WEBVTT 00:00:00.160 --> 00:00:05.679 So it's our fourth Sunday of Advent, and we are one day away from Christmas Eve. 00:00:06.400 --> 00:00:09.119 Perhaps for some of you guys, y'all will do back to back. 00:00:09.279 --> 00:00:13.919 We do have Christmas Eve services tomorrow at 3:30 and 5 o'clock. 00:00:14.000 --> 00:00:15.679 So you're welcome to come to one of those. 00:00:15.759 --> 00:00:19.120 There's child care for both of those services as well. 00:00:19.199 --> 00:00:21.839 There's a couple other announcements there in the bulletin. 00:00:22.079 --> 00:00:30.079 We have uh we do not have family worship next Sunday on the 30th, but we have main service at 10:30, just like normal, as well. 00:00:30.160 --> 00:00:34.880 We have a parenting conference uh the first weekend of February, so there's some details there. 00:00:34.960 --> 00:00:42.159 We're gonna talk a lot more about that at the beginning of January, but you can go online and register for that now, and we'd love for you to come to that. 00:00:42.240 --> 00:00:51.359 That's$20 a person, but if you look at that and maybe finances are tight for you, uh we would love to help you out with a scholarship, and so you can reach out to us uh via email if that's your situation. 00:00:51.439 --> 00:00:52.320 We'd love to help you out. 00:00:52.399 --> 00:00:56.000 We'd like to just get you there if you're a parent. 00:00:56.079 --> 00:00:59.439 Uh let me pray for us before we look at our text this morning. 00:00:59.600 --> 00:01:07.040 God, we thank you that at this time we can open a text and look at how Mary is hearing and responding to you. 00:01:07.439 --> 00:01:12.879 Uh let us in this moment hear from you and even us respond to you. 00:01:13.120 --> 00:01:22.159 As we hear a great announcement that is made to us and made to our hearts, and may we respond in like ways as Mary. 00:01:22.319 --> 00:01:27.920 Have mercy on us, sinners who are in need of such grace, especially the one who speaks. 00:01:28.000 --> 00:01:28.719 In Jesus' name. 00:01:28.959 --> 00:01:29.519 Amen. 00:01:29.760 --> 00:01:40.719 So as Christmas cards come into our house, our our girls love to, they like to open up the envelopes, they take them out, they look at all the people in the cards, and then they tape them up on a door in our kitchen. 00:01:40.799 --> 00:01:44.560 And so this is going on day to day, or whenever the cards come in. 00:01:44.719 --> 00:01:48.799 Now, our Christmas card, right, in every Christmas card, it's a snapshot, right? 00:01:48.879 --> 00:01:52.480 It's a snapshot of joy, and we don't see the moments before. 00:01:52.560 --> 00:01:57.359 Um, if you have children, what's going on there to get your children still, or the moments afterward, right? 00:01:57.439 --> 00:02:00.159 It's just one little snapshot, right? 00:02:00.319 --> 00:02:03.200 And we receive them from other people, or you see someone else's card. 00:02:03.359 --> 00:02:09.120 I mean, our Christmas card is us standing on the boardwalk at the beach and the sun was setting perfectly. 00:02:09.199 --> 00:02:10.080 Like it's amazing. 00:02:10.479 --> 00:02:16.879 I mean, I've looked at this picture and thought to literally, I've walked by our dining room table where they've been laid out with the envelopes. 00:02:16.960 --> 00:02:20.240 I've walked by and thought to myself, I want a family like that. 00:02:20.479 --> 00:02:22.879 Like that's the family that I want. 00:02:22.960 --> 00:02:25.039 I want to be a part of that family. 00:02:25.199 --> 00:02:28.159 And it's my family, but I want to be a part of that. 00:02:28.319 --> 00:02:31.919 And that's this feeling when we get all these different Christmas cards, right? 00:02:32.000 --> 00:02:33.759 Because it's a snapshot. 00:02:34.000 --> 00:02:37.039 And oftentimes reality can just feel different. 00:02:37.199 --> 00:02:40.400 It can just feel different than that sort of snapshot. 00:02:40.639 --> 00:02:40.960 Right? 00:02:41.120 --> 00:02:48.400 You don't see, like, say in our Christmas card, uh, this you know, shot of us standing on this boardwall at the sun sets behind us, I reach my hand out, take a little selfie. 00:02:48.560 --> 00:02:51.680 What you don't see is us yelling at our children to get their hands down, right? 00:02:51.759 --> 00:02:56.000 You don't see that, you don't see the fact that it is burning hot out. 00:02:56.240 --> 00:02:58.000 It is still hot out. 00:02:58.319 --> 00:03:04.000 It's July on the panhandle of Florida, the sun is setting, and you're still just hot. 00:03:04.319 --> 00:03:06.000 You've just been hot all day. 00:03:06.240 --> 00:03:12.319 You don't see that dinner was hard, like that was difficult, and to try to get to the beach at sunset, that was a difficult process. 00:03:12.479 --> 00:03:18.159 You didn't see that there's a lot of traffic like along that boardwalk avenue to get over to the boardwalk. 00:03:18.240 --> 00:03:20.080 Like, we don't see all that, right? 00:03:20.159 --> 00:03:29.520 Like our tendency, even my tendency, even with my own Christmas card, our tendency is to look at someone else's life and go, oh man, that must be nice. 00:03:29.840 --> 00:03:32.719 Oh, that must be good, oh that must be easy, right? 00:03:32.800 --> 00:03:33.919 Wait, and we can forget. 00:03:34.000 --> 00:03:37.520 What we can forget is that blessing and difficulty always coexist. 00:03:38.000 --> 00:03:42.240 And that blessing and difficulty, they're in the same thing. 00:03:42.960 --> 00:03:45.039 They coexist together. 00:03:46.080 --> 00:03:53.680 And that's the kind of the secret here is that blessing completely can be found inside of difficulty. 00:03:53.919 --> 00:03:57.039 That in lowliness we can be blessed. 00:03:57.199 --> 00:03:57.680 Here's what I mean. 00:03:57.759 --> 00:03:59.840 So our text this morning is Luke chapter 1. 00:04:00.159 --> 00:04:02.240 We have these two parts in this passage. 00:04:02.400 --> 00:04:03.360 I love this passage. 00:04:03.599 --> 00:04:06.400 We have what's called traditionally the annunciation. 00:04:06.560 --> 00:04:09.280 Something is announced to Mary, and then she responds. 00:04:09.360 --> 00:04:10.800 She goes and visits her cousin Mary. 00:04:10.879 --> 00:04:15.039 I mean Elizabeth, and as she's with Elizabeth, she responds with what's called the magnificant. 00:04:15.120 --> 00:04:17.759 So we have the annunciation, and then we have the magnificant. 00:04:17.839 --> 00:04:20.639 The magnificant is her responding with this song. 00:04:20.720 --> 00:04:24.240 So these two different parts in this text in Luke chapter one. 00:04:24.560 --> 00:04:27.279 Now we have to remember what Mary's situation was. 00:04:27.600 --> 00:04:33.199 Mary was engaged to be married, but she's probably, she's young. 00:04:33.279 --> 00:04:37.199 Yeah, they married younger back then, 13, 14 years old, a teenager. 00:04:37.439 --> 00:04:40.560 She had no religious status, she didn't have a big resume. 00:04:41.120 --> 00:04:44.399 She's just sort of a, she's just a girl. 00:04:44.720 --> 00:04:46.560 She's just a girl. 00:04:46.959 --> 00:04:49.199 And God comes to her in a dream. 00:04:49.360 --> 00:04:54.879 This angel comes to her and says, Greetings, O favored One, the Lord is with you. 00:04:56.160 --> 00:04:57.839 And this is the annunciation. 00:04:58.000 --> 00:05:01.199 God's saying to her, You're greatly favored. 00:05:02.240 --> 00:05:03.199 No resume. 00:05:03.920 --> 00:05:05.920 She's not religiously elite. 00:05:06.240 --> 00:05:09.120 And what a relieving thought that is, just right away. 00:05:09.360 --> 00:05:22.560 What an unbelievable thought that you, like in your mess and your lowliness, me, us, and our mess and difficulty, and no resume or lack of resume, or not a great resume, a moral resume or religious resume. 00:05:22.639 --> 00:05:26.800 We're not religiously elite, none of that, that we could be favored. 00:05:26.959 --> 00:05:28.879 That's what's going on here with Mary. 00:05:29.439 --> 00:05:31.439 She's a humble girl. 00:05:32.319 --> 00:05:33.839 What a relieving thought. 00:05:33.920 --> 00:05:37.439 And what we see here is we see the welcoming heart of God. 00:05:38.240 --> 00:05:39.360 And we see the gospel. 00:05:39.439 --> 00:05:40.639 And something happens to Mary. 00:05:40.800 --> 00:05:43.920 This message of grace, it does, it does something in her. 00:05:44.000 --> 00:05:48.399 It becomes a defining announcement to her, to who she is. 00:05:48.959 --> 00:05:49.839 We know about these, right? 00:05:50.240 --> 00:05:55.199 Maybe somebody said something to you, a teacher said something to you, and it was just like, man, it was the right words at the right time. 00:05:55.360 --> 00:06:03.279 It became so defining for you, or a parent said the right things at the right time, or a friend, or somebody came, a boss came along. 00:06:03.519 --> 00:06:11.680 Six years ago, about this week, I resigned from the church I used to work at and I had worked at there for eight years. 00:06:11.759 --> 00:06:15.920 And I walked into my boss's office six years ago. 00:06:16.160 --> 00:06:22.079 And I was incredibly afraid because I was leaving a church I loved, I was leaving a secure job. 00:06:22.560 --> 00:06:24.720 Christy and I, we had two kids, she was pregnant. 00:06:24.800 --> 00:06:31.680 So I had a lot of fear, a lot of fear, and sadness, and sadness as well, because I was leaving a place that we loved. 00:06:32.000 --> 00:06:33.360 We loved our church. 00:06:33.600 --> 00:06:45.439 And I walk into my boss's office, I sit down, and I sit down in the same exact chair that I sat in eight years before when I walked in to interview for that job. 00:06:45.600 --> 00:06:49.279 And when I walked in eight years before, I felt like a child. 00:06:49.920 --> 00:06:52.800 Christy and I were just newly married, we had no kids. 00:06:53.519 --> 00:06:56.079 That church, that church, it grew us up. 00:06:56.639 --> 00:06:59.040 It taught me how to be a husband, it taught me how to be a dad. 00:06:59.120 --> 00:07:02.079 I'm still still learning these things, taught me how to be a pastor. 00:07:02.240 --> 00:07:08.160 And so this was emotionally a charge for me, plus all the fear, plus all the sadness. 00:07:09.439 --> 00:07:19.279 And so I tell him I'm leaving in two weeks, and it was an amazing moment because he looked at me and he says this. 00:07:19.439 --> 00:07:26.240 He says, I was waiting for the day you would come in my office and say that, because I knew you would. 00:07:27.759 --> 00:07:34.079 And this is not a guy who poured encouragement and oozed like comfort all the time. 00:07:34.160 --> 00:07:35.759 This is a matter-of-fact guy. 00:07:35.920 --> 00:07:38.959 Like, so that one sentence was unbelievable. 00:07:39.360 --> 00:07:41.120 That was huge for me. 00:07:41.519 --> 00:07:41.920 Right? 00:07:42.079 --> 00:07:51.839 And what's interesting for me, like thinking about this, is not only how generous that statement was to say that in that moment, because his life got a little bit more complicated than when I resigned, right? 00:07:52.000 --> 00:07:54.800 All of a sudden he has a position he has to fill, and how's he gonna handle it? 00:07:54.879 --> 00:07:55.920 I'm gone in two weeks, right? 00:07:56.000 --> 00:07:56.240 Right? 00:07:56.319 --> 00:07:59.839 But to say that, that's a very generous, gracious thing to say in that moment. 00:08:00.000 --> 00:08:04.560 Now, what's interesting to me is how much I needed that statement. 00:08:04.879 --> 00:08:10.720 Like how easily we are in the needy position, how hungry we are for validation. 00:08:10.879 --> 00:08:18.399 The fact that it's been six years, I don't remember anything else said to me that day, but I remember that statement. 00:08:18.560 --> 00:08:20.079 Isn't that interesting? 00:08:20.319 --> 00:08:25.040 That that's how hungry, at least I am, for affirmation. 00:08:25.920 --> 00:08:33.039 That we are in this position constantly, of this kind of needy state of looking for an announcement to us. 00:08:33.279 --> 00:08:36.000 That we're okay, that we're favored, we're good. 00:08:36.960 --> 00:08:38.639 And Mary gets one. 00:08:39.440 --> 00:08:42.720 So it's not from her boss, it's from God. 00:08:43.200 --> 00:08:45.360 You are greatly favored. 00:08:45.440 --> 00:08:49.600 And this is out of his goodness, out of his goodness, just his goodness to her. 00:08:50.399 --> 00:08:56.480 So Luke 1 keeps going on, and to Mary said, Don't be afraid, you're favored, you'll bear a son, call him Jesus. 00:08:56.559 --> 00:08:57.840 And she says, How will this be? 00:08:57.919 --> 00:08:58.720 I'm a virgin. 00:08:58.960 --> 00:09:02.720 He says, The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. 00:09:02.799 --> 00:09:06.480 Therefore, the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God. 00:09:06.639 --> 00:09:12.799 And she responds to all of this: Behold, I am the servant of the Lord, let it be to me according to your word. 00:09:12.960 --> 00:09:15.440 So there's surrender here at this point in the story. 00:09:15.519 --> 00:09:18.879 We see surrender, but we still don't see like overwhelming joy. 00:09:18.960 --> 00:09:27.600 It's sort of this like, okay, I've received this announcement upon me, I surrender to it, but yet we have not yet seen overwhelming joy. 00:09:27.759 --> 00:09:37.919 And then she goes and she visits her cousin Elizabeth, and Elizabeth, who's an older lady, old enough that she should not be getting pregnant, is pregnant. 00:09:38.720 --> 00:09:52.639 And now the two of them are together, and these gals are chatting, and they're pregnant, and Elizabeth's pregnant with John the Baptist, and Mary's pregnant with Jesus, and all of a sudden Mary begins to be overwhelmed with joy, and she bursts out in this song. 00:09:52.960 --> 00:09:55.759 It's a poem called The Magnificon. 00:09:56.480 --> 00:10:04.240 And here's what we pick up in verse 46, and Mary said, My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior. 00:10:04.480 --> 00:10:06.960 So a few points, we'll just break right there. 00:10:07.200 --> 00:10:13.600 Worship and joy, point number one, worship and joy are responses to the grace of God. 00:10:13.840 --> 00:10:16.000 Worship and joy are responses to the grace of God. 00:10:16.159 --> 00:10:20.559 Verses 46 and 47, of course, they take us into verses 48 and 49. 00:10:20.879 --> 00:10:24.960 For he has looked, so she's saying, My soul magnifies the Lord, my spirit rejoices. 00:10:25.039 --> 00:10:26.000 Okay, we got it. 00:10:26.240 --> 00:10:30.159 For he has looked on the humble estate of his servant. 00:10:30.320 --> 00:10:39.279 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. 00:10:39.840 --> 00:10:40.240 Right? 00:10:40.320 --> 00:10:45.759 So this is her response out of God looking upon her in her humble condition. 00:10:45.919 --> 00:10:48.960 Let's say you have a rich Uncle Ted, okay? 00:10:49.200 --> 00:10:53.919 You have Uncle Ted, he's wealthy, and he's been married to your Aunt Betty forever. 00:10:54.080 --> 00:10:56.559 They've been married forever, but they never had any children. 00:10:56.879 --> 00:11:14.000 And finally, when Uncle Ted is 73 years old and Aunt Betty's 72 years old, Aunt Betty passes away, and at the funeral, uh Uncle Ted pulls you aside and says, Yeah, you know, I just want to let you know with Aunt Betty passing away, I'm I'm gonna switch up my will. 00:11:14.159 --> 00:11:15.360 Remember, Uncle Ted's rich. 00:11:15.440 --> 00:11:16.559 I'm gonna switch up my will. 00:11:16.720 --> 00:11:19.120 I'm gonna leave all of my money to the children's home. 00:11:19.200 --> 00:11:26.320 And you knew exactly what he was talking about because he had poured a lot of life and time and energy and donations into this children's home that meant so much to him. 00:11:26.480 --> 00:11:30.320 So, two years later, he marries a lifelong friend. 00:11:30.559 --> 00:11:34.399 They've been friends for so long, and her husband had passed, and they marry. 00:11:34.559 --> 00:11:38.720 Two years after that, when he is 77, he gets sick. 00:11:38.879 --> 00:11:49.039 For the next ten years, this lady, this kind lady, cares for him and nurses him and bathes him and loves him and never leaves his side. 00:11:49.840 --> 00:11:57.840 And eventually Uncle Ted passes away, and it comes out that he changed his will and left all his money to her. 00:11:58.320 --> 00:12:00.639 And the children's home got nothing. 00:12:01.279 --> 00:12:02.799 Now, what happened? 00:12:03.120 --> 00:12:04.639 Did he get swindled? 00:12:05.759 --> 00:12:16.639 Well, I really doubt a lifelong friend who married at the age of 75 and nursed him for 10 years and she's now 85 was really working to this end. 00:12:16.799 --> 00:12:17.919 I really doubt that. 00:12:18.080 --> 00:12:20.559 So, what happened in my little make-believe story? 00:12:20.639 --> 00:12:22.799 But we sort of know these types of stories. 00:12:24.159 --> 00:12:28.879 Well, things change when you're sick and you're loved unconditionally. 00:12:29.200 --> 00:12:31.120 All of a sudden things change. 00:12:31.919 --> 00:12:36.240 When you're loved in a lowly estate, stuff starts changing. 00:12:36.480 --> 00:12:41.279 Scenarios change, priorities change, practices change, a plan changes. 00:12:41.679 --> 00:12:44.159 So it happened with Mary, so it happened with Uncle Ted. 00:12:44.240 --> 00:12:47.039 I could make up a million different scenarios. 00:12:47.279 --> 00:12:56.480 And the reason why is that love with no strings attached, it ends up being not the most powerless thing in the universe. 00:12:56.720 --> 00:13:04.000 Love with no strings attached ends up being the most powerful thing in the universe. 00:13:05.200 --> 00:13:13.440 And this is how grace disarms us because it says to you, I'll love you in your lowly estate, in your humble estate. 00:13:13.759 --> 00:13:18.159 While you're a mess, while you don't deserve it, while you're a sinner. 00:13:19.039 --> 00:13:23.519 And then suddenly you say, somewhere along the way, have it all. 00:13:24.080 --> 00:13:27.440 I'll change my plan, I'll change my will, you can have it. 00:13:28.159 --> 00:13:29.919 My soul magnifies you. 00:13:31.200 --> 00:13:33.039 You see, Mary's been favored. 00:13:33.360 --> 00:13:35.759 He looked upon me in my humble estate. 00:13:36.080 --> 00:13:40.000 She's disarmed into worship and joy. 00:13:40.480 --> 00:13:42.559 Let's keep reading, verse 50. 00:13:43.039 --> 00:13:47.279 And his mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation. 00:13:47.440 --> 00:13:49.519 He has shown strength with his arm. 00:13:50.159 --> 00:13:52.799 He has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts. 00:13:52.960 --> 00:13:56.720 He has brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of humble estate. 00:13:56.799 --> 00:13:59.279 He has filled the hungry with good things. 00:13:59.679 --> 00:14:01.919 And the rich he has sent away empty. 00:14:02.240 --> 00:14:10.000 He has helped his servant Israel in remembrance of his mercy, as he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham, and to his offspring forever. 00:14:10.159 --> 00:14:17.200 So point number two is this your lowliness ends up being a gift, because in lowliness you know God's love. 00:14:17.440 --> 00:14:20.320 It's not that God is anti-rich. 00:14:20.879 --> 00:14:28.159 It's that God is saying that in your pride you're unable to even know that you need Him. 00:14:28.480 --> 00:14:32.240 In your pride, you are rejecting the welcoming heart of God. 00:14:34.240 --> 00:14:41.919 In your lowliness, and we can say in your imperfection, in your recognition of your sin and your brokenness, it ends up being a gift. 00:14:42.159 --> 00:14:50.559 It ends up being a gift because it's there in the humble estate that you can understand that you have been loved by God despite it all. 00:14:50.799 --> 00:14:58.080 Love with no strings attached, which ends up being the most powerful, transformative thing in the universe. 00:14:58.240 --> 00:15:13.679 Let's say you're out this afternoon, you go for a walk, and you have your headphones in, you're listening to your jam, your podcast, whatever, you're walking along, and you're just walking along, you're in your walk-in zone, and then all of a sudden your neighbor, she pulls up right in front of you, pulls the car over, kind of cuts you off, and she hops out and she has a gift for you. 00:15:13.759 --> 00:15:22.480 She grabs out of the backseat and she comes up and she says, Oh, I saw this at Kohl's, and it looked just like you, and I just wanted to buy it for you. 00:15:22.559 --> 00:15:26.799 And I know we don't usually exchange presents, but I just want to give this to you. 00:15:26.960 --> 00:15:28.799 And she hands it to you. 00:15:29.360 --> 00:15:33.360 And what you know is you you've gotten her nothing for Christmas. 00:15:34.320 --> 00:15:39.279 You don't have anything with you that you could pretend like you could give to her. 00:15:39.679 --> 00:15:41.840 You don't have a present at the house. 00:15:42.799 --> 00:15:44.159 And what do you say? 00:15:46.399 --> 00:15:51.360 Well, usually we would say, oh yeah, I have your present at the house. 00:15:53.120 --> 00:15:53.440 Right? 00:15:53.840 --> 00:15:54.480 We would. 00:15:55.360 --> 00:15:58.159 I'm still rapping! I got a lot of rapping to do. 00:16:00.240 --> 00:16:01.279 That's what we would say. 00:16:03.120 --> 00:16:05.120 And she would say, Oh, yeah, whatever, whatever. 00:16:05.440 --> 00:16:06.799 She sort of was a lying. 00:16:08.399 --> 00:16:12.159 She would say, I just thought this was perfect for you. 00:16:13.600 --> 00:16:16.639 Now why wouldn't you just say thank you? 00:16:16.960 --> 00:16:18.480 Why wouldn't I just say thank you? 00:16:20.879 --> 00:16:23.440 Because if you did, you would be disarmed. 00:16:24.639 --> 00:16:27.600 You would be in a humble estate. 00:16:28.960 --> 00:16:31.440 And sometimes that can be a tough position to be in. 00:16:31.519 --> 00:16:33.279 We have a hard time with that sometimes. 00:16:33.519 --> 00:16:36.559 This great Christmas quote by theologian William Willemont. 00:16:36.799 --> 00:16:37.600 I read it last Christmas. 00:16:37.679 --> 00:16:38.320 I'll read it again. 00:16:38.399 --> 00:16:39.120 Here it is. 00:16:39.360 --> 00:16:41.759 We prefer to think of ourselves as givers. 00:16:42.960 --> 00:16:58.080 Powerful, competent, self-sufficient, capable people whose goodness motivates us to employ some of our power, competence, and gifts to benefit the less fortunate, which is a direct contradiction of the biblical account of the first Christmas. 00:16:58.320 --> 00:17:04.160 There we are portrayed not as the givers we wish we were, but as the receivers we are. 00:17:04.400 --> 00:17:13.920 Luke and Matthew go to great lengths to demonstrate that we, with our power, generosity, competence, and capabilities, had little to do with God's work in Jesus. 00:17:14.240 --> 00:17:31.039 God wanted to do something for us so strange, so utterly beyond the bounds of human imagination, so foreign to human projection, that God had to resort to angels, pregnant virgins, and stars in the sky to get it done. 00:17:31.359 --> 00:17:34.480 We didn't think of it, understand it, or approve it. 00:17:34.640 --> 00:17:38.960 All we could do at Bethlehem was receive it. 00:17:39.599 --> 00:17:45.680 So point number three is this: in our lowliness we find a song of his goodness. 00:17:46.160 --> 00:17:55.759 So in our imperfection, our brokenness, our recognition of our sin, that humble estate, in that position, what's interesting is we don't move more and more into self-pity. 00:17:56.079 --> 00:18:01.440 We move more and more into an astonishment of God's goodness. 00:18:01.680 --> 00:18:06.720 Mary's song, this magnificent, it's not all about her and the pity of her humble estate. 00:18:06.799 --> 00:18:14.240 It's her recognizing that and moving into how good he is, how redemptive he is. 00:18:15.440 --> 00:18:23.839 The gospel's not good people with great character getting to be accepted by God. 00:18:24.559 --> 00:18:25.119 It's not. 00:18:25.680 --> 00:18:28.559 The gospel is not you be good and then you'll be blessed. 00:18:28.880 --> 00:18:37.440 The gospel says it's those of us who realize we are poor and lowly that will be gathered up and redeemed. 00:18:37.759 --> 00:18:44.880 Because your newness, your new life, your saving, your salvation, your holiness, is not in your merit. 00:18:45.680 --> 00:18:47.680 It's not in you being the great giver. 00:18:47.839 --> 00:18:49.680 It's you being the receiver. 00:18:51.039 --> 00:18:51.359 Right? 00:18:51.519 --> 00:18:56.720 Our sin is taken from us in the gift, in the gift of imputation. 00:18:56.880 --> 00:19:05.599 Our sin is taken from us and put on the cross of Jesus, and his righteousness is given to us in that gift of imputation. 00:19:05.920 --> 00:19:08.559 So we are his forever beloved. 00:19:08.960 --> 00:19:10.880 The poor are lifted up. 00:19:11.039 --> 00:19:13.440 This is what makes Christmas glorious. 00:19:13.680 --> 00:19:15.599 God pursuing you. 00:19:18.880 --> 00:19:22.720 And so I love this text because this text is the gospel. 00:19:22.960 --> 00:19:34.559 An annunciation and then a song, an announcement to us, to you, of your absolution and your acceptance from God out of his goodness to you. 00:19:34.640 --> 00:19:42.160 And that is that is said to you, said in you, over you, proclaimed over you by his goodness, by this Jesus. 00:19:42.319 --> 00:19:48.240 And our response in some degree, at some point, is a song about his goodness. 00:19:48.559 --> 00:19:51.039 You are magnificent. 00:19:51.359 --> 00:19:53.519 So, my brothers and sisters, Merry Christmas. 00:19:53.680 --> 00:19:57.279 May you be lowly that you may find a song about his goodness. 00:19:57.440 --> 00:19:58.400 Let's pray together. 00:19:58.720 --> 00:20:01.039 God, thank you for your goodness to us. 00:20:01.759 --> 00:20:05.599 That in our humble estate you reach down. 00:20:07.200 --> 00:20:09.359 In our humble estate, you love us. 00:20:10.640 --> 00:20:13.759 Help us to see you in greater and greater ways. 00:20:14.000 --> 00:20:18.640 Help us to see ourselves in greater and greater ways that we might be like Mary. 00:20:19.039 --> 00:20:23.599 To say in our humble estate, you have favored us. 00:20:24.960 --> 00:20:30.480 How transformative it is to receive such love with no strings attached. 00:20:30.799 --> 00:20:35.839 That propels us to joy and worship and peace and transformation. 00:20:40.319 --> 00:20:50.640 God, may we see Christmas in a greater way as we remove ourselves as the givers and see ourselves as the receivers of your great gift. 00:20:50.880 --> 00:20:51.680 In Jesus' name. 00:20:52.160 --> 00:20:52.799 Amen.