The Christmas season is a time full of never ending to-do lists. It’s so busy, that we often rush from one thing to the next without taking in the importance of Christmas. Cissie Graham Lynch (@cissiegrahamlynch) encouraged attendees at The Cove’s Women’s Christmas Luncheon to pause and praise God in the midst of trials. This year, don’t rush by the Nativity; don’t rush by Mary; and don’t rush by Jesus. Instead, take time to reflect on the gifts we have and enjoy this Christmastime. #FearlessPodcast For more resources and additional episodes visit https://cissiegrahamlynch.com
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[Applause]
[Music]
welcome back to another episode of
fearless and this is the last episode of
the year which is really hard to believe
but this past weekend I was in Asheville
North Carolina speaking at The Cove the
Billy Graham Training Center which of
course is one of my favorite places to
visit uh it’s a special place for my
family and I but I wanted to share with
you what has been on my heart about what
we can learn from the life of Mary I
know so often that this is a busy time
of year and we can Rush by everything
and my prayer just been not to rush by
the Nativity not to rush by Mary and not
to rush by Jesus this Christmas season
and I wanted to share with you the four
disciplines we can learn from the life
of Mary that might not come natural to
our human Spirit good
afternoon it is so fun for me to come I
call this home North Carolina because as
my brother said I live in uh Southwest
Florida Fort Meers Florida with my
husband and three children so when I
come home to North
Carolina I feel like I can breathe but
especially coming to The Cove I think
anybody in my immediate family and my
extended family we would say this might
be one of the most precious places to
our family um as you learn this was The
Envision my grandmother had and for me
when you go around the Cove you
definitely see her touches and just you
see her through everything so I love
coming home to The Cove I love being
with my Aunt Gigi we ate lunch with her
and she has us all laughing I often say
that Gigi um is probably the most like
my grandmother when it comes to the
personality she’s the most fun always
has you rolling and just there’s a wit a
quick wit about her and that was the
thing about my grandmother she always
just had such a great sense of humor
and so I love spending time with my
family my brother and my
sister-in-law and I will say it’s also a
little bit intimidating coming back and
having family in the audience and being
on the stage that my grandfather spoke
and I believe some of our time’s
greatest teachers have been on this
stage so this is a special place for us
but we’re here and it’s
Christmas and um this always just seems
to be crunch time we’re rush rush rush
rush rush I don’t know about you but for
me this week has just been I should say
the last few weeks rushing and I can’t
seem to get caught up I told my husband
we he was gone to Alaska working with
Samaritan’s Purse this week we passed by
for 30 minutes at the
airport and we um we got one kiss in the
parking lot and I just said why am I not
a woman that can keep it all
together and I don’t know about you but
I’m sure there’s some ladies in here
that have have everything wrapped and
you’re already ready
but there might be some of you who’ve
come today that this is just one more on
that never ending to-do list that we
have at Christmas time and especially as
moms um right before I got here my kids
had a party to go to my little girl’s
present didn’t show up I’m insta carding
I don’t know if you know I don’t know if
they have that here in Asheville but
they can deliver in 30 minutes to your
house and I’m having it wrapped before I
go to the airport it’s just like things
we have to think about that my husband
would not dare think about but he’s many
wonderful things but I needed
today I needed to come here I needed to
come through the gates of the
Cove to breathe I don’t want to rush by
the Christmas season I love the
Traditions I love the excitement I don’t
want that sense of panic that we got to
get it all done I don’t want to rush by
the Nativity I don’t want to rush by
Mary I don’t want to rush by
Jesus to think that the Son of God left
the Throne of Heaven Heaven whose arms
wrap around the world and Hold Us in his
arms he came down as a baby to be held
in the arms of a teenager and I don’t
want to rush by that so we’re here today
and I’m so excited to be with you ladies
that you would decide to come here today
to spend with me my Aunt might have
elevated me a little bit higher than I
deserve I was sitting upstairs thinking
Lord why I just I feel very humbled to
be here on this stage so thank you let’s
uh begin with prayer Lord I um
we come today as so many of us might be
weary we might be tired there’s some
that maybe have everything put together
and already done but Lord we’re coming
time to spend just a couple of hours
with you to worship you to spend time
with you we don’t want to rush by that
Nativity this Christmas season that we
would have our hearts quiet to hear your
word to learn from the Christmas story
may you just speak to us in this short
time in Jesus name I pray
amen when I was a kid I thought my
purpose on this Earth was to sing at my
grandfather’s Crusades and to sing at my
dad Franklin Grahams festivals I knew
that was my purpose I’m a 90s kid I uh
listen to Jackie vquez singing at my
dad’s Crusades and at my um like when
Michael W Smith and DC Talk were coming
out and singing at my grandfather’s
Crusades I knew that was God’s purpose
well a little known fact us Grahams we
don’t have that singing app downloaded
in us we cannot sing even down here in
the corner I’m like mouthing the words
because I’m so afraid they were going to
accidentally hit my mic on while y’all
are all
singing Because in fourth grade my dream
came to a stop I was uh cast the role of
just like my dream part in a play
I was Snow White and I had a sing
Someday My Prince would come to somebody
that was anything but Prince Charming in
the corner and my voice and my tune was
anything but all inspiring as I was um
standing in there with the bright light
shining on me and like go Someday My
Prince Will Come and up and down I could
see people giggling I could see my
fourth grade crush just laughing I even
saw my mom and my brother will was home
from college visiting and they were
rolling laughing in the thing my mom had
to stop the car on the way home cuz she
was laughing so
hard so if we’re still talking about
songs I actually still have those dreams
and I start getting sweaty and nervous
that the lights are coming to come on
and I have to sing but I love music I
love songs and of course we all love to
sing songs this time of year um and
whether we can sing or carry a tune um
we’re singing no matter what cuz one
time I was going to try again I was
going to try my dream one more time we
we went Christmas caroling for church I
was in high school and my high school
boyfriend’s sister looked at me and goes
is that you making that
noise so I know we’ll leave the singing
to others but this Christmas season
whether people believe in Jesus Christ
or not they’re singing The Gospel
through so many of those classic songs
and let me ask you I do believe there’s
two types of people in this world one
who turned on the Christmas music
November 1st anybody that turns on
Christmas somebody’s pointing you
already pointing you out November 1st or
it’s a December 1st but even heard
somebody say the other day they don’t
turn it on till the week of
Christmas so I was actually impressed we
were on a road trip the other day and my
husband was turning on the Christmas
music and I told him I said I’m so
impressed with you most men wouldn’t do
that but have you ever thought about
what the first Christmas song
was a lot of us probably think it might
have been Luke 2 when the Angels Came in
the darkness of the night to the
Shepherds to to announce the birth of
Christ but the first Christmas song was
actually before that 9 months before
that and it was Mary it was right after
the angel appeared to her to tell her
that she was going to give birth to a
son and she was to call him Jesus and it
was right after she went to go visit
Elizabeth her cousin who was also
expecting a miraculous birth and to give
birth to John the Baptist and it was
when Mary’s life was turned upside down
when she was thrown a curveball she sang
and it’s in uh Luke 1:47 we’re going to
read it and um I just got a new Bible
and it doesn’t have any markings in it
yet and that’s a very strange feeling
when you open up your Bible and it
doesn’t have any markings in it yet but
in Luke 1 it’s the song of Mary and it
says my soul magnifies the Lord and my
spirit has rejoiced in God my savior for
he has regarded the lowly state of his
made servant for behold henceforth all
generations will call me blessed just
know she she knows that they will call
her blessed she’s not giving the
blessings or a blesser she will be
called 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 those who take god seriously from
generation to generation for he has
shown strength with his arm he has
scattered the proud and the imagination
of their hearts he has put down the
mighty from their Thrones and exalted
the lowly he has filled the Hungry with
good things and the rich he has sent
away empty he has helped his servant
Israel in remembrance of his Mercy as he
has spoke to our fathers to Abraham and
to his seed
forever and what do we know about Mary
we know she was a young girl some say
maybe young as 12 13 14 15 a young
teenager she was not
educated we know that she didn’t come
from a wealthy family she came from this
very small kind of passer by town we
know in John 1 Nathaniel answered him
said can anything good come out of
Nazareth and Philip replied come and see
but what does her song reveal to
us it reveals that her heart was
saturated with God’s word at a young age
she had hidden God’s word in her heart
because the song of Mary is a parallel
to Hannah’s song in first
Samuel so she had known the scriptures
that she hid it in her heart and it was
also her
reaction to when life threw her a
curveball that she was not expecting
that she was able to sing at a young age
she also had a um a generational
understanding of the faithfulness of God
she had an eternal mindset set and I
think so often in our generation
especially me as a millennial we don’t
have an mindset of Eternity we live in
the here and we live in the now we’re
quick we want this we don’t have that
mindset of um eternity to come and our
response was she praised him I believe
that it shows us four things in her
response all disciplines that don’t come
natural to our human Spirit our Earthly
disciplines reflect our Eternal
disciplines
she submitted she served she suffered
and she sang and the first ones she
submitted she surrendered it all to God
Scripture says in her response to the
angel may it be done to me according to
your word and the angel
departed in that um submission there was
such peace in her answer even with so
much unknown um my family and I were
we’ve been recently watching the TV
series on hallmar called When Calls the
Heart are there any hearties in here
there are a lot not swifties we’re
Hardies okay and my son because I’m a
mom I don’t like watching cartoons with
my kids I don’t like watching kids
movies so I kind of find things that I
can enjoy watching that they’ll watch
with me and my seven-year-old son loves
wind Calls the Heart so they’ll on a um
a week night if we’ve done all of our
homework they’ll say win can can we
watch twin Calls the Heart and so
recently on an episode we just watched
the main character Elizabeth just
submitted um a story she was writing the
story of her life and she submitted it
to the editor and it came back with a
lot of red marks and she was offended
and upset and if I talk to any of my
friends who are authors or who are
writers and they’re making submissions
to the Publishers they say they feel
very vulnerable to let go of their story
to let go of control of their story in
order for their story to get out there
and before our story can be told we have
to submit it to God for him to tell our
story it has to go under his submission
and in 2023 submission is an ugly word
right that’s a word we don’t really like
especially for a younger
generation um and especially with women
we really don’t like that word anymore
and I’m not going to DARE go into the
debate of submission and especially in
marriage roles here we don’t have time
for that today but what I’m talking
about today is our submission under to
God and the word submitted comes from
Latin the word um is under a mission sub
meaning under in the Latin misio says
let go to send and we’re all under a
mission and that’s God’s Mission and we
have to fully surrender that to let go
for him to tell his story through us and
through our story
Proverbs 3:6 says in all your ways
submit to him and he will make your path
straight and I guarantee from that
moment from Mary’s point of view when
that angel came to her her path looked
anything but straight she had a rush of
questions going through her head how can
this be what will Joseph do what will my
community say what will my parents say
and
do but she submitted with a
peace Mary’s submission I love this I
read this this past week Mary’s
submission was to God and it served as
her crowning Touch of her humble
confidence she had peace in that
submission she was confident in that
think about those conversations she
would have had going to her parents and
what that would have been like but she
had the confidence of the peace that she
had when she was fully surrendered to
God because sure she had plans we all
have a lot of plans and those plans
often get turned upside down they get
changed change those dreams get crushed
or they’re broken but God has his plan
when we fully submit it and she gave up
her ordinary life to become a part of
God’s extraordinary plan and submission
doesn’t come naturally to us I believe
it’s something we constantly have to
work on it’s a discipline we have to
work on and there’s different kinds of
forms of submission and different roles
we have in relationships with a spouse
uh with our boss and Authority if you’re
a young one here and you got a coach or
a teacher
there’s different kinds that God is
constantly teaching us it doesn’t matter
how old you get we’re constantly still
learning those disciplines of submission
and letting Go full surrender to God
because I can tell you how often
especially in this past year I really
wrestled with God battling it out in
some private prayers with a lot of
questions that I had and it’s like the
song I surrender all and all to him I
freely
give her mission was in recognizing the
sovereignty of God and her need for a
savior which led her to serve him
wholeheartedly so the second one leads
us to she she served another discipline
that doesn’t come natural to many of us
and Mary’s simple response says I am the
Lord’s servant may your word be
fulfilled and in our society and our
culture service without the expectation
of any in return can be an afterthought
at most um and sometimes maybe something
greatly avoided and it seems like even
for those that their careers in the
service industry now some people seem to
resent it maybe especially after a
postco world I mean unless you’re at The
Cove of course we have service with a
smile but I can guarantee you all of
y’all have recognized that the service
quality and the service industry has
gone way down there’s a little local
cafe or actually it’s a national Cafe I
go to quite often and it’s kind of my
mission to see if I can get some of
these young girls to smile you know you
ask them for something and they kind of
look at you
like fine I’ll get it that’s what she
said to me the other
day
so but I read this Christmas story of a
woman who was struggling in life she had
just uh suffered severe loss in her life
and due to that loss she had severe
anxiety and depression and on top of
that she had some health
issues and it was around the Christmas
time so of course that’s all magnifying
during this season those feelings and
her phone rings and she picks it up and
it’s his neighbor her neighbor and she
says or he says look
outside and he had strung a strand of
Christmas lights from his house across
the street to her house and said you and
I are forever connected and left a gift
of cookies at her front door
and because of that act of service the
whole uh neighborhood down the street
connected the lights going back and
forth and it lightened her Darkness it
was that moment of service that gave her
just that fulfillment that she wasn’t
alone and I’ve often been asked
especially after my grandfather passed
away what have I learned from my family
the most and I’ve often said one of the
greatest things I’ve learned especially
from my parents is service I grew up
under the umbrella of Samaritan’s Purse
which is our mission to go serve those
around the world who are in the ditches
of Life serve them in their greatest
need of what that is because it’s in
that moment when you serve somebody and
their greatest time of need and you
don’t have to go across the world on an
international trip with Sam Mar’s person
to serve but when you serve your
neighbor or a friend in your church or a
widow in your church or somebody that
needs it there’s no greater way to show
the love of Jesus to build that
relationship ship to show them the hope
of Jesus and my family’s taught that or
has taught um my brothers and I that I
was just watching my brother I’ll
embarrass him here for a moment that
during the two lunch Services he’s in
there cleaning the tables with the staff
and that’s not to Pat us on the back
that is something I’ve tried to instill
into my children that we’re here to
serve because that’s what God has
commanded us to do that every summer uh
my family and I go to Alaska my husband
works with samar’s purse he works on a
church build in some Villages but I take
my children it’s called operation heal
our Patriots and people ask why do we do
that summer after summer and for like 6
to eight weeks and I said because it’s
my only time that I get to serve where I
don’t have to have a camera in my face I
don’t have to have a microphone I don’t
have to prepare a speech but I get to
serve I get to serve with our volunteers
and there’s no Ser my family’s also
taught me there’s no Services beneath me
you know I my dad at a young age had a
shoveling snow and cleaning toilets at
samar’s purse and to this day I’m with
our volunteers cleaning bathrooms
serving coffee washing wherever the need
is and I love to do that and I love to
teach my kids
that in Matthew 20 we read about the
mother of James and John and she had a
wish and she went to Jesus and had this
wish she that she wanted her sons on the
right and the left side of Jesus into
his
kingdom and and Jesus responded that
just as the son of man did not come to
be served but to serve and to give his
life as a ransom for many that Jesus
makes it clear there’s nothing greater
nothing more Christlike than
surrendering Our Lives to serving others
and I’ve learned too that service just
doesn’t bless others God doesn’t just
command us to serve
others but service can also heal our own
hearts that I think so many times when
we’re in our own trials um whether it’s
anxiety and depression or whatever we’re
facing with marriage or with loss or
financial issues that sometimes we can
get so caught up in our own grief that
we’ve lost sight of anybody else around
us and that that can drown us and I’ve
learned um when I was in high school and
in college for about three years I
struggled with an
addiction and I just I prayed over and
over and Lord just wouldn’t heal me from
that addiction he wouldn’t free me from
that bondage and I took a semester off
from college and I went and worked in
Thailand in a baby’s home and anything
about an addiction it’s self-serving
it’s self-centered because you wake up
thinking of yourself first thing in the
morning you go to bed thinking of
yourself the last thing and when you
work in a baby’s home you don’t have
time to think of yourself the the first
thing I was doing was waking up thinking
of those children and going to bed
thinking of those kids and I realized
over the course of those three months
that God had freed me from that he
healed me when I began began to serve
him and not thinking of
myself that Mary knew she surrendered
her life for life of service to God and
the responsibility of raising the Son of
God and that she had an unwavering Focus
to serve him even if it would lead or
not if when it would
lead to suffering and that leads us to
the third one that she
suffered um just recently I was in Italy
with uh my family my dad was speaking
and we went to visit the Vatican and I
had been there a few times and we went
into um St Peter’s Basilica and I know
sometimes you can get in there it can be
overwhelming um and Mary can tend to be
idolized when you go into some of those
places and a lot of times I can just
walk by you look at it it’s beautiful
learn the history of it but there’s a
marble sculpture there when you go and
it’s the
Peta and it’s the sculpture of Mary
depicting Mary holding her son Jesus
after he would have come down from the
cross on
gotha and I just sat there and reflected
on what her life meant when she
surrendered it she served but that she
would
suffer she suffered physically think at
a young age I mean I have a 10-year-old
girl I can’t imagine in a couple of
years her going off with her fiance
giving
birth in a cave this is a young girl
that was taken away from her family she
had never been intimate with a man and
for us women let’s think about for a
moment she wasn’t giving birth with her
mother next door her side or with um a
lady in her community and her Village
she was giving birth with Joseph next to
her side with a man that she had never
been intimate with at a young age and
I’ve often reflected on that and I think
about the Temptation I know we don’t
read about it in scripture about the
temp temption that Mary would have
faced but we know that Satan tempted
Jesus so we’ve had to attempt Mary and I
often think while she was in that cave
maybe she had just given birth and she’s
holding the Son of God in her arms and
it’s dark that you know Satan because
Jesus was here on Earth you know Satan
began to hover and what are the Whispers
he told her what was he saying you’re
not
worthy you’re not capable of raising the
son he’s not the Son of God he’s not the
Messiah he’s not here to redeem the
world he can’t do that you have him here
in a cave in a feeding Troth so I think
of those things that as the mother of
Jesus just the spiritual warfare she
would have had but think about the
reputation she would have suffered think
of all the women gossiping in town about
this lady and what would have been I
believe it probably wasn’t till the
first miracle at the wedding Feast when
Jesus turned the water into wine and she
was probably like come on this is my
time prove to them that I’m not lying
prove to them you are the Son of
God but you think of a mother’s devotion
and there’s some of you here in this
room that have lost a
child and there’s some of that you have
walked with your children with
sicknesses that maybe you’ve spent days
and weeks in a hospital with your
children a pain that is so
great and often think is how sweet is it
that we serve a God that knows that pain
that he’s lost his own son that he’s
walked through that but I think of
Mary’s
Devotion to be in
Jerusalem to watch your son be hated
before the
world to take the cross of her sins on
him to go for the c or the world to
spread his arms out wide to surrender
his own life for you and for me for her
his mother what that would have been
like to watch your son go through
that that was suffering that she endured
a lifelong but her mind was focused on
eternity and on the cross and what God
had called her to do that even
Simeon um who was prophesizing he was a
devout godly man that was promised that
he would see G the Messiah before he
passed away he said this child is
destined to cause the falling and rising
of many in Israel and to be a sign that
will be spoken against you so that the
thoughts of many hearts will be revealed
and a sword will pierce your own soul
too and in that moment she learned you
know that song Mary Did You Know oh she
knew she knew she had learned that her
child’s life and his mission would fill
her future with intens pain and
suffering both as a mother and as a
disciple and as as his disciples you and
me we will have
suffering and it’s painful to walk
through those times and for Mary that
was her double-edged sword that pierced
her soul I know some of us that maybe
we’re going through a season of
suffering maybe you’ve just come out of
this seasoning of suffering and if
you’re not you might be going into uring
one and we do all we can right it’s not
our human nature right all these are
against our natural we don’t want to
suffer nobody wants to suffer we will do
anything we can to avoid it or to keep
our children from
suffering and I know in times past
especially I’ve been very open since
giving birth to my last child um just
about my past year and there are many
times that I felt like I was surviving
and not
thriving and just as I know I want to
remind you as
women in Isaiah a verse that I’ve clung
to is that the Lord will continually
guide you and satisfy your desire in the
scorched
places he will be with you in the desert
he will be with you in the suffering he
will guide you and it says and give
strength to your bones you’re not just
going
to survive you’re going to thrive he
will strengthen your bones in those
moments of those scorched places and you
will be like a watered garden and like a
spring of water whose Waters do not
fail you will be a spring that
overflows she submitted she served she
suffered but her response is she sang
She praised God and praising God is Not
based on our feelings or emotions it’s a
command in Scripture
and it’s common throughout scripture we
probably have some of the many
scriptures that are our favorite that we
cling to about praising God we sing
about them there’s approximately 250
declarative statements and commands
about praising God through
scripture Psalm 150 says let everything
that has breath praise the Lord 2 Samuel
therefore I will praise you Lord among
the Nations and I will sing the Praises
of your name we’re commanded to praise
him in the good and in the bad American
Pastor James H Brooks told of visiting a
friend’s house and hearing the music of
a bird singing and it was not the
ordinary sound of chirping instead it
resembled the strains of a lovely or a
lovely Melody at first Brooks didn’t
know where it was coming from but when
he glanced around the room he saw a
beautiful bullfinch in the cage and the
lady of the house explained that it had
been taught to sing that way at night
night the teacher would repeat the notes
time and again until the bird was able
to mimic them but this was only possible
because it was dark and the bird’s
attention would not be diverted and I
think how often do our sweetest songs
come out of the darkness of the night
when God is teaching us something I
think of scripture and all the beautiful
songs that David wrote when he was in
the those deepest valleys I often think
if you have a bucket of water and you
hit this bump in your life or if you hit
a bump you’re going over the water
what’s going to come out of the bucket
water yeah it’s not a trick question
water’s going to come out of
it and I think too if we’re going down
the road in our own life and we hit
something catastrophic or we hit a bump
in our road something turned our life
upside down something just came out of
nowhere and and kind of rerouted our
route what comes out of us what do what
do the people around us see is it anger
is it cursing is it resentment is it
bitterness is it
jealousy what is it that people see
because scripture says in Matthew for
out of the abundance of the heart the
mouth
speaks and I was just on the phone with
a dear friend of ours and he has
cancer and it’s amazing every time I get
off the phone with he and his wife
they’re just joyful they’re filled with
joy that he talks
about even in these moments going to the
doctors and the appointments these are
opportunities to tell the nurse and the
doctors about Jesus and that often they
think something’s wrong with him because
he’s filled with so much joy in these
moments that I think we can all learn a
little bit from our friend Buddy the elf
I got an older group in here I don’t
know if you know who Buddy the elf is
maybe you got grandchildren and you’ve
watched the Christmas classic elf but he
says the best way to spread Christmas
cheer is
singing thank you you got it is uh
singing for all to hear and we are to be
singing so loud in this dark world that
we’re in that that’s how we stand out in
this dark world is that we sing the
praise of God we sing his goodness we
tell people about it you smile you have
joy when you’re in that Ser or you’re at
a restaurant in that service industry
doesn’t have a smile you praise God that
the world is to see that that’s how
we’re to stick out in this world she
sing from an eternal
perspective she sang not because of
certainty of the coming of days but the
certainty of God’s
grace she sang with the confidence of
the might of who her God was and that
she was able to sing with strength
one of my favorite Bible verses is in
Daniel
11 it says those who know their God will
be able to stand in strength and take
action first we have to know who God is
to be able to stand in strength and take
action and in the world that we’re
living in and the culture that we’re
facing we have to be able to take action
we’re going to have to be able to stand
in strength but first scripture says in
Daniel chapter 11 that we have to know
who God is is Mary for her to be able to
sing those Praises she knew who her God
was why because she had hidden God’s
word in her
heart and I think often we tend to we
have this picture this image of Mary
sometimes that we’ve seen oh we don’t
have a nativity well there’s a nativity
out there and she might be kind of Meek
and mild and very delicate and I think
just quite the opposite of her I think
she was a tough lady she she had to be
for what she endured she was full of
grace she was of course full of truth
but she just had this like grit with her
and I often want to encourage women
because sometimes when you can be in
women’s ministry or you go to women’s
events that sometimes we can tend to
bond over our
traumas and kind of our weaknesses that
sometimes I can go to these women’s
events and everyone can kind of be
crying and emotional because life is
hard life is hard and we are to have
women in our lives that we can go to
that we can talk about those issues with
and those things that maybe we have in
common but we’re also as Believers
called to stand in
strength that we’re not to to live in
our anxiety and our depression and talk
about the we are to sing of his goodness
because he has been so faithful when he
sent his son Jesus to this Earth for you
and for me and a little side note when
I’m talking about we are supposed to
have women right after when Mary found
out she was to give birth she went to
visit her relative
Elizabeth and Elizabeth who was also
expecting a miracle Elizabeth encouraged
her we’re to have Titus two women in our
lives for the younger women in here you
need to find some older ladies you can
learn from and for the older ladies that
are in
here don’t stop letting God use you in a
mighty way he’s got a purpose for you
and one of those purposes is investing
into some young women in your church or
in your community in your family to
build that relationship with because it
was for Mary it was after she went to go
visit Elizabeth and she receive that
like affirmation that encouragement
that’s when Mary was able to sing and to
sing her song that maybe somebody in
your life needs encouragement so maybe
you’re the one to do the
encouraging maybe you need to go out and
encourage somebody this Christmas this
holiday season the year coming
up but let me ask you what happens when
we don’t feel like
singing what happens when we don’t feel
like praising
God I believe we have to do it out of
obedience we have to do it out of those
disciplines in life these disciplines
that we’ve learned from her we have to
have disciplines in our life Tammy Joe
Schultz she was a Navy fighter pilot um
she was also the pilot I don’t know if
you remember a few years ago the
Southwest uh airflight something went
wrong with the engine and a blade hit
one of the windows and it decompressed
and she’s the uh Woman pilot that safely
landed the plane but she says habits on
a good day are our instincts on a bad
day that we have to have these
disciplines in our life and as I just
said last year was a tough year for me
my heart can still be tender when I
think about
it um I struggled in all three of my
pregnancy with partum depression I don’t
use depression and anxiety as two words
to describe me but that’s something
that’s come and all nine months of all
three my pregnancies and yes I do
believe those words can tend to be
overused in our culture and our society
but for nine months it’s a pretty dark
time for me especially with this third
one and it was a road that I had to walk
by myself um and sometimes we’re called
to walk and I know that loneliness and
isolation those can be tens of suffering
and especially Christmas season for some
of us that can be
magnified but even in my own home I
think of my poor husband and some of the
things he didn’t know how to handle me
he would just put his arm like this and
be
like what’s wrong with
her and it was for nine months and I
would be quite embarrassed up here if I
was to tell you some of the prayers that
I would pray to God and the things that
we would have to battle
out but God was faithful just because I
didn’t think he was answering my prayers
or maybe because I didn’t think he was
near me that doesn’t mean he wasn’t that
means often sometimes he’s even closer
than we think he
is that I felt so alone that there was a
song The Breath of Heaven that we sing
often at Christmas and for me when I was
sitting in that hospital room because
it’s amazing as soon as I give birth
it’s gone I’m okay it’s I’m a whole new
person a 180 it’s like that darkness is
lifted but before that it said I’m
waiting in a silent
prayer and I’m frightened by the load I
bear in a world as cold as Stone must I
walk this path alone be with me now and
so for those nine months I didn’t feel
like singing I didn’t feel like praising
but I had to do it as a discipline and
out of The Obedience of my heart of who
God was ladies when you don’t feel like
opening up the Bible you open it up at
an obedience and you read it when you
don’t feel like praying that’s when you
get on your knees and you start praying
even if you don’t have words to say
there’s sometimes like Lord I’m here but
I don’t know what to say but I’m here
with you and I’m in your presence help
me I need you it’s like the song Lord I
need
you when you don’t feel like listening
is when you turn on that
um the worship songs and the the hymns
that we all know in our heart that’s
when you do it out of The Obedience of
your heart and I promise promise you
that he will meet you there might not be
in the instant we think and in the
moment we think but his promises are
good his faithfulness is good Mary knew
that Mary knew it she sang of his
generational faithfulness she kept her
eyes focused on it after I was able to
hold my little girl I was able to sing
lighten my darkness pour over me your
Holiness For You Are Holy Breath of
Heaven and all her response es and all
her disciplines of Mary that we learn
from her there was a peace in it all
even with those questions that might
have been rushing through her head at
the time there was a peace in her
response and
singing she was able to sing because she
carried the Prince of Peace she carried
him physically but we who believe in
Jesus Christ as our Lord and savior
carry that peace spirit
and when the angel showed up in the
darkness of the
night they said that that peace was
available to all of
us and you and I we live in a
world there’s not a lot of Peace it
doesn’t seem like but that’s been since
the time he showed up until he comes
again and we can have peace here on
Earth and then one day we’ll have peace
and Eternity with him so I want to
encourage you this Christmas season if
it’s been a year of
struggle that you have these disciplines
in your life that can prepare you for
that moment to sing praises no matter
what is going on your life that we can
have the peace the Prince of Peace
living here that in this dark world that
our light will pierce the darkness
because whatever season you’re in
there’s a song for your season and
hopefully your song is a little bit more
all inspiring than what I was in fourth
grade that you will let God use your
song that has to be fully submitted to
him let go of control so he can tell
your story because like Mary we have to
sing with a laser focus of
Eternity we have to sing with the hope
of Heaven those who believe in Jesus
Christ we have the hope of Heaven that’s
what sep separates us differently from
this world and I think so often as
Christians as I said kind of I believe
our culture is for the he here and the
now we don’t think much in the future we
get uh like I had instacart deliver in
30 minutes that’s about as far as I can
get into the
future but our hope is of an eternity
and we’re not teaching about that in
church anymore we’re not teaching about
heaven and the hope of heaven and that’s
what gets us through the day that’s what
will get us through the suffering we
sing with a life peacefully submitted
out of obedience we sing from a place
knowing that God knows our own suffering
that Jesus Christ himself
suffered and we sing from the only place
you
can which is from giving your life to
Jesus having him live and guide and
speak and sing into your heart ladies
that we don’t have to sing a song of
fear and discontentment that doesn’t
have to be our soundtrack doesn’t have
to be our Soundtrack This Christmas
season we can sing a Christmas song all
year long it doesn’t have to start on
November 1st or December 1st
and as we read in scripture Mary’s song
it’s called the magnificant it’s the
Latin for my soul magnifies the Lord and
whatever you and I are going through
whatever the season we are in we can
always magnify the
Lord that that is our hope when Jesus
came and as we close
today I want to pray I want to pray with
you I want to know I want to spend time
just
reflecting that maybe you are in a
season of suffering and it has been
difficult you’re like me that has been
wrestling back and forth with
God maybe you didn’t know why you were
coming here and somebody invited you it
was just one more thing to do on your
to-do
list and maybe you don’t have that peace
of Jesus maybe this world and what’s
happening in this world the wars and the
rumors of War Wars It’s frightening to
you but that we can have a
peace that the world cannot have the
world cannot give but only Jesus
can and maybe you’ve just been battling
something that you have to
submit you have to submit to God you
have to give him full control so he can
tell your story so we can Magnify Him
all year long thank you all who have
encouraged me this past year with
fearless and who have listened and even
have shared with your friends and family
many of you have sent me messages of
encouragement and it means more to me
than you’ll ever know but I also
encourage you as I shared in my message
The Cove is a very special place it was
the vision of my grandmother Ruth Graham
and to our family most of us think
that’s the most special place that we
can visit so I encourage you check out
an event it’s great for a week and Away
with your spouse or with your friends we
have conferences throughout the entire
year check out the co.org and Merry
Christmas and Happy New
[Music]
Year