Keeping Christ in Christmas Means – God Deals with the Impossible

READING FOR STUDY GUIDE: Luke 1: 26-37

Text: Luke 1: 1-38

Thesis: Keep Christ in Christmas so we can experience the full blessing of what God really has for us.  God has so much more for us than this world would have us to believe.  The Christmas story as conveyed through the Biblical record is not only the story of what God did in the lives of Elizabeth, Zechariah, Mary and Joseph, it is the story of what God desires to do in your life today!

1. Luke 1: 18 & 34 – “How can I be sure of this?  I am an old man and my wife is well along in years…How will this be… since I am a virgin?”
   1. As was the case with both Zechariah and Mary, the mother of Jesus, we often expect too little of the eternal, omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient God who loves us so much He sent His only Son to pay the price that we could be in His eternal presence.
   2. What do you want for Christmas this year?  The commercial nature of Christmas in today’s society has caused us to lose track of what is really available to us when we keep Christ in Christmas.

List some things that you can ask for this Christmas that only God can bring to pass.  Remember our God is forever, all powerful, all places, and all knowing.  Don’t limit God in your asking.

Keeping Christ in Christmas

God among so many things does the following as we Keep Christ in Christmas?

1. God deals with your impossibilities!
2. God works in the shallows of your life!
3. God directs your life!
4. God cares for you!

god deals with your impossibilities!

1. NO MATTER YOUR CIRCUMSTANCES!
   1. Luke 1: 28-29 – “…Nazareth… to a virgin pledged to be married…greatly troubled…and wondering”
   2. No matter the circumstances that exist, God can save, sanctify, anoint and abundantly bless anybody and everybody.

What are you believing God for?  What circumstances are there indicating what you’re hoping for will not come to pass?  Find promises in Scripture that point to God’s will in this matter.  Or find instances described in the Bible that demonstrate God’s dominion over such circumstances.

LOVING GOD OVER WORKING FOR GOD

1. NO MATTER HOW MANY CHANCES YOU’VE HAD!
   1. Luke 1: 20 – “…you will be silent…because you did not believe my words…” 
   2. Zechariah had waited his turn to serve in the Holy of Holies and when blessed with the encounter with Gabriel he BLEW IT!
   3. Zechariah surely would have liked to have a “DO OVER.”  Just one more chance to get it right in view of the opportunity that had been blown.
   4. We sometime see things as impossible because we believe we’ve blown too many opportunities or because we believe we “You only get one shot in life.  It’s you chance to blow. Opportunitycomes once in a lifetime!” (Eminem)
   5. Luke 1: 20c – “…because you did not believe my words which will come true at their proper time.”
      1. Nothing is further from the truth.
      2. God fulfilled God’s promise to Zechariah even though he blew what he believed to be his one opportunity.

We’ve all made mistakes and blown opportunities.  The same opportunity may not come around and we may experience consequences for our actions or inaction.  But, GOD!  Remember and list a time “you blew it but God brought you through it!”  Be specific.

1. IT’S NEVER TOO LATE!
   1. Luke 1: 36 – “Even Elizabeth…is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be barren is in her sixth month.”
   2. No matter how long it has taken, God makes the impossible happen.

Look back at the list of things you stated at the beginning of this lesson.  Is there anything included in your list that you thought was limited by time?  Based on the Word we have received from this lesson, what’s God’s position on your request?