Hey, come on church. Let's pray together. Lord, we come before you. Now. God, we thank you just for your presence, God, that in this season we're reminded that you stepped into our story so that we can know you, so that we can experience you, your, your glory, your majesty, your magnificence.

We thank you for the stories of life change, and we're praying for, for even more of that today, God, that we will experience you in a new and afresh and a powerful way that, that lives will be changed, that eternities will be changed, God, and that, that in it all, you'll be glorified. You'll be honored. We pray that you'll move in this time, like only you can all things we ask in your name. Amen. Amen.

Well, hey, man, welcome to Venture Church. I'm so glad that you're here today. Uh, a couple of weeks ago, if you didn't know this, um, we entered into a season that for the past few years at least, we have called Be Generous. And, and here's why. Here's why we use that language.

You know, the Bible talks a great deal about our finances, right? Our finances, our possessions, our money, our treasures, because there, there's nothing that, uh, competes for the throne of our heart quite like money. I'm sure you've experienced that, especially in this season, right? Where all of our conversations kind of begin to orient a little bit around, um, what we can't afford, what we can't afford, what I really need, what I really want, like all of that, right? And, and so we believe as a church man, we believe one of the ways to, to battle, one of the best ways to battle against that drift where we let our finances kind of dictate and guide everything else in our life is generosity.

But we believe that generosity is one of the ways we can kind of keep our finances in check and make sure that it is our finances that are submitting to our faith rather than the other way around. And so we, we've been through this season for several years as we kind of get into the holidays of, of generosity, we call it be generous. And so last week we invited, you kind of opened up an opportunity to be generous, and you're giving, we had a, a big one time gift above and beyond gift where we said, man, we want you to pray about, um, where God is calling you, where God is challenging you to be generous. And as a church, uh, what we did this year was we said, look, before, before we, we see any number, before we know anything about any of it, we wanna commit on the front end to take a percentage of that 10% a tithe of everything that was given last week and be generous. And look, we're gonna funnel it back into our community.

The thing God put on our heart was the, the amount of medical debt in our state. It can be a crippling thing. If you've ever been there, just the bill after bill, letter after letter, that never seems to go away. We, we partnered with an organization, um, called rip RIP, medical Debt. And, and what they do is, and I, look, I'm not the best one to explain these specifics, so let me just kind of acknowledge that, okay?

Um, but what they do from my understanding is essentially operate like a creditor. So they're able to go in and buy, um, medical debt in bulk at pennies on the dollar, and then partner with organizations like the local church to pay that debt off at a fraction of the cost. And so we partnered with them and we targeted half a million dollars worth of medical debt in the five counties where Venture Church has a physical campus, there's half a million dollars of medical debt represented in those counties. The the company owned, not only that, but they owned $2 million worth of medical debt across our state. And so we began praying about what God would do through Venture Church to help pay that off going into the holidays.

And because of your gifts last week, okay, all of last week across all of Venture Church, because of your gifts last week, somewhere north of $300,000 you gave through your generosity, we're able to partner with rip and not only pay off half a million dollars worth of medical debt in our counties, but we're able to pay off all $2 million worth of medical debt across our state. And so, going into the holiday season, I want you to imagine this going into the holiday season. They're gonna be families not just in Jones County, forest County, stone ca, they're gonna be families all across Mississippi that receive a letter that says, Hey, you didn't know this was coming, but because of the generosity of God's people, your debt has been paid off. Amen. Man, that is the same message that God gives us in his word.

Hey, because of my love for you, your sin debt has been paid. There's a verse in Psalms, um, Psalm 23, where King David says that, surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life and I'll dwell in the house of the Lord forever. I've been thinking about that verse a lot over the past several weeks. Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life, because we read that verse and we tend to think like what that means is that God intends for me and you as his people, God intends for us to experience goodness and mercy all the days of our life. And, and I, I think that's true when we look at the big picture of Scripture.

But that's not what the verse says, but the verse does not say that God intends for you and I to experience his mercy. What it says is that goodness and mercy shall follow me. It's not ahead of me. It's behind me. It's not what I'm walking into is what I'm leaving behind.

You see, I believe what David is telling us there, I believe what the Psalms is telling us there is that goodness and mercy are the footprints that believers leave behind. That the, the sign that God's people have stood in a place and in a time is that goodness and mercy is experienced by the people around us, not just us. I mean, you have done that. We, we want to be a church. You'll hear us say this all the time, and we wanna be a church where our community is better because of God's work in and through us as his people.

And you have done that, man, you have done that in this season. I just want you to know, I, man, I'm incredibly thankful to be a part of this movement with you. Now, here's what I wanna do today, okay? As we step officially into the holiday season, Christmas adventure is here. I realize some of you have been there since October.

Okay? Give us a little, give us a little grace. Alright? We're catching up with you. All right?

We're here. Now, here's what I want us to do today in the season where, um, man, you know, this ISN isn't as a surprise to any of us, right? That the holiday season can be a very weighty time for many people, right? Many of us, we carry into the season stress and worry and, and anxiety and pain and heartache and grief. And, and all of that just gets magnified in the holidays, right?

All that gets magnified at Christmas. And, and here's what, there's actually a reason for this. You've heard the phrase Christmas blues, that, that, that's more than, that's more than just a song. It's actually like a recognized and understood psychological effect. Because here's what happens.

There are these like seeds of, of hope that, that get planted in our heart and in our mind in the season. You watch the Hallmark movies. And man, it just doesn't take you long to begin to think, Hey, this is, this is the time my high school sweetheart's gonna move back and sweep me off my feet, right? The, the, the, the family business is gonna get saved, the cure is gonna be found, and, and my my wife, my husband's gonna be healthy for the holiday season. We, we, we have this hope and this, this belief in us, in the, the, the miraculous, right?

And the magnificent. And then all of a sudden we look up and it's, it's January 15th, and we're, we're packing up the lights and we're packing up the trees and we're putting everything away in the closet. And we realize the only thing that's left out is, is our depression. We're gonna have to put away all the decorations, but our doubt is still here with us. And so, as we walk into this season, man, what I wanna do today is I just, I wanna lift our eyes a little bit higher, okay?

Not, not to, not to belittle, not to not, not to say that, that pain, that worry, that stress isn't real, because look, I know it is okay, but what I wanna do just for a little while today is, is lift our eyes off of that, lift our eyes off of the grief, off of the sorrow, off of the anxiety. And I want us meant to set our eyes on the magnificence of God. 'Cause I really do believe in, in all of that, and all those, those seeds that get planted in us through Hallmark or whatever, I really do believe there are some magnificent experiences that God has for us in this season, especially in this season. It's the whole point of Christmas, right? That God stepped into our story.

God chose to step into our story so that you and I can experience him, so that you can, I can experience his presence, his magnificent presence, if we can set our focus on him and not on our fears and our frustrations. And so here's where I want to go, okay? Luke, chapter one is where we're gonna hang out today, Luke chapter one. And we're gonna see a little bit of the, the beginning, the preamble, if you will, of, of the Christmas story, the birth of Jesus. Luke chapter one, starting in verse 39 says this, in those days, Mary arose and went with haste into the hill country to a town in Judah, and she entered the house of Zacharia and greeted Elizabeth.

Elizabeth was her aunt. And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leapt in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit, and she exclaimed Elizabeth exclaimed with a loud cry. Blessed are you among women, and blessed is a fruit of your womb. Now, one of the things I want you to, to kind of see and pay attention to in these verses right here is kind of the, the multi-generational movement of God. And here's what I mean by that, okay, Elizabeth, you go back and read earlier in the chapter, one of the things we see is that Elizabeth, by all cultural accounts, was considered too old to be pregnant.

We really don't really know how old, um, Elizabeth was. The Scripture doesn't give us that specifically. Our best guess is that Elizabeth is in her eighties somewhere, which, listen, I'm not like saying that's old, if that's you, okay? I just don't know a whole lot of 80 year olds that are praying to get pregnant right now. Fair?

Fair. Okay, good. Um, somebody's with me, uh, Elizabeth Ev, everybody knew Elizabeth is too old to be pregnant. The angel visits zacharia her husband in the temple and, and gives the prophecy, Hey, your, your wife is gonna bear a son and you're gonna name him John, and John's gonna be the forerunner to the Messiah. The promised one, the son of God, Zacharia questioned it.

Elizabeth questioned it. I, I'm too old to do this, but God had a purpose and a plan. Then you have Mary on the other side of this story, Mary, who's too young to be in this story. Mary is 15, 14 is our best guess on scholars would say she's even younger than that. She's not married yet.

And she has this story that she is now pregnant. And God's the father. You gotta know, like, man, everybody gossiped, right? Like everybody pointed, everybody talked about her. And so you, you have this, you, you have this dynamic going on in this house where you've got Elizabeth who is too old, and you've got Mary who is too young.

And these are the two people that God uses to usher in his redemptive story. There, there's a line kind of hidden in these verses. I think it's really powerful. It's, it's the end of verse 41 where it says in Elizabeth, when she heard the voice of Mary Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. Here's why I think that's significant.

That's the first time we see this language in the New Testament. The first time, the first person we see in the New Testament being filled with the power and presence of God through his spirit, is this woman Elizabeth, who the entire, uh, community had counted out as being too old to contribute. Elizabeth was filled with the power and the presence of God through his spirit. And I don't think it's a coincidence that that feeling happens. Not when she becomes pregnant with John, not when she gives birth to John, but the feeling happens six months into pregnancy when she hears the voice of Mary.

You see the, I I I'm, I've honestly been searching for weeks, uh, for these words, and I really, I just, I hadn't found them yet. I don't, I really don't know how to explain it fully. But what I know is that that something unique and something powerful happens when generations come together under the banner of God. That's why we're so passionate about house, church. 'Cause we wanna create, as a church, we wanna create spaces and places where we gather, not just with people that look just like us, not just with people that's in the exact same stage of life as me, but we wanna create spaces and places where grandparents and parents and children can gather together under the banner of God can share a meal together and can share his word together.

Because something powerful happens when generations gathered together. That's why we're so passionate about our college ministry, the gathering, our high school and student, uh, ministry, the movement, KXP or our children's ministry. Because something powerful happens when generations come together under the banner of God. The Spirit falls in a unique and a powerful way. Elizabeth, when she hears the voice of Mary, when they come in contact, she is filled with the spirit.

And so, lemme just look, some of you're gonna have this opportunity, okay? In the next few weeks, if you want to experience something magnificent this season, make time for other people. And that's probably part of the holidays that some of you're looking forward to the least. I get it. Okay?

I get you're not looking forward to the house full of people. Some, some of you are like, I, I wasn't happy that my child was sick over Thanksgiving, wasn't happy at all, but it was lucky, kind of nice that it just was the three of us at home. You know? Like it wasn't, I, I understand, you know, man, that uncle right, that niece, I get it. But listen, something powerful happens when generations gather together.

If you have the opportunity to learn from someone older than you, if you have the opportunity in the next few weeks to encourage someone younger than you, the man, take the opportunity to be present in those moments, to make time with them. Eli Elizabeth was 80 years old and six months pregnant. There weren't phones back then where anybody could call and give her a heads up, Hey, on the way, right? She's six months pregnant and this teenager comes kicking down her door and then stays with her three months, the last three months of her pregnancy. I don't know a whole lot about being pregnant, but I know that's not the most fun time, right?

And Elizabeth is six months pregnant, 80 years old, and she hosts Mary for three months. If she can do that, you can handle a dinner with your family. But now, lemme say this, okay? Fair warning, be careful with your words, okay? Your words are very, very powerful in those moments.

We're gonna talk a little bit more about this next week at the movie. So we're not gonna hang out here a a long time, but I want you to see this in these verses. Or Elizabeth, when she greets Mary, she could have sown seeds of doubt in this moment. She could have, she could have sown seeds of heartache, of frustration, of worry. You're pregnant.

How old are you? You're not married yet. What's your mom and daddy gotta say? She could've said all of that, but the first words out of her mouth were a blessing. Blessed are you, you have the opportunity to do that.

Now, I realize this probably not gonna be your exact words, right? Blessed are you your favorite niece, but I will tell you this, right? Lemme just give you an example, okay? Um, if, if you are in a, if you're at dinner or whatever, you find yourself in a conversation and you're tempted to say, Hey, you know what you should have done, don't say it. Just don't say it.

That's not a blessing to anybody. They don't want to hear that. Instead, man, tell somebody what you love about 'em. Tell somebody what, what you see in them that they're doing good, man, that that's a blessing or that is a blessing spoken over somebody that can lead to a magnificent moment and you and in their story. And so take, take the opportunity.

Now, it's in response to this blessing that Elizabeth speaks over Mary, that that Mary kind of breaks out into a song that is what we traditionally call Mary's Magnifi cot. This is song of magnifying, the name, the glory, the Goodness of God. And it's, it's what I really want us to kind of set our eyes on today, okay? The, the, the, the glory that Mary magnifies in this song. Here's what she says, verse 46.

And Mary said, or Mary saying, really, my soul magnifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God and my savior, for he has looked on the humblest state 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. Now, lemme just pause right here on this phrase for just a second, that God's mercy is for those God has mercy, for those that fear him, there's a, a phrase, um, that, that I've used for a long time to describe what it means to, to have the fear of God. You'll see that a lot in Scripture.

And what does it mean? What does it mean to fear God? I believe what it means is to have a reverential, all, all a WE not a LLI realize I'm from Jones County, my annunciation kind of gets shortened there, reverential awe, it means to, to stand in wonder and, and amazement and how big God is, how magnificent he is, and how small we are compared to him. Anybody ever been to the, the Grand Canyon, maybe the mountains? Anybody ever been to the mountains?

You, you know how like that landscape just humbles you? Like you stand there and then you realize in the, the, the magnitude of that landscape just how small you are. I've never actually been there, by the way. Um, we, we, our family's not a Grand Canyon family, but we don't really go to the mountains either. Uh, our vacations are planned around naps.

And I don't see a whole lot of pictures of people napping at the Grand Canyon, but the beach, the beach is a great nap place. If you haven't been, you should go. Um, but the same principle applies. Um, when, when you're, when you're at the beach, I mean, you stand at the, the edge of the sand and the waves or crashing in around you, and you look out, and as far as you can see, is this just expanse of water where your mind can't comprehend it, and you look out in, in the distance in these massive ships or just little specks on the horizon and, and the, the waves crashing around you, man, you know that, that there's power in that water that could sweep you out, and there's nothing you could do about it. That water holds, holds life that mankind will probably never understand.

And in that moment, God whispers in your ear, you'll never be able to tame the powers in that water. But I told him where to stand. That's the fear of God. That's what it means to stand in awe of how big he is and how small we are. And it's in that moment.

It's only in that moment. It's only when we understand how small we are compared to how great he is, that we can understand truly how magnificent and marvelous his mercy is toward us, how undeserving we are of his mercy. His mercy is for those who fear him. And then here's what she says. Look at the next two verses, verse 51.

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. So not only does he have mercy on those that fear him, but he lifts the lowly. He exalts those of humble estate.

Christmas is this just, man, it's an incredible reminder to us every year of how unexpected God is. You ever realize that? Like, not, not only do you have Elizabeth who's too old, everybody said there's no way she should be involved. Do you have Mary who's too young? Everybody said, there's no way you should be involved.

You've got Joseph who everybody's gossiping and pointing at saying, man, that dude can't even keep his own household in order. What's he about? You've got the Messiah who's born in the cave in Bethlem to a family from Nazareth who people have openly said, can anything good really come from this place? Soso Wiggins, really? That's where God's moving the unexpected, the shepherds, right?

The, the shepherds, the men out in the field that receive the first announcement that the king, the Messiah has been born. Those dudes are out in the field at night because they're manje because nobody wants 'em in town. He lifts the lowly. He's a God of the unexpected. And, and that's not just Christmas.

Like that's, that's always been God's story. That's always been God's mo. You go back and read any part of God's story, David King David, a man after God's own heart, and the man who would become the greatest king Israel has ever known. That dude was forgotten by his father out in the field, Jesse, for, forgot he was even out there. Moses, Moses that led the Israelites out of slavery to the promised land, Moses, that dude led anger and jealousy, get all over him and control him.

He disappeared for 40 years because he murdered somebody and nobody batted an eye. And yet, these are the people that God uses. The unexpected, those of humble estate, as Mary would say, the lowly God lifts the lowly because man, we, we need to be reminded that it's not our strength, it's not our power, it's not our ability that moves the kingdom of God forward. It's his power and his presence at work in and through us that moves his kingdom forward. And so, listen, if you wanna experience something magnificent this season, take some time to consider how small you are.

Stand outside for just a moment and ponder the stars and the galaxies es and how small you are in comparison. Take a walk at some point and look at all of the life around you that you have absolutely nothing to do with. And consider how small you are. Because in that, here's what's great about it. Here's what's magnificent about that.

When you realize how small you are, you also realize how significant you are to God. You see, you may be insignificant in the economy of the world, but man, you're significant in the kingdom economy. That's why he came. Even Mary as she sings this song, he, he is, he is majestic, he's high, he's holy, he's mighty. And yet he's looked on me.

He's seen me. When you stand at the precipice of the Grand Canyon, when you stand at the base of the mountains, at the edge of the sea and the sand, and you look out at how big God is, and in those moments when he whispers in your ear, I put that there in the same breath, he reminds you, and I'm holding you here. The king sees you. The Father holds you. He is with you.

That's the promise of Scripture. That's the promise of Christmas. That's what we see in the season. Maybe small, but certainly not insignificant. Now, there's one more verse.

I think it's important for us to end here, okay? Verse 53, that God has filled the hungry with good things and the rich he has sent away empty. Uh, there, there's a verse in, in Psalm, Psalm 1 0 7, where the psalm that says that he, that God satisfies the longing soul and the hungry soul. He fills with good things, Jesus said. And the sermon on the mountain, the section we call the Beatitudes, Jesus said, blessed are those that hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be.

There's a promise there. They will be filled. God satisfies. God feels the hungry. And now I realize this might not be for everybody, okay?

But for some of us, if there's a longing in your soul, there's this angst in you. Maybe it feels a little bit like anxiety. Maybe it feels a little bit like worry, but there's, there's something in you that just, that says, man, I thought I would be further along than I am. You know, that feeling like, man, I, I, I thought I would be more disciplined by now. I I I didn't think I would still struggle with this addiction.

I thought I was past that addiction. And now all of a sudden it's come back and there's this, there's this hunger for more of God. Can I just tell you His, his word is full of encouragement that says, please don't give up. 'Cause he satisfies that longing don't give up because he, he feels the hunger. You wanna experience something magnificent this season and look in the midst of all the parties and the gatherings and the, the busyness and the, the workload at the end of the year, make some time to pursue his presence.

'Cause he's pursued you. It's Christmas, Emmanuel, God is with us. Now, if you don't know how to do that, you don't know what that looks like to pursue God's presence, we're gonna start together. Okay? This isn't, not all of it, but it's a start.

We're gonna start together. There. There's a, um, there's a song. You'll probably sing it a whole lot of times, uh, in the next few weeks. We're about to sing it now together as a church.

And, and there's a line in these lyrics that, that says, oh, come all you faithful. Oh, come let us adore him. See, that's where I think pursuing his presence begins when we come and adore him. See, God is inviting us into a moment to join in with Mary as she proclaims the magnificence of God and worship him. He, he's inviting us to join in with the angels as they sing his praises over the shepherds in the field to magnify him.

He, he's inviting us to, to join in with the chorus of angels who praise God at the throne all throughout eternity. We get a chance in this moment to join in with them and praise his name, To adore him, to magnify him. 'Cause he's given us mercy. 'Cause he's given us his presence to adore him, to remember, man, even just for a moment that God has stepped into our story so we can experience his magnificence. That's What this time is all about.

And I think, I think what you'll find in this moment is that as you adore him, as you worship him, as you, you praise him, that, that your worries, your worries feel a little bit lighter in the midst of worship. I think what you'll find is that as you praise him, your problems feel a little less daunting. I'm not saying they're not real. I'm not saying they're not still there. They are, but in light of his magnificence, we're reminded of how light and momentary our afflictions are.

So here's what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna pray for us, and then all across our venture church campuses, we're gonna move into a time of worship and response. And man, my biggest ask, my biggest invitation for you is just to ask you to adore him, to worship him, to praise him as we sing. If you want to get on your knees at the altar, please do that. If you need to take a worry and anxiety to the cross, and you need to pin it there and leave it there, then do that.

Well have people ready to pray with you. If you need to take the elements of communion to be reminded that Christmas doesn't stop in the manger, Christmas just begins the redemptive story and do that, lemme pray for us, and then we're gonna move and worship. Lord, we come before you. Now, God humbled, God, humbled at your magnificence, that in all of your glory and all of your power, and all of your might and all of your holiness, you chose to step into our stories and it makes sense. Like I, I can't comprehend it, but God, I know you're good.

And so in this moment, Lord, we just pray that God, that you'll overwhelm our hearts and our minds with your goodness, with your mercy in a way that overflows out of us. We pray that you'll move God and that you'll save all things we ask in your name. Amen.