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	<title>Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) in Novato, Marin County &#187; Topic</title>
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	<description>Serving Novato, Marin County, California and the World Wide Web.  This site provides information about the Christian ministry of Trinity Presbyterian Church, OPC.  This site also broadcasts the latest sermons and Sunday schools from Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) in Novato, CA.  Our sermons seek to exposit Scripture, preaching Christ and the cross, and understanding the impact and demand of the Word on our lives.</description>
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	<copyright>Copyright &#38;copy; by W. Reid Hankins and Trinity Presbyterian Church, 2011 </copyright>
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		<title>Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) in Novato, Marin County</title>
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	<itunes:subtitle>Sermons and Sunday Schools</itunes:subtitle>
	<itunes:summary>Serving Novato, Marin County, California and the World Wide Web.  This feed broadcasts the latest sermons and Sunday schools from Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) in Novato, CA.  Our sermons seek to exposit Scripture, preaching Christ and the cross, and understanding the impact and demand of the Word on our lives.</itunes:summary>
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	<itunes:category text="Religion &#38; Spirituality" />
	<itunes:author>Rev. W. Reid Hankins</itunes:author>
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		<itunes:name>Rev. W. Reid Hankins</itunes:name>
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		<item>
		<title>Do Not Be Unbelieving, But Believing</title>
		<link>http://www.trinityopcnovato.org/2011/04/24/unbelieving-believing/</link>
		<comments>http://www.trinityopcnovato.org/2011/04/24/unbelieving-believing/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 25 Apr 2011 01:56:56 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Pastor Reid Hankins</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Easter]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[John]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[doubt]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[resurrection]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Thomas]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.trinityopcnovato.org/?p=1324</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Sermon preached on John 20:24-31 by Rev. W. Reid Hankins during the Morning Service at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 4/24/2011 in Novato, CA. Rev. W. Reid Hankins, M.Div. John 20:24-31 04/24/10 &#8220;Do Not Be Unbelieving, But Believing&#8221; Jesus Christ is risen! This is what the Christians church affirms on Easter. It is what we [...]]]></description>
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		<itunes:duration>0:37:13</itunes:duration>
		<itunes:subtitle>Sermon preached on John 20:24-31 by Rev. W. Reid Hankins during the Morning Service at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 4/24/2011 in Novato, CA.

Rev. W. Reid Hankins, M.Div.
John 20:24-31
04/24/10
&#8220;Do Not Be Unbelieving, But Believing[...]</itunes:subtitle>
		<itunes:summary>Sermon preached on John 20:24-31 by Rev. W. Reid Hankins during the Morning Service at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 4/24/2011 in Novato, CA.

Rev. W. Reid Hankins, M.Div.
John 20:24-31
04/24/10
&#8220;Do Not Be Unbelieving, But Believing&#8221;
Jesus Christ is risen!  This is what the Christians church affirms on Easter.  It is what we affirm all year round.  And let me make this clear.  The church affirms that this was a historical event.  The resurrection really did happen in history.  And the church affirms this was a physical, bodily, event.  We affirm that Jesus really did die on the cross.  We affirm that he physically was raised from the dead on the third day.  That on that first Easter morning, Jesus went from being dead, to being alive!
In other words, Easter is not just a nice story with a moral message at the end.  Easter is not just about some spiritual feel-good message or concept, without a historical basis in reality.  It actually happened.  Easter was a historical event that was verified by a number of eye-witness accounts.  The Christian faith is especially about faith in this event.  Faith in the resurrection.  If you don&#8217;t have a real resurrection, then you don&#8217;t have a biblical faith.  The faith we have is in a savior who died for our sins and overcame death in the resurrection.  This gives us the hope that we who are sinners can be forgiven of our sins because of the cross.  Because Christ paid the price in our place.  And we can have then the hope of resurrection because Christ himself rose from the dead.  This is our hope; that this world is not the end.  That even though we die, we know we will rise again to eternal life.  The historical fact of Easter is where we find our trust that we will actually rise again one day ourselves.
Every year at Easter I think about how so many people today don&#8217;t want to believe in this.  They think it sounds foolishness to think of someone rising from the dead.  Liberal Christianity has indeed spiritualized Easter.  Even worse, the unbelieving world, doesn&#8217;t believe it at all.  They come up with all sorts of theories to try to explain Easter away.  But we still affirm it.  
And yet in our passage for today, we are confronted with something very personal.  This passage acknowledges a real subject in our lives as Christians.  Doubt.  This morning we&#8217;ll spend our time reflecting on doubting Thomas, and verses 24-31.  Thomas at first doubted the resurrection.  This unbelief wasn&#8217;t coming from the outside.  This was Thomas, one of the twelve.  This doubt wasn&#8217;t coming from a liberal wing of the church.  No, it was Jesus&#8217; inner circle; those who knew his teachings intimately.  Thomas doubted.  At first he couldn&#8217;t believe that Jesus actually rose from the dead.  This is a real subject for us today.  Many Christians experience doubt in their faith from time to time.  Surely, Thomas had believed in Jesus.  He had vowed to follow him to the death.  He had confessed him as the Christ.  But now his faith was faltering.  He doubted the resurrection.  Christians can experience doubt in their faith from time to time.  Of course Thomas is real about it.  He boldly admits it.  He doesn&#8217;t pretend he doesn&#8217;t have any doubts.  Most Christians today probably wouldn&#8217;t admit their doubt, even if they have it.  But God gave us this passage for a reason.  It addresses the issue of doubt head on.  It&#8217;s my prayer that it can encourage you whenever you are finding doubts in your own hearts.  And what a wonderful thing to consider in Easter, about growing our faith in the certainty of the resurrection.
So let&#8217;s think about Doubting Thomas.  Let me set the context.  On the first Easter, in the evening, the risen Jesus appeared to the twelve disciples.  That was verses 19-23.  Well, we pick up the action in verse 24.  There we find that one of the twelve wasn&#8217;t present for this encounter with Jesus.[...]</itunes:summary>
		<itunes:keywords>Easter, John</itunes:keywords>
		<itunes:author>Rev. W. Reid Hankins</itunes:author>
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		<title>It Is Finished</title>
		<link>http://www.trinityopcnovato.org/2011/04/22/finished/</link>
		<comments>http://www.trinityopcnovato.org/2011/04/22/finished/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 23 Apr 2011 05:37:08 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Pastor Reid Hankins</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Good Friday]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[cross]]></category>

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		<description><![CDATA[Sermon preached on John 19:17-30 by Rev. W. Reid Hankins during the Good Friday Service at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 4/22/2011 in Novato, CA. Rev. W. Reid Hankins, M.Div. John 19:17-30 04/22/10 &#8220;It is Finished&#8221; It is finished. Three little words in the English. Actually, only word even in the Greek. A single word [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
			<enclosure url="http://www.trinityopcnovato.org/wp-content/uploads/podcast/20110422-Evening.mp3" length="11313971" type="audio/mpeg" />
		<itunes:duration>0:00:01</itunes:duration>
		<itunes:subtitle>Sermon preached on John 19:17-30 by Rev. W. Reid Hankins during the Good Friday Service at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 4/22/2011 in Novato, CA.

Rev. W. Reid Hankins, M.Div.
John 19:17-30
04/22/10
&#8220;It is Finished&#8221;
It is finished[...]</itunes:subtitle>
		<itunes:summary>Sermon preached on John 19:17-30 by Rev. W. Reid Hankins during the Good Friday Service at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 4/22/2011 in Novato, CA.

Rev. W. Reid Hankins, M.Div.
John 19:17-30
04/22/10
&#8220;It is Finished&#8221;
It is finished.  Three little words in the English.  Actually, only word even in the Greek.  A single word of Jesus from the cross.  And yet what significance it contains.  This is a rich word in the original.  It has the idea of accomplishment.  It&#8217;s bringing an end to something; completing something.  So many of Jesus&#8217; words on the cross spoke of his sufferings.  This one spoke of his accomplishment.  This one spoke of how he had finished the work his Father had given him to do.  Finally, it was complete.  The suffering was at an end.  The cross was finally at its end.
And yet as we&#8217;ll see, this is not really a word of exhaustion.  At the end of some long exhausting task, you might say something like this.  I&#8217;m done.  It might just mean you made it through.  Certainly that&#8217;s part of what Jesus is saying.  And yet surely this was not just a marker of completion for Jesus, but also for victory.  Even one of a measure of peace.  He had entrusted himself to his Father&#8217;s plan, and the plan had been accomplished.
That&#8217;s a striking perspective then.  The world at that time might have looked at this moment as the height of Jesus&#8217; failure.  There are unbelieving scholars today who have suggested that.  That the cross represented the crowning failure of Jesus&#8217; ministry.  But that&#8217;s not how Jesus saw it.  When he said it is finished, he was saying, &#8220;Mission Accomplished!&#8221;  Well, how?  If the cross looks like defeat, how is this mission accomplished?  How is this victory?  How can he peacefully give up his spirit here?  That&#8217;s what we&#8217;ll consider today.  We&#8217;ll consider first what was finished here.  We&#8217;ll consider six things that have found their finish here at the cross.  We&#8217;ll walk briefly through six things that have been accomplished and put to an end by what Jesus did here on Good Friday.  These things are interrelated, but they are different nuances brought out by Scripture about what happened on Golgotha.  After that, we&#8217;ll spend a few moments assessing all this and applying it to our lives today.
So, let&#8217;s dig in.  Jesus said, &#8220;It is finished.&#8221;  What was finished?  What was accomplished?  Well, first let&#8217;s see that in light of prophecy.  The prophecy was accomplished.  The prophecy that spoke about Jesus&#8217; suffering had come to its end; its conclusion; its fulfillment.  Now, in general, we can say this of all the prophecies in the Scriptures about his sufferings.  All his predicted sufferings had either come to pass or have been put into motion.  Though, to be fair, there certainly are some remaining prophecies about his sufferings that had not yet come to pass.  I&#8217;m thinking of prophecies about his actual death and burial.  Those are to be imminently fulfilled.  Certainly, in anticipation of those, Jesus statement of being finished would still apply.  So, in a broad sense, we can see the accomplishment of prophecy with his word here.  Even in the preceding verse, in  verse 28, it says that Jesus knew all things were accomplished &#8211; that&#8217;s the same word as when he says it is finished.  But then after it says in verse 28 that all things were accomplished, he proceeds with seeing that yet another scripture was fulfilled &#8211; his being given sour wine to drink.  So, in other words, the fact that all things have been accomplished, doesn&#8217;t preclude a few final prophecies being fulfilled, like the sour wine, and his death, and his burial.  I think the point is that all those prophecies about his suffering find their climax in the cross.  They were about him coming to the cross and suffering in our place; for our salvation.  Those had all c[...]</itunes:summary>
		<itunes:author>Rev. W. Reid Hankins</itunes:author>
		<itunes:explicit>no</itunes:explicit>
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	</item>
		<item>
		<title>Delight of God in Worship</title>
		<link>http://www.trinityopcnovato.org/2011/01/16/delight-god-worship/</link>
		<comments>http://www.trinityopcnovato.org/2011/01/16/delight-god-worship/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 17 Jan 2011 01:47:36 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Pastor Reid Hankins</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Psalms]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Worship]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[delight]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[passion]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Psalm 84]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[tabernacle]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[temple]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[worship]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.trinityopcnovato.org/?p=1167</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Sermon preached on Psalm 84 by Rev. W. Reid Hankins during the Morning Service at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 1/16/2011 in Novato, CA. Rev. W. Reid Hankins, M.Div. Novato, Marin County, CA Psalm 84 01/16/11 The Delight of God in Worship When you are hungry, it&#8217;s hard to ignore your body&#8217;s desire for food. [...]]]></description>
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			<enclosure url="http://www.trinityopcnovato.org/wp-content/uploads/podcast/20110116-Morning.mp3" length="14285803" type="audio/mpeg" />
		<itunes:duration>0:40:34</itunes:duration>
		<itunes:subtitle>Sermon preached on Psalm 84 by Rev. W. Reid Hankins during the Morning Service at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 1/16/2011 in Novato, CA.

Rev. W. Reid Hankins, M.Div.
Novato, Marin County, CA
Psalm 84
01/16/11
The Delight of God in Worship
Wh[...]</itunes:subtitle>
		<itunes:summary>Sermon preached on Psalm 84 by Rev. W. Reid Hankins during the Morning Service at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 1/16/2011 in Novato, CA.

Rev. W. Reid Hankins, M.Div.
Novato, Marin County, CA
Psalm 84
01/16/11
The Delight of God in Worship
When you are hungry, it&#8217;s hard to ignore your body&#8217;s desire for food.  When you are thirsty, it&#8217;s hard to ignore that craving as well.  Hunger and thirst are both mental and physical cravings for something we truly need.  The sensations of hunger and thirst can be powerful.  They help us to survive, even.
Well, this psalm describes a craving and a desire.  It&#8217;s a craving and desire to be in the House of God.  It&#8217;s a passion to be with God and to worship God in his holy temple.  C.S. Lewis rightly referred to this as an &#8220;appetite for God.&#8221;  As the Bible tells us, man does not live by bread alone.  That physical hunger and thirst alone is not enough to meet our basic needs.  Man also has a need to be in communion with God.  This psalm expresses that fundamental need.
And so we&#8217;ll be studying this psalm today as the third and last sermon in our short miniseries on worship.  Two weeks ago we talked about the Glory of God in Worship.  Last week we talked about the Fear of God in Worship.  Today I had originally planned to talk about the Grace of God in Worship.  In fact, that&#8217;s still a large part of what we&#8217;ll be talking about today.  But I retitled the sermon after further meditation.  I changed it from the &#8220;Grace of God in Worship&#8221; to the &#8220;Delight of God in Worship.&#8221;  
The point I wanted to make with the original title is that we come to worship God in part because of the grace that God gives us as we worship him.  I wanted that to be another motivation for us to prioritize this time each week.  That&#8217;s certainly true.  And yet as I reflected on Scripture about that, I was reminded of one way in which Scripture expresses that.  It expresses that in passages like this, where the delight of being in worship and communion with God comes out.  This &#8220;appetite for God&#8221; is partly the result of the grace of God in worship.  The result of God&#8217;s grace coming to us in worship is this craving and desire to be in worship.  That&#8217;s what I always wanted to highlight today.  And so I changed our messages&#8217; title to help bring that out.  
I hope you see the contrast to this message, compared to our last two messages.  When we discussed the glory of God and the fear of God, we rightly said that we should prioritize worship because of who God is.  Who he is, his greatness, is the chief reason for our weekly worship of him.  Exalting God is the chief reason to be here.  And yet, as true as that is, there&#8217;s another real reason to be here too.  We come here too because it is so good for us to be here.  God blesses us so wonderfully as we worship him.  The result should be such delight from us to be here with him!  That&#8217;s the wonderful balance expressed in the first catechism question &#8211; what&#8217;s man&#8217;s chief end?  To glorify God and enjoy him forever.  Our first two sermons on worship focused on the glorifying God part of our worship.  Today&#8217;s message focuses on the enjoying God part of our worship.
Let&#8217;s dig into this passage and get a taste of this truth from this wonderful psalm.  Here in this psalm we see the psalmist expressing his strong desire to be in the house of God, that holy tabernacle in Jerusalem.  It&#8217;s a psalm of pilgrimage to worship God in the tabernacle.  Many think that this psalm may have originally been about King David, and possibly also written by King David.  You&#8217;ll note that in verse 9 it asks God to look upon his anointed one.  That&#8217;s certainly referring to the king of Israel.  As you read this psalm, then, what comes out is that the king of Israel is not currently in the tabernacle, but is longing to return [...]</itunes:summary>
		<itunes:keywords>Psalms, Worship</itunes:keywords>
		<itunes:author>Rev. W. Reid Hankins</itunes:author>
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		<title>Fear of God in Worship</title>
		<link>http://www.trinityopcnovato.org/2011/01/09/fear-god-worship/</link>
		<comments>http://www.trinityopcnovato.org/2011/01/09/fear-god-worship/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 10 Jan 2011 01:35:46 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Pastor Reid Hankins</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Psalms]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Worship]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[fear of God]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[worship]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.trinityopcnovato.org/?p=1163</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Sermon preached on Psalm 111 by Rev. W. Reid Hankins during the Morning Service at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 1/9/2011 in Novato, CA. Rev. W. Reid Hankins, M.Div. Psalm 111 01/09/11 The Fear of God in Worship: &#8220;Holy and Awesome is His Name&#8221; Today we continue a short three part miniseries on worship. Last [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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		<itunes:duration>0:35:42</itunes:duration>
		<itunes:subtitle>Sermon preached on Psalm 111 by Rev. W. Reid Hankins during the Morning Service at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 1/9/2011 in Novato, CA.

Rev. W. Reid Hankins, M.Div.
Psalm 111
01/09/11
The Fear of God in Worship: &#8220;Holy and Awesome is H[...]</itunes:subtitle>
		<itunes:summary>Sermon preached on Psalm 111 by Rev. W. Reid Hankins during the Morning Service at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 1/9/2011 in Novato, CA.

Rev. W. Reid Hankins, M.Div.
Psalm 111
01/09/11
The Fear of God in Worship: &#8220;Holy and Awesome is His Name&#8221;
Today we continue a short three part miniseries on worship.  Last weeks&#8217; message was on &#8220;The Glory of God in Worship.&#8221;  Next week we will consider &#8220;The Grace of God in Worship.&#8221;  Today, however, we&#8217;ll consider &#8220;The Fear of God in Worship.&#8221;
Now I recognize that in today&#8217;s age the concept of the &#8220;Fear of God&#8221; is not very popular among man.  People don&#8217;t want to fear God.  If they believe in God at all, then they usually want God to be their best friend, or maybe even their lover.  But not someone they should fear.  Now, I could have easily titled our message today the &#8220;Reverence of God in Worship,&#8221; and given essentially the same sermon.  The word &#8220;revere&#8221; and the word &#8220;fear&#8221; are actually close synonyms to each other.  And yet ty experience shows that for some reason, people today tend to have less of a problem with the idea of revering God, than with fearing God.  When I talk about fearing God, it often raises lots of questions from people.  When I talk about revering God, people usually have no problem with that.  Probably because people in their minds they might tend to lighten what &#8220;reverence&#8221; is all about.  It&#8217;s probably just a sort of holy respect in many people&#8217;s minds.  And so I intentionally named our sermon today about the &#8220;fear of God.&#8221;  Technically, &#8220;reverence of God&#8221; would have gotten at the same idea.  But I think we need to really recognize the importance of actually fearing God, in the biblical sense of such fear.
OPC minister and professor John Murray said, &#8220;The fear of God is the soul of godliness.&#8221;  If that&#8217;s true in general for godliness, how certainly it&#8217;s true when it comes to our worship of God.  We can&#8217;t properly worship God without a right sense of fear of God.  Now let me right away get an important clarification out of the way.  There&#8217;s one important sense in which Christians ought not to fear God.  We should not fear God in terms of judgment.  1 John 4:18 says that perfect love casts out fear.  You see, there are different senses to the word &#8220;fear.&#8221;  Christians don&#8217;t fear that God will judge us.  We know God loves us and has saved us.  Faith in that love casts out that kind of fear.  
And yet 1 Peter 2:17 still tells us to fear God.  There&#8217;s a fear of God that&#8217;s not about fearing judgment, but that appreciates all who God is.  We can fear God in a way that recognizes his awesome and even terrifying power.  The very fact that God could have brought judgment upon us, could certainly install this same kind of proper fear of God.  Christians should always have this right sort of fear of God.  Fear that recognizes that God is God, and we are not.  Fear that recognizes how everything is in his hands.  All is in his control.  He has the power to do whatever he wills.  This fear is a sort of holy respect, but it&#8217;s more than that.  Its constantly recognizing the almightiness of God in a way that stands in awe of him.  His greatness should grip you in a way that can be called &#8220;fear.&#8221;  I don&#8217;t want us to lose that word.  For Christians, this is not a negative fear.  It&#8217;s an amazing fear.  It&#8217;s even a good fear.  And it&#8217;s the one enduring fear we will always have in our life.  
This passage talks about the fear of God today.  And it relates that fear to our worship of God.  Three concepts are actually prevalent in this psalm.  The fear of God, the praise of God, and the works of God.  Those three ideas are connected in this psalm.  The psalm starts and ends with a general reference to praise[...]</itunes:summary>
		<itunes:keywords>Psalms, Worship</itunes:keywords>
		<itunes:author>Rev. W. Reid Hankins</itunes:author>
		<itunes:explicit>no</itunes:explicit>
		<itunes:block>no</itunes:block>
	</item>
		<item>
		<title>The Glory of God in Worship</title>
		<link>http://www.trinityopcnovato.org/2011/01/02/glory-god-worship/</link>
		<comments>http://www.trinityopcnovato.org/2011/01/02/glory-god-worship/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 03 Jan 2011 07:32:54 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Pastor Reid Hankins</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Psalms]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Worship]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[glorify God]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[glory]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[worship]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.trinityopcnovato.org/?p=1128</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Sermon preached on Psalm 29 by Rev. W. Reid Hankins during the Morning Service at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 1/2/2011 in Novato, CA. Rev. W. Reid Hankins, M.Div. Novato, Marin County, CA Psalm 29 01/02/11 The Glory of God in Worship Today we begin a short miniseries on worship. This series will be a [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
			<enclosure url="http://www.trinityopcnovato.org/wp-content/uploads/podcast/20110102-Morning.mp3" length="13050570" type="audio/mpeg" />
		<itunes:duration>0:37:06</itunes:duration>
		<itunes:subtitle>Sermon preached on Psalm 29 by Rev. W. Reid Hankins during the Morning Service at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 1/2/2011 in Novato, CA.

Rev. W. Reid Hankins, M.Div.
Novato, Marin County, CA
Psalm 29
01/02/11
The Glory of God in Worship
Today[...]</itunes:subtitle>
		<itunes:summary>Sermon preached on Psalm 29 by Rev. W. Reid Hankins during the Morning Service at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 1/2/2011 in Novato, CA.

Rev. W. Reid Hankins, M.Div.
Novato, Marin County, CA
Psalm 29
01/02/11
The Glory of God in Worship
Today we begin a short miniseries on worship.  This series will be a trilogy &#8211; a simple three part series.  Today&#8217;s message will be on &#8220;The Glory of God in Worship.&#8221;  Next week will be &#8220;The Fear of God in Worship.&#8221;  The last topic will be &#8220;The Grace of God in Worship.&#8221;
And so today we&#8217;ve just read a psalm about the glory of God.  It&#8217;s a psalm that calls for God to be glorified.  Before we dig into this psalm, I think it would be helpful actually define in broad terms what it means to glorify God.  Well, the word &#8220;glorify&#8221; comes from the word glory.  So to glorify something, is to give glory to something.  To give glory to something then is to attribute honor and praise to something.  It&#8217;s to exalt something.  It&#8217;s to draw attention to its beauty and majesty.  It&#8217;s to highlight its value.  You can glorify something in a false way.  Like false flattery.  False flattery is giving glory and honor to someone who is undeserving of it.  That&#8217;s glorifying someone, but the glory you are attributing to that person isn&#8217;t true glory.  The glory you&#8217;re attributing to them is a lie.  But not so with God.  When we talk about glorifying God, we&#8217;re talking about exalting him before all with the glory that is actually his.  We honor him, and praise him, for who he is.  For what he&#8217;s done.  For our special relationship with him.  Write those down.  When we think about what we are glorifying God in, think of those categories.  We can glorify God for who he is, for what he&#8217;s done, and for our special relationship with him.  Those three categories can give you an endless source of content for which to glorify God.
How you glorify God can be done in different ways.  You can glorify him in your efforts to live godly.  If that&#8217;s done in response to his majesty, it glorifies him.  You can glorify him through your evangelism, telling others of his glory and his plan of salvation.  Those are just two examples.  But probably the most natural way to glorify God is through our public worship.  It&#8217;s that aspect of glorifying God which we&#8217;ll be considering today.  As we look at this psalm, we realize that it is especially calling us to glorify God in public worship.  And so we&#8217;ll think about this psalm from that perspective.  As we look at this psalm, we&#8217;ll see that it talks about God&#8217;s glory poetically.  It gives a poetic picture of God&#8217;s glory through the context of a storm.  This psalm shows how God&#8217;s glory is seen in a powerful storm, full of thunder and lightning.  Evidently this has been a psalm typically read to children or even congregations during a big storm.  The storm points us back to the glory of God.  Let&#8217;s dig in and analyze this psalm, and think about how it calls us to glorify God in our worship.
The first section of the psalm is in verses 1-2.  This is a common thing we&#8217;ll read at the Call to Worship in our Sunday service.  Simply put, it&#8217;s a call to glorify God.  It makes this call very poetically, using typical Hebrew repetition and parallelism.  Verse 1 repeats the call twice.  It uses the same command &#8220;give&#8221; twice here.  Some translations use the word &#8220;ascribe&#8221;.  I prefer that translation, but it&#8217;s the same idea.  Give, ascribe, unto the Lord glory and strength.  It&#8217;s a call to acknowledge and identify the glory of God to all.  It highlights his strength here too, which is yet another thing that brings glory to God.
Verse 1 had parallelism in it, repeating the call to give glory to God.  Verse 2 is now a parallel of verse 1, and it has parallelism within it as well.  V[...]</itunes:summary>
		<itunes:keywords>Psalms, Worship</itunes:keywords>
		<itunes:author>Rev. W. Reid Hankins</itunes:author>
		<itunes:explicit>no</itunes:explicit>
		<itunes:block>no</itunes:block>
	</item>
		<item>
		<title>Blessed is the Fruit of Your Womb</title>
		<link>http://www.trinityopcnovato.org/2010/12/19/blessed-is-the-fruit-of-your-womb/</link>
		<comments>http://www.trinityopcnovato.org/2010/12/19/blessed-is-the-fruit-of-your-womb/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 20 Dec 2010 04:38:23 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Pastor Reid Hankins</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Christmas]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Deuteronomy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[John the Baptist]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[joy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Mary]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[virgin birth]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.novatoopcsermons.org/?p=991</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Sermon preached on Luke 1:26-45 by Rev. W. Reid Hankins during the Morning Service at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 12/19/2010 in Novato, CA. Rev. W. Reid Hankins, M.Div. Luke 1:26-45 03/14/10 Blessed is the Fruit of Your Womb It&#8217;s that time of the year again. This week we celebrate Christmas and especially remember the [...]]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://www.trinityopcnovato.org/2010/12/19/blessed-is-the-fruit-of-your-womb/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
			<enclosure url="http://www.trinityopcnovato.org/wp-content/uploads/podcast/20101219-Morning.mp3" length="11629008" type="audio/mpeg" />
		<itunes:duration>0:33:10</itunes:duration>
		<itunes:subtitle>Sermon preached on Luke 1:26-45 by Rev. W. Reid Hankins during the Morning Service at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 12/19/2010 in Novato, CA.

Rev. W. Reid Hankins, M.Div.
Luke 1:26-45
03/14/10
Blessed is the Fruit of Your Womb
It&#8217;s tha[...]</itunes:subtitle>
		<itunes:summary>Sermon preached on Luke 1:26-45 by Rev. W. Reid Hankins during the Morning Service at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 12/19/2010 in Novato, CA.

Rev. W. Reid Hankins, M.Div.
Luke 1:26-45
03/14/10
Blessed is the Fruit of Your Womb
It&#8217;s that time of the year again.  This week we celebrate Christmas and especially remember the birth of Jesus.  It&#8217;s typical at this time to remember all the praise and worship of Jesus at his birth.  We probably think first of the angels who sang, &#8220;Glory to God in the highest,&#8221; and the shepherds who quickly spread the word.  We also are probably quick to think of the wise men who came and worshipped Jesus and presented him with presents.  And yet even before all of that, and even before he was born, people were praising and acknowledging the life of Jesus.  
We see that here today.  Here in this passage you have praise abounding for Jesus while his human body was just beginning to be knit in his mother&#8217;s womb.  In this passage you see John the Baptist, himself in the womb, leaping in praise for the unborn Jesus.  You have Elizabeth, John&#8217;s mother, confessing and proclaiming this unborn child as her Lord.  The angel Gabriel here comes down before any of later angels who meet the shepherds in the field, and here he heralds the coming of Christ.  He heralds the virgin birth, the incarnation, and the glory of the messianic ministry of Jesus.  Mary, takes this all in, responding in faith submitting herself to obedience.  Months before the larger world would celebrate the birth of Jesus, here we get a snapshot of four people already celebrating, John, Elizabeth, Gabriel, and Mary.
Let&#8217;s spend a few moments thinking about the roles of various people we see here in this passage.  Let&#8217;s think first about the role of John the Baptist and Elizabeth here in this passage.  What role do they serve in this passage?  Their role is a confirming role.  A confirming role.  Mary is essentially sent to go visit them, with the purpose that what the angel said would be confirmed to her.  We too have this record to find confirmation about Jesus.
Look at verse 39.  After Mary met with the angel Gabriel, she pays a visit to her relative Elizabeth.  This is the mother of John the Baptist, who is also on the way, though about 6 months farther along in her pregnancy than Mary.  Verse 41 tells us what happened when Mary arrived.  Mary shows up and the fetus who is John the Baptist leaps inside Elizabeth&#8217;s womb!  Now, it&#8217;s quite normal for babies at that point to move around inside the mother&#8217;s womb.  It&#8217;s quite normal for the mother&#8217;s to feel them.  And yet this is more than just a big kick.  The text tells us otherwise.  Twice we&#8217;re told the reason here.  First the narrator tells us the fact.  Verse 41.  As soon as Mary greeted Elizabeth, the baby John the Baptist leaped inside her.  After that Elizabeth gives us her inspired interpretation of this leaping.  Read verse 44.  She tells Mary, &#8220;As soon as the voice of your greeting sounded in my ears, the babe leaped in my womb for joy.&#8221;  I mention that this is an inspired interpretation by Elizabeth because verse 41 tells us that Holy Spirit entered Elizabeth upon Mary&#8217;s arrival.
And what you have going on here with Elizabeth and John the Baptist is that they are essentially confirming the identity of Jesus.  They are identifying the baby within the womb of Mary, as the Lord.  That&#8217;s actually Elizabeth&#8217;s words in verse 43.  She&#8217;s calls Mary the mother of her Lord.  That means that she&#8217;s saying that that little unborn baby inside Mary is Elizabeth&#8217;s Lord.  Baby Jesus was probably just a small little bundle at the time&#8230; maybe not even big enough to see, if you could peer insider her womb.  Mary might not even have been showing at that time.  And yet Elizabeth, inspired by the Holy Spirit, gives her confession of faith.  She confesses and[...]</itunes:summary>
		<itunes:keywords>Christmas, Deuteronomy</itunes:keywords>
		<itunes:author>Rev. W. Reid Hankins</itunes:author>
		<itunes:explicit>no</itunes:explicit>
		<itunes:block>no</itunes:block>
	</item>
		<item>
		<title>Analyzing Luther&#8217;s 95 Theses</title>
		<link>http://www.trinityopcnovato.org/2010/10/31/analyzing-luthers-95-theses/</link>
		<comments>http://www.trinityopcnovato.org/2010/10/31/analyzing-luthers-95-theses/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 31 Oct 2010 20:45:20 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Pastor Reid Hankins</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Reformation Sunday]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[95 Theses]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[indulgences]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Martin Luther]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[purgatory]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[reformation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Roman Catholicism]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.novatoopcsermons.org/?p=933</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Adult Sunday School class led by Rev. W. Reid Hankins at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 10/31/2010 in Novato, CA. This week, in honor of Reformation Day, we analyzed Martin Luther&#8217;s 95 Theses and discussed their historical impact on the Protestant Reformation.]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
			<enclosure url="http://www.trinityopcnovato.org/wp-content/uploads/podcast/20101031-SundaySchool.mp3" length="13788788" type="audio/mpeg" />
		<itunes:duration>0:39:22</itunes:duration>
		<itunes:subtitle>Adult Sunday School class led by Rev. W. Reid Hankins at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 10/31/2010 in Novato, CA. This week, in honor of Reformation Day, we analyzed Martin Luther&#8217;s 95 Theses and discussed their historical impact on the [...]</itunes:subtitle>
		<itunes:summary>Adult Sunday School class led by Rev. W. Reid Hankins at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 10/31/2010 in Novato, CA. This week, in honor of Reformation Day, we analyzed Martin Luther&#8217;s 95 Theses and discussed their historical impact on the Protestant Reformation.

</itunes:summary>
		<itunes:author>Rev. W. Reid Hankins</itunes:author>
		<itunes:explicit>no</itunes:explicit>
		<itunes:block>no</itunes:block>
	</item>
		<item>
		<title>I Have Power to Take it Again</title>
		<link>http://www.trinityopcnovato.org/2010/04/04/i-have-power-to-take-it-again/</link>
		<comments>http://www.trinityopcnovato.org/2010/04/04/i-have-power-to-take-it-again/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 04 Apr 2010 23:18:01 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Pastor Reid Hankins</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Easter]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[John]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[election]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[limited atonement]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[shepherd]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.novatoopcsermons.org/?p=686</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Sermon preached on John 10:11-21 by Rev. W. Reid Hankins during the Morning Service at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 04/04/2010 in Novato, CA. Manuscript: I Have Power to Take it Again]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://www.trinityopcnovato.org/2010/04/04/i-have-power-to-take-it-again/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
			<enclosure url="http://www.trinityopcnovato.org/wp-content/uploads/podcast/20100404-Morning.mp3" length="11999587" type="audio/mpeg" />
		<itunes:duration>0:33:35</itunes:duration>
		<itunes:subtitle>Sermon preached on John 10:11-21 by Rev. W. Reid Hankins during the Morning Service at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 04/04/2010 in Novato, CA.
Manuscript: I Have Power to Take it Again

</itunes:subtitle>
		<itunes:summary>Sermon preached on John 10:11-21 by Rev. W. Reid Hankins during the Morning Service at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 04/04/2010 in Novato, CA.
Manuscript: I Have Power to Take it Again

</itunes:summary>
		<itunes:keywords>Easter, John</itunes:keywords>
		<itunes:author>Rev. W. Reid Hankins</itunes:author>
		<itunes:explicit>no</itunes:explicit>
		<itunes:block>no</itunes:block>
	</item>
		<item>
		<title>I Thirst</title>
		<link>http://www.trinityopcnovato.org/2010/04/02/i-thirst/</link>
		<comments>http://www.trinityopcnovato.org/2010/04/02/i-thirst/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 03 Apr 2010 04:07:14 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Pastor Reid Hankins</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Good Friday]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[John]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[suffering]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[thirst]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.novatoopcsermons.org/?p=679</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Sermon preached on John 19:17-20 by Rev. W. Reid Hankins during the Good Friday Service at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 04/02/2010 in Novato, CA. Manuscript: I Thirst Audio recording not available.]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://www.trinityopcnovato.org/2010/04/02/i-thirst/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>The Stones Would Cry Out</title>
		<link>http://www.trinityopcnovato.org/2010/03/28/the-stones-would-cry-out/</link>
		<comments>http://www.trinityopcnovato.org/2010/03/28/the-stones-would-cry-out/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 29 Mar 2010 00:00:04 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Pastor Reid Hankins</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Palm Sunday]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[zeal]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.novatoopcsermons.org/?p=672</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Sermon preached on Luke 19:28-44 by Rev. W. Reid Hankins during the Morning Service at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 03/28/2010 in Novato, CA. Manuscript: The Stones Would Cry Out]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://www.trinityopcnovato.org/2010/03/28/the-stones-would-cry-out/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
			<enclosure url="http://www.trinityopcnovato.org/wp-content/uploads/podcast/20100328-Morning.mp3" length="12585511" type="audio/mpeg" />
		<itunes:duration>0:34:55</itunes:duration>
		<itunes:subtitle>Sermon preached on Luke 19:28-44 by Rev. W. Reid Hankins during the Morning Service at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 03/28/2010 in Novato, CA.
Manuscript: The Stones Would Cry Out

</itunes:subtitle>
		<itunes:summary>Sermon preached on Luke 19:28-44 by Rev. W. Reid Hankins during the Morning Service at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 03/28/2010 in Novato, CA.
Manuscript: The Stones Would Cry Out

</itunes:summary>
		<itunes:author>Rev. W. Reid Hankins</itunes:author>
		<itunes:explicit>no</itunes:explicit>
		<itunes:block>no</itunes:block>
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