Empowered Words: Embracing Faith and Gratitude This Christmas

"Fighter position is standing up. Fighter position is ready to go, right? There's no fight on the ground. So yeah. So I want to talk to you today about how we can use our mouth this Christmas, our mouth. This Christmas, all right? We say, what we say out of our mouths has power. There is a life that can come out of our mouth or death. We can encourage with our voice or we can discourage. Y 'all, what we say out of our mouths can change our perspective just like that." [00:00:47] (31 seconds)


"So we need this sermon today because don't you feel like everything in our life is going super speed, right? And we are just going through our life and we don't, take the time to stop and really appreciate the things around us. Some of us have a really hard time being in the moment. Do you have a hard time being in the moment? Yeah, I do too. And, but we don't stop to be grateful and really look around and see all the things that God has given us around us, right? And so we fall into ungratefulness and that ungratefulness leads to less joy. And our mind starts getting hijacked with all these worries and anxieties that lead us down this road that we don't want to go. Leading us to want to lie down, right?" [00:01:18] (44 seconds)


"And she responds by singing this song of praise and gratefulness to the Lord. What I think is interesting is this song that Mary sings to Jesus is very much like an Old Testament character in 1 Samuel named Hannah. Do you remember Hannah? She was, she couldn't have any children. And she was sad. And she was full of anguish. And she, also went before the Lord. She was ridiculed by people around her. But she knew she could just go before the Lord and pray. God, I pray." [00:03:43] (31 seconds)


"Mary, which is important to know here, she doesn't know how Joseph is going to respond to this baby. She doesn't know how her family is going to respond. She doesn't know what this is going to do to her reputation. She has no idea, but she doesn't lie down. She rises to respond to the Lord. And that is what we need to do too. We need to rise to respond to the Lord. So let's read what she sings. In Luke 1, 46 through 55, she says, and Mary said, my soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God, my savior, for he has been mindful of the humble state of his servant. From now on, all generations will call me blessed for the mighty one has done great things for me. Holy is his name." [00:04:50] (53 seconds)


"Mary does that with the song that she sings in Luke. And her song is a model for us of all the things that we should be applauding the Lord for, like wildly applauding the Lord. Okay. So I don't know what you think about her. That's fine. Whatever you think, fine. Okay. So my girls, some of my girls and I watched the Taylor Swift concert. It's okay. It's okay. It's okay. Okay. So we were watching the Taylor Swift concert. It was, I love it. Okay. So this time when we were watching it, I was watching the audience. Okay. And I'm telling you, these girls and guys are crying as they watch her. And they're magnifying. They're like. They're adoring her, right? They're like, I love you, Taylor Swift. That's awesome. And I think, why do they do that? Because I remember New Kids on the Block in sixth grade. Okay." [00:07:34] (55 seconds)


"over and over and over again. I am thinking on what God has done for me. I am repeating out loud the sounding joy that means I'm making noise with my mouth. I'm not just thinking about it. I'm saying it out loud. And that repetition leads to joy. Joy in my life. It doesn't matter what my circumstances are in the moment. It is because he is good. And as I repeat that sounding joy, I am filled with supernatural joy." [00:10:36] (30 seconds)


"Y 'all, we need to bring Jesus our problems. We all have problems. We all have things that we're dealing with right now. Some are really heavy. Some are really heavy. And we need to bring them before the Lord. We can't do it on our own. We can't do this by ourselves. We need Jesus. And my friends, Jesus is the solution." [00:15:18] (22 seconds)


"And then we need to ask. We need to continue to ask that he moves on our behalf. We need to ask him to remind us of the things that he's done in the past. God, remind me of how good you've been. Remind me of how you've been faithful before so that I can think on those things and pray those things so that I will believe those things. That just like you came through last time, you're going to come through this time. I am believing for that. We also pray, Lord, fill me with peace that surpasses all understanding while I'm waiting. And help me in the midst of this onslaught and unknown to just stand strong in you. He is holding you up right now. He is your strength and he knows the way. And then we give the ultimate punch. We speak the word of God out of our mouths. Okay? We agree with what has already been said. And we say it boldly out of our mouths. This allows it when we speak the word out of our mouths, we hear it. And it becomes part of us." [00:15:56] (62 seconds)


"Mary said in verse 47, my spirit rejoices in God my Savior. God is recognized as Savior. Mary recognizes this and it affirms both his power to deliver her but also his care for her, his personal care for Mary. He doesn't just do this to show his power but it also demonstrates how much he loves you. He loves her completely and unconditionally and this love in our lives is not because of something we've accomplished." [00:19:34] (33 seconds)


"And then he goes on to say, say his mercy extends to those who fear him from generation to generation. That mercy word there is Hebrew for his said love. That's God's covenantal, loyal, and steadfast love. Unchanging, never wavering. It means that it describes a love that's not based on just emotions, but on commitment and mercy and grace. And that it's reflecting God's unwavering kindness and faithfulness towards his people. Even when he's not there, even when they falter, his love never changes. So, some of you know, many of you probably don't, I have chickens. They're gonna come soon. My chicken, oh, look at them. These are my chickens. This is Millie. She's got the height, like the taller comb. She's really developing well." [00:22:08] (58 seconds)


"Jesus is going to be faithful to you and we say it and walk it out of our mouth. All right, so God has given us far more than we deserve because he loves me. The second way we can repeat the sounding joy is that God's power and wisdom is in us. God is giving us far more than we deserve because he loves me. Wisdom are far beyond our grasp. God's power and wisdom are far beyond our grasp. We need to know that God's thoughts are higher than our thoughts and God's ways are higher than our ways. We don't even begin to grasp how big God is and his plans and his sovereignty and how he's completely in control. Completely. There is nothing out of his control. No circumstance that you are walking through right now in your life, he doesn't know exactly what he's doing. He is in control. Control of it all. We oftentimes can't figure out what God is doing, but he is doing it all in love. Remember what Mary said?" [00:28:18] (56 seconds)


"God is going to take you down a path that we don't always understand. So if you would have asked me five years ago, what do you think you'll be doing in five years? I don't think I would have said, I'm about to finish nursing school. I would never have said that, honestly. I didn't even know. This was going to happen five years ago. I didn't even know this was part of God's plan. I don't even, I didn't even, when God started to open doors for this and lead me towards this, I didn't even know why at the time. I didn't even understand. Why would you want me to do that? I thought I was doing other things. But God has the wisest way, and he changed the plan. And that's good. And was it hard? Yes. Yes. It's been really hard. It's been really challenging. And it hasn't been what I expected. But God is good. And he has taken me the wisest way possible." [00:37:15] (58 seconds)