CURRENT SERIES
Christmas Present
Dec. 10, 2017
— LifeWay Moments —
— LifeNotes —
• Present: Right now, this moment in time. You’ll never get it back. Yesterday is a canceled check, tomorrow is a promissory note, today is cash. Right now is all we can spend.
• The world tries to put so much on us to make it, that we forget to love the ones in front of us. We forget to love the ones we are actually trying to make it for.
Many people have set out to write accounts about the events that have been fulfilled among us. They used the eyewitness reports circulating among us from the early disciples. Having carefully investigated everything from the beginning, I also have decided to write an accurate account for you, most honorable Theophilus, so you can be certain of the truth of everything you were taught.
— Luke 1:1-4 NLT
• God is the same yesterday, today and forever. When we get a hold of that truth, we can stand on it.
• What does it mean to stand on the Word? When you read it, you don’t let anybody talk you out of it.
• If we hear and see the Word, we need to let it into our heart. When it gets into our hearts, it will come out of our mouths. When the mouth speaks, it has creative power.
• If God is supernatural enough to create everything, He is supernatural enough to let the words that come out of your mouth have creative power.
Luke 1:5-25 NLT
• When you hear God’s voice and follow His commands, it always works out
Zechariah and Elizabeth were righteous in God’s eyes, careful to obey all of the Lord’s commandments and regulations. They had no children because Elizabeth was unable to conceive, and they were both very old.
— Luke 1:6-7 NLT
“I remember years ago when the Lord was dealing with me about religion. He said, ‘If you’ll allow me to always peel another layer off of scripture and give you a fresh revelation of it, I’ll keep you out of religion.’”
— Pastor Danny
But the angel said, “Don’t be afraid, Zechariah! God has heard your prayer. Your wife, Elizabeth, will give you a son, and you are to name him John.
— Luke 1:13 NLT
• We don’t need to give God reasons why it won’t happen. We need to believe that with God, nothing is impossible.
Soon afterward his wife, Elizabeth, became pregnant and went into seclusion for five months. “How kind the Lord is!” she exclaimed. “He has taken away my disgrace of having no children.”
— Luke 1:1-4 NLT
• Gabriel understood the power of words
• If you keep confessing long enough, you’ll get what you confess because it becomes a reality in your life.
• If somebody gets healed because we lay hands on them, you better recognize that it doesn’t have anything to do with you, other than God spoke to you to lay hands on them. God is just using you as a conduit.
In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a village in Galilee, to a virgin named Mary. She was engaged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of King David.
— Luke 1:26-27 NLT
• We can’t stand on man’s opinion or Christian philosophy, we stand on the Word of God. When we take the text out of context, we end up with the con.
Mary asked the angel, “But how can this happen? I am a virgin.” The angel replied, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the baby to be born will be holy, and he will be called the Son of God.
— Luke 1:34-35 NLT
• Mary asked the angel how it would happen, she did not tell the angel why it couldn’t happen. It is OK to be inquisitive of God, just don’t be in lack of faith.
• If you want to know what your destiny is, if you want to know what your purpose is, let the Holy Spirit overshadow you. Let God speak to you.
• You need to let God birth something in you. When God births something in you and it comes to fruition, it won’t die.
Mary responded, “I am the Lord’s servant. May everything you have said about me come true.” And then the angel left her.
— Luke 1:38 NLT
• Sometimes when people speak to us or prophesy to us, instead of ignoring it, we need to pray over it.
• We need to be taught that He is alive. He ever lives to make intercession for you. We don’t serve a dead god. We serve a risen Savior. Don’t ever leave him on the cross. Don’t ever leave him in the tomb. Put Him in your heart.
• The more you hang out with God, the better you can hear Him. The more that you believe you can hear Him, the better you can hear Him.
Life lesson
God speaks to us in the present to prepare us for the future.