Advent 2024
Joy to the World
Sunday, December 15, 2024
Welcome!
Announcements: Board mtg today following service, Practice for Christmas Eve program also following service today. Stay for a quick picture of our festive attire-immediately after service. Christmas Eve 4 pm.
Joy to the world! The Savior reigns!
I love singing this hymn and we’ll close our service with it today. The very words of this song cause us all to sing louder and more fully. Even when we’re caroling around the town as we were last week, I hear the volume increase significantly when we come to this song. I love that! This is the very message of Christmas! Joy to the world! Our Savior was born and came to ransom us! There is nothing greater we could ever sing or proclaim but this truth that is eternal! No wonder we all sing out so fully-even creation sings out for joy at the coming of our Lord!
This hymn was originally written in 1719 by Isaac Watts. The tune we all love and know, didn’t come until 1848 through Lowell Mason. Isaac wrote these lyrics based on Psalm 98. Let me share just a few verses with you and listen with fresh ears to what we are truly singing about.
Psalm 98: 1-6
1 Sing to the Lord a new song, for he has done marvelous things; his right hand and his holy arm
have worked salvation for him. 2 The Lord has made his salvation known and revealed his righteousness to the nations. 3 He has remembered his love and his faithfulness to Israel;
all the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God. 4 Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth,
burst into jubilant song with music; 5 make music to the Lord with the harp,
with the harp and the sound of singing, 6 with trumpets and the blast of the ram’s horn—
shout for joy before the Lord, the King.
Isn’t it incredible that people all over the world still sing this hymn with great delight all these years later? I believe it’s because there is a truth being proclaimed that our spirits long to sing about. It’s what we’re made to do! So let’s do just that-let’s shout out our praises to the Lord and let our spirits be filled this morning!
Praise Songs
Advent Reading on Joy
Today in our third advent reading, Abra, Alanea and Dakota will be reading and lighting our candles, and focusing on the gift of joy we have in the Lord.
Too often we equate joy to happiness, and we must not. We might be both happy and joyful at the same time but could also be sorrowful or afraid while also full of joy. How is that? Because one stems from our circumstances and current situation while the other stems from an everlasting truth and victory we share in.
I love being happy! I strive to find ways to bring happiness into my life-it feels great right? But the reality is, not everything that happens to us will make us feel happy. I also can’t control many things in my life and how they play out. We can look back over the past few years and likely see many events unfolding that didn’t necessarily make us feel happy, nor did we necessarily feel in control of the outcome. We probably have all experienced a wide variety of emotions in just in this last year- because they are ever in flux as our circumstances are ever changing and evolving.
Joy is different. Joy focuses on our Savior-all that He is, all that He has done for us, all that He promises to do yet and in knowing His very presence is with us. So when I have situations rise up that do not automatically evoke a feeling of happiness, if I keep my focus right, I will still be full of joy. Does choosing joy mean I don’t feel my other emotions or that my situation will magically change to how I want it to go? Of course not. I have times of frustration, sorrow and grieving, overwhelm, missing others and moments of fear. Yet through all I have encountered, I could choose to tune to the joy I have within and in the moments I had those various feelings-I was also brought to peace; I was filled with hope and I could even feel joy because I know the victory I have in Jesus no matter what.
As we are growing very near to Christmas and even as we head into a new year, let us remember the gift of joy this is ever present and so critical to our ability to keep living life abundant through difficult seasons. Jesus said, “I have come that you may have life abundant in Me.” John 10:10.
So when I choose to walk in joy in the midst of troubling times, I am choosing to honor My Savior and why He came for me. I am choosing to receive His gift to me-which is life in Him. Abundant life in Him! We can’t live life abundantly if we allow darkness to consume us or if we allow our roller coaster of emotions to be our daily guide. There is something better, more stable and more uplifting for us to walk in daily, and that is the joy of the Lord.
As we focus the joy we have in the Lord today, we’re going to look at the great joy the wise men had and how that joy drove their decisions and actions.
Matthew 2: 1-2, 9-11 NLT
Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the reign of King Herod. About that time some wise men from eastern lands arrived in Jerusalem, asking, 2 “Where is the newborn king of the Jews? We saw his star as it rose, and we have come to worship him.”
9 After this interview the wise men went their way. And the star they had seen in the east guided them to Bethlehem. It went ahead of them and stopped over the place where the child was. 10 When they saw the star, they were filled with joy! 11 They entered the house and saw the child with his mother, Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasure chests and gave him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.
I want to share a few things we can do to increase the joy of the Lord in our life. It follows the patterns of the wise men and it also follows the patterns of Jesus Himself, who came to be our example in how we live as well.
- Make a Decision
The wise men knew the stars and they knew God’s Word. They knew the prophecies that spoke of the time when Jesus was to come, many which came through the prophet Daniel. So when the time came and He was here, they didn’t miss it! They made a daily decision to prepare their hearts for the coming of the newborn king! They made a decision to seek out the new king and traveled a long way. Keep in mind they didn’t just hop in a car or on a plane. They made a long, tiring journey from their land to come to where Jesus was. They sacrificed and gave up their comforts to go to where He was. They made a decision to follow the star and trust where it led them. They made a decision to believe as they saw the baby in the manger, that he truly was the promised Messiah and that God orchestrated that star to move as it did to guide them to where He was. They made a decision to be filled with joy at the anticipation of seeing the prophecies fulfilled in the birth of a baby and they made a decision to be filled with joy as they bowed in worship as their eyes gazed upon Jesus. They knew they were in the presence of the promised King. By faith, they believed and were in awe of what their eyes were beholding.
We all make decisions every day; many times without really even knowing why we do what we do. We just go on autopilot or we make decisions based on our feelings of what we do, what we eat, what we say. But choosing joy comes with intention in our hearts. The wise men could choose joy in the coming of the Lord, because they knew the Word-they knew the prophecies and they studied the stars. They saw God moving. You and I can choose joy as we read His Word and speak His truth and promises over our lives, over our situations and over our human feelings. We can have eyes to see God moving in our midst also-do you look? Do you see?
Psalm 118:24 NLT This is the day the Lord has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it.
This is a decision we make in our heart. When we proclaim this, it doesn’t mean we are pretending our life is perfect and we don’t have any struggles we’re dealing with. It means we trust in God, we know our lives are in the hands of God and we are surrendered to His will in our lives, knowing whatever comes He is with us, He has a purpose and He is good. We trust in His truth over what we currently feel and see. We trust, the Joy of the Lord (which we purpose in our heart) is our strength-in every circumstance and season of life.
James 1: 2-4 NLT 2 Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. 3 For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. 4 So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.
This is why we rejoice in the day the Lord has made for us! Even in times of trouble, we know God is stretching us in our faith-and that is eternal -lasting forever. And the stronger our faith grows in Him, the greater our endurance is to fully do the will He calls each of us too. This is a decision to choose to look beyond our momentary troubles and seek God for how He is shaping us for His glory and His great eternal purposes!
Psalm 63: 7-8 NASB 7 For You have been my help, And in the shadow of Your wings I sing for joy.
8 My soul clings to You; Your right hand takes hold of me.
This psalm is one to take note of and keep handy, for it reminds us where our help and our joy come from. Decide in your hardest and darkest days to speak these words over your soul. This is the very thing King David did when he was in the wilderness constantly in survival mode from King Saul’s attacks against him. These words of truth are what enabled David to stay in hope and to keep living in very difficult and trying circumstances. He made a choice to speak life and joy into his soul.
This is exactly what Jesus did in the garden when He was overwhelmed with emotions at the thought of what lie ahead of Him. He knew the time had come for His purpose to be fulfilled. He knew they were moments away from arresting Him and the great journey to the cross would begin. In that moment of darkness looming all around Him, He focused on the joy set before Him, enduring the cross and scorning its shame. He focused on what would come after-the joy that the ransom would be paid in full and you and I would no longer have any debt to pay. He would have done it for us and we would be reconciled to God. Jesus in the flesh-being fully man- chose to focus on eternal joy that far outweighs our suffering and struggles.
I pray we all do the same. Let’s make a decision in our hearts to choose the joy of the Lord.
- Live to Give
Another way to increase our joy is shift our focus from living to please ourselves and acquiring all that we can, to living to give of ourselves and what we have to others. This is what the wise men did. They gathered up their very best gifts they could bring to the King. Have you considered what these gifts were and represented they brought to this baby who was and is King eternal? They brought gold-fitting for a king; frankincense fitting for a priest because Jesus is our High priest; and they brought myrrh a spice used in burials. They were giving gifts to the King of kings, the great High priest, and the sacrificial Lamb of God. Divinely orchestrated and a telling of who He was and is. The greatest gift they brought to offer to the newborn king-was their worship of Him. They gave of their time and their comforts to go and bow before the king and worship Him. It brought them great joy to do this!
Jesus also lived in this manner, making time for people others would often pass by and overlook. As the Son of God He had much to do in the time He spent on earth, but He never neglected a moment to offer Himself to someone seeking hope. His very purpose as He walked this earth was to give of Himself to bring life to others.
Acts 20:35 35 In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’
Now to be clear, this doesn’t mean we all run around in a frenzied state doing and doing-especially this time of year that can get out of control with all that social media and Pinterest tells us we should be doing, or that we give of everything we have to the point we can’t pay our own bills. What this means is, we decide in our hearts that serving others is of great importance and our lives are full of joy as we make serving God our greatest treasure, and not ourselves. We should be seeking direction from the Holy Spirit daily on how that’s played out. It might mean making a phone call or sending a message to someone, writing a card, buying some groceries, making a meal, running errands, fixing something that broke, helping cover a bill, praying for and with someone, giving faithfully to your church who cares for the multitudes… the important part is we listen to God’s direction and we give as He directs. This increases our joy. It always does when we do so with the right motive. It’s who Jesus is and His spirit dwells in us.
Here is His promise to us as we follow Him:
John 15: 10-12 NLT 10 When you obey my commandments, you remain in my love, just as I obey my Father’s commandments and remain in his love. 11 I have told you these things so that you will be filled with my joy. Yes, your joy will overflow! 12 This is my commandment: Love each other in the same way I have loved you.
We do this by deciding in our heart to live to give.
- Please God, Not People
A third way to increase our joy in the Lord is to have the right focus on who we are pleasing. So often we can get sucked into pleasing people. We have talked about this in our earlier messages this year and the false belief that if we please others, they will think more highly of us and therefore we will have increased self-worth.
Serving and loving others is good, in fact, they are commandments for us to follow. But things can quickly become unhealthy and steal our joy when our focus is trying to make everyone happy around us. We can’t and won’t ever do this because quite honestly- each one of us has our own struggles and burdens in this life and whether I do my very best to please you-it might not ever be enough because you are looking at it through a lens of overwhelm, bitterness, sorrow, exhaustion, or hopelessness because of a multitude of things that are far beyond anything I have control over. We all do this-this is why we can’t fully please all people at all times. It will never happen. We have to accept some peace in knowing some people will not be pleased with us at given times or ever-but we know One who does see our efforts to please Him and this delights Him every time.
Here is what we do to ensure we are pleasing God first-we seek to learn greater knowledge of God’s will and pray for greater spiritual understanding and wisdom. It doesn’t make us selfish to please God above others. It makes us wise. What would be wrong is if we only seek to be with God and have no actions to show our faith by loving others. Faith without works is dead.
Colossians 1: 9-10 NLT 9 So we have not stopped praying for you since we first heard about you. We ask God to give you complete knowledge of his will and to give you spiritual wisdom and understanding. 10 Then the way you live will always honor and please the Lord, and your lives will produce every kind of good fruit. All the while, you will grow as you learn to know God better and better.
Romans 14:17 NLT 17 For the Kingdom of God is not a matter of what we eat or drink, but of living a life of goodness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.
Did you catch that? Goodness, peace, and JOY in the Holy Spirit! Meaning you can’t have these or maintain these on your own. You find this and walk in it in the Holy Spirit flowing in you.
Take a moment and reflect-what are you focused on right now-right this very moment and in these couple weeks before Christmas? If you are getting worked up about all the things you have left to do to bring about a perfect Christmas-can I encourage you to remember what the kingdom of God is about and get yourself back in that heart posture? If you are angry and bitter because of broken relationships and Christmas isn’t the same, can we remember what we have in the kingdom of God and allow His goodness and love to fill those spaces that are hurting and vacant? Can we commit to pleasing God and bringing our hearts before Him in worship right now and throughout this Christmas season, especially when everything isn’t going perfectly, for that isn’t the point anyway. He came to bring Good News and great joy to all the earth-that is far beyond our momentary troubles- it is an eternal joy we can share in here and now! This joy connects us to the God of all creation-and His love for us-ponder that just a moment-what we have in Christ Jesus.
The angels proclaimed the birth of Jesus to the shepherds in the field and their message was centered on joy!
Luke 2: 10-11 NIV 10 But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. 11 Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord.
The impact of this message is still just as true for us today-no matter what you are walking through right now or how weary you might be, our Savior was born and it is cause for great joy for all people who believe in Him!
Conclusion: The joy we have from the Lord magnifies within us the more we focus on Him rather than our problems. Jesus promises, “in this world you will have troubles. But take heart, for I have overcome the world!” Lt us keep our gaze squarely on Jesus and let His joy overflow daily in our lives, for this is the will of God.
Let’s pray.
Prayers:
Final Blessing: Romans 15:13 13 May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
