December 14, 2025 • 54 mins
In the Christmas series Expecting, Tyler Lynde shares a message titled “Feel God,” inviting you to move beyond getting through songs and into a real encounter with God that changes what you carry. Tracing Mary’s journey in Luke 1, Tyler shows how worship follows a holy progression: revelation leads to response, and response deepens relationship. Mary’s first feeling is fear at Gabriel’s greeting, and Tyler reminds us from Hebrews 12:28–29 that a healthy fear of the Lord—reverence and awe for a consuming fire—isn’t a relic but a necessity. Her second feeling is uncertainty—How will this be?—met by a precise promise of presence: the Holy Spirit will overshadow you. Tyler ties this overshadowing to the cloud of glory in 2 Chronicles 5, where worship fills the house until the priests cannot stand, showing that God’s nearness doesn’t merely inform; it transforms.
From there, Tyler unpacks the P.R.I.M.E. rhythm—prepare, repent, invest, minister to God, enter in quickly—so worship becomes a weeklong posture rather than a Sunday-only habit. He encourages starting the conversation with God before you enter the room so you arrive already aligned, not waiting on the third song to wake your heart. Sincerity matters more than volume. Some respond to God’s presence with quiet peace, warmth, and prayer; others with tears, laughter, kneeling, raised hands, shouts, or even dance. Scripture makes space for both. What matters is the great exchange: heaviness for hope, anxiety for awe, confusion for clarity.
When Mary visits Elizabeth, John leaps in the womb and faith is confirmed—nothing is impossible with God. Mary’s third feeling becomes faith—Let it be to me according to your word—and her fourth is joy, bursting into the Magnificat: My soul magnifies the Lord. Tyler highlights three anchors in her song for modern worshipers: humility that God exalts, holiness that restores wonder, and mercy that spans generations. Christmas hope points beyond the manger to the cross, where cost and joy meet, and resurrection has the final word.
If you’ve been longing for worship that feels honest, reverent, and alive, Tyler’s message will help you enter in quickly—whether you’re in the car or in the pew—with a heart ready for the great exchange. Watch or listen and let Mary’s revelation, response, and relationship become your rhythm this week.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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Tyler Lynde (00:02):
We're in the middle of our Christmas sermon series
called Expecting, and it's allabout the importance of praise
and worship in the life of abeliever.
How many of you are beginningto uh expand your knowledge or
remind yourself of theimportance of praise and
worship, not only here on Sundaymornings, but also in our daily
lives, right?
In the car, uh at home,wherever it is that you are
(00:26):
spending time praising andworshiping God.
Uh and especially this is truewhen we come together in our
corporate meetings.
And we're doing this by lookingat some of the biblical songs
that were sung around the timeof Jesus' birth.
Haven't you been thankful forPastor Mark's sermons the last
couple of weeks?
I mean, they've been awesome,awesome.
So the the first week he talkedabout the song of Zechariah and
(00:50):
how we as worshipers can expectto hear the voice of God.
How many of you know that Godspeaks to his children and we
can hear him?
And one of the times and waysthat we can hear him most
clearly is when we get quiet andwe spend time in praise and
worship to God.
And then also last week weheard about Simeon and we heard
(01:10):
his song as he showed us thatknowing God is the ultimate aim
of the Christian life.
I have grown to know God more.
Well, let me say it this way (01:20):
I I've come to know God through
his scriptures in undefinableways.
But I would say this theclosest thing to that as a
second is I've come to know Godby experiencing him, by praising
and worshiping him and spendingtime in prayer.
Does that make sense?
Yeah, so we have these gifts ofgrace that God gives it to us
(01:44):
so that we can grow in ourknowledge of him, so that we can
understand who he truly is.
And Mark used an acronym.
How many of you have beentrying to remember that this
week?
Let me just remind you, hetalked about priming the praise
pump.
And the first letter P wasprepare.
We can come together incorporate worship and we can be
prepared to lift up the name ofJesus.
(02:05):
Also, repent.
How many of you know it'simportant for us to make sure
that our hearts are made rightbefore God?
I love the story of David andhow he cried out and said,
Create in me a clean heart, OGod, and renew a right spirit
within me.
That should be the cry of allof our hearts.
And when we come into thepresence of a holy God, we are
(02:26):
reminded of his holiness.
And it should make us desire tobe made holy with him and by
him.
The I, what was the I?
Anybody remember?
Invest.
We need to be, we need to cometogether with this idea that I
have something to give.
There's something that God hasput in my heart, something that
(02:49):
I've experienced in my life,something about my journey that
I can bring to the table today,and I can, through words of
encouragement, through the giftsof the Spirit, through a song
that I sing, through uh, youknow, something that happens
that God, in a way that God usesme to invest in the time that
we are together corporately.
(03:10):
God wants all of us to comeprepared to give.
And who do we give toultimately?
We are the M to minister toGod, to minister to God.
God desires for his people tominister to him.
And we have this greatprivilege of worshiping him, of
(03:30):
praising him, of glorifying him,and bringing honor to him.
And then finally, the E, enterin quickly.
We don't have to wait for thethird song or even the times
after the songs when one of uscomes up here and and prays or
spends some time just beingstill.
You can enter in immediately.
And the way to do this, in myopinion, one of the best ways to
(03:53):
do this is to start your praiseservice before you get here.
First of all, during the week,but on the way to church on
Sunday mornings, most of youdrive more than five minutes to
get to the church, right?
How long does it take to play apraise song?
About five minutes.
So instead of turning on GarthBrooks or whatever, whatever, or
(04:15):
instead of the argument thattends to happen in the minivan
on the way to church, crank upthe tunes in your car and praise
God on the way here.
Uh keep your hands on thewheel, okay?
This that's my only you couldone hand, you could lift.
Depends on how you know howlong you've been driving.
But anyway, yeah, so so getyour praise started before you
(04:37):
even get here.
And so then that way when youget in the room together, guess
what?
It's just an extension ofwhat's already been happening.
Amen.
So let's do that.
Let's prime the praise pump.
And also through this wholeseries, we're looking at the
fact that worship is arevelation of who God is first,
and then because of thatrevelation, a response that is
(04:59):
fitting for such a God.
And what does that uh what doesthat revelation and that
response lead to?
An ongoing relationship withGod.
That's the result.
Amen.
How many of you are interestedin that?
Okay, Lord, you see theirhands.
Okay.
All right.
So we're gonna talk about uh anexample of this.
We're going to look at apowerful encounter that Mary,
(05:22):
the mother of Jesus, had withthe presence of God.
And we're gonna see thisprogression of worship as we
look at her story and her song.
And through this example, we wewill see that when we praise
and worship God, we can expectto experience Him in very
tangible ways.
God wants us to experience Himin ways that are beyond
(05:46):
description.
The title of today's message isExpecting to Feel God.
I can see some walls going upalready.
Some of you in this room aresaying, we don't go there, we
don't talk about feelings.
Feelings are something that wedon't deal with, we keep them
hidden away, we keep them tuckedaway.
(06:09):
Uh and I don't want to lose youby the title, okay?
But the reality is that life isfilled with emotion and
feelings.
How many of you know thatthat's true?
Whether you want to hide it ornot, or pretend or not, all of
us on a daily basis experiencedifferent levels of emotions and
different levels of feelings.
(06:29):
And what better source of thesethings is there than God
Himself?
If you're going to expectexperience emotion and feeling,
how many of you know that thecreator of our souls knows
what's best for us?
And not only does he knowwhat's best for us, he himself
experiences these things.
Did you realize that the Bibledescribes God experiencing a
(06:54):
wide range of emotions,including love?
Let's quote John 3:16 together.
For God so loved the world thathe gave his only begotten son,
that whosoever believes in himwill not perish, but have
everlasting life.
God so loved, God experiencesthe feeling and the emotion of
(07:15):
love.
He also experiences righteousjealousy and joy.
God is a joyful God.
I remember when I first saw themovie Matthew, which was the
actual, it was just thebasically the reading of the
book of Matthew, acted out.
It was the first person I wastalking to Timothy about this,
uh, and I believe, or Jonathan,I believe it was the first
(07:38):
person that played Jesus in amovie that was actually a
believer in Jesus.
And so as he play as he'splaying this character, he
smiles, he laughs.
And for some people, theycalled they they were they
couldn't handle it.
The the religious spirits gotvery nervous at the fact that
(08:00):
Jesus might smile or might laughor might enjoy something in
life.
How many of you know that Godcreated joy and he's a joyful
God?
And he also experiences holyanger, anger that is is towards
sin.
He is grieved, he can begrieved, and also he's filled
with compassion.
All of these things heexperiences, and he has created
(08:24):
us in his image and likeness,and he desires that we
experience him not only throughknowing him with our minds and
understanding who he is throughinformation and facts, as
important as that is, but hewants us to understand his very
heart as we experience hismanifest presence.
(08:45):
Sign me up for that, right?
Sign me up for that.
So many times in the process,there's a great exchange that
happens that occurs wherefeelings that we might have that
don't line up with placing ourfaith and trust in God are
swallowed up by God as we lookmore fully into the essence of
(09:05):
who he is, which allows us tochange our vantage point so that
we are viewing things the wayhe desires for us to view them.
How many of you have ever comein to a church service where you
weren't feeling like, first ofall, you weren't feeling like
being here.
Don't raise your hand, soright?
But you weren't feeling likebeing here.
Second of all, you weren'tfeeling like praising and
(09:26):
worshiping worshiping God.
Third, you were feelinganything but the emotion of joy
or all of the different thingsthat we talked about, right?
But how many of you realizethat through being here and
being together with God's peopleand praise and worshiping Him
and then experiencing theteaching of the Word of God and
prayer and things like that,that you leave better than what
(09:49):
you came.
Because this great exchange hashappened.
This great exchange.
I once I came in feeling thisway and experiencing these
things, but I left feelingsomething completely different
and having experienced GodHimself.
So we're gonna see this in thelife of Mary this morning.
So for the sake of time, we'llread the end of the story first,
(10:12):
and then we'll go back andwe'll fill in the blanks from
the beginning.
Are you ready?
Let's look at Luke chapter 1,verses 46 through 55.
Luke chapter 1, verses 46through 55.
And Mary said, My soulmagnifies the Lord, and my
spirit rejoices in God, mySavior, for he has looked on the
(10:34):
humble estate of his servant.
For behold, from now on allgenerations will call me
blessed, for he who is mightyhas done great things for me,
and holy is his name, and hismercy is for those who fear him
from generation to generation.
He has shown strength with hisarm, he has scattered the proud
(10:56):
in the thoughts of their hearts,he has brought down the mighty
from their thrones and exaltedthose of humble estate, he has
filled the hungry with goodthings, and the rich he has sent
away empty.
He has helped us, his servantIsrael, in remembrance of his
mercy as he spoke to ourfathers, to Abraham, and to his
(11:17):
offspring forever.
Let's pray.
Father God, in Jesus' name, wethank you for your word.
We thank you for this beautifulrendition of Mary's song, Lord
God.
This this telling of what wasin her heart based on her
experience with you.
And Father, we ask in Jesus'name that you would help us to
(11:41):
glean from your word thismorning the things that you want
us to learn.
Help us, Father, to not justhave information, but Lord, that
that information would bebacked up by you showing
yourself, performing signs andwonders and miracles and
healing, and Father bringingabout the desired end result
(12:01):
that you have of transformationin each and every one of our
lives.
We thank you for it in Jesus'name.
We're not going to sing theoriginal song this morning, but
there's a new version that I'veasked Brooke to sing for us this
morning.
(17:02):
So she can sing that song andreally feel something while
she's singing it for sure.
So thank you very much, Zachand Brooke.
So my wife and I are theparents of four amazing
children.
We're so grateful for them.
But try as I might, I can'tbegin to understand what it must
feel like to be a mother.
(17:22):
What it must be like to carry achild through pregnancy.
I just have no way.
And honestly, can I be honestwith you, completely honest, I
don't want to know.
I just all the men in the roomsaid amen.
I've also discovered throughtalking with ladies through the
(17:44):
years that uh even though it's asimilar experience, there's a
commonality to it, and yet uhevery story is a little bit
different.
Every experience is somewhatunique.
Even for Amy with our fourchildren, she can look back and
talk about the differences inthe pregnancies and the
deliveries and all that.
And it goes on from there,right?
(18:05):
The uniqueness of each person,of each child.
It's really miraculous.
If you don't believe inmiracles, you just need to watch
a baby be born.
It's incredibly hard to fathomor imagine the miracle of birth.
There's some mystery here, eventhough there's much that is
tangible.
(18:25):
And uh as we look at Mary,enter her into this equation.
She's a young Jewish woman whois betrothed, and betrothed
means engagement.
But think engagement, but you'dhave to have a divorce in order
to break it off.
So it's like we're really goingto get married.
Like we've there's there's aninvestment of, you know, the
(18:45):
Joseph has pledged some cows andsome gold or some different
things, and uh, so this isactually going to happen.
They are going to get married,and she's engaged or betrothed
to Joseph, and they live in asmall Galilean town called
Nazareth.
Nazareth.
Can anything good come out ofNazareth?
(19:06):
Seemingly there's she's no onespecial, there's nothing to see
here, it's that kind of areality.
And all of a sudden, an angelshows up, Gabriel.
And by the way, Gabriel's beenpretty busy.
If you remember a couple ofweeks ago, who was it that
appeared to Zechariah to tellhim about John the Baptist?
It was the same angel, it wasGabriel, a messenger from
(19:28):
heaven, a messenger of God whowas sent to declare the word of
God to Zechariah first, and nowto Mary.
Uh and so let's talk aboutMary's God encounter.
Let's look back at verses 28through 30 of Luke chapter 1 to
begin this.
Greetings, O favored One.
This is the angel speaking toher.
Greetings, O favored One.
(19:49):
The Lord is with you.
It's interesting.
Uh, last week or two weeks ago,when we had our last uh
Wednesday night Bible study, wediscussed Jehovah Shah.
And Jehovah Shaman means theLord is with you.
The Lord is with us.
So it's kind of an interestingtie-in that now we see in this
(20:10):
very uh story, which is a truestory.
By the way, it's not fiction,it's not something like Santa
Claus.
This actually did happen,right?
And so the angel says to her,The Lord is with you.
But she was greatly troubled atthe saying and tried to discern
what sort of greeting thismight be.
And the angel said to her, Donot be afraid, Mary, for you
(20:32):
have found favor with God.
Now let's remind ourselves ofthe scenario.
Remember, 400 years of silence,where God has not spoken
through a major prophet to thenation of Israel.
And there's been relatively nothardly any signs of the
movement of God or the hand ofGod within the nation of Israel.
(20:54):
And here is Mary just goingabout her regular business,
betrothed to Joseph, gettingready to be married.
Joseph's doing all the workthat he needs to do in order to
fulfill the requirements of thepledge that he's made to Mary's
family.
And as that's occurring, thisangel appears to Mary and tells
her of all of these things.
You can imagine how jarringthat must have been, how unique
(21:17):
or uh you know different thisexperience would have been for
her.
God's message to Mary doesn'tstart with a request.
Did you notice that?
So many times we feel like wejust want to jump to the end and
we want to say, what is it thatyou want from God?
Sometimes God wants to saysomething before he asks
(21:37):
something.
And in this scenario, God saysto Mary, He wants her to know
that she is one of His and thatHe is with her.
How many of you know she'sgoing to need to know that when
He tells her the rest of thestory?
She's going to need to knowthat she's highly favored, that
He has chosen her, that He seesher for who she is, that He's
(22:00):
decided that she's the one andthat He is with her.
Because He's going to asksomething of her that is just
blows your mind, hard to fathom.
What a loving father that wouldbe so concerned with her
well-being and not just how hecould use her.
God isn't just looking for avessel to do something with or
(22:22):
through.
He's concerned about the veryvessel that he's going to use to
perform this miracle.
Does that tell us anythingabout the nature of God?
I hope it does.
So talking about feelings andexpecting to feel God, Mary's
first feeling when encounteringGod in this way is kind of
strange.
It's fear.
(22:43):
Mary's first feeling is fear,but duh, what would you feel?
Would you be high five in theangel Gabriel?
Yo, yo, I've got some cookiesfor you.
No, I mean, what would you whatwould you be doing?
You'd probably be doing whatMary did.
You'd be shaking, you'd benervous, you would be
(23:04):
questioning what is going onhere.
Her first thought is fear.
And there are different kindsof fear when it comes to the way
that people view God.
How many of you know the onlyones who have a reason to have a
sense of dread when it comes toGod are those who are
unbelievers, those who don'thave a right relationship with
(23:24):
Him.
For the unbeliever, the fear ofGod is the fear of the judgment
of God.
Fear which is based on eternalseparation from Him.
That is real fear.
When we have a chance tominister to people during the
holidays, especially, let'sremember that when they
(23:46):
encounter God, sometimes this isthe fear that they first
experience.
But for the believer, the fearof God is something much
different.
The believer's fear is a deepsense of awe and reverence for
Him.
The author of Hebrews says itlike this therefore, let us be
grateful for receiving a kingdomthat cannot be shaken.
(24:09):
And thus let us offer to Godacceptable worship.
Isn't it interesting?
Even in the context of thisverse, what is he talking about?
Worshiping God.
Let us offer to God acceptableworship with reverence and awe.
For our God is a consumingfire.
(24:29):
He is not a celestial SantaClaus.
He is not a holy Mr.
Rogers.
He is not a genie in a bottle.
God is a God to be reverenced,to be feared.
And a healthy fear of God isseverely lacking in today's
(24:51):
church.
It is severely lacking in theChurch of Jesus Christ.
And my friends, before the Lordreturns to this planet to take
those that he's called tohimself, the fear of God will
return to the Church of JesusChrist.
Make no mistake about it.
(25:11):
For many, worship is looked atas something to be endured,
something to get through, andnot as the amazing reality that
we are invited into the verypresence and the very heart of
God.
There's a lack of the fear ofGod in the church today.
We should not grow content withthis sort of existence, with
(25:37):
this sort of reality.
It should bother us in our ownpersonal lives.
It should get to the very coreof our souls if we begin to lose
the fear of God, the awe andrespect and wonder of who He
really is.
We will not settle for a nonfor not experiencing the fear of
(26:19):
God in the way that we'resupposed to.
It's not good enough.
So I want to encourage all ofus today, search your hearts.
Check your motivation.
Ask yourself the question (26:35):
do I really have a sense of awe and
wonder?
When I come to him and worship,am I really pushing away the
distractions?
Am I really focusing in on himthe way that he deserves to be
focused in on?
Do I really consider him to beholy like no other?
(27:02):
You can breathe.
That's the hardest part rightthere.
God does a great exchange forMary, relieving her fear by the
angel telling her not to beafraid.
And he reiterates the fact thatshe has found favor with God.
What a beautiful thing.
She has found favor with God.
(27:22):
And then he begins to tell herthe big news.
It goes on in verse 31.
And behold, you will conceivein your womb and bear a son, and
you shall call his name Jesus.
He will be great and will becalled the Son of the Most High.
And the Lord God will give tohim the throne of his father
David, and he will reign overthe house of Jacob forever, and
(27:45):
of his kingdom there will be noend.
This is the gospel of JesusChrist.
These are the words of Godspoken to Mary in the infant
stage, if that makes sense,using that terminology.
So Mary is living in poverty,living in obscurity, living in
(28:06):
Nazareth.
God is calling her to have thehonor of being the mother of the
Messiah, Jesus, whose namemeans Savior.
Jesus, the Savior of the world,Jesus, the Son of God, who will
fulfill his promises, made toIsrael and will establish an
everlasting kingdom.
How many of you know 2,000years later, his kingdom is
(28:30):
alive and well?
And it will endure to the end.
It is a forever kingdom.
So Mary's first feeling isfear, and God helped her with
that.
The second feeling isuncertainty.
Let's read verse 34.
And Mary said to the angel, Howwill this be since I am a
(28:50):
virgin?
Is that a bad question?
No.
Pretty solid question,actually.
Notice she didn't say, Thiscan't be.
This isn't possible.
She says, How will it be?
How is this going to happen?
She knows that she can't yethave conceived a child because
she's a virgin.
(29:12):
She's never been with a man.
And so she's simply asking forclarification.
And notice God doesn't punishher for this question or change
his mind and say, Oh, I'm movingon to the next Mary.
He's concerned with her, andhe's concerned with her heart.
He's concerned with herquestions.
(29:33):
And he's concerned that sheunderstands what is being asked
of her.
And he simply graciouslyanswers her question.
Look at Luke 1:35.
And the angel answered her (29:43):
The Holy Spirit will come upon you,
and the power of the Most Highwill overshadow you.
Therefore, the child to be bornwill be called holy, the Son of
God.
Come on.
In order for Jesus to be ableto be the Savior of the world,
(30:04):
he had to be sinless.
He had to be sinless.
Every person born since Adamwas born what?
Dead in sin and trespasses.
And so, in order for there tobe a true substitutionary
sacrifice, a human being had tobe born.
But that person couldn't beborn from the seed of man.
(30:27):
Because if they were born fromthe seed of man, they weren't
perfect.
They couldn't be perfectbecause sin would have been a
part of their lives.
And so what did God do?
He created a workaround likeonly God can do.
In order for Jesus to be a puresacrifice, like I said, he
couldn't be encumbered by thecurse of sin.
God's plan was perfect in everyway.
(30:49):
The creator of all things wouldplace the seed of Jesus that
was promised in Genesis 3.15.
Remember?
When the curses were given out,God also made a promise that
there would be the seed of awoman who would come and that
Satan would attempt to strikehis heel.
But what would that seed do?
Crush his head.
(31:10):
Jesus, the singular seed of awoman, and yet God, the creator
of all things, was miraculouslyby the Holy Spirit going to
place Jesus in Mary's womb, andtherefore he could meet the
righteous requirements.
God's pretty smart.
If we just started out everyday just saying that, God,
(31:35):
you're pretty smart.
You know what you're doing.
Help me to come in line withwhat you want for today.
Imagine how our lives wouldchange dramatically.
Oh my goodness.
So think about thisovershadowing, the Holy Spirit
coming upon Mary.
Does it remind you of anything?
How about the Shekinah glorycloud found in the Old Testament
(32:00):
that would come and hover overthe tabernacle when praise and
worship ushered in the presenceof Almighty God?
Let's read about it in 2Chronicles 5.
And it was the duty of thetrumpeters and singers to make
themselves heard in unison inpraise and thanksgiving to the
Lord.
Do you see the context here?
What are they involved with?
(32:22):
Praise and worship.
And when the song was raisedwith trumpets and cymbals and
other musical instruments andpraise to the Lord, for he is
good, for his steadfast loveendures forever.
The house, the house of theLord was filled with the cloud,
so that the priests could notstand to minister because of the
(32:44):
cloud, for the glory of theLord filled the house of God.
This same glory that filled thehouse of God in the Old
Testament filled the house whereMary was.
And how many of you know in afew, in a few days, in a few
years, about 33 years later, itwas going to fill another house
(33:05):
in an upper room, and tongues asa fire was going to set upon
each one as they were filledwith the Holy Spirit.
A similar dynamic to what we'retalking about is found
throughout all the scriptures.
God loves to show up and showoff.
And for Him, it's the rightthing to do.
So let's talk about somedifferent types of responses to
(33:30):
the presence of God.
And I want this to be ajudgment-free zone.
Can we do that?
So let's just think aboutourselves right now.
Let's not think about ourwives, our husbands, our
children, anybody else in thechurch.
Because it'd be very easy forus to translate to them the way
that they should respond toexperiencing the glory of God.
(33:50):
Right?
So the first category I'm goingto call quiet and internal
responses.
Quiet and internal responses.
Well, that can't be God.
Well, could it be?
Yeah, it could be.
And this is what that couldlook like.
How about deep peace and calm?
Some of you experience thepresence of God in this way, and
(34:12):
you respond in this way.
It's like there's just thisknowing that He is God and that
you can trust Him.
And the peace of God thatsurpasses all understanding
guards your hearts and minds inChrist Jesus and overshadows you
and over and fills you up tothe fact to where everything
(34:32):
else gets diminished.
Don't you love that?
Sometimes a quiet and internalresponse might feel like warmth
or love.
I've heard some people describeit like liquid sunshine being
poured into their soul, theirhearts.
Do you know what I'm talkingabout?
Talking about feelings, okay?
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Guys, it's all right.
We all feel things, and God cancause us to feel Himself.
He wants us to experience Himin these ways.
His warmth, His love.
How about prayer?
Sometimes a quiet and internalresponse is just us expressing
(35:12):
ourselves in prayer to God.
Now we get to the fun stuff: the expressive and physical (35:15):
undefined
responses.
God sometimes moves upon yourheart, and there's you need to
let it out.
It's like you can't contain it.
It's like Jeremiah.
He tried to be quiet, he triedto not preach, but he couldn't
stop himself.
(35:36):
It says that it was like a fireshut up in his bones, and it
found its way out of him.
You imagine a preacher that wastold by God, nobody's ever
gonna listen to you?
Sometimes when I'm having a badday, I just I just I just say,
at least I'm not Jeremiah,right?
(35:56):
But think about these kinds ofresponses, weeping.
Sometimes when the goodness ofGod, when you when you
experience the goodness of God,you can't help but weep.
And on the other end of that,sometimes it's laughter,
sometimes it's rejoicing,sometimes it's celebration,
(36:19):
sometimes you might kneel or youmight bow down before him in
his presence, you might shout orsing out or prophesy.
You might raise your hands orbe filled with joy and jump and
dance, and won't somebody runaround this room.
All of these things, as Marksaid last week, are found in the
(36:44):
scriptures.
These are all responses toGod's presence, to the essence,
God revealing to us.
What is the glory of God?
It's Him giving us a taste ofthe essence of who He is, the
aroma of who He is, the uh thevery core of who He is.
(37:09):
So we shouldn't consider thesethings extraordinary or it's
things that should only happenonce in a while.
These should be normative typesof responses.
This is a normal way to respondto a holy God when you're
walking in the fear of the Lordand you understand who He is and
(37:30):
who you are and you express uheither quietly or outwardly
what's happening on the inside.
This is normal for believers inJesus Christ.
I feel like that Satan has donea good job of quieting us down,
of stealing our praise.
(37:51):
And I'm here to tell you, I'mnot gonna let a rock take my
place.
The Bible says that if we don'tpraise him, rocks will cry out
in our place.
And I, for one, am not going tobe substituted for a piece of
granite by a piece of granite.
But we shouldn't, we alsolisten to me carefully, we also
(38:14):
shouldn't do these things justto appear religious.
Many of us have experiencedtimes in the past where we've
been in meetings or been withother people, and the same
people do the same thing everysingle time.
And they do it right up front.
(38:37):
How many of you know?
God isn't looking forshow-offs, but for sincere
worshipers.
So if in the sincerity of yourheart you feel like shouting,
let it out.
If in the sincerity of yourheart you feel like jumping up
and down, jump up and down, ifin the sincerity of your heart
(39:00):
you feel like falling on yourface before God and crying out
to him, I'll never forget thetrue worshiper that we
experienced for so many years inthis church that sat right
there.
Pat Nooner understood somethingabout the manifest presence of
(39:20):
God and reverence for him.
And although she had so manyphysical limitations, you don't
even know the type of pain thatshe endured.
She would give her all.
God said, Mary, just so youknow, you're not the only one.
(40:03):
This is happening in manyplaces.
There's revival sparking inIsrael.
I'm opening wombs I'm doingthings unheard of.
I know it's been 400 years ofsilence, but wake up, Israel.
Wake up, America.
Luke 136, and behold, yourrelative Elizabeth, in her old
(40:24):
age, has also conceived a son,and this is the sixth month with
her who has called, who wascalled barren.
For nothing will be impossiblewith God.
Can you say that with me?
For nothing will be impossiblewith God.
The answer to every questionthat Mary could ask, and even
(40:45):
the sincerest of sincerest, iswhat?
Nothing is impossible with God.
God is a chainbreaker.
He's a miracle worker.
God is a God who heals spirit,soul, and body.
And he can do anything that hewants, any time that he wants,
in any way that he wants.
(41:06):
Our job is to move fromuncertainty to what?
To faith.
Faith, Mary's third feeling isfaith.
Luke 138.
And Mary said, Behold, I'm theservant of the Lord.
Let it be to me according toyour word.
And the angel departed fromher.
(41:27):
Imagine for just a minute whatis going through Mary's head.
She can't help herself.
It's like even if she wouldhave wanted to say something
else, this is what comes fromthe very core of her heart.
Let it be to me according toyour word, Father.
Imagine Mary's second thoughtwhen the angel disappears after
(41:53):
what just happened.
Her second thought is, what doI tell my mom and dad?
About the people in thevillage.
She wasn't like it is today.
If you get pregnant in thattime before you're married,
there's a problem.
Yeah.
Yeah.
There's problems.
(42:15):
So how does she explain this toher friends and relatives?
What is she going to say toJoseph?
God in his goodness does what?
Gives Joseph a dream.
He must have been a littleolder than Mary.
Old men dream dreams.
Anyway.
Sorry, sorry, I'm getting offtrack.
I gotta hurry up.
I'm behind time.
(42:36):
So God gives Joseph a dream toconfirm that Mary was bearing
the Son of God.
And Mary goes to see Elizabethin the middle of all of this and
listen to this exchange.
And when Elizabeth heard thegreeting of Mary, the baby
leaped in her womb.
Babies are viable within thewomb.
We have proof right here.
(42:59):
John the Baptist, not calledBaptist yet, but John, left in
his mother's womb, just incoming to proximity with Jesus
in Mary's womb.
Elizabeth was filled with theHoly Spirit.
She exclaimed with a loud cry,Blessed are you among women, and
(43:21):
blessed is the fruit of yourwomb.
And why is this granted to methat the mother of my Lord
should come to me?
For behold, when the sound ofyour greeting came to my ears,
the baby in my womb leaped forjoy.
And blessed is she who believedthat there would be a
fulfillment of what was spokento her from the Lord.
What a confirmation to Mary.
(43:44):
How good is God?
Because even if in the back ofher head somewhere Mary had some
lingering thoughts of doubt orconcern or unbelief, all of a
sudden God miraculously opensElizabeth's eyes so that she can
see clearly that Mary'scarrying about in her womb the
Son of God.
(44:05):
Mary's reminded of the blessingthat God has bestowed on her
because she believed the wordthat was spoken to her from the
Lord.
God wants us, He wants faith tobe built within us.
And one of the best ways forfaith to be built within us,
(44:26):
hearing the word of God in Hispresence.
In His presence.
Amen.
Let it play.
The Lord's wanting some backupmusic for the rest of the
sermon.
Sorry.
Anyway.
So everyone's filled with joy.
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Elizabeth, John, Jesus, Mary.
They're all filled with joy.
Mary's fourth feeling is joy.
And that's where we read thissong.
And just for the sake of time,I won't read it again right now,
(45:10):
but I want to point out some ofthe things that it says.
You know, Mary can't hold it inany longer.
In the presence of the Lord,there is fullness of joy.
And the joy of the Lord is ourstrength.
And she was being strengthenedright now by the joy of the
Lord.
She begins to sing out theglory of the Lord.
(45:32):
And this song is called theMagnificat.
I hope I'm pronouncing thatright.
And it's truly an amazing thingto see the development of her
relationship with God.
This woman who just a few shortweeks and months before was
living in obscurity, a nobody.
(45:52):
And yet, what did God do?
He completely turned her lifearound.
So what are some of the keythemes in Mary's song?
First of all, God embraces thehumble.
Mary spoke of herself in suchhumble ways.
How many of you know humilityis a beautiful thing before God?
In fact, the Bible says thatGod resists the proud, but he
(46:17):
gives grace to the humble.
Mary could speakauthoritatively to this because
she was experiencing thistremendous humility.
And secondly, she talks aboutthe fact that holy is the name
of the Lord.
Notice God's name is the one tobe remembered, not Mary's.
(46:37):
God is looking for those whounderstand their need for him.
(47:43):
And finally, she speaks of thefact that he remembers his
covenant forever.
He has been faithful, he isfaithful, and he will always be
faithful.
How many of you know Mary'ssong should be our song?
We have some shared experiencewith Mary.
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We were miraculously made awareof our need for God by the work
of the Holy Spirit.
And we were convicted of oursin and we repented and we put
our faith in Jesus Christ.
And what happened then?
God filled us with a miracle.
He put his very self, his ownDNA in us by placing the Holy
(48:32):
Spirit of God on the inside ofus.
And so when we praise andworship God, we can be like
Mary.
We can exalt him from a placeof understanding.
There's greatness that's livingon the inside of me.
It's not me, but it's Christthat lives in me, the hope of
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glory.
Mary's revelation from God wasEmmanuel.
God is with us.
Her response was faith andjoy-filled worship, and the
relationship that was buildingwas one of unshakable trust in
God.
As beautiful as all of thiscertainly is, I want to remind
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you of a verse that Mark readlast week about faithful Simeon
in Luke 2, 34.
And Simeon blessed them andsaid to Mary, his mother,
Behold, this child is appointedfor the fall and rising of many
in Israel, and for a sign thatis opposed, and a sword will
(49:37):
pierce through your own soulalso, so that thoughts from many
hearts may be revealed.
Let's not forget, as we gothrough the rest of this season,
(50:07):
the story of Christmas doesn'tend in a manger.
It ends on a cross.
Listen to the last part of apoem by Lucy Shaw where she
says, Blind in my womb to knowmy darkness ended.
Brought to this birth for me tobe newborn.
(50:28):
And for him to see me mended, Imust see him torn.
And for those of you who arehere this morning who have never
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encountered the Christ ofChristmas, who don't know yet
what it means to be overwhelmedwith his presence and to have
the Holy Spirit of God living onthe inside of you, I'm here to
tell you that the Christ ofChristmas grew up and lived a
life, the perfect life that wecouldn't live.
(51:18):
And he took our sins uponhimself and he was nailed to a
cross.
And he forgave us of our sins,and he was buried, and on the
third day he rose again, provingthat he is who he says that he
is.
He ascended into heaven andhe's seated at the right hand of
the Father.
(51:39):
And if we will repent of oursins and put our faith in him,
he will accept us to himself,and we will be a part of the
generation to generation togeneration that experience the
mercy of God.
This is Christmas.
(52:02):
I pray that today would be theday, Lord, that they would turn
(52:24):
their eyes on you.
That even now, as they arefeeling your presence and
experiencing you, wooing them tothemselves yourself, I pray,
Father, that they would respondin faith.
I pray that they would confesstheir sins before you, that they
would acknowledge their needfor you, and that they would
(52:45):
receive from you the gift ofgrace that comes as we believe
in Jesus Christ.
If that's you this morning, Ijust encourage you to pray.
Just from your heart.
You don't have to have perfectwords.
Just from your heart.
Talk to God about your need forhim.
Acknowledge your need and thatyou want to put your faith and
(53:10):
trust in him.
And I promise you that he willhear your prayer and he will
answer it and he will receiveyou to himself as a part of his
family.
There's going to be a prayerteam here in a few minutes, and
they want to bless you as well.
And uh we have a Bible thatwe'd like to give to you.
So if that's you, would youplease make sure that you don't
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leave this place without sharingwith somebody the decision
you've made?
And Father, I also pray for therest of us, Lord, that you
would return the fear of Godinto our lives, that we would no
longer be content with lookingat you and work and our lives in
you as mundane.
Awaken us, Father, to yourlife, to your light, to your
(54:01):
truth.
Help us to experience again thejoy of our salvation.
And Father, help us whether werespond in quietness and
stillness or expressing throughlaughter and joy and shouting or
crying and weeping.
Help us nevertheless to respondto you.
(54:22):
In Jesus' name.
Amen.
Amen.
We're in the middle of our Christmas sermon series
called Expecting, and it's allabout the importance of praise
and worship in the life of abeliever.
How many of you are beginningto uh expand your knowledge or
remind yourself of theimportance of praise and
worship, not only here on Sundaymornings, but also in our daily
lives, right?
In the car, uh at home,wherever it is that you are
(00:26):
spending time praising andworshiping God.
Uh and especially this is truewhen we come together in our
corporate meetings.
And we're doing this by lookingat some of the biblical songs
that were sung around the timeof Jesus' birth.
Haven't you been thankful forPastor Mark's sermons the last
couple of weeks?
I mean, they've been awesome,awesome.
So the the first week he talkedabout the song of Zechariah and
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how we as worshipers can expectto hear the voice of God.
How many of you know that Godspeaks to his children and we
can hear him?
And one of the times and waysthat we can hear him most
clearly is when we get quiet andwe spend time in praise and
worship to God.
And then also last week weheard about Simeon and we heard
(01:10):
his song as he showed us thatknowing God is the ultimate aim
of the Christian life.
I have grown to know God more.
Well, let me say it this way (01:20):
I I've come to know God through
his scriptures in undefinableways.
But I would say this theclosest thing to that as a
second is I've come to know Godby experiencing him, by praising
and worshiping him and spendingtime in prayer.
Does that make sense?
Yeah, so we have these gifts ofgrace that God gives it to us
(01:44):
so that we can grow in ourknowledge of him, so that we can
understand who he truly is.
And Mark used an acronym.
How many of you have beentrying to remember that this
week?
Let me just remind you, hetalked about priming the praise
pump.
And the first letter P wasprepare.
We can come together incorporate worship and we can be
prepared to lift up the name ofJesus.
(02:05):
Also, repent.
How many of you know it'simportant for us to make sure
that our hearts are made rightbefore God?
I love the story of David andhow he cried out and said,
Create in me a clean heart, OGod, and renew a right spirit
within me.
That should be the cry of allof our hearts.
And when we come into thepresence of a holy God, we are
(02:26):
reminded of his holiness.
And it should make us desire tobe made holy with him and by
him.
The I, what was the I?
Anybody remember?
Invest.
We need to be, we need to cometogether with this idea that I
have something to give.
There's something that God hasput in my heart, something that
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I've experienced in my life,something about my journey that
I can bring to the table today,and I can, through words of
encouragement, through the giftsof the Spirit, through a song
that I sing, through uh, youknow, something that happens
that God, in a way that God usesme to invest in the time that
we are together corporately.
(03:10):
God wants all of us to comeprepared to give.
And who do we give toultimately?
We are the M to minister toGod, to minister to God.
God desires for his people tominister to him.
And we have this greatprivilege of worshiping him, of
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praising him, of glorifying him,and bringing honor to him.
And then finally, the E, enterin quickly.
We don't have to wait for thethird song or even the times
after the songs when one of uscomes up here and and prays or
spends some time just beingstill.
You can enter in immediately.
And the way to do this, in myopinion, one of the best ways to
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do this is to start your praiseservice before you get here.
First of all, during the week,but on the way to church on
Sunday mornings, most of youdrive more than five minutes to
get to the church, right?
How long does it take to play apraise song?
About five minutes.
So instead of turning on GarthBrooks or whatever, whatever, or
(04:15):
instead of the argument thattends to happen in the minivan
on the way to church, crank upthe tunes in your car and praise
God on the way here.
Uh keep your hands on thewheel, okay?
This that's my only you couldone hand, you could lift.
Depends on how you know howlong you've been driving.
But anyway, yeah, so so getyour praise started before you
(04:37):
even get here.
And so then that way when youget in the room together, guess
what?
It's just an extension ofwhat's already been happening.
Amen.
So let's do that.
Let's prime the praise pump.
And also through this wholeseries, we're looking at the
fact that worship is arevelation of who God is first,
and then because of thatrevelation, a response that is
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fitting for such a God.
And what does that uh what doesthat revelation and that
response lead to?
An ongoing relationship withGod.
That's the result.
Amen.
How many of you are interestedin that?
Okay, Lord, you see theirhands.
Okay.
All right.
So we're gonna talk about uh anexample of this.
We're going to look at apowerful encounter that Mary,
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the mother of Jesus, had withthe presence of God.
And we're gonna see thisprogression of worship as we
look at her story and her song.
And through this example, we wewill see that when we praise
and worship God, we can expectto experience Him in very
tangible ways.
God wants us to experience Himin ways that are beyond
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description.
The title of today's message isExpecting to Feel God.
I can see some walls going upalready.
Some of you in this room aresaying, we don't go there, we
don't talk about feelings.
Feelings are something that wedon't deal with, we keep them
hidden away, we keep them tuckedaway.
(06:09):
Uh and I don't want to lose youby the title, okay?
But the reality is that life isfilled with emotion and
feelings.
How many of you know thatthat's true?
Whether you want to hide it ornot, or pretend or not, all of
us on a daily basis experiencedifferent levels of emotions and
different levels of feelings.
(06:29):
And what better source of thesethings is there than God
Himself?
If you're going to expectexperience emotion and feeling,
how many of you know that thecreator of our souls knows
what's best for us?
And not only does he knowwhat's best for us, he himself
experiences these things.
Did you realize that the Bibledescribes God experiencing a
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wide range of emotions,including love?
Let's quote John 3:16 together.
For God so loved the world thathe gave his only begotten son,
that whosoever believes in himwill not perish, but have
everlasting life.
God so loved, God experiencesthe feeling and the emotion of
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love.
He also experiences righteousjealousy and joy.
God is a joyful God.
I remember when I first saw themovie Matthew, which was the
actual, it was just thebasically the reading of the
book of Matthew, acted out.
It was the first person I wastalking to Timothy about this,
uh, and I believe, or Jonathan,I believe it was the first
(07:38):
person that played Jesus in amovie that was actually a
believer in Jesus.
And so as he play as he'splaying this character, he
smiles, he laughs.
And for some people, theycalled they they were they
couldn't handle it.
The the religious spirits gotvery nervous at the fact that
(08:00):
Jesus might smile or might laughor might enjoy something in
life.
How many of you know that Godcreated joy and he's a joyful
God?
And he also experiences holyanger, anger that is is towards
sin.
He is grieved, he can begrieved, and also he's filled
with compassion.
All of these things heexperiences, and he has created
(08:24):
us in his image and likeness,and he desires that we
experience him not only throughknowing him with our minds and
understanding who he is throughinformation and facts, as
important as that is, but hewants us to understand his very
heart as we experience hismanifest presence.
(08:45):
Sign me up for that, right?
Sign me up for that.
So many times in the process,there's a great exchange that
happens that occurs wherefeelings that we might have that
don't line up with placing ourfaith and trust in God are
swallowed up by God as we lookmore fully into the essence of
(09:05):
who he is, which allows us tochange our vantage point so that
we are viewing things the wayhe desires for us to view them.
How many of you have ever comein to a church service where you
weren't feeling like, first ofall, you weren't feeling like
being here.
Don't raise your hand, soright?
But you weren't feeling likebeing here.
Second of all, you weren'tfeeling like praising and
(09:26):
worshiping worshiping God.
Third, you were feelinganything but the emotion of joy
or all of the different thingsthat we talked about, right?
But how many of you realizethat through being here and
being together with God's peopleand praise and worshiping Him
and then experiencing theteaching of the Word of God and
prayer and things like that,that you leave better than what
(09:49):
you came.
Because this great exchange hashappened.
This great exchange.
I once I came in feeling thisway and experiencing these
things, but I left feelingsomething completely different
and having experienced GodHimself.
So we're gonna see this in thelife of Mary this morning.
So for the sake of time, we'llread the end of the story first,
(10:12):
and then we'll go back andwe'll fill in the blanks from
the beginning.
Are you ready?
Let's look at Luke chapter 1,verses 46 through 55.
Luke chapter 1, verses 46through 55.
And Mary said, My soulmagnifies the Lord, and my
spirit rejoices in God, mySavior, for he has looked on the
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humble estate of his servant.
For behold, from now on allgenerations will call me
blessed, for he who is mightyhas done great things for me,
and holy is his name, and hismercy is for those who fear him
from generation to generation.
He has shown strength with hisarm, he has scattered the proud
(10:56):
in the thoughts of their hearts,he has brought down the mighty
from their thrones and exaltedthose of humble estate, he has
filled the hungry with goodthings, and the rich he has sent
away empty.
He has helped us, his servantIsrael, in remembrance of his
mercy as he spoke to ourfathers, to Abraham, and to his
(11:17):
offspring forever.
Let's pray.
Father God, in Jesus' name, wethank you for your word.
We thank you for this beautifulrendition of Mary's song, Lord
God.
This this telling of what wasin her heart based on her
experience with you.
And Father, we ask in Jesus'name that you would help us to
(11:41):
glean from your word thismorning the things that you want
us to learn.
Help us, Father, to not justhave information, but Lord, that
that information would bebacked up by you showing
yourself, performing signs andwonders and miracles and
healing, and Father bringingabout the desired end result
(12:01):
that you have of transformationin each and every one of our
lives.
We thank you for it in Jesus'name.
We're not going to sing theoriginal song this morning, but
there's a new version that I'veasked Brooke to sing for us this
morning.
(17:02):
So she can sing that song andreally feel something while
she's singing it for sure.
So thank you very much, Zachand Brooke.
So my wife and I are theparents of four amazing
children.
We're so grateful for them.
But try as I might, I can'tbegin to understand what it must
feel like to be a mother.
(17:22):
What it must be like to carry achild through pregnancy.
I just have no way.
And honestly, can I be honestwith you, completely honest, I
don't want to know.
I just all the men in the roomsaid amen.
I've also discovered throughtalking with ladies through the
(17:44):
years that uh even though it's asimilar experience, there's a
commonality to it, and yet uhevery story is a little bit
different.
Every experience is somewhatunique.
Even for Amy with our fourchildren, she can look back and
talk about the differences inthe pregnancies and the
deliveries and all that.
And it goes on from there,right?
(18:05):
The uniqueness of each person,of each child.
It's really miraculous.
If you don't believe inmiracles, you just need to watch
a baby be born.
It's incredibly hard to fathomor imagine the miracle of birth.
There's some mystery here, eventhough there's much that is
tangible.
(18:25):
And uh as we look at Mary,enter her into this equation.
She's a young Jewish woman whois betrothed, and betrothed
means engagement.
But think engagement, but you'dhave to have a divorce in order
to break it off.
So it's like we're really goingto get married.
Like we've there's there's aninvestment of, you know, the
(18:45):
Joseph has pledged some cows andsome gold or some different
things, and uh, so this isactually going to happen.
They are going to get married,and she's engaged or betrothed
to Joseph, and they live in asmall Galilean town called
Nazareth.
Nazareth.
Can anything good come out ofNazareth?
(19:06):
Seemingly there's she's no onespecial, there's nothing to see
here, it's that kind of areality.
And all of a sudden, an angelshows up, Gabriel.
And by the way, Gabriel's beenpretty busy.
If you remember a couple ofweeks ago, who was it that
appeared to Zechariah to tellhim about John the Baptist?
It was the same angel, it wasGabriel, a messenger from
(19:28):
heaven, a messenger of God whowas sent to declare the word of
God to Zechariah first, and nowto Mary.
Uh and so let's talk aboutMary's God encounter.
Let's look back at verses 28through 30 of Luke chapter 1 to
begin this.
Greetings, O favored One.
This is the angel speaking toher.
Greetings, O favored One.
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The Lord is with you.
It's interesting.
Uh, last week or two weeks ago,when we had our last uh
Wednesday night Bible study, wediscussed Jehovah Shah.
And Jehovah Shaman means theLord is with you.
The Lord is with us.
So it's kind of an interestingtie-in that now we see in this
(20:10):
very uh story, which is a truestory.
By the way, it's not fiction,it's not something like Santa
Claus.
This actually did happen,right?
And so the angel says to her,The Lord is with you.
But she was greatly troubled atthe saying and tried to discern
what sort of greeting thismight be.
And the angel said to her, Donot be afraid, Mary, for you
(20:32):
have found favor with God.
Now let's remind ourselves ofthe scenario.
Remember, 400 years of silence,where God has not spoken
through a major prophet to thenation of Israel.
And there's been relatively nothardly any signs of the
movement of God or the hand ofGod within the nation of Israel.
(20:54):
And here is Mary just goingabout her regular business,
betrothed to Joseph, gettingready to be married.
Joseph's doing all the workthat he needs to do in order to
fulfill the requirements of thepledge that he's made to Mary's
family.
And as that's occurring, thisangel appears to Mary and tells
her of all of these things.
You can imagine how jarringthat must have been, how unique
(21:17):
or uh you know different thisexperience would have been for
her.
God's message to Mary doesn'tstart with a request.
Did you notice that?
So many times we feel like wejust want to jump to the end and
we want to say, what is it thatyou want from God?
Sometimes God wants to saysomething before he asks
(21:37):
something.
And in this scenario, God saysto Mary, He wants her to know
that she is one of His and thatHe is with her.
How many of you know she'sgoing to need to know that when
He tells her the rest of thestory?
She's going to need to knowthat she's highly favored, that
He has chosen her, that He seesher for who she is, that He's
(22:00):
decided that she's the one andthat He is with her.
Because He's going to asksomething of her that is just
blows your mind, hard to fathom.
What a loving father that wouldbe so concerned with her
well-being and not just how hecould use her.
God isn't just looking for avessel to do something with or
(22:22):
through.
He's concerned about the veryvessel that he's going to use to
perform this miracle.
Does that tell us anythingabout the nature of God?
I hope it does.
So talking about feelings andexpecting to feel God, Mary's
first feeling when encounteringGod in this way is kind of
strange.
It's fear.
(22:43):
Mary's first feeling is fear,but duh, what would you feel?
Would you be high five in theangel Gabriel?
Yo, yo, I've got some cookiesfor you.
No, I mean, what would you whatwould you be doing?
You'd probably be doing whatMary did.
You'd be shaking, you'd benervous, you would be
(23:04):
questioning what is going onhere.
Her first thought is fear.
And there are different kindsof fear when it comes to the way
that people view God.
How many of you know the onlyones who have a reason to have a
sense of dread when it comes toGod are those who are
unbelievers, those who don'thave a right relationship with
(23:24):
Him.
For the unbeliever, the fear ofGod is the fear of the judgment
of God.
Fear which is based on eternalseparation from Him.
That is real fear.
When we have a chance tominister to people during the
holidays, especially, let'sremember that when they
(23:46):
encounter God, sometimes this isthe fear that they first
experience.
But for the believer, the fearof God is something much
different.
The believer's fear is a deepsense of awe and reverence for
Him.
The author of Hebrews says itlike this therefore, let us be
grateful for receiving a kingdomthat cannot be shaken.
(24:09):
And thus let us offer to Godacceptable worship.
Isn't it interesting?
Even in the context of thisverse, what is he talking about?
Worshiping God.
Let us offer to God acceptableworship with reverence and awe.
For our God is a consumingfire.
(24:29):
He is not a celestial SantaClaus.
He is not a holy Mr.
Rogers.
He is not a genie in a bottle.
God is a God to be reverenced,to be feared.
And a healthy fear of God isseverely lacking in today's
(24:51):
church.
It is severely lacking in theChurch of Jesus Christ.
And my friends, before the Lordreturns to this planet to take
those that he's called tohimself, the fear of God will
return to the Church of JesusChrist.
Make no mistake about it.
(25:11):
For many, worship is looked atas something to be endured,
something to get through, andnot as the amazing reality that
we are invited into the verypresence and the very heart of
God.
There's a lack of the fear ofGod in the church today.
We should not grow content withthis sort of existence, with
(25:37):
this sort of reality.
It should bother us in our ownpersonal lives.
It should get to the very coreof our souls if we begin to lose
the fear of God, the awe andrespect and wonder of who He
really is.
We will not settle for a nonfor not experiencing the fear of
(26:19):
God in the way that we'resupposed to.
It's not good enough.
So I want to encourage all ofus today, search your hearts.
Check your motivation.
Ask yourself the question (26:35):
do I really have a sense of awe and
wonder?
When I come to him and worship,am I really pushing away the
distractions?
Am I really focusing in on himthe way that he deserves to be
focused in on?
Do I really consider him to beholy like no other?
(27:02):
You can breathe.
That's the hardest part rightthere.
God does a great exchange forMary, relieving her fear by the
angel telling her not to beafraid.
And he reiterates the fact thatshe has found favor with God.
What a beautiful thing.
She has found favor with God.
(27:22):
And then he begins to tell herthe big news.
It goes on in verse 31.
And behold, you will conceivein your womb and bear a son, and
you shall call his name Jesus.
He will be great and will becalled the Son of the Most High.
And the Lord God will give tohim the throne of his father
David, and he will reign overthe house of Jacob forever, and
(27:45):
of his kingdom there will be noend.
This is the gospel of JesusChrist.
These are the words of Godspoken to Mary in the infant
stage, if that makes sense,using that terminology.
So Mary is living in poverty,living in obscurity, living in
(28:06):
Nazareth.
God is calling her to have thehonor of being the mother of the
Messiah, Jesus, whose namemeans Savior.
Jesus, the Savior of the world,Jesus, the Son of God, who will
fulfill his promises, made toIsrael and will establish an
everlasting kingdom.
How many of you know 2,000years later, his kingdom is
(28:30):
alive and well?
And it will endure to the end.
It is a forever kingdom.
So Mary's first feeling isfear, and God helped her with
that.
The second feeling isuncertainty.
Let's read verse 34.
And Mary said to the angel, Howwill this be since I am a
(28:50):
virgin?
Is that a bad question?
No.
Pretty solid question,actually.
Notice she didn't say, Thiscan't be.
This isn't possible.
She says, How will it be?
How is this going to happen?
She knows that she can't yethave conceived a child because
she's a virgin.
(29:12):
She's never been with a man.
And so she's simply asking forclarification.
And notice God doesn't punishher for this question or change
his mind and say, Oh, I'm movingon to the next Mary.
He's concerned with her, andhe's concerned with her heart.
He's concerned with herquestions.
(29:33):
And he's concerned that sheunderstands what is being asked
of her.
And he simply graciouslyanswers her question.
Look at Luke 1:35.
And the angel answered her (29:43):
The Holy Spirit will come upon you,
and the power of the Most Highwill overshadow you.
Therefore, the child to be bornwill be called holy, the Son of
God.
Come on.
In order for Jesus to be ableto be the Savior of the world,
(30:04):
he had to be sinless.
He had to be sinless.
Every person born since Adamwas born what?
Dead in sin and trespasses.
And so, in order for there tobe a true substitutionary
sacrifice, a human being had tobe born.
But that person couldn't beborn from the seed of man.
(30:27):
Because if they were born fromthe seed of man, they weren't
perfect.
They couldn't be perfectbecause sin would have been a
part of their lives.
And so what did God do?
He created a workaround likeonly God can do.
In order for Jesus to be a puresacrifice, like I said, he
couldn't be encumbered by thecurse of sin.
God's plan was perfect in everyway.
(30:49):
The creator of all things wouldplace the seed of Jesus that
was promised in Genesis 3.15.
Remember?
When the curses were given out,God also made a promise that
there would be the seed of awoman who would come and that
Satan would attempt to strikehis heel.
But what would that seed do?
Crush his head.
(31:10):
Jesus, the singular seed of awoman, and yet God, the creator
of all things, was miraculouslyby the Holy Spirit going to
place Jesus in Mary's womb, andtherefore he could meet the
righteous requirements.
God's pretty smart.
If we just started out everyday just saying that, God,
(31:35):
you're pretty smart.
You know what you're doing.
Help me to come in line withwhat you want for today.
Imagine how our lives wouldchange dramatically.
Oh my goodness.
So think about thisovershadowing, the Holy Spirit
coming upon Mary.
Does it remind you of anything?
How about the Shekinah glorycloud found in the Old Testament
(32:00):
that would come and hover overthe tabernacle when praise and
worship ushered in the presenceof Almighty God?
Let's read about it in 2Chronicles 5.
And it was the duty of thetrumpeters and singers to make
themselves heard in unison inpraise and thanksgiving to the
Lord.
Do you see the context here?
What are they involved with?
(32:22):
Praise and worship.
And when the song was raisedwith trumpets and cymbals and
other musical instruments andpraise to the Lord, for he is
good, for his steadfast loveendures forever.
The house, the house of theLord was filled with the cloud,
so that the priests could notstand to minister because of the
(32:44):
cloud, for the glory of theLord filled the house of God.
This same glory that filled thehouse of God in the Old
Testament filled the house whereMary was.
And how many of you know in afew, in a few days, in a few
years, about 33 years later, itwas going to fill another house
(33:05):
in an upper room, and tongues asa fire was going to set upon
each one as they were filledwith the Holy Spirit.
A similar dynamic to what we'retalking about is found
throughout all the scriptures.
God loves to show up and showoff.
And for Him, it's the rightthing to do.
So let's talk about somedifferent types of responses to
(33:30):
the presence of God.
And I want this to be ajudgment-free zone.
Can we do that?
So let's just think aboutourselves right now.
Let's not think about ourwives, our husbands, our
children, anybody else in thechurch.
Because it'd be very easy forus to translate to them the way
that they should respond toexperiencing the glory of God.
(33:50):
Right?
So the first category I'm goingto call quiet and internal
responses.
Quiet and internal responses.
Well, that can't be God.
Well, could it be?
Yeah, it could be.
And this is what that couldlook like.
How about deep peace and calm?
Some of you experience thepresence of God in this way, and
(34:12):
you respond in this way.
It's like there's just thisknowing that He is God and that
you can trust Him.
And the peace of God thatsurpasses all understanding
guards your hearts and minds inChrist Jesus and overshadows you
and over and fills you up tothe fact to where everything
(34:32):
else gets diminished.
Don't you love that?
Sometimes a quiet and internalresponse might feel like warmth
or love.
I've heard some people describeit like liquid sunshine being
poured into their soul, theirhearts.
Do you know what I'm talkingabout?
Talking about feelings, okay?
(34:52):
Guys, it's all right.
We all feel things, and God cancause us to feel Himself.
He wants us to experience Himin these ways.
His warmth, His love.
How about prayer?
Sometimes a quiet and internalresponse is just us expressing
(35:12):
ourselves in prayer to God.
Now we get to the fun stuff: the expressive and physical (35:15):
undefined
responses.
God sometimes moves upon yourheart, and there's you need to
let it out.
It's like you can't contain it.
It's like Jeremiah.
He tried to be quiet, he triedto not preach, but he couldn't
stop himself.
(35:36):
It says that it was like a fireshut up in his bones, and it
found its way out of him.
You imagine a preacher that wastold by God, nobody's ever
gonna listen to you?
Sometimes when I'm having a badday, I just I just I just say,
at least I'm not Jeremiah,right?
(35:56):
But think about these kinds ofresponses, weeping.
Sometimes when the goodness ofGod, when you when you
experience the goodness of God,you can't help but weep.
And on the other end of that,sometimes it's laughter,
sometimes it's rejoicing,sometimes it's celebration,
(36:19):
sometimes you might kneel or youmight bow down before him in
his presence, you might shout orsing out or prophesy.
You might raise your hands orbe filled with joy and jump and
dance, and won't somebody runaround this room.
All of these things, as Marksaid last week, are found in the
(36:44):
scriptures.
These are all responses toGod's presence, to the essence,
God revealing to us.
What is the glory of God?
It's Him giving us a taste ofthe essence of who He is, the
aroma of who He is, the uh thevery core of who He is.
(37:09):
So we shouldn't consider thesethings extraordinary or it's
things that should only happenonce in a while.
These should be normative typesof responses.
This is a normal way to respondto a holy God when you're
walking in the fear of the Lordand you understand who He is and
(37:30):
who you are and you express uheither quietly or outwardly
what's happening on the inside.
This is normal for believers inJesus Christ.
I feel like that Satan has donea good job of quieting us down,
of stealing our praise.
(37:51):
And I'm here to tell you, I'mnot gonna let a rock take my
place.
The Bible says that if we don'tpraise him, rocks will cry out
in our place.
And I, for one, am not going tobe substituted for a piece of
granite by a piece of granite.
But we shouldn't, we alsolisten to me carefully, we also
(38:14):
shouldn't do these things justto appear religious.
Many of us have experiencedtimes in the past where we've
been in meetings or been withother people, and the same
people do the same thing everysingle time.
And they do it right up front.
(38:37):
How many of you know?
God isn't looking forshow-offs, but for sincere
worshipers.
So if in the sincerity of yourheart you feel like shouting,
let it out.
If in the sincerity of yourheart you feel like jumping up
and down, jump up and down, ifin the sincerity of your heart
(39:00):
you feel like falling on yourface before God and crying out
to him, I'll never forget thetrue worshiper that we
experienced for so many years inthis church that sat right
there.
Pat Nooner understood somethingabout the manifest presence of
(39:20):
God and reverence for him.
And although she had so manyphysical limitations, you don't
even know the type of pain thatshe endured.
She would give her all.
God said, Mary, just so youknow, you're not the only one.
(40:03):
This is happening in manyplaces.
There's revival sparking inIsrael.
I'm opening wombs I'm doingthings unheard of.
I know it's been 400 years ofsilence, but wake up, Israel.
Wake up, America.
Luke 136, and behold, yourrelative Elizabeth, in her old
(40:24):
age, has also conceived a son,and this is the sixth month with
her who has called, who wascalled barren.
For nothing will be impossiblewith God.
Can you say that with me?
For nothing will be impossiblewith God.
The answer to every questionthat Mary could ask, and even
(40:45):
the sincerest of sincerest, iswhat?
Nothing is impossible with God.
God is a chainbreaker.
He's a miracle worker.
God is a God who heals spirit,soul, and body.
And he can do anything that hewants, any time that he wants,
in any way that he wants.
(41:06):
Our job is to move fromuncertainty to what?
To faith.
Faith, Mary's third feeling isfaith.
Luke 138.
And Mary said, Behold, I'm theservant of the Lord.
Let it be to me according toyour word.
And the angel departed fromher.
(41:27):
Imagine for just a minute whatis going through Mary's head.
She can't help herself.
It's like even if she wouldhave wanted to say something
else, this is what comes fromthe very core of her heart.
Let it be to me according toyour word, Father.
Imagine Mary's second thoughtwhen the angel disappears after
(41:53):
what just happened.
Her second thought is, what doI tell my mom and dad?
About the people in thevillage.
She wasn't like it is today.
If you get pregnant in thattime before you're married,
there's a problem.
Yeah.
Yeah.
There's problems.
(42:15):
So how does she explain this toher friends and relatives?
What is she going to say toJoseph?
God in his goodness does what?
Gives Joseph a dream.
He must have been a littleolder than Mary.
Old men dream dreams.
Anyway.
Sorry, sorry, I'm getting offtrack.
I gotta hurry up.
I'm behind time.
(42:36):
So God gives Joseph a dream toconfirm that Mary was bearing
the Son of God.
And Mary goes to see Elizabethin the middle of all of this and
listen to this exchange.
And when Elizabeth heard thegreeting of Mary, the baby
leaped in her womb.
Babies are viable within thewomb.
We have proof right here.
(42:59):
John the Baptist, not calledBaptist yet, but John, left in
his mother's womb, just incoming to proximity with Jesus
in Mary's womb.
Elizabeth was filled with theHoly Spirit.
She exclaimed with a loud cry,Blessed are you among women, and
(43:21):
blessed is the fruit of yourwomb.
And why is this granted to methat the mother of my Lord
should come to me?
For behold, when the sound ofyour greeting came to my ears,
the baby in my womb leaped forjoy.
And blessed is she who believedthat there would be a
fulfillment of what was spokento her from the Lord.
What a confirmation to Mary.
(43:44):
How good is God?
Because even if in the back ofher head somewhere Mary had some
lingering thoughts of doubt orconcern or unbelief, all of a
sudden God miraculously opensElizabeth's eyes so that she can
see clearly that Mary'scarrying about in her womb the
Son of God.
(44:05):
Mary's reminded of the blessingthat God has bestowed on her
because she believed the wordthat was spoken to her from the
Lord.
God wants us, He wants faith tobe built within us.
And one of the best ways forfaith to be built within us,
(44:26):
hearing the word of God in Hispresence.
In His presence.
Amen.
Let it play.
The Lord's wanting some backupmusic for the rest of the
sermon.
Sorry.
Anyway.
So everyone's filled with joy.
(44:49):
Elizabeth, John, Jesus, Mary.
They're all filled with joy.
Mary's fourth feeling is joy.
And that's where we read thissong.
And just for the sake of time,I won't read it again right now,
(45:10):
but I want to point out some ofthe things that it says.
You know, Mary can't hold it inany longer.
In the presence of the Lord,there is fullness of joy.
And the joy of the Lord is ourstrength.
And she was being strengthenedright now by the joy of the
Lord.
She begins to sing out theglory of the Lord.
(45:32):
And this song is called theMagnificat.
I hope I'm pronouncing thatright.
And it's truly an amazing thingto see the development of her
relationship with God.
This woman who just a few shortweeks and months before was
living in obscurity, a nobody.
(45:52):
And yet, what did God do?
He completely turned her lifearound.
So what are some of the keythemes in Mary's song?
First of all, God embraces thehumble.
Mary spoke of herself in suchhumble ways.
How many of you know humilityis a beautiful thing before God?
In fact, the Bible says thatGod resists the proud, but he
(46:17):
gives grace to the humble.
Mary could speakauthoritatively to this because
she was experiencing thistremendous humility.
And secondly, she talks aboutthe fact that holy is the name
of the Lord.
Notice God's name is the one tobe remembered, not Mary's.
(46:37):
God is looking for those whounderstand their need for him.
(47:43):
And finally, she speaks of thefact that he remembers his
covenant forever.
He has been faithful, he isfaithful, and he will always be
faithful.
How many of you know Mary'ssong should be our song?
We have some shared experiencewith Mary.
(48:06):
We were miraculously made awareof our need for God by the work
of the Holy Spirit.
And we were convicted of oursin and we repented and we put
our faith in Jesus Christ.
And what happened then?
God filled us with a miracle.
He put his very self, his ownDNA in us by placing the Holy
(48:32):
Spirit of God on the inside ofus.
And so when we praise andworship God, we can be like
Mary.
We can exalt him from a placeof understanding.
There's greatness that's livingon the inside of me.
It's not me, but it's Christthat lives in me, the hope of
(48:52):
glory.
Mary's revelation from God wasEmmanuel.
God is with us.
Her response was faith andjoy-filled worship, and the
relationship that was buildingwas one of unshakable trust in
God.
As beautiful as all of thiscertainly is, I want to remind
(49:16):
you of a verse that Mark readlast week about faithful Simeon
in Luke 2, 34.
And Simeon blessed them andsaid to Mary, his mother,
Behold, this child is appointedfor the fall and rising of many
in Israel, and for a sign thatis opposed, and a sword will
(49:37):
pierce through your own soulalso, so that thoughts from many
hearts may be revealed.
Let's not forget, as we gothrough the rest of this season,
(50:07):
the story of Christmas doesn'tend in a manger.
It ends on a cross.
Listen to the last part of apoem by Lucy Shaw where she
says, Blind in my womb to knowmy darkness ended.
Brought to this birth for me tobe newborn.
(50:28):
And for him to see me mended, Imust see him torn.
And for those of you who arehere this morning who have never
(50:56):
encountered the Christ ofChristmas, who don't know yet
what it means to be overwhelmedwith his presence and to have
the Holy Spirit of God living onthe inside of you, I'm here to
tell you that the Christ ofChristmas grew up and lived a
life, the perfect life that wecouldn't live.
(51:18):
And he took our sins uponhimself and he was nailed to a
cross.
And he forgave us of our sins,and he was buried, and on the
third day he rose again, provingthat he is who he says that he
is.
He ascended into heaven andhe's seated at the right hand of
the Father.
(51:39):
And if we will repent of oursins and put our faith in him,
he will accept us to himself,and we will be a part of the
generation to generation togeneration that experience the
mercy of God.
This is Christmas.
(52:02):
I pray that today would be theday, Lord, that they would turn
(52:24):
their eyes on you.
That even now, as they arefeeling your presence and
experiencing you, wooing them tothemselves yourself, I pray,
Father, that they would respondin faith.
I pray that they would confesstheir sins before you, that they
would acknowledge their needfor you, and that they would
(52:45):
receive from you the gift ofgrace that comes as we believe
in Jesus Christ.
If that's you this morning, Ijust encourage you to pray.
Just from your heart.
You don't have to have perfectwords.
Just from your heart.
Talk to God about your need forhim.
Acknowledge your need and thatyou want to put your faith and
(53:10):
trust in him.
And I promise you that he willhear your prayer and he will
answer it and he will receiveyou to himself as a part of his
family.
There's going to be a prayerteam here in a few minutes, and
they want to bless you as well.
And uh we have a Bible thatwe'd like to give to you.
So if that's you, would youplease make sure that you don't
(53:32):
leave this place without sharingwith somebody the decision
you've made?
And Father, I also pray for therest of us, Lord, that you
would return the fear of Godinto our lives, that we would no
longer be content with lookingat you and work and our lives in
you as mundane.
Awaken us, Father, to yourlife, to your light, to your
(54:01):
truth.
Help us to experience again thejoy of our salvation.
And Father, help us whether werespond in quietness and
stillness or expressing throughlaughter and joy and shouting or
crying and weeping.
Help us nevertheless to respondto you.
(54:22):
In Jesus' name.
Amen.
Amen.
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