SPEAKER_00: This podcast is the Ministry of Grand Parkway Baptist Church.
SPEAKER_00: For more information on our church, please visit Grandparkway.org.
SPEAKER_00: Well, as you know, uh we have been uh going through this is the Advent season, uh, and so we are in week three of Advent, which is traditionally known as kind of the Joy Sunday, uh, which is why we we read about joy, we uh we are we are singing about joy uh and it kind of just encapsulates all the whole service, much less our lives.
SPEAKER_00: Uh and so uh uh this is kind of that third week, like I said, and and if you're anything like me, uh we kind of get about halfway through Advent and we kind of get to the point where we go, you know what, I get it.
SPEAKER_00: I get it, we're waiting, we're hoping, it's dark, uh, you know, the lights are gonna do crazy things, and and we kind of you know might start to lose sight of the fact that this is a really significant time, not just in the year, but in the in the season of our soul.
SPEAKER_00: Uh because over the next couple of weeks, uh your scale, your schedule and your calendar is gonna start filling up and ramping up uh with things that are much less significant than drawing near to God.
SPEAKER_00: And so uh as we get pressurized over the next couple of weeks, the call will be even more important for us to slow down, for us to just be, for us to just be drawn near into the gentleness but yet strength of our God and our King.
SPEAKER_00: And so that is uh is the call for all of us today.
SPEAKER_00: And certainly uh we're about to read about a woman who exemplified this and the way that she lived her life.
SPEAKER_00: Uh you may know her as Mary, Mother of God, you may know her as the Virgin Mary, you may know her as Madonna.
SPEAKER_00: She probably has a uh a thousand different names throughout the ages, uh, but we'll just know her as Mary, the woman who gave birth to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Uh and we're gonna start in Luke chapter one, and we'll be in verse 46 as we do that today.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if you know uh my background, but uh I grew up Catholic, and uh one of the reasons why I wanted to preach on Mary today because when we were uh planning out Advent, we started to talk about, well, we've done kind of the themes of Advent for several weeks in a row.
SPEAKER_00: How can we tie in those themes with some characters of Advent?
SPEAKER_00: And so uh Neil preached on Anna a couple weeks ago, and then last week he talked about the the Jesus that's coming again, not just the one who's come, but he's coming again.
SPEAKER_00: And then today uh I get to preach on Mary, and the reason why I was just jumped at the chance to preach on Mary was because uh I don't know if you know this, but within our midst, we have a lot of ex-Catholics in the room, uh, of which I'm one, and so I grew up Catholic until I was 20.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know what that meant really back then.
SPEAKER_00: I know that it meant I had to do a lot of things I didn't want to do, uh, and little weird things like, you know, sit in a room and confess all my sin to a stranger, uh, which I did.
SPEAKER_00: And when I came around the curtain, so to speak, apparently all the kids that went before me uh when my first communion, my only my only confession, uh uh when I came around the curtain and I and I confessed my sins uh to the priest, he was shocked to see someone face to face and not behind the veil.
SPEAKER_00: Uh oh, hello.
SPEAKER_00: I was like, well, hello, I might as well do this thing.
SPEAKER_00: If we're gonna do this, let's just get on it.
SPEAKER_00: Uh and so uh so that's the kind of stuff that I grew up with, and many of us in this room uh either are we we are we came from that background or we definitely know someone from that background.
SPEAKER_00: And here's what I know from that background, and even reading and studying, is that is that Catholics, and this is I'm please hear my heart in this.
SPEAKER_00: I come from the background, I'm not saying Catholics are bad and Baptists are good.
SPEAKER_00: That's what any good Catholic probably will hear, but that's not what I'm saying.
SPEAKER_00: Instead, what I'm saying is growing up in that particular tradition, uh, and you almost worship, you do worship Mary.
SPEAKER_00: Uh I did, uh, even unknowingly, and then you come out of that and you almost, and all of a sudden you get you have a conversion experience, and you go to Baptists and Bible call uh Bible uh churches, and there's no talk of Mary at all.
SPEAKER_00: Uh she's like non-existent, she's the taboo person you can't talk about, apparently.
SPEAKER_00: And so there was like this whiplash uh from talking about Mary and she's everywhere to where is Mary?
SPEAKER_00: I don't know where Mary is.
SPEAKER_00: Uh and so uh so that's so let's just bring it back into focus because it is important, right?
SPEAKER_00: It is important that Mary's in the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because she's in the Bible, and this is the inspired word of God, and so we're gonna read about a woman named Mary.
SPEAKER_00: But before we read about her, we've got to uh kind of understand her situation a little bit.
SPEAKER_00: And today's title of the sermon, which uh you know is great, I guess, it's three enduring things about Mary's Savior.
SPEAKER_00: What's great about it is that Mary had a savior.
SPEAKER_00: Now that escaped my attention for years and years and years.
SPEAKER_00: That this Mary, whom we'll read about, will start to give joy and give praise to God, her Savior.
SPEAKER_00: She needed rescuing, just like you and just like me.
SPEAKER_00: And so no wonder we have this beautiful song, what many people will call the magnificat, which I looked up.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know what it means still.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, but it's the Mary song.
SPEAKER_00: It's easier if we just say Mary's song.
SPEAKER_00: Uh and so basically, let's get a little context here.
SPEAKER_00: Uh Mary was possibly illiterate.
SPEAKER_00: She was definitely poor.
SPEAKER_00: She grew up in a small town named Nazareth up near the Sea of Galilee.
SPEAKER_00: And at this point in the story, we know, almost with certainty, we know that she was around 12 or 13 years of age.
SPEAKER_00: We know that because uh uh of Jewish uh history and Jewish tradition would have said that a young woman would need to be betrothed or committed to a man by about 12 and a half or 13 years of age.
SPEAKER_00: Do we have any 12 and a half or 13 years of age people in here?
SPEAKER_00: Anyone?
SPEAKER_00: No?
SPEAKER_00: They're all out at the warehouse.
SPEAKER_00: Beautiful, that's where they should be.
SPEAKER_00: I was about to kick you out.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if you knew that, but I was about to kick you out.
SPEAKER_00: Uh uh but 12 and a half, 13 years of age.
SPEAKER_00: We know that based on custom, and so you might think to yourself, number one, Lance is going to start screaming because of the rain, and that's true.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, but you also might start to think to yourself, okay, what is the deal with such a young woman, a young girl, in their custom on a normal basis being committed to another man?
SPEAKER_00: Uh basically the there was two benefits.
SPEAKER_00: One was to the father.
SPEAKER_00: The father got gr much benefit in this whole situation because at some point at the betrothal, the quote unquote, the engagement, uh, the father and the husband would have come up with a bride price.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, now that sounds very bad in our culture, but back then it was absolutely normal, and in many cultures today, it's absolutely normal.
SPEAKER_00: Meaning that the groom to be would pay the father a price for the bride.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, and that would make up for all the lost wages kind of of the agrarian soci of the agrarian society, of the farm or of the property for the rest of her life.
SPEAKER_00: Because she was going to leave and now go basically work on somebody else's property for the rest of her life.
SPEAKER_00: Very practical.
SPEAKER_00: So they would agree upon this bride price, and at this point in the betrothal, when when uh Joseph and Mary are betrothed, Joseph has already paid the bride price to Mary's dad.
SPEAKER_00: And then part of the process is Mary would stay in the home of her father for around 12 months, about a year, while Joseph would go and make a home and build a home and make ready for the day of their consummation.
SPEAKER_00: And the rain is gone, and I will quit yelling at you.
SPEAKER_00: But when it comes back, be prepared, people.
SPEAKER_00: Uh uh.
SPEAKER_00: But nonetheless, so during that, it's during those 12 months of waiting, okay, that the price has been paid to the Father by Joseph.
SPEAKER_00: So they're committed.
SPEAKER_00: They're absolutely committed to this thing.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, and all of a sudden, in the midst of this 12-month waiting period, Gabriel shows up.
SPEAKER_00: Gabriel shows up and says to Mary, Hey, love that you have plans, love that you're excited about your wedding.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, here's more things to be excited about.
SPEAKER_00: Um, you're gonna become pregnant.
SPEAKER_00: I know you're a virgin, but blessed are you.
SPEAKER_00: You have found favor with God.
SPEAKER_00: And we don't know why many people will say, well, she found favor with God because of all these different things.
SPEAKER_00: She found favor with God, the same reason why you and I did.
SPEAKER_00: Because God just saw her as favorable.
SPEAKER_00: That's just the reality of it.
SPEAKER_00: And so she finds favor with God, and Gabriel continues to announce things to her.
SPEAKER_00: What I was uh growing up is this is the annunciation, right?
SPEAKER_00: Uh and so uh and so he announces many things to her that she would become pregnant.
SPEAKER_00: She's deeply perplexed, she asks some questions.
SPEAKER_00: How are you gonna do this?
SPEAKER_00: Well, the Holy Spirit's gonna do it, we don't really know how, it's gonna be a miracle, it's gonna be a mystery, but just count on it, it's gonna happen.
SPEAKER_00: Mary's response, be it to me as you so will.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, this is great.
SPEAKER_00: Nothing's impossible, Gabriel would say.
SPEAKER_00: And to prove that nothing is impossible, you who are 12-year-old, you're a virgin, you've you've never even dabbled in any of that, certainly pure to prove that God can do anything.
SPEAKER_00: Here is another example on the other end of the spectrum is your relative Elizabeth, who's old and barren.
SPEAKER_00: She also is pregnant, Mary.
SPEAKER_00: And who's she pregnant with?
SPEAKER_00: She's pregnant with John the Baptist, the forerunner, he whose basic message was repentance to make way for baby Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And so Mary makes with haste down about 80 miles, maybe a hundred miles, through the uh through the through the wilderness of Israel, finds her relative Elizabeth, and they just jump for joy and have so much fun together, as two pregnant women probably only can.
SPEAKER_00: And they enjoy each other.
SPEAKER_00: And Mary just responds and said, Oh my gosh, what?
SPEAKER_00: What do I owe that the mother of my Lord would come come near to me and visit me?
SPEAKER_00: Because when you spoke, Mary, oh, I felt it in my womb.
SPEAKER_00: John the Baptist leapt for joy that you would come near with Jesus in you.
SPEAKER_00: Blessed are you, Mary.
SPEAKER_00: You've believed that all this would happen.
SPEAKER_00: And we pick up on the story.
SPEAKER_00: We pick up on the story of this poor, probably illiterate, 12-year-old who's somehow pregnant, and yet somehow utterly joyful.
SPEAKER_00: In the midst of whatever circumstance she found herself in, she certainly had plans for the future, and God messed them all up with his beautiful, bigger plans for her future and ours.
SPEAKER_00: You know God is willing to do that, right?
SPEAKER_00: He's willing to mess up your plans to make sure his will gets done.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, I just want to make sure we're on the same page.
SPEAKER_00: Let me just read Luke 1, 46 to 56.
SPEAKER_00: And Mary said, My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.
SPEAKER_00: For he has looked on the humble estate of his servant, for behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: And he has shown strength with his arm, he has scattered the proud and the thoughts of their hearts, and he has brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of humble estate, and he has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty.
SPEAKER_00: He has helped his servant Israel in remembrance of his mercy as he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham, and to all to his offspring forever, and Mary remained with Elizabeth about three months and returned to her home.
SPEAKER_00: In the midst of certainly all the reasons in the world, she would have had every excuse in the world to fret, to be anxious, to worry, to crumble underneath the pressure of carrying Jesus in her womb.
SPEAKER_00: Could you imagine that?
SPEAKER_00: Instead, we read this response, and she says, My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God, my Savior.
SPEAKER_00: What an unbelievable response.
SPEAKER_00: She calls God her Savior, but it's not just any Savior.
SPEAKER_00: If we're going to see three beautiful attributes and three enduring qualities or things about Mary's Savior, the first one is this is that Mary's Savior is personal.
SPEAKER_00: If we're going to know anything about the first thing that she makes known to us, that God makes known to us is that Mary's Savior is absolutely personal.
SPEAKER_00: We just read the first part, verse 47, and my soul, 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.
SPEAKER_00: Five times in four verses does Mary use the personal pronoun me or my it's a personal faith that you and I share with this sister in Christ named Mary, not someone to be worshipped, but someone to certainly understand that we can relate with her absolutely.
SPEAKER_00: The first thing that basically shows that God's personality and Mary's Savior is personal, she looks upon uh he looks upon her with great humility.
SPEAKER_00: You know there's a direct correlation between finding joy in Christ and His looking upon you with favor.
SPEAKER_00: And that's how we started this whole thing was with Gabriel announcing, you have found favor with God.
SPEAKER_00: And just a few short verses, no matter the circumstances, all of a sudden Mary bursts out in song and says, Oh, my soul, the very core of who I am.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, I just there's nothing I can do but rejoice that he's mine and I am his.
SPEAKER_00: Mary was seen as humble, uh, so much so that in verse 48 it says that for he, for God has looked on the humble estate of his servant.
SPEAKER_00: Mary just didn't have like a humble day, she had an estate of humility.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's like the realm in which she lived was was just humility.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, we were talking about this last night, my wife and I, and we were talking about, well, okay, the difference between pride and humility, kind of difficult to see.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, some the humble people.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, I asked, hey, who's the most humble person you know?
SPEAKER_00: She didn't answer me, oddly enough.
SPEAKER_00: Uh and she was like, I don't know, I can't even think of one.
SPEAKER_00: I was like, I'm right with you.
SPEAKER_00: Uh but I was like, maybe you could name two, three, at the most, maybe for us, like four people that are like it just really characterizes their life as humility.
SPEAKER_00: But go to the other side of the spectrum and you go, all right, well, name about, you know, however many you can name on on pride.
SPEAKER_00: And the list never ends.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, look at all the athletes that that run the world, basically, it seems like.
SPEAKER_00: Uh look at look at all the people that actually literally do run the world, like across uh the ocean, Ahmadinejad.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, that dude's not humble.
SPEAKER_00: And whatever else is going on in the Mideast, jockeying and clamoring for position.
SPEAKER_00: It's easy to find pride.
SPEAKER_00: It's easy to point out pride.
SPEAKER_00: Many of you are pointing it out right now.
SPEAKER_00: But it's very difficult to find humility.
SPEAKER_00: But God, the thing that got God's attention somehow was Mary's humility.
SPEAKER_00: I remember being at AM when I was first a believer, and uh uh you couldn't like, you couldn't back me down from any religious fight.
SPEAKER_00: You probably still can't, but I really you really couldn't then.
SPEAKER_00: And so there was these demonstrators in the middle of campus, and they were had these very graphic signs, and I just remember thinking, you know, I know what it's like to be on this campus thinking I'm a Christian.
SPEAKER_00: They think they're Christians and that this is gonna do some good, this is gonna do a lot of harm.
SPEAKER_00: I know it's my job to confront this.
SPEAKER_00: And so uh I did, and I walked up to this young woman who had this, you know, ginormous sign of very graphic images, and uh I just said, Hey, you know, you're doing a lot of harm here.
SPEAKER_00: Like, it's why don't you just leave?
SPEAKER_00: Just pack your stuff up.
SPEAKER_00: I know you got a big sign here and it's good, uh, but why don't you go ahead and leave?
SPEAKER_00: And the venom that poured out of this girl was oh, it was remarkable.
SPEAKER_00: And all I can remember her saying was, you're not humble, and all I can remember me saying is, yes, I am, I'm humble.
SPEAKER_00: You can't say that if you're humble.
SPEAKER_00: You can't say I'm humble, like you're fighting and you're humble.
SPEAKER_00: That doesn't work, right?
SPEAKER_00: But I know what it means.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, you're uh it's just somehow you can't seek it.
SPEAKER_00: But somehow you just live it.
SPEAKER_00: Uh when we were taking these beautiful arches that no one has missed down, uh we got, I don't know, the person that started it, his name is Gary, and uh the person that started it, he did it without us, which was great, was on time, and he got it down, and all of a sudden I looked up and I go, oh man, those walls need to be painted today.
SPEAKER_00: Because the Star of Bethlehem is tomorrow.
SPEAKER_00: And um that needs to get done.
SPEAKER_00: And I looked at Gary and I said, So uh, by the way, Gary is an entrepreneur, he's a business owner, he's a very busy schedule.
SPEAKER_00: If you're ever around him, his phone will go off and he will answer it, as any good business owner should.
SPEAKER_00: And so I just said, Gary, what's your day look like?
SPEAKER_00: I'm pretty sure the phone was ringing like right at that moment.
SPEAKER_00: Uh and I said, I just want to know how depressed I am right now.
SPEAKER_00: Am I like super depressed with no help or a little bit depressed that we have to do more work?
SPEAKER_00: And he just said, Man, whatever you need, I'll be here.
SPEAKER_00: And as the day went on, more and more things just popped up and showed up that needed to get done that Gary, in our lull times during the day, we're waiting for paint, we're waiting for this, we put the wrong paint up on the wall.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, just whatever went wrong probably could have gone wrong.
SPEAKER_00: It did.
SPEAKER_00: And so uh we're just sitting around and he just starts jumping into other projects, jumping into other projects.
SPEAKER_00: Well, I felt bad uh because I don't know what that looks like to be humble, and he is clearly, and we go to dinner, uh, treat him to dinner, and I just said, dude, okay, why do you want to do this?
SPEAKER_00: Like, why are you setting apart a Tuesday out of a very busy schedule, out of your workday, entrepreneur, business owner, I know you're busy, he goes, man, I just love God, I love this church, and I just want to do something for y'all.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, yeah.
SPEAKER_00: I think he had a humble estate.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, he's building humility, he's just living it.
SPEAKER_00: It's easier for me to find prideful people.
SPEAKER_00: It's easier for me to point out things uh that are certainly prideful, and and uh there's a guy named Paul David Tripp who uh who writes, uh he's definitely an author, but he also writes blogs and emails and stuff.
SPEAKER_00: But he's been sending out, and it's in one of his books, Paul David Tripp's basically a bunch of different ways, ten ways uh that that you glorify yourself.
SPEAKER_00: See, these are things that Mary didn't do, but that some of us, because we have an easier time identifying pride, might identify with, attack, and then pursue humility.
SPEAKER_00: So that's why I'm sharing all this with you.
SPEAKER_00: Uh is because uh Paul David Tripp does a great job of encouraging uh weary pastors and correcting wayward pastors.
SPEAKER_00: But this isn't just for pastors, it's for you and for me.
SPEAKER_00: Uh but he talks about these, uh he has ten or even more probably ways to glorify yourself.
SPEAKER_00: I'll just share with you a few.
SPEAKER_00: Uh he says this uh this is ways that you glorify yourself, this is ways that you basically uh pretend to be humble or pretend to be religious, but in actuality, uh your words and your actions prove otherwise.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Well, this is one way to do it.
SPEAKER_00: Parade in public what should be kept in private.
SPEAKER_00: So maybe it's giving, maybe it's something you did.
SPEAKER_00: Gary would never tell you that he spent nine to nine up here on a weekday and night helping.
SPEAKER_00: Be way too self-referencing.
SPEAKER_00: Talk when you should be quiet.
SPEAKER_00: And here's one that you probably didn't expect.
SPEAKER_00: Be quiet when you should speak.
SPEAKER_00: Prideful people sometimes are just quiet when they should speak up and into a situation.
SPEAKER_00: You care too much about what people think about you, or you care too little about what people think about you.
SPEAKER_00: You resist facing and admitting your sins, weaknesses, and failures.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, we were talking in um the staff meeting this morning, and somebody in the band just basically said, you know, the the the dropout rate, so to speak, of pastors is absolutely alarming.
SPEAKER_00: And the things that those pastors are citing are lack of sleep, lack of exercise, and no spiritual discipline.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, they think they can do it all on their own.
SPEAKER_00: Resist fail uh that you resist facing and admitting your weaknesses, even, even if it's not sin.
SPEAKER_00: And then finally, uh, you are more position-oriented than submission-oriented.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, uh, I might relate to you out of a position I hold at church or in society or whatever, or my kids.
SPEAKER_00: I relate to my my in my position as their dad instead of in submission to God.
SPEAKER_00: In obedience to God, may I serve uh uh Reese and Ellie and Melissa.
SPEAKER_00: Instead, I may relate to them out of my position.
SPEAKER_00: Ten ways in which, or certainly uh several ways in which we glorify ourselves, but that's not the heart of Mary, and that's not the thing that caught God's affection or attention and Mary.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, it was quite the opposite.
SPEAKER_00: So it begs the question: what when God looks at you, what does he see?
SPEAKER_00: Does he see pride?
SPEAKER_00: Does he so see self glory?
SPEAKER_00: Does he see uh a man or or a woman who refuses to sleep because they they can do it?
SPEAKER_00: They won't ask for help?
SPEAKER_00: Does he see anxiety, worry?
SPEAKER_00: Does he see humility?
SPEAKER_00: When he sees Mary, he sees the humble estate, the realm in which she lived.
SPEAKER_00: What was normal to her was lowliness and humility.
SPEAKER_00: The second thing that God sees in a personal manner and that Mary rejoices over is basically that she's blessed.
SPEAKER_00: And she has a point where she says, From now on, they will call me blessed from generations to come.
SPEAKER_00: She says it right here at the end of verse 48 for behold, from now on, all generations will call me blessed.
SPEAKER_00: And this personal nature of who God is and Mary's Savior, there's a point in life where everything changes.
SPEAKER_00: And the thing that sustains us no matter what comes after everything changes is this eternal perspective that Mary has and looks forward and says, for generations and generations, I'm going to be called blessed.
SPEAKER_00: It never ends.
SPEAKER_00: They will pursue evil.
SPEAKER_00: They will set out to hurt us and to harm us.
SPEAKER_00: Mary knew that.
SPEAKER_00: And that's why this eternal perspective, this looking forward to eternity that was preached upon last week is of such importance.
SPEAKER_00: Because here's what we know about Mary.
SPEAKER_00: Her life and her claim to virginity wasn't, it wasn't vindicated on the day that Jesus was born.
SPEAKER_00: Instead, it was when he was resurrected.
SPEAKER_00: So all of a sudden, baby Jesus doesn't get born, and everybody goes, Oh, you were a virgin.
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: They didn't say that at all.
SPEAKER_00: They said, Oh, my goodness, this is the king for those that believed, and for others, they thought, okay, she had a kid, he's illegitimate.
SPEAKER_00: Why are we talking about this?
SPEAKER_00: All this again begs the questions have you experienced God personally?
SPEAKER_00: And if you have, if you're in that relationship with him and he has come near you in a personal matter, when's the last time, especially during this season, that you've set aside some time just to sit and be still and be reminded of the character and the nature of God.
SPEAKER_00: Because it's exactly what Mary starts to shout out next.
SPEAKER_00: Brings us to our second point.
SPEAKER_00: Not only is Mary's Savior personal, Mary's Savior is perfect.
SPEAKER_00: He is absolutely perfect.
SPEAKER_00: And so over the next four or five verses, 49 to 53, she just begins to explain to all of us and exclaim to all the world this is the heart and the nature of our God, of my Savior, the one who is coming and who is now being formed within my womb.
SPEAKER_00: This is the nature of God.
SPEAKER_00: She says these certain things, verses 49 to 53, as she continues on, is why her Savior is such worthy of such praise.
SPEAKER_00: She says, For he who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name.
SPEAKER_00: And his mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation.
SPEAKER_00: He has shown strength with his arm, and he has scattered the proud and the thoughts of their hearts.
SPEAKER_00: He has brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of humble estate.
SPEAKER_00: He has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty.
SPEAKER_00: Wow.
SPEAKER_00: And all this from a probably illiterate, most likely twelve-year-old.
SPEAKER_00: Now we don't know probably many illiterate twelve-year-olds, much less ones that would be able to just all of a sudden know God so well that all this just starts to pour out of her.
SPEAKER_00: Starts to beg the question for me, what am I teaching my kids?
SPEAKER_00: What am I teaching those that are around me?
SPEAKER_00: Because it's quite possible and quite uh probable that she didn't have a Bible, she didn't have a Torah, she could just take home and read.
SPEAKER_00: Instead, she relied upon the teachings and the oral teachings of her mother and her father and her grandparents and whatever anybody else learned at the temple, and she listened.
SPEAKER_00: And she was around it so much that it filled her up to where she could just say, Oh man, you are perfect.
SPEAKER_00: Why do I say perfect?
SPEAKER_00: There was a scholar that once said that the attributes of God are perfect.
SPEAKER_00: And so he just preferred to call them perfections.
SPEAKER_00: These are attributes of God.
SPEAKER_00: There's four of them that she makes mention of.
SPEAKER_00: Some pastors have said there are seventeen.
SPEAKER_00: I won't do that to you.
SPEAKER_00: Instead, there are four.
SPEAKER_00: And so he said Mary says this that in the midst of her circumstances of being poor and probably illiterate, 12 years old, and now pregnant with Jesus, God's own son, she worships God for who he is.
SPEAKER_00: And the first thing she says about who God is is that he is mighty.
SPEAKER_00: He's mighty.
SPEAKER_00: He is the mighty one.
SPEAKER_00: He is strong.
SPEAKER_00: Whatever we think is strong, whatever we think is powerful, he is stronger.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes he reminds us of that through the chaos of things like Sandy and any earthquakes like near Fort Worth.
SPEAKER_00: What is that about?
SPEAKER_00: You know there's an earthquake near Fort Worth, right?
SPEAKER_00: No?
SPEAKER_00: All right.
SPEAKER_00: Good talking to you.
SPEAKER_00: The second thing he talks about is uh that Mary exclaims is that his name is holy.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 40 at the end of 49, and his name, his holy is his name.
SPEAKER_00: It is the very thing by which God wants to be known.
SPEAKER_00: So my name is Lance, that's what you know me by.
SPEAKER_00: If you say Lance, I'll turn around, most likely, unless I know you and I'm ignoring you, but don't take it personal.
SPEAKER_00: If you say Lance, I'll turn around because that's my name.
SPEAKER_00: That's what I'm known by.
SPEAKER_00: That's my identification.
SPEAKER_00: And instead of any personal name, although we know that, he will be called Emmanuel, he will be called Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Mary says, holiness is his name.
SPEAKER_00: It's the same thing as saying, hey, holy, and God goes, Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: Holiness is the thing and the attribute of which that's what God wants to be known for.
SPEAKER_00: That is his name.
SPEAKER_00: If you were introducing, if God was so wise and he is, and if he's introducing something about himself to a woman who is going to be accused of being dirty, she's going to be accused of sexual immorality, she's going to be accused of being crazy.
SPEAKER_00: If there was anything that that young woman could cling to in her times of need, would be the holiness that the name of God is.
SPEAKER_00: It is holiness.
SPEAKER_00: God is unique, perfect, pure, spotless, all really, really important.
SPEAKER_00: When they're going to call her immoral.
SPEAKER_00: And this wouldn't end for her life until, well, probably ever.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe until Jesus rose from the dead.
SPEAKER_00: Because we see it all, these allusions to it, even through the gospels, like in John 8, uh, gentle Jesus is telling the Pharisees, hey, y'all do your father's work, and your father is the devil.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I'm just saying.
SPEAKER_00: And they, the Pharisees respond to him, hey, don't talk to us like that.
SPEAKER_00: We didn't come from a sexual and moral relationship.
SPEAKER_00: As if to say, you did.
SPEAKER_00: You don't have any claim over us.
SPEAKER_00: I we know where you came from.
SPEAKER_00: Mary's your mother.
SPEAKER_00: The one that keeps saying on the street corner, I'm a virgin, I'm a virgin, I'm a virgin.
SPEAKER_00: Sure, sure she is.
SPEAKER_00: Probably could have been one of the reasons why she left to be with Elizabeth.
SPEAKER_00: How could she be pregnant if she's not there?
SPEAKER_00: How could Joseph have done it if she's not there?
SPEAKER_00: Instead, she goes and visits Elizabeth for three months and waits for John the Baptist to get born.
SPEAKER_00: And she goes back.
SPEAKER_00: Certainly his name is holy, and she realizes that this holy God, uh, some say would inflict this circumstance upon her so that one day she'd be vindicated.
SPEAKER_00: And no matter what the circumstance before her, she could cling to the reality that one day she would go to heaven in the holiness of God, that when we sit around the throne and we say, holy, holy, holy, and we're doing that with Mary and all these other people that are around us.
SPEAKER_00: Holiness is his name.
SPEAKER_00: And she could think to that and remember that.
SPEAKER_00: This would be the thing that would sustain her, this attribute, this perfection, this thing that God is revealing about himself, and now she is so thankful for.
SPEAKER_00: The third thing that she sees in God is that he's merciful.
SPEAKER_00: He is merciful.
SPEAKER_00: In verse 50, it says this and his mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation.
SPEAKER_00: Again, there's this eternal theme of God's mercy never ending.
SPEAKER_00: And so no matter how crazy our world gets, God's mercy is still being dispensed according to his will and his ways.
SPEAKER_00: We kind of get sometimes confused with grace and mercy.
SPEAKER_00: They're words that certainly are found in the Bible, but we get a little bit confused.
SPEAKER_00: Grace is this.
SPEAKER_00: Grace is God doing for us that which we do not deserve and we cannot earn.
SPEAKER_00: So it's no wonder that salvation is by grace, because it's something that we don't deserve and we can't earn, right?
SPEAKER_00: On the other side of things is mercy.
SPEAKER_00: Mercy is God withholding something from us that we do deserve and that we have earned.
SPEAKER_00: So, in other words, God's wrath, we deserve that.
SPEAKER_00: But in God's mercy, he satisfied his wrath with his son, with his death on the cross.
SPEAKER_00: And so God now is merciful to those who call upon the name of Jesus for salvation and life.
SPEAKER_00: He is merciful.
SPEAKER_00: Well, yesterday I was making uh gingerbread houses with my daughters, which was great, uh, and they realized a couple different things, and I realized a couple different things.
SPEAKER_00: Uh my wife asked me afterwards, she goes, How was that for you?
SPEAKER_00: I was gumdrops and gingerbread houses and icing.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, it was great.
SPEAKER_00: She's like, I just thought it was so sweet for you to do that.
SPEAKER_00: You thought of it, you went and bought them, you brought them home, and you just spent your.
SPEAKER_00: I was like, What's I mean, I don't know why this is so different, but apparently it is.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, and so I just spent time with them and I just thought, what am I teaching my kids?
SPEAKER_00: Like when we lay down at night and we read the Bible and we pray with them and do the things that we do, what are we teaching about them?
SPEAKER_00: That's easier for me to kind of discern, but what am I teaching about them and the level of consistency when I parent them?
SPEAKER_00: And the level of consistency of when I parent Reese and Ellie, and I say, basically, hey, I'm gonna, I have your best interest in mind, and that means I'm gonna say no to you.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, Reese was on the swing a couple days ago, and she's swinging as high as she can, and the only thing that she could think of was, I can do whatever I want.
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: I kept saying, no, daddy, daddy, I can do whatever I want.
SPEAKER_00: No, no, you can't.
SPEAKER_00: Matter of fact, why don't you get off the swing?
SPEAKER_00: Just, you know, to prove a point.
SPEAKER_00: No, I didn't say that.
SPEAKER_00: I wanted to.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not that harsh.
SPEAKER_00: Come on.
SPEAKER_00: I were like, oh my gosh.
SPEAKER_00: But she has this unbelievable thought process that she can do whatever she wants.
SPEAKER_00: But am I communicating that there's a relationship between reverence?
SPEAKER_00: That's what the Bible says.
SPEAKER_00: Am I communicating there's a relationship between reverence and submission and obedience and how I give mercy to them?
SPEAKER_00: That I will withhold punishment that you so deserve.
SPEAKER_00: If there's reverence and submission and obedience, am I communicating that attribute of God to my kids and just how I parent?
SPEAKER_00: Not much less reading the Bible to them and praying with them, but just the everyday, I mean, okay, you got to quit crying here, please.
SPEAKER_00: God's patience and his patience endures for generations.
SPEAKER_00: His mercy, that which we deserve, is being withheld.
SPEAKER_00: It endures for generation upon generation.
SPEAKER_00: That is unbelievable patience, which made me start to think who are some people that you need to extend mercy towards over the next couple weeks?
SPEAKER_00: Because they're going to try you.
SPEAKER_00: Those people that need your mercy and need God's mercy to flow through you, they're going to demand it somehow.
SPEAKER_00: They may show up on Christmas Eve and demand certain things.
SPEAKER_00: It may be just your neighbor next door.
SPEAKER_00: And their yappy chihuahuas won't won't be quiet.
SPEAKER_00: Not that I know anything about that.
SPEAKER_00: It may be that.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe that my mer that God's mercy so flows through me that instead of wanting to do something to those chihuahuas, that I go over there and just maybe lend a hand somehow.
SPEAKER_00: That I clean up some of the stuff that they leave out in the front yard.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's not just family members, maybe it's our neighbors.
SPEAKER_00: The last thing that she says that God is, his attributes are being made known, and he is perfect, is that he's just.
SPEAKER_00: Our God is a just God.
SPEAKER_00: And after a weekend that we had in this nation, uh, and over this year that we've had, uh, with all the crazy things that have gone wrong in our nation, uh, God's just.
SPEAKER_00: That's probably one of the main things that people start to question in the midst of chaos, in the midst of their circumstances, just totally just being thrown up in the air.
SPEAKER_00: And all the things that were secure are all of a sudden not secure anymore.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, this town in Connecticut, you know it was voted one of the five safest towns in America?
SPEAKER_00: God is just.
SPEAKER_00: What he does is right.
SPEAKER_00: And we can question it.
SPEAKER_00: We can be angry with him.
SPEAKER_00: Just go to him.
SPEAKER_00: Ask him what that's all about.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, if you read the text of when Gabriel shows up and Gabriel starts to announce these things to Mary, Mary goes, uh, I'm, I think the narrator actually says, Luke says, she was deeply perplexed.
SPEAKER_00: Deep in the state of her soul, there was a whole lot of anxiety there.
SPEAKER_00: But in the midst of a few verses, all of a sudden she believes.
SPEAKER_00: She's ready because she knows these things about God.
SPEAKER_00: This may not be what I want, but this is what's right.
SPEAKER_00: Verses 51, uh, basically, to 53.
SPEAKER_00: He has shown strength with his arm.
SPEAKER_00: These are the things that he does for those who fear him.
SPEAKER_00: This is part of his mercy.
SPEAKER_00: He shows strength with his arm.
SPEAKER_00: Back down to the end of 52.
SPEAKER_00: He has exalted those of humble estate.
SPEAKER_00: That would be Mary.
SPEAKER_00: That would be anybody that you would see that is humble and lowly.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 53, he fills the hungry with good things.
SPEAKER_00: It's a direct quote.
SPEAKER_00: Part of what's so cool about this verse and this passage is that Mary's quoting all these different Psalms and all these different prophets.
SPEAKER_00: She's quoting right here Psalm 107, verse 9, which will come up on your screen.
SPEAKER_00: For he satisfies the longing soul, and the hungry soul he fills with good things.
SPEAKER_00: That's important for us when we start to think about the justice of God, because we have to come to a point in our lives where we hunger and we thirst and we have an appetite for more than what's just in front of us.
SPEAKER_00: You guys get that?
SPEAKER_00: That's the kind of soul that's hungry for God that Mary is saying right here.
SPEAKER_00: That's the kind of hunger that God will satisfy.
SPEAKER_00: That all of us have this hunger for something.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's for more money, or maybe it's for, or even just to be busy for crying out loud.
SPEAKER_00: But at some point, we have got to get to the point where our appetite surpasses what's right in front of us, and only then, when our appetite is for him, will he fill it.
SPEAKER_00: That's the promise of God.
SPEAKER_00: But for those that are arrogant, self-reliant, prideful, God continues to say that in his justice he will promise these things.
SPEAKER_00: He scatters the proud.
SPEAKER_00: Says this whatever the Lord pleases, he does in heaven and on earth, and in the seas and all the deeps.
SPEAKER_00: Whatever the Lord pleases.
SPEAKER_00: Now, if we don't know the character of God, that he's good, that he is light, and that there in him there is no darkness, that he is love along with holiness and along with justice, if we don't know these things about God and they don't start start pouring, they will never pour out of us in the midst of crazy circumstances.
SPEAKER_00: And we read passages like that, and we could cower in fear that this unstable and unpredictable God who's gonna fly off the handle at any minute is gonna come and get us because we're not good enough.
SPEAKER_00: But God never says that, and that's not his character.
SPEAKER_00: Instead, it means that he'll do whatever he pleases, no matter if it pleases us or not.
SPEAKER_00: He's personal, this savior of Mary's.
SPEAKER_00: That's what he says here at the end of 54 through 56.
SPEAKER_00: Basically, he's helped his servant Israel in remembrance of his mercy as he spoke to our fathers to Abraham and his offspring forever.
SPEAKER_00: Now you could probably ask yourself, what promise is he fulfilling here?
SPEAKER_00: He's talking about Abraham, and I'm not even gonna go to Abraham.
SPEAKER_00: It started with Abraham back in Genesis 12, and it goes and it spans the entire Bible.
SPEAKER_00: Uh we are teaching in the spring, uh, the men's ministry is going to teach on Wednesday night.
SPEAKER_00: This uh this uh basically a study on the unqualified men of the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: These men that basically we look at and go, man, that's that guy, he's not fit for ministry, he's not fit for God's service.
SPEAKER_00: And then God says, Okay, yeah, okay.
SPEAKER_00: Well, I want you in my army, and we're gonna do some things.
SPEAKER_00: And one of them was Abraham.
SPEAKER_00: And as we started talking about, all right, well, who's gonna take Abraham?
SPEAKER_00: Somebody's like, I'll take Abraham.
SPEAKER_00: I love Abraham, I'll teach on Abraham.
SPEAKER_00: I said, have fun reading the whole Bible between now and February 6th.
SPEAKER_00: Because it's everywhere.
SPEAKER_00: We could literally go everywhere and talk about this spiritual father that we all have in Abraham.
SPEAKER_00: But I think also there's this reference here that's a little bit more subtle about this promised seed, this promised offspring of Abraham, and his name is Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And like I said, Mary's quoting not just Psalms and not just uh some of the history of the Old Testament, but also the prophets.
SPEAKER_00: And so there's this passage out of Isaiah 7 14, which says this therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign.
SPEAKER_00: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call call his name Emmanuel.
SPEAKER_00: Seven hundred years before the birth of Jesus, this was written and spoken to the nation of Israel.
SPEAKER_00: And so it's no wonder that Mary begins to explain and exclaim that God fulfills promises, no matter if it may take seven hundred years.
SPEAKER_00: No matter if it takes generation upon generation upon generation, he's going to fulfill his promise that he is coming.
SPEAKER_00: And so the call for all of us is to plead with him, to never let him go, and for him to never let us wander off into our own ways.
SPEAKER_00: God keeps his promises.
SPEAKER_00: And so my plea for you today is to make sure that if you're looking for something, if you're looking forward to God fulfill something for you, that he's promised it.
SPEAKER_00: One of the saddest things that you can see is that when someone has clung on to a promise that God never made, and all of a sudden their dreams are absolutely shattered, and they wonder where God is and why he hasn't kept some people safe, and why he's decided to give a storm here, and why he's decided to do this and that and the other.
SPEAKER_00: Instead, he's promised that he's good, he's in control, and all the things that Mary just mentioned.
SPEAKER_00: He's mighty, no matter what circumstance.
SPEAKER_00: He's holy, he's merciful.
SPEAKER_00: Oh man, get our arms around that.
SPEAKER_00: If we don't have an understanding of humility, then we need to get our arms around the mercy that God gives to whomever he desires.
SPEAKER_00: My plea to you, because uh here's the reality for us and me and Melissa.
SPEAKER_00: We we cut out cable, not because of anything holy, but because we thought that's a lot of money to pay on entertainment and to support a bunch of people that we would never support otherwise.
SPEAKER_00: And so we'll pay$8 a month to do that in other places instead of however much it paid for us.
SPEAKER_00: And so we don't have cable, and so sometimes we were talking about this with some friends on Friday night.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes we just go home and flip around to our, you know, seven local channels and we go, what do you want to do?
SPEAKER_00: I don't know, let's talk, I guess.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe we should relate a little bit here.
SPEAKER_00: Uh but uh but beyond all of that, uh, you know, sometimes we flip to like, you know, your church channels or like your Christian channels.
SPEAKER_00: That's being piped everywhere across the world, by the way.
SPEAKER_00: And um, man, there is some hilarious stuff on there.
SPEAKER_00: But there's also some really, really outlandish promises that are being made.
SPEAKER_00: That we're guaranteed, if we're if we're the son of God, if we're sons of God and daughters of God, then why wouldn't God take care of us a little bit better than what we have?
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you're doing something wrong.
SPEAKER_00: That we're promised health, that we're promised success, that we're promised certain things.
SPEAKER_00: God never says that.
SPEAKER_00: Matter of fact, the only thing he promises is suffering.
SPEAKER_00: That if you want to identify with the name of Jesus and we want to share in his glory, we'll also share in his sufferings.
SPEAKER_00: We look forward to heaven, but we don't, it's like David Crowder said, everybody wants to get to heaven, but nobody wants to die.
SPEAKER_00: Mary's Savior fulfills the promises.
SPEAKER_00: And let me just say this as we end.
SPEAKER_00: No matter what circumstance you find yourself in, no matter what cloud you find yourself in, maybe you're good, maybe you're great.
SPEAKER_00: I'd say there's even a little danger there.
SPEAKER_00: If we're not found in humility, in reliance upon our King and our God who went through a womb to get to you, I think we're in danger.
SPEAKER_00: That's not a warning as much as it's just an encouragement.
SPEAKER_00: Let's make sure our hearts, our minds, affection are in the right place as we continue to wait and our culture continues to say, go faster, try harder, keep doing.
SPEAKER_00: I want to finish by reading the same passage that Meredith read to us.
SPEAKER_00: For those that call in the name of Jesus, this promise is true, and it will be utterly fulfilled when he comes again.
SPEAKER_00: In Zephaniah 3.
SPEAKER_00: Sing aloud, O daughter of Zion, shout, O Israel, rejoice and exult with all your heart, O daughter of Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord has taken away the judgments against you.
SPEAKER_00: He's cleared away your enemies.
SPEAKER_00: The king of Israel, the Lord, is in your midst, and you shall never again fear evil.
SPEAKER_00: And on that day it will be said to Jerusalem, Fear not, O Zion, let not your hands grow weak.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save.
SPEAKER_00: He will rejoice over you.
SPEAKER_00: With gladness.
SPEAKER_00: He will quiet you by his love.
SPEAKER_00: He will exult over you with loud singing.
SPEAKER_00: God, we may not believe that all the time, but that doesn't matter.
SPEAKER_00: That's the truth of who you are, that you sing so loud that your neighbors want you to be quiet over us.
SPEAKER_00: Because that's true, we are joyful.
SPEAKER_00: In the midst of whatever, we're joyful.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for your faithfulness.
SPEAKER_00: It's in Christ's name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Well, with that, would you guys stand with me and let me speak a word of blessing over you?
SPEAKER_00: As you're standing, let me remind you that we'll be up front.
SPEAKER_00: Some of the staff and elders of this church will be happy to help and hear and pray with you.
SPEAKER_00: Hold your hands out like this.
SPEAKER_00: You are not Mary, mother of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: You are you.
SPEAKER_00: But the call remains the same for you to bear the Son of God until he has birthed in you.
SPEAKER_00: So that light can light up this dark, dark world.
SPEAKER_00: And truly they will see that nothing is impossible with God.
SPEAKER_00: In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.