All right, good morning destination. If you are just checking us out, special welcome to you. And I want to invite you, all of you, if you haven't been to a 10-minute tour before.

It's something that we're going to do next week. It's for those who want to get involved here at the church or just want to learn more. , this is a perfect opportunity to hear more about the vision, the mission of the church, get to meet some of the leaders, and get to kind of get a feel for what kind of church we are. So, I really want to encourage you to come check that out. That's after service.

It only takes 10 minutes and it's really quick and just you'll get a special gift for coming, too. So, that's another plus. And also, if you've been to one of these before, then I can maybe assume that destination is your home church.

And if it is, I want to just reiterate what Wes said when he came up here, which was, "Who do you know who's closest to you but furthest from Jesus. " , I read a stat this week that said most people that are invited around the holiday season to church, about 80% of them will accept that invitation. And myself being one of them. When I was 15 years old, I got an invitation to a church for a Christmas service and that's how I came to know and love Jesus at 15 years old. And so your invite could change somebody's life.

And I just want to encourage you in that this morning. But we have been in this series called Light in the Darkness. We kicked it off last week and the big idea of this series is simple. It's that in dark times, Jesus is the light of the world.

And so for the next several weeks, we're looking at a character in the Christmas story. We're looking at maybe some of their darkness that they dealt with and how Jesus was a light in that darkness. And today we're looking at Mary.

But before we do, I want you guys to kind of kind of be in the place in the emotional state a little bit of where Mary was before we dive into her story. And so, usually, by the way, if this is your first time, usually I'm I I tell kind of a light-hearted start. This one's going to be a little bit heavier.

I hope we can handle that this morning. Are we good with that. We good with that. Everybody's like, "Oh, man. I'm I'm nervous.

" All right. So, I want you to think about this for a second. What is the most unexpected thing that's ever happened in your life. Like the scariest thing. And I'm not talking like a movie or a prank.

I'm talking like it kind of paralyzed you for a second in fear and in questioning. I want you to think about that moment for a second. And if I'm honest in answering this, , I I would love to, , tell the story of the scarest I've ever been in my life, even though it is probably the hardest thing I will say for myself to share from the stage, okay.

But I want you to to get into this with me, okay. , I had a situation where in it was a February day and my 8-year-old daughter was playing outside and she was drawing sidewalk chalk. It was a nice winter day.

It was one of those rare days. And I was cooking dinner. I could see her from outside of our window at the time. And I went around the corner to grab some laundry, grab some other things, come right back to yell out to say it's time to eat. And as I looked out into my backyard, my daughter's not there.

I'm like, that's funny. And you know how kids like sometimes will run around and play hide and seek on their parents without letting them know. So I thought this was one of those moments. So I'm running around the yard.

I'm yelling. I'm yelling for my daughter to stop now. This isn't funny anymore.

You come out. I I don't know where you are. And I'm starting to be filled more and more with fear as this moment comes. And and I start to fear the worst cuz I'm not finding her anywhere around our house. And so I'm getting ready to to get in my car and I just run out to the street just for a split second to look out into the neighborhood.

And off in the distance I see my 8-year-old girl at the time running at full speed from the other side of the neighborhood and I'm terrified. But she comes and she comes and collapses into my arms and says, "They took me. " And I said, "What. " And I I come to find out that some younger girl came into our backyard and every parent's worst nightmare happened.

She grabbed her by the arm, put her in a car, they got about a half mile out the road and then she managed to unlock the door, run out, right. How brave and and another car witnessed this. So the car sped off and my daughter made it home. Now, this is every parent's worst nightmare when I tell it. Actually, I I feel uncomfortable.

So, I can't imagine what you feel right now. It's fearful. It's full of just this feeling of paralyzation and questioning like why would that happen.

And maybe for you, it's not like that level of scary, but there are other levels of scary that bring us to this place. When the doctor calls or the police station calls and you've you've gotten this unexpected news about a loved one or your relationship ends when you weren't expecting it to or there's something there or that bill shows up that you had no idea was going to be hitting your mailbox. There are things that fill us with unexpected fear, unexpected darkness. And what do we do in those unexpected dark times.

That's what we're going to look at today. And to do that, we're going to open the word of God. And we're going to open up to Luke 1.

It's on page 879. By the way, two things. If you don't have a Bible, bring this one home with you.

It's our gift to you. It's just we pray that you open up the word of God. And I want to say this. I don't say this from stage enough. , if you want to, I would greatly encourage you to bring a notebook and start writing stuff down.

Not because what I think I have to say is really good, but I think God is speaking to every single one of you , here on Sundays and throughout the week and we should be writing those things down. But first thing I want to do is I want to set the stage a little bit by meeting Mary. So, if you follow down the numbers to the number 26, we're going to meet Mary for the first time. And it says, "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.

And the virgin's name was Mary. " Okay, so every story needs some context. And so, here's the context.

Mary is about 13 to 17. She's a teenager at this time. Nazareth is where she's at. It's a small town about three or 500 people, aka everybody knew everybody's business.

Okay, that's what's happening here. And she is in an engagement. Now, back then, an engagement is a legally binding agreement between two parties. And what's happening here is if Mary, , spoiler alert, this is coming up. If Mary were to get pregnant outside of this agreement, , she would be victim to shame and stoning.

Okay, so that's coming up and you need to know that about the context. Furthermore, Mary and Mary's people are under Roman oppression right now. , there's people in poverty and they have no influence and no power.

Okay, so that's the context that Mary is in when she gets visited by this angel. Now look at verse 28. It says, "Then the angel went to her and said,"Greetings, you who are highly favored. The Lord is with you.

" Mary was greatly troubled at his words. And wondered what kind of greeting this might be. So this is our first response when some unexpected darkness comes that we by human nature become greatly troubled in fear.

And this is Mary's first reaction and rightfully so. You and I would be full of this fear too. It's how God has wired us.

Fear is this natural reaction that protects us in some kind of unexpected situation. So fear in one sense is a good thing. It's how God has wired us.

And you see Mary could have had this fear because she was in the presence of an angel. Now anywhere in scripture where you read Old Testament through where God shows up or an angel shows up, the first thing that you'll see the reaction of the person being is they are greatly filled with fear. And the reason is is because when they stand in the presence of God and stand in the presence of an angel, they feel this weight of of awe and wonder and also man, am I am I good enough. Am I worthy to be in the presence of this angel.

And so for us, we may be filled with fear because we don't feel good enough or we look at our past and it doesn't feel good enough. Mary could have been in fear because this this angel is bringing her a message and this message she doesn't understand why why me why would an angel bring me this message and I don't know about you but when I don't understand something sometimes my bent is to get angry or frustrated about it like why can't I figure this out so Mary could have been filled with fear over that she could have been even in fear of the unknown not knowing what kind of greeting this might be. You see, when this happens, we become worried or anxious.

And that's another way that fear kind of shows itself. You see, when you and I become greatly troubled in fear, our question needs to become, do we look towards God or let your focus be on your feelings. In other words, I want to ask it like this. What's bigger in your life.

Your fears or your faith. Because what we're about to see is Mary's great faith. I love how Pastor Rick Warren says this.

He says, "Fear looks at the size of your problems, but faith looks at the size of God. " And so in your fears, in those moments when something unexpected happens, it's fine to feel fear. But those feelings of fear should ultimately drive us towards faith in that God's got this, that God is going to cover us in protection and that God is going to make all things work for his good and for or for our good and his glory.

You with me this morning. It's okay to talk back sometimes, right. And this is why the Bible says throughout scripture 365 times, one for each day, do not be afraid.

Do not fear. You see this all throughout scripture when you read. And it's a reminder to you that your faith in Jesus can be bigger than the situations, than the darkness that sometimes comes and creeps into your life. We'll talk about this even more as we dive into Joseph's story next week.

But look at what verse 30 says. Look at how the angel reacts. But the angel says to her what.

Do not be afraid. Do not be afraid. There's one of the 365.

You can read the 364 this week. Mary, let's continue on. Mary, you have found favor in God. You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you will 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.

You know that song Mary. Did you know. It's right here.

The angel literally told her before she's born. This is her response. How will this be.

Mary asked the angel since I am a virgin. I think this question is so profound because this is what you and I do when we get that unexpected bill or phone call or something happens in our lives. Even if it's just the most minor thing, maybe it's not darkness, but maybe it's just something that we're going through even healthwise. We start to question. We start to say, "God, why me.

Why am I the one dealing with this. How could this be happening to me. How is it that I'm the one that has to deal with this. This is what Mary is doing. She's questioning.

She's questioning how can this be. That I'm going to be pregnant. That I'm going to be pregnant and that this doesn't seem possible. It seems risky.

It seems reckless. You see, when you and I experience the unexpected, our our reaction is sometimes fear, but also sometimes questioning or a little bit of both. You see, questioning helps us to understand.

And so, it's natural for us to have some questioning for God. However, our motivation for that questioning is really what we need to uncover. Because when we're questioning God, why me.

We need to see if we're questioning for wisdom or questioning for control. You see, sometimes, maybe I'll just talk in in terms of myself here. Sometimes what we'll do is we'll question or we'll ask God these questions and it's with the intention of controlling the outcome. And so we'll ask God and we'll we'll want God to share with us his plan.

And the intention even though we wouldn't say it, but the intention through our actions becomes, I want to compare God's plan to my plan and see if my ways are better than his ways. And we do this and that's why we question is because we're trying to seek some kind of understanding to control an outcome. And so what we'll do is we'll question God, how can I how can I get through what I'm going through right now.

And God will lead us to some answers like, well, you got to find a a church. You know, that prayer table that's over there isn't just for show. Like, you can go over there and get prayed for or, you know, you could you can open this book. I have so much hope and light in this book or or spend some time with me.

And we'll hear all those things and we'll be like, "Nah, nah, I got I got some other ideas. " You see, questioning for control says, "God, tell me everything so I can decide if I want to obey or not. " But questioning for wisdom is different. Questioning for wisdom says, "God, I need you to help me. Will you teach me.

Will you give me whatever the next step is in this wondering, in this waiting, in this questioning. " And this is what Mary's doing. She's asking, "How will this be with the intention of getting wisdom and not control.

" I love the way that Jesus's little brother, James, teaches about this. This is one of my favorite passages to teach on, and it's in James chapter 1. I'll have it on the screen behind me.

It starts in verse two. James, Jesus's little brother, says it like this. Consider it a pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds. Can we just pause and laugh about that.

When is the last time you were excited when you went through a really hard time. Like, oh man, I just got a bill that's huge that I wasn't expecting. But that's what James is saying.

He's saying, consider it a pure joy whenever you face trials of many kinds. Because you know, because you know, if you don't know, you're about to know. Because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.

Let that perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking in anything. If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. So James says, "Consider it a pure joy when you go through some of these really hard times because what's going to happen is there's a result.

You're going to learn how to persevere through other difficult times that you will have here on earth. " Jesus gives us this promise in in John chapter 16. He says in this world you will have trouble but take heart for I have overcome the world and what it what you will be overcoming will produce in you this perseverance and this maturity you'll grow and you'll you'll grow to rely on me your faith your trust your reliance will become stronger and guess what if you're still struggling if you're still struggling what does James says if you lack wisdom you should ask God who gives gives generously. He gives generously to us without finding fault and it will be given to you.

But there's more. Look at what James says after that. But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt because the one who doubts is like a wave in the sea blown and tossed by the wind.

That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. For such a person is double-minded and unstable in all they do. Now listen, this can sound convicting at the surface level, but I want you to hear the heart and the love of Jesus for you.

It's okay to have questions. It's okay to have doubts, but those doubts and those questions should ultimately lead us towards God's direction in our life to have faith and trust that God has got this. But some of us what we do is we doubt because we look at the size of this mountain and say I can't climb that.

But what trust looks like trust and faith and reliance in God doesn't look at the whole mountain and says I can't do it. But it looks at the mountain and says God help me take the first step. Some of you in some of your things that you've been going through, some of the stuff that you've been wrestling with, you think that it's just going to be able to turn off like some kind of light switch.

But what God is saying is, I'm here every step, every uncomfortable step that you have to take through this trial, through this darkness. And I'll be honest with you guys, sometimes that's hard for me to do to trust God in those places. But that is exactly what Mary's responses.

Look at the third and final response in verse 35. The angel answers her. The angel gives Mary how this is going to happen.

She says, "The Holy Spirit will come on you and the power of the most high will overshadow you. So the holy one will be born and 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 without is unable to conceive is in her sixth month.

For everybody should underline this verse man. For no word from God will ever fail. And Mary answers I am the Lord's servant.

May the may your word to me be fulfilled. And then the angel leaves. Okay, here is what trusting God looks like. I would say that Mary's response is one of the most trusting responses in all of scripture.

Because if we go back to the context, I want you to remember the context. Mary is accepting this call from God to be pregnant. She has to break the news to the guy that she's engaged with, to her family.

They are in under Roman oppression. They are in a census year. She's basically saying, "I'll do this even though I know that I could get stoned to death. And that's Mary's trust in God.

She says, "I am the Lord's servant. Let whatever you say be done. And so Mary has this this amazing trust in God that she didn't see the full picture, but she trusted the one who was going to develop it.

One of my favorite classes in high school was photography class. We had video and photography, and it was it was one of my favorites to go to. And I remember learning about this place called a dark room.

So, everybody over 30 knows exactly what I'm talking about. Everybody under 30 is like, "What. " so, let's let's just have a little history lesson.

Go back in time. There used to be a time where not every device had a camera on it. Well, isn't that crazy. And there used to be a time that you would have to go to a a place to get film developed to see the picture.

And so, you would take a bunch of pictures. My grandpa still uses his, by the way. You take a bunch of pictures and then you bring in this little film roll and you'd give it to somebody who develops photos and they take it into this place called a dark room.

This room was dark and it was red and they would put the photo films in chemicals to expose the pictures. And I thought that was so crazy when I learned about it because this bright, vibrant, beautiful picture that I took has to become developed in the dark. But that is the whole point of this message that I'm given is that in some of your unexpected dark times, you need to see that God is developing something beautiful. And so when I sit up here and talk about my darkness and my and my my trial here with my daughter and how how tough that was, I also get to talk about how much I love supporting organizations that fight against sex trafficking and different things like that.

And you'll hear my heart for that come about. You see, God takes all of our messes and makes it into a message for his good and and glory. And so you need to know that in all of this, he's taking Mary's faith, Mary's yes, and and he's using that to bring the son of God into the world.

Billy Graham says it like this. The greatest enemy of faith is fear. Trust God's love and the dark corners of your heart will see his light. What are some areas in your life, some dark corners that you haven't trusted God's love with.

What are some areas in your life that you know have not been touched with healing or hope or grace. And I know that this is like a a heavy word for this morning, but I wanted you to feel that because that's what Mary is feeling in this moment. You know, we we around the Christmas season look at how amazing Mary's story was that she got to bring Jesus into the world, but we don't look at all of the other things that are going on around Mary of how difficult that must have been to bring the son of God into the world.

And I just want to encourage you this morning that whatever you're walking through, Jesus sees it. And he doesn't want to condemn you. He doesn't want to make you feel guilty or bad about it. He wants to take the steps with you in all those unexpected times and trials that Jesus loves you so much that he wants to walk with you and cry with you and be angry with you and be there with you.

And so if you don't hear anything that I'm saying this morning, hear this. Trust that Jesus is with you in all of your darkness. And so, I want to give you just some time to reflect on this.

So, would you just bow your heads and close your eyes, just have a private moment with God. I'll have the worship team come back up. , and I just want to encourage you.

I I think everybody in this room is is maybe in one of two places this morning. Maybe you're in this place where you haven't really put your trust and faith in Jesus that you would say, "Oh man, I I've just kind of let the darkness take over. Like I I focus on the fear.

I focus on the whatifs. I focus on the the questions. And if the questions aren't answered, then then forget it.

I'm just done. " And so maybe for some of you this morning, your first step is to just say, "Yes, Jesus. I trust you. I want to give you my life and I want to trust you.

" And then for some of us who maybe have trusted and have put our faith in in Jesus, maybe for some of you the next step is just developing a deeper trust in Jesus. Jesus is calling us all to trust him with all of these heavy things that we carry. And some of us are going through life trying to carry these things by oursel.

We're trying to gain control. We're trying to do all of the things to to make it work. But Jesus wants to meet us in this place. Trust that he's there. And so I'm just going to pray over you.

And and this is just my heart, my pastoral heart for you this morning. And so God, I just I pray for everybody in this room, no matter what they're going through. God, I pray that you would be with them.

That God, if there is a first step, that if there is somebody that needs to say yes to you, that this morning would be their yes day. That in their hearts right now, they would confess that you are Lord. That they would believe that you are God.

And that they would tell somebody about it. That they would tell somebody this morning that I want to put my trust in you. And for everybody else, whatever health issue, whatever relational issue, whatever thing that that they're going through, God, you know, God, you know, and you see. And so, God, I I just pray over everybody in this room that we would have a deeper trust, a deeper reliance on your goodness, on your faithfulness.

That God, we don't have to look at the size of the problem because you are bigger than the problem. That you are bigger than all of the darkness because you are the light of the world. And so we thank you for that, Jesus. We praise your name for that, Jesus. And we worship you in Jesus name.