WHEN GOD'S PEOPLE GET TOGETHER
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Caught up in a secular culture that stresses rugged individualism and a socially unconscious church culture that places a premium on personal salvation
I would dare say that most of us have not given sufficient attention to the relationship between believing and belonging. Between faith and fellowship. Don’t get me wrong. Faith is personal, but it is not privatistic. Your walk with God is individual but it is not individualistic.
I cannot be all that I ought to be until you are all that you ought to be. And you cannot be all that you ought to be until I’m all that I ought to be. - Dr. Martin Luther King jr.
We are all tied in a single garment of destiny,
caught up in an inescapable network of mutuality.
And what affects one directly affects all indirectly.
Something happens when God’s people get together.
There is no Christianity apart from community. Every now and then we just need to get together. And sometimes without any agenda except just one anothering. If there are just 2 or 3....
The more we get together the happier we’ll be....
Something happens when the old and the young get together
Because you need some old people and you need some young people..
God have mercy on a church when everybody is under 35.
Because you need som old people and you need some young people.
God says, “Young man, I call you because you are strong” and “Old man I call you because you know the way.”
You need Elisabeth and you need Mary
Mary is a young woman - she’s a virgin - and yet she is carrying the very promises of God.
Mary is carrying the:
Word of God
Logos
Very God of very God
Promises of God
Elisabeth is an old woman and she too is carrying the promise of God
Isn’t God just wonderful. God doesn’t skip over the old in order to bless the young. And God doesn’t skip over the young to bless the old.
Whether you are a virgin or barren if you are carrying a baby, obviously what you are carrying has little to do with you and everything to do with God.
If God has placed an assignment on you,
If God has given you a gift,
You ought not praise yourself you ought to praise the God who gave it. Because it is not there strength on your gifts,
You have gifts and you have strength but but those things come from God.
So whether your old or whether your young.
Whether you’ve been working at this thing for a long time,
or you just showed up and God manages to bless you anyhow, you ought to praise God that you are reaping the benefits of that for which you did not toil.
Sometimes the blessing feels like a burden!
I know the mothers in the house....can tell you that sometimes the blessing feels like a burden
I want to thank God for what God has given me
Sometimes the blessing feels heavy
like more than we can bear...
And there are people on the outside that are coveting our blessing because they don’t live on the inside of our house.
Don’t hate on your neighbor because of what your neigbor is carrying
You don’t know what it cost to carry what your neibor is carrying
You look at what I have, but you don’t know the hell that I had to go through to have what i have.
Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.
It’s still a yoke
It’s still a burden
But it fits, it’s just what God has given you.
God has an assignment for every child of God.
But in order to live in your assignment, you need me and I need you.
And its in our coming together that the HG shows up and shows us what we need.
It’s in the text
See these women caught up in the mystery and the power of faith’s unlikely story.
If Mary encountered a holy hijacking, Elisabeth experienced a womb awakening.
And they are all caught up in the mystery of God’s UNEXPECTED BLESSING.
Anyone beside me who has ever looked at your life, and thought about where you started and where you are now. and had to say to yourself, “
If it had not been for the Lord who was on my side, where would I be...”
Much has come not on the basis of my ability but on the basis of my availability! I better praise him while i have a chance!
Mary having heard the word of the angel made hast to the house of Zacharia and Elizabeth,
You ought to make hast to the house of God.
You ought to say, with the psalmist, “I was glad when they said unto me let us go unto the house of the Lord.”
Because great things happen when Mary and Elizabeth get together.
When God’s people get together
1. WE WITNESS THE CELEBRATION OF YOUR PREGNANCY
1. WE WITNESS THE CELEBRATION OF YOUR PREGNANCY
(Yes, male and female)
We’ve come to celebrate each other’s pregnancy
The Bible says that we are:
The body of Christ
Members of one another
The bible says that when one rejoices, everybody ought to rejoice with the one who’s rejoicing
And if anther is mourning then we ought to mourn with those who mourn because we are the body of Christ,
1 Cor 12:12-
For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ.
For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit.
For the body is not one member, but many.
If the foot shall say, Because I am not the hand, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body?
And if the ear shall say, Because I am not the eye, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body?
If the whole body were an eye, where were the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where were the smelling?
You need old people and you need young people
You need red, yellow, brown, black and white people.
you need people whoa re up and people who are down.
In other when we come to church we celebrate what God is doing in the life of the other.
See Mary. See Elisabeth. They could not be more different:
See Elisabeth. They could not be more different:
One is young - the other is old
One is a virgin - the other is barren
One is not supposed to be pregnant and yet she finds herself pregnant
The other wanted to become pregnant yet she could not become pregnant.
And then when God finally answered her prayer it came at the most unexpected time.
Mary got a blessing that she wasn’t even praying for...
Elisabeth had spent her life praying for something and she had yet to receive the blessing.
And when it finally came, it came in her old age.
That’s how God often works
God rarely blesses us in the way that we expect God to bless us.
if you look back over your life, there have been some things you prayed about.and it seemed like God would never answer
And when God finally answered it was not when you thought....
And if you look back over your life, there have been some blessings that you never even prayed for.
We’re gathered to celebrate your pregnancy
What felt like a burden was actually a blessing!
Your haters thought they were pushing you down, but they didn’t know that “Hel’ll make your enemies your footstool”
So every time they trieed to push you down they were actually pushing you up!
Sweet/bitter
Good/bad
He’s working all things together
God’s blessed yuou anyhow.....
It didn’t happen the way you expected it to happen
But God Blessed you anyway....
If God blesses my neighbor, that means God’s in the neihborhood
You can sit there is you want, but i’m going to praise God for you
Healing you
Delivering you....
I’m excited about your future, because that’s what happens when Mary and Elizabeth Get Together.
Your Test is Already Somebody Else’s Testimony
Baby Boomers, millenials, generation x
You test is already somebody elses testimony!
When Elizabeth sees Mary, she remembers all the year....
2. WE WITNESS THE CONFIRMATION OF YOUR POTENTIAL
2. WE WITNESS THE CONFIRMATION OF YOUR POTENTIAL
She is the recipient of a Holy Hijacking
Mary, I want you to know that what feels like a curse is really a blessing.
I know you feel like you can’t pass the exam....
I know there’s more month than money.....
God will deliver!
What God says, God will do
If God promised it God will deliver.
God has placed something deep in your belly
God has placed a dream, deep in your spirit.
3. WE WITNESS THE CONSUMMATION OF THE PROMISE
3. WE WITNESS THE CONSUMMATION OF THE PROMISE
God spoke and God moved!
Mary believed that God would do just what God had said....
What will you do between Malachi and Matthew
Worship is just one big Baby Shower
In other words we just hold on to what God has promised.
When Mary Speaks Something Awakens in the Womb of Elisabeth.
When Mary began to testify, Elisabeth began to get excited
Not only did Elisabeth get excited
The blessing inside....
What God needs is some PRENATAL PRAISE WORSHIPPERS
What God needs is some PRENATAL PRAISE WORSHIPPERS
What God needs is some people that will worship before the blessing shows up.
Not sit over in the corner and say, I’m going to wait and see....
“They that wait upon the Lord shall renew....”
John is in the womb of Elisabeth
He’s in a tight situation
He said, “I can’t wait till my birthday”
“I can’t wait until i’m coming out”
Because I know that I’m coming out I’m going to praise Him right now
I’m in a tight situation....
I’m gonna praise Him while I’m in the situation
I’m going to praise him
Since I’m coming out, I might as well lift my hands, so my hands will be lifted up when I come out!
Praise God who looked beyond my faults and saw my needs.....
When all of God’s people get together.
What a time........