Singing in a Season of Crisis

Christmas is about the courage to sing in a season of crisis

Mary’s song:

Luke 1:46–55 NKJV

46 And Mary said: “My soul magnifies the Lord, 47 And my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior. 48 For He has regarded the lowly state of His maidservant; For behold, henceforth all generations will call me blessed. 49 For He who is mighty has done great things for me, And holy is His name. 50 And His mercy is on those who fear Him From generation to generation. 51 He has shown strength with His arm; He has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts. 52 He has put down the mighty from their thrones, And exalted the lowly. 53 He has filled the hungry with good things, And the rich He has sent away empty. 54 He has helped His servant Israel, In remembrance of His mercy, 55 As He spoke to our fathers, To Abraham and to his seed forever.”

The spirit of Christmas is in the air.

It is a season for singing.

This passage brings us face to face with the earliest of Christmas carols.

The wonder of wonders in this passage, is that Mary has the courage to sing.

Pregnant under questionable circumstances.

You do know that church folk didn’t believe that Holy Spirit stuff

Unsuspecting passenger in a holy hijacking.

We ought not to make this situation to pretty.

It certainly had to be a confusing, situation.

Mary was in trouble.

You know the end o the story, Mary is living through the story.

She is walking through the present....

I know you can sing when the battle is over....

But can you sing, even when you are going through the sorrow?

Luke 1:46–47 NKJV

46 And Mary said: “My soul magnifies the Lord, 47 And my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior.

We have managed to clean up Christmas

We have .....

The manger and the manure and the mess are all in there together....

That’s often how life is.

A man who is thinking about putting off the marriage....

And through it all Mary continues to sing!

I want to ask Mary....”What gives you the courage to sing”

Mary did you know?

Life’s tragic intrusions.

She keeps:

A song in her soul

And a hymn in her heart.

This season....

One dark night, the God of the universe decided to tiptoe down the back stairwell of human life and take on our struggles.

IN spite of her personal challenges.

In spite of the mess going on in the world.....

Don’t make the Christmas message to pretty.

We sing “Silent night”

It might have been silent in some places but there was a lot going on that night.

Herod was trying to make sure he was dealing with any contenders to his throne....

How do you sing, when your doing your best?

Through all of the crises

I hear this child of God, while her story is still unfolding.

I hear her singing, “My soul magnifies the Lord”

She’s singing and she’s telling you why she is singing

A. “My soul magnifies the Lord”

Magnifies = (gk.) Tells of the greatness of… Declares the greatness of....

I know I’ve got some problems,

But the God that I serve is GREATER:

Greater than any current condition

Greater and any present predicament

Greater than any calamity or crisis.

Greater than all my problems

Greater than all my fears

Greater than any mountain, that I can or cannot see.

B. “My Spirit rejoices in God my Savior”

What’s the difference between my soul and my spirit?

Soul magnifies and spirit rejoices

We tend to collapse these two.

But the Greek text:

Soul = the essence of our individuality.

Adam became a living soul.

Through the prophet Ezekiel, God says, “All souls are mine.”

Any soul can speak of the greatness of God.

The unsaved and the unredeemed can bear witness to the great God.

Spirit = The highest and the noblest part of our humanity.

My spirit that has experienced the wondrous invasion of the God who came into my womb.

I don’t just know about God.

I have the testimony of the ages

But I have the experience of that God in my life.

I am rejoicing because the one to whom I am to give birth , has come that we might be born again.

C. When your soul and your spirit are in harmony with God, you sing.

Even when you tend to forget, Just keep singing until you remember....

Brain science and the impact of music on the human brain

It’s measurable.

corpus callosum

A Harvard study found that the a sections of the corpus callosum (large bundle of nerve fibers) that links the brains two hemispheres) actually grew 25% more in those that practiced music at leas 2 1/2 hours per week between the ages of 6 and 9.

Music actually activates and wires many areas of the brain.

You can actually predict the way the song will go before it gets there.

Complex connections between memory and music and emotions.

Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God.

The more you sing,

the more you’ll hear,

the more you hear,

the more you will remember,

and the more you remember

the deeper your faith,

and the deeper your faith

the more you’ll sing.........

Let heaven and nature sing....

“My soul magnifies the Lord, And my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior.”