Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - Why God Chooses the Humble | Learning to Follow Jesus | Luke 1:46-55

Starting point is 00:00:00 Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life and the time it takes to get to work. I'm Patrick Miller. And I'm Keith Simon. Right now, we're learning what it looks like to follow Jesus by working our way through the Gospel of Luke. If you grew up in 90s subculture, then you know all about veggie tales. These were short kids' films that taught tiny little Bible lessons. And believe it or not, they're all actually pretty good today still. But that's beside the point.

Starting point is 00:00:33 The company that created VeggieTales was called Big Ideas, and it was led by a visionary Christian creator named Phil Vischer. And by the late 90s, big idea, it wasn't just doing well. It was doing exceptionally well. Between 1996 and 1999, their yearly revenue grew from $1.3 million to, get this, $44 million a year. And by 2003, they would be filing for bankruptcy. Okay, so that's unexpected. What happened? Well, Phil Vischer, he's reflected a lot on these questions, and he said that you might make a few assumptions about how that company got ran down into bankruptcy. Maybe it was their massively over-budgeted film, Jonah. Or maybe it was the $11 million lawsuit that they lost. He said, look, these were all parts of the problem, but they weren't the main thing. Phil Vischer said the main problem was that he wanted to be great. He wanted big ideas to be great. This is what he said. I wanted to build the next Disney. And that desire for greatness ultimately led him to make poor business decisions in the name of

Starting point is 00:01:44 growth that ultimately ended up sending the company crashing down. If you go to a bookstore today, you will discover that we Americans are obsessed with being great. Bookshelves are lined with book after book after book promising to make you a greater leader, to build a greater business, to build a greater following. Aside from the fact that these books rarely work, and believe me, they don't. I've tried them. These books, they tend to airbrush a dark reality that the way to true greatness isn't greatness. The way to true power isn't power. You could summarize large swaths of the Bible storyline by making exactly this point. In fact, this is the point that Mary makes when she sings a song to her relative Elizabeth on a visit. This was after Mary was made pregnant by the Holy Spirit. It was after Elizabeth

Starting point is 00:02:36 had been miraculously given the ability to bear a child who eventually becomes John the Baptist. And catch what Mary says to Elizabeth. He, God, has brought down the rulers from their thrones, but has lifted up the humble. You hear what she's saying about greatness? He has filled the hungry with good things, but has sent away the rich empty. He's helped his servant Israel. And remember, Israel was a nation of ex-slaves. She continues, remembering to be merciful to Abraham and his descendants forever, just as he promised our ancestors. This is what Mary says is true about greatness. And Mary knew what she was talking about. I mean, Mary was the definition of, I mean, Mary was the definition of, of not great. She was poor. She lived in a backwater. She had virtually no social standing, and she was pregnant outside of wedlock. But the very fact that God chose her to be the mother of

Starting point is 00:03:34 Jesus, it absolutely rewired her conception of herself, her conception of reality. If God was choosing to fulfill his greatest promises through someone as lowly as her, then this must mean that God works in ways that we just don't expect. Because we expect God to work to work through people who are great. We expect God to work through people who are the best leaders with the biggest businesses, the biggest platforms, the biggest bank accounts, the biggest networks, the biggest followings. But Mary, she sees that God works paradoxically through lowly people just like herself. And precisely because she knows how unworthy she is, she cannot help but praise God for what he's doing in her life. This is what she sings. My soul glorifies.

Starting point is 00:04:21 magnifies, worships the Lord. And my spirit rejoices in God, my Savior. For he has been mindful of the humble state of his servants. From now on, all generations will call me blessed. For the mighty one has done great things for me. Holy is his name. His mercy extends to those who fear him from generation to generation. He has performed mighty deeds with his arm. He has scattered those who are proud in their in most thoughts. Our culture is fixated on being great, but Mary says God fixes the world through the lowly. Our culture calls the thoughts of the proud and the powerful visions. They're visionaries. But God calls the humble to build his vision of heaven on earth. Our culture thinks the power to change the world is invested in thrones and white houses, but God invests his power to change the world

Starting point is 00:05:19 in the womb of a young peasant girl from Nazareth. Many biblical scholars have pointed out that this remarkable song, it sets the entire agenda for Luke's gospel. Jesus is the ultimate humble servant whose death brings about God's kingdom. In his ministry, Jesus focuses on the lowly, the sinners, the weak, the social outcasts. He gives his most scathing critiques to the elites and the power brokers, but perhaps even more importantly, this song connects Jesus' ministry to the great story of the Old Testament. You see, the story of the Old Testament is a story about God working through the weak and powerless. He worked through Abraham and Sarah, who weren't able to have children. He worked through Israel,

Starting point is 00:06:06 which was enslaved in Egypt. He worked through David, who was the last born shepherd from a no-name family. God has worked through exactly these kinds of people, because when he does so, when he works through the lowly, through the unexpected, it magnifies his glory. It becomes absolutely evident that it's his work. He also works through lowly people because lowly people aren't self-deluded. They know who they are, and they know this one important fact. They know they need God. They know that apart from God, they're lost. The simple truth is that sometimes those who have the least, at least by worldly standards, have the most in terms of faith. They have the most trust in God, the most reliance on God, the most allegiance to God.

Starting point is 00:06:55 This takes us to the heart of how Mary's words connect to our lives. If you have a car, a place to live, food on your table, then you have to realize this simple fact. You are actually among the most wealthy people in the world, at least by comparison to most people in the world. We are, regardless of who you are, for the most part in this nation, the most powerful, the most wealthy, full, the most elite. And the great risk of having so much, especially when we think we don't have that much compared to this person or that person, the risk of having so much is that we will forget that we actually need God. We pray over our meals, not because God gave it, but because that's just what you do. We pray little outside of that, except in sudden urgent situations,

Starting point is 00:07:43 because, well, you know, I've kind of basically got the ability to manage my own affairs. we're all on the treadmill of greatness trying to climb our way up the ladder and forgetting that according to God, the way up is down. Mary is throwing a serious shade at the idealized American life, and we need to take that critique to heart. So today I want you to reflect on these questions. Are you more obsessed with personal greatness than God's kingdom? Does your prayer life show that you see yourself as great and capable? Do you believe that God can work out his amazing promises through ordinary people, not just great people by the world's standards. Or if we bought into the lie that God only works through celebrities and people with status and who have power in national politics. Thanks for listening. If you've enjoyed this

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Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - Why God Chooses the Humble | Learning to Follow Jesus | Luke 1:46-55

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