Do You Hear What I Hear, Joy to the World

But being that next Sunday is the start of a

new series. Today is the clothes of the series that

we have been in which we have titled do you

Hear What I Hear? This has been our advance series

where we've been asking the question do you hear what

I hear? When we do these Christmas songs, these famous

Christmas hymns. Do you hear Christmas lights, Christmas cookies, presents,

Christmas trees? Do you hear Christmas? Or do you hear Christ?

Do you hear the Gospel? There's many of these powerful

Christmas songs we've been covering are super theologically deep, they're

superly bit, they're very biblically rich. But when we get

caught up in the holidays, we may not realize how

deaf we've become to having the Gospel sung all around

us all the time. Now you might be thinking, well,

Christmas is over, why are we still in an advent series?

And that is kind of a fair question. Which it's

also the reason that I think today's hymn is very

fitting because when it was written, it wasn't initially written

as a Christmas song, right, It wasn't written as a

Christmas song Initially, it was written by a man named

Isaac Watts. He was a famous hymn writer in the

sixteenth and seventeenth century. He was an incredible hymn writer

who was very interesting to look into because he grew

up with his church singing the psalms, which that's awesome,

that's super rad, that's super cool. But he was watching

people sing them like they were dead, like they were

just singing whatever the psalm was with no life, and honestly,

because it was the Old Testament, it was missing some

of the New Testament language of Christ and what he accomplished,

what he had done. So he started complaining to his

father about it, and his father did what any good

father should do, He said, why do you do something

about it? And so we started writing songs for the

church that put both of them together, that brought the

New Testament language to these psalms, and so it's really

really awesome. He was considered the catalyst for the English

Church in writing hymns that keep the biblical message and

accuracy and faithfulness and pair it with the truths that

we get to sing that are fulfilled in the New Testament.

Now you're like cool, history lesson dungeon. That's super cool.

I know that's what I told you, But this is

relevant because the song that we're going to look at,

like I said, it wasn't written while reflecting about Christmas.

It wasn't written for Christmas. It was written while he

was meditating on Psalm ninety eight. So let's actually take

a look at it right now and see if you

can kind of get a hint or guess of what

that song is. If you don't know already, ninety eight

should be on the screen. You can also turn there

on your bible. We also have bibles in the back.

Please go grab one, take it for yourself as yours

to keep. We love the Bible here, so Psalm ninety

eight says, Oh, 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. The Lord

has made known his salvation. He has revealed his righteousness

in the sight of the nations. He has remembered his

steadfast love and faithfulness to the House of Israel. All

the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of

our God. Make a joyful noise to the Lord. All

the earth break forth into joyous song, and sing praises.

Sing praises to the Lord of the liar with the

liar and the sound of melody, with the trumpets and

the sound of the horn, make a joyful noise before

the King the Lord. Let the sea roar and all

that fills it, the world and those who dwell in it.

Let the rivers clap their hands. Let the hills sing

for joy together before the Lord, for he comes to

judge the earth. He will judge the world with righteousness

and the peoples with equity. Can you guess it, it's

a hint. We're already saying at the beginning of service.

Joy to the world, Joy to the world. That is

gonna be the hymn that we are looking at today.

So he read Psalm ninety eight and is like, I'm

gonna write a different song. He's gonna rewrite it. So

let's look at it. We're gonna pray, or look at it,

look at the song, pray and jump right into that sound, good, awesome,

Joy to the world. The Lord is come. Let earth

receive her King. Let every heart prepare him room in

heaven and nature. Sing joy to the earth. The Savior

reigns our mortal songs employ while fields and floods, rocks,

hills and plains repeat the sounding joy. No more let

sins and sorrows grow, nor thorns infests the ground, For

He comes to make his blessings flow far as the

curse is found. He rules the world with truth and grace,

and makes the nations prove the glories of His righteousness

and wonders of his love. Lord, we thank you for

this opportunity to be gathered in your name. We just

asked that with the songs that we've already sung, the

song that we're going to be looking at today, with

the truths derived from your scripture, from your word, we

just asked that it would take root in our heart

and take root in our life, and because of it

bear fruit. So we just ask for a challenge. We

ask for open hearts today to receive your word and

to apply it. We give you all glory, We give

you all thanks in Jee's name. Everyone said amen. So

today's advent topic is is joy. That's why we picked

joy to the world. Now, it's kind of funny because

this morning, on the way home from men's breakfast and

some other stuff I had to do on the way home.

I stopped by Walmart to get a one of those

pickup orders. Right my wife's say, hey, there's an order,

and I was like, all right, I'll pick it up

on my way home. So I start driving to Walmart.

And as I get to Walmart, there's literally a sign

on the road that I turn onto that says Joy

with an arrow pointing the way I was going. And

I was like, that's neat. So I keep driving down

the road and the next turn there's another sign pointing

the opposite direction of Walmart that says Joy, and it

points the opposite direction. So I stick to the plan

and I go to Walmart and I get the pickup.

But then I'm like, I'm preaching out Joy today. Come on,

I gotta see where these arrows go. I gotta know

where they go. And so I go across the street

and I start following these signs. See the two signs,

and so I start driving into this neighborhood to nothing.

There was nothing there. There was no Joy, there was nothing.

I didn't find anything. Signs pointed me to Joy and

there was absolutely nothing. I was like, maybe they'd be

cool lights. I don't know if it was left over

from a prior event. But I had these arrows that

pointed me to joy, and they were dead ends. They

went nowhere. Still fitting, it's still fitting. It's still fitting

because how many of us have things in our life

that point us to joy or say, hey, joy's this

way that we follow that we go down those roads

and go, all right, I'll go check it out. I'll

see what's down here, and then there's nothing. We're disappointed.

They lied, or no, they lied, they lied. There's nothing there.

They had to have been something there, guys, the signs

were there, all right, all right, So we're talking about joy,

and so I think it's a fair question for us

to ask what brings you joy? What brings you joy?

Is it your new job? Could be your new job.

Maybe it was your new job, right, You're like, if

I just get this job, if I just get this job,

all arrows are pointing to joy, This will solve all

my problems. And then you got that job and you're like,

this is kind of like the last job I had.

What about your newborn child or maybe you have one

on the way, and you're anticipating that, You're like, this

is awesome, this is wonderful, and then you go into

labor and you're like, eh, Or you've had the baby

and you've been up with three nights in a row

or more. Maybe you haven't slet for seven years. That's

also very very very possible. Guys. Maybe it's a new

season of the favorite show that you're waiting for. Right,

You're like, this new Stranger Things episode is just gonna

be so good. Maybe it's survivor fifty. Who knows what

it could be, just peering into my life. It's fine.

Many of these things we go to for joy, but

unfortunately we quickly find out that over time these things

that promise of us joy either lied or fade. Right,

So it's momentary joy. It's like I'm having so much fun.

It's like you're in Disneyland. You're like, this is the best,

and then it's time to go home, and you're said,

we search for those things that will bring us that

feeling of happiness, pleasure, and delight, and when we do

find those things, we really don't want them to end.

It's awesome, it's like a joyful thing to feel joyous,

But all those things do end, and so our joy

ends with them. Some of us, however, do have those

things that kind of give us a glimpse of lasting joy.

Maybe it's a favorite song you can always go back to.

Maybe it's a favorite memory or picture sure of a

specific time in your life and you can kind of

go there and it kind of takes you back. But

even those, you have to be careful with those. I

have favorite songs, I have to be careful because even

with those, I can wear those out as well. We

all have this desire to be filled with joy. We

long to have that feeling, and I believe it's because

we were created to experience that kind of joy. We

were created to experience lasting joy. But our problem as

mankind has been pretty much since the beginning, as we

have started to try and find substitutes. We've tried to

find other things that could meet that need, other things

that could fill that gap, and so then those things

end up never delivering all the things that they actually

can't give us. Those things weren't meant to give us

lasting joy. And honestly, it's hard because we can have

a joyful life, we can be joy filled, but then

all of a sudden, devastation strikes, or things shift, things change,

and then all of a sudden, we realize, well, my

joy's gone. It took joy from me. But it's also

very possible and probably more likely, that it didn't take

anything from you. It just exposed that your joy was misplaced.

Your joy was misplaced in something that could actually never last.

Because there's only one thing that can give us true

and lasting joy, and I believe it's the point of

this song today. The thing that brings us lasting joy,

in fact, isn't a thing at all. It's a person,

the King Jesus Christ. So what I want to see

from this text today is that Jesus is the king

that brings lasting joy. Jesus is the king that brings

lasting joy. And I want you to stick with me

because we're gonna get to talk a lot about what

joy is and how he brings it. But also I

really do want to talk about how we can apply

this to our life. This is cool to talk about joy,

and it kind of sucks if you don't have it, right,

So we should talk about how amazing joy is, but

then also how can we actually have joy in our life.

Enjoy to the World is an incredible song because it

sings about the coming and ruling reign of the Great

King Jesus, and it shows us the response and the

affections that it should or affections that it should evoke

from all creation, that of pure, unending joy. It's understandable

how this became a favorite Christmas time song because as

we look at Advent meaning Christ's coming, it's an easy

choice when you want to be like, hey, let's sing

about Joey the King coming. This song is very thorough.

Like I said, it wasn't made to sing about a

new born king. It's made to sing about the King.

It's made to sing about his first coming, his current reign,

and his second coming. So we're gonna dig into it.

So look at that first second sings about the joy

brought to the world in Christ's coming, and what our

response should be. Let's look at it. It says, joy to

the world, the Lord is come. Let Earth receive her King.

Let every heart prepare him room in heaven and nature sing.

Obvious choice for a great Christmas song. But like we

looked at on Christmas Eve, Jesus was born, the King

of Israel, the King of all creation, being God in

the flesh. And this song shows us how when we

think of the coming of the Lord, whether his first

or his second coming. There is this call to receive

the king and make room in your heart for him.

So first the song shows us that Jesus is the

king of the earth. It belongs to him, and saying, Earth,

he's your king, receive him. Remember that what Jesus said

before he send it to sit at the right hand

of the Father. Matthew twenty eight eighteen says, and Jesus

came and said to them, all authority, listen to this.

This is kind of crazy, guys. All authority in heaven

and on earth has been given to who Jesus? What

does that mean? That means Jesus is the final authority

over everything? Say over everything, that's what Jesus is. Second,

there is this call to let every heart prepare him room.

And this is a very helpful picture that mister Watts

is painting for us. How much how often do we

let our hearts get so cluttered up with other things

that we don't have room for Jesus, that we don't

make room for Jesus. I don't have time for you.

I got too much stuff in here. I can't add

another thing to my plate. Our busy schedules that end

up pushing church, serving Jesus to an occasional thing, rather

than letting the king get to dictate our schedules and lives.

We make time and room for things that are important

in our life. But what can be more important than Jesus.

We can know what we prioritize by looking at our schedules,

our budgets, our weekly routines. And my question to you

is is Jesus in any of that? Is Jesus built

into any of that? Or is he a nice add on?

When I have time the occasional thing? Is there any

room for Christ? Is there any intentionality to the time

that you do give him? Who gets first DIBs on

your schedule? Who gets first DIBs on your time in

the morning? Is it a created thing? Or is it

the creator king? Which one is it? Who gets first

DIBs on your life? This song rightfully brings the sobering

reality that the fact that christis come should cause us

to stop and consider Jesus is our king and lasting joy.

I know I just brought the room way down. We're

talking about joy, talking about Jesus. Jesus our joy. And

if we give him the back seat, if we give

him the leftovers. Are we really treating him like our lord?

Are we really treating him like our king? Many of

us are giving our joy the back seat in our lives.

And honestly, this is why it's so important that we

actually stop and listen to these songs, because we'll sing

and we're like, oh Christmas, the world, let every heart

prepare them room, you know, and it's really cool, but

we like don't do that. We don't actually listen. Literally,

these songs are here to help prepare our hearts for

the season, and we don't let them do that because

we don't listen to them. We just sing them. We're like, oh,

Christmas time, I love this song. We should consider the

things that these songs actually call us to do. But

this verse ends with the repeated refrain and Heaven and

Nature sing, and that those we're gonna see in our

second verse. This call for all creations sing is very

fitting because just like we give temporary things, they give

temporary joy, our praises. We'll sing with joy about the

new episode that we just saw. We're gonna sing with

joy about Oh, this is my favorite part of the song.

You gotta pay attention here. Oh, I know what's coming

up in this movie. You gotta wait and watch stay

awake for this. How much more should we sing the

praises of what Christ did when he came? How much

should we sing the praises of the things that He's

going to do when he comes? How much should we

sing the praises of the things that He's doing in

our lives right now? So this text is, this verse

here is is basically just gonna kind of double down

on that call for us to sing. It's gonna call

about the joy brought to the earth. But this time

it's going to give an even more specific title to

the king. Look at this says joy to the earth.

The Savior reigns Our mortal songs employ while fields and floods, rocks,

hills and plains repeat the sounding joy. So who is

the reigning or who is reigning as king? It's a savior.

The Savior is the one who is reigning as king.

And there's call for us to join in with all

of creation. We should add our songs, even even if

we're mortals, we should add our songs to join into

to repeating the sounding joy. All creation is singing unto

our Lord. We should two and these two verses. The

next two verses, verse three and verse four, are going

to unpack what this first line says. Verse three explains

what Jesus has done and is doing as savior, and

verse four speaks to the extent of his reign. Now,

I'm a big music guy. I love listening to records

and CDs all the way through. Howther most of them

were meant to be listened to. But in today's day

and age, we love our singles. And every artist nowadays

has at least like one hopefully good single and maybe

three of the good singles on their album, and the

rest of them we just consider deep cuts. Well, verse

three is also a deep cut because most most renditions

of the song cut it, not because it's heretical wrong.

It's actually a great verse. It's probably just more clunky

and maybe it doesn't like fuel the joy vibes a

little bit. Well, we're gonna look at this because it's

this wonderful proclamation of what the Savior's coming means. Look

at this. No more, Let sins and sorrows grow. Actually

should stop. Really, the problem is people just don't like

talking about sin anymore. We've much rather talk about joy

and not talking about sin, when in fact, this is

good news for the problem of sin, all right, No

more let sins and sorrows grow, nor thorns infest the ground.

He comes to make his blessings flow far as the

curse is found. That is is good news. That is

great news. The King that has and is coming has

implications for us today, and this song is calling us

to it, not just to sing his praises, but literally

to stop sinning. Stop sinning, and stop having sorrow. Stop

your sorrow. But here it also says nor thorns infests

the ground. Now here's what that sounds like. Maybe Isaac

Watts hated weeding his garden, but that is not what

he's talking about. Isaac is taking us all the way

back to the beginning of the Bible, when everything was

good and beautiful. God created everything good. He made man

and woman in his own image. He told them to

work to the ground and have lots of baby If

the first man and woman were naked and felt no shame,

anyone felt shame before? Just me? Cool, thanks, guys. It's

not a joyful feeling. It's not a joyful feeling. Shame

makes us want to hide. Joy has a saying like

buddy the Elf. I'm in love, in love, and I

don't care who knows it. We don't want to hide

this Christmas season, guys. Come on, I didn't even watch

it this year. It's so sad. Never too late. It

says that they felt no shame. But after only two

chapters in Paradise, in chapter three, everything takes a terrible turn.

The man and a woman deceived by the serpent decided

to trust Satan's words over God's words. They did exactly

what all of us have done. We put our trust

and what we hope the creation can give us instead

of putting our trust in our creator. That's exactly what

Romans one tells us. Look at this because they exchanged

the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and

served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.

So how many of us are chasing the lies? Let's

say we can find true joy and of this world

instead of looking to the maker of it. A lot

of us are following these street signs that point to

joy but end up being dead ends. I remember one

time I was praying to the Lord, thanking him for

making music, because again, I really like music. And I

was thanking him. I love music. Thank you so much

for making music. It's awesome, and I appreciate that you

made me appreciate it. And in the middle of praying,

kind of have this thought kind of hit me, kind

of felt like something from him. And the thought that

occurred to me was that that's just one of the

things I created. That's just one of the things I created.

So I was praising God for creating music. Not wrong

at all, but in the moment, he helped me see

that I was praising him for something that he literally invented.

How much greater must he be? He made the thing

I really like. I may go to music for joy,

but that's something God made. How much more joy could

I find in him? We're gonna go back to the

beginning when mankind rebelled against God, Death, destruction, and decay

came into the world, and one of those curses was

thorns in the ground. Look at this Genesis three and

said to Adam, or into Adam, he said, because you

have listened to the voice of your wife and have

eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, you

shall not eat of it. Cursed is the ground because

of you in pain. You shall eat of it all

the days of your life. Thorns and thistles it shall

bring forth for you, and you shall eat the plants

of the field. By the sweat of your face. You

shall eat bread till you return to the ground, for

out of or out of it you taken, for you

are dust, and to dust you shall return. So this

is the curse of the thorns that Isaac is writing

about hard labor. So the beginning line of this verse

says that no more should sin, sorrow or thorns grow.

And he tells us why, because Jesus the Savior has

come to reverse the curse. That's what Jesus came to do.

Look at the song, It says he comes to make

his blessings flow far as the curse is found. And

interestingly enough, how did Jesus do this. He did it

by becoming a curse for us. Look at this Galatians

three thirteen. Christ redeemed us from the curse of the

law by becoming a curse for us. For it is written,

curse is everyone who is hanged on a tree. And

how fitting that when Jesus was hung on a cross,

he wore a crown of what thorns. Jesus the King,

when he first came, was crowned with thorns and killed.

He literally took our curse upon himself. When we were

driven from God's presence because of our rebellion, God promised

that not only creation was going to be cursed, but

that that's a punishment we were going to die. That

the penalty for our sin is death, that death is

the result of our sin like this Romans six twenty three.

For the wages of sin is death, but the free

gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus, our Lord.

If we die in our sins, we will spend the

rest of eternity separated from God's gracious presence, and instead

face the wrath do our sin. But for everyone who

puts their faith in Jesus the Savior, King Jesus, he

takes our punishment by dying in our place, dying for

our sins, and instead gives us his righteousness. What king

have you ever heard of doing that for his own people?

Our king is so good. What our king brings when

he comes, which cause us to rejoice. Jesus the King,

through his own death, burial and resurrection three days later,

has shown that he has defeated sin and death, that

he is the power to reverse the curse. That this

and what this song sings of is this fact that

the Savior King has now come to make his blessings

flow as far as the curse is found. Complete renewal,

complete transformation. And this is where we get that beautiful

picture of the already not yet. There are ways even

now that Jesus has begun to reverse the curse in

our life, but that also will be finally completed when

he returns. I don't have it up here on the screen,

but you can turn there with me. It's Romans eight

twenty two. Romans eight twenty two. This gives us a

good picture of how there's a reason the earth should

have joy. There's a reason that the world has joy

when the King comes. There's a reason that the rocks

and hills sing. There's a reason that we should too.

It's because it means the redemption and freedom of everyone,

everyone who's put their faith in Jesus all creation. It's

just a sad bystander of our problems than what we

were supposed to be doing in the first place. But

look at this Romans eight. For we know that the

whole creation has been growning together in the pains of

childbirth until now, not only the creation, but we ourselves,

who will have the first fruits of the spirit grown

inwardly as we await eagerly for adoption as suns, the

redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we are saved. Now.

Hope that is seen is not hope, for who hopes

for what he sees. But if we hope for what

we do not see, we wait for it with patients.

So we have first fruits of the spirit now That

causes us to go like Jesus, come back, fix this

broken world. But it's also the hope that we look

forward to. So we grown waiting for that day to

show up because we know it's gonna come. We also

know that we gotta be a little bit patient. This

is not here yet, And I love fireworks. I don't

know if any of you guys are ready for technically

the New Year's Day would make them as sense, But

I Christmas is over, guys. It is officially the fourth

of July season. It's time, guys. We're gonna watch the Patriot.

It's be fantastic, It's gonna be awesome. This is the

two things that I look forward to every year. But

I love fireworks show, and if you've been there, you

know that there's always a beginning, the first couple that

get lit off, and you watch the show as multiple

are lit. But we're all waiting for when they just

let loose, when they let all of them finally go.

We're all waiting for the grand finale. When Jesus first came,

it was like he lit the fuse. And there's instances

now even where we get to see some of those

fireworks go off in our own life. But at the

end of the day, what we're all really waiting for

is a grand finale, and it's gonna be awesome. It's

gonna be sick. So really, what I'm saying is this

verse should not be slept on. They should put it

back in the songs because it's really good. It's really awesome,

So someone do that. Now we're gonna go to the

fourth verse, speaking to the extent of Jesus the King's reign,

says he rules the world with truth and grace and

makes the nations prove the glories of his righteousness and

wonders of his love, which I realized doesn't rhyme. I

was realizing that as reading through it earlier. Today, it

doesn't matter. Okay, it says who or he rules the

world with truth and grace? So who runs the world

Jesus does? Sorry, Beyonce, it's not girls. It's Jesus, Jesus Christ.

And look at the characteristics of his rule, truth and grace.

We looked at this on Christmas Eve, John one fourteen,

it says, and the word became flesh and dwelt among us,

and we have seen his glory, glory as of the

only son from the Father, full of what grace and truth. Now,

I don't know if you guys know this, but we

don't have kings really here in America. It's kind of

the whole thing about founding it in the first place.

At least that's what some of the books say. And

there's a lot of the world that doesn't have kings anymore.

One of the reasons is I think people kind of

got sick and tired of watching evil men have a

lot of power to just do whatever they wanted to

all the time. So kind of as a whole, there's

a lot of nations who have rejected having a king,

so I think there's a general disdain or maybe aversion

to the idea of being ruled by kings. But the

fact is is Jesus is a king. Jesus is the

ruler not just of the world, not just of literally

the universe, but of you and I. He is the king,

not just any king, but he's the perfect and good king,

the king of kings, and the lord of lords. Jesus

came as a king, now rules is a king, and

when he comes again, he's going to forever reign as

a king. So no matter how you slice it, you'll

have to accept having a king. We talked about it

on Christmas Eve that when this king comes, he's either

going to come to save his people. Well, he is

going to come save his people, and he's going to

destroy his enemies, those who have set themselves up as God.

And why because he's going to show grace to his people,

and he's going to bring the truth to bear injustice

on the heads of all those who have continued in

the rebellion against him. This shows us the nature of

Christ's reign, truth and grace. That's a king. I think

we can get behind this world. It's a world that

we all long for We all long for justice to

be served. Not only do we hear about on the

news all the time about the things that have gone wrong,

but I do know. But we're about to enter another

election year, everybody, which is awesome. And what is going

to be the truth that guides you? What is going

to be the thing that helps you navigate the onslaught

of slogans and campaigns, all vying for your attention and

trying to promise you something that they cannot give you.

We need a king that makes it so that no

matter what happens, we cannot be shaken or driven to fear.

We need truth to guide us as long as we

live as we're supposed to live, as light and salt

in the communities and country that we live in. And

Jesus gives us all that. We can no longer have

fear going into this next year, because our King rules

and reigns, and ultimately all of the authorities above us

ultimately have to answer to him. Look again at this verse.

It says he rules the world with truth and grace.

He makes the nations prove the glories of his righteousness

and the wonders of his love. So this making the

nations prove is meant to mean that the glory of

Christ will be made evident to the nations of the world.

You remember the great commission. We looked at a little

bit of it earlier. Jesus came and said to them,

all authority in heaven on earth has been given to me.

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them

in the name of the Father and of the Son

and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all

that I've commanded you. And behold, I'm with you always

to the end of the age. Jesus, in his authority,

gave his church the commission to make disciples of the nations.

And the result of that, the result of making disciples

and baptizing in the name and teaching them Jesus' commandments,

is that these nations end up giving glory to God,

that you end up seeing fruit of God, that the

people of these nations start going like, hey, there's a

king over you too. There's a true king. Jesus's rule

and rain will never end and will never fail. And

this is good news. Jesus's reign is an eternal reign,

and because of that, as long as this king is reigning,

we have this call to rejoice, this call to have joy.

Jesus is the king that brings lasting joy because his

reign will be forever. Now, I do believe that just

talking about these things, remembering these things, or learning these

things and these truths should invoke joy in us. They should.

But I also want to speak practically to how this

joy is to come about, and I need the band

to come up. Please. When we begin to grasp what

the coming of Jesus means, then if you're a believer,

this should invoke joy, this hopeful longing of who our

king is and to have it finally be realized. So

we should dwell and meditate on this fact more often.

Open up your Bible and meditate on these truths daily

to remind yourself and not lose sight of the hope.

But on the flip side, if you're not a believer,

the only thing that the coming King will invoke in

you is either indifference or dread. And here's the deal.

Your indifference only gets to last like that long. I

was gonna do this, but that's too long. It's your

life is not that long. And when he returns, your

indifference will turn to dread. Why because look at the

end of Psalm ninety eight says, let the rivers clap

their hands, let the hills sing for joy together before

the Lord, for he comes to judge the earth. He

will judge the world with righteousness and the peoples with equity.

The Lord is coming to judge. And for those who

put their faith in Jesus, this will be a glorious thing,

because we have no judgment to dread, because Christ took

our judgment on himself in our place. But for those

who reject Christ, Who's the only way of salvation, they

only have a fearful expectation of judgment. Look at Psalm two,

and the end of it says, now, therefore, o kings,

be wise, be warned, Oh rulers of the earth. Serve

the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the

Son lest he be angry, and you perish in the way,

for his wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed are all those

who take refuge in him. So there's this warning to

the world, and specifically the leaders of the world, to

submit themselves to the King or face judgment. But look

what it says. At the end. It says blessed are

those who take refuge in Him, and for us, the believers,

the coming King doesn't mean judgment, guilt, or shame. It

means glory and righteousness, love, mercy, joy. These are the

things we put our hope in. This is what we

have to look forward to. The amazing hope that we

have been given is an unshakable truth that gives us

unshakable joy because no one can take the truth from you.

The Christ is king. No one can make Christ not king.

He is Lord overall, which brings us to the application.

There's this proverb that I think perfectly summarizes this, Proverbs

ten twenty eight. It says, the hope of the righteous

brings joy. What brings joy the hope of the righteous,

and the hope of the righteous is Jesus Christ. But

on the flip side of that, look at what it says,

but the expectation of the wicked will perish. The things

that you're hoping for, the things that you're longing for

that are not Christ, will perish. They'll disappoint you. You

can't put your hope in your job. You can't put

your hope in your friends, your family, your spouse, your money,

your hobby, your president, your political party, your podcast host,

or your pastor you will be disappointed in the end.

The only hope that we have that will never fail,

that will always give you last enjoys the living hope

who will never end or perish, and that is Jesus Christ.

Look at what Peter says, and this is gonna be

one to meditate on. So you should write this down.

Blessed to be the God and Father of our Lord,

Jesus Christ. According to his great mercy, he has caused

us to be born again to a living hope through

the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an

inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled and unfaided and kept in

heaven for you, who by God's power are being guarded

through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in

the last time. In this you rejoice, though now for

a little while, if necessary. You've been grieved by various trials,

so that the tested genuineness of your faith, more precious

than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire,

may be found to result in praise and glory and

honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Though you have

not seen him. You love him, though you do not

now see him, You believe in him, and rejoice with

what joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory obtaining

the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

There's a lot here, but this is why it would

be good to meditate on this. God has shown us

mercy and caused us to be born again, to a

living hope, to an inheritance that's being kept for us

that will never fade or perish, and God himself is

guarding us until the day of that salvation. He says,

though you haven't seen him, you love him and believe

in him, and are filled with joy because of it.

And in fact, it's a joy so great it can't

even really be expressed. Nothing in all of creation can

offer you something like this. Only the living King Jesus.

So I'd call each and every one of you to

receive our King, to make room in our hearts, to

put our hope fully in him, and enjoy the blessings

and lasting joy that Jesus the King brings. Now here's

the deal. That is where I finished my message. That

is where I ended my message in its proper form.

But as I was processing through this, I told you

to have joy, but I didn't tell you how to

have joy. Yes, put your faith in Jesus, Believe in Jesus,

put your hope in Jesus. But how do we do

that practically? How do I do that in a moment

of crisis? How do I do that in the moment

when I don't feel like being joyful? How do I

remind myself of this truth? Handle bars? We need something

to grab onto to make this real. Because you're like, yep,

I agree with that we should have joy. Jesus is

the one who brings it. Good job. I'm going to

go home now. How do we actually live in this joy?

And for me it's hell to have something that is memorable?

So I made an acronym. Okay, and that acronym is joy. Helpful,

helpful for me because I need to remember this. But

how do we live in joy? How do we live

with joy? How do we live out joy? How do

we have joy? And the acronym is this, it's Jesus

over yourself, Jesus over yourself. And it is a double entendre.

It means two things. Jesus over yourself. There's good. So

often in our life do we try to seek our

own joy by serving ourself. We try and serve ourself,

and we think that that will give us joy. If

I just meet all these of my own needs, I

will have joy. If I define all these things, if

I do all the things my way, I will have joy.

What you need in that moment is Jesus over yourself.

That's what you need to remind yourself of. It's not

about me, It's all about him. It's all about Jesus.

There's a lot of things that this Christian life calls

us to that Jesus tells us to deny ourselves and

guess what. We won't do it. We won't do it

if we think we're over ourselves, if we think we're

in charge, if we're living like the Creator. But it's

much easier to live with joy and do things joyfully,

laying my life down from my wife, if I remember

that Jesus is over myself and Jesus is over you.

We also might be in a dark space, a terrible season,

when things are feeling crazy and rocky and shaken and

hard and difficult. It's hard to find the joy in

the things around you. It's the same answer, Jesus over yourself,

but this time not in the sense of who it's about.

What is. Remember that Jesus is over all creation. Jesus

is over time. Jesus is over history. Jesus is over

your story. Jesus sees your life. He is still in control,

and he is good and perfect and pure, just like

literally Peter got them saying, He's like, we have this

incredible thing showing up for us. Even if for right

now things are a little hard, you still love him,

You still have this joy. It's because Jesus is over everything.

Jesus is over you. So choosing joy is choosing Jesus

over yourself. It's way easier to do life when it's

not about you. There's way less reasons to get upset

and have your joy stolen or ruined when you're not

making life about you. Our joy is in Him, and

so we need to stop looking to other things for

lasting joy because it's only in Christ. And in those

spaces where we're feeling frustrated, we need to remind ourselves

to practice joy. Jesus over yourself. He is over me.

He rules me. I live for him, not for myself.

And what's crazy is we'll have joy. That's what's crazy,

because you're like, oh, that sounds terrible, that doesn't sound

like a good time. But that's what's crazy is that

you actually live for him and you're free. You're free

from your own frustrations, you're free from your own expectations.

But now you have hope. You have hope in him,

the one who can actually do anything in your life

in the first place. So we need to look to Christ.

We need to look to Jesus and the joy that

he brings at his coming, all of them, the first one,

the second one. In his current reign, he's the only

one who will not lead us to a dead end,

but has things that that at the end of that

road that we can't even imagine. That I should fill

us with hope and that should bring us joy. Amen,

all right, would you please stand