I Was a Nobody

If you’re visiting with us, we’re just glad you’re here. We want you to feel like family. That’s pretty important to us. So I just think that’s awesome. We’re going to have a time of prayer. What Jeremy usually does and has kind of brought to us, which I think is pretty awesome, is before we have the sermon, we pray. And, of course, what we want to do today is we want to kind of concentrate on that Lottie Moon Christmas Offering and what it represents. Remember, 100% of everything that you give to that goes to the missionaries. It’s not overhead, administration, any of that. It goes to the missionaries. And when we can support missionaries like our pastor and his wife who served in Indonesia, if we can support missionaries without having them worry about a thing called salary and they can just do their business, it makes all the difference in the world.

So I want you to kind of grab up with somebody near you. I want you to pray for this. And then whatever maybe a little something you may have on your heart or your mind this morning, you probably came in with something. Take time to do that, too. So just let’s do that. Let’s go to the Lord at this time.

Oh, Father, thank you. Thank you for the fact that you’re always listening. Lord, as I even just listened this morning and I hear the voices of everybody in this sanctuary just lifting needs and up to you. This blessed my heart. It’s pretty awesome. Listen to folks pray. The fact that they want to have a relationship with you. So, Father, again, I just say just take the finances that we’ll bring for this offering that goes to help your missionaries serve you across the world and just multiply it like only You can. Pretty awesome at that. So please do that. And, Lord, as we open Your Word this morning, this is now Your time. It’s not my time. It’s not our time. It’s Your time. And so my prayer, Lord, is that we will be receptive in our hearts and our minds to hear You and hear You clearly. You have a message for us. And You bring it through a young lady that will become Your mother and change us. God, change us. So when we walk out of here in just a little bit, we’ll be different. And the world will see it and know it. And they may even ask why. And then we have a chance to tell. So, again, Father, we thank You for the opportunity. And we give all this to You in Your glory. And we ask this in Your Son’s most holy and precious name. And all God’s people said.

Well, I wanted to do this. I would like to ask the question, is there a new doctor in the house? Well, there is. And he’s sitting down here on the front. One reason I’m up here and he’s not. And that’s appropriate. Please do that. Folks, I know. I want to tell you that it’s a big deal. It’s a big accomplishment. I remember when I went through seminary, they actually handed out a certificate also to Beth. And it was a Ph.T. And it was called Put Hubby Through. And because I want to tell you, she is as much a part of this as he is. But this is a big deal. And we’re the benefactors of it. Because all the stuff that he studied, we get to be a part of. And we get to get the returns on and all those kind of things. So we are very, very fortunate to have a pastor like Jeremy that studies, finished these things through, works hard. I’m just glad. I know he’s glad that this is behind him now. Thank you, Jesus. And so, yeah, at the end of the service, just come up and just tell you, man, congratulations. Well done.

If you’ve got your Bibles, I’d like you to turn with me to the book of Luke chapter 1. We’re going to be starting with verse 46. But before that, while you’re doing that, Beth and I were talking as I was preparing this message that Jeremy gave me. I started trying to look at my notes and say, when was the last time I ever preached on this? The only thing I preached on this subject one time. And that was in 2006. So I was trying to find some notes for this. I think I found a little bit of an outline. Other than that, I had to just dig. So that’s kind of where we’re at. Beth and I were talking.

She came across a story this week. It was about a little boy. Didn’t do well in school. In fact, he didn’t have a whole lot of friends. In fact, they didn’t even call him by his own name. They called him Sparky. I mean, a dog’s name. And for Sparky, school was all but impossible. He failed every subject. In the eighth grade, he flunked physics in high school, getting a grade of zero. I don’t know how you get zero. But he flunked Latin, algebra, English. He didn’t do much better in sports. Got on the golf team, though. And the only important match of the season, he promptly lost. And even the consolation match, he lost. And throughout his life, he’s awkward. He socially just has a problem. He wasn’t so much disliked by the other students. The reason they called him Sparky, they just didn’t care. Imagine being that kid. He was astonished if a classmate ever said hello to him in school. There’s no way to tell how he might have done, even at dating, could he never ask a girl out for a date in school, because he was scared he was going to be rejected. He was a loser. His classmates. Everyone knew it. He rolled with it. He made his mind up early in life that if things weren’t to work out, you know, like they should, he would contend himself just being just somebody just mediocre.

However, one thing was important to him. It was drawing. He loved to draw. Problem was, even when he submitted his drawings to the editors of the yearbook, they turned it down. He liked to do cartoons. He was so convinced of his ability, he wanted to be, that’s what he wanted to do for the rest of his life. He wanted to be a professional artist. And so at one time, he actually sent his work to Walt Disney Studios. He was told to, they wanted to send us some samples. He worked hard. He sent them some samples. Drew his proposed cartoons. Spent a great deal of time on it. Finally, he got the reply from Disney. And here’s what they said. Sorry, we only want the best artists in our studio. So he would start his own. With himself as the main character. Charlie Schultz would become Charlie Brown. The kid who never made the kick, much less win the game, get the girl. But the greatest thing that he ever did was in 1965, CBS decided to carry a cartoon on its network at Christmas. Remember? A Charlie Brown Christmas. That’s 60, 1965. Problem was, if you know anything about the cartoon and the show, there’s a part in it that’s pretty religious. And CBS wanted him to pull it. They said, nah, we don’t want to throw religion and cartoons and kids. We don’t want to throw that on TV. And he stood his ground. He said, if we’re going to tell the story, let’s tell the real story. Let’s tell the story of Christmas. And if you know anything about the cartoon, Linus walks out on stage and quotes Luke 2, 8 through 14. Well, CBS thought, well, they’ll just end up, this will be the last time we show it. But they got so much response back from those that watched the cartoon that it has played every year since. And this year will mark 60 years that a Charlie Brown Christmas has played on television. His comic strip would be carried in over 2,000 newspapers. A nobody. And he would actually win an Emmy the next year for that very cartoon. A nobody who wanted everybody to hear about somebody who saved his soul.

That’s what we’re going to talk about this morning. A nobody. Her name is Mary. And I want you to turn with me again to Luke chapter 1, starting with verse 46. And if you’ll stand for the reading of God’s word, that would be awesome. And Mary said, my soul praises the greatness of the Lord. And my spirit rejoices in God, my Savior. Because He has looked with favor on the humble condition of a servant. Surely from now on, all generations will call me blessed. Because the mighty one has done great things for me. And His name is holy. His mercy is from generation to generation on those who fear Him. He has done a mighty deed with His arm. He has scattered the proud because of the thoughts of their hearts. He has toppled the mighty from their thrones and exalted the lowly. He has satisfied the hunger with good things and sent the rich away empty. He has helped His servant Israel remember His mercy and to Abraham and his descendants forever, just as He spoke to our ancestors. And Mary stayed with her about three months, and she returned to her homes. Thank you for standing. Please be seated.

Mary. Do you realize Mary was a single mom, literally? We know that Joseph probably passed away sometime early in their marriage, but early enough that she was probably a single mom for a long time. What I find interesting is Mary is the only human being on the planet to have ever lived who saw the Messiah born and the Messiah die. Nobody else did that.

Now, she’s a controversial figure. The Catholics fawn over her. She’s exalted, prayed to, elevated. In fact, the Catholic Church will describe her as what we call co-redemptrix, co-mediatrix of the human race. That means that she can redeem the world as a mediator between man and God. There’s a basilica in Rome called the Santa Maria Maggiore with a picture of Mary hanging on the cross with Jesus, a picture of Jesus Himself crowning Mary as the Queen of Heaven. And according to the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Church, Mary was a perpetual virgin. I don’t understand that because we know that she had at least six more children. We know of at least four more boys, two of them which wrote books in the New Testament, and at least two girls. They also believe in the immaculate conception that Mary was untainted by original sin, so elevated to a place where she answers prayers and actually dispenses grace.

Now, you and I know that that’s not true, not from a biblical perspective anyway. But though the Catholics have done that, Protestants have sometimes, we just take it to the other end of the spectrum. What we do sometimes is we don’t really mention Mary at all except in generalities. Yet God will come to her and call her highly favored. She is a magnificent woman in Scripture.

Now, what do we know about her? What do we do? Well, I went online and just tried to figure out how to get as many different things. Most folks believe she was between 13 and 15 years old, which absolutely boggles my mind. I can’t imagine that because in Jewish culture, if you were just kind of going through the change as a woman, you know, it wasn’t very long after that that you would be betrothed, that you would be given a husband. So imagine a 13, 14, 15-year-old. She was engaged to be married to Joseph, who was a carpenter. They would live in Nazareth. I have been to Nazareth. There ain’t a whole lot in Nazareth now. I’m thinking there was a whole lot less in. I remember we were coming out on the bus out of Nazareth, and I remember Beth looked at me and goes, “Jesus was a hillbilly.” I mean, there ain’t nothing here.

But however, she and her husband would be a direct descendant of the tribe of Judah. And you got to remember, too, we have heard nothing from God. If you know anything about Scripture, there’s about 400 years between the book of Malachi and the book of Matthew. And we hear nothing from God for almost 400 years, and all of a sudden now, God appears on the scene. Gabriel will show up first, first to Zacharias, then to Mary.

I mean, doesn’t it make sense that she would go see her cousin, who is kind of just the opposite? Mary is so young to be pregnant, and yet Martha is so old to be pregnant. And how better for someone to understand what’s going on in your body and in your mind and these things that have happened, especially both getting a visit from Gabriel? Who else better to understand?

Now, what do we know about even Gabriel? I mean, there are only three mentions of names of angels in Scripture. There’s Michael, who’s the archangel. He’s a defender of Israel. He’s mentioned in Daniel. There’s Gabriel, who’s the messenger angel. Gabriel will come to Daniel in the Old Testament. He will come to Zacharias in the New Testament, and he will also come to Mary. And then, of course, there’s Lucifer. Isaiah 14:12, the light bringer.

She would give up her future. Do you realize Mary will move three times within the first three years of being married to Joseph and being pregnant? Three times. She’ll have to reside there in Bethlehem for a little while. First of all, she had to make the trek down. Then she will have to go to Egypt, where she probably doesn’t speak the language, doesn’t know any other people. She’ll have to leave there. And then she’ll have to move back.

We don’t know if she may have even had a child during that period of time. She is an amazing woman. And the song that we’re looking at is one of four songs that will be mentioned in this part of Scripture in Luke 1 and 2. Mary will do the first one. It’s called the Magnificat. It talks about magnifying the Lord. In fact, that’s what she says in the very first. My soul praises the greatness of our Lord.

Zechariah will do the second one. Just a few verses later, right after John, his son, is born, he’ll sing a song. The third song is where? The shepherds look up into the sky and the angelic hosts. And then the third one will be to a guy named Simeon. Simeon is a priest in the temple. Eight days after Jesus is born, they’ll bring him to the temple to be circumcised. That’s where he’ll get his name. And then 33 days later, what will happen is after Mary has gone through her purification process, after having a male child, they’ll bring Jesus to offer a burnt offering of either two turtle doves or two pigeons to the Lord in an offering. And they’ll hand it to Simeon. And Simeon will often realize that the promise that God made to him, that he would not die before he saw the Messiah, will be happening right in front of his eyes, that he will sing a song. Four songs of praise in Luke 1 and Luke 2. Mary sings the first.

So what I want to do this morning is I want to see in this passage, I think, four perspectives of God that demonstrate really what Christmas is all about. And I don’t want you to miss them. The first one is this. God wants to bless the individual. So you matter individually to God. Mary matters to God. It’s interesting, in this song, listen to what Mary says. She says, My soul praises the greatness of the Lord. My spirit rejoices in God my Savior, because He has looked with favor on His humble servant, the humble condition of a servant. And surely from now on, all generations shall call me blessed. And she’s realized that He did this for me.

Who was Mary? Mary’s a nobody. She lives on the backside of nowhere, off the Sea of Galilee, in a little place called Nazareth. I mean, the Bible even talks about how the common saying was that nothing good ever comes out of Nazareth. And yet, look what God does to a young girl between the ages of 13 and 15 in the middle of this little town. My spirit rejoices. I mean, I’m thinking for a 13, 14, 15-year-old to even say these words is amazing to me. And then Martha looks at her and says, You’re not a nobody. You shall be called blessed. I mean, and she even looks down here and she says, She says, My spirit rejoices God my Savior. Verse 49, The mighty one has done great things for me. And she understands who she is. She understands, look, I’m a nobody. But the mighty one has done something.

Now, what’s interesting is the word she uses. She uses a word called the humble servant. You know what that means? The word servant can also be used as a word slave. Now, servant has a number of meanings in scripture. One is the word, here’s a little Greek lesson from one, diakonos, which is where we get our word deacon from. Deacons are servants to our church. That’s why when the two new young men are going to be coming and becoming deacons and going through ordination about a month from now, that’s a big deal. Because they’re saying we’re willing to serve our current deacons. They’re saying we’re willing to serve this church and serve the people of this church and serve the Lord. But this is not that. This word servant or slave is the female version of a word called doulos. Do you understand what that means? That’s bond servant, bond slave. A doulos was a type of slave that says, I’m willingly wanting to be that. I choose to give up ownership rights. I’m a voluntary, fully devoted servant. In the King James, I think it uses the word handmaiden. And that’s what she does.

See, a doulos says, I could go do something else, but you know what I want to do instead? I volunteer to give up any ownership rights. And when you become a doulos for Jesus, when the apostle Peter or John or Paul says, I am a bond slave of the Lord Jesus Christ, what they’re saying, What I want goes out the window. What I want is no longer part of who I am. It’s what He wants and where He directs and He decides. And that’s what’s important. And Mary here, exactly. In fact, she says those words. Look at verse 36 or 38, excuse me. This is from a 13, 14-year-old. “I am the Lord’s servant,” said Mary. “May it be done according to me, may it be done to me according to your word.” And then Gabriel left. Can you imagine a young teenager going looking at the Lord and looking at that angel and saying, “Okay, may it be done to me whatever the Lord wants.” See, that’s my question. Are you a do-loss this morning? Are you? Are you willing to look at the Lord and say, you know, Jeremy asked that question when he baptizes. Are you willing to go where God wants you to go? Are you willing to do what God wants you to do and when He wants you to do it? And that’s a good question to ask ourselves this morning. It was for Mary.

God not only wants to bless the individual, He wants to bless everyone. Look what it says right after that. Verse 50. His mercy is from generation to generation. Isn’t that pretty amazing? But who is it for? It says to those who fear Him. Now what in the world does that mean? Well, the Hebrew word translated as fear in Ecclesiastes refers to a general reverence and respect for God. To fear God is to realize His absolute greatness, immutable power, and justice. You just say, “Okay, God, You’re who You are. And I take that. And I know whatever You do is final. Nothing can be added to it or taken away.” Let me tell you something, folks. When you fear God, and we have lost how to do that. When you fear God, we acknowledge that He’s two things. He’s highly exalted and He’s holy. And so the point becomes this. Do you care about the next generation? You know, I got mine. You know, I got my fire insurance. They can get their own. And yet, as parents, as we look down at our children, and I look down at not only my daughter, but my granddaughter and grandson. Do I care about them? You bet I care about them. Do I care about my neighbors? Look, I don’t want anybody to go to hell. And the Bible says those that fear Him, He comes from generation. It never ends. He wants to bless everyone. That’s what He does for us.

Third thing is this. God’s character is always behind what He does. Mary in this song, I’m thinking, how does someone this young actually come up with these words? But she does. She starts to talk about who God is, which I think says a lot for her parents. He has done a mighty deed with His arm. He has scattered the proud because of the thoughts of their hearts. He has toppled the mighty from their thrones and exalted the lowly. He has satisfied the hungry with good things and sent the rich away empty. My stars. It’s all about His divine mercy and justice. God will deal with the proud and the powerful. Don’t you ever worry about that. And if you’ve got money, my thing is be careful how you spend it. God has many ways. I always believe this. The more He gives, the more He gets. My mom used to teach me there are two types of people in the world. There’s givers and takers. And I want to tell you that the givers get so much more than the takers. So much more. I find when you give, God gives to you too. So He can give more. He proclaims that God has scattered the proud, brought down rulers, exalted the humble. And then what He does, He gives preferential treatment to the lowly and the oppressed. That’s who He is. That’s Christmas. Folks, I want to tell you, that’s Christmas. Is it not? It speaks of God’s provision for the hungry, the reversal fortunes for the rich. The theme of reversal is consistent with the teachings of Jesus. It underscores God’s concern for social justice and uplifting those that are marginalized outside of everything. That’s just who God is. We kind of wonder, “Well, God, where are You? I don’t see You anywhere.” I’m telling you, God’s working all the time. We get so busy with our lives. We miss all of it. God’s character is always behind what He does. And when He reaches down to this young lady in this middle of nowhere town, He’s telling you, “Mary, I see who you are. I’m going to lift you up. I’m going to magnify. Even though I’m going to be magnified through all this, I’m going to magnify You. People will call You blessed because You said yes.

The fourth thing is this: God never forgets and always fulfills His promises. I went back and I tried to figure out, okay, how many promises did Jesus fulfill with His first coming? Most theologians believe somewhere, probably between 300 and 400 in Scripture. Imagine that for a second. What are the odds of that? Okay, man, 300 to 400 times where the promise and the prophecy of the coming Messiah is mentioned and Jesus fulfills all of them.

I want to give you eight, okay? The time of His birth, which is Daniel 8 and 9. He will be born in Bethlehem, Micah 5:2. He will be born to a virgin, Isaiah 7:14. He will be betrayed for 30 pieces of silver, Zechariah 11:12. He’d be mocked, Psalms 22:7 and 8. He’d be crucified, John 3:14. He would be pierced, Psalms 22:16. He would die with the wicked and would be buried with the rich, Isaiah 53:9. That’s eight.

Now, what are the odds? Think about it. What are the odds of all eight being fulfilled at the same time? There was a mathematician who actually figured that out. It was one in 10 to the 28th power. Now, what that means is take a one and put 28 zeros behind it. That’s what the odds are that just those eight, not 300 to 400, just those eight would be honored.

He has helped His servant Israel, remembering His mercy to Abraham and His descendants forever, just as He spoke to our ancestors. That tells me is this: God made you a promise that He doesn’t forge on it. He never puts you aside. God knows what you pray. Now, maybe not, you know, you may not get the answer exactly like you like or when you like, but always lift Him up and He’ll always lift you up. That’s what He does.

See, God’s perspective of Christmas is that it is an everyday experience. When Mary writes this song, she’s writing, she’s not just writing it to the Lord and to her folks. She’s writing it to us because it’s down in Scripture. And what she is telling us is, let me tell you, God cares about the individual. And what God has in plan, He has in store, not just for the individual, but for everybody. His character is always behind what He does, and He never forgets and He’ll fulfill every promise He’s ever made to us through Scripture. It’s just who He is.

And I want to tell you something, folks. We’re born to be risk takers. Mary is, imagine a 13, 14. She has no idea what’s coming up. She never has no idea what her future holds. She has no idea at this point that she’s going to spend years in Egypt. She has no idea what people are going to say behind her back because of how she became pregnant before she got actually married. She’s going to hear the whispers. She’s going to hear the talk in the street. And she’s going to deal with that. She’s going to go through a lot. She’s going to watch her firstborn literally do miracles that she can’t explain. But she’ll also see Him put up on a cross for me and you. And it’ll break her heart.

See, we’re born to be risk takers. Mary was a risk taker. I mean, I think about a baby. Those of you that have just had babies, I remember when we had ours and I remember watching our grandkids, a baby’s first step is the biggest risk of all. And I want to tell you, it’s okay, mom and dad, to sit there and make a big deal about that first step. Because it is a big deal. Once they take that first step, they’re off. Are they not? Man, you can’t turn your head and they’re gone.

Even in binary computers, the difference between zero and one is the difference between what? On and off. You know, the difference between an on and off church is the difference between zero and one. Sitting there doing nothing, being a risk taker. See, the difference between zero and one is greater than the difference from one to any other number. And you got a model here and her name’s Mary. Mary says, look at my life. Look at what I’m going through. And you’ll see what God’s all about. Now you can see. They may sit there and go, well, what in the world can One person do? Well, in 1645, one vote gave Oliver Cromwell control of England. In 1649, one vote caused Charles I of England to be executed. In 1776, one vote gave America the English language instead of the German language. In 1845, one vote brought Texas into the Union. In 1868, one vote saved President Andrew Johnson from impeachment. In 1875, one vote changed France from a monarchy to a republic. In 1876, one vote gave Rutherford B. Hayes the presidency of the United States. In 1923, one vote made Adolf Hitler president of the Nazi party. In 1941, one vote put the draft into effect. In 1960, one vote per precinct in four states made John F. Kennedy president.

2,000 years ago, one girl saying yes brought the Savior of mankind into the world. Wise person once said, always the start that stops most people. Mary wasn’t going to let, there was no stopping Mary. See, Mary was willing to start. Just give Him what you got. Mary’s 13, 14, maybe 15. He may be in between, He may be 60, 70, 80. Just give Him what you got, where you’re at. Just look at it and do what she says. I am the Lord’s servant. May it be done to me according to Your word.

I want to play a song as I close. It kind of sums this whole thing up. Name of song is “Nobody.” It’s sung by a group called Casting Crowns. I’m throwing up the words so you can follow. Think about what it says. Why You ever chose me. There’s always been a mystery. All my life. I’ve been told I belong. At the end of the line. With all the other not quite. With all the never get it right. But it turns out. They’re the ones You were looking for all this time. ’Cause I’m just a nobody. Trying to tell You. All about signs You read for the world. Stage fright. David brought a rock to a sword fight. You picked 12 outsiders. Nobody would have chosen and You changed the world. Well the moral of the story is. Everybody’s got a purpose. So when I hear that devil start talking to me saying who do you think. I say I’m just a no. Looking for the world. But You.

I’m looking at it with this congregation. I’m seeing a lot. I mean compared to what’s going on. Everyone else in the world. The billions that are in the world today. Some think as many as 66 billion that have lived through history. Who are we? Mary says we’re nobodies. You get to tell everybody about somebody. Save my soul. You willing to do that? If God came to you and said you know I want you to do something. If God came to you and says maybe you’re not with me right now. But I got a purpose and I got a plan for your life. Would you be willing to sit there and back up and just say. Just like Mary did. I am the Lord’s servant. Lord’s bond slave. Be it done to me according to Your word. Do you do that today? Would you be willing to do that? Be a nobody for Jesus. But we can tell everybody about somebody who saves our soul.

Just a moment. Our pastor is going to come forward. You may have something on your heart. Maybe God’s talking to you. Working with you. Could be about joining the church. It could be about getting by. It could be about the God’s working in your heart to get right with Him. Or maybe you’ve got something coming up. And you just want Him to pray with you down at the front. If I know anything about our pastor. He loves to pray with you. He’ll love to do that.

Let’s pray. Father, thank You for a little gal. A little young teenager named Mary. Who said, I don’t know who I am. But I know who You are. Came to me. You’re for everybody. And Your character is seen throughout Your work. And You never forget a promise. And You want every day to be like this in our lives. Because You’re still working. You’re still lifting people out of the grave. You’re still bringing people from death of sin. And You didn’t have to do all that. That’s who You are. And You’ve got a purpose and a plan for everybody in this room today. Lord, open our hearts. Open our minds to hear You clearly. Help us to do that, Lord. In Your Son’s most precious and holy name. Amen.