad I was able to clarify that. Bad on me, sorry.
And when we look at the Christmas story, there’s these beautiful divine moments and I pray that these stories—you know them well—that it will speak to you in a fresh and an exciting way and that the Holy Spirit will truly use my words again in the next several weeks.
So let me pray for us. Father God, thank you for this morning and for the season. Lord, it is truly all about you. We’re here this morning to just worship you like the magi, Lord, like the shepherds that we read about in the Gospels where we’re just here to bring you gifts. We don’t have gold this morning, but we just, we bring you our voices. We bring you our heart. We bring you our minds, Lord, and we just give it to you. Father, what can we give you? How do we repay you for what you have done for us on the cross? There’s nothing but our worship and our faith this morning. And so we give that freely to you in this space this morning. We’re so grateful, Lord. Thank you for this building. Thank you for the decorations. And just, Father, we pray that everything will just point towards you this morning. It is truly all about you. Father, I pray for this Advent season that we will continue to have holy moments with you, divine encounters in our devotional time, in our prayer times, in our Sunday mornings. Father, you’re not done with us. And we’re so grateful. And so once again, we just give you this space. Father, I pray that you will just capture our hearts and our minds in this moment. Speak to us through your word. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Mary’s Holy Moment
Can you turn your Bible with me to Luke? And we will read chapter 1 from verse 26 to verse 38. So Luke 1:26–38.
In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent an angel, Gabriel, to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you […] are highly favored. The Lord is with you.”
Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary. You have found favor with God. You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. He will be great, and he will be called the son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father, David, and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever. His kingdom will never end.”
“How will this be,” Mary asked, “since I am a virgin?”
The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the Holy One to be born will be called the Son of God. Even Elizabeth, your relative, is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be unable to conceive is in her sixth month, for no word from God will ever fail.
Can I hear an amen? Okay, that was weak. Can I hear an amen?
“I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May your word to me be fulfilled.” And then the angel left her.
What a powerful story of this young virgin, Mary. Normal day probably, probably did some dishes, you know, doing some vacuuming—I don’t know if she had a Shark vacuum cleaner—doing the dishes, didn’t expect to have this divine encounter with God, something that will change her whole life. And this is, you know, one thing to say, “Oh, this was maybe a woman in her forties, maybe somebody in her thirties,” right? But she is young. She’s maybe between 12 and 16, maybe between 12 and 17, a young girl that had no idea that her whole world was about to change. And that’s God. It’s amazing when we look at our lives, how quickly God can change things, or at least it looks like it’s quickly in our eyes, right? But really when we’re honest, we know that God is constantly working behind the scenes and setting us up to fulfill His plan and purposes. There’s no surprise for God. God is actively involved in our lives. A lot of times we’re very prideful, right? And we think, “Oh, I’ve done all the right steps and I’m planning my life.” Phooey. If you’re a believer and when you’re giving your life to Christ, He is working behind the scenes. He’s behind every detail of our lives. And I am so grateful for that.
The Village of Nazareth
And so she is in this little village, Nazareth. Nothing special about this village. Actually, when you look at John, chapter 1:45–46, it says:
Philip found Nathaniel and told him, “We have found the one Moses wrote about in the law.”
Now, we kind of just read that and it’s like, “Oh, that’s simple.” But you can imagine his excitement, right? “We have found the one that they’ve been prophesying in the Old Testament, that our forefathers Moses and Abraham was sharing with us about the coming King, the coming Messiah, and we have found Him!” All right? So some excitement here.
“We have found the one Moses wrote about in the law and about whom the prophet also wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.”
“Nazareth, can anything good come from there?” Nathaniel asked.
“Come and see,” said Philip.
Now, we can imagine, you know, it would have made more sense for Jesus to have been born and to be from Jerusalem, the capital, but from this little town… and even kind of the joke about, “Man, is there anything good that can come from this town?” Now, back then, this was just a village. This is what it looks like right now. It is crazy.
I have done a lot of driving all over the world, and there’s some divine appointments with driving where the Lord has really bailed me out with certain traffic. You have to pray when you’re driving in New York. You definitely have to pray when you’re driving in LA, Chicago, Saturday nights Bentleyville, right? But we’re still pretty blessed here in Minnesota with Minnesota and nice traffic, right? We’ve got it pretty good, right? And then we got to visit Italy one year and that was a whole other level. And again, I grew up in South Africa, right? The traffic is pretty nutty there. You learn how to drive aggressively. And then I was shocked when I was in Italy. And then I was really shocked when I was in Nazareth, right? It’s like, “Where is this little village?” You kind of imagine two/three stores; there’s maybe a Quik Trip and a couple of donkeys, right? And then to discover the traffic here—and we actually wanted to visit the church, or kind of they built a church on top of this area where they think Gabriel spoke to Mary. And so the traffic was so crazy and my GPS… we couldn’t find a spot. And so we just drove past this church. And then we ended up in all of these alleys, and it was so tight, you know? As you drive in your car, you can touch the doors of the houses. And then there’s another car that want to pass you, right? It’s like there’s not even place to pass a watermelon, right? And it’s like now there’s another car or a motorcyclist. And so a lot of divine moments in our journey and trip in Nazareth, I can imagine, I can see why Gabriel showed up.
But so this is not the image as we think about Nazareth, and still even I believe we don’t read anything that the town Nazareth is not mentioned in the Old Testament. Somebody can correct me on that if I’m wrong with that, but I don’t believe so. So, very obscure little town. And to imagine that we will have the Messiah and Mary from this town is amazing. I mean, everything about the birth of Christ speaks of humbleness, and it really speaks to the people that he will minister to throughout the life of his ministry. He really comes for the outcast. He really comes for the broken. He really comes for those that needs to be restored and healed. People that’s a lot of times kind of on the outside circles of society. And he came for us, amen? Sinners. And just beautiful story with Mary in this town.
The Favor of the Lord
And, you know, I can imagine her parents being very protective over her. She’s engaged. It looks a little bit different in their culture than in our culture right now. Maybe we don’t sense the weight of engagement in the way that they experienced that in biblical times. It was really like you’re already married. And so there’s a commitment there. And so she’s engaged. Her parents must be so proud. She’s been godly. She’s still a virgin. And then there’s this divine moment and the angel of the Lord appears to her.
And we read that she is greatly troubled. I’m assuming quite scared. And I don’t blame her. I mean, I like to see myself as, you know, in good standing with the Lord. I understand all of those things that I’m, you know, his righteousness. But if suddenly I’m by myself, and here’s the angel Gabriel and he shows up, and he’s just, “Here’s a greeting.” I don’t know about you, I might be a little nervous. You know, I can imagine about a thousand things going through my mind of, “Man, did I say something mean to Venessa last week? Did I say something mean to the staff?” It’s like, what is going to come out of his mouth? And at this point, she doesn’t have the full story, but it starts off with, “The angel went to her and said, ‘Greetings, you who are highly favored. The Lord is with you.’” And he shares that twice with her. Again, she doesn’t have any information. Just, bam, huge flash, and lightning, and right? And here’s the angel And she’s between 12 and 17, 18 years old. And it is divine moment. And she’s got her whole future in front of her. She’s about ready to get married, which is way too young. I don’t think any girl should get married until they’re 28. Can I hear an amen, especially from this corner?
And it says, “You are greatly favored.” What a beautiful message. I think if we hear those words, that will be even hard for us to comprehend and to really take that for ourselves. It’s like, “Man, I’m highly favored.” But guess what? This morning when we actually look throughout scriptures, I believe there’s enough proof there—when we read Psalms and stuff, and when we understand our righteousness in God—that we are highly favored. We are highly favored. I believe that with all of my heart this morning.
I don’t say “special” or “very gifted.” I’m just saying… and guess what? We don’t deserve any of that. And again, even just in the life of Mary—I’m going to maybe spoil Christmas for some of you, depending on where you’re at and what you believe as we think about Mary. In Romans, it tells us that everyone falls short, right? That we are all sinners. Now, even in life, I’m sure that Mary was a very godly gal. We don’t have a lot of information about her. You know, we have different stories throughout the gospel, but not great details. But guess what? She was still a sinner. Nobody walking this earth was perfect except Jesus Christ. And you know, obviously, through different religions and stuff, easy for us to put Mary in a different class and think that she was perfect. She wasn’t. She wasn’t.
And so even for us, don’t think this morning that you and I need to be perfect to experience the favor of the Lord. We have the favor of the Lord, not because of your cuteness and your intelligence. It is all because of the blood of Jesus Christ and what He did on the cross for us. Because without that, we have nothing. We cannot impress God with anything. We can only impress Him with our faith.
And so angel calls this out, it’s like, “You are highly favored.” And she is greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be.
Prophecy Fulfilled
All right. So here’s the shock now.
But the Angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary. You have found favor with God. You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his Father David, and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever. His kingdom will never end.”
How do you even absorb and take in those words, right? About this holy moment, understanding somewhat—I don’t know exactly how much she was able to comprehend in that moment. First of all, you’re just trying to deal with the angel Gabriel that’s standing in front of you, and he’s telling you he’s highly favored. And then he’s like, “Oh, you remember all of those stories in the Old Testament? It is now about to come into fulfillment, and guess what? You’re playing a big part of it. No surprise here, Mary.”
And again, this is a 14, 16, 17-year-old girl. How do you respond to all of that in that moment?
I mean, I said, God is so in control. Here’s one prophetic word, 2 Samuel, chapter 7:16, words to David, “Your house and your kingdom will endure forever before me. Your throne will be established forever.” So this is back in 2 Samuel in the life of David, and now again we’ve kind of seen God’s plan and purpose all coming into fulfillment. His words coming into… falling into place. And suddenly here’s the moment, here’s Mary, and soon she will give birth to Emmanuel.
Even 700 years earlier in the words of Isaiah 7:14, “Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign. The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son and will call him Emmanuel.” Seven hundred years before the birth of Jesus Christ. How old is America? 200 plus? How old? About 248 years, right? 248 years. No, that’s nothing in comparison to 700. So 700 years earlier, there’s prophetic words about the Messiah, and now is the moment, and Mary hears that she is going to be the virgin. She is the one. How amazing. How amazing, how wonderful.
Trust in God
I don’t know about you, but I think if that was me, I might have said, “Whoa, time out. This seems way too intense. What if I kill this baby? I can’t even keep a goldfish alive or a plant. Now I have to give birth, and how do you do that? How do you train the Messiah?” And again, I don’t even want to imagine that as a 39-year-old. Just kidding. But as a 15-year-old or as a 16-year-old, I’d have said, “Oh, Gabriel, you’re making a big mistake.” Obviously, God did not make a big mistake.
And then she continues and says, “But, okay, Gabriel, how’s this all gonna play out? You know, how’s this gonna work? I’m a virgin, right?” And I can’t spoil all that details for you right now. Some of you still need to have the birds and the bee conversation, right? But, you know, she’s old enough to understand, it’s like, “Okay, to have a kid, there’s some birds and bees and stuff that needs to happen and to fall into place here. And Lord, just looking at my life, I know those birds and bees...”
It might be time for another sex talk at some point here, right? You’re tracking along.
And just this moment to realize, like, this cannot happen in the natural. It’s got to be the work of the Holy Spirit in her life. And then I think here’s the most beautiful… two beautiful pieces here, just the words of affirmation and confirmation. And the angel is saying, “Hey, here’s Elizabeth, right? She is old. She can actually not in the natural have any kids. But just as a sign to you and as somebody to come alongside of you, here’s Elizabeth, and she experienced a holy moment as well. Go and see her. That’s going to bring encouragement to you.” And then again, we have these words here, verse 37. It says, “For no word from God will ever fail.” And then here’s the closing piece of this, verse 38, “‘I am the Lord’s servant,’ Mary answered, ‘May your word to me be fulfilled.’ And then the angel left her.”
In all of this, Mary had the opportunity, probably, to bail. You know, again, I don’t understand all of God’s sovereignty in this story, and he obviously knew that she would give her life over and that she was the one. But what a beautiful attitude of humbleness. And to say, “God, I don’t understand all of this. I don’t… have no idea how all of this is going to play out, but all I can say in this moment, in this holy moment, is to say, ‘God, let it be.’ I’m here. I’m saying yes to you. Again, I don’t understand every detail here, and naturally how this is all supposed to play out, and how am I supposed to bring up Jesus? But that’s okay. All I’m saying is you are in control. You’ve been in control, and you’ve been working on this plan for hundreds of years. You will not mess this up. And Lord, I am just giving my will over to your will because you know better in any case.”
Beautiful attitude of submission. And again, to realize that our lives are not in… we’re not in control of our lives, and there’s amazing things that can happen when we actually say yes to Jesus Christ, when we allow him to run our lives, when we are in sync with the Holy Spirit, and so many of those things a lot of times will not make sense. A lot of things in our lives, when we’re honest, when you have taken a step of faith in different areas of your life, and you just see how things have come into place, and how God [?] things, right? It’s like, “Whoa, God is amazing. It is amazing. I couldn’t see how you were going to put all of those pieces together, how you were going to get me out of this situation,” and somehow he does when we trust him, and when we just say, “Yes, Lord, let Your will be done in my life.”
We get in trouble a lot of times when we try and figure it all out with our minds. It’s like, “Oh, here is my six steps to success for the next ten years. I’m just going to do all of these six steps, and I’ve got it all figured out. I’ve studied this, and I’ve...” you know, and then God comes and He messes things up. You’ve got your college plans, you’ve got your... You’ve, kind of in your mind, your perfect spouse, and what you’re gonna do for a living, and then God comes in and He calls you and say… and He connects you with somebody you didn’t think you would get married to, or He calls you into ministry, or it’s like, “I wanted to do that or this,” right? And it is just amazing when we give over.
But we can be stubborn too, and say, “Lord, this doesn’t line up with my plans. Lord, it doesn’t make sense. This is too overwhelming. This is too big. This is too scary. How can I trust You?” And that’s the invitation to all of us this Advent season, again, is to really trust God with your life. Trust Him with your life. Say, “Yes.” I think the challenge or the problem for most of us in the church world today—talking the universal church—is we say “No” to too many things. I wonder what can happen if we start to say just, “Yes,” again, for the impossible. Because, again, God reminds us over and over, it’s like, there’s nothing impossible for him.
Matthew 19:26, this is Jesus, “Jesus looked at them and said, ‘With man, this is impossible, but with God, all things are possible.’”
Closing Challenge
There might be some things in your life right now that feels impossible. But I want to challenge you, this Advent season, is to bring all of that. Test the Lord. Say, “Lord, I’m saying yes. I’m giving over my marriage. I’m giving over my kids’ challenges, my family challenges. I’m just saying yes, Lord. You take it. You run with it. I’m not going to try and figure out the A, B, C, and all of the next steps. You got this. I am allowing you to rule and run my life.” That is what He’s looking for. Let God do his thing, amen? And let’s start together this Advent season. Let’s look for those holy moments that God might call us into this year and in this wonderful season. Let me pray for us.
Father God, you are so good. Father, we are so grateful for this example, just seeing in Mary’s life this young virgin with a lot of questions, a lot of fears, and somehow just, where she had the boldness and the faith to say, “Oh God, I’m giving it all over. I’m trusting you. I’m just allowing my life to line up with your will and your word.” And Father God, I pray that for us as a church as well this morning. I pray it in my own life, Lord, maybe in moments where you have called me to step out into faith, where it looked too scary, too big, and where I didn’t trust you. Lord, I pray for us to be intentional this Advent season to listen to your Holy Spirit as you lead us and as you guide us. Help us not to try and come up with all of the manmade ideas and plans. We give you thanks. We praise your name. In Jesus’ name, amen.
