WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:10.279 Now, as part of our evening worship, we do also have a spotlight, and the spotlight sometimes 00:00:10.279 --> 00:00:15.439 is on different things that we do in the church, different either organizations that we're 00:00:15.439 --> 00:00:18.719 involved in or something that we want to highlight. 00:00:18.719 --> 00:00:25.199 But over these few weeks, we've been trying to focus on people as our spotlights and people 00:00:25.199 --> 00:00:30.039 within the congregation and to have them share a little bit about what it means for them 00:00:30.039 --> 00:00:31.839 to be a Christian in their lives. 00:00:31.839 --> 00:00:38.560 So this evening, Laura, who's got a heavy shift this evening, she's singing as well as 00:00:38.560 --> 00:00:43.120 sharing a little bit, is going to tell us, I hope, a little bit about what Christ means 00:00:43.120 --> 00:00:45.679 to her in the context of this theme. 00:00:45.679 --> 00:00:47.640 So Laura, thanks for doing this. 00:00:47.640 --> 00:00:49.640 It's nice to have you. 00:00:49.640 --> 00:00:53.159 Hi, everyone. 00:00:53.159 --> 00:00:57.239 So actually, the question that Derek sent me was slightly different than the sermon 00:00:57.239 --> 00:00:58.239 question. 00:00:58.239 --> 00:01:00.239 It's, are you filled? 00:01:00.239 --> 00:01:01.959 And the sermon question is, are you empty? 00:01:01.959 --> 00:01:05.319 So I've come at it at a slightly different angle, maybe. 00:01:05.319 --> 00:01:08.159 But anyway, it should answer the same thing. 00:01:08.159 --> 00:01:13.439 So yeah, just as Derek said, for those of you who don't know me, my name's Laura Watt. 00:01:13.439 --> 00:01:19.159 I have been in St. Seas for about two years now, which is crazy. 00:01:19.159 --> 00:01:25.359 And I've been living as a Christian for about nine years, which is even more crazy since 00:01:25.359 --> 00:01:26.679 my first year of uni. 00:01:26.679 --> 00:01:33.000 I'm married to Roger, and I was a teacher, and now I'm working in education policy in 00:01:33.000 --> 00:01:34.000 Edinburgh. 00:01:34.000 --> 00:01:35.920 So that's just a wee bit of background. 00:01:35.920 --> 00:01:39.679 So the question, am I filled? 00:01:39.679 --> 00:01:42.359 That's the question I want to just briefly talk about. 00:01:42.359 --> 00:01:47.039 Well, I don't actually think that's a really simple question, and I don't think there's 00:01:47.040 --> 00:01:51.280 a straightforward answer, and maybe you would disagree. 00:01:51.280 --> 00:01:53.960 But I'd say yes and no. 00:01:53.960 --> 00:01:55.719 So I'll start with the no. 00:01:55.719 --> 00:01:58.640 Am I filled on a human level? 00:01:58.640 --> 00:02:04.000 I don't think I ever am going to be. 00:02:04.000 --> 00:02:09.599 So being a Christian and having a relationship with the living God, it doesn't mean that 00:02:09.599 --> 00:02:13.960 I'm all of a sudden satisfied with life completely. 00:02:13.960 --> 00:02:15.960 I still want more and more. 00:02:15.960 --> 00:02:17.960 I still want a cushed-ear job. 00:02:17.960 --> 00:02:19.719 I want to be skinnier. 00:02:19.719 --> 00:02:22.800 I want to work part-time so I can do more. 00:02:22.800 --> 00:02:25.800 I want a wood-burning stove, please. 00:02:25.800 --> 00:02:29.159 And more seriously, I want children. 00:02:29.159 --> 00:02:31.319 I want to be able to provide enough. 00:02:31.319 --> 00:02:39.360 I want to be a better wife, a better sister, a better friend, a better daughter. 00:02:39.360 --> 00:02:42.400 I want the world to be a better place, don't we all? 00:02:42.400 --> 00:02:48.159 For the terrible things that we all close our eyes to stop. 00:02:48.159 --> 00:02:52.920 And in some sense, I think that that's biblical because it shows that as humans, we're all 00:02:52.920 --> 00:02:56.159 seeking something more, aren't we? 00:02:56.159 --> 00:02:58.800 That life here actually will never satisfy us. 00:02:58.800 --> 00:03:03.080 It will never fill us completely long-term. 00:03:03.080 --> 00:03:07.040 So when you become a Christian, you don't reach enlightenment where you suddenly feel 00:03:07.040 --> 00:03:08.960 at peace with the world. 00:03:08.960 --> 00:03:12.640 In fact, being a Christian can often make your life harder. 00:03:12.640 --> 00:03:18.480 However, the other side of the coin, I'm sure you'll be glad to know, am I filled? 00:03:18.480 --> 00:03:20.920 Yes, absolutely. 00:03:20.920 --> 00:03:27.159 And the other side of that is that as a Christian, no matter how unsatisfied with life it can 00:03:27.159 --> 00:03:33.800 be, that Jesus brings fulfillment like no other. 00:03:33.800 --> 00:03:41.160 He is the one in my life who brings a baseline meaning, a baseline purpose, and an ultimate 00:03:41.160 --> 00:03:47.120 hope that this life isn't actually all there is. 00:03:47.120 --> 00:03:55.640 And all of these things that I look to to give me fulfillment, they come and go. 00:03:55.640 --> 00:04:01.480 It sounds depressing, but they will all eventually fade or die. 00:04:01.479 --> 00:04:08.759 My career will end, death will separate me from my husband, my family, my house and my 00:04:08.759 --> 00:04:12.120 possessions will one day be left behind. 00:04:12.120 --> 00:04:15.399 My health may leave me, we don't know. 00:04:15.399 --> 00:04:23.879 But if Jesus is telling the truth in His word, that He's the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning 00:04:23.879 --> 00:04:31.319 and the end, and that we can come to Him for true satisfaction in Him, that is so freeing 00:04:31.319 --> 00:04:36.399 and I've found that as a Christian for the past nine years that although there's ups 00:04:36.399 --> 00:04:41.680 and downs and you always want more, you're never really fulfilled, the baseline joy and 00:04:41.680 --> 00:04:48.000 fulfillment that Jesus brings is like nothing else I've experienced. 00:04:48.000 --> 00:04:54.159 Because it means that the one that I'm putting my hope in will not die, he will not fade, 00:04:54.159 --> 00:04:57.759 and he will not be taken away from me. 00:04:57.759 --> 00:05:01.879 There's a really famous Bible verse that I'm sure a lot of you know and it says, the 00:05:01.879 --> 00:05:08.240 thief only comes to kill and destroy, I have come that they may have life and have it to 00:05:08.240 --> 00:05:10.319 the full. 00:05:10.319 --> 00:05:15.480 So yes, because of that peace and joy that God brings, I am filled to an extent in life 00:05:15.480 --> 00:05:23.800 now, but ultimately the good news of Jesus promises that in the next life I will have 00:05:23.800 --> 00:05:31.840 life and have it to the full, unspoiled, secure and fuller than I will ever imagine because 00:05:31.840 --> 00:05:34.520 I'll meet God face to face. 00:05:34.520 --> 00:05:41.360 So that's just a tiny little part of what I feel about, am I filled in my life? 00:05:41.360 --> 00:05:48.480 But if you have any questions please just come and speak to me after. 00:05:48.480 --> 00:05:50.480 Thanks. 00:05:50.480 --> 00:06:01.360 Okay, so this is the fourth of a series of six sermons which were designed for people 00:06:01.360 --> 00:06:04.879 who are skeptical about the Christian faith. 00:06:04.879 --> 00:06:15.160 And so this evening themes are questions, the unbelievable themes. 00:06:15.160 --> 00:06:16.160 Are you hurting? 00:06:16.160 --> 00:06:23.920 Last week are you empty as tonight and are you hopeless as next Sunday evening? 00:06:23.920 --> 00:06:26.600 God, Easter Sunday evening. 00:06:26.600 --> 00:06:35.040 Now really what I could do is I could probably please you all very much by just sitting down 00:06:35.040 --> 00:06:40.920 and saying, well actually, Laura was a living testimony to what I'm going to say. 00:06:40.920 --> 00:06:43.360 And she probably said it a lot better than I will. 00:06:43.360 --> 00:06:47.960 So we could actually pack up shop and just sing another song and go home. 00:06:47.960 --> 00:06:52.840 But we're not going to, okay, because I'm going to back up what Laura said, okay. 00:06:52.840 --> 00:06:59.360 Laura explained very powerfully and simply her faith and explained a lot of the things 00:06:59.360 --> 00:07:05.960 really that I was going to mention and also used a Bible verse that I'm going to use which 00:07:05.960 --> 00:07:07.639 is going to be on the screens tonight. 00:07:07.639 --> 00:07:10.960 So there's been no talking together. 00:07:10.959 --> 00:07:15.479 We didn't confide one another and nail that Bible verse. 00:07:15.479 --> 00:07:18.639 But it's obviously a good one that God wants us to hear. 00:07:18.639 --> 00:07:22.680 But it's a big question in people's lives is fulfillment, isn't it? 00:07:22.680 --> 00:07:26.479 And what constitutes a fulfilled life. 00:07:26.479 --> 00:07:31.039 Now there's all the kind of usual things that we talk about when we talk about a fulfilled 00:07:31.039 --> 00:07:32.039 life, isn't it? 00:07:32.039 --> 00:07:40.399 A great job, health, good family, love and sex, chasing maybe the dreams that we have, 00:07:40.399 --> 00:07:48.199 the ambitions that we've always had, maybe a big house, big garden, big bank balance, 00:07:48.199 --> 00:07:57.959 excitement, whatever it happens to be, there's lots of things that we want to help to quantify 00:07:57.959 --> 00:08:01.560 what is a satisfying life, living life to the full. 00:08:01.560 --> 00:08:03.919 And then it may be different for different people. 00:08:03.920 --> 00:08:10.160 And I think for a lot of us, and a lot of people, wealth plays a big part of that in 00:08:10.160 --> 00:08:16.560 the Western society, maybe not just as an end in itself, but because of maybe what wealth 00:08:16.560 --> 00:08:19.720 enables us to do. 00:08:19.720 --> 00:08:25.680 And the freedom that it gives us maybe to chase the dreams that we look to have that 00:08:25.680 --> 00:08:28.560 give fulfillment. 00:08:28.560 --> 00:08:32.200 Maybe we're slow to express it and we wouldn't express it necessarily. 00:08:32.200 --> 00:08:39.240 But many people are envious of wealth and the freedom that wealth gives to follow our 00:08:39.240 --> 00:08:40.879 dreams. 00:08:40.879 --> 00:08:48.040 Happiness and riches and riches and happiness are a pretty strong combination. 00:08:48.040 --> 00:08:55.560 But you maybe feel that that is harsh and unfair and that you have a much higher moral 00:08:55.560 --> 00:09:00.040 concern in life for fulfillment. 00:09:00.039 --> 00:09:07.159 You know, it may be the desire to change the world, to make it a better place, to serve 00:09:07.159 --> 00:09:16.000 people, to work in noble fields, to try and progress the world and the world in which 00:09:16.000 --> 00:09:24.240 we live, finding fulfillment and meaning and purpose in that good end. 00:09:24.240 --> 00:09:32.919 And if you were to define emptiness, which we're looking at, are you empty in a kind 00:09:32.919 --> 00:09:38.759 of human term, if we did a poll of that this evening, maybe we would have different ideas 00:09:38.759 --> 00:09:46.639 of what it means to be empty or what you would think brings emptiness into our lives. 00:09:46.639 --> 00:09:54.519 Some of the more popular ones maybe would be poverty in opposition to wealth, suffering 00:09:54.519 --> 00:10:04.080 or relational isolation, loneliness, huge issue for people in their lives, which makes 00:10:04.080 --> 00:10:08.000 life for many people feel meaningless. 00:10:08.000 --> 00:10:12.919 And again, but if you're taking the kind of mirror opposite of what we've looked at 00:10:12.919 --> 00:10:19.360 with a desire to change things and the desire to do good, but feeling tremendously powerless 00:10:19.360 --> 00:10:26.719 to do anything, that you're just a cog in a huge wheel and that nothing really is changing 00:10:26.719 --> 00:10:30.519 no matter how much I want to see change in this great world. 00:10:30.519 --> 00:10:38.279 So emptiness can be that feeling of powerlessness and poverty and illness and loneliness. 00:10:38.279 --> 00:10:46.199 And that maybe if we did a straw poll of people, that's what they would possibly consider would 00:10:46.199 --> 00:10:54.199 be some of the characteristics of an unfulfilled and kind of empty life that may be experienced. 00:10:54.199 --> 00:11:00.360 But what I want to do this evening just for a little while is suggest a different narrative, 00:11:00.360 --> 00:11:06.039 a different perspective on life and on emptiness inside. 00:11:06.039 --> 00:11:14.719 And I want to suggest to you that if you make pleasure or wealth or material possessions 00:11:14.719 --> 00:11:23.519 or love and sex or even a just cause, if you make any of these things the measure of fulfillment 00:11:23.519 --> 00:11:32.199 without God at the center of your life, they will never bring fulfillment and true meaning 00:11:32.200 --> 00:11:36.879 to your life and it will never offer life to the fool. 00:11:36.879 --> 00:11:41.400 Now as Laura was saying, I don't want us to be naive and to think that the Christian 00:11:41.400 --> 00:11:50.920 life is an easy life or is always absolutely fulfilled, but there's this core reality at 00:11:50.920 --> 00:11:53.000 the very bottom of it. 00:11:53.000 --> 00:11:59.879 And I want to do that by taking a character from the Bible for a few minutes and thinking 00:11:59.879 --> 00:12:07.080 about her, and we read about the crucifixion this evening and you may have been focusing 00:12:07.080 --> 00:12:12.559 on the fact that Jesus was on the cross and there's a story that surrounds Jesus. 00:12:12.559 --> 00:12:16.799 But I want for a moment to think about Mary, Jesus' mother. 00:12:16.799 --> 00:12:20.799 Now I know it's Easter and we usually talk about Mary at Christmas, but we're just going 00:12:20.799 --> 00:12:23.799 to just turn things upside down a little bit this evening, okay? 00:12:23.799 --> 00:12:32.479 We're going to talk about Mary, the mother of Jesus at the cross and her life because 00:12:32.479 --> 00:12:37.159 to many people in the world, if you took that story out of the Bible and just had it as 00:12:37.159 --> 00:12:47.719 a story, Mary's experiences and Mary's life would really kind of summarize a life that 00:12:47.719 --> 00:12:49.279 was just empty. 00:12:49.279 --> 00:12:56.799 It was an empty life for her in many ways, according to many people's standards. 00:12:56.799 --> 00:13:06.639 We only read a short and tragic section of Mary's experience where she experienced a 00:13:06.639 --> 00:13:14.919 searing loss of her firstborn who was killed right in front of her. 00:13:14.919 --> 00:13:19.839 It was prophesied at the beginning of her life that a sword would pierce her own soul. 00:13:19.839 --> 00:13:26.000 She saw the death of her son, her firstborn son that she'd lived and was close to for 00:13:26.000 --> 00:13:35.399 a third of a century, brutally murdered on the cross. 00:13:35.399 --> 00:13:43.919 Maybe for many people that would be the epitome of emptiness, losing someone so close. 00:13:43.919 --> 00:13:53.879 But let's just briefly fling a few thoughts about her life as well as we go through it. 00:13:53.879 --> 00:14:01.759 In terms of trying to judge or trying to imagine how the world would judge Mary in terms of 00:14:01.759 --> 00:14:08.599 a fulfilled life or a life of emptiness, she was born into a society that didn't really 00:14:08.600 --> 00:14:15.680 know or respect women's rights or equality, so there was immediate difficulty for her 00:14:15.680 --> 00:14:16.680 then. 00:14:16.680 --> 00:14:22.879 She became a pregnant teenager, an unmarried pregnant teenager. 00:14:22.879 --> 00:14:30.279 Conceived her child in dubious circumstances, at least to those around her, that very much 00:14:30.279 --> 00:14:39.679 left her on the outside the object of suspicion of being a moral and loose woman. 00:14:39.679 --> 00:14:44.199 Very difficult in the environment and the society in which she lived. 00:14:44.199 --> 00:14:51.559 She gave birth to her son in a bayar, cowshed or the equivalent of the Middle East, in a 00:14:51.559 --> 00:14:56.959 strange town far away from her home. 00:14:56.960 --> 00:15:02.360 When they took Jesus, her son, their firstborn to the temple when he was eight days old to 00:15:02.360 --> 00:15:07.920 offer sacrifice of thanksgiving, they could only give the sacrifice of the very poorest 00:15:07.920 --> 00:15:13.120 of families two pigeons. 00:15:13.120 --> 00:15:20.800 They had nothing, abject poverty in their lives, difficult personal circumstances, rootless, 00:15:20.799 --> 00:15:27.159 foundationless with her new family, because they had to then flee for their lives, didn't 00:15:27.159 --> 00:15:28.159 they? 00:15:28.159 --> 00:15:33.679 Because of the threat of persecution and death to her young child. 00:15:33.679 --> 00:15:40.919 She became a refugee in a foreign country, the foreign country of Egypt, and we know 00:15:40.919 --> 00:15:44.959 that story, we hear that story at Christmas time, but we don't think much about it, how 00:15:44.959 --> 00:15:47.759 difficult it was for them as a family. 00:15:47.759 --> 00:15:51.840 They wouldn't have known anyone, they didn't have the language, they didn't have any money, 00:15:51.840 --> 00:15:54.779 they went with a new baby. 00:15:54.779 --> 00:15:58.399 Everything must have seemed so desperately strange for them. 00:15:58.399 --> 00:16:01.799 Not much fulfillment there, emptiness. 00:16:01.799 --> 00:16:06.439 And things don't really get much better for Mary. 00:16:06.439 --> 00:16:12.200 She lived a life and faced a life of family trauma. 00:16:12.200 --> 00:16:18.320 She had potentially, we know at least she had six other children, four boys and two 00:16:18.320 --> 00:16:21.040 girls and maybe more. 00:16:21.040 --> 00:16:23.680 So she had a big family, they were poor. 00:16:23.680 --> 00:16:28.080 When Jesus was 12 years old, they lost Him in the city of Jerusalem for three days, a 00:16:28.080 --> 00:16:32.440 harrowing and frightening experience for any mother and father. 00:16:32.440 --> 00:16:38.640 And at some point, we don't know when, but at some point after that, her husband dies 00:16:38.639 --> 00:16:44.439 and she was left a widow, no income support. 00:16:44.439 --> 00:16:51.319 The means of income in her family gone in terms of the wage earner, the employed person, 00:16:51.319 --> 00:16:55.120 and the love of her life taken from her. 00:16:55.120 --> 00:17:00.559 And we presume she would have still been fairly young at that point. 00:17:00.559 --> 00:17:07.319 And Jesus who was, we presume again, the one who earned income for the family, leaves the 00:17:07.319 --> 00:17:15.000 house at 30 years of age to begin a public ministry. 00:17:15.000 --> 00:17:20.399 And he became infamous in her lifetime. 00:17:20.399 --> 00:17:23.960 And her world at that point was changed forever. 00:17:23.960 --> 00:17:25.879 She loved Him. 00:17:25.879 --> 00:17:31.039 She followed Him and she saw that some people loved Jesus and some people hated Him. 00:17:31.039 --> 00:17:36.519 Even her own family were confused about who Jesus was and the claims that He had made. 00:17:36.519 --> 00:17:43.160 So there was great turmoil in her life with all that she knew and all that she didn't 00:17:43.160 --> 00:17:47.039 know about who this Jesus was, her son. 00:17:47.039 --> 00:17:50.160 She traveled with him, she heard his teaching. 00:17:50.160 --> 00:17:51.839 She knew he was unique. 00:17:51.839 --> 00:17:56.639 There was much spiritual uncertainty though in her experience. 00:17:56.639 --> 00:17:59.639 And then we come to the passage we read. 00:17:59.640 --> 00:18:08.440 She had to watch him suffer in such a great way, being arrested, falsely accused, brutally 00:18:08.440 --> 00:18:12.240 beaten, nailed to a cross. 00:18:12.240 --> 00:18:20.800 Abject humiliation of her son naked on the cross, a blinding grief of a mother seeing 00:18:20.800 --> 00:18:24.160 her firstborn taken from her. 00:18:24.160 --> 00:18:33.640 And the one she knew to be different and she knew to be her savior, but how this end? 00:18:33.640 --> 00:18:35.519 This wasn't what she expected. 00:18:35.519 --> 00:18:43.840 This wasn't what she believed would be the outcome and she, at the cross, powerless to 00:18:43.840 --> 00:18:46.040 change it in any way. 00:18:46.040 --> 00:18:51.600 And so visualize that scene at the cross, a maelstrom of darkness, atmosphere of evil, 00:18:51.599 --> 00:18:58.240 a noisy crowd screaming victims around Christ, the rough Roman guards and this small woman 00:18:58.240 --> 00:18:59.240 alone. 00:18:59.240 --> 00:19:04.719 It's a great picture, isn't it, of emptiness? 00:19:04.719 --> 00:19:07.839 Someone absolutely empty. 00:19:07.839 --> 00:19:10.000 Everything having been taken from her. 00:19:10.000 --> 00:19:16.879 And a totally unfulfilled life, a life of poverty, hardship, loss, unparalleled grief 00:19:16.880 --> 00:19:21.800 losing her husband and now brutally losing Jesus. 00:19:21.800 --> 00:19:22.800 She had absolutely nothing. 00:19:22.800 --> 00:19:24.520 She was completely empty. 00:19:24.520 --> 00:19:29.320 There was nothing left in her life. 00:19:29.320 --> 00:19:31.400 Or is that the case? 00:19:31.400 --> 00:19:35.920 I would like to suggest this evening that she was far from empty. 00:19:35.920 --> 00:19:43.840 I wouldn't like in any way to minimize her grief or minimize the pain of what she went 00:19:43.839 --> 00:19:47.279 through or the battles she still had to face. 00:19:47.279 --> 00:19:49.519 But I would argue she is far from empty. 00:19:49.519 --> 00:19:56.240 The testimony of the Bible and the wider teaching and promises of Jesus to those who 00:19:56.240 --> 00:20:01.159 follow Him can very much be applied to Mary, his mother. 00:20:01.159 --> 00:20:09.119 And we can also, from our own experiences as believers and as Laura shared with us, 00:20:09.119 --> 00:20:16.559 understand and know the fulfillment that we have by being a Christian. 00:20:16.559 --> 00:20:21.019 So I want just to say two things about her. 00:20:21.019 --> 00:20:25.159 She had an amazing life song. 00:20:25.159 --> 00:20:27.639 By all the world's standards, there was no fulfillment there. 00:20:27.639 --> 00:20:29.959 There was an absolutely empty life. 00:20:29.959 --> 00:20:33.000 But she had an amazing life song. 00:20:33.000 --> 00:20:40.839 And secondly, I would argue she was rich beyond measure and therefore fulfilled. 00:20:40.839 --> 00:20:41.920 She had an amazing life song. 00:20:41.920 --> 00:20:46.480 So what I'm going to do is I'm going to just go back to the very beginning of the gospel 00:20:46.480 --> 00:20:52.720 to what we would normally look at maybe at Christmas time, to read the song that she 00:20:52.720 --> 00:20:59.279 sang, the words that she was given by God when Jesus was born. 00:20:59.279 --> 00:21:01.599 And it sums up her life. 00:21:01.599 --> 00:21:02.880 It sums up her faith. 00:21:02.880 --> 00:21:10.200 Even at that early stage, Luke chapter 1, 46 to 55, very famous part of the Bible, 00:21:10.200 --> 00:21:11.200 Mary's song. 00:21:11.200 --> 00:21:17.480 And Mary said, My soul glorifies the Lord, my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for 00:21:17.480 --> 00:21:21.360 He has been mindful of the humble state of His servant. 00:21:21.360 --> 00:21:26.920 From now on, all generations will call me blessed, for the mighty one has done great 00:21:26.920 --> 00:21:30.080 things for me, holy is His name. 00:21:30.079 --> 00:21:35.839 His mercy extends to those who fear Him from generation to generation. 00:21:35.839 --> 00:21:38.799 He has performed mighty deeds with His arm. 00:21:38.799 --> 00:21:42.319 He has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts. 00:21:42.319 --> 00:21:46.759 He has brought down rulers from their thrones, but has lifted up the humble. 00:21:46.759 --> 00:21:52.839 He has filled the hungry with good things, but has sent the rich empty, away empty. 00:21:52.839 --> 00:21:57.759 He has helped His servant Israel, remembering to be merciful to Abram and His descendants 00:21:57.759 --> 00:22:02.920 forever, just as He promised our ancestors. 00:22:02.920 --> 00:22:08.480 So we have, this is a kind of summary of the faith of Mary. 00:22:08.480 --> 00:22:17.680 I know it was at the beginning of her life with Jesus, as it were, but it's something 00:22:17.680 --> 00:22:24.879 that never left her that great faith that she went on to display in life. 00:22:24.880 --> 00:22:32.960 She rejoiced in God, her Savior, even though, even in these early days, there was much that 00:22:32.960 --> 00:22:36.720 the world would look at and say, this poor kid's getting no hope. 00:22:36.720 --> 00:22:39.240 There's nothing going on here in her life. 00:22:39.240 --> 00:22:41.480 She's not got any future. 00:22:41.480 --> 00:22:51.080 And she was rejoicing in God, or she had great joy, because she knew that God was her redeemer. 00:22:51.079 --> 00:22:56.759 She understood that because she trusted in God for her salvation that she was blessed 00:22:56.759 --> 00:23:03.119 and she would be recognized as such over many centuries, and that has been the case. 00:23:03.119 --> 00:23:12.399 Sometimes unwisely recognized, overly recognized, but as one among many in the Bible, we need 00:23:12.399 --> 00:23:18.559 to recognize and rejoice that she had that wholeness, that blessedness that came from 00:23:18.559 --> 00:23:20.799 putting her trust in God. 00:23:20.799 --> 00:23:25.000 She knew that the living God was battling for her. 00:23:25.000 --> 00:23:29.839 The mighty God was on her side, was her advocate. 00:23:29.839 --> 00:23:34.359 I don't believe for a moment she understood everything that that meant, as it often doesn't 00:23:34.359 --> 00:23:35.599 for us. 00:23:35.599 --> 00:23:40.960 But she knew that she was on the side of life and victory and forgiveness, because she had 00:23:40.960 --> 00:23:54.200 put her trust in God, God who cared for this empty, unfulfilled, ordinary teenage bride, 00:23:54.200 --> 00:23:56.519 teenage mother. 00:23:56.519 --> 00:24:01.400 And she was one who found real fulfillment in her God. 00:24:01.400 --> 00:24:03.840 She knew where her riches lay. 00:24:03.840 --> 00:24:10.039 She recognized that people who were looking for fulfillment and riches and other places, 00:24:10.039 --> 00:24:14.319 God sent empty away because they had no time for Him. 00:24:14.319 --> 00:24:21.359 But she recognized and saw that her trust was not in wealth or in power or material 00:24:21.359 --> 00:24:25.519 things because they left everybody empty. 00:24:25.519 --> 00:24:28.000 God sends them empty away. 00:24:28.000 --> 00:24:32.519 So she recognized where fulfillment came from and where the emptiness came from. 00:24:32.519 --> 00:24:40.359 And she understood from the song we see, she understood the mercy of God for her and 00:24:40.359 --> 00:24:41.359 in her life. 00:24:41.359 --> 00:24:44.680 The promise of the Messiah was to be fulfilled in her Son. 00:24:44.680 --> 00:24:48.879 Again, I don't know how much she knew about how that would be fulfilled. 00:24:48.879 --> 00:24:56.559 I'm sure the cross was just not how she expected her Son to become the fulfillment of the promise 00:24:56.559 --> 00:24:58.639 of being the Messiah. 00:24:58.640 --> 00:25:04.800 But as she looked back, she recognized the cross being the fulfillment of God's mercy 00:25:04.800 --> 00:25:07.400 outworking itself in her life. 00:25:07.400 --> 00:25:09.720 Her sins were forgiven. 00:25:09.720 --> 00:25:17.520 And at the cross, if you remember the story we read, there's a little bit of job done, 00:25:17.520 --> 00:25:22.000 Mary, job done. 00:25:22.000 --> 00:25:23.800 Jesus' job was done on the cross. 00:25:23.799 --> 00:25:32.399 He died in her place and became her redeemer, but her job as his mother was done as well. 00:25:32.399 --> 00:25:35.240 And she entered into a new relationship with him. 00:25:35.240 --> 00:25:41.480 You know that lovely bit in the passage that we read where Jesus from the cross, as it 00:25:41.480 --> 00:25:47.680 were, hands over Mary to John, the beloved disciple, and say, John, he is your mother, 00:25:47.680 --> 00:25:50.240 and Mary, he is your son. 00:25:50.240 --> 00:25:58.279 His her job as his mother was ended, and he becomes in a much more real way at that point 00:25:58.279 --> 00:26:03.160 her Savior and not her Son, as it were. 00:26:03.160 --> 00:26:10.759 This song that she has speaks even almost prophetically for her of the fulfillment and 00:26:10.759 --> 00:26:16.720 the blessedness and the joy and the fullness of her life, even though it certainly didn't 00:26:16.720 --> 00:26:20.559 look like that in the Scriptures that we have. 00:26:20.559 --> 00:26:30.279 And we also know that she was rich beyond measure, in biblical terms, I mean, but not 00:26:30.279 --> 00:26:36.519 I don't mean financially, but she was rich beyond measure. 00:26:36.519 --> 00:26:41.880 In Acts chapter 1, verse 14, this is the only other reference to Mary after the Gospels. 00:26:41.880 --> 00:26:48.320 It said that the New Testament church after Jesus had risen from the dead, and the disciples 00:26:48.320 --> 00:26:53.840 had moved from being terrified, fearless, locked in an upper room, and then they met 00:26:53.840 --> 00:27:00.920 with Jesus, the risen Savior, and they began to turn the world upside down with this message 00:27:00.920 --> 00:27:03.200 of a Savior, Jesus Christ. 00:27:03.200 --> 00:27:07.720 They all gathered together, they joined together constantly in prayer along with the women 00:27:07.720 --> 00:27:11.160 and Mary, the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers. 00:27:11.160 --> 00:27:17.440 So there's a real transformation even at that point in the life of Mary. 00:27:17.440 --> 00:27:22.720 She has become part of the core foundation in many ways of that New Testament church, 00:27:22.720 --> 00:27:31.160 and she understands much better, but still probably not great in terms of understanding 00:27:31.160 --> 00:27:40.279 in these early days of a risen Savior and of the church being founded on this great truth 00:27:40.279 --> 00:27:46.879 of Jesus died for her sins and who rose to reveal the victory over death and sin and 00:27:46.879 --> 00:27:48.119 the grave. 00:27:48.119 --> 00:27:54.000 So she had met with him, the risen Savior, no longer her son in ordinary terms, but with 00:27:54.000 --> 00:28:02.879 the risen Savior who is both God and man, and who is the Savior of all who come to him by 00:28:02.879 --> 00:28:04.480 faith. 00:28:04.480 --> 00:28:09.960 And therefore she knew as Laura spoke about in that verse, John chapter 10, verse 10, 00:28:09.960 --> 00:28:10.960 life to the full. 00:28:10.960 --> 00:28:18.920 Jesus talks about all the deception and all the misunderstandings of where fulfillment 00:28:18.920 --> 00:28:19.920 comes. 00:28:19.920 --> 00:28:24.160 He says, the thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy, but I have come that they 00:28:24.160 --> 00:28:27.400 may have life and may have life to the full. 00:28:27.400 --> 00:28:36.559 She understood that, and she knew that in her experience of meeting with the risen Savior, 00:28:36.559 --> 00:28:43.799 found by saving grace, one of the few in these days that were transformed to the degree of 00:28:43.799 --> 00:28:47.720 being able to turn the world upside down, as we're told. 00:28:47.720 --> 00:28:53.359 She therefore also came to know the reality of second, I'm just giving you one or two 00:28:53.359 --> 00:28:57.279 verses here, 2 Corinthians 8 verse 9. 00:28:57.279 --> 00:29:03.159 She understood this, for you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was 00:29:03.160 --> 00:29:10.279 rich yet for your sake He became poor so that you through His poverty might become rich. 00:29:10.279 --> 00:29:18.800 She understood that wealth that she had spiritually because Jesus was willing to be emptied and 00:29:18.800 --> 00:29:25.680 willing to take the guilt and the failure and the sin that separates us from God in 00:29:25.680 --> 00:29:32.279 order that we might be forgiven and enriched so that fulfillment comes ultimately from 00:29:32.279 --> 00:29:37.720 knowing Jesus and from being in relationship with Jesus, that's the greatest riches that 00:29:37.720 --> 00:29:39.359 there is for us. 00:29:39.359 --> 00:29:45.240 So that Mary certainly wasn't empty. 00:29:45.240 --> 00:29:49.000 She was full because she knew life to the full. 00:29:49.000 --> 00:29:55.000 Now as Laura was saying also, our experience isn't naive. 00:29:55.000 --> 00:30:00.240 We don't think that for a moment that when you become a believer, the battles, the struggles, 00:30:00.240 --> 00:30:07.079 the doubts, the fears, the difficulties, the opposition and sometimes the sadness isn't 00:30:07.079 --> 00:30:08.579 there. 00:30:08.579 --> 00:30:12.640 But we recognize where our fulfillment lies. 00:30:12.640 --> 00:30:19.799 We recognize that Jesus Christ and our identity in Jesus Christ is what gives us fullness 00:30:19.799 --> 00:30:25.799 and what gives us hope and what gives us forgiveness and what gives us identity and meaning and 00:30:25.799 --> 00:30:29.240 purpose as children of the living God. 00:30:29.240 --> 00:30:38.200 And that's since separates us from that and means that everything else is like trying 00:30:38.200 --> 00:30:46.000 to capture the wind unless we find fulfillment and meaning in our Creator and our God and 00:30:46.000 --> 00:30:47.240 our Savior. 00:30:47.240 --> 00:30:51.519 So I just want to leave you with a couple of questions. 00:30:51.519 --> 00:30:57.599 First, are you finding in your life that the pursuits you're following are leaving you 00:30:57.599 --> 00:31:02.719 empty, unfulfilled and questioning? 00:31:02.719 --> 00:31:08.359 And that's a question that we can always ask ourselves and ask other people. 00:31:08.359 --> 00:31:11.599 You know, is living for the weekend? 00:31:11.599 --> 00:31:13.599 Living for relationships? 00:31:13.599 --> 00:31:15.480 Pursuing wealth? 00:31:15.480 --> 00:31:19.599 Frustration and not being able to change things? 00:31:19.599 --> 00:31:20.759 Being unlucky in love? 00:31:20.759 --> 00:31:21.759 Being dissatisfied? 00:31:21.759 --> 00:31:25.519 When the party is over and the music has stopped? 00:31:25.519 --> 00:31:32.400 The nagging questions of who I am and why I'm here and what's it all about? 00:31:32.400 --> 00:31:44.240 Sometimes especially as you're getting on in life and the days of blossoming have kind 00:31:44.240 --> 00:31:45.960 of gone a little bit. 00:31:45.960 --> 00:31:49.400 You're just getting older and wondering what it's about. 00:31:49.400 --> 00:31:53.000 What is the song of life that you're singing? 00:31:53.000 --> 00:31:59.640 What is bringing you fulfillment and where will you find that fulfillment? 00:31:59.640 --> 00:32:02.279 And I'm suggesting you'll never find it. 00:32:02.279 --> 00:32:08.119 You'll never find it in anything other than a relationship with God the Father through 00:32:08.119 --> 00:32:10.559 Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. 00:32:10.559 --> 00:32:16.279 So I would ask you to take time, if you're not a Christian, to consider the claims of 00:32:16.279 --> 00:32:19.680 Jesus. 00:32:19.680 --> 00:32:26.320 One who says that he is the only way to life, as we saw also earlier this morning, who is 00:32:26.320 --> 00:32:31.960 meaningful and without whom there is no true purpose. 00:32:31.960 --> 00:32:36.120 It's like chasing shadows are temporary and empty. 00:32:36.120 --> 00:32:41.200 And there isn't, for any of us, a more important question and I would ask you to consider it 00:32:41.200 --> 00:32:47.880 with some urgency because we believe it's a matter of life and death about dealing with 00:32:47.880 --> 00:32:55.360 the sin and our lives that separate us from God who's the God of life and ultimately introduces 00:32:55.360 --> 00:33:04.560 us to separation and death, not just in this life but eternally from him, which is unspeakable. 00:33:04.560 --> 00:33:11.040 So please do consider these issues and I thank you for being here and for taking the time 00:33:11.040 --> 00:33:13.520 to listen. 00:33:13.519 --> 00:33:19.319 And we are praying for you and appreciate so much you're taking the time to join us. 00:33:19.319 --> 00:33:24.359 We'll just pray briefly and then we'll sing together one more song before we have tea 00:33:24.359 --> 00:33:26.160 and coffee. 00:33:26.160 --> 00:33:32.960 Father, we ask and pray that we would understand that the Bible as it is the living word of 00:33:32.960 --> 00:33:40.359 God speaks to us about real people and real situations and real lives and real changes 00:33:40.359 --> 00:33:45.359 and real foundations and real transformation. 00:33:45.359 --> 00:33:52.759 And we know that the early church was transformed by meeting with the risen Savior, very physically 00:33:52.759 --> 00:33:55.879 meeting with the risen Savior but also by faith. 00:33:55.879 --> 00:34:03.199 And we know that by faith we also have experienced that as Christians and we want to share that 00:34:03.199 --> 00:34:08.279 with others because of the great change and the fulfillment and the hope even in difficult 00:34:08.280 --> 00:34:15.080 times and in times we don't understand, times that seem dark like Mary's time on the cross 00:34:15.080 --> 00:34:20.800 which was dark and we do go through times of darkness but we ask and pray that we would 00:34:20.800 --> 00:34:26.760 understand and know the love of Jesus and the sovereignty of God for our good and the 00:34:26.760 --> 00:34:32.920 great promises of hope for this life and also on into eternal life when we know and 00:34:32.920 --> 00:34:35.640 trust in Jesus as Lord and Savior. 00:34:35.639 --> 00:34:41.279 May that be where we find our fulfillment and our hope and our future. 00:34:41.280 --> 00:35:08.280 Amen.