Luke 1:46-49
Reading:
46 And Mary said, My soul doth magnify the Lord,
47 And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour.
48 For he hath regarded the low estate of his handmaiden: for, behold, from henceforth
all generations shall call me blessed.
49 For he that is mighty hath done to me great things; and holy is his name
INTRODUCTION
Today, I want to show us some areas in Mary’s life that God did to her that made her
Magnify the Lord. If we can also look back into our lives, we will have all the reasons
to magnify the Lord.
(1) Mary knows how to appreciate God for whom He is
Look with me in verses 48 & 49 (Luke 1), “48 For he hath regarded the low estate of
his handmaiden: for, behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed. 49
For he that is mighty hath done to me great things; and holy is his name.”
We also need to appreciate God for what He has done for us. He saved us from the
hands of enemies, from Satan, and that life in abundance, He has given. John. 10:10
“The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they
might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.”
Even this year alone from January till this moment He is still watching over us, we
need to appreciate Him. What about His protection, provision of food, clothing, and
shelter? His banner over us is LOVE. We need to appreciate our God who is our
Shepherd, we never lack anything good. We are his sheep, thank Him for that, one of
the Bible characters who really knows how to appreciate God is King David, in Psalm
27:1-2,
“1 The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? the LORD is the strength
of my life; of whom shall I be afraid? 2 When the wicked, even mine enemies and my
foes, came upon me to eat up my flesh, they stumbled and fell.”
David always boasts in the Lord, he has confidence in his God. We can do the same,
not until we look back into our lives and realize that God has been good to us.
Mary said my soul doth magnify the Lord, for God hath remembered her and has had
mercy on her, in Luke 1:49. Let us have the spirit of how to appreciate GOD.
(2) Abstain herself
Mary knows how to appreciate God for what He has done for her.
Not only that, Mary knows that as a young lady, she should keep herself clean, that
God’s call to sexual purity, in 1 Thessalonians 4:3-7,
“3 For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from
fornication: 4 That every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in
sanctification and honour; 5 Not in the lust of concupiscence, even as the Gentiles
which know not God: 6 That no man go beyond and defraud his brother in any matter:
because that the Lord is the avenger of all such, as we also have forewarned you and
testified. 7 For God hath not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness.”
This is very important to God. Looking at our society today, young men and ladies do
not care about sexual purity. I hear people saying, “What do I want to do with the
purity?” Some couple-to-be will say, let’s see if you can give birth. I know of a man and
a woman who has agreed to get pregnant before officially marrying, it is an abomination in the eyes of God. After expecting a baby, they officially married and had
the baby, but the child died. I believe God took the child home because the parents
thought they were smart, but never got any child again until 10 years after the first
child, when they now revere and know that God is in control of everything.
1 Peter 1:14-16, “14 As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the
former lusts in your ignorance:15 But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy
in all manner of conversation; 16 Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy.”
This shows us that God commands purity. God has given us a clear command. Don’t
live your life according to sinful desires as you did in the past. God is saying BE HOLY!
BE CLEAN! BE SET APART UNTO ME!!
1 Timothy 4:12 “Let no man despise thy youth; but be thou an example of the believers,
in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity.” God expects young
people to be pure. Not only want them to be pure but to also be an example in purity.
Are you an example to other believers in the area of sexual purity?
(3) Mary had a right attitude towards the word of God.
Attitude is defined as a way of thinking or feeling, the position of the body (body
reaction, or we say body language). In Genesis 17:17, “Then Abraham fell upon his
face, and laughed, and said in his heart, Shall a child be born unto him that is an
hundred years old? and shall Sarah, that is ninety years old, bear?”
In Genesis 18:12, Sarah also laughed, “Therefore Sarah laughed within herself,
saying, After I am waxed old shall I have pleasure, my lord being old also?” In Luke 1:
18, the word of God says, “And Zacharias said unto the angel, Whereby shall I know
this? for I am an old man, and my wife well stricken in years.”
From all these passages that we read, one thing common to those Bible Characters
that are mentioned was their action and attitudes towards the word of God, they did
not believe, or they were doubting the word of God. We have a word of assurance
from God in Luke 18:27 “And he said, The things which are impossible with men are
possible with God.” and Matthew 19:26 “But Jesus beheld them, and said unto them,
With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible.” God can do the
impossible in our lives. All we need to do is to believe Him by His word.
One of our Baptist hymns says,
‘Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus
Just to take Him at His Word
Just to rest upon His promise
Just to know, “Thus saith the Lord”
The strongest device the devil uses on us is doubt. The moment he gets us to doubt
the word of God, he knows that our faith in God is gone. The Bible says that without
faith, we can not please God (Hebrews 11:6). Thank God for Mary, the mother of our
Lord Jesus Christ, for her belief and her faith in the word of God. Look with me again
in verse 45 of Luke chapter 1, “And blessed is she that believed: for there shall be a
performance of those things which were told her from the Lord.” Let us pray for a good
attitude towards God’s word this coming year so we can be the kind of Christian that
God wants us to be.
The object of the praise and center of our joy.
▪ Who is the center of your peace and joy?
▪ Is it money or material things of this wicked world, that will perish one day?
▪ Mary knows how to appreciate God, do you know how to appreciate Him?
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▪ If you do, you will not complain. As young men and women, are you abstaining
from all forms of Fornication?
CONCLUSION:
How is your attitude towards the word of God? When the word of God talks to you
are you a hearer or the doer of the word?
I pray that God will help us to do that which He wants us to do and be the kind of
person He wants us to be.
Amen!!