This morning, we’re continuing our message series entitled, “God Encounters.” As we look forward to what this Christmas season holds, we also look ahead to what God has planned for us in the midst of it. We’re going to learn about God encounters as we work toward the ultimate God-encounter ever experienced; the pregnancy and birth of Jesus! Immanuel, literally God with us!

So far, we were challenged to seek after God encounters in the midst of our daily routines as to avoid missing them as Jacob almost did and proclaiming, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I was not aware of it.” We were reminded that God has a reason for the seasons of waiting in our lives and He has given us hope as a placeholder until we’ve received what He has promised.

This week, we turn to a God encounter that was perhaps the most significant and least expected in all of mankind’s history.

Luke 1:26-38

26 In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, 27 to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. 28 The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.”

29 Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. 30 But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. 31 You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. 32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, 33 and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.”

34 “How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?”

35 The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. 36 Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be unable to conceive is in her sixth month. 37 For no word from God will ever fail.”

38 “I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May your word to me be fulfilled.” Then the angel left her.

“No word from God will ever fail.” Failproof; that is the nature and essence of God’s word because this is the nature and essence of God, Himself! In this ever-changing world full of unreliable things where the only thing that seems to be certain is uncertainty itself, we desperately need something certain and failproof that will never let us down. God’s word is exactly that!

Listen to what God says about His word:

Isaiah 55:1-3a;6;8;10-12

1 “Come, all you who are thirsty,

come to the waters;

and you who have no money,

come, buy and eat!

Come, buy wine and milk

without money and without cost.

2 Why spend money on what is not bread,

and your labor on what does not satisfy?

Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good,

and you will delight in the richest of fare.

Have you ever been really hungry, but nothing seems to satisfy that hunger? You eat some potato chips, a couple Little Debbie snacks, a bowl of ice cream, a handful of cereal, but you’re still hungry. Why is that usually the case? Because you chose to eat a bunch of junk food with loads of calories, but very little nutritional content. Your body is craving the food that it was created for, but you continue to choose to fill it up with lesser things. A sandwich made with a few slices of thick bread would have brought the satisfaction and health that your body longed for.

Our souls are no different. If we continue to fill our mind with hours of empty content browsing through our Facebook timelines or binge watching TV, we’ll still be left empty, frustrated, and confused. If instead, we turned our ears to fill up our minds with what God says about us, we would be left satisfied and healthy. In fact, God says:

3 Give ear and come to me;

listen, that you may live.

6 Seek the Lord while he may be found;

call