Carols of Christmas: The Magnificat

Well, let's take our Bibles this morning and let's turn to Luke chapter 1. Luke chapter 1. Again, this is the time of year when the songs are extraordinarily familiar and the Bible passages are well-worn. And yet I'm convinced that we can look at them for centuries and still have more to learn, more to understand. I want you to follow with me as I read Luke chapter 1, verses 39 through 56.

As we pick up the story that was read to us in our New Testament reading. 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 exclaimed with a loud cry, 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 believes that there would 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 on all generations will call me blessed. for he who is mighty has done great things for me and holy is his name and his mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation he has shown strength with his arm he has scattered the proud in 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 and the rich he has sent away empty he has helped his servant 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 Let's pray. Father, open this text to us now.

Help us to understand it. Help us to rejoice in it. Lord, I pray that you would cause us to rejoice in all that you have accomplished in Jesus. As we look at this text today, help us to enter in and to rejoice just as Elizabeth and Mary did because of what Christ has come to do we thank you now in Jesus name Amen don't you love the songs of Christmas joy to the world we three kings a little town of Bethlehem hark the herald angels sing away in a manger and on and on and on we could go and many of those are your favorite pieces of music.

At Christmas time, you unpack your Christmas CDs and play them non-stop in your house while you burn all the candles. And gangs of people actually stroll around in the streets in the coldest time of the year in order to sing songs. Right? We so associate music with Christmas that it is unimaginable to think of Christmas without music. Right? We typically don't think of the 4th of July with particular music, but to think of Christmas without music is just unthinkable.

It's just not possible. Christmas seems to be almost about music. Songs have always been a part of Christmas. They've always been associated with the advent of Jesus. In fact, if you go to the book of Luke where we've started today, you will find four songs associated with Jesus' advent recorded in the first two chapters of the book of Luke. There are four songs in those those two chapters, four of them, that have to do with the coming of Jesus.

The first is the song of Mary. It's called the Magnificat, the Latin word for magnify. There's the song of Zachariah, also known as the Benedictus, the benediction. Then there's the song of the angels called Gloria in Excelsis Deo, where the angels sing to the shepherds. And finally there the song of Simeon called the Noncadimites the song that Simeon sings after he sees the Lord Jesus So there these four songs in the first two chapters of the book of Luke over the next four weeks which includes the Sunday after Christmas because that's when Simeon saw Jesus, was after he was born, so it fits really well.

For the next four weeks, we're going to look at those Christmas songs, because they're songs of praise that tell us of Jesus, our Savior. Now, Luke was a physician who was converted under the ministry of the Apostle Paul and became one of the Apostle Paul's closest associates as they worked together ministering the gospel in many places. He wrote this book after he'd done a careful investigation of the events of Jesus' life.

If you look at the first four verses of this book, you will see that Luke says, he writes to a guy named Theophilus, and he says, look Theophilus I wanted you to be grounded in the truths of this savior Jesus that we claim and so I'll tell you what I did I went and I talked to a lot of people who were with Jesus because remember Luke was a Gentile who was converted under the ministry of the apostle Paul he never saw Jesus but he went back and he talked to all these people the apostles I think he talked to Mary because you remember in in the in in these verses or in these chapters what do you see about Mary and Mary what treasured all these things in her heart how do you know what Mary treasured in her heart well Luke talked to her Luke talked to her and she told him that and so he says Theophilus I I spent a lot of time investigating this so that you would be grounded in the truths of who Jesus is. And so he interviewed these people and he wrote down this orderly account that we now call the book of Luke. So Luke records these four songs as evidence of the unique character of the Lord Jesus.

Each one of these songs are going to say something about who Jesus is. They're intended to tell us something about Jesus as the Son of God, the Redeemer, the Savior of mankind. These are Christmas carols if you will that point you to the marvelous identity and the work of Jesus. And so here is our first song, the Magnificat. Let me read it again to you as we pick it up in verse 46 And Mary said my soul magnifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices I sorry I need to start early because we going to cover the whole story 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 greetings of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and she exclaimed with a loud cry, 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 would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord let's start there let's start here let's talk about rejoicing here the old woman Elizabeth was at home waiting waiting for God waiting for the promise and expecting her firstborn son who would believe it here's an older woman who's been childless up to this point who's been promised a baby and it's starting to show. The young woman, Mary, was out on the road heading up to the hill country.

She too was pregnant, but no one would know about it yet. Who would believe that? Who would believe that either, right? A young girl like her, still a virgin, who would still bear a son. Two women touched by God, a teenager and an older woman. Old Baron Elizabeth was six months pregnant, probably staying at home to rest while she waited for the birth of john the young virgin mary had only just conceived you know was it really true was she to give birth to the son of god to confirm the promise to confirm the promise the angel told her if you if we read this or you you heard it earlier um the angel confirmed the promise to mary by telling her that elizabeth was pregnant And so taking the hint, she goes to see her older cousin.

And what they shared was unique. They alone were chosen to bear children of promise. And they were the first to know that God had come to redeem his people. They're the first to know it. It's interesting. Now listen, this is totally off track now.

I want you to listen to me. This is a footnote. This is a rant, okay? It's fascinating to me that a writer of ancient literature, like Luke, if we just put this in the class of ancient literature, women were not mentioned, women were considered less important. you know, at the lowest part of the food chain, if you will, women were not considered important at all.

And it's interesting to me that Luke makes a big point about two women. They're the first to know. Other than Zechariah, but they're the first to know about God's going to erupt onto the stage of human history with news of redemption, with first John, the forerunner, and then the Messiah who's going to come. These two women, these two women are the ones that know before everybody else.

That's interesting to me. Anyway, they're unique. These two women are unique. They have children of promise. Now, this visit was not just for Mary and Elizabeth, but also for their sons. John is the greatest prophet of the Old Covenant.

Jesus would later say he's the greatest prophet of the Old Covenant. The one called to announce the coming of the Christ. Jesus was the Christ, the Messiah, the Lord of the new covenant. So when Mary met Elizabeth, the covenants connected. Can you think that thought? The covenants connected at this meeting.

Both sons are joined under one roof, and the electric contact of the two covenants kind of erupts into this praise, this spontaneous outburst of exultant joy as the old covenant greets the new one. The first to rejoice at the recognition of Jesus, is John, whose calling was to announce Messiah's coming. And you see there, and it's fascinating to me that Luke mentions this.

How remarkable. He began to fulfill that calling while he was still in the womb. He's leaping for joy. One writer put it this way. John the Baptist was the only child ever to use a womb for a pulpit. That is so good.

Right? He kicked for joy at the sound of Mary's voice, already recognizing that her child was the promised one. Now, at six months, don't you think it's natural for Elizabeth to feel the baby kicking, but somehow this was different. This was different to her. She could sense that her baby was leaping for joy. Possibly she knew the promise that the angel had made to her husband months before that he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even from birth Chapter 1 verse 15 You remember her husband is Zechariah the one who serving in the temple and an angel Well Gabriel the one who appeared to Mary had appeared months before to Zechariah and said your wife's going to have a son and he says what she's old she's not going to have a son.

And because he didn't believe the promise because he didn't believe it right away what happened you remember he was struck dumb he couldn't talk for nine months right and um and so um he didn't believe it at first but he was told at that point that his son would be filled with the holy spirit even from birth by the inward witness of the spirit john recognized the presence of christ john knew him to be the son of god so elizabeth joins in the rejoicing when john jumps she shouts right she has this shout of joy where she says blessed are you talking to mary 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 would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord. Now what caused this shout of joy? She also recognized the identity of the recently conceived Messiah.

Like her son, she was filled with the Spirit. She also was filled with the Spirit. Now notice her humility in verse 43. Why is it granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me? for six months the big excitement of her life had been her own pregnancy she hadn't been able to have children for years and now here she is pregnant but rather than thinking of her own good news she praised god for what he had done for mary she honored mary as the mother of her lord and her king but she wasn't worshiping mary she wasn't worshiping mary rather she blessed her faith.

Do you notice that? And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord What you will notice when you contrast the reactions of Zechariah and Mary is that Zechariah the you know one of the leading religious leaders he was a Levite he was a priest he was serving in the temple, one who would know the scriptures. When the angel said to him, your wife is gonna bear this child, he didn't believe the angel and was struck dumb.

When Mary, who's not as sophisticated, who doesn't know as much as Zechariah, is told by the angel that she's going to bear a son, she believes it right away she says well how can this be and the angel tells her and that's it she believes it right here's the simple faith of of her and and so Elizabeth blesses her because of her faith not because Mary is something extraordinary is that she humbly believed what God said right when Mary heard the message unlike Zachariah she believed it you know when you look at Mary she's an extraordinary young woman not because as some of our Catholic friends would tell us she was conceived without sin you can't say that but she still was an extraordinary woman of faith just a great woman of faith and you can see that here but the most important thing Elizabeth said was not about Mary but about Jesus she said something remarkable that the child in her womb is her Lord is her Lord now for some time Israel had been looking for its Messiah even David had said something about him in Psalm 110 in and I can't help but think that in Psalm 110 you find a riddle if you will there are riddles in the Old Testament that don't that don't don't um you can't figure them out until jesus comes and here's one of them and the apostles you notice not just here um not just is is elizabeth quite possibly referring to it here but the apostles did later to show who jesus was notice what it says psalm 110 verse 1 the lord yahweh jehovah says to my lord sit at my right hand until i make your enemies your footstool okay wait a minute this is strange the the god says to my lord says the king sit at my right hand who he talking to Who he talking to Right He talking to his son So while John was the first to recognize the identity of Jesus Elizabeth was the first to confess her faith in Jesus as Lord. She confesses that this one who is in the womb is her Lord. From the very beginning, God revealed Jesus as Lord, and these two recognize it.

They recognize it. And how do you respond to the fact that Jesus is Lord? You ought to respond to it with rejoicing. That is how everyone should respond to Jesus Christ, by trusting in Him as Savior and rejoicing in Him as Lord. And we have better reason to believe in Him as Lord than even John and Elizabeth had. They rejoiced over His conception, but we also rejoice over his life and his death and his resurrection everyone who believes in Jesus should leap for joy we should be like these women we should be rejoicing or like Elizabeth and John rejoicing at the news that Jesus is Lord do you look at Jesus as Lord that way I mean let's be honest right too often we think of Jesus as Lord as this king who is mean now we would not say that out loud but we walk through the day as if this lord is just looking at us just to wait for us to fail and now we have to confess our sin and is that the way you see jesus you ought to see jesus as lord who is a kind and gracious and loving lord is he holy absolutely absolutely he's holy and as lord he tells us do this and don't do that right all through but he's also a king who loves us and who wants us to do better and who engages us so that we do grow and who says to us the only thing i'm looking for is a contrite heart yeah you sinned own up to it that's all there's nothing you can do to make it up make it up i've taken care of paying for it you just recognize it and rejoice.

Rejoice. That's the way we need to see our King. That's the way Jesus reveals himself. Everyone who believes in Jesus should rejoice. By the way, we should rejoice Not just at this time of the year. Okay, here we go.

Here we go again. Christmas ought to be all year round. You know, there is something special about Christmas that's unlike any other part of the year. Let's just recognize that and have fun with it, okay? Nevertheless, nevertheless, we still ought to be people of joy, shouldn't we? We still ought to be people of joy.

We serve a Lord that is so kind and gracious and he's so much better than the lordship of satan who promises us that you do whatever you want and you will just love life and what do we find we find just the opposite where we find this gracious lord who says i'm going to save you from your sin and you'll know a good life then many of you here know exactly what i'm talking about you know what i mean yet there's more room for rejoicing and Mary now rejoices now Mary takes up the rejoicing banner if you will and she gives us this song I'm going to read it one more time 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 on all generations will call me blessed for who for he He who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name. And his mercy is 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, and the rich he has sent away empty. He has helped his servant Israel in remembrance of his mercy as he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his offspring forever.

Mary rejoices and magnifies the Lord. Mary rejoices and magnifies the Lord. The word translated here, well it's magnified there. The word that's translated as magnify means to make large. And that's why the Latin word is given to this magnificat. So we have a title to this song.

You know what magnify means. I used to get the magnifying glasses when you You get a magnifying This is what I noticed by the way You get a magnifying glass out when you little just for the fun of doing that and you get a magnifying glass out when you old just so you can read But whatever you use it for, the effect is the same. You put that a certain way and it makes the letters grow, it makes things look larger so you can see them better.

And that's the idea. When you want someone to look good, you magnify his reputation. You make a big deal. You make it big. You proclaim it out there. You make his name great.

Mary wanted to show the greatness of God. And she shows the greatness of God just in her own little personal testimony. This is the greatness of God not seen in splitting the Red Sea. This is the greatness of God not in making the walls of Jericho fall. this is the grace of God as he comes to a humble servant of his. Isn't that interesting? God's greatness is magnified.

God's greatness looks great. Not just when he does these powerful, magnificent things, but when he works in the life of a young woman, right? And she says, God has been good to me. Wow, what a great God. I think that's what we need. We still live in a culture that says you've got to have big stuff in order to show.

You've got to have great healings. You've got to have Phil Stadiums. You've got to do all these things in order for God to be seen as great. And the answer is no. His greatness is also seen as he relates to humble people. Right?

Notice what she says here. Or notice how difficult that must be for her to do this. I mean, this is the faith of Mary. Look at how she magnifies God. Certainly this has to be difficult. She's a teenager pledged to be married and she's pregnant.

Imagine what went on because of that. You remember that Joseph, not knowing what was going on, was ready to divorce her. Right? He was so discouraged he wanted to divorce her. And yet she does not think of herself. No, she does not think of herself.

She has been put in a difficult position. And yet what does she do? she rejoices and magnifies God because of what he is doing because of what he's going to do through her he she magnifies him but what is God doing through her what the reason for her joy what the reason for her desire to magnify her God Through this pregnancy and the birth of her son God is up to something good Here's the first. You can rejoice.

You can rejoice. By the way, Luke didn't just write this song of Mary so that this magnificent God, so that we would, yeah, so that we would understand that Mary's a woman of faith, but he wrote it for generations that were going to come later. He wrote it for this guy named Theophilus so he would understand something about Jesus. He wrote it for us. What can we rejoice about here?

You can rejoice because through Jesus, God exalts the humble. That's what he says in verses 46 through 50. God exalts the humble. Never forget that. That is so important. God exalts the humble.

Rejoice in that. Mary herself was a perfect example because there was no one lowlier than her. She was a poor peasant girl from a backwater town called Nazareth. Now, we don't get it. I mean, I don't think we get it. It's like she's this lowly peasant girl from New Bloomington.

Now, I'm not cutting New Bloomington here, Annie. I'm just saying. Or listen, you know, when I go places to speak, right, I almost always ask when I'm teaching a class, The first thing I get up, I introduce myself. I'm a pastor at LaRue Baptist Church. How many of you have ever heard of LaRue? Right?

I've only had one person raise his hand. That was in Portland, Oregon. I was teaching out there one time. One person raised his hand. I thought, whoa. But anyway, I say to people in this county, I'm from LaRue, and they don't know what I'm talking about.

Right? Seriously. I have. I've met people. Where are you from? I'm from Marion. off from larue where's that right that's that's the kind of place where mary's from she's a poor peasant girl from a backwater town no one's ever heard of nazareth she was nobody from nowhere and she knew it she was also a sinner and she knew it she was also a sinner and she knew it that's why she calls god her what her savior mary needed to be saved as much as anyone else and by his grace God did save her through his son.

And he did do great things for her, didn't he? He did great things for her by putting a child in her virgin womb and sending his son to be her savior That is why generations call Mary blessed She was blessed by the undeserved favor of a merciful God She is blessed not because of who she is. She is blessed because God was merciful and showed great favor to her, not because of who she is, but because he's a merciful God.

And he chose her as the one who would bring his son into the world. That is why the generations ought to call Mary blessed. Because of what God did through her, not because of who she is. And the way God works in Mary's life is the way he always works. This is something we've got to get into our minds. He always works this way.

Here is Mary, a teenager who's pregnant out of wedlock with a fiance who at first did not understand her, living in a difficult financial situation, and yet this humble girl honors God by her faith-filled obedience to His will. Right? He exalts the humble. He exalts the humble. He doesn't use the big-name people to accomplish His purposes. Do you see what she's saying here?

Right? He looked on the humble estate of his servant. She is nobody from nowhere. And yet, he's going to use her to accomplish the greatest thing ever seen. Please, we have to get it in our minds. We are so much into the celebrity.

We are so much into the big ticket items that are going to bring people to Jesus, that are going to change the world when God changes the world through the use of a humble woman, a young teenager who no one would ever know. I hope you're getting the idea here. And then he says he shows mercy to those who fear him, that is those who reverence him. And you show reverence to God.

You know how you show reverence to God? You know how you show that you hold him in the highest esteem? You believe what he says about his son and you obey him when he says believe in him. That is the first step in the fear of God. Okay? Now look.

If you find yourself in humble circumstances, don't complain. that you deserve something better. Do not rage against your misfortune, if you want to call it that. Rather, recognize your lowly position. Recognize that you need a Savior too. And recognize that God uses humble people in difficult circumstances. now you can rejoice because through jesus god humbles the proud verses 51 through 53 he has shown strength with his arm he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts he has brought down the mighty from their thrones he exalted those of humble estate he has filled the hungry with good things and the rich he has sent away empty here mary moves beyond herself to talk about God's people, Israel, right?

And to talk about what God is going to do for the world. She remembers how God has acted in the past in humbling proud rulers through humble means. Now again, I want to say, we have got to get this in our mind. Mary's making a big deal out of the fact that God even, he uses humble people, right? uses humble means, but then he takes proud people, powerful people, and makes them nothing.

Right? He uses humble, know-nothing, everyday, ordinary people. How do we know that? Well, just think about what's going through her mind, quite possibly. He drowns Pharaoh's army in the Red Sea, right? You talk about humbling.

He puts the Midianites to flight by the 300 men that Gideon had, right? You remember that story? He destroys the Philistines when Samson is at his weakest point, right he scatters them he scatters the Philistines by using a young man to kill a giant right he takes a shepherd boy who even his father didn pay any attention to and makes him the greatest king of Israel And that he doesn't become king until he has suffered in the wilderness as someone who's getting chased all over the place, who is an outlaw, who certainly no one would think of as a king.

He puts him through that before he becomes a king. He brought the proud Nebuchadnezzar down from his throne. And Belshazzar he sends away from the feast. Totally destroyed that night. God did these things to save his people. God did these things to save his people.

He doesn't, he humbles the mighty and uses the humble. Okay? She's looking to the future as well. She can do that because when God says he'll do something, its good is already done. He's got a whole history of this. This is the way the prophets of old spoke.

They spoke in the past tense when they talked about the future. She praises God for what he would yet do in Christ. The great reversal had already begun with Jesus' conception. For the king would come through a humble servant. The coming king would humble the pride of the intellect. Verse 51, he scatters the proud in the thoughts of their hearts.

He takes the most sophisticated arguments and destroys them. The pride of position, verse 52, he's brought down the mighty from their thrones, all right? And the pride of wealth, verse 53, the rich go away hungry. This is the way God works. This is what he's going to do in Christ. When you think about the history of the gospel, the history of the gospel is not one, okay?

Let's compare it this way. The history of Islam, one of the fastest growing religions in the world, right? And when it burst out of the Arabian Peninsula in the 600s and burst across North Africa and up into Spain, get some maps in your head, so Islam spreads like that, spreads north, spreads west across the north of the Mediterranean Sea. How did it spread so fast?

You know how? With the sword. Obey or die. Believe our tenets or you die. that's one way of getting converts isn't it and yet when you look at the history of the gospel and its spread and how it has changed the whole course of history What do you see You see God using simple means speaking the gospel one preaching the gospel to convert people and changing the course of nations.

You see, Jesus and what Jesus does or what God does in Jesus is takes the conventional standards of greatness and significance and stands them on their heads. Right. It's not about being rich. It's not about being powerful. It's none of that things. That's not greatness in God's kingdom.

The rich man. OK, let me give you a couple of examples. In chapter 16, the rich man goes to hell. The poor man goes to heaven. Lazarus and the rich man. Remember that parable in chapter 16. chapter 18 the prayers of the righteous pharisee go unheard but the prayers of the publican the worst in society as he beats his breast and says god have mercy on me he walks away justified that's not the way god is supposed to work right then comes the greatest reversal of all you see the lord jesus christ himself this king comes and is born where he's born in humble means and stuck in a feeding trough, right?

He grows up in a backwater town named Nazareth. He does everything right, and what happens to him? Always remember this, by the way. Always remember this. When you think life is hard for you, remember this. Jesus did everything right.

He did everything right, and what happened to him? They nailed him to a cross, right? Can you think of, when you think of a king who's come and they nail him to a cross. He's done everything right. What is that? That is God overturning what the world thinks ought to be.

And what does he do? He raises him from the dead. He raises him from the dead in triumph. Through Jesus, the hungry will be filled. Now, certainly he speaks here of the people who are hungry. Jesus loves to extend people.

Love extends to people who are hungry. and part of the imagery here is poor people are hungry because they're oppressed people take advantage of that and don't pay them and they can't eat and so the idea is god's going to come and reverse that but the hungry who have no resources know they need god you ever notice that they're the humble ones who know that they need something from god they need something more the rich don want what god offers they pursue pleasure and possessions and parties and refuse to consider that God offers them something better Something they need Last thing he says, you can rejoice because through Jesus God fulfills the covenant he made with Abraham. He fulfills all the promises he made to Abraham. Mary knew that she carried in her womb a person who somehow fulfilled that ancient covenant.

Turn over to chapter 12 for a moment. Boy, it just seems like yesterday we were in Genesis 12, doesn't it? Well, it does to me. To me, Genesis 12 is one of my favorite chapters of the whole book of Genesis. When I get to preach other places, this is the one I preach. The one I preach to you.

Notice what he says. This is what God promises Abram. and I will make of you a great nation and I will bless you and make your name great so that you will be you will be a blessing I will bless those who bless you and him who dishonors you I will curse and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed all the families of the earth shall be blessed through you this is what the promise was and now on this side of the cross we know what he was talking about he's talking about this offspring that would come from Abraham named Jesus, a descendant of Abraham, who would become a blessing to all the nations. And through Jesus, God's going to bless the nations.

And you're here as a result. You ever think about that? You're here in fulfillment of the promise made to Abraham in Genesis chapter 12. That's why you're here. Because God kept his word in that covenant. You are the fruit of the covenant with Abraham.

You belong to God through the covenant, through the fact that Jesus bought you. And now the fulfillment of the Abraham covenant is sitting right here in front of me. And she knows that somehow God's going to fulfill all those promises. So look, Mary did not sing this song for herself alone nor for Elizabeth but for us all so that we could sing it after her.

And the words of Mary's song ought to tell us something about Jesus and strengthen our faith and our trust in him. They comfort us with the promise that God will exalt us when we are low. They chasten our pride. They destroy the proud thoughts of our own hearts, and tells us God has something. God's going to exalt you. You, in humble circumstances, God's going to use you, and God will exalt you.

God has done great things for us, so we should magnify him for his mighty deeds of our salvation through the birth and the death and the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. Father, thank you for this song. we pray now Lord that you would cause us to reflect on it Lord let us reflect on it this week and to think about all that you have done for us and to rejoice because we too are humble people we're not famous we're not celebrities none of us here are rich by the world's standards and yet you can use us you will use us And above all, Father, you have used humble means to save us. You have used a means that just is beyond any kind of ability to understand.

And for that, we want to magnify your name. Help us to magnify your name because of what you have done. In Jesus' name, amen.