Luke 1: God's Going to Do a Work(Whether you like it or not!)

As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another. Welcome back to the Iron Saints Podcast with your host, Dan Willis. Good morning and welcome back, gentlemen. It's great to have you back for another episode of the Iron Saints Podcast. If you missed yesterday's episode, it was our inaugural first. We're breaking down the Book of Luke. We're going to continue in that today. A huge shout out to all of you that offered encouragement on social media. It meant an awful lot to get that first episode out and to see all of the encouragement that's coming in. But without further ado, let's get down to it. We're going to continue in Luke 1 today, starting in verse 26. So for those of you that are looking for, uh, where they can follow along in scripture, uh, that's there for you. But don't worry about it, we're going to read, uh, the segment first here, and then we're going to get into breaking it down a little bit. So without further ado, let's get down to it. In the 6th month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth. To a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David, and the virgin's name was Mary. He came to her and said, greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you. But she was greatly troubled at that saying and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be. The angel said to her, do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever. And of his kingdom there will be no end. Mary said to the angel, how will this be since I am a virgin? The angel answered her, the Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God. And behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is the 6th month with her who was called barren. For nothing will be impossible with God. And Mary said, Behold, I am the servant of the Lord. Let it be to me according to your word. And the angel departed from her. So yesterday, guys, when we started into this, what we saw was Zechariah begging, pleading, praying to the Lord for decades for something to happen. And then God bringing about something miraculous through impossible means, seemingly impossible means. And what kind of blew me away with that was, well, here's a man who's begged and begged and begged for God to do something the world says is impossible. And when God finally shows up and says, I'm going to do this, I'm going to do this impossible thing to show the world my glory, to show that I'm capable of this. Zechariah doubts and as a result gets his voice taken from him until the time when John comes to be. But here what we see is a little bit of a different story, right? What we see here is God showing up to a young woman who has not been praying anxiously for a child for a long time. We're talking a young woman in her, you know, 13, 14, 15, 16, kind of those early teen years and saying, guess what? You're pregnant. And you're not pregnant by any doing of your own, only by me. You are pregnant and you're carrying the Son of God. Here, I'm just going to throw this on your lap. Now, for many of us men out there, this may be somewhat impossible to understand what this feeling is like. But each of us in our own way is going to face moments like this where what we see is we see God show up in our lives and say, I'm going to do a work. You didn't ask for it. It's not in your plans. It's not in your schedule. It's not on your time. It's not to your ends. It may not even be something that you desire immediately, but it's something that I need to do in your life. I think that aspect of this is something that we can all relate to in one way, shape, or form, whether there are moments in your professional life, your personal life, as a father, as a husband. We're going to have these times where God shows up and says, bam, deal with this. Deal with this because it's good for you. Deal with this because my glory can be shown with it. Just face this. It's going to be a hardship. It's going to be a trial. But I am here with you. I caused it to be here. I'm going to walk you through it. I'm never going to abandon you in it. And I think that's really what we can see here is this beautiful, beautiful thing. God shows up sometimes in some pretty incredible ways when we're willing to just accept and say, God, what are you doing here? And he goes, rest assured, I'm here. I'm with you. I'm not going to abandon you. I know you're scared. I know you're not certain what's going on. But you can trust that I'm Here with you, we have this assurance as Christians, and it makes it a whole lot less scary knowing that you can face the storm with God by your side. I think this is a really beautiful and honest outburst from Mary of how is how has this come to be? How can this be possible, Lord? And God says there's things that I can do that you don't know of. There's things that I'm going to do that are going to blow you away, and that's an encouragement for us that while we may be facing a trial right now, that while we may be facing a hardship or or even God doing something in our lives that isn't necessarily a trial but is unexpected. At the very least, we as men can take comfort in knowing that God is doing it by our side. He hasn't abandoned us in it. And I think it's important that we take that, that viewpoint that Mary's shown here of, I'm a servant of the Lord. Whatever this is, whatever I'm about to go through, whatever hardship I'm about to face, I really truly and deeply know that I'm a servant of the Lord and good will be done through this. I think that's a deep encouragement we can take into our day today. So as you head into your day today, guys, take the time, take the time right now to pray just quickly. If you're in the car, whether you're at the office, wherever you may be listening to this, just take a few moments, pause and pray. Lord, what are you doing in my life? What is it that we are working on together right now? What are the hardships, the challenges, the trials? What are the amazing plans that you have for me to profit me, to grow me, to help me where I'm going and what I'm doing? Seek that out in the Lord today, guys. Take that time. It's gonna be time well spent. I promise you this. When you can face all the hardships of the world with a smile, knowing the Lord's gonna do something impossible in it, it is the greatest satisfaction. Again, guys, if you have prayer requests, please, please, please feel free to drop them in the comments wherever you may be listening to this. All the social media channels are there, guys. Feel free to reach out there as well. If you have prayer requests, I'm more than happy to put them out there. It will never be your full name. It will always be a pseudonym or first name only. I do want to lift you guys up in prayer if you have needs. Have struggles, if you have blessings, I would love to throw those out in prayer, uh, for the community as a whole. So feel free to tag me on those prayer requests, uh, but let's get down to it here. I want to pray for you guys, get you off on your day where you can see the Lord doing impossible things in amazing ways. Lord, thank you so much for the men that are listening to this. I pray that their lives would be inspired by you. I pray that they would see you in their day-to-day as they face trials, as they see new opportunities. I pray that you would do impossible works in our lives. I pray that we would Cry out just as Mary did. We are your servants, Lord. We seek to do the things that you wish to do, even though we may not understand why or how. We need to trust in you. We need to trust that through you all things are possible, and the calls that you give us are calls that can produce an amazing glory for you, Lord. Be with those of us who are struggling more so through the trials, Lord. Help us to have the strength that we need, the conviction that we need to continue moving forward. For those of us going through new challenges that are already seeing blessings, thank you so much, Lord. Just a spirit of thanksgiving for all that you are doing and will continue to do. Amen. our lives. Pray for the men that are facing challenges in their marriages, as fathers, or in their jobs. Give them comfort, Lord. Help them in those trials. Help them to see you in that place. Pray that they have an amazing day today, Lord. In your name we pray. That's it for today, guys. I look forward to continuing on through Luke with you, uh, tomorrow. Don't miss it then. I look forward to seeing you there. Have an amazing day. Thank you for listening to the Iron Saints Podcast. If you are looking to share your prayer requests, check the description for social media or email to contact the show. Blessings on you all until next time.