WEBVTT 00:00:00.080 --> 00:00:02.080 Well, it's a third Sunday in Advent. 00:00:02.160 --> 00:00:06.240 So Advent is the four Sundays leading up to Christmas. 00:00:06.400 --> 00:00:10.400 And Advent begs the question: what are you waiting for? 00:00:10.720 --> 00:00:13.119 Now it's not a condemning question. 00:00:13.279 --> 00:00:14.400 We could hear it that way, right? 00:00:14.480 --> 00:00:20.079 Like, what are you waiting for because you really need to be doing something, or what are you waiting for because you really need to get your act together? 00:00:20.160 --> 00:00:20.719 No, no, no. 00:00:21.039 --> 00:00:27.120 It's a much more welcoming question in the season of expectation and hope. 00:00:27.440 --> 00:00:29.440 It's a question of grace to us. 00:00:30.079 --> 00:00:34.320 Our house has been under renovation for the past two months. 00:00:34.399 --> 00:00:41.759 And so what that means is our three-bathroom house has turned into a one-bathroom house for the last two months. 00:00:41.920 --> 00:00:44.479 So I can tell you all about waiting. 00:00:44.560 --> 00:00:46.880 Like I know I know about waiting. 00:00:47.039 --> 00:00:50.719 We have five people in this house and we have one toilet in the house. 00:00:50.799 --> 00:00:52.159 So there's a lot of waiting going on. 00:00:52.399 --> 00:00:59.039 Interesting situations definitely arise, uh, which means I have something to say when it comes to waiting. 00:00:59.119 --> 00:01:01.359 Uh it's humbling, let's just say that. 00:01:01.439 --> 00:01:09.359 Uh when your seven-year-old is in occupation of that bathroom and you need it as the father and 41-year-old owner of this home. 00:01:09.439 --> 00:01:13.040 Uh that's humbling that she is in ownership of that for that moment. 00:01:13.120 --> 00:01:14.239 It's expectant, right? 00:01:14.319 --> 00:01:18.400 Like we are expecting, uh, and we would really like to be there. 00:01:18.560 --> 00:01:20.400 It's certainly hopeful to wait. 00:01:20.480 --> 00:01:23.280 It's certainly hopeful to finally be there. 00:01:23.439 --> 00:01:26.159 And see, I already own that um bathroom. 00:01:26.400 --> 00:01:27.439 That one bathroom. 00:01:27.519 --> 00:01:28.480 I own it. 00:01:28.719 --> 00:01:36.959 And I actually own the other two bathrooms that are not fully functioning, and like the toilet's back in the garage and it's coming later, and all that. 00:01:37.120 --> 00:01:41.840 I own all of that while I'm waiting for it to come to fulfillment. 00:01:42.159 --> 00:01:45.120 And this is what it means, as crude as that um illustration is. 00:01:45.280 --> 00:01:46.959 This is what it means to be a Christian. 00:01:47.120 --> 00:01:51.200 We live in what we say, the already, but not yet. 00:01:51.519 --> 00:01:58.400 That you are already restored, but not yet as restored as you one day will be. 00:01:58.719 --> 00:02:00.719 And you know that and you feel that. 00:02:01.200 --> 00:02:03.040 You're already healed. 00:02:04.239 --> 00:02:07.200 And yet you're you're you're not as healed as you one day will be. 00:02:08.000 --> 00:02:10.240 You're already free. 00:02:11.759 --> 00:02:14.639 And not yet as free as God intends for you to be. 00:02:14.879 --> 00:02:19.759 And so we live in the already but not yet, and that means we are waiting. 00:02:20.000 --> 00:02:28.879 And this is a season where we're waiting for Christmas to celebrate Jesus, but at the same time, it's just a reminder of all of the Christian life that we live and waiting. 00:02:29.120 --> 00:02:30.800 Already, but not yet. 00:02:32.000 --> 00:02:35.360 Our passage this morning is about Mary, the mother of Jesus. 00:02:35.599 --> 00:02:41.599 She's put in an incredibly blessed situation, but very, very difficult situation. 00:02:42.000 --> 00:02:44.400 And we can't forget her context here. 00:02:44.960 --> 00:02:49.439 It's a familiar Advent passage, but we could, you know, we gotta remember the context. 00:02:49.599 --> 00:02:52.240 She's probably about 14 years old. 00:02:52.719 --> 00:02:54.000 She's a Jewish girl. 00:02:54.240 --> 00:03:00.240 This angel comes to her and says, Don't be afraid, you're favored by God, and you are going to have a baby, the Messiah. 00:03:00.479 --> 00:03:05.280 Your people have been waiting for who comes to love and save all sinners. 00:03:05.680 --> 00:03:11.759 So, yeah, sure, you're a virgin, you're engaged to be married, you're, I don't know, 13, 14, 15, somewhere around there. 00:03:11.840 --> 00:03:18.639 Sure, sure, all of society is going to have a lot of difficulty with you in this situation, but you're favored. 00:03:19.280 --> 00:03:26.800 So this would have had a lot of blessing for her, and she understands that, but at the same time, this would have come with a lot of difficulty and a million unknowns for her. 00:03:28.319 --> 00:03:34.800 She lived in an ancient patriarchal society, men made the rules, she wasn't a man, you know, so it would have been hard for her. 00:03:34.960 --> 00:03:41.439 She would have been discriminated against as being a single pregnant woman. 00:03:42.879 --> 00:03:45.919 They often even put to death pregnant single women. 00:03:46.080 --> 00:03:54.000 I mean, so you can understand receiving this news, and it would have been, and she responds understanding the blessedness of this. 00:03:55.280 --> 00:03:57.199 But it would have had some difficulty. 00:03:58.080 --> 00:03:59.199 And yet she sings. 00:03:59.360 --> 00:04:00.639 And that's where we get this passage. 00:04:00.719 --> 00:04:02.080 It's called the Magnificant. 00:04:02.159 --> 00:04:03.680 This is her song. 00:04:03.759 --> 00:04:05.840 She's when we we're gonna read, I'm gonna read it. 00:04:05.919 --> 00:04:06.639 Thank you very much, right? 00:04:06.719 --> 00:04:10.319 Like I'm gonna read it, but she is singing this. 00:04:11.039 --> 00:04:13.520 Luke 1, 46 through 49. 00:04:13.599 --> 00:04:23.120 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. 00:04:23.360 --> 00:04:27.680 For behold, from now on, all generations will call me blessed. 00:04:28.160 --> 00:04:33.839 For he who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name. 00:04:34.720 --> 00:04:35.120 Right? 00:04:35.199 --> 00:04:36.720 Can you imagine receiving this news? 00:04:36.800 --> 00:04:43.439 And there's this part of you that understands you're blessed and favored because you're so steeped in the scriptures that you know a Messiah's coming. 00:04:43.680 --> 00:04:46.560 You know this is a miracle inside of your body. 00:04:47.600 --> 00:04:51.759 And yet you know there's a million unknowns that are gonna happen because of this. 00:04:52.079 --> 00:04:53.199 And yet she sings. 00:04:53.279 --> 00:04:54.079 That's point number one. 00:04:54.240 --> 00:04:58.240 In difficulty, we can sing, not because we can hold it all together. 00:04:58.480 --> 00:05:01.279 Oh, that would be exhausting if that's the reason why we sing. 00:05:01.360 --> 00:05:02.000 No, no, no. 00:05:02.079 --> 00:05:05.920 But because he is for us and with us. 00:05:07.279 --> 00:05:10.240 She doesn't know how things will play out with Joseph. 00:05:10.800 --> 00:05:11.680 Not all of that. 00:05:11.839 --> 00:05:14.720 She doesn't know her the arc of her storyline. 00:05:14.800 --> 00:05:20.160 She doesn't know how her family and her friends and her community and everything's gonna respond to her. 00:05:21.040 --> 00:05:22.639 Yet she doesn't escape. 00:05:22.800 --> 00:05:26.800 She doesn't cope, she doesn't hide just because it's hard. 00:05:27.279 --> 00:05:34.480 And in this way, she's like an incredible gospel example to us, not like not necessarily like a moral example, and we've got to get ourselves better and be like Mary. 00:05:34.639 --> 00:05:42.240 Just a gospel example of when you're so in awe of the faithfulness of God to you, what you can do even when something's difficult. 00:05:42.399 --> 00:05:43.600 Now it's easy, right? 00:05:43.680 --> 00:05:45.360 It's easy to just to cope. 00:05:45.680 --> 00:05:46.959 That's what I do very often. 00:05:47.120 --> 00:05:48.000 Something's really hard. 00:05:48.079 --> 00:05:49.439 I'm afraid of the pain. 00:05:49.600 --> 00:05:51.600 I'm afraid of the difficulty. 00:05:54.000 --> 00:06:06.639 We're afraid of what that pain of that thing could do to us or might do to us because it might take us over, we might not be able to withstand it, so it's better to kind of shove it down or ignore the difficulty, cope or escape our way through. 00:06:07.600 --> 00:06:19.839 But when you're already loved and you know that, and you're already right with God, and you know that, and you're embracing that, and he is faithful, and he is strong, and he is mighty, these are the things that change everything. 00:06:20.000 --> 00:06:21.519 Mary's living in her blessedness. 00:06:21.600 --> 00:06:22.399 She says, I'm blessed. 00:06:22.480 --> 00:06:23.600 Everybody's gonna know I'm blessed. 00:06:23.680 --> 00:06:27.519 She's living in her blessedness of his regard to her. 00:06:28.560 --> 00:06:31.519 And I wonder, it's a question of grace to you. 00:06:32.240 --> 00:06:35.680 Are you living out of the blessing of your blessedness? 00:06:37.199 --> 00:06:46.720 Not that you have to hold it all together in order to get to seeing your way through something hard, but to live in the blessing of your blessedness has been given to you. 00:07:00.639 --> 00:07:02.079 That we are the beloved. 00:07:03.199 --> 00:07:09.360 That's the core truth of your existence, that you are the beloved, not by what you do, but by what you can receive. 00:07:10.160 --> 00:07:13.680 So our name is favored, our name is blessed, our name is beloved. 00:07:14.639 --> 00:07:16.480 And this is what we receive. 00:07:17.199 --> 00:07:19.600 This is what we have in the cross. 00:07:20.399 --> 00:07:24.079 That our sin has cast upon him, his righteousness is given to us. 00:07:25.839 --> 00:07:27.839 Luke 1, 50 through 55. 00:07:28.000 --> 00:07:31.519 And his mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation. 00:07:31.759 --> 00:07:40.959 He has shown strength with his arm, he has scattered the proud and the thoughts of their hearts, he has brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of humble estate. 00:07:41.120 --> 00:07:45.839 He has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty. 00:07:46.079 --> 00:07:54.000 He has helped his servant Israel in remembrance of his mercy as he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham, and to his offspring forever. 00:07:54.240 --> 00:07:56.000 Now there's a lot in there. 00:07:57.199 --> 00:08:01.519 But point number two is this to pull just something out of that to summarize. 00:08:01.680 --> 00:08:09.279 We can enter our lowliness because we are always loved by the God of strength and mercy. 00:08:09.519 --> 00:08:16.079 That's why we can face our pain, enter our lowliness, confess our sin, become humble. 00:08:17.759 --> 00:08:20.879 As a little boy, I can remember waking up on Christmas morning. 00:08:20.959 --> 00:08:27.199 Now, our Christmas morning in our house when I was a little boy was my mom and my dad and my granny and my grand's, and that's who would be there. 00:08:27.360 --> 00:08:28.959 My sister's three years older. 00:08:29.040 --> 00:08:31.680 And I can distinctly remember waking up. 00:08:31.839 --> 00:08:33.840 We were not allowed to go down the stairs. 00:08:33.919 --> 00:08:34.879 We had two sets of stairs. 00:08:34.960 --> 00:08:35.919 It was a split level. 00:08:36.000 --> 00:08:44.000 So from the upstairs bedrooms down to the kitchen, the living room, and then you turned a corner and you came down the next step set of stairs down to the den. 00:08:44.080 --> 00:08:46.799 I have a picture here of uh my sister and I. 00:08:46.879 --> 00:08:49.600 We are coming down that second set of stairs. 00:08:49.840 --> 00:08:50.639 We got that picture. 00:08:50.720 --> 00:08:51.200 There it is. 00:08:51.279 --> 00:08:52.000 That's there I am. 00:08:52.080 --> 00:08:53.519 Uh I got my footies on. 00:08:53.600 --> 00:08:54.879 And that's me and Sherry. 00:08:54.960 --> 00:09:06.639 And you can see, I just this today, I mean this week, I just looked at this picture for a while, and I can see, see my grand, she's up there, and he's just looking down, and he's hanging on my grandma's shoulder, just kind of peeking out. 00:09:06.720 --> 00:09:07.600 It's so sweet. 00:09:07.679 --> 00:09:11.840 Um, I still sometimes wear footy pajamas like that to seduce Christie at night. 00:09:11.919 --> 00:09:14.559 It um it doesn't work, but I try it sometimes. 00:09:14.799 --> 00:09:16.639 Coming down, rushing down. 00:09:16.720 --> 00:09:20.960 But what I remember is I remember sitting upstairs in that hallway. 00:09:21.919 --> 00:09:24.720 Oh, it seemed like forever. 00:09:24.879 --> 00:09:26.720 And I was like, what are they doing? 00:09:27.120 --> 00:09:33.360 They're fixing their coffee, you know, butter in the biscuit, you know, you know, I mean, they are arranging their heavy, they're talking. 00:09:33.679 --> 00:09:37.360 I mean, my sister and I would be sitting up there just dying to go down, right? 00:09:37.440 --> 00:09:39.840 Like we were captive to waiting. 00:09:40.879 --> 00:09:42.559 We just waited. 00:09:43.279 --> 00:09:51.200 We were waiting for the one who held the power to grant us the gift of freedom to let us loose, to go and receive these gifts. 00:09:51.840 --> 00:09:55.360 We were lowly, and we knew it. 00:09:56.159 --> 00:09:58.480 That's what happens when you're waiting. 00:09:58.799 --> 00:10:00.639 We are we are waiting. 00:10:01.120 --> 00:10:03.279 Because of already, but not yet. 00:10:03.600 --> 00:10:09.679 So we have something in its fullness, and yet we have not experienced in fullness the realization of the gifts that we have. 00:10:10.480 --> 00:10:17.919 You're already restored, you're already healed, you're already forgiven, you're already righteous, you're already beloved, you're already favored, you're already free. 00:10:19.039 --> 00:10:19.840 That is already. 00:10:21.200 --> 00:10:23.759 But we're not yet in the full realization of that. 00:10:24.080 --> 00:10:26.320 We still live in these days of the in-between. 00:10:26.399 --> 00:10:34.080 There will be a day coming in the next world where we get to have these things in the fullness. 00:10:35.679 --> 00:10:43.759 I love to read Martin Luther's thoughts on this passage every year, this Luke 1, this magnificent, because here's what he says, and he points us. 00:10:44.399 --> 00:10:50.240 The stress should not be on the low estate, but on the word regarded. 00:10:50.720 --> 00:10:55.120 Mary's low estate is not to be praised, but God's regard. 00:10:55.360 --> 00:11:04.399 As when a prince gives his hand to a beggar, the meanness of the beggar is not to be praised, but the graciousness and the goodness of the prince. 00:11:04.639 --> 00:11:06.720 So we're holding our low estate. 00:11:06.879 --> 00:11:07.759 We hold on to that. 00:11:07.919 --> 00:11:09.919 We're not scared of that, we can face that. 00:11:10.080 --> 00:11:12.720 It's not shame, it's not religious shame. 00:11:14.080 --> 00:11:18.240 But it's in proper relationship to the one who holds the power. 00:11:20.240 --> 00:11:27.679 God's rich character of love and loving regard to us, a gentle and lowly heart toward us. 00:11:28.559 --> 00:11:34.240 Point number three is this our way forward over and again is God's astonishing goodness to us. 00:11:34.399 --> 00:11:35.279 That is our way forward. 00:11:35.360 --> 00:11:38.000 That's what the scriptures is unfolding to us over and over again. 00:11:38.080 --> 00:11:39.919 We just see it again today in Luke 1. 00:11:40.000 --> 00:11:44.320 I keep saying the preaching the same points to y'all every week if you haven't picked up on that. 00:11:44.480 --> 00:11:45.679 This is our way forward. 00:11:45.840 --> 00:11:47.759 This is always the way forward. 00:11:48.639 --> 00:11:50.799 It's God's astonishing goodness to us. 00:11:50.960 --> 00:11:54.080 Mary is the one telling it to us this week as she sings this. 00:11:54.159 --> 00:11:59.840 She's so steeped in scriptures, she's sort of referencing back to the song in the Old Testament sung by Hannah. 00:11:59.919 --> 00:12:02.879 It's not word for word, it's kind of like phrase by phrase. 00:12:03.200 --> 00:12:04.480 Very clever. 00:12:06.000 --> 00:12:09.440 And she knows she's blessed, she bolts out in a song. 00:12:09.679 --> 00:12:12.159 And it listen, and if you listen to what she's singing. 00:12:12.240 --> 00:12:15.840 Verse 47, God my Savior, 48, he has looked on me. 00:12:16.000 --> 00:12:18.879 49, for he is mighty, holy is his name. 00:12:19.120 --> 00:12:20.480 50, his mercy. 00:12:20.639 --> 00:12:22.720 51, he has shown strength. 00:12:22.879 --> 00:12:24.720 52, he humbled the proud. 00:12:24.879 --> 00:12:26.480 53, he filled the hungry. 00:12:26.639 --> 00:12:28.320 54, he helped his people. 00:12:28.559 --> 00:12:31.519 55, he spoke to us. 00:12:32.720 --> 00:12:38.720 There's not a lot of like, look what I did, and look what I earned, and look what I maintained, and look how I'm able to handle all this. 00:12:38.879 --> 00:12:43.039 No, there's a lot more of like, I'm lowly and in need and in touch with that. 00:12:43.360 --> 00:12:49.360 And I can hold it in open-handedness, not in shame, but just in truth and in confession. 00:12:49.840 --> 00:12:53.759 And to receive this incredible, good, and faithful God. 00:12:54.639 --> 00:12:56.000 So, what does this mean for us? 00:12:56.159 --> 00:12:57.759 I think it means this, at least for me. 00:12:57.840 --> 00:12:59.600 Maybe you can track with this a little bit. 00:12:59.840 --> 00:13:05.519 Merry Christmas is not something we simply say, but something we relish. 00:13:06.559 --> 00:13:09.600 Not just something we say, but something we relish. 00:13:10.159 --> 00:13:15.200 We've been ordering takeout from this restaurant on the square named Wei, W-E-I. 00:13:15.600 --> 00:13:16.399 Anybody eating there? 00:13:16.480 --> 00:13:17.759 Anybody order there? 00:13:18.000 --> 00:13:18.559 Eating there? 00:13:19.360 --> 00:13:19.840 We love it. 00:13:19.919 --> 00:13:21.120 We've been killing this place, right? 00:13:21.200 --> 00:13:23.120 I mean, it is so good. 00:13:23.360 --> 00:13:25.519 And I didn't even think I liked Chinese food, to be honest. 00:13:25.600 --> 00:13:28.159 And Christy ordered it the first time, and I'm like, that's amazing. 00:13:28.240 --> 00:13:29.039 And we kept going back. 00:13:29.120 --> 00:13:30.960 We go back weekly on Mondays. 00:13:31.039 --> 00:13:35.679 We get takeout from there, and I go and I pick it up and I bring it home, and I just let Christy order. 00:13:35.919 --> 00:13:39.039 Just work your way around the menu because everything has been good. 00:13:39.360 --> 00:13:41.440 It's a Monday I went and I picked up the order. 00:13:41.519 --> 00:13:44.720 I come back, I lay it out on the kitchen counter, and I'm breaking it down. 00:13:44.879 --> 00:13:50.080 There's one box, I open it up, and it's these fat dumpling things. 00:13:50.240 --> 00:13:51.360 There they are. 00:13:52.000 --> 00:13:55.039 Pan-fried pork bow. 00:13:55.759 --> 00:13:57.039 I had never heard of it. 00:13:57.120 --> 00:13:57.919 I didn't know what it was. 00:13:58.000 --> 00:13:59.440 It was a fat dumpling thing to me. 00:13:59.519 --> 00:14:02.080 I'm just, you know, I'm just a kid from the you know, sticks. 00:14:02.240 --> 00:14:04.240 I mean, that's that's what it was to me. 00:14:05.279 --> 00:14:07.360 And I bit into that thing. 00:14:07.519 --> 00:14:10.399 And I'm it was a worship experience. 00:14:10.559 --> 00:14:12.960 I am not, it was unbelievable. 00:14:13.120 --> 00:14:15.200 Everything else in my life became okay. 00:14:15.360 --> 00:14:16.639 Like that's what it felt like. 00:14:16.720 --> 00:14:24.720 It was like the stress of the day, you know, financial pressures, one toilet in my house, like everything else, everything's okay. 00:14:24.879 --> 00:14:26.799 All of a sudden I was okay with one toilet in my house. 00:14:26.879 --> 00:14:31.679 Like everything became okay in light of how good this was. 00:14:32.639 --> 00:14:38.799 And then Christy and I, we just sat at the kitchen island across from each other, and there were six of these things, and we each ate three of them. 00:14:38.879 --> 00:14:43.120 I don't think we shared any with any of our children because they were too good, you know, like I ain't sharing any of this. 00:14:43.279 --> 00:14:46.240 They were so good, and we just analyzed them. 00:14:46.480 --> 00:14:49.600 We're talking about everything about pan-fried bale. 00:14:49.759 --> 00:14:56.159 We don't know anything about it, we're looking at it, turning it, biting it, you know, relishing this because it was so good. 00:14:56.960 --> 00:15:04.960 We didn't just see it, we didn't just like partake of it, we took it in, we relished it. 00:15:06.000 --> 00:15:07.840 Because, and you know this. 00:15:10.159 --> 00:15:17.200 When something is incredibly, supremely good and glorious, you pause and you relish. 00:15:18.240 --> 00:15:22.399 And it takes you captive in such a good way. 00:15:23.360 --> 00:15:36.159 That even like for Mary, like in such a good way, even for Mary, something that she knows is blessing and is gonna have difficulty, but it comes from this faithful, loving God that she can sing. 00:15:36.559 --> 00:15:51.039 See, in Jesus, God is supremely good to you and has the power much more than a pan-fried pork bale, to reorient everything about your life and your heart. 00:15:51.279 --> 00:15:56.480 My brothers and sisters, may you have a Merry Christmas as you rest and you relish. 00:15:56.879 --> 00:16:00.879 Not in just saying Merry Christmas, but in relishing it. 00:16:01.360 --> 00:16:03.200 For he is that good. 00:16:03.440 --> 00:16:04.720 Let's pray together. 00:16:05.360 --> 00:16:08.320 God, thank you for your grace and your mercy to us. 00:16:09.440 --> 00:16:17.360 That it is a Merry Christmas because you have done the work and we are already what you deem us to be. 00:16:19.600 --> 00:16:21.759 We are not all we should be. 00:16:22.480 --> 00:16:24.480 We don't maintain it really well. 00:16:25.360 --> 00:16:27.519 Our hearts are all over the place. 00:16:28.799 --> 00:16:34.320 They're so easily in a prideful state, a busy state, a moody state, anxious. 00:16:36.000 --> 00:16:36.960 You love us. 00:16:39.279 --> 00:16:45.600 God, would you help us to see even more how great this Jesus is that dies for all of our sin? 00:16:47.759 --> 00:16:58.879 Would you help us in greater and deeper ways to settle in and to rest, to relish how good you are this season. 00:16:59.039 --> 00:16:59.840 In Jesus' name. 00:17:00.080 --> 00:17:00.480 Amen.