The title of the message is strange, I admit it. It is, Mary praising God, not us praising Mary. And I title it that way because all sorts of things are done with this text that don't fit the text. This is about the greatness of God and his worth of being praised, not us thinking someone of the person in the text who's doing the praising. There's a wonderful, wonderful text but Protestants who understand the horrors of Mariology in the Catholic Church can be a little afraid of it.

It's been so badly misused and not give the text its due and not give Mary her due because of those associations. So I want to start by saying this. In other contexts, I think it would be important to spend a lot of time teaching what this text clearly doesn't mean. I could spend the whole time telling you what this text doesn't mean. And that would be so strange compared to what we always do, which is to spend the whole time saying what the text does mean.

But in our context today, I don't think it's important to spend the whole time telling you what it doesn't mean. Because I'm not worried about any of you falling into Mariology and giving Mary the honor that Jesus is due. So I'm going to make this one remark, that the honor that Catholics steal from Jesus and give to Mary has no foundation anywhere in scripture, not in this text, not in any other text of scripture. J.C. Ryle says this, we may safely affirm that none would be more forward to reprove the honor paid by the Romans Church to the Virgin Mary than the Virgin Mary." Meaning, if she were here, she would lead the charge to destroy Mariology and the stealing of honor from Jesus to give it to him I think I just want to say a giant amen to that.

No one would be more offended by the perversions of this than Jesus's mother So this text is about the praise that God deserves. Do you know that God is such a one that if He were to show you His glory, here's what He'd have to do. He'd have to carve out a cleft in a rock to hide you and then he would have to pass before you and just show you the very back part of himself with you hidden within a rock or you would be consumed by that glory. That's God. So Mary, and God's dealing with her, and God's dealing with mankind through the generations, and God's dealing with Israel, has just seen a little bit of the glory of God.

And so she can't be silent, and so she bursts forth into praise. That's not about, this isn't about Mary, this is about the God who has shown himself just a little bit of himself to Mary and she can't keep quiet because he's so worthy of her praise. That is what this text is about. Let's pray. God, you are such a one.

There's no one like you. There's not another one like this. If your glory would be on display, We wouldn't be able to stand it. You would have to carve out rock and hide us and just show us a little glimpse or we would be consumed by it. You are so worthy of praise.

I thank you for revealing yourself and your glory to people, at least all that we can stand. And this does have this tendency to just make us burst forth into praise. I thank you that we get to see it in this text. I pray that you would bless the preaching and the hearing in Jesus' name, amen. Okay, first subdivision is verses 46 through 49.

So hopefully your Bibles are still open to Luke 1 and follow along as I reread Luke 1 46 through 49. And Mary said, My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior. For he has regarded the lowly state of his maidservant. For behold, henceforth all generations will call me blessed. For he who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name." In these verses we have Mary's praise for God's dealings with her, with just her as an individual.

God is dealing with her personally and she bursts forth into praise for God's dealings with her. And Mary said, Mary is responding to something. This is right on the heels of something. Something happens and then we have these words, and Mary said. What is Mary responding to?

To what Elizabeth filled with the Holy Spirit just said. So let's review that starting at the semicolon in verse 41. So just go up a couple of verses, look for the semicolon in verse 41. I'll start reading there. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.

Then she spoke out with a loud voice and said, blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb. But why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For indeed, as soon as the voice of your greeting sounded in my ears, the babe leaped in my womb for joy. Blessed is she who believed, for there will be a fulfillment of those things which were told her from the Lord." So no sooner has Mary heard this from Elizabeth that Mary can't contain herself and so she says what we're studying today Those words of Elizabeth what an encouragement they must have been to Mary and now she speaks Mary begins by saying this my soul magnifies the Lord. The Greek word translated magnifies literally means to make great.

My soul makes great the Lord. If you've ever heard someone pray, Lord help us make much of you. Have you ever heard anyone pray that? Of course you have. Lord, please help us make much of you.

That's what Mary's doing. She's making much of God. Now that's easily misunderstood as if we're adding something to God. Let's make much of God. Let's amplify God as if we have anything that could actually amplify God, as if we have anything that can actually make God one nano atom greater than he is in himself.

Of course not. That's what That's not what we mean. It means let us see the revelation of God's greatness. Let us acknowledge God for who he is in all of his greatness. Let us make much of God.

This whole section of scripture is known as the Magnificat That's just the Latin word for magnifies Magnificat is Latin for magnifies. So that's that's why it's called this Now it's possible to just do this with your mouth. Just magnify God, make much of God, make God great with your mouth. That's called flattery. If it doesn't go any deeper than just your mouth, it's called flattery.

That's not what Mary is doing. Her soul is acknowledging the greatness of the Lord, her soul. In response to the awesome work of the Lord in her life and the wonderful words of her relative Elizabeth, the inmost parts of Mary are welling up in praise to God for his incomparable greatness. She is making much of God for his incomparable greatness. Why?

Because of his dealings with her and because of what Elizabeth just said filled with the Holy Spirit. Her soul magnifies the Lord. And her spirit has rejoiced in God her Savior. Her spirit is experiencing joy. Now I could spend a lot of time trying to divide up what soul means what spirit means.

Let's just say the combination of her innermost part, the essence of Mary, what makes Mary Mary. It's not her body, it's her mind, her will, her affections, all these things are wrapped up in soul and spirit and her spirit, this part of the inmost Mary is rejoicing, is full of joy in God her Savior. Question for you. Have you ever had more reason to rejoice than when you've been rescued? Things seemed like they were beyond hope, but then you're rescued!

How exhilarating! Things are beyond hope, but now you're rescued. How exhilarating that is. What joy. This is Mary.

Mary can see that she's been rescued by God. Mary acknowledges that God has saved her. God is her savior. This is so personal to Mary. God saved me.

He's not the Savior. I mean, He is the Savior. There is no other Savior, but He's not a generic, general Savior. To Mary, He's my Savior. He rescued me He came and got me Ryle says this JC Ryle says this Mary uses the language of one who has been taught by the grace of God to feel her own sins and so far from being able to save others requires a Savior for her own soul.

He saved me. This God of scripture is not a generic Savior. He saves individuals and Mary said, He did that for me. He came and got me. He rescued me.

He is God, my Savior. I can't speak for anybody else. I don't know about anybody else. All I know is He saved me. So here's the picture so far.

The soul and Spirit of Mary are Captivated by the greatness and the goodness of God soul and spirit Captivated by the the greatness of God my soul magnifies makes great Acknowledges the greatness of God and my my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior his out of his goodness he has saved me. The greatest commandment is to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. Here it is, at least a shadow of it. The being of Mary, the whole being of Mary is caught up in magnifying and rejoicing in God. All of Mary is caught up in magnifying and rejoicing in God.

He rescued her. In verses 48 and 49, Mary lays out the grounds for her praise of God and rejoicing in God Mary why are you praising and rejoicing in God? We can ask that question of her and get the answer in 48 and 40 of 49 Mary says, these are my reasons for, for, for, because, because, because, for God has regarded me even in my lowly condition that's why I'm praising and rejoicing in God he regarded me even in my lowly condition for God has made me one who all generations will recognize as one that God has greatly blessed. That's why I'm magnifying and rejoicing in God, for he has done great things for me. That's why my soul magnifies God and my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior.

He is holy. There's no one like Him. He's separate from everyone else. He's beyond everyone else in every category. He is other.

It's just what His name is holy means. He's like there's nobody like Him. She sees God's dealings with her and She says there's nobody like Him. That's why my soul makes much of this God. That's why my spirit is full of joy in this God who came to rescue me.

Elizabeth had just said, but why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me? Why do I get this honor that the baby in your womb should ever be in my presence? He's my Lord. Now Mary says God has regarded the lowly state of His maidservant. These are humble women who understand that God is everything and they are nothing except that God was pleased to lay hold of them and say, you are mine and raise them up to use them for great things.

These women get it. These are thankful women who understand that grace is unearned, undeserved favor, unearned, undeserved kindness. If you ask Elizabeth, did you earn that spot? Did you deserve that spot? Elizabeth's already said, why is it granted to me?

If you ask Mary, did you earn that spot? You deserve that spot? Mary would say, of course not. God's just doing what pleases Him. So, He came and got me, He rescued me, He's God my Savior, and now He's raising me up to great things because for whatever reason it pleases Him.

Have all generations recognized Mary as one that God greatly blessed? Of course! God saw to it himself by capturing Mary and how he blessed her in Scripture and so we're reading about it 2, 000 years later and I'm preaching about it 2, 000 years later. Of course all generations have recognized Mary as one that God greatly blessed God saw to it himself by putting it in scripture. Here's a note from the Nelson study Bible.

Mary went from being a poor unknown Hebrew girl to the most honored woman in the history of the world. Wow, that's quite a claim. Do you buy it? Well, let's examine it. Was she a poor unknown Hebrew girl?

Yep. Uh-huh. Did she become the most honored woman in the history of the world? The Scripture speaks of a lot of women. There are a lot of great women in Scripture.

You can find a lot of them in Hebrews 11, the great faith chapter. Many women had faith in God, trusted in God, bet it all on God. Can you say that any of them was more honored than Mary who was entrusted with the Son of God in her home? Give birth to the Son of God who would save any sinner who would ever be saved. I buy what's being sold there.

Mary went from being a poor unknown Hebrew girl to the most honored woman in the history of the world. David Garland says this, to regard Mary as blessed is to praise God for what he has done for her because of what it means for us. So when you say Mary is blessed you're saying that because of what God did for her. Oh really? Is that all?

We're usually more self-interested than that, at least I am. Why are we so happy of what God did for her? Because what it means for me, a Savior is coming into the world. We are not detached from this, are we? It means salvation for us, what God has done for this woman, the blessing of God on this woman.

God did great things for Mary. What does Matthew Henry say about that? Matthew Henry says this, a great thing indeed that a virgin should conceive a woman who's never been in physical union with a man being pregnant. That is a great thing. A great thing indeed that Messiah who had been so long promised and so long expected should now at length be born.

That is a great thing that God had done for her. She would be the mother of the promised Savior. 4, 000 years of promises, and then you're the one through whom the Savior comes. That is a great thing. What else does Matthew Henry say?

Glorious things may be expected from him that is both mighty and holy. This is what she says. He's mighty. His name is holy. And so Matthew Henry is just picking up on the language that she uses and saying, wow, if there's someone who's mighty and holy, you should expect great things.

Of course he did great things. He's mighty, he's holy. He finishes that quote saying this. I need to read the whole thing so it makes sense. Glorious things may be expected from him that is both mighty and holy who can do everything and will do everything well and for the best.

If you affirm that God is mighty, if you affirm that He's holy, you should expect great things of Him. That is one of the things we should get out of the text. God is mighty. He can always do anything He wants to do and everything He wants to do, and He's holy. There's no one like Him.

We should expect great things from God. William Carey would come along and say we should attempt great things for God based on that. That's not in my notes. That's a freebie. So that's Mary's praise for God's dealings with her.

God dealt with her, an individual. She praises God for his dealings with her. Now we pick up the text again in verses 50 through 53. Follow along as I reread 50 through 53. Mary continues, and his mercy is on those who fear him from generation to generation.

He has shown strength with his arm. He has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts. He has put down the mighty from their thrones and exalted the lowly. He has filled the hungry with good things and the rich he has sent away empty. Here we have Mary's praise for God's dealings with mankind.

So Mary's praise started with God's dealings with her as an individual. Now it broadens out to God's dealings with all of mankind through the generations. In other words, while Mary is humbled by God's great works and goodness towards her as an individual, Mary sees that as consistent with the ways we have seen God work in mankind through the generations. So Mary is seeing herself as just another example of what God does. Through the generations God has had mercy on those who fear him.

That didn't start with Mary, it didn't stop with Mary. Through the generations God has displayed his strength by extending his arm to do mighty things. That didn't start with Mary, that didn't stop with Mary. Through the generations God has scattered the proud in the imaginations of their hearts. He did it long before Mary, he's doing it long after Mary.

Through the generations God has put down the mighty from their thrones and exalted the lowly. Yes before Mary, yes in Mary's life, yes today. Through the generations God has filled the hungry with good things but sent the rich away empty this is the interpretive grid for Mary meaning this is how Mary is interpreting God's dealings with her. This is who God is. God's dealings in my life are just an expression of how God has always been.

He's dealing with me in that way and He will always deal with people in that way, through the generations. And so this is why God is dealing with her and with all of mankind through his dealings with her right now. She just sees this as an expression of the eternal God and how he has dealt with people generation after generation after generation. She doesn't see herself as the starting point of God's dealings in these ways or the ending point. In other words, Mary thinks it's just like God to raise up a humble nobody from nowhere's-ville.

It's just like God to raise up a nobody like me from Nowheresville like where I'm from to bring his own son into the world to fulfill his promises to save sinners. It's just like God. She looks at what's happening and says, it totally fits. This is just what God would do Looking back through the generations at what he has done. This is just what he would do.

It's just like the God who has revealed himself in history to bypass the existing world powers and use people like Mary and Elizabeth to turn the world upside down. There's an Empire Rome. There's a king. There's a regional King Herod the Great. Okay, God's bypassing all that God doesn't need any of that.

It's more like God to raise up nobodies from nowhere-ville to turn the world upside down. So that's the overarching thought here. Now a few comments on this section. Comment number one. This text does not give us warrant to think that the wealthy and mighty are always bad and always about to be torn down, or that the poor and lowly are Always good and always about to be exalted.

That's not what this is teaching Although It is true that wealth and power are often overwhelming temptations to trust in wealth and power. And when that happens, when wealth and power becomes an overwhelming temptation to trust in the wealth and the power When that happens then Jesus has nothing to offer you Because you don't think you need anything. Jesus said this in Matthew 19, 24, and again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. Why is it so hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God? Because it's this deadly temptation to trust in this riches and to think I don't need anything and Jesus has nothing to offer to you.

You cannot be saved. Jesus says this to the lukewarm church in Laodicea in revelations 3 verses 17 and 18. Because you say, I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing, and do not know that you are wretched miserable poor blind and naked I counsel You to buy gold from me Refined in the fire that you may be rich and white garments that you may be clothed that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed and anoint your eyes with eyes out that you may see. This Luke worm church in Laodicea they had wealth they had power and they were trusting in wealth and power. They said, we've become rich, we don't need a thing.

God says, you are naked, blind, poor, wretched. You come to me to buy what you don't have So that you can actually see you need eyes out so that you can see So that dynamic does exist, but the main point in this passage Is that God is so often pleased to raise up the poor and lowly who fear him that pleases him to take the poor and lowly Who fear him and raise them up? Nobody's from Nowheresville to accomplish his purposes so that people rightly conclude that was God when God raises up the poor and lowly and does something great people conclude that was God They didn't have the resources or the power and it happened anyway that had to be God. That was God extending his arm to do something mighty. And don't wrongly conclude Look at what the wealthy and mighty did.

Look at how they used their resources and their power, as if anyone becomes wealthy without God or mighty without God. Comment number two. Comment number two. Mary's praise of God is dripping with Old Testament language. Could have said that in the first section because she was already drawing on Old Testament language in the first section, but I waited till here.

Especially the prayer of Hannah in 1 Samuel chapter 1 and 2. You could turn there. We should turn there. Turn to First Samuel chapter one. First Samuel.

It's before the kings in the chronicles. First Samuel one and two. It's the prayer of Hannah. You're going to be stunned at how similar what Mary says in Luke 1 is to what Hannah prayed in First Samuel 2. Don't accuse her of plagiarism.

She's just picking up on Old Testament language. That's legal. 1 Samuel chapter 1, let me read verses 10 and 11 just to set the scene. Hannah is this woman. She's married to a man.

There's a rival wife. There are two wives. This is during a period of time where there was multiple wives sometimes. The other wife has children, Hannah has none, and the other wife, the rival wife uses it to torment Hannah. So Here's what we read in 1 Samuel 1 verses 10 and 11.

Look on the affliction of your maidservant and remember me and not forget your maidservant but will give your maidservant a male child then I will give him to the Lord all the days of his life and no razor shall come upon his head." So the overlap just keeps going here. First she acknowledges herself as the maidservant of the Lord. This is exactly what Mary does. This is exactly how Hannah addresses herself to God too. And Hannah is a barren woman like Elizabeth has been, and Mary's never been pregnant before and becomes pregnant miraculously.

Now turn to 1 Samuel chapter two. Let me read Hannah's prayer in verses one through 10. 1 Samuel two, verses one through 10. And Hannah prayed and said, my heart rejoices in the Lord. My horn is exalted in the Lord or my strength is exalted in the Lord I smile at my enemies because I rejoice in your salvation No one is holy like the Lord for there is none beside you nor is there any rock like our God Talk no more so very proudly let no arrogance come from your mouth for the Lord is the God of knowledge and by him Actions are weighed The bows of the mighty men are broken, and those who stumbled are girded with strength.

Those who were full have hired themselves out for bread, and the hungry have ceased to hunger. Even the barren has borne seven, and she who has many children has become feeble. The Lord kills and makes alive. He brings down to the grave and brings up. The Lord makes poor and makes rich.

He brings low and lifts up. He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the beggar from the ash heap to set them among princes and to make them inherit the throne of glory. For the pillars of the earth are the Lord's and he has set the world upon them. He will guard the feet of his saints, but the wicked shall be silent in darkness, for by strength no man shall prevail. The adversaries of the Lord shall be broken in pieces.

From heaven he will thunder against them. The Lord will judge the ends of the earth. He will give strength to his king and exalt the horn of his anointed." So by the way, in this very last sentence, Israel's never had a king. Who in the world is she talking about? Israel's never had a king.

He will give strength to his king and exalt the horn of his anointed. She's actually praying about Jesus here. It's a prophetic prayer about the anointed of God, the Messiah of God. The Old Testament language of Mary's praise is so clearly here in Hannah's prayer in first Samuel 2 But that language isn't only here. It's all over the Psalms Let me just give you three examples, but I could exhaust you with the examples from Psalms I'll just give you three Psalm 35 9 and my soul shall be joyful in the Lord it shall rejoice in his salvation Psalm 71 19 you who have done great things Oh God who is like you Psalm 107 verses 40 and 41 God pours contempt on princes and causes them to wander in the wilderness where there is no way Yet he sets the poor on high far from affliction and makes their families like a flock Isaiah Isaiah 61 10 I will greatly rejoice in the Lord.

My soul shall be joyful in my God for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation. Habakkuk 3 18, yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation. Mary is set before us as a woman who has the language of scripture on her lips. You could literally cobble together all of the Magnificat This section that we're studying today just with Old Testament quotes You could just pull from here and here and here and get the whole thing. I think that's true.

I wonder if you've ever heard Andy Davis preach. Just raise your hand if you've heard Andy Davis preach. So he's a scripture memorization monster. Just a monster. So when he preaches without quoting chapter and verse he quotes he just lapses in and out.

So He's not drawing your attention to these doing but the more familiar you get with scripture as you hear him preach He's like half that sermon was a direct quote from scripture because he's memorized so much of it as he Preaches that's just the language that he uses because that's the language he's acquired in his preaching. It's wonderful. I sort of hate him for it. You might even notice this, that it isn't unusual for the language of our quarterly recitation text to find its way into our Wednesday evening prayer meetings. Have you noticed that?

So We recite a text 13 weeks in a row and a quarter, and then that language, just phrases of it, start finding its way into our prayer meetings. Because we've acquired scripture language, and so as we're praying, it's so Appropriate to pull from what we've been reciting week after week after week not long recitations, but phrases They find their way into our prayer meeting. That's wonderful We should acquire as much of scripture language as we can For our prayers. It's the perfect language for our praises and our prayers. Mary's done that.

The final section in Luke 1 verses 54 through 56. Mary finishes, concludes, he has helped his servant Israel in remembrance of his mercy as he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham, and to his seed forever. Mary remained with her, with Elizabeth, about three months and returned to her house. In these last verses, we have Mary's praise for God's dealings with Israel. So she started very personal, very individual, praise for God's dealings with me, then praise for God's dealings with mankind through the generations.

God's like this so none of this should surprise us. It's just like God to raise up nobody's from nowhere's will to turn the world upside down and now finally Mary's praise for God's dealings with Israel. Simply put, Mary sees God's dealings with her as an individual, as a fulfillment of the promises God made to her forefathers all along the way. About 2, 000 years of promises starting with Abraham. We could go back another 2, 000 years to the very beginning.

But Mary starts with Abraham, so we'll start with Abraham. 2, 000 years of promises, and Mary can see he's keeping those promises through his dealings with me. That's what she's saying in these last verses. He remembered. God remembered.

If God had dealt with the descendants of Abraham as they deserved, He would have wiped them off the face of the earth. He gave them the promised land and they came in and did worse than the idolaters that they displaced. That is uncontroversial as a statement, as a proposition. He took them out of slavery in Egypt and gave them Someone else's land, houses they didn't build, wells they didn't dig, vineyards they didn't plant, cities they didn't develop, and they became worse than the idolaters than they displaced. If God dealt with the nation of Israel with Abraham's descendants as they deserved He would have wiped them off the face of the earth like he did the Amorites The Canaanites the parasites what made them different God's promises to them instead of wiping them off the face of the earth he helped them in remembrance of his mercy as he of his mercy As he spoke so he did as he promised so he fulfilled Had you been an Israelite during this time, you might have been tempted to think that God forgot.

How many years had it been since God had spoken through a prophet? Four hundred years of silence, the intertestamental period, between the end, the last revelation of the Old Testament, and the beginning revelation that we're studying now, 400 years of silence. You could draw a conclusion from that, God for God. What was the religious environment? We're studying the gospels, but you're not new to the Gospels.

You've read Matthew, you've read Mark, you've read Luke, you've read John. What's your analysis of the religious environment at the time of Jesus? What are the leaders like? What are they encouraging? What are they discouraging?

It was awful! You could draw a conclusion from that. God forgot. What was the political environment like? You know about Rome.

You know about Herod the Great. He's about to kill all the babies in this region to stamp out what God is doing. You could draw a conclusion from that. God forgot. All of these things might have tempted you to think God has forgotten us, if you were a Jew at that time.

God has forgotten the promises he made to our forefathers. Impossible! That is impossible. It is impossible for God to lie. Once the promise is made, it must be kept.

Why? Because He's God. He never changes. He makes a promise and He keeps a promise. It's as good as kept as soon as it's made.

I wish I was like that. I Wish the people around me were like that. God is like that God remembered 2, 000 years ago. He made promises to Abraham keeps making them along the way Good spin. We could do a whole series on all those promises.

He's keeping them now. He remembered all those promises and he's keeping them now. They're all yes and amen in his son Jesus Christ. Finally in verse 56, we see that Mary stayed with Elizabeth for three months and then returned home. Now, you math people will have noticed that Mary came to see Elizabeth in the sixth month of Elizabeth's pregnancy then stayed with her for three months and six plus three equals nine and babies are born at nine.

So was John the Baptist born while Mary was there? The text does not say. The text does not want you to know. God doesn't want you to know. Either she left just before he was born or just after he was born.

We don't know. I don't know why God doesn't want us to know. I'm not here to apologize for God. The answer is maybe. Maybe he was born then.

Maybe he wasn't. I don't know. The commentators are very disturbed that we don't know and I am too I want to know applications I'll give you five One. Even in times of pressure and difficulty. Know anything about that?

Times of pressure and difficulty. God is boundlessly worthy of our praise and gratitude. Maybe especially in times of difficulty and pressure. He's boundlessly worthy, infinitely worthy of our praise and gratitude. We tend to take the Magnificat, this magnifying of God that Mary does out of context, as if she's not in a world of difficulty.

She's pregnant and not living in the home of her betrothed in the land of Pharisees. Do not dissociate those things. This is a time of great pressure and difficulty in her life, and you can't even tell it from how she praises God. Why? Because even in those circumstances she had seen a glimpse of this great God And she cannot contain herself.

Mary is so thankful. Mary is so full of praise. And she's in a time of pressure and difficulty. All that's true all at the same time. Two.

First Corinthians 1, 26 through 29. What is First Corinthians 1, 26 through 29? I shall read it to you. Paul writes to the Corinthians, For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called. God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty, and the base things of the world, and the things which are despised, God has chosen, and the things which are not to bring to nothing the things that are that no flesh should glory in His presence.

So that He can have all the glory to Himself because He is the one who deserves the glory. He ought to have the glory. So he chooses weak things and he puts to shame the strong things. This is exactly what he's doing in this time. Just like God to bring his Son into the world this way.

He just bypassed the world powers and like nobody voted for Jesus he's not not ever at the head of an army he will be at the head of an army but in his first coming he was never at the head of an army no one ever voted for him he is Lord this is how God is This should change our view by being nobody from nowhere's will, I counsel you, stop being bothered. God is pleased to show his power it's more likely they don't raise you up and do something mighty that we are nobodies from nowhere's will It's just like God to do something like that. So that people when they see it don't say, oh look at how the rich people put their resources in play. They say, only God could do that. Number three, Fear God his mercy will be on you Verse 50 from our text his mercy is on those who fear him from generation to generation And I would add to generation to generation to generation to generation to generation to generation to generation his mercy is on those who fear him so fear him his mercy will be on you to fear God as the Bible is calling for is to understand who he has revealed himself to be in all of his purity in all of his power in all of his perfect knowledge and who he has revealed you to be a law-breaking sinner who deserves hell so that you'll run to his son Jesus.

Here's really what I've come here today to say. Can you say the phrase that Mary said, God, my Savior? She said it because God came and got her. God came and rescued her. Can you say it?

Have you said it? Do you say it? Has God showed you who He is and showed you who you are so that you'll be terrified and run to his son to be rescued so that you can say God is my Savior. If he dealt with me as I deserved, he would have wiped me off the face of the earth, but instead he came and got me. Number four.

Colossians 3.16. Number four, Colossians 3.16. Let the word of God dwell in you richly. Mary is someone who the word of God dwelled in richly. I don't know how much she had memorized, but judging from Her praises in our text, she knew a lot of it.

She knew it well. Let the word of God dwell in you richly. Let it inform your praises. Let it inform your prayers. Adopt its language.

It's the best language for these things. Let it dwell in you richly. Number five, cling to the promises of God. They are exceedingly great and precious. That's what Peter says.

Second Peter chapter one, he calls, he speaks of the exceedingly great and precious promises of God. God never forgets them. He always keeps them. So we should cling to them. Never let them out of sight.

They're so great and precious. Why would you let them out of sight? Especially since we know that He keeps them. It's so helpful. How am I gonna live through the day?

How am I going to live through the week? You're going to cling to the promises of God knowing that He never forgets them, always keeps them. So helpful in life. Let's pray. Promise making God, Promise keeping God.

We praise you. Thank you for our sister, Mary. These are exemplary footsteps. We want to walk in these footsteps. Thank you for revealing yourself to her.

It's clear that she can't contain herself. Having seen a glimpse of you, she can't contain herself. She can't keep quiet. She has to take up your praises on her lips using the language of Scripture. Oh, make us like this God.

I pray in Jesus name. Amen. Thanks for watching!