But let's get into the Word of God today, Luke chapter 1. Luke chapter 1, verse 26 to verse 38 of Luke chapter 1. Joey, I set the iPad aside so it's all on you, okay? So if anything goes wrong, it's Joey's fault with sound system, amen? Luke chapter 1, we're going to start in verse 26 this morning. And this morning I'm going to be preaching a message that is entitled this, mother of Jesus and then tonight I'm going to be preaching a message on Joseph and so be here tonight if you can and prayerfully these messages will be a blessing to you but here in Luke chapter 1 and verse 26 and read down through verse 38. I want you to notice what the Bible says here. Luke chapter one starting in verse 26. And in the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God into a city of Galilee named Nazareth. To a virgin a spouse to a man whose name was Joseph of the house of David and the virgin's name was Mary. And the angel came in unto her and said, Hail thou that art highly favored. The Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women. And when she saw him, she was troubled at this saying and cast in her mind what manner of salutation this should be. And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary, for thou hast found favour with God. And behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and shalt bring forth a son, and shalt call his name Jesus. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest, and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David. And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever, and of his kingdom there shall be no end. Then said Mary unto the angel, How shall this be, seeing I know not a man? And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the highest shall overshadow thee. Therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. And behold, thy cousin Elizabeth, she hath also conceived a son in her old age, and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren. for with God nothing shall be impossible. And Mary said, Behold the handmaid of the Lord, be it unto me according to thy word. And the angel departed from her. Let's go to Lord and prayer. We'll get started here this morning. Dear Heavenly Father, we're so thankful for the opportunity to come into your house. Lord, just the same praise is unto You. I thank You Lord for the wonderful group of young people, Lord, that just ministered to us in song. And Lord, what an important thing it is to have these songs just in the hearts of our young people, and these scripture verses. And Lord, just to teach them at a young age how joyful, Lord, they can be in serving the Lord. Lord, I thank You for each and every one that's here. Lord, we've got people from all different backgrounds, people from different places this morning. And Lord, but we know that you have every one of us into this place for one purpose and that is to speak to our hearts. And Lord, if there is anyone here that does not know you as their Savior, Lord, no matter what they have in their past, no matter what Satan has lied to them about, Lord, I pray that they would be convinced this morning that you are willing to save, whosoever shall call upon your name. And Lord, for those of us who are saved, I pray that You would help us to draw closer to You today. And Lord, that we would see exactly what You would have us to learn from Your Word. And we ask all these things in the precious name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen. Here in the Gospel of Luke, many times if you're going to read about the Christmas story, if you're going to read about the birth of our Savior, you're going to go to the Gospel according to Luke. You're going to go to this passage here that includes many of these details. Of course, there's details that are included in some other Gospel accounts as well. But here in the book of Luke, what you're going to find is, in the first chapter, there is a name here. That is very important in the Christmas story. Of course, the name of Jesus is the most important name, amen, and that is in all humanity, not just in the Christmas story, but in every story is the name of Jesus. That is the name that everyone should know. The Bible says that at the name of Jesus, every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that he is Lord and praise the Lord for that truth. But right here in this story here, we find this name, the name of Mary. There are many who will scoff at the thought of Mary being a virgin. They'll say, well, how could a virgin bring forth a son? That's not humanly possible. Well, I want you to look at verse 37 of our passage where it says, for with God, notice here, nothing shall be impossible. We had that as our theme a couple of years ago, and the Lord did a great work in my heart through that, just studying through that verse and preaching through that theme, for with God nothing shall be impossible. I'm so thankful that we serve a God today that that can make the pain go away, he can make the impossible possible, and he can meet us exactly where we are, no matter what struggle we're going through, no matter what we seem to think is an impossibility. Well, I just don't know how I'm going to get through this battle or how I'm going to go through this valley. Well, it's a dark valley in my life, and I just can't seem to find the light through this. Well, I praise the Lord that for with God nothing shall be impossible. It doesn't matter what you're going through today. Understand God can and He desires to help you through that. But you must trust in Him. Many people will scoff at this this idea of Mary being a virgin bringing forth a son but what they forget is that it had to be this way because the Lord could not be from the seed of a sinful man but rather from a holy God. What we see in this passage this morning is that Mary had a question, and she asked, how can this be? I think all of us would ask that exact same question, would we not? When something seems to be impossible, we'll say, well, I know that this is what God said, but how can that be? You know, that's the exact question that I have when I think about my soul's salvation. I know that I'm saved, I know that God has saved me, I've trusted in Christ as my personal savior, but when it comes to thinking with the human mind and trying to think about exactly what God has done and why a holy God would send his son to die on the cross of Calvary to shed his blood for me, someone that did not want to trust in God, someone that did not care about what God had done for me, to think about what God had done and why he would do that, I have to ask myself, how could that be? Because when someone does something to me, and someone does something to you, we're very quick to get mad at them. We're quick to just write them off, are we not? That's human nature today. Well, if you're going to hurt me, then I want nothing to do with you. Praise the Lord, that's not how the mind of God works. He came into his own, and his own received him not. The Lord and Savior Jesus Christ came and he was born of a virgin. When God spoke to Mary, he told her that she was going to have a baby and Mary didn't know what to think about that. It would not come to as a complete shock to someone who is married when they hear that they're pregnant. Sometimes you may not be totally prepared for it, but hey, Sometimes it happens, but the reality is the Bible tells us that she had never been with a man. She was espoused to Joseph. They were not married. They had not had a physical relationship. And yet God says, you're going to be with child. I think it caught her off guard to say the least. This woman was extraordinary. She was not sinless. Therefore, she should not be worshiped. Anyone that tells you that Mary is worthy of worship, understand they are completely wrong. Only the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is worthy of worship. Yes, the Lord used the Virgin Mary, but she was a human being born of the seed of man. The Bible says she was highly favored. It doesn't say that she was sinless. She needed a savior just like you and I. Years ago, there was a young mother making her way across the hills of South Wales, carrying her tiny baby in her arms. And then she was overtaken by a blinding blizzard and she never reached her destination. And when the blizzard had subsided, her body was found by searchers beneath a mound of snow. What they discovered is that before her death, She had taken off all of her outer clothing and wrapped it around her baby. And when they unwrapped the child to their great surprise and joy, they found that the child was alive and well. The mother had sacrificed herself for her child. They found that She had mounded herself, her body, over this life and had given her life for this child, proving the depths of her motherly love. Years later, that child, David Lloyd George, grown to manhood, became the Prime Minister of Great Britain, and without doubt, one of England's greatest statesmen. He was able to accomplish that simply because of the love of his mother. Think about this woman Mary here. As I mentioned, she was not a sinless person, but she was one that the Lord said was highly favored and the one that God would use to bring His Son into this world. Look at Isaiah chapter 7, if you will. Isaiah chapter 7. Isaiah chapter 7 and verse 14, if we're not careful many times we'll read through a Christmas story, we'll read through a passage and what we'll find is that many times our mind sees it as a cute, innocent little story and we fail to see the fulfillment of prophecy. But here in Isaiah chapter 7 and verse 14, the Bible says this, Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign. Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son and shall call his name Emmanuel. Well, who's that speaking of? Well, Mary, the mother of Jesus is who the prophet Isaiah was prophesying about. Isaiah said that God would give us a sign and that sign would be that a virgin will conceive and bear a son. It would not have been a sign if Mary was a young married because you could say that, well, this was not the son of God. This is just a natural born baby. However, she had never been with a man. Therefore, apart from a miracle from the Lord, it would be impossible for her to be with child. But with God, all things are possible. There was a conference on world religions and during that conference as they were talking about everyone just holding hands and singing Kumbaya, and well all religions should get along. Here's what they said, well if those Baptists and Christianity, if they would just do away with the teachings of the virgin birth and the resurrection we could all get along. Think about that. Okay, so the two things that Christianity is built upon, the virgin birth of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and He dying on the cross of Calvary, and shedding His blood to pay for our sins, and rising from the dead, conquering death, hell, and the grave. So if we get rid of those two pinnacle things, We could all get along. No thanks. I'll keep those things. Amen. Praise the Lord for the truth in those two things alone. But understand, that's what this world wants to do. There's Bibles that are being printed today that we call perversions, amen, not versions, but perversions of the Bible. And here's why. Because they do away with the mention of the very blood of Christ. The Bible says without the shedding of blood, there's no remission of sin. But everyone just wants to get along. The reality is this, Bible believers have been under attack all the way back thousands of years. Ones that stood upon the teachings of God himself. The world would say, well, they're the problem. No, the problem is we have the solution and the world doesn't want to hear about that. If you've never trusted Christ as your personal Savior, understand that God's Word is true and God loves you. And He sent His Son to die on the cross for you. Mary asked this question, how shall this be seeing I know not a man? It was an impossibility, but we need to understand that everything about the Christian life is supernatural. There have been many churches who have placed so much emphasis on a worship of Mary that oftentimes we shy away from the truth in her life and understand we should not worship her, but that should not give us the okay to not study her life and to study what God had said unto her. God did a great work through this woman. She was highly favored in God's eyes. We should study your life. Mary was a great mother. She was a, a woman who was specifically chosen by God himself. And, and this is why the angel went into the region of Galilee, uh, to a little city, uh, of Nazareth and notice in Luke chapter one and verse 27, it says to a virgin is spouse to a man whose name was Joseph of the house of David and the Virgin's name. God wanted Joseph and Mary to be married, but they were not married yet. They were espoused, and that means they were promised to one another. The preparations for marriage were taking place there. And the angel came in unto her and said, Hail thou that art highly favored. The Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women. Notice that phrase, the Lord is with thee. Boy, I want that phrase to be said about me, don't you? That the Lord is with me. Mary had to have lived an extraordinary life. In and of itself, the Lord is with thee. What a great message that is to hear from God. But the angel continued and said, blessed art thou among women. At this time of year, we celebrate the birth of Christ. And as you think about our lives, can I ask you this question? Do you know that the Lord is with you? Any of us that are saved, we would stand up and say, well, yes, I know that the Lord is with me beyond the shadow of a doubt. I know that God is always with me because he said in his word, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee. But what about when we're going through trials? What about when the pain is just more than we can bear? What about when there's times of uncertainty like what Mary had here? How can this be? I just don't understand all of these things. What about in those times when we don't have all the answers, but God says move? You see, many times we will boldly stand up and say, I know that the Lord is with me, but then in those times of uncertainty, we start questioning whether or not God is truly there. Do you know that God is with you today? He wants to be with you. He wants to abide in you forever. If you've never trusted Christ, you need to trust Him today. You must repent of your sins and accept Him as your personal Savior. And when you do that, you will find out that God is with you. And as you yield your life to Him, we find favor with God and He will bless us and use us just as we saw Him bless and use people all throughout the scriptures. I want us to notice first of all this morning and quickly the work of God in her life. Mary asked this question, how shall this be? And God, the Holy Spirit would overshadow her. It was a supernatural work. And notice the Christian faith is a supernatural faith. God did these things and is continuing to do these things that cannot be explained in the mind of man. But understand it's only God who could do this. Man couldn't have done this. God was willing to do a supernatural work. He should get all the glory. The Bible says that He is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we could ask or think. That's what God can do in your life. Many times we go through life not allowing God to work in that supernatural way, not allowing Him to do what is above and beyond all that we could ask or think. We go through life just living for ourselves. Understand that God desires to do a great work in your life. He does. You know, the Bible tells us over and over again how God loves us and how he sent his son to die for us and how God desires for us to be the ones to take this message of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ into this world. He desires that for us. You see, no one ever came into the world like Jesus did. God created the first man, and the first woman was taken from the side of man, and they were created by the Lord. He formed them with His hands, and since that time, men have been born through what we call the natural birth. And the natural birth, understand, it's a miraculous thing as well, but God made men and women with the ability to reproduce in this way. That's just par for the course until about 2,000 years ago when Jesus came. We could say that Jesus broke the mold, amen, but He had to. In this passage, we see that this woman, she knew no man. She was a virgin and God spoke to her and she answered and said, I don't know how this can be because I'm a virgin, but God's plan was that man would have nothing to do with this birth. Why? Because God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. And He knew that in order to send a spotless lamb to be sacrificed on the cross of Calvary, it had to be through a virgin. It had to be. We should be praising God for that supernatural work that He performed by sending His Son into the world to be our Savior before Christ suffered the humiliation of Calvary. Notice He suffered the humiliation of the incarnation, the very God of heaven who robed Himself in flesh. But He did that for you and for me. He became man without ever ceasing to be God. It's a supernatural work. The work that God performed in and through Mary was supernatural as well, and no doubt to the human mind, we would have questions. If anyone can explain the virgin birth in man's terms in which we could understand every bit of it, understand this, then they would have to be God, because He's the only one who can describe all of that. He's the only one who knows how all of that took place. We would all have the same question that Mary had. Can this be? But then I want us to notice also the submissiveness in Mary's heart. The submissiveness in Mary's heart. Look at verse 38. The principle of this verse here is something that every one of us as God's children we should desire this to be our prayer. Notice toward the end of the verse, it says, at the beginning of the verse, and Mary said, behold, the handmaid of the Lord. Notice, be it unto me according to thy word. Lord, what you have said you desire to do in my life, let it be. You know, I think we would live different lives if that was our prayer to God every day. Because this book that we hold in our hand today or that's on your lap today, that we carry under our arm, understand this, this is what God desires in our life. You know what God also desires? That it would be our prayer and our desire to say, Lord, let it be unto me according to thy word. Whatever it may be, even when I don't have all the answers even when I can't explain it Lord help me to be submissive to you that's God's desire Mary was submissive here and she said be it unto me according to thy word and the angel departed Something that would do us all good to understand is that God guides us and He helps us through every single day. He helps us by telling us what we are to do. Just as He spoke to Mary, but many times we have a different reaction than what Mary had. Many times it says, well, I know that God wants me to serve Him in this way, but you know, I've really got something important going on here. I'm focusing on this, or I'm focusing on that. And as soon as this is done, well, then I'll be able to follow God. What if tomorrow never comes? We need to be submissive today. You see there's no success outside of the will of God and there's no failure inside of God's will. The will of God is not some great act that we plan to perform at some point. in our lives, the will of God is not some place that we plan to go, but the will of God is something that we should yield to. It's what the Lord designs for us every day and every single moment, placing ourselves in his hands to do as he pleases and saying, Lord, let it be unto me according to thy word or whatever you want me to do. You know, as we find here in verse 34, notice the words of Mary, it says, As you look at the rest of those verses, everything that the angel explained was supernatural. The angel did not say, okay, here's what's going to make sense in Mary's mind. As a human being, let me dumb this down for you and tell you exactly what's going to happen. No, he said the Holy Spirit's going to overshadow you. Well, what does that mean? Well, you're going to conceive a son. The Holy Spirit will come upon thee. The power of the highest shall overshadow thee. Therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. And so she asked, how shall this be? And in man's mind, she didn't get an answer that she could understand. You know, many times that's how God works. Many times we're praying for an answer We're praying for clarity on things. And I'm not saying it's wrong to pray for an answer. What I am saying today is this, it's wrong for us not to follow God's will in our life and what God's word has said simply because, well, I just don't quite know what that means. If God's word says it, that's what it means. And that's what it means in my life and in your life. Understand, Mary did not get the answers that she could understand. But in verse 37, the angel said, for with God, nothing shall be impossible. And that was enough for Mary to believe what the angel had said. I don't understand all of these things. I don't understand how this is going to come to pass. I don't understand what all the details are going to be and what people are going to say and how people are going to react. I don't know the details. I don't know what that next step is going to be. But the angel from God said to me, for with God, nothing shall be impossible. And because of that, Mary said, be it unto me according to thy word. Something we can learn from Mary in this submissiveness here is this. She didn't need all the answers. All she needed was to know what God said. That's all she needed. Every one of us struggle at some point or another. Many times we get to the place where we're just looking for answers rather than just living in submission to God and saying, Lord, whatever you desire, whatever you want, Lord, that is what I want. My life is yielded to you. Many times we deal with things in our lives and we feel as though we're in a fight with the world, the flesh and the devil, but oftentimes in reality, Oh, we blame it on the world, the flesh, and the devil, but the fight that's going on on the inside is between our flesh and an Almighty God. Boy, we blame the devil for an awful lot of things. And understand, the devil does not want you to follow God's plan. But if you're not going to be submissive to God, you don't think Satan already knows that? He knows that you're not going to give God time. He knows that you're not going to yield to him. Why would he waste his time with you if you're doing all of his work? Think about it. Many times we, it's because we're rebellious towards God. You must yield to him and know that God desires to bless your life and to have his way in your life. When the Lord speaks to our heart from his word, we have to decide what we're going to do. We're either going to obey or disobey. We're either going to yield or we're going to rebel. There is no middle ground. If you've heard the gospel preached, understand you know that everyone is a sinner. You realize that Christ died for your sins. If you've heard Romans chapter 10 in verse 9 and 10, plain and simple, understand that all you have to do is trust Christ as your personal Savior. and He'll save you. He will cleanse you from your sins. He'll give you a guaranteed home in heaven. You just have to come to that point where you realize, Lord, I'm a sinner and I know that I can't go to heaven outside of your shed blood in paying for my sins. Lord, I accept you as my personal Savior. That's all you have to do. Many times People hear that message so many times that they convince themselves that they are saved. Well, I've been going to church for X amount of years, of course I'm saved. Not one time do we hear that church attendance is what is going to get you into Heaven. Many people ride a church pew all the way to Hell. If you've heard the Gospel but you've never trusted Christ as your Savior, understand you are living in disobedience to the Lord and you are running from Him today. It doesn't matter how religious you are. It doesn't matter how long you've been going to church, or what Bible you carry under your arm, or if you consider yourself to be a good person. Can I take it a step further? It doesn't even matter if you claim to be saved. If you've never trusted Christ as your personal Savior, you're on your way to hell today. But it doesn't have to be that way. You can accept that free gift of salvation. You can do that. Mary was submissive and you can be submissive to God today as well. Not only was she submissive when she had answers, but when she didn't have all the answers, when she still had questions, understand we need to submit to God. You may say, well, well, I haven't trusted Christ because I just don't understand why God would save me. You don't have to understand. All you have to understand is this, that you're a sinner, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, but that God loves you, for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, and that all you have to do is repent of your sins. For God so loved the world, He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him, that's repenting of your sins and trusting Him as your personal Savior, should not perish, but have everlasting life. Well, I don't understand all of those things. Mary didn't have all the answers either, but she trusted God for with God, nothing shall be impossible. Well, you don't know what sins in my past God does. And he knew all of those things before he died on the cross of Calvary. And yet he still died for you. Sometimes people will say that, well, I just I just have questions and they'll die in that state. And go to. Eternity in hell. Never trusting God. There are believers all over this planet, no doubt, maybe even some in this room today, who are living in disobedience to God's word, and they shield it under a heading of, well, I just have questions. Listen, understand, questions are a good thing, and I love when people say, you know, I was studying this passage out, and I have a question about this verse. I love talking about those things, and it helps us to grow in the word of God. and they grow together. We're told in the Bible, study to show thyself approved. There are passages that I'm reading through and studying through and sometimes it makes me want to scratch my head and say, Lord, I don't know what this means. I know it has to be true, but Lord, I don't understand it all. And we can study together and we can learn those things together. Questions are not a bad thing unless we get into the habit of allowing our questions to hold us back from obeying God. That's a problem. because we can fill our mind with questions and other people can fill our minds with questions. You see, Satan knows our weakness and if he knows that we are not going to take the next step of obedience because we just have some questions, understand he'll continue to fill your head with questions. The Bible says, let God be true and every man a liar. There are things we don't understand, things that are impossible for us to understand. But yet the Bible says that therefore we should believe it. Understand if you're not saved, you need to get saved. If you're not scripturally baptized, you need to be scripturally baptized. The Bible is clear. If you're not a member of a local New Testament church, get that taken care of. Don't allow the devil to continue to fill your mind with questions about these things. Maybe those things are true in your life. You're saved and you're baptized and you're a member of a local New Testament church, but there's something that God is calling you to do. And you may say, well, I just have questions. I don't know where to go. I don't know I don't know what to do. Understand, you may not have the answers until you take that next step. The Bible says this, thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. You continue to grow closer to the Lord through his word, he'll tell you what the next step is. Unless we allow our questions to dim the light that the Lord's putting right in front of us. God says, all you have to do is obey my word. All you have to do is be submissive. Don't allow questions to be stumbling blocks that keep you from obeying God. Aren't you glad that Mary didn't allow her questions to keep her from obeying God? We would all say, well, that story would be quite a bit different if Mary didn't trust in God. What about our lives? And I want you to notice, lastly, This morning, not only Mary's submissiveness, but also I want you to notice the suffering that she endured. Look at Luke chapter 2, if you will. Luke chapter 2. And I want you to look at verse 25 through verse 35. The Bible says this in Luke chapter 2, verse 25 to 35. And behold, there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon, same man was just and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Ghost was upon him. And it was revealed unto him by the Holy Ghost that he should not see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ. And he came by the Spirit into the temple, and when the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him after the custom of the law, then Jesus took he him up in his arms, and blessed God, and said, Lord, now lettest thy servant depart in peace according to thy word. For mine eyes have seen thy salvation, which thou hast prepared before the face of all people, a light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel. And Joseph and his mother marveled at those things which were spoken of him." And Simeon You know, as we look at that passage there and it says, A sword shall pierce through thine own soul also That doesn't sound like a heartwarming circumstance, does it? It doesn't sound like something that's easy to go through, but that's what God wanted her to hear. As we look at these verses, thus far, we see Mary was in Nazareth, and as we travel through this passage, we're in Jerusalem, and she was taking her baby to the temple there, and what is this sword that was talked about that would pierce through the soul of Mary? We see this little family that consists of Joseph and Mary and baby Jesus, and they're at the temple, and all of a sudden, they're hearing about a sword that will pierce through Mary's soul. They had heard great things from the wise men and also from the shepherds, but now they were hearing some things about pain. What does this mean? Well, as we read this passage here, we know that there's going to be some pain every day. Some people would question the character of Mary. This woman had to have been unfaithful. She had to have gotten pregnant due to fornication and all of those things. People whispering behind her back and saying things that were not true. But this sword that we find shall pierce through thine own soul also. I want you to look at John chapter 19. John chapter 19. And notice verse 25. John chapter 19 and verse 25. Now think about this through the eyes of a mother. Now there stood by the cross of Jesus his mother, and his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus therefore saw his mother and the disciples standing by, whom he loved, he saith unto his mother, Woman, behold thy son. Then said he to the disciple, Behold thy mother. And from that hour that disciple took her unto his own home. After this, Jesus, knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled, saith, I thirst. Now there was said a vessel of vinegar and they filled a sponge with vinegar and put it on hyssop and put it to his mouth. When there, when Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, it is finished. He bowed his head and gave up the ghost. I want you to think about this young mother here as the angels have came to her and came to Joseph and the angels went to the shepherds and the shepherds came and the wise men came and they saw Simeon there and all of these wonderful things that are happening and then she hears about this sword that shall pierce thine own soul also and then you fast forward 33 years there and all of a sudden here is her very son being crucified on the cross of Calvary. I say all that to say this, many times we think that, well, if I follow God's plan, then everything is going to be easy. Very rarely is that the case. But it's all going to be worth it. This mother, Mary, she had been submissive to God. She had done what God wanted her to do. She had bore this baby and she had raised him and now she's standing at the cross. Dr. Reimer discussing this passage said Mary's behavior at the cross was psychological evidence of the virgin birth. As Mary looked at Jesus Christ on the cross, she knew in her heart that He was virgin born and He was the Son of God. She knew in her heart that God had spoken to her and told her how it would be. She was not deceived because if she was lying to Him, she would not have stood there and watched her son die for a human cause. She would not have watched her son die in self-deception. thinking that He was the Savior. If she knew that He was not virgin born, she would have cried out, come down from that cross, I've lied to you. But she knew it. She knew what God had placed in her heart. There are many times all around this world, missionaries will be going through painful circumstances and people will ask themselves, why are they staying on the field? Because deep within their heart, they know what God's told them to do. But many times God will call us to do something and because of a off word that someone says about us or because someone says that they don't want anything to do with us now, we give up on what God's called us to do and we'll say, well, maybe I just missed what God's will was. We need to be submissive to God even through the pain. Many times we want to run from reproach. We'll do whatever we can to avoid it. But remember, she was told that a sword shall pierce through thine own soul also. When we identify with Christ, we'll feel that sword. We see Mary was submissive and she went through that suffering there. I praise the Lord that she didn't give up. Every one of us, we've done things in our life that, and when we look back on that, even though many people would not stand with us, we knew that someone was there. And for many of us, including myself, Mom was there. I think all of us could look back and say, you know what, I've made some mistakes and I've had some times in my life where I've made decisions that I shouldn't have made, but guess what, mom was there. No matter how crazy it may have seemed to other people, mom thought it was the cutest thing, amen. Why? I have no idea sometimes. Our God gives us a special glimpse of Mary in this passage when she identified with the followers of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. She was there learning from her son. You see, this was a virgin that God chose to bring forth his son. Think back to her question in the book of Luke, how shall this be? Yet we read there in Isaiah that His name shall be called Emmanuel. Birth of Christ was a miraculous birth. It was a sign, of course, from God Himself. And as we believe in this virgin birth, it's going to bring reproach upon us. It's going to bring that sword to our soul. We're going to witness to people and they're going to want nothing to do with Christ. We're going to be laughed at. We're going to be mocked. We're going to have things happen to us all because we're standing for Christ. But can I encourage us today? Just as Mary was steadfast, that we would be steadfast. Mary asked, how shall this be? Speaking of the virgin birth, it was an impossibility that God made possible. Maybe you're here today, you're not saved. You need to understand exactly how miraculous it is that Christ came and died for your sins. Understanding that someone was willing to pay for your sins. The answer is found in the Word of God to that question, how shall that be? And that is that God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. If you're saved today, God is going to lead you through humanly impossible circumstances. And in those times we may ask, well, how can this be? Understand that the Bible says that with God, nothing shall be impossible. And it's only through His power. Let's be praying for the will of God in our lives, even if it takes us out of our comfort zone. We need to answer as Mary did there in the book of Luke. Let it be according to thy word. There are many things that we can learn about this Virgin Mary. There are many things that God wants to teach us. many qualities in her life that we can learn from and that we can put to practice. But one of the things that we must understand is this, her whole life can be exemplified, if you will, or it can be narrowed down to one word, and that's this, submissiveness. Are you willing to be submissive to God? Well, I'm a teenager, I've got things that I want to do. Submissiveness starts now. Delayed obedience is immediate disobedience. Well, I've got a career I'm trying to build. Trust the Lord to help you to build that. Well, I just don't know that, you know, if I surrender to God, He may call me to the mission field. He may. Well, it's unsafe there. It's safer there in God's will than it is here outside of God's will. Be submissive to God, and if you're not saved today, trust Him. Repent of your sins. Trust Christ.