Sunday 7th December 2025

Nollamara Church Of Christ Sermons.

Raw transcript of meeting:

Date Of Sermon: 7^th December 2025

Speaker: Michael O’Neil

Sermon Title: Waiting, Expecting

Scripture Reading: Luke 1:39-45

 Today's reading is from Luke chapter one, verses 39 to 30 45.

At that time, Mary got ready and hurried to a town in the hill country of Judea where she entered Zacharia's home and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting the baby leapt in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit in a loud voice, she exclaimed. Blessed are you among women and blessed is the child you will bear.

But why am I so favored that the mother of my Lord should come to me? As soon as the sound of your greeting reach my ears? The baby in the womb leapt for joy. Blessed is she who has believed that what the Lord has said to her will be accomplished. Hear the words from the Holy Bible.

How you going everyone?

Are you doing all right? Yes. It's lovely to be here. I was here once last year. I'm trying to remember when in the year. I can't remember when exactly it was, but you know, they say it's wonderful to be invited somewhere. It's a miracle to be invited back and, uh, so it's lovely to be here. When Jamie, uh, sent me the.

The invitation. I said, oh yes, I'd love to come back and, uh, worship with you. And what a lovely time of worship it's been this morning. Amen. Thank you for that. And, uh, Morling, we've just finished our, our study year at Mauling. It's, um. It's been a good year. Uh, we've been really blessed. We've had some wonderful students come and study as a part of the college, and, uh, we're just really looking forward, uh, to another year, next year.

Uh, we've been in the city for about 63, 60. I think we've just finished. We started in 1963, so however many years that is, uh, we've been teaching bible theology, mission and ministry here in the city of Perth in 2021. We united with, um, Molin College in Sydney. Now there's also a college in Brisbane. So we're one college in three states and we not only teach bible and theology and mission and ministry now, but we also have studies in education for those who are already teachers and perhaps wanna move into educational leadership.

Or for those who would like to become teachers, particularly in the Christian schools, our Christian schools are often on the forefront of mission in this country today. Thousands of families every week touched by the gospel. So if you're interested or you know someone who's interested in Christian teaching or chaplaincy or Christian counseling, uh, we have studies.

We'd love to hear from you or from, we'd love you to recommend us to others and, uh, we'll see if we can serve. God together. Amen. Amen. Thus Endeth, the advert.

Okay. Alrighty. What time is it? Anyone got time? 5 10 25. That is an excellent answer. 45 Actually. 10 45 is an excellent answer. It's not the answer I wanted. What time? It's the most wonderful time of the year. You know that one? We hear that all the time, don't we? It's the most wonderful time of the year and people are singing it.

You go into the shops, all you hear is these carols. And not only that, if you turn on the television, what are you gonna get? Uh, you're gonna get, uh, all kinds of Christmas movies. Anybody, a Netflix watcher here? Oh, some of you are watching Netflix. Some of you saying, what are you talking about? Uh, if you are watching it, your kids are, and your grandkids are, and, uh, let me see.

For some reason this was working perfectly just before the service. Uh. Let's go to the next one. There we go. Look at all these movies. Christmas movies are coming out all over the place. You seen any of those? I haven't seen any of those, and I don't think I'm gonna miss 'em. Let's have a look at the next one if that's not enough for you.

There's some more for you. More Christmas movies. Some of them look a bit dodgy. Hot, frosty, not sure. I wanna watch that Christmas movie. Next one, please. More Christmas movies. Oh, I can see you taking, are you trying to catch all these movies you wanna watch? Yeah. These, these are all the movies I have actually seen The holiday.

That was a sweet movie. The holiday. I, I enjoyed that movie. Got some great actors in it. Cake about. Kate, what's her name? Kate Winslet. One of the great actresses of the modern era. Violent night? I don't think so. I'm not interested. No, no, no. Uh, next one, please. More Christmas movies. Oh, Mr. Bean. In a Christmas, I think I'll watch that one.

I reckon I'd watch it. If it's got Mr. Bean in it, I reckon I could watch it. Notice this Netflix, Christmas movies list. 2025. There's 28 lines times three, whatever that is. You know, advent can never be more than 28 days. And, uh. 28 days is about the longest advent you, you could watch three Christmas movies every day of Advent.

I don't think it's a very good idea. Some of them are probably woeful. There's probably a couple that are okay. Christmas movies. On the first day of Christmas, my true love said to me, let's watch Christmas, Netflix movies, and we watch three Second day of Christmas. You know, you could watch 'em and watch 'em, and watch 'em, and watch 'em, and watch 'em, and watch 'em, and watch 'em.

Christmas movies. Anybody enjoy watching Christmas movies? Did you know it was a thing? I, I, I sort of became aware of it just a couple of years ago and, and then last year I realized, yeah, Netflix, they, they've got this whole Christmas movie thing happening and, and now this year dozens and dozens of movies and they're not even all on there.

Diehards not on there. Some people think that's the only Christmas movie you need to see. Love actually is not on there. You know, there's a whole lot of, uh, Christmas movies, but, oh my goodness. Now why have I just wasted two or three minutes of your life that you'll never get back? Talking about Christmas movies?

I can't actually see that there's any movies about Jesus on that list. I can't actually see. Now there are some Jesus Christmas movies a a and there are some Christmas movies that sort of bring out some of the aspects of the true story, but most of that's a lot of cultural nonsense. Now, some of it's really fun and, and I will wa you know, bless me, Lord.

But I, I, I will watch some Christmas movies this year. I know it's gonna happen. It will happen. And I will watch some, and some of them I'll probably enjoy, I'll probably watch the holiday again. I might do that every year. It's a nice, sweet movie,

but our society doesn't know what to do with Christmas. And so it's made this whole big sentimental nonsense cultural stuff go on about Christmas. Yeah. And some of it's fun. Some of it's cool, some of it's even, you know, really funny. Makes me feel good. I don't mind that. Some of it's nonsense, but where's Jesus in the middle of it?

And, and this is the big question. This is the big question. What's shaping our imagination so that when we think about what it means to be Christian, and when we think about what it means to be Christian community. And when we think about what it means to know Jesus, what's shaping our imagination, what's Christmas all about for us?

We've got dozens of stories that are trying to tell you, this is what Christmas is about. This is what Christmas is about out,

but it's not Christian. How do we shape. Our imagination so that our vision is a Christian vision. So that what we think and what we see is what God would have us to think and what God would have us to see. You know, out of all of the stories, one of the problems that we have with the Christian story of course, is that we know it very well.

How many of you have been going to church for, say, I'm just looking at the crowd. Okay, forgive me, but how many. How many of you have been going to church every Christmas for 50 years or more? 60 years or more? 70 years or more? How many times have you heard the Christmas story?

I haven't been doing 70 years. I dunno why my hands up. I have been doing more than 60 years though.

And we know the Christmas story and we seem like we know the Christmas story so well. We got used to it and it doesn't hit us and it doesn't impact us. And if we're not careful what we think about Christmas, we'll start being shaped more by Netflix, then by the scriptures. So what I wanna do today is I want to go back to the story.

Is that all right? Yes. But what I discovered about the Christmas story, we only get the Christmas story in two books of the Bible. Matthew's got two chapters and Luke's got two chapters, four chapters outta the whole Bible. Give us a Christmas story. But you know what you find in the Christmas story? A bunch of little stories.

And today I wanna have a look at just one story. 'cause I figure God has put a whole bunch, he's got the story of Joseph in there. He's got the story of Mary in there. He's got the story of John the Baptist. In there, he's got the story of Elizabeth. In there. He's got the story of Zechariah in there, he's got the story of even Herod the King in there.

He's got all of these stories, and actually as we read these stories, God starts shaping our understanding of what Christmas is really about. And so today I'd like to read one story, the story of Elizabeth. Is that all right? You wanna read a story of Elizabeth with me? Yes. Let's go to the next slide.

Thank you.

In the time of Herod, the King of Judea, Luke is a historian. We're reading Luke's Gospel. Luke is a historian, and, and in Luke's gospel, he, he likes to focus on, this is stuff that happened in history. The, and he's got names and places and dates. In the time of King Herod, this really happened. This happened in history.

This happened at a particular time and a particular place. This is public truth. In the days of King Herod of Judea, there was a priest named Zacharia. Who belonged to the priestly division of Abi. His wife Elizabeth, was also a descendant of Aaron. He is a priest. He's from the tribe of Levi. Levi is a descendant of Aaron, the high priest Moses brother.

And out of that family come all the priests. Now in the days of the Kings and there's political people, there's things going on, and God zooms right in on just a nobody who's ever heard of Zacharia. Everyone's heard of Herod. He's the king. It's like these days everybody's heard of, you know, Putin or everybody's heard of Mr.

Trump, or everybody heard of Mr. Albanese, but who are you?

But God goes and focuses on this bloke that no one's ever heard of. Zacharia and his wife Elizabeth, and both of them were righteous in the sight of God observing all the Lord's commands and decrees blamelessly. That tells us a lot about Zechariah and Elizabeth right there, doesn't it? They were righteous in God's sight.

You know, these days, I think if you're gonna be righteous in God's sight, you may not be very righteous in the culture's site. You know? 'cause some of the things that the culture thinks are right, we might not think are very right. Yeah. If we're gonna be right with God, the culture might say, well, that's not right, but I'd rather be right with God.

Yeah, I'd rather be right with God. And Zechariah and Elizabeth were right with God. And what does that mean? Well, it means they kept all the commands of God and all the decrees of God. Some of the Bible commentators say keeping the commands of God. That's to do with all of the stuff of normal everyday life.

All the commands of the Old Testament when it talks about the decrees, uh, some of the commentators are suggesting that's talking about the way we worship God. The way we live our religious kind of life. So whether you're talking about their spiritual life or whether you're talking about their practical life, they were seeking to please God.

Anybody like that in here? I wanna please God. It says they were blameless. I dunno that I can say that about myself. But sometimes I think we get a wrong impression. Blameless doesn't mean perfect. Yeah, there's nobody perfect. You are not perfect. Your neighbor's not perfect. You know very well that your husband's not perfect, and he knows that his wife is not perfect.

Isn't that right? We know. Just look in the mirror one day and just say, oh, I know he's not perfect, or She's not perfect, but they're hard. Wanted to please God. They were blameless, but now we find out a little bit more. But they were childless because Elizabeth was not able to conceive. Man, there's a whole story there, isn't there?

And it may be that that's the story of some in this room.

There's a sadness right there. There's a suffering and a sorrow right there, isn't there? They were childless, unable to conceive and now that dream is gone 'cause they're very old. Next one. Thank you.

Then the angel of the Lord Zechariah, his team was up to serve in the temple. And Zechariah is there serving in the temple, and he's gone into the temple, into the holy place, and all the people who are worshiping are out worshiping in the courts. He goes into the temple and an angel of the Lord appeared to him standing at the right hand of the side, uh, the right side of the altar of incense.

And when Zechariah saw the angel, he was startled and gripped with fear. The angel said to him, don't be afraid, Zechariah. Angels in the Bible always say that. Don't be afraid. God doesn't want us to be afraid. You know, God is the sovereign God. He's got you. He's got you. Don't be afraid. But these don't be afraid.

Zechariah, and look at this, your prayer has been heard. I, I was thinking about that. We stopped praying that prayer years ago. We stopped praying that prayer when all hope ran out. We gave up, but God remembered, your prayer has been hurt. I, I think God remembers our prayers sometimes. He takes an awful long time to answer 'em and, and sometimes he knows better than us.

I think. Sometimes I think he does.

Yeah. Good, good. Preach it. Sister.

Your prayer has been heard. Your wife, Elizabeth, will bear a son and you are to call him John. John means Yahweh is gracious. Next one, please. Your prayer has been answered. So Zechariah finishes all his service in the temple. He goes back home. When the time of his service was completed, he returned home, and after this, his wife, Elizabeth, became pregnant.

Somebody says, well, how did that happen? Oh, you don't need to ask that. I know it says they're old, but they were not that old. All right. And, uh, she became pregnant and for five months she remained in isolation in seclusion for five months. I, I, I guess, until it was impossible to conceal it anymore. You know, I, I guess until, you know, there's nothing baby can be seen, baby is showing and everybody can see, but for five months I was thinking about that.

Did she tell anybody? Did she tell anyone?

Wait until the danger time has passed. You know, 'cause sometimes, and some of the ladies in this room, you will have experienced that. You know, the first three months you may or may not keep the child.

So you wait for that. You wait until you know, it's not showing. You're asking yourself, is this really happening? Is it really happening? After all these years, is this really happening? And yet is she alone in it? And she's thinking. She's thinking. She's thinking, why? Why now? Why me? Somehow Zacharia has communicated to her about the angel.

Somehow Zacharia has communicated, you know, he can't speak, you know, that's part of the story. That's another sermon you'll have to invite me back next year. Uh, Zacharia's story. Uh, but somehow he's communicated to her God's in this. God is doing this and she says, the Lord has done this for me. And in these days, he's shown his favor.

Oh, thank God. You know, John means Yahweh is gracious. Same word for favor. Yahweh is shows favor, and the Lord has shown favor to me and he's taken away my disgrace. It's really hard for us in our generation to think. Of what? Being without children meant to a woman back there. Back then, it was disgrace. It was disgrace.

You know, last weekend's, paper, some of you probably saw it. Weekend Magazine in the weekend. Australian last weekend. Alexia's 38 years old. She's healthy, she's married. She doesn't want children. Not ever. And she's not alone. And then you turn to the story. The story's in here somewhere.

No kids, no regrets

in our culture. And I don't actually wanna talk about that, even though I've started to, I don't wanna talk about that. Except to say this, that in our culture we have choices in our culture, we can make choices. Choices that were not possible. In the days of Zechariah and Elizabeth and in fact a woman, this was really the focus of her existence to have children.

To bear children, to raise children, and when Elizabeth is unable to conceive for whatever reason, there is shame, there is deep shame, there is deep sorrow, there is heartache and even disgrace. And she says, the Lord has done this for me. The Lord has been favorable to me and he's taken my away, my disgrace amongst the people.

Next one. Thanks. I better move along. Hey, the angel answered, Mary the Holy Spirit. Okay, now we've cut to a different scene in this movie. You know, we were all focused on, you know, and the movie was telling the story of Zechariah and Elizabeth, but now we've got a new scene and it's talking about Mary. And the same angel that came to Zechariah now comes to Mary and, and the angel says to Mary, the Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the most high will overshadow you.

The holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. But then Elizabeth doesn't seem to have told anybody. Elizabeth hasn't told anybody, but the angel Dobs on her. The angel tells Mary, even Elizabeth, your relative what she and auntie. Was she a cousin? We dunno. But she was a relative of some sort, is going to have a child even in her old age and she who is said to be unable to conceive is in a six month for no word from God will ever fail.

Hallelujah. She's in a six month. Next one, please. And at that time, Mary got ready and hurried to a town in the hill country of Judea. Yeah. What my auntie, whatever it is, my auntie's gonna have a baby. She packed up her things. She's got no children. She's never had a child. She'll have no things. She'll have no nappies.

She'll have no blankets. She'll have no crib, she'll have nothing. She's all alone. She hasn't told anybody. We are, we're, we are a family. We are relatives. We didn't know, nobody knew. I need to go. I need to be with her. Mary gets up, gets going where she entered Zechariah's home and greeted Elizabeth. And when Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the baby leaped in a womb.

And Elizabeth, oh, bless the Lord, Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. This is one of the big themes of Luke's Gospel and the Book of Acts being filled with the Holy Spirit. And in the story of Jesus' birth, just about everybody except Jesus is filled with the Holy Spirit. Poor old Jesus misses out.

You know John is filled with the Holy Spirit from his mother's womb. Mary is filled with the Holy Spirit and sings a prophetic song. Elizabeth here is filled with the Holy Spirit and begins to speak with prophecy. Zacharia is filled with the Holy Spirit and has a prophetic song. Simeon Anna filled with the Holy Spirit.

With Prophetic Insight. Everybody except poor old Jesus. But you know, chapter three of Luke Jesus is filled with the Holy Spirit is baptism. This is significant. She's filled with the Holy Spirit and she has prophetic insight. God is up to something in a loud voice. She exclaimed. Blessed are you among women saying to young Mary.

Blessed is the child that you will bear. Blessed woman, blessed child. Two women coming together. Both pregnant. Both pregnant supernaturally, both present pregnant by the work of God. Two women coming together to meet and it seems perhaps the two babies. Well, John filled with the Holy Spirit from his mother's womb.

Leaps in the womb as Mary's voice is heard and Elizabeth filled with the Holy Spirit. Blessed are you among women. Blessed is the child that you'll bear. Next one. Thank you. But why am I so favored that the mother of my Lord? See, there's prophetic insight going on there, isn't it? Who who is Mary told?

Mary hasn't told anybody. And Mary is only just pregnant. It's not showing now,

but Elizabeth knows that the mother of my Lord should come to me. And as soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfill his promises to her. How does Mary, how does Elizabeth know all of this? Because the spirit of God has filled her life.

We were just singing that before. Weren't we? Come, Lord Jesus, come Holy Spirit. Come. If you're praying that and you're singing that and you are worshiping and asking, God, let's, let's believe that. Let's believe that. Don't let it not be just be words that we sing, but a heart cry of prayer. Let's follow in the footsteps here of Elizabeth Bless.

Blessed are those who believe that the Lord will fulfill his promises. Amen. Hallelujah. Let's keep going. Let's keep going. The next one, Mary stayed with Elizabeth for about three months and then returned home, and when it was time for Elizabeth to have a baby, she gave birth to her son. You know, it looks a little bit like Mary went home and then the birth happened.

I kind of think Mary probably stayed for the birth. And then she went home. She helped and was there with Elizabeth and helped Elizabeth.

But Elizabeth gave birth. She had a son and now her neighbors and her relatives heard. They're only just finding out about it now. She sort of stayed in hiding the whole time.

Her neighbors and her relatives heard that the Lord had shown her great mercy and they shared her joy in the next one. Thank you. And on the eighth day, they came to circumcise the child. That was the practice in the Jewish culture, and they were gonna name him after his father Zechariah. But now we see some of the strength of Elizabeth.

You know, everybody's saying this is what's gonna happen, and Elizabeth jumps up and says, no, no, he should be called John. You see, she was the one who had the promise. Zechariah said, your prayers have the angel said to Zechariah, your prayers have been heard. Your wife will bear a son. She had the promise, but she also had the command.

You should call his name John. They say, oh, we're gonna call him after his dad. And she said, no. Dad can't speak yet. No. He chose to be called John. They said you haven't got anyone in your relatives who has that name. Next one. Thank you. And then they made signs to his father to find out what he would like to name the child.

You know, who wants to listen to a woman? You know? You know you're just a woman. Be quiet.

And he asked for a writing tablet, and to everyone's astonishment, he wrote, his name is John. So we've got Elizabeth's story. Let's go to the next one. Thank you. We've got Elizabeth's story, but Elizabeth's story is a part of a story that Luke is telling. Luke is telling his gospel story, his story of Jesus Lucas telling a story, and this is a part of God's big story.

See, what we've got, I, I is, we've got God's big story that started with creation and then you've got the terrible fall into sin and death and destruction. And wickedness, one of the saddest verses of the Bible in Genesis and chapter six. And God grieved in his heart that he had made humanity upon the earth because every thought of their heart and every imagination of their heart was only evil continually.

So you've got the beautiful creation. You've got the terrible fall. But then God doesn't give up on us. Thank God he doesn't give up on us. If I were God, I think I would've given up on me a long time ago and I probably would've given up on you as well. 'cause if I'm not gonna be patient with me, I'm not gonna be patient with you.

Right? But, but God, thank God is faithful

and he called Abraham. And he says, I will bless you and I will bless your seed after you. And he knew all the families of the Earth, even those in Nola. Mara, I grew up in Llamara. Do you know that I grew up just over on Kimba Street, just over there? Uh, I grew up here and all the families of the Earth will be blessed.

God is faithful and God's right. In a big story. There is God's story, the big story, but God's story is made up of hundreds, thousands, and even today, millions upon millions of little stories. Yeah, little stories and our stories are even important. Part of the big story, Elizabeth's story, there's nobody from nowhere.

No one's ever heard of her, but God knows her. God sees her, and God says, your story is important and, and Luke hears about her story and he puts her story into his story. And that's how come we know Elizabeth's story, but it's a part of God's story. Yeah. And your story is a part of God's story and just as it was so important, it was so crucial for Elizabeth to be faithful.

It is so important even in the face of suffering and sorrow year after year after year. You can imagine this sermon really should be preached by a woman because what do I know about being pregnant? What do I know?

The sorrow every month? That would've been heartbreaking. It would've been heartbreaking for her, and then finally gives up. That dream is dead, but she still stayed faithful to God. She still was righteous in God's sight. Life has not gone the way I wanted, but as for me in my house, we will serve the Lord.

Yeah, we're gonna serve the Lord. So important. Let's have a look at the next one. We gotta bring this in for a landing. Oh, what do these women have in common? All these women in the Bible, Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel, don't even know the name of this one. Manoa. We know his name. What's her name? No idea, but God knows her.

Manoa's wife, who you, you've heard of her son? Samson, Samson's, mom, Hannah. There's a lot of similarity between Hannah and Mary in the Bible. That's a good study. Hannah, and now Elizabeth. And now Mary. What unites these women? These all had supernatural conceptions. All of 'em. Were women who couldn't conceive seven of them in the Bible, couldn't conceive.

They cried out to God, or God showed up on the scene, and all of them had an instrumental part in the furtherance of God's big story. You know, the simple thing of having a baby can be a part of God's big story. Let's have a look at the next one. What unites these women? Mary in Luke's story and Elizabeth in Luke's story, both are women, both are pregnant, both supernaturally.

Of course, Mary's story stands head and shoulders above everybody else's story, doesn't it? 'cause hers is a virgin conception without any man being involved in that aspect. One is young, probably very young. One is old. We are told she was very old, and yet they both bring forth a child. Lucas told the story in two parts.

You got Elizabeth and John, and you got Mary and Jesus. You know, he, he sort of doing a, a double thing here. There's prophetic inspiration. Both of them are filled with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit has come by upon both of their lives. And both of them have insight into what God is doing. Both of them are women of faith.

They trust God, they stand for God. Even as we've seen in the face of disappointment and suffering and sorrow, they don't give up these women. Let's have a look at the next one. What can we learn from Elizabeth as we come to an end? Advent? We're in the time of advent. We're at second Sunday of advent, and advent is a time of preparation.

Advent is a time of waiting. Advent is a time when you might say we, we are pregnant with hope. The thing about pregnancy now, again, I've never been pregnant.

I've got three children and seven grandchildren though. Uh, so I've lived with a woman who's been pregnant and shared that journey. When you're pregnant, you are waiting and you're hoping, and you're anticipating something that's not there yet, right? But it is, the child is already there and yet not there.

You know, it's this weird in-between space and Advent. Yeah. Christ has already come, but we're waiting. Christ has already here, but we are waiting. Salvation has already been given, but we are waiting. We're waiting. We are in the time between the first coming of Jesus and the second coming of Jesus. We are, we are in this in-between times and, and we are living in this in-between space and, and so Advent reminds us just as Christ came the first time, so Christ will come again.

Just as He came once, he will come a second time. Christ has come and Christ will come and we're waiting. We are waiting. We're longing. We are hoping, we're expecting. What did these two women do in, in church tradition? This, this story is called the visitation. The visitation. Two women. Again, I, I'm sure you ladies would know this far more and far be, but what do women do when they're pregnant and they get together?

You know, they'll be talking, they'll be preparing, they'll be planning. And these women, they've got blankets to make. They got nappies to make. They got little clothes to make. You can't go to Target 2000 years ago. Yeah. They got this stuff to about, and, and Elizabeth hasn't told anybody, nobody else is making it.

I mean, they gotta do it all themselves. And they're talking and, and not only that, they're talking about what's God up to in this, what's God gonna do with these babies? They know. They know that God's hand is on these babies. The Bible passage doesn't say this, but I absolutely believe it. I believe God's hand is on every child.

Remember Jesus said, take care that you don't offend even one of these little ones. 'cause they're angel. Their angel is always beholding the father's face in heaven. God cares and God sends his angel each and every child. We gotta love our children, don't we? Yeah, and sometimes they can be such a rat bag and sometimes you can think, well, God might love you.

I'm having trouble at the moment. But God loves these children and we too, this is a little community of promise. It's a little community of faithfulness. It's a little community of hope. It's a little community. Mary and Elizabeth meeting together is a picture of the church as a little community of devout people who worship God, who trust in His word, and who are preparing for the coming of Christ.

Mary and Elizabeth are a picture of the church. Gathered in fellowship in this story. It's a fellowship of women, but really it's a fellowship of all. You know, if I was preaching on Joseph or preaching on Zechariah or Simeon, we might say it's a fellowship of men as well, but it's a fellowship of people serving Christ, waiting, preparing, praying, knowing that God is at work.

Yes. The Messiah is coming. Mary's child is the Messiah, but the Messiah is never without his witness. I think that's why Luke is putting both stories together. Why does Luke weave the story of Elizabeth and the story of Mary together? Why is Luke weaving the story of John and the story of Jesus together?

Because the Messiah is never without his witness, and Mary and Elizabeth are a picture of the Christian fellowship. Gathered around the promise of God, helping each other, serving one another, praying together, working and serving, waiting, waiting, waiting for the promise of God. Yes. And we are the witness.

I get to preach in a number of churches. I'm gonna finish right now. I get to preach in a number of, in a number of churches around the city and around the state. Um. It's one of the privileges that I have in my, in my role, but I've been hearing stories, I've been hearing stories in our city. In our city.

You, you might have heard the, the expression, the quiet revival since about 2000, uh uh, 2020. You know, we had the terrible lockdowns around the world and to COVID and those horrible scenes we saw out of Italy and the UK and New York just. I, I, I can remember the horror of those early days of COVID and wondering, okay, if it comes to Australia, what's it gonna be like?

And it did come to Australia, but we didn't suffer the way other people suffered. It was summertime here, not winter that made a difference. We are not, we're not living on top of each other. Like in so many countries of the world, that made a difference. But since COVID around the world, we're hearing that people are coming to Christ.

There are more than 50% more people in church in 2025 in the UK than there were in 2020 in five years in the UK church. Now they're coming off a low base. Yeah, they're coming off a low base because it becomes so very secular. But there are 50% more people in churches in the UK today than there were five years ago.

That's amazing. And, and, and something else that's even, I think, more amazing, you know, who's coming to Christ? People all over the place, but especially young men. There are more young men coming to Christ than young women. I don't know that that's ever happened in the church history. Maybe it has, but I'm not aware of it.

More young men are coming to Christ than young women. We are living in a day where God's at a work, but they're calling it a quiet revival because it's not real big and spectacular. But friends, it's happening In Perth, I was talking to some people who are pastors of a church not far away and, and they said, we had this lady come into the church.

She was Chinese. She came into the church and she came to Christ. We didn't know her from a bar of soap. Nobody knew her. Nobody invited her. God called her and God brought her into the church. Nobody speaks Mandarin. She can speak a little bit of English. We started meeting with her and started having lunch with this lady who came into the church.

She brought a friend a few weeks later. And then she bought another one a few weeks later. They've never been in church, ever. They did an alpha course with them and for some other friends, there was now six or eight of them. And this lady, she's a little evangelist. Nobody in the church speaks Mandarin, but they found out that Alpha has got a Mandarin video series.

So they say we're gonna do Mandarin Alpha. She's brought in all the people and, and they're running Mandarin Alpha, the same church. They've had a couple of young men come into the church. I was talking to another pastor down in pastors, a church down Fremont away. He said, we've had that over the last couple of years in our church.

We had this old hippie guy. He's in his seventies. He's tried every religion that there is in the world, and he was just on his daily walk around Bi Lake and the Holy Spirit came on him. He said, I didn't know what it was, but the Holy Spirit came on him and said, you need Jesus. You need to go to church.

Nobody invited him to church. He just walked into church one day and came to Christ. Another young guy just walked into the same church, came to Christ. He had not been long out of jail. Oh, I dunno. If we want those kind of people in our church, you better get used to it. You know, the Christmas story is the story of shepherds.

Nobody wants a shepherd. They stink. They sleep with the sheep. Nobody's interested in shepherds. They're the lowest rung on the ladder. Nobody's interested in shepherd. God cares for shepherds and God cares for people who've been in jail. And this guy just wander into church. And I've heard, you know, not heaps and heaps of stories, but I've heard stories.

It's happening. It's happening in Perth and Mary and Elizabeth. Or a picture. Let's trust the promise of God. Let's pray. Let's be righteous in the sight of the Lord. Let's get ready. Let's prepare. Let's be weaving blankets and sow in nappy so that when God brings them, we are ready. Let's be a community of faith.

Amen. Are you ready to pray? Let's stand together. Let's pray. I'm gonna ask the team, the worship team to come forward, but let's pray together, shall we? Before we close, sorry I've gone on so long today. I dunno if I've done you any good, but I'm gonna go home happy.

Jesus. Let's pray. Jesus, we hear that you are doing things around the world. We hear Lord of people coming to Christ. I've heard, especially in the last few years, that Iranian people coming to Christ. Lord, you know why I don't? We've heard, Lord, that you're bringing people into churches who've never had any contact.

Help us to be ready, Lord. Help us to be your witness. Lord, our Messiah is never without his witness. Help us Lord to be witnesses as John was a bright and a burning witness. Help us Lord, like Mary, like Elizabeth, who we've studied today. Help us, Lord, to have this Christmas vision, not a Netflix Christian vision.

Lord, not a secular Christian. A Christmas celebration Lord. But Lord, let this gospel speak to us, that God is faithful, that no word from God will ever fail, that you will bring your promises to pass. Help us Lord, to be amongst those who believe. Help us, Lord. Help us Lord, father in heaven. I just pray for every single person in this place.

I pray, father, that this Christmas season will be a season. Yes, Lord, with much laughter. Lord, I pray that those who feel like they're alone and solitary. As Elizabeth Word, Lord, might they find and be found by others who will bring them into community. As Mary came to Elizabeth, Lord, give us warm and gracious hearts towards one another.

Lord, help us to be aware of those in our neighborhood, those in our relationship networks who are on their own. Help us to be aware, Lord of those in our families who are far from God. And Lord, help us to embrace them in love, to enjoy them, and Lord, to bring them the warmth and the graciousness, and the friendship of God Our father, help us this Christmas Lord to live this vision.

A vision of service, a vision of witness. A vision of righteousness in the eyes of God and Lord, would you bless your people this Christmas? Bless them with your presence. Fill them with your spirit. Fill this church, Lord, as we've sung already, fill this church with your Holy Spirit and do wonderful, wonderful things in our midst.

We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Now the Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord Jesus Christ, look you full in the face and give you his peace. Amen.