Mary's Song

and for the rest of us if you've got your bible if you could go ahead and grab those as well we're going to be in luke 1 46 through 56 this morning and uh as you're turning there i'm going to do what what a lot of times they say not to do but i'm going to try to practice what one of our guest speakers shared just a couple of weeks ago in psalm 42 just the the art of uh just expressing amongst the body kind of collectively um just suffering and and just kind of what you what you feel that you're experiencing and um i

think i don't know if it's you guys imagine know it for me personally like does it feel heavy like in here this morning like i i just i feel heavy and and i know a lot of that is it's just been a season of just heaviness um for me personally uh and just also i know for our leadership as well um and and and i think what i feel i should do is is try to mask it and try to kind of come up here and just be like all right let's let's get things going on a good note and um but but what i

discern to be more wise is is just to be honest um that like i'm just struggling like i'm just struggling and like i tried to unplug this week and you know even get like a little notification in the back it was like your phone was like down 70 in activity this week and i was like oh amazing um but at the same time it was like what i thought would maybe solve the issue was just literally unplugging from the phone like at the same time i just i feel anxious and i feel trembling um in spirit and i know a lot of that is also

you know kind of attached to um for those who don't know i was involved like i was in the middle of a shooting downtown uh just a couple of weeks ago as well and that kind of stirred up for me like eight months ago like being involved in a mugging and you know three years ago being involved in a stabbing just outside my neighborhood and um like those things just don't like go away overnight i mean like it's something that you really deal with and it causes like just ripple effects of study habits and and where your mind wanders and and then little things become

big things and it's just heavy and um it's father's day and i'm here by myself and because my family's at home sick and it's like that would normally just be a little thing but at the same time like just today it feels heavy um and so i just want to get that out because i know that um it's going to reflect in how i preached this morning and so like you know if i'm not you know telling jokes or uh whatever it looks like i just want you to know where i'm at and kind of what i'm processing through and that i'm just feeling a

deep anxiety that i've just never felt and so uh we're just going to take a moment and just pray and then we'll see what the lord has for us this morning father we know that you are good and we know you are gracious we know that you are merciful and that you are kind and loving and generous and that you are a protector and that you are the father of all fathers and lord we know that what happens in these gatherings is nothing that's based on the intellect of our leaders it's not based on how we how we look how we dress what we sing

or how we sing it but it's ultimately based on your spirit and your spirit gathering us together and your spirit pointing us to jesus and so father i pray that that's exactly what we do in this moment now is that we just center our minds and our hearts and our worry we center it on jesus so that maybe our worry might turn to worship first in jesus name we pray amen all right as we continue in luke 1 looking at verses 46-56 what we're going to be doing today is we're going to be continuing to get to know mary a woman who lives her her

life in relationship with god and as a result she's a great example for us she really is and today she sings a song a song that has ministered to my soul as i prepared this as i've just been meditate on meditating on it as i've been just reading it daily and what she sings this morning what she says is foundationally important for just our understanding of god um especially god as a father and so as you as we kind of walk through this um what what you're gonna see is her moving from worry to worship and and obviously this is how it's all structured is

is me just working this out also in my life um but worried to worship and just some attributes that she just praises god and is just in her worship is just expressing out of of a true theology a true understanding of of the kind of god that we serve the kind of father that we are submitting to the kind of father that we are are trusting to to provide for us and to care for us and to love us and so she she is really providing for us um what we need in order to understand and worship god rightly to be able to know him

to be able to love him to be able to cherish him to be able to treasure him for who he truly is and there's really two approaches to life and i'm going to say this is kind of like a preface leading into it there's two approaches to life one is what i'm going to just refer to as kind of a bottom up approach and a bottom-up approach is is you filter everything through your personal experience you filter everything through your circumstances or your resources or what you what you experience what you have and so if you have little then that might be processed in a

projecting on god that god doesn't love me and he doesn't bless me he doesn't take care of me he doesn't provide for me because i have very little or if your experiences are very um anxious experiences or circumstances like i know mine seem to be kind of high level like you know not even once in a lifetime type of things for most people but but not necessarily everybody experiences like stabbings and muggings and shootings but at the same time people do experience real life issues on a daily basis real life pressures where it might be um not having enough money at the end of the

month or it might be having relational strife within friendships that you have it might be experiencing other people demeaning you or belittling you in a workplace or it might be dealing with a business or an organization that is struggling and suffering and you're kind of caught in the middle trying to figure out how to help support it and whatever it might look like like there's there's daily circumstances that put on us pressure and anxieties as well and if we have a bottom-up approach we're projecting all of those things on god's ultimate love and care for us and so when things aren't going well we feel

as though god is distant and always far and that he doesn't care and he doesn't love and he's not taking care of us and he's not providing for us and he's he's not good but when things are going well we then believe that god is loving and is caring and is providing for us and is doing those things for us that he has ultimately promised when all of our circumstances are easy and and what we're kind of saying in that is is we want that kind of life where our need for god is actually void like we want the kind of life that doesn't need

god that doesn't depend on god but oftentimes what we actually find ourselves in is in a life where there are experiences and things that we walk through where it reveals the fact that we are dependent upon god and that we do need god to meet us in the weakness of this world to meet us in the weakness of our lives and that then talks about the the top-down approach the top-down approach is is filtering all of our life through what god says we're going to experience and what god ultimately says throughout the entire bible what we're going to experience is the collateral damage of our

sin like we broke everything that was perfect good and holy and because we broke it and fractured it there is going to be collateral damage there's going to be damage and brokenness in relationships there's going to be uh brokenness in your finances brokenness in your work and your career like you're not going to be the perfect employee you're not going to be the perfect boss you're not going to do things perfectly there's going to be strife there's going to be times where you have to let people go there's going to be times that you're let go like there's going to be issues that we walk

through on a daily basis and that's god telling us this is the mess that you've created he did not give us this mess our sin created this mess and so we're living in the mess and we don't project that onto god but rather we then look to god and say can you help fix the mess and god then again through the bible tells us how he's going to fix the mess and that then moves us from worry to worship because we begin to see how god actually works and moves in the mess to redeem and restore and renew and make all things new so that

we begin to move out of placing hope and trust in this world around us but placing hope and trust in a god who is good and gracious and merciful by not just wiping it all out but rather by redeeming it sending his son jesus to do what his son jesus does and that is to save and to redeem and to restore and that's not just a a future consummation of all things that's a part of it like there will be a day where there are no more tears and there's no more pain and there's no more anxiety and there's no more depression there's no more

of any of those things but there is a process now where he is restoring those things so that even though the circumstances might not change he doesn't promise that what he does promise is that in those moments we can tr we can move from worrying to worship and we can have our anxieties be restored to where we experience peace and we experience comfort we experience joy so that in all circumstances we can rejoice and not be in despair and so that's a top-down approach and what i believe mary is sharing with us today is a top-down approach she's viewing her circumstance as a top-down approach

and i believe this is good for us to be able to see and to be able to understand as we walk through this to be able to replace worry with worship the first thing mary says starting in verse 46 and mary said my soul magnifies the lord and my spirit rejoices in god my savior for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant for behold from now on all generations will call me blessed for he who is mighty has done great things for me and wholly is his name so what she's starting to do right here in in her in the context of

going to meet elizabeth her cousin who's also pregnant with john the baptist she's going to celebrate together with elizabeth her pregnancy of her announcement of of jesus the savior um being supernaturally impregnated in her by way of the holy spirit if you weren't here for that that was a few weeks ago go back and listen to that one but but this is her in this context beginning to worship despite the fact that in her circumstances it could really go a ton of different ways all right she's not yet married and has found herself pregnant and within the public eye is is a no-no and and

and not only that but also a biblical no-no and so she could be worrying that hey if if the word gets out and they realize that i'm not pregnant what they're not going to call me is quote unquote blessed but what they are going to call me is an adulteress and a harlot and there were reason for the people to drag her out into the public square and to strip her and to put her in front of everybody as a symbol of of of sin ultimately of what you don't do and so there should be reason for her to worry but instead of worrying what

she does is she moves to worship because she knows that this is god's plan for this is god's plan and so one thing that i want to understand first as we move through this is what is the difference between worship and idolatry in order to understand what she is doing here what she is doing she's worshipping we were all made to worship every single one of us we are creatures of worship what that means is that we spend every single day our energy our time and our resources towards something or someone we we are we're designed not to keep within us the expression of what

we are experiencing but rather we are to express it and get it out and that is worship and so for example i've used this before so it's not going to be a shock if you've um well not everyone in here are carnivores like me but if you love steak and you eat a good steak in that moment of eating a good steak that that feeling that you have of this is so good is an expression of worship because you usually tell somebody right you tell someone how good this is or you recommend a restaurant that they should go they have the best steak that you

should go and try or whatever it might be songs all right you do that with songs movies we do that with movies like we we evangelize what we experience and we express it by telling others you need to experience this as well like that is a form of worship all right like sporting events are are literally worship gatherings all right everyone gets together and they're team so and so like here we're team jesus if you go to a colts game your team colts and so you're you're painting up you're dressing up you're getting around other like-minded people and everyone is centered around this sporting event

that is happening this football game that is happening and whenever a play is done well we rejoice and we celebrate now i don't celebrate with the colts i'm a cowboys fan so i rarely get to celebrate but um but it's just a reality and so it is a worshipful experience we're expressing something and what the bible tells us is that we were designed to express gratitude thankfulness worship to god for what he has created so everything in creation was created to be good food was created to be good sex was created to be good like um working careers were created to be good like cultivate

the ground like work it like that was a command given to adam and eve within the garden like those are good things relationships are good things but when we put those things as the god thing we begin worshiping those things that moves us into idolatry worshiping creation rather than creator and that's where we begin to kind of flip the script and that's where you begin working bottom up rather than top down and what mary's doing here is she's helping categorize for us how we can flip that because if you focus on worshiping money worshiping food worshipping relationships those things never never satisfy the demand of

your worship because what happens when you eat something that was great and you worship and you're like that was fantastic and then it ends and then you're like i need more and then you start to get into the idea of gluttony you just keep eating you keep eating and you keep eating it was never meant to actually satisfy the deepest levels of our soul same thing with movies same thing with music same things with relationships like if you worship a relationship and i'm not just talking about husband and wife boyfriend girlfriend i'm talking about even friendships if you worship friendship and you're demanding of them

what you should ultimately be relying on and trusting from the lord then all of a sudden this person is going to be crushed under the weight of your expectation of what they should be for you it's crushing because they were never meant to be the the object of your worship god is god is the only being that we can worship and expect provision from that he never crushes under that weight never he's god he's infinite we are finite like with god we can literally walk with him anywhere and everywhere no one in this room i don't care how many times you're like call me at

3am i'll be there like no if you call me at 3am like because our phones have this like do not disturb now it's probably i'm not going to be disturbed all right like it's just now i mean if luckily you catch me on one of those mornings where i've had a nightmare or something and i'm awake and i just can't like maybe then i'll come help you change your tire but at the same time why are you at 3am like go home and go to sleep but like we're not omnipresent we can't be everywhere with everyone at every time in our fullness that's god that's

who he is god is our perfect friend don't put that weight on others doesn't mean we shouldn't have expectations of one another but right categorized expectations so what mary does here is she moves from worrying to worship she moves from um kind of bottom up i mean she has every right to be concerned right like she is a i've never been pregnant before how do i take care of a child not only do i should i take care of a child but it's god how do i train up him in his own way like how do you do that i don't know she's at the

same time she's she's a young girl like barely high school age and yet is taking on this weight and this responsibility we know she's poor she's from a small rural town not a ton of resources how am i going to feed them how am i going to take care of them at the same time joseph he's freaking out like how did she get pregnant like joseph did it right like he was waiting how did she get pregnant should i divorce her he's not at this point on the same level of faith as her at this point like he's he's still struggling and trying to figure

this out himself should i and and at this time that when i say divorce they're not married yet but they're betrothed which is a deeper level of what we call engagement here to where it was actually a legally binding thing you will marry this person and so in order to actually break off a patrol though you do have to give a certificate of divorce and so joseph as we'll see is eventually getting this place of like can i marry her she's pregnant we're betrothed we haven't we haven't done that yet and so he's still trying to figure that out in his own soul and so

she's even wondering like am i going to have a husband to come alongside of me and be a good father who's going to be able to train this child up with me or am i going to do this on my own she has all kinds of reason to worry but instead what we see here she worships and so if she worships rather than idolatry what does she worship who does she worship she worships god and she gives us actually in this in this this short brief song because it really is it's written in a poetic way that would be expressed in bursting out of a

song she shares this song with us that actually has 17 attributes at least 17 that i could find within this 17 attributes of who god is and why he is deserving of our worship that this is her moving to a top-down approach that instead of looking at just my circumstances around me i'm going to be looking at who god is and what he is calling upon me and how he is going to be caring for me and taking care of me and providing for me through this season and as you'll hear or what you'll hear are 17 attributes of god these are literally echoes throughout

the old testament these are echoes of hannah's song in the old testament she's in the line of miriam hannah deborah women who worship you're going to hear echoes as well of first and second samuel deuteronomy job the psalms isaiah ezekiel micah habakkuk and zephaniah this is a theological teenage worshiper all right she she's amazing in this she she knows who god is and she trusts the scriptures and when she could be worrying she moves to worship and here's what she says number one so here's the 17 attributes she begins with god is lord my soul magnifies the lord what that means is that her god

he's in charge he is above all all other kings all other kingdoms satan demons religions her god our god he's above everyone and everything there's there's no one beyond him this this is of great comfort to her as she looks again at her life and her future what will happen with my husband my reputation my family how will i feed this child how will i raise god what she says is you know what the lord's in charge of this the lord's in charge of this he's lord he's the lord and what we know is that all authority in heaven on earth has been given to

him like he's lord not only is god in charge of all things but the baby that she's carrying in her womb possesses all authority that all of creation was created through jesus so that nothing in creation was created apart from him jesus holds all things together so the baby that's being created in her womb is the same baby that ultimately is god that created her i mean like it blows your mind what we believe is insane but it's god's truth it's god's truth he's lord number two god is savior she says that her god is savior my soul magnifies the lord and my spirit rejoices

in god my savior some will tell you that mary was sinless she wasn't mary was a sinner she in fact notes uh that herself she needs a savior all right if you're sinless you don't need a savior like jesus didn't need a savior jesus came to be savior and he came to save sinners savior means rescuer deliverer hero how many of you watch a movie and it's dark and you're waiting for the hero to arrive when the hero shows up you're like yes like that is literally the bible in history like it is dark because of our sin and jesus the hero shows up and

we're like yes light like we have a deliverer we have a savior we we couldn't i mean literally in all of those movies you always want to be the one with the cape right but we're not we're the we're the people in the city running around like crazy as the buildings are falling and we're gonna die because of it but the reality is is it's all collapsing around us because of all of our sin and the hero shows up and saves us jesus comes and saves us number three god is omniscient she says that god is what we'll call omniscient which means just all knowing

she says my soul magnifies the lord my spirit rejoices in god my savior for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant what she says there is that my god knows everything my god knows that i'm young my god knows that i'm poor my god knows that i'm pregnant my god knows that i don't have a lot of resources at my disposal my god knows that my reputation is going to be destroyed my god knows that my life is going to be difficult and complicated my god knows all these things he's looked upon my humble estate church this is where your view of

god is so incredibly important so incredibly important some of us some say oh all religions teach basically the same thing no they don't they don't see you can look at religions that kind of land in the category of pantheism or peninsism which is just like god is all like all things everything just kind of works together and it is god god is this immovable or just this kind of spiritual force but not a being not a person those would be vague spirituality he doesn't pay attention to you it's just an energy that endows you but our god is personal he's alive he's living he thinks

he feels he speaks he loves he knows god knows every hair on your head even the ones that are falling the bible says god knows every longing of your heart he knows every day of your life god knows it all and you know what he pays attention he pays attention to the humbleness of your estate he's not overlooking that he's a father who's attentive and detailed to all of his sons and daughters that's what she says here and the great thing is that like no one pays attention to mary no one's paying attention to mary she's in nazareth not in jerusalem she's single not married

she's young not old she's poor not rich what she says is nonetheless god knows me god loves me so so it's not like us walking around with our capes in the wind that we're so mature and we're so intellectual when we're so successful that then god notices us no it's usually when you don't have any of those things or you're stripped of those things and you're in that humble estate god knows you he knows your mind he knows your heart he knows your anxieties he knows these things what are you absolutely distressed about right now here's a question have you have you worshiped about it

i know you're worrying about it but have you worshiped about it some say i don't feel like worshiping here's how you get yourself into worship this is just a little secret you worship your way into worship you worship your way into worship you you sing until you feel it like you don't wait to sing until you feel it you sing your way until you feel it you sing until you feel it she worships our god is the lord he's the savior he's in charge he knows us he loves us number four god is respectful he's not only lord savior omniscient he's respectful she says from

now on all generations will call me blessed it doesn't start that way though does it like for the next 30 years roughly of her life there's going to be a reputation about her because people don't understand the virgin birth there's going to be a reputation about it even when jesus is old and during his ministry people come to him and they say you don't even know who your father is what they are saying is that your mother was sleeping around there's a reputation there but our god is a god who gives worth value and dignity he knows exactly who she is and he knows exactly

what he has done and he prescribes to her he ascribes to her value worth and dignity to the point to where again all nations are going to look at her all people generations are going to look at her and say she was blessed she was blessed she was not a harlot she was not an adulteress she was blessed by god she was favored by god not not without sin again we're not we're not going that route in blessing her from generation to generation to where we say that she was without sin no we know that she was a sinner but what we also know is

that god looked upon her humble estate and he blessed her by giving her grace by giving her grace for some of us we might feel based on your experience in life that whether you've been abandoned been betrayed been beaten who knows been abused dignity has been taken from you but the god of the bible he's a respectful god he gives dignity back so much so that he calls us sons and daughters like we need to on if on a father's day like this we we need to really let that point drive home that god doesn't just save us and then kind of like put us

in the corner of his kingdom god saves us and adopts us chooses us as sons and daughters to come home to him as father so that one of the best kind of illustrations that i've seen in in desiring to read god's word is like especially those with young children right now if you don't read books before bedtime they lose their stuff there's just this weird like comfort and protection and love and security that they feel when they crawl up in your lap and you you read to them before going to bed at night and what god has done for us with the bible is he's

adopted us as sons and daughters and when we read scripture we're crawling up into the lap of god and we're sitting with him and we're leaning back against his his chest and he is reading to us the history of the world and what he has done as a faithful father how he has pursued us how he has worked out everything and all the details of the mess to bring us into his presence to find safety and security and comfort and peace so that we can finally rest we can rest well number five god is mighty he's mighty when she says he who is mighty do

you believe that god is powerful like this doesn't mean that that everything goes perfect and it's always easy and you'll be a winner every single time so just think happy it's awesome that's not what we're talking about when we say god is mighty and powerful but it does mean that no one and nothing can thwart god no one and nothing can thwart god he's powerful he's mighty he's the one who can do great things again if you believe that you'll stop worrying and you'll start worshiping because you know you you are trusting the god who is mighty who who does have all authority in all

power that then also moves into him being personal number six god is personal i love this she says he has done great things for me whom what's the word me she she's making this personal because god is personal some of you who struggle with with prayer struggle with worship struggle with celebrating who god is and what he's done let me give you a secret that has benefited me personally writing it could be journaling it could be poetry a song or some way of getting your thoughts out and onto paper i don't know if anyone knows this about me it's it's that personal but if i'm

struggling i i write poetry um i think 99 of people in this room are like no idea would not have ever pegged you for doing that um because it's just that personal for me i write poetry i get my thoughts and my emotions out onto paper and it just helps me process but as i do this what i'm doing is i'm answering one question what are the evidences of god's grace in my life right now what are the evidences of god grace in my life right now i'm not just writing about the circumstances that i'm experiencing but i'm asking the question what are his evidence

of grace even in the midst of those circumstances and as i'm able to do that i begin literally a collection of things that allow me to answer that question what has he done for me what great things has he done for me and as i go back and read and i look through these these moments of time i'm able to see that even though this was a difficult time i saw this grace this evidence of god's goodness and grace towards me i saw him move in this way i think what we should do is just journal those things like all times what your mind is

constantly just thinking and writing in the air is just everything that you're worried about but when you begin to capture those thoughts and put them down into paper and then throw into it the evidences of god's grace it begins to create that worry into worship and now in these moments i can write down and as we celebrated a few weeks ago in the night of ebenezer we're able to look back at those moments and say right now i'm experiencing a difficult time i can look back and see where god was faithful and he was faithful then he'll be faithful now he continues to do that

he has done great things for me number seven god is holy she says holy is his name god is not good and evil he's good he doesn't do evil he only does good one of the saddest things i've experienced is when people are coming to me with their lives in very difficult circumstances asking the question is god punishing me is god punishing me and and the answer every no god is not punishing you what god did for your sin is that he actually punished jesus for your sin he punished jesus past present future all of your sins were punished on jesus at the cross god

does not punish you you're like well how come i still experience things that feel like punishment well if when you sin there's still consequences for sin but those are just merely consequences of our foolishness it is not god punishing us that would actually be unjust of god to punish us if he's already forgiven us of the sins that we've committed he's just he's forgiven now he does discipline he disciplines but discipline is not punishment punishment is i want you to experience pain for the purpose of you experiencing pain discipline is you might experience some pain but it's for the purpose of you maturing so that

you can actually experience joy by not doing the dumb thing anymore by not continuing to sin for example if you eat too much you drink too much and you spend too much you'll be unhealthy and broke you reap what you sow but that's not god punishing you god loves you he does great things for you holy altogether good that's who he is he's good and he is holy he never does evil number eight god is merciful god is merciful his mercy she says extends from generation to generation you need to connect these two concepts together god is merciful that means he withholds from us justice

that we deserve as sinners because he's placed it on jesus because he's placed it on jesus he's been able to withhold from us what we actually deserved which was death that's the reason why when you first came out of the womb sinning you didn't die immediately because in his patience he put all that sin on jesus and in that moment in your life when you accept christ and you believe in him and you trust him as lord and savior that patience and all of your sin and all of his wrath that was towards you he says i've already placed it on jesus at the cross

and so therefore in my justice i'm also able to forgive you right now it's not him like just sweeping it under the rug it's been paid for it's been paid for he is merciful towards us not only that he's merciful from generation to generation what that means is that god's going to be merciful with my children praise the lord that my grandchildren and my great-grandchildren he's going to be merciful from generation to generation like there are some people in your life right now that your mercies run out right like there are just some people in your life right now that you're like i i'm i'm

sick of them and god says i'm not i will continue to extend mercy not only to them but to their children and to their grandchildren and to their great-grandchildren because god is a merciful god she worships god for being merciful number nine god is worthy she says in verse 50 that god is worthy for those who fear him what she's saying there is this is reverence this is all this is respect this is submission this is obedience god deserves that who else are you going to trust what else will you rejoice in who else is going to be the center of your life the source

of your identity the igniting of your passion where is it going to come from god is the only one worthy to be revered to be respected to be praised to be honored to be loved in this way see we become like that which we worship you become what you worship if if you worship hamburgers you're going to become looking like a hamburger that's just truth like you become that which you worship so if you worship if you idolize some type of artist that's not pointing you towards jesus you're probably going to start dressing and looking like whatever that artist is you're probably going to start

feeling like whatever those lyrics are expressing and emoting like you become that which you worship the beauty in god is that when we worship him we become like god the attributes that he expresses and reveals in his son jesus we become like him he he is conforming us to the image of christ we begin to think like him talk like him serve like him love like him all those things happen but he is worthy of our worship and we fear him in him alone number 10 god is powerful she uses this analogy that he has shown strength with his arm it's not that god will

do everything we want him to do but god can do whatever he wants that's the reality that's what the psalmist says that god sits in heaven and does whatever pleases him whatever it is in your life that is causing you to worry god is more capable competent and powerful to handle it he is the the reason why we are worrying is because we are not able competent capable and powerful to handle it if we were we wouldn't worry about it right but we're worrying because it is beyond our ability people and this this phrase is just so mishandled but oftentimes people say god will not

give me more than i can handle bull the entire bible promises that god is going to give you more than you can handle so that you are dependent upon him if he only gave you what you could handle who needs jesus we don't need a father we don't need the spirit to strengthen us and encourage us and move within us we don't need jesus to forgive us of our sins if we're able to handle it ourselves god absolutely is going to give you more than you can handle that's life because we are created to be dependent upon him and that dependence is actually the greatest

joy you will ever experience when you are depending upon the lord and seeing him provide and be faithful in those moments worry goes out the window and you just simply live a life of worship like that's the sweet spot that's the sweet spot that's what we're after number 11 god is sovereign he's sovereign this is beautiful he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts he has brought down the mighty from their thrones these are big words from this young girl in a rural town she had no human rights she had no civil rights it is likely again that she uh would not

have been permitted to buy property or testify in court on the scale of value as a young unmarried teenage girl she was right above cattle and livestock and under the throne of caesar like she possesses no rights in this moment but yet she is professing that those who consider themselves proud those who do have the rights yeah he's going to scatter you because the one that i serve is sovereign i might not be sovereign i might not have any rule or power but he does he's brought down the mighty from their thrones god will ultimately create equality in this regard which he says is caesar's

not lord god is caesar sits on a cute little throne but above that there's a much bigger throne and my king rules over all kings and his kingdom is over all kingdoms he's the sovereign one he gives me dignity he gives me love he gives me forgiveness he gives me mercy he's done great things for me and he even knows the thoughts of people's hearts and if they're proud he takes them down he humbles them and if they're seated on thrones ruling and reigning as bullies and thugs and abusers like some are god strikes them down with the strength of his hand and he defends

the widow and the weak and the poor and the oppressed and she's saying in young women like me we have a real king we have a king that we can be proud of in our humble estate mary's confidence is not in mary her confidence is in her god see god's going to establish a kingdom he inaugurated at the resurrection of jesus he is forwarding it through the preaching of the gospel and the expansion of of the church and he will culminate it at the second coming of jesus you know what will happen there's just going to be one throne one throne and jesus is the

one that's going to be sitting on it this baby in her womb is the lord of lords is the sovereign and what she's essentially saying is i'm going to be patient for that i'm going to be patient for that i look forward to that day number 12 god is gracious i got to move through these quickly i know we're running out number 12 god is gracious he has exalted those of humble estate what she's talking about here is that those who have been humiliated before her is is literally a life of humiliation what she's saying is is that for those who have been humiliated god

is gracious and will exalt those of humble estate he takes those of us who have been destroyed and he gives us dignity takes those of us in the world's eyes we have little if any meaning or value or purpose and he bestows on us dignity and grace grace god gives grace to the disgraced number 13 god is generous she goes on to say he has filled the hungry with good things and the rich he has sent away empty like have you ever been hungry like for most americans it's well it's gluttony that's the real issue hungry usually for us means that like we went 10

or 15 minutes past our dinner time like we're like we're hangry just because we didn't get there on time um but we don't really experience the type of hunger that we see in scripture where for her and her estate like again from a small rural town not a ton of resources it would not be uncommon for them to go days without food to really know what hunger and thirst actually look like and what god is saying here is that he has filled the hungry with good things like he is a generous god who is going to provide this is why when you look in passages

like matthew 6 god is saying like don't worry about your life what you will eat and what you would drink and what you will wear don't worry about those things look at the look at the birds they're not worrying about them like they they don't know but but yet they are always fed he's always taken care of literally every single being that is in existence he's making sure that it is fed why should we like we build our lives for those things rather than building our lives for the lord and what matthew 6 is saying is first seek the lord and his kingdom and guess

what all those things will be added to you like don't worry about what you will eat and drink and and what you will wear and the house you will have and the job and careers that you will like how you're going to make money and those things like if we first seek the lord in his kingdom if we're worshiping him we get creation thrown in as c.s lewis says like those things do come to us it's not one or the other but yet our world is just focused on worshiping creation rather than creator seek first creator because he's generous he's going to make sure that

he gives us what we need in order to lead a life and live a life of worship to him number 14 god is just he doesn't just let people steal he ultimately takes it away from them redistributes and ultimately in his kingdom the hungry will be fed like he's a just god the poor will be housed the needy will be cared for the marginalized will be protected that kingdom ethic is supposed to live among god's people that includes all of us like justice is not just what happens in the courtroom justice is us showing value worth and dignity to those who are in need we

are showing that they are equal to us as image bearers of the lord and so if they are without and we have we are to distribute to them so that we can bless them and show that they are loved by god and that they also can be sons and daughters of god by coming to the lord and trusting in him like that's justice and that's what the lord is demanding as a biblical view of justice is for us who have to be able to look around to those who don't because that is one of god's primary ways in which he is generous is through his

people to give to others to give to others again this is this is all in a song this is a young woman singing out of her heart by the power of the holy spirit and she closes with these final words her great song and i would encourage you in light of these words to again just replace anxiety with just history here faithfulness he has helped his servant israel in remembrance of his mercy as he spoke to our fathers to abraham and to his offspring forever and mary remained with her that is elizabeth about three months and returned to her home number 15 god is humble

she says three more things about god and this one is that he's humble he helps god helps god helps some of us feel like we need to come to god asking him god what do you want me to do but the truth is that he doesn't need us he doesn't need us we need him and our god is a giver not a taker he's humble he's willing to get involved in your life and your mess and your stuff and your needs and help you help us and help us to help one another see she looks at her life she has two options anxiety what will

happen or history what has god done in moments of crisis and doubt if you lean on anxiety you'll start terrifying yourself about the future what if joseph leaves me what if my parents reject me what if they strip me and beat me in the public square what if i'm a single mother what if i can't afford to feed this baby what what if we have complications in the pregnancy what if instead she relies on history she says i heard about this guy named abraham he was old his wife was barren they couldn't have a kid god gave them isaac then came the nation of israel

the culmination is my son the savior of the world i think god is good for this god's good at his word is what she's saying he's been working on this for several thousand years before me and that's able to replace anxiety with history worry with worship trust that god's the same yesterday today and forever it doesn't mean that everything is fixed but you keep your head straight and your eyes fixed upon jesus and you'll be able to worship your way through it 16 god is faithful she simply says he's faithful he is he spoke to our fathers to abraham and to his offspring forever what

she's saying is this he's totally faithful if he says he's one way he's going to be that way if he says he's going to do something he will do it if he says he has done certain things he does those things he's a faithful god he's a faithful god we need to hear that we we need to meditate on that day and night that he is faithful to us even when we're faithless he's faithful he's faithful in 17 god is eternal he is eternal some of you would even ask okay but but when does the goodness of god expire and she says that it goes

on for how long forever it comes back to any sandlot for our god is good forever our god is lord savior all-knowing respectful mighty personal holy merciful worthy powerful sovereign gracious generous just humble and faithful forever mary says that's who my god is that's who my god is that that's who has entrusted me with this circumstance that i am now living through and instead of worrying about it i'm going to worship the lord for his goodness to me and that he has blessed me with this this is the song that mary sings and here's why we sing we sing because our god sings our god

sings like zephaniah 3 17 says that in that day the the day that jesus comes back it says that in that day god himself will delight over you with a song that he sings luke 15 10 puts it this way that there is rejoicing before the angels of god over one sinner who repents many have said and have kind of envisioned it that whenever a sinner repents and comes to know jesus christ that the angels are on display just like singing and rejoicing and yes they are but it's not just the angels who are doing it it is god who is singing and rejoicing over

the fact that a sinner is now a saint and has become saved by jesus himself god rejoices when we repent god's happy when we repent god sings when we repent simply just give your sin to god like jesus died as our savior he forgives he cleanses he heals he's merciful he's good compassionate just generous and kind he's holy and altogether good and if and he'll forgive you and he'll embrace and love you and what we do is we tend to come in and we hear how sinful we are and we don't sing very much we don't sing very much because we feel we're horrible right

like we feel that we're horrible and and we are like to an extent like we're still sinners but he's good and if we don't sing it's because we're not yet thinking about him we're still thinking about our sin we're still thinking about us we're thinking about our sin and not our savior we need to think about our sin then we need to begin thinking about our savior that's the reason why we do confession in here as a corporate gathering is because we want to get that thing that is causing us worry and doubt and frustration and we might be projecting it on the lord and

we want to get it off of our consciences off of our hearts off of our our anxieties and we want to get those things out we want to confess those things before the lord and we want to then look to the cross and we want to see that jesus took it and that he paid for it and that it's gone and that we're then free to live under the banner of sons and daughters of our great father who is rejoicing over us who is singing over us who is delighting over us what that means is that he doesn't just love you that he likes you

like again for those who have who have kids or who have watched the kids and there there are times where you delight over those kids and there are times where you're like you're annoying get away from me because of what jesus has done at the cross god never looks at you and says you're annoying to him never his patience never runs out and i need to hear that as a father his patience never runs out we move from sin to song and a spiritual rhythm that we do to help move from sin to song is communion it's communion also known as the lord's supper it's

a spiritual rhythm where we bring our sin to jesus and we remember that jesus took our sin and he placed it on himself at the cross and god in his goodness and his righteousness and his anger he crushed our sin by crushing jesus that's what he did and jesus dying on the cross his blood being spilt for us cleanses us it's the payment for our sins that washes us clean it's the final moment where we're able to breathe and we're able to rest and we're able to start feeling that comfort in that peace that we're so desperately longing for that's where the term clean slate

comes from it's a clean slate with the lord we start fresh and we start anew in jesus because again three days later he rises from the grave in a new glorified body i mean it's when we partake of communion it's almost like a a weekly this isn't like a new salvation every single week but it is almost like a new resurrected spirit every single week where we are being renewed daily by the lord by his word that we are correcting and that we are rebuking and that we are literally just bringing our mess on a weekly basis it's already forgiven but we're still bringing it

to him because we're still saying we're still fumbling through this life we're still figuring this out we don't know what we're doing half the time and that's being generous we don't know what we're doing lord but we want to bring it to you because we know that you're omniscient we know that you're all knowing we know that you have looked upon our humble estate and that you are going to take care of us and you're going to bless us we can trust that and so we want to move from this worry to this worship and the only way that we can do that is by

what we represent in communion by bringing this junk to the lord and knowing that it's been taken care of at the cross and then we can walk away from there risen to a new state and a new life that is worshiping and honoring jesus above anything and everything else we worship we worship so let's go ahead and stand if you don't have the elements yet you can go ahead and go back and grab them and come back to your seats you this is a spiritual supper it's a spiritual meal this is for our souls and this is also for worship of jesus this is a

time where we bring again just just that's just the junk just the mess that we're walking through and we bring it to the lord and we say we trust you because we've already seen your faithfulness the cross in its in its own way is an ebeneezer it's a stone that we can look back upon and we can see what jesus has done for us in our muck and mire he went to the cross he crushed his body and he shed his blood so that we don't have to die and spend eternity without god in his loving kindness while we were still sinners he died for

us and so this is a replacement this is a substitution this is us looking at jesus and saying we thank you for the son that she was about to give birth to would go and die so that he could ultimately give her her own rebirth to become a daughter of the father so let's remember and worship jesus for i received from the lord but i also delivered to you that the lord jesus on the night when he was betrayed he took bread and when he had given thanks he broke it and said do this in my body this is my body which is for you

do this in remembrance of me partake of the wafer right now and remember that his body was crushed for you in the same way also he took the cup after supper saying this cup is the new covenant in my blood do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me for as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup you proclaim the lord's death until he comes let the drinking of this this juice be a reminder that his blood was shed to absolve all of your sin and the collateral damage of the anxieties that come with that be renewed now as

we partake of this as well