Episode 1385: Love That Transforms Us

[00:00:00] Scott Maderer: Thanks for joining me on episode 1385 of the Inspired Stewardship Podcast.

[00:00:07] Carolina Duarte: I'm Carolina Duarte. I challenge you to invest in yourself, invest in others, develop your influence, and impact the world by using your time, your talent, and your treasures to live out your calling. Having the ability to find your main purpose in life and pursue it is key.

[00:00:27] One way to be inspired to do this is to listen to this, the Inspire Stewardship podcast with my friend, Scott Maderer.

[00:00:47] Scott Maderer: It's something that it's just impossible to grasp in a way. To understand, to say yes to this life of faith that brings hope to us and hope [00:01:00] to others through people like Mary, through people like us. It's about submission and faith. Welcome and thank you for joining us on the Inspired Stewardship Podcast.

[00:01:14] If you truly desire to become the person who God wants you to be, then you must learn to use your time, your talent, and your treasures for your true calling. In the Inspired Stewardship Podcast, you will learn to invest in yourself, invest in others, and develop your influence so that you

[00:01:40] In today's spiritual foundation episode, I talk about Luke chapter one, verses 26 through 38. I share how we have to say yes to the invitation from God. I also share how saying yes to surrender actually calls us to action. Luke chapter one, verses 26 through 38 says [00:02:00] In the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph of the house of David.

[00:02:10] The virgin's name was Mary, and he came to her and said, Greetings, favored one, the Lord is with you. But she was much perplexed by his words and pondered what sort of greeting this might be. The angel said to her, Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And now you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus.

[00:02:31] He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor David. He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end. Mary said to the angel, How can this be, since I am a virgin? The angel said to her, The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.

[00:02:54] Therefore, the child to be born will be holy. He will be called Son of God. And now, [00:03:00] your relative Elizabeth, in her old age, has also conceived a son. And this is the sixth month for who was said to be barren. For nothing will be impossible with God. Then Mary said, Here I am, the servant of the Lord. Let it be with me according to your word.

[00:03:16] Then the angel departed from her. So this is the end of the Advent season, and a few days ago we celebrated Christmas Eve, Christmas, and the end of Advent. All of this year especially, happens together. And this whole set of things about Advent and about getting ready and being ready. Is the theme of all of this, but it feels like we're never really ready.

[00:03:52] We're never really ready for anything during this season because all sorts of things are happening all at the same [00:04:00] time. And a lot of them are happening in ways and in directions that we're just not a fan of and not ready for. Things that we wouldn't have chosen. We have plans, we have dreams, and then things take a turn.

[00:04:14] I think we've all been on those curves and those sweeps and those roads that bend in unexpected directions where there's a detour, a roadblock, a bridge out, an interruption, it feels to our journey, to our destination. And here Mary... is facing that kind of roadblock, that kind of swerve, that kind of change.

[00:04:39] I'm sure she had plans. I'm sure she knew where she was going. And then here, an angel shows up in her living room. You wonder, did Gabriel have to go to a lot of living rooms and make an appearance before he found one where somebody said yes? It's assumed that God must have known who was [00:05:00] going to say yes, right?

[00:05:01] It was a slam dunk, a no brainer. And yet, we're also told that we have free will, and if Mary was destined to say yes, then it somewhat diminishes her response and the power of that response. There has to have been maybe at least the possibility that she would say no. But instead, she said yes. Mary here is acting as a model for what it means to be a follower of God, for what it means to surrender, submit to God.

[00:05:35] She is the first disciple, in a way. And she's a disciple to the one that she hasn't even given birth to yet. It isn't an easy yes, it seems. It's not just a, yeah, whatever. Instead... There's an angel in her living room and remember, angels are not necessarily those beautiful images that we see [00:06:00] in medieval manuscripts.

[00:06:02] They were terrifying. Perplexed, worried, scared, all of these emotions seem to be going on. Mary is wondering what is going on, wondering what the meaning of this greeting might be. Maybe she even looked over her shoulder to see if somebody else was in the room. How could she be a favored one? Here she is, just a young woman getting ready for her engagement.

[00:06:31] The Lord is with you, but doesn't the Lord have more important things to do, more important places to go, more important people to see? It was for Mary, this invitation, but it was also for someone else. See, this is that kind of life changing greeting, the kind of nothing will ever be the same again moment.

[00:06:55] This is a love that transforms. She was asked to give [00:07:00] birth to the kingdom and the king through her own flesh and blood, through her own sweat and tears. She was invited to have faith in something that was way beyond any understanding. And she wasn't really given a lot of information or detail or given a chance to ask a lot of questions.

[00:07:18] No, Gabriel seems to just be asking her and she seems to ask, how does this be? And Gabriel doesn't really give her a good answer. Instead, it's asking for a declaration of faith. He basically seems to be saying, God's got it all figured out. He's got it covered. Just trust in that nothing is impossible with God.

[00:07:44] And apparently that's enough for Mary, because she says yes, without more detail, without more to go on, without knowing how this journey is going to end, she says yes, without saying I'll just try it for a little while, and if I don't like it, I'll back out. [00:08:00] No, she just says yes, and that's going to disrupt her entire life.

[00:08:08] And then the angel disappears, and you have to imagine she has to wonder did that really just happen? So she runs to her cousin Elizabeth's house. And Elizabeth has also been visited by an angel in a way through the angel talking to Mary and saying something about Elizabeth's journey. This whole passage is a complicated idea.

[00:08:33] Saying yes to something when we really don't know what we're saying yes to. It is something that it's just impossible to grasp in a way to understand, to say yes to this life of faith that brings hope to us and hope to others through people like Mary, through people like us. It's about submission and [00:09:00] faith.

[00:09:01] Whether there's an angel in your living room or not, it's about saying yes. to what the Lord is calling you to do, to recognizing that it isn't something that you have to be prepared for. It isn't something that you have to know all the answers to. It isn't something that you have to be fully equipped to.

[00:09:20] It just has to be something that you are called to and that your answer to is, yes, Lord, here I am. Thanks for listening.

[00:09:36] Thanks so much for listening to the Inspired Stewardship podcast. As a subscriber and listener, we challenge you to not just sit back and passively listen, but act on what you've heard and find a way to live your calling. If you enjoyed this episode, do me a favor. Go over to Facebook. com slash [00:10:00] inspired stewardship.

[00:10:02] And like our Facebook page and mark it that you'd like to get notifications from us so that we can connect with you on Facebook and make sure that we're serving you to the best of our abilities with time and tips there. Until next time, invest your time. Your talent and your treasures develop your influence and impact the world.