Well in 1983, something called SDI was on the table and what SDI stood for was the Strategic Defense Initiative and it was nicknamed Star Wars. And it was announced under President Reagan. And it was a proposed missile defense system that was intended to protect the United States from attack by a ballistic nuclear missile or missiles. And what it would hopefully do is render nuclear weapons obsolete. And what this would give the U.S. is a decisive advantage over the Soviet Union, and it gave the Soviet Union great, great grief and concern. And what President Reagan did was actually built up the military to leverage have leverage over the other world superpower, which was Russia. For there were only two superpowers then, and that was Russia and the U.S., and only Russia and the U.S. could start World War III really, and then really end World War III. And this was all during the Cold War, when tensions and suspicions were very high between Russia and America. Well, the two most powerful men in the world, President Reagan and the Soviet General Secretary, Mikhail Gorbachev, they agreed to meet to discuss this arms race and the reduction of it. So in 1985, they met at the Geneva Summit. And they both agreed they wanted peace. They both agreed they wanted to reduce their arsenal so that neither side should have an advantage, especially a first strike advantage. And so what you had was, you had the two most powerful, influential, important men in the world meeting for the first time. This was an historic event. Well, almost 2,000 years ago, you had an even greater meeting and a more significant meeting with two of the greatest men of all time. And they would meet not to bring world peace, but what would become from their meeting, peace between men and God. Peace between men and God. One that would not keep people safe from an opposing military, but would keep people safe from the judgment of God. And this meeting was between the Lord Jesus Christ and John the Baptist, when the Savior of the world met the forerunner of the Savior. And I'm not talking about the meeting that John and Jesus had when Jesus was baptized by the Jordan River. Rather, when they met while still inside their mother's wombs at the home of Elizabeth. Now, we have seen from verse 26, Mary was visited by the angel Gabriel, who gave her this out-of-this-world greeting, and then an even further out-of-this-world message, that she was highly favored by God, that she would be blessed among women, and that even though she was a virgin, she would conceive a son miraculously by the power of the Holy Spirit, and she would call his name Jesus, for he would be great, and called the Son of God, and the Son of the Highest, and the Holy One, and he would reign forever on the throne of his father David. And Mary's stunned, she's amazed, she can't believe what she's hearing. And to help her believe, Gabriel tells her that Elizabeth, her elderly relative, who was barren, is now six months pregnant. And then he says to her that with God, nothing will be impossible, to which Mary declares that she is the maidservant or the slave of the Lord, and may it be according to your word. So whatever the Lord wills, she's gonna be good with. Now in verses 39 to 45, Mary's gonna go and visit Elizabeth, where John and Jesus will meet for the first time, albeit in their mother's wombs. And I'd like to look at these verses in a sermon titled, A Leaping Babe, using three points. And those points are Mary's greeting, the effect of Mary's greeting, and then finally, Elizabeth's blessings. So let's look at Mary's greeting, verses 39 and 40. Well, Mary hears that Elizabeth in her old age, who has been barren her whole life, is now six months pregnant and she can't believe it. But Gabriel said, listen, nothing is impossible with God. And the question is, why does Mary make haste to go and visit Elizabeth? Why does she just go fast to go there? And I think probably two reasons. I can think of two reasons. The first one, and probably the major one, is that it would confirm what Gabriel had just told her. For if she goes and sees Elizabeth, who is now six months pregnant, and would clearly be showing, well, that would authenticate what Gabriel said to her about her. And if God could grant Elizabeth to conceive in her senior years, which is nothing short of a miracle, He can enable her, Mary, to conceive and do the impossible and put a holy seed inside of her and birth the son called Jesus, just as Gabriel told her. So she goes to Elizabeth to confirm the word of the Lord and to boost her faith. I think that's first and foremost. Secondly, I think she went to see Elizabeth because Elizabeth was the only one that she could talk to who might understand what God is doing with her. Who else would believe that the baby inside of her was not from sexual immorality, but she was pregnant and yet still a virgin? Who would believe that? I would imagine before she told her parents that she was pregnant, she wanted to see Elizabeth beforehand. I mean, how would her parents react if this young, 13, maybe 14-year-old girl, daughter, tells them she's pregnant? And she says, but she wasn't with a man. And then an angel appeared to her. And the angel tells her she's gonna get pregnant. And that she's gonna have a son. And that God has chosen her over all of Israel to be the mother of the Messiah. To be the one who would birth the one who would be the son of David. Who would reign on his father's throne forever. And by the way, this conception would happen miraculously. No other conception ever before or after it. And I think it would have been a huge pill for her parents to swallow. And Mary knew it. Especially since no one has seen an angel in over 400 years. Add to that, no one has seen a miracle in over 400 years. And no one has been given a message from God for over 400 years. And here's Mary blowing all of that out of the water, saying, God gave me this word through an angel. And he's gonna be doing a miracle in me and through me, unlike anything anyone has ever seen. So Mary goes to Elizabeth, who's been told by Zacharias she would conceive and bear a son in her old age. And not just any son, no, a son who would be a prophet, who would be the greatest prophet of the Old Testament, a son who would be the greatest man born of woman, who would be the forerunner of the Messiah. Who would be the fulfillment of the one who was to come in the spirit and power of Elijah? As we would read in Malachi 4, verses 5 and 6. One who would be the fulfillment of Isaiah 40, verse 3, where it says, the voice of one crying in the wilderness, saying, prepare the way of the Lord. Make straight in the desert a highway for God. So Mary believes Elizabeth will believe her. That's the thing here. She believes Elizabeth will believe her and understand her. and also fill her in on what the Lord has told her about herself and her son. She wanted to see the only person in the world who at this point she could relate to and could relate to her. And there were maybe 60 years between them, but the bond they now have is inseparable. And it may be when Mary's parents hear Elizabeth's story, It might make it easier for them to believe Mary's story. So God will use these two women to birth two sons who will bring about the salvation of men. One to announce it, the other to secure it. So Mary goes to visit Elizabeth. You know, when something amazing happens in your life, you want to share it with someone who can relate to you, do you not? You want to share it with someone who can understand it, right? I think that's kind of common. Someone who understands what you're going through. Like if you share the gospel with somebody, and God saves them on the spot, well, you're not going to share them with your unsaved friends. Oh, I was sharing the gospel with so-and-so, and God miraculously saved them. What does that mean? Saved what? What does it mean? But you share it with a brother or sister. Oh, I was sharing the gospel with so-and-so, and God worked on their heart. They're like, amen, hallelujah, unbelievable. Praising the Lord. Is that not true? Who do you tell? You tell someone who understands. The point is that Elizabeth knows that what happened to Mary isn't a fantasy or a cover-up for teenage lust, but the truth, but a work of God. So we read Mary leaves the angel Gabriel with haste, meaning she didn't waste any time. She had to go see Elizabeth. And it's like when you're first saved, you want to go and share it with those you love, right? You don't get saved and say, well, I'm just gonna wait around for six months and I'm gonna start telling people this. No, you're like, I gotta go. I gotta tell people, right? You gotta let people know what's going on with you. Like when Andrew, when Andrew finds out that Jesus is the Messiah, who does he go to right away? Tells his brother. We found the Messiah. I found him, he's there. And Zacchaeus, he makes haste to come down from the tree to let Jesus use his home. I can't sit around. He wants to use my home. Like James and John, Jesus passes by the boat, they're with their father, hey, follow me. Boom, drop the nets, dad will see you, they're off. When Jesus calls you, you make haste to come. And you want to come, and you want others to know it. Like, do you remember when God first saved you? Did you just, like, say nothing? Or did you go to people you love? Parents, siblings, spouse, children. God saved me. You want them to know. So Mary travels between 80 to 100 miles from Nazareth to the hill country of Judah, Judea, which would have been about a week's travel for her, and she goes to see her relative. Now when Mary gets to Elizabeth's house, Luke says she greets Elizabeth. And greeting in biblical times was different than the way we greet each other. Hello, how you doing? Good to see you, everything okay? Everything's fine, everything's fine, boom, right? No one ever says things are, which is good, good, good, good to see you. That's not how they did it. They did it different. Listen to David, his greeting to Nabal in 1st Samuel 25. Peace be to you, peace to your house, and peace to all that you have. Now I have heard that you have shearers. Your shepherds were with us. We did not hurt them, nor was there anything missing from them all the while they were in Carmel. Ask your young men, and they'll tell you. Therefore, let my young men find favor in your eyes, for we come on a feast day. Please, give whatever comes to your hand to your servants and to your son David. So, peace to you, peace to your house. Could you give us some food? That's basically the greeting. Since I've heard you've got a party going on there and you're sharing the sheep there. Then there's Moses greeting his father, Noah Jethro, Exodus 18. After they say hello, we read this. Moses told his father-in-law all that the Lord had done to Pharaoh and to the Egyptians for Israel's sake. All the hardship that had come upon them on the way and how the Lord had delivered them. So it's a whole story. The greeting is a story. So one can surmise when Mary greets Elizabeth and sees she's pregnant, she proceeds to tell her everything that the angel Gabriel told her. And then, what Gabriel told her about Elizabeth. So Mary says, here's what he told me, and here's what he told me about you. He told me that you're pregnant already, six months, and that you're going to have a son. So in the greeting, a lot of truth is spoken. And so Elizabeth is Mary's confirmation, her proof that what Gabriel said will come to pass. And if someone told you that the black sheep of your family The one who hates God, the one who hates the Gospel, the one who wants nothing to do with the things of God and pooh-poohs at every chance they get, they say to you, so-and-so just got miraculously saved. It's like, I need proof. I know so and so. That guy, he hates God. He hates Christianity. I need proof. I need to see something. You might have a hard time believing that the one who made so many people you know miserable, probably made your parents miserable, and is the definition of selfish itself, was now a Christian. I can't believe that. You say, no, no, no, no, I need verification. I'm gonna call this person, I'm gonna go sit with them, and I'm gonna see if it's so. I'm gonna see if it's so. You want verification. Now it's not that Mary doesn't believe. She did believe. But given the incredible nature of this miracle, she needs reassurance. She needs reassurance. She needs reassurance. And do we not constantly need reassurance of our own faith? Do we not need reinforcement of our own faith? We do. We do, to help us keep our eyes fixed on the prize, to keep us focused on Christ, to keep walking the walk that he's called us to walk, which is worthy of the gospel, and to have victory over temptations, and to look forward to the glorious appearing of the second coming of the Son of God. We need reassurance, and we get it from the scriptures, and we get it in prayer, and we get it in fellowship, but we need it. And Mary needed it as well here. So we see her greeting. Secondly, the effects of that greeting in verse 41. And it happened, when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, that the babe leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. Mary travels to the hill country of Judah, greets Elizabeth, and it's this unbelievable greeting. And when Elizabeth hears the greeting of Mary, And she hears what Gabriel told her, two things happen. Two things happen. One, it causes the baby in her womb to leap for joy. And secondly, she becomes filled with the Holy Spirit. So, you know, we read that the baby leaps with joy. And leap means to jump, to skip. And it is always related to joy in the scriptures. So, Luke 6.23, which we read today, concerning being persecuted for Jesus' sake, he said, Rejoice in that day and leap for joy. Rejoice and leap for joy for indeed your reward is great in heaven for in like manner their fathers did to the prophets Rejoice leap for joy Now one may say a baby leaping or kicking in its mother's womb is no big deal I'm sure that Anthony and Emily played a little soccer in Angelica's womb right before they were born and I'm sure every mother here could relate to that in some way, shape, or form. I'm guessing. But this is different for Elizabeth. It's different. First off, at six months pregnant, I believe she knows the difference between a little kick and a leap. I believe she knows the difference. More importantly, though, she divinely interprets John's leaping. She divinely interprets John's leaping. The Holy Spirit that is in her, because she is filled with faith, inspires her. And she tells Mary in verse 44, for indeed, as soon as the voice of your greeting sounded in my ears, the babe leaped in my womb for joy. Who knows those kind of things? Well, she does. So I'm guessing Mary sees Elizabeth grab her stomach, As she momentarily marvels at her leaping baby. And Elizabeth tells her, he leaped because he heard what the Lord has told you. And that the Messiah is in your womb. And we have to stop here for a moment and consider what's being said because it is actually quite amazing that a six-month-old John in the womb of his mother heard the miraculous news of Mary. And at that moment, he was in the presence of the Messiah in another womb. And I know scientists believe that babies can hear sounds and voices in the womb. We all know that. We've heard that already. Am I the only one that heard that? I've heard that, right? And I heard that a long time ago. And so when Claudia was pregnant with Gloria, you know, when she got pretty big, I would pray over her stomach. This is at nighttime, she's trying to sleep. I'm reading the Bible to her stomach, and I'm driving her nuts. But I'm doing it because I'm saying to myself, she hears it. She's gotta hear it. And so I'm believing that, you know, she's getting the word and she's hearing the prayer. And so I did that. But Glo wasn't hearing detailed conversations, nor did she know who other babies were in other people's wombs. She didn't know any of that stuff. But John, who Luke 1.15 says, would be filled with the Holy Spirit from his mother's womb. He does. And it causes him to leap for joy. And let us not forget what John's ministry would be, right? He would prepare the way for the Messiah. He would announce his coming to the nation of Israel. And really what we see here is the first announcement. Here's the first announcement of him. Albeit, it's a silent announcement, but it's an announcement. And notice this meeting of the mothers caused John great joy even in the womb. And some 30 years later, he would verbally express that joy when speaking of Jesus in John 3.29. He said, he who has the bride is the bridegroom. But the friend of the bridegroom who stands and hears him rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom. Therefore this joy of mine is fulfilled. I am filled with joy that the Messiah is here. I am filled with joy. So his mission is to make Christ known and to draw others to him. And all he could do in the womb was just break into great praise and joy like his mother did, i.e. kicking and jumping around. That's all he could do. And let me say that joy does not mean happiness, for happiness is conditioned upon circumstances. Now you have to hear this out, right? Because we're commanded to have joy. We're commanded. Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say rejoice. That's a command. That's not an option. Well, how do you command a feeling? Can you command, don't be sad? I command you not to be sad. I command you to have joy when you're sad. I command you to have joy when you have great struggle. How's that possible? How's that possible? But it doesn't mean happiness. Happiness is conditioned upon circumstances. You get a raise? Cancer gets cured that you have? Your team wins the World Cup? Happy. Unhappy, but you lose the job, cancer comes back, your team loses in the first round, unhappy. Joy is not determined by circumstances, it is independent of circumstances. You're joyful because of who you are in Christ and that all of your sins are forgiven and that Christ has prepared a place for you in heaven. The joy of the Christian is an attitude. It's an attitude. So even though we have great sorrow at times, even though we can have like a broken heart over scenarios and situations, at the same time, in the inner man, there can be joy because I know whom I have believed and am persuaded. He's able to keep that which I've committed to him until that day. I can have joy in the times of greatest sorrow And sorrow's real, and pain is real, and suffering is real. Losing a loved one is real. That's all true and real, and we go through those things. But at the same time, in our inner man, there can be joy because we know who we are in Christ. We know what He's done for us. We know He loves us, and He's got us in His hand, and He's not gonna let us go. You see, your position and your union with Christ should always give us joy, regardless of what's going on. And let me also say that, like John, there is great joy in the presence of Christ. The closer our relationship to Him, the more we rejoice. The closer our fellowship with Him, the more our joy increases. He is the source of our joy. He is the reason for our joy. Regardless of what trials and troubles and hardships we're going through, the fact that Christ is ours should move the joy needle. It just should move the joy needle. Listen, Jesus should make every Christian joyful, that we're saved. It should make us joyful that we're sons of God, born from above, washed in the blood. It should make us joyful that we're in Him and He is in us, and that no one can undo that. That should make us joyful. And really reading the Word of God, which is all about Him, should make us joyful. And listening to sermons, that should make us joyful. And talking about Him with others should make us joyful. And sharing Him with the lost, well that should make us joyful. Worshipping with the saints, coming together, that should be joyful. That should be, Amen, I'm glad to be here with the people of God. And it's an oxymoron or a contradiction to be a Christian with no joy. It really is such a fallacy if you think about it. How could you be a believer, born again, and have no joy? Always fearful, glasses half empty, anxious all the time, complaining, never content. And joy is not something you can muster up. Just play the music louder. Danny, play that faster and louder. No, no, no. You can't muster it up. It comes from the inside. It's a fruit of the spirit. The fruit of the spirit is love, joy. You can't whoop this thing up. It comes because the Spirit of God is in you and is moving in you and is reminding you and informing you and enlightening you to the truths of the Gospel. It should make us joyful. It should make us joyful. So it's an oxymoron for a Christian not to be joyful. I want to say something about the baby leaping in his mother's womb and having great joy because it's fascinating to me. The first thing is this. John in the womb is called a babe or a baby. He's six months in the womb and he's called a baby. By the way, today, he could be aborted at six months. It could actually happen to the ninth month. For some of our politicians, he could be born and we'll leave him to die on the table if we don't want him. He's six months in the womb, called a baby. And that means what Luke is telling us is he's a person in the womb. Not a clump of cells in the womb. Not a mass of tissue in the womb. He's a babe. A babe. For a clump of cells and a mass of tissue, they can't leave. They're not rejoicing. And you don't need to be a biblical scholar here to know that abortion is murder. From God's perspective, there's no other way around this. And I don't care what anybody says, you can't slice this and dice this in any other way. If God says it's murder. And for a professing Christian not to see it that way, or to be indifferent about it, or to find some sort of justification with it, or to vote for politicians who promote it. Think about it. You're saying, I want that person, even though they are championing The slicing, the killing of babies in the womb. Can you throw your hat in that arena, knowing what your father in heaven thinks of that? I don't think you should. I don't think we should do that. It goes against the truth and the will of God. And to buy into the lies of our culture is to be duped by the God of this age. I harp on this a lot, but it bothers me when I hear and know what's going on. Now we read that Elizabeth is filled with the Holy Spirit, and being filled with the Spirit is not some second blessing, is not some being baptized by the Holy Spirit again in some way, shape, or form. Rather, here's what it means. It means that her life was under the control of the Holy Spirit. Every believer should be filled with the Spirit. We're commanded, actually. Ephesians 5.18 says, do not be drunk with wine, which is dissipation. Here's the command, but be filled with the Holy Spirit. There it is, all of us, every single one of us. So do not be filled with alcohol or the ways of the world, but be filled with the Word of God and the ways of God. Let the Holy Spirit control you by submitting to the Spirit-inspired Word of God. Let Him reign over you in every area of life. For when you are filled with the Spirit, you will definitely be experiencing the joy of the Spirit, and you will be walking in the Spirit, and you will be exhibiting the fruits of the Spirit. And that's what Mary was, and that's what John was in the womb. So we see Mary's greeting, the effects of that greeting, and finally Elizabeth's blessing, verses 42 to 45. Then she spoke out with a loud voice and said, blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. But why is this granted to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For indeed, as soon as the voice of your greeting sounded in my ears, the babe leaped in my womb. Blessed is she who believed. for there will be a fulfillment of those things which were told her from the Lord." Well, John leaps in a mother's womb, Elizabeth is filled with the Spirit when she hears the testimony of Mary, and that prompts her to speak this song of praise. It's not a song singing, but they call it a hymn of praise. There are five of these in the first two chapters of Luke concerning the coming of the Messiah or the birth of the Messiah. There's Mary's right now and Mary will have hers in 46 to 55, Zacharias in 68 to 78. And then the angels in 2.14, and finally Simeon at the end of two. All right, well then we read, Elizabeth spoke with a loud voice, or the ESV says, with a loud cry. So she is so filled with joy, so filled with adoration for what God is doing, she can't help herself. She can't help herself. She's been praying for the coming of the Messiah her whole life. And now she meets the mother of the one who will birth him. And she herself will have a son who will go before Him and herald Him according to the Scriptures. And are there not times in our lives when we are just so overwhelmed with the goodness of God and that the love that God has for us that we can't help but express it? Are there not those times when you're just so overwhelmed that He loves you, when you're meditating on the Word, or maybe you look in the sky and you see this unbelievable sky, and you're thinking, He's amazing, and He loves me. He can do anything, and yet He puts His Spirit in me. He could destroy everything in a split second, and yet I have eternal life. Are we not at times amazed at His goodness and His love for us? I hope we are. Then we just can't express it. We just can't even say it. And we gotta tell others, let me tell you what I saw. Let me tell you what I thought. Let me tell you what I read. So Elizabeth starts by saying to Mary, blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And Gabriel told Mary to rejoice in verse 28, because not only was she highly favored, but she was blessed among women. And indeed, she was blessed among women. She was blessed to be the woman to give flesh and bones to the Messiah. She was blessed to be the one who would birth him, and hold him in her arms, and love him, and train him, as any mother would be blessed to do any of those things. That God would give her this privilege. That she would be the virgin who would conceive Him. Prophesied all the way back in Isaiah 7. That she would be the woman whose seed would crush the head of the serpent and bring fallen man back to God. Again, prophesied all the way back in Genesis 3. So what a high honor, what a great blessing to be the mother of the Messiah. But understand, understand that Luke says she is blessed among women, she is not blessed above women. There's a point there. She's blessed among women, but not blessed above them. Because Mary herself is a sinner who needs a savior, which she's gonna say in verse 47. She's gonna say it. And she will be saved by the very baby that she's carrying in her womb. He's gonna wash away all of her sins. And He's gonna do it at the cross. And every woman And man, for that matter, who believes in Christ is blessed, as we're gonna see in verse 45. So Mary is blessed, and the reason she is blessed is because of the baby in her womb, to which Elizabeth then says, blessed is the fruit of your womb. And every woman hopes that the fruit of her womb would be blessed, or the children that she bears will be blessed. And that goes without saying. I mean, what woman is pregnant and says, oh, I hope this kid isn't blessed? I hope nothing good happens for this kid. Who does that? You want blessings and more blessings and blessings. We want that. We want blessings. And as Christian parents, the greatest blessing we can pray for, the greatest hope we should have for our children in the womb, is that God would save them. God would save them. That he would make them lovers of Christ. That he would make them his followers all of their days. That they would live to make him known and they would conform to his will. Like, what greater thing could we want? What if our kids have everything? What if they're off-the-charts brilliant? What if they make Elon Musk kind of money? What if they are so successful, so powerful, so influential that everybody knows them, and yet they're lost spiritually? Are you happy about that? No, right? But if they're saved, God saves their souls. It doesn't make a difference what happens after that. Not that you don't pray, not that you don't want good things to happen, but you got the best thing when God saves their soul. You don't want them to leave this world apart from God, do you? That'd be a hole in the heart that'll be in the rest of your days here anyway. The greatest blessing for a parent is to see their children saved, bar none. So Elizabeth blesses Jesus in Mary's womb. And he's very blessed that he would fulfill the purposes of his incarnation, which was to save his people from their sins. He would be the greatest teacher who ever lived. He would heal and do miracles like no one ever did before or no one will ever do. He would be the most selfless man the world has ever known, the most compassionate man the world has ever known. He would reveal God to us because he is God in the flesh. He would rescue man from the curse of sin by becoming a curse for us, by wiping away our sin debt, by paying for it with his own blood. So he would substitute himself for his people, suffering death and separation from God so they could live forever with God. And because of it, he would know joy unspeakable. He would inherit a people. He would be well-pleasing to the Father. So without question, the fruit of Mary's womb was blessed. Then Elizabeth, in total humility, asks Mary in verse 43, why has this been granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me? Listen, Elizabeth knows she's nothing. Elizabeth knows she deserves nothing. And please notice that there's not an ounce of jealousy in her. She could be thinking, why does this teenage girl get to be the mother of my Lord while I am only the mother of the foreigner? Right? I mean, why? I've been a faithful woman for like 50, 60, 70, 80 years. I've been of faith my whole life. I have served the Lord my whole life. And Mary, this kid, she's gonna be the mother of the Messiah. It's as if somebody gives you a free ticket to a World Series, but it's gonna be in the bleachers. And someone else, you know, gets a free ticket, but it's gonna be behind home plate. And you say, why do they get home plate? Why am I in the bleachers? Why does that person get home? Why are you even there? You know what I mean? You got there for nothing. It was grace that you're at that game, and yet you'd be jealous of the person who got a better seat by the same grace that you had. It's ridiculous, but we get like that, don't we? But there's not an ounce of jealousy in her. Not an ounce of jealousy in her. The furthest thing from Elizabeth's mind is jealousy. And is not jealousy an ugly thing? Is it not an ugly thing? Particularly in the kingdom of God, where everybody in the kingdom of God is solely in the kingdom of God by God's sovereign grace. And every gift and ability given to us, we have, is solely by the grace of God. None of us did any of these things. None of us sat down and learned how to be holy, you know, righteous or anything. None of us have. And so it's a crazy thing that we would be jealous of others who could do something better than us. It's just unheard of. It shouldn't be. We should rejoice at the giftings and abilities and blessings that he gives others, even if we don't have those or we have them to a much lesser degree. I ought to be grateful that men who can preach and preach with power and articulation and have great minds I don't want to say, I wish I had that. No, no, no. God didn't give me that, but he gave that guy that. I want to be grateful, and you want to be grateful for whatever it is. So Elizabeth can't believe that God would allow her to be in the presence of the Messiah. Who she says is her Lord. So Mary is blessed, but ultimately the one that Elizabeth is in awe of here is not Mary. It's the Lord, the Sovereign, the King who she's carrying. And you and I ought to be humbled and in awe that the Lord has granted us salvation. We ought to be humbled by that. We ought to be humbled that Jesus would be born into this world so that he could save us. He's born so we could not die. He dies so we can be born again. We should be really humbled by that. It should never get old or just normal. We should always be humbled by that. That He would shed His precious blood, His holy blood for us. We should say, why has it been granted to me to now be called the Son of God? Why has it been granted to me? God didn't know that to me. I wasn't one of the top 1,000 people in this world that I should be on that list. Why does God save anybody? Well, Ephesians 1.5 or 6 says, for his own good pleasure. He does what he wants to do because he wants to do it. We should say, why should eternal mercy be granted to me? Why should saving grace be given to me? Why should my rock-hard heart now be for Christ? And notice what's been granted to Elizabeth, that the mother of our Lord should come to her. You see, the baby in Mary's womb is Elizabeth's Lord. And she doesn't call Mary the mother of God. She calls Mary the mother of my Lord. Because God doesn't have a mother. God is eternal. Eternal doesn't have a mother. The man Christ Jesus had a mother. Mary gives him his humanity. And Elizabeth believed what Gabriel told Mary, so she knew the child was her Lord. Just as David did, when he was prophesying in Psalm 110, where he said, the Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand till I make your enemies your footstool. He knew it, prophetically. Then Elizabeth blesses Mary one more time, saying in verse 45, blessed is she who believed. For there will be a fulfillment of those things which were told her from the Lord. And Mary is blessed because she believed that God could do what he said he would do. She believed he could do the impossible through her. She believed that the Holy Spirit would supernaturally impregnate her without her doing anything or feeling anything. and that the seed inside of her was a holy seed, and that the son she would have would be the Messiah, who would be God in the flesh. She believed. She believed that even though it was a human impossibility, she just had no clue how this was gonna happen, but she believed. Because the Lord said it, she believed. And that's why she's blessed. That's why she's blessed. And she believed God even though she knew it was gonna cost her. And brothers and sisters, We are never the loser for believing in the Son of God and in the Word of God. We are never the loser for believing in the Son of God or the Word of God. No, rather, we are blessed when we believe. We are blessed. When Thomas heard that Jesus had resurrected, he said, I'm not gonna believe. I don't believe that. I gotta see those prints, and I gotta put my finger in those prints, and I wanna see that side, too, while I'm there. Otherwise, I won't believe. Well, a week later, Jesus comes into where they are, into the upper room, and he sees them. And then Thomas goes, my Lord and my God. Which the Jehovah's Witnesses say, he said, my Lord, and oh my God, I can't believe it. No, no, my Lord and my God. You're laughing, but that's exactly what they'll tell you. And so here's what Jesus says to him. Thomas, because you have seen me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believed. That's all of us. That's everybody from like 33 AD and on. And you and I are blessed when we believe that God is sovereign, that he is sovereign over every single thing in our lives. We're blessed when we believe he's in control, when things aren't just going willy-nilly out of control, that God's in control. And we're blessed when we believe that all things work together for our good. Do we believe Romans 8, 28? Do we really believe it? It's easy to say it now when things are going good, but do we believe it when our world is spiraling out of control and seeming like going downhill? Do we believe it when an illness hits us and we're all of a sudden on our back? Do we believe it when a relationship we have is getting absolutely destroyed? Do we believe that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose? If we do, we're blessed. I'm not saying that the pain is going to go away. It's not saying that the trouble is going to go away. He's going to change your heart about it because you're going to know that God is sovereign and he's using this in some way to bless you. Do we believe that? We're blessed when we believe that nothing can separate us from the love of God that He has for us in His Son. Do we believe that? Do we believe when we sit up a storm, and we feel so far from God, and we can't believe that we say what we say, we think what we think, and at times we do what we do, and we feel so dirty and so disgusting that we think, there's not a hope for me. Why would God love me? Look at me. What an absolute disaster I am at times. How could this be? And yet, Romans 8 says, his love never changes for you. It never diminishes for you. It never does. If you're his, he loves you with everything he's got. And that's everything. Because God just doesn't love, he is love. Do you believe that? Because when you believe that, it helps you when you're going through like the valley. Lord, you're in control. I know you love me. Help me to own that you love me and you're not gonna forsake me. We are blessed when we believe in every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God and lives by them. We don't question the word of God. I like this, but I'm not crazy about that one. I'll do this, eh, I'm gonna put that to the side. No, no, no, no. In Luke 11, 27, a woman says to Jesus, blessed is the womb that bore you and the breast that nursed you. What is Jesus' response to that? Here's his reply. More than that, so yes, Mary is blessed for having me. More than that, but here's something even more blessed. More than that, blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it. Hear it, keep it. I want to close by leaving you with three truths, there's probably a lot more, but three truths that we can learn from this text. And the first one is this. A life controlled by the Holy Spirit leads to a life of praise and thankfulness and is marked by humility. A life controlled by the Holy Spirit leads to a life of praise and thankfulness and is marked by humility. So when you're living by the power and leading of the Holy Spirit, the natural byproduct of that life will be praise to God and a grateful spirit. For your mind was gonna be set on things above. more often than not. And you'll be spiritually sensitive to the leading of the Holy Spirit and His working in your life. And this will foster a sense of nothingness, I am nothing, and a total dependency of God. You see, the thing is that God has got to wean and drag out of us all the self that's in us, and there's a lot of that in us. And the moment He saved us, He started that process, and sometimes it hurts. And He's stripping us of pride and arrogance and self-sufficiency, all of those things that are so natural to us, and they are natural to us. Right? And he's making us more and more like Christ. He's humbling us. And sometimes he's got to use the rod, or he's got to use struggles and sufferings in our lives to bring us to that point. Second truth that I see from this text is the closer one draws to Christ, the more joy they have. When John was in the presence of Jesus, even though they're just in the wombs, he had immense joy. The closer we grow to Christ, the greater our joy in him becomes. the greater our joy becomes. And we see him in a brighter light. And we go deeper into his marvelous perfections and gazing upon his incomprehensible beauty. Listen, the more we meditate on Christ, the more we just stop and think about him, the person, him, the work, him, the words, him, the miracles, the more we stop and rest there, I'm telling you, that's gonna fuel the soul, right? Because you can't meditate on him and ever plummet those depths, none of us can. Boy, does it feel good and does it encourage the soul, right? All right, third truth I see from the passage is that a life of faith in the Word of God leads to obedience to the Word of God and ultimately blessings from God. A life of faith in the Word of God leads to obedience to that Word and ultimately blessings from God. We must learn the Word. I hear so many professing Christians say, I know the church I go to, we're not really learning it, a lot of good singing there and stuff. You need the word, you don't need singing. No offense, Dan. And we love to sing, and the singing should help us, it should prepare us for the word, it really should. But we need the word, we need the word. We need the word to saturate our minds and our hearts. We need the word of God. We need to grow in the word. We need to grow in knowing the will of God. And then, once we know the will of God, we gotta plead with him, help me to do that. Help me to do that. What good is it to know how to not do it? What good is knowledge and not application? Because you know what happens then? Paul says it puffs up. Now you're just like a big head. You got a lot of knowledge. But there's no application. The reason to learn is to do. The reason to learn is to do. A life of obedience is always marked by blessings. Sometimes physical, sometimes not. Sometimes temporal ones, sometimes not. But always spiritual. The blessings are always spiritual. Blessings in the inner man, right? Blessings in the inner man. And Paul will tell you that in 2 Corinthians 4. The outward man is perishing. I'm being beaten to a pulp. I've taken more beatings and scourgings and whippings and everything else than I can even count. And yet, I'm being renewed day by day in my inner man. Right? That's the joy. Now listen, if you're not a Christian today, if you've never really truly surrendered to Christ, then you're looking at a judgment you can't escape from, and the gavel of God's justice is going to come down, and it's going to come down because of your sins, and they're going to hear the guilty verdict. Guilty. That's what's going to happen. But here's the deal. You're one, and your only hope was the baby in Mary's womb. That's man's hope, the baby in Mary's womb, who was born to save sinners, who died to clear their sin debt, and who lived to give them a standing, a right standing before a holy God. Therefore, in light of that, surrender to the one Elizabeth worshiped, and every other believer worshiped, surrender to him. Confess your sins, turn from your sins, and believe in Christ for your salvation. And guess what? You will be blessed beyond what you can imagine. You will be blessed. Don't keep going unsaved. Don't keep living, knowing things about Him, but not knowing Him. How terrible to literally die and end up in hell, but you knew so much truth, and you just never surrendered to it. Come today, bow today, confess today, and be saved. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for the truth of the gospel. Lord, we thank you that Jesus came as one of us, that God took on flesh, and he did it through Mary's womb. And though she was very blessed, Lord, are we not blessed as well when we believe in that he's born in us? So Father, I pray that we would trust you as your people, that we would live for you, that your word would be what grows us through the power of the Spirit, And Lord, we would live in a way that brings you honor and glory. And Lord, for the soul of souls that have not been saved, never truly surrendered to Christ, not been born again, Lord, you know. You know what's in the heart of a man. Lord, would you strike the heart? Would you show them the terrible need they have and the great answer in Christ? And would you draw them to your Son and lift them up? And that they would, like the choir in heaven now and all the saints on earth, praise you as well. And would you do that for your glory? We ask it in Jesus' name, amen.