Worship Fully

But let's read, OK? So in Luke chapter 1. In those days, Mary rose and went with haste into the hill country to a town in Judea, 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 Mary 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. 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 army, 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 empty away. He has helped his servant Israel in remembrance of his mercy, as he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his offspring forever." So last week, we launched this as a prep week before Advent. We launched this five-week series last week on the Advent conspiracy. And this week, we're going to be looking at, how do we worship fully? Next week, we'll be looking at spending less. I know, all the kids are gone, so that's a good thing. But spending less. Worshiping fully, spending less, then giving more. How do we give more at the same time? Well, you might give your presents, rather than presents. And then, finally, loving all, the Sunday before Christmas Eve. So those are the four themes. It's a good framework to get into. And today, we start with worshiping fully. And what better place than, I think, in a sense, you could call it the first Christmas carol. The words of Mary are poetry and song. And she just got into it, from what I would gather. She did not just sit there and go, my soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God. She just let it rip. So we're going to look at this first Christmas carol, probably the best one of all, and how it hints at what Christmas, this time, is really all about. So we're going to look at how to worship fully, and under these three points, what leads to worship in the first place. And then, secondly, what to minimize and maximize in worship. And thirdly, then, how do we actually do it? How does this work? So what leads to worship? Now, I don't know if you realize this. In the Bible, just like in this instance here, there's no place in the Bible where people just automatically worship just because it's the good thing to do. I would love to think I'm a natural worshiper. But you know what I am? I'm a natural self-worshipper. Not you? OK. But I tend to worship me. That's kind of my natural estate. So what leads me to then worship God is because God has done something. Worship is always a response to what God has said, what God has spoken, what God has promised, what God has done. It's not something that I just automatically say, you know what, today I think I should worship God because he exists. I'm not in this independent observer mode where I can stand back and go like, wow, that's great. Yes, let me worship God because of. It's always in relation to he has done. And you can see what God has done, and how God has acted, how God came into the life of Mary, and then with Mary and Elizabeth, and what led her to worship. Now, right before this passage, if you read in Luke chapter 1, there's a section called the Annunciation. That means the announcement. It's when the angel Gabriel, it's what our video at the beginning kind of shared just a little. When the angel Gabriel came to Mary, who's probably, what, 12, 14 years old, and told her one-on-one, individually, nobody else was around, you're going to have a child. And Mary responds pretty positively and amazingly to it. Now, she's not dumb. Oh, of course. No, she says, how can this be? Because, like, really, how can this be? I mean, I know it doesn't work. Just like, you know. And the angel says, because the Holy Spirit will come upon you and this child will be the son of God. Don't worry. God's got it. Everything's possible with God. And so Mary, you know, I'm not sure she understood it fully. Do you think, would you understand that fully? Age 12, 14? Something told, yeah. Now, she responds well. She says, in the end, behold, I am the servant of the Lord. Let it be done to me according to your word. But it seems almost, at that moment, like a resignation to, oh, I guess that's the way it's going to be. OK. Which is a great thing. OK. Gre...