Joy | Jason Martin

You're listening to a message to go from axt church. We hope this message

will light up your day. So the title for my message. I will

go to the title later. But what is a three letter word that is

very popular during the Christmas season? Joy? Correct? And joy is very

popular in December throughout the rest of the year. Do we use the word

joy much? Not as much? And why is that? Why is that?

You know? So let me bring you able through some of my thought

process. Right, okay, So as I get the slides up, the

first light so you know this joy to the world. You know this song?

Right, Joy to the world. The Lord is come, Joy to

the world. The Lord is come. That means right, joy is there

that I mean? He just didn't come in December. And that's about it.

You know, after he turned one month old, the joy disappeared.

No, right, the joy prolonged because joy to the world. The moment

he came, he brought joy. Right. The next question is next life,

do you have joy? Turny your neighbor and asked do you have joy?

Do you have joy? How many of y'all think you have joy?

How many are not sure? How many hope to have joy? Right?

But the thing is, do you want joy? You want joy? We

know we want joy, and we know that joy to the world. The

Lord has come. When God came, he brought for joy, right,

and God is living within us, hence that we should be living a life

of joy, all right. And the fact is, like this morning,

I told you, right, when I wished a few people a happy New

Year, they look puzzled and weary, and suddenly there's like the joy of

the Lord has been sucked out after the first week of January, right,

And if it's only the first week, how do we preserve and protect our

joy throughout the whole year, because we definitely need the joy of the Lord.

Right. So before I go any further, right, I wanted to

show a video, all right, because what is your perception of joy?

What do you think about you? What does joy mean to you? And

the reason why the word joy is very popular during Christmas time, right,

it's because right later the video will come up, a lot of us have

this preconceived notion of what the definition of joy is, all right. So

let's cue the video. Take I max big brands, small prices lately,

all right, So what is the preconceived notion that a lot of us have

about joy, gifts and presents, right, a lot of materialism Christmas,

right, it's all about presents. It's all about getting or giving joy and

so and this right, this is an ad from Australia, one of the

chain stars there. And that's what a lot of people. They may not

celebrate the birth of Christmas, birth of Jesus, but they will celebrate giving

presents. And that's why they say, oh joy, I have joy in

December is because I'm receiving gifts. I'm giving gifts, and it's all about

the gift. And in January, without the gifts, there is no more

joy, you know. Like for example, right, I remember I when

the iPhone first came out. So when the iPhone first came out, there

was no number, it was just known as the iPhone. All right.

That was so long ago. Okay, that's how old I am. So

long ago. I still remember my friend was in US. He was coming

back, so at that time I told him, hey, can you pick

me up one that time? Right, is only one nine nine USD one

nine nine USD And it was that time. The converserrate is like three point

something, right, so it only costs like I don't know, seven hundred

ring it now it's an iPhone, like four thousand something, crazy, six

thousand or seven thousand. Yeah. So anyway, when when I got that

iPhone, right, it was like a game changer, all right, because

the alternatives during that time was Nokia, and the only thing you can do

in a Nokia, no matter how expensive you had, right, whatever expensive

Nokia phone you had, the best you could do is play Snake. That's

as much entertainment you can get from your phone. You can spend three thousand

on a Nokia. I can spend five hundred on a Nokia. The vessel

of entertainment is the most you can do is just play Snake on it.

So suddenly the iPhone was a game changer, and I was like, wow,

this is awesome. And then my friend saw it. It's so cool,

right, and I was like so happy. And then after that,

what happened The next iPhone came out, right, so suddenly your happiness drops,

and then the following iPhone comes out, you know, and a lot

of us, right, we think that is what we get joy from.

It's from our possessions. I need to buy the bigger house, I need

to buy a new tesla. You know, now you see a lot of

people getting their teslas and stuff like that, and a lot of people,

right, they attribute their joy towards possessions. All right, I need to

do something new, I need something fresh. That's why you are always hustling.

You need to hustle, you need to go, you need to get

something, you need a new job, you need whatever it is. I

need a change. But without change or without getting more stuff, can you

still have joy? Because again, what is your definition of joy? Because

in the Bible, right they do use the word joy. The word joy

is there, and I will show it to you. Okay, So let

me take us to some scriptures next NIGHTE live too. Now, there were

in the same country shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over their

flock by night. And behold, an Angel of the Lord stood before them,

and the glory of the Lord shown around them, and they were greatly

afraid. Then the angel said to them, do not be afraid, for

behold I bring you good tidings of great joy, which will be to all

people. Okay, let's pause there. So it says here good tidings of

great joy. So what is good tidings? Well, it's good tidings,

and he thoughts, I've read this before. Good tidings is like good news.

I bring you good news that will bring you great joy. And this

was two thousand years ago, and this good news still is supposed to bring

us great joy. If it's not, then we may not understand what this

good news is. You know, we do not have a grasp of it,

or we just forgot about it. But this good news is actually the

source of joy. Okay, next, so what is that good news?

Next line? For there is born to you this day in the city of

David, a savior who is Christ the Lord. That is the good news.

That is the good news. You know who is Christ the Lord.

And this will be a signed to you. You will find a babe wrapped

in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the

Angel a multitude of the heavenly hosts, praising God and saying glory to God

in the highest and on earth, peace and good will to all men.

So, Church, do you all know the good news? I'm sure you

all all know the good news. The question is do you believe? Because

it is the truth? You know. In some versions of the Bible.

Right, it is known as the good News Bible. You know, when

I was younger, I had a copy of the Good News Bible. I

was like, why is he called good News Bible? You know? But

it's actually good news. And just because you know it does not change the

fact that it is good news and it's supposed to bring joy. So today

I give you a definition of joy. Okay, this is one of the

definitions which I piece together. Okay, let's look at it. So joy,

biblical joy is choosing to respond to external circumstances with inner contentment and satisfaction

because we know that God will use these experiences to accomplish his work in and

through our lives. This is the biblic definition of joy. Does it show

anything about possession? Does it show anything about good times? No? Does

it tally with your perception of joy? Yeah, it's not right because for

us we think joy is everything needs to go well. I have everything I

need, I have favor, everything is going well, then I have joy.

But the biblical joy show is it acknowledges that God is in my situation,

no matter what kind of situation I'm in, And because He's in my

situation, I have joy. Right, So this is joy? So,

Church, how many of y'all want this kind of joy? I know?

I want you know, and you know to face this year twenty twenty four?

If Week one was tough, do you need joy? Right? I

want this kind of joy. I want this kind of joy. I want

to experience this kind of joy every single day for this coming year, because

whatever I'm going through will not determine my joy. My God, who I

believe in, will determine my joy. And my God never changes. He

is the same yesterday, today and forever. Right, So Church today,

Now I will come to the title of my sermon. Okay, the title

of my sermon next life. Beware the kill joys, beware the Allay.

So why do I choose this picture? And he dies? So I give

you so. I usually like to use pictures and illustrations to help drive a

point. Right. So, this guy, this small boy, he bought

an ice cream. He had an ice cream. He was full of joy

and never happened to ice cream fell and it was a kill joy. And

there will be kill joys in our life. There will be circumstances, there

will be situations in our life that will try and rob us of our joy

and we need to protect and safeguarded because if your joy was in the ice

cream, what will happen when it's taken away? It's gone. So judge,

let's see there will be three points that will touch it today. What

are the different kill joys that we have to be aware of this year,

and when we identify them, we will know how to tackle them. All

right, So let's go to the first one. The first kill joy is

anxiety. Okay. So this picture right, Okay, it's like I took

it. I think it was snapshot from one of the movies that was released.

I think there's these two girls who are stuck in a tall tower and

there's like impossible to get down. So it's you are anxious, right,

It's anxiety, right, So I give you the acronym for the three points

right now, there's three points right, so it will stand for A,

R and m ARM. Okay, So the first point A is anxiety,

right, and anxiety is real. Right. Let's not downplay anyone's anxiety because

everyone has a different level of anxiety, has a different level of tolerance.

And your anxiety that you are going through maybe the toughest situation that you have

dealt with right it may, so let's not compare. But we need to

acknowledge where we are at and then we can move forward. Okay. So

the first point is anxiety, and I will take the three examples from the

Bible. Three characters. It's all from the Christmas story as well. Okay,

So the first point, right, anxiety. Any thoughts who would be

a character that was going through anxiety during this Christmas story. There's only a

few characters live the Christmas story. I'll guess Joseph, not Joseph. Hey,

I give it. I give you to yaller. The first one is

Mary, Mary. Okay, So I'll bring us through some scriptures, all

right, leup? Q. Now, in the sixth month, the angel

Gabriel was sent by God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a

virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph of the House of David.

The virgin's name was Mary, and having come in, the Angel said to

her, rejoice, highly favored one, The Lord is with you. Blessed

are you among women? Right next line. But when she saw him,

she was troubled at his saying and considered what manner of greeting. This was

then the angel said to her, do not be afraid, Mary, for

you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceived in your

womb and bring forth a son, and call his name Jesus. Okay,

let's posse of right, all right, so you can see here Mary was

troubled. Okay, let's put ourselves in the shoes of Mary. So probably

the women may be able to empathize a bit more or feel it a bit

more. But don't worry, guys, there's another character which I will which

you all can advertised and feel with. Oh as well. Okay, put

your shoes, yourself in the shoes of Mary. Right. She was probably

a teenager around this time, is around fifteen sixteen in Jewish times. This

is when they were bestrolled and got married. And she was just got engaged,

just got engaged to the love of her life and they're planning their wedding

and stuff like that. Right, suddenly an angel appears. A right suddenly

an angel appears and says that you have found favor, and you know what

the favor looks like. You will have a baby. How would you feel?

How would the women feel? You know, you're planning for your wedding.

You're planning for your wedding right now, and suddenly an angel appears to

you and they say, hey, you found favor with God. You're like,

yes, I got favor with God. How does the favor of God

look like? You'll be pregnant? How would you feel? It's very clear

how she felt. She was troubled. I think that's an understatement, trouble.

I think she would be like freaking out right freaking out. There'll be

so many things going through her mind. You know, how can I be

pregnant? You know, how is it possible? What will Joseph think about

me? What will my parents think about me? What will my friends think?

Will they stone me? Will they think that I committed adultery? Do

you think this is reasons for anxiety? Yeah? I mean if you had

a reason for anxiety, I think usually all of us say, I wish

I could see an angel? Are you sure? Are you sure? Are

you sure you want to see an angel? Because the angel shows up?

I mean God has a plan for you, and you have to be ready

for that plan. All right, So Mary was anxious, She was anxious.

She could panic. You know, what would you have done in the

shoes of Mary? Would you have declined the favor of God? Would you

say depart from me? Satan? You know what would you have done?

Seriously think about it? Put yourself in shoes of Mary. We are so

familiar with this story that it just like autopilot. It's just like one line

that's about it. But when you to think about it, right, it

is so tough. God's plans for us are higher, are bigger, are

better, but it may not seem so in the moment, and that will

cause anxiety. And when that causes anxiety, it will what does it do?

It is a killed joy because what is anxiety? You are losing contry,

You are losing control of your circumstance, of your situation. I have

no idea what am I going to do? And then because you do not,

you know I have control, you start panicking. Can you have panic

and joy at the same time? No, that's what I say. Usually

right, our perception of joy is everything is going well, Then I have

joy? But what? How did Mary respond? Next line? And the

Angel answered to her, So I skipped forward a few worses right the Holy

Spirit. Mary asked the Angel how can this be? And stuff like that.

And the Angel answered and said to her, the Holy Spirit will come

upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you. Therefore,

also the Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of

God God. Then what did Mary do? Then? Mary said, behold,

the maid servant of the Lord, let it be to me according to

your word. Wow, can you imagine responding like that? Can you imagine

responding to that? What kind of level of faith must you have to respond

like this when the circumstances and the situations around you does not make sense,

it's not in your favor, you can still say, let it be to

me according to your word. That is the level of faith that Mary had.

Mary was not didn't let anxiety rule her, you know? And then

after that the angel departed from her. Okay, then can I go to

the next line? So this is the Luke too. After Mary visited Elizabeth,

who was John the Baptist mom right, and Elizabeth also exalted her and

had a conversation with her, and Mary said, my soul magnifies the Lord,

and my spirit has rejoiced in God, my Savior. Did the circumstances

change? No, did the response change from troubled to rejoicing. Why It's

because she changed where she was putting her focus on. So throughout this year,

your circumstances world change. I guarantee you that it will change. It

might change for the better, it might not change for the better. But

if you put your eyes on your circumstances, then your circumstances would be like

the ice cream. The moment it drops, your countenance drops. But if

your eyes and your focus is on God, don't matter what comes my way,

you will be like Mary and say, my soul, my spirit has

rejoiced in God, my Savior Man. All right. So that's the first

point A all right. Next point R R is resentment. Okay, So

pop quiz, which character in the Bible Christmas story do you think would have

had a need for resentment Christmas story? Joseph? It was Joseph, right,

because I told you earlier Mary was like planning for a wedding. Sally

found out that she's gonna get pregnant, and then you know when you get

married. That's too right, that's been his wife, right, So how

would Joseph has about Yeah, Joseph would have probably. Okay, So now

I wanted the guys to think about it. Just now, I was saying,

right girls, ye, ladies, y'all can probably empathize a bit more

with Mary. Now for the guys, imagine you just proposed to your girlfriend,

your fiance now your fianc Right, y'all are planning a wedding. You

have saved so much you're probably printed out the wedding cards and stuff like that.

Sally, your fiance comes to you, Hey, God appeared to me.

Wow, really, what do you say? You see I'm carrying his

son. Were like, uh, what does that mean? You know,

what does that mean? What do you mean? And its? And Mary

says that I'm pregnant with God's son. How would you respond? How would

you respond? My dear? This for us right now we know how the

story ends. When it happened then, there is no precedent. There's no

precedent, right, there's no zero you know. How would you respond,

Larry, Yeah, what the time, You'll be like, sure not,

I'm sure, Yeah, I'm sure. God told you sure you got pregnant.

Sure you know, You'll be like, You'll be like probably you'll be

going through the stages of grief. Five stages of grief, like denial,

resentment, anger, and then finally acceptance. Probably Joseph went through that.

Maybe maybe he went through because it is a mind blowing a piece of knowledge

for you to suddenly get. You know, he had every right to shun

her because he would have failed betrayed. He will be thinking that maybe she's

lying, you know, it has never happened before, and could have resented

her, could have cast her out, could have done all that. So

let's see scripture. Yay, Matthew one. Now, the birth of Jesus

Christ was as follows. After his mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph, before

they came together, Before they came together, right, she was found with

child of the Holy Spirit. Then Joseph, her husband, being just a

man. Again, Joseph, being just a man and not wanting to make

her a public example, was minded to put her away secretly. So again

Joseph chose the morally higher ground. He could have publicly humiliated her. He

could have decided to do that, you know, because he probably set aside

so much. She sacrificed a lot just to get me wedding and stuff like

that, right, the dowry, whatever it is, But he decided not

wanting to make her a public example, was minded to put her away secretly,

so he didn't want an embarrass her. He didn't want to do any

of that. He chose not to be resentful. So judge, there will

be circumstances and situations that crop up which will cause you to be resentful.

And being resentful right, usually it's wet with people, right, you can't.

Most of the time resentment is against somebody else. And you know that

if there are ten people, probably six will like you, Three are on

the fence, one will one no matter what you do, will hate your

guns. What do you do? Do you harbor resentment? You know?

Can you have resentment and joy? You can't? So all these kinds of

things, right, you must choose either or do you want joy no resentment?

Do you want joy? Cast your anxieties away? And when Joseph passed

the character test of not being resentful to Mary, what happened next? Matthew

one? But while he taught about these things, Joseph was thinking, behold,

an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying,

Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take to you Mary,

your wife, for that which is conceived in her is off the Holy

Spirit. And she will bring forth a son, and you shall call his

name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins. So God

revealed his plans and purposes to Joseph once Joseph passed the character test. So

do you want God to reveal his plans and purposes. You may not understand

why certain people are treating you a certain way, or you're going through circumstances

and situations where you're getting backstep, or your people are giving you a tough

time. What do you do? You seek God? Again, don't put

your eyes on the ice cream, put your eyes on God. Ask God,

God, what are you trying to tell me? And God in his

time will reveal his plans and purposes for you. And what did what happened

is you Joseph. Joseph had the privilege of being an earthly father to Jesus.

Wow, that is no small fear. I can't imagine what would it

be to be an earthly father to Jesus. But that was the privilege that

he has. And again God's plans are good man. So that's the second

point R and the last point m maze or confusion. So which character in

the Christmas story probably was had some confusion? Anyone? I think I see

a lot more confusion here, all right, yeah, I know, it's

like it's like two thirty to forty. So hold on, correct, it's

the wise man. It's the wise man. Right, let's go to scripture.

Okay. Now, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, in

the days of Herod the King, behold, wise men from the east came

to Jerusalem, saying, where is he who has been born King of the

Jews? For we have seen his star in the east and have come to

worship him. When Herod the King heard this, he was troubled and all

Jerusalem with him. So you can see it, right, They were only

looking they were looking for Jesus. They were just following a star. You

know, I saw this Memela. They were saying that the wise men were

looking for a five star hotel. But they only needed to follow one star.

They only needed to follow the star. And they followed the star.

You know, they followed the star, and they were saying, right,

it was quite a while they came from the east. Okay, now,

right, how many of your drive without owning your waist. It's such as

for some people it's so scary, cannot, cannot, cannot in my battery,

dire, that's it, God help me, you know kind of we

are so dependent on our phone telling us where to go next. But the

wise men they were just following a star and you know, right, they

they were just falling a going and they when they met with King Herod,

they asked him as well, where you know, so they were it would

seem like amazed, right, And sometimes in our circumstances of situation, it's

amazed. We do not know why we are going through such circumstances. We

do not know what's next? Do I go forward? Do I go backwards?

Do I go left? Do I go right? Who do I follow?

Who do I listen to? And when you are confused, right,

it also leads to anxiety. Right. A lot of the self help books

right is like, what's my purpose? God? What do you want me

to do? I'm confused? Right? And we want a map. We

want a step by step guide of what I need to do next. You

know. So there was this, uh, this story that this farmer right,

he wanted to he wanted to become a preacher. Right, he wanted

to become a preacher and preach and stuff like that. So he's looking for

a sign. Now he saw a sign in the sky clouds and the clouds

had the formation of GP. Right. So he's like, man, that's

a sign from God, go preach. So he went preach, preach,

left everything when appreciation preach. But he had so much of resistance, so

much of resistance, right, and then finally like God, I thought,

you told me to go preach, and Father said no. Hey, then

God said no, I told you go and plow, go plow the field,

not go preach, you know. And sometimes right we we are looking.

We need God to tell us exactly what to do next. If not,

we will not move. But you know that the Bible, the Bible

is a compass. What does a compass do? Points us in the direction?

It points us in the direction we need to go. But we want

God's Bible, God's word to be a map to tell us exactly what's next,

what's next, what's it? But God doesn't work that way. God

says to go walk by faith and not by side. You know, if

I have a map of my life, I think I will take a lot

of beto us because I'm like, oh, difficulty coming up soon? Do

you embrace it? I will not, right, you will not. You

will want to take a shortcut, or you want to reverse, or I

think I'll stay here lot. I don't want to go forward. And that's

why God's Bible is a compass. He will point us in the direction and

we just need to move forward in him. We have to have faith in

him. So when you are in a maze, right, move forward,

move forward with God, just say, God, point me in the direction

and move forward. Don't stay still or don't reverse or don't get stuck,

you know, because that's what the wise man did. Okay, next verse,

So this is the three Kings right. So after they heard from Herod,

they departed and behold the star which had been seen in the east when

before them feel it came and stood over the young child where the young child

was. When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceedingly great joy.

When we follow the direction with God wants us to go, no matter what

comes our way, God will go with us. And when God goes with

us, there will be exceeding joy. I'm not saying it'll be easy,

but there will be exceeding joy because we have to get a perspective right of

what is joy. Joy is not me getting everything I want. Joy is

trusting in God to do everything he wants and getting me to do everything he

wants to walk according to his plans. And then I have joy. And

when they come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his

mother, and fell down and worshiped him. And they had opened their treasures.

They presented to him gifts of gold, Frankinson's and murder right. So

the wise man right, although they had they were just following the direction.

When they found they did not spare their treasures, they did not spare their

time. And because they did not do that right, they found exceedingly great

joy. They did not allow confusion to dictate how or where they go.

They just followed the star right. So even as I draw towards the close,

I thought, I will just put it in a simple form next light.

So you got kill joy, and then you got exceeding joy, everlasting

joy. So kill joy from anxiety, you avail yourself to God. From

resentment, you restore relationships with both God and men, because you can be

you can have resentment with God as well. Why do a lot of people

leave the faith. It's because they have resentment to God all people. And

instead of being in a state of confusion, being stuck in a maze,

we move forward. So let's not get in the chokehold the arm chokehold of

kill joys. But let's raise our arms to praise God for everlasting joy,

and then the everlasting joy will be with us throughout this year twenty twenty four.

That's why I say you have to God our joy, because once we

lose our joy, we lose everything. The joy of the Lord is our

strength, so you need strength to go. So that's why we have to

God our joy right next night. So he says here in Psalms fifty one,

I think if Psalms fifty one is it's there's a popular hymn that is

based on this sum Create in me a clean heart, o Lord, and

renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from their presence alone,

and take not your Holy spirit from me, restore unto me the joy

of my salvation, and renew a right spirit within me. That's the lyrics

to the song, and it's based on this. So church, let's God

the joy of your salvation. When you accepted Jesus Christ as your personal Lord

and savior, you have the gift of salvation. With the gift of salvation

comes joy. So let's guard that right. And so in everything right,

if we want joy, no Jesus, we know joy. And in the

other part as well, if there is no Jesus, no joy. So

how many of us want joy this year? Because right the only thing that

is certain is God. We have no idea what's in store for us in

twenty twenty four. But I want the joy of the Lord to be my

strength this year and then I can move forward. So I thought I'll just

share a bit of what we are going through as a family as well.

Okay, so me and Jess, So Jess my wife, the other Jess,

Yeah and yeah, I got two signs, Gerroom and Jude. Right.

So it was a challenging year twenty twenty three, all right, it's

been a really challenging year for us. And then also we have to run

Clank service and then also work and school for the kids. So we'reout going

into too much details, but I think i'll share anyway now. So towards

the end of the year, Jess organization went through restructuring and then she was

laid off, right. And at the same time, one of my sons

was having challenges in school and cut the long story shot, he had to

pull him out of school, you know. So there was so many things

that was going wrong. And at that time, right, I think before

all this happened, I had a feeling something was going to happen. And

when I was preaching in Clang, right, I was preaching a different sermon.

I can't recall what it was, but I told the church and I

told you just at that time, I feel that something big is going to

happen, and something big is going to shake up. And after that,

all this happened, you know, and there's so many reasons for me to

give up. I'll be like, what in the world I thought I'm serving

you. I thought I'm doing everything that you want me to do. And

all these things happened. But surprisingly, right when you hear all these things,

right, for Jess and myself, right, we were not so stressed.

That's how we thought. Because what we decided is like God, you

are going to be our strength. The joy of the Lord is our strength

during this time, no matter what comes our way. We will not allow

the enemy to win. Right, we are going to move forward. And

the only thing we have and the only thing we need is God. So

this year twenty twenty four, do I know what's going to happen? I

suddenly we have lost a source of income. We have suddenly we are not

sure how my son's education is going to be, and we're not sure what

to do next. But what we know is that the joy of the Lord

will be our strength. He will direct our path, he will tell us

what to do next. All we have to do is a maybe go back

to the picture of the arm. All I have to do ay instead of

anxiety, avail myself to God, arm, restore relationships, restore my relationship

with God, strengthen it and also with people, and am move forward.

I'm gonna move forward. Church, Are you gonna move forward? Are you

gonna move forward? And I'm not gonna allow the ice scream to dictate my

joy. I'm not gonna allow circumstances to dictate my joy. I'm gonna say

that twenty twenty four is gonna be God's here for me no matter what comes

my way. We hope you've been blessed by this message. For more information

on our church, please visit as church org. We are also active on

Facebook and Instagram. We're believing that this week is going to be a good

week. I hit for you. God bless