Mary's Gift

Luke 1:39-55) Last week we talked about Johns gift now let talk about Mary’s gift

1. Mary’s Gift is The discovery of what God is doing

• Mary’s adventure begins when she leaves Nazareth in Galilee and goes with haste to a Judean town in the hill country.

• She has just received a message from a mysterious visitor — the angel Gabriel. “The Holy Spirit will come upon you,” said Gabriel, “and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be holy; he will be called Son of God” (Luke 1:35).

• Gabriel tells Mary that her relative Elizabeth has conceived a son, even though she was thought to be too old to have children. So,

• Mary travels from Galilee to Judea and enters the house of Zechariah and Elizabeth. When Elizabeth hears Mary’s greeting, her child leaps in her womb, and Elizabeth cries out, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb” (v. 42).

• God is working in some surprising and powerful ways. Both women discover the truth of what God is doing in their lives.

2. Mary’s gift is Gods Favor

• God was saying to Elizabeth and Mary: “I am doing amazing things through you.”

• Then Mary offers a song of praise: “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant” (vv. 46-48).

• God has looked on her with favor, allowing her to be the mother of God’s Son. Theodokous

• God looked with favor on Mary, and God looks with favor on us. The surprising truth of our faith is that God favors us, even though we have done nothing to deserve this approval and support.

• God has been he has been mindful of the humble state of his servant. From now on all generations will call me blessed,

3. God gives us the Gift of the Incarnation

• “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God,” said John. “And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth” (John 1:1, 14).

• As Christians, we call this “the Incarnation” — God coming to us in human flesh.

• Presbyterian minister Frederick Buechner says, that “incarnation means that all ground is holy ground because God not only made it but walked on it, ate and slept and worked and died on it.”

• Mary knows God is with Us God looks with favor on us, lifts up the lowly, and brings down the powerful. Mary goes on to say that God “has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty.

4. Finally Mary gives the gift discovery grasping what God is doing in us, She gives the gift of favor we are favored, God gives us the incarnation God with us, and god gives us the gift of Unmerited Favor

• God’s love shown to the unlovely, peace given to the restless, We don’t earn it or deserve it. All we can do is accept it, and freely offers us forgiveness, love and peace.