Welcome to the Thee Generation Podcast. I’m Bobby Bosler and I’m speaking to you today from Maple Shade, New Jersey. You might have a few background noises along the way.

I’m recording in a unique location right now. But I just wanted to say from us to you, Merry Christmas, young people. I really trust that you’re having a wonderful day here today.

Hopefully by the time this episode drops, you will be celebrating Christmas with your friends and family, giving and receiving gifts. And I really trust that your hearts are full, not of materialism and not of just getting things and even just the whole glitz and glamour of the season. I trust your hearts are full with the gift that God gave to every one of us.

I hope you’ve thought about that. The giving and exchanging of gifts at Christmas time is just a reminder of the ultimate gift that was given to us and God sending his son to become a human and to die on the cross for the sins of every man. And here today, I just wanted to share some things from our life and ministry that God has been encouraging me with.

And I wanted to take you to a text of scripture that I think is appropriate for the time of season that we’re in right now. And I trust it will be an encouragement for you as well.

In the book of Luke and chapter one, verse 26, Luke records and It says, and in the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee named Nazareth to a virgin, espoused to a man whose name was Joseph of the house of David, and the virgin’s name was Mary. Here we have a young lady who’s just going about living her life for the Lord.

It is obvious as we begin to see how she interacts with the angel that she’s a woman who walked with God. She’s a woman who had a reputation for being good, honorable, pure, faith-filled. And this young lady, in the midst of her just going about life, God shows up and begins to shake things up just a little bit.

It says here in verse 28, and the angel came in unto her and said, Hail thou that art highly favored. The Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women.

So the angel says, hey, listen, God loves you. In fact, God’s going to be doing something for you here that’s going to knock your socks off. Verse number 29, and when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying and cast in her mind what manner of salutation this should be.

And the angel said unto her, fear not, Mary, for thou hast found favor with God. And behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb and bring forth a son and shalt call his name Jesus. 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 and he shall reign over the house of Jacob forever and of his kingdom there shall be no end.

Again, there is so much prophecy, fulfilled prophecy, packed into this declaration. I don’t have time to unpack that right now except to say he’s essentially saying to Mary, listen, all that you’ve been looking for, all that you’ve been hoping for, it’s happening, and it’s happening to you. You know, young people, I can’t even imagine how she must have felt at that moment.

God is going to send his Messiah through me. This Messiah is going to deliver us from our oppressors. He’s going to become the King of Israel, of his kingdom.

There will be no end. This is the beginning of forever. I’m sure she would have imagined there at that moment in time.

This is amazing. And honestly, at that moment in time, we will see it in just a second. You can get overwhelmed with all that God was hinting at her that he was going to be doing in short order, or so it seemed.

But I just want you to dwell just for a second. I want you to place yourself in Mary’s sandals for a second. I want you to imagine God just said, Mary, it’s going to happen.

It’s going to happen. Now, let me stop, and I want you to just think about this question for just a second. Did it poof happen right then, right there?

Did all that was foretold and prophesied, did boom, did it all instantaneously occur at that exact moment? And the obvious answer for that is no. No, it wasn’t like God said, hey, I’m going to do it, then poof.

In five seconds, it was all done. No, God’s works take time. And often there’s a timeline we can’t predict.

We can’t fully comprehend. We can’t understand. And yet, if I can back up for a moment and just, again, imagine together with you what was going on in Mary’s heart as she began to realize it’s going to happen.

All that we’ve been hoping for, all that we’ve been praying for, it’s going to happen. God just told me it’s going to happen. It’s coming.

However, Mary, as I’m sure as enraptured as she was there in that moment at all that God said he was going to do in her, for her, and through her. Verse number 34, Mary asked very insightful question. Then said Mary unto the angel, how shall this be, seeing I know not a man?

no wait a minute hold on a second angel um whatever your name is there angel um you said i’m gonna have a child i’m only engaged right now um i know it’s pretty serious and like it’s like legally binding and all of that stuff but uh me and joseph we haven’t um you know and And how is this possible?

Well, the angel answered, that’s verse 35, and the angel answered and said unto her, the Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the highest shall overshadow thee. Therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. Now, honestly, that seems a little bit too good to believe, doesn’t it?

Mary, you’re going to have a child, and it’s not going to be by Joseph. The Spirit of God is going to place the necessary seed in your body for this child to become, and that’s why this child can be rightly called the Son of God.

Mary it’s going to be amazing and guess what you’re not going to do it I’m going to be the one who does it I’m going to be the one who does the miracle okay so just think about this for a second so Mary hears God’s going to do everything that he foretold he would do it’s really happening and yeah sure it doesn’t seem like it makes sense like there’s no way you can predict how this is going to happen like this is humanly impossible.

And yet God said, don’t worry, Mary, I’m the one who’s going to do it. Just hang on for the ride. And to give you an encouragement, I’m going to give you a little inkling, a little mercy drop, a little token for good here.

Verse 36, and behold thy cousin Elizabeth, she hath also conceived a son in her old age. And this is the sixth month with her who was called barren? For with God, nothing shall be impossible.

Again, Mary wants to believe what God is saying. She wants to trust him. She wants to get in line with God’s program.

Yet it seems like, how can that happen? God said he’s going to do it. What in the world?

And God said, just go visit your cousin. Remember how it was impossible for her to have a child? Guess what?

I’m going to give her a child. I’ve given, I have given her a child, in fact. And let that be just a token of good for you to know if I did it for her, I’m going to do it for you.

And trust me, Mary. Verse 38, here’s the response that she had that all of us need to have when God tells us he’s going to do something great. And Mary said, behold, the handmaid of the Lord.

Here I am.

I’m God’s servant girl she says be it unto me according to thy word and the angel departed from her do you realize what she said there she said I’m yours all that I am all that I have it’s yours she surrendered to God she surrendered to probably a bunch of things she didn’t even foresee I don’t know maybe she was very whippy maybe she foresaw all of how the tongues would wag about her perhaps she foresaw how this could potentially almost split her and Joseph up.

Perhaps she saw the lifetime of stigma that this would place upon her life. And yet she said, I’m your servant, God. Be it unto me according to thy word.

She surrendered to God. And you know what else she did? She trusted him.

She depended on him to do the work. And then she got up and went. Verse 39, and Mary arose in those days and went into the hill country with haste, with haste, there was an urgency there, into a city of Judea and entered into the house of Zacharias and saluted Elizabeth.

And I’m not going to go into the story of her interaction with Elizabeth or what she says, except to say Mary was a woman who was surrendered to God. She was dependent upon him and she was willing to go and do what was told for her to do. Okay, why am I sharing all of this?

Because I want to be an encouragement to young people because honestly, within the last week or two, God has encouraged me with some things that he’s doing. I haven’t really shared this much on the podcast, but over the last year or two, our truck has been running pretty ragged and we’ve been quite aware.

In fact, if you’ve seen us at all amongst our travels, you probably thought, well, the trailer looks nice, but that truck, and it’s certainly not just the optics. It’s not just how the truck looks.

It’s that we’ve been, in fact, this past summer, it seemed like almost every week I was doing a repair on it in some way, shape or form, fixing this, you know, reattaching that thing to it with a bolo bungee or taking it to the shop for this or replacing this part or whatever.

And we began to realize as much as this truck has served us well over the course of a couple, a number of years now, we got in 2012, it’s getting close to time to retire her in her old age of 20 years old. But in case you’ve ever looked at trucks recently, they’re very expensive, even used trucks. It’s really nearly impossible to find a good, inexpensive used truck, at least the kinds that we need.

We really need an F-350 or above to pull our trailer because it’s pretty heavy. And so we’ve been praying. And there were several times this past fall when my wife and I, independently of each other.

We were convinced by the Lord. I remember one time for me, I was in a service of missions conference. The speaker was speaking and God just stirred my heart that if I ask, God will give it.

And I remember responding in that invitation and getting on my face and saying, God, I’m asking for a new truck. And I pray God, you’d provide the money for it. And it was as if in my heart, God said, it’s going to happen.

But you know, there’s one thing, it’s one thing for God to say it’s going to happen in your heart, right? And it’s another thing to begin to see the pieces fall into place in front of your eyes. You know what I’m talking about.

And well, honestly, I went for weeks, probably over a month before anything started to happen. My friend, Caleb Reed, great friend of mine, you’ve heard him on the podcast before. God supplied $60,000 plus for him, and he bought a brand new 2022 F-350.

And in fact, I had told the Lord, I said, God, you provide a truck for him before you provide one for me because he needs, he doesn’t have any truck to get him around. And the Lord did that. And so I’m kind of sitting around thinking, all right, Lord, it’s my turn.

Time to do what you promised, Lord, to provide for our needs. So, okay, a week ago, about a week and a half ago now, I was outside working a couple maintenance things on my trailer at our home church and somebody walked out and walked up to me and said, I just wanted you to know that we have decided to give you $5,000 towards a truck. Yeah.

Honestly, in those moments, sometimes I feel numb. As I began to think about it afterwards, my eyes began to tear up as the numbness wore off. And I just lifted my heart up to God and I said, God, you’re so good.

Well, fast forward a week. I was about ready to go to bed and I got an email from somebody else who said, you know, the Lord laid it on our heart to gift $5,000 towards your ministry because we understand you’ve got some funds trapped up in there. This ought to loosen things so you can get some more funds so you can go buy a truck.

Young people, within the last two weeks, out of nowhere, God has supplied $10,000 towards a new truck for us. You say, Brother Bosler, that’s not enough to buy a new truck. I know it’s not.

But here’s the thing. I’m not expecting this all to happen in one moment. I’m not expecting it all to happen in a day or two.

But I kind of feel like Mary, where God’s saying, it’s happening. Bobby, it’s happening. All that I promised you those months ago, starting to happen.

And you know what? Even as I think about it right now, my heart is overwhelmed. My heart is overwhelmed.

And you know, when you find yourself overwhelmed like that, where God just begins to move and God begins to put those pieces together for you as you had a transaction and prayer, as you believe him and say, God, I’m taking what you’re promising. And then nothing seems to happen for a period of time. And then it’s like a mercy drop falls on your nose.

and you begin to look up and you see the storm clouds are gathering and it’s about ready to pour showers of blessing. What do you do in those moments? How do you handle that?

Do you just sit back and say, good, it’s about time. No, no, you don’t do that. That’s not the right response.

Really the only right response is what Mary had. Lord, I’m nothing but your servant. Lord, I don’t have this altogether.

I don’t deserve this. But God, would you do what you promised to do? Be it unto me according to thy word.

Then probably the most important thing is get up and do what he told you to do right now. Just go. Don’t be passive.

Don’t just sit around doing nothing. Listen, there are some of you right now that you need to get back to school, but you don’t have the money to do it. God promised you months ago, and maybe perhaps you started to see, well, maybe it’s going to start to happen, and then you start to see the waters ripple, to use another biblical analogy here.

You know, what do you do in those moments? Surrender to God. Trust him to do it.

Don’t manipulate, and yet say, be it unto me according to thy word, God. I am just your servant, and revel in what God is doing. Listen, if you are going to be a man or woman of God, let me just tell you, God’s going to bring you to transactions of faith in your prayer closet that seem impossible.

What’s impossible with man is possible with God. If God orders it, he will pay for it. I saw God do that throughout my whole college education.

I came into college with $2,000 in the bank account, which by the way, even way back then, was not enough to pay for a single semester. And I was told, I was asked in my interview, how do you plan on paying for your school bill? And I said, well, I’ll work and I’ll pray, but ultimately God’s going to have to do it because he called me to come here and he’s going to have to pay for it.

And guess what? I went through five years of college and with the exception of traveling on Miniman, which God told me to do, I never missed a semester because of finances. Listen, I know I’m talking about money here, but listen, it could be an even greater, an even greater thing.

Maybe you got somebody in your home that’s sick and it may be, it looks bad. Listen, trust God. And as you begin to see God put the pieces together, as you begin to see the mercy drops fall, yield to him.

Don’t get passive. Don’t get, be full of assumptions, but trust him and say, be it unto me according to thy word.

Listen, this Christmas, as God blesses and as you have times of great fellowship, I trust with your family and your extended family, listen, be a testimony like Mary was of just absolute surrender to God, trusting him to do what only he could do, have a testimony of obedience where you get up and with haste, you seek to accomplish God’s will. Let those mercy drops encourage you.

And I trust young people that as we close out the year 2021 and head into a brand new year, that the blessings promised by God will shower upon you in a way that brings glory to him and brings many souls to Jesus Christ. Merry Christmas, young people. We love you.

God loves you. And we’re looking forward to many more days ahead to serve the Lord together.