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In my first year as the pastor here at Faith Church, there was an opportunity we had but many things involved were out of our control. I was meeting with a prayer team at the time and I was frustrated because things weren’t going well and there wasn’t anything more I could do. I thought I knew God’s will and plan, but things weren’t going according to that plan. One week, when we were praying, someone said, Andy, you really have to let this go and allow God to work in His will and His time.
Has anyone ever said that to you? You just need to let this go. Maybe it was at your job or trying to find a job and you were working like crazy to make things happen but they just weren’t happening. Or maybe it was in a relationship or your marriage where you were trying to make everything right but nothing was going the right way. Or maybe right now you are feeling this way about your future. You are doing all in your power to get everything lined up the way it needs to be and you are driving yourself crazy in the process because nothing is lining up. Has anyone ever said that you just need to let it go? Or maybe they said, “let go and let God.” That sounds nice but it’s hard to hear because God’s way and time are not always the same as ours.
The truth is that we all have things in our lives that we need to surrender. Surrendering isn’t giving up as much as it is a process of letting go - specifically, letting go of our control. Letting go is hard because most of us want to be in control. Today we are going to look at some holy moments of surrender in the Christmas story to learn what it might look like for us to surrender to God.
David shared with us last week that our lives aren’t measured by time but by moments, and surrender is absolutely like that, it is measured in moments. We don’t surrender once and then we are done, surrender comes through moments. Some of those moments are small daily choices we make to surrender to God or to those we love, but other moments are holy; they are big and bold and life changing.
In October of 1982, I had a holy moment of surrender sitting under Beaumont Tower on the campus of MSU where I heard God say, Andy with me there is life and without me there is death. The choice is yours. I chose to let go of my life and surrendered to God. I said, I want life and I want to live for you. It was a holy moment, but I’ll be honest with you, not every moment for the past 42 years has been fully surrendered to God. I still struggle every day to let go of control, to walk away from sin, and to have the faith to step completely into the life God has for me. It’s a struggle, but holy moments of surrender along the way have helped me be more faithful and obedient.
When I finally let go of saying that I will never go to seminary and went to seminary, it was a holy moment of surrender. When I followed God’s call and started the process to become a pastor after saying I would never be a pastor, it was a holy moment of surrender. When God provided a position for me in Altoona and I went, it was a holy moment. When I gave up what I thought was best for me and followed God’s call to come to Bellefonte, it was a holy moment. There have been many holy moments of surrender during my life that remind me that surrendering to God is the best way to live life. I’m not giving up what I want, I’m just letting go of what I think is best to allow God to lead me into what is best.
Mary is the picture of surrender in the Christmas story and her story has a lot to tell us about what it might mean for us to surrender more fully to God. The story begins in Luke 1.
In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.” Luke 1: 26-28
There is a lot to unpack in these familiar verses. First, let’s talk about where Mary was from: Nazareth.
Today, Nazareth is a small city in Israel, but when the angel visited Mary, it was barely a town. Some scholars believe it might have only been 9-10 acres in size, which means it would be the size of Beaver Stadium (pic). Even if we double that and look at the stadium and parking areas, we see that Nazareth was very small.
Nazareth was nothing. It was unimportant and unknown. It was so small and insignificant that no one thought anything good would ever come from Nazareth. That’s what Philip said when he heard that Jesus came from Nazareth. He said, Nazareth! Can anything good come from there? For 400 years, God had not spoken to His people or called anyone to be a prophet or a leader. God broke His silence when he came to an unknown girl in an insignificant town and called her to be part of His plan.
That God called Mary from Nazareth is good news for us because it means God will call us in Nazareth. In many ways we might feel like we are living in our own Nazareth. In the larger scheme of things, I’m nobody. Like Mary, I’m insignificant. We feel like we are too unimportant to be called or used by God. I can’t imagine God being silent for 400 years and then deciding to come and speak to me and then ask me to help bring the Messiah into the world. No way would God do that. When all we can see is the Nazareth we live in, it’s hard to believe God has a purpose for us and that can make it difficult to surrender to God.
While Mary wondered why the angel came to her, she didn’t dismiss him and tell him to go find someone more important. Mary could have said no at the very beginning, but she didn’t. She didn’t let her background hold her back, and we can’t let our background hold us back. God calls us when we feel uncallable. God calls us when we feel insignificant and think that we don’t have what it takes to do or be anything. The first thing we might need to surrender is our past or how we look at our lives. Each and every one of us has something of value to offer God, which is why God comes to each of us and says, Greetings, you who are highly favored, the Lord is with you.
This greeting was confusing to Mary. Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. Luke 1:29
Mary was troubled by what the angel meant because Mary did not see herself as favored. She was ordinary, maybe less than ordinary. She was insignificant. She had a hard time believing that God even knew who she was let alone that God favored her. Let’s be honest, if an angel came and said this to us we might think the same thing? Who me? Favored? I don’t think so. God doesn’t even know me, and if He did know me, He wouldn’t call me favored. I’m too ordinary, too broken, too sinful.
This was another moment of surrender for Mary. She allowed the word of God to wash over her. She didn’t dismiss the angel and the greeting he brought, instead she thought about what it meant. What does it mean for us to be favored by God? Have we allowed that thought to wash over us? Have we surrendered to it and trusted it and allowed God’s favor to move us forward?
One of the things we might need to surrender is the idea that we can’t be favored by God. Maybe we need to surrender to the idea that we are deeply loved by God and that God calls us when we feel uncallable. God sees us as worthy when we feel unworthy. God sees purpose in us when we don’t see anything of value. God calls us to great things when we don’t feel like we have anything. Part of surrender is letting go of the idea that God doesn’t love us or want us or want to use us. He does. We need to surrender to the idea that we are favored and loved and called by God to be part of His plan. And God certainly had a plan for Mary.
The angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. He will be great and 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.”
“How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?”
The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born 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 unable to conceive is in her sixth month. For no word from God will ever fail.”
“I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May your word to me be fulfilled.” Then the angel left her. Luke 1:30-38
God is calling Mary to be the mother of the Messiah, the one who will save all of humanity. It’s interesting that in the OT, the first person called by God was Noah, and what was Noah called to do? Noah was called to save the world by building an ark. And now Mary, one of the first people called by God in the NT, is being called to save the world by bringing forth the Son of God.
The first call of God in the Old and New Testament is to ask someone to help save the world. Does the call of God in our lives always involve a little bit of saving the world? When God calls us to love someone, care for someone, help someone, or share our faith with someone, are we helping save them? How might God be calling you, or us as a church, to be part of His plan of salvation. In different ways, every call of God leads to salvation, our salvation and the salvation of others.
Mary doesn’t say not to this, but she does ask how it can happen because she is a virgin. In reply, the angel doesn’t give specific answers but instead says, the Holy Spirit will overshadow you. In other words, God will do it. When God asks us to do those things that seem impossible, God might not give us step by step plans on how it’s going to happen, He might just say, the power of the Holy Spirit will overshadow you. If you surrender, if you let go, I’ll take care of it.
I don’t know about you, but I want details. I want the step by step instructions to be printed out in triplicate. I want more than just a general, the Holy Spirit will overshadow you, but that was all Mary got. No details, no instructions, just the promise that God will do this.
What the angel does give Mary is the news that her cousin Elizabeth, the one who was old and barren and no one thought would ever have a child, was now pregnant. This was a sign to Mary that with God, all things are possible. God can bring life into impossible situations. With only this assurance, Mary surrendered to God. May your word to me be fulfilled.
This is a true holy moment of surrender. With incredible faith and trust, Mary gives herself fully to God, but this moment would never have happened if Mary hadn’t been willing to first surrender and listen to the angel who said that a girl from Nazareth could be the mother of the Messiah. This holy moment was built on others and it wasn’t going to be the last, in fact, maybe the most important holy moment of surrender for Mary is still to come.
At that time Mary got ready and hurried to a town in the hill country of Judea, where she entered Zechariah’s home and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. In a loud voice she exclaimed: “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear! But why am I so favored, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfill his promises to her!” Luke 1:39-45
Mary hurried off to see Elizabeth. We don’t know how long she waited. I see her leaving almost immediately, which means that she was only a few days or weeks pregnant when she met Elizabeth. Mary hasn’t told anyone what is going on and she might not even know for sure if she’s actually pregnant.
I asked some women how soon they knew they were pregnant. Some of them said because of how they felt they knew very early on, others say they didn’t know for several weeks. Mary being so young and never having had a child before may not have known for sure that there was a baby growing in her. But when Mary arrived at Elizabeth’s home, Elizabeth said that just the sound of her voice made the baby in her womb leap. And Elizabeth said, Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear!
Mary hadn’t told Elizabeth that an angel came to her or that she might be pregnant, but Elizabeth knew. And now Mary knows that God is doing a miracle in her life and that what the angel said is actually true. She is going to be the mother of the Messiah. This was the first confirmation for Mary that what she had surrendered to has in fact happened. She is carrying the Lord, the son of God.
As holy as the moment was when Mary was first visited by the angel and surrendered herself to the will of God, this moment might have been even more holy and profound because what Mary had just believed would happen - she now knew was happening. God was doing this in her life. God was going to use a nobody girl from a nowhere town to bring the Savior into the world. This confirmation of Elizabeth, this holy moment, led to another moment of surrender for Mary, a moment so holy and profound that it caused Mary to speak these words.
“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.
His mercy extends to those who fear him, from generation to generation. He has performed mighty deeds with his arm; he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts.
He has brought down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the humble. He has filled the hungry with good things but has sent the rich away empty. He has helped his servant Israel, remembering to be merciful to Abraham and his descendants forever, just as he promised our ancestors.” Luke 1:46-55
When we think of Mary surrendering to God, we think of the holy moment when the angel Gabriel came to her and she said yes to God’s plan, but maybe the holy moment Mary needed was this one, a moment when Mary had confirmation that she was pregnant and carrying the Son of God. This holy moment assured Mary that God was doing a mighty work in her life and it gave her the strength she needed to surrender to God for the next 250 days of her pregnancy.
To surrender to God, we all need holy moments of God’s calling AND holy moments when that call of God is affirmed. In 1984, I left MSU thinking God had other plans for my life. Through a lot of searching and listening, I felt strongly that God was calling me to return to MSU and not only finish my degree but work with IVCF, the Christian Fellowship that had been so important in my surrendering to God in the first place. To help guide me in this decision, God literally spoke a verse to me in a dream.
The things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable people who will also be qualified to teach others. 2 Timothy 2:2
I took from this that God was calling me back to MSU and to IV so I could share with them all that I had seen and heard from my time there earlier. When I arrived on campus, one of my first meetings was with the IV leader who had also returned to MSU to help lead the group. Denny said to me, Andy, I am so glad you returned because we need someone who knows what IV was like a few years ago and can share that vision with our new leaders.
Denny had just confirmed God’s call in my life. I returned to MSU and IV because 2 Timothy 2:2 told me to entrust to reliable people what I had seen and heard. And here was Denny saying, I need you to entrust to new leaders what you have seen and heard. That was the holy moment I needed. I had surrendered and returned to MSU, but this was the moment that helped me do all that God was calling me to do. From that moment on, I never looked back or questioned God’s call in my life.
Mary shows us that surrender doesn’t take place once but over and over again. Her story shows us that some moments of surrender require a lot of faith and others come when God gives us a lot of assurance, but every moment is important.
This Christmas, we all have something we need to surrender. It might be a job, or a relationship, or our finances, or a child that is making poor decisions, or a future that suddenly looks very different than what we had planned. We all have something we need to let go of, and from May we learn that
surrender doesn’t happen in one moment of time,
it happens in moments all the time.
Today, how is God calling you to surrender?
What assurance has God given you that can help you surrender again today?
Who is the Elizabeth you can go to for strength and help and how can they help you surrender more of yourself to God?
And here is something powerful to think about and ponder - like Mary did - how can your surrender help bring salvation into the world? How can it help save you and then how can it save others?
This Christmas, perhaps the best gift we can give to ourselves, to God, to others, and to the world is to take this holy moment and surrender.
Next Steps
Holy Moments - Surrender
When have you struggled to surrender something to God? Why was it hard and what was the outcome?
How is God calling you to surrender today?
What did it mean that Mary came from Nazareth?
● What is the “Nazareth” that holds you back?
● What problems and limitations of your past (and present) do you need to let go of so you can move forward?
How do you think Mary felt when the angel said, Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you?
● How would you feel if an angel said that to you?
● Why do we have a hard time seeing ourselves as “highly favored”?
● What does it mean for us to surrender to God’s love?
God called Mary to bring forth the Savior of the world.
● When has God used you to help “save” others?
● What do you need to surrender today to make God’s plan of salvation possible?
After the angel’s visit, Mary hurried off to see Elizabeth.
● Why might Mary have needed or wanted to see Elizabeth at that moment? \\
● How did that meeting turn into another holy moment of surrender for Mary?
● Who might be able to help affirm God’s call in your life? How can you hurry to see them this Christmas Season?
Who might need you to be the affirmation of God’s call in their life? Be open to the power of the Holy Spirit moving in both you and others in this Holy Season.
