Sermon Tone Analysis

*Holy Is His Name* A Pocket Paper \\ from \\ The Donelson Fellowship \\ *______________**Robert J. Morgan \\ *December 14, 1997 ----

*For those of you* who turn up your nose at contemporary Christian music, I want to remind you of an 18-year-old songwriter named Isaac Watts.

He dreaded going to church every week because the music was so ponderous and old fashioned.

One Sunday, returning from worship, he complained about it to his father, who replied, as fathers sometimes do: /Those hymns were good enough for your grandfather and your father, so they will have to be good enough for you.

/But Isaac replied, /They will never do for me, father, regardless of what you and your father thought of them.

/An argument followed, and Mr. Watts finally shouted, /If you don't like the hymns we sing, then write better ones!

/And that is exactly what Isaac did.

During the course of his life, he wrote hundreds of our favorite hymns, providing his generation with the contemporary Christian music of its own day.

Every generation writes its own songs to the Lord, and our great privilege after 2000 years of Christian history, is to enjoy the new songs while still treasuring some of the older ones as well.

Among the older songs we treasure is a Christmas carol Isaac Watts wrote as he studied Psalm 98.

In that psalm, Watts was struck by the Psalmist's declaration that all the world should shout for joy.

Why?

Because the Lord is making known his salvation to the nations.

Watts thought of the Christmas story, and he picked up his pen.

A few minutes later, the world had his great Christmas carol: "Joy to the world, the Lord has come.

Let earth receive her king."

But Isaac Watts wasn't the first person to compose a Christmas carol.

The oldest carol of them all is not /Joy to the World,/ or /God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen,/ or /O Come All Ye Faithful./

The oldest of all our Christmas hymns is called the Magnificat, and it was written the virgin Mary herself, recorded for us by Luke.

It seems to have been composed on the spot as Mary was visiting her older relative Elizabeth in the desert country of Judea.

It is given in Luke 1:46-55:

/And Mary said: "My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has been mindful of the humble state of his servant.

From now on all generations will call me blessed, for the Mighty One has done great things for me-holy is his name.

His mercy extends to those who fear him, from generation to generation.

He has performed mighty deeds with his arm; he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts.

He has brought down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the humble.

He has filled the hungry with good things but has sent the rich away empty.

He has helped his servant Israel, remembering to be merciful to Abraham and his descendants forever, even as he said to our fathers./

We said last week, as we began to study this passage that Mary was chosen by God to raise the Christ-child because: (1) she had made a commitment to sexual purity; (2) she thought of herself as the Lord's servant; (3) she was a woman of faith, believing that what the Lord had said to her would be accomplished; and (4) she was a woman who magnified the Lord.

The opening words of this song in the King James Version says: /My soul doth magnify the Lord./

Now, I'd like to suggest a fifth reason that Mary was so useable to the Lord.

She was a woman who loved and knew the Scriptures.

Her hymn borrows heavily from Old Testament.

It reverberates with echoes from Hannah's song in 1 Samuel 2 and from many of the Psalms of David.

Some Bible scholars think that she composed this song with an open Old Testament before her, but more likely she just knew the Old Testament so well that her prayer naturally reflected the Scriptures she had memorized.

Robert Murray McCheyne once wrote, "Turn the Bible into prayer.

Thus, if you were reading the First Psalm, spread the Bible on the chair before you, and kneel, and pray, 'O Lord, give me the blessedness of the man'; 'let me not stand in the counsel of the ungodly.'

This is the best way of knowing the meaning of the Bible, and of learning to pray."

Well, that is just what Mary did.

In the first stanza of the Magnificat-verses 46-49-I would like to show you two activities, three mercies, and four names for God.

*Two Activities*

The two activities are in verse 46: /My soul magnifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior./

Notice the order-first we magnify him then we rejoice in him.

Everyone today is looking for joy, looking for something to make them feel better.

I saw an interview with Ted Turner this week and he was asked why he gave one billion dollars to the United Nations.

Why do you think?

Why would anyone give a billion dollars to the UN?

Because children around the world are hungry?

Because the world is torn apart by war?

Because people are oppressed by poverty?

No.

He said, "I gave away the billion dollars because it made me feel good, and I like feeling good."

He went on to say how his whole life has been a search for something to make him feel good, and he has discovered that giving away money makes him feel good.

So that's why he does it.

People want to feel good.

They want to have joy in their lives.

But there is no short cut to genuine joy.

It comes as we magnify and glorify Jesus Christ and put him in his rightful place in our lives, making him the object of our hearts and of our worship.

/My soul magnifies the Lord and /[as a result]/ my spirit rejoices in God my Savior./

What does it mean to magnify the Lord?

We talked about that last week.

It means to focus on the Lord, making him bigger and bigger in our eyes until we are so overwhelmed by his glory that we cannot but share it with someone else.

It means, in short, to praise and worship him.

Someone once said, "Too many Christians worship their work, work at their play, and play at their worship."

The other day I was reading the introduction to a new hymnbook, and the author said:

If Christ were bodily present and we could see him with our eyes, all our worship would become intentional.

If Christ stood on our platforms, we would bend our knees without asking.

If He stretched out His hands and we saw the wounds, we would confess our sins and weep over our shortcomings.

If we could hear His voice leading the hymns, we too would sing heartily; the words would take on meaning.

If Christ walked our aisles, we would hasten to make amends with that brother or sister to whom we had not spoken.

If we knew Christ would attend our church Sunday after Sunday, the front pews would fill fastest, believers would arrive early, offering plates would be laden with sacrificial but gladsome gifts, prayers would concentrate our attention.

"Yet," said the author, "Christ is present."

And Mary had the correct order: We magnify him, and as a result, we are filled with joy and we can rejoice in God our Savior.

But why did she magnify the Lord and rejoice in her Savior?

Because of three different mercies she mentions in verses 46-49.

*Three Mercies*

First, in verse 48, I magnify and rejoice in the Lord /because he has been mindful of the humble state of his servant./

God is aware of our circumstances and he knows our needs.

I read a fascinating story this week about a missionary named Solomon Ginsburg.

He was a Jew, born in Poland, whose father was a Jewish Rabbi, who became a Christian as a young man and eventually a missionary and an evangelist throughout Europe and South America.

In 1911, he was very tired and he planned a furlough for rest in the United States.

He traveled across Europe to Lisbon and was about to embark for London when he read a number of urgent telegrams telling him of terrific storms raging in the dangerous Bay of Biscay.

He had a stop-over ticket and could easily delay his journey, taking the next boat a week later.

What should he do?

Well, the Lord is mindful about all the affairs of our lives.

Psalm 139 says that he hems us in ahead and behind.

And, believing that our steps and stops are ordered by the Lord, Solomon Ginsburg prayed, asking the Lord to show him what to do.

His prayer calendar for that day highlighted a verse from the Old Testament, Deuteronomy 2:7-/The Lord your God has blessed you in all the work of your hands.

He has watched over your journey through this vast desert.

These forty years the Lord your God has been with you, and you have lacked nothing./

As he read that verse Ginsburg had a strong sense of God's care and protection.

His heart was at complete rest, and he boarded ship immediately and sailed to London, proceeding on in perfect safety to New York aboard the Majestic.

He soon learned that if he had, in fact, delayed his journey for a week as advised, he would have found himself booked aboard the maiden voyage of-the Titanic.

Mary was a poor girl, living in modest dwellings, in a small town in the mountains of Israel.

But, she said, the Lord knows all about me and he cares for me.

He watches over me.

He protects me.

He is mindful of me, despite my humble status in life.

The same is true for you and me, if we live in Christ Jesus.

That's why we magnify the Lord and rejoice in him.