"God's Unwavering Mercy" Rescue Radio with Marjorie Cole

0:00 Music. Rescue Radio, because there's a war for your soul. Yes, indeed, Father God. We know the war has been here ever since the beginning. But you have defeated our enemy even through Jesus Christ. And thank you, Lord, for dying on the cross for us. Thank you for coming, fulfilling your promises to all of us, Lord God.

0:43 And we thank you for this time where we can refresh, be refreshed in the power and the truth of your mercy, your love, your ever-present presence with us, Father, in the form of peace and goodwill. And we thank you now for giving us eyes to see and ears to hear and heart to receive the revelation of your love for us, that we won't just dash through this season just to get it over with and then be empty at the end. Let us be filled with the, reminding us, be filled with the promises of God and of your return, Lord Jesus, and of the hope that you've given us, even as you gave us and sent it to the shepherds through the angels the first time. So give us eyes to see that, Lord, and give us a heart to rest. We bind every spirit of confusion, anxiety, disruption, Father, anything we would try to do in our personal lives or in this time to try to waylay the purposes of God.

1:35 And we thank you for keeping your promises to us, Father God, in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, I'm thinking in these days when things are so in upheaval, transitions and turmoil in the world and in our minds, in our hearts, that it is time to remember mercy. And I really believe this is a time of mercy. I think God is sending a gift of mercy again to refresh his people like he did when he sent Jesus Christ to Bethlehem. And so, you know, we don't always think about the power of that message. We have to realize that in context, these people were just as beaten down, just as overrun, just as abused, just as disenfranchised as any one of us would ever have experienced.

2:23 So one of the things that we have to realize is that when the angel appeared to Mary, when the angel appeared to Mary, it was after many years of this exiling and thwarting and trouble to the people of Israel. Well, the promises of a Messiah, of a Savior, of redemption. Had been given all through the Old Testament, you know, from Genesis 3.15, the Bible. God said that the... Seed of the woman was going to crush the head of the serpent. And then that prophecy was articulated, repeated. It's a thread. The Bible calls it, well, we call it the scarlet thread, thread of redemption that's all through the prophets. It's all through the Psalms.

3:12 It's all through the scripture leading up to the time that we're going to be talking about today. It's a good thing that that thread was there because there was so much chaos and so much disruption, division, and overthrowing of governments and families. And it's amazing that that true promise of God made it all the way from Genesis to Bethlehem. But he had to do that through these people. They were the ones carrying the DNA. They were the ones carrying the hope and the promise, and they were the ones being so attacked by the enemy that they were, you know, I'm sure they thought things like, you know, would he ever come? I mean, after all this time, what's the point? Many times, I'm sure they thought, as Zachariah probably did, it's too late.

3:55 Would he ever come? So it's like we are in the kind of the same place where we're tempted to live in defeat and despair. Well, it's been 2,000 years and nothing's happening. But how can we defeat defeat if we're already subdued by it ourselves? And that's where the people were. how could they rise up and bring forth the coming of the king? Yet, how God does things so differently. I mean, you have the most obscure people he picks on. He chooses to do his work and bring forth the promise. We have Zacharias, we have Elizabeth, very old. We have Mary, very young. We have these people that are totally obscure, and God uses them to bring forth the good news.

4:39 But he had not forgotten his promise. He had not forgotten his covenant. He was ever present with those people every moment of the journey, all the way from Genesis, all the way to Bethlehem. He was there with them because Satan was also there with them trying to derail the whole thing. So God is still with us. He's pouring out his mercy. And the problem with us today, the same problem they had, is we kind of lose hope. We kind of get distracted. We kind of go off and and do meaningless things or other things so that we can just fill the time or, you know, get through and we forget there is a monumental destiny here. Yeah, Paul wrote to one of the churches. He said, you know, the time will come when people say, where is the promise of his coming?

5:27 You know, since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were. So, you know, some people say, well, the mocking is... He said there were mockers that would come in the last days that would say, you know, why? We've heard this about the coming of the Lord, and he still hasn't come. But you think of this setting, you know, that Zacharias and Elizabeth and Mary were in. Well, I think that's why Zacharias was, after the angel appeared to him as he was doing his priestly duties, he was very old already. And the angel appeared to him and said, you know, your wife Elizabeth, who's past childbearing, not too late because she's going to have a baby, a boy, and you're going to name him John, which was totally out of tradition for them.

6:12 But then he went mute. And I think part of the reason was because of the skepticism, because maybe it wasn't time for the whole message. Maybe he wasn't, God just wanted to be quiet for a little bit longer. So when Elizabeth was conceived that baby, That was the beginning. That was John the Baptist. He was the forerunner of Jesus Christ. He was going to be the one to prepare the way. Well, Gabriel told Zacharias, he said in Luke 1, 20, but behold, you will be mute and not able to speak until the day these things take place. Right. So he was quieted. Because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their own time. Isn't this amazing? The belief, the faith is so important. Yet God didn't count him out.

6:55 He just said, okay, for now you're going to be quiet. But then the angel, the angel Gabriel, again, appeared to a young virgin, Mary, in her humble home, obscure, I don't know, you know, just a humble home. There's nothing glamorous, glorious. Why would God pick her? And the angel greeted her with such a greeting that she was kind of troubled and said that he told her she was going to conceive in her womb that this child would be called the son of God. And then he said, for with God, nothing is impossible. And I think this is the bottom line for our faith, that with God, nothing shall be impossible. I mean, many of us have lived in places where we have lost hope in the possibility of anything ever coming good into our lives or the lives of our loved ones, because we see so much tragedy, so much brokenness that we just, but with God, like with these people here, nothing is impossible.

7:51 And so with Zacharias and Elizabeth, they had no child back in those days. It was a shame. People just would talk about you because, oh, what's wrong with them? They must have been judged. Judged. They were being judged. Scandal, scorn, shame. Yeah, because they didn't have children. So they figure, okay, I guess it's just not going to be. We'll just keep on doing our thing here in the temple. Being faithful. They were faithful. Being faithful. They loved the Lord. They kept going. and it just seemed like it was, yeah, totally impossible, past childbearing stage. But... But with God, nothing is impossible. Yeah, and the same thing with Mary, when the angel says, okay, you're going to have a child. You're going to have a child. You're going to become pregnant through the power of the Holy Spirit.

8:36 You're not going to, this child is not going to have a human father. But the thing is, too, then the big exciting news for Mary, I don't know with so much that she was going to conceive this son, but that her cousin, Elizabeth, was already six months along, according to the angel. And so Mary hopped on her little donkey and ran over there. And I think it was probably, I don't know, it might have been quite a journey, actually, probably, because I know that Jerusalem is where Zechariah and Elizabeth hung out, probably right around in there, 10 miles from there, probably. And I think Mary was up in the North Country. But anyway, so when Mary walks in and greets Elizabeth. The baby, the six-month-old baby in utero, in Elizabeth's womb, leapt for joy as Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. This is power.

9:26 This is the Spirit of God going before these two women. And the result was joy. And joy is strength. Joy is hope. Joy is confidence. Joy is faith in believing that the destiny— I mean, do you guys ever have joy? Do we ever really have a pure moment of delight and joy? I think when babies are born, maybe, and people are loving and looking for them to be born, that might be a moment of joy. But there's very few moments where we really have that pure experience of just joy. Praise God, joy, release from anxiety, release from the pressure and bringing forth of the promise. That was joy. So this baby leapt in the womb, and that was the beginning of the promise of what God was about to do.

10:14 And so God had said that the baby that is conceived through Zacharias and Elizabeth, right, through the power of God, And that baby was going to be filled with the Holy Spirit even in the womb. And this is, wow. Yeah, and then so Mary, she just began to be eloquent. She just began to speak, and I think people call this the Magnificent or something. Yeah, let me say something about this too, because Mary, you know, she starts singing this song from her heart. And basically, when you look at that song of Mary, or the Magnificat, it shows that she really knew the Word of God.

11:03 Because there's many, many scriptures that are interwoven in that song. So she didn't say, well, let me get this scroll and write something down. She already had it in her heart. No, it was right in her heart, which shows, as a teenage girl, her heart and mind was full, saturated. With the Word of God. So she says in verse 46, and Mary said, this is chapter 1 of Luke, My soul magnifies the Lord, 1 Samuel 2, 1 through 10. My spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior. He has regarded the lowliest state of his maidservant. And behold, henceforth, all generations shall call me blessed. That's Psalm 138.

11:43 And he who has done mighty great things for me, and holy is his name. And his mercy is on those who fear him. This is the word from generation to generation is mercy. This is where we're at right now, Lord God. We need your mercy. We don't need your wrath right now. We need breakthroughs. We need mercy. We need protections from all the crazy things Satan wants to do. We need the mercy of God in our families. We need the mercy of God to restore generations and relationships between mothers and daughters, between sons and fathers, between husbands and wives. We need the mercy of God to break forth with forgiveness, with joy, with peace. And then she goes on to say, he has shown strength with his arm.

12:25 He has scattered the proud in the imaginations of their heart. Isn't this the case? So many people think there's so much of everything and they're nothing. He puts down the mighty from their thrones, their little paper thrones, and exalts the lowly. He fills the hungry with good things. I bet you she was hungry many times. And the rich he sent away empty. And he has helped his servant Israel in remembrance of his mercy as he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his seed forever. And Mary remained with Elizabeth. So she helped her out till about the time Elizabeth was ready to deliver, and then Mary went home. So then we have what happens at Elizabeth's house, starting with verse 57 in Luke 1.

13:06 So the time came for her to be fulfilled, to be delivered, and she brought forth her son. And Zachariah, they were going to name this boy after his dad, Zacharias, and she said no, and he wrote on a note, his name will be John. And then when he wrote that on the note, his mouth, his voice, his words came back to him. Yeah, verse 64, immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue loosed and he spoke, praising God. Then fear came on all who dwelt around them. And all these sayings were discussed throughout the hill country of Judea. So they saw something really different. So this is something that- Miraculous.

13:48 That people were talking about throughout the whole country. Yes, and then he opens his mouth and he has these wonderful things. He says, blessed is the Lord God of Israel for he has visited and redeemed his people, verse 69, and has raised up a horn of salvation for us. So he's really an old guy who's been around a long time waiting for this promise his whole life. And in the house of his servant, as he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets, who have been since the world began, yes, Genesis chapter 3, that we should be saved from our enemies and from the hand of those who hated us, to perform the mercy promised to our fathers and to remember his holy covenant. This is the key, to perform the mercy. Father God, you know, we give up on God sometimes. Oh, what does he know?

14:30 Does he remember? Does he care? You know, he's not interested in our little things. He's busy doing big things, but he remembered the mercy that he He promised to the fathers and his covenant, which he's never forgotten. The oath, which he swore to Abraham to grant us that we being delivered from the hand of our enemies might serve him without fear. Now, they were not yet delivered from their enemies, but by faith, they were already declaring that they'd been delivered from their enemies because God had showed them mercy. So holiness, righteousness before him all his days. And you child shall be called the prophet of the high. So he's prophesying over his son. John. John, exactly. You should go before the face of the Lord and prepare a way for him to give knowledge of salvation to his people and by the remission of their sins.

15:15 So salvation was the end game here. To bring redemption, salvation, to deliver the people from the grip of death and from Satan. And that could only be done through the blood of the Lamb of God. The remission of sins. And then verse 78 and 79. Through the tender mercy of our God, with which the day spring from on high has visited us. That's referring to the Messiah. Verse 79, to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace. Amen. Sitting in darkness. So here we go again. We're in round two of this. God is coming again, this time with Jesus Christ coming as the King of Kings, riding on a white horse with his banner and his robe dipped in blood.

16:05 To be more, to conquer and to conquer. King of kings and Lord of lords. Yes, but this is, we're there. We're almost on the threshold of all of that. So let us not be defeated. Let's not grow weary. Let's not give up. Let's not give up on love. Let's not give up on mercy. Let's not give up on God. Let's not give up on God's goodness. Let's not give up on salvation or being redeemed. You can be redeemed. You don't have to live this life that you've been stuffed into, this crushed, broken place. You can get up. You can use your breath, use your breath to start, to start with that you want to start living. Open your mouth and begin to praise God, rejoice and thank him. Use your mouth, use your words.

16:46 The joy and the thanksgiving are what pull us out of the pit. You know, you can mully grub all you want in the pit. Oh, this is never going to work. Oh, this is bad. Oh, we're going to go into, you know, whatever, depression, despair, you know, finally ruin, whatever. But we don't have to, you, it's powerful. What you speak is powerful. If you give words to death, destruction, war. Perversion, hopelessness, broken, you start speaking that, the devil will grab your powerful words, those powerful negative words, and turn them against you and bring to pass what you've said. So if you are in a place where you're tough and it's tough for you right now and you're giving up, pray to God, say, God, I need help.

17:29 You are my help. I thank you for helping me and begin to thank him by faith and watch what he will do. He's not forgotten us. He's not forgotten the covenant with us. The promises he made to Abraham, he's made promises to us, and he's going to bring those promises to pass. Those who look for his appearing will see him. We're so, in America, we're so short-term, we're so instant. Yeah. You know, instant, zip, zip, zip, zip, zip, we want this right away. But God has called us for the long haul. You know, this whole thing was a long haul all the way through history. History, yeah. The long haul, the promise of the Messiah. You just think of all the women and men that had lived and died without seeing the promise that Elizabeth and Zacharias saw, for example. Exactly.

18:21 And, you know, so it goes on, this story of the obscure, the forgotten, the downtrodden. And so who does God present this powerful message to with a whole chorus or choir of angelic beings, but to those shepherds who are hanging out in the dark, in the cold, in the fields. They lived in the fields, it said. They didn't have houses. They didn't take turns. They were out there day and night watching the sheep so they wouldn't get ruined by wolves. And so they were faithful, but they didn't have much excitement, I would imagine. What could they do in their long days and nights waiting? I suppose they could play an instrument. They could, you know, gossip. Maybe they could do some fun things, but they were, they had nothing to look forward to. They were, this is their life.

19:05 And the angels then said, glory. They appeared with all this bright, shiny, and suddenly there was with the angel, a multitude of heavenly hosts praising God, saying, glory to God in the highest and on earth, peace, goodwill towards men. And so who did God present this message to? to, again, the most broken, the most obscured, the most off the road kind of people, and that's who a lot of you are. And very likely these shepherds were shepherds that raised sheep for sacrifice in the temple. So they were not really any ragamuffin shepherds because- But they were still shepherds. They were still shepherds. They still had to do the same work, even though it was a holy work.

19:50 Preparing for sacrifices, the sacrifices that went on and on year after year that had to be repeated constantly. And now the Lord is saying, there's one coming now who will be the complete and final sacrifice. The final lamb of God. And this is why it was so important that the shepherds were the first ones to know, because they were watching the lambs that were going to be sacrificed in the temple. And so they're the first ones to know the final lamb of God is appearing. And they exactly were told where it was, where they'd find this baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger. And they said, in Bethlehem, which is where they were, the Tower of the Flock, right outside of Jerusalem, that's where Bethlehem is.

20:30 And so they decided to go and find the baby and they knew where to go because the angel told them where to go. He said that the shepherds, that you will find this babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger, a feeding trough. Now, it wasn't just a common, ordinary, everyday feeding trough like, you know, made the cows ate out of. It was a place where they kept the baby lambs. The shepherds would keep these baby lambs safe in the tower of the flock. And so they would be flawless. They'd wrap them in swaddling pieces of cloth so that they wouldn't be wounded or broken. And so they knew exactly where this manger was. And this happened to be, of all places, where Mary and Joseph gave birth to baby Jesus in this very manger.

21:11 How appropriate, how God, how non-coincidental that the Lamb of God should be born at the place where the lambs themselves were kept and prepared for slaughter. So he came, and they knew that exactly where that place was. They didn't have to have an address on the house number. They just knew where it was. They didn't go and have to knock from door to door. No, no. And yeah. So, one of the things I see here is that, you know, God looks at faithful people that might seem like have lost hope. Or obscured. Obscure. Maybe living a real boring life, but then all of a sudden something breaks in so significant that, Like for Elizabeth and Zachariah, like for Mary.

21:55 And I really want to encourage people that are listening here that have been, you've been faithful to the Lord, even though your life seems to be kind of boring and a lot of attacks. Non-eventful. Non-eventful. And it just seems like you kind of get beaten up a lot. But God has not forgotten about you. Don't give up. And He sees you, and He's got wonderful and great things for you in His time. In his time. And so don't lose heart. Keep your focus on him. And you'd be amazed at who God is raising up in these days. Last days. Out of obscurity, no-name people, people that nobody gives much of an account to, but yet these are the ones that God has chosen to raise up in these days that we're living in right now.

22:46 So we thank God for his mercy right now, Father. We thank you for your mercy, for your joy that you've given us, for peace, peace on earth, goodwill towards men, that you are ready, willing, now wanting to. Do the reconcile, do the complete redemption, do the buyback from Satan through the blood of Jesus Christ. And we thank you, Father God, that for us, now let us meditate really on the important things of this time. And we know, Lord God, that Jesus wasn't born on December 25th. We get that. We're not here to celebrate a day. It could be any day. It's every day. And it's every day is the right day to be thankful for the mercy of God, for your joy, for your reconciliation, for the salvation you brought us through Jesus Christ.

23:30 And so we pray, Father God, that the Spirit of Christ Jesus, the Holy Spirit will come upon each one here and we will be transformed out of that darkness, that sitting in darkness and having no light, no hope, into that place of joy and expectation to look again to the sky for the return of Jesus Christ. And so, Father, let our hearts be filled with rejoicing and thanksgiving and let there be breakthroughs and reconciliations in our personal lives, in our families, in our health, Father. We pray for divine healing for people, whether it's in their physical bodies, in their minds, in their understandings, that the spirits of torment, we command the spirits of torment and despair and defeat to be defeated and be gone.

24:13 We command you to get out of these people, get away from their minds, their hearts, their souls. We release them with the sword of the word of God into the fullness of a new life, the life that Jesus Christ died to give us, Father God, the abundant life. Father, we ask these things in Jesus' name. Yeah, and I thank you, Lord, that hope arises in each of our hearts, Lord God. Where there just seems like there's been even despair and death, Lord, may hope arise again. And may the joy of the Lord be our strength. Amen. Because there was rejoicing here, people that have hoped for years and years. And all of a sudden, here comes the word of the Lord, that now is the time. And for you that are listening, the time is coming now where God is saying now is the time.

24:55 All that's happened in your life has been preparation for what he is doing now and what he is about to do in the future. So don't despair. Amen. Thank you, Jesus. Keep your focus on him. Thank you, Jesus. Fill your mind and heart with the word of God. And the joy of God. And you'll be— And be thankful. You're going to be amazed at what God is going to do in you and through you— Amen. —in the days to come. Praise God. Yes, and we want to encourage you also to check out our website, liferecovery.com, for our newest—well, it's not very new, but it's new. It's good—God on Trial. It's the audio drama that we're featuring this month, encouraging people to get a look at it, listen to it, go there, check it out. These are MP3s that you can download, or you can actually get hard copies if you really want.

25:37 And share this tool. It's an experience. It's inspirational. It's evangelical. It's very educational. And it helps people to understand the nuances of God through a dialogue. And so through, yeah, through conversation, through God being taken to court by Satan and charging him with criminal neglect of the universe and abusive use of power. So we encourage you, again, liferecovery.com, God on trial. Check it out. Have a wonderful day. I have an emergency. What is your location? Music. Ready?

26:33 Rescue Radio, cause there's a war for your soul.