Lady Mary (AS) In Christianity - Pastor Mark Anderson || MGC 2021

13 المشاهدات· 24/07/31

Muslim Group of USA and Canada
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Lady Mary (AS) In Christianity - Pastor Mark Anderson

The Muslim Group of USA and Canada proudly presents its 37th
Annual Conference || Lessons from the life of Virgin Mary and Sayyida Fatima

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Transcript

[0:08]welcome everyone to this event called lady mary and christianity i'll begin

[0:14]by a brief introduction to pastor mark anderson and then introduction on

[0:17]his talk and then he can get started so pastor mark anderson

[0:21]graduated with a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from milwaukee school of

[0:24]engineering and then he moved to eastern europe and studied for four

[0:28]years and he met his wife there and then he moved back

[0:31]to milwaukee and very quickly started to meet people from all over

[0:35]the world and then he graduated with a master's degree in christian

[0:38]studies and has worked as a pastor in a church in milwaukee

[0:40]and in university international student admissions and advising so his talk today

[0:46]is called the life of submission to god lessons from the life

[0:49]of the virgin mary peace be upon her and her son the

[0:52]day he was born the day he and the day he dies

[0:54]and the day he is raised alive he'll start off by giving

[0:57]a brief overview of biblical history leading up to the leading up

[1:01]to the life of mary and the birth of jesus and then

[1:04]and then talk through what the bible says about the virgin mary

[1:08]and look at what lessons we can apply to our own lives

[1:10]about living a life of submission to god so my understanding well

[1:17]thank you very much it is truly a privilege and an honor

[1:22]to be here and i mean that with all of my hearts

[1:25]when i was invited it was just it brought me a lot

[1:29]of joy for this opportunity to share with you um i just

[1:32]want to start off with a few general words of introduction um

[1:35]you know obviously i am a christian i'm a follower of jesus

[1:38]but i'm i'm not here because we're trying to convince each other

[1:41]one way or the other but i really love the the vision

[1:45]of this conference that we are you know we have an opportunity

[1:49]to learn from each other to um to encourage each other to

[1:53]um to challenge each other in our faith and to to grow

[1:56]in that honor and respect of each other as we as we

[1:59]seek to live out our own faith um there is uh there's

[2:04]one thing i just want to to share a little bit about

[2:07]before i start and i just to kind of set the tone

[2:11]a little bit for our talk um and one thing is you

[2:14]know as a christian i certainly am aware that that christians are

[2:20]far from perfect um and it saddens me a lot i know

[2:25]that um you know i've experienced it myself um having worked with

[2:27]a lot of muslim international students and uh knowing a lot of

[2:31]muslims in this country and i've i've seen the way that sometimes

[2:36]even christians have have responded to muslims out of fear and and

[2:41]distrust and suspicion rather than love and rather than service and so

[2:46]i just wanted to start off this conversation today this talk by

[2:50]asking for forgiveness on behalf of christians because that is that is

[2:55]not the way that we should live and i'm hoping that me

[2:58]being here that our this opportunity to to share will help to

[3:02]break down some of the walls that have been built and to

[3:07]and to build bridges instead so so thank you again it is

[3:11]it is a privilege to be here and one thing that i

[3:14]can say is i have learned a tremendous amount from the muslim

[3:18]friends that i have of of what it means to be hospitable

[3:23]and what it means to be kind and welcoming so so i

[3:25]thank you for that so we are going to go and and

[3:33]spend some time looking at the life of the virgin mary um

[3:36]and as a good engineer i don't know if you guys know

[3:39]engineers but we joke that we we like too many details um

[3:42]i'm going to go back to the beginning back to the very

[3:45]beginning and so i do have some very basic slides just to

[3:50]kind of give an outline for the talk today but if we

[3:54]look at the life of the virgin mary i think everybody knows

[3:58]that america right now is much of the world is celebrating christmas

[4:01]which is the birth of jesus and the western calendar the gregorian

[4:05]calendar that we uh go by here in the united states uh

[4:09]the year zero is approximately the birth of jesus so jesus would

[4:14]have been born about 2021 years ago and so that means that

[4:19]the the events of the life of mary that we're going to

[4:20]speak about today would have taken place again a little bit before

[4:25]that and then in the in the early years of the life

[4:28]of jesus so you know a little two thousand plus years ago

[4:30]but many years before that in the very beginning the bible begins

[4:36]in the book of genesis chapter one verse one the very beginning

[4:39]it says in the beginning god created the heavens and the earth

[4:45]now i'm going to establish the setting i think it's very important

[4:48]as we look at the life of mary of just the the

[4:53]overall history of the bible leading up to to mary's life and

[4:57]to the birth of jesus and so in the beginning god created

[5:00]the heavens and the earth and on the earth god created a

[5:07]garden he created a garden in the land of eden and he

[5:09]placed adam and eve in that garden and now that was a

[5:14]place of of great fellowship between humans between adam and eve and

[5:20]god certainly god was not physical but god's presence was there in

[5:24]such a way that adam and eve were able to to have

[5:28]a very good relationship with god a very close relationship with god

[5:31]but there were some unexpected things at least unexpected from my perspective

[5:37]that were in that garden with adam and eve it was a

[5:42]paradise but yet in the middle of that garden there were two

[5:46]trees and one tree was what was called the tree of life

[5:50]and we learned that if if adam and eve would have eaten

[5:53]from that tree of life they would have lived forever but next

[5:57]to the tree of life there was a tree that was called

[6:00]the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and it was

[6:05]about that tree that god commanded them he said you are free

[6:10]to eat from any of the trees in the garden but you

[6:13]must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and

[6:18]evil for when you eat of it you will surely die so

[6:21]this this idea that that there was one command that adam and

[6:26]eve were to live by and that was not to eat this

[6:29]one tree so there was a choice that they had they they

[6:32]could have eaten from any of the trees in the garden they

[6:34]certainly could have eaten from the tree of life but there was

[6:37]this one tree and there's something about this tree that when he

[6:41]says the knowledge of good and evil it's not so much that

[6:45]they would have a textbook or an encyclopedia knowledge but that they

[6:49]would have an experiential knowledge they would go from being in a

[6:51]paradise of the garden of eden to being in one in in

[6:57]a world where they are experiencing evil and death would be a

[6:59]part of that and so you know as the story goes on

[7:05]there was one other thing in the garden that is also a

[7:08]little bit unexpected because adam and eve are in the garden they're

[7:10]near the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and there's

[7:13]also a serpent that is there and it says of the serpent

[7:17]that the serpent is crafty the serpent is shrewd um and so

[7:21]already there's this this this animal that has in some way given

[7:25]itself over to the power of evil to the power of satan

[7:31]and this serpent comes up to adam and eve and especially to

[7:35]eve and he challenges her understanding of who god is the serpent

[7:41]says did god really say not to eat from that tree and

[7:46]he went on to say i'm telling you that that you will

[7:50]not die if you eat of that tree so he's trying to

[7:54]create the seeds of doubt in god he was trying to challenge

[7:56]what adam and eve knew about god's goodness and to say that

[8:01]god was holding something back from them and in the end adam

[8:03]or eve takes of the fruit and she eats she gives some

[8:08]to adam and adam also eats and immediately they do not die

[8:11]immediately but immediately brokenness and the process of death begins because now

[8:16]adam and eve have disobeyed a direct command of god they've broken

[8:21]that relationship with god they've broken the relationship with each other as

[8:26]they blame each other for the problems that they experienced and and

[8:30]they they begin to see the brokenness with the environment around them

[8:34]as well and so god finds them after they have eaten of

[8:38]the forbidden fruit as we say and he makes several statements he

[8:44]tells adam that no longer would the earth just simply produce fruit

[8:49]but adam would need to start working hard for the for his

[8:53]own food he tells eve that that her pain and child bearing

[8:56]will increase and then he says specifically to the servant serpents he

[9:02]says he says because you've done this cursed are you above all

[9:05]the livestock and all the wild animals i will put enmity between

[9:10]you and the woman and between your offspring and hers he will

[9:16]crush your head and you will strike his heel so enmity is

[9:21]this idea of hostility and so here already this is the very

[9:24]beginning of the bible it's genesis chapter three there are only three

[9:27]chapters into the bible and already we went from paradise to paradise

[9:34]lost but there's an interesting hint here where god says something about

[9:37]there's a descendant of the woman who is coming who will crush

[9:42]the head of the serpent now i'm not sure what they understood

[9:46]right away but over the course of time as people continued to

[9:51]pray as people continued to seek god and to understand what was

[9:56]happening in this new paradise lost they began to realize that god

[10:00]had a plan to undo the brokenness that humankind had done and

[10:05]so there was this expectation that god would send somebody several several

[10:11]centuries later many years pass and this expectation builds and we we

[10:17]meet another person in the bible named abraham in islam in arabic

[10:22]that is ibrahim and again you have have a man who has

[10:27]a special relationship with god so god speaks with abraham and he

[10:32]gives him a command and and abraham follows abraham is obedience and

[10:36]a and and god speaks a word to abraham here on the

[10:41]screen in genesis 12.

[10:42]god said the lord said to abraham i will make you into

[10:46]a great nation and i will bless you i will make your

[10:52]name great and you will be a blessing and all the peoples

[10:57]on earth will be blessed through you now again you know what

[11:01]does that mean that all the nations of the earth would be

[11:03]blessed through abraham and again as people begin they continue seeking after

[11:09]god and seeking what is god doing they're beginning to connect with

[11:15]this with that first promise made to adam and eve saying that

[11:18]you know certainly abraham physically in and of himself would not be

[11:22]able to bless all of the the nations all of the people

[11:25]of the world but a descendant would come through abraham and god

[11:29]makes a promise of that later abraham until his very old age

[11:34]did not have children and god said you will have children and

[11:37]so again that this this connection comes that that god is going

[11:40]to send somebody who is going to undo the work of evil

[11:46]that's that adam and eve had led all of humanity in so

[11:51]so abraham lived you know according to biblical understanding probably about two

[11:57]thousand plus years before jesus so about a little over four thousand

[12:03]years ago and again many many centuries go by and we come

[12:07]to another man named david in arabic daoud and again david uh

[12:13]the bible speaks of him as being a man after god's own

[12:19]heart and god says to david when your days are over and

[12:23]you rest with your fathers i will raise up your offspring to

[12:26]succeed you who will come from your own body i will establish

[12:32]the throne of his kingdom forever so again you know certainly david

[12:39]had sons and daughters and and kings after him but there's another

[12:44]hint what does it mean that a that a throne or a

[12:48]kingdom would be established forever certainly there's there's something beyond just what

[12:52]david was doing there that god was making a promise that was

[12:56]beyond just the next king in succession to david and so this

[13:01]this idea of of god sending somebody of of a messiah a

[13:06]savior to come it keeps growing they're trying to understand what god

[13:09]is doing now when david was king over israel again about three

[13:15]thousand years ago so about a thousand years after abraham it was

[13:18]at the peak of its power and its its size and in

[13:23]the years after that the the 600 or so years after that

[13:27]the nation of israel largely turned away from god there was a

[13:33]lot of unfaithfulness there was a lot of of idolatry there was

[13:36]a lot of lack of faith in god and and the kingdom

[13:42]began to shrink until ultimately the kingdom was was captured by other

[13:47]kingdoms and it ceased to exist altogether and so israel lost their

[13:50]kingdom and and they lost their ability to worship freely as they

[13:54]had for so many years and so for the the 400 years

[14:00]or so before the life of mary it was a time of

[14:06]of great confusion because people were were trying to understand as often

[14:10]happens when people go astray from god they don't realize it they

[14:15]they often think that they're following god but just little by little

[14:18]they get off the path until they've completely lost the direction and

[14:22]so they were they were confused about what god was doing they

[14:25]were remembering this idea that god was going to send somebody but

[14:29]it was just hard to understand and it was also a time

[14:35]when there was a lot of political corruption there was a lot

[14:38]of corruption among the religious leaders and to make matters worse people

[14:44]began to appear saying hey i am the one that god has

[14:52]sent and so these these false messiahs began to appear trying to

[14:54]lead people astray trying to start political upheavals trying to in some

[14:59]cases even cause war uh just to to regain the kingdom of

[15:03]israel and uh quick point uh we're gonna have a question and

[15:06]answer session at the end so if you have any questions you

[15:10]can write them down and ask um yep and so so that

[15:15]brings us to the time of the life of mary and the

[15:18]reason i say all of that is because it was not a

[15:24]simple life it was not one where you know she was just

[15:27]expecting something to happen it was not a time where where there

[15:31]was great and tremendous faith among the people of israel among the

[15:34]jews and so it she was really a standout type of person

[15:38]a personality that was very different than most of the people around

[15:45]her so so we come to mary at about the same time

[15:48]this is about six months before the angel appears to mary the

[15:52]angel of gabriel first appeared to somebody else and he appeared to

[15:59]a man named zachariah it says in luke chapter one now this

[16:03]is already in the new testament the angel said to him do

[16:06]not be afraid zachariah your prayer has been heard your wife elizabeth

[16:12]will bear you a son and you are to give him the

[16:17]name john so we read in the bible that zachariah and his

[16:20]wife elizabeth are again in in some ways like abraham they're they're

[16:24]very old well past the age of childbearing and they have no

[16:28]children and so that is the desire of their heart they've prayed

[16:32]for it but they have no children and zechariah is a priest

[16:36]and so one thing that happened for the priests is they would

[16:40]leave their home and they would travel to jerusalem and they would

[16:43]serve in the temple for a period of time and then they

[16:47]would go back home so zechariah went to jerusalem to serve in

[16:52]the temple and while he was there the angel gabriel appeared to

[16:56]him and that's when he spoke these words do not be afraid

[17:02]zachariah and now again in contrast to mary here is an elderly

[17:05]man the bible says that he walked faithfully with god but his

[17:10]response to the angel was how can i be sure of this

[17:14]how can i know how can this be possible he says know

[17:18]my wife myself we are old we cannot have children and then

[17:22]we know from the angel's response that that truly zechariah's answer was

[17:26]one of doubt he did not believe it could happen that he

[17:31]that in his old age he could have this child and so

[17:33]the angel said as a result because you doubt me you will

[17:38]be unable to speak until these things take place so zechariah literally

[17:41]loses his ability to speak so he finishes up his his service

[17:45]in the temple and he goes back home and lo and behold

[17:50]his wife does become pregnant and on the day that they name

[17:52]him john his speech comes back and he praises god and so

[17:58]this john is who the bible calls john the baptist in in

[18:04]arabic is yahya and the angel gabriel said yahya would go before

[18:10]the promised one so he would be immediately before the messiah would

[18:14]arrive and so suddenly you know there's even more excitement that's that

[18:19]what god is doing is about to happen but it was while

[18:23]elizabeth was six months pregnant that the angel gabriel actually appeared to

[18:29]mary and so it says in the sixth month the angel gabriel

[18:33]was sent from god to a city of galilee named nazareth to

[18:37]a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was joseph of the

[18:43]house of david and the virgin's name was mary so the angel

[18:48]appears to mary and i know that there's a lot of similar

[18:52]stories in in the quran so you know the history it's interesting

[18:54]though mary does ask a question somewhat similar to that of zechariah

[18:58]because she says you know how will this happen not out of

[19:04]doubt but you know i'm not married i'm not in a position

[19:07]to have children and that's when the angel explains to her that

[19:10]god would speak a word over her and and it would be

[19:14]a miraculous birth it would be similar to that maybe even of

[19:16]of like an adam and eve who who were not born in

[19:20]a normal way so so jesus would be born without a human

[19:26]father and what we read is and that's i jumped ahead of

[19:31]slide says the angel said to her do not be afraid mary

[19:32]you have found favor with god you will be with child and

[19:36]give birth to a son and you are to give him the

[19:40]name jesus and mary responded i am the lord's servant may it

[19:43]be to me as you have said so i think that is

[19:47]that is familiar and that now brings us up to the life

[19:50]of mary into the main part of our talk sorry for a

[19:53]very long introduction but the main part of our talk then is

[19:57]you know we see this example of tremendous submission in in the

[20:02]life of mary to god this this willingness just to accept what

[20:06]god has for her and so i want to share three either

[20:10]words or phrases that i think help us to to understand what

[20:15]a life of submission looks like today and so the first one

[20:20]is you know it would be the word faith everybody would say

[20:26]you know mary had tremendous faith in god i want to adjust

[20:29]that slightly just to just to account for american culture sometimes i

[20:34]know that we're a very diverse audience but it's very common at

[20:38]least that i found in my experience that people say faith and

[20:42]what they understand is like a mental agreement okay sure i i

[20:48]agree i'm fine with that and the faith of the bible and

[20:52]i think the faith of islam is is much more than a

[20:56]mental agreement it's a whole life commitment and so the book of

[21:00]romans in the new testament of the bible would call it the

[21:02]obedience of faith it's it's a it's a it's a mental acknowledgement

[21:08]that leads to a change of life it leads to life action

[21:11]that is a complete commitment so your life begins to follow the

[21:17]faith that you have so i'm going to try to illustrate each

[21:20]of these three points so bear with me this is a common

[21:26]thing in in the christian churches but i i happen to be

[21:29]a runner i like to run and i've heard it said that

[21:34]the spiritual life can be compared to running a race now not

[21:40]at all like a short distance race not nothing against any sprinters

[21:43]who might be in here but it's it's not about a short

[21:47]race where everybody is just competing to win but it's much more

[21:52]like a marathon a very long race where the vast majority of

[21:57]people are in it not because they're trying to win but because

[22:00]they're trying to finish and they're trying to finish well and if

[22:05]you want to run a marathon 26 miles 42 kilometers it's a

[22:11]very wise idea to have a plan to have a training plan

[22:16]how are you going to get ready to run this race and

[22:20]there's a lot of training plans out there but it's interesting because

[22:23]people approach the preparation and the training in very different ways you

[22:28]know i've seen some people they they take the plan and maybe

[22:33]they just ignore it or maybe they look at it and there's

[22:36]like well you know the race is a long ways out it's

[22:40]i've got plenty of time i don't need to start training yet

[22:43]or maybe they don't even take the time to get a plan

[22:47]they just say i'll just i'll run a little bit here and

[22:50]there and when the time comes i'll be ready for the race

[22:53]there are other people who they get the plan and they say

[22:59]ah i know better than the plan i'm going to adjust it

[23:03]and modified i'm going to work harder than the plan and it's

[23:05]going to make me better i'm going to i'm going gonna run

[23:08]faster as a result and in both of these cases ironically what

[23:13]often happens is when the actual marathon is about to start literally

[23:17]over half of the people who sign up for the marathon don't

[23:21]even show up to the starting line because they're not either they

[23:26]haven't trained and so they're not ready or they thought they knew

[23:28]what they were doing and they trained too much and they got

[23:31]injured and so for whatever reason the start of the race comes

[23:36]and they're not even at the starting line other people in both

[23:39]of those categories start the race but they're simply not able to

[23:44]finish because again either they're not ready or or their body just

[23:48]gives out too soon and some people actually do finish but it

[23:51]ends up being a tremendous effort and it comes with a lot

[23:55]of pain because they're simply they're not in a good spot to

[23:58]run the race and i think that there is a lot true

[24:00]that we can learn about the spiritual life and especially about the

[24:05]life of faith the obedience of faith if we look at that

[24:09]because god has given us a plan he he has told us

[24:12]how he wants us to live and whether it's among the faithful

[24:19]or among those who are not faithful there's a lot of people

[24:23]who either ignore the plan or there's a lot of people who

[24:26]maybe look at the plan a little bit and think i i

[24:29]really don't have the time i don't have the effort i don't

[24:32]have the strength and so they they really don't put much effort

[24:35]into the plan and there are other people and this might sound

[24:40]funny but it's true there are other people who would say i

[24:43]think i know better than the plan and you know why why

[24:46]it might be hard to recognize some of those people sometimes especially

[24:49]when it's god's plan there are a lot of people who who

[24:54]they take god's plan and and they overwork it so to speak

[25:01]they they in in trying to make themselves you know acceptable to

[25:06]god or or um you know just in a good spot before

[25:11]god they they they go overboard and what typically happens to them

[25:16]is it it ends up being much more about a show of

[25:19]who they are rather than a matter of what's on the inside

[25:21]so they're they're trying to gain other people's approval rather than than

[25:27]god's approval and also what often happens is is you know god

[25:30]knew what he was doing when he created the plan and so

[25:34]people who try to modify the plan or overdo the plan often

[25:37]succeed in one area and fail miserably somewhere else maybe they're faithful

[25:42]in one area but they end up being mean to people somewhere

[25:45]else or they they simply run out of kindness or they're faithful

[25:49]in one area and they they run out of time that god

[25:53]asks them to commit to things than somewhere else so again it's

[25:55]you know it's the obedience of faith is about sticking to the

[25:59]plan and trusting that god knows what he was doing when he

[26:03]gave us the plan so as we go on you know i'm

[26:09]guessing that all of us in this room we're here because because

[26:13]we want to know god more we want to seek after god

[26:14]we want to live a life of obedience and i'm thinking that

[26:19]if if god appeared to us and said you know i i

[26:22]want i want to use you to bring a great prophet into

[26:25]the world a great person a messiah into the world that that

[26:30]we would say well yes i definitely want to be a part

[26:35]of what you're doing god please do use me but it's interesting

[26:38]because as i think through that and then i begin to read

[26:40]about the life of mary i realized that i would be thinking

[26:46]that that life was is going to get great you know i've

[26:48]got a great relationship with the messiah with the savior it's you

[26:53]know things are going to be very good but what we actually

[26:57]see happen is is actually quite the diff quite the opposite because

[27:02]mary accepts what god is doing in her life but then she

[27:06]immediately enters into a whole series of trials so life quite far

[27:11]from suddenly getting easy you know suddenly being a walk in the

[27:16]park because she's being obedient to god it actually gets more challenging

[27:19]um and and one of the ways that we see that is

[27:23]that there are very few words that were spoken specifically by mary

[27:27]recorded in the bible so so there's there's there's a lack of

[27:32]those words but i think it shows us her character because what

[27:37]happens is mary finds out from the angel of what's going to

[27:41]happen and then at some point again we're not given privilege to

[27:44]see that first conversation between mary and joseph but when joseph learns

[27:49]of what is happening it says because joseph her husband was a

[27:53]righteous man and did not want to expose her to public disgrace

[27:58]he had in mind to divorce her quietly so this is from

[28:02]matthew chapter 1 verse 19.

[28:04]so so mary accepts what god has for her but joseph is

[28:11]not convinced joseph is engaged he's you know they are waiting to

[28:14]get married but he is not convinced that what mary is saying

[28:19]is true and so he actually is planning to divorce her and

[28:23]so what i think happened in in this in in this situation

[28:30]in this scenario was you know it was more about what mary

[28:34]did not do rather than what she did do because if it

[28:37]was me i know this is something that is common unfortunately among

[28:41]christians but she could have said well god you i mean you

[28:44]did this to me why are why are you now you know

[28:48]breaking off my marriage why are you letting this happen to me

[28:50]so she could have lashed out against god saying god this is

[28:56]your fault but i don't think she does that she could have

[28:59]also gone to joseph now i don't know if i'm assuming that

[29:02]you guys are all everything is great you would never do this

[29:04]but to go up to your husband and say what's wrong with

[29:09]you why can't you listen to what god is doing you know

[29:12]why can't you why can't you believe the revelation that he's given

[29:15]to me um but again i i don't think she did that

[29:19]and if she had done that i don't think it would have

[29:22]helped am i right men so so we see this idea that

[29:28]the second word that i want to say and that's surrender so

[29:32]mary does not lash out against god she does not lash out

[29:38]against joseph or anything anybody else but i think what she does

[29:42]say is god you've brought me into this what are we going

[29:47]to do to get out of it and now i think i

[29:50]think she could have said god you brought me into this what

[29:52]are you going to do to get me out of this and

[29:55]that's that's not what god's asking for because he's asking for us

[29:59]to go with him together and she could have also said god

[30:01]you got me into this i'm going to get myself out of

[30:05]this and that also that often turns out to be bad and

[30:10]so instead we see mary saying god i'm in this with you

[30:13]what are you going to do how am i going to be

[30:16]faithful to what you're doing to see what's going to happen next

[30:19]and that's exactly what does happen it says that a short while

[30:23]later the angel gabriel actually appears to joseph and confirms the message

[30:27]that mary had shared and said that that this is from god

[30:32]and that you are to take her home and and and she

[30:35]will have a son named jesus and so so we see this

[30:39]idea of surrender and so one more example about this this aspect

[30:43]so what does it look like to surrender today so if if

[30:48]life was like a car or a vehicle now you can imagine

[30:54]your favorite vehicle but if my life is like a car i

[30:58]think a picture of surrender is you know so to speak letting

[31:03]god have the steering wheel letting god sit in the driver's seat

[31:06]have full control of where he's going full control of the gas

[31:11]and the break so god is directing my life seems simple enough

[31:18]well i have four kids and in iowa where i live you

[31:24]can start learning to drive at the age of 14.

[31:25]and so my oldest is 15 so i've been teaching him how

[31:31]to drive my 13 year old wanted to be like his bigger

[31:35]brother so i take him to a parking lot to show him

[31:36]how to drive and then i have a 10 and a 6

[31:40]year old who would like to drive but there's no chance they're

[31:43]going to have to wait but i obviously i'm a very experienced

[31:46]driver and i've seen my kids and i've helped other people learn

[31:51]to drive as well and and i can tell that they're getting

[31:54]too close to a curb or they're getting too close to a

[31:58]parked car and so i i occasionally will gently reach out and

[32:02]grab the steering wheel and tilt it this way tilt it that

[32:06]way just to make sure that we don't get into an accident

[32:08]and you know and that works well because obviously i've got more

[32:14]experience than they do but what does that look like if god's

[32:17]got the steering wheel because i think this is more common than

[32:20]we would like to admit where i say god you're driving my

[32:27]life but i think i'm going to help you turn this way

[32:31]or i would rather you turn that way or you're going too

[32:36]fast the english phrase is i'm a backseat driver right you're in

[32:41]the driver's seat but i don't fully trust you to drive and

[32:44]so we i i think it's a common thing where we try

[32:48]to help god drive our lives now again not not that we

[32:51]do this on purpose but in the end you know are we

[32:55]doubting do we doubt what god's doing and i know that if

[32:58]i were in mary's position having just said god i'm ready to

[33:04]give my obedience to you and then my life began to fall

[33:09]apart i think my response might be god i think you're going

[33:12]the wrong direction and and this is where god calls us to

[33:15]surrender and say actually just trust me because i do know where

[33:21]i'm going and and if you can just ride with me i'll

[33:23]get you to the place i'm taking you so the third and

[33:30]this is this is small the third aspect of surrender that i

[33:34]want to go through briefly um so so life was difficult to

[33:41]begin with you know mary had to navigate a difficult start to

[33:45]the relationship with joseph before god intervened and and brought them back

[33:51]together but the difficulties did not end there because while mary was

[33:55]still pregnant uh what happened in that in that time period is

[33:58]what they call a census so the government said we're going to

[34:03]call everybody to go back to your hometown and there you have

[34:05]to be counted um just to see what the population was and

[34:09]so mary and joseph with mary being pregnant had to travel a

[34:13]long distance by donkey by foot to go from where they were

[34:17]at nazareth to to bethlehem in judea where where they were to

[34:22]be counted and if you've looked around at the christmas decorations um

[34:26]one of the com one one thing that you see other than

[34:28]lights is what they call a nativity scene and typically what that

[34:33]shows is a structure that looks a little bit like like a

[34:37]a barn you have mary and joseph the baby jesus and then

[34:43]you have animals a kind of a kind of a strange place

[34:48]for a birth might say um but the way the story goes

[34:53]is that as joseph and mary they arrived in bethlehem it says

[34:56]that there was no place for them to stay and that's what

[35:00]this verse is about here so let me read this for us

[35:04]it says joseph went up from the town in nazareth of nazareth

[35:07]and galilee to judea to bethlehem the town of david because he

[35:11]belonged to the house and line of david he went there to

[35:16]register with mary who was pledged to be married to him and

[35:19]was expecting a child while they went there while they were there

[35:22]the time came for the baby to be born and she gave

[35:26]birth to her firstborn a son she wrapped him in cloths and

[35:31]placed him in a manger because there was no room for them

[35:33]in the inn and so likely what happened and see like again

[35:36]i've i know a lot of middle eastern people a lot of

[35:40]muslims especially and you guys have showed me tremendous hospitality so i

[35:46]know that this is not normal that they would arrive to bethlehem

[35:50]and and receive no hospitality and i think what happened there i

[35:56]mean certainly there were a lot of people traveling for the census

[35:58]but i think what happened was so a lot of people did

[36:04]not believe the message that gabriel had given to mary they assumed

[36:09]that she was pregnant out of unfaithfulness to joseph and and and

[36:14]she bore that stigma much of her life among those who were

[36:17]closest to her and so they were going from from nazareth to

[36:22]galilee or to bethlehem and they would have had relatives in bethlehem

[36:27]and so my guess is knowing something about middle eastern hospitality is

[36:32]people said no we we are not going to be hospitable because

[36:37]of the lifestyle that you're living because they they did not believe

[36:42]the message and so what ended up happening the only place that

[36:46]they could find for mary to give birth was literally something that

[36:51]more resembled a barn with animals and jesus was laid you know

[36:55]a manger is it's a feeding trough it's a it's a wooden

[36:59]box where you would place the food for the animals and that

[37:03]and that was where he was laid after he was born and

[37:06]so again you have having four kids and knowing something of of

[37:10]the the pregnancy and the birthing process i'm sure that was not

[37:15]what mary had in mind when when she agreed to uh to

[37:21]what god had said would would be her future but yet she

[37:25]continued to surrender she continued to trust and she allowed god to

[37:30]meet her needs in very difficult circumstances and not only that they

[37:35]didn't finish there either because a short time after that there were

[37:38]some who believed and they began to spread the message that they

[37:42]thought that the actual messiah had been born and that message got

[37:46]to the ears of the king his name was king herod and

[37:50]he became jealous he did not want there to be a rival

[37:55]king and so he sent his soldiers to to seek to kill

[37:57]jesus and and and to make sure that he killed jesus they

[38:01]they sought to kill all of the children just to make sure

[38:03]that they didn't miss and it says that joseph was warned in

[38:08]a dream again by the angel and joseph and mary with the

[38:13]the newly born jesus fled to egypt where they stayed for a

[38:16]time we also know that jesus was born into poverty because when

[38:21]the custom of the time was that the when you had your

[38:23]first born son you would offer a sacrifice and mary and joseph

[38:28]offered the smallest sacrifice that was allowed presumably because they they had

[38:33]nothing more so it was a life of trial after trial after

[38:40]trial and so that's where this third word comes in and that

[38:45]is dependence so just these last one or two thoughts here you

[38:50]know the the reason god is calling us to faith to the

[38:53]obedience of faith to to trusting him and to following after him

[38:58]and i can tell you for sure that when you enter in

[39:03]on a life of the obedience of faith there will be trials

[39:07]and we just we have to surrender to god knowing that he

[39:11]knows what he's doing when he leads us into those trials and

[39:15]then in the trials we learn dependence because what happens then is

[39:20]is we realize that that we cannot do it in our own

[39:26]strength and so the result is we we go into each trial

[39:29]saying god i can't do this on my own but i know

[39:33]you can and so with you we're going to make it and

[39:39]one last thought about dependence so if we go back we are

[39:44]even dependent on god for the faith and for the surrender so

[39:49]so these three are very much intertwined and so what we see

[39:54]at the end of mary's life that that's when when jesus is

[39:56]already an adult mary had been invited to and this is just

[40:01]a very very basic example but before jesus had done any miracle

[40:05]mary had been invited to a wedding feast and jesus and some

[40:09]of his followers were also there and you know again something not

[40:16]earth-shattering but at the wedding feast they ran out of the drink

[40:21]so they had nothing to serve their guests and it's interesting because

[40:27]like i said there are so few words of mary that were

[40:31]recorded in the bible but when they get to this place and

[40:33]they're in a place where the bride and the groom are about

[40:38]to have a catastrophe because their big day is about to be

[40:41]ruined mary has already developed that trust that god will always make

[40:47]everything work and so she turns to the servants at the wedding

[40:49]feast and she says jesus will tell you what to do just

[40:53]do it and that's exactly what happened jesus gave them instructions and

[40:59]his first miracle was at this wedding feast turning a disaster into

[41:04]something that most people didn't even realize had happened and and jesus

[41:08]began to show his glory and the miracles that he was able

[41:13]to to uh to perform so my prayer for all of us

[41:17]is is as we reflect on the virgin mary and as we

[41:23]look at our own lives that that we will be encouraged to

[41:26]hold on to faith that we will trust god in the surrender

[41:30]in the trials that we face and that will learn to be

[41:35]dependent upon god because only when we're dependent on god will we

[41:38]really be able to see his power at work in us and

[41:43]through us so again thank you for having me here [Applause] you

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Lady Mary (AS) In Christianity - Pastor Mark Anderson || MGC 2021

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Lady Mary (AS) In Christianity - Pastor Mark Anderson || MGC 2021

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