Third Wednesday in Advent Service

Kongsvinger Lutheran Church

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Sorry, dude, I've got the ridge.

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I need to get in on this. It's nice. Oh, you're going to be, uh, uh, backstage stuff like that?

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Yeah. I mean, it's not that strong.

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But I, to be honest with you, man, this is the most important part.

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So is there a thing where if we just do the bone, that's, uh, Yeah, that's an area, that's an area. What technology is, like, blowing my mind?

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I feel like a boomer. This technology is really crazy.

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My nephew has all the newest stuff that I wish I had. Like, when my sister said something, your nephew's way more advanced than you are.

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I mean, especially when you're playing Xbox Series X and you're still playing Nintendo. So you've seen those back on the phone?

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Those Xbox? Yeah. I mean, for some reason.

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Well, the issue is, is if I break, if I break my, uh,

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So check, so check this out. Yeah. So check this out. These cameras, I'm going to just turn them on.

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Yeah. Like, you know, uncover, do this thing, make sure it's, think they're in focus. This power switch here is what turns on this guy and this guy.

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In order that it streams to the internet, all you have to do is hit this button here. Right here. This is on air. That's all you have to do.

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You don't have to care about the internet. And it goes straight to YouTube? It goes straight to YouTube. What about Zoom? Zoom is its own thing.

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You can log in and people will notice. So you're, you're splitting the feed, the video between the two?

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The reason why I split it this way is because the audio and the video quality directly to YouTube is far greater than Zoom.

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All right. Why don't you show me how to set it up on Sunday? Okay. Between the services.

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Okay, sure. I can help out. We only have to worry about one server. Right. Or two, actually, because you won't be here on Sunday.

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Right. So that's an issue. So he knows that we're going to stream. We just need to be able to do one stream.

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Yeah. One stream. And the good thing is that we it plugs into the back of that thing and it hooks directly into the

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SSD and then all you have to do in order to record for that is just hit record.

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Okay. Right there. So if I start it and stop it, your mom doesn't have anything to do except flip through the order of service.

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Yeah. And the thing is that you don't need to do that. No, no. Right. Okay. Okay. So I just,

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I just need to... And you'll also have to, you know, flip between one and two. Okay.

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Cool. Mm -hmm. All right. Mm -hmm. I have a friend of mine down in Texas who's actually just recently started getting into the faith.

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If it's just the three of us, we're probably not going to chant. Okay. That's fine. The song, the song, the song.

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Yeah. What candles am I lighting? You're lighting... One purple. You're lighting three, these three candles up here.

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So the two purples and the one rose. And I have four of them. Right. And then it goes off.

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Okay. Yeah. Not this Sunday. It'll be... Next week, you said. Next week, yeah. Are they not coming today?

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I think there's four of us.

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No, baseball's all passed. Yeah.

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Big old crowd. Where should we sit today?

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Wherever you want. I have my designated location. We have reservations. Okay. Okay.

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I'd like to welcome you out of the Congregational Lutheran Church. This is our third midweek Advent service.

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Next week, we'll be having Christmas Eve, and we'll see how that goes. But tonight, we'll follow the order of vespers.

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Since we have such a small group and such a long psalm, we're going to speak the psalm together tonight rather than chant it.

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We're going to speak it by half verse. So if you are physically present here and you are able, please rise.

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Order of services on page 229. Oh, Lord, open my lips.

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Make haste, O God, to deliver me. Psalm 80.

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We will read this together. We'll speak it together by half verse. Give ear,

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O shepherd of Israel, you who lead Joseph like a flock. Before Ephraim and Benjamin and Manasseh, restore us,

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O God. Oh, Lord, God of hosts, how long will you be...

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Oh, sorry. Oh, Lord, God. Oh, Lord, God of hosts. You have fed them with the bread of tears.

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You make us an object of contention for our neighbors. Restore us,

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O God of hosts. You brought a vine out of Egypt.

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You cleared the ground for it. The mountains were covered with its shade.

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It sent out its branches to the sea. Why then have you broken down its walls?

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The boar from the forest ravages it. Turn again,

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O God of hosts. Have regard for this vine, the stock of your right hand planted.

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They have burned it with fire. They have cut it down. But you let your hand be on the man of your right hand.

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Then we shall not turn back from you. Restore us,

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O Lord, God of hosts. Glory be to the

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Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit as it was in the beginning, is now and will be forever.

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Amen. The opening hymn is 356. You may be seated. Please rise for the gospel.

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A reading from the gospel of Luke chapter one. In the sixth month, the angel

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Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was

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Joseph of the house of David. And the virgin's name was Mary. And he came to her and said, greetings,

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O favored one, the Lord is with you. She was greatly troubled at the saying and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be.

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And the angel said to her, do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son and you shall call his name

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Jesus. He will be great and he will be called the son of the most high. And the

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Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever.

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And of his kingdom, there will be no end. And Mary said to the angel, how will this be since I am a virgin?

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And the angel answered her, the Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the most high will overshadow you.

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Therefore, the child to be born will be called Holy, the son of God. And behold, your relative

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Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son. And this is the sixth month with her who is called barren.

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For nothing will be impossible with God. And Mary said, behold, I am the servant of the

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Lord. Let it be to me according to your word. And the angel departed from her. And in those days,

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Mary arose and went with haste into the hill country to a town in Judah. She entered the house of Zechariah and greeted

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Elizabeth. And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb and Elizabeth was filled with the

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Holy Spirit. And she exclaimed with a loud cry, blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb.

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Why is it 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.

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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

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Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior. For he has looked on the humble estate of his servant.

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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.

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And his mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation. He has shown strength with his arm.

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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.

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He has filled the hungry with good things and the rich he has sent empty away. And he has helped his servant

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Israel in remembrance of his mercy as he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his offspring forever.

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And Mary remained with her about three months and returned to her home. Oh Lord, have mercy on us.

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Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous branch.

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This is the name by which he will be called. The Lord is our righteousness.

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In his days, Judah will be saved and Israel will dwell securely.

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This is the name by which he will be called. The Lord is our righteousness.

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Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the

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Holy Spirit. This is the name by which he will be called.

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The Lord is our righteousness. You may be seated.

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In the name of Jesus. Amen. Bullying. We're all familiar with bullying.

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We've heard a thing or two about it. You may have been bullied as a child. You may have even been bullied as an adult.

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You'll note that people who are bullies are not that fun to be around. But you'll take this for something that I think is interesting.

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Bullying is shown in scripture as being a satanic activity.

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We, as sinners, are bullied by the devil. And here's the thing.

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We're too weak and too powerless to do a darn thing about it, right?

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We are harassed in our health. We are harassed in our finances. We are harassed in our family ties.

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We are harassed and bullied in all kinds of different ways. And you'll note that things never really get better.

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They only continue to get worse. In fact, when you fight a bully, oftentimes the bully is gonna make sure that you pay for it.

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And so you'll note that Mary, Mary's song, the Magnificat, that's our focus tonight.

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But we have to do a little bit of work before we get to it. And the work that we have to do is by going back about 1 ,000 years to the time of the birth of Samuel.

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Samuel's mother was Hannah. And Hannah was a woman who was bullied.

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Absolutely bullied. Bullied and treated terribly. And here's the thing.

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When you are treated terribly and you are bullied and you are pushed down and you are oppressed, you'll note that oftentimes you just have to suffer under the load and there's no point in getting angry and lashing back because it does nothing but make it worse.

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The themes that Hannah sings in her song are the exact same things that Mary sings in hers, but the focus is a little different.

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One's in the types and shadows and the other is not. So if we look back, 1

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Samuel chapter one. Story begins with verse one. There was a certain man of Ramathaim, Zophim of the hill country of Ephraim, whose name was

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Elkanah, the son of Jehoram, son of Elihu, son of Tohu, son of Zoph, and here we go, an

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Ephrathite. Bethlehem, Ephrathite, right? Interesting. He had two wives.

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The name of the one was Hannah, the name of the other, Penanah, and Penanah had children, but Hannah had no children.

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And for a woman back at this time to not have children, I mean, what's the point of being a woman?

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You can't own property, you can't be a CEO of a corporation, you can't do a lot of things.

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In fact, a woman without children is, well, like having a tool that doesn't work.

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It's like, what's the point in life? And there's shame associated with this, there's scorn associated with people looking down, and here we learn that Penanah, the one who had children, she was a bully.

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She was an absolute, tyrannical, wicked bully. So the story says, now this man used to go up year by year from his city to worship and to sacrifice to Yahweh of armies at Shiloh, where the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were priests of the

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Lord. And on the day when Elkanah sacrificed, he would give portions to Penanah, his wife, and to all her sons, plural, and daughters, plural.

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That, you'll note that Penanah was quite fruitful. How many sons and daughters she has, we don't know.

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At the minimum, there has to be four children, maybe more. How many years did her tormenting go on, one has to ask the question, right?

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Hannah, though, he gave a double portion because he loved her, though the Lord had closed her womb.

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It's good to see here that Elkanah loved his wife even though the Lord had closed her womb. It's important for us to note that she was not despised or hated by her husband.

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He did not believe that he had somehow made a mistake in marrying her. But here's the text.

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Her rival used to provoke her, not just provoke her, but provoke her grievously to irritate her because Yahweh had closed her womb.

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How many ways that had to have happened, and I bet it was terrible. Like, every time

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Penanah knew she was pregnant, she would probably say, guess what?

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I missed a period. I bet I'm pregnant again. I bet you've never missed one of those, have you?

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Right, just terrible stuff, always twisting the knife. And here's where we have to see this.

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This is all from Satan. This is all from Satan. Satan is the one who exalts himself.

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He glorifies himself, and he teaches us, his little rotten children, to do the same, to glorify ourselves, and to do so at the expense of other people.

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You'll note that people don't want to share glory. In fact, the world we live in, have you noticed that when something goes down in the media or happens in politics that the news groups, the news channels don't show up at your door to ask your opinion about what's going on?

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During the last election, did either of the nominees call you up and say, we'd really like to see you on the stage next to me, and would like to get your endorsement?

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No, you'll note that very, very few people in this life, and I mean few, very few people, we all know their names.

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Most of the people on this planet, and I've traveled a bit around the world, most of the people on this planet are nameless and faceless.

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You cross the street, you wouldn't recognize them. You hear their name, you wouldn't recognize their name, and that's the way it is.

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What do we all do? We're languishing in obscurity, but yet powerful people with big names, huge platforms, are making decisions that impact all of us, right?

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And sometimes the decisions they make benefit us, and sometimes we are cursed with really stupid leaders.

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And then you'll note that in the world that we live in, the strong and the wealthy, oftentimes they use their strength and their wealth and their power for the purpose of exploiting other human beings.

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And even so much so, they exploit even the weakest among us, our children. And again,

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I hate to invoke names like this, but Jeffrey Epstein and P. Diddy, do I need to say anything else, right?

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So here we got Penaa tormenting a woman that her husband loves.

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And I hate to say this, why didn't Elkanah put a stop to this? Why is he being so weak?

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Why is he not standing up for his other bride, right?

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That's the other thing that happens in this life. Sometimes when we see evil, we don't recognize it for what it is.

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And even if we do recognize it, we do nothing. There's a reason why there's a saying in our world, all it takes for evil people to take over is for good people to stay quiet, right?

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So her rival used to provoke her grievously, to irritate her because Yahweh had closed her womb.

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So it went on year by year. As often as she went up to the house of Yahweh, she used to provoke her.

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Therefore, Hannah wept, would not eat. Elkanah, her husband, said to her,

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Hannah, why do you weep? What a stupid question.

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And why do you not eat? And why is your heart sad? Am I not more to you than 10 sons?

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Why aren't you doing anything to stop this, right? So after they had eaten and drunken

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Shiloh, Hannah rose, now Eli, the priest, was sitting on the seat beside the doorpost at the temple of Yahweh.

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She was deeply distressed and prayed to Yahweh, wept bitterly.

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By the way, there's not a thing she could do to extricate herself from this situation. She doesn't have the power, she doesn't have the strength, she doesn't have the doctors, she doesn't have the money, she doesn't have anything.

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She doesn't have the technology necessary to even give her a fighting chance at this point. There is only one, one being who could save her and who could deliver her.

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Only one who has the strength, the wisdom, the kindness, and that is our

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Lord. So she vowed a vow. She said, oh Yahweh of armies, if you will indeed look on the affliction of your servant and remember me.

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Isn't that exactly what the thief on the cross, the other one, said to Jesus?

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Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom. Remember me, Lord, to have

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God remember you as everything because the damned go into eternity unremembered.

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God doesn't even know their name. Please remember me and not forget your servant, but I will give your servant a son, but if you will give your servant a son, then

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I will give him to Yahweh all the days of his life. No razor shall touch his head. The plea is please remove the scourge.

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Please remove the tormenting and the taunting. Please take my bully and punch her in the nose, would you?

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And silence her, please. And as she continued praying before Yahweh, Eli observed her mouth.

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Hannah was speaking in her heart. Only her lips moved and her voice was not heard. Therefore, Eli took her to be a drunken woman.

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Not even the priests in this story can give even a morsel of grace. Considers her to be a drunken woman, and he rebukes her and says, how long will you go on being drunk?

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Put your wine away from you. And at this point, Hannah says enough is enough, and she stands up for a second.

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She says, no, my lord. I am a woman troubled in spirit. I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink, but I have been pouring out my soul before Yahweh.

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Do not regard your servant as a worthless woman, for all along I have been speaking out of my great anxiety and vexation.

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Oh, she has a voice, right? And a strong one at that. But here's the thing.

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Don't you think the high priest of God should have seen her distress and offered some kind of empathetic comfort?

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She's gotten comfort from nobody. So Eli answered her, all right, go in peace, and may the

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God of Israel grant your petition that you have made to him. And she said, all right.

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Let your servant find favor in your eyes, and then the woman went away and ate, and her face was no longer sad.

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She poured out her soul before the Lord. The Lord is the only one who could rescue her, and she now trusted that God would do what

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God was going to do. So they rose early in the morning and they worshiped before Yahweh.

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Then they all went back to their house at Ramah, and Elkanah knew Hannah as wife, and Yahweh remembered her.

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And in due time, Hannah conceived and bore a son, and she called his name Samuel, for she said,

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I have asked for him from the Lord. And the word Samuel sounds a lot like the

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Hebrew heard of God. And so we hear then what happened, but she eventually takes young Samuel, and she presents him before the

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Lord, brings him back when he's still young, and then we hear

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Hannah saying this song. My heart exalts in Yahweh.

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My horn is exalted in Yahweh. She is not saying that she is exalting, but she is exalting the

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Lord, and that even who she is exalts only in the fact that God is the one who is exalted, and she is in him.

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My mouth now derides my enemies because I rejoice in your salvation.

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It's hard to believe, but it's absolutely true that the birth of a child to a woman who was barren becomes a type and shadow, a thematic theological statement that one can rejoice at because it is a picture of salvation.

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The barren woman bears a child. I rejoice in the salvation that God has delivered to me.

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That theme carries over into the New Testament. There is none like Yahweh, for there is none besides you.

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There is no rock like our God. Take no more so very proudly.

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Talk no more so very proudly. Let not arrogance come from your mouth, for Yahweh is a

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God of knowledge, and by him actions are weighed, and you can hear her when she says this. Talk no more very proudly.

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There is a face that she has in mind when she says those words, and it's the face of Pena, right?

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Talk no more very proudly, Pena. Let not arrogance come from your mouth anymore, for Yahweh is a

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God of knowledge, and by him actions are weighed. He's seen every one of your taunts and your torments.

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The bows of the mighty are broken, but the feeble bind on strength, and here you can see it.

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The who bind on what? The feeble bind on strength. The great reversal has come.

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Those who were full have hired themselves out for bread. Those who were hungry have ceased to hunger.

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The barren has born seven, but she who has many children is now forlorn.

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Yahweh kills and he brings to life. He brings down to Sheol and he raises up.

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Yahweh makes poor and he makes rich. He brings low and he exalts. He raises up the poor from the dust.

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He lifts the needy from the ash heap to make them sit with princes and inherit a seat of honor.

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Do not lament the fact that you are walking through this life unknown. Do not lament that fact, and don't let anyone tell you you're a nobody.

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Don't let anybody say otherwise. In Scripture, in Ephesians chapter two, it says that God has raised us up with Christ, that God himself has seated us with Christ.

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Doesn't matter if you are a, well, somebody who works for the trash company, if you languish in obscurity in a blue -collar job, if you work hard every week and toil to pay your bills and nobody even knows your name, do not let that worry you.

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The world thinks that that's a terrible and mean thing, but God has raised you up and made you to sit with Christ himself, and you have inherited from him all as a gift, a seat of honor, a seat of honor before the throne of Christ, a seat of honor at the table at the marriage feast of the

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Lamb. All of this he gives to the needy, to the feeble, to the poor, to the obscure, to the humble.

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Those who think that they are wealthy and rich, he gives none of this stuff to because they are just like Satan.

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The pillars of the earth are Yahweh's, and on them he has set the world. He will guard the feet of his faithful ones, but the wicked shall be cut off in the darkness, for not by might shall a man prevail.

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The adversaries of Yahweh shall be broken to pieces, and against them he will thunder in heaven.

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Yahweh will judge the ends of the earth. He will give strength to his king and exalt the horn of his

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Messiah. That's how it reads in the Hebrew, by the way. That's a zinger of a song.

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It's a zinger, and here's the thing. Mary, in our gospel text today, sings verse two, and it's absolutely stunning when you consider it.

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In fact, coming back then to when the angel Gabriel announces what's gonna take place, starting at verse 26 again.

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Remember the context here. Here we are going to hear that Joseph, the man whom

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Mary was betrothed to, that Joseph was of the house of David and the lineage of David.

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He, had he lived in a different time, would have been the heir to the throne, but what throne was there to inherit at this point?

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Israel was under the boot of the Roman Empire, and they chose the monarchs and the governors and the magistrates and the people who would rule over them, and Herod, he wasn't even a

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Jew. He was an Idumean. The throne of David is long, long gone.

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Isn't it interesting that the heir to the throne of David says he's a carpenter.

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That's how it reads in the English, but maybe a better translation of that would be construction worker.

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What did Joseph, the heir to the throne of David, do for a living? He slung a hammer. He sawed wood.

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He put up drywall. He drove nails and screws and did all that hard, hard labor.

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And do people look at all at construction workers?

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Oh, man, he's a construction worker. No, in our world, they're despised.

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They're just day laborers. You need a construction worker? In Southern California, you go down to Home Depot at six in the morning.

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There's a bunch of them waiting in the parking lot. Just bring your pickup truck and say you, you, you, you, and you throw them in the back of the truck, and you've got your construction workers for the day, right?

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That's Joseph, and you'll note under the oppression of the

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Roman Empire, everybody in Israel was barely getting by.

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That includes Mary. That includes her parents. That includes Joseph. They weren't getting ahead.

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There was no chance that they would. The taxes were so high, and there was so much corruption in the government that everybody was just pushed hard down.

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These were not good times. They're satanic times, just like ours.

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So in the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was

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Joseph. I mean, she's a young woman. She's not wise. She doesn't have a lot of experience, and I would note that virgins' wombs are really barren.

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Really, really, really barren. That's kind of the point. The virgin's name was Mary, so the angel

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Gabriel came to her and said, greetings, oh favored one, Yahweh is with you. But she was greatly troubled at the saying and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be, and the angel said to her, do not be afraid,

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Mary, for you have found favor with God. Beautiful words. Without faith, it's impossible to please

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God. This testimony of the angel Gabriel tells us something about Mary. Despite the roughness and difficulty and hard life that she was living in a world that didn't have indoor plumbing and heating like we have, in a world where she was under the occupying force of the

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Roman Empire, it says that she had found favor with God. That means she's a woman of faith.

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Behold, you will conceive in your womb and you will bear a son, and you shall call his name, let's use his

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Hebrew name, shall we, Yeshua, the one who will save his people.

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And then listen to this. The angel announces what Jesus will be. He will be great, he will be called the son of the most high and the

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Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.

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Wow. Wow. Those are some pretty tall words.

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That is quite the prophecy. Who is this girl again? By the way, about 30 % of the women in Israel at this time had the same name,

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Mary, right? She's just one of a million Marys out there at this time.

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So Mary at this point is a little confused. She believes, but she wants to know a little bit of the details.

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How is this gonna be since I'm a virgin? The angel answers her, the Holy Spirit will come upon you, the power of the most high will overshadow you, therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the son of God, and behold, your relative

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Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son and is in six months with her, who is called barren, nothing will be impossible with God.

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And Mary said, behold, I am the servant of the Lord, let it be done to me according to your word. And the angel departed, that's faith.

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Let it be done to me according to your word. And I would note here, when we receive the absolution and we hear that our sins are forgiven, we have joined our voices to Mary's.

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Lord, you have said that I am forgiven, let it be done to me according to your word. I know

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I don't deserve it, but yet, you have said that I am forgiven, all for the sake of Christ, the one who went to the cross and suffered in my place, in your place, and so that we can be forgiven.

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So when he says you are forgiven, let it be done to me according to your word. It is true.

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Then we hear from our text that we heard last week, that Mary Rose went with haste into the hill country to a town of Judah.

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She entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth, and when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped into her womb.

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Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit, prophetically exclaims with a loud cry, blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb, and why is it granted to me that the mother of my

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Lord should come to me? She went from humble virgin to being the mother of our

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Lord. It happened all so quickly. Not something that you can aspire to.

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God only gives it to the humble, and indeed Mary is that. 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

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Lord. And now we hear Mary's song, a duet with Hannah, if you would.

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The themes are the same, but now Mary, when she talks about being bullied, or talks about an inequity of power, she doesn't have

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Pena involved in her mind. Instead, she sees the forces of Satan.

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She sees the one who is bullying us all. She sees those who are his servants, who are oppressing, and bullying, and stealing, and oppressing us.

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So she says, my soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God, my

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Savior. Let those words sink in for a moment. Roman Catholics are not gonna like what

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I'm about to say, but Mary needed a Savior, otherwise she wouldn't have said such a thing.

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If she needed a Savior, that means that Mary was sinful, just like you and I, and that's exactly correct, because the

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Scriptures, not once, not twice, but three times, says none is righteous, no, not one.

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No one seeks for God. Together, all of them have become worthless, the Scripture says.

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That includes Mary. She needs a Savior, and she knows that her

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Savior is now in her womb. 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.

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And you can see that in her humility, she is exalting God, just like Hannah did, and saying, he is the one who has done great things.

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You'll note this about the high and the mighty, they're always listing off the litany of the great things that they have done.

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But both Hannah and Mary, neither of them exalt themselves, they exalt the one who has done the mighty works, and that's

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God. He is, he was mighty, has done great things for me, holy is his name. And his mercy is for those who fear him, from generation to generation.

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Oh, those are important words, God's mercy is for you and for me. We are generations and generations and generations away from Mary's generation, but yet God's mercy is for all of us.

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He has shown strength with his arm. He has scattered the proud in the imaginations of their hearts.

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He has brought down the mighty from their thrones, and he has exalted those of humble estate.

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He has filled the hungry with good things, and why were they hungry in the first place? They were hungry because of those who exalted themselves and abused their power from their thrones and positions of authority.

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He has filled the hungry with good things, but the rich, he sent them empty away.

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He has helped his servant Israel in remembrance of his mercy, as he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham, and to his offspring forever.

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Brothers and sisters, that's the thing, the birth of Christ is salvation. It's salvation from the one who bullies us, who has enslaved us, who is the tyrant, who rules this world with an iron fist and demands that we worship him rather than the one who created us.

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He rewards those who do wicked things and punishes those who do good.

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He rewards those who engage in idolatry and worship themselves or even worship

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Satan himself, but he oppresses and persecutes those who proclaim the name of Christ and humbly confess their sins and acknowledge that their salvation is from Christ, not from themselves.

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These are deep, rich themes, and my hope is that through these texts, all of us may have a better eye to see the

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Satanic themes in our own world, in our own hearts, in our own minds, and that we would humble ourselves like Mary, like Hannah, and cry out to the one who would deliver us, for we all have too much

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Satan inside of us, each and every one of us. Each and every one of us have made fun of mercilessly persecuted people for no other reason than to have fun or to exert our dominance over people.

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Maybe it's an older brother who behaves like a tyrant or an older sister who does those things, or the guy at work who's crawled over the backs of everybody so that he can get that corner office.

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This is everywhere, but it's also in your heart and mind, but note, though, Mary is right.

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God's mercy is for all who fear him, so let us cry out to God to give us a fresh fear of Christ.

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Fear his wrath, fear his punishment, fear because we've seen how he has brought the mighty down, and may we humbly ask him to forgive us so that we, hungry and thirsting for righteousness, may not be sent empty away, but have the full bellies of those who receive the righteousness of Christ as a gift because he has helped us, his servants.

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In the name of Jesus, amen. We rise to now sing

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Mary's song. Let my prayer rise before you as incense.

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Our father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

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Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.

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And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever, amen.

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The Lord be with you. Let us pray.

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Lord Jesus Christ, we implore you to hear our prayers and to lighten the darkness of our hearts by your gracious visitation.

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For you live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever, amen.

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Oh God, from whom come all holy desires, all good counsels and all just works. Give to us, your servants, that peace which the world cannot give.

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That our hearts may be set to obey your commandments and also that we, being defended from the fear of our enemies, may live in peace and quietness.

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Through Jesus Christ, your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

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Let us bless the Lord, the grace of our

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Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the