WEBVTT 00:00:00.160 --> 00:00:04.400 So this is the third week of Advent, which are the four Sundays leading up to Christmas. 00:00:04.480 --> 00:00:06.400 It's the third one, so we're getting closer. 00:00:06.559 --> 00:00:09.199 And this week, this Sunday, we're gonna talk about Mary. 00:00:09.279 --> 00:00:11.359 We're gonna talk about the mother of Jesus. 00:00:11.439 --> 00:00:15.119 And so she was a Jewish girl, and if you've forgotten, she was probably pretty young. 00:00:15.199 --> 00:00:17.280 She's probably 13 or 14 years old. 00:00:17.440 --> 00:00:19.519 Because this is when girls got engaged. 00:00:19.600 --> 00:00:23.519 This is an ancient 2,000 years ago society we have to remember. 00:00:23.679 --> 00:00:27.039 An angel comes to her and says, Hey, don't be afraid. 00:00:27.199 --> 00:00:28.640 You're favored by God. 00:00:28.800 --> 00:00:29.760 You're gonna have a baby. 00:00:29.920 --> 00:00:31.519 By the way, your baby's gonna be the Messiah. 00:00:31.600 --> 00:00:33.119 And she was Jewish, and she knew what that meant. 00:00:33.200 --> 00:00:36.159 This Messiah, this baby was coming to save her people. 00:00:36.399 --> 00:00:38.799 And so she says, Oh, okay, okay. 00:00:39.200 --> 00:00:40.560 I mean, think of the situation here. 00:00:40.719 --> 00:00:44.000 She's a virgin, she's engaged to Joseph. 00:00:44.320 --> 00:00:47.200 I mean, this is gonna mess her life up in some regard. 00:00:47.359 --> 00:00:48.560 This wasn't her plan. 00:00:49.039 --> 00:00:51.039 Not only that, it's gonna ruin her reputation. 00:00:51.119 --> 00:00:57.439 I mean, this is unto the point, remember the context she lives in, a very patriarchal, hierarchical society. 00:00:57.679 --> 00:01:02.000 Men made all the rules, and there was quite discrimination against women. 00:01:02.240 --> 00:01:09.920 To the point that if a single, you know, pregnant woman got pregnant, sometimes they would stone her to death. 00:01:10.239 --> 00:01:12.159 This is Mary's situation. 00:01:13.040 --> 00:01:23.840 And in this historical context, Mary receives this word, certainly divine, certainly mystery, and she says, I'm a servant of the Lord. 00:01:24.159 --> 00:01:26.719 Let it be to me according to your word. 00:01:27.359 --> 00:01:32.000 And later on, she's visiting her cousin Elizabeth, and she breaks out in song. 00:01:32.079 --> 00:01:33.040 And maybe it's a poem. 00:01:33.120 --> 00:01:34.079 I don't know, we just read it. 00:01:34.159 --> 00:01:35.439 It could be a poem, it could be a song. 00:01:35.519 --> 00:01:41.519 It's called the Magnificant, is what it's called, because that word in there, my soul magnifies the Lord. 00:01:42.000 --> 00:01:44.719 I'm not gonna sing it as we go through it, I'll just read it. 00:01:44.799 --> 00:01:46.239 I think we're all thankful for that. 00:01:46.480 --> 00:01:48.319 I'll reread some that I already read. 00:01:48.560 --> 00:01:50.480 Luke 1, 46 through 49. 00:01:50.560 --> 00:02:03.439 And Mary said, My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit, my spirit rejoices in God, my Savior, for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant. 00:02:03.760 --> 00:02:07.680 For behold, from now on, all generations will call me blessed. 00:02:08.000 --> 00:02:12.400 For he who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name. 00:02:12.879 --> 00:02:26.960 Now, point number one this morning is something I've I've I've almost overlooked, and ran into it this week as I was studying this passage is this God is consistently elevating the worth of women and a culture of bias, prejudice, and even abuse of women. 00:02:27.840 --> 00:02:32.000 Now, maybe you grew up in a place that affirmed women's worth and value. 00:02:32.479 --> 00:02:33.759 Maybe that's your background. 00:02:34.000 --> 00:02:34.800 But maybe you didn't. 00:02:35.120 --> 00:02:48.639 Maybe you grew up in a place or church or family, I don't know, where virtue, humility and virtue, the godly woman, and boldness and intellect were a binary choice. 00:02:49.439 --> 00:02:50.879 Couldn't be both. 00:02:51.520 --> 00:02:51.919 Right? 00:02:52.719 --> 00:02:59.599 You could be smart and bold and courageous, or you can be humble and godly and virtuous. 00:03:00.159 --> 00:03:03.680 You know, don't be too loud with that smart brain of yours. 00:03:05.919 --> 00:03:09.520 Maybe you even read, you ran into 1 Timothy chapter 2. 00:03:10.319 --> 00:03:11.439 Didn't know how to place it? 00:03:11.599 --> 00:03:16.719 1 Timothy 2, verse 11, let a woman learn quietly with all submissiveness. 00:03:17.520 --> 00:03:26.319 Now, when we dig into this passage as a whole, and certainly this just one sentence, it actually starts to open up greater and greater freedom for women. 00:03:26.560 --> 00:03:32.400 And here's why is because, first off, this word learn would have been groundbreaking for women. 00:03:33.120 --> 00:03:38.240 Because women at the time didn't, they didn't go far into their education, they were thought to be second class. 00:03:38.319 --> 00:03:43.840 And so even for the Christian faith to begin to esteem, no, no, no, you should learn. 00:03:44.000 --> 00:03:45.599 Even that, I know this is a long time ago. 00:03:45.759 --> 00:03:48.000 I have to remember how ancient this was. 00:03:49.360 --> 00:03:50.960 This would have been radical. 00:03:51.120 --> 00:03:52.879 This was an opening up. 00:03:53.199 --> 00:03:54.719 And this is what we see in general. 00:03:54.879 --> 00:04:05.840 We don't see the New Testament having perfect women's equality and value and worth esteem, but certainly what we see is we see a progression forward for the worth and value of women. 00:04:06.479 --> 00:04:08.400 And then we have this word quiet. 00:04:08.560 --> 00:04:10.080 It doesn't mean silence. 00:04:10.719 --> 00:04:16.480 It doesn't mean a woman has to walk, walk around quiet everywhere they go, you know, you've got to be silent everywhere he goes. 00:04:16.560 --> 00:04:17.759 That's not what it means. 00:04:17.920 --> 00:04:32.879 The context here seems to me, that seems to be that there was a a group of women, some women coming into the freedom of Christ and being so free in the freedom of Christ that there's no Jew, no Gentile, no male, no female, and they're coming into that freedom, and in that freedom, you know, they're hey, they're letting loose. 00:04:33.600 --> 00:04:36.399 And they're actually starting to cause some disturbance. 00:04:36.720 --> 00:04:44.720 I don't know if you can imagine a group of women causing a disturbance or a group of men causing a disturbance, a group of humanity causing a disturbance. 00:04:45.600 --> 00:04:50.000 And and the writing is Paul's just saying, hey, like, exist in a quiet spirit. 00:04:50.079 --> 00:04:56.399 And what that means is this is about learning in a gentle and receiving spirit. 00:04:58.240 --> 00:05:03.120 And then lastly, we get this idea of submission, which is valid and good. 00:05:05.759 --> 00:05:14.399 The idea of a woman living in submission, it still comes in the idea of the New Testament idea of mutual submission. 00:05:15.120 --> 00:05:24.079 I mean, even the call of women or a wife to submit to their husband in the book of Ephesians is within the context of a mutual submission of each submitting to the other. 00:05:24.560 --> 00:05:33.759 And I've yet to find, I really have, I've yet to find an ongoing problem in any relationship or community where people are relating to each other in mutual submission. 00:05:35.040 --> 00:05:38.399 Now, there's still structure, there's still order, there can still be roles. 00:05:38.480 --> 00:05:40.639 I mean, these things are amongst us. 00:05:41.199 --> 00:05:46.480 But the gospel calls us all into a mutual submission of caring for the other person. 00:05:47.759 --> 00:05:50.720 That you exist in a gentle spirit with each other. 00:05:51.040 --> 00:05:59.439 That you don't want to use any power that you might have over somebody else to subjugate them or discriminate against them or oppress them. 00:06:01.360 --> 00:06:07.680 A couple of months ago, probably just a month ago actually, I came into the house after work and I was kind of in, you know, I was in work mode. 00:06:08.079 --> 00:06:09.600 Any of you come home, you're in work mode. 00:06:09.680 --> 00:06:10.319 I was in work mode. 00:06:10.480 --> 00:06:11.600 Christy was already at home. 00:06:11.759 --> 00:06:13.360 She worked some days and she's at home some days. 00:06:13.920 --> 00:06:18.800 This was one of the days she was at home, and I come home, I'm in work mode, and I walk in and I didn't transition. 00:06:18.879 --> 00:06:19.920 The transition's important. 00:06:24.800 --> 00:06:31.839 And so I get in the house and I'm trying to like convert into family mode, out of work mode, and she's showing me some grace in that. 00:06:32.560 --> 00:06:39.439 And apparently I had crossed the threshold of how gracious that was gonna be or how long that timeline was. 00:06:39.519 --> 00:06:52.160 Uh wasn't aware how long it was, and she just says, uh, hey, let's talk outside, and we get outside, and she lets me have it. 00:06:54.879 --> 00:07:02.959 The virtuous, quiet, godly Proverbs, whatever, 32, woman, what I forget the chapter, woman. 00:07:04.160 --> 00:07:05.600 Let me have it. 00:07:06.720 --> 00:07:08.160 And here's what I can honestly say. 00:07:08.319 --> 00:07:11.839 I can honestly say, and she's gonna get embarrassed and I've talked about her several times this morning. 00:07:12.000 --> 00:07:17.839 Here's what I can honestly say is I don't know if she would have had that conversation with me 15 years ago when I got married to her. 00:07:19.680 --> 00:07:23.759 And I think that has something to say with growing in the grace of God. 00:07:25.040 --> 00:07:30.879 That she's grown both in her belovedness and humility, but also in her forthrightness. 00:07:33.279 --> 00:07:36.959 She doesn't have to get ran over, be subjugated. 00:07:37.759 --> 00:07:40.959 It doesn't have anything to do with her not living in submission to me. 00:07:41.519 --> 00:07:44.480 I mean, I should also be we should be in mutual submission. 00:07:44.560 --> 00:07:46.720 I mean, it doesn't even have to do with that. 00:07:46.959 --> 00:08:05.199 But when you're giving a binary option as you grow up, well, you can either be humble and quiet and just keep your mind to yourself, or you you have to reject Christian womanhood and then you can be intellectual and bold and forthright. 00:08:05.920 --> 00:08:10.319 And what we see in this passage, and it Mary is both. 00:08:12.399 --> 00:08:18.000 I mean, she starts to speak against the systematic oppression of the Roman Empire. 00:08:19.279 --> 00:08:20.959 This is what we see here. 00:08:21.199 --> 00:08:26.000 So Mary starts out this passage, she refers back, I mean, incredibly smart. 00:08:26.240 --> 00:08:31.839 She refers back to a to a prayer prayed by a lady named Hannah in 1 Samuel. 00:08:31.920 --> 00:08:33.039 She patches it together. 00:08:33.200 --> 00:08:37.360 So she's not just freely praying here, she's doing something incredibly smart. 00:08:37.519 --> 00:08:47.039 She gets this prayer from Hannah, she weaves in some songs, and she actually begins to speak against those in power who operate abusively. 00:08:47.600 --> 00:08:53.600 That's what we pick up when we get into verses 52, 51, 52, 53. 00:08:53.679 --> 00:08:55.120 Here we go, starting in verse 50. 00:08:55.200 --> 00:08:58.879 And his mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation. 00:08:59.120 --> 00:09:08.159 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 state. 00:09:08.240 --> 00:09:11.759 He has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty. 00:09:11.919 --> 00:09:15.360 He has helped his servant Israel in remembrance of his mercy. 00:09:15.679 --> 00:09:19.840 As he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham, and to his offspring forever. 00:09:20.240 --> 00:09:26.879 Point number two is this is God consistently favors the poor, the weak, and the needy. 00:09:28.000 --> 00:09:30.960 So Mary probably got to get the context here. 00:09:31.120 --> 00:09:33.039 Mary exists in oppression. 00:09:33.279 --> 00:09:46.799 Not only as a woman in a society that's not valuing women, existing under the Roman Empire, the entire Israel people of Israel, under the Roman, the boot of the power of the Roman Empire. 00:09:46.960 --> 00:09:51.759 Economically, politically, societally, they exist under this oppression. 00:09:52.080 --> 00:10:03.679 This is her world, and so many Jewish people, and we can't put too much on Mary here, but a lot of her people definitely believe the Messiah was coming, not only to free their hearts and souls, but to free them politically. 00:10:04.159 --> 00:10:06.080 Now that's not what Jesus came to do. 00:10:06.240 --> 00:10:08.720 They had some correction to do later on. 00:10:09.519 --> 00:10:16.000 But when she comes to speak here, she certainly could be referring some to this Roman Empire and this oppression she felt. 00:10:17.919 --> 00:10:28.720 And what is clear is God stands against oppressive systems and people who position, use their positions of power to take rather than to serve and to give. 00:10:29.039 --> 00:10:32.000 Now the gospel story goes even further. 00:10:32.639 --> 00:10:39.440 The story of the gospel goes even further, saying God even overthrows the thrones in our own hearts. 00:10:41.200 --> 00:10:45.679 So this isn't just a social sermon on the social structure or social justice. 00:10:46.080 --> 00:10:48.240 This also comes into our own hearts. 00:10:48.559 --> 00:10:50.559 Because we build thrones. 00:10:52.799 --> 00:10:59.039 And we easily oppress people in big ways and little ways as to feel more justified or more loved or more valuable. 00:10:59.679 --> 00:11:02.320 A month ago I went on a mission trip to Costa Rica. 00:11:02.639 --> 00:11:15.440 At the end of the mission trip, we were all that our team, there's nine of us, we were in the uh airport there in uh San Jose coming home, and we had all eight lunch, and we came back, we're all sitting together, and we're waiting for them to start to call to board the plane. 00:11:15.519 --> 00:11:21.840 You know, the beginning of the boarding process, they start to call all the special people who get to go on first, right? 00:11:22.159 --> 00:11:23.039 You might have a special person. 00:11:23.360 --> 00:11:23.600 Go ahead. 00:11:23.679 --> 00:11:25.360 You say I'm special, and we might want to say I'm special. 00:11:25.440 --> 00:11:27.600 And then a few of you, you're gonna say, Well, I'm special. 00:11:27.679 --> 00:11:28.480 I would like to say that. 00:11:28.559 --> 00:11:35.919 I want you to know that I am a silver medallion, which is the lowest of the special people. 00:11:37.120 --> 00:11:41.120 But when you're a silver medallion, you're so happy to be included in the special people. 00:11:41.200 --> 00:11:51.120 I mean, you're just so happy about it that when they called for me to come up before main one and main two and main three, main four, you know, right? 00:11:51.279 --> 00:11:57.360 And so they called me and and and I walked up and I'm like, see ya to the team, you know, like see you later. 00:11:57.440 --> 00:11:58.159 I'm out of here. 00:11:58.240 --> 00:12:07.919 And I weave my way through the people, just cruising through, and I go to show my boarding pass to the to the ticketing agent, and it says main two on it. 00:12:08.720 --> 00:12:10.399 You imagine how embarrassed I was. 00:12:10.879 --> 00:12:12.080 It's humiliating. 00:12:12.320 --> 00:12:14.480 I have to explain to him, no, I'm silver. 00:12:14.559 --> 00:12:16.080 Don't you know, don't you know who I am? 00:12:16.159 --> 00:12:18.639 I'm I'm not main two, right? 00:12:18.799 --> 00:12:20.320 I mean, oh my gosh. 00:12:20.639 --> 00:12:23.840 And he sees silvers, oh, I'm sorry, and so finally I get to walk on. 00:12:23.919 --> 00:12:26.399 It was such an easy, I just walk down the ramp. 00:12:26.480 --> 00:12:27.200 There's no line. 00:12:27.279 --> 00:12:37.679 I walk on the plane, I put my bag up, I get comfortable, and by the time main one, especially, by the time main two comes on, I'm watching a movie, I'm chill, I'm relaxed. 00:12:38.480 --> 00:12:38.799 Right? 00:12:38.879 --> 00:12:39.600 And I love it. 00:12:39.679 --> 00:12:41.039 Can I just be honest about that? 00:12:41.279 --> 00:12:43.120 I mean, who doesn't? 00:12:43.519 --> 00:12:47.919 I love how easy that I also love how special I feel. 00:12:49.120 --> 00:12:50.799 I have a throne. 00:12:52.159 --> 00:12:52.639 Right? 00:12:52.879 --> 00:12:56.480 And I can look down on every the little silver medallion throne. 00:12:56.559 --> 00:12:58.000 What a silly little throne, right? 00:12:58.159 --> 00:13:00.159 We'll take we will take anything. 00:13:00.399 --> 00:13:08.159 We'll take anything and make it a throne, much less the bigger ways that we build a throne to actually oppress people. 00:13:11.679 --> 00:13:17.519 I mean we can we can do it by you build a you can build thrones by living in comparison to other people. 00:13:19.200 --> 00:13:24.639 Well, I don't do that, and I don't do that, and I don't live like that, and I'm like them, and I don't, you know, that first point arrests this morning. 00:13:24.720 --> 00:13:25.360 I don't know about that one. 00:13:25.440 --> 00:13:26.320 I'm gonna have to work through that. 00:13:26.399 --> 00:13:28.159 I certainly don't think that about, you know. 00:13:29.519 --> 00:13:35.679 It's so easy to build thrones in comparison to other people just to build up your own value. 00:13:37.440 --> 00:13:42.639 And what God is saying is how come to overthrow the thrones of your heart. 00:13:43.440 --> 00:13:45.120 It's not a great way to live. 00:13:45.360 --> 00:13:52.480 Now that's humbling, but it becomes freeing when we receive the rescue of the gospel. 00:13:53.279 --> 00:13:59.440 That our story doesn't have to be that we live in such a self-justifying manner. 00:13:59.519 --> 00:14:05.759 I mean, imagine if you have to keep up your silver medallion status for your actual self-worth for your entire life. 00:14:07.840 --> 00:14:11.120 Now, I love to read Martin Luther's, he's a theologian in the 1500s. 00:14:11.200 --> 00:14:13.840 I love to leave what he what he says about this passage. 00:14:14.159 --> 00:14:16.159 A couple years ago, we read this uh this quote. 00:14:16.240 --> 00:14:17.200 I'll read it again. 00:14:17.440 --> 00:14:24.720 The stress, and this passage, this is Martin Luther, that the stress should not be on the lowest state, but on the word regarded. 00:14:24.879 --> 00:14:26.240 So he's talking about verse 52 there. 00:14:26.320 --> 00:14:28.960 We have a little bit different language in our verse there. 00:14:29.120 --> 00:14:33.039 The stress should not be on the lowest state, but on the word regarded. 00:14:33.360 --> 00:14:37.840 Mary's low estate is not to be praised, but God's regard. 00:14:38.000 --> 00:14:40.879 As when a prince gives his hand to a beggar. 00:14:41.039 --> 00:14:45.840 The meanness of the beggar is not to be praised, but the graciousness and the goodness of the prince. 00:14:46.000 --> 00:14:46.879 Luther goes on. 00:14:47.039 --> 00:15:00.879 You must not only think and speak of lowliness, but come into it, sink into it, utterly helpless, that God alone may save you. 00:15:01.039 --> 00:15:05.600 Or at any rate, should it not happen, you should at least desire it and not shrink. 00:15:05.840 --> 00:15:16.559 For this reason, we are Christians and have the gospel, that we may fall into distress and lowliness, and that God thereby may have his work in us. 00:15:18.399 --> 00:15:25.919 And what this means is it means we don't have to build thrones to self-justify or build our self-righteousness and our righteousness to report or report back to God. 00:15:26.080 --> 00:15:32.320 It actually means that we get to live in ongoing repentance and falling back into Jesus because Jesus' work is enough for us. 00:15:32.559 --> 00:15:35.519 Not our work for him, it's his work for us. 00:15:36.320 --> 00:15:39.759 Our sin is put upon the cross, his righteousness is given to us. 00:15:39.919 --> 00:15:46.799 What good news! You see how layered what Mary's doing here. 00:15:47.600 --> 00:16:00.240 She speaks against an oppressive system, she speaks against the people who abuse power, and at the same time, there starts to be even this deeper level of the gospel story unfolding for us about the thrones of our own hearts. 00:16:00.559 --> 00:16:04.399 That we can be delivered, the Messiah, the deliverer. 00:16:05.519 --> 00:16:13.440 It's ultimately not a political deliverance, it's a deliverance from our own sin, our own selfishness and self-justification. 00:16:13.600 --> 00:16:23.440 Point number three, we welcome our lowliness because we are always welcomed in God's unending love and redemption of our imperfect selves. 00:16:23.519 --> 00:16:25.120 That's a long sentence without it on the screens. 00:16:25.360 --> 00:16:26.080 Let me say it again. 00:16:26.240 --> 00:16:37.360 We welcome our lowliness because we are always welcome in God's unending love and redemption of our imperfect selves. 00:16:39.039 --> 00:16:50.399 Last week, Christy was gone on a cheerleading competition with our oldest, and she did survive a cheerleading competition with our oldest in Daytona with a group of five other girls in a room. 00:16:50.559 --> 00:17:05.599 And so Saturday I had two other girls at home, and there's other girls from the neighborhood playing in the backyard and all around, and I have my chore list, and so unfortunately, our girls are old enough that they can kind of play and coexist, and then just when somebody's hurt, they come back in that kind of situation with that age. 00:17:05.759 --> 00:17:16.640 And so I'm going through my chores and I'm out in the garage and fixing the garage door opener, and I'm I'm redoing the setting, one door keeps bouncing up and down, I'm redoing the settings, and you know, pray for me on that, it's still not fixed. 00:17:16.799 --> 00:17:39.920 But unfortunately, I kind of make it through that, I think I got it fixed, and so I finish that, I get back in the house, and I get back in the house, I discover other things have been going on while I've been out, you know, in the garage, and so I discover that, that's interesting, and then I discover that uh the girls had taken some of Christy's purses from her closet, like nice purses, and and they're playing with them in the muddy backyard. 00:17:40.480 --> 00:17:46.559 And I don't know a lot, but I was pretty sure that this wasn't okay. 00:17:49.359 --> 00:18:14.880 And so I pull aside one particular child, I was pretty sure it had something to do with it, and daughter, and you know, we have our chat, and I love you, that was wrong, and I love you, and you're gonna have time out, and I love you, and you know, and and you know, and hey, that purse was blah blah blah, and that's worth so much, and you know, you know, that kind of kicks in at some point with me, and and how much do you value that, and you don't value, you know, and to get into that, and that's all real helpful, you know, very helpful. 00:18:15.599 --> 00:18:25.279 But part of it was you need to call to apologize to mom, and I I watched her you know face get very sad, and she's a human being like me, and so she can she can do that pretty well. 00:18:25.599 --> 00:18:37.519 Uh but it seemed pretty sincere, and she calls, and and Christy, uh incredible, she says over the phone, I can I can't believe you did that. 00:18:37.680 --> 00:18:41.359 You know, that purse costs, blah blah blah, and you don't value anything. 00:18:42.000 --> 00:18:43.599 No, of course she didn't say that, right? 00:18:43.680 --> 00:18:45.680 Like, no, she didn't she didn't say that. 00:18:46.960 --> 00:18:48.319 That's sort of what I said. 00:18:48.480 --> 00:18:52.559 What she said was that she said, Oh, she said, thank you for telling me. 00:18:53.359 --> 00:18:58.640 It means so much that you would you would call and you would you would tell me that. 00:19:00.400 --> 00:19:02.400 That you would call and apologize. 00:19:03.359 --> 00:19:03.680 Wow. 00:19:03.759 --> 00:19:13.599 And I'm sitting there just kind of listening to that interchange and watching kind of relief and relationship being built up here and grace within the offense. 00:19:13.759 --> 00:19:15.119 That's what the gospel is. 00:19:15.680 --> 00:19:16.880 Grace within the offense. 00:19:16.960 --> 00:19:22.160 And yes, also the second time I've complimented my wife in one sermon, I'd also like to just note that. 00:19:24.640 --> 00:19:29.200 And that was just that was just a picture of imperfect parental love. 00:19:29.759 --> 00:19:30.000 Right? 00:19:30.079 --> 00:19:31.200 And it's not perfect. 00:19:32.160 --> 00:19:33.839 She's not perfect at that, I'm not perfect at that. 00:19:34.400 --> 00:19:56.240 None of us are, we don't get that completely perfect, but what God is opening up for us in the Messiah is a deliverance from all the ways we self-justify and even all the ways that we view Him and calling us into to view Him, definitely the way the New Testament portrays is a Father, as an Abba Father. 00:19:56.640 --> 00:20:08.319 And that is not a reflection, it's not a reflection of the parental love you experience, it's the perfection of the parental love you ever experienced. 00:20:09.200 --> 00:20:17.440 When we glance back through this passage, what I did at the end of the week, I just sort of read back through it because I was like, oh, there's a lot going on here. 00:20:17.519 --> 00:20:27.440 I mean, there's sort of like this like savvy, intellectual, smart, bold, but virtuous, humble, you know, woman here speaking, and that's that's so that's so fantastic for us to get. 00:20:27.519 --> 00:20:34.559 And then there's this kind of like connotation against the Roman Empire and oppressive uh you know power being used, and that's incredible. 00:20:34.640 --> 00:20:37.599 And then there's this part about the thrones of our arts, and that's incredible. 00:20:37.680 --> 00:20:39.279 And I just kind of read back through it. 00:20:39.440 --> 00:20:50.480 So if I just kind of let go of that, just kind of read back through this again, and here's what jumped out is when we glance back through it, Mary over and over and over, she's describing how good God is. 00:20:50.880 --> 00:20:58.559 Verse 47, God my Savior, 48, he has looked on me, verse 49, for he is mighty, holy is his name. 00:20:58.720 --> 00:21:11.839 Verse 50, his mercy, verse 51, he has shown strength, 52, he humbled the proud, verse 53, he filled the hungry, 54, he helped his people, and verse 55, he spoke to us. 00:21:15.440 --> 00:21:17.599 And that's what he's doing in Jesus. 00:21:18.240 --> 00:21:21.599 He's speaking a word of grace into a world of demand. 00:21:22.640 --> 00:21:29.119 And what he speaks to you this morning is the same thing he speaks to spoke to the shepherds. 00:21:30.000 --> 00:21:31.039 You remember it? 00:21:31.680 --> 00:21:39.599 If you're not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all people. 00:21:39.839 --> 00:21:40.799 Let's pray together. 00:21:41.119 --> 00:21:44.319 God, thank you for this good word, your word of grace. 00:21:45.440 --> 00:21:58.880 That you both stand for justice in this world against systems of power and abuse, oppression, bias, prejudice, and you also come to speak against all of that that's in our hearts that we build up in ways of thrones. 00:22:01.920 --> 00:22:12.960 May we move greater and greater to way to see that you are not an oppressive God trying to dictate our behavior or control us, but to call us into greater freedom because of your grace and mercy. 00:22:13.200 --> 00:22:20.079 To call us out of our self-justification and self-righteousness and into a righteousness by Christ alone. 00:22:24.000 --> 00:22:38.960 God, we thank you for the goodness of your word that has so many truths in it, that keeps opening up in greater and greater and greater ways, and would our hearts open up in greater and greater ways, and would we be open to the move of your spirit? 00:22:39.200 --> 00:22:42.240 Would we be able to say this morning, have your way in me? 00:22:43.759 --> 00:22:46.319 I am your servant, have your way in me. 00:22:47.759 --> 00:22:51.279 Whatever throne, whatever throne, God. 00:22:53.039 --> 00:22:54.319 You can overthrow it. 00:22:56.079 --> 00:22:57.519 In Jesus' name we pray. 00:22:58.000 --> 00:22:58.559 Amen.