Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] You're listening to a live recording from Westside Church in Bend, Oregon. Thanks for joining us.
[00:00:06] Hi everybody. Good morning and Merry Christmas.
[00:00:09] I'm Evan, I'm the other senior pastor. And we are right in the middle of the Advent season as we look forward to the celebration of Christmas. And good job on all those kids. They are a handsome bunch, aren't they?
[00:00:24] Today we're talking about joy in the third week of Advent, what it is to have.
[00:00:29] How's your joy level today?
[00:00:33] Yeah, I think sometimes when we think about a joy filled life, we can think about a happiness that comes when we finally achieve something, when we finally lay hold of whatever we're going after. And the reality for most of us is we're not in the NBA.
[00:00:51] We're not celebrities. Right. We're not CEOs. Maybe some of you are on and on the list goes of things that maybe we haven't achieved this pinnacle, peak success, you know, place in our lives or relationships. And so the question I have for us as we start today is can we have joy living normal lives as normal people?
[00:01:13] Can we have a normal life where maybe we don't stand out as extraordinary in many ways and yet we experience a true and lasting and resilient joy? That's what we're going to talk about today. And if in your faith you've had this view of Jesus as somewhat somber, solemn, Solen. Any other s words there?
[00:01:35] If that's your view of Jesus, it's for good reason. If you look through art, through the centuries of how Jesus has been depicted, oftentimes it's in a very solemn way. Maybe you saw this in your Sunday school or your grandma's house growing up, this picture of Jesus looking very somber.
[00:01:54] Or some of you grew up Catholic and maybe you saw this one more frequently, right?
[00:01:59] Those dark eyes.
[00:02:02] If you were orthodox, you might be familiar with this very grumpy Jesus. Right?
[00:02:08] And don't put the next one up quite yet. But because of the day and age we live in and wanting to be relevant and current, I went to AI and I asked them to create an image of Jesus that would be accurate, truly accurate culturally and for the setting in the Mideast, the first century. And so it created a picture of what Jesus probably actually looked like. Check this out.
[00:02:42] Finally, technology has given us an image of our Lord and Savior.
[00:02:53] So when you pray, this is the image.
[00:02:57] All right. Isaiah 9. Isaiah 9.
[00:03:00] This is one of my favorite Christmas passages. A promise of the Messiah to come that Isaiah prophesies some 700 years before the birth of Jesus, he says, the people walking in darkness have seen a great light on those living in the land of deep darkness. A light has dawned in you, have enlarged the nation, increased their joy. They rejoice before you as people rejoice at the harvest. For to us a child is born, to us a son is given. And the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Now let's go to Luke, chapter two, the heart of the telling of the Christmas story. And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks. At night, an angel of the Lord appeared to them and the glory of the Lord shone around them and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David, a savior has been born to you. He is the Messiah, the Lord. Let's pray together. Lord, thank you for your joy this Advent season.
[00:04:11] As we look forward to Christmas, we thank you for your joy that comes and meets us in our ordinary, normal lives.
[00:04:19] I pray for all of us, those who naturally really enjoy and experience joy in this season, and those for whom Christmas can be filled with loss and grief. Lord, we pray, would you come close with your presence today in Jesus name? Amen. Amen.
[00:04:36] Well, for those living in Israel in Jesus Day, they were desperate for good news.
[00:04:44] They had had a whole string of prophets that had prophesied that God was going to break through and deliver them.
[00:04:52] And for 400 years, God had seemingly gone silent. And so you have a whole people that are waiting and hoping for good news, much like they would have waited on any given week for messengers to arrive in their towns and villages to bring news. Now, we're depending on how you look at it, spoiled or tortured by the amount of news that we consume and is delivered to us constantly, right?
[00:05:14] But in their day, to have a messenger arrive in your town meant something big was going on.
[00:05:20] And so when those messengers would arrive on horseback or on foot and they would stand in the town square and they would announce news, it had the power to do something for that community, either to bring joy or to bring fear.
[00:05:34] News had power.
[00:05:36] And maybe for us today when we read the news, it does something to us.
[00:05:41] The news of something that not only is going to happen that's good, but that has already been going on is something special.
[00:05:48] And for the shepherds out in the fields on that first Christmas, they were in the right place and the right time to hear not only was God going to do something, but that he had seen them and was already at work, even when they were unaware.
[00:06:02] And so it's this kind of joy, I think that as part of our Advent here at the church and as we look forward to Christmas that we're looking for is this kind of joy that comes from the news that God is on the move.
[00:06:16] This joy that comes from this awareness, not that God has been gone or dead or has been sleeping, but that all along he's been at work, and now we become aware of his presence among us.
[00:06:29] This is the joy that we are hoping for and looking for. And I know for my kids, the hope of what they will get in their presents on Christmas brings a lot of joy.
[00:06:40] Is this true for your families?
[00:06:42] We've never done the elf on the shelf thing. Our kids stop believing in Santa at a young age.
[00:06:48] But I know many of you have the elf on the shelf, which reports back to Santa the behavior of your children.
[00:06:55] And for some reason, this is very effective in controlling children's behavior. But the one Christmas when they are naughty, the elf on the shelf is there, and then they still get their presents. They learn real quick that elf is not as good as you promised.
[00:07:10] And these are very lightweight traditions we have here in America. I was talking to Pastor Brandt, who was in school in the Netherlands many years ago, and he said that the Dutch tradition is that Santa Claus comes to the Netherlands on a boat from Spain.
[00:07:28] And then on Christmas morning, Santa and his helpers arrive at your house not only to give good gifts to good children, but with a burlap sack to haul bad children away and take them back to Spain on his ship.
[00:07:46] And so it's great fun for the Dutch parents to assign which of their children will get caught up in a burlap sack and hauled away in front of all the other children.
[00:07:56] That's some effective behavior control.
[00:07:59] I think we need to integrate some of this that's free. You just take that. Do with it what you want.
[00:08:07] Our traditions around Christmas Day, I know for children oftentimes center around the gifts and what we can get. And this is natural and this is normal. And marketing does a really good job of telling us that if we can just get the stuff that we need to make us feel a certain way or come across a certain way, that we will find joy.
[00:08:30] Mark Sayers wrote this. He said, once upon a time, products were sold on the merit of their function. People were told, buy this bar of soap because it will make you clean or buy this suit because it's well made. Buy this car because it is safe.
[00:08:42] But advertising has moved from function to experience. Now we hear, buy this toothpaste because it will make you happy.
[00:08:50] Buy this car because you will attract women and feel desirable. Buy these clothes because you will gain status. And on and on it goes. And so we are told again and again. And if marketing is done well, we believe this, that to get the stuff will change our level of joy.
[00:09:07] I remember this commercial years and years ago for Taco Bell. And the whole point of the or the tagline of the commercial campaign was, I'm full.
[00:09:17] As if the highest pinnacle of human experience is to be filled with rice and beans and cheddar cheese. Like, this is all we've got to look forward to, folks. And if you can achieve this, this full fullness, this satiation of all your appetites, then that will bring you joy. But can I tell you, we see it over and over again.
[00:09:37] It's the most devastating thing when we give ourselves over to our appetites and find that in pursuing those things, joy is not found in theirs.
[00:09:50] So if it's not the stuff we get, if we can't purchase our way into joy, what is it? Is it conditional? Is it circumstantial?
[00:09:58] If life would go this way, then I will experience joy. If things would just line up in this way, if my job would just. If I get that promotion, if this relationship would get fixed, if the circumstances would change, if my health was better, if my kids were this way, if I was more this way.
[00:10:17] Does circumstance bring joy?
[00:10:19] For a time.
[00:10:21] But what if there is a joy that is more resilient than circumstance or the stuff we have?
[00:10:27] What if what Jesus came to do is part of this thing that we are celebrating? When God visits and comes close to us and embodies in Himself this empathetic experience where he is close to us and understands us, what if what he brings with him is not a joy that is temporary but is everlasting?
[00:10:48] Pastor Rich Velodis out of New York said simply, joy is produced by God, not purchased by us.
[00:10:55] Joy is not a switch we can turn on, but rather a state of being that we can cultivate as we spend time with God.
[00:11:01] My dad has this habit of buying his own presents and then giving it to the family members to give back to him.
[00:11:08] Just a little bit controlling, maybe just a little.
[00:11:12] And I understand the impulse, you know, you're going to get what you want.
[00:11:18] But there is something, when it comes to the gifts of God that we can try to conjure and we can try to manufacture and produce joy in ourselves, but that's not how it's designed.
[00:11:29] The joy that God gives is to be received, not conjured, not manufactured, not hyped up or arrived at because of positivity. No, it is a divine gift of God that is not dependent on our current circumstances or what we have or don't have.
[00:11:48] This kind of joy is produced by God.
[00:11:52] And so we see these shepherds in the field, and they're just minding their own business, doing their own thing. They've done nothing to deserve or earn their way into this news. They happen to be in the right place at the right time to receive the news of what God was up to. And I believe this. The good news is being announced to us as a world, as humanity, as a community, all the time. The question is, are we in a place where we can receive the good news that God has come close?
[00:12:19] In October, we were in Turkey. I've talked about that. And one night, the pastor of the church there in that city in Turkey invited all of us on the team to come and play soccer with their young adults, which. This might surprise you. I'm not a great soccer player.
[00:12:35] Thank you for not laughing. I appreciate that.
[00:12:37] And so we were talking, like, are you sure? Like, we could just watch. You guys sound like you're really good. He's like, I'm really terrible. I'm so bad at soccer.
[00:12:46] I'm very casual.
[00:12:47] He said all that in Turkish. I assume that's what he was saying.
[00:12:50] And so we get to his apartment before the match, and he opens the door, and he's dressed out in his full uniform that he has custom printed with his church's colors on it.
[00:13:02] He's got the cleats, he's got the socks. And we're like, you lied to us.
[00:13:06] You take this very seriously. And so the whole time we're out on this small soccer field outside of a school, and we're playing the soccer match, and the whole time I'm thinking, oh, Lord, keep the ball far from me.
[00:13:20] If I can just avoid any contact with the ball, I can say I played, but I don't want to have to actually do anything right?
[00:13:30] And I think sometimes in our faith, we want to be in the peripheral of faith without actually opening ourselves up to receiving what God brings.
[00:13:41] And so my challenge for us as we're in this Advent season is to do what the song says, which is to prepare him room in our hearts that, like Isaiah prophesied there would be an enlarging and an increasing of the capacity for what Jesus brings.
[00:13:59] Isaiah 9:2 3. The people walking in darkness have seen a great light. You have enlarged the nation and increased their joys. You know, we need more capacity for joy.
[00:14:09] The world we live in, it has a way of shrinking our capacity to experience true and enduring joy.
[00:14:18] Joy. Jesus comes to expand that When Jesus sat around the Last Supper with his disciples In John chapter 15, he said this. As all these disciples are feeling the weight and the grief of knowing that they're not going to be around Jesus much longer. As he's about to go to the cross, Jesus said this stunning line about joy. He said, I have told you this so that my joy might be in you and that your joy might be complete.
[00:14:45] To have the joy that Jesus brings is to not be completely free of any trouble or sorrow or grief. It's to be in the realities of your life and experience his presence in such a way that bubbles up joy from the inside out.
[00:15:01] This is the kind of joy that flows from Jesus, who in that moment was preparing to give his life for others, to sacrifice and lay himself down for the sake of those that he loved. And so it is with us that we are invited into this life of selfless giving and hoping and loving in such a way that we experience joy in these relationships with one another and with Jesus himself.
[00:15:26] So how do we practice joy? How do we rejoice?
[00:15:32] Well, we were talking about this, this week. And many, many cultures throughout centuries have had communal moments of rejoicing, and they're baked in, whether that be, you know, specific dances that the community would do in villages all across the world or songs that would be sung. And we have these. We have moments at weddings and first dances, and we have sporting events, and we have all these moments that we experience community joy. But one that we do every single week, that maybe you don't think of this as rejoicing, but it really is, is when we come together in this space and we worship together, and when we stand and we read the lyrics off the screen, some of you might be thinking, what is this Christian karaoke I've walked into? Right?
[00:16:19] What is this about?
[00:16:21] Whether you really love singing and being in the space as we sing together or not, I'll tell you what, it has a spiritual and psychological effect on our joy when we worship together, when we lift our voices together. And some of you have better voices than others, just walk through the room.
[00:16:41] So mean.
[00:16:42] I love it. I love hearing everybody singing out and what it does is it puts us into a space in community. Because we live in a time when technology is pushing us to be so hyper individualistic and so isolated and disconnected from one another. It becomes more important than ever to be in spaces like this. Doing something as a community together and singing has this effect on our capacity for joy. Think of it like a well that once was able to provide fresh water but now has been blocked up and rocks and soil have filled that. Sometimes you gotta allow Jesus to remove the things that have blocked up the capacity you have to experience joy.
[00:17:24] And whether you really enjoy it naturally or it is a challenge to sing in community, worshiping together, I think is an important piece that expands capacity for joy. Number two, do childlike things.
[00:17:39] Not childish things, but childlike things.
[00:17:42] Children are carriers of joy because they live in wonder.
[00:17:48] And I read this quote from Chesterton and I thought it was so good. He said that God has the eternal appetite for infancy. For we have sinned and grown old and our Father is younger than we.
[00:18:03] That the invitation of the Advent season, the invitation of the Gospels and of Jesus himself, is to come like little children again and face the kingdom that is coming. To be like children in our wonder and our capacity for joy and amazement as we look towards the goodness of God that is all around us.
[00:18:22] Oftentimes cynicism and the natural effect of time causes us to think small thoughts with small hearts and little joy. And Jesus comes to reverse that.
[00:18:36] In Matthew chapter 18, Jesus said, Truly, I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.
[00:18:44] So in Jesus view, this idea of becoming more childlike in how we approach our faith and our world is not a nice add on that will enhance our faith. It is the price of admission that to allow our hearts to be resensitized to the wonder of the work of God.
[00:19:09] Number three, how do we rejoice? Well, we find delight in God's good world. Can I tell you, I think one of the worst takes on how we exist as people of faith in a world that is hurting is that the world is going to hell in a handbasket.
[00:19:26] And the best we could do is hunker down and close off our doors and huddle up and protect what's ours and hope that Jesus rescues us before it gets too bad.
[00:19:35] That's a really, really bad take on how this is all supposed to work.
[00:19:40] Instead, we find delight in God's good world. That from the very beginning in Genesis and this creation account, at the end of each day God looks out at all that he has made. And he says, God, it says, God saw that it was good.
[00:19:53] That we live in a world that, yes, is broken and we've got issues and we've got problems, and yet God is at work and God is good and God pours out his goodness on all mankind and womankind. That there is a work of God that is beyond just our religious spaces. That we ought to delight in what God is doing in the world.
[00:20:14] We ought to see how he works in our relationships. We ought to see and pray every day like Jesus taught us. God, let your come and your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Not God, get us out of here. It's crazy.
[00:20:28] I don't remember Jesus teaching that one.
[00:20:32] And so we find delight in God's good world. Did you watch any of the meteor showers that happened last night? I think last night was the peak of some of the best meteor showers we'll have all year.
[00:20:44] And so we were out in the old mill doing some Christmas shopping. And I walked with my son Jack to go pick up the car. And so we're walking, and I knew the meteor showers were happening. So as we're walking, I'm looking straight up like this and holding his hand, and he's looking down at the ground. And as we're walking, I see, even in the old mill with all the lights, I see this shooting star, this meteor just streak across the sky like one of those really long ones.
[00:21:10] And I said, jack, you missed.
[00:21:14] Was amazing. It was a shooting star and it was beautiful. And he said, where is it? You know, because that's what you naturally do. You're like, where? Where's the shooting star, Father?
[00:21:23] And I said this. I said, jack, you missed it. But don't look down. Keep looking up, and you might see the next one.
[00:21:29] And here's what I think God does, is that we experience life. And so oftentimes we end up staring at the ground, staring at our feet. And all the time he's holding our hands and he's saying, lift up your eyes and look and see the goodness of God is all around you. And keep your eyes up. You might have missed the last one, but keep your eyes up and see what God is up to.
[00:21:48] There is joy to be experienced as we delight in all that God has done is doing and will do in our world.
[00:21:57] And then number four, finally, one that might seem strange in a message about joy. But number four, I said, don't be afraid to sit with sorrow.
[00:22:09] Don't be afraid to sit with sorrow.
[00:22:11] This might seem like a strange way to discuss joy, but here's the most unhelpful thing we could do is that we would go out of places like this into our normal lives and that we would have and be representatives of a kind of joy that only works if you live in a state of denial of the realities of the world.
[00:22:37] A joy that only feels content and satisfied, that only experiences peace on the inside if we close our eyes to people's pain.
[00:22:49] Instead, what we have in the Gospels, instead, what we have in Jesus is someone who looks unflinchingly in the face of the realities and the heartache of the world. And instead of backing down or ignoring it or positivity in his way out of it, he stares into the hurt of the world and he comes close, he enters into it, and he brings joy in the middle of it.
[00:23:12] And I want to tell you what I want for myself, for us as a church, is not that we become people who are blindly optimistic in the face of a world that is hurting.
[00:23:22] I want us to be those who enter into the heartache and the pain of our neighbors and our family members and our friends, and we sit with them and we experience what they go through. And yet in the middle, we are not without hope because Jesus is close. Jesus has come and Jesus brings joy.
[00:23:43] Jesus just flat refuses to sugarcoat life.
[00:23:50] I think this is the heart maybe of the whole story of Advent, that God has entered into what we really truly experience, entered into our longings and our hopes and our disappointments, and in the middle of all that has brought beauty.
[00:24:10] So what a beautiful hope today that when we bring our sorrow and our weariness and our worry and our grief to God, even in the middle of a season where the messaging says we should be happy, that what happens is this great exchange where as we bring those things before Jesus in exchange, we experience his peace and his joy right in the middle of our circumstances.
[00:24:34] Mourning is not the opposite of blessing.
[00:24:38] In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus actually said, blessed are those who mourn.
[00:24:42] It is a blessed thing to experience the realities of life and continually turn to Jesus. And so in this Christmas season, I know many feel just naturally happy when Christmas time rolls around. I know there's others who this time of the year brings up feelings of grief and loss and sorrow. And I want to tell you that neither group is excluded from, from the kind of joy that Jesus brings, that from his presence, not from circumstances and not from stuff, but from his presence comes this great enduring and resilient joy.
[00:25:18] And so I want to pray for you and over you today.
[00:25:21] I do want to pray. Romans 15 over you if you bow your heads.
[00:25:25] This is my prayer for you wherever you find yourself this Christmas, this holiday season.
[00:25:35] Whether joy comes easy or it feels far away, I pray that the God of hope would fill you with all joy and peace and believing through the experience of your faith that by the power of the Holy Spirit, you might abound in hope and overflow with confidence in his promises.
[00:25:54] So, Lord Jesus, let this be true.
[00:25:56] We pray for confident joy in every difficulty and in every triumph.
[00:26:08] We pray that you would come close to the brokenhearted in this season. We pray that sorrow may last for a night, but joy comes in the morning. Let that be the hope and the word for somebody today.
[00:26:21] And, Father, let this joy overflow in us in such a way that that many, many might experience your closeness, your peace and your joy.
[00:26:33] In the name of Jesus, we pray. Amen. Amen.
