I received a text this morning from a fellow pastor of mine. He said, good luck, it's your first Mother's Day service. Text back, why good luck? He said, because you gotta be nice to the moms. I said, no I don't. He said, yes you do. I said, it's a little late to tell me that now, the message is prepared. And he said, well now really good luck. I said, I'm just gonna preach from the passage that is the most famous mom of all time. And he goes, no that's too late. And I said, well it's too late, we're doing it. We're going through a series on prayer. I do love Mother's Day. I love an opportunity to be reminded of there is so much emotion wrapped around moms. I mean, my mom is a constant bowl of wonderful emotion. If you have met my mom, you would know that, and she's probably gonna be watching the live stream later, and I may not say that in the second service when they live stream it. But my mom is an absolute and has been an absolute source of of wisdom, of love, of care, of criticism, of condemnation, of joy, of sorrow, of pain, of triumph, all those things. They're all wrapped around being mom and having a mom and just even having one that invests into my life and I'm so thankful for my mom. I enjoy, usually this time of year, I kind of dig back into my archives of good quotes concerning and wrapped around moms and as you can imagine, comedians out there, usually when you get in the topic of mom, I'm sorry moms, you're just sometimes very, it's easy to pick on you a little bit, and that's just the way it is, and to be a Baptist mom, that's really, I mean, you're in a lot of trouble there. I mean, because you've got the Baptist jokes, and then you've got the mom jokes. So, a few quotes that I've seen, just some anonymous quotes. Mom, I love you, even though I will never accept your friend request on anything. Another one said, I always say, if you aren't yelling at your kids, you're probably not spending enough time with them. Another one said, I want my children to have all the things I could never afford, and then I'm gonna move in with them. Another said, a mother is the person you can always call on to see how long chicken lasts in the refrigerator. Another said, being a mom has made me so happy and so very, very tired. Another said, silence is golden unless you have kids, then silence is just suspicious. Another said, motherhood takes patience, humor, and a lot of wet towelettes. Another said, mom, I love you and I love your super, super long voicemails and multiple tiered texts. Another said, sometimes I find myself opening my mouth and my mom tends to come out of me. Another said, it's not easy being a mom because if it were easy, the fathers could do it. Oh, whoa, whoa, whoa. Another said, if at first you don't succeed, try doing it the way your mom told you to do it from the start. Loveiswellmom said, the majority of my diet as a young mom was made up of the foods my kids did not finish. Another said, why don't kids understand that their nap is not for them, but for mom? Mark Twain said, my mother had a great deal of trouble with me, but I think she enjoyed it. Another said, if evolution was really true, how come moms only have two hands? And finally, one of my mom's most quoted comedian authors, you'll hear about her spirituality, Irma Bombeck, said this, when your mother asks, do you want a piece of advice? It is a mere formality. It does not matter if you answer yes or no. you're gonna get her advice anyway. God has provided for us wonderful women within our lives, and being a mom is a tough business, and unfortunately very often I find that I do not do a good job of actually helping in that realm when it comes to our home. Today we are gonna be looking at the prayer of one of the most famous moms, Mary. I invite you to turn to the Gospel of Luke, chapter one, the Gospel of Luke, Chapter one. Now, admittedly, there's a little controversy here. Your Bible probably says it is the song of Mary, and so there's a little bit, even within commentaries, is this a song, or is this a prayer? What exactly was this? And my response to that is, it reads and is very much like a prayer. In fact, I would say it is a song that is a prayer. It is a prayer that is a declaration concerning what God was doing in the life of this young, teenage, soon-to-be mom. So today we are going to look at this prayer. We're gonna look at the circumstances surrounding it and the prayer itself and how that applies really not just to moms, not just to women, but to really all of us about the aspect of God working in and through us to accomplish his will. So we're going to start in one of our favorite Christmas passages. Let's back up to, we're going to look at Luke chapter 1 and verse 26. It says there, now 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. The virgin's name was Mary. And having come in, the angel said to her, Rejoice, highly favored one. The Lord is with you. Blessed are you among women. But when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying and considered what manner of greeting this was. Then 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 and bring forth a son and shall call his name Jesus. He will be great. and will be called the Son of the Highest, 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. Then Mary said to the angel, How can this be, since I do not know a man? And the angel answered and said to her, The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you. Therefore also, the Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God. Now indeed, Elizabeth, your relative, has also conceived a son in her old age, and this is now the sixth month for her who is barren. For with God, nothing will be impossible.' Then Mary said, Behold the maidservant of the Lord. Let it be to me according to your word. And the angel departed from her." Heavenly Father, I thank you very much for this reminder here of the wonder, the miracle of your son. being born of a virgin, the one who is to be named Jesus, the one who is to save us from our sins, the one who is to be the Savior and to reign, to reign forever. Lord, we thank you for the example of our Savior's earthly mother, Mary. May we learn from her prayer today. We ask this in Jesus' name, amen. Well, as the pattern has gone, as we've been walking through this series on prayer, one of the things that we want to make sure that we understand are the circumstances surrounding the prayer. So we're going to take a little bit, just be reminding ourselves of the circumstances surrounding the prayer. We don't have to spend a ton of time, right? I mean, these are the most well-known circumstances there are. Christmas, we know everything that is taking place. We know the Christmas story. We love the Christmas story. We love all that surrounds it. But Luke's Christmas story, and we always read in our house, we read Luke chapter two, because it feels like the longest chapter in the Bible, and it takes forever to get to the presence. It just, I mean, 80, sorry, all the verses that are there. And actually Luke, and the way that he's doing this, there's 80 verses in chapter one, 52 verses in chapter two, and we read all that, but often we kind of skip over chapter one. But chapter one sets the circumstances that Luke wanted to lay out, in terms of he wanted to let Theophilus know what is going on, and so he is giving a little bit of a pattern, a reminder. And the first pattern is really all about John. If you look back with me in chapter one, we have the story of Elizabeth, who is barren. And we've already spoke about, it is interesting that the prayers that we have come from those who either were not able to have children, Or in Mary's case, should not be having a child because she is a virgin. There were those who were not able to have a child. And Elizabeth is barren, it says in verse 7, which has a connection to Mary. You have the angel giving us a description of who John would be a little bit later on there in verses 13 to 17. And Elizabeth is told that you are going to bear a son. And you shall call his name John. In fact, you can almost hear the pattern that we already read. You will call his name Jesus. And actually, we do have a quick prayer from Elizabeth. Elizabeth is the one that prays after this. It says in verses 24 and 25, and after those days, his wife Elizabeth conceived and she hid herself five months saying, thus the Lord has dealt with me in the days when he looked on me to take away my reproach among the people. people. Elizabeth, within her pregnancy, gives this prayer. Well, why is that important? There's a pattern here. That same pattern is going to repeat itself. Mary, who is a virgin, so is not able to bear a child, has an angel appear to her. The angel gives the description of who Jesus is going to be. We have verse 31. There's a repeat there where It's saying, you will bring forth a son and call his name Jesus. So he says, how can that happen? And then we are going to have an aspect where Mary then is gonna connect up with Elizabeth. We know this story. After this time, Mary gets up in verse 39 and goes to see Elizabeth. And we have Elizabeth and Mary in these next verses, starting in verse 39. And there's a term that is being used over and over, if you haven't noticed it. It happens multiple times. It's this word, blessed. or blessed. When Mary shows up, she comes, and in verse 41 it says, When Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, that the babe leaped in her womb, 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? Well, you talk about a prophetic statement. The mother of my Lord. For indeed, as soon as the voice of your greeting sounded in my ears, the babe leaped in my womb. Blessed is she who believed, for there will be a fulfillment of those things which were told from the Lord. Mary here is going to lift up a song. She's going to lift up a prayer. And what has happened is God, even when the angel spoke to her and through Elizabeth, has been giving this reminder of this important term, to be blessed. So let's look at this prayer itself. The prayer itself is in verses 46 to 55. It's 10 verses. 10 verses that Mary is going to pray here. As all of this has taken place, as this has taken place in the life of Elizabeth, and has taken place in the life of Mary, and as these two women come together, and God is doing a work in each of them, a work that should not be taking place, but a work that angelically they have been reminded of what is taking place. And even as Elizabeth has said, you are blessed, and you are a blessed one, we have this wonderful song and prayer of Mary. And there are gonna be some things, I believe, that are gonna catch our eyes as we have been looking at prayers. The first one is really this reminder of it's all about God. Look with me there. And Mary said, my soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior. She talks about knowing Him, and we're gonna see some patterns that we have all hopefully been integrating into our own lives of prayer, which is acknowledging who God is, acknowledging who we are, acknowledging what He is doing, the work that He's doing, who He is, and what He may even accomplish. But I found myself asking a question about this prayer. What is going on with this prayer? In fact, as you have gone, we've been through this prayer before, you've heard this prayer before, there's a bit of an aspect of this prayer where it almost feels like Mary is just talking about how blessed she is. I'm so blessed, I'm the great Mother Mary, I will be spoken of of generations. It kind of comes across a little bit prideful, doesn't it? It feels like, I know this doesn't happen in our church, but sometimes in other churches in the Christian realm, Testimonies can kind of sound like bragamony times. Have you ever been around someone that's like that? Oh, let me tell you what God has been doing in my life. Now, I acknowledge that was how I sometimes read other people's testimonies when I myself wasn't walking close with the Lord. There were times in my life when I wasn't very intent on doing things God's way to His glory. And when those things happened, I found myself a bit annoyed by testimony time. My problem, of course, was A person who is not walking with God does not want to hear about a God who does great things. A believer who is not walking with God does not want to be reminded, oh yeah, nothing's happening in my life. I wasn't experiencing myself great things. I have found that when I'm walking with God and doing a better job of walking closely with God, I am better prepared to celebrate what God is doing in the lives of others, as opposed to myself. And of course, there are times, as we know, that the truths get a little bit stretched. All glory seems to go to the testimony of the giver of the testimony instead of to God. So the question that kind of popped, is this prayer song of Mary really referring to how great she is? I think some of my personal pushback and sometimes our pushback on this comes from a rightful concern of those who make way too much of Mary and try to put her on the same level as Jesus Christ, wrongfully so, even according to scripture. So what is the point of this prayer song? I believe we receive a lot of insight whenever we think about and consider the layers of context in any passage. As I said, the context of this passage, the context of what is going on after you're coming off of these years of darkness, after you have Jesus Christ coming into this world, as we are at the beginning of this Gospel of Luke, and even considering the prayers that we have been reminded of in the past, and the consideration of the angel, the consideration of what God is doing in the lives of these two women, this word again comes to the front. When a word is repeated in scripture, it is worth going back and re-looking over. In the context of this passage, there is a word that is repeated all throughout Luke chapter one and even a bit through Luke chapter two. In fact, it's used eight times in these two chapters, six times in chapter one. Luke uses this word more than any other of the gospel writers. In fact, the other gospel writers barely use this word. And it is this word blessed. And it's really the word good word, or logos is really the term. It is actually one of the compound words within this word is the word that John uses about in the beginning was the word. This is a good word. These are good words that are spoken. It is a different word. There are other times blessed means happy. When Christ is preaching the sermon on the mount, there's a happy aspect. This really has a sovereign feeling to it. It's actually used first in verse 28. You saw it, we read it. Blessed are you among women. The angel says, Mary, you are blessed. Why? Why is she blessed? Because she's been such a wonderful girl? Well, no, in verse 30, the angel said to her, do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. That is the word for grace. You have been given merciful kindness. God has been gracious to you. Mary is blessed because of what God has done. That is where the blessings come from. Elizabeth said it again, we saw that in verse 42. Blessed are you, blessed is she who believed. And we even see this in her prayer. She says in verse 48, For he has regarded the lowly estate of his maidservant, for behold, henceforth, all generations will call me blessed. In fact, even later in the chapter, Zacharias, when he prophesies about his son, John the Baptizer, there's a blessing that is taking place. He says, in verse 68, blessed is the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited and redeemed his people. In the next chapter, when Anna and Simeon are around, the theme continues. It says in verse 28, he took them up in his arms and blessed God, then Simeon blessed them and said to Mary his mother, verse 34, behold, this child is destined for the fall and rising of many in Israel and for a sign. which will be spoken against. And so today, on a day when we take a moment and remember and even honor our moms and the women that God has provided in their lives, it is right to ask the question, how can I be blessed by God? How can I be used by God? Maybe you are thinking this morning of a woman who God has used in your life. And as you are thinking about her, you may be thinking, how is it that God used this woman in my life? How is God using them? Could God possibly, I found myself thinking this as I think back on those who have influenced me in my life, is it even possible for me to be that good of an influence on others as others have been to me? That blessing that has been passed on. Will God ever be able to use me in that way? Will God be able to use you in that way to be a blessing? Who are the people who you would say are blessed by God? How has God used them? How is God using them? Does God want to use us in that way? Maybe there's some moms or some grandmas or some adopted church family moms in our midst today, and you may be asking, how can I be blessed and used by God. How to be blessed? How to be used by God? The answer we are going to find here is within this prayer. We are blessed when we are being used by God to accomplish his work in his way, through his word, by his might, and to his We're gonna see all this in this passage. Look with me in verse 46. We saw it again. My soul magnifies the Lord. The word magnify is to make great. My soul magnifies the Lord, my spirit. You have the psyche and then you have now the new. There's even dividing of the spirit and the soul there. My spirit rejoices. There is joy there. In who? In God, my savior. One of the things I've enjoyed studying these prayers are words. that are very unique or even used for the first time. Now I know, well it's Luke chapter one, of course it's probably the first time being used. But this word savior, this word is only used three times in the Gospels. That's it. Mary here is using this term, the one who is the helper and deliverer. Now, obviously there are other terms of salvation, other words that are close to this, but this word, it's used about 20 times overall in the New Testament, but only three times, and Luke is the one that uses this here, and this term is really the term for the deliverer, the one who will save. God, my Savior, he is the one who has done this. And so he is the one who is doing all this work, and she is really just talking about all that God has done, and my soul and spirit are doing this, why? Verse 48, for he's regarded the lowly state of his maidservant. The word lowly state is the word for the humiliation or the humility of his maidservant. She recognizes I am just a servant of God. The words, I am his and he is mine, kept coming back to me as I was reading through this prayer. Mary saying, I am his, he is mine. It feels like this. My soul, my spirit, his maidservant. For behold, henceforth all generations will call me So where does this generation thing come from? Well, I really believe it comes from what Elizabeth had said. Elizabeth had said, blessed are you among women, blessed is the fruit of your womb. So already one who is older has given this blessing. So how, why is Mary blessed? And that's the question that we're seeking to answer. I think there's a lot of misunderstanding in the topic of how Mary is blessed. There is no indication or no reason to even think that Mary was perfect. or that she was chosen because she was so sacred and wonderful and amazing. Now, I'm sure she was a wonderful young lady. She wasn't perfect. Maybe Mary is blessed because she gets to become a mom. Maybe that's the blessing. Maybe she's blessed for baby making, the blessing of baby making. Oh, such a nine month blessing, isn't it? Maybe meal providing. Oh, Mary is so blessed because she gets to provide meals pretty much for the next 20 years Well, it depends how long, plus years of life. Maybe she's blessed because she gets to domestically take care of Joseph and Jesus. What a blessing. I know, moms, you're like, this sounds like you're talking about me. Well, sometimes part of the challenge of mothering is trying to answer the question, what am I here for? Am I just here to be used up? Am I just here for the home or for the husband or for the kids? Am I just here for myself? Am I just here for Jesus? Well, she probably should be. This is the one time that literally it was right for the kid to say, Mom, you're actually here to serve me, because I'm your Savior. None of the rest of us should be able to do that. But there's one thing that Mary's prayer makes very clear, and all of Scripture makes very clear, is that Mary was not blessed because of her works. It isn't anything that she did that made her blessed, or that she was blessed by God. Verse 49 gives the answer for why Mary was blessed. For he who is mighty has done great things for me. There's a mighty aspect. What we see here, and we see there's a number of things I want us to see in this prayer, and I kind of mentioned them at the beginning, and they're a little bit, they're scattered throughout there, and one of the things that is important is the work of God, His work. He is the one who does the work. That is the reason that Mary is blessed. That is the reason that Mary is able to be used by God, is because she recognizes this is God's work that is being done. He has done great things. He is the one who has done this for me. And that word for me could even be said to me. These are the things that he has done for and to me. He is mighty. That term for mighty is an inner strength type of word. He is able. I know he is able. He has done great things for me. Done is one of my favorite word studies that I did. It's a word that James uses all the time. It's the word poeo. It actually is a word that is the word we get the word poem from. And what that word means is to make, create, craft, and guide. It's kind of a shepherding word. It is a creator word. He has created, done, crafted out. We like the term He has written the story of our lives. That's poeia. That is the done. These are the things He has done. Great things. It's the same root word for magnify there. Great and wonderful. It's a word that is as big as you can imagine. He has done these great things. But it's His work. One of the reasons we struggle in terms of being blessed by God, and in terms of being used by God, is because we're doing our work. I'm doing my work. Or I'm doing that person's work, or the kid's work, or the boss's work, or so-and-so's work. Many of us, we would even say, maybe we are working for ourselves. So let me ask you the question. Who are you working for? Isn't that what Paul talks about? when it comes to dealing with those who you are working for in Ephesians. He says, do your work as unto the Lord. If we are blessed and we are doing God's work and we are being used by God, we will recognize that whatever we are doing, the biggest tasks and the smallest tasks. Mary, months later, would be pushing for the Lord. She would be mothering for the Lord. Her work was His work. That changes everything, doesn't it? The work we do is for God. His work, and we should be reminded, His work is great. The work that He wants to do is wonderful, even in those little things. So he's doing his work, and we'll see some other places here that we see his work in terms of what he does, his arm and all those things. But there's another thing that we see here. It says, holy is his name. I think this is a reminder of his way. The way in which God does things. His ways are holy. The term holy is that setting apart. laid out specifically for his use, and thus having to be free of sin and corruption. That is why God wants us to strive for being holy as he is holy, because we are to be his instruments, and his instruments have to be used in his way. His way is the way we want to do this. We see it continue in verse 50, and his mercy is on those who fear him from generation to generation. Mercy, this term mercy is used five times in this chapter, the word here. And then it's only used one more time in the remainder of the Gospel of Luke. Mercy, his mercy. See, God's way is holy. But God's way is also the way of mercy. That loving mercy. And it's connected to, do you see it there? Those who fear him. There is a connection to those who Fear Him. There are times when we're like, man, God's way is holy. How do we walk in a manner that reflects and follows the holiness, the separateness of God? But if we do that too hard, right, when we get too legalistic, what do we lose? The mercy side. That God is a God of mercy. He is a God who loves. It's almost like speaking the truth in love kind of follows that pattern. What's right, what's wrong, but also making sure it is done in a loving, kindness way, a merciful way, but also holding people accountable. That doesn't mean, hey, we're just gonna love you. I love you so much, you can do whatever you want. How does that work, moms? I love you so much, sweetheart, you just go do whatever you want. That will not go well. It doesn't go well. There is mercy, there is love, Sometimes we got to fear mom, right? Mom has to break out. I mean, I don't know what the instrument of discipline was. My mom went through a number of them because they kept breaking. There were switches. The big breadboard looked menacing, but it actually really didn't hurt too much. Then she got this one that was provided that it kind of whistled a little bit. And plus, my mom's aim was so bad. I mean, she hit me in the back of the head one time, and that was not where she was aiming. But there were times I recognized, oh, it's time to fear mom. But I never doubted that my mom loved me. And I was blessed that way. We need to fear God. He is a holy God. His ways are holy, but his ways have mercy. And we have to be careful with these ways, because I think one of the reasons that we aren't blessed by God, and one of the reasons we're not used by God, is because we think we've got a better way. No, no, no, no, Lord. No, no, no, that's not, I've got the better way. I know how to go about doing it. It's one of my joys as a father when my children are like, no, no, no, no, I know how to do this. I got this, I know how to do this. And I get the joy of stepping back and letting them do it their way. Now, there have been a couple times I was disappointed because their way did end up being better than my way. But that hasn't been a majority of the time. Fine, do it your way. We always think that there's a better way, there's an easier way. You know, I did it my way. Yeah, your way stinks if it's not God's way. We have to do things God's way. Not doing things God's way always results in major problems and major consequences. Mayer here is saying, this is what God is doing. It needs to be done in God's way, from generation to generation. Here's this generational aspect again. God, in His work, the work that He does in His way that is holy and merciful and connected to fear, it's the way that He's done it, by His might, it does not waver. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Look what He's done, it says, He has shown strength with his arm. That word shown is actually the same word for done in verse 49. They're both the same word. It is a creative. It is almost like displaying his creation, displaying the work that he has done, displaying what he has crafted. He has done this and he has shown strength with his arm. The term for strength there is a different word from might. Might has a reference to inner strength. God's strength. He doesn't have to draw from any other strength. It is all within him. God is all-powerful. But the term for strength here is a different word. This is a dominion word. This is an exerting dominion and doing mighty actions word. We may say the might is the internal, the strength here is the external. With his, that's why you even get the arm. This reference to the arm of the Lord combined, you have this might and the strength is God's strength and God's works. The inside and the outside. What has he done? 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. He is doing all of this in his might. And he does it in his way. And he is the one that does these different things. He has scattered He has put them down, and so we are reminded again of what God's way is. Mary knows and understands what God's way is, how God deals with the proud. Scripture's full of that. How God deals with the humble. How God deals with those who are in need, those who are lowly. Who is the lowly? Where has she already used this word? It's herself. He's saying God is the one who has done this. God is the one who has done this exalting, this lifting up. He has filled the hungry with good things. The rich he has sent away empty. God does his way and his might, and his way even includes how he cares for people or how he corrects people. How does God's might and strength happen in the life of a believer. How does this happen? How do we operate in the strength of the Lord? I believe the Word of God instructs us first we need to be fueled by and in His Word. We need to be empowered by and even being able to participate in the production of the fruit of the Spirit. We're also to be powered by prayer. Is it God who's doing the work? How often do we as believers try to do, we would say it was God's work, but I try to do it with my strength. Now we're to exert strength, we are to be involved in this, but we need the strength of the Lord to accomplish what he is going to do. And that strength even comes through his word. We start to see this happen in verse 54. He has helped his servant Israel in remembrance of his mercy. that remembrance of His mercy really rose up to the top, because how many times, looking through these prayers, have we heard, His mercy endures forever? We remember his mercy. What does he say? We remember what he has done. How do we know what he has done? Well, the word of God instructs us with what he has done. As he spoke, here's the word again, to our fathers, to Abraham, and to his seed forever. So we even have his word, his might, according to his word. He has helped, he has supported. It is actually that word for helping Israel is to hold onto, almost taking Israel by the hand. Why has he done that? Well, because Israel was so great. And Israel was such a wonderful children of Israel, right? No. He did it in remembrance of his mercy. God keeps his word. This last week I had the great, great honor and privilege of interacting with someone who was working on a student handbook at a college that I get a chance to kind of interact with and serve with. And man, student handbooks, those are the things the kids love getting when they go to college. I mean, that student handbook is just, it's a blessing, especially at a conservative Christian college. I mean, it's just like, oh, praise the Lord. I mean, when I went through my student handbooks at the schools I went to, I was like, oh, praise the Lord. Oh, this is wonderful. What a blessing this handbook is in my life. I am so excited and looking forward to following this handbook, not only in word, but in deed, not only in the letter and the law, but in the spirit of the law. No way. Those handbooks are like, you gotta be kidding me. What's that there for? Why should we do this? And the reason that the changes were being made in the handbook, I know this will shock you, this never happens in the life of a church, but the practice wasn't lining up with what the paper said. We either gotta make a change to our practice, or we gotta make a change to the document. So we were working through the document, and it was actually in an area that was very important. It was an area of how does a school deal with it, deal with young people who are doing self-harm? How is a school good about doing that? In the past, policies, actually it was interesting because there was some policies from other schools was if that happens, it said then that student is immediately sent home. And what we were discussing and working through and recognizing that even what was happening on that campus was that is not the practice. The practice was to provide love, care, counsel, and to work with that young person. It was important what that handbook said. We have an instruction manual. We have an instruction manual that is the fuel that is used by the Holy Spirit in our lives. If we are not in God's word, these things can't take place. We will not experience the blessings of God and we will not be able to be used by God. So what does this all have to do with being a mom? Can you imagine, Mary, I mean, it's pretty much agreed on she's a teenager, possibly a very young teenager. There's no mention of her parents in Scripture. It's always been a subject of debate. Why is this? There is one passing reference to possibly her father's name here in the book of Luke, Hali. We don't really know anything about it, and it's actually, there's a reference to this in the genealogy that we see here in Luke. She appears to be without parental support, without parental input. She appears to be probably becoming the scandal of the town, being pregnant out of wedlock. Yet we see her understanding and her wisdom, but it's based on something that is very important. In fact, as I was studying the passage, I was trying to find, is there anything that is referred to that Mary actually did, other than the prayer itself? There are a couple things that pointed out. Elizabeth actually, being the older, wiser Elizabeth, there's one thing that really jumps out. You know, we say Mary didn't do anything to be blessed. But she did do one thing. Verse 45. This is Elizabeth describing Mary. Blessed is she who believe. Well, what does that mean? What does it mean to have belief? Mary believed what the angel said. Mary obviously believed the word of God. That was the part of her understanding that allowed her to be blessed by God. She believed what the angel said. What did the angel said? The angel said in verse 31, you will conceive in your womb and will bring forth a son and his name shall be called Jesus. He will be great. God was going to give him David's throne. He would reign. His kingdom would never end. He, he, he. This is what God is doing. And she believed what God was doing. So how do we apply this? Well, how is belief applied so that the blessing of God will take place? I think there's a little bit of that found in verse 38. And Mary said two things. Behold, the maidservant of the Lord, let it be to me according to your word. Because she believed, there are two attitudes that Mary had. as a part of what God was going to be doing in terms of blessing her and using her. The first was, is willing to be God's servant. If you wanna be blessed and used by God, if I wanna be blessed and used by God, I have to recognize and declare and live my life as a servant to God. That's the way it has to go. I don't get to receive God's blessing, we don't get to be used by God if we are not serving him. That's the problem we all get into, right? My way, my attitude, my works, which by the way ends up in what? My glory. If it's all about me, then who gets the glory? That's why Paul says, it's not of works. Why? Just in case someone would boast. If it was about me, if it was about you, then we could brag. Can you believe what's going on in the stuff that I've been doing here? It's not about us. She is humble, and then she says, let it be to me according to your words. So after she talks about serving, she also recognizes God's promises. God, you do your work. You do the work according to, and we've seen this, right, your words. God's word had been being put forth by the angel. It had been being put forth by the spirit. We saw there, Elizabeth speaks filled with the Holy Spirit. The prophecies that she refers to, and Mary, after saying this, what does she do? She gets up and goes. The angel had told her about Elizabeth and she went. She believed and it would be done. So what are the results of this prayer? Well, the results of this prayer aren't really results. There's been times to say, well, this is the things that take place, but really we see this, Elizabeth, Later in chapter 57, we'll bring forth a son, and she will be rejoicing. In chapter 2, the big chapter, chapter 2 there, Mary brings forth a son, and there's a lot of rejoicing that goes on in chapter 2. We always love all this. We enjoy all of this. I wanna bring us back to the beginning. You see the words up there. I think the thing that really is important, the main result of these prayers and the main result of God's blessing and the main result of God's working is Mary says, my soul magnifies the Lord. That word soul tore me up this week. Because I asked myself, how do I, how does Dave Berman magnify the Lord? And I realized that my magnification is very often a very surface magnification. I magnify, I love to sing, I love to preach, I love to share the gospel, and this week, we get a chance to meet. I wanna tell you that I had multiple opportunities to share the gospel this week. I had prayed, my prayer early in the week, and I always pray that God would give me opportunities, but I was really like, Lord, I'm gonna be traveling this week, give me some opportunities to share the gospel. And I mean, I didn't even get in the air out of Cleveland, and I was sharing the gospel with the biggest guy I've ever been around in my life, some offensive tackle from over at YSU. And him and I are gonna be connecting up this week, and I'm gonna get an opportunity to tell him more about Christ. Man, so great. But I am always like, I wanna say it, I wanna use my hands, I wanna use my lips, I wanna do all these things, but Mary says, my soul, magnifies the Lord. It's not just lip service. It's not just emotionally driven. It's not just, all right, here's my list of things to do, and part of that is I need to praise God, I need to do adoration in my prayer acrostic, so I need to get this done. Mary says, my soul magnifies the Lord. I saw this question in my devotion this week. What do you know of God Really. What do you know of the one who spoke the universe into existence and motion? What do you truly know of he who is overall yet condescends to you and me? Do you really, really know he who sent his son to die for you and for me, the one who is fire, fury, water, mercy, sacred, beautiful, to be feared and to be loved. Sometimes I wonder if the reason that I'm so suspect to the winds of life is because I don't really have a depth of worship and giving glory to God within my soul. I end with this illustration. One of my last It probably wasn't a near-death experience, but it was a tough experience, which was coming across Lake Erie, and Lake Erie, if you don't know, Lake Erie, in terms of square miles, has the most shipwrecks of all of the Great Lakes. It's small, it's not really deep. I mean, at its deepest points, it's just a little over 60 feet deep. It's shallow, it's really warm, and because of that, the storms whip up quickly. I actually know all this stuff because I was doing a study on the Sea of Galilee, and the Sea of Galilee and Lake Erie are very similar. And I was on one of the big ferries, and the wind whipped up, and I could see the storm coming, and I could see the white caps, and suddenly I was in a boat that I had never hardly feel move, move like this, and sound like someone was putting a 400-ton hammer against the side of the hull every time it crashed into the waves. And I was reminded, now I feel like I'm on the Sea of Galilee. I hope there's no walking on water that needs to take place here in this situation. And Lake Erie, because of its lack of depth, is suspect to storms. There is something about depth of soul. If you've ever been in a watercraft that has moved from shallow water to deep water, Is that term still waters run deep? How are we to be blessed? How are we to be used by God? And how much more do we need to know about him? How do we truly live our lives and worship God so as to accomplish his work in his way? through his word, by his might, to his glory. And I believe it starts in his word. We need to take more time. We need to acknowledge him. Used to be a term, throw someone a bone. So throw me a bone. We need to throw God the whole steak. We need to give him our all. We need to look to him, to talk to him, to listen to his word, to consider him, to grow in our knowledge of Him, to worship Him, to tell others about Him, to live our lives for Him. He should get all the glory, shouldn't He? He should get the glory from deep down in our souls. Can you pray this prayer? My soul magnifies the Lord. If our lives are truly to be lived out, it needs to be His work. It needs to be done in His way. It needs to be led through His Word. It needs to be powered by His might, and it needs to be done to His glory. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank You so much for Your Word and for the testimony of Your Word. Lord, we thank You for this prayer of Mary. Lord, I, we all need to be reminded that any blessings that take place in our lives, any way that you might possibly use us, Lord, any way that you may possibly comfort us, help us, encourage us, it all comes from you. Yeah, Lord, we have the opportunity to be blessed by you and used by you. Lord, I would pray if there's any person here that is struggling with storms right now in their lives, that you would help them to recognize what it means for their soul to give glory to you, and to be reminded that if they do these things, to do things in your way, by your word, by your strength, that, Lord, it would be all to your glory, that, Lord, we too would be able to say our soul magnifies the Lord. Lord, that is why Mary, that is why every mom, every woman, everyone that is here is able to trust you. We ask this in Jesus' name.