At this time, it will be serious to be a free day for Christmas.

Thank you, Joe.

Good morning, church. Luke chapter 1. Let's grab our Bibles and turn to Luke chapter 1.

It is the season, so we are going to spend a few weeks going through some of the Christmassy topics, to steal Joe's newfound word, Christmassy.

This morning, we're going to look at the five attributes of Mary, five attributes of Mary, as we kind of begin this next few weeks.

I'm the oldest child born of three to Bob and Mary Lou Geary.

And, you know, there's often a very special bond that's created between a mom and their children.

I love and respect my parents greatly and, you know, love my dad and relationships change over the years.

But when I was really, really young, my dad was military, and so he was gone a lot.

He was gone a lot.

And I just, and I bond, I had a special bond with my mom when I was a really young boy.

Moms love no matter what.

You ever notice that?

You ever notice that?

They have this fierce love, and they love no matter.

As a matter of fact, we even have a saying in our society, you have a face only a mother could love, right?

Okay?

So, that just shows you the depths of love that moms carry.

But our message this morning is about Mary, the mother of Jesus, the mother of the Messiah of Israel, the Savior of the world.

And I can only imagine that there would have been this incredible bond, this incredible love, strong love between Jesus and his mother.

One of the reasons, as we study, we believe and we understand that Joseph died, okay, at an early age, leaving Mary alone with the rest of the family, the rest of the kids.

And so, we believe that that also helped to create this bond.

And did you know that Mary, Mary was the only human being that was there present at his birth and present at his death?

And so, you know, a wonderful event and a horrible event.

When he came into the world, she was rejoicing.

When he died on the cross, it was like the prophecy, a sword pierced her own soul, pierced her heart, okay?

But, if you know much about Mary, you know that she's a controversial figure, all right?

Mary is someone that the Catholics will fawn all over and the Protestants will wince about, all right?

And so, I've heard it said that Mary, I've heard Mary being described as the co-redemptrix of human race as well as the co-mediatrix of human race, okay?

Those are just fancy words for just saying that Mary helped redeem the world and Mary is a mediator between mankind and God, all right?

That is taught.

And there are even, there's even a basilica in Rome that's called a Santa Maria Magoria that has a picture of Mary hanging on the cross with Jesus.

And as if she helped to redeem the world.

And inside that church, there's a painting of Mary, of Jesus putting a crown on Mary as if she's the queen of heaven, all right?

And so, according to the Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church, Mary also was always a virgin, even after she had Jesus.

Jesus perpetually had her virginity, even though the scripture attests to it differently.

This is what these denominations believe.

And these two denominations also believe that in the Immaculate Conception, Mary was untainted from original sin.

Never had it.

Thus, she was elevated to a place where Mary answers prayers and Mary dispenses grace, all right?

This is what's being taught.

Now, none of those are true.

And you can look through the Bible and you're not going to find anywhere, any evidence where the Bible supports this.

However, the other extreme committed by Protestants is to disregard Mary altogether.

That's the other, to ignore the fact that she was uniquely...

I love Christmas messages. I do. I really love them. I love the Christmas story. I love preaching on Christmas messages. But I hesitate. And I was talking to Jill about this last week at home and I didn't really understand why. But I hesitate every time we get to the point where I know it's coming. The Christmas messages. It's time for the Christmas message. And I really didn't understand why I had this hesitation. But I hesitate every year when it would get to this point because...

...you know it. It's so familiar. It's familiar. It's familiar. You know about the shepherds. You know about Herod. You know about the star. You know about the magi.

And some of you even know the real story. You know that there weren't three kings from the Orient. Okay? Like we sing about in the songs. You know that it wasn't a silent night in Bethlehem. You know that for a fact. Some of you know some of the more advanced things historically of how the Christmas carols, the songs that we love to sing, are theologically wrong. You know those things. Alright?

And so you know what the Bible teaches. But while you may know that, to come to grips with the thought that this virgin girl was impregnated by the Holy Spirit and so that baby bump on Mary is the creator of the universe.

The creator of the universe. The creator of the universe. It's mind-boggling. I don't care who you are and how long you've been. It's still mind-boggling.

It just is. It is. And I've heard people say, well, preacher, I don't believe in the virgin birth. A virgin birth is impossible.

And you know what? I would agree with you. It is impossible. But with God, nothing shall be impossible.

And that's really the solution in all this. I've always thought and I've always believed that if you can get past the first verse in the scriptures, everything else is a cakewalk.

If you can believe that in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth, what else is going to be difficult for you to wrap your minds around?

If in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth, everything else is a cakewalk from that point on.

I do believe in a virgin birth. The scriptures point that out.

But these thoughts, you know, that must have dawned on Mary from the very beginning.

You know, she didn't quite grasp at all from the first announcement that was made.

These thoughts of what was, you know, what she was doing, what was going on with her.

And, you know, who was this that she was carrying in her womb, okay?

But it began to dawn on her. And I want you to look, I want us to look at her response in Luke chapter 1.

And I want to show you five attributes about Mary this morning that are very, that are biblical and important for us to just grasp this time of year and be reminded of.

Number one, Mary was real.

Mary was real. I know that sounds crazy for me to say that, but she actually existed and she was historical.

And I'll, I'll explain that in just a moment.

Luke chapter 1, beginning in verse 26.

In the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent by 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.

And behold, you will conceive in your womb, bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus.

He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High.

And the Lord God will give him the throne of his father David.

And he will reign over the house of Jacob forever.

And of his kingdom there will be no end.

And Mary said to the angel, How will this be since I am a virgin?

And the angel answered her, The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.

Therefore, the child will be born, will be called Holy, the Son of God.

And behold, your relative Elizabeth, in her old age, has conceived a son, and is in the sixth month with her with her.

that never really existed in history. And the reason why some of them say that is because they'll say, well, the only real record that we have of Mary, there's no other genealogical records, the only record we have of Mary is the biblical record of Mary. And that's all we have. And I have to answer that by saying, I'm not surprised by that whatsoever. I'm not surprised that that's the only record that we have, for several reasons. Number one, she lived in Nazareth. She lived in Nazareth. And Nazareth, and Nazareth,

Nazareth was Podunk Central, okay? That was just, you know, a hayseed village that nobody cared about. Nobody knew about. You wouldn't even know about Nazareth had not Jesus been born in Nazareth, okay? It was a nothing place. Nobody was ever, you know, was from there. And there was no reason for that her to be recorded in history. Also, she was a Jew. She was a Jew, and she was part of a society that was subjugated by the Roman government.

And the Romans had no interest in recording the lives of their conquered peoples. They're not going to go through that trouble. Also, she was from Israel, a patriarchal society where men had the top billing, all right? If you were a woman, you had no legal rights. You were owned by your father. Then once you got married, you were then owned by your husband. And that's the way it was.

And so a woman, her genealogy would not be recorded unless she was a woman of wealth, a woman of status, or a woman of royalty. And that's the only way.

So the fact that Mary's not recorded other than in the Scriptures, I'm not surprised by this. So who was Mary? Who was Mary? You know, having established that we believe that she was a real person, exactly who was she?

Well, she has this miraculous birth, okay? We understand. The Bible says that she had this virgin birth where she birthed this child.

And so the Jews, the Jewish nation, historically had to come to terms with this because they're still waiting for the Messiah.

And it's represented that Mary, a Jew, has this virgin birth. So how do they deal with this?

In the Talmud, the Talmud, the Jewish Talmud represents and says that Mary was a hairdresser.

I can't make this up, okay? This is too rich, you know?

She was a hairdresser and had an affair with a Roman guard named Panthea.

I guess that's where we get the name of the Panthea, whatever that hair thing is.

And maybe that came from that. I don't know.

But she has an affair with Panthea, okay?

And this affair brought this illicit child, this illegitimate child, Jesus, and that's how Jesus came about.

That's what the Jewish Talmud represents from Mary.

But Mary was real and she came from a Jewish family.

So her name would have been Mariam, all right?

And we know that from the genealogies listed in Luke chapter 3 is Mary's genealogy.

Matthew gives us Joseph's genealogy.

And we know that Mary's father was named Heli, H-E-L-I, Heli, or Eli.

He might be called Eli.

So her name would be Mariam Bat-I-Lah.

That would be her Hebrew name.

So Mary was a real person and we understand that she, well, how old was she when all this took place?

Well, we're not exactly sure, but we can make a good guess because scientific records estimate

that women during this point in time achieved menstrual maturity around age 13 or 14 years of age.

And that's according to the National Geographic Atlas, the biblical world.

And so Mary was somewhere between 12 and 14.

We're just going to say this morning, she's a 13-year-old young lady.

13 years old.

And so Mary was approximately 13, we're going to say, when she was impregnated by the Holy Spirit.

Jewish women, during this time, when they reached physical maturity in those days, they got married and they had a family.

Okay, so you have somebody who's from a poor family, a teenager from Nazareth, a working class village, engaged to a man named Yosef.

And so Joseph, what did Joseph do for a living?

Joseph said,

materials they worked with was stone. So he was probably a stone cutter, a stone. He may have worked with wood a little, but primarily he was a stone cutter. So she was engaged to Joseph. Mary was from the tribe of Judah, tribe of Judah. And so she was a direct descendant of King David from that royal line, which meant that her lineage would have great kings like David, Solomon, King Asa, Josiah,

come on, come on, help me out here. Jehoshaphat, Jehoshaphat, Jehoshaphat, there you go. And all those godly leaders, that would be from her line. This is who she was, okay? But there's something else interesting. For 400 years, think about this, 400 years, there has been no word from God. No word from God. No prophetic revelation to Israel. It's been quiet. No angels, no miracles.

Silence for 400 years. And what happens 400 years later, God's going to speak again. And the angel Gabriel is sent. Gabriel is sent to Jerusalem first, six months before all this, to a priest that's working in a temple named Zacharias. Hey, Zacharias, want to give you a heads up. I know you guys are old, but you and your wife, you are going to have a baby and you're supposed to call his name John. He's going to be the forerunner of the Messiah.

Now, all of this is important. We'll get to unfold all this in a second. But six months later, Gabriel shows up in Nazareth. Now he appears to Mary in the scene that we just read.

Now, Gabriel is interesting because Gabriel isn't just an angel. He's the angel of angels. He's like super dude angel, all right? He's a super angel.

And there are really only two angels that are named in the Bible other than Lucifer that was cast out. We have, we have Gabriel and we have who? Michael. Very good. Very good.

And Gabriel is the guy who gives Daniel all these prophetic messages about the future. Daniel chapter 8, Daniel chapter 9, okay?

The prophecy. Gabriel is in charge of everything messianic for the Jewish nation.

Everything messianic for the Jewish nation. Gabriel is the one who appears and gives the word.

And so he shows up and gives Mary this information. And Mary's response is, I'm confused. I don't get it.

I don't get it. You know, how can this be possible? I'm a virgin. And the answer is simply, it's God. It's God.

Nothing shall be impossible with God. The Lord will overshadow you. And he will be born of the Holy Spirit, conceived by God.

This young teenager gets up and goes. After she hears this, she gets up and goes and visits her cousin, Elizabeth.

Elizabeth. All the way in Jerusalem. It's a long journey. Now, why would she get up immediately and go visit Elizabeth?

Good question. I think I have, I can make a good guess. Who else would understand what just happened to her?

Who else could she relate to? There's only one other person on earth who would understand, and that's Elizabeth.

Why? Because who else would understand when a 14-year-old girl says, I'm pregnant by God?

It would be a woman who's had an unusual pregnancy announcement herself by the same angel.

By the same angel. You know, who's going to believe a girl who says, I'm going to be the mom of the Messiah?

A woman that's just been told that you're going to be the mom of the forerunner of the Messiah.

And so when Mary comes to see Elizabeth, what does the baby in Elizabeth do?

It leaps. I felt him leap. He left the forerunner.

There. It's like, oh, there it is. There's my buddy.

So Mary was real. Mary was real. You need to know that. Mary was also humble.

Mary was humble. Verse 38.

And Mary said, behold, I am the servant of the Lord.

Let it be to me according to your word. And the angel departed from her.

This is a statement of absolute submission that shows her her humble faith.

During this period of time, every Jewish girl, from the time that the announcement that the Messiah would be coming,

every Jewish girl was hoping that they might be the mother of the Messiah.

That was the hope of every young Jewish girl.

you are the unique person that I've been waiting for this whole time, this whole period of the world. You are the one. You're going to bring the Messiah. It's you. It's you. It's you. It might make you think, man, I'm a little puffed up here. I'm the one. I'm the one. Nobody got a pregnancy like me. I'm the one. Don't tell me it's water weight. It's Messiah weight. You know? And so, Mary was special. She was unusually spiritual.

Very, very true. But she was just so humble as well. Because it says, for behold, and look at the word, it says, I am the servant of the Lord. Literally, it means I am the slave made of the Lord. The slave made of the Lord. The Greek word is doule. Doule. And those of you who might know this, a little bit of the Greek, so that sounds an awful lot like the word for slave. Okay? It sounds familiar. The typical word doulas. Okay?

This is the feminine version of the typical word doulas. And when it's used in the feminine form, it means a woman having no rights in this patriarchal society, but also as a slave made. She's saying, I am completely owned by my master. I am completely owned. I have no rights of my own. And I gladly take that place. I gladly take that place. In ancient times, there were both servants and slaves.

Servants and slaves. Servants and slaves. And they were different. A servant wasn't owned. A servant was contracted. And you got paid, okay, according to what you produced. A servant could come and go as they pleased. A slave, on the other hand, was the property of the master. Had no rights at all. Ever. Ever. And was completely under ownership, okay, of the master. Could not come and go as they saw fit.

Mary did not see herself as a servant. Mary did not see herself as a servant, but as the slave made of God.

That's humility. In verse 48, her prayer, we'll get to this in a second, but in her prayer, she says,

For he, God, has looked on, and look at this,

The humble estate, or the lowly estate of his servant.

There's the word again, slave made.

Slave made. In other words, look, I know who I am.

I know, I know, I'm bringing nothing to the table.

I'm a poor teenager from Nazareth.

I know what God has done.

God did not go to Rome, which was the political center of the world.

God did not go to Athens, which was the cultural center of the world.

God did not go to Jerusalem, which was the worship center of the world, the spiritual center.

He comes to a nowhere place, to a nowhere village, to a nowhere person,

and the low estate of this maidservant, and says,

God has done this.

God has done this.

But she says, future generations are going to hear how God has blessed me.

And verse 52 shows even more of her humility.

He has brought down the mighty from their thrones,

and exalted those of humble estate.

She would include herself in that.

I am of a humble estate.

This shows great humility.

Every year I talk to people, and they're like,

well, we just got to get in the Christmas spirit.

What is the Christmas spirit?

I don't get that.

We got to get in the Christmas spirit.

We drove around and looked at lights the other night,

tried to get Caroline.

We made the mistake of letting her get out at one house,

because they had everything.

We got to get out at every house.

She loses her mind if she doesn't get out at every house.

When you go out to see those lights,

is that when the Christmas spirit hits you?

Oh, that song.

When you finally sing, you know,

fall on your knees.

Oh, now I have the Christmas spirit.

You know, what is the Christmas spirit?

When do we actually reach the Christmas spirit?

You know, is it, I didn't get,

I didn't get that thing I wanted for Christmas.

That's, I didn't get that,

so I'm not, I'm missing now.

No, I submit to you that the Christmas spirit is,

wow, God stepped out of heaven and brought Christmas to me.

I am in the Christmas spirit.

I realize the gift that God has given me in His Son,

Jesus Christ.

very worshipful. Mary was worshipful. In verse 46 starts her prayer. She goes to Elizabeth's house. She has this conversation with Elizabeth. And listen to what Mary says. 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. And His mercy is for those who fear Him. From generation to generation.

He has shown strength. Amen.

He has shown strength with His arm. He has scattered the proud with 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 and to Abraham and to His offspring forever.

However, do you grasp what we have just read? This is a teenager.

Thirteen, fourteen year old girl. And this is the praise that comes out of her heart.

This is the praise that comes out of her mouth. This is so worth considering.

This is her song of praise. It's called the Magnificat.

The Latin word for the third word in here.

My soul magnifies the Lord. It's a song of praise.

But I think it tells us a lot about Mary's spirituality here.

The depth of it.

Did you know the best way to get to know someone and really understand their spirituality is to sit down and pray with them?

And to hear their heart?

I'm not saying you have to have these great theological terms and words, but just the heart of someone when they sit down and you pray with them.

Haven't you ever been with somebody who's praise and you're like, oh man, they know God.

They know the Lord.

You know, I sit down with young couples all the time and I'll encourage them, you know.

You guys need to pray together.

You need to spend some time.

You just say that because you're a pastor and that's what you have to tell us.

No, I really mean that.

I really mean that.

It will reveal a lot about each other, to each other when you spend that time.

I remember the first time I met my wife, Jill.

I was at a camp.

We were both at a camp.

We had our students, about 300 students in Dahlonega, Georgia.

And it was called a spiritual retreat weekend.

And I had some of my students there.

She had her students there.

There are several other churches there.

But we kind of met each other.

We kind of started spending some time together.

That weekend, we started talking a lot, all this, that, and the other.

And I'll be honest, I wasn't like in a serious relationship.

But I was seeing someone else who lived up in the North Georgia mountains where I was at the time.

I was spending some time with her.

And it wasn't really going anywhere.

But I was like, well, that's sort of early.

Maybe it will happen.

I was doing that missionary dating.

Maybe she'll get serious about the Lord one day.

You know, that kind of thing.

But I remember, I remember during that weekend, there was a time in which Jill and I prayed together.

And I remember it just came over me.

You know, I didn't know then.

Mary didn't know everything that was unfolding exactly how.

But there was something.

She pondered these things in her heart.

But I remember there was something that overtook me then.

And I said, you know what?

I never, it didn't, I didn't connect the dots that that was going to be my future wife.

But what did connect was there was something spiritual about her that I was drawn to.

And that is what I need to seek in my mate.

I need that.

I need that.

That's what I need to be.

I need to find a woman like that.

I didn't know that was the woman.

God revealed that to her before it did me.

I was thick-headed.

I was stupid.

All that stuff.

And so, but I remember that.

And I yearned for that.

It said that prayer is the window to a soul.

It reveals that.

So you're peering into the window of Mary's soul.

less than 15 references in this teenager's prayer to old testament scriptures most scholars you

when they read this prayer man they say that sounds that sounds really familiar it sounds an

awful lot like hannah's prayer you know first samuel you know uh second um chapters one and two

hannah's barren hannah's you know told she's going to have a boy and his name's going to be samuel

and so there's a there's a corollary here and probably i wouldn't doubt that after mary is told

that she's pregnant by the holy spirit she went to the synagogue probably found the scroll of first

samuel i need to reread this again what happened i need to i need to see what happened but mary

must have memorized scripture she must have memorized scripture because she makes there are references

here to the first five the the law the first five books of moses the prophets the psalms all in her

prayer all in her prayer i'm not going to put up on the screen here but just let me give you a couple

quick examples verse 46 she says my soul magnifies the lord that echoes psalm 34 verse 2 my soul shall

make its boast in the lord or magnify the lord verse 47 my spirit rejoices in god my savior sounds an awful

lot like isaiah 45 21 there is no god besides me a just god a savior there is no god besides me

uh verse 48 mary says for he has looked on the humble estate or the lowliest state of his servant or his

maid servant that sounds an awful lot like hannah's prayer in first samuel you will indeed look on the

affliction of your maid servant and you will remember me verse 48 for behold uh from now on all

generations will call me blessed that sounds like uh genesis 30 when leah the wife of jacob you know

finds out she's happy she says happy am i for the daughters will call me blessed this is amazing

mary says for he who is mighty has done great things for me that's that's an echo of psalm 126

verse 3 the lord has done great things for us and finally verse 49 and holy is his name direct quote

from psalm 111 verse 9 here's what i here's what i want you to walk away with mary must have paid

close attention to the scriptures in the synagogue when the scriptures were read don't you think

she must i mean for a 13 year old 14 year old girl to have this kind of prayer she must have paid

again this is a teenage who knew the old testament she didn't have a concordance to pull things up on

all right and she she just uh to look it up this flowed from her this was an overflow of her heart

an overflow what was inside of her every once in a while i'll come okay i'll come across a very very

spiritual teenager and whenever i do i'm impressed and i pause when i when i come across a teenager that

has a a heart for god i want to get behind that i want to encourage that i want to make sure that

that's done because i remember when i was 16 17 i made a prayer when i was in second grade to receive

the lord but it really wasn't until i was 16 17 that i really understood what it meant and i surrendered

my life to the lord and i had all this zeal and had all this passion and everything but i had no mentor

i had no mentor to help direct me and to help direct that zeal direct that passion

to give me any accountability and so therefore i spent many many years floundering in my walk

that i didn't need to so when i see that happening in young people today i want to i want to take time

and press into that joe does a great job of that with our students when when he sees the glimmer of

that he presses into that i mean paul paul understood that as he writes to timothy he says let no one look

down upon you because of your age did you know that jesus led a youth movement

jesus was the first one to lead a youth movement if your idea of the apostles is a bunch of old gray

haired man and gray bearded guys sitting around a table you've missed it these were young guys

these were young guys and jesus led the first movement young people around the world to spread the gospel

so here's mary this teenager

with

covenant she knows about the Davidic covenant she knows things that a lot of pastors I know don't know today can't can't unfold for you and let me just give you a footnote on this because I I want to press this just a little bit and then I'll leave it but listen you will never ever ever regret spending too much time in the scriptures you will not I have never met anyone on their deathbed that said I just wish I wouldn't read the Bible as much as I did

I'm serious I'm serious I've never met somebody like that but it's it's that time when you're on your deathbed it's that time when you're on your bed of pain your life of pain that moment of pain that moment of whatever that's going on in your life it's those times that you've spent time in the word that is the thing that begins to well up inside of you and the thing that brings you comfort in those moments comfort in those times wisdom in those times that's what that's the things that you lean on

that's why you are to spend time in the scriptures because if you don't it cannot be an overflow of your life it cannot be an overflow of your life it's not scripture moment it's scripture memory she obviously knew scripture I mean

as a young girl I'm from the abundance of the heart Jesus says what the mouth speaks doesn't it my friend used to always say what's down in the well comes up in the bucket so whatever's down deep in there and that's what comes up when times of stress times of whatever you know he used to always use the example he says when you're out working in the in your yard or a project around the house

you whack your finger your hand with a hammer and that word comes out of your mouth and you're like I don't know where that came from I'll tell you where it came from that word came easy with down the well comes up in the bucket you don't just all of a sudden start speaking Chinese I never spoke Chinese before in my life till I stubbed my toe holy cow it's amazing how this works

that's not how it works

she was also needful I need you to see that this morning she was needful verse 46 and Mary said my soul magnifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in my God my Savior my what

my Savior my Savior okay okay who needs a Savior all of us okay I get that but you know a Savior is only good to someone who needs saving right absolutely that's what to say a Savior comes and does what a person cannot do saves a person delivers a person so for Mary to say that God is my Savior she's not just quoting scripture but he is my Savior

the Savior denotes that she has a need she recognizes that she has a need for salvation I'm pressing that because nothing nothing is stated here or anywhere else in the Bible that Mary was immaculate and that Mary is to be prayed to and that Mary dispenses grace

he says somebody might say well wait a minute what about verse 48 because it says in there for behold from now on all generations will call me blessed that's right look at what it says it doesn't say all generations will ask me to give them a blessing

it doesn't say that no they're going to regard me as the one who is the recipient of the blessing they will regard me in that way they're going to call me blessed because this is what God has done

for he who is mighty has done great things for me and holy is his name holy is his name listen the greatest thing that God ever did for Mary was to save her

it wasn't to allow the greatest thing he ever did was not to allow her to carry Jesus in her womb that was that was a blessing the greatest thing he ever did was to save her

salvation she knew she needed saving along with that

and nursed you carried you in her womb and nursed you and Jesus spouts back he goes no no no blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it hear the word he didn't say oh man you're right man bless my mom yeah bless my mom she's off none of the apostles none of the writings in the New Testament venerate Mary in any capacity but they would agree with what Jesus said blessed are those who hear the word of God and obey it

Mary Mary Mary would be the first to be appalled if she knew that people were praying to her and venerating her now I do believe that Mary should be honored absolutely I believe what what Elizabeth says in verse 42 that blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb I believe that I believe that wholeheartedly she is to be honored but the best way that we can honor Mary is

to worship the God that she worshiped the best way that we can honor Mary is to receive the Savior that she birthed into the world that's the best way that we can honor her you remember that song Mary did you know by Mark Lowry most people think it's an old hymn it's not an old hymn it's it's fairly it's really recent as far as times go and writings go but you know you know Mary did you know that your baby boy would one day walk on water

and Mary did you know that your baby boy would one day save our sons and daughters you know that all the lines my favorite line in that song though is Mary did you know that this child that you delivered would one day deliver you

she knew that maybe not all at once maybe not all at once but she's figuring this thing out

and by the end of Jesus's life she'll know it

and she'll discover it over time also as she raises Jesus he grows he grows and he matures

I mean can you can you imagine raising the perfect child

I can't I mean I've got I've got some good kids but you know you know raising the how do you parent the perfect child what do you do as a parent

son will you teach me something today I mean seriously what do you got what do you got that's going to speak into into the life of the perfect child you know

you know or or or how about being the brother or the sister okay of Jesus yeah

I know he's perfect I don't know you can't you know you can't blame him I'm sure that Josh blamed everything on you Tyler you know as things went on so yeah it's not it's not it's Tyler's fault you know right

and so yeah Avery Brent blamed it all on on on yeah there we go

passed it passed it by yeah Jesus never did any of that he said I have to confess

it wasn't my fault it was his because I'm the perfect child

but Mary would watch

Mary would discover

you know

and she would as the Bible says hide these things in her heart and she would stand at the foot of the cross

and she would know one day that the baby that she delivered would deliver her

and she includes you by the way in this

she includes you and she includes me in her song because in verse 50 she says

and his mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation

generation that's this generation right now that's us from generation to generation it includes

every one of us in this room every one of us

of are in the generation that she's sung about in the lyrics of her song that's us

and he's still around

he's still around to dispense mercy

he's still around to dispense grace

and so for you today if you have never really come to a saving knowledge of who

Jesus Christ is

the greatest Christmas gift you could ever receive

he's still around to them

to bring