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Will you take your Bibles and turn to Luke's Gospel? Luke chapter one. It's interesting that, and certainly by no mistake, in the providence of God, as we are making our way through Luke's gospel, we just happen to come to part of the Christmas story at this Christmas season. And this morning, we will be looking specifically at Mary's sacrifice of praise. We will be looking at verses 39 through 55. Before I read the text and make some comments on it. Let me just remind you that Christmas is certainly a wonderful time of praise and worship, a magnificent opportunity for believers to reflect upon the incarnation of Christ when the Lord Jesus, the Son of God, took on human flesh; and to think about not just that he did that, but why he did that? Every carol we sing is really a doxology of our soul. Every gift that we give is one that points to God's gift of grace that he has given to us. And frankly, every opportunity for fellowship with family and friends is just a little foretaste, a little preview, of heaven's joy. And every meal is a foretaste of the marriage supper of the Lamb. Every nativity scene helps us get lost once again in the wonder of the incarnation - God's love for sinners. And like no other passage in all of Scripture, we see these great wonders expressed in Mary's hymn of worship found in this section of scripture.

And I find it interesting, as I think about it, seldom can we learn anything about heart worship from teenagers, especially in our culture; but here you have a 13-year-old girl that really deserves our full attention. Frankly, at this point, we could sit at her feet and learn much, and we will do that here this morning. So let's begin Luke one, beginning in verse 39,

"Now at this time Mary arose and went in a hurry to the hill country, to a city of Judah,

"and entered the house of Zacharias and greeted Elizabeth.

"When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the baby leaped in her womb; and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit,

"And she cried out with a loud voice and said, 'Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb!

"'And how has it happened to me, that the mother of my Lord would come to me?

"'For behold, when the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby leaped in my womb for joy.

"'And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what had been spoken to her by the Lord.'"

"And Mary said:

My soul exalts the Lord,

and my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior.

"'For He has heard my regard for the humble state of His bondslave; For behold, from this time on all generations will count me blessed.

"For the Mighty One has done great things for me; and holy is His name.

"'And His mercy is upon generation after generation toward those who fear Him.

"'He has done mighty deeds with His arm; He has scattered those who were proud in the thoughts of their heart.

"'He has brought down rulers from their thrones, and has exalted those who were humble.

"'He has filled the hungry with good things; and sent away the rich empty-handed.

"'He has given help to Israel His servant, in remembrance of His mercy,

"'As He spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and his descendants forever.'"

You must realize that worship is one's heart attitude of reverence and adoration towards the Lord our God, and it can be expressed in many ways; and we must ask ourselves, is my worship really acceptable to God? Is it sincere? Is it genuine worship from the very core of my being, and can others see that manifested in my life? Or is it just kind of churchianity at its core? God is only pleased with worship that is in spirit and in truth. In fact, in John 4:23, Jesus said, he speaks of true worshipers, "worship the Father in spirit and truth." And the term "spirit" refers to the human spirit - the internal - that subjective part of man; acceptable worship is not therefore just some external conformity to rituals, to certain ceremonies, but it's a genuine expression of a transformed heart. But the subjective must always be regulated, or you might say, informed by the objective - that is, the truth of the Word of God. And frankly, if we believe things about God that's contrary to Scripture, or we hold to errant doctrines, God is not pleased. If we pretend to worship him, but in fact, we are worshiping idols in our heart, God is not pleased.  Idols of our heart can include so many things, you know, body image, attention and acceptance, fame and fortune, health and wealth, entertainment, pleasure, all of those things. If our worship is is maybe rooted in truth, but our character bears the fruit of pride and anger and jealousy and strife, immorality of all the deeds of the flesh, God is not pleased. So as we examine this text, especially as we peer into Mary's heart, let's also examine our own heart, okay?

Let me remind you of the context. Remember now, here in Luke one, we see how God has dispatched the angel Gabriel to this 13-year-old Jewish girl from Nazareth, betrothed to Joseph. And he has told her that the Holy Spirit is going to come upon her, and she is going to conceive, and she would be the mother of Jesus, the Messiah, the Son of God, the Most High. And as added confirmation - knowing that this young maiden would really need another godly woman to talk to, one that would believe her - God sent Gabriel and told him to tell her in verse 36,

"'And behold, even your relative Elizabeth, has also conceived a son in her old age; and she who was called barren is now in the sixth month.

"'For nothing will be impossible with God. '

"And Mary said, 'Behold, the bond slave of the Lord; may it be it done to me according to your word.' And the angel departed from her."

So now, young Mary hears that that her 80-year-old relative, who was barren, is now pregnant with John the Baptist, the forerunner of the Messiah; and think about all of the things that would have gone through her mind at that point. Who is going to believe me when I tell them that the Holy Spirit has come upon me and I am now pregnant with the Messiah? Who is going to believe that? Is Joseph, my husband going to believe that? Because we have not come together. What will my family and friends say? After all, no one has heard from God in 400 years. And the punishment in the Old Testament, under the law in Deuteronomy 22, for this kind of adultery, would be death. Now at that time, it would be divorce, but there's going to be embarrassment, there's going to be disgrace, there's going to be banishment, there's going to be poverty, which could lead to death. So imagine the fear that must have gripped her. And so what we see happening now is she's going to travel to see Elizabeth and be encouraged.

So notice verse 39, "Now at this time," referring to Gabriel's visit with her, "Mary arose and went in a hurry to the hill country, to a city of Judah." Now you must understand the geography there, that would be about a three- or four-day journey. So it's not like, you know, she jumped on a bus and ran over there to the hill country. I mean, this is a significant journey that would have required a lot of planning.

Verse 40, "...and she entered the house of Zacharias and greeted Elizabeth." Greetings in those days would be a whole lot more than "Hey, what's up?" It would be a long update of everything that was going on. And so that's what would have happened here. So don't you know, they sit down and Mary grabs her by the hand and says, "You're not going to believe what has happened. Let me tell you why I just spent the last three or four days coming here to see you."

Verse 41, "When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the baby leaped in her womb."  Remember, in verse 15, we read that that that the baby, John the Baptist, would be filled with the Holy Spirit while yet in his mother's womb, and now you have evidence of that. Here you have a miraculous expression of joy in this Spirit-filled little baby in Elizabeth's womb, the forerunner of the Messiah. So this is more confirmation to Mary; and isn't that precious to think how the Lord is encouraging her through all of this? And we read that Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit, and it's for this reason now that she is going to receive prophetic inspiration to go on and to say the things that she's about to say.

Verse 42, "And she cried out with a loud voice..." Let me pause there for a second. When you see this in Scripture, you must understand that it's a phrase that is used elsewhere to describe one who is speaking divine revelation from God. For example, in John 1:15, "John testified about Him and cried out, saying, 'This was He of whom I said, "He who comes after me has a higher rank than I, for He existed before me."'"

So back to the text here in verse 42, "And she cried out with a loud voice and said, 'Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb!'" Now it's important to understand that in ancient Hebrew culture, a woman's prominence was typically measured by the prominence of her children. And although Elizabeth would produce the forerunner of the Messiah, isn't it interesting that she humbly acknowledges that Mary has received an even greater honor. Blessed are you among women? And blessed is the fruit of your womb? And of course, the fruit of the womb would be the Messiah, the Lord Jesus.

Verse 43, "'And how has it happened to me, that the mother of my Lord...'" Let's pause there for a second. Notice the word "Lord," all right, this is an affirmation of His deity. How has it happened to me that the mother of my Lord would come to me? So this is just a statement of utter humility. In other words, I don't deserve to even be in your presence.

Verse 44, "'For behold, when the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby leaped in my womb for joy.'" And then it's interesting here, notice the third person pronoun, "And blessed is she..." By using the third person pronoun, this expands the blessing to include all who trust God to fulfill all that he has promised in his Word. "And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what had been spoken to her by the Lord."  In other words, blessed is she, Mary - including you - obviously, who would have faith enough to believe that God would fulfill his promise to send a Son to be the Savior of the world. Now, as I think about it, despite Mary's fears of rejection and embarrassment, notice she does not collapse in a pool of tears. She's not panicking as if the world is coming to an end here. She's not begging Elizabeth to hide her from the embarrassment of what is to come. No, instead, isn't it interesting, her heart explodes with worship. She's not ruled by fear. She's ruled by faith. And too often, when we find ourselves in difficult circumstances, we can cower in fear, rather than coming to the Lord and praising him for who he is; and you know, "Lord, even though right now this is a very difficult situation, thank you; I know you're in charge. I know you're at work in my heart, and I know you are going to accomplish your good pleasure in and through me and so forth." But Mary's heart couldn't be silenced by fear, because it was full of faith.

And so to understand this text, I've divided it into three categories to help you focus on the aspects of Mary's worship. We're going to see, first of all, that her worship was a spontaneous doxology of her soul. And secondly, her worship was God-centered, not man-centered. And thirdly, her worship rehearsed God's mercy. See past, present and promised. And I pray that the Spirit of God will use these truths to encourage your heart, to refine your worship, to deepen it, especially during this Christmas season.

So under that first heading, her worship was spontaneous - a spontaneous doxology of her soul - notice beginning in verse 46, "And Mary said: 'My soul exalts the Lord, and my spirit has rejoiced in God, my Savior." Now both soul and spirit are used interchangeably throughout Scripture to describe the immaterial part of man - our innermost being - the core of who we are. And here, Mary uses a poetic device known as Hebrew parallelism, in which the same idea is repeated using different but synonymous words to reinforce her statement, and her soul erupts here in exaltation, just a spontaneous outburst of praise. And frankly, this is always going to be the inevitable, shall we say, knee jerk reaction, of someone who is walking humbly before the Lord. And again. How could this happen? This is just a 13-year-old girl. She's facing such enormous challenges; we have to ask the question, what would animate a young lady to have this kind of spontaneous worship? May I suggest two reasons. First of all, she had such a deep love for God that she was saturated with his word. Do you realize that she quotes the Old Testament 15 times in this poem, in this hymn of praise, which proves she was a dedicated student of Scripture. Now mind you, this is very significant. She didn't have an iPhone where she could look things up. The way they knew scripture in those days is, they had to memorize it, and they had to listen well. You see, a person only does that if they truly love the Lord and they long to hear from him, and therefore they treasure his Word; and as a result of that, his word is going to instruct their life. I mean, what person in love doesn't read and reread love letters that they receive from someone who has captured their heart. You memorize those words, don't you? You meditate upon them. You're saturated with them. Dear Christian, let me be clear, your love for God can really be measured by your love for his Word. Mary quotes portions of Hannah's prayers out of First Samuel, Leah's prayers out of Genesis 30, and here we find references to the law. We find references in quotes from the Psalter and from the prophets. And so, her soul is filled with an intimate and accurate knowledge of the lover of her soul.

Notice just in an overview, in verse 47 she rejoices in God as "Savior." Verse 49 she declares that he is the "Mighty One," speaking of his omnipotence, the one who "has done great things for me; and holy is His name." Verse 50 she acknowledges "His mercy" upon all who fear him. Verses 51 through 53 she rehearses actions of his sovereign rule over all things. In verses 54 and 55 she praises him again for his mercy, his faithfulness in keeping his covenant promises to Abraham and his offspring forever. And sadly - and I have to put myself in this category - sadly, when we encounter some trial, many times, we find our flesh being captivated by fear and by confusion and anger and despair. And if we're not careful, we will make some really bad decisions when we are ruled by anything other than the Spirit through his Word. We could become self-willed rather than God willed and not even see it; ruled by our flesh rather than the Spirit. I mean, think of the bad decisions that you've made over your life, and you will acknowledge, yes, that was in a season where I was ruled by my flesh, not by the Spirit.

Now I want you to ask yourself a question, could you write such a hymn of praise like we see here with Mary? And if not, why not? Perhaps you have head knowledge, but not heart knowledge. Perhaps he is not high and lifted up in your mind. Perhaps he is not really a priority in your life. You live for yourself, not with a passion for the glory of God. Self is the center of gravity around which your life orbits. Beloved, please hear me in the spirit that this is intended, if you are unable to put pen to paper and at least express a similar hymn of praise, even in trying circumstances, you will never be able to spontaneously erupt in a hymn of praise, especially when things are difficult. It's simply not going to happen. The more you enjoy an intimate fellowship with Christ, the more spontaneous your worship will be, even in times of uncertainty and fear.

So she had such a deep love for God that she was just saturated with his word. That's why she's responding the way she is. And secondly, she had a passion for God's glory. Notice verse 46, "'My soul exalts the Lord.'" This is the true expression of her innermost being. This is the priority of her life. Everything else is secondary or tertiary. She longed to see him receive the honor and the worship that he deserves. Don't you grow weary of the world's indifference towards Christ? And not just indifference, the growing contempt towards Christ, towards his word, people who love him? Well, obviously, Mary was familiar in this text, we see with Hannah's song in First Samuel two, where, in verse one, Hannah prayed, "My heart exalts in the Lord." So the word is informing her mind and her heart.

And I might add in a real practical note, for you, young ladies, it's important that you become familiar with other godly women in your life and certainly become familiar with the Bible. Know the word of God, allow it to instruct your life; and then, like Mary, you will receive inspiration from other women in the Bible, for example, like Hannah. You will have the same kind of response. So spend time around godly women that the Lord has placed in your life.

Now notice in verse 48, her statement, "For He has had regard for the humble state of His bondslave;'" That is a paraphrase of Hannah's prayer in First Samuel 1:11. And at the end of verse 48 she echoes Leah's words in Genesis 30 and verse 13 when she goes on to say, "'For behold, from this time on all generations will count me blessed.'" Would that we all have such a familiarity with the Word of God; because acceptable worship will always flow from the well of the word, and if that well is shallow, or if it's poisoned in some way, the worship is not going to be what it should be.

But notice more closely why we can say with certainty that she was preoccupied with the glory of God. Verse 46 she says, "'My soul exalts the Lord.'" "Exalts" means to magnify, to make great, to extol, to glorify. And what's interesting is in the original language, it's in the present tense, which indicates that glorifying God at the very core of her being was a habitual and continuous reality of her soul, regardless of circumstance; magnifying the Lord with the preoccupation of her heart long before she became the recipient of divine favor, as we see here in this text, which once again explains the spontaneous eruption of praise. And too often we think of worship as something that just happens in a church that you know, it's got to include candles or rituals; in a lot of circles, religious icons, ambiance, something that needs to be induced by music. But nowhere in Scripture do we see that. In fact, God has not given us music to induce worship, but to express it. Music is that magnificent vehicle that transports the doxologies of our soul and releases them even into the kingdom of darkness, to bring light, the light of saving grace.

Because the glory of God was the theme of her soul, it was naturally the theme of her song that we read here in this text. So she begins by saying, "'My soul exalts the Lord,'" verse 47, "'And my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior.'" You see that is what is acceptable to God - a spirit that rejoices in him as Savior. And this term "rejoiced" is a very strong word in the original language. It expresses utter jubilation, an internal celebration of supreme joy. And this is why she was so preoccupied with his glory, because she experienced the joy of saving grace in her soul. And so she is fully aware of of all that God is, all that he does, all that he's going to do as the coming Messiah. And what she says here is reminiscent of so many other texts in the Psalter. For example, Psalm 103, and verse one that we read earlier, "Bless the Lord, O my soul and all that is within me. Bless His holy name." And I would humbly ask you, is that the true expression of your heart? How often does your soul erupt in spontaneous praise? And would others who know you best agree that that is a common manifestation in your life, because of your deep love for God? Are you preoccupied with his glory? Do you want others to see the glory of God in your life? Are you preoccupied with his glory in your private life? Because if you're not, it's not going to manifest itself in your public life, and your worship will be contrived at best, counterfeit at worst.

So her worship was, first of all, a spontaneous doxology of her soul. And secondly, her worship was God-centered, not man-centered. It's interesting from the very start of her hymn of praise in verse 46 and following, her focus is on the Lord as her Savior, the Savior of her sin, not the Savior of her poverty, not the Savior of her bad health or her struggling relationship, maybe with Joseph, or the Savior of a disappointing and unhappy life, the Savior of getting us out of Roman rule. No, she focused on the one who would save her, catch this, from her sin. In Matthew one in verse 21 the angel later put Joseph's tormented mind at ease by revealing to him that her child had been conceived by the Spirit. In verse 21 he says, "And she will bear a son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for it is He who will save his people from their sins." And Mary knew that, first and foremost, her Messiah was coming to seek and to save that which was lost. Jesus said in Luke 19:10, now this is so contrary to Roman Catholic dogma of Mary's quote, "immaculate conception," they believed that from the moment of her conception, she was kept free from original sin, but Mary understood her greatest need was for forgiveness. She understood that she needed the undeserved mercy of God and his grace so that she could be reconciled to him. Why else would she declare, "and my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior?" And truly her worship, therefore, was God-centered. It was not man centered. Her focus was on the Savior, the Mighty One, the Holy One, the Merciful One.

And yet, as we see, God judges the proud, he exalts the humble. He is faithful to his covenant promises to Abraham and so forth. And I might add that God-centered worship is very rare these days. Most of what we see, even in evangelicalism, is man- centered worship; that Jesus is all about me and my needs, rather than God and his glory. Several years ago, I tuned in to Fox News television network to hear a pastor they called a quote "evangelical icon," and this man delivered a special Christmas sermon. I don't believe this man knows Christ, but he is a very prominent preacher, and he presented a man-centered distorted version of the gospel based on his interpretation of the Christmas story and the Bible and the Bible and so forth. And unfortunately, what he presented bore very little, if any, resemblance to the true gospel Jesus preached, and certainly the one that Mary understood. And as I listened, I remember becoming increasingly agitated at the subtle spin on sin and the Savior. Like other kind of politically correct religious entrepreneurs who are bent on attracting seekers, this preacher defines sin in such a way that really no one could ever be offended. The essence of his definition was that sin includes all those things we think and do that rob us of fellowship with God and steal away our happiness he wants us to enjoy. So the good news of the gospel becomes nothing more than God loving us so much that he sent his Son to save us from our unhappiness; and excerpts of interviews on the street were included to reinforce this whole definition of sin. People were asked what they thought they needed to be saved from, and answers - I jotted them down - included things like, I need to be saved from my finances, from my destructive relationships, from my job, from myself, and one person even said, I need to be saved from my sin. But nowhere in the program could you hear a clear biblical definition of sin, exposing man's dreadful condition of divine condemnation for having violated the law of God. And so the whole emphasis was very man centered, never God centered. And neither the preacher nor the people ever acknowledged that because of our sin nature, that everything that we are and everything that we do is fundamentally offensive to a holy God. And apart from God's regenerating and saving grace and his gift of faith, sinners would remain in that dreadful condition for eternity and experience the wrath of his justice forever. And the preacher never told them that sin is ultimately man's innate inability to conform to the moral character and desires of God. His message was instead, God exists for you, not you exist for him. God loves you so much that he sent his Son to die for you and save you from your unhappiness, to make you successful, to live up to your potential, to fulfill your dreams, to be personally liberated, to become all that you can be, to have a purpose driven life. How different is Mary's message.

In verse 47 she begins "rejoicing in God my Savior." Not God, my life coach; not God, my investment advisor; not God, my personal Santa Claus; not God. my private genie in a bottle. She knew that she had to be saved from the penalty and the power of sin. This was the glorious truth that ignited her praise as it should for all of us. Furthermore, she understood that her relationship to God was not that of a first round draft pick whose talent he is waiting to develop, but rather that of a willing slave to serve her master. She even answered Gabriel in Luke 1:38, "'Behold the bondslave of the Lord; be it done to me according to your word.'" In verse 48 she says she praised God because He, "had regard for the humble state of His bondslave.'" Unfortunately, because of the stigma of slavery, most translators replaced slave with servant or bondslave, but the term is "doulē" in the original language, and it literally means "slave." Mary understood that.

Let me give you a little historical context. Slaves had no independence. They had no freedom, no rights, no legal recourse in courts. They even had no citizenship. They were completely owned by their master, and they had to submit to him without hesitation. Their personal desires, their ambitions, their dreams, were of no concern to their master. They were completely dependent upon their master, who provided everything for them, and a slave's responsibility was very simple. A slave had to obey all the direct commands given to them, and to do so without hesitation, or in the absence of those direct commands, the slave had to spend their life doing all they could to please the master, making themselves available at all times to do his bidding. And frankly, beloved, this is our responsibility to Christ, our Savior, because we are slaves of Christ. We have been purchased by his very blood, bought with a price. And Mary understood this. This is what animated her worship, and it will transform ours. You see, we have no status on our own, but rather, our status is related to the one who owns us. We are united to him, and that's what makes our worship God-centered, rather than man-centered. She understood that she was depraved, not deprived. Remember, the angel of the Lord told Joseph in Matthew 1:21 you will "bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for it is He who will save His people from their sins.'" referring to what he said to Mary. Not save you from your unhappiness, from your poor self-esteem, from your poverty, your lack of success. I wish so bad with that audience that that preacher would have told the people that because of your sin, you have violated God's holy law. You have offended the holy one, your Creator, and therefore you stand guilty and condemned before his bar of justice. There is nothing that you can do to save yourself, but because of his great mercy and love, God has provided a way for you to be forgiven, and that way is through the Lord Jesus Christ, and He is the only way. He sent his Son, the Lord Jesus, in human flesh, to live a perfect life and to die a violent death and pay the penalty for the sins of all who would trust in Him. And this is the exceedingly good news of the gospel. Oh, I wish that he would have said that. Of course, the television people would have probably shut him off. I wish he would have said, "You know, I just invite you to repent and to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, whose birth we celebrate here this Christmas season." I wish he would have said, "You need to abandon all of your ambitions and your dreams and forsake the path of self-determination and self-will and become a willing slave of Christ; because of his great mercy, become a living sacrifice to the praise of his glory, and watch what he will do in and through you."

But know this, dear friend, unlike the slave/master relationship of the world, when we become a slave of Jesus Christ, we belong to a master who loves us with an eternal love; one that would cause him to die for us, and we would become sons and daughters of his family, adopted children into his family. That's the one that we serve. We are clothed with his righteousness. We are forever hidden in him, and he lavishes upon us all manner of physical and spiritual blessings and grants us eternal life. He actually makes us recipients of an unimaginable inheritance that is reserved in heaven and protected by the very power of God. He makes us joint heirs with Christ. He makes us citizens of the kingdom of heaven. And for this reason, we can say with Mary, "'My soul exalts the Lord, and my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior. For he has had regard for the humble state of his slave.'"

Well, finally, as we wrap this up, this morning, her worship also rehearsed God's mercy, past, present and promise. This is a common expression, by the way, I should say, a common practice in Old Testament worship. We see it all the time in the Psalter. First, she praised God for what he had done in her life, as we've already seen. Verse 47, "My spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior.'" In other words, saving grace is always the foundation of all praise. We're no longer under divine condemnation.

And next, she praises him for the unimaginable blessing of choosing her to be the earthly mother of his son. Verse 48 and nine, "'He has had regard for the humble state of His bondslave...'" The idea that that, "hey, I'm just so unworthy of the Lord's attention." "'For behold, from this time on all generations will count me blessed. For the Mighty One has done great things for me; and holy is His name.” Again, she doesn't complain about her lowly status by which the world would measure her, nor did she suffer from poor self-esteem. In fact, she rejoiced in the fact that God would even notice her, especially knowing that her very creator was now in her womb. Her Messiah would share her humble state and be born to such insignificant parents. And folks given our Savior's unfathomable condescension to our lowly estate, who among us have any right to complain about anything? And to be sure, her humiliation would be short lived given the blessing God bestowed upon her, one that all generations would remember and quote, "count her blessed."

But it's interesting, Mary doesn't limit her praise for what God has done to her alone, but also what he's done and will do for all who fear him. And in verse 50, she's quoting, essentially paraphrasing, Psalm 103, verse 17, "And His mercy is upon generation after generation toward those who fear Him.'" You see, to fear the Lord means to have a deep reverence for Yahweh, the personal name of God, expressed in a submission to his will that is revealed in his word. And this should cause all of our hearts to explode in praise Think of the countless millions of people who fear Him and who are recipients of His mercy. Are we not among them?

Verses 51, and two, she's paraphrasing texts here out of Psalm 98:1, Psalm 118, verse 15, I'm going to ask her in heaven someday, "Did you just memorize all of this? I mean, how on earth could you remember these things?" Of course, I think minds in those days were far more brilliant than they are now, as we see the degradation of humanity. But what she says in verses 51 and 52 demonstrates her familiarity with God's involvement in ancient history, which, by the way, is essential to worship that is acceptable to God. Let me say that again, familiarity with God's involvement in ancient history is crucial to our worship. That's why she says, "He has done mighty deeds with His arm; He has scattered those who were proud of the thoughts of their heart. He has brought down rulers from their thrones and has exalted those who were humble.'"

In verse 53 she's using Psalm 107, and verse nine, "He has filled the hungry with good things and sent away the rich empty handed." You see, too often, our praise is confined to just what God has done for me, for me alone, rather than looking at all that he has done over the course of human history to bring glory to himself, and we should back away from the microscopic look of the timeline of our short life and gaze upon the full spectacle of all that he has done in creation, even up to now. To think about what he did in the creation, what he did in the Flood, Moses and the Exodus Joshua and Judges, Elijah and Elisha, the Incarnation, the apostles, the mystery of the church and all that he's promised to come. It's overwhelming, isn't it, when you think about that? This is what Mary does. She praises God for what he has done, even to his covenant people, and what he will do in the future. This is eschatological praise. This is the stuff of acceptable worship in spirit and truth.

Verse 54, and five, "'He has given help to Israel His servant, in remembrance of His mercy, as He spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and his offspring forever.'" In other words, she understood the unilateral, unconditional, irrevocable, everlasting covenant that God had made with Abraham that was introduced in Genesis 12, that was actually made in Genesis 15; that was reaffirmed in Genesis 17, and that was renewed with Isaac in Genesis 26 and then later on with Jacob in chapter 28 - that he promised that through Abraham's seed, all the nations of the earth will be blessed - indeed the Lord Jesus Christ would be the descendant of Abraham. She understood this. This informed her worship. She understood from that covenant that divine blessings and protection would be upon the descendants of Abraham, the Jewish people. She understood that he promised to make them a great nation, that he would be the father of many nations, that he promised them a land, a specific territory that would ultimately belong to his covenant people. And throughout the Old Testament and the New Testament, we see repeated affirmations of these promises being ultimately fulfilled in the Lord Jesus Christ; when he returns to this earth and establishes his earthly kingdom and reigns for 1000 years, a kingdom that will ultimately be merged into the universal, eternal kingdom of God from which it originated. And indeed, this is why, in Luke 1:32, and 33 we read, "And the Lord,"  this is Gabriel to Mary, "...and the Lord God will give Him," your baby, the Lord Jesus, "...the throne of His father David; and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and His kingdom will have no end."

And then finally, in anticipation of all this fulfillment, she closes with you might say just one final burst of praise. Notice verse 54, and five, "'He has given help to Israel His servant, in remembrance of His mercy, as He spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and his offspring forever.'"

Well, folks, may I challenge you, in closing this morning, to find a quiet place, set aside some time, pull out a pad of paper and a pencil - no Bible, no help - and write your own song of praise. Just let your heart speak that which you know to be true about who God is and what he has done for you. You don't have to make it very long. Hers is actually only eight sentences. You know, I think you got time to write eight sentences. No one's going to read it. And it's okay if it's not very comprehensive, if it doesn't lack or if it doesn't have a lot of theological depth, I get that. I mean, few Christians, frankly, share the level of theological acumen of this 13-year-old girl. I would even say most pastors do not have that level of theological acumen. But just sit down and do that and examine your thoughts before the Lord. And if you can't say much, it's probably because you don't know much, which means you probably need to become better informed. Some of you are new Christians, I understand that, but you're going to grow in the grace and the knowledge of Christ. But for some of you, you've claimed to be a Christian, for years, and yet you would be embarrassed for anyone to read your eight sentences. Why is that? Probably because the Lord is simply not a priority in your life. So, examine your heart, go before him and ask him to help you grow in him so that you can celebrate even as Mary did, especially at the Christmas season, amen. Let's do that together.

Father, thank you for this time. Thank you for your word that speaks so directly to our heart. I pray that you will cause each of us to examine our heart in such a way as to truly acknowledge the deficiencies that may be there and then by the power of your Spirit to help us shore up those deficiencies so that we can have an even deeper level of worship and communion with you, so that our spontaneous doxology of praise will truly express a heart that is pleasing to you. Lord, we ask this for your glory and certainly for our joy. In Jesus' name, Amen.