On to the Marker's testifying, talking about friends of this world compared to the friend of our Lord. Now, what he's talking about, let me, I was thinking about this when he said that. What he's talking about, if you take a diamond, they put diamonds in boxes, what's usually the background? What color? Black. It enhances the diamond. It enhances the gold. It makes it stand out. What makes the Lord look so good is when you contrast Him with us. He really looks good. Amen. When you contrast Him against the dark nature of this world, man, that's why we brag about Him being such a friend. Amen. I'll tell you something, the Lord Jesus Christ isn't just your friend, the Father and the Holy Spirit is too. Amen. And don't never forget the father loved us and sent his son. Father loved us. Christ loved us. The Holy Spirit loves us. Amen. We're just loving in all directions, aren't we? Amen. So I talked today about the example of Joseph in Matthew one. I want to talk about the example of Mary and Luke chapter number one. These people were madly prepared by God. It astounds me how he did it. I'm serious. I mean, if our understanding is correct, there wasn't many real believers in Jerusalem or in Israel in this hour, probably more than we think, because God's got his remnant. We don't want to be like Elijah and say, Lord, I'm the only one. God said I got 7,000. According to the election of grace, I've reserved. So we know God had his people, but evidently there wasn't many of them. the thing about it is in the midst of all this darkness, how these people get to be so devout. I mean, it's not run of the mill people. These are outstanding people of faith. Mary and Joseph are young, she is for sure. They're young. I mean, how do you even contemplate, how in the world do you get with God in such apostasy? As they lived in, that's a work of the Holy Spirit in somebody's heart. And just like he worked then, he can work now. If it didn't work in that hour, you know it can work now, because we got Bibles, and we got churches, and we got all this music, and we got a thousand ways to be blessed these people never had. And, you know, they had synagogues. That had to have been some of the most boring-est services you've ever been in because the rabbis just get up and talk in monotone. And they'd read the Bible, that's all right there, but then they start reading them commentaries. Commentaries of the rabbis, my goodness, just dry. When the Lord showed up, they said, we ain't never heard a man talk like him. He speaks as one that has authority. He talks like one that knows what he's talking about. and they took notice. I mean, you know, just like in Whitfield's day, about, and even in all across Europe, in England, I mean, the Church of England guy's known for drunks, his drunks. I mean, a lot of them so drunk they couldn't even have holy communion, about too drunk to have communion. And I mean the, and then you had the dissenters who were the Puritans and the separatists, they pulled out of the church of England and they did so because they were trying to purify it. And with the separatists, it's going to be separate from a church of England. They knew it was too far gone to fix. But even in the midst of that, God raised up a Whitefield in the midst of that Anglican mass. And then God raised up John and Charles Wesley. And then in that hour, God raised up Daniel Rowlands, Hal Harris. Amen. That astounds me. How they, in the midst of all the darkness, God, I ain't talking about a candle now. I'm talking about a searchlight. Man, I'm talking about a lighthouse. That's what these people were. Man, this wasn't some lighter flickering. I mean, some cigarette lighter. Man, I'm telling you what, buddy, they had the LED. You could see them afar off. And they stood up, that's the story of Christmas. It's a story of all that darkness, but when God's gonna do something, you see all that light. All that light around those shepherd boys. Amen. Because he's a God of light. Boy, can you imagine, can you just, do you ever try to imagine, I do and I don't do much of it because I can't get no war with it. Can you imagine what heaven's gonna look like? The throne of God. Man, God have mercy. Man, we'll have to have a glorified body to even look at it. Man, we got something to look forward to. But see, God's got us here, and while we're here, we might as well fulfill what God's got for us. Because what Mary did, what Joseph did, what Zacharias and Elizabeth, John the Baptist, Anna, Simeon, what these people did seemed so insignificant to the world, but it changed the world. Amen. God changed the world through these people. And I praise God for it. Now, here we see in verse number 26 of Luke 1. In the sixth month, Angel Gabriel was sent from God into the city of Galilee, named Nazareth, to a virgin espoused a man whose name was Joseph. Of the house of David, the virgin's name was Mary. Now, in Hebrew, you know what Mary's name is in Hebrew? Mariam. Who's Mariam? There you go. The sister of Moses, Mariam. That's one of the pronunciations of it. And the angel came in unto her and said, Hail, thou art highly favored. The Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women. I'd say so. How many women's name their little girl Mary? Amen. What a name. And when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, cast in her mind what manner of salutation this should be. I mean, she just there in the house minding her own business. Here comes one of these flaming angels showing up and giving her these words, what in the world are you, who are you? What are you talking about? Well, I'm just a handmaiden of the Lord and heaven sent somebody to talk to me. but she ain't strutting around like she's worthy of nothing. She is humbled by this. The angel said unto her, fear not Mary, thou hast found favor with God. Hey, when God chooses to favor you, you're favored. Amen. And behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name Jesus. In my Bible that's capitalized, what about yours? Oh, here's one of these statements again. He shall be great. Praise God. God give us better words than that. He shall be great. My God in heaven, I'd say so. And shall be called the son of the highest. And the Lord God shall give him the throne of his father, David. He shall reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there shall be no end. Israel's never gonna have another king till he shows up. That's right, that's the end of that. Ain't no need to look anymore in Israel for a king, he's it. That's right. And when he died on the cross, buried and rose again, they've never had a king since, ain't going to. That's right, he's the king. Amen. And the next time anybody rules in Israel, it's going to be him. on the throne of his father David, and David's gonna be right there reigning with him. He shall reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there shall be no end. Then said Mary unto the angel, how shall this be? Sin I know not a man. And the angel answered and said unto her, the Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the high shall overshadow thee, therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. Now, why'd he call it that holy thing? Because that's the part that was created. He didn't say holy son. No, that holy thing, holy thing, the body that the Lord gave him. God always protects the deity of Christ. Some of these new modern versions don't, but this Bible does, always. When it comes to the book of Timothy, and the Bible says, great is the mystery of God and that his God was manifest in the flesh. Some of these other versions say he, ours says God. Big difference in God and he. Amen. Behold, thy cousin Elizabeth, she hath also conceived the Son of her old age, and this is the sixth month of her, who was called barren. For with God, nothing shall be impossible. Are you seeing the connection here? I'll say more about this later. Elizabeth is one of the great encouragements to Mary. See, the Lord never bypasses the fact that we're frail humanity, and that we're prone to wonder from our God, and we're prone to be full of unbelief. He knows all that. That's why He accommodates us like He does, because He knows the struggle we have. And therefore, the Lord let this happen in the life of Mary, so she'd be encouraged. God wants her encouraged. And Mary said, behold, the handmaid of the Lord bid unto me according to thy word, and the angel departed from her. Father, we don't worship Mary, but we thank you, God, for her. She's not our mediator, but she had, and he brought in this world, our days man, our kinsman redeemer. I want to thank you for her little humble life. Oh God, she is maligned. Dear God, she carried a heavy load till she died. She is falsely accused and misrepresented, and she could not defend herself. Oh God, but you have this Bible written to defend her and to defend her character and to defend her holiness. And dear God, that's all really matters anyhow, it's what you know. So we praise you for the example of Mary in Luke 1 and her whole life and give you glory and praise. Help us now in Christ's name, amen and amen. Now, to make this statement that I made today, this is not original, but it is well worth repeating. When the Holy Spirit is doing something around you, for you, for the glory of God, He is doing that to do something in you, that from you, God might be glorified. And I'm so glad that that's so. I mean, what all God's doing around us, at the same time, He'll start doing something in us. Because this thing's gotta be inward before it can be outward. Amen. God always starts on the inside, but he doesn't leave it there. Now, I talked this morning about these backstories. God's always got the backstory before you get to the big story. And I think about revivals and great awakenings and the moves of God. You can't trace all of them because you don't know all the backstories. You don't know the prayer You don't know all the faithful preaching You don't know all of the faithful living for God that takes place before God pours out his spirit But the Lord does thank God for the backstories The backwoods, the backstories of things. How God brings things to pass and that within itself is a miraculous thing for the glory and the honor of God. Now the Lord is telling Mary that she shall conceive and bear a son. Now I'm gonna repeat a little bit in this introduction what I did this morning. You know why? I want you to know what this Bible says about the incarnation. You better be right about this. Cause your soul destination depends on this. If Christ wasn't here, you know, people say, well, I don't believe he's the son of God, but he is a good man. If he wasn't the son of God, he's the biggest liar ever been born. He is who he said he was. And you can depend on that. Thank God for the second Adam. Boy, we got messed up in that first Adam. Him and old Eve sold us out, buddy. You know what? I got mercy on them. I'd have been there and done the same thing. Thank God we're not emphasizing the first Adam. We're emphasizing the second Adam. First Adam has got a depraved, fallen race. The second Adam has a heavenly race that is perfected, amen. So the Lord's gonna become our mediator. As prophet, he brings the word of salvation to us. As our priest, he accomplishes our salvation. And as our king, he subdues us. AND DEFEATS OUR ENEMIES. AMEN. HE IS PROPHET, PRIEST, AND KING. AND HE REIGNS AND RULES IN OUR HEARTS AND HE SHALL FOREVER. NOW NOTICE THIS, HE COMES TO MARY HERE AND THE ANGEL DOES AND LETS HER KNOW God's coming in this world. Now, when the Lord come, always remember this now, He did not subtract anything from Himself. He added something to Himself. God added humanity to His deity when He come into this world. And what salvation is, is multiplication. God's making a bunch of people that has a nature like unto Him that can enjoy Him, live with Him, and be comfortable around Him. and we shall be forever and forever. So he adds his deity to humanity. Notice, we didn't go 33 years without a trinity. No, no. When he walked this earth, he was God. He just yielded himself to the weakness of the flesh. Amen. Fully God and fully man. He laid down some of his divine privileges. He didn't enact them. For example, he had the privilege. He could have fed the whole world. He could have never went hungry. He could have never got sleepy. He could have made it where he didn't have to ever go to sleep. He could have done a lot of things different. He had the privilege of all that because he's God, but he laid aside the privilege of enacting much of his deity. You know why? Because he humbled himself and took upon himself our humanity, and don't you ever, and God helped me to never minimize what that means, what that meant for him. You talk about stepping down, that's the biggest step down there's ever been. There's never been anybody ever humble themselves like Christ did when he come to this world to become one of us, so he could die on the cross and be buried and rise again. Now the big story, Matthew 1 and 2 and Luke 1 and 2 is the incarnation of Jesus Christ, our blessed Lord. Now I wanna remind you about a marriage, a Jewish wedding. So you'll understand how they did things back then. Again, these all start with C. There was a commitment or the covenant. Mary and Joseph have already went through that. They are legally husband and wife. I mean, legally. They're just as married as anybody in Israel. They've just not consummated it. But in the eyes of God and the eyes of the law, they're husband and wife. Now, folks, this crazy, hyper-dispensationalist idea that when a man and a woman have intimate relationships, that they're married in the eyes of God is a lie. Marriage is not that relationship. It is a privilege of it. They were married in the eyes of the law long before they consummated that marriage physically. That's why they did things back then. And then there was consent, not just commitment and covenant. There's consent. The families all agreed. that give their approval of it. And then you got the ceremony or the celebration where what they've done before a rabbi or a priest is done publicly. And then there's the fiscal consummation. Now, if I understand Jewish culture right, while the big party's going on, The husband and wife is back in their place consummating the marriage. I don't need to say no more than that, but if I understand right, that's the way they did it. And it was a great celebration. They made much of it. Here's a man totally giving himself to a woman. Here's a woman totally giving herself to a man. That's a beautiful thing. Amen. Now, we see here that Joseph, again, how did he find this out? How did he know? He might've known because she's avoiding him. I'm sure she is. She wouldn't be showing yet. There's plenty of time to go before she showed any sign of being with child. I was hearing a man from, I don't know if it's England or Northern Ireland. I listen to a lot of them guys preach the other day. He says she, the Bible says she was great with child. She was ready to pop. She ain't got there yet here. Somehow Joseph finds out that she's with child. Now what are you gonna think? You're gonna think biology 101. You're gonna think about what makes that happen. And you're gonna think about the violation that's taken place. What she's done to me. I'm sure he went to bed night after night crying himself to sleep. You know why? He's a tender man. He's not hard hearted. He's sensitive. He's tender. He is waiting for the day when he come and got her and took him to his father's house and they become man and wife and could have children. All of that's been in his heart and now here is the public shame, the public humiliation. It's gonna get out. He's gonna look like a fool. He's having to deal with all that. But I believe. That Joseph, so you don't know. If she has been unfaithful and she's with child, he doesn't know why. She could have been violated by a man. She could have been forced, do you see? I mean, there's reasons this could have happened and her be innocent and her be violated. So he doesn't have an explanation yet, but I know one thing, he loved her. He's not about to let the public get a hold of her, make a public example out of her, and then publicly shame her, spit on her, and humiliate her, and make a stigma on her, to where she'll be just all scouring of the community, and it'll be held against her all her life. That's not Christianity. Hey, somebody messes up, they're not to be dogged the rest of their life for it. Amen. Amen. Tell you one thing, some of y'all sitting in this building, you did the same thing you just didn't get with child. There's a lot of striking going on in this area. Did you know that 30 years after the first great awakening, two thirds of all the marriages in America, the baby was born six months after they got married? What does that mean? That means two thirds of them were with child when they got married. That's back to 1700s. This stuff been going on a long time. I'm not saying, I'm not trying to take up for it, but I'm saying one thing. Thank God for the forgiveness of our Lord. Now you kids, don't you minimize this. You'll suffer your whole life if you do this. You will, and I don't want you suffering. But thank God and mercy for those that haven't always done right. That's what I'm trying to emphasize. She's conceived in obedience and faith to the word of God. She did not conceive until she believed God. That's right. The angel told her what was gonna happen. She said, be it unto me according to thy word. And out of faith come the incarnation. God always works with a believing heart. Now the natural process is gonna be circumvented by the Holy Spirit. The natural process is not happening here. We all know that. This is a miraculous thing. This is a unique thing. This woman having a seed is not normal. Women don't have seed, men do. and put the seed of the woman apart from a man, it's gonna bruise the head of the serpent. And thank God, and that's what the Bible says, and the Lord tells her what the baby's name's gonna be, just like he told Joseph. And the name expresses his ministry to fallen sinners. He's Jesus. Jehovah saves. If you're not a sinner, you don't need to be saved. But if you're a sinner, which you really are, you need a savior. and the thing, you know what we go around calling Jesus? Savior. He's my Savior. He's my Lord and He's my Savior. He's my Lord in the fact that He leads me and guides me and tells me what to do and I want to obey Him. But He's my Savior in the fact that He made a propitiation for my sin. Notice here, Joseph is also committed to the Word of God. God so worked in his heart, How that he's a holy man, he's a just man. When God calls somebody just, they're just. That means he's right before God, he's justified. And he's living a life where that's honoring unto God. And the Bible tells us here, old Joseph was a man of truth, and I preached this morning, but he's also a man of grace, amen. You gotta have both of them right. Because truth without grace isn't really truth. And grace without truth isn't really grace. It's a perversion of it. It's gotta be both. The Bible says the law came by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. Amen. I ain't trying to crawl up the rough side of no mountain, friend. Amen. Jesus doesn't die on the mountain. He said, you know, it's a mountain. Well, it sounds good, don't it? Amen. God loves mountain people. Aren't you glad about that? Now we come to the working of the Holy Spirit in the life of Mary. She must have got the caravan and went over the mountains to find Elizabeth. Now, the angel said that Elizabeth is already six months with child. That means that John the Baptist in chronological order of the human timeline of age, he's six months older than Christ after the flesh. And so she goes over there and at the time, at the time this goes about, Mary, or Elizabeth is five months. And then when Mary shows up, she's six months with child. So she walks in there. All of a sudden, That baby inside of her, six months old, John the Baptist. It's just an embryo, eight days old. In Mary, John the Baptist lives up and down in his mother's womb. because he's a forerunner. He's come to bear testimony that Jesus is the Christ and he's doing it in mama's womb. Amen. You say, how's that possible? I don't know how it's possible. This is all a miracle. What about that? And the Bible says, it's amazing to me, when old John the Baptist got to leaping in his mother's womb, Elizabeth is filled with the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost gets in John for he gets in Elizabeth. And when old Zacharias comes out later after being a deaf mute because he wouldn't believe God and couldn't talk, and when he wrote down on a piece of paper what the name of John the Baptist is gonna be, he's not gonna be named Zacharias or after a grandfather. His name is John. Zacharias is filled with the Holy Ghost when he writes down John. So John the Baptist, his mom and daddy got full of the Holy Ghost because he did. Ain't that something? I've heard people say, John the Baptist was full of the Holy Spirit because mom and daddy were, I didn't know what the Bible says. He leaped in. Now, I want you to explain this. I'm way off course here. I wasn't gonna get on this because there's more questions here than I got answers. How in the world was John the Baptist full of the Holy Ghost from his mother's womb? I've never had that explained. You know why? Cause you can. Now to be, you got to understand it this way. This is how the Holy Spirit sort of revealed it to me in my heart while I was meditating. If it's right, it was him. If it's not, it's my own thinking. To be filled with the Holy Spirit means to be controlled. John the Baptist was controlled by the Holy Spirit from his mother's womb. God is not gonna take any chance with the forerunner Christ. God's gonna so put his hand on him, he's never gonna get married, he's never gonna run with women, he's not gonna touch alcohol, he's a Nazarite, And what is responsibility is so important that God's gonna hedge him in. When did John the Baptist get saved? I ain't got a clue. I don't know. I don't know when he had to believe some word. But he got the Holy Ghost before he got saved. Now you explain that. I can't. Let's just say it's just God, and God didn't choose to explain that to us, and he don't have to, but I rejoice that God filled that baby with the Holy Ghost in his mama's womb. All they can talk about is Jesus when they found out who he was. That's right. Amen. He said, get your eyes on John. John said, get your eyes off me. Get your eyes on him. I come to bear testimony to him. He said, I must decrease and he might increase. Folks, this whole thing's about Christ. When a preacher's right, when a Christian's right, when a church is right, they make much of Jesus. Amen. The Holy Spirit never comes to draw attention to himself. He comes to exalt the Christ of God. Amen, aren't you glad the Holy Spirit's gonna encourage Mary? She walks in that door, she remembers what the angel said. The angel said, here's Elizabeth. Well, shrinking in age, she's probably in her 90s, at least her mid-80s. Boy, didn't Melissa do a good job playing her. Wanted to compliment her. Amen. She was married to an old boy who looked like her son, though I never could understand the age difference there. But Elizabeth, well, hey, you gotta understand that Hebrew language, well stricken in age, not just old, very, very old. She's probably 90 to 100 years old. They don't have babies, not unless you're Sarah and Elizabeth. God said, Mary, you know what I've been doing? I've been holding off of Elizabeth all this time. Her and Zechariah had prayed for years that they'd have a child and they give up asking because they got past the age. He said, I heard them when they prayed the first time. But I didn't give him a sign because I want to use this occasion to exalt my power and me to encourage you. What about that? God held off on John the Baptist. And he chose who his mom and daddy was too. He held off on all that to encourage a little maiden that was gonna bear the body of Jesus Christ. And when a church or a group of people or an individual is gonna do great things, God works mysteriously in their lives. She walks in there. Here's Elizabeth. You know, she didn't even go out in public. You know, used to when a woman's with child years ago, they didn't ever go out in public. Do y'all know that? I mean, that's our culture. They didn't go out in public. And anyhow, so Elizabeth, she walks in there. It's just like God said. We are old enough to be a great, great grandmother here, you are gonna have a baby. God! Amen, if you're right about that, by God, there ain't nothing impossible. You got a boy inside of you at the age you are, then what God said he'd do can be true of me. Cause you know, Jenny, you got that song on your heart tonight. You wanna sing another time? Amen. Where was I? I got to thinking about that right there. I'll tell you one thing. God let Mary know she could trust him. Here's what I was going to say on the way there. You know the devil crawled up on her shoulder. You know that. And said, Mary, have you lost your mind? You're not with child. You've never been with a man. Then he might have said while you was asleep, somebody, I don't know what he said. I know it's a lie, whatever it was. She walked in that house that day and the Holy Ghost fell in that place and God let her know. You know why? Because what she's got to face all the days of her life and that sword's being pierced through her spirit, what she's gonna face on behalf of her son is gonna take some real faith to sustain her. Aren't you glad he knoweth our frame? He remember that we are dust. He knows your frail. Verse 28, the angel came in under her and said, hail. That ain't H-E-L-L, that's H-A-I-L. That means greetings. Greetings. Thou art highly favored. The Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women. Now, did you notice something here? You know what the Lord does? Through the angel, he starts out with the benediction. Oh yeah, usually you say the blessing until the end. He starts out with the end, the benediction here. And notice, he moves, Mary, thou art favored of God. As a result of what? The Lord is with thee. If the Lord's with you, you're favored of God. God thought enough of you to convict you, God thought enough of you to draw you, God thought enough of you to save you, I'd say you're favored. Amen. Language of the Old Testament and the New Testament indicates that she is young. Now I've already said this, I know young people, this sounds repulsive to us, but back then those girls got betrothed at 12, 13, 14 years old. They'd wait a year, sometimes two, three, but usually a year, and they'd be married. Do you know why? Because they was mature, more mature at 13 years old than a lot of people nowadays at 33. They's mature. I think Mark, our great-grandma, seems like she got married at 13. Amen, that wasn't uncommon, Brother Keith. Back in them mountain homes, it was uncommon for them to marry their cousins, but it wasn't uncommon for them to get married early. Lord, I hope that wasn't uncommon. I mean, I hope it was. Hey, they raised children to work. That's right. My man, they thought their purpose in life was to get married, have children, have a big family. That's their mindset back then. Anyhow, and when she saw him, she was troubled at his sin and cast in her mind what manner of salutation this should be. Now the angel gives her a five-fold prophecy. Let me mention this right quick and go on. Thou hast found favor with God, The first one, the first prophecy is, thou shalt conceive in thy womb. That's the first one. The second one is, thou shalt bring forth a son. The third one, consistent with what the angel told Joseph, thou shalt call his name Jesus. Then, the fourth one, he shall be great and shall be called the son of the highest. The fifth one, and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David. He shall reign over the house of Jacob forever and of his kingdom. There shall be no end. You know what? I look at it this way. Mary and Joseph need to know what she's carrying. God has come to earth, not in his spirit. He's come to earth in the human body. You know what that would do? It'd cause you to walk close to God when you got God living in your house. That little old boy, she's putting to sleep every night, he's gonna judge her one of these days. Now you think about that. Hey man, that's some big thoughts, isn't it? And the Lord prepared them. See, the Lord always prepares people for what he wants them to do. And this angel said, don't fear. I don't come with condemnation, I've come with great news. She said what anybody would ask, the $6 million question. How shall these things be? Sin I know not a man. The angel answers, the Holy Ghost shall come upon thee. The power of the highest shall overshadow thee. Therefore also that Holy thing that shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. He first called him the Son of the highest. Then he called him the Son of God. Again, let me explain this. The Holy Spirit did not touch her. I don't believe in Greek mythology. He overshadowed her. He over, when he overshadowed her, his power created what he put in her. Not the son, he didn't create the son of God, he created the body. He let that conception happen. You see, that can't happen without the seed. God, hey, if God can form Adam out of the ground and breathe his nostrils and breathe life, he can do it any way he wants to. That'll let you know how powerful He is. God made woman so this would be possible. Now, in the Old Testament, God overshadowed the children of Israel. He overshadowed creation first. He overshadowed the children of Israel when they marched through the Red Sea. He so overshadowed them, God put up a wall of glory and old Pharaoh couldn't walk through it till he got time to drown. Amen. God overshadowed them in the wilderness. Pillar cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. He overshadowed them above the Ark of the Covenant in the Holy of Holies. God overshadowed the tabernacle and the temple. And the Lord's gonna overshadow Mary. When the Lord saved you, regenerated you, He overshadowed you. He did something inside of you, you still trying to figure out what it was. What it is, he put a nature like unto God in you. Amen. He put life in you, put light in you, put love in you. Now, notice in Luke 1 36, and behold thy cousin Elizabeth, she's conceived a son at her old age, and this is a six month. with her who is called barren. Now, for God, nothing should be impossible. Are you dear people, listen, are y'all getting this? Everything God's doing here is impossible. None of it possible. What do you think Zacharias over there got the shut mouth? Because what the angel told him is gonna happen is impossible. Impossible, his wife's too old. He's too old. That's the same thing happened to Sarah, she laughed. Well, what would you have done? If you're 90 years old, some angel shows up telling your husband and he just made sure, you know, she could hear it. And the angel told Abraham and said, what's your wife over there laughing about? Abraham laughed too. He didn't laugh with unbelief. He laughed with joy. She laughed full of unbelief. I'd have been more like Sarah. That's exactly what we'd have done probably. Oh, this is impossible. Zacharias and Elizabeth's impossible. Her having John the Baptist's impossible. Mary having Christ, it's impossible. Thank God with God, nothing is impossible. Amen. Tell you one thing, ain't that a blessing? When God does a miracle, he does it for redemptive purposes, not for the carnality of man. God ain't gonna put on some show for us. What God's gonna do, do things that glorify his name, his son. Mary said, behold, thy handmaid of the Lord, be it unto me according to thy word. And the angel departed from her. She said, I'm your servant. I submit to your word. I submit to your will. I submit to your ways. Amen. And I submit your wisdom. Tell you one thing, the Lord had her prepared. You know what? When God comes down, man gets lifted up. Amen. And when you get down, you get lifted up. Yeah, when God comes down, we get lifted up. When God comes down, he lifted up our Messiah on the cross that we might be lifted up forever in heaven. Aren't you glad? Hallelujah. He is willing to do that. So here, this Spirit-filled life of Mary is a God-honoring life. Verse 46, we see her song of praise, the Magnificent. Mary said, my soul to magnify the Lord. Now think about this, folks. Use your imagination. You're walking around with your Lord and your Savior inside of you. Well, so are you if you're saved. Amen. See, one of our problems, Brother Keith, this is our depravity. The old timers used to talk about living in the awareness of God. Boy, that changed your life when you're living a way that you're always aware God's in you. Mary said, my soul is magnified. The Lord, my spirit has rejoiced in God, my savior. Guess what? Mary's not co-savior. She's not co-mediator. She is a sinner like you and like me. We don't worship Mary. We sure honor her, but we don't worship her. She ain't think she can do for her, but her son can do something for you. He hath regarded, that means looked upon, he hath regarded the lowest state of his handmaiden, for behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed, for he is mighty, hath done to me great things, and holy is his name. His mercy is on them that fear him from generation to generation. And again, I'm gonna use the definition of that little book Seth's teaching out of him Sunday school. The fear of God is a reverence and a deep respect for God motivated by love. Amen. His mercy is on them that fear him from generation to generation. Greatest thing you can do for your children and grandchildren is fear God. He has showed strength with His arm. He has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts. He had put down the mighty from their seats and exalted them of low degree. Man, praise God. He's made the deplorables somebody. That elite crowd, man, God's gonna knock them off that perch of pride one of these days. He hath filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he hath sent empty away. Sounds like Hannah praying to me. He hath hopened his servant Israel. Don't you like that mountain word, hopened? He hath hopened his servant Israel in remembrance of his mercy. He spake to our fathers, to Abraham, and to his seed forever. Mary abode with her about three months and returned to her own house. She stayed there until John the Baptist was born, helped take care of him a little while. You know why? Because she's practicing. She got somebody to fellowship with. Who but Elizabeth in the whole nation of Israel, or the whole world, could understand Mary? Because the Holy Spirit made it real to Elizabeth. that she's a mother of her Lord. Elizabeth bore testimony. For Mary could say anything. She bore testimony of who was in her. Wouldn't that have done something for you? Here's somebody that doesn't think you're crazy and is misrepresenting you. They know. They ain't fellowship with one another, because they're both miracles, and they got miracles inside of them. That's why people better seek and fellowship, because we all got miracles inside of us. Hallelujah. Praise God. Spirit-filled lives are surrendered lives. Verse 38, behold the handmaid of the Lord bid unto me according to thy word. Aren't you glad God's patient with us? He's long-suffering with us. Amen. But to live, you gotta die. God don't negotiate certain things. My soul to magnify the Lord. Amen. You know how we live our lives? From the inside out. That's how you live for God. Number three, spirit-filled life's a worshiping life. You see somebody full of the Spirit of God, I'm not talking about it's always vocal. Sometimes the greatest worship you've ever done, silent. meditation. Amen. Don't let somebody tell you how to worship God. You worship God according to your personality, according to how God reveals it to you. And sometimes, man, he'll get on you, and man, you done hollered something, shouted out for him even though you said it. Amen. I'm not going to tell you how to worship, but if it's biblical, I'm for it. If it honors God, God the Father through God the Son and God the Holy Spirit, he wants to be worshiped. I mean, somebody great wants to be recognized, he's great. Amen. You know what, people go, and I'm gonna just say this and get to the end of this. Brother Lee, some people go to worship services. Most people don't go to church to worship God, no more, they go to worship themselves. That's what they do. They go to feel good. And the preacher's done let the word out and the church has let the word out. We'll make you one promise, you'll never get under conviction here. You'll never be condemned here. You'll never feel bad here. Now you might scream in hell if you come here, cause you'll not get saved here, but you won't feel bad here. That's man worship. I mean, what kind of a man says he loves his wife and watches her burn in the house when he could have warned her and got her out? Worship becomes something that comes out of us. Amen. So can you believe how deep that Mary, can you believe how mature she was? How deep theologically she was? Amen. She praises God for what he's done. She's praising God for what he's done for his people. And how that God, she's praising God that God's not just gonna bless the world, he's gonna bless the world through her. She's honored it, Dan. Amen. The heart of the believer is to know God, love God, obey God, worship God. It's in your heart, isn't it? Okay, let me get the end of this here in a minute. First Christmas after the conversion of a great man, Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones. I don't know if you people know about him. He's a pastor over in London, England. And Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones, was a deep, deep, deep thinker, theologian. He's got this pile of his tapes online, and he's got books. He wrote a book on Ephesians and one on the, I mean, the Christian warfare is just tremendous. So he's a doctor. First Christmas he saved, Josh, he goes to the Christmas party. There's all those other doctors and dignified people in there. And over to the side, walking in there, he heard a ragtag band of the Salvation Army playing the hymns. He looks at his wife. He said, wife, it's in my heart to reach these people. I'm at the doctors, the lawyers. He said, but this is my people. Yes, yes, yes. The right type people. That's my people. And that what Moses said when he went down to look upon his brethren, he said, I've been a part of the throne. That ain't my people. This is my people. They might be slaves, but they're my people. Amen. Isn't that a wonderful thing? Hallelujah. Spirit-filled life's a rejoicing life. Amen. Two to 500 people in Nazareth and Mary, man, she's got the joy in her heart. Then the spirit-filled life's a blessed life. Spirit-filled life's a saved life. My spirit hath rejoiced in God my Savior. 1 John 4 says, we don't believe Jesus Christ's come in the flesh, we're antichrist. Praise God, I believe he come in the flesh. The Holy Spirit overshadowed Christ when he was conceived. Overshadowed Christ when he was 12 years old at the temple. He overshadowed Christ when he was baptized. Overshadowed him in his ministry. Overshadowed him in his death, burial, and resurrection. Hallelujah, and he overshadows his people. Here's the backstory. The backstory of the big story. The year was 1837. The day was February the 5th. There's a man born Northfield, Massachusetts by the name of Dwight Lyman Moody. He had lived from 1837 to 1899. He is one of nine children. There was two twins born below him, but he is one of nine children. When he's four years old, His daddy Edward died or Edwin died. Betsy, his mother was left with all those children. Well, back then they didn't have a safety net. They didn't have all these government helps. She couldn't, she's struggling to even feed them. and she sent some of them off to different houses around. People would let them provide them board and food if they would work for their board and food and they at least would survive. But she always insisted strongly that all nine children were in church. But the problem is this, they went to a Unitarian church, Unitarian. You know, the Congregationalists have all turned Unitarian. Used to be a great church. You know what Unitarian is, don't you? Unitarians believe Christ was not deity. But as a man, he died on the cross for everybody, even the devil's gonna be saved. What a lie. When D.L. Moody turned 17, he moved to Boston. He'd never been educated and hardly at all moved to Boston. After being rejected by many of the locals, they wouldn't give him a job. So he moves to Boston to work with his uncle in a shoe store. Later on, he'd go to Chicago to become a millionaire. That's why he went there. But he went there to learn the shoe business. One of the requirements of his uncle was he had to attend his church every Sunday, and this was a congregational church, and we just wanted to preach the gospel. Church of Mount Vernon was the name of it. While working at the shoe store, another worker got under a burden for Dale Moody. He couldn't get the strength or the courage to witness to him. Day by day, he said, God, give me the courage. He's a burden over his soul. Give me the courage to say something to D.L. Moody. Finally one day, he told Moody that the Lord loved him and invited him to his church and to his Sunday school of Wichita. And long story short, Moody got saved by the grace of God, April of 1855. That man's name was Edward Kimball. Not Hank Kimball. Edward Kimball. I lost some of you. That's Green Acres, Hank Kimball. It was Edward Kimball. Who ever heard of Edward Kimball? But the whole world's heard D.L. Moody. One of the most powerful evangelists ever lived was D.L. Moody. D.L. Moody went over to London where a young preacher was so discouraged he was about to quit the ministry. And that young pastor went to hear D.L. Moody preach. And the fire of God filled that young man's soul. He become a great pastor. and he wrote many books. One of the best writing books on characters of the Bible, and his name is F.B. Meyer. F.B. Meyer got on fire for God. He got to preaching, trying to win the lost, and Meyer reached J. Wilbur Chapman, who started Youth for Christ. J. Wilbur Chapman was used to reach a professional baseball player by the name of Billy Sunday. The backstory is Edward Campbell. Billy Sunday give up playing professional baseball because he wouldn't play on Sunday. He became an evangelist. Under the ministry of Billy Sunday, a man by the name of Mordecai Ham got converted. Charlotte, North Carolina, 1934, some men gathered to pray at a dairy farm. praying for revival. And their main prayer was that God would send revival to Charlotte, and out of that revival would come a young man that would get saved, God would call him to preach. He'd be used as a mighty evangelist. Well, they had the prayer meeting and they all got together, invited Mordecai Ham to come to Charlotte. While they was praying in the next room was a man by the name of William Franklin Graham. Amen. And in that great meeting, Mordecai Ham Priest and Billy Graham, 17 years old, he was a rebel. They wouldn't even let him join the youth groups here so worldly. That's true. He got converted and he got on fire for God preaching the gospel. And he come back to that area years later, 1948 in his home church, Calvary Presbyterian Church in Charlotte, North Carolina. Billy Graham was raised Presbyterian. He was ordained Southern Baptist. And Billy Graham, come back to preach, meet now the arm of that Presbyterian Church. And the man, I've heard this story many times, but the man I heard tell this story, that I'm telling you right now, his mom and daddy or his grandparents were there in that prayer meeting at that dairy farm. up Billy Frank Graham's daddy's house. And the preacher I'm talking about is passing 4,100 people right now in Birmingham, Alabama, and his mom and daddy got converted in that meeting in 1948. But the backstory is Edward Kimball. Amen. Despise not the day, but small things. In the Lord good. Amen. That's why you never know. Now, God's probably not gonna send an angel. There's no need for that, probably. I'm not saying he can't. I'm not gonna tell God what he can do and can't do. He'd probably just use the Bible and speak to us through the Holy Spirit. That's 99.9% of how he does it. But you never know what day you get up and you're just doing your daily chores, and God's just gonna show up, put something in your heart to believe him for. Well, he's already done that with you, hasn't he? And it's gonna be impossible. You're going to say, God, this is impossible. This can't happen. And God said it can't happen because I said it's going to happen. And you just lay hold of the word of God. Ain't the Lord good. Let's bow our heads. Josh, come play something.