Advent 2025
Joy to the World
Sunday, December 14, 2025
Welcome!
Joy to the world! The Savior reigns!
I love singing this hymn and we’ll close our service with a beautiful and different version of 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 a week ago, I heard the volume increase significantly when we came to this song. 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! In a small group I connect with I heard yet another version of this song-this one was softer, more reflective and in this version they emphasized He HAS come! He fulfilled the prophecies set long ago and He came! Just as God promised, the Savior came unto mankind!
On Thursday I was at a fellowship gathering with other pastors and it was Christmas themed so our worship consisted of singing carols. Guess what the final song was? Joy to the World!
I tell you Christmas carols hit different, as they are supposed to, when you are truly wrapped up in worshiping Christ and not just singing happy songs from memory-but you allow your heart to take in what these words are saying. Within this song, the part that struck me this week was the verse, He rules the world with truth and grace and makes the nations prove-He makes the nations prove- the glories of His righteousness AND the wonders of His love. He makes the nations prove these things. Therefore, we sing, Joy to the World, the Lord has come!!
Let’s pray
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 to prepare our hearts to praise our Lord and Savior today.
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.
This is a truth our spirits long to sing about. It’s what we’re made to do! It’s why Jesus came! Let us sing of the joy we have in Christ this morning-for He has come!
Praise Songs
Advent Reading on Joy, Connie Hessler
Too often we equate joy to happiness, and we must not interchange these as the same word. We might be both happy and joyful at the same time but could also be sorrowful or afraid while full of joy. How is that? Because one stems from our circumstances and current situation (happiness) while the other stems from an everlasting truth and victory we share in (joy).
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.
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 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 flowing deep within 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 during troubling times, I am choosing to honor My Savior and why He came for me. I am choosing to receive His gift for me-which is life in Him. Abundant life in Him! We won’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. Which is our strength, that carries us.
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 became the guiding force and determined their steps.
But first a joke: What did the third wise man say after his friends had already presented gold and frankincense? But wait, there's myrrh!
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.
Set Your Heart
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. When the time came and He was here, they took notice! They set their hearts for the coming of the newborn king! They decided to seek out the new king and traveled a long way to do so. 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 set their heart to follow the star and trusted where it would lead them. When they saw the baby in the manger, because they had prepared their hearts for the king’s arrival, they believed He was in fact the promised Messiah. They were joyful at the anticipation of seeing the prophecies fulfilled in the birth of this miraculous baby and they were joyful in reverent worship as they bowed down before the Son of God. They knew in their hearts they were in the presence of the promised King. Can you sense when you are in the presence of our King?
You and I can choose to go on autopilot while letting life pass by, or we can set our hearts with intention to choose. joy. The wise men were able to 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 in creation and they believed. 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. Do you see Him moving?
Living in joy is about setting our hearts on the joy of the Lord, that is gifted to us and dwells within us.
Psalm 118:24 NLT This is the day the Lord has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it.
These are not just words we say and let go. This is a profession of how we are setting our heart before the Lord. 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 trust in His truth that stands from generation to generation. We trust, the Joy of the Lord truly is our strength-in every circumstance and season of life. This is why we profess, “I will rejoice and be glad in it!”
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.
Even in times of trouble, we know God is stretching us in our faith-and that growth is eternal. And the stronger our faith grows in Him, the greater our endurance is to fully do the will He calls each of us too.
Setting our heart is recognizing who God is and what He has done and continues to do in our lives.
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. On your hardest and darkest days set your heart to speak this truth 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.
I pray we all do the same. Let’s set our hearts on the joy of the Lord that is ever within us!
Live to Give
Another way to increase our joy is to shift to living to give of ourselves and what we have to others. This is what the wise men did. They gathered their very best gifts they could bring to the King. Have you considered what these gifts were and what they represented as they offered them 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. Like in the song the Little Drummer Boy- all he had was his drum but he could play it well so he came before the Lord and he played his very best in worship. This is what God desires from all of us-bring our whole hearts before Jesus and worship Him, as the Savior He truly is, to the world, and to YOU.
Jesus 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 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. For example, on my small group call on Friday, 3 of us had recently sang Christmas carols to those in area senior communities-each one recounting how it blessed those who were there-their faces that had been without expression, showed smiles, or a lifting, or peace, AND in how doing so filled each of our hearts with joy. It’s always a double blessing when we serve others out of the love God places in our hearts. 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 obedience increases our joy. This while it may not intuitively seem so-it was leads to life abundant in Christ.
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 to God and to others.
Grow in the Wisdom of God.
A third way to increase our joy in the Lord is to intentionally grow in the wisdom, knowledge and understanding of the Lord. When we purpose to do this, we come to know Him more. We know His character, His heart, His ways, His promises and His sovereignty. All of this affects our thoughts, our decisions, and how we show up in the world. We begin to act with increasing measure in the wisdom of God. Walking in the wisdom of the Lord goes hand in hand with experiencing the joy of the Lord.
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.
Increasing wisdom from God positions us to live in a way that is both honoring and pleasing to the Lord.
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? Can I encourage you to remember what the kingdom of God is about?
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!” Let 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.
Offerings: let us give cheerfully to the kingdom of God and may it bring us great joy that He calls us to be part of bringing the Good News to all the earth. We are nearing year-end, let give with thanksgiving and generosity as the Spirit leads.
Prayers:
Final Blessing: 2 Peter 3:18 (May you) grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.
