Identity Christmas Eve 1980

The verses of that hymn may not be the most familiar to us, but they're probably among the most profound in the whole hymnal. Your grace and lowliness reveal the whole, really, meaning of the Incarnation. What took place? And I would like to share some things based on a passage which probably is the clearest expression of this in the Scripture, and those are the words of Mary in what has been known for years as the Magnificat, the My Soul Magnifies the Lord, in Luke chapter 1, starting at verse 46.

And Mary said, My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has regarded the lowest state of his handmaiden. Unless the Lord returns in the meantime, there will come a moment in each of our lives when it will be time to leave this world. As we stand on the threshold of the world beyond, all distractions will fade into oblivion.

One question will rise up in our consciousness demanding an answer. We will not ask, Did I have a nice time while I was here? Will my friends miss me? Will I have a nice funeral? Who's going to get my money, if any? Will I be remembered? The one question which will be significant and which will drive every other question totally out of our minds will be, Did I fulfill my purpose? Did I accomplish what God put me here to do? Nor will this question strike us as a brand new thought. Suddenly we will realize as never before, it will be plain as day to us, that this question was with us from the day of our birth.

Now we spend years of our lives letting ourselves get distracted by a million different things so that we never give it a second thought, that question. But it's there. Every moment of our lives, just like our heart continuously beats, comes that question from deep within our souls.

Am I fulfilling my purpose? Am I getting done what I'm here to do? But most of us, instead of trying to get the answer to that question, run around trying to find our identity, not in the call of God or the purpose of God, but in terms of where we think we stand in the eyes of other people, some other person or people. If somehow we can impress them with who we are or what we are or what we can do or how much we have, then we look at ourselves and feel we have some worth. But if nobody pays any attention to us, nobody's impressed, then pretty soon we're convinced that we really have no worth.

Hence, the professional athlete, the actress, the senator, the millionaire, the Ph.D., the nuclear physicist. They have worth, it seems. They made something of themselves.

They achieved their goal. And we, with our lesser talents, though we may not weigh as much on that scale, take the same route. We try to find our identity, our worth, in terms of what we've achieved or what we have or in terms of making some kind of dent in this world.

So you pick up Bill Zigger's newspaper. Bill was reading. It was a fantastic message Sunday Christmas morning, and he used the free press, of all things, along with the Bible.

So you pick up the free press, or if you prefer, the news, and you check in there to see who it is who is really making a dent in this world, and you read about revolutionaries, dictators, actors, actresses, celebrities in the realm of music and art, or perhaps some troubled soul who beat his father to death with an ax. Take that newspaper, stuff it away, and pull it out five years later and read it. And it becomes obvious that the great ones, the rich ones, the powerful ones are far more victims of the flow of history than the movers and shakers they appear to be when the news is hot.

And as long as we try to find our identity, our worth, in what kind of dent we can make in history, even if it's a little teeny tiny dent, at least it's there, we're going to walk around with an ego problem all our days. How can you make a dent in history when history is really like quicksand? Well, at least I'm going to put down this board so people can walk over it to safety. Twenty minutes later, the board is swallowed up in the sand, invisible, useless.

Mary told us a long time ago that the destiny of this world is not in the hands of the rich and the powerful and the great, but in the hands of the living God who affects change and brings nations to judgment by means of people who, in their generation, are always numbered among the mean and the inconsequential. If we want to find out who we are, or even how to find out who we are, there's no better place in all Scripture to turn than to these words spoken by Mary. She's now pregnant, and she's making for the hill.

She goes up into the hill country to be with her kin's woman, Elizabeth, who, at a great age, much past childbearing age, is also pregnant. They greet each other, anointed by the Spirit, and Mary's greeting becomes a prophecy inspired by the same Spirit who inspired Hannah, the mother of Samuel, centuries before. And Mary said, My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has regarded the lowest state of his handmaiden.

For behold, henceforth, all generations will call me blessed. For he who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name. And his mercy is on those who fear him from generation to generation.

He has shown strength with his arm. He has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts. He has put down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of low degree.

He has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent empty away. He has helped his servant Israel in remembrance of his mercy, as he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham, and to his posterity his seed forever. Hear Mary tell us how she knows who she is and how we can know who we are.

Am I fulfilling my purpose? Am I accomplishing what I've been put here to do? My purpose, along with everything else in all creation, is to magnify God. When I magnify God with my soul, and with my body, and with my spirit, God will use me, along with countless others, to redeem the earth and make it new. My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God, my Savior.

Mary is not magnifying Mary or rejoicing in Mary, but in God. And what peace comes into our lives when we turn from incessantly, one way or another, magnifying ourselves to magnifying God. Now, we magnify ourselves not only by exalting ourselves, but also we magnify ourselves by sitting around feeling sorry for ourselves and blaming everybody around us for our misery.

We magnify God when we turn our attention away from the mess, which is ourselves, and fix it on Him. My soul magnifies the Lord. We magnify God with our soul when our inmost being, with an act of will, turns to God and worships Him, waking and sleeping, day and night, all the time, inwardly, worships Him, praises Him, adores Him, serves Him, loves Him, thinks about Him, rejoices in Him.

We magnify God with our body when we present our body as a living sacrifice to Him. Mary presented her body as a living sacrifice to God. Behold the handmaid of the Lord, she said.

Let it be to me according to your words. And from that moment, she carried in her body the life of God. And her body was used and spent and given and poured out to fulfill God's purpose.

When we present our bodies, our physical bodies, to God as a living sacrifice, exactly the same thing happens. He fills them with the life of His Son. And now we spend and pour out our physical strength in His worship and in His service.

We magnify God with our spirit when we accept a place of low estate in this world. For He that is mighty hath done great things for me. And He does great things for us when we are willing to be lowly in this world.

Somehow, then He's able to do great things, things which may not look great to the world at the moment, yet they will one day be confirmed as being great because they magnify Him. He has shown strength with His arm. He has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts.

He has put down the mighty from their thrones and exalted them of low degree. He has filled the hungry with good things and the rich He has sent empty away. The genuine changes which are taking place on earth at this moment are being accomplished by God through people who are of low estate.

Always. The best example of this, of course, is our Lord. This baby carried in Mary's body was a king.

And yet from the day of His birth until the day of His death and even His resurrection and down to this moment, He is of low estate. He's a nobody. He doesn't count as far as the world is concerned.

How does the world look at Him? Who has believed what we have heard? To whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? For He grew up before Him like a young plant, like a root out of dry ground, ugly. He had no form or comeliness that we should look at Him and no beauty that we should desire Him. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.

And as one from whom men hide their faces, He was despised and we esteemed Him not. Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. He was born of Mary and He grew up as a root out of dry ground.

He was not appealing. And there's a reason why. There's nothing said about Jesus at all except that little incident in the temple, nothing until the age of 30 when He begins His ministry.

He was almost like a piece of furniture. You know, oh yeah, Jesus, yeah, sure, Joseph, the Mary's son. You know, He walked around and, you know, nobody pays attention.

He had nothing even when He began His ministry that the world really considered of value or wanted. Well, sure, He healed the sick, raised the dead, laid down His life as the Lamb of God to take away the sin of the world, rose from the dead, is now King of kings and Lord of lords. But to this day, as far as the world is concerned, He's still despised and rejected.

And the best way to find this out is to understand that He also, those who follow Him share that lot. They too are despised and rejected. Find out this way.

You can talk about God all you like, have faith in God all you like, but you begin to follow Jesus and you begin to confess Jesus before the world and you'll soon see. You'll soon see. How the world despises and rejects Him and those who belong to Him.

In the world, we find our identity by looking into the eyes of other people to see if there is some admiration coming back to us. In the kingdom, we find our identity by losing it in God. If I am willing to be of low estate, then God can use me for His redemptive purpose on this earth.

If I am willing that my name should be hidden in God, then God can use me as a voice crying in the wilderness, pointing to the Lamb. And Mary said, My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for He has regarded the low estate of His handmaid. One day, barring the return of the Messiah, each of us here will take leave of this world.

As we stand on the threshold of the world beyond, all distractions will fade away into oblivion. One question will rise up in our consciousness and absolutely demand an answer. We will not ask, Did I have a nice time while I was here? Will they have a good funeral for me? Will I be remembered? Will my friends miss me? The question that will drive all other questions out of our minds will be, Did I fulfill my purpose? Did I get done what God put me here to do? My purpose is to magnify God with my soul, with my body, with my spirit.

To let God use my low estate as the very means by which He does might things. Let's pray. Just asking, Lord, that by the power of Your Spirit You would now, even now, cut us free from our bondage to this earth and to the things that are temporal and passing and distorting our vision of Your Kingdom.

The things that have consumed our minds and our emotions.