Expecting - Feel God

In the Christmas series Expecting, Tyler Lynde shares a message titled “Feel God,” inviting you to move beyond getting through songs and into a real encounter with God that changes what you carry. Tracing Mary’s journey in Luke 1, Tyler shows how worship follows a holy progression: revelation leads to response, and response deepens relationship. Mary’s first feeling is fear at Gabriel’s greeting, and Tyler reminds us from Hebrews 12:28–29 that a healthy fear of the Lord—reverence and awe for a consuming fire—isn’t a relic but a necessity. Her second feeling is uncertainty—How will this be?—met by a precise promise of presence: the Holy Spirit will overshadow you. Tyler ties this overshadowing to the cloud of glory in 2 Chronicles 5, where worship fills the house until the priests cannot stand, showing that God’s nearness doesn’t merely inform; it transforms.

From there, Tyler unpacks the P.R.I.M.E. rhythm—prepare, repent, invest, minister to God, enter in quickly—so worship becomes a weeklong posture rather than a Sunday-only habit. He encourages starting the conversation with God before you enter the room so you arrive already aligned, not waiting on the third song to wake your heart. Sincerity matters more than volume. Some respond to God’s presence with quiet peace, warmth, and prayer; others with tears, laughter, kneeling, raised hands, shouts, or even dance. Scripture makes space for both. What matters is the great exchange: heaviness for hope, anxiety for awe, confusion for clarity.

When Mary visits Elizabeth, John leaps in the womb and faith is confirmed—nothing is impossible with God. Mary’s third feeling becomes faith—Let it be to me according to your word—and her fourth is joy, bursting into the Magnificat: My soul magnifies the Lord. Tyler highlights three anchors in her song for modern worshipers: humility that God exalts, holiness that restores wonder, and mercy that spans generations. Christmas hope points beyond the manger to the cross, where cost and joy meet, and resurrection has the final word.

If you’ve been longing for worship that feels honest, reverent, and alive, Tyler’s message will help you enter in quickly—whether you’re in the car or in the pew—with a heart ready for the great exchange. Watch or listen and let Mary’s revelation, response, and relationship become your rhythm this week.

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Chapters

• 0:00 Series Setup: Why Praise Matters
• 1:06 Recapping Zechariah And Simeon
• 4:46 Priming The Praise Pump: P.R.I.M.E.
• 7:07 Worship As Revelation And Response
• 9:59 Expecting To Feel God
• 12:28 God’s Emotions And Our Experience
• 16:46 The Great Exchange In Worship
• 18:56 Reading Mary’s Magnificat
• 22:30 Mary’s World: Nazareth And Gabriel
• 25:18 Fear Reframed As Awe And Reverence
• 28:07 The Promise Of Jesus’ Kingdom
• 29:47 From Uncertainty To God’s Workaround
• 33:07 Glory Cloud, Presence, And Praise
• 36:12 Quiet And Internal Responses
• 38:23 Expressive And Physical Responses
• 41:40 Sincerity Over Showmanship
• 43:12 Nothing Is Impossible With God
• 45:14 Let It Be: Mary’s Faith
• 47:07 Elizabeth’s Confirmation And Joy
• 49:32 Joy Overflowing And The Magnificat
• 52:10 Themes: Humility, Holiness, Mercy

Transcript

Tyler Lynde: 0:02

We're in the middle of our Christmas sermon series called Expecting, and it's all about the importance of praise and worship in the life of a believer. How many of you are beginning to uh expand your knowledge or remind yourself of the importance of praise and worship, not only here on Sunday mornings, but also in our daily lives, right? In the car, uh at home, wherever it is that you are spending time praising and worshiping God. Uh and especially this is true when we come together in our corporate meetings. And we're doing this by looking at some of the biblical songs that were sung around the time of Jesus' birth. Haven't you been thankful for Pastor Mark's sermons the last couple of weeks? I mean, they've been awesome, awesome. So the the first week he talked about the song of Zechariah and how we as worshipers can expect to hear the voice of God. How many of you know that God speaks to his children and we can hear him? And one of the times and ways that we can hear him most clearly is when we get quiet and we spend time in praise and worship to God. And then also last week we heard about Simeon and we heard his song as he showed us that knowing God is the ultimate aim of the Christian life. I have grown to know God more. Well, let me say it this way: I I've come to know God through his scriptures in undefinable ways. But I would say this the closest thing to that as a second is I've come to know God by experiencing him, by praising and worshiping him and spending time in prayer. Does that make sense? Yeah, so we have these gifts of grace that God gives it to us so that we can grow in our knowledge of him, so that we can understand who he truly is. And Mark used an acronym. How many of you have been trying to remember that this week? Let me just remind you, he talked about priming the praise pump. And the first letter P was prepare. We can come together in corporate worship and we can be prepared to lift up the name of Jesus. Also, repent. How many of you know it's important for us to make sure that our hearts are made right before God? I love the story of David and how he cried out and said, Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. That should be the cry of all of our hearts. And when we come into the presence of a holy God, we are reminded of his holiness. And it should make us desire to be made holy with him and by him. The I, what was the I? Anybody remember? Invest. We need to be, we need to come together with this idea that I have something to give. There's something that God has put in my heart, something that I've experienced in my life, something about my journey that I can bring to the table today, and I can, through words of encouragement, through the gifts of the Spirit, through a song that I sing, through uh, you know, something that happens that God, in a way that God uses me to invest in the time that we are together corporately. God wants all of us to come prepared to give. And who do we give to ultimately? We are the M to minister to God, to minister to God. God desires for his people to minister to him. And we have this great privilege of worshiping him, of praising him, of glorifying him, and bringing honor to him. And then finally, the E, enter in quickly. We don't have to wait for the third song or even the times after the songs when one of us comes up here and and prays or spends some time just being still. You can enter in immediately. And the way to do this, in my opinion, one of the best ways to do this is to start your praise service before you get here. First of all, during the week, but on the way to church on Sunday mornings, most of you drive more than five minutes to get to the church, right? How long does it take to play a praise song? About five minutes. So instead of turning on Garth Brooks or whatever, whatever, or instead of the argument that tends to happen in the minivan on the way to church, crank up the tunes in your car and praise God on the way here. Uh keep your hands on the wheel, okay? This that's my only you could one hand, you could lift. Depends on how you know how long you've been driving. But anyway, yeah, so so get your praise started before you even get here. And so then that way when you get in the room together, guess what? It's just an extension of what's already been happening. Amen. So let's do that. Let's prime the praise pump. And also through this whole series, we're looking at the fact that worship is a revelation of who God is first, and then because of that revelation, a response that is fitting for such a God. And what does that uh what does that revelation and that response lead to? An ongoing relationship with God. That's the result. Amen. How many of you are interested in that? Okay, Lord, you see their hands. Okay. All right. So we're gonna talk about uh an example of this. We're going to look at a powerful encounter that Mary, the mother of Jesus, had with the presence of God. And we're gonna see this progression of worship as we look at her story and her song. And through this example, we we will see that when we praise and worship God, we can expect to experience Him in very tangible ways. God wants us to experience Him in ways that are beyond description. The title of today's message is Expecting to Feel God. I can see some walls going up already. Some of you in this room are saying, we don't go there, we don't talk about feelings. Feelings are something that we don't deal with, we keep them hidden away, we keep them tucked away. Uh and I don't want to lose you by the title, okay? But the reality is that life is filled with emotion and feelings. How many of you know that that's true? Whether you want to hide it or not, or pretend or not, all of us on a daily basis experience different levels of emotions and different levels of feelings. And what better source of these things is there than God Himself? If you're going to expect experience emotion and feeling, how many of you know that the creator of our souls knows what's best for us? And not only does he know what's best for us, he himself experiences these things. Did you realize that the Bible describes God experiencing a wide range of emotions, including love? Let's quote John 3:16 together. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believes in him will not perish, but have everlasting life. God so loved, God experiences the feeling and the emotion of love. He also experiences righteous jealousy and joy. God is a joyful God. I remember when I first saw the movie Matthew, which was the actual, it was just the basically the reading of the book of Matthew, acted out. It was the first person I was talking to Timothy about this, uh, and I believe, or Jonathan, I believe it was the first person that played Jesus in a movie that was actually a believer in Jesus. And so as he play as he's playing this character, he smiles, he laughs. And for some people, they called they they were they couldn't handle it. The the religious spirits got very nervous at the fact that Jesus might smile or might laugh or might enjoy something in life. How many of you know that God created joy and he's a joyful God? And he also experiences holy anger, anger that is is towards sin. He is grieved, he can be grieved, and also he's filled with compassion. All of these things he experiences, and he has created us in his image and likeness, and he desires that we experience him not only through knowing him with our minds and understanding who he is through information and facts, as important as that is, but he wants us to understand his very heart as we experience his manifest presence. Sign me up for that, right? Sign me up for that. So many times in the process, there's a great exchange that happens that occurs where feelings that we might have that don't line up with placing our faith and trust in God are swallowed up by God as we look more fully into the essence of who he is, which allows us to change our vantage point so that we are viewing things the way he desires for us to view them. How many of you have ever come in to a church service where you weren't feeling like, first of all, you weren't feeling like being here. Don't raise your hand, so right? But you weren't feeling like being here. Second of all, you weren't feeling like praising and worshiping worshiping God. Third, you were feeling anything but the emotion of joy or all of the different things that we talked about, right? But how many of you realize that through being here and being together with God's people and praise and worshiping Him and then experiencing the teaching of the Word of God and prayer and things like that, that you leave better than what you came. Because this great exchange has happened. This great exchange. I once I came in feeling this way and experiencing these things, but I left feeling something completely different and having experienced God Himself. So we're gonna see this in the life of Mary this morning. So for the sake of time, we'll read the end of the story first, and then we'll go back and we'll fill in the blanks from the beginning. Are you ready? Let's look at Luke chapter 1, verses 46 through 55. Luke chapter 1, verses 46 through 55. 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 arm, he has scattered the proud 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 us, his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy as he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham, and to his offspring forever. Let's pray. Father God, in Jesus' name, we thank you for your word. We thank you for this beautiful rendition of Mary's song, Lord God. This this telling of what was in her heart based on her experience with you. And Father, we ask in Jesus' name that you would help us to glean from your word this morning the things that you want us to learn. Help us, Father, to not just have information, but Lord, that that information would be backed up by you showing yourself, performing signs and wonders and miracles and healing, and Father bringing about the desired end result that you have of transformation in each and every one of our lives. We thank you for it in Jesus' name. We're not going to sing the original song this morning, but there's a new version that I've asked Brooke to sing for us this morning. So she can sing that song and really feel something while she's singing it for sure. So thank you very much, Zach and Brooke. So my wife and I are the parents of four amazing children. We're so grateful for them. But try as I might, I can't begin to understand what it must feel like to be a mother. What it must be like to carry a child through pregnancy. I just have no way. And honestly, can I be honest with you, completely honest, I don't want to know. I just all the men in the room said amen. I've also discovered through talking with ladies through the years that uh even though it's a similar experience, there's a commonality to it, and yet uh every story is a little bit different. Every experience is somewhat unique. Even for Amy with our four children, she can look back and talk about the differences in the pregnancies and the deliveries and all that. And it goes on from there, right? The uniqueness of each person, of each child. It's really miraculous. If you don't believe in miracles, you just need to watch a baby be born. It's incredibly hard to fathom or imagine the miracle of birth. There's some mystery here, even though there's much that is tangible. And uh as we look at Mary, enter her into this equation. She's a young Jewish woman who is betrothed, and betrothed means engagement. But think engagement, but you'd have to have a divorce in order to break it off. So it's like we're really going to get married. Like we've there's there's an investment of, you know, the Joseph has pledged some cows and some gold or some different things, and uh, so this is actually going to happen. They are going to get married, and she's engaged or betrothed to Joseph, and they live in a small Galilean town called Nazareth. Nazareth. Can anything good come out of Nazareth? Seemingly there's she's no one special, there's nothing to see here, it's that kind of a reality. And all of a sudden, an angel shows up, Gabriel. And by the way, Gabriel's been pretty busy. If you remember a couple of weeks ago, who was it that appeared to Zechariah to tell him about John the Baptist? It was the same angel, it was Gabriel, a messenger from heaven, a messenger of God who was sent to declare the word of God to Zechariah first, and now to Mary. Uh and so let's talk about Mary's God encounter. Let's look back at verses 28 through 30 of Luke chapter 1 to begin this. Greetings, O favored One. This is the angel speaking to her. Greetings, O favored One. The Lord is with you. It's interesting. Uh, last week or two weeks ago, when we had our last uh Wednesday night Bible study, we discussed Jehovah Shah. And Jehovah Shaman means the Lord is with you. The Lord is with us. So it's kind of an interesting tie-in that now we see in this very uh story, which is a true story. By the way, it's not fiction, it's not something like Santa Claus. This actually did happen, right? And so the angel says to her, The Lord is with you. But she was greatly troubled at the saying and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be. And the angel said to her, Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. Now let's remind ourselves of the scenario. Remember, 400 years of silence, where God has not spoken through a major prophet to the nation of Israel. And there's been relatively not hardly any signs of the movement of God or the hand of God within the nation of Israel. And here is Mary just going about her regular business, betrothed to Joseph, getting ready to be married. Joseph's doing all the work that he needs to do in order to fulfill the requirements of the pledge that he's made to Mary's family. And as that's occurring, this angel appears to Mary and tells her of all of these things. You can imagine how jarring that must have been, how unique or uh you know different this experience would have been for her. God's message to Mary doesn't start with a request. Did you notice that? So many times we feel like we just want to jump to the end and we want to say, what is it that you want from God? Sometimes God wants to say something before he asks something. And in this scenario, God says to Mary, He wants her to know that she is one of His and that He is with her. How many of you know she's going to need to know that when He tells her the rest of the story? She's going to need to know that she's highly favored, that He has chosen her, that He sees her for who she is, that He's decided that she's the one and that He is with her. Because He's going to ask something of her that is just blows your mind, hard to fathom. What a loving father that would be so concerned with her well-being and not just how he could use her. God isn't just looking for a vessel to do something with or through. He's concerned about the very vessel that he's going to use to perform this miracle. Does that tell us anything about the nature of God? I hope it does. So talking about feelings and expecting to feel God, Mary's first feeling when encountering God in this way is kind of strange. It's fear. Mary's first feeling is fear, but duh, what would you feel? Would you be high five in the angel Gabriel? Yo, yo, I've got some cookies for you. No, I mean, what would you what would you be doing? You'd probably be doing what Mary did. You'd be shaking, you'd be nervous, you would be questioning what is going on here. Her first thought is fear. And there are different kinds of fear when it comes to the way that people view God. How many of you know the only ones who have a reason to have a sense of dread when it comes to God are those who are unbelievers, those who don't have a right relationship with Him. For the unbeliever, the fear of God is the fear of the judgment of God. Fear which is based on eternal separation from Him. That is real fear. When we have a chance to minister to people during the holidays, especially, let's remember that when they encounter God, sometimes this is the fear that they first experience. But for the believer, the fear of God is something much different. The believer's fear is a deep sense of awe and reverence for Him. The author of Hebrews says it like this therefore, let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken. And thus let us offer to God acceptable worship. Isn't it interesting? Even in the context of this verse, what is he talking about? Worshiping God. Let us offer to God acceptable worship with reverence and awe. For our God is a consuming fire. He is not a celestial Santa Claus. He is not a holy Mr. Rogers. He is not a genie in a bottle. God is a God to be reverenced, to be feared. And a healthy fear of God is severely lacking in today's church. It is severely lacking in the Church of Jesus Christ. And my friends, before the Lord returns to this planet to take those that he's called to himself, the fear of God will return to the Church of Jesus Christ. Make no mistake about it. For many, worship is looked at as something to be endured, something to get through, and not as the amazing reality that we are invited into the very presence and the very heart of God. There's a lack of the fear of God in the church today. We should not grow content with this sort of existence, with this sort of reality. It should bother us in our own personal lives. It should get to the very core of our souls if we begin to lose the fear of God, the awe and respect and wonder of who He really is. We will not settle for a non for not experiencing the fear of God in the way that we're supposed to. It's not good enough. So I want to encourage all of us today, search your hearts. Check your motivation. Ask yourself the question: do I really have a sense of awe and wonder? When I come to him and worship, am I really pushing away the distractions? Am I really focusing in on him the way that he deserves to be focused in on? Do I really consider him to be holy like no other? You can breathe. That's the hardest part right there. God does a great exchange for Mary, relieving her fear by the angel telling her not to be afraid. And he reiterates the fact that she has found favor with God. What a beautiful thing. She has found favor with God. And then he begins to tell her the big news. It goes on in verse 31. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end. This is the gospel of Jesus Christ. These are the words of God spoken to Mary in the infant stage, if that makes sense, using that terminology. So Mary is living in poverty, living in obscurity, living in Nazareth. God is calling her to have the honor of being the mother of the Messiah, Jesus, whose name means Savior. Jesus, the Savior of the world, Jesus, the Son of God, who will fulfill his promises, made to Israel and will establish an everlasting kingdom. How many of you know 2,000 years later, his kingdom is alive and well? And it will endure to the end. It is a forever kingdom. So Mary's first feeling is fear, and God helped her with that. The second feeling is uncertainty. Let's read verse 34. And Mary said to the angel, How will this be since I am a virgin? Is that a bad question? No. Pretty solid question, actually. Notice she didn't say, This can't be. This isn't possible. She says, How will it be? How is this going to happen? She knows that she can't yet have conceived a child because she's a virgin. She's never been with a man. And so she's simply asking for clarification. And notice God doesn't punish her for this question or change his mind and say, Oh, I'm moving on to the next Mary. He's concerned with her, and he's concerned with her heart. He's concerned with her questions. And he's concerned that she understands what is being asked of her. And he simply graciously answers her question. Look at Luke 1:35. And the angel answered her: The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore, the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God. Come on. In order for Jesus to be able to be the Savior of the world, he had to be sinless. He had to be sinless. Every person born since Adam was born what? Dead in sin and trespasses. And so, in order for there to be a true substitutionary sacrifice, a human being had to be born. But that person couldn't be born from the seed of man. Because if they were born from the seed of man, they weren't perfect. They couldn't be perfect because sin would have been a part of their lives. And so what did God do? He created a workaround like only God can do. In order for Jesus to be a pure sacrifice, like I said, he couldn't be encumbered by the curse of sin. God's plan was perfect in every way. The creator of all things would place the seed of Jesus that was promised in Genesis 3.15. Remember? When the curses were given out, God also made a promise that there would be the seed of a woman who would come and that Satan would attempt to strike his heel. But what would that seed do? Crush his head. Jesus, the singular seed of a woman, and yet God, the creator of all things, was miraculously by the Holy Spirit going to place Jesus in Mary's womb, and therefore he could meet the righteous requirements. God's pretty smart. If we just started out every day just saying that, God, you're pretty smart. You know what you're doing. Help me to come in line with what you want for today. Imagine how our lives would change dramatically. Oh my goodness. So think about this overshadowing, the Holy Spirit coming upon Mary. Does it remind you of anything? How about the Shekinah glory cloud found in the Old Testament that would come and hover over the tabernacle when praise and worship ushered in the presence of Almighty God? Let's read about it in 2 Chronicles 5. And it was the duty of the trumpeters and singers to make themselves heard in unison in praise and thanksgiving to the Lord. Do you see the context here? What are they involved with? Praise and worship. And when the song was raised with trumpets and cymbals and other musical instruments and praise to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever. The house, the house of the Lord was filled with the cloud, so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord filled the house of God. This same glory that filled the house of God in the Old Testament filled the house where Mary was. And how many of you know in a few, in a few days, in a few years, about 33 years later, it was going to fill another house in an upper room, and tongues as a fire was going to set upon each one as they were filled with the Holy Spirit. A similar dynamic to what we're talking about is found throughout all the scriptures. God loves to show up and show off. And for Him, it's the right thing to do. So let's talk about some different types of responses to the presence of God. And I want this to be a judgment-free zone. Can we do that? So let's just think about ourselves right now. Let's not think about our wives, our husbands, our children, anybody else in the church. Because it'd be very easy for us to translate to them the way that they should respond to experiencing the glory of God. Right? So the first category I'm going to call quiet and internal responses. Quiet and internal responses. Well, that can't be God. Well, could it be? Yeah, it could be. And this is what that could look like. How about deep peace and calm? Some of you experience the presence of God in this way, and you respond in this way. It's like there's just this knowing that He is God and that you can trust Him. And the peace of God that surpasses all understanding guards your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus and overshadows you and over and fills you up to the fact to where everything else gets diminished. Don't you love that? Sometimes a quiet and internal response might feel like warmth or love. I've heard some people describe it like liquid sunshine being poured into their soul, their hearts. Do you know what I'm talking about? Talking about feelings, okay? Guys, it's all right. We all feel things, and God can cause us to feel Himself. He wants us to experience Him in these ways. His warmth, His love. How about prayer? Sometimes a quiet and internal response is just us expressing ourselves in prayer to God. Now we get to the fun stuff: the expressive and physical responses. God sometimes moves upon your heart, and there's you need to let it out. It's like you can't contain it. It's like Jeremiah. He tried to be quiet, he tried to not preach, but he couldn't stop himself. It says that it was like a fire shut up in his bones, and it found its way out of him. You imagine a preacher that was told by God, nobody's ever gonna listen to you? Sometimes when I'm having a bad day, I just I just I just say, at least I'm not Jeremiah, right? But think about these kinds of responses, weeping. Sometimes when the goodness of God, when you when you experience the goodness of God, you can't help but weep. And on the other end of that, sometimes it's laughter, sometimes it's rejoicing, sometimes it's celebration, sometimes you might kneel or you might bow down before him in his presence, you might shout or sing out or prophesy. You might raise your hands or be filled with joy and jump and dance, and won't somebody run around this room. All of these things, as Mark said last week, are found in the scriptures. These are all responses to God's presence, to the essence, God revealing to us. What is the glory of God? It's Him giving us a taste of the essence of who He is, the aroma of who He is, the uh the very core of who He is. So we shouldn't consider these things extraordinary or it's things that should only happen once in a while. These should be normative types of responses. This is a normal way to respond to a holy God when you're walking in the fear of the Lord and you understand who He is and who you are and you express uh either quietly or outwardly what's happening on the inside. This is normal for believers in Jesus Christ. I feel like that Satan has done a good job of quieting us down, of stealing our praise. And I'm here to tell you, I'm not gonna let a rock take my place. The Bible says that if we don't praise him, rocks will cry out in our place. And I, for one, am not going to be substituted for a piece of granite by a piece of granite. But we shouldn't, we also listen to me carefully, we also shouldn't do these things just to appear religious. Many of us have experienced times in the past where we've been in meetings or been with other people, and the same people do the same thing every single time. And they do it right up front. How many of you know? God isn't looking for show-offs, but for sincere worshipers. So if in the sincerity of your heart you feel like shouting, let it out. If in the sincerity of your heart you feel like jumping up and down, jump up and down, if in the sincerity of your heart you feel like falling on your face before God and crying out to him, I'll never forget the true worshiper that we experienced for so many years in this church that sat right there. Pat Nooner understood something about the manifest presence of God and reverence for him. And although she had so many physical limitations, you don't even know the type of pain that she endured. She would give her all. God said, Mary, just so you know, you're not the only one. This is happening in many places. There's revival sparking in Israel. I'm opening wombs I'm doing things unheard of. I know it's been 400 years of silence, but wake up, Israel. Wake up, America. Luke 136, and behold, your relative Elizabeth, in her old age, has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her who has called, who was called barren. For nothing will be impossible with God. Can you say that with me? For nothing will be impossible with God. The answer to every question that Mary could ask, and even the sincerest of sincerest, is what? Nothing is impossible with God. God is a chainbreaker. He's a miracle worker. God is a God who heals spirit, soul, and body. And he can do anything that he wants, any time that he wants, in any way that he wants. Our job is to move from uncertainty to what? To faith. Faith, Mary's third feeling is faith. Luke 138. 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. Imagine for just a minute what is going through Mary's head. She can't help herself. It's like even if she would have wanted to say something else, this is what comes from the very core of her heart. Let it be to me according to your word, Father. Imagine Mary's second thought when the angel disappears after what just happened. Her second thought is, what do I tell my mom and dad? About the people in the village. She wasn't like it is today. If you get pregnant in that time before you're married, there's a problem. Yeah. Yeah. There's problems. So how does she explain this to her friends and relatives? What is she going to say to Joseph? God in his goodness does what? Gives Joseph a dream. He must have been a little older than Mary. Old men dream dreams. Anyway. Sorry, sorry, I'm getting off track. I gotta hurry up. I'm behind time. So God gives Joseph a dream to confirm that Mary was bearing the Son of God. And Mary goes to see Elizabeth in the middle of all of this and listen to this exchange. And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb. Babies are viable within the womb. We have proof right here. John the Baptist, not called Baptist yet, but John, left in his mother's womb, just in coming to proximity with Jesus in Mary's womb. Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. She exclaimed with a loud cry, Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord. What a confirmation to Mary. How good is God? Because even if in the back of her head somewhere Mary had some lingering thoughts of doubt or concern or unbelief, all of a sudden God miraculously opens Elizabeth's eyes so that she can see clearly that Mary's carrying about in her womb the Son of God. Mary's reminded of the blessing that God has bestowed on her because she believed the word that was spoken to her from the Lord. God wants us, He wants faith to be built within us. And one of the best ways for faith to be built within us, hearing the word of God in His presence. In His presence. Amen. Let it play. The Lord's wanting some backup music for the rest of the sermon. Sorry. Anyway. So everyone's filled with joy. Elizabeth, John, Jesus, Mary. They're all filled with joy. Mary's fourth feeling is joy. And that's where we read this song. And just for the sake of time, I won't read it again right now, but I want to point out some of the things that it says. You know, Mary can't hold it in any longer. In the presence of the Lord, there is fullness of joy. And the joy of the Lord is our strength. And she was being strengthened right now by the joy of the Lord. She begins to sing out the glory of the Lord. And this song is called the Magnificat. I hope I'm pronouncing that right. And it's truly an amazing thing to see the development of her relationship with God. This woman who just a few short weeks and months before was living in obscurity, a nobody. And yet, what did God do? He completely turned her life around. So what are some of the key themes in Mary's song? First of all, God embraces the humble. Mary spoke of herself in such humble ways. How many of you know humility is a beautiful thing before God? In fact, the Bible says that God resists the proud, but he gives grace to the humble. Mary could speak authoritatively to this because she was experiencing this tremendous humility. And secondly, she talks about the fact that holy is the name of the Lord. Notice God's name is the one to be remembered, not Mary's. God is looking for those who understand their need for him. And finally, she speaks of the fact that he remembers his covenant forever. He has been faithful, he is faithful, and he will always be faithful. How many of you know Mary's song should be our song? We have some shared experience with Mary. We were miraculously made aware of our need for God by the work of the Holy Spirit. And we were convicted of our sin and we repented and we put our faith in Jesus Christ. And what happened then? God filled us with a miracle. He put his very self, his own DNA in us by placing the Holy Spirit of God on the inside of us. And so when we praise and worship God, we can be like Mary. We can exalt him from a place of understanding. There's greatness that's living on the inside of me. It's not me, but it's Christ that lives in me, the hope of glory. Mary's revelation from God was Emmanuel. God is with us. Her response was faith and joy-filled worship, and the relationship that was building was one of unshakable trust in God. As beautiful as all of this certainly is, I want to remind you of a verse that Mark read last week about faithful Simeon in Luke 2, 34. And Simeon blessed them and said to Mary, his mother, Behold, this child is appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that is opposed, and a sword will pierce through your own soul also, so that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed. Let's not forget, as we go through the rest of this season, the story of Christmas doesn't end in a manger. It ends on a cross. Listen to the last part of a poem by Lucy Shaw where she says, Blind in my womb to know my darkness ended. Brought to this birth for me to be newborn. And for him to see me mended, I must see him torn. And for those of you who are here this morning who have never encountered the Christ of Christmas, who don't know yet what it means to be overwhelmed with his presence and to have the Holy Spirit of God living on the inside of you, I'm here to tell you that the Christ of Christmas grew up and lived a life, the perfect life that we couldn't live. And he took our sins upon himself and he was nailed to a cross. And he forgave us of our sins, and he was buried, and on the third day he rose again, proving that he is who he says that he is. He ascended into heaven and he's seated at the right hand of the Father. And if we will repent of our sins and put our faith in him, he will accept us to himself, and we will be a part of the generation to generation to generation that experience the mercy of God. This is Christmas. I pray that today would be the day, Lord, that they would turn their eyes on you. That even now, as they are feeling your presence and experiencing you, wooing them to themselves yourself, I pray, Father, that they would respond in faith. I pray that they would confess their sins before you, that they would acknowledge their need for you, and that they would receive from you the gift of grace that comes as we believe in Jesus Christ. If that's you this morning, I just encourage you to pray. Just from your heart. You don't have to have perfect words. Just from your heart. Talk to God about your need for him. Acknowledge your need and that you want to put your faith and trust in him. And I promise you that he will hear your prayer and he will answer it and he will receive you to himself as a part of his family. There's going to be a prayer team here in a few minutes, and they want to bless you as well. And uh we have a Bible that we'd like to give to you. So if that's you, would you please make sure that you don't leave this place without sharing with somebody the decision you've made? And Father, I also pray for the rest of us, Lord, that you would return the fear of God into our lives, that we would no longer be content with looking at you and work and our lives in you as mundane. Awaken us, Father, to your life, to your light, to your truth. Help us to experience again the joy of our salvation. And Father, help us whether we respond in quietness and stillness or expressing through laughter and joy and shouting or crying and weeping. Help us nevertheless to respond to you. In Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.