Review - Sunday Morning October 7th 2012

Review of Lord’s Day Morning: October 7th 2012

Pastor Shane Walker

Luke 1:46-80

My take on Sunday's Sermon and other thoughts

The sermon begins with an introduction to the theme of "Enemies" using the example of baseball fans who cheer for their home team and also whatever team is playing against the New York Yankees.  Perfect! I feel a sudden urge to yell, "Let's GO O's!" but refrain and quickly return my attention to our text.

This passage is a great example of the diversity of God's working in men and women. It is nowhere taught in scripture that women or men are more intelligent or more spiritual, and this text is a good example of the equality of both sexes in the sight of God and in the dispersion of spiritual understanding.

- trust Mary at her word
- know your enemies
- seek the knowledge of salvation

1) Mary had an enemy that God saved her from
   a. Her enemy was sin and she needs a savior
   b. She is the blessed mother of Jesus.  Although the Catholic church certainly teaches much that is false concerning Mary and uses such terminology as "mother of God" falsely, we can still comfortably call her the blessed mother of Jesus.  It need not be a formal title.  She simply is.  She is blessed and she is the mother of Jesus. Praise God that she is!  God used a humble sinner to be the means of introducing the Savior to the world.

2) The proud can be made humble through Jesus Christ. The proud and mighty are usually the enemies of God but they can be made friends of God through Jesus Christ. There are times when we are our own worst enemy. Zechariah also views the Romans as enemies of God inasmuch as they are enemies of His people and His laws.

3) We will be finally delivered from our enemies when we pass from this life to the next one. We can be comforted that the suffering we endure while waiting for the redemption of our bodies enables others to come to Christ!

Random Notes:
We were able to sing the well-known hymn "To God Be the Glory."  What a wonderful hymn.  We sang the re-mix version due to someones phone going off though they were too timid to admit it was them by hurrying to shut it off.  So we got a funky beat and high notes to accompany the wonderful piano. 

Verse 3:
Great things He has taught us, great things He has done,
And great our rejoicing through Jesus the Son;
But purer, and higher, and greater will be
Our wonder, our transport, when Jesus we see

We also sang "God Is the Treasure of My Soul" to the Wiltshire C.M. tune. This is a paraphrase of Habakkuk 3:17-18

Though the expressions of the poem are mostly agrarian, the last verse sums things up wonderfully.

Verse 5:
God is the treasure of my soul
the source of lasting joy
a joy which want shall not impair
nor death itself destroy