{"id":17647,"date":"2009-10-18T21:25:06","date_gmt":"2009-10-19T04:25:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/realfaith.com\/uncategorized\/mary-elizabeth\/"},"modified":"2023-10-04T11:24:32","modified_gmt":"2023-10-04T18:24:32","slug":"mary-elizabeth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/realfaith.com\/sermons\/mary-elizabeth\/","title":{"rendered":"MARY &amp; ELIZABETH","gt_translate_keys":[{"key":"rendered","format":"text"}]},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"gb-container gb-container-18bd0767 alignfull\">\n<div class=\"gb-container gb-container-c6970ddb\">\n<div class=\"gb-container gb-container-8d02ef71 gb-accordion\">\n<div class=\"gb-container gb-container-46e421aa gb-accordion__item\" data-transition=\"slide\">\n\n<button class=\"gb-button gb-button-d40320a9 gb-accordion__toggle\"><span class=\"gb-button-text\">Sermon Notes<\/span><span class=\"gb-icon\"><svg xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" viewBox=\"0 0 448 512\" width=\"1em\" height=\"1em\" ariahidden=\"true\" role=\"img\" class=\"gb-accordion__icon\"><path d=\"M207.029 381.476L12.686 187.132c-9.373-9.373-9.373-24.569 0-33.941l22.667-22.667c9.357-9.357 24.522-9.375 33.901-.04L224 284.505l154.745-154.021c9.379-9.335 24.544-9.317 33.901.04l22.667 22.667c9.373 9.373 9.373 24.569 0 33.941L240.971 381.476c-9.373 9.372-24.569 9.372-33.942 0z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" viewBox=\"0 0 448 512\" width=\"1em\" height=\"1em\" ariahidden=\"true\" role=\"img\" class=\"gb-accordion__icon-open\"><path d=\"M240.971 130.524l194.343 194.343c9.373 9.373 9.373 24.569 0 33.941l-22.667 22.667c-9.357 9.357-24.522 9.375-33.901.04L224 227.495 69.255 381.516c-9.379 9.335-24.544 9.317-33.901-.04l-22.667-22.667c-9.373-9.373-9.373-24.569 0-33.941L207.03 130.525c9.372-9.373 24.568-9.373 33.941-.001z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><\/span><\/button>\n\n\n<div class=\"gb-accordion__content\"><div class=\"gb-container gb-container-f3e44ae0\">\n\n<h2>INTRODUCTION<\/h2>\n<p>We will continue \u201cLuke\u2019s Gospel: Investigating the Man Who Is God\u201d today. We\u2019re in chapter 1, verses 39 through 45. If you\u2019ve got a Bible you can feel free to go there.<\/p>\n<p>Father God, I pray that our time would be beneficial. God, I know for some this is going to be a devastating, a devastating moment in their life. God, may they use that opportunity of brokenness and wrecked-ness to run to you, not from you. To seek grace, not to fight. God, please allow my words to be helpful to them and to be loving, but painfully, brutally, prophetically truthful. So God, for us to really maximize our time, we need the Holy Spirit. We need him to wreck us in Jesus\u2019 name. Amen.<\/p>\n<p>We find ourselves in Luke\u2019s Gospel meeting two amazing women today. In the cultural day of the New Testament, women were marginalized, particularly those who were young, single, and those who were elderly and barren, especially if they lived away from major urban centers and were not connected to powerful families. The two women we will get to know today fit all of those criteria. The young, virgin, teenage, rural girl named Mary. Her relative, the elderly, barren Elizabeth, who, like Mary, lives in a marginalized small town, with perhaps a few hundred people.<\/p>\n<h2>RECAP OF THE STORY<\/h2>\n<p>What has happened thus far in the story is we have learned that the book of Luke is actually a gift from a man named Theophilus. He wanted to know the truth about Jesus, so he hired a historian and doctor named Luke to go investigate all the facts about Jesus and to compile an accurate rendering of the biographical life, death, burial, resurrection of Jesus that culminates in him penning, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, the book of Luke. Chapters 1 and 2, which we are in the midst of, are included basically only in Luke. Had Luke not done this historical work interviewing Mary and others, had Theophilus not generously paid for it, we would not have this information which is so exceedingly crucial for our own lives as we investigate the life of Jesus.<\/p>\n<p>Thus far in the story we have learned that Mary was likely a teenage girl, engaged or betrothed to be married. Think 12, 13, 14, 15, 16 years of age, junior high or high school student. That Elizabeth was her relative. They were separated by some distance. Elizabeth had a husband named Zechariah who was a common priest, and he had a very simple, small ministry. They were a barren, elderly couple. The angel Gabriel showed up telling Zechariah that his wife would give birth to a son. He was to be named John, which means \u201cGod is gracious.\u201d He would be the preparer and forerunner for the coming of Jesus. The angel Gabriel, one of only two angels mentioned by name in the Bible, then arrives at the presence, perhaps the residence, of Mary. Telling her, you will give birth to a son. His name will be Jesus, which means he saves his people from their sins. You will be the fulfillment to prophecy. You will be the virgin who gives birth to Emmanuel, God-with-us. The angel Gabriel also tells Mary, oh, and by the way, your relative Elizabeth is pregnant as well.<\/p>\n<h2>GETTING IN COMMUNITY<\/h2>\n<p>And so we pick up the story in chapter 1, verse 39, we see Mary\u2019s immediate obedience to God\u2019s word: \u201cIn those days Mary arose and went with haste into the hill country, to a town in Judah, and she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth.\u201d Elizabeth had not announced publicly that she was pregnant. She was home worshiping God, getting the nursery ready, and celebrating the fact that her husband had been rendered mute for a season. And hearing of this, Mary says, \u201cWell, I\u2019ve got to go see Elizabeth. I love her. We\u2019re close. We\u2019re relatives. I\u2019m pregnant. She\u2019s pregnant. We need to share in one another\u2019s joy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>And she makes this trek. I\u2019ll show you what it looked like because when you read the Bible, if you\u2019ve not been there, you think, \u201cOh, maybe she went down the street, around the corner. Maybe she drove.\u201d What did she do? She walked upwards of a hundred miles. The specific town is not stated, though the region is. So she walked about a hundred miles, teenage girl by herself, in perhaps 100-degree heat, in danger. Here\u2019s what it looked like. I\u2019ll show it to you. We took some photographs this summer when we were there. Teenage girl, one hundred miles, walking on her own to go see Elizabeth.<\/p>\n<p>[Shows photos of hill country] That\u2019s the topography.<\/p>\n<p>Here\u2019s my guilty pastoral question. What sacrifices are you making to be in community? [Groaning sound] [Audience laughs]<\/p>\n<p>We read this and we realize, boy, she really wanted to be in community. A hundred mile walk. Some of you have been coming for weeks, months, years. You\u2019ve not gotten connected. Why? You say, \u201cWell, it\u2019s, eh, it\u2019s very hard. It\u2019s very hard. I would have to find my keys. I would need to walk all the way to my car right there, and then I would need to open the door. I mean the, the door itself is large. I\u2019d have to open the door. I\u2019d have to sit down in a very comfortable seat, perhaps even with a warmer. And Peter talks about, you know, making sacrifices for the Kingdom so it would be like that. And then I would put my keys in the ignition and I would need to do this. [Turns hand, miming starting a car] Not a full turn, but a half turn, but it\u2019s an effort nonetheless. And then I would need to do this. [Mimes driving a car] Maybe even this or this. [Mimes turning a car] And I would need to do this, [Mimes pressing the gas pedal with foot] and occasionally this. [Mimes pressing the brake pedal with foot] And then I would park and then I would have to walk ten, a hundred feet. And, and I could pull a hamstring. So I prayed about it and I felt like it was too much to ask.\u201d Mary walked a hundred miles in 100-degree heat! Pregnant teenage girl with no escort to go to community group. We\u2019ll see you this week. We\u2019ll see you this week. [Laughter]<\/p>\n<h2>WE\u2019LL TALK ABOUT ABORTION<\/h2>\n<p>The girls come together. The gals come together. A young girl, an older woman. Verse 41, \u201cAnd when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb.\u201d We know from previous verses, Elizabeth is about six months pregnant; Mary has just conceived by a miracle of the Holy Spirit. They come together and the Holy Spirit is present, active. The baby in Elizabeth\u2019s womb, the sixth-month-old son John the Baptizer (not \u201cthe Baptist,\u201d he didn\u2019t join any denomination. He\u2019s John the Baptizer), he leaps in his mother\u2019s womb.<\/p>\n<p>So we\u2019ll talk about abortion. You didn\u2019t want to, now you must. Don\u2019t leave. I\u2019ll ask everyone to stare at you with a stink eye. Hear me out. Some of you come here feeling, \u201cI have a position on abortion.\u201d Did you get it from reading Scripture? Let\u2019s see what Scripture says. After all, Luke, who is writing, is a what, vocationally? Medical doctor. And he\u2019s writing under the inspiration of God, the Holy Spirit. Who knows when life begins? Who knows what\u2019s going on in the womb ultimately, both physically and spiritually? Only God, the Holy Spirit. So let\u2019s let the Holy Spirit, God, and Luke, the medical doctor, teach us. Teach us.<\/p>\n<h2>A \u201cBABY\u201d IS A BABY<\/h2>\n<p>Here\u2019s what we\u2019ll do. We\u2019ll ask, what does it mean when it says that \u201cthe baby leaped in her womb\u201d? What does it mean by \u201cbaby\u201d?<\/p>\n<p>There are two ways to do theology biblically. There\u2019s systematic theology, where you take all the verses, topics, and people that are related and gather them into clusters. There\u2019s biblical theology, where you take one author and you trace how they tell the story and the words they use; and the appearance of those words in context helps to give you a particular perspective from a particular author who\u2019s inspired by the Spirit.<\/p>\n<p>Let\u2019s look at every time Luke uses this word for \u201cbaby.\u201d He wrote Luke and Acts. He\u2019s the primary contributor to the New Testament. Let\u2019s see what \u201cbaby\u201d means. We\u2019ll start in Luke 1:41, which we just read: \u201cWhen Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb.\u201d John the Baptizer. This is an unborn, pre-born baby.<\/p>\n<p>Luke 1:44: Elizabeth says, \u201cthe baby in my womb leaped for joy.\u201d Same word for baby. Some of you say, \u201cYeah, but there\u2019s a difference between a baby in the womb and a baby outside of the womb. The baby in the womb doesn\u2019t have civil rights and human rights. The baby outside of the womb does.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Well, let\u2019s keep reading. Luke 2:12: \u201cYou will find a baby,\u201d there\u2019s our word, \u201cwrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.\u201d His name? Jesus Christ. The same word for \u201cbaby\u201d is used of the now-birthed Jesus Christ, what you set up every Christmas in your nativity scene, and John the Baptizer in his mother\u2019s womb, same word for \u201cbaby.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Luke 2:16: \u201cThey went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby Jesus lying in a manger.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Luke 18:15-16: \u201cNow they were bringing even infants to him,\u201d that is Jesus, \u201cthat he might touch them. And when the disciples saw it, they rebuked them. But Jesus called them to him, saying, \u2018Let the children come to me, and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God.\u2019\u201d The same word for John the Baptizer in Elizabeth\u2019s womb is the same word for Jesus lying in the manger, is the same word for the children brought for Jesus to pray over. Think little kids, those that are still crawling or maybe taking their first steps. Or little ones who are pre-school age. Same word. Pre-born. Post-born. Unborn. Born.<\/p>\n<p>Last occurrence is in Acts 7:19 (Luke wrote both books): \u201cHe,\u201d that is the godless Pharaoh, \u201cdealt shrewdly with our race and forced our fathers to expose their,\u201d same word, \u201cinfants\u201d \u2013 birthed, living, healthy children, that is infanticide \u2013 \u201cso that they would not be kept alive.\u201d What is in Elizabeth\u2019s womb is a human being made by God, bearing the image and likeness of God, deserving of all of the dignity and value that we subscribe and ascribe to all other human life. A baby in a womb is a baby. A baby in a womb is known by God as John was; named by God as John was; could be predestined and chosen for salvation as John was; can be filled by the Holy Spirit as John was, we read in Luke 1:15.<\/p>\n<p>We are not a politically motivated church, but we are a biblically motivated church. And it is a baby. It is a life. I argued with one guy recently. He said, \u201cIt\u2019s tissue.\u201d I said, \u201cSo are you.\u201d It\u2019s unbelievable that even among those who would claim to be Christians that this point is even in question. There is no possible way of reading the Bible and declaring a pregnant woman to be enjoying the presence of anything less than a human being. It\u2019s impossible.<\/p>\n<h2>ABORTION IS MURDER<\/h2>\n<p>I\u2019ll read for you from a section of a book I wrote called Religion Saves:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Alan Guttmacher Institute is a nonprofit corporation for reproductive health research and policy analysis. The Institute is also a public education arm of Planned Parenthood.\u201d \u2013 Just so you know, Planned Parenthood is a totally different team than. It is the leading abortion provider in America. It was founded by Margaret Sanger, a racist who wanted to murder less-fit races. She was influenced by the same ideology as Nazi Germany. So I want to share these statistics so that you know I\u2019m not just stacking the deck with Christians. &#8211;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt reports that one in six women who have had abortions [claim to be] evangelical Christians.\u201d \u2013 Some of you would ask, \u201cWhy in the world would we talk about abortion ? We love kids. We love marriage.\u201d Because one in six abortions is to a woman who says that \u201cI belong to Jesus.\u201d That\u2019s why. &#8211;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBased on these statistics, 5.6 million women in our churches\u201d \u2013 and hundreds in our church \u2013 \u201chave chosen abortion as a way out of an unwanted pregnancy.\u201d \u2013 And some of you will try to wriggle off the hook and say, \u201cWhat about rape, incest, mother\u2019s life in danger?\u201d I would say those are single-percentage cases. Let\u2019s just deal with the majority. Stay on the hook. &#8211;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEach year, 1.5 million American women have an abortion. This means 250,000 [professing] evangelical Christian women could choose to abort [their own] child this year.\u201d \u2013 It\u2019s a Holocaust. When you leave the service and you see the kids running around, ask where the rest are. If we operate according to the same statistics as the average evangelical Christian church, we will murder between five and six of our own children this year. I have five children. I can tell you exactly what five children look like.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDid he say murder?\u201d Yes. It\u2019s murder. When you take an innocent human life, you\u2019ve violated one of the Ten Commandments. You have murdered. There are murderers in our midst. There are murderers in our midst. There are women who have murdered their own child. There are men who have pressed their girlfriends and wives to murder their own child.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWomen ages 20 to 24 obtain 32 percent of all abortions. Teenagers obtain 20 percent. Forty percent,\u201d \u2013 listen to this \u2013 \u201cForty percent of women ages 15 to 44 have had at least one previous abortion.\u201d \u2013 Some of you say, \u201cOh, so you\u2019re anti-woman?\u201d No. I wish we would stop murdering young women. Please take note that half of those murdered are women. How can you be pro-woman\/pro-murder of women? Only Satan could sell that. &#8211;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFifty percent of women who have abortions use it as their sole means of birth control.\u201d \u2013 See, as Christians, for us, the line is no sex before or outside of heterosexual marriage. Those who sin against God but still want to be somehow, somewhat responsible then use birth control. And others just have sex, get pregnant, and murder the child. Half of abortions are from those who didn\u2019t use any birth control. Many who have an abortion have a second abortion. They\u2019re serial killers. \u201cProcedure\u201d? Murder. Much more accurate word.<\/p>\n<h2>HIS NAIL-SCARRED HANDS FOR OUR BLOODY HANDS<\/h2>\n<p>What does the Bible have to say about this? In the Old Testament there is an occasion where the Bible does speak about what happens if a pregnant woman is struck by a man and the baby dies. Here is what it says, Exodus 21:22-25: \u201cYou shall pay,\u201d that\u2019s what it says, you shall pay! \u201cLife for life . . . hand for hand, foot for foot . . . wound for wound, stripe for stripe.\u201d It\u2019s a capital offense. You don\u2019t put a bumper sticker on your car. You don\u2019t put a t-shirt on your back. You don\u2019t march in a parade. You die.<\/p>\n<p>These two women come together. Mary has Jesus in her womb. In our day she would be taken to the clinic, \u201cYou\u2019re a teenager. You\u2019re unmarried. You\u2019re from a small town. You\u2019re poor. You\u2019re illiterate. We should get rid of that burden to you named God.\u201d Elizabeth has in her womb a boy named John. God\u2019s already named him. He\u2019s already filled with the Holy Spirit. He\u2019s already chosen to be a prophet.<\/p>\n<p>Both of these young men are going to die brutal, premature deaths. They too will be murder victims. John will be beheaded because of his devotion to Jesus. And Jesus, as a young man, will go to the cross though he never sinned. He will have spikes driven through his hands, spikes driven through his feet. He will have stripes across his back from a flogging.<\/p>\n<p>And he will die. Why? For sin, as a substitute.<\/p>\n<p>And you murderous mothers, and you complicit fathers, and you godless evildoers, those who worship death, those who murder babies, those who sacrifice children, Jesus would say this to you: \u201cI shall pay. My life for your life, my hand for your hand, my foot for your foot, my wound for your wound, stripe for stripe.\u201d That\u2019s Jesus. When Exodus says that baby murderers should be punished, Jesus said, \u201cI\u2019ll take their place.\u201d Hand for hand. Nail-scarred hand for nail-scarred hand. Foot for foot. Nail-scarred foot for nail-scarred foot. Stripe for stripe across his back. His life for my life. His life for your life. That\u2019s Jesus.<\/p>\n<p>Some of you would sit here and argue and say, \u201cHow dare God judge me?\u201d How great that God would die for you. The God who judges you is the God who dies for you. The God who judges you is the God who forgives you. The God who judges you wants you to know that even if you\u2019ve not had a murder, you have blood on your hands. That we\u2019re all murderers. That Jesus died for our sin, that we murdered God. That any of you who would even hear this and feel self-righteous, saying, \u201cI\u2019ve done some bad things. At least I\u2019ve not killed a baby,\u201d you\u2019ve killed God. We all come with bloody hands. And Jesus dies for us. He rises for us. He loves us. He forgives us. He embraces us. He pursues us for friendship.<\/p>\n<p>See, some of you want to soft-sell the abortion issue. Don\u2019t. Because if you do, you\u2019ll diminish the magnificence of what Jesus has done. To even forgive murderers. And as I said, to some degree we all are.<\/p>\n<h2>GOD IS THE AUTHOR OF LIFE<\/h2>\n<p>Pray for the women in this church who have murdered their child and today will be wrecked. Pray for the men in this church who have knocked up girlfriends, wives, pressured them toward murder and will be wrecked. Pray for those who will come forward after the service to be prayed for by pastors and leaders, that the Holy Spirit would meet with them. There are many men and women who have worked through the absolute devastation that their own sin has caused in their life and legacy. And there\u2019s hope for us all in Christ.<\/p>\n<p>Many of you will leave. Many of you will never come back. Some of you will quibble over the details. Some of you will turn into religious attorneys. Some of you will want to argue the finer points. Some of you will take issue with being yelled at.<\/p>\n<p>I love you. You\u2019re wrong. You may not even know Christ; if Christ doesn\u2019t pay, you will. And rather than arguing, you should apologize to God. And if you don\u2019t, he will deal justly with you. Do not think that you can murder a child and stand before God and say, \u201cI am pro-choice.\u201d God will say, \u201cI choose hell for you because you chose it for yourself.\u201d If you don\u2019t choose Jesus, you choose justice.<\/p>\n<p>[Silence] You need to feel it.<\/p>\n<p>You need to feel it. And you men, you need to own it.<\/p>\n<p>That evangelicals would rail against abortion and let a bunch of mama\u2019s boys carry the name of Jesus is a reprehensible truth. That 60 percent of all Christians are female; we can\u2019t even get the men to step up. Of those quarter-million women in America this year who will claim to be Christians and murder their child, how many of them do you think have a Christian boyfriend who said he loved the Lord his God with all his heart, soul, mind, and strength and didn\u2019t include his pants? Gentlemen, it\u2019s not about you. It\u2019s about Jesus. It\u2019s not about your life. It\u2019s about your legacy. It\u2019s not about sex. It\u2019s about salvation.<\/p>\n<p>And I tell you as a guy who understands. I grew up in a home that was pro-life. My parents were Catholic. I was not just pro-choice, I was pro-abortion. I argued for it in high school as a student body president. I argued for it in college as a freshman. I believed that less-fit people should be killed for purposes of population control. I thought that those who were less fit and less intelligent-the logical outcome of Darwinian thinking-should be killed. Of course, I thought that I was more fit and intelligent. And so I was in the position to decide who would die, not \u201cto be murdered.\u201d It\u2019s the apex of arrogance and pride, to be God, choosing who lives and dies.<\/p>\n<p>By God\u2019s grace alone, I didn\u2019t impregnate a woman before I was married. God saved me at the age of nineteen. I stopped having sex. I experienced Romans 12: Do not be conformed to the pattern of this world. Be transformed by the renewing of your mind.<\/p>\n<p>I started reading the Bible and I realized, God is the author of life. Life belongs to God. God alone is the one who gets to decide who lives and dies. And he may speak of capital crimes and punishments in the Bible, but he certainly doesn\u2019t have any Scriptures that say, \u201cIf it\u2019s inconvenient; might disrupt your college studies; could cost you some money, gentlemen, in child support payments, feel free to murder that kid.\u201d But had one of my girlfriends who had been sleeping with me become pregnant come to me and said, \u201cI think I\u2019ll have an abortion,\u201d I would have said, \u201cThat\u2019s a good idea.\u201d By God\u2019s grace alone. By God\u2019s grace alone. By God\u2019s grace alone. [Silence]<\/p>\n<p>We expect more, gentlemen. [Silence]<\/p>\n<p>Today we decide how many children will live. Today we decide how many kids will be in the nursery next year. It\u2019s a very important day. [Silence]<br \/>\nh2. Prayer for All of Us Murderers<\/p>\n<p>Father God, I feel prompted to pray right now. God, for those women who hear this that have murdered their own child, I pray, Lord God, that they would be devastated. That maybe for the first time in their life they would stop making excuses, pretending, not talking about it, not confessing it, calling it a procedure. And that they would be devastated. I pray, Lord God, right now for those women who would want to, need to cry, that they would.<\/p>\n<p>God, I pray for those men. The perverts, the users, the abusers, the idolaters. The boys in men\u2019s bodies. God, those guys that would come here, raise their hands in worship and then put them on their girlfriend? God, that you would destroy them. That you would emotionally, mentally destroy them. That you would wreck them.<\/p>\n<p>God, I pray we would be a people who love you, who love life. That, Lord God, we would see marriage as a blessing and sex within marriage as a gift. And children. Children birthed. Not murdered. Birthed.<\/p>\n<p>God, I pray for those who are feeling the weight. That they would know, Lord God, there is now no condemnation in Christ. That only through Jesus is there forgiveness of sin and new life. Jesus, only through your death can that death be dealt with. And only through your resurrection can they rise up to live a new life.<\/p>\n<p>God, I thank you that through election, like you chose John in the womb, you could have chosen their baby in the womb. We impose nothing on you, God, but we live in hope and faith that the God who is a father would take the murdered and make them his adopted sons and daughters. Those who never got a chance to hear about Jesus, that Lord God, they would be filled with the Holy Spirit as John was from his mother\u2019s womb.<\/p>\n<p>God, we don\u2019t have an answer to that question: what happens to the dead unborn? But we have a God that we trust. God, I pray for those who are here, that they would realize that they are murderers. That they have, through sin, murdered the Son of God. That their hands are covered in blood. And, Lord Jesus, we thank you that you say, \u201cI will pay. A life for a life, hand for a hand, foot for a foot, wound for wound, stripe for stripe.\u201d Amen.<\/p>\n<h2>WHAT IS PROPHECY?<\/h2>\n<p>Elizabeth then prophesies. The mothers come together. They embrace. As they do, the sons in their wombs respond. John the Baptizer responds. Elizabeth responds. She prophesies. I\u2019ll read you her prophecy in a moment.<\/p>\n<p>Let me explain to you prophecy. Prophecy is where God chooses someone and uses someone to speak through them. It happens in the Old Testament. It happens in the New Testament. We believe in it. Absolutely. It is sometimes foretelling the future, predicting future events. About 25 percent of your Bible was prophetic when it was written, predicting future events. Sometimes it is forth-telling, giving a personal word to someone. God wants someone to know something, so he sends someone to give them a personal word. It\u2019s a particularly kind ministry. We see this kind of prophecy from Elizabeth.<\/p>\n<h2>TRUE VS. FALSE PROPHECY<\/h2>\n<p>Now, let me explain to you how we judge between true prophecy, false prophecy; true prophets, false prophets. Number one, true prophecy is under biblical authority. So prophecy isn\u2019t the highest authority, Scripture is. In Acts 17, Paul, who prophesies some of the New Testament, he is teaching and the Bereans are considered to be noble because they don\u2019t believe everything even Paul says. They test it by the whole of Scripture. So number one, true prophecy is under, tested by, accountable to Scripture.<\/p>\n<p>Number two, true prophecy is under church authority. All of 1 Corinthians 14 is written about gatherings of people in worship services as the church. And it says that if someone has a prophecy, it needs to be tested by the leadership to confirm that it\u2019s in fact from God. So we don\u2019t just open a mic and let people prophesy. It needs to be tested.<\/p>\n<p>And number three, it is true. What they say is 100 percent true. Deuteronomy 18:21-22. It says, here\u2019s how you know who a true and false prophet is: the true prophet, everything they say happens; the false prophet, it doesn\u2019t. That means even a false prophet that is 80 or 90 percent correct is still a false prophet.<\/p>\n<p>So we believe in prophecy. Absolutely. Some of the most significant turning points in my pastoral ministry have occurred because of prophecy. Absolutely. The whole reason I\u2019m in ministry is God spoke to me and he said to plant churches, train men, preach the Bible, marry Grace. That\u2019s what I\u2019ve been doing ever since.<\/p>\n<p>When God called me into ministry as a new Christian at the age of nineteen, my parents, who were Catholic, they were very worried that I\u2019d left the Catholic Church and now I\u2019m talking about becoming a pastor instead of a priest. And I told them, I just love Jesus, and he told me to marry Grace and preach the Bible. I can\u2019t be a priest. I want to get married and have kids and be a daddy. And serve Jesus. So they brought in my grandmother from Grand Forks, North Dakota. She\u2019s the expert. My grandmother was a devout Catholic woman. Had keys to multiple churches. Prayed in them all day every day. The priests got so tired of letting her in and out they just gave her keys. That\u2019s my grandma. When my grandfather died, she joined a Catholic order of unpaid nuns. She lived under a vow of poverty. A very simple woman. Pre-Vatican II, Latin Mass Catholic, if you\u2019re keeping score. Old school Catholic. Irish Catholic. O\u2019Driscoll.<\/p>\n<p>She flew in to check me out. She met with me. Had a lot of questions. She was sort of the matriarch in the family, the spiritual leader. And at the end, she told my parents, \u201cGod\u2019s done something in his life and God\u2019s called him to what he\u2019s going to do. We need to support him. He doesn\u2019t need to be Catholic. He doesn\u2019t need to be a priest. He needs to do what God told him to do.\u201d So my whole family was okay with it. Now they\u2019re really okay with it.<\/p>\n<p>And there are many Catholics who know and love Jesus. I wasn\u2019t one of them. Okay? I\u2019m not saying that all Catholics are not Christians, but I wasn\u2019t one of them. It was a prophetic moment in my life that allowed my family to support what we were doing. And it was really cool to see my dad this morning at church with my mom, them carrying their Bibles.<\/p>\n<p>Prophecy is a beautiful thing. It is sometimes abused, and liars give false prophecy. But we believe in it.<\/p>\n<h2>ELIZABETH PROPHESIES: CHILDREN ARE A BLESSING<\/h2>\n<p>You want to hear Elizabeth\u2019s prophecy? Here it is. Chapter 1, verse 41: \u201cAnd Elizabeth was filled with,\u201d that\u2019s a lot of, \u201cthe Holy Spirit.\u201d This is the Holy Spirit taking this woman and her deepest desires and bringing them, birthing them to life. \u201cAnd she exclaimed with a loud cry,\u201d so she\u2019s prophesying-you\u2019ve got to see this: Elizabeth, six months along; Mary, teenage gal, peasant, maybe illiterate. She\u2019s just conceived. Their wombs are together. Elizabeth puts a hand on Mary, prophesies, \u201cBlessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb!\u201d What are children? A blessing. You, Mary, are blessed of God! You\u2019ve got a baby.<\/p>\n<p>See, in our world, children are a curse. \u201cOh, you put on weight. You get stretch marks. You know, they teethe and burp and fart and cry and poop and breastfeed. And you\u2019re exhausted and they cost money and they\u2019re inconvenient.\u201d No! They\u2019re a blessing! A pooping, farting, eating, yelling, screaming, teething, expensive blessing! Psalm 127 says children are a A blessing!<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ve got five kids. We lost one in miscarriage. It is something that haunts me to this day. You know what three-year-old Gideon is? A blessing. Alexie? A blessing. Calvin? A blessing. Zac? A blessing. Ashley? A blessing. I tell them all the time. You guys are my blessing. You\u2019re my blessing! I was gone in Austin preaching this weekend. Got home late last night. I\u2019m upstairs, got my jammies on, I\u2019m washing my face. In walks my teenage daughter. She\u2019s got a big smile. I said, \u201cWhat\u2019s up girlie-girl?\u201d She said, \u201cOh, I love you Dad, and I just missed you. And I\u2019m so glad you\u2019re my dad,\u201d and gives me a huge kiss on the cheek. I looked at her. I said, \u201cYou are my blessing!\u201d They\u2019re not a burden. They\u2019re a blessing.<\/p>\n<p>Ask the average woman, are you pregnant? Yes! It\u2019s like she says she has cancer. \u201cOh, my gosh! What\u2019s wrong? Do you have cancer or are you pregnant?\u201d You know, well. Blessing. Blessing.<\/p>\n<h2>ELIZABETH CALLS JESUS \u201cLORD\u201d<\/h2>\n<p>Listen to this, verse 43, it\u2019s really good: \u201cAnd why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me?\u201d In that culture the older person would be honored by the younger. The older person wouldn\u2019t honor the younger. This is highly unusual. \u201cYou, Mary, are the mother of my Lord.\u201d The first person in the Bible to call Jesus Christ \u201cLord\u201d is Elizabeth. And she does it while Jesus is in Mary\u2019s womb, newly conceived. It\u2019s not tissue. It\u2019s the Lord. She\u2019s worshiping Jesus.<\/p>\n<p>So now we\u2019ve got the eternal Son of God coming into human history through the womb of the poor, marginalized, unmarried, virgin, rural, potentially illiterate young girl to identify with us sinners by living a humble, simple life; by being tempted, though not sinning so that he could be our substitute and reconcile us to God and take away our sin and send us the Holy Spirit so that we might have new life birthed in us. The new life like Mary was enjoying through the presence of Jesus. We get the life of Jesus in us through the Holy Spirit.<\/p>\n<p>And Elizabeth says, \u201cI can\u2019t believe I\u2019m in the presence of the mother of my Lord.\u201d She hasn\u2019t even seen him live, walk on water, raise the dead, heal people, die on a cross, resurrect. But she\u2019s already worshiping him and claiming him as God. Love it! [Applause]<\/p>\n<h2>WORSHIPING BY THE HOLY SPIRIT<\/h2>\n<p>Got to hear this. Verse 44. There are so many bullets in this gun. It\u2019s amazing. \u201cFor behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears,\u201d \u2013 the what? \u2013 \u201cthe baby in my womb leaped for joy.\u201d How did that happen? Gabriel said, in Luke 1:15, John will be filled with the Holy Spirit from his mother\u2019s womb. The two women come together. The old covenant, the new covenant. The promises, the fulfillment. The prophet, the Lord. Their bellies touched. Boom! John worships. Yes! There he is! John in the womb, six months old. Predestined of God, saved, elect, chosen, named. Filled with the Holy Spirit. Starts off as an in-utero worship leader. I can\u2019t think of a stronger argument for personhood in the womb than that. It\u2019s Pastor John the worship leader. He is \u2013 we don\u2019t know what he\u2019s doing \u2013 singing, dancing, celebrating in the womb. See, the proper response to Jesus is, \u201cHe\u2019s Lord and I worship him by the power of the Holy Spirit.\u201d That\u2019s the response. [Applause]<\/p>\n<p>Here\u2019s the final word of Elizabeth\u2019s outstanding prophecy. \u201cAnd blessed is she who believed,\u201d \u2013 There it is, faith! \u2013 \u201cthat there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord.\u201d Here\u2019s the process. God speaks. Mary believes. God blesses. Mary sings. That\u2019s the pattern for worship. God speaks. Jesus is God. Jesus has come on a rescue mission. Jesus atoned for the sins of the world. Jesus makes enemies friends. Jesus makes murderers worshipers. Jesus makes idolaters sons and daughters of the Most High God! Jesus speaks with nothing less than the authority of God as God. And Jesus speaks through the Word. And Jesus prays, \u201cFather, sanctify them by the truth. Your word is the truth.\u201d And Jesus speaks today. He speaks through the Scriptures. He speaks through your conscience. He speaks through the Holy Spirit.<\/p>\n<h2>OUR RESPONSE TO JESUS<\/h2>\n<p>And he speaks and we are to believe. We are to respond. We are to trust him. We are to love him. We are to follow him. We are to enjoy him. We are to serve him. We are to emulate him. God speaks. We believe. God blesses. For us it is forgiveness of sin. It is the removal of the old nature. It is the introduction of the new nature. It is the presence of the Holy Spirit. It is the enjoyment of God\u2019s people. It is eternity with Christ. God blesses and we sing! We sing under the power of the Holy Spirit.<\/p>\n<p>We\u2019ll deal with it in coming weeks, but Mary, in the next section, sings: \u201cAnd Mary said,\u201d \u2013 or sang \u2013 \u201c\u2018My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit,\u2019\u201d \u2013 down in the depths, in the gut \u2013 \u201c\u2018rejoices\u2019\u201d \u2013 she\u2019s happy \u2013 \u201c\u2018in God, my Savior, for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant. For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed;\u2019\u201d \u2013 and we do, Mary. You were blessed. \u2013 \u201c\u2018for he who is mighty has done great things for me,\u2019\u201d \u2013 Want that for all of you. \u2013 \u201c\u2018and holy is his name.\u2019\u201d \u2013 He\u2019s not like us. \u2013 \u201c\u2018And his mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation.\u2019\u201d \u2013 Don\u2019t murder your children. Let them fear him from generation to generation. \u2013 \u201c\u2018He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts; he has brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of humble estate; he has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty. He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy, as he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his offspring forever.\u2019\u201d Mary sings, maybe with one hand on her womb and the other raised in song.<\/p>\n<p>Father God, I pray against the enemy, his servants, their works and effects. I pray against this culture of death. I pray against murder being called a procedure. I pray against those who would argue with the Scriptures. For those who would choose death over life, Satan over Jesus, lies over truth, murder over life. Lord God, save us, we pray, from ourselves. I pray for the men, the perverts, the porn addicts, the users, the liars, the wife beaters, the cheats, the fornicators, the worthless, the damned, the kindling for the fires in the end. That you would send them favor like you did Mary. That you would send them the Holy Spirit like you did Mary. That you would cause enemies to be worshipers. That you would cause them in this moment to experience new life, new birth through Jesus by the Spirit in the depths of their soul. God, we pray for our city and all cities. We pray for our nation and all nations. And God, we know it is not politics. It is the gospel of Jesus Christ which is our hope. It is the gospel of Jesus Christ which holds the power. And it is the gospel of Jesus Christ which we invite by the power of the Holy Spirit to be unleashed so that the joy that these women had would be shared by the multitudes. In Jesus\u2019 name, Amen.<\/p>\n<p>You need to sing! Don\u2019t argue. Sing! So, if you\u2019re ready, we\u2019re going to take communion, remember Jesus\u2019 broken body, shed blood. You\u2019re going to stand. You\u2019re going to sing. The Holy Spirit will help you. If you want to become a Christian, you want to give your life to Christ, you meet me out there with some leaders and we\u2019ll pray for you. We\u2019ll baptize you, showing Jesus lived, died, rose so that your old life is dead and your new life starts right now, by the power of the Holy Spirit, cleansed from sin like water cleanses us from filth. We\u2019ll all celebrate. If you need prayer, you join us up front after the service or in the foyer. You guys ready? You got to sing!<\/p>\n<p>[End of Audio]<\/p>\n<p>Note: This sermon transcript has been edited for readability.<\/p>\n\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false,"gt_translate_keys":[{"key":"rendered","format":"html"}]},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Pregnant Mary walks many miles to visit pregnant Elizabeth so they can share in each other\u2019s joy and be in community together. The baby in Elizabeth\u2019s womb, John the Baptizer, leaps for joy when he hears Mary\u2019s greeting, and Elizabeth prophesies that Mary is blessed. Thus, we see that a baby in the womb is indeed a baby, that children are a blessing from God, and that abortion is murder. We all, through sin, have bloody hands as murderers of Jesus, but he offers his nail-scarred hands\u2014life for life\u2014to save us. He died in our place for our sin, and the proper response is faith and worship, as exemplified by Mary, Elizabeth, and John.<\/p>\n","protected":false,"gt_translate_keys":[{"key":"rendered","format":"html"}]},"author":6,"featured_media":17633,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_eb_attr":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"16384,17642,17735,17652,13588,11481","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[386],"tags":[],"ministries":[],"topics":[238,208,201,214],"series":[452],"gt_translate_keys":[{"key":"link","format":"url"}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/realfaith.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17647"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/realfaith.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/realfaith.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/realfaith.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/realfaith.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17647"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/realfaith.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17647\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41308,"href":"https:\/\/realfaith.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17647\/revisions\/41308"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/realfaith.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17633"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/realfaith.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17647"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/realfaith.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17647"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/realfaith.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17647"},{"taxonomy":"ministries","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/realfaith.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ministries?post=17647"},{"taxonomy":"topics","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/realfaith.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/topics?post=17647"},{"taxonomy":"series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/realfaith.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/series?post=17647"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}