[Light the first three candles of the Advent wreath.]
"My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant.
"He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts. He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty"
These familiar words were spoken by Mary upon greeting Elizabeth. Imagine the joy of this meeting when they can discuss their own and each other's pregnancy together for the first time. And what did they talk about first? a boy? a girl? baby clothes? new furniture? No. Mary says,
"My soul magnifies the Lord; I declare the greatness of God, and my spirit rejoices."
Mary … a young woman … a teenager … not so long before, pregnant and unmarried … declares the greatness of God and recognizes the unique calling she has received. As with so many other mothers before and after her, she does not know what joys or sorrows may follow the birth, but she is ready to rejoice in God, her Savior.
It is for Mary that we light this fourth candle. Mary — blessed among women. Mary — the Lord's lowly servant. Mary — who believed that God was about to fulfill the promise made to Abraham so long ago.
[Light the fourth candle.]
December 24 sermon Who are you calling small, Luke 1: 39-45
Why did the nurse carry the red marker? So she could “draw” blood.
What happens when you don’t clean your mirrors? They give you dirty looks.
Alphabet joke “babydoll”.
What are you hoping to be under your tree?? I received the Nieman Marcus catalog and planned on ordering a few things from it for Brandy and Julia. I’m sure you’ve heard of this catalog. I was going to buy the $40k 7ft tall pencil sky scraper. But I decided on the 150 acre Italian fortress for a cool $3.8 million. Unfortunately someone else had already bought it. But I started to think about what I have, and what we have here at the church.
Call down the kids and leaders
This is our Youth Group. This is a great gift we already have that is not under the tree. In a minute we are going to pray over them. Last week I talked about authority. Why are there 3 leaders?? One leader will quickly burn out no matter how dedicated they are. Two leaders can bounce ideas off of and help each other. 3 leaders can make sure they help each other, they lead correctly, and they hold each other accountable for this ministry.
All these kids are under the authority of the leaders above them. If they do something they shouldn’t like making crank calls or walking down the rail road tracks, these leaders have the authority and responsibility to lead them to correction.
And like the kids are under the authority of Melanie, Ed and Mike, these three leaders are under my authority. If there are problems with the youth, they must come to me, their pastor.
If they start to get burned out, they must come to me, their pastor. One reason for this is when someone comes to me and says “Did you hear….” I can honestly say, yes.
But the most important reason is as the pastor of this church, I’m responsible to and under the authority of Almighty God. I must go before God with everything from our church life.
What I want to do now is pray over this youth group. It might cause a little claustrophobia, but I want us to surround them. All of you who have the desire and are able to, please come up now. If you don’t come up, that is fine. Raise up a hand as we pray over them.
Prayer Prayer prayer prayer
Elizabeth says “you are blessed because you believed the Lord would do what he said.” I say that to you today. You are blessed because you believe. What we have in front of us now and what we have received 2000 years ago which we celebrate tomorrow is so much better than anything else we could ever receive.
Now pray with me. Thank you Lord for making us rich in all things that matter…and a lot of other stuff that doesn’t. We have all that we need for today, and even more on top of that. Amen.”
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