Father, thank you for this day. What a great day to be together and to be with each other and especially to be with you. Father, we just thank you so much for adopting us as your very own children. What an amazing thing. We just thank you and praise you for that. Holy Spirit, please teach us this morning. Please translate what I say. Just speak right from your word and speak right into our hearts that each of us would leave with something directly from you. And Jesus, we do thank you so much for coming and giving us this opportunity to reconnect with our Father and the Holy Spirit and you. And we just praise you for that. We thank you for showing us what God is really like. And it's in your name we pray. Amen. So we're taking a few weeks and we're talking about joy. You know, it's uh you know, it's obviously a big word around uh around Christmas time. You know, what is it? Can we really have it? And our and our goal is not to learn some stuff that we follow away in our head. Our goal is to experience it. You know, to experience joy, to live joy, to enjoy life. And by Christmas Eve, we're gonna be enjoying life more. We're gonna have more joy. The word joy simply means a feeling of great pleasure or happiness. And it's something that we can have and something that we can experience in a tangible way. Christmas has always been associated with joy. Last week we talked about how Jesus, even before he was born, was causing joy. How Elizabeth, who was who was pregnant with John, and Mary, who was pregnant with uh Jesus, how when they came together, John inside of Elizabeth jumped for joy, just being near, just being near Jesus before he was even born. And then, of course, the uh the shepherds in Luke chapter two, it says that that night they were there were shepherds saying in the fields nearby, guarding their flocks of sheep. Suddenly an angel of the Lord appeared among them, and the radiance of the Lord's glory surrounded them. They were terrified, but the angel reassured them, Don't be afraid, he said. I bring you good news that will bring great joy to all people. The Savior, yes, the Messiah, the Lord, has been born today in Bethlehem, the city of David. And that was just the start. I mean, if there were two words that characterized Jesus' life, they would be first love and then joy. It's easy for us to picture, we talked about this a little bit last week, it's easy for us to picture Jesus as a man of sorrow. Because Isaiah prophesies that he would be a man of sorrow and acquainted with grief. But Isaiah's talking about the days that surrounded the crucifixion of Jesus when he did have incredible sorrow and suffering and pain. And it was such a gift of love and sacrifice for us. And when we're having sorrow, and when we're in deep grief, and when we're having pain, we can know that Jesus gets it big time. You know, he understands what we're going through. He can help us, and he does as uh as we get through it. But his life, his life was not lived as a life of sorrow. You know, for his life on earth, it was unimaginable joy. It says in Hebrews 1, but to the Son he says, Your throne, O God, endures forever and ever. You rule with a scepter of justice, you love justice and hate evil. Therefore, O God, your God has anointed you, pouring out the oil of joy on you more than more than on anyone else. See, Jesus lived with more joy than anyone ever. He told his followers in John 15, I've told you these things for a purpose, that my joy might be your joy, and your joy wholly mature. See, Jesus was not this solemn, you know, taskmaster that came to earth. He was a young man. He was a young man, he was energetic, he was full of life, he was full of enthusiasm, he was bold, and he was daring, and he was fun, and he was loving. Older people wanted to be near him. Children ran to him to hug him. You know, he'd meet someone for the first time, he'd say, Come follow me. And they would. And they would. He was irresistible. He had such freedom and openness and joy that he was irresistible. He is irresistible, Jesus. And people wanted to catch whatever it was he was, whatever he had, whatever he was radiating, they wanted some of it. And what it was is he overflowed with love and with joy. I mentioned last week that C.S. Lewis, who wrote Chronicles of Narnia, that uh the third movie just came out Friday. But he said, it is not so much the joy of the Lord we are seeking as the Lord of joy himself. Jesus is the Lord of joy. We get to follow the Lord of joy. And of course he wants us to experience joy in our lives. In John 17, he says, I told, he's praying to the Father now, I told them many things while I was with them in this world, so they would be filled with my joy. How can we experience his joy? I mentioned last week that uh one of my goals this year was to enjoy my life. You know, a lot of us hit some point in our lives where we realize, you know, we're just not that happy. I'll say it that way. You know, we're just not that that happy. You know, we can get a little desperate. We're like, I gotta change something, I gotta change my job, I gotta change my spouse, you know, or in my case, I at least need a new motorcycle. You know, there's some some sort of dramatic change. I'm just not enjoying my life. But see, our joy doesn't come from our career or our spouses or our stuff. See, all that can stay the same, and we can have joy. We can experience unimaginable joy. Last week we saw that we can simply ask Jesus for joy. And we finished by doing that with a prayer. God is so good, he wants us to ask us, ask him for things like that. And he'll give that to us as a gift. I said at the end of last week that this week we're gonna talk about something that um that we can do that'll help us have more joy. And what I had in mind, I've kind of tweaked a little bit from what from where I thought I was gonna go last week, and you'll see. But what I had in mind is one of the things that we can do is to help someone else. I think that we've all experienced that. And and specifically something like delivering Christmas angels gifts today. You know, seeing the look in people's eyes uh when we deliver the gifts, knowing that we're really making a difference, you know, for them. It could be providing meals on on Thanksgiving Day or or uh working together to uh renovate the snows house so so Nate and the snows can have a have a great place to uh to live. All those types of things. We feel joy, and and I'm sure that we've all experienced that. But what I realized this week, you know, as I was praying and I was reading, there's so much in the Bible about uh joy, is those types of things are awesome and they should be part of our lives, but they're all temporary. It's a rush. It's a joy rush when we give and when we when we help others. It's like a turbo boost, you know? It just it it intensifies joy. But to make a huge difference, to really live a life of joy, to really enjoy life, it's not the temporary things. We've got to get to the source. And so that's what we're gonna do. And we'll probably see the most important thing that we can do to experience joy. I used to perceive joy as kind of a precious, rare commodity. You know, it's kind of like gold. You know, you hunt for it, you look for it, um, you when you find it, you hold on to it, but the stuff is kind of slippery, you know, and as soon as you have some of it, it slips out of your fingers, you know, and eludes you, and so you're back on the hunt and you gotta find it because it's such a rare thing, and and and how can I get it in my life? And we over time we narrowed down where we're gonna where we're gonna find it and and where the best hunting grounds are, you know, maybe it's falling in love, maybe it's uh financial success, maybe it's spirituality, maybe it's having a child or or a grandchild, maybe it's helping others. You know, all pretty good places that we can go and look and hunt for joy. There's obviously a lot of destructive places where we can go and look and try to find joy, but either way, it's elusive. Joy is not a rare thing. Joy is not like gold. Joy is not a rare commodity that we have to go and hunt and search and look for. Joy is an abundant thing that God created. It's more like sunshine, it's more like water, something that we can bask in, something that we can drink in. It's not a rare thing that we have to go looking for. Negative things and tough times don't destroy joy. Have you noticed that? It's still there. It's still there to drink in. That's what Jesus Brother James says in James 1. He says, Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow. For when your endurance is fully developed, you'll be perfect and complete, needing nothing. Negative things don't destroy joy. I've seen that here so much. People going through super tough times, yet they're so encouraging and so excited, and they want to help others, and they're excited about God. I remembered as Ben was talking about Longfellow, and he mentioned that his house burned down. It just reminded me that as a boy, when I was in first grade, our house burnt down on Christmas Eve. That we I know, it's so sad. The um the um we just moved to New City. I grew up in Oregon most of my life. Um and uh see, I'm trying not to go into the whole Oregon Dutch thing now, but I grew up in Oregon most of my uh life, but but for the first part of my life we lived outside of Washington. So we had moved to a new town, Everett, and and we'd we'd just moved in um on on Christmas Eve. And so we went out to eat and we came back, and our house was on fire, and it was out of control, and uh it burned almost almost to the ground. What had happened is the presents had gotten put um along a floor heater and had uh caught on fire. And so what I remember about that Christmas Eve is not the trauma and the tragedy of all that. What I remember is that our neighbors who we had never met, never seen, inviting all five of us in to stay with them on their Christmas Eve and their Christmas and the week after. And we had we lived on a street, and literally every person on the street asked us if we wanted to stay with them. You know, and I remember getting roller skates. I mean, they were melted and black, but um and I could only just walk on them. No, actually, they replaced the skates. I got new skates, and I remember that. But but the point is when I look back on that, you know, I mean, my memories are joy. Negative things do not destroy joy. Positive things do not create joy. They boost it, they they enhance it. And that joy can be amazing. But here's the truth, and it's what I want to see this year, smack in the middle of Christmas season is true joy, abundant joy. The joy that we're looking for does not come from giving, it comes from receiving. In 2 Corinthians 8, it says, and I want you to know, dear brothers and sisters, what God in his kindness has done through the churches in Macedonia. They're being tested by many troubles, and they are very poor, but they are also filled with abundant joy, which has overflowed in rich generosity. See, did you see that? Their joy didn't come from giving. They had abundant joy, and it overflowed into giving. When I announced Christmas Angels, it was probably toward the end of October when we started uh getting ready. There's a big cheer. And none of you are thinking, oh, good, this is my chance to get some joy. Even though it is enjoyable. No, it was your joy, your thankfulness to God that overflowed into good, here's a chance to help someone else. Here's a chance to share what God's given me with somebody else. And so we have joy and we're thankful, and it overflows into giving. Joy does not come from giving, it comes from receiving. So, where does it originate from? Well, basically, it comes from knowing that Jesus saved our butts and we had no hope of being saved. More than saved. He lavished on us. He created a way for God to adopt us into his own family, and he gave us an absolute ironclad guarantee that we will live forever with him and each other in heaven. Joy does not come from giving, it comes from receiving. In Romans 3.22, it says, Since we've compiled this long and sorry record as sinners and proved that we are utterly incapable of living the glorious lives God wills for us, does that not sound like us? It sounds like me. God did it for us. Out of sheer generosity, he put us in right standing with himself. A pure gift. And he did it by means of Jesus Christ. Us being right with God, we receive it. It is a pure gift. In Romans 4, if you're a hard worker and do a good job, you deserve your pay. We don't call your wages a gift, but if you see that the job is too big for you, that it's something only God can do, and you trust Him to do it, you can never do it for yourself, no matter how hard and how long you worked, well, that trusting Him to do it is what gets you set right with God by God. Sheer gift. It's something only God can do, and we trust Him to do it. You know, if that's something that you haven't done, you know, there's no formula to that. You just say to Him in your own words, I need you. I'm gonna trust you. And He makes us right with God, He fills us and He helps us, and He strengthens us, and He changes us and teaches us. He does it from the inside out. And you should know, actually, we we all should be reminded and know that God loves you. I mean, He loves you. He's not mad at you, He's not given up on you. He loves you. He carefully created you in His own image. If anything, He's sorry for the hell you've had to go through. You know, it was never His plan. It was never His intention. People have made a lot of bad choices and through centuries of the world, and so now we live in this jacked-up world. But that wasn't his intention. He fixes stuff now, but he makes everything right eventually. He loves you. It's something he does. It's something we receive. Our job is just to trust him to do it, is to trust him that he will do what he says and he does. In Ephesians 2, it says, now God has us where he wants us, with all the time in this world and the next, to shower grace and kindness upon us in Christ Jesus, saving us all his idea and all his work. All we do is trust him enough to let him do it. It's a gift from start to finish. And Titus 3. It wasn't so long ago that we ourselves were stupid and stubborn, dupes of sin, ordered every which way by our glands, going around with a chip on our shoulder, hated and hating back. But when God, our kind and loving Savior God, stepped in, he saved us from all that. It was all his doing. We had nothing to do with it. He gave us a good bath, and we came out of it new people, washed inside and out by the Holy Spirit. Our Savior Jesus poured out new life so generously. God's gift has restored our relationship with him and given us back our lives. And there's more life to come, an eternity of life. You can count on this. See, it's not just a restored relationship with our Father, it is the life to come. I know this might seem like Jesus 101 here, but I need to be reminded of this truth all the time. Because this truth is our joy. This is not some Christian fairy tale that we believe and we hope it works out, you know. If it doesn't, you know, at least we'll still led a good life. It's the truth. It's the absolute truth. It is what is going to happen. It is what God has done. It's not just for now, it's forever. In 1 Corinthians 15, it says, But let me reveal to you a wonderful secret. We will not all die, but we will all be transformed. It will happen in a moment, in the blink of an eye. When the last trumpet is blown, for when the trumpet sounds, those who have died will be raised to live forever. And we who are living will also be transformed, for our dying bodies must be transformed into bodies that will never die. Our mortal bodies must be transformed into immortal bodies. And then in Revelation 21, I heard a loud shout from the throne saying, Look, God's home is now among his people. God himself will be with them. He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever. See, this is the real deal. This is exactly what is going to happen. This is your future. It's the first real surgery I've ever had. And so I'm lying on the bed, you know, those of you, many of you have experienced something like this. And they wheel me into the surgery room and get me all uh set up. And and the doctor says, All right, Steve, I'll see you in the recovery room. Seeing I'm not afraid. I'm a little nervous because I've never really experienced, you know, I don't know what the experience is going to be exactly like, you know, and I close my eyes and I open them up, and I'm in the recovery room. There's the doctor. And it's been three hours. But for me, it was the blink of an eye. It was the blink of an eye. And that's what happens to each of us. Except much better. Much better. When we die, we close our eyes. When we open them, it's all better. We're in heaven. And it's not even some boring place in the clouds. It's a restored earth, completely renewed, like God originally built. And we've got real bodies. We're still the same people. We still have the same personalities. We remember stuff. We've got a whole future ahead of us with responsibilities and things to create and people to love and to be with God. And we'll never again feel any pain. And you will never be afraid. You will never be alone. You know that humiliation or regret that you just can't get out of your head. It'll be gone forever. You'll be surrounded by love. Your body will be strong. Your loved ones will be there. Your child, your children, your friends, your parents, your spouse. You'll have forever to enjoy each other. It's true. That's your future. That's what's going to happen with each of us. See, religion robs us of our joy. There's a book in the New Testament, it's Galatians. And it's Paul writing to this church, and they've gotten all religious. They've gone back to some of the Jewish laws, and now it's all about trying to earn stuff. And Paul says, Who has robbed you of your joy? Religion robs us of our joy. Because it says that it's about being close to perfect. And we've got to qualify on our own merits. And if we're lucky enough to get to heaven, and this is a big one, if we're lucky enough to get to heaven for sure, all of our loved ones aren't going to make it. It's too tough. Now what joy in that? What joy is there in that? In 1 Peter 3, the Apostle Peter explains something that is astonishing. It is what happened to all the people who were destroyed in the flood. So much so that Noah's family was saved, the entire world was destroyed in the flood. And in 1 Peter 3, it says, Christ suffered for our sins once for all time. He never sinned, but he died for sinners to bring you safely home to God. He suffered physical death, but he was raised to life in the spirit. So he went and preached to the spirits in prison those who disobeyed God long ago, when God waited patiently while Noah was building his boat. Only eight people were saved from drowning in that terrible flood. Then he goes on and he compares kind of our lives to drowning in a flood. And he finishes the thought in the next chapter, verse 6. He says, That is why the good news was preached to those who are now dead. So although they were destined to die like all people, they now live forever with God in the Spirit. See, God is much bigger than we imagine. He is much more loving than we could possibly imagine. He is not constrained by time and our boxes and our formulas. In Romans, Paul's talking to non-Jewish Christians about Jewish people. He says, I want you to understand this mystery, dear brothers and sisters, so that you will not feel proud about yourselves. Some of the people of Israel have had some of the people of Israel have hard hearts, but this will last only until the full number of Gentiles come to Christ. And so all Israel will be saved. As the scriptures say, the one who rescued will come from Jerusalem, and he will turn Israel away from the ungodliness. And this is my covenant with them, that I will take away their sins. Many of the people of Israel are now enemies of the good news, and this benefits you Gentiles, yet they are still the people he loves, because he chose their ancestors, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. For God's gifts and his call can never be withdrawn. Once you Gentiles were rebels against God, but when the people of Israel rebelled against him, God was merciful to you instead. Now they are the rebels, and God's mercy has come to you, so that they too will share in God's mercy. For God has imprisoned everyone in disobedience so he could have mercy on everyone. Oh, how great are God's riches and wisdom and knowledge, how impossible it is for us to understand his decisions and his ways. God's ways are way above our ways. His love is way beyond what we could ever think or imagine. Now, if God is going to go all out to save the people destroyed in the flood, and if he is going to go all out to save all of Israel, the people who turn their backs on Jesus, he is going to pull out all the stops to make sure your loved ones are with you in heaven. God has given us everything. He has done it all. We're reunited with him. We're not afraid of dying. We're not afraid for our loved ones. We'll always have enough. Everything is getting better and better now. And it's going to get completely better, totally better soon in heaven. It's a gift. It's just a gift. That is our joy. It is the joy of Christmas that Jesus came to earth so we can all have all of this. True joy comes from receiving. It overflows into giving, but it comes from receiving. We don't have to search it out. We don't have to hunt for it. We don't have to try to hold on to it like it is some rare limited commodity. It's abundant. It's like sunshine. It's like water. We just have to slow down. Remember. Bask in it. Drink it. It's there all the time. It's Jesus' great love for us. It says on 1 Peter, you love him even though you've never seen him. Though you do not see him now, you trust him. And you rejoice with a glorious, inexpressible joy. We're going to stop there. If the worship team will come up, we'll pray together in a minute. Next week we're going to talk about how we can bask in this abundant joy. Drink it in. How we can kind of slow down our minds and our lives enough to really experience God, to really experience joy. I'm going to share one thing that God taught me this year that's been huge in my life. But what I want us, I guess, to see this morning is that we talk about giving, which is such a great thing this time of year. But joy, inexpressible joy, comes from receiving, us receiving what God gives to us. And so if you'll stand, we'll get ready to sing one last song, and we'll pray together. Father, we just thank you for being such a great God. How could you love us so much? We praise you for that. We thank you for adopting us as your own children. Father, there's many of us who have all different types of needs. It's like Ben was talking about as we took the Lord's Supper, that we're struggling in different ways. And God, will you please provide for all of us? Whether it's health or whether it's financial, whether it's relationships, God, would you please give us each what we need? But especially what we're asking for, God, is joy. That on top of that, would you give us joy, your joy, abundant joy, joy inexpressible. And if that comes from trust, Father, help us to trust. Help us to trust you more. Help us to feel the certainty, the truth, the absolute guarantee that you did it all, we can receive it. And that we're going to spend forever with you and our loved ones in heaven. And so we thank you for the gift, God. We thank you for this gift. And in Jesus' great name we pray. And amen.