Lessons from the Virgin Mary

[0:00] This message was recorded at Vision Baptist Church in Alfred, Georgia. The title of this message is Lessons Learned from the Virgin Mary.

[0:13] Well, praise the Lord. This is our God. Amen. And thank God nobody in the world can ever think of or come up with anything that equals what Jesus Christ has done for us.

[0:24] We ought to praise him and just magnify him. What a wonderful, wonderful Savior we have. Open your Bibles, if you would, to Luke chapter 1 and verse 28. Luke chapter 1 and verse 28.

[0:36] And we'll read there in just a minute. Let's have a word of prayer and just thank Jesus for being Jesus. Father in heaven, I love you. And how I thank you. How I thank you for the wonderful praises that have been lifted to your name.

[0:48] And we together as a congregation want to worship you and magnify you and tell you that you are worthy of our praise. Worthy of our attendance this morning.

[0:59] Worthy of the offerings that we give. Worthy of the prayers that we pray. You are worthy of the service that we give. You are worthy. And I love you and I thank you and this church loves you and thanks you.

[1:12] We give you glory today. Thank you, God, for sending your son. Thank you, Jesus, for coming. Thank you for coming when you knew that a cross was waiting for you. Thank you for dying for us.

[1:23] Thank you for grace extended to us. We love you and praise you and magnify you. In Jesus' name, amen. Well, you got your Bible open there to Luke chapter 1. It's been like 400 years since God has said anything.

[1:38] It's been 400 years of silence. They've been waiting for God to do something. When was God going to move? And then God sends an angel to talk to a young girl. And I don't know if you can imagine what it must have been like.

[1:51] But if I could take you somewhere up in the mountains of Peru into Cusco or somewhere out in the Andes mountains to some village. To a young girl who would just live in a normal life.

[2:04] And all of a sudden she's engaged. And all of a sudden an angel shows up and tells her, God has big plans for your life. And all of a sudden God begins to do things that will just radically change her life.

[2:19] I wish you could understand and imagine what's going on in the life of Mary. And so I want to talk to you today about some lessons that you can learn from the life of Mary. And how Mary teaches us about surrender.

[2:33] And how we can learn about letting our lives be used of God. This was going to be probably the most shocking message any young lady has ever gotten from God. I mean she was a virgin.

[2:45] She'd never been with a man. She'd never been touched by a man. And an angel comes up to her and says, hey, God has chosen you. And he has highly blessed you. He's shown great favor to you.

[2:56] He's going to do something very special to you and through you. And she says, okay. And he says, you're going to have a baby. And she says, well, how in the world could that ever happen?

[3:07] I've never been with a guy. I wouldn't understand how you would go about doing that. And he says, don't you worry about it. I'll take care of all the details. But you're going to have a baby. And this baby is going to be Jesus.

[3:18] This baby is going to come. This baby is going to die on the cross. Then her husband or to be Joseph hears the story. She goes to see the way she goes to see Elizabeth.

[3:29] The babe leaps in John the Baptist leaps in his mother's womb when Mary shows up. And Mary's answer to all of that is this. I just can't believe God would do anything with me.

[3:40] I can't believe God would use me. I am a nobody from nowhere. I can't imagine why God would do this. And then she says, God, thank you for using me.

[3:52] Do anything you want to do with me. And this morning, I would like to take you to the life of Mary. I'd like to show you about five things out of her life that ought to be true in our lives.

[4:03] I don't know what would have happened. I don't know what would have happened had he come to one of us and spoken to us like he did to Mary. So let's take the Bible. You look at the story with me. You'll get to study the Christmas stories you go along.

[4:15] But let's look at this. Compare her life to our life. Number one thing I want you to look at is God had a plan for a young lady's life. God had a plan for a young lady's life.

[4:26] Look, if you would, in Luke chapter 1 and verse 28. Luke chapter 1 and verse 28. And the angel came in unto her and said, Hail, or that's like saying hello, getting her attention.

[4:38] Hey, thou art, you are highly favored. Boy, God has a big plan for you. The Lord is with you. Blessed art thou among women.

[4:48] And behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb and shall bring forth a son and shall call his name Jesus. And he shall be great and shall be called the son of the highest. And the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David.

[5:02] Now I want you to understand, and maybe you ought to mark in your Bible this. She was highly favored. That means she got a big favor given to her. She got a big blessing given to her.

[5:15] That's exactly what happened the day I got saved, by the way. That's what happened the day you got saved. Because you didn't deserve that favor. But God in his mercy reached out and said, You deserve to go to hell.

[5:26] You deserve to be spending eternity paying for the consequences of your sin. But I love you. And I sent my son to die for you. And you can be saved. So Mary is highly favored, chosen, and picked by God to be used.

[5:40] She was blessed to be used of God for his purposes. By the way, she knows that she doesn't deserve it. And that is even stated here. She's blessed among women.

[5:51] You're blessed. Of everybody, God could have chosen. For some reason, Mary, he chose you. You're blessed. You are getting great blessings from God.

[6:02] She didn't deserve to be used. She didn't deserve to be the guy, the person that God would use. And there's nothing in the whole story about Mary being great. The story's about Jesus being great.

[6:14] You're highly favored and you're blessed. But you're going to give birth to the one who really is important. And who the story is all about. Mary was just an instrument in the hands of God.

[6:28] So I hope you wrote down number one. I hope you wrote down God had a plan. And before I move on, just let me tell you, God has a plan for your life. Everybody in this room, I want you to know that God has a plan for your life.

[6:39] God wants you to be used of him. I want you to understand that you would probably think to yourself, well, Mary was not like us. She was so much better than us. And she was so much more spiritual.

[6:51] And she was so much. Mary didn't feel that way at all. And the Bible story says it this way. Mary, you're not getting it. You see, if you do something. If I work 40 hours at my workplace.

[7:01] If you go to work and you do your job all week long. And at the end of the week, your boss comes in and says, here's your paycheck. It's a favor I'm doing for you to give you this money. You'd say, that is not a favor, buddy.

[7:12] A favor is when you do it when I don't deserve it. But I got this coming. Pay up. Say, man. Mary was favored. She didn't deserve it. God gave it to her when it was totally undeserved.

[7:25] And if God uses your life, it'll be undeserved. Go down if you went to verse 34. The second thing, Mary didn't even understand how God's plan for her life could work.

[7:36] She's like, I don't understand this. I don't know what God's doing. I don't know how God could use me. I don't know where all this works together. Look at verse 34 with me, if you would. Luke chapter 1, verse 34.

[7:47] The Bible said, then said Mary unto the angel, how shall this be? How's that going to happen? Seeing, I know not a man. And the angel answered and said unto her, the Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the high shall overshadow thee.

[8:01] Therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. Now, God's got a plan for her life, but this plan is bigger than she is.

[8:12] God has a plan for her life, but the plan is bigger than she is. And so she doesn't understand how God could possibly do this. God's plan for Mary's life is beyond her ability and beyond her power.

[8:26] It is going to take the power of God and the Holy Spirit to accomplish God's plan for her life. Look, if you would, in verse 35, the Holy Ghost shall come upon you.

[8:37] It'll be the power of the highest that shall overshadow you. The life which she's living isn't hers, but it's his. And there is no physical earthly explanation for what's going to happen.

[8:49] Nobody could ever believe it. How could Mary, a virgin girl, have a baby without a man? That's impossible. Beyond that, how could that baby be the very Son of God, God putting on human flesh, God being born in this world, God coming down to earth to live among men and to die on a cross and to be buried and rise again and to save mankind.

[9:13] All of the things that are going to happen in Mary's life are way beyond her. Now, God has a plan for your life, but I'll tell you now that the plan that God has for your life is way beyond you.

[9:24] It is above your ability and above your even understanding. The first plan God has for you is obviously that you would be born again, that you would realize that you sinned against the Holy God, that you would realize that you deserve to go to hell when you die.

[9:39] That is hard to understand. I was reading today about William Carey. Early in the morning, I was reading about William Carey and William Carey at a young age started thinking about some of the things of God.

[9:50] And every time he would think about the things of God, he would say, he said this, he said, I can understand everything it says, except when it says that all my righteousness is as filthy rags. I don't like that. And I don't accept that.

[10:01] But until he got to the point that he could understand that nothing he did was good, he couldn't get saved. You're not going to get saved. It's beyond your ability. As much as you'd like to think you're something, as much as you'd like to think you can, God only saves helpless people.

[10:18] God only uses people that can't. God likes things that show off God. God likes things that show off God. He likes to be able to say, you couldn't, I could, so I did.

[10:32] And you are just the result of my goodness. Here's Mary. Mary, God has a plan for your life. Really? Wow. What does God want to do? Well, you're going to have a baby. I don't understand how that could happen.

[10:43] Well, it's going to happen. But I've never been with a man. Oh, don't worry. God's going to come on you and God's going to do a miracle and God's going to work in your life. And here we are today and Christians, all of us in this room, the majority of us are going to say, we're born again.

[10:56] We know we're going to heaven. So God has a plan for your life. Some of you are missing that plan because you're not really ready to say God has a plan for my life. And then whenever you do think that God has a plan for your life, you begin to say, I don't see how it would work.

[11:10] But Mary was willing to say, I don't see how it work, but I will. Third thing, look, if you would, in verse 38, Mary was willing to submit her life to God's will. Mary was willing to submit her life to God's will.

[11:21] Look at verse 38, if you would. And Mary said, behold, the handmaid of the Lord, be it unto me according to thy word. And the angel departed from her.

[11:32] Look at verse 38. You see, Mary, God's got a plan, Mary. And God's plan is far bigger than you. And Mary looks at God and says, I'm a handmaid. Now, I don't know if we understand what a handmaid is, but let me explain what a handmaid is.

[11:45] A handmaid is a servant. A handmaid is a slave like we had in the United States over a hundred years ago, 150 years ago. I mean, it's a degrading position.

[11:58] It is a position of being owned by another person standing at their hand ready to do whatever they wanted you to do. And when Mary looks at God, she says, I'm just a handmaid.

[12:10] I'm just a servant. I'm just a slave. I'm just a nobody. You do to me what you want to do. Do whatever you want to do. Use my life any way you want to use it.

[12:22] What happened to Mary was totally the work of God, not Mary. Mary could take no credit. Mary could get no praise. She simply calls herself a servant or a handmaid.

[12:36] She is willing to do. She is willing for God to do with her whatever he has in mind. I want you to think a minute about that. You see, Mary, God has a plan for your life, Mary.

[12:48] But this plan is bigger than you, Mary. And Mary says, whatever you want to do. But I need you to stop a minute and realize what had to be going through Mary's mind when she said, whatever you want, God.

[13:01] What had to be going through her mind was, how am I going to explain this to anybody? When she comes out pregnant and even her husband wants to give her a writing of divorce, but he wants to divorce her privately.

[13:14] How did she explain to her mother, mom, I'm going to have a baby. How's that happen? I never was with a guy. I didn't do anything. God came on me. But she was willing to endure the embarrassment that would come.

[13:29] She's pregnant and no man touched her. Think of the gossip. By the way, it was such well-known gossip that in John chapter 8, in John chapter 8, when Jesus is already a grown man and Jesus is over 30 years of age and he's preaching, in John chapter 8, guess what comes up in one of the verses?

[13:46] They say, at least we're not born of fornication. At least we're not illegitimate children like you are. We've all known about you, big boy, since the time your mama got pregnant with you out of wedlock.

[13:58] Just think of the embarrassment. And Mary says, whatever you want to happen, think of what she's going to feel like as a mother. As a mother, she raises her child. At the age of 12, the boy says to his mom, mom, do you not know that I have a bigger plan and a bigger purpose than you and dad?

[14:19] I must be about my father's business. I can only imagine what mama must have thought when she heard that. Can you imagine when he turns 30 and he begins out doing his ministry and one day he's in a house and he's talking to these people in the house and the house is jam-packed with people and he's preaching to them and somebody comes in and says to him in the ear, hey, your mom and your brothers and sisters are at the door and want to speak to you.

[14:42] And he says, my mom and my brothers and my sister are those people here listening to me and ignored his mother. Mary said, God's got a plan. It's bigger than me, but I'm willing to take it.

[14:55] By the way, I wonder what it was like to be a mother and watch them grab her son and drag him off and begin to persecute him and to mock him and to spit in his face and to nail him to a cross and to stand at the foot of the cross and watch her son die.

[15:13] God's plan and God's will is not always easy for our life. But Mary said, hey, God, you got a plan for me. The plan's bigger than I am and I am willing for you to do with me whatever you want to do with me.

[15:28] Go with me to verse 46 if you would. Luke chapter 1 and verse 46. I want you to know that Mary knows all along she doesn't deserve to be used of God. She realizes that she does not deserve to be used of God.

[15:41] Look at verse 46. And Mary said, my soul doth magnify the Lord and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Savior, for he hath regarded the lowest state of his handmaiden.

[15:53] For behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed. Now, I want you to underline some verses there. You see, Mary knew, amazingly, by the way, today we are almost like Mary, somebody special.

[16:09] And Mary earned that. And you and I could never be at Mary's level. But Mary knew all along, no, no, no, no. I am nobody. I am nothing. He is everything.

[16:21] And he is everybody. And look what she says, if you would, in verse 46. She says, my soul magnifies the Lord. I imagine that happened to you just a minute ago as they sang, who is our God?

[16:33] I imagine that happened to you as you heard those songs. This is our God. I imagine that happened to you as you thought, man, what a great Savior. Mary said, I don't deserve this. I serve a wonderful God who has great plans and great things that he wants to accomplish.

[16:50] Verse 47, notice what it says. She said, my spirit rejoices in God my Savior. She didn't magnify herself. And she didn't get her joy in herself. She didn't get her joy in what she did.

[17:02] She didn't get her joy in the work. She got her joy in the Lord. Look, if you would, in verse 48. It said, she regarded. He hath regarded. He hath looked on me in my low estate.

[17:14] That's just old-timey words for saying this. He looked on me when I was a nobody, nothing, and nowhere, and had no deservings of anything. There was not one thing in me.

[17:26] By the way, can I stop real quick before I talk to you about Mary and God's will for your life? Could I just say to you, that's exactly how we all got saved. Not a one of us deserve to get saved. All of us have sinned against the Holy God.

[17:36] All of us deserve to go to hell. But God, in His grace and His mercy, looked down and saw us in our low estate. We were at the bottom of the barrel. We were at the pit. We were at nothing.

[17:47] And God looked down and said, I'll save you. Isn't that a wonderful story? Amen? I met a man. I personally met a man in a nursing home in Rome, Georgia, who talked about living back in the last days of the cowboys right at the turn of the century.

[18:01] This happened about 40 years ago. And he was working in a bar after he'd ridden with, quote, unquote. And he showed me paper clippings and everything else of riding with Butch Cassidy and the insane-ass kids.

[18:11] And this guy had gotten saved. Now he was in a nursing home ready to die. And while he was there in the nursing home, while he was a young man, he was working in a bar, his son went to Sunday school and they gave him a coin that had John 316 stamped on the coin.

[18:26] And so his son came home and said, Daddy, they told us at Sunday school that God loves us. And he loved the whole world. And he sent his son to die on a cross for us. And the guy said, the man said, he thought that was garbage.

[18:39] And they had this 55-gallon drum type thing where they scooped up all the vomit and threw all the spit out and all the extra alcohol and all the food that was left over. It was a trash barrel. And he took it. He threw that coin in there.

[18:49] But the Holy Spirit kept dealing with him and showing him that he was lost and showing him he needed to be saved. And he knew his boy told him if he'd do what that coin said, he'd be saved. He said some one night he walked out there, reached down in the bottom of that barrel, stuck his hand all across the bottom of that barrel, found that coin, pulled that coin out, and said, as I reached down in the bottom of the barrel to pick up that coin, I knew God reached down in the bottom of the barrel to pick me up.

[19:13] Do you realize that's how you got saved? God saved you in your lowest state. You were at the bottom of the barrel and you didn't deserve to be saved. Mary says, I'm not worthy. I'm of low estate.

[19:25] I find my joy not in my position, not in my work, but in the God who is my Savior. She is shocked that God would use her. She can't believe it.

[19:36] She's like, I don't understand it. I don't believe it. He picked me. He picked me. He chose me. Of all the people he could have used, he chose me. My soul does magnify the Lord.

[19:48] I can't believe God would use me. By the way, that's where worship sings out of our heart because we realize I don't deserve to be saved. I don't deserve to go to heaven. I don't deserve to be able to say he is my God.

[20:00] I don't deserve all that, but God in his verse. How many of you can say, man, I didn't deserve it, but God saved me. Say amen. Amen. And then look at this. God had a plan for her life. The plan was bigger than she was. She knew that only God could do it, and she realized it wasn't her, and she magnifies him.

[20:16] Go with me to verse 49. She realized that it was God doing something in her life. She realized that it was God doing something in her life.

[20:27] Verse 49. For he that is mighty, he that is mighty hath done to me. He that is mighty hath done to me great things, and holy is his name.

[20:41] Would you underline this? Would you underline this? This hath done to me. Mary fully realized it was God. Mary realizes that things have been done to her.

[20:53] Mary realizes it was an act of God. He did it, not her, and she didn't deserve it. She deserves it. She knows that it's a privilege to be used of God. It's a privilege that God would do that.

[21:05] He deserves the honor. Let me real quickly run back through that, and I want to apply that to your life. Listen to me if you would. God had a plan for her life. God had a plan for her life.

[21:15] This young girl, I see her in my mind, man. I can see her in all those large petticoats that those girls in Peru would wear, and she's got on this big hoop skirt. Man, there's about seven or eight skirts on under it, and she's got sunburnt cheeks from the sun and the wind high about 11,000 feet above sea level up in the mountains, and she's poor, and her house has a dirt floor, and it's mud walls and a brick roof that's over her little house.

[21:41] Her house is probably a one-room house, and she's a nobody, and all of a sudden, God comes down and says, Mary, Mary, on the backside of nowhere, I chose you, and I'm going to use you, and Mary says, you have a plan for my life, and she says, I could never do that.

[21:58] This is a bigger plan than me. I could never accomplish it, and God says, you couldn't, Mary, but I can, and God did something to her, and God used her, and she magnified God.

[22:08] God had a plan for her life, and the plan was something that she couldn't understand, and she couldn't accomplish, and she willingly submitted herself to it, and she realized she didn't deserve to be used, and she said, God is the only one that could do that.

[22:22] Now, if I could sum this up, I'd like to talk to you about God's plan for your life. I want you to know God has a plan for your life. Mary's story jumps off the page because it reminds me that God has a job for me to do.

[22:34] It reminds me that God wants to work in my life. You do know that everybody you think of as great, everybody God has ever used, it was God who used them.

[22:48] Can you say amen right there? You do realize that every person that you would put down as a great hero of the faith and a greatly used person of God throughout history, none of them were great.

[22:58] All of them were God used. It was God. I read today, this morning, William Carey says in his journal, I wish this day could be forgotten forever. I don't know if I can keep going any longer.

[23:12] William Carey, the great missionary, goes on and says, let this one be cast into the pit of oblivion. Don't let me ever remember this day. He was having hard days, and things weren't working out in his life, and he felt like God would never use them, and he was extremely discouraged.

[23:26] And when he was like in his 50s, he writes and says, God, I have not done anything for you yet, because Carey knew, just like Mary knew. God has a plan for my life, but it's not me, and I can't, and I'm not the one doing it.

[23:40] And today, you very likely are somebody. God is working your life. Every one of you, God wants to do. Some of you will go as missionaries, and some of you will stay here, and some of you will witness to your friends, and some of you will be Sunday school teachers.

[23:51] But God has a plan for your life, and your life counts. Many of us miss what God wants us to accomplish with our lives, because we're too focused on ourselves. I mean, today's about us, isn't it?

[24:04] I mean, this is Christmas, but in all honesty, it's really about us, isn't it? I mean, it's like, let's get out of here quick. Let's go get the gifts. Let's go eat the food. Let's have a big day. And many of us, God wants to do something with you, but you're too focused.

[24:17] And maybe this morning, he would say, hell, Christian, you're a highly favorite of God. He has a plan for your life. He wants to do something in you. Many of us could be used of God, but we think if we were to obey God, he would hurt us and not do what we want.

[24:34] God's plan often scares us to death. Most of us are like this. If God wants me to do something, he's going to have to knock me in the head to do it, because I know that if you ever really give him your life, no telling what he'll do to you.

[24:48] If I were to surrender all, he'd probably put me on the backside of nowhere as a missionary. If I were to surrender my life to him, he'd probably have them kill me somewhere. If I were to give him my life, he'd have the cannibals eat me in New Guinea.

[25:00] That's basically how we tend to think about it. Mary looked and said, Father, do to me what you want to do to me. Most of us would only serve God if it means glory and good for us.

[25:13] But Mary said, God has a plan for my life. We want to understand all that God has for us. Most of us in this room today would say this. Well, I don't mind serving God, but he needs to lay it out for me and let me see how it's going to work.

[25:27] And I need to know there's not going to be bad days. I need to know everything's going to work out. And if there's a few bad minutes, that's okay. Even a few bad days, but I got to know that God's got it all worked out for me and everything's going to be fine. But he never works that way.

[25:40] We're afraid that we won't be able to do what he wants. Instead of realizing it'll be his power. By the way, do you do remember when he saved the apostle Paul? He was Saul on the road to Damascus and he gets saved.

[25:53] And he tells Ananias, he says, you go meet him and lay hands on him. He'll recover his sight and you baptize him. And Saul says, I'm scared to death of that guy. And God says, oh, don't worry.

[26:04] He has no idea all the things he's going to suffer for my name. But I got big plans for him. In other words, and that's kind of what scares us. But as you look at Mary this morning, I want you to think, man, Mary was a little obscure girl in an obscure village on the backside of nowhere.

[26:20] And no one would have ever thought she'd be the one, but God used her. We're afraid we couldn't accomplish what God wants us to accomplish. We don't realize that it's God's power.

[26:31] We forget the glory that comes to God when he does something nobody can explain. You see the beauty about Mary? It wasn't that Mary had some kind of miraculous birth.

[26:42] Well, that Mary died some kind of holy death and floated up into heaven. It wasn't that Mary was some kind of special saint. The blunt truth is Mary was a common everyday woman, a woman of low estate.

[26:57] That doesn't mean a sinful woman, a good woman, but a nobody woman. If you were to come into town, she was not on the society page of the local newspaper. They did not write about her in the blog about the community.

[27:10] Nobody would have known who she was, but God knew who she was. And nobody knows who you are. And you think God has no plan for your life, but God has a plan. The majority of us have never even told God he can do what he wants to with us.

[27:25] We have not completely surrendered. If I were to really ask and I won't do it, but how many of you would say, I have told God, I'll do anything he wants me to do. I'll go anywhere he wants me to go in the world.

[27:35] I'll be anybody he wants. I will humble myself and I will quit laying out restrictions. How many of us would be like Luther Rice, who was a famous missionary of yesteryear. And Luther Rice, when he finally got his life right with God, he took out a blank sheet of paper, signed the bottom of it and held up a blank sheet of paper in prayer and said, God, I've signed the paper.

[27:52] Just fill in the details. I'll do whatever you want me to do. Most of us are like, no, let me see the contract. Let me see what God has in mind for me. We've not surrendered.

[28:03] Mary said, I am simply a handmaid, a servant. Most of us are willing to serve God, but if we don't have to face embarrassment or sacrifice or hurt or whatever it is that God might have for us.

[28:18] Many of us think we deserve the good life. And we're afraid that if we were to serve God, it'd be a sacrifice. Fact is, most of us think, hey, I give God 10%.

[28:31] That's enough. He ought to be happy. I give him 10%, 90% belongs to me. But Mary said, do to me whatever you want to do to me.

[28:44] Let God use others that don't have all the privileges and options I have. Most of us find our joy in who we are and what we have, not in the Lord.

[28:55] Will you let God use your life like he wants to? Will you consider it an honor for him to take your time and talents and treasures for his purpose? Will you offer your life to him to do anything that he wants?

[29:07] Will you lay your children, your future, your money, your plans on the altar today? You want to talk about a Christmas gift? To be honest with you, a church for Fulton County is a pretty cheap gift. Can I challenge you what would be a good gift this morning?

[29:21] A good gift would be to come to this altar and say, God, and just literally take your keys and lay them on the altar and say, everything I own, I commit to you. To take your wallet with all the pictures of your family and lay them on the altar and say, all of my children and all of my grandchildren and all of my future, I commit to you.

[29:36] To take yourself and put yourself on the altar and say, God, you saved me. I don't deserve it. So everything I have and everything I am is yours. It's Christmas.

[29:47] Man, we love to celebrate that he came and the soul felt the worth of its value. That song said we sang this morning, but isn't it about time that you felt the worth of his value? Isn't it about time that you felt like Jesus is worthy of my life?

[30:05] Isn't it about time you said, Jesus, today, the gift I give you is a gift God gave me 2,000 years ago when he sent his son, I give you my life.

[30:17] As parents, probably the most precious thing we have is our children. Why don't you tell God he can have them? Why don't you tell God he can have all your future? Why don't you tell God he can have everything? Why don't you simply say, God, I know you have a plan for my life.

[30:31] I know the plan is far bigger than me. I know all the glory will go to you. And I know if anything ever happens to my little paltry, nothing, nobody life. On the backside of nowhere, nobody knows my name.

[30:42] I know that it all be to your great honor and glory. But today, I commit myself to be your handmaid, your servant. Do to me whatever you want to do.

[30:56] Do with me whatever you want to do. Here is my life. Father in heaven, I love you. And I praise you. And I ask you to work. I pray that you'd save somebody today. And I pray, God, that you'd help Christians today to really give to you their lives, their futures, their children, their everything in prayer before you.

[31:19] You have been listening to Austin Gardner, pastor of Vision Baptist Church. For contact information, location, service times, or more audio and video recordings, log on to www.visionbaptist.com.