My name is Ricky Jones. If I haven't gotten a chance to meet you yet, and this is River Oaks Presbyterian Church Thank you for coming and we are in our third week of Advent as is all the world and We are talking about I guess the most unexpected pregnancy of all time It's interesting 50% of pregnancies are unexpected that that's exactly what it was for us We had to expect it and too unexpected not funny Anyway, we are talking about Mary this week and In studying about Mary, I was reminded of a story about Greg Vineville's not the new coach of the Oklahoma Center suitors Greg Vineville's was the Archbishop is presently the Archbishop of South America the Southern Cone of South America and he was it was born the son of diplomats and so he grew up in South America in Paraguay and then Went back to England for his education, but while he was while he was a child there His his mother gave him a cracked plate one day and Said you know asking to take this out and throw it away Cracked plate wasn't acceptable for them for diplomats Sorry for diplomats and so he took it out and knowing that people went through the garbage the poor often did that To gather stuff for themselves instead of just throwing it in the garbage. You can't set it on top and went back in He soon there after moved to England where he went to private boarding schools and all the way up through university and then he went into the ministry and became a decan in the Anglican church and was eventually sent back to South America as a bishop first of he was the first bishop of Bolivia and His job there was to go to all the the churches and the diocese and and serve holy communion and he was up in the mountains in a very very poor church one Sunday and he was serving Communion and as People came to him. He looked down at the plate that he was holding and He saw the very cracked plate that his mother had told him to throw away years and years before and It hit him that the body of Christ is served on cracked plates and As we study the story of Mary Mary Has unfortunately kind of been surrounded by halos and all of our art and and and held up is this this model of Perfection for which we all fall short and that is precisely the opposite of The lesson we're supposed to learn with Mary the point about Mary is that she was every 15-year-old girl She was as common as a girl could be and the the lesson we draw from her the lesson. I want you to draw from her day is this Are you broken enough to serve the body of Christ? Are you a cracked enough plate? In modern Christianity everything is about being pristine and being perfect and Christians are supposed to be strong and Christianity itself is that that last step of the perfect resume and and it's that that key element of being the perfect family on the Christmas card that you stick on the refrigerator and and everything's about being Perfect like we think Mary was perfect, but I'm going to ask you are you chipped like Mary was chipped Are you weak enough? Let's put it this way. Are you weak enough? Are you frail enough? Are you foolish enough to be used by Christ the way Mary was used by Christ? We stand as we read Mary's song From Luke chapter 1 verses 39 through 56 So you remember last week Mary received the news that she would bear the sun of God as a virgin and then we hear these words In those days Mary arose and went with haste into the hill country to a town in Judah And she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth and when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary the baby leaped in her womb And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and she explained with a loud try Blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb And why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me For behold when the sound of your greeting came to my ears the baby in my womb leaped for joy And blessed is she who believed that there will be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord And Mary said my soul magnifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior For he has looked on the humble estate of his servant For behold from now all generations will call me blessed For he who is mighty has done great things for me and holy is his name And is mercious for those who fear him from generation to generation He has shown strength with his arm he has scattered the proud and the thoughts of their hearts He has brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of humble estate He has filled the hungry with good things in the rich he has set away empty He has helped to serve in Israel in remembrance of his mercy As he spoke to our fathers to Abraham and to his offspring forever And Mary remained with her about three months And returned to her home That's why the reading of God's word all men like grass and all of our glories like the flowers of the field The grass withers and the flowers fall but not God's word God's word stands forever You may be seated Are you cracked enough for God to use you? Are you foolish enough to baffle the wise? Are you weak enough to overcome the mighty? Are you frail enough to humble the proud? When God comes since Paul to the Corinthians he writes them And it's interesting usually in those days and then these days as a matter of fact Especially if you're writing people that may not have seen for a while you want to you know, pump them up a little bit You know dear Corinthians y'all sure are great Thank you for how warmly you greeted me Thank you for your generosity but he doesn't do any of that. He just jumps straight into you know Not many of you were wise Not many of you were noble Not many of you were mighty But God chose the foolish things of the world To baffle the wise God chose the humble things of the world To bring down the mighty So congratulations we could fit right in with the Corinth Corinthians And we fit right in with Mary in that way Mary is a child She is every woman that is the point of who she is she is Doing nothing special to get God's attention and that very humility that very commonness Is what got God's attention When you see Mary you're you're supposed to feel your connection with her Because you are connected to her She receives God just as we do We see we see a lot of things just in the picture before we begin to listen to Mary. I want us to look at Mary We see first of all how God is so gentle He's just kind here, isn't he? Can you imagine being more lost than being told oh by the way You're gonna conceive as a virgin Nobody's gonna get that Right And so he's tells her he says the angel to tell her and your cousin is with child I prepared a place for you to go A place for you to to figure things out and to wait while Joseph who's got a lot of things to figure out now figures things out I'm God's just taking care of her in a way that she could have never taken care of herself giving her a home And someone to look after her and what does Mary do I want you to see three things about her. I want you to see first of all her faith that she She believed what God told her Mary Mary Elizabeth says to her blessed are you who believe the words that God's told you She books you and then she immediately goes to the word of God and we know that because Well, she doesn't use footnotes God doesn't care as much about plagiarism as you do But I don't use footnotes either But she quotes Hannah this whole song that she writes is quoting Hannah And she's she's using what God has done in the past To give her the grace to strengthen her faith to believe what God says he's gonna do in the future That's the story throughout the Bible That's why Jesus kept telling stories about Moses and about David remember what God has done in the past And let that strength in your faith for what he says he's gonna do in the future And I encourage you to do that That's really the reason why I think the most important thing you can do As a believer who's not yet seen Jesus Is study the resurrection Ask yourself do you believe that Get yourself to really at a point where you believe historically Jesus was raised from the dead you need to believe what God has done in the past If you're gonna commit your future to him Like Mary did She knew it's always funny isn't it that song you know that Christmas song Mary did you know And you know some people love that song and some people don't and it's fine every music is Various by taste just as much some people like broccoli and some people don't I hear some people like broccoli I wouldn't know them see right here. We got a broccoli lover some people like songs some people don't that's fine But it is an interesting question Mary what did you know
What did you know? And it's interesting that in this text Mary calls God her Savior Mary calls God her Savior she says My soul magnifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior. She's she's already Kind of getting into this place of a faith and trusting God for for not just this baby, but for her salvation What did she know Tim Keller says she's the first Christian Which I guess you can say she is. She's clearly the first person to receive Christ um That's his joke not mine um And I don't think it's funny, but you'll laugh um But she she's definitely Seeing God as her Savior Thomas Aquinas back in the middle middle ages of Well, the only church that was that was the Catholic church the Catholic scholar said that when in an arguing over the The purity of Mary did the question of did Mary ever send he said well, she she is the one who called God her Savior And that's interesting. What what did she know about this baby? Probably not much Probably not I would hope she didn't know that he was going to be crucified for her That would have been a little too much to bear But we know We know what it means when when God told Joseph that this baby's name was going to be Jesus What was that name Jesus mean? It means God saves Yahweh saves She knew his name she knew the name And she knew somehow that this was going to be her Savior that God was going to save his people from their sin We know that Mary believed And we know Mary was filled with scripture When you cut Mary she sang she said this beautiful words My soul is filled my soul magnifies the Lord it's it's talking about this rich Joyful believe this It's almost as if she she's she's talking to herself remember those songs we like to mention All right some 40 right when he says soul. Why are you down some 42? Why are you downcast oh my soul? He's he's looking at himself for some 103 where he's talking to himself bless the Lord oh my soul this kind of is the self-awareness Mary says my soul magnifies the Lord I'm filled I'm filled with them And that's a that's a beautiful Send them it is and that that she's she's filled with him She knows how to not only read scripture, but to personalize it she knows how to take Hannah's song and make it her song She knows how to find herself in in the scriptures and and immerse herself in it so that she is filled and she receives comfort and joy from it And she is filled with the joy of the Lord She filled with the presence of the Lord I kind of need that again Feel like there's been times in the past when I felt that way when I've been that way I'm not sure if you cut me right now. I bleed the joy of the Lord You kind of need that again It's okay to admit it Admitting it's the first step everybody tells us that he's happy to do it I want to be able to look at myself and say my soul magnifies the Lord don't you
Maybe we need to receive him more profoundly than we have in a while We've been kind of leaning on the Lord to get us through the last 18 months, but have we been filled with him
What is it about God that filled Mary what is let's listen to her what is she saying about She thinks about two things she thinks about God's might and about God's mercy God's might About his arm the strength he has he's shown strength with his arm He scattered the proud and the thoughts of their hearts He's brought down the mighty from their thrones And his mercy He's exalted those of humblest day He's filled the hungry with good things The rich he has sin away empty Might and mercy and it's important that she keeps these two things together right might without mercy That's recklessness. That's just destruction might without mercy is the tornado that ripped through my home down yesterday Uh, you didn't see it in the news. Dresden rarely shows up in the news when a town of a thousand people has a tornado go through it It's like well it probably didn't hit anybody. They were spread out already and oddly enough it did not hit anybody But it did tear down almost all the public buildings and my mother's house. I'm not sure how to feel about that But a tornado just sheer might No mercy On the other hand, mercy without mind. Now that sounds better, but it's not You know what mercy without might is? Mercy without might is a poor weak and competent father standing in the driveway as his 16 year old son drives all saying Be careful with all of your heart and soul you cry out Be careful Because there's not a stinkin thing you can do To make that child be careful You know because you were once a 16 year old boy And you know that whatever else is on his mind as he drives away being careful is not one of them And you're merciful And you want what is good for your children But you cannot force them to have it and you cannot protect them And in God we see Mary sings that his mercy and his might have come together his might specifically and pulling down the strong His might and in toppling the powerful And when we think about some powerful in the strong we We kind of associate with them The people that we want to be with we don't want to think about God toppling them Think about Mary think about most of humans for the history of the world How they looked at the powerful That would how would the poor Jews look up at the at the Romans And their armor surrounded by armies nothing can get to them How would slaves have looked up at the the mansion on the hill And he's felt like nothing can touch them And they're their beauty and their safety Nothing can reach them She says God comes along and topples them uses his power to topple the proud Like I don't know when I hear that I get the picture of two men Laying their chessboard out putting everything carefully White square on the right if you don't know how to set up a chessboard Studying where every piece goes So careful so wise And then the child comes along and just Statters of pieces everywhere except the pieces are kings and queens and Presidents and premieres toppled them And oftentimes in our foolishness we think we can withstand him We don't need God We've got our our comforts and our ease and our advancements and our iPhones And we're all like We're all like a man you several years ago. I don't know. I'm probably the only one here old enough to remember Hurricane Andrew When Hurricane Andrew blew through Miami There was a fitness enthusiast a little bit of a guru And he said he wasn't gonna run away from Hurricane Andrew he was going to have himself tied to a tree To prove that 60 years old he could still withstand a hurricane
Okay, let's say this slowly enough for you to understand it buddy If you're a hurricane It's not that the wind is blowing It's what the wind is blowing right if a hurricane picks up Man looking at the pictures from my hometown the tornado just took a big Ford F-150 and slammed it into the wall of my church yesterday I mean if you're That tied to a tree and the wind picks up a Ford F-150 and slams it into you at 50 miles an hour It doesn't matter how many sit-ups you did that morning You're not strong enough to withstand that God tap topples the powerful But he's mercy. He's merciful. He lifts up the weak The same arm that that tears down the the castles lifts up the poor He lifts up those who have nothing on their own to offer He he lifts up the cracked plates And Mary is very She's very wise and how she sings about God's mercy Because she says to us that God's mercy it is bottomless But it's not boundless What do I mean by that it's bottomless In other words, you're not going to out-send God's mercy If you understand God's mercy at all you understand that There would be nothing more arrogant to think that you could out-send God's mercy or you're thinking of God like he looks at you as an equal You know, I mean you're incapable of unconditional love, right? I mean Sure, I love you because you don't live with me. I don't even know you that well But I mean if you you know pulled out a machete and killed my children, I would stop loving you Right like unconditional love is pretty much impossible for two equals Right, I'm sorry I picked a gross example. I just wanted to get to the end of that one really quickly. Okay Um, I mean I could have said if you killed my dog I wouldn't love you I actually would thank you for that Anyway But God's love God's mercy is bottomless Because he doesn't expect anything from you
He doesn't look upon us as equals He's not disappointed with you He looks upon us like you look upon a newborn Rolling around in their poo Hey You don't look at them and go why didn't you do your homework? Right? There's nothing they can offer you. I mean see the distance is much greater than that It's it's greater than a child making pets out of little roly-poly bugs She doesn't expect anything from these bugs The distance is greater than that God is merciful to you because these merciful you're not gonna out-send that It has no bottom But it does have boundaries Sometimes we we sing about God's mercy or we sing about God's grace and we want to We want to highlight it. We want to exalt it and so we sing about it like it's infinite There's not infinite If it had in if it were infinite it would have no boundaries But it does have boundaries God tells us that he says it very Clearly I will be merciful to whom I will be merciful I will show mercy to whom I will show mercy He does not show mercy to all Mary says that she says he shows mercy to those who fear him Not to the presumptive fools who think they don't need him Not to those who think that they're so wise that they don't need a God to exist He He does not show mercy to the scoffer Who's just too smart for all that we talked about that a little bit last week You know this is the thing I do whenever I preach in Bianchi's I'll preach every Sunday And Bianchi says that was a good point. I always come back to that one the next week I was like no, I'm just gonna go on and she wants me to encourage you to understand that that there are scoffers out there They're not asking questions to learn anything. They're not trying to learn about God They just want to point out the oddities of Christianity so they can feel good about themselves
God's mercy doesn't go to them God's mercy is not for the proud Those who are proud of themselves who who stand up without the need of God To those who look at what they themselves have constructed and want to say I built this I didn't need God or anyone else
And that sounds harsh But guys, that's that's good news God's mercy is for the foolish And for the weak and for the humble Now I didn't use to like that news because I was smart And I worked hard to be a good Christian And I was surrounded this is like when I was you know in college Otherwise known as being an idiot I would look around everyone else who wasn't working as hard as I was and who wasn't as serious about their Christianity as I was And I didn't like that the idea that God was merciful to people who weren't trying as hard as I was Oh, I was so old then I'm so much younger now There's so much oh so much smarter than And I'm so much more foolish now And having walked with the Lord from X number of years I tell you that it's good news because you can always go lower I can't be as good as I thought I will never no human will ever be as good as I thought I was
But you can go lower You can confess your sin You may not ever achieve those goals that you set for yourself that you were going to be someday But you can always be humbler You can always go lower His mercy is for the humble It's for Mary It's for the normal It's for the cracked plates
When my sons were four and five respectively I decided it was time to bless the world by having them embark on their athletic careers So I signed them up for T-Ball And both of my sons both of my sons managed To do what the athletic feet that is extremely rare in T-Ball They struck out With a great big bat and ball a ball that was not moving They both managed in games in front of crowds To strike out And I'll never forget putting my boys to bed one night when both of them had struck out and they were very sad And wondering why I had submitted them to public humiliation And as I turned out the light the last thing I said to him is boy, don't you know I love it when you strike out And they both said why and I said If you hit the ball then you might think I love you because you could hit the ball But when I tell you that I love it when you strike out you know I love you because you remind God loves the humble He loves the low the question this Christmas is not had you achieved a level yet that you ought to have achieved as a Christian The question for you is are you a cracked plate are you humble enough Are you low enough For God to show his mercy to you And to use you Even in a ministry like man Please pray with me Father in heaven we pray that you would come and and receive us would you remind the low and the broken that you have come for us That you're for us And that your mercy is always there for us if we will come and receive it Thank you Lord that you did not wait for us to find you But that you came to marry and through her you came to all of us in Jesus name we pray Amen