Nothing is Impossible

Well, what's up, Alive Church? Good morning. I hope you're feeling great and love just here at the end of the end of the year hearing stories from our partners and what God's doing uh around the world. You know, I hope and I and I mention this frequently that we don't take for granted that we get to be a part of a church that makes a difference uh certainly in the lives of people who show up and are a part of our church in our buildings at every location, but also in our regions and around the world to know that we're helping people know Jesus, that we're helping make sure people have clean water, that we're helping make sure they have clothes and food. And so, it's just fun, I think, when you get to recognize you're a part of doing what the Bible tells us we're supposed to do as Christians. And so, as your pastor, I just want you to know I'm grateful for you. I honor you for being generous uh with your money, with your time to see these things take place and happen. Uh we've got Christmas with Alive Church coming up real soon. And so, I want to make sure also that you are prepared. We're less than two weeks away. Uh December 24th is Christmas with a live church. That's Christmas Eve if you didn't know that. And uh it's going to be great. Uh we've got three services at our Western Branch location. Two at downtown SuffK, two at St. Lewis and uh I want to encourage you, be a bringer. It'll be an incredible day as we uh really do celebrate the birth of Jesus, see people get saved, and uh there'll be some some cookies, some carols, uh some encouragement. It's going to be a great day. Hey, would you stand to your feet as we get ready to get into our Bibles today? We're going to be in Luke chapter 1. If you want to go ahead and turn there, you can to Luke chapter 1. started a series last week called Authentic, the unfiltered story of Jesus. And we're going to be walking through the Gospel of Luke. Today, we'll dive into verse 26. I think we'll go all the way through 56, not in this first reading, as we get ready to see what God would show us in this moment. What I love about Luke's gospel, if you've been in church for a while, you may have heard some of these stories. And I'm excited to break down what the Bible tells us today. I'm going to read verse 26 through 38. Then I'll pray and you can have a seat. Here we go. It says, "In the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin engaged to a man named Joseph of the house of David. The virgin's name was Mary. And the angel came to her and said, "Greetings, favored woman. The Lord is with you. But she was deeply troubled by this statement, wondering what kind of greeting this could be. Then the angel told her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. Now listen, you will conceive and give birth to a son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give him the throne of his father David. He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and his kingdom will have no end." Mary asked the angel, "How can this be since I have not had sexual relations with a man?" The angel replied to her, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore, the Holy One to be born will be called the Son of God. Consider your relative Elizabeth, even she has conceived a son in her old age, and this is the sixth month for her who was called childless. For nothing will be impossible with God. See, I am the Lord's servant, said Mary. May it happen to me as you have said. Then the angel left her. Lord, I pray right now that you'd help every one of us be open to you. Holy Spirit, Lord, young and old, would you help us right now as we stand here be open to what you want to speak to us, to what you want to show us this specific Sunday, this specific moment? I pray that where we need to respond, I am the Lord's servant. Let it happen to me as you have said. Lord, would you help us respond to you in that way? Whether it be something in our marriage, our finances, whether it be in our relationship with you, whether it be in next steps we need to take for the days ahead. I pray you would help us today Lord have the response as we walk through your word that we would say as you have said let it happen to me in Jesus name amen you can have a seat I love this passage that we start with today it's fascinating and fact today as we walk through this one of the things we want to work on is to make sure we don't just like ignore what's actually in the Bible because if you're like me And I grew up in church and I heard the story of the birth of Jesus what feels like at this point in my life. Uh I would say millions of times, but that's probably an exagger. How many of you are exaggerators ever? Could I just see any hands? You know, I've learned about myself. I'm quite an exaggerator at times. So just I'm aware of that. My family's well aware of that. So it probably hasn't been a million times just for for the record. But I'm confident it has it's probably we've probably entered into the thousands at this point in my life that I've heard the story that's outlined in Luke chapter 1 and in Luke chapter 2. And if I'm not careful and maybe it would be the same for you, you'll just read it and you'll be like, "Yeah, yeah, yeah. There was like there was like an angel and shows up to a 16-year-old girl and like, yo, you're going to have a baby." And she's like, "Okay, let it be done." And that's cool. And then that's the birth of Jesus. What? Like there's a whole lot in this moment that happens that shows us one how God works that shows us how God expects us to respond that whether we're living today in St. Louis or whether we're living today in Hampton Roads, Virginia, maybe you're watching from somewhere else online. Maybe you stayed home in Virginia today because in the forecast there was a chance snow flurries might fall for 5 minutes and you're like we won't leave the home today under any circumstances wherever you are. We're going to learn that God can actually find you that he has a reason he wants to show up in your life. And what's interesting as we start this today, one, it's the same same angel. So Gabriel's working hard. Now he shows up to Mary and he says to her, "Hey Mary, you have found favor." Mary, the favor of God is here with you. Mary was not asking God for this. She was not trying to get this in this moment. She was a teenage girl living in a town called Nazareth. And so as we walk through this today, I want to help us learn, I pray, things I've learned studying and uh things God is still showing me through this passage that I hope all of us can learn today. Starting with this favor is not achieved, it's received. Mary is like she's not even she's not even doing something to get herself to like get favor from God. The Lord sends an angel and says, "Hey, Mary, the favor of God is here. The favor of God is with you. Not because you did something incredible, but because God is great. Grace is great, but you can't earn it. Grace is given." Mary's in a town called Nazareth. This was an overlooked town, forgotten. It was not the town that was a big deal. Nobody, in fact, thought Nazareth was good at all. Later in the gospel, we'll hear uh the question that is asked about Jesus because he'll be born here. Can anything good come from Nazareth in this generation of time? It was believed, right? Na Nazareth was the armpit city. Nothing great about it. And yet God sends this angel in what is seemingly the smallest place, the overlooked place to say, "Listen, good news. God's favor is with you. Now, I have some thoughts about God's favor, and I think that maybe you have thoughts about God's favor, too. I'm the guy who proudly post on my Instagram story when I'm flying and I get upgraded to first class. Favor ain't fair. When I get that good parking place, you know, when the store is packed and I get a spot at the front and I'm very happy to say, "Come on, the favor of God. I love the favor of God. I don't feel like this is what Mary's getting right here. >> In fact, if we're honest, I think we might have a misconception about what the favor of God is. See, the Bible doesn't come out here in Luke chapter 1 and give us a clear definition for favor. But what it does do is it says, "Mary, you have found favor from God. And now in that favor, here's what's going to happen to your life. [snorts] You're going to experience social shame. >> You're going to be misunderstood. >> It's going to be difficult for you. And you will have massive responsibility. I want the favor of God. I just read what the favor of God is. Do you want the favor of God? Do you want the favor of God? We read in the New Testament, the Apostle Paul talks about in one moment where he sees a great door of opportunity where the Lord has gone before him to a place and he can see, man, there is favor for the gospel to go forward right here. And in the same sentence, he says, there are many who oppose us. this thing called favor. While getting an upgrade to first class for free is great, while getting good parking place is great, favor is about being called into a totally different life. God's favor is about not going through life in a natural way of thinking, but going through life with a purpose that goes way beyond what we could even imagine and our natural way of processing and thinking. And while this part is not necessarily uh encouraging, it's true. Favor doesn't feel easy. Favor doesn't feel easy. When Mary has this moment, when Gabriel shows up and says, "God's favor is here." There was nothing easy about this moment. But he says the same thing to Mary that he said to Zachchariah. So, if you weren't here last week, we looked at the beginning of Luke chapter 1, and we learned that an angel showed up and this guy Zachariah freaked out. Today we learned that Mary is chilling and an angel shows up. His first words are not the same to Zachchariah. His first words now are, "You have God's favors here." Then his next words are, "Do not be afraid." >> Do not be afraid. When the presence of God tangibly shows up in your life in this overpowering transformative way, the human reaction is this fear. The human reaction is this. Oh my God, what is happening? And the Lord is kind. He says, "Hey, I need you to know, don't be afraid." Why does Mary need to not be afraid? Because fear blocks faith. Mary's going to need a lot of faith. Fear shuts you down, causes you to freeze. When you and I feel overwhelmed, we're not sure what next step we're supposed to take. And in this moment, God knew Mary's going to need a lot of faith. Mary's getting called into something massive. And if she freezes up right now, it's not going to work. So he says, "Mary, do not be afraid." Then he continues, right? And he says these words, "You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus." Jesus means the Lord saves. By the way, Megan and I were talking just recently. We were listening to a I think it was a song in a a little kid's Christmas program we heard from one of our one of our kids. And we again we think about we say so many things as Christians especially as this time of year about the gospel and about the story of the birth of Jesus. And I don't think we know what they mean. We tie in Old Testament verses and New Testament verses and then we just say it like it's matter of fact. But if you were not a believer and you heard it, I think you would be like, "What are you talking about?" So why does it matter that we're gonna name him Jesus? Jesus. So original language for us real quick. Jesus uh would be called Joshua in the Old Testament in Hebrew. Jesus in the New Testament coming into the Greek and it means the Lord saves. So he's saying Mary, you're going to name this child the Lord saves. You're going to name this child Jesus. This makes a difference. This matters what you're going to call him. And then what she says in verse 2 and three or what the scripture says in verse 32 and 33 is pretty important. Verse 33 will be on the screens. It says he will reign over the house of Jacob forever and his kingdom will have no end. So Mary has this massive moment of responsibility. It doesn't make sense. She's called into this. And the angel says, "You're going to have a baby. You're going to call him Jesus. But guess what? He will reign over the house of Jacob forever." This is like the royal language of declaration of who Jesus is. That he's not only coming to forgive sins, he's coming to establish a kingdom. Some of what I want us to to learn today is that as Christians, it's not a like a it's not like a self-help book. This is the book of a different kingdom. This is a different constitution. This is a whatever you want to th this is what we live from. Our king is Jesus. And what we're seeing in Luke chapter 1 is he is coming to the earth and he's going to establish something that's not a political kingdom. >> That's right. >> It's not a temporary kingdom. It's spiritual and it's eternal. >> Right. >> In fact, this really helps. Some people think Jesus is just nice and Jesus just wants to help us. Well, the truth is I don't think nice is a great word to describe Jesus. If I'm honest, I do believe he wants to help us. But he's the king and he's going to rule. He does rule. He reigns. That's who he is. Now, the reason the scripture brings in the house of Jacob is because Luke, we learned a little bit about Luke last week. He's he's referencing a point to say that Jesus coming is going to actually blend Old Testament with what we now know as New Testament. Meaning Jesus is going to come in and create a kingdom where Jews and Gentiles all will actually be welcomed in because of what Jesus will do. He's the promised in the Old Testament. He's the promised seed of Abraham. He's greater than Moses. He's the son of David. He's the one who restores everyone and everything and every people of God. This seemingly small statement in verse 33 that Gabriel makes to Mary is the declaration that this king is like is different than any other king. Last week we learned about Herod being the ruler. How horrible Herod was. Herod's rule ends. Rome's empire would one day end. >> Earthly kingdoms end. >> That's right. >> Something that I think we sometimes don't realize. Politicians, movements, nations, and trends, they all end. >> Jesus reign never stops. No election can change it. It says he will reign. >> 2,000 years ago in Luke chapter 1, the declaration of who King Jesus is. You and me are living in the end of 2025 in the United States of America. There are right so many nations on the earth. Jesus is king above all. No empire can challenge him. No enemy can overthrow him. His kingdom is not geographic. It has no borders. It has no expiration date. It has no rivals. This is the person we worship and celebrate. Jesus is a king and his reign never ends. And what I'm going to get to in just a few minutes, believing this, like genuinely believing this will change everything about our life. >> That's right. >> I need to believe this genuinely. I need help. sometimes and maybe you're like me believing that Jesus is king and he is reigning more than I simply go Holy Spirit will you just help me live a nice life in this earth because when I recognize that I'm a member of the family of God that I'm a part I'm a citizen of heaven the Bible says that Jesus is king and that is my primary identity is connected with him I literally will look at everything that happens on the earth differently Mary asked a question in [snorts] verse 34, which thank goodness she asked a question because you know once she's over her fear, there's a whole lot going on right now. >> That's right. >> I mean, just just cuz it's fun. These are real people. >> This afternoon, you're just chilling. I don't know what you do on Sunday afternoon. Maybe you do house projects. Maybe you hang out with family and friends. Maybe you sleep all day. And then an angel shows up and just says, "I'm just going to tell you something that you thought was not possible right now, and it's going to happen." That's a big day. It's a big day. It's challenged my day. Monday's going to look different. You know what I'm saying? So Mary asked a question in verse 34. How will this be since I've not had sexual relations with a man? It's a valid question. Now, here's what's interesting. Last week I taught us that Zachchariah faced a temporary consequence because of a question. Mary asked a question and she doesn't. Zachar Zachariah's question last week wasn't simply a question. He was questioning God. >> That's good. God is not afraid or challenged by us asking him questions. The issue is when we question God. Zachchariah was like give me proof. His statement of right give me proof is a what that was a question. His question of give me proof is to say I don't know that I trust you. >> Zachchariah is asking for proof. Mary is asking for process. All right, I'm here, but you know, I know I'm not that old, but I've learned, I guess, from mom or dad, like I don't really know how this is going down. So, could you just fill me in a little bit here, Gabriel? I love his response because the answer that he provides, this is specific to this moment with Mary, but his answer is also specific to how you and I can process. How are we going to get through something? How are h how are things going to actually work when it seems like they're impossible in front of us? And he says in verse 35, the Holy Spirit He goes on to say more things and gets into the detail, but at the end of the day, what we learn from Luke chapter 1 is that when God wants to do something that seems like it's impossible and it's not going to work, do you know what he's going to do? He's going to send the Holy Spirit. The answer to every how that seems hopeless is the Holy Spirit. The answer to every how in your life that seems hopeless is the Holy Spirit. If we are afraid of the Holy Spirit, we will miss what God has for our life. If we aren't seeking to understand the Holy Spirit, he is God with us. His presence never leaves us. He is our comforter. He is our counselor. He gives us wisdom and revelation. We know things we wouldn't otherwise know because of the Holy Spirit. How is this hopeless situation going to turn around? The Holy Spirit. >> The Holy Spirit. I need more of the Holy Spirit. You need more of the Holy Spirit. Now, let me be real honest right now. Okay, that's true. But some of you, especially if you're new to church, or maybe you've been going through the motions some, and you would say things like, you know, I like some of the things I learn at at church and and it can help my life some, but come on. You want me to believe a 16-year-old girl in Nazareth had an angel show up in her life and then the Holy Spirit just made her be pregnant? And then she gave birth and he's Jesus. Like you want me to believe in this thing called a virgin birth and that's what our that's what our faith rest on this reality that our king that our savior came to the earth in that way. I love what I heard Mark Batterson say last week. Christians believe in the virgin birth of Jesus. Atheists believe in the virgin birth of the universe. Choose your miracle. >> All of us, whether we know it or not, have decided to rest our life in the belief in some miracle. The whole story, the whole concept, the whole reality of the birth of Jesus for us as believers is declaring we have we have gone allin, right? We've bet the house to say we believe in the virgin birth. We believe that what is written in the scriptures actually happened. And we believe it because we are convinced that what the the word says in verse 37, nothing will be impossible with God is true. If I believe nothing will be impossible with God is true, then it means I believe even now restoration can happen in my family. It believes it means I believe even now that anything could turn around. >> That today could be the day that healing happens in my body. That today could be the day the Holy Spirit drops in a business idea where I would begin to make millions of dollars. That today would be the day where I begin to have clarity about what God has for me and my future. That today would be the day that I no longer let fear rule my life, but I step into what God has. that today would be the day that addiction breaks completely off of my life. That today would be the day because nothing is impossible with God. Some of us have broken dreams. We say things like, "There's no way this can happen. Just no way. Nothing's too big for God." Now, Mary didn't understand all this. The truth is when she said, "How just fill me in. How's this going to happen?" Gabriel's answer would have left you and me going, "Okay, yeah, the Holy Spirit." But really, how? Cuz I want tangible answers. [snorts] But what Mary says in verse 38, and we read it earlier, this is my hope and prayer for all of us today. She said, "I am the Lord's servant. May it happen to me as you have said." Love for you to write down this statement. Let it happen to me as you want, God. Let it happen to me as you want, God. Not what I want, but what you want. What you want for my life, let it happen. What you have for my life, let it happen. So Mary says this and then the scripture goes on verse 39. Sheii decides to take a field trip. So Mary 16 just got informed she's going to have the savior of the world born through her. decides to take a 70-mile trip from Nazareth to outside of Judea to go see her cousin Elizabeth, who Gabriel had showed up to last week. Not really last week, but in our study last week. [laughter] Now, 70 miles. Some of us don't like to drive 70 miles today. This 2,000 years ago, 70 miles. So, this is a journey, right? This is a trek she's going on. So, she decides to take this trek to go see her, what the Bible uses the word, it translated cousin, to go see her cousin Elizabeth. Uh, they were very different in age. So, [snorts] I'm going to guess second cousins, maybe third cousins, but again, 2,000 years ago, who really knows exactly? Mary walks into the room and Elizabeth responds with, "Oh my gosh, how incredible that the person carrying my Lord and Savior would come to visit me." No words have yet been spoken, but Elizabeth recognizes this. And how does she recognize it? She says that the baby in her womb jumped. Last week we learned that John, who we will learn later as John the Baptist, is going to be born to Zachariah and Elizabeth. The the angel declared that this baby that is in Elizabeth will be filled with the Holy Spirit in the womb. Jesus shows up in the womb of Mary. John the Baptist jumps for joy in the womb of Elizabeth because they're encountering in the same place. I'm just telling you, you I don't usually geek out on Bible as much as I am already in the second week. Uh I I just am amazed at when you get into this how God works. Elizabeth makes a declaration over Mary. We find it in verse 45. And this might be the most significant thing I want us to learn today. She says, "Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfill what he has spoken." The blessing comes from believing. The blessing comes from believing. Blessed is she who believed. Blessed is she who believed. Mary is blessed not because everything was easy, not because she understood it all, not because she had a perfect theology. She is blessed because she believed God. She is blessed because she trusted God. So, I did a little bit of research this week [snorts] on how our brains work, the neuroscience behind believing and expectations and what we actually experience. And so, what I'm going to share with you is scientific research. This is not Bible research, but this is scientific research which proves, and this is what I love. It proves what the Bible says. A couple things we learned about how verse 45 that says you're blessed for believing comes to pass in our life. First, belief activates the brain's uh expectation system in something that's called the pymillion effect. So stay with me because I'm talking about things I'm not an expert in. Okay? I'm going to read. [snorts] When you believe something is possible, your prefront frontal cortex becomes more active. Your dopamine system releases motivation chemicals. Your brain begins searching for solutions. You become more resilient, creative, and confident. The brain shifts from flight or fight to focus forward. Mary believed and her world began to align with what she believed because of what happened in her mind. The second thing that happens is belief releases and greatly increases dopamine. When you trust and believe that something good is coming to you, dopamine is released in the brain. When dopamine is released, hope increases, fear decreases. When dopamine increases, your ability to act courageously increases. To be clear, what I'm sharing with us, I'm like, this is just what we've learned in the last several decades about what is actually happening in our brains. I talked uh I think it was a few months ago about neuroplasticity. This is an aspect of that where when you believe you can create new pathways in your brain based on what you believe and believing for good. Dopamine amplifies your ability to move forward. Belief also reduces stress chemicals what's known as cortisol. By the way, I don't know how much time you spend on social media or if you see any of those ads, but cortisol is the buzzword in 2025. Reduce the cortisol, everything gets better in your life. Do you know what I learned? Believing that God is faithful and will do what he said he will do will reduce that in your life. >> Why do we need that to happen? Because when cortisol increases in your life, it shuts down creativity. It disrupts clear thinking. It increases anxiety. It weakens your immune system. It causes you to be emotionally reactive. But belief and trust turn off this alarm system. Part of why I believe Gabriel is so quick with Zachariah and with Mary to go, do not be afraid. We've got to shut this down immediately so that you will believe. So that you are not living from the stress side, but you're living from the faith side of what God would do. And so knowing that this is how it works means repeated belief and trust in God to be who he is and he will do what he said he will do will produce as I mentioned new pathways in your brain where the brain would literally rewire itself around hopefully And as a good as it gets mentality to be clear in case you're like, "What are you trying to say?" I I'm not like a name it and claim it preacher. I simply believe the Bible. And so if Mary was blessed for believing, that must mean that you and I could be blessed for believing. And it makes sense when we then understand how the brain works because your brain will align with what you believe. Mary had to make some changes in her life. Her mind had to get aligned with what she believed. Her emotions had to get aligned with what she believe. They were going to be I mean, she's going to give birth to Jesus, not in a nice five-star hospital. I I I don't want to spoil it for you. You'll have to come to Christmas with a live church to learn about how Jesus is born, right? It's not going to be all smooth and easy. Her spirit has to get aligned. Her body has to get aligned. Her future has to get aligned. But what a blessing. What a blessing. You know in Philippians chapter 4:8 it says, "Think about these things." Paul says one final word. Think about these things. Whatever is good, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is excellent, whatever is of a good report, dwell on that. I don't know that Paul knew what neuroplasticity was just for clarity. I think he just knew at that point. I know if we will think about those right things of God and that we would put our trust in those, it'll change the way our life functions and we'll align our life more with the scriptures than we align our lives with our feeds in social media or with the culture that's going on. And once we get our life aligned in the right place, then we will continue our life going in that right direction and we will walk into the blessing God has for us. Now, one just quick note uh about Mary. Um, Protestants have, I think, potentially neglected Mary. One of the things that happens in life is pendulums swing. And so, so Catholics uh pray to Mary. Now, what I would offer to you is as Protestants, like there's no reason, there's no reason to pray to Mary. She can't hear you. She's in heaven living it up, having her best life, right? That's what we believe. So, so I think in response to some degree, Protestants swung over and they just treat Mary as just, oh, she's just a common person who we see written in the Bible. And I think that there's probably a healthier in between in there to recognize and to learn what does it look like when you fully just submit your life to whatever the Lord would have. What does it really look like to say even as a teenager? She's 16. Some believe maybe she was 17, but she wasn't 30. You know, in America, we don't now we're like, "Hey, I think I think you're considered we try to say you're a young adult until you're 30." I'm like, "That's ridiculous. If if things don't change in our culture, you're going to be a young adult till you're 40. I'm like, "No, you're Anyway, I didn't even mean to go into that right now." My point is God's ready to call you into something great as a teenager. My point is we learn Mary was an incredible person of faith and of obedience for us to learn from. And not just in her response to this massive calling that God would put on her life in the moment to Gabriel, but what she does then in response in verse 46, and this is where we're going to close today, Mary doesn't go on this long list of how is this going to happen? What is I'm so worried about the future? I just don't even understand. What is my mom going to think? That's not can you know? I'm just trying to imagine that moment. No, no, that's not what she does. Mary worships. [snorts] The angel leaves and Mary worships. Verse 46. My soul, she said, magnifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my savior because he has looked with favor on the humble condition of his servant. Surely from now on generations will call me blessed because the mighty one has done great things for me and his name is holy. His mercy is from generation to generation on those who fear him. He has done a mighty deed with his arm. He has scattered the proud because of their thought because of the thoughts of their hearts. He has toppled the mighty from their thrones and exalted the lowly. He has satisfied the hungry with good things and sent the rich away empty. He has helped his servant Israel, remembering his mercy to Abraham and his descendants forever, just as he spoke to our ancestors. Mary worshiped because the truth is this, belief moves us from worry to worship. >> Belief moves us from worry to worship. The truth is also sometimes worship removes worry. Either way, choose worship. Maybe you're like, "All the worry is gone. I'm going to worship." Or maybe you're like, "I feel a lot of worry. Worship." You know what my tendency is when I'm worried about something? Let me get a few people around me and let's talk about what we're worried about. And I love it when when I'm when I'm the problem in a scenario like that because how many you know depending on you know your your small group or your core or whoever like different people are the problem at different times cuz everybody's got different things going on in their life. The person who's the problem is with the person who's just like going on and on and on and on and on about what they're worried about. I love it when somebody just interrupts and it's just like, "Let's pray. Let's just start to declare how good God is. Let's just lift God above all of this." [snorts] And you know, if I'm honest inside, I'm just being real real. I'm like, "No, I'd rather just keep chatting about this problem." But chatting about a problem's never made it better. Worrying about a problem has never made it better. Worrying about a calling God has on your life has never made it less important. Worries never solved anything. But do you know what has worship? Worship, prayer, which are kind of the same thing at the end of the day anyway. So, I just want us to submit our lives to God in that way. Even if we could, as Mary did once again today, would just close your eyes with me in this moment. And Lord, I pray right now over every one of us. Lord, I pray for some that hear my voice. They they need to Lord, we we we need to make a first time surrender to you. We need to find ourselves to say, "God, I'm sorry for running from you. I'm sorry for ignoring you and [snorts] to fully surrender our life to you. As I say those words, if that's you, whether you're sitting in our St. Louis location or downtown Suffach or Western Branch, as I say that, if you're sitting here today and you would say, "I I need to just I need to just surrender to God. I need to begin to follow him. I need to ask him to forgive me for my sins. I need to receive grace. I need to receive favor. I I don't even know what it looks like, but I know that I've been on my own." If that's you, say some words like this. They just don't have to be exact words, but but your words, I'd encourage you. Say them loud enough for your ears to hear them. Don't yell. Just for your ears to hear you. Say something like, "God, please forgive me. Today, I've decided to trust you, to put my faith in you, to seek you. I surrender my life to you." for all of us here today. If you're already a believer in Jesus, I pray for us right now. Lord, I pray for us that we would be able to have a merry response. God, I pray every single one of us today, whether we've been following you for five minutes, Lord, or for decades, would you help us have a merry response to say, "Here I am. I'm the Lord's servant. Let it be done to me as you have said. God, would you help us fulfill your purpose in our life? May your kingdom come and your will be done in and through us on the earth today in Jesus name. Amen.