Joy

And the angel of the Lord suddenly said before them,

and the glory of the Lord shone around them,

and they were terribly frightened.

But the angel said to them, do not be afraid,

for behold, I bring you good news of great joy.

In Greek, the word actually means massive or mega.

It will be for all the people.

For today in the city of David,

there has been born for you a Savior

who is Christ the Lord.

You know, every time I read this passage,

I get totally overwhelmed.

Every time I think about what Christmas really is about,

I get emotional and I get choked up

to think about what it really means and why we're here.

You know, I think it's incredible that right now,

throughout all the world,

in thousands and hundreds of countries,

through thousands of languages,

men and women and kiddos come together

and they celebrate the birth of a baby boy

who is born to bring joy to everyone.

I mean, when we read this,

we're actually reading the very first sermon,

the very first Christmas sermon

that was given by the angels 2,000 years ago.

It's about this birth of this little Jewish boy

who would grow up to be Savior of the world

and bring joy to all men.

C.S. Lewis and J.R. Tolkien in their writings,

they talked about joy over and over and over.

They were infatuated with joy.

Tolkien, you know, he's written the author,

he's the author of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.

And as he tried to define joy,

he said it's this feeling that we cannot comprehend truly.

He said joy is a deep, deep-seated longing

that's embedded in each of us.

And his joy sends us on a journey.

And we go on this journey to find this object

which will perfectly fulfill our longing.

The longing, he said, can be expressed in many ways.

For many of us, we try to attain joy

by fulfilling this longing, by acquiring objects.

Some of these objects become precious to us.

Some of us try to get joy through relationships

and through security and through control

and through approval and through wealth

and through power and through love.

But the question is, once we attain these things,

often in large amounts,

do they really fulfill that deep, deep longing inside of us?

Or do we feel empty

and try to figure out other ways to feel that longing?

Do we go on other journeys?

I mean, in The Hobbit,

Tolkien writes about this idea of true joy.

And he said true joy is found in home.

And this idea of being home

and being in a place where you need to be

and where you belong, where everybody knows you,

it's the story, it's the theme of The Hobbit

and The Lord of the Rings.

And at least 18 times in The Hobbit,

we see that Bilbo longs for home.

He longs for the shire.

I mean, the dwarves, you know what they long for?

They long for gold and they long for this mountain

they go into in their kingdom.

The elves, you know what they long for?

They long for this land far away across the ocean,

this gray haven, this place where,

actually gray haven translates means heaven.

And they're longing for these things

and they said, if we can just get there,

if we can just get this, we'll have joy.

I don't want to give away next year's episode

of The Hobbit.

But spoiler alert,

once Bilbo and the dwarves get home,

it's not the same.

It's not the joy that they had hoped for,

it's not the thing that they had longed for,

it doesn't fill them completely

because home has changed.

They have changed.

And Tolkien writes his way

because he wanted us to discover in his writings

that our true home isn't here.

But our true home is heaven.

And the longing that we feel,

this angst that we feel as we walk through our days

all the time trying to find joy,

he says it's never going to be

totally, truly satisfied.

In fact, the only way that it's going to be

totally and truly satisfied

is in a relationship with the one who created us,

in a relationship with God.

I mean, Tolkien ultimately wanted us to see

that the only way to find true joy,

the only way to find a lasting, deep,

soul-satisfying joy,

the only way to find Christmas joy

is to go to the place that we were made for,

to return to the place that we were made for.

You're not made for earth.

You were made for someplace else,

Tolkien wanted us to understand.

And the only way we could find this true joy

is if we found the one who made us

God, our creator.

And so we celebrate Christmas

this time where God sends a Savior.

He sends a Savior to show us himself.

And he sends a Savior to show us the way home.

In Christmas, in Jesus,

God has given each one of us a firm path,

a firm foundation on which we can stand,

a foundation that we never have to doubt in.

It's a foundation where we know

that we will find true and lasting joy.

I mean, Christmas is about God sending us a Savior.

And this Savior, listen to this,

this Savior promises to save us from something.

He promises to save us from our sin.

He promises to save us from the effects of sin in our life.

And so we stand on this foundation of Jesus.

And now on Christmas,

when we talk about God,

when we talk to God,

we can talk to him as our heavenly father.

Father, we can talk to God as our heavenly father

in spite of everything that we've done wrong,

in spite of all the attempts we've tried to do

in finding joy in other places,

in spite of our weaknesses,

in spite of our sin.

Christmas is about finding joy

in the one who created us.

This is the season that we're reminded

that joy comes from God.

Now you're gonna leave here in every other faith,

every other religion,

every other philosophy,

every other thing around you

is gonna tell you that you're gonna find joy

and this is how you find it.

This is how you find God.

But in Christmas, God says,

I'm God,

I love you.

And I've come down to find you.

And I've come down to give you lasting joy

in a relationship with me.

I mean, this is the season that we're reminded

that God has drawn close to us.

God has drawn close to us,

those of us who've drawn away.

Those of us who've been drawn away

by other precious things,

by our selfishness,

by our control,

by our pride,

by our self-righteousness,

by our self-reliance.

This is the season that we're reminded

that God has drawn close to us.

This is the season that we're reminded

that we cannot negotiate our sin anymore with God.

I don't know if you're like me,

but sometimes I try to negotiate my sin

and get some things off

because maybe it wasn't really that bad.

But this is the season

where we cannot negotiate our sin anymore

because God has ended all the negotiation.

All the negotiation ended at a manger

that will become a cross one day

and your sin and my sin

have been forgiven in Jesus Christ.

For behold, I bring you good news of great joy

for unto us is born a son,

for unto us,

for unto Tobin,

for unto you

is born a Savior.

I mean, this Savior brings us joy

and it's the kind of joy

that you and I can walk through our world

and even though our workplace

and even though our family

and even though our life

and even though the world

is out of control,

this joy tells us

that everything can be good

between you and God.

That we can be a people

who we can trust

that God is in control of our life

no matter what happens.

Not because of what we've done.

Not because of what we haven't done.

But because of what God

has done for us.

My hope for each of us

this Christmas Day

is that we would consider

the words of the angels.

That we would surrender

our attempts to find joy

in our own lives

and our own things.

That we'd invite Jesus Christ

into our life.

That we would allow Him

to give us true joy.

That we'd allow Him

to give us true rest.

That we'd understand

that the meaning of joy

that our home,

that our Creator

is not here.

And God is sending

His Son Jesus today

to remind us of that.

And our prayer is

as a church

that we would remember that

and that we would cling to that

as we walk through these days.

Let's pray.

Father, we thank You

for this day.

We come to You this season

in this moment of reflection

and we just thank You

for this celebration.

we realize that all of us today

come to You

with the same need.

We all have the exact same need.

We need a Savior.

We all desperately need forgiveness.

We all are desperately seeking

for joy and meaning

and purpose in life.

We all need mercy,

grace,

compassion.

And so this season right now,

right here,

we come before You

and we just worship You.

And we know that all these things

are found

in a little baby Jewish boy

born in a manger

who shows us the path

to the true home,

who shows us what true joy is,

who reminds us

that You are with us all the time,

who will never let us go.

And it's Wednesday

that manger

is transformed into a cross.

And in that cross,

the fulfillment of Christmas

is complete.

Father, I pray for some of us in here

who haven't even started the journey yet.

I pray that just this Christmas season,

they would think about that message,

they would think about joy,

and they would ask themselves

an honest question,

do I feel that?

Am I experiencing that in my life?

What does it really mean to have joy?

And what I've been looking for

to have joy,

whatever that is,

my title,

my profession,

my job,

my family,

my relationships,

whatever it is,

is that truly satisfying me?

And I pray that they would think

of this little baby

in the manger

who came to bring us back to You.

And they would ask questions

of their friends

of why they find joy in Jesus.

Father, I pray for the rest of us

who have gone on the journey,

and we have been traveling

for a long time,

for many of us,

and we wonder

when You're going to come back.

We wonder

why things are so terrible,

and we wonder

what we have to do

or what we haven't done.

And I pray for those of us

here like that,

that we would realize

that You've done everything,

that we can come to You

this Christmas,

again,

not because of what we've done

and not because of

what we haven't done,

but we can come to You

this Christmas

because of what Your Son has done.

And so we come to You

as Your people,

and we trust You.

We worship You,

and we ask You

to make our joy complete

and bring us home.

Father, we love You,

and we pray these things

in Your Son, Jesus Christ,

holy name.

Amen.