Unwrapping Christmas-1-A Scary Christmas

this morning Pastor Brad starts a new series he calls Unwrapping Christmas. He has titled his first sermon A Scary Christmas.

Pastor's Notes:

Luke 1:26-38 NKJV
Now in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, (27) to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin's name was Mary. (28) And having come in, the angel said to her, "Rejoice, highly favored one, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women!" (29) But when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and considered what manner of greeting this was. (30) Then the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary,for you have found favor with God. (31) And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name JESUS. (32) He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David. (33) And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end." (34) Then Mary said to the angel, "How can this be, since I do not know a man?" (35) And the angel answered and said to her, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God. (36) Now indeed, Elizabeth your relative has also conceived a son in her old age; and this is now the sixth month for her who was called barren. (37) For with God nothing will be impossible." (38) Then Mary said, "Behold the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word." And the angel departed from her.

INTRODUCTION
Good morning, every body! I’m so refreshed to be back after a great week, and I can’t wait to get started on this brand new series entitled “Unwrapping Christmas”.
While the commercialism of our day wants to focus on Santa, elves, and Rudolph, I want to refocus us this month on the true purpose of the season, which is the birth of Christ
Today, I’m going to look at Mary, and how this first Christmas was a scary one.
You don’t think Christmas is scary? You should totally go to Wal Mart on a Christmas Eve sometime!
TRANSITION
This morning, we are going to look at Mary, the mother of Jesus. The Bible is really not concrete about Mary’s lineage, other than she is Elizabeth’s cousin. He was a Jewess of the tribe of Judah, engaged to a carpenter, and both of them appeared to be poor in the world’s eyes.
When approaching the person of Mary, people either do one of two things:
1. Ignore her2. Worship her to almost the same status as Jesus.
While we don’t need to ignore her, we also need to make certain we don’t exalt her.

APPLICATION
1. She was chosen by God (vs.28)
a. Mary was selected as being with favor in God’s eyes.
b. We know that Mary wasn’t perfect, because the Scripture says that “all have sinned”. Mary also referred to Jesus as “savior”. Luke 1:46-47 And Mary said: "My soul magnifies the Lord, (47) And my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior.
c. God chooses the most of unlikely. She was young. She was a virgin.
2. She was surprised by the message (vs. 29-30)
a. She would be pregnant.b. She would be a teenage mom, c. She would have the son of God d. That’s enough to be scary.
3. She sincerely had questions (vs. 34)
a. How will these things be?- I’ve never been a mom. It doesn’t make logistical sense. - I’ve never been intimate. It doesn’t make physical sense.
b. What about the unasked questions? - What are people going to say?
c. Have we all not have had questions when God wants to use us?
4. She surrendered to the plan (vs. 38)
a. She submitted to the plan of God.
b. She received the word of the Lord.

CONCLUSION
Because she wasn’t scared and said yes, she opened up the way of salvation to us.