Advent Reflections: Week 3 | Joy

[00:00:00] Welcome to week three of our Advent Reflections. I'm Evan Earwicker and I'm glad to have you here today as we reflect on joy and rejoicing this advent season. [00:00:12] Psalms 126:3 says, the Lord has done great things for us and we are filled with joy. [00:00:19] Joy is not a requirement of Christian discipleship. Eugene Peterson reminds us it is a consequence. [00:00:26] It is not what we have to acquire in order to experience life in Christ. [00:00:30] It is what comes when we are walking in the way of faith and obedience. [00:00:35] Today I am reminded by this scripture that we can have a joy not rooted in circumstance, but as a response to what Christ has done and what God is doing in our world. [00:00:49] And discipleship is a journey of joy. [00:00:52] That's not to say that following Jesus is going to prevent tragedies or hardships. This idea that somehow if we follow after Jesus in response, we get a trouble free life, that's not realistic and it's not Christian. [00:01:07] Jesus has invited us into a different kind of discipleship where there are certainly many difficulties along the way. And I'm reminded Jesus words to his disciples where he sat around the Last Supper before he went to the cross. And he said, in this life you're going to have many troubles. [00:01:22] But to take heart because I have overcome the world. [00:01:25] So a life of joy in Christ, it remembers the faithfulness of God so that we can live ultimately oriented towards hope. [00:01:34] And not only do we remember what he's done in the past, but we actively are looking and acknowledging that he is at work in this moment. [00:01:44] In Psalms 126 the Israelites are recounting God's provision and protection in the midst of just being surrounded by enemies. [00:01:53] And they are remembering the great things that God has done. And because of that, because they remember what God has done and that he is with them, the response is one of joy. [00:02:05] In verse four they are looking towards a hope filled future even though in their current situation it seems really bleak and uncertain. And I think that will probably resonate for many of us. [00:02:16] So we join the psalmist today and we declare joy not because everything is always good and maybe not because things are perfect today, but because we have a God who is perfectly faithful. [00:02:28] And this is the invitation to discipleship is to walk in every step and every season with joy. [00:02:35] We learn to rejoice and have this joy by reading and praying the Psalms and other poems of the Bible. What a gift it is to have these ancient songs and psalms and responses and prayers of people who they themselves walked through great difficulty and yet came to this place of honesty before the Lord. Oftentimes it looks like complaining, oftentimes it looks like lamenting. But always there's a thread of joy that comes because of the faithfulness of God. [00:03:05] God has good things for us. I believe this. God has good things for you today. [00:03:10] And he invites us into his joy by asking us to walk closely with him and trusting in his faithfulness. So here's a prayer I invite you to pray today. [00:03:18] Lord, thank you for. [00:03:20] Fill in the blank. [00:03:22] I praise you and I rejoice in your holy name. Raise up your joy in me to overflowing as I walk in your truth and your grace. Amen.