I Do Not Know A Man.
This was the title of the 5 a.m Christmas Day message which was preached before a wide-eyed congregation at Lead Vale New Testament Church.
The singing of Christmas hymns, special renditions by the choir, scripture readings, and even a congregational greeting, all seemingly worked together in setting the right tone for a heart-warming message by Pastor Terrance Vaughn.
Taking his main text from the Book of Luke and focusing on the angel Gabriel’s message to Mary that she was chosen to give birth to the Messiah, Vaughn said that Mary’s ready acceptance of this good news showed her deep faith and the kind of relationship she had with God.
He stated, “There [was] no doubt that Mary loved God and had a relationship with God, which prompted Him to choose her to be the mother of Jesus. Joseph himself apparently also shared a similar relationship with God.
“As a couple they had decided to follow scriptural and traditional conventions for their coming marriage. They were planning their life according to the physical; but their comfort zone was severely disturbed when the angel of God put in an appearance and intimated that while they were planning their lives in the physical, God was planning their future according to the spiritual.”
Vaughn said Mary would have wrestled verbally, emotionally, mentally and spiritually with the message, before concluding it was God’s plan for her life. Yet the reality for her was she did not know a man.
According to Vaughn, Mary would eventually become an ordinary girl who was willing to dream God’s dream and act on God’s vision.
“She allowed the Holy Spirit to move her from a physical/natural plane to a higher spiritual plane. For all of us, there is a time in our walk where God urges us up to the next level. We can resist, and many times life will go on as normal, as if nothing happened . . . . [but] if you are walking close to Jesus, you will not escape a push, whether it be a gentle prompting or forceful compelling to come up higher.
Vaughn further noted: “When God urges [us] to the next level; we should count the cost. Mary made a decision to go with God to a higher spiritual level, but she had to count the cost of criticism and the chance that Joseph might put her away. We have to determine if we are going to accept God’s invitation to come up higher despite the obvious challenges.”
He noted that God provided comfort for Mary by sending her into the country to Elizabeth, the one person who would understand and lend support, as six months earlier, Elizabeth had to make the transition to a higher spiritual plane with regard to her own pregnancy.
Vaughn stressed that following the Spirit’s leading to a higher spiritual plane “will often call for an exercise of faith and hard choices, such as sacrificing free time, hindrances, or labouring harder in God’s kingdom”.
He added: “God does miracles through ordinary, simple people like Mary, Joseph, you and me. We have the power to do amazing things . . . if we are willing to sacrifice some of our own comfort for the good of others.
“Anyone making the transition to a higher spiritual plane must go forward in faith believing that nothing is impossible with God”, seeing beyond the physical as Mary did, he added.
