Luke's Gospel

Thank you very much. And, if you've been here for the past couple of weeks, you'll know that this is a series that Fight Club are sharing. It's our men's ministry group the church and we're going to be going through the Luke's gospel for the foreseeable future, I think. And as Pete said in the morning service, it's great to be looking at some of these Christmas narratives outside of the Christmas setting. I know we are fast approaching Christmas.

You will have seen adverts and catalogs on their way no doubt, but I think this helps us looking at outside of the Christmas bubble to see some of the riches in these stories that we might not otherwise see. So do keep Luke chapter 1 in this particular story open in front of you and let's pray and ask for god's help together. Father, we do thank you for these amazing stories and, we thank you for Luke And, we thank you for his gospel that he wrote and for the way that he carefully investigated everything that was being taught and written about Jesus. For the way he decided to put together an account that was orderly and for his purpose so that god's people then and now might know the certainty of the things that are taught here. Please, father, would you, by your holy spirit, make these things certain again in our hearts as we think about who Jesus is and how he came and what that all means, please, give us certainty and confidence and faith, the sort of faith that Luke intended when he wrote his gospel, grant it to us now, and by your spirit, we pray in Jesus' name.

Our men. Okay. Here's a, a picture that, that melted many hearts recently. You may have seen it on the news. It's it's Prince Harry and, Meghan on a tour of Australia.

And, as part of their tour, they visited a school just outside Melbourne. And as they were meeting the staff and the pupils of this school, 1 little lad called Luke Vincent, he was a 5 year old boy with Down syndrome, managed to break through the line. And, then he proceeded to start hugging the couple and actually tickling and playing with Harry's beard. And, for some reporters who were watching these scenes live, it was all too much for them. So Georgi Gardner, who's the hostess of Australia's today program started crying.

Live on air as she described these beautiful souls embracing, each other. And, of course, even if we wouldn't describe it as poetically as she did, it's hard to argue with the sentiment, isn't it? It is quite a nice heartwarming picture, I think. And, the reason I think it was so popular is because in this picture, we have 2 things. We've we've got a great contrast in status and an atmosphere of friendship and warmth.

It's those 2 things together, which I think make it. You see, if this was his nephew, little prince George, Nobody would think anything of it. They're both royals, and you would expect to see that kind of friendly, warm interaction between them. Or if these 2 had just shaken hands, it wouldn't have made the news, would it? Because the royal family shake hands with ordinary people all the time.

It's the combination. Here we have a royal, a member of the royal household, allowing this boy from a school we've never heard of to treat him like an older brother or even a dad. What makes it so special is the contrast between who they are and the obvious warmth that is allowed to exist between them. And I think it's that kind of combination that we have here in this story, which we've just had read. On the 1 hand, we've got the Angel Gabriel.

He is the chief messenger of the living god He is the commander of the forces of good. He is the 1 who dwells in the presence of the lord, singing holy, holy, holy, is the lord almighty. The whole earth is full of his glory. That's his job, and he's coming to earth not to destroy, but to bring good news, to bring warmth, to bring friendship of great joy for all the people. There's a great contrast, a holy messenger of god, and sinful, ordinary people but also warmth and friendliness because he brings good news of great joy.

And in fact, when you put this whole section together, you really see it's all about contrasts. So last week, we looked at the story of Zechariah and Elizabeth. You can find that online if you want to download it and listen to it. And I think Lucas put these 2 stories together to help us see the contrasts. We've got an old priest and a teenage girl.

We've got prophet John and King Jesus. We've got unbelief and true faith. We've got Angel Gabriel and ordinary people. Lucas clearly knitted these 2 accounts together for that reason to show us the amazing contrast that exist in these 2 stories. And so what we're gonna do this evening as a way of kind of applying to ourselves is just to walk through the different contrasts that we have here and then to close by looking at 1 very important similarity.

And the first point I want to make this evening is this. We find a contrast in status, an old priest and a teenage maid. An old priest and a teenage maid. Okay. Here's another picture.

Anyone, anybody know who this is? Anybody think they can guess who this is? Sorry. Wayne rooney? Yeah.

This is Wayne really. We're not we don't talk about football this much all the time, by the way, in art services. It just so happens that these things have collided today. This is Wayne rooney at 5 years old, and by the time Wayne rooney was 8, He had been picked up by, an everton scout, and this everton scoot, writes about the time that very first time that he laid eyes on Wayne rooney. He says I remember it vividly.

I first saw him at the long lane playing fields in Liverpool pitch number 2. I was the secretary of the Walton and Kirkdale junior league, and I had to go and have a word with the Copper House Colts. Because they hadn't paid their match fees that morning. I was talking with their manager, Big Nev, when I noticed this little striker trying something different every time he touched the ball. He was amazing, and I'd never seen anyone like him.

And that moment, that that really was the beginning of a great career. Wayne rooney would go on to become England's all time leading goal scorer, all time leading goal scorer, And it actually when you trace it all back, that great career began on a fateful day when he was just 8 years old. And it's amazing because I guess there are thousands and thousands of boys and girls up and down this country who at 1 time or another want to be professional footballers. That is their dream, but the overwhelming majority never make it. They go up the ladder a little way, and then they have to drop off without ever seeing their name in lights.

99 percent of them go on to live normal lives and then they die without ever becoming a household name. That would be true in acting and all kinds of other careers. Only a very few make it. And often their career can be traced back to just 1 audition, 1 cold winter's morning, 1 moment in history. And hopefully, you can see where I'm going.

Mary had a moment just like this. From all indicators, her life would not be extraordinary. She would marry. She would give birth to probably a lot of very poor children. She would never ever travel more than a few miles from home, and 1 day she would die like thousands of others.

She was destined to live and to die in obscurity until 1 fateful moment in history. Verse 26, in the sixth month of elizabeth's pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in galilee. Now Nazareth was a place with a a pretty poor reputation. So 1 commentator says it was a shoddy, corrupt halfway stop between the port cities of tyre and sidon, overrun by gentiles and Roman soldiers. It's like 1 of those sort space ports in Star Wars.

If you've ever seen those, it's just full of dodgy dealers from all over the galaxy who sort of combine in this 1 particular bar, and it's all very shady. That's what it was like. But that's where Gabriel comes from the holy of holies. This is where he comes. To this shoddy halfway town in order to meet a young girl pledged to be married to a carpenter.

Now for Zechariah, we saw his story last week, it must have been a shock for him to see an angel. But at least he was in that world. He was a priest. He dealt in holy things. He was familiar with the temple.

If anyone was to have an interaction with someone like Gabriel, it ought to be someone like him. But Mary, who are you? Who are you? Who are you? There's no introduction, really, worth reporting.

Compare it with Zechariah's introduction in verse 5. In the time of herod, king of Judea, there was a priest named Zechariah, who belonged to the priestly division of Abaysia. His wife Elizabeth was also a descendant of Aaron. Both of them were righteous in the sight of god observing all the lord's commands and degrees blamelessly. But verse 26, god sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth the town in Galile.

To a virgin, pledge to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. Now that last bit is a little red flag. But on the whole, it's not much of a comparison, is it? Mary is an unknown teenager. She is not a prince, not a prophet, not a queen.

But now she's face to face. With Gabriel. It's almost as if god has decided that he will select the most ordinary humble out of the way situation that he could find and decided, yeah, this is the sort of place we'll go for. He could very easily have chosen Jerusalem and not Nazareth. Judea and not Galilei.

The daughter of the high priest and not Mary, even Zechariah and Elizabeth feel more appropriate. Not Mary and Carpenter Joseph. We're meant to see there is a total absence of what the world would call greatness. In this scene. But this is where god comes because he loves to turn the wisdom of the world upside down.

This is where he comes. This is where the engine starts to warm up as he prepares to bring his son into the world. So you see there's a great contrast, isn't there? An old righteous priest familiar with the holy things. An unknown Mary of Nazareth engaged to a carpenter.

The first point is there's a contradict there's a contrast between the old priest and the teenage made. Secondly, there's a contrast in the message, prophet of god versus son of god. Prophet of god versus son of god. As we saw last week, it's it's been it's been 400 years, really, 400 years since the voice of god was heard. 400 years since a a fresh prophet bought fresh news from god to god's people.

It's been a long time. But now at the dawning of Luke's gospel, it's like an old machine is chugging back to life. The pistons are firing, The cranks are shifting again, and the whole engine is groaning into life after years in retirement. In Paul's language, the fullness of time has come. The fullness of time has come.

And before we look at the message itself, we're meant to see, there is a contrast in the way it's delivered. So when the angel comes to Zechariah, he appears on the right side of the altar of incense, and we're told that fear fell upon Zechariah or he was gripped with fear. He was paralyzed. By the fear of the moment that he was in. But this encounter in verse 26 just feels less terrifying.

Mary is disturbed. That's true. She is disturbed, but actually as you read, you see she's disturbed by the content of the message and not so much by the encounter, the encounter itself. Now don't get me wrong. I'm not saying it wouldn't be a shock for her.

Angeles don't turn up every day, but there's something warm about this encounter, which makes it different verse 28, greetings, you who are highly favored. The lord is with you. Now the word greetings is quite is is sounds quite formal to us, but actually it's not quite as formal as we might think because obviously in English, you know, we can't imagine many contexts where we would say the word greetings to anyone. But if we were to do that, it would quite a formal situation, I would think. But here, it doesn't quite have the formality it has in English.

It really means joy, joy, gladness, grace, rejoice, greetings, joy, let joy be in this home to you who are highly favored. So it's amazing, isn't it? We got these 2 worlds colliding, otherness and orderiness, otherness and orderiness, And yet between them, the atmosphere is 1 of joy, greetings, joy to you who are highly favored. But as I say, Mary, still, it is true, is unsure of what this greeting is gonna be. She's disturbed by the content of the message, if you like.

In the King James version, which I always love to read when preparing, Verse 29 says that Mary didn't know what manner of salutation this should be. Which I think is fantastic. It's a fantastic expression because it implies that Mary had heard all kinds of different greetings in her life. From different people, but what kind of greeting was this? What manner of salutation was this?

It was joyful greetings But what is it about? Why me? What what what what's this about? Why would someone like you be be someone like me? It's like those moments when you get a phone call from a stranger who knows your name.

You ever had those moments, you know, the phone rings or the mobile rings, good evening. Is that Tom Sweitman? Maybe? What manner of salutation is this? You know, I think that is the answer that I want to now be giving.

What manner of salutation is this? It's brilliant. It it it's it's how we feel, isn't it? It doesn't matter how friendly or rather falsely friendly, the person on the other end is. So there's an uneasiness about the greeting.

Isn't there? What do you want? Who who are you? Why are you ringing? Why have you come to me?

Mary was disturbed greatly. But look at verse 30. The angel said to her, do not be afraid, Mary. You have found favor with god. You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus.

He will be great, and he will be called the son of the most high. The lord god will give him the throne of his father, David, and he will reign over Jacob's descendants forever, and his kingdom will never end. Now, as I said, for Mary and Gabriel to meet is what we would call a collision of worlds, isn't it? It is. We gotta agree on that.

But for unknown teen age, Mary, to carry and give birth to and raise The son of the most high god, the king who reigns forever, the heir to David's throne is a bold underlined collision of worlds. I mean, at least at least reverses give this baby to Zechariah and Elizabeth. Let them have this baby there from priestly line. They're used to this kind of thing. I'd have John the Baptist, Mary could How about that for a trade?

I'll have him and let them have Jesus, but no god wants to turn it right upside down. The greater sun will be given to the more ordinary family. And although this contrast, I think should make us gasp for air at its wonder and awesomeness. Sadly, I think it can be all too familiar to us this story. And that is why before we move to our third contrast, I think it's just worth pausing here to apply this stuff because in many ways, this This familiar story here is 1 of the clearest windows into the character of god in the whole Bible, I think.

We wanna understand god. This is 1 of the clearest places that that we can go. I've got a Muslim friend, who I met at university some time ago now. And, I wrote to him this week to ask him what he thought of this idea that god himself, the son of the most high god could be born of the virgin Mary. And, we'd actually, we'd actually spoken about this topic before, but I wrote to him just to get his thoughts, freshly on this.

And, he said that although Muslims do believe that the prophet Jesus was born in this way, the idea of god being born in a context like this is just unthinkably blasphemous. He says, Those who claim that god almighty came out of the birth canal of his own creation are belittling the almighty god. If you or I were to beget a child from a creature that we had created, which is not of our own kind, would that not be an abomination? Wouldn't becoming like your own creation lessen you as the creator? It is a perverse abomination and against god's own teachings far be it from god to do such a thing.

And of course, the reason he feels that way is because in his mind, the glory of god is all about the transcendent. God is away. He is distant. He is far He's remote and worshiping him is to live like a slave for him. That's how the worship goes.

But the true god is just so different. His glory is actually seen in his humility and his servantheartedness. That is the beauty of this story. The son of the most high god is going to arrive in the back end of nowhere into an ordinary family born in humility in order to serve. The greatness of our god, the glory of our god is seen in his willingness to give up all the riches of heaven and become a servant to be born and to live and to die for the sake of his people.

It's amazing. Not only did Jesus take our nature, he took it in the most humble form he could. And that is glorious. Jesus said, I am among you as 1 who serves. Paul said, you know the grace of our lord Jesus Christ that though he was rich, yet for your sake, he became poor.

Could not be said in Islam. Could never be said in a thousand generations. For your sake, he became poor so that you through his poverty might become rich. And that awesome theology is right here in this story. If we wanna understand who our god is, who the only true and living god is.

This is the story to come to. To the world, this is a foolish, belittling thing for him to do. But with eyes to see it's Christ, the wisdom of god, and the power of god. That's the first little point of application under this second contrast. It's a window into the heart of god.

But secondly, as a point of application, this is meant to enlarge our vision of Jesus. Mary of Nazareth will give birth not to a prophet, not even to the greatest prophet among men, but to god himself the greatest being of all. Jesus we're told here is the son of god which really is a title. It's actually another word for Messiah, but he's also god the sun. He's also god in the flesh.

This is what we would call the incarnation of god when god became a man and he took a human nature for himself. Now to be clear, this doesn't mean that there was god the father and god the holy spirit. And then at the first Christmas, they decided to make god the son. They decided to create him to join the trinity. No.

That's not what it's saying. God has always existed as 1 god in 3 persons father, son, and holy spirit. But this was the special moment in history when the fullness of time had come where god the son took for himself a full, true, human nature. He became a man to walk amongst us and to live amongst us. So Jesus is not 2 persons.

1 day he's god, the next day he's man, When you find him in galilee, he's doing man stuff. When you find him in Jude, he's more doing god stuff. That's not what this is about. He's 1 person. We don't divide him up like that.

But he has a true, divine nature, and a true, full humanity united in the 1 person. Forever. It's amazing. And if that feels sort of mind bogglingly awesome, it should really and we're in good company. I love JC Ryyle's comment on this particular truth.

He was the old, Bishop of Liverpool, and he says in his commentary on Luke, He says it is enough for us to know that the word was made flesh and that when the son of god came into the world, a real body was prepared for him so that he took part of our flesh and blood and was born of a woman. Here we must stop. If we attempt to pry beyond this point, we shall but darken council by words without knowledge. Be saying, here's what we need to know. This is what we need to know.

The eternal living word of god. Became a man, Jesus Christ. What an awesome thing. This is meant to meant to give us a fresh vision of how glorious our savior is. And if that wasn't enough, just look at the rest of it.

I mean, in 5 verses, I've counted 7 description of Jesus, 7 descriptions of Jesus. It is an absolute earful for Mary. It is an earful And we don't have time to unpack every single 1 tonight, but as a challenge, I reckon over the next week it would be worth doing maybe in your own time or with friend a little devotion on each 1 of these titles to enlargen our view of Christ. So tomorrow, You could start with Jesus. Look up that name.

What does it mean? What's the history? Have you ever wondered that? Why is Jesus called Jesus? Why isn't he called something else?

What's the old testament history of that name? Tuesday, he will be great. What does that mean? Well, we've touched on it a bit. But in what ways does Jesus show his greatness?

Maybe you could go on Bible Gateway, type in greatness as a keyword and just see Where does the new testament use that word and how is it being defined? Wednesday, he will be the son of the most high. He will be the Messiah. Maybe you could go to Psalm too amongst other places and see what god's people expected from their Messiah and how Jesus fulfills those things. Thursday, he sits on David's throne.

You could flick back to 2 Samuel chapter 7 or again, 1 of many other chapters, and you could read it in light of this. Jesus is going to be David's greater king. What did god promised David and how does Jesus fulfill it? That would be a wonderful study for Thursday morning. Friday, he will reign over Jacob's descendants.

Who are they? Why does he use the word Jacob? Who is god gonna rule over? And what will that look like? Saturday, his kingdom will never end.

Again, get up Bible Gateway. Type in the word kingdom. How do Matthew Mark Luke and John use that phrase? What does the kingdom of Jesus look like in the gospels? What a great study that would be?

Sunday, he will be called son of god. 7 days, 7 devotions, To let this glorious news, give you eyes to see your savior again. That's what this is helping us to do. It gives us a window into the heart of our God, but it also helps enlargen our view of Jesus Christ. There's some applications, but now back to the contrasts.

We've had the old priest and the teenage girl. We've had prophet of god and son of god, but thirdly, there's a contrast here. Fearful unbelief versus glad acceptance, fearful unbelief versus glad acceptance. Now I think to start with this is the least obvious contrast because both of them actually respond to the angel in a very similar way. So look at verse 34.

How will this be Mary asked the angel? Since I am a virgin. And verse 18, Zechariah asked the angel how can I be sure of this? I'm an old man and my wife is well along in years. It's the same thing, isn't it?

How can I be sure of this? How will this be? How will this be? How can I be sure of this? Same kind of question?

But no, there is a big difference here. Zekariah was asking for certainty because of unbelief. We're told that. He couldn't believe That given his age and the age of his wife, this promise could be true. I mean, you would think that the appearance, the appearance of Gabriel would be sign enough.

For him. But no, he needs proof to be certain. But Mary, as I've said, doesn't ask in the same way. Her concern is basically practical, it's pragmatic. She's basically saying, okay, I trust you, but but how is this actually gonna work?

I'm a virgin. I'm not even married yet. How is this gonna work? And we know that is the case. Because of verse 38.

Have a look at verse 38. When it all becomes clear, she says, I am the lord's servant. I am the lord's servants, another way of saying amen lord. May it be fulfilled? Let it be so.

So she's in a posture faith. But practically, it's all a bit of a mystery. And so Gabriel is very happy to answer her. The angel answered the Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the most high will overshadow you. So the holy 1 to be born will be called the son of god.

So here we have, I hope we can all agree a very complex biological problem. An unmarried virgin, how is she going to get pregnant? How is she going to become pregnant? This is disturbing news. How can I be sure of this?

How is this going to happen? 1 sentence. That's all it needs. The Holy Spirit will be the author of this new life. The most high is going to overshadow you, which to a Jewish person would be extremely provocative because for the most high to overshadow would call back images of the presence of god over shadowing, the tabernacle and the temple.

So can you see how awesome this is for her? Mary, has never been into the holy of holies, but now her womb will become the holy of holies. It will become the holiest place because god himself is going to come and dwell there. This will be a miracle of his grace. That's how it's gonna happen.

So you see the contrast here. Yeah? Just like last week, the news has announced a baby is coming, and there's a problem to overcome. For Elizabeth, an aging womb has gotta come to life again, for Mary, a womb without the possibility of life is gonna be home to 1. And although we might think that the greater miracle will be met with greater unbelief, it's the exact opposite.

First 38, I am the lord's servant. May your word to me be fulfilled? No objections. She could have said, couldn't she Gabriel? Look, thank you.

But there are some pretty experienced mothers in this town. People who are used to having kids around. Why not send him to someone with a track record? Send him to someone who's used to raising kids effectively. Or perhaps Gabriel will look, you know, thank you, again.

But you may not know this is actually going to be quite a scandal. I'm not even married yet. This is a small community. People talk. If I start growing before the ring goes on my finger, people are gonna notice, and it's going to be a disgrace.

I'm going to be disgraced and my husband is going to be disgraced. Why not go to a married couple and save them the shame? Saved them the gossip. Or with a modern twist, she could have said Gabriel, this is my body. Tell me what to do with my body.

I've got the rights over my body. This is my reproductive system. How dare you? I'm not having you tell me how it's gonna go. Okay?

So you take your plan and you go over to some submissive doormat woman down the road, and you better give it to her because it ain't happening with me. Okay? Very often in the Bible, those type of objections come up. Send someone else lord. I can't do it lord.

I'm slow of speech lord. My tongue doesn't work lord. Send him lord. He'd be better off lord. And we're not talking about small fry.

We're talking about Moses, Jeremiah, Abraham, these people who who wanted in some way to escape from the calling of god upon their life, but there's no hint of it with her. If this is the lord's word and this is the lord's will, may it be done? So you see, Mary is going to be the mother of Jesus Christ. But in 1 sense, she's also the first disciple of Jesus Christ because she trusts in the promises about her son. And that's all a disciple really is.

She's the mother and the first disciple of the son of the most high god. So that's the third thing as a contrast in response, fearful unbelief versus glad acceptance But lastly, briefly, before we close, I want to look at a similarity. And the similarity I think is this. That no word of god shall ever fail or in the old NIV as Chris read for nothing will be impossible with god, but we'll go with the the new translation here. No word of god shall ever fail.

Now, throughout this series, we are going to see over and over again That Luke wants us to know that these events are not random. These re events contained in his gospel are the fulfillment of ancient promises. And that is absolutely the case in this story. Just have a look on the screen. Here's 1 from the Carol service.

Therefore, the lord himself will give you a sign. The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son and we'll call him immanuel. I mean, that's such an amazing prophecy. There's no Other what it couldn't be fulfilled more accurately. Could it?

I mean, it's not a vague 1 that loosely refers to something that happened and we can slightly manipulate it to make it say what we want. It's it's as clear a prophecy as you can get, isn't it? Or what about this 1? This is literally the oldest prophecy in the book. Genesis 3, I will put enmity between you and the woman.

He says to the serpent. And between your offspring and hers, he will crush your head and you will strike his heels. Do you see that? It will be the offspring of a woman. The offspring of a woman would crush the head of Satan promise, fulfillment, promise fulfillment.

And I think this is what Gabriel has in mind in verse 37. He's talking about Elizabeth and her child. That's true. But it's gotta be broader than that. He says in verse 37, no word of god will ever fail.

No word of god will ever fail. No word that is from god will ever fail. So Gabriel wants her to know what Luke wants theophilus to know in the introduction the prophecies are true. God's word never fails. 400 years, 600 years, 2000 years, no matter what the time frame is, The word of god never fails, and that is our final application.

The kingdom of Jesus Christ friends is never going to end. That's true because no word of god ever fails. Jesus Christ is gonna sit on David's throne forever, and that is true because no word of god ever fails. God tells us that there is an inheritance that will never perish spoil or fade being kept for us in heaven. That's true.

Because god's word never fails. God tells us that compared to the eternal weight of glory to come, Our sufferings are light and momentary. That's true because god's word never fails. God tells us that even in a sinful, confused wicked world such as ours, that the gospel is the power for the salvation of all who will believe that's true because god's word god's word never fails. It never fails.

And that means we need to imitate Mary. There's an amazing scene in the gospel which you might know where somebody shouts out to Jesus. Bless it is the mother who gave you birth and who nursed you how blessed she must be. To have given birth to an awesome teacher like you. What a blessed among women?

Jesus replies blessed rather, who hear the word of god and obey it. Wow. See, if you went away this evening thinking, core Mary's blessed. She's a blessed woman. You'd be right.

But Jesus says it's more blessed. To respond to the word the way that she did. So in many ways, she gives us the model response to every sermon, to every bible study, to every faithful 1 to 1. No word of god will ever fail. So amen lord, may it be fulfilled, let it be done?

My life is ready now to be shaped by your promises. Let's have a moment, to, to pray and maybe as as usual you'd like to use just this moment of silence to talk to god and to confess something to ask for his help. Just to read over that passage again and then I'll close us in a prayer in just a moment. For you know the grace, of our lord Jesus Christ that though he was rich, yet for your sakes, he became poor so that you through his poverty might become rich. Father, we thank you for showing us those truths in this story.

We thank you for giving us a window into what you are like and what your character is like. That you turn the wisdom of the world upon its head. That you do not come in grandeur. With power, you do not come riding great war horses with many, many armies and trumpets heralding your announcement, you, your arrival, you come in humility, You come in grace. You come as a servant born in obscurity to live and to serve us and to die.

We thank you lord Jesus that you were willing to give up all the riches of heaven to come into such, such a poor and humble scene. In order to serve us by dying for us so that we through faith might become rich. We thank you for our glorious lord Jesus Christ. That he is the son of the most high god, that he sits on David's throne forever, that his kingdom will never end that he is great, that he rules over your people forever, that he is god himself how we praise you for showing us more of our savior, and we pray that you would help each 1 of us here as your people to imitate Mary in the way that she responded to your word. Help us lord to be confident that not a single 1 of your promises will ever fail.

And therefore, lord, we ask that our lives like hers would be shaped by your word in every single way. And we ask it for Jesus' sake and glory.