Advent: Empowered to Be a Person of Praise

Amen.

Well, good morning.

Merry Christmas.

Have y'all been busy with your Christmas wrapping?

Is anybody finished with their Christmas wrapping?

Anybody finished?

Stop bragging.

Why are you bragging?

Is anybody plan on not wrapping a single present?

That's me.

That's me.

I pay my I pay my children to wrap my presents.

Just an idea.

As your children age, you can do this.

Advent week four, we're three days from Christmas.

Advent week one, we talked about the darkness that is in us.

Advent week two, we talked about in God's kindness, we get to repent of that darkness.

Advent week three, last Sunday, we talked about that is called rejoicing Sunday.

We begin to turn our gaze on Jesus and how good He is for us.

And then this Sunday, week four of Advent, we get to ponder Mary.

And we're pondering Mary as to ponder the favor that we have in Jesus and how that favor turns us, empowers us to be a person of praise.

Because perhaps you've heard you should praise God, you should be a person of praise, and you think to yourself, that sounds great.

But how do I do that?

How do I even want to do that?

Well, Mary was not from a prestigious family.

She had no impressive resume.

She was just really completely ordinary.

She was a girl.

She was probably somewhere 13, 14, 15 years old, because that was the age that these girls married in the ancient Mideast.

We know she was a virgin.

We know she was engaged to a guy named Joseph.

Then in Luke 1, we learn that this angel comes to her and speaks to her, this girl, and says, Don't be afraid, you're favored by God, you're gonna have a baby, this baby's gonna be the Messiah of your people, the one your people have been waiting for, who has come to know you, to love you, and to save all sinners.

So the miracle of Christmas begins with this announcement from God to her in her ordinary life.

Let's read Luke 1, 26 through 30.

In the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin, betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph of the house of David, and the virgin's name was Mary, and he came to her and said, Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you.

But she was greatly troubled at the saying and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be.

And the angel said to her, Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.

So this passage is known as the Annunciation, because it's an announcement into Mary's life.

And point number one is this God's unmerited love is the defining word of our lives.

We all need an announcement, and this is the announcement that actually resonates with our needy heart.

Verse 30 don't be afraid.

You're favored.

You are favored, you have found favor with God.

Last week I watched the movie The Grinch with one of my kiddos, the animated version 2018.

Remember, Grinch was gonna steal Christmas from the people.

This is how he was going to save himself.

He was gonna deal with all his issues by stealing Christmas from these people.

So he dresses up as Santa Claus, he gets a sleigh, he goes down into town and he's stealing all the Christmas stuff.

This is gonna save him.

This is gonna solve his inner anxiety, his shame, his guilt, his wounds, everything inside of him that's a mess was gonna get solved by this.

So he's down there stealing Christmas, and Cindy Louhu catches him in her house.

And as he's scooting her back to sleep, she says to him, I wish you could celebrate with us tomorrow.

We all get together and sing it's so beautiful that if you close your eyes and listen, all of your sadness just goes away.

So she announces something into his miserable life.

She says, I wish you, I wish you could be with us.

And he's amazed because he hadn't heard anything like that before, that she would want to be with him.

And then she runs toward the Grinch and she hugs him.

And this is the turning point in the movie.

Everything changes from this point on.

This announcement of welcome, even while he's a mess, and something happens in his heart.

His hard heart is softened.

After returning all the Christmas stuff to the people, he says, It was me.

I stole your Christmas stuff.

I stole it because I thought it would fix something from the past, but it didn't.

Like we could fix it on our own, that we could be our own saviors.

That we're gonna fix ourselves.

We're gonna become our own Jesus in this way.

Which is incredibly difficult, impossible to do for the insecure sinful self to speak into the insecure, sinful self, forgiveness and meaning.

We need a word from outside of ourselves.

And that's what we see here with Mary.

A word comes to her.

She didn't cause it, she didn't even ask for it.

It came to her.

You are greatly favored.

And I'm just wondering: not condemnation on you or guilt on you, but grace on you.

Where do you go for that word?

Where do you go for a word of favor?

We are all ordinary people.

Unique, unique, but ordinary.

And we need an extraordinary word.

We're all constantly asking on the inside, even though we dress up pretty good.

We're all asking, am I loved?

Do I matter?

Am I enough?

If I was known, do I matter?

Am I loved?

Could I be loved in my sin, in my mess, and my imperfection?

If God knew me, could he love me?

Well, back in Luke, Mary goes and visits her cousin Elizabeth, and she bursts out in a song.

This song is known as the Magnificant.

Her entire future is unknown.

It's been disrupted, and yet Mary sings.

Luke 1 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 holy is his name.

I love what Martin Luther, theologian in the 1500s, 500 years ago, wrote about verse 48.

The stress should not be on the low estate, but on the word regarded.

Mary's low estate is not to be praised, but God's regard, as when a prince gives his hand to a beggar, the meanness of the beggar is not to be praised, but the graciousness and the goodness of the prince.

You must not only think and speak of lowliness, but come into it, sink into it, utterly helpless, that God alone may save you.

Or at any rate, should it not happen, you should at least desire it, not shrink.

For this reason we are Christians and have the gospel, that we may fall into distress and lowliness, and that God thereby may have his work in us.

And this is point number two, as we become aware of our helplessness, we grow secure in God's unmerited love.

As we become aware that we're more broken than we originally thought, more sinful than we originally thought, more of a mess than we originally thought.

We can't quite get it all together.

We can grow secure.

We can become secure people and secure Christians.

Because God's love to us is secure.

It's to say that God's office is at the end of our rope.

And isn't that good news?

Because we all end up at the end of our rope.

In our passage, Mary refers to a prayer of Hannah in the Old Testament from 1 Samuel.

Hannah was childless, desperately wanted a baby, and couldn't have one.

And then her husband, this moron, he goes and he marries a second wife and has children with her, right?

Moron.

Horrible, what a horrible, what a horrible thing.

And if that's not enough, this second wife, let's just call, to be polite, let's just call her a brat of a woman.

She begins to mock Hannah and her pain.

So Hannah's hurting, she's lonely, the future's unknown, and yet she's resting in the Lord.

Because her joy is not in her circumstances, her joy is in the Lord.

And we have this beautiful prayer of Hannah's in 1 Samuel.

And by the way, one day Hannah's prayer is answered.

And Samuel the prophet is born.

So Mary knows this story and this prayer.

Listen to just two verses of Hannah's prayer.

1 Samuel 2, 1 and 2.

And Hannah prayed and said, My heart exalts in the Lord, my horn is exalted in the Lord, my mouth derides my enemies.

You know, that other wife, that other woman, my mouth derides my enemies, her, because I rejoice in your salvation.

See, Hannah has nothing, but Hannah has God.

It's to say, where do we find our joy?

And does that thing actually deliver?

Like, is it giving you security, stability?

Is it giving you forgiveness?

Is it giving you righteousness?

Now listen to Mary in Luke 1, verse 50.

Luke 1:50

And this is her singing.

I won't sing it.

This is her singing.

And his mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation.

He has shown strength with his arm.

He has scattered the proud and the thoughts of their hearts.

He has brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of humble estate.

He has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty.

He has helped his servant Israel in remembrance of his mercy, as he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham, and to his offspring forever.

Point number three is this we live in God's constant mercy while in a changing world.

This is what Mary turns to where she finds her joy in the constancy of God's mercy.

It's reliable, secure.

I love verse 50 and 51.

There's the stability that God's mercy and strength give.

Because our world and our individual worlds are constantly changing.

When I went to college a very long time ago, I didn't have an email address.

Anybody else didn't have an email address when you went to college?

They gave us an email address my freshman year of college.

And we had, my friends and I, we had this conversation.

Why in the world would we ever need this?

This was the dumbest.

I mean, we this was, you know, we're smart, young, 18-year-old.

This is the dumbest idea we had ever heard of that we're gonna go and type messages to each other?

Why would we ever do that?

I had a brick of a cell phone at that time.

I had 30 minutes a month.

I thought I was happening.

I had a minute a day.

And you had to be fully aware.

If you're my age, you knew fully, you're like 50 seconds, and you don't want that to hit 101 because there goes your second minute, there goes tomorrow's minute.

I mean, think how different today is.

Things change.

Your health was horrible, now your health's better.

Finances were tight, now things are better, but things can change the other way.

Work was great, now it's tough.

Family was peaceful, now it's chaos.

I was great, now I'm a mess.

I'm a mess, now I'm great.

Now I'm a mess again, but then I become great again, and then I'm filled with a little bit of both, right?

Like things change, and next year something else will change, and we'll have to adapt.

And all of that brings anxiety.

There's no stability for us.

We're always having to adapt and change and learn and keep up.

But Advent reminds us this constancy of mercy in a changing world, we have God's mercy.

It's constant for us.

Listen to Ephesians 2, 4, and 5.

But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive with Christ.

By grace you have been saved.

Ligineer Ministries explains God's mercy this way: mercy, unexpected love and generosity, cannot be showered upon us as something owed.

Because mercy that is owed is not mercy but obligation.

It can be given only to those in a desperate situation who cannot help themselves and lack the capability to earn or pay it back.

And there's no better way to describe our situation apart from Christ than utterly and helplessly desperate, which would be horrible news if Jesus did not come to this world and die for us.

That God's office actually is at the end of our rope.

That when we become aware that we actually are more hopeless, that we want to admit, that God is right there with us.

And the reason why God's office is at the end of our rope is we're just too prideful when we're at the top of our ropes.

We have to be broken first.

Now, most of the time in this poem, the song, Mary's just describing how how good God is.

She's just praising God.

I mean, look at it.

Verse 47, God my Savior, 48, he has looked on me, 49, for he is mighty, holy is his name.

50, his mercy, 51, he has shown strength, 52, he humbled the proud.

53, he filled the hungry.

54, he helped his people.

55, he spoke to us.

Mary's response to God's mercy is to praise God.

And that's point number four.

Growing in praise is gazing more on the promises we have in Christ.

Luke weaves praise throughout the early chapters of his gospel.

He's making a point.

Mary's shown mercy and she praises.

Chapter 157, Elizabeth gives birth.

She, her neighbors, and family praise God.

168 through 72, Zachariah praises God for remembering his covenant to bring a Savior.

Chapter 2, a heavenly host, praise God when Jesus is born.

Shepherds praise, as they all seen and hear.

Simeon praises God for the Christ child.

And maybe we say, great, fantastic.

I get it.

I'm supposed to praise God.

My life is supposed to be a praise to God.

How do I do that?

How do I do that when life is hard, busy, when it's a mess, when I'm lonely?

Well, think where it all started.

Right?

We don't get the magnificent if we don't have the annunciation.

The announcement becomes before the praise.

It all starts with an announcement of favor into the life of an ordinary person.

Just a few thoughts of favor that we have in Jesus.

In Christ, we are forgiven and righteous, sons and daughters of God.

1 John 1.9, 2 Corinthians 5, 21.

This is the gift of forgiveness and righteousness we have.

In Christ, we are deemed godly while still becoming godly.

Isn't that amazing?

That you are deemed something you haven't even become yet.

That's the position you have in Jesus.

Titus 2, 11 through 14.

This is the freedom we have to grow in Jesus.

Lastly, in Christ, we are secure, forever accepted, sons and daughters of God.

Romans 5.1.

This is the security we have as saints.

The security we have as sons and daughters of God because of Jesus, not because of our work for Him.

This is announcement from God is clear.

And Christian faith becomes about allowing God's unconditional loving regard of us to become the defining word of our lives.

In 1898, Henry Tanner, he painted an artwork called The Annunciation of Mary, of this Luke 1.

Now, most of the art created from Luke chapter 1 focuses on the magnificant, the praising of God.

Luke 1 · chapter mention

And it shows Mary's response and it shows Mary very angelic, she's like glowing.

And it's nothing like I feel like most days.

I've never looked at any of those artworks and thought to myself, boy, that's just a real representation of my inner life.

Just glowing, just walking, just glowing, waking up on Tuesday, glowing.

That doesn't feel like me.

But this 1898 Henry Tanner created the Enunciation.

Here's an image of this painting.

And I love how ordinary she is.

It just feels much more like how I feel most days, and I'm gonna guess how you feel.

And then there's this disruption of glory and grace.

And you can see the contrast here, right?

The ordinary, lowly Mary, and then this glory, God's greatness.

But she isn't ashamed.

Like if you look at her face, there's not shame there, there's intrigue.

She's captivated in some way.

See, she's receiving before she's praising.

You don't get Mary praising without Mary first hearing God's loving regard to her.

The annunciation gives us the magnificant.

If you want to be a person of praise, which we're called to be, then we become receivers.

We live in postures of receiving who we are in Jesus.

And out of that is empowered a life of praise.

That you do have an announcement over you.

You have a word spoken to you, and it was spoken 2,000 years ago.

The God who created the world came into the world.

So we don't have a distant God, but we have a creator who knows us, who knows you, and loves you.

And he taught us and he lived for us, and he died on a cross, took our sin upon him, and gave us his righteousness.

So we are forever forgiven and forever righteous.

This is the word spoken to you.

Beloved, you may feel ordinary.

You most likely do.

But you have an extraordinary, an extraordinary word spoken to you.

That in Jesus you are favored.

Now, perhaps you're here and you have a question about that, or you have some other spiritual question.

I'll be down front afterwards.

I would love to speak to you.

Let's pray together.

Heavenly Father, we thank you that you are enough for us for the forgiveness that we need, for the guilt that we hold, for the righteousness we need, for all the self-striving that we put ourselves through.

That the gift of Jesus is enough.

Help us to embrace even more that we are lowly, more of a mess, more sinful than originally thought, but in Jesus, more love than we could ever dare to dream.

Help us to see that we are sons and daughters of God before we are your servants.

May we praise you because we live receiving this word spoken to us, the word of relief Christ for us.

In Christ's name we pray.

Amen.