Women of the Seed // The Choice

The Seed Protected Through Women

Pastor Jonathan continued the Women of the Seed series by tracing how God protected and fulfilled His promise of redemption through the lives of Bathsheba and Mary.

Bathsheba: Sin, Consequences, and Redemption

• Pastor Jonathan walked through the story of David and Bathsheba in 2 Samuel, emphasizing that David’s sin was not just lust, but betrayal against Uriah — one of his loyal “mighty men” and trusted friends.
• He highlighted how David tried to cover his sin, ultimately arranging Uriah’s death in battle. Nathan the prophet later confronted David publicly with the words: “You are the man.”
• Pastor Jonathan stressed two key truths:
• Sin has devastating consequences.
• Genuine repentance matters before God.
• David confessed his sin openly, but still had to endure painful consequences, including the death of Bathsheba’s first child. Pastor Jonathan noted that forgiveness does not always remove earthly consequences.

God’s Grace Through Solomon

• Pastor Jonathan explained that Bathsheba later had additional sons with David, including Solomon, whom God chose to continue the promised lineage leading to Jesus.
• He explored biblical symbolism around numbers and grace:
• The number 5 and the Hebrew letter “He” represent grace.
• Solomon represented God’s redeeming grace in the middle of a broken story.
• Bathsheba’s story ended not in shame, but in honor — seated beside the king as the mother of Solomon. Pastor Jonathan described this as a picture of God’s ability to redeem even the deepest pain and failure.

Mary: The Choice to Believe God

• The sermon then shifted to Mary in Luke 1. Pastor Jonathan emphasized that unlike Bathsheba, Mary was given a choice when the angel announced she would carry Jesus.
• Mary’s response — “Let it be to me according to your word” — was presented as a reversal of Eve’s failure in the Garden:
• Eve chose to believe the serpent’s lies about God.
• Mary chose to trust God even when His promise seemed impossible.
• Pastor Jonathan taught that throughout Scripture, each woman in the genealogy faced difficult choices, yet God worked through imperfect people who chose faith.

Main Application: What Will You Choose?

• Pastor Jonathan challenged the church to consider the same question presented throughout the series:
• Will you believe the lies of the enemy?
• Or will you trust what God says about you and your future?
• He encouraged the church to:
• Hold onto the “seeds” God has planted in their hearts.
• Trust God’s promises even when circumstances seem impossible.
• Abide in Christ so spiritual fruit can grow over time.

Closing & Salvation Invitation

• Pastor Jonathan closed by reminding the church that Jesus is the fulfillment of the promised seed and invited anyone who had not accepted Christ to pray and receive salvation. Several people responded during the altar moment. 

Hey, do this for me, go ahead and stand with me. To your feet, we're gonna read our key passage for this morning's found in Luke chapter one, verse , it's a pretty famous passage. And it says this, and Mary said, "My soul magnifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my savior, for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant. For behold, from now on, all generations will call me blessed. For he who is mighty has done great things for me and holy is his name. And his mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation. He has shown strength with his arms. He has scattered the proud and in the thoughts of their hearts. He has brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of humble estate. He has filled the hungry with good things and the rich he has sent away empty. He has helped his servant Israel in remembrance of his mercy, as he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his offspring forever."

 Father God, let's pray.

 We just thank you so much for today.

 We thank you for the opportunity we have to come and to learn your word,

 to experience the touch of your presence and your Holy Spirit.

 I pray that today as we press into this message and we see this scripture and this beautiful plan that you set from the foundations of the earth, Lord, that you will be glorified and your name will be magnified today.

 It's in your Holy name we pray, amen and amen.

 Okay, you may be seated. You may be seated.

 Oh man, I'm excited about this morning. I am excited about this morning. Hey, we are in week three of this little mini series that we've been doing called "Women of the Seed," and we started it two weeks ago and then we continue it for Mother's Day. And just to give you the one minute or so recap, we set up the idea of looking at Eve from the very beginning, right after the fall and when God makes the promise that through the seed of Eve,

 Savior will come, a Messiah will come who will crush the head of the serpent and the serpent will bruise the heel of that seed. And we began to look through the lineage or the genealogy that's found in Matthew where it talks about the line of Jesus and the birth of Jesus. But in that genealogy, there's five women who are named in that genealogy. And we went through and we've studied

 three of the five up to this point. We started off with the really just hard story about Tamar and that's just a difficult one to walk through, but we walked through it and seeing God's faithfulness there, we looked at Rahab, the Jericho prostitute. And then last week we talked about Ruth and we went through the story of Ruth. And so today we are gonna continue the next two figures and kind of compare and contrast a little bit and see God's faithfulness because the next two figures are really powerful and really prominent. And so the first figure that we're gonna cover today

 although she's named in several different places in scripture in the genealogy of Jesus and Matthew, it actually doesn't say her name. It says that the name that's given from her is actually a title and it's called The Wife of Uriah. And if you're familiar with scripture, if you've grown up in church, then you're gonna know about the character that we're gonna cover today because the woman that we're gonna cover first today is a character that there's a lot of information and maybe even some misinformation in some ways about which is the character of Bathsheba. And Bathsheba, maybe you've grown up and you know all about this story or maybe you know very little, but we're gonna kind of do like a summary of this story. And if you wanna read the whole story, which I encourage you to is in found in  Samuel , but I'm just gonna kind of for time's sake, set up the stage and give us some of the highlights of this story. So this happens after David is king. So he's already slayed Goliath. He's already ran from Saul. He's already been named king. He's already served as ruler of part of Israel in Hebron for the seven years or the six and a half years that he was there. And then he's moved and they've conquered Jerusalem. And now he is king over all of United Israel and he's in the palace and he's been just defeating enemy after enemy. And he's been at war for a lot and he's been doing kind of stuff. And the chapter  opens with a really interesting and profound phrase that I think all of us can learn from. It says, "In the time when kings were meant to be at war, David remained home."

 Now, this has nothing to do with what we're talking about, but this is just a word to the wise. Sometimes there's seasons and there's times and there's places where you are meant to be doing something. And when you break that boundary, you are opening yourself up to an opportunity to fall short and to sin.

 And you can plug that into whatever you want. And the time when men and women should be asleep,

 they were on Instagram.

 And the time when men and women should be leaving to go to work, they decided to stay just a little later and now they're rushed and they're angry in traffic

 and they said some choice phrases.

 You can fill in the blank and we go, "But there are times in your life and places that God has ordained you and destined you to live and to act and behave a certain way." And sometimes we make choices like, "I know what's expected. I know what the right thing is, but I'm not gonna do it anyways."

 And we could try to justify it for David like, "Oh, he's tired. He's done a lot of battles." But it says, "He sent Joab out to fight to take over one of the last strongholds that was yet to be defeated kind of in this area. And he stayed at home."

 And it says that he began to walk through the rooftop of his palace. And as he was walking, he saw in the distance a woman who was bathing and she was unclothed. And he saw her and it says that she was beautiful.

 And he asked a servant, "Who is that?"

 Already this is really creepy if you just wanna be honest. This is not like, "Oh, historically it was okay." Nope, not okay.

 She was performing, actually the Bible tells later, she was performing a ritual purification ceremony.

 So she was in the process of purifying herself and he saw her and they said, "That is Bathsheba,

 the wife of Uriah the Hittite."

 And it says right after this that David sent one of his servants to go and to bring her to him.

 Now, if you just are reading this in a narrative, you see this thing like, "Oh, there's this beautiful woman, the king sees it, she's married, he doesn't care,

 he's gonna sin for her." And that is on the service level what happens.

 But there's actually, this is such a bigger story of betrayal than what we read at service level. But if you're a student of the Bible, a little fan of the Bible, you'll see some things in here. So first of all, he names Uriah the Hittite. Uriah the Hittite was not a stranger.

 He was not an unknown.

 David and Uriah had a friendship.

 David and Uriah had a history.

 In multiple places, one of which being  Samuel , verse , Uriah the Hittite is named as one of David's  mighty men,

 his most trusted and close soldiers. The ones who were with him when Saul was still chasing him. The guys in this mighty men are like the who's who of the soldiers in the nation of Israel. And if you got, listen, I'm sure the women here, you would like it, but for the guys, if you just wanna get fired up, read about David's mighty men. There's some stories that will literally blow your mind. Like guys who they're in a battle and the battle's losing and they're like, "We gotta retreat." And one guy decides to stand, and this happened more than one time. One guy kills  people coming at him all by himself. There was another one with one spear. He killed  Philistines at once.

 And their story after story after story, there's another one, and he actually comes to the plate. We probably won't talk about it today. He actually becomes the chief of David's bodyguard and becomes a key role in the transition to Solomon as king. But he has three things that he talks about, this mighty man. It says that he went and killed two Moabite heroes, which a lot of people say, "Oh, maybe these were just some warriors." There's a lot of other people who say, this was like different people who descended from giants, but it says he killed two Moabite warriors. Another thing, this is the same guy. He says right after that, he went, and maybe some of you guys have read this book, he went into a pit on a snowy day with a lion and he killed that lion. And then after he did that, he took a trip down to Egypt because he heard there was another giant. I don't know if you know this, but David and his men were all about killing giants.

 And it wasn't just because it was good for the resume,

 but it was because what we talked about earlier, when we started talking about the perversion on earth that happened when the fallen angels laid with women, like we talked about that. Some of you guys were like, "Oh, never let him again, we're not bringing it up today, sorry."

 But he went down to Egypt and it said that this giant was huge, maybe even taller than Goliath. He was huge, and it says that he had a spear that was the size of a weaver's beam, which is massive. And this guy went down there and it says that he took the beam, the spear out of his hand and killed him with his own spear

 and then made the return trip back.

 So these  mighty men, to be in this crew, it says they were all archers, they were all swordsmen, they were all spearsmen, they could all do slingshots, left or right handed, and it says that they hit a blade of grass from a very far distance. These were elite warriors and these were David's ride or dies, that he went all through the wilderness, that he conquered places, that he went, and Uriah the Hittite, who was not Jewish, but was adopted into family. And by the way, some of David's closest men were not biological Jewish people. There was Amorites and there was Moabites and there was Hittites, because he brought all these outsiders and brought them to inside. And he brings this person, so whenever this person says that's Uriah's wife, it wasn't like don't know him, don't care, she's hot.

 This was someone he had history with.

 This was someone he had relationship with.

 He knew, and despite that,

 because of lust and because of sin and because of boredom and because of all these different things, he sins for her and Bathsheba has no choice. Now I know in our modern day we should like, couldn't she just say no?

 That was not an option.

 In patriarchal societies, but even more so in royal imperial societies, when the king calls, you answer and whatever the king requests, you say yes, there are no options.

 So Bathsheba is required to come before the king and it says that he then sleeps with her and sends her home.

 A little bit of time passed, and what you have to understand about this narrative in Second Samuel, it's chronological but it's not exactly like blow for blow, it's not like giving us day by day, but some time passes.

 And right after that happens in the narrative, time goes by, she sends a message to David and she tells David, I'm pregnant.

 I'm pregnant and you're the father.

 You know why I know you're the father? Because it was the time when men went to war and Uriah when your mighty men went with Joab and the Aria of the covenant and the priest and he went to fight on your behalf and while my husband was gone, you called me into your palace and now I'm pregnant.

 And David's freaking out.

 So David decides that he's gonna cover it up. So he sends a messenger to Joab and he says, Joab, send me Uriah home with a report. And guess what, do you know why Joab never thought anything of that? Because of course Uriah would be someone that Joab would send and that David would request because they were friends.

 Uriah didn't think anything weird. If this was just a stranger and the king just told you to come back from battle, you'd be a little bit worried. But Uriah had no hesitation because he was in the inner circle and Uriah shows up and he says, tell me about the battle and he kind of does some stuff and he says, David, I wish you wouldn't have brought me out the field. I want to be there fighting on our behalf for the God of Israel.

 And he says, yeah, it's okay, this is gonna be good. You can leave later. Why don't you just go home, get a home cooked meal, take a shower, you know, have sex with your wife and then you can leave the next day.

 But it says that Uriah left the temple or the palace and it says that he just literally slept at the gate on the floor with other servants and people and whenever they woke up the next morning, the David's servants came to him and said, hey, he never went home. He just slept outside on the floor.

 And he said, what are you doing?

 And this is what Uriah said, this is verse . Uriah said to David, the ark and Israel and Judah dwell in booths or tents

 and my Lord Joab and the servants of my Lord are camping in the fields. Shall I then go to my house to eat and to drink and to lie with my wife as you live and as your soul lives, I will not do this thing.

 This is why he is one of David's mighty men.

 David should have known it was gonna be harder to trick this guy because this guy is loyal.

 So David says, okay, cool, hey, I got one more thing. I need some more stuff before I send it to you and send you back. So why don't you come back to the palace and now David has part two. He's like, okay, in his right mind, Uriah will not betray the oath and the loyalty that he has for me and the people that he has in arms. So I'm gonna do what is a really good idea as I'm gonna get him drunk.

 And he gets Uriah drunk.

 And then he says, now that he's drunk, I'm gonna send him home and then he'll sleep with his wife and then I can cover all this up.

 But even drunk, Uriah would not go home and Uriah slept it off in the same place he slept the night before. And then David realized like this guy's too honorable.

 So he writes a message and listen to this. He writes a message and he gives it to Uriah.

 And in this message, it is addressed to Joab, the commander of the army and it says, make Uriah go to wherever the fighting is fiercest in the middle and the center. And right when the battle is at the peak, tell everyone to retreat except for him and let him die.

 And he writes that message down and he seals it and he gives it to Uriah and he says, deliver it to Uriah. And David trusts Uriah and his character so much, he never even thinks that for one moment, Uriah would look at the message before he gets there because Uriah was that faithful to David.

 I hope when you read this story, it crushes your heart.

 Because this wasn't just strangers being strangers. This was brothers betraying each other.

 And he sends Uriah because of his own guilt and shame and fear, he sends Uriah to the battlefield and Joab reads the message and Joab does exactly what David says and he puts him in the front line and Uriah the Hittite is killed.

 And he sends message back to David.

 And he says he's killed.

 And he says that Bathsheba mourns her husband. And after the time of mourning,

 after the time of mourning, David brought her to the palace

 and it says that he married her.

 But at the very end of chapter , it says, but the Lord was displeased. So chapter  starts with one of the most just harsh stories

 because Nathan the prophet shows up to the palace and he enters into the throne room and David's sitting there and he says, "David, I have to tell you about a great travesty and I need you to rule on something that's happened." And he says, "Tell me Nathan what's happened." And he says, "I know how important shepherds are to you.

 I know you were a shepherd." So you'll understand this story and how important it is. There was a shepherd who only had one little sheep and that shepherd loved that sheep and he would lay his life down for that sheep and he took care of that sheep always. And he slept with that sheep and he did everything the very best and everything was great. But then one day he had a neighbor and the neighbor who was very rich and had many sheep and could pick anything that he wanted, he had someone come to town and instead of going and taking one of his own sheep and slaughtering them to feed to the family that was coming into town or the guests that came to town, he went to that poor little shepherd and took the one sheep that he had and killed it and fed it to the appetites of those travelers.

 David was enraged.

 He was furious.

 Because David as a shepherd knows the connection that the shepherd has with the sheep and to think about there's one person who had one and the other guy could have picked anything that he wanted to satisfy his appetite and instead he went to the one that wasn't his and killed it and he says, as the Lord lives, this person will pay

 and he'll pay four times what he took.

 And David just says, just who is it?

 Tell me who it is.

 And Nathan looks at him and points a finger

 and said, it's you.

 You're the one who did it when you took the wife of Uriah

 and you caused him to be slain.

 And at this moment, remember this wasn't a private audience. This was public. This was in the throne room with all the court and all the people and all the things right in front of everyone, the prophet Nathan who was being very brave and very bold because easily David could have said, I don't know what you're talking about. Arrest this person for accusing God's anointed and have him killed.

 That would have been totally within the right and that happened many times after and it's happened many times before.

 But Nathan being faithful to God went and said, it's you who stole what wasn't yours.

 And David is faced with his sin being exposed before all.

 And what David says then, he says in verse  of chapter , it says, David said to Nathan,

 I have sinned against the Lord.

 He confessed, this is so short. This is the first time that a king has publicly confessed to their sin.

 Before God and God's representatives.

 And Nathan said to David, the Lord has put away your sin

 and you shall not die.

 But, this is a big but, this is really hard.

 The child that Bathsheba gave birth to will die

 as a consequence of your choices.

 And it says that immediately that child was struck sick

 and for seven days, David laid prostrate before the Lord

 praying, interceding, not eating.

 And all of his servants thought he was losing his mind

 because no matter how much they tried to get him to move, he wouldn't. And then at the seventh day when the child dies, they were so fearful because they were like, look at him right now, if we tell him that the child died, what is he gonna do now?

 But they realized they had to, so they finally went to him, they said,

 David, your son is dead.

 And it says that David got up, washed his face, anointed himself with oil,

 and went to the temple to worship God.

 And all of his servants were so confused because when the child was alive, he was in mourning, and now that the child is dead, he's worshiping God. And David says one of the things that,

 I honestly always struggle to read this.

 It's a struggle.

 But in  Samuel , verse , he said,

 while the child was still alive, I fasted and wept.

 For I said, who knows whether the Lord will be gracious to me that the child may live, but now he's dead, why should I fast?

 Can I bring him back again?

 I shall go to him, but he will not return to me.

 In this moment, David has happened to confront the consequences of his choices,

 which all of us in this room at sometimes have to confront.

 And it may not be like this,

 but our choices have weight.

 The choices we make and how we live matter.

 And they affect us and others around us.

 And sometimes you have to live with the consequences of choices you made, even consequences of choices that you've asked for repentance for, and that's so hard to walk through.

 And in this moment, he moves on. And it says that after that, and here's where it gets really crazy, so just hold on to your crazy hats.

 I'll try to see if I can get nerdy and stop crying.

 So it says that after that, David went to Bathsheba and they comforted each other, and it says she got pregnant. Now, if you're reading it in  Samuel here in chapter , it says, and then she gave birth to Solomon. And I'll tell you, up until literally this week,

 I thought that the first child that she got pregnant with was the one that died, the second one she got pregnant with was Solomon. I've even preached that. Like Solomon's really good redemption, to give him that one, the first off, that he just showed God's forgiveness. But then I was reading in Chronicles and some of the other places where they give you the list of the kids.

 And I find out in Chronicles, that although in the narrative they told you that she ended up staying in a relationship with David, her heart did not grow bitter towards him. They found some form of forgiveness

 and ended up having four children together after this.

 So four children after they were married.

 And to my surprise, when I'm reading in Chronicles, this is in chapter three, verse five, it says, these were born to him in Jerusalem, Shemaiah, Shobab, Nathan, and Solomon, four by Bathsheba, which by the way, is like a later spelling of Bathsheba, it's the same person, the daughter of Amiel.

 And also when I realized, and I started doing some research,

 she had four children with David, five of whom count the one who was passed. But Solomon wasn't the first one, there was three who came before.

 And then Solomon was the fourth one.

 Now, I'm gonna get really weird

 because I think the Bible is so beautiful. Some of you guys have heard me talking about over the last couple weeks, the three plus one, that there's a three plus one in creation, there's three days, three days of creation, then a bonus thing, the fruit trees, then three days of creation, the bonus thing, man. There's all this three plus one and the story of Joseph, there's the three brothers of the Jordan, and then Judah was the plus one, the fourth son.

 And now all of a sudden we have three sons that were born and that lived and now Solomon's the fourth son, which is really powerful. Or you could also argue that in this process he's also the fifth son because one didn't make it. And the fifth or the five is the thing that represents grace.

 H is the fifth letter in the Hebrew alphabet, and I know we're getting weird people just holding it. H is the fifth letter in the Hebrew alphabet. H always represents the letter of grace. And the reason we do that, and the five represents the number of grace, and H represents the letter of grace. Here's a great example. Do you remember Abraham and Sarai? They were called Abraham and Sarai. And then when God changed their name, he told you, you're Abraham and you're Sarah. Both of those, all he did was he added an H to both of their names. He added grace to both of their names. And the moment that there was no longer about what they could do, but it was about what God could do on their behalf, all of a sudden Abraham became fertile and Sarah became fertile and her beauty was restored. And now all of a sudden the promise of God came in here because the moment that what is unearned or unmerited favor and love of God is not in your life, you are transformed. And the one who was the bonus son, the one who represents the fifth,

 is the one who represents forgiveness for things that you cannot find forgiveness on your own for.

 Solomon.

 And then oh, if you just wanna take a step further, Solomon was also David's th son.

 The number of completion. And he had many sons after.

 But Solomon represents the purpose. And you say, why would the th son of a king become the next king?

 That's not how it works. Now a few of his older sons died.

 A few of them tried to take control and failed. But there were multiple kings who should have come through. But God spoke to David and to Bathsheba and said that Solomon will be the heir of the promise,

 of the seed.

 Of all David's wives, and he had too many, and all David's sons, and he had too many, the seed was promised to Bathsheba.

 The one who was brought to David with no choice, and yet who chose to stand in the promise.

 And then guess what? It keeps going.

 And second Kings, it talks about how, as the story moves on, and after they end up having this whole thing, when David is towards the end of his life, someone tries to, you serve the throne of David. And one of his older kids, Solomon's older brothers, tried to take over the crown. And in fact, he went with Joab and one of the leading priests and some other people and said, I'm the new king.

 And they're like, he's the new king. And they were partying, but they didn't invite a couple key people. They didn't invite Solomon, they didn't invite Bathsheba, they didn't invite a guy named Zodok, and they didn't invite another guy named Benaiah.

 And Benaiah was a bad one not to invite.

 Because Benaiah was the one that I mentioned earlier, the one who killed the two Moabites and the one who killed the lion and the one who killed the giant, because they left Benaiah because they knew he was too loyal to David. And Bathsheba went to David with Nathan and said, remember that you promised that Solomon would be the king, but another son has proclaiming that he's king. And so David ended up anointing Solomon king and the Bathsheba was who stood and who was the one who advocated on her son's behalf and made it where that Solomon was named king and a priest and all the different people came and they named him there. And immediately everyone knew because David made a public proclamation, this is the actual king.

 And in that moment, all the other people fled. And unfortunately, the story becomes very violent from that point.

 Murder and entry, it looks more like some kind of like medieval timepiece story because Solomon starts knocking people out and the guy like, you know, Benaiah,

 I call him Benaiah the Butcher in my mind, that's not really what the Bible says,

 but he just started just handling people. And apparently he was so bad, other lifetime warriors, other mighty men, when they said, Benaiah's coming to kill you, they just literally ran and hid. Not one of them said, I can take that guy. Every one of them said, ooh, so much so that Joab, this is terrible, who had done many evil things, many evil things, including right now supporting not David, which by the way, I have a feeling the reason that he's bitter towards David is because he knows that David is the one who made him kill Uriah that way.

 So why would he trust that guy anymore?

 Time does not heal all wounds.

 But Joab ended up going against David and Solomon said, we have to take care of him. And Joab got so scared, it says he ran to the altar in the tabernacle and grabbed the horns of the altar and they said, come out of there. And he said, I'm not coming. And so when Benaiah went to Solomon, he said, hey, he won't leave the altar, he's hanging onto it. Solomon said, he's guilty, kill him there on the altar.

 And Benaiah went and killed him on the altar.

 Devastating.

 Sin has consequences and they're devastating. But God's redemption and his mercy and his grace has consequences and it goes beyond what we could ever imagine because Bathsheba ends up having this thing and it says in Sayyid Kings that after another little thing, it ends tragically as well. But she goes, this is the last we hear of Bathsheba. It goes and she appears before Solomon who's now in the church. Peers before Solomon who's now king.

 And Solomon stands up and Solomon bows to Bathsheba and he blesses her and he brings a throne and sits her at his right hand and puts her at the place of honor.

 And that's where we see Bathsheba,

 the one who was taken against her will, ends her story enthroned in honor at the right hand of the king.

 That is the type of redemption that God does and how far God will go to protect the seed. And for time's sake, we have to make a really big historical jump

 because the next and the last carrier of these five and the seed is the one who we heard from from the very beginning of this service in our sermon portion.

 The one that we actually sang about, the one of like Mary who chose the better thing.

 Mary ends up having a visitor, a young girl in Galilee from a city called Nazareth,

 a city that was renowned for being a nothing nowhere nozeville that no one has. In fact, there was a saying that went around that said, "Can anything good come from Nazareth?" I don't know where your hometown is,

 but if that's like the slogan about your town, that's tough.

 Can anything good come from Nazareth?

 And she was there, young, single, still living in her father's house, betrothed to another person but not yet married. And in that moment, the angel of the Lord, Gabriel, came before her and said something that is just amazing. He said, this is found in Luke chapter one, verse , greetings O favored one, the Lord is with you.

 Now listen to this, this is sort of crazy. I feel like if I was just standing in a room or wherever she was and all of a sudden an angel showed up to me and said anything to me, I'd be freaked out because the heavenly being just showed up. That would freak me out.

 But that's not what freaked Mary out.

 Says she was greatly troubled at the saying

 and tried to discern what the greeting would be.

 What do you mean favored one?

 What do you mean God is with me?

 I'm from Nazareth.

 I'm from no one.

 I'm nobodies in a nobodies place, in a nobodies city that's being oppressed by Romans that nobody cares about and it's so small the Romans don't even come here or care.

 And you an angel of God have the guts to come and to talk to me and to say that I'm the favored of God

 and that he, the presence of the creator of the universe is with me and it troubled her.

 And he begins to unload on this young girl

 what God is going to do. And he talks about the seed and he talks about the spirit and he talks about how she'll be pregnant and he talks about how this whole thing and she answers the question.

 That's a great question to ask.

 Instead of just being like, she says, how can this be?

 Because I'm a virgin.

 She asked a question and the angel explains what's gonna happen

 and how this is the fulfillment of the promise that was made long ago.

 And listen to Mary's answer.

 And Mary said, behold, I'm the servant of the Lord. Let it be to me according to your word.

 And the angel departed from her.

 Do you know what we may be missed in some of our modern context?

 God came to Mary who was preordained

 and met many things, but do you know what he gave Mary?

 He gave Mary a choice.

 Which was unheard of. Bathsheba had no choice.

 But Mary was presented with, do you wanna partner with what the creator of the universe is wanting to do through you?

 And Mary chose yes.

 And she said, here I am.

 Work with me, work through me. And in this moment of choice,

 she redeemed the last woman who was given a free choice, which was where we started our series, which was with Eve.

 Because Eve was given all the choices in the world, placed in honor and dignity, even to corule and to coreign, so much so that it was to her that the serpent was speaking to and that lies were said. And in that moment of having choice, what Eve chose was to believe the lies that the enemy said about God, that God is not good, that he is holding out on you and he wants evil towards you. And she chose to believe that and took that forbidden fruit and ate it and shared it with Adam. And as a result, all fell. And yet in this moment, Mary makes the choice to believe that even though what God through the spirit and through the angel is telling her is impossible, she chose to believe that God, the creator of the universe is good. And if he says he will do it, then I will trust that I will see the goodness of God. And in that choice, the seed was fertilized and planted and began to grow. And nine months later, Jesus was born in a manger in Bethlehem and the opportunity for every person to be redeemed from the one who was on the cross came from the choice that was given back to woman that was taken in the garden. Congregation Applauding

 And the seed that was protected time and time again

 ends up with the same choice that you and I have.

 Will you believe what God says about you?

 Will you believe that his son came to die for you? Will you make the choice to accept Jesus and live in the fear of the Lord and believe that all he wants is good things? Will you make that choice and say, yes, God, here am I, choose me? Will you partner with the people had choice? Because in reflecting on these five or six great women that I get to see in this story, I realized that each one of them was faced with the obstacle and each one of them made a choice because Tamar realized that she was gonna be destitute and she made the choice to be deceptive and to choose to trickery, but in the order in the heart to preserve life and the line and that choice was honored. And Rahab chose to serve the God of Israel before she ever even met an Israelite because she heard of his fame and saw his power. So she chose that her and her family would be saved. And Ruth chose to stay with Naomi and chose to ask Boaz to redeem her and chose to follow the God of Israel. And took shelter under the wings of the Most High and she was redeemed. And Bathsheba who started with no choice by the end had the choice of saying, will I allow myself to be bitter towards this husband or toward this king or will I allow forgiveness to reign? And in some story that we don't have, she allowed forgiveness and chose to be the mother of the son who became the greatest, most powerful king in all of the nation of Israel. And Mary was faced with a choice. Do I believe that what God says is impossible or do I believe that everything is possible for God and she chose to believe God?

 And you, whether you are male or female,

 because I know some of the guys in the room like this is a lot of women talk, deal with it.

 But here's the thing, here's the thing,

 whether you like it or not, like the Bible says that you and I, everyone in this room, male or female are called the bride of Christ

 and you get to choose, will you choose to accept the invitation the groom is making in your life

 or not?

 Will you choose what God says to you and to believe it with your whole heart and hold onto these things and be like Mary and treasure those things in your heart for later or will you choose to forget it and abandon it even if what God tells you is crazy because God may speak to you and say something that's dead will come back to life. But if God says it, you better hold on and just watch the promise show up.

 I don't care if that's healing or finances or relationship or a child who's gone astray. When you realize that God has in the business and has been in the business of doing miracles and mighty wonder workings from time and memorial and that seed that was planted is now fully in our hearts and you and I are like a tree who's been planted by the water bearing fruit in all seasons and the Holy Spirit is working on your behalf. That choice is yours. So whatever the Holy Spirit is speaking to you, you just like Mary and just like Bathsheba and just like Ruth and just like Rahab and just like Tamar and even like Eve who fell short, you get the option, who will I choose? The one who lies to me every day or the one who has nothing but good things and love and truth in his heart towards me.

 And we feed on lies too often and we believe the negativity and the lies too frequently and what we need to do is instead make the choice

 to believe that if God said he was gonna do it,

 then he's faithful to finish what he started.

 And I hold on to that seed.

 And although we've already received the seed of Christ and that is growing in our hearts, he will plant other seeds of faith in your heart and you get to guard those just like those who came before you and ask yourself the question, will I abandon the seed or will I be like the good ground that Jesus talked about who allows that seed to take root and to grow and to transform my life?

 And even if you feel like I don't know if I have the faith to do that, Jesus' invitation is, well then just abide in me because I'm the branch and you're the vine

 and I'll produce good fruit in you. Just stay with me.

 And the seed that was already planted will grow in a way so that your faithfulness and fruit must be shown to all the generations.

 Let's pray this morning.

 Father, you're so good.

 Your truth is so good. Your word is so good.

 Your faithfulness from generation to generation to generation.

 Your loyal, faithful love knows no ends.

 Your mercy endures forever.

 You who started the good work, it's faithful to finish it and see it to the very end. So Lord, we just speak by faith. The seeds that you've sowed in our hearts, Lord, let us hold on and guard to those dreams, Lord. Let us continue to abide in the presence of Jesus.

 We thank you for your love and your mercy and grace.

 Last thing, church, before we dismiss,

 if you're here and you've never accepted the seed of Christ,

 you haven't accepted Jesus in your life. I'm gonna give you a chance to do that this morning. It's a simple prayer.

 It's just like receiving a gift and saying yes. And I'm gonna invite everyone to say this prayer, but if this is you, just say this with all your heart. Say, "Dear Heavenly Father,

 "thank you for sending Jesus to die on my behalf

 "so that my sins could be forgiven,

 "so that my heart could be set free.

 "Send Jesus his holy name, we pray."

 But then we head bowed for just a minute more. If you made that decision this morning, anywhere in the room, would you just raise your hand real high, just as a bold move, just a profession of what you're doing?

 Just raise your hand.

 I see that hand.

 If there's any other hands in the room, they can go up. All right, any other hands that up, they can go down.

 Father God, we celebrate with people who are making decisions to accept the work of Jesus and the goodness of your love. Father, we love you. We praise you. Bless everyone who's here this day as we move on with the rest of our weekend, the rest of the season, Lord. Let us, your word just resonate in our hearts and minds as we move forward. It's in Jesus' name we pray, amen and we amen. Well, hey church, we love you. We're thankful for you. You guys are dismissed. Have a great rest of your Sunday.