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When my wife and I were traveling back from Florida after the Thanksgiving Holidays, I turned on the radio to scan the AM bands in search of something interesting to while away the time. I came upon what must have been a devoted Catholic station and paused to listen in simply to see what they were doing. I was shocked -- forgive me I was never Catholic so this stuff shocks me-- to hear for over five minutes (before I turned it off) that they had different people alternating praying to Mary, "the mother of God," as they put it. What surprised me was the mindlessness of it because each person did their "Hail Marys" by repeating the same monotonous prayer within it. There was no heart or passion within the prayers and I was immediately reminded of Jesus' warning in Matthew 6:

If anyone ever violated Jesus' teaching in this verse then those people were certainly doing so! Truly they evidently thought that they would be heard for their much speaking.

Prayer to Mary and the worship of her is completely absurd and is heretical and false doctrine of the worst sort. Unfortunately it is so widespread because of mainly the false teachings of the Roman Catholic Church, that in order for someone to accurately preach about something in Mary's life as I would desire to do today, you must first put a disclaimer lest you be misunderstood. If you were raised Catholic or perhaps your family has a tradition of being involved in the Catholic religion, I don't mean to offend or make you feel uncomfortable, but let me tell you that we could stay here until 2006 talking about the absolutely unscriptural actions and teachings of the Catholic Church. The dogma and the teachings of the Catholic Church are almost completely errant and false but nowhere do they err as widely from scripture and as gravely when it comes to their teaching on Mary, the mother of Jesus.

The worship of Mary arises from a book that was published in about the fifth century -- over 400 years after the life of Christ -- entitled "The Passing of Mary" or in the original language, "Transitus Mariae." The book was a work of fiction and the result of the imagination of some monk somewhere but such was the heretical state of the Catholic Church that it was embraced and made a part of the church's tradition. In a nutshell, the book invented the story of the death of Mary and said that at her death, she called all of the Apostles to her side and then summoned Gabriel from heaven and asked that she be "teleported" to heaven as her son, Jesus, was. According to the book, Gabriel took her back to heaven along with the Apostles that were there where they were given glorified bodies and reign in heaven. From this came the prayers and worship practices associated with Mary today by Catholics everywhere. Catholics are taught this story as the "advent of Mary" and they must say that they believe it in order to be confirmed. Nowadays the fable has expanded to include the belief that Mary was a virgin when she died, that she intercedes to Jesus on our behalf, and that she can forgive sin. In the late 1990s, the inevitable happened even though it was not widely publicized, and in several prominent South American Catholic churches a statue of Mary on the cross was erected. Even among Americans, there are many who put their faith -- not in Jesus Christ -- but in Mary, his earthly mother and pray to her continually and even more devoted than they do to Jesus the One who was really their Savior!

So as a disclaimer and lest my preaching today being misunderstood, let me confront such errant false doctrine with the true Word of God. As it is written: "Let God be true and every man a liar." If the Bible contradicts your opinion or belief, then that belief or opinion, even if a religious one is wrong. And just about everything that the Catholic Church teach about Mary is wrong.

First, of all she cannot forgive sins. Only God can forgive sins, a point brought out many times in scripture. And she certainly did not die on the cross for our sins, and if she would have, then it would have done nothing for us because the scriptures teach that "all have sinned and come short of the glory of God." The only One who never sinned, was Jesus Christ and so only He could have been the spotless, pure Lamb of God. Had Mary died on a cross (which she didn't) then her death would have done you and I no good because she was not perfect. Chosen of God for a special time? Yes. But perfect? No.

Second of all, Mary did NOT remain a virgin all of her life. The scripture very clearly indicates that Mary and Joseph had other kids, at least three other boys and two girls besides Jesus Christ. And even if you believe the lie that the Catholic Church tries to spin that they were Joseph's kids from another marriage, you still run against scripture because the Bible says that Joseph "knew her not till she had brought forth her firstborn son" (Matthew 1:25). That word "knew" is the same reference in the manner illustrated that Adam "knew" Eve and "she conceived." It's not talking about shaking hands and introducing yourselves. And the scripture says that Joseph "knew her not TILL." That proves that Joseph and Mary had normal marital relations beginning AFTER the birth of Jesus Christ.

Third, let me say that we are to worship no one but God, Himself directly. He doesn't even want you to worship a statue that supposedly represents Him! In the book of Revelation, we find that John was so awed by the visions of the future that he fell down in front of an angel and began to worship, but the angel quickly put a stop to it and said:

"Worship God!" Jesus quoted to the devil during His temptation in the wilderness:

It is a sin -- let me repeat that -- it is a sin, to worship or pray to anything or anybody other than God, directly. That would include Mary or any other saint. And someone might say, "but people worshipped Jesus Christ in the scripture." Yes, they did and that's a testimony to you that even though Jesus Christ was all human, He was more than just a man, but God in flesh! He could forgive sins. He could be worshipped. We are commanded to worship Him because "all the fulness of the Godhead dwelt in Him bodily" (Colossians 2:9)!! Mary may have been the mother of His human nature, but He had existed a long time before His earthly birth as the Spirit of Jehovah God! That's why we must worship Him and not His earthly Mother! He was the Lamb of God! He was the Savior of the World! He is the King of Kings!

And most and foremost that is wrong with the doctrine of worshipping Mary is the story of her advent. Mary did NOT ascend to heaven at her death. For that matter neither did any of the Apostles. The only two people in the entire Bible who never died or went directly to heaven besides Jesus Christ, were Elijah and Enoch and they were such special cases that the Bible makes special mention of it. If Mary had "startrekked" into heaven, it seems strange that the Bible would not make mention of it nor would anyone believe it until over 400 years AFTER the Apostles' deaths!

And furthermore none of the saints -- Mary included -- are in heaven yet anyway. I'm going to shock some of you with the truth here, but when people die -- even if they are right with God -- they aren't immediately "shouting on streets of gold." They aren't welcomed at the pearly gates by St. Peter, either. Nobody immediately gets their glorified bodies and goes to the heavenly city at death. When I die, if you get to go to my funeral, weep over me and say how much you loved me; touch the bald head on my dead body and say how good looking I was; say that I lived my life wanting to be ready to meet Jesus; mention that Repentance, Water Baptism in the name of Jesus Christ, and the infilling of the Holy Ghost is still the Apostolic plan of salvation; sing "What a Friend We Have In Jesus;" and even have a crawfish boil if you want to, but DON'T say that I'm at that moment dancing on streets of gold or playing golf with the angels because that's not true. There's not one scripture that says that it happens immediately and a bunch that say it definitely doesn't.

Don't get me wrong, I believe in the New Jerusalem with streets of gold and gates of pearl. But I believe the Bible when it says that the heavenly city will descend out of the New Heaven to the New Earth AFTER this Old Earth and the Old Heaven have passed away and burnt up with a "fervent heat." I believe that I'm going to get a heavenly body and live with Jesus forever in eternity, but I also know that the scriptures teach that we will get our glorified body and fly away to meet Him in the air at the Rapture of the Church! A trumpet's going to sound and in a flash, we'll be changed from corruptible, able-to-get-sick bodies to immortal ones! We'll meet Jesus in the air and forever be with Him from that point on! If everybody is already there in heaven, then why would Jesus have to come appear in the sky to gather the "dead in Christ," and "those who are alive and remain?" But the scripture says that He's coming back one day and the dead in Christ shall rise first, and then we who are alive and remain will be "caught up" to meet Him in the skies! And then we'll get our glorified bodies but it happens at His return yet to happen and not immediately when you die. That's why I'm looking forward with anxious anticipation to Jesus Christ's quick return!

The scriptures say that the Holy Ghost living inside of me is my ticket out of here! Let me read to you Romans 8:11 in "The Living Bible" translation so that it's easy to understand:

The Holy Ghost will complete the work that it began in me when I received it 18 years ago and I'll be forever completely changed! That's the hope for everyone who has received the Holy Spirit! You look anxiously toward the return of Jesus Christ because THEN we'll go be with Him and THEN we'll be changed and THEN we get to see heaven and worship Him face to face!

And so let me say, instead of putting your faith "in Mary" you need to have the "faith of Mary" because Acts chapter 1 tells me that she received the Holy Ghost on the Day of Pentecost and that means that when she died, she died in faith believing that Jesus Christ is coming back one day and when that trumpet sounds, Mary is going to be changed and fly away along with Peter and the Apostles and whomever else has the Spirit of God within them! That's my hope and what I put my faith in and that's the hope and what Mary put her faith in! Don't put your faith in her, but DO follow her example and put your faith in Jesus Christ! Get the Faith of Mary! The faith that says "I want to be filled with the Holy Ghost and ready for His return!

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Now that my disclaimer is finished, you are better prepared to understand our text where Jesus was teaching one day and some woman started screaming out like a madwoman "blessed is the womb that bare thee." This woman was starting to give praise to Mary and Jesus put a quick stop to it and then said:

Jesus looked at the lady trying to worship Mary and said "those who are blessed are they that hear the Word of God and keep it." That's an interesting response to someone mentioning His earthly mother. At first, it seems like "Jesus what does that have to do with Mary?" But when you begin to look at it closer, you begin to realize that Mary's life was the epitome of someone who "hears the Word of God and keeps it." Mary was certainly a blessed woman and worthy of attention, but not to worship her because she gave birth to Jesus. What really made her blessed -- according to the words of Jesus -- were that she "heard the Word of God and kept it." Jesus was saying "yes, she was blessed, but you've got the wrong reason, woman as to why she was blessed." What made Mary blessed was her attitude of faith in God's promises!

We shouldn't worship Mary and I agree wholeheartedly with that. But because so many people do wrongly worship Mary, non Catholics tend to never mention her at all and tend to miss the most important lesson of Mary's life. Indeed I would go as far as saying that even those who worship her, tend to miss the point of the scriptures about Mary's life. And that is this: everything that the scriptures point out about Mary are there so that we would learn from them. It's improper and very wrong to put your faith IN Mary, but it's everything that is right to have "the faith OF Mary." That is, it is absolutely right to face life and the Word of God as she did!

Mary's life was a textbook lesson on how to serve God with faith. Let me show you what I mean.

We are introduced to Mary in Luke chapter 1 when the angel Gabriel showed up to tell this young, engaged girl that she was going to give birth to the promised Messiah! That troubled Mary because she was still a virgin, and when she asked how that was going to happen, and the angel told her the wonderful but somewhat startling news that "the Holy Ghost shall overshadow you and that Holy Thing that shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God" we don't find any thing in Mary's reply but faith. She's young, she's probably a little scared. She's talking to an angel. She's got a Word from God for her life that says that something that has never happened ever before is going to take place in her life and God is asking her to be a part of something that is unheard of, and Mary does not hesitate. Instead we find:

Luke 1:38 And Mary said, Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word. And the angel departed from her.

It's important to understand that God's a gentleman and will do nothing in humanity's lives that we don't first grant Him permission. I believe that Mary became pregnant at the moment that she spoke these words, because the promise had been given, but God was waiting to see if she would accept His will and respond positively to His Word. When she did so, THEN God did the work. Here we learn some important principles for our lives today. The Promise of His Word is what God WANTS to do in our life, but our faith in His Word is what ALLOWS Him to do it! True faith is permission given to God to work in your life. That's why God won't do a thing for you if you have no faith, because He will not force Himself upon you!

Sometimes people have faith that wavers or no faith at all when they hear the promises of the Word of God. They hear the Word go forth: "they shall lay hands on the sick and they shall recover" and "by His stripes we were healed" and yet when the ministry prays for their healing, they are thinking all the while "can Jesus really do this?" "I've never seen this before or had it happen to me, is this really going to happen?" And then when nothing happens, we say "oh, I didn't expect something to happen anyway." Or sometimes people hear "God can deliver you from anything" or "God can take away your depression and restore your joy to you," or "The Holy Ghost is a promise to you if you will receive it as a gift" but when they come they come with a battle going on in their minds: "can it really happen to me?" "Is it really so?" And usually when you come with that mentality, nothing supernatural happens, because you really don't have faith that God can do exactly what He said. Your doubt is withholding God from working as His Word says that He wants to work.

But if someone could get the "Faith of Mary," things would be different! When confronted with something that she'd never experienced before, didn't know anybody else that had ever experienced it, and yet God's Word said it was a promise to her, she immediately responded with "be it unto me according to thy word!" And so when she gets up and goes to Elisabeth's house, Elisabeth greeted her with these words:

"There shall be a performance of those things!" Mary definitely was blessed, but no more or less blessed than God wants to bless you and I! She wasn't blessed because she was the mother of Jesus, but rather because she had the kind of faith that believed whatever God's Word had said and Elisabeth said that that kind of faith would result in "a performance of those things which were told her from the Lord!"

And so I'm here preaching to you, your promise may be different than Mary's promise was. You may not need the Holy Ghost to come inside of you to create a child, but maybe you need the Holy Ghost to place a joy within you. Maybe you need the Holy Ghost to heal a broken heart! Maybe you need the Holy Ghost to bring deliverance in your life from things that have you bound! The promise may be different, but if you will get the same type of faith as Mary had, then the results will be the same: "there will be a performance of those things that were spoken by the Lord!" A performance in your life, here, today, right now! But God's waiting for permission! He's wanting to bless someone else today, but He's waiting for someone to get the "Faith of Mary!" He's waiting for someone to get the faith that says "I want God's will right now in my life!"

We need "Faith like Mary!" She believed that God was able to do everything that He said that He would do. Furthermore she was willing to immediately step out on those promises. She didn't dillydally around with the "what ifs." She didn't say "well, let me talk it over with Joseph," or "this might seem strange to suddenly happen to me and cause a little bit of explaining to my friends." She didn't care what her family said. She didn't care what her friends said. All she cared about was that God had made a promise to her and she wasn't going to let another second go by until she had been touched by the Holy Ghost! She understood that the promise was something to be grasped while it was there! She wasn't about to let this moment slip by!

And some would say, "well she received her word from an angel, and if an angel were to come speak to me, then maybe I'd have that much faith" but Peter speaking about such things mentioned the promises of the written Word of God and said "we have a more sure word of prophecy!" Mary had to figure out if this angel was from God or the devil, if it meant good or bad. But we, today, have access to the written Word of God which is a more sure Word of prophecy! If it's written in here as a promise to you, then you don't have to question it or wonder about it's motives, it will bless you and it's for you, if you will faith in it and step out! We need the faith OF Mary in our lives!

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Mary didn't just have faith in God once in her life. The highlight of her life was not just to receive a touch at one moment but her faith was such that it caused her to begin to look for other ways for God to work in her life. Mary became very sensitive to the workings of God in the little things of her everyday life. The Bible says that at the birth of Jesus when the shepherds showed up, that Mary and Joseph were blown away by the testimonies of the angels that they had seen and all of the wonderful things that were being said. No doubt, they would also be amazed by the Wise Men's later appearance and the story of a star that had led them to where the baby were. When they took Jesus to be dedicated in the temple and the prophet Simeon and the prophetess Anna took the babe in their arms and prophesied of salvation to the Gentiles and the light of the world and of how great this baby was, it awed Mary and Joseph. In fact, the Bible states that:

Most scholars believe that Luke actually sat down and interviewed Mary directly for his gospel and that's why that so much of the story in the book of Luke seems to be Mary's memories and why we learn things in Luke's gospel that Matthew and the others don't mention. Mary was slowly getting a revelation of a greater promise than just a miraculous birth -- she was slowly getting a revelation of who her baby really was! She didn't fully understand at first, but over time the little things began to add up. You see, if people have true faith like Mary's, then it may take a while, but eventually they are going to get a revelation of who Jesus Christ really is. That's He's more than just a man. That He's more than just another child born of old. That He was much, much more beyond just another Jewish preacher. That there was more special about Him than just a wild birth scene and angelic prophecies!

It would be when Jesus was 12 years old that Joseph and Mary "lost Him" and after frantically searching Jerusalem for Him for three days, that they found Jesus in the temple teaching the Bible scholars and answering their hard questions! When they rushed up and said "Jesus, we've been looking all over for you," Jesus replied "Know you not that I must be about my Father's business?" Nothing was said, but after that comment, Jesus returned to Nazareth with them and the scriptures say:

The faith of Mary was slowly growing to the knowledge of who her Son really was! Slowly, she was starting to get a revelation of the Heavenly side of her Boy! She pondered on them. She thought about them. She didn't forget them so much so that years after His death she was able to recall them to tell Luke. She may have given birth to Him, but Mary was starting to get a revelation that at that time nobody else had, that Jesus was God in Flesh!

And finally, one day it hit her and all came together. Jesus was thirty years old now. They are at a wedding feast in Cana and embarrassingly, the hosts run out of wine. Mary anxiously goes up to Jesus and says "they have no wine." I want you to understand that she was not going up to Him just to report a situation in idle conversation. She is not just mentioning this in casual talk about the events of the wedding supper. Mary is wanting to help a friend and she recognized that there is a need and suddenly in a flash, everything that she's been learning and pondering comes together and in her mind she thinks "Jesus can fix this." "We need a miracle and Jesus can do something about this." Keep in mind that she is not basing her logic off of what she has seen Him do, because Jesus has never done a miracle before. She is not basing her faith on a direct promise of God from an angle or the written Word because she has not been told that God can turn water into wine. Her query is based upon the fact that she has a need and a revelation! A need in her life and a revelation of who He is! And in a flash of hope, she flung the two together!

Many people have misunderstood the response of Jesus to His mother because it almost sounds disrespectful. It's found in John chapter 2. She says to Him "Jesus, they've run out of wine" and Jesus immediately responds with "woman, what have I to do with thee, mine hour is not yet come." "What have I to do with thee?" In other words, Jesus is saying "what relationship do I have with you?" Jesus is not being rude, rather He's just checking from which point of view that she is approaching Him. If she had responded "what are you talking about? I'm your mother and you need to help me" then He would have known that she was just a mother appealing for the help of her oldest son. But she didn't respond that way. The Bible says that Mary ignored the comment and turned to the servants of the feast:

"Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it!" Mary was saying "I have complete and total faith in His Word, because if you'll believe it, there will be a performance of what has been spoken!" It was as if Mary was saying "Jesus, I'm not coming to you as a mother to a son, I'm approaching you as a child of God who has a revelation of who you really are!" This has nothing to do with my relationship status to you, but everything with my faith in the revelation that I have received! And you know the rest of the story: Jesus told the servants to put water in the pots and when they did the water turned to wine and that became the first miracle of His powerful ministry! But who had faith for the miracle? Mary did! Jesus was not responding to her matronly status, but rather to her revelation and resulting faith.

Please catch the principle from God's Word. We must have faith like Mary. And the Faith of Mary steps out on the specific promises of God's Word and acts upon them receives them. But it does not stay at that level. To have faith like Mary, we must get a revelation of who Jesus Christ really is. It may take time. It may take this and this and this that all suddenly adds up to this revelation that He is more than just a good prophet, but is God Almighty in a fleshly body! But when you get that revelation like Mary did -- and she got it long before old Peter received His divine revelation. You can't help but be blessed because you move into another dimension of faith. You no longer just have faith for the things specifically identified in the Word of God but when you have a need, then your revelation of who He is causes you to understand that "I've never read of anybody needing this problem solved in the Bible, but if He's the Almighty, then He can solve it!" Noboby'd ever turned water into wine, but when you get the revelation of who Jesus Christ really is, then comes the realization that there is no problem to hard that He can't solve and no valley too wide that He can't cross! You may have never heard of God doing for you what you need Him to do, but that doesn't deter the faith of someone with the revelation of Mary: just present your problem to Him! Let personal need and the revelation of who He is come together in your life, and then do whatever He tells you to do! That's the faith of Mary! And with that kind of faith you can help but be blessed!!!

And never forget that it's faith that moves God like nothing else. If Mary had depended upon her family relationship with Jesus to try to coerce Him into doing the work, she would not have gotten her miracle. He responded to her faith not the fact that she was His mother. Mary was blessed not because she was the Mother of our Lord, but because she had great faith in His Word!

There are people all over the world who are sons and daughters of God, but they don't really have a revelation of who He really is! They come to God expecting the supernatural "just because I'm His child and I deserve it." You can be the child of God, but if you do not have the faith like Mary that puts total trust in His Word, then your status in the family of God will do you no good! Go back and read the story of the Gentile woman coming to Jesus with a possessed daughter. Jesus will respond to faith even if their is no family ties in any way. If you've been born again, thank God for it, but don't forget to unlock the power of God in your life, it still takes faith! You're not going to experience the supernatural just because of who you are, but it comes through the combination of great faith in His Word and a revelation of who He is!

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And so I close with this:

Don't pray to Mary, because she can't give you that kind of faith. She can't get you the personal revelation of who He is, either. But she can serve as a role model of how to be blessed! Don't put your faith in Mary, put it in Jesus Christ, but do so as Mary did! If so, you can't help but see the miraculous even in a way that nobody has ever seen before! Jesus can't help but respond to faith to meet a need that comes from the revelation that He is the Almighty! And when you get the sort of faith that Mary had, then you'll end up like Mary did. When all the disciples fled from Jesus, we find Mary didn't go anywhere. Go to the cross and Joseph's nowhere around and only one disciple, John, is there but Jesus has to tell Mary to go home because she's there till the end. Why was Mary there? Partly because of a mother's agony at seeing her eldest boy die. But the other side of it was that Mary had a revelation of who He truly was and she knew that no matter how dark it looked, something great was bound to happen! And so that's why that at Jesus' ascension, after His resurrection, we find Mary with the disciples gathered together to watch Him go back into heaven. That's why seven days later in Acts 2, Mary was among the first 120 that got the Holy Ghost! That's why Mary died with the hope that not only was she there firsthand at Jesus' first coming as a baby, but she's going to be there firsthand at His second coming as a King! Her faith left her prepared to meet Jesus and live forever with Him no matter what storms of life came her way!

So please understand, DON'T put your faith IN Mary. But please copy the way that she lived for Jesus. Get the Faith OF Mary and when you do, there will be a "performance of those things which were spoken unto you!"