When the Time Was Just Right | Sunday Message (Pastor Jonathan Laurie)
Greg Laurie: A New Beginning
Greg Laurie
4.8 • 3.5K Ratings
🗓️ 14 December 2025
⏱️ 38 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
If God can perfectly order the events of the Christmas story, we can entrust Him with stories of our own. We should mirror Mary's surrender and submission to God's plan.
Notes:
Galatians 4:4 (NKJV)
But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law.
READ Luke 1:26–33
#1 God Is Always On Time
Luke 1:28 (NKJV)
“Rejoice, highly favored one, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women!”
Luke 1:29 (NKJV)
But when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and considered what manner of greeting this was.
God is always on time.
READ Luke 1:34–38
#2 God’s Timing Requires Our Surrender
Luke 1:38 (NKJV)
“Behold the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word.”
Matthew 6:10 (NKJV)
Your kingdom come.
Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
READ Mark 8:34–36
God’s plan is always better.
Surrender doesn’t mean God makes everything comfortable.
It means God makes everything count.
Surrender always leads to Christ.
Psalm 84:10 (NKJV)
For a day in Your courts is better than a thousand.
I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God
than dwell in the tents of wickedness.
“He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.”
—Jim Elliott
READ Luke 1:39–45
#3 Our Obedience Has A Radius
Luke 1:15 (NKJV)
For he will be great in the sight of the Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink. He will also be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother’s womb.
What is God asking you to do?
What areas in your life is God calling you to submit and surrender?
Too many Christians are satisfied with comfort when God is offering conquest.
Obey God.
Submit to scripture.
Live a life of integrity committed to God.
Let it be to me according to your word.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hey there, thanks for listening to the Greg Lorry podcast, a ministry supported by Harvest Partners. |
| 0:06.0 | I'm Greg Lorry, encouraging you. |
| 0:08.1 | If you want to find out more about Harvest Ministries and learn more about how to become a |
| 0:12.0 | harvest partner, just go to Harvest.org. |
| 0:16.2 | We are going to be looking at Luke chapter one, as I mentioned. |
| 0:18.9 | Let's open up and talk about that a little bit as you |
| 0:22.7 | know last week my dad talked about John the Baptist the birth of John the Baptist or rather the |
| 0:28.1 | prophecy of John the Baptist going to be born Gabriel spoke to him and and we learned about that |
| 0:34.7 | in the message title was the story before the story really interesting |
| 0:40.1 | you know the story we heard it last week if you didn't you need to go tune into the message |
| 0:44.5 | Elizabeth was really old Zecharias was really old and having a baby was very unlikely for them |
| 0:51.5 | at this stage in life right but the angel Gabriel came and appeared to them |
| 0:56.5 | and told them that it would be so. It's a beautiful, redemptive story because this is a couple |
| 1:01.4 | that was barren. They were unable to have children. This had been their prayer for many years to have |
| 1:06.3 | a descendant, to have a child, to have a son, and the angel Gabriel came and appeared to them |
| 1:11.8 | and told them it would be so. And really, this is the Lord granting them the desires of their |
| 1:17.0 | heart, ultimately because of their faithfulness, because of their faithfulness. Specifically, |
| 1:22.0 | Luke says that Zachariah told the angel, I'm an old man, and he kind of doubted here, right? He kind of doubted. He said, |
| 1:29.6 | I'm an old man. And my wife is well along in years. How can I be sure this will happen? |
| 1:35.1 | I love this. I mean, you just have to look at things. Sometimes we just read the pages of |
| 1:39.9 | scripture. We just take it at face value. But look at the absurdity of this picture here, right? |
| 1:45.6 | Who had been praying for a child for their entire marriage? Zechariah and his wife, Elizabeth. |
... |
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