[SPEAKER_00]: Good morning, church.
[SPEAKER_00]: Can you please stand for the reading?
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm doing the reading of Luke chapter 1 26 through 38.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, on the 6 month, the Angel Gabriel was sent from God to the city of Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph of the sentence of David.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the virgin's name was Mary, and coming in, he said to her greeting favorite one, the Lord is with you, but she was very perplexed at the statement and kept poundering.
[SPEAKER_00]: What kind of salutations this was?
[SPEAKER_00]: And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: He will be great, and will be called the son of the most high, and the Lord God will give him the throne of his father David.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and his kingdom will have no end.
[SPEAKER_00]: Mary said to the angel, how can this be since I am a virgin?
[SPEAKER_00]: The angel answered and said to her, the Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the most high will overshadow you and for that reason the Holy Child shall be called the Son of God.
[SPEAKER_00]: And behold, even your relative, Elizabeth was conceived a son in her old age, and she who was called Baron as now her in her sixth month.
[SPEAKER_00]: For nothing will be impossible with God, and Mary said, behold, the bound say of the Lord may it be done for my according to your word and the angel departed from her.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is the word of the Lord.
[SPEAKER_01]: Thanks, Peter God.
[SPEAKER_01]: All right, thank you, Jen.
[SPEAKER_01]: You guys have a seat and just set that right there for me.
[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you so much.
[SPEAKER_01]: Luke chapter one, if you guys have a Bible with you as Jen was just reading there.
[SPEAKER_01]: Gonna open up this wonderful, beautiful Christmas story.
[SPEAKER_01]: Something I love about Christmas time is that I don't have to reinvent anything for sermons, for Christmas time, we're pretty much gonna preach the same for things every single year.
[SPEAKER_01]: And we're gonna culminate that, just talking about Jesus on Christmas Eve,
[SPEAKER_01]: we like these canals, these advent canals.
[SPEAKER_01]: You don't know about advent.
[SPEAKER_01]: Advent means arrival.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's the season of the Christian calendar that we now have entered into.
[SPEAKER_01]: These four Sundays leading up to Christmas.
[SPEAKER_01]: We call this advent and again, just means arrival, just celebrating the birth, the coming of Jesus, his incarnation has become a God, becoming man, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: Born into this world, which is such an amazing,
[SPEAKER_01]: Amazing thing.
[SPEAKER_01]: I know this to be true.
[SPEAKER_01]: I know that this season is wonderful and joyful and hopeful I also know that there's some hard parts of this season for some of you There's there's hard parts of this because of maybe family things or past things or things going on right now Whatever it may be I know both of those two things are true, but I do know this.
[SPEAKER_01]: I know that we have a god that sees us
[SPEAKER_01]: cares for us, that loves us deeply, and this story, the Christmas story really is the epitome of that truth for us, right, that we can see and believe that no matter where you are in your life, no matter what's going on, no matter the circumstances that are surrounding you right now, no matter what struggles and sorrows or even sinful things you have in your life or whatever that may be.
[SPEAKER_01]: That God is a good God.
[SPEAKER_01]: He sees us and he knows us and he cares for us and he has shown us that proven to us that in the coming of his son Jesus to be born into the world So I'll do I do love this season Well, what we're gonna do for the next four weeks is really we're gonna look at some of the songs that are sung around Christmas time in the book of Luke In particular the gospel of Luke records four different songs and there's actually songs
[SPEAKER_01]: All throughout scripture and I was thinking about man just singing this week.
[SPEAKER_01]: I was thinking about songs I was thinking about me raise your hand if you're a musical person like you love to play music sing whatever Yeah, it's got English taken note.
[SPEAKER_01]: So he's checking that off.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's gonna ask go get up here on stage.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know I'm just kidding
[SPEAKER_01]: But I really, I do believe that human beings in general, y'all, we are, we are musical people.
[SPEAKER_01]: Even those of us who aren't, you don't consider yourself a good singer or you don't play an instrument or whatever that may be.
[SPEAKER_01]: You love music in some way, you do, you sing songs, you know, songs, you sing them whether, you know, just in your car and the shower at the UGA football game, you sing songs.
[SPEAKER_01]: At some point in your life, you love music.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think God just wired that into us,
[SPEAKER_01]: fantastic name.
[SPEAKER_01]: People should name their kids that today.
[SPEAKER_01]: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow once said this, he said music is the universal language of life.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now I think that's pretty true like everybody everywhere all over the world.
[SPEAKER_01]: There's music.
[SPEAKER_01]: People love music.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so for these next four weeks we're really going to look at these songs and just think about what it means that we sing.
[SPEAKER_01]: Why do we sing?
[SPEAKER_01]: What is singing all about?
[SPEAKER_01]: And I believe that this Advent season really shows us that
[SPEAKER_01]: in the Gospel of Luke, and I think that's such a neat thing thinking about humans and who we are and how God wired us to be when we see him break forth into history the way he does, that we can't help but sing to him.
[SPEAKER_01]: The scriptures are full of songs.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know if y'all know this.
[SPEAKER_01]: There are at least 150 songs in the Bible.
[SPEAKER_01]: The Book of Psalms.
[SPEAKER_01]: There are 150 songs.
[SPEAKER_01]: The Psalms are
[SPEAKER_01]: Mostly, I mean, it kind of depends on how you define song, whether or not it was actually put to music, but pretty much they're all poems and prayers, but they are songs.
[SPEAKER_01]: There's there's probably at least as many as 185 songs in the Bible.
[SPEAKER_01]: There's 35 other songs that we can find.
[SPEAKER_01]: throughout scripture.
[SPEAKER_01]: We have some of these old testament songs.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'll show you some of these right here.
[SPEAKER_01]: Exodus 15 is the first song sung in the Bible.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's the song of Moses.
[SPEAKER_01]: Fun trivia fact.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's also the last song referenced in the Bible and look at Revelation.
[SPEAKER_01]: They reference the song of Moses again.
[SPEAKER_01]: First and the last kind of neat.
[SPEAKER_01]: So again, we just see songs sung throughout the scriptures.
[SPEAKER_01]: First Kings 432 says that King Solomon wrote a thousand and five songs and only two of the songs are his but the song of Solomon also called the song of songs It is a love song written between husband and wife in the in the scriptures.
[SPEAKER_01]: That is one of our books to the Bible.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's a love song
[SPEAKER_01]: And even Ecclesiastes, lamentations written by Jeremiah.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's five, what we call dirges, which is sorrowful songs written during the limiting the destruction of Jerusalem.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like I said, the song of Moses, Exodus 15.
[SPEAKER_01]: There's many other songs sprinkled throughout the Old Testament.
[SPEAKER_01]: There's military victory songs, there's sorrowful songs.
[SPEAKER_01]: First Samuel 187, there's a song that the people of Israel saying about David and Saul.
[SPEAKER_01]: You'll probably know this one.
[SPEAKER_01]: Saul has slain his thousands, but David has slain his tens of thousands.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's a diss track man.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's the first diss track in the history of the world that these people were making fun of King Saul by saying he's only killed thousands.
[SPEAKER_01]: David's killed tens of thousands, but they were singing it, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: The people of the lands would sing that.
[SPEAKER_01]: And even in the New Testament, we have some New Testament songs that we see as well.
[SPEAKER_01]: So, Philippians 2, 5 through 11 is called the Christ Him, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: The go-go read through that that your attitude should be the same as Christ Jesus who being in very nature God did not consider in equality with God a thing to be grasped.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's a song.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's called the Christ Him.
[SPEAKER_01]: We have three songs of the Lamb and Revelation 5, the song about just worthy are you.
[SPEAKER_01]: right to open the scroll and to break its seals to receive all glory and honor and pray like those are songs song and the book of revelation.
[SPEAKER_01]: There's many many doxologies throughout the letters of Paul and Peter and Jude.
[SPEAKER_01]: I want to read one to you.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is maybe the best dox.
[SPEAKER_01]: I will recall that doxology.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's words of glory.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's a song of praise.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's in the book of Jude if you want to turn there with me.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'll read it to you real quick.
[SPEAKER_01]: The book of Jude is a short little, short little letter.
[SPEAKER_01]: All right, towards the end of year, your new testament.
[SPEAKER_01]: So, right before Revelation, get there, here's this.
[SPEAKER_01]: Jude 24 and 25 says this, to him who is able to keep you from falling.
[SPEAKER_01]: And to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy, to the only God, our Savior, be glory, majesty, power, and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages now, and forever more amen.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's a song, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: It's a doxology, a song of praise.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then of course, like I said, there are four songs of Advent.
[SPEAKER_01]: And the gospel of Luke is the only one that actually records these songs.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know why that is.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know, you know, Mark kind of jumps right into Jesus' ministry.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like real quickly when you get into the book of Mark, John opens up with sort of that deep theological treatis about who Jesus is as the Word of God and all those kind of things.
[SPEAKER_01]: and Matthews really concerned with just revealing Jesus as the prophesied Messiah, the King of the Jews.
[SPEAKER_01]: Luke, as he's telling this historical account, he lays out that there were four songs that were sung during the time of Jesus' birth and even the time afterwards.
[SPEAKER_01]: of Jesus' birth and it's just I think to say that the advent of Christ, it inspires joy and it inspires hope as God begins to turn the pages of history to usher in a new season, to usher in a new covenant through the birth of His Son and the characters surrounding Jesus in this story.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's like they cannot help but sing to the King.
[SPEAKER_01]: They can't help but just explode with that joy and that hope at the coming at the arrival of the long awaited Messiah that they
[SPEAKER_01]: Jen just read from Luke chapter one 26 through 38 where Mary meets this this angel Gabriel and he's named Gabriel to us and um same age or angel that met with Elizabeth we're gonna read that story next week Her cousin Elizabeth was already met this angel Gabriel and he has told Elizabeth that she was also gonna have a child She was older in age.
[SPEAKER_01]: She was barren.
[SPEAKER_01]: She had no children and then they angel blesses her with a child She is now six months pregnant and then the angel shows up to Mary
[SPEAKER_01]: and he gives her this amazing news as well.
[SPEAKER_01]: Verse 28 says, the angel went to her and said, greetings, you who are highly favored.
[SPEAKER_01]: The Lord is with you.
[SPEAKER_01]: That greetings, you who are highly favored.
[SPEAKER_01]: Y'all might have heard this phrase before from the Latin translation of the scriptures.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's Hail Mary full of grace.
[SPEAKER_01]: Hail Mary full of grace.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you grew up Catholic or you've been around the Catholic tradition, they will use that phrasing a lot, even in their prayers.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I'm gonna talk about that here in a minute about prayers offered.
[SPEAKER_01]: two-marry around Mary, whatever that may be, but hail Mary full of grace from the Latin Gratzia planet.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's where that Latin translation is.
[SPEAKER_01]: Hail Mary full of grace.
[SPEAKER_01]: That the word used, like the way the angel greets her, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: So in my, and my translation says greetings, you who are a highly favorite.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's that full of grace.
[SPEAKER_01]: Highly favorite.
[SPEAKER_01]: He says the Lord is with you.
[SPEAKER_01]: The Greek word used there.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is the word really, it's the word chorus, it comes from that same word, it's the word grace, that word is it literally means grace where it means gift, it's a gift given to someone, it literally means to be favored as a recipient of the grace of God.
[SPEAKER_01]: And this is where I do think some of that, if I'm being honest, I do think that Catholic theology gets off a little bit for Mary to think that what the angel was saying to her was that she
[SPEAKER_01]: was sort of like intrinsically by her nature endowed with this unalienable grace.
[SPEAKER_01]: But really what he's saying to her is, you are the recipient of the grace of God.
[SPEAKER_01]: That God has poured his grace upon you, Mary.
[SPEAKER_01]: How amazing is it that this angel has he arrives and he announces this to her.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's just telling her, you are so blessed.
[SPEAKER_01]: You are such a can you imagine the feeling of being this young lady.
[SPEAKER_01]: And again, she may have been 12, 13, 14, 15 years old.
[SPEAKER_01]: We don't we're not sure, but a young girl.
[SPEAKER_01]: Still a virgin, but trove it to be Mary, but not yet, having consummated that marriage.
[SPEAKER_01]: And now this angel shows up and he just tells her, you are highly favored by the Lord.
[SPEAKER_01]: Gabriel's really not saying something amazing about Mary.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's saying something amazing about God.
[SPEAKER_01]: in this moment.
[SPEAKER_01]: That God would see you, Mary, that God would choose to pour his favor, to pour his grace, to pour his love out upon your life that he would now see and bestow his grace freely upon you.
[SPEAKER_01]: And really the idea of grace that we see throughout the New Testament is that God freely pours out his grace upon those whom he chooses to pour out his grace upon.
[SPEAKER_01]: And it's an amazing reality for us.
[SPEAKER_01]: It should do what it does for Mary.
[SPEAKER_01]: It should humble us.
[SPEAKER_01]: to believe and to understand that God has given us His grace in Jesus, who Gabriel then names to her.
[SPEAKER_01]: He says you will be with child and give birth to a son and you are to give him the name Jesus.
[SPEAKER_01]: Jesus means God is salvation.
[SPEAKER_01]: The Hebrew Yeshua, God is salvation.
[SPEAKER_01]: Jesus.
[SPEAKER_01]: And he says, He will be great, and will be called son of the most high God.
[SPEAKER_01]: The Lord will give him the throne of his father, David, and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever.
[SPEAKER_01]: His kingdom will never end.
[SPEAKER_01]: And He goes on to tell her, you know, your cousin Elizabeth, she's also pregnant, she was barren, but now she's going to have a child in her old age, because nothing is impossible for God.
[SPEAKER_01]: I love the two ends of the spectrum of that story, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, young Mary, old Elizabeth, and both having children now and nothing is impossible for God.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's the theme of this announcement from Gabriel.
[SPEAKER_01]: Can you imagine being Mary?
[SPEAKER_01]: Ladies, can you imagine being this young girl?
[SPEAKER_01]: Just this angel arrives tells you this news and she even's like how is this gonna be I'm not you know I'm still a virgin.
[SPEAKER_01]: I can't have a child and well nothing isn't possible.
[SPEAKER_01]: God the Holy Spirit We'll conceive a child but can you imagine like having grown up hearing the stories I mean she probably had her mom or her dad Read her or heard one of the rabbis and the synagogue read from Isaiah chapter nine at some point for to us a child is born
[SPEAKER_01]: For to us the Son is given, and He will be called wonderful counselor.
[SPEAKER_01]: Mighty God, everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm sure she had heard that read before.
[SPEAKER_01]: To hear this news and to realize, to me, a child is born.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I'll be the one, like how could you even wrap your brain around this?
[SPEAKER_01]: You know what I'm saying, and I just think when we get to her song here in a second, like that's that's the context of that.
[SPEAKER_01]: Just how incredible this is in Mary response with verse 38, I am the Lord's
[SPEAKER_01]: Servant.
[SPEAKER_01]: She's going to say that in her song again.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm the Lord servant.
[SPEAKER_01]: The word is made servant.
[SPEAKER_01]: Female servant.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm the Lord's made servant.
[SPEAKER_01]: Female slave is kind of the technical.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like that's not she just considers like I'm at the Lord's service.
[SPEAKER_01]: I know we have some of our kids in here today.
[SPEAKER_01]: I want to say this to you, kids that are in here.
[SPEAKER_01]: You are never too young to be at the Lord's service.
[SPEAKER_01]: To say, you know, I will humbly accept with obedience.
[SPEAKER_01]: The call that
[SPEAKER_01]: and adults.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think we could take a lesson from this young girl.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm at the Lord's Math allords service, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: So she goes to Elizabeth.
[SPEAKER_01]: She meets with Elizabeth.
[SPEAKER_01]: They are already this part.
[SPEAKER_01]: Mary got ready and hurry to a town in the hill country of Judea.
[SPEAKER_01]: When she entered Zechariah's home and greeted Elizabeth.
[SPEAKER_01]: Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting in the baby, leaped in her womb.
[SPEAKER_01]: You're also never too young to praise the Lord.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's on to about two young.
[SPEAKER_01]: The child John the Baptist in the womb of Elizabeth leaps for joy at the presence of Jesus.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now his second cousin in the room.
[SPEAKER_01]: In John leaping for joy.
[SPEAKER_01]: and allowed voice she explained, blessed are you among women, kind of the same, same thing that the angel sort of blessed are you among women, and blessed is this child you will bear.
[SPEAKER_01]: But why am I so favored that the mother of my Lord, first person to call Jesus Lord, Elizabeth, that the mother of my Lord should come to me.
[SPEAKER_01]: As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, a baby of my womb leaps for joy, blessed is she who has believed what the Lord has said to her,
[SPEAKER_01]: encourages Mary, right, encourages Mary's obedience.
[SPEAKER_01]: She's thankful for her.
[SPEAKER_01]: She's me.
[SPEAKER_01]: You are blessed.
[SPEAKER_01]: Mary, you had you have received the grace of God and the favor of God to carry the Messiah in your womb now.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I am so blessed just to even be in the presence of the mother of Jesus and Jesus now in the room and John the bat like what an amazing moment this is of just praise and thanks giving and Elizabeth is so overcome with it and overwhelmed with it just because they understand
[SPEAKER_01]: At least in some way, I don't know how much of the depths they got of this, but they understood.
[SPEAKER_01]: And God had now fulfilled His promise to Israel.
[SPEAKER_01]: and they get to be right at the front of that, right, and to receive the Messiah.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so Mary, I think Mary's like, is she just overcome with emotion here?
[SPEAKER_01]: It's like she's just overwhelmed at this story, at what is happening to her, what is happening to Elizabeth, and what is going on, and then she is realized now that she has this intricate intimate part of redemptive history.
[SPEAKER_01]: And it's like she just cannot help but sing a song.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so we have Mary song versus 46 through 55.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's called the Magnificate.
[SPEAKER_01]: All these songs in the book of Luke, they're names for their first Latin word, the first Latin word in the song, the first Latin word in this song is the word.
[SPEAKER_01]: Magnificate.
[SPEAKER_01]: My version says this.
[SPEAKER_01]: Mary said, my soul glorifies the Lord.
[SPEAKER_01]: And my spirit rejoices in God, my Savior, the Latin translation would say, like magnifies my soul to the Lord.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's how the translation would have went.
[SPEAKER_01]: Magnificate magnifies.
[SPEAKER_01]: my soul to the Lord.
[SPEAKER_01]: I want to talk about magnifications for a second.
[SPEAKER_01]: There's really two ways that we magnify things.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you think about it and you all have probably been wondering what has happened in here today.
[SPEAKER_01]: There's kind of two ways if you think about how do we magnify something?
[SPEAKER_01]: Is the telescope?
[SPEAKER_01]: This is a microscope.
[SPEAKER_01]: both magnify, but they magnify differently, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: And they do different things, they have different functions, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: If you have a telescope, the way that a telescope magnifies is that you're able to look into this and see something that is high, see something that is distant, see something that is great and unable to be kind of seen and comprehended and it's all of its splendor and all of its majesty and all of its glory, unless we were to look.
[SPEAKER_01]: and see it magnify it properly so that it can come into view for us, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: And we can actually appreciate it for all of its wonder and all of its greatness.
[SPEAKER_01]: And a microscope is quite different as we look into a microscope as it magnifies whatever's in here where we're looking at intimate intricate detail right something that we can't comprehend that something that we can't see because it even though it's close to us is hard to understand unless we're able to to magnify that thing to bring it into proper view, but that's really what both of these things do right they bring something that we need to see properly into proper here something that we can't see properly otherwise.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's the idea of magnification.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I would submit, like, which way do we magnify Christ?
[SPEAKER_01]: I think probably both ways that we magnify Jesus, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: Think about the ways in which we see Him.
[SPEAKER_01]: We understand Him.
[SPEAKER_01]: We relate to Him.
[SPEAKER_01]: We magnify Him for His majesty and for His mercy.
[SPEAKER_01]: Right?
[SPEAKER_01]: We magnify Him for His power and for His presence.
[SPEAKER_01]: We magnify Him for the heights of His greatness and the depths of His grace.
[SPEAKER_01]: And we magnify the Lord.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I would just encourage all of us as we think about how we magnify the Lord in our life.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, really, like, God wants us to see Him, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: Like He wants us to see Him.
[SPEAKER_01]: He wants us to read.
[SPEAKER_01]: He wants us to think.
[SPEAKER_01]: He wants us to dig in.
[SPEAKER_01]: He wants us to look into His
[SPEAKER_01]: and the greatness of and the glory of it, the wonder of it and see all the ways in which He has blessed us, given to us, favored us as He has favored His people through the coming of His Son, Jesus, to magnify His Word, as we magnify Him.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so look into the deep intricate parts of who he is and what is where it says and to understand more deeply, more fully the complexities and the intricacies of the gospel.
[SPEAKER_01]: The man is easy to kind of read these things surface right and kind of pick out and pull out and I think children can read these stories and get the greatness and the glory and the intricacies of Jesus, but man, the more we dig in, the more we study, the more we listen, the more we look to the word of God, just think we magnify him more.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I'd encourage you, maybe even through this Advent season, this Christmas season, it's just open this.
[SPEAKER_01]: You don't have to read the Christmas story every day, but just read God's Word and think about it and meditate upon it and pray through it and study it.
[SPEAKER_01]: And just think about all the ways in which God is great and glorious and all the ways in which He's gracious and close and personal to us.
[SPEAKER_01]: Man, just let your soul, like Mary, just magnify the Lord.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so she says, this, my soul, glorifies the Lord, magnifies the Lord, my spirit rejoices in God, my Savior, for He has been mindful of the humble state of His servant.
[SPEAKER_01]: He has been mindful.
[SPEAKER_01]: of the humble state.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I think that's Mary's mindset right there, mindful of the humble state of his servant, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: And Mary just got this humility about her, but he's see, she sees in God in this story that she's now a part of, she sees that he's been mindful of her.
[SPEAKER_01]: That word is to turn and look at like, God has looked at me, kind of seen me of all people on the earth that he would look upon me.
[SPEAKER_01]: And when we think about God looking upon like we should gaze at the Lord, we should look to the Lord and we should magnify Him and see all the things about Him that He wants us to see, but when we realize that He looks at us too, that He sees us too, like it should not make us puff up with pride.
[SPEAKER_01]: It should make us shrink in humility to go, why would you be mindful of me?
[SPEAKER_01]: What is man that you are mindful of us?
[SPEAKER_01]: That's exactly what Mary like God sees mindful of His servant.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's mindful of my lowly self.
[SPEAKER_01]: There's no reason that God of all people on the earth should ever see me or look to me.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I think about there's times with that, as I was writing this sermon, and then it's just getting my head fee, my daughter, my seven-year-old, like she'll be in another room, or you know, I'm in the kitchen, cleaning dishes or something, and she'll be in the living room.
[SPEAKER_01]: Dad, dad, dad.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, you didn't parents, you know, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: Like dad, dad, and I'm just, you know, dad, like I'm doing something whatever.
[SPEAKER_01]: But maybe there are times, and I'm just being real.
[SPEAKER_01]: There's times I block her out.
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, there's times I block her out.
[SPEAKER_01]: As dad, I love her.
[SPEAKER_01]: There's times I block her out.
[SPEAKER_01]: but God, and God's so attentive to us.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like He sees and He hears, He knows us, He doesn't block us out, and He keeps us at arms length.
[SPEAKER_01]: In fact, the Christmas story, the story of Jesus is the realization that God would take even a greater step toward it, and He would come to us.
[SPEAKER_01]: He would step into our art towards our stuff, our lives.
[SPEAKER_01]: What we sang that song from the throne of endless glory
[SPEAKER_01]: You'll imagine.
[SPEAKER_01]: You imagine Jesus and his mindset of this from all eternity knowing that this is what he was going to do to be the The God who dwells an unapproachable light on the throne of glory from all time so far above so high and great So glorious and then that he would actually come and become this little like now Incepted Tiny I don't even know what's the first thing you are is a child.
[SPEAKER_01]: What is that a fetus like?
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't even know whatever it's called the first thing, but it's like microscopic
[SPEAKER_01]: This microscopic, and he would become that inside the room of a child, or inside the room of Mary, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: How incredible is that?
[SPEAKER_01]: I think that's just the thing that Mary's just trying to write like, what?
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, God, you would see me like this to put yourself in my womb.
[SPEAKER_01]: But the God that she's read about her stories about song songs too.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then she's just overcome with this.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so it's just feeling that that blessedness, that grace that God has poured upon our life, y'all.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think we need a little bit more of what Mary has here.
[SPEAKER_01]: And that is humility.
[SPEAKER_01]: Just a little less self, a little less pride, a little less vanity, a little less arrogance, a little less self-centeredness.
[SPEAKER_01]: And a lot more, God magnifying humility.
[SPEAKER_01]: Nobody looks through it, tell us go.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know what I'm saying?
[SPEAKER_01]: Like you look through that and you go, wow!
[SPEAKER_01]: You look through this and you go, this is a myth like that's amazing.
[SPEAKER_01]: It takes our eyes, what does humility?
[SPEAKER_01]: It just takes our eyes off of me, off of us, off of self.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's exactly what Mary has right here.
[SPEAKER_01]: She's just, I can't, God, your story, your wonder, your greatness, your closeness, it's amazing.
[SPEAKER_01]: And this is why I genuinely do.
[SPEAKER_01]: I believe we think about the Catholic doctrine of Mary.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's just honestly, I think it's offensive.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I think it's offensive to Mary.
[SPEAKER_01]: I really do.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think Mary would read that doctrine where they kind of like at least give her God like adoration and then they know how to be what argue about that and she's not God.
[SPEAKER_01]: We know like I get it.
[SPEAKER_01]: But they call her in their prayers.
[SPEAKER_01]: Holy Queen, our life, our sweetness, our hope, our gracious advocate.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's an actual prayer that people pray about her.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I think she would just go, no!
[SPEAKER_01]: It's him!
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, what are you talking about?
[SPEAKER_01]: Get your eyes off of me.
[SPEAKER_01]: I took my eyes off of me.
[SPEAKER_01]: All I see is him.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's wonderful.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's gracious.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's great.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's glorious.
[SPEAKER_01]: And she says, man, like, just just keep reading this.
[SPEAKER_01]: from now on, all generations will call me blessed.
[SPEAKER_01]: Again, not because of me, but keep reading, for the mighty one has done great things for me.
[SPEAKER_01]: Holy is his name.
[SPEAKER_01]: His mercy extends to those who fear him from generation to generation.
[SPEAKER_01]: He has performed mighty deeds with his arm.
[SPEAKER_01]: He has scattered those who are proud and they're in most thoughts.
[SPEAKER_01]: He has brought down rulers from their thrones, but has lifted up the humble.
[SPEAKER_01]: He has filled the hungry with good things, but he has sent the rich away empty.
[SPEAKER_01]: He has held his servant Israel, remembering to be merciful, to Abraham and his descendants forever, even as he said to our fathers.
[SPEAKER_01]: And Mary stayed with Elizabeth for about three months, and then returned home.
[SPEAKER_01]: not because of her merit, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: Mary wasn't praising God for his wonder and his grace and seeing her and doing great things for her because of her own merit.
[SPEAKER_01]: She was praising God for his wonder, grace because he just saw her lowly estate because he's wonderful, he's amazing, he's mighty and he has just chosen to pour out his grace and his blessing upon her and she is just thrust into worship through that, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: To sing!
[SPEAKER_01]: She wanted to sing, this is why we sing, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: When we have something to think about, when there's something great in our hearts and in our minds and in our lives.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I think, yes, Mary is a wonderful example to us.
[SPEAKER_01]: Mary is uniquely blessed and favored among all the women of all time.
[SPEAKER_01]: She is.
[SPEAKER_01]: She got to carry them a sia.
[SPEAKER_01]: That is amazing.
[SPEAKER_01]: And we should at least respect her and seek to emulate her type of faith in humility.
[SPEAKER_01]: But our appreciation for Mary should go right through her to God.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's where it should go.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's where she would want it to go, because that's where hers went.
[SPEAKER_01]: Her appreciation, her adoration, her worship.
[SPEAKER_01]: Not, man, I'm blessed because I deserve it.
[SPEAKER_01]: It was, I'm God, thank you.
[SPEAKER_01]: Why would you do this for me?
[SPEAKER_01]: When she said that there's last six verses, he is mighty, he is strong, God brings down the proud and the powerful, and he lifts up the humble in the hungry.
[SPEAKER_01]: He is a promise keeper, and he is always faithful to his word.
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, it would a great song to sing, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: At Christmas, the Magnificate of Mary.
[SPEAKER_01]: There are a lot of reasons why we sing, but there really is no reason better, no reason greater and to sing because of the love of God.
[SPEAKER_01]: You could kind of say that every song is a love song, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: There's so many love songs.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think love is by far the most common theme of songs and on the earth in the world right now.
[SPEAKER_01]: But you could probably say every song is a love song, because we sing out of what we sing out of what we care about.
[SPEAKER_01]: What gives us affection, what our desires are, what our passions are, that's why we sing.
[SPEAKER_01]: Whatever it is that you sing about.
[SPEAKER_01]: There's no greater reason to sing than the advent of the love of God in Christ Jesus.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I would just say this too, and I don't know who needs to hear this truth today, but if you struggle with the thought that God sees you, that He sees you, that He knows you, that He wants to have a relationship with you.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like not just that he's a great and majestic and wonderful transcendent God, but that he's an eminent and close and personal and deeply loving God.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like if you struggle, maybe you get this, but you don't necessarily get that.
[SPEAKER_01]: You struggle with that.
[SPEAKER_01]: I would just say, look no further than the birth of Jesus Christ.
[SPEAKER_01]: He need not look further than that.
[SPEAKER_01]: Look no further than the love that he has poured out into this world by giving us his son.
[SPEAKER_01]: John 3 16 God so loved the world.
[SPEAKER_01]: that he gave his only son.
[SPEAKER_01]: Whoever believes in him will not perish.
[SPEAKER_01]: That would be eternal life and for Mary.
[SPEAKER_01]: She's saying that Magnificent, I believe, because she just felt so loved.
[SPEAKER_01]: She felt so scene by God.
[SPEAKER_01]: And again, that angel did, he showed up and he said, you who are highly favored.
[SPEAKER_01]: You who have been bestowed upon you, the grace of God in your life.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like what amazing favor?
[SPEAKER_01]: What amazing,
[SPEAKER_01]: Grace, that word that the angel Gabriel uses there, that that highly favored word, that that Recipient of the grace of God and the being highly favored.
[SPEAKER_01]: That word is used two times in the New Testament only two times.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's used there Regabriel says it's also used in Ephesians chapter one versus I'm gonna read verses five through eight in Ephesians one See only other time issues.
[SPEAKER_01]: No, I'll tell you where it is
[SPEAKER_01]: In love, this is Paul speaking to the church about God's love.
[SPEAKER_01]: In love, He predestined us to be adopted as His sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with His pleasure and will, to the praise of His glorious grace, which He has freely given us.
[SPEAKER_01]: in the one he loves.
[SPEAKER_01]: That word freely given.
[SPEAKER_01]: And my translator says that he has freely given us in the one he loves.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is the exact same Greek word as what Gabriel said to Mary, that you are highly favored.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's a blessing of God's favor, that free gift of grace that God will pour out.
[SPEAKER_01]: And when Gabriel said it, he was talking to one person.
[SPEAKER_01]: He was talking to Mary when Paul wrote it here, who's he talking to?
[SPEAKER_01]: All people
[SPEAKER_01]: all Christians.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so again, if we would look at Mary and go, well, that was Mary.
[SPEAKER_01]: She was different.
[SPEAKER_01]: She had received the special grace of God.
[SPEAKER_01]: She had like in a different way than all of us.
[SPEAKER_01]: She's she's received the favor of God.
[SPEAKER_01]: No, Paul's actually saying, if you're in Christ, you have to, you've received exactly the same favor, exactly the same grace that Mary received, because God has poured His love into us by the Holy Spirit.
[SPEAKER_01]: He has given us His Son to die for our sins and adopt us
[SPEAKER_01]: So again, if you have a hard time believing that God would see you, that he would love you, that he would want to know you.
[SPEAKER_01]: Because he does, yes, God is high and lifted up, but he's also so intimate and so close to us, and he sees the depths of our hearts and our minds.
[SPEAKER_01]: And we can think about our own lives sometimes, just go, man, God doesn't want to know me.
[SPEAKER_01]: God, why would God want anything to do with me?
[SPEAKER_01]: Because he made you, because he loves you.
[SPEAKER_01]: And because he gave his son for your life, gave his own son for you.
[SPEAKER_01]: Look no further than the advent of Jesus.
[SPEAKER_01]: Look no further than this time of year as the proof of God's love.
[SPEAKER_01]: But I would tell you, look high and look deep.
[SPEAKER_01]: Look high and look deep at the love of God.
[SPEAKER_01]: Paul actually says that in Ephesians three how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's both it's all of that right and I think we could spend our lives plumbing the depths and reaching towards the heights of his love for us and we'll never get there.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's so great.
[SPEAKER_01]: One more scripture, go to the book of Psalms with me.
[SPEAKER_01]: Psalm 13, Psalm 13.
[SPEAKER_01]: And we're going to leave this up here for just a few minutes.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm actually going to ask them, Scott and the band they want to come back out.
[SPEAKER_01]: We're going to sing a song here in a minute.
[SPEAKER_01]: We're going to have a time to pray.
[SPEAKER_01]: But I just want us to kind of go into that time with this on our hearts.
[SPEAKER_01]: Psalm 13, five and six.
[SPEAKER_01]: Psalm 13 is a very short song.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's just six spurses.
[SPEAKER_01]: And it's King David's struggling.
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, if you want to read this whole song later, I'd encourage you to, if you're in a season of difficulty or frustration, depression.
[SPEAKER_01]: David talks about that here.
[SPEAKER_01]: And he just talks about man like, you know, he feels separated from God.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's doubting in his mind.
[SPEAKER_01]: He sees evil people getting what they want.
[SPEAKER_01]: And he's not getting what he wants.
[SPEAKER_01]: And all these struggles that he's having.
[SPEAKER_01]: But he gets to verse five and he says this.
[SPEAKER_01]: But I trust in your unfailing what love.
[SPEAKER_01]: I trust in your unfailing.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, God, that is a wild thing to say to a God that you just complained to about all the struggles of your life.
[SPEAKER_01]: I believe you love me.
[SPEAKER_01]: Though I am going through all that I'm going through, experiencing all that I'm experiencing, is I trust in your unfailing love.
[SPEAKER_01]: He says, my heart rejoices in your salvation.
[SPEAKER_01]: I will sing to the Lord for He has been good to me.
[SPEAKER_01]: Why do we sing to the Lord?
[SPEAKER_01]: Do we sing to the Lord because life is easy?
[SPEAKER_01]: We sing to the Lord because things are perfect all the time.
[SPEAKER_01]: Do we sing to the Lord because we have all the answers?
[SPEAKER_01]: No.
[SPEAKER_01]: If that was the only reason to sing to the Lord, none of us would ever sing.
[SPEAKER_01]: He said, I'll sing to the Lord for this reason.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's been good to me.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's a good God.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's faithful and his love is genuinely unfailing.
[SPEAKER_01]: It does not stop.
[SPEAKER_01]: First John chapter four tells us God is love.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is nature.
[SPEAKER_01]: He doesn't just do it.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's who he is.
[SPEAKER_01]: All that he is, all that he does.
[SPEAKER_01]: It flows from love because he is love.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so as God turns his eyes and his heart and his mind towards us, he does it always in love.
[SPEAKER_01]: His un, I trust in your unfailing love.
[SPEAKER_01]: My heart rejoices in your salvation.
[SPEAKER_01]: I will sing to the Lord for he has been good to me.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so we're going to do that.
[SPEAKER_01]: And just a minute, you're going to sing to the Lord.
[SPEAKER_01]: One more time today, because he's been good to us from sing of his love.
[SPEAKER_01]: Before we do that, I want to give us an opportunity, really just to think about how he's been good.
[SPEAKER_01]: So if you will, let's just do this.
[SPEAKER_01]: Let's bow our heads together.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you will, just bow your head with me.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I just want to lead us to go to the Lord right now, in prayer, and here's the question, how has God been good to you?
[SPEAKER_01]: And you may have a hundred things swirling around about the difficulty that you're going through at the moment, and I get it.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's real.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm not saying to ignore those things, but what I'm saying right now is maybe let's just put our eyes in the telescope or the microscope and just go, God, how great is your goodness?
[SPEAKER_01]: How deep is your love?
[SPEAKER_01]: How has he been good to you?
[SPEAKER_01]: Can you trust in his unfailing love?
[SPEAKER_01]: I believe you can if you just look to it right now.
[SPEAKER_01]: So just go to him and prayer.
[SPEAKER_01]: Listen, if you're on the prayer team and you would like to stand up, come front, come up front, I'll be down here too.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you wanna have somebody pray with you, please feel free to stand and come to the front.
[SPEAKER_01]: We love to pray with you specifically.
[SPEAKER_01]: Otherwise, just stay where you're at for a moment.
[SPEAKER_01]: to you to pray.
[SPEAKER_01]: God lead us right now.
[SPEAKER_01]: Let us see your unfailing love and believe it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Trust you in a deeper way and see that the advent of your Son Jesus has proven your love for us for the world.
[SPEAKER_01]: And Christ Jesus, we pray.
[SPEAKER_01]: Amen.