Maria for leading in music this evening. I appreciate all of these guys who help with music and those who play piano as well. They are a blessing to us and sometimes, like tonight, I will throw a curveball at them when they haven't really been thinking about it and they're gracious enough to just step in and follow through even though I perhaps have given them a heads up sooner. So I appreciate these guys. And just a little FYI, something to be praying about, something to be anticipating. Dr. Bree and I have talked about the possibility of resurrecting the choir. So some of you could participate in that. So just keep your ears open and you'll be hearing something about that sometime after the first of the year. Luke chapter 2. This evening for our message, we're going to be in a passage that is more of what we typically would think of as a Christian passage. I know the last three Sunday mornings, including this morning, has been somewhat unconventional in terms of the passages that we have used for our Christmas messages. But this one is more typical, and in fact, the actual theme is what we would often think of as a Christmas theme, and that is joy. We want to talk about joy this evening. And I want to begin here in chapter 2 by reading, beginning in verse 8, and we'll read down to verse 15, and then we will ask the Lord to bless our time in His words. So, Luke writes in chapter 2, verse 8, And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field to watch over their flock by night. And lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them, and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, Fear not, for behold, I bring to you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you. You shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, glory to God in the highest and on earth, peace, goodwill, And it came to pass, as the angels were gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds said one to another, Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us." Let's pray. Father, again, we thank you for the opportunity we have to gather here on this last Sunday evening before Christmas Day. Thank you, Father, for the opportunity we have of spending these moments singing together, but also, Lord, now spending time in your Word. Lord, as we think about joy, the joy that is expressed here in these verses, the joy that was proclaimed by the angel, Lord, I pray that it would be an encouragement to our hearts, a reminder to us about what our joy really is, where it comes from, what it isn't. And I pray, Father, that here around this season, but Lord, anticipating the new year, may our hearts be full of this joy, may we live joyful lives, and may those who do not know Christ see this joy in us And may they ask us why we have this hope and what is this hope that we might have an opportunity to share it with them. We thank you. Lord, we will give you the glory in Jesus' name. Amen. Someone said, the New Testament is the happiest thing in literature. with the sound of singing in it everywhere, opening with the choir of angels over Bethlehem and closing with a hallelujah chorus of the redeemed. No matter how you look at it, the gospel is good news of great joy." End quote. It is a Christmas theme because we hear the angels here, verses 10 and 11. So He proclaims joy and then He explains where this joy comes from. What is the basis of this joy? And the basis is a Savior is born. And because a Savior is born, there is great joy now to all people. Joy. Joy is something that believers should possess. It's something that should be true of us. It should be part of our way of life that we have joy. I don't mean by that that there aren't good days and bad days and there are times we all feel like we're walking under a cloud because of whatever circumstance of the moment. But overall, and generally, the trajectory of our life, I think, should be characterized by joy. Now saying that, and we've talked about this at different times in the past, but I think it's good to be reminded, what is joy? If we're going to claim that something should be true of us, then we need to understand something about it, right? That's only fair. So do you have joy? What is joy? Why did the angel proclaim Christ's birth as an occasion for joy? Let's think about what is joy for a moment. The dictionary definition of joy, the emotion evoked by well-being, success, or good fortune, or by the prospect of possessing what one desires. I appreciate this definition because it acknowledges that joy is not based upon actual possession, it is the prospect of possession. In other words, we have to recognize there is a difference between joy and happiness. Now I know that the average person probably equates the two, that if you are happy, then you have joy, and if you have joy, you are happy, and they are in some way related to each other. But the fact is, joy is not happiness. They are two totally different ideas. Happiness comes from the world around me. You can think about the very word happiness. Happiness is conditioned about what is happening to me. So happiness is based on happenings. So I'm happy if my circumstances are such that I have what I want. We think about Christmas Day coming up here very shortly, and we realize that there will be some very happy people on Wednesday morning, and their happiness will be predicated upon the fact they got what they wanted. But there will be some very unhappy people, I would imagine, on Sunday morning, because they're anticipating what they have wanted and what they have very clearly communicated to mom or dad or to their spouse. And when they open their gifts, what they wanted won't be there. And their circumstances will mean that they will not be happy on Christmas morning. Now I hope that isn't true for any of us, but here's the point I'm driving at. That may be the reality for the average person, an unsaved person, happiness predicated upon what is happening to me, what are the circumstances of my life, but the fact is joy is not affected by external happenings. Joy should be such that come Christmas morning, if you get the gifts that you really wanted, great. If you don't get the gifts that you really wanted, yes, disappointment is part of being human, I suppose, but it should not affect our joy. Because joy should not be based upon what is happening. In fact, we would go further and say that joy is a state of mind. It is a state of mind characterized by peace, by a stability, despite life's inconsistencies. Let's face it, life isn't always the way we want it to be. That's just reality. If life were to be what we wanted it to be, there would be no sickness. There would be no cancers. There would be no financial setbacks. Everybody would have exactly what they think they deserve. Now, the reality is none of us has what we think we really deserve, right? And that may be a good thing, really. But at the end of the day, it's a state of mind that says whether I have what I want to have or not, I can have a peace in my heart. How does Paul reference this peace in Philippians chapter 4? What does he tell us about this peace? It is a peace that passeth all understanding. It is a peace beyond what is normal. Because for the normal person, the unsaved person, their peace is the same as their happiness. It is based upon circumstances. I have peace because life is peaceful at the moment. But can I have joy and peace in the midst of an unpeaceful time? And I would contend that as believers, Not only can we, but it should be the goal that we are seeking to achieve, that by the grace of God and through the empowering of the Holy Spirit, we are able to live our lives and rise above the circumstances of the moment, whether that be on the national or the worldly scale, or whether that be something more local, or whether that be something personal in your own life or in your family, that you can have peace, that you can recognize a stability in your life despite the inconsistencies and the circumstances under which you live. Man has an elusive search for joy. Man is searching for and looking for joy. And let me just state some things about that futile search. Joy cannot be found in pleasure. And there's more we could say about this, but a gentleman from a bygone age who lived an extravagant lifestyle, who was someone of some fame, at the end of his life he wrote, the worm, the canker, and grief are mine alone. He, unfortunately, for him, came to realize that all of the pleasure he had enjoyed in life, now that he is at the very end of his life, it was all shallow and worthless. Someone else, well, secondly, joy cannot be found in wealth and riches. So another gentleman from just a few years after that, one of the wealthiest men of his time, when he was dying, said, I suppose I am the most miserable man on the earth. Now you and I would equate being one of the richest men in the world, how much happiness, how much peace, how much joy would you have every day of your life? But if you talk to someone who would be one of the richest men in the world, I think you might be surprised. If they were to be honest, they would admit that the fact that they may have a lot of money and may not have the same concerns you and I have doesn't mean they lack concerns. They have their own burden. John D. Rockefeller, who was a New Yorker and a Baptist, by the way, he, I don't know if that's good or bad, he made the statement after he had made his first million, this in a time when a million dollars was a lot of money, and he was one of the first to make a million dollars, and someone asked him the question, so now that you have earned your first million dollars, what is your next goal? And his answer? To make another million. Was satisfied with a million which in his time he could have retired and lived the best life that money could buy in his day and never run out of money with a million dollars in his day. But that wasn't enough. And that's the point. That those who think that they would be okay if they could only have more. but the answer is not for. Others think, well, joy is found in prestige or fame. You know, if I could be famous, if I could be well-known, if people could know who I am, and if I could really be a highly respected person, I would say it this way, joy cannot be found in prestige or fame. Again, a gentleman named Lord Jenkinsfield, who had and such in his lifetime, he wrote, youth is a mistake, manhood a struggle, old age a regret. Interesting. Three phases of life he saw not as I'm at the pinnacle but I It's a mistake. I'm struggling and life is full of regrets. So man has a search for joy, but it's in the wrong place. Secondly, why did the angel proclaim Christ's birth as an occasion for great joy? because it was a moment of great hope. Again, verse 11, for unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. We have the first promise all the way back in the third chapter of Genesis. In Genesis chapter 3 and verse 15, The Lord is speaking and He said, "...I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed. It shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel." Enmity between the woman, between thy seed and her seed. Of course, He is cursing the world. He is cursing the serpent. And the point is, here is the first mention of Messiah. Now obviously it's going to be fleshed out through the Old Testament until we come to the birth of Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ, on that first Christmas morning. But here is the Genesis, the beginning of that promise, a promise of a coming Messiah, the promise of a Savior. And so this angel proclaims there is joy, and there is joy because the Savior is born, which is Christ the Lord. Christ, Messiah, the One who was promised all the way back. in the book of Genesis at the fall. The long-cherished hope of the nation of Israel was being fulfilled as God fulfilled His promise to provide Messiah, the Anointed One. So we have verses that we often hear this time of year, Isaiah 9, 6. For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. The promise had been made in the Old Testament that a child would be born. He would be Messiah. He would be the everlasting Father. He would be the Prince of Peace. He would be the Savior. And so this idea of joy that the angel proclaimed was not a change of administration. It wasn't that the Roman Empire would be kicked out of power. It wasn't that immediately there would be a king sitting upon the throne of David. It wasn't that their outward circumstances would change. Because the fact is, if we could translate ourselves back to the first century and to those years from the birth of Christ up through the death of Christ and even following, we would not find on balance a very happy people in Jerusalem and in the environs of Judea and Galilee. In fact, we know that's true because they were rebellious, continually trying to throw off the thumb of Rome. It led to the destruction of the temple in 70 AD. It led in 120 AD to basically Jews being fully expelled from the land, and Jerusalem's name was changed, and there was a temple to Jupiter built on the Temple Mount. They were constantly chafing under the rule of Rome. They wanted to be free. And yet the angel says, great joy has come. Not the changing of your circumstances. but the fulfillment of a promise. Messiah is here. We can have great joy, folks, because God always keeps His word, doesn't He? He always keeps His word. And our outward circumstances can change, and they can be great, and we can have valley experiences, and over the course of life, you will have ups and downs. There will be good days and bad days. That's just reality. If you live your allotted 3 score and 10 over the time of 3 score and 10, you're going to have a variety of circumstances. But there's one thing that can be true throughout all of those circumstances, and that is joy that we have because we have a relationship with the omnipotent God of heaven who cares for us, whose promises will be fulfilled. In fact, 2 Corinthians 1.20, for all... are yea, and in Him, amen, unto the glory of God by us." The promises of God are yes! Amen! Let it be so! We can trust in His promises. D.L. Moody said, God never made a promise that was too good to be true. God has never made a promise that He will not keep. That's true. We may yet be waiting for some of those promises just like the Jews had waited for centuries for Messiah, but Messiah was born. And the angel proclaims that here in Luke chapter 2. Messiah is born. Why is there joy? Because the birth of this child ushered in deliverance from a deadly evil. A Savior is born. In the garden, when man sinned, sin permeated his being. Again, we can go back to those early chapters in Genesis 2, verses 16 and 17. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not eat of it. For in the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die. We know how Satan twisted those words. But the reality is, when Adam ate of that fruit, he died. Not physically, but spiritually. Dead in trespasses and sins. Ephesians 2 describes you and me as having been dead in our trespasses and sins. The grace of God that we've been talking about on Sunday morning, this is where we see how important that grace of God is. We followed it three Sundays, including this morning, seeing in the Christmas story some aspect of grace because it is unmerited. It isn't deserved. The birth of Jesus that we are celebrating, that is reported for us here in Luke chapter 2, not because the people of God had achieved a certain thing that earned them the right to have Messiah be born. It was in spite of the fact that they were still sinning much like their forefathers had sinned. You see that? is operating. The root of the human problem is that sin is operating within every soul, but we come again to the New Testament and we have Romans 5, 12, Wherefore, as by one man's sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned. But what is our memory verse? For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous." Same chapter, that's verse 19. Verse 12 would have been December's memory verse, but we wanted to make sure that we had that verse that acknowledged that it's true that we are born sinners and helpless and hopeless. but in Christ we have salvation. So the birth announcement was the announcement of a divine Redeemer who would save the souls of those who follow Him. In fact, we can look in Matthew, and we talked about this a couple of weeks ago, In this very opening chapter of the New Testament, speaking of the birth of Christ, the angel says, "...and she shall bring forth a Son, and thou shalt call His name Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins." We can have great joy today because God has provided a Savior who has provided victory for us over death. In fact, again, we can look to these promises as they are opened up to us in the New Testament. In 1 Corinthians 15, verse 55, O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. Speak to God which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. We have been given victory through Christ. We should have joy. That's what the angel is proclaiming. We are saved. Salvation came to us. Christ was born, lived a sinless life, died on that cross, took upon himself my sin and your sin. He was buried, and He rose again the third day, and He ascended to heaven, and He ever lives to make intercession for us. And you and I can rejoice because of the birth of the Savior, because our circumstances have been changed. When man sinned in the garden, two things happened. Man desired self-rule, be equal with God. Man was alienated from God. But here's the blessed promise that we have in the Gospel of John, chapter 1, verse 10. He was in the world and the world was made by Him and the world knew Him not. He came unto His own and His own received Him not. This is speaking about Jesus. But as many as received Him, they become the sons of God even to them that believe on His name. Those who receive Him, those who believe on His name, we have been given the power to become the sons and the daughters of God. We should rejoice. There's reason to rejoice. That's why the angel is proclaiming this joy. So how can you and I have this everlasting joy that is referenced here? Recall the definition of joy. A state of mind characterized by peace and stability in spite of the circumstances of life. This world's joy is small. Its delight is marginal. But heaven has sent us joy immeasurable and indescribable. Christ is the only source of real, everlasting, mega joy. Believing in Him results in joy. I find it interesting in Acts chapter 16 when we find the birth of the church in Philippi, we find beginning in verse 30, This is the circumstance of Paul and Silas in the prison. God sent the earthquake. If you recall, the jailer is ready to take his own life because he understands he is responsible for those who were in that jail. And the doors are all open and they're all going to escape and he is really going to suffer greatly. And Paul cries out in verse 28, don't harm yourself. And verse 30, he brought them out. He brought out Paul and Silas and he said, sirs, what must I do to be saved? And they said, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved and thy house. And they spake unto him the word of the Lord and to all that were in his house. And he took them the same hour of the night and washed their stripes. He and all his straight way. them and rejoiced, believing in God with all his house." What do we find the Philippian jailer doing? As he came to that time of expressing saving faith in Christ, he rejoiced. Do you remember when you first became a child of God? You remember your conversion? Now some of you were saved at a young age and it may not have the same impact on you as it does those of us who were saved later. Now I was saved as a teenager. There are some, I have an uncle who was in his late 70s. It's rare to have someone come to Christ at that age. But I'm sure if he were able to stand here before you tonight, he would talk about the great joy. I've had joy in talking to him the last three or four years after he and I had some conversation back and forth and he came to know Christ and he goes to a good church in Northeastern Ohio, as a matter of fact. Not too far from you, but far enough away that You probably don't know the church, you might, but I'm talking to Randall Flack, for those at home saying, who's he talking to off to the side? But the point I'm making is he has joy. I remember as that young teenage boy, first coming face to face with the truth of scripture, with my sin, with my helplessness, with the promise of salvation in Christ. and expressing my faith in Him, and the joy that washed over me, I am a child of God." I'm not saying all those days were easy and that there weren't some difficulties here and there over the last X number of years, but I'm saying that this has been true. That peace of God that passeth all understanding, that joy, the joy the Philippian jailer experienced here, First Peter 1.8, the simple obedience to God's word results in joy, says, believing in Him, you rejoice with unspeakable joy and full of glory. Believing in Him, we have unspeakable joy. That simple act of trusting Him, believing Him. But it goes even further than that, because we have in the book of 1 John, 1 John 1, verses three and four, That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, this is John the Apostle writing, that ye also may have fellowship with us and truly our fellowship was with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. And these things write we unto you that your joy may be full. So John is writing again, not to a people who haven't suffered by the time John writes this, there have been innumerable martyrs already. And there would be many more after this. So he isn't writing saying you're happy because your circumstances have changed. He is saying, I am teaching you the word of God. I am and helping you to understand the truth so that you might fellowship with us and we might commune together in the truth and communing together in the truth. we can have hearts full of joy. There is a joy that comes when we fellowship with God's people. And when that fellowship is a fellowship that is built upon our communing in the word of God. There is just a joy that we share as we do that. So in conclusion, the angel declared, behold, I give you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For to you is born today in the city of David a Savior who is Christ the Lord. Great joy in that God kept His promise. He provided a Savior. We can trust Him. Have you received that joy? I trust and I believe that everyone here is a child of God tonight, but I would hate to make that assumption and there be someone here who doesn't know Him. This is a wonderful time. Today is the day of salvation. We'd love to have the opportunity to share with you from the word of God how you can have this confidence. But are you walking in obedience with him as his child? Because you can lose your joy. And you can lose your joy if you are walking out of his will. If there is sin in your life and you need to deal with that sin, then you will lack this joy. And it's not because God hasn't kept His promise, it's because you have created distance between yourself and Him. But the wonderful news is, He has said, if we confess our sin, He is faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. There's no reason that you and I cannot be walking in His joy. Just draw an eye to Him. That's what James says, right? If we draw an eye to God, what will God do? He'll draw an eye to us. So, let's do that. In this Christmas season, let's have that joy of drawing near to Him, and of trusting in His Word, and of believing what He says, no matter the circumstances of our lives. Not mired in a search for fleeting happiness, but having that stability that comes from that inner joy that is based upon who God is and the promises He has made and the care that we know that He has for us. May we enjoy the joy. May we express the joy. May we live the joy. And in 2025, my prayer is that there are folks out there that will look at your life and my life and see that joy and ask us, as Peter says in 1 Peter 3.15, What is the reason of this hope that you have? How can you have such peace? How can you have such joy? What makes you different? And then we can have the additional joy of saying, here is what is different. I have a Savior. Wouldn't that be wonderful if God used each of us to bring one soul to himself? in 2025. I'm thankful that it's not because of who I am, but it's because of who God is that he could take a vessel like me and use me as the vehicle to reach someone that God help us with joy to be those instruments. Let's close in prayer. Father, I thank you for the opportunity tonight we've had to think about joy and to think about what it is and to try to contrast it with what it isn't. And Lord, to recognize that we have this joy and this joy was proclaimed in Luke 2 because promises had been made and promises had been fulfilled. And we, who are your children, who are indwelled by the Holy Spirit, can have that fruit of the Spirit. And one aspect of that fruit from Galatians 5 is joy. Lord, help us to have this joy and the stability that comes from simply believing you. Lord, trusting you. Only trusting you. Lord, it is important that we understand that. and live our lives that way. The Lord will give you the glory. We pray in Jesus name. Amen.