Christmas Joy
“When the Lord restored his exiles to Jerusalem, it was like a dream!
We were filled with laughter, and we sang with joy.” Psalm 126:1-2
Intro: I want to talk to you today about Christmas Joy.
We all face difficulties in life.
Challenges at work or in school.
People that are hard to get along with.
There is stress, problems, disappointments.
If we are not careful we will let the pressures of life weigh us down.
It is easy to complain.
It is easy to become negative and discouraged.
But we weren’t meant to go through life depressed and dispirited.
We were created to enjoy life.
We can’t control what happens on the outside
But we can control what happens on the inside.
Let me say that again because it is so important
You can control how you react to the people and things around you.
We can control what happens on the inside.
Happiness for a lot of people depends upon what happens to them.
It is the weekend, I am happy.
My child’s team wins the ball game, I am happy.
Work isn’t too bad, I am happy.
But the joy that comes from knowing Christ doesn’t come and go from what happens around you.
The joy from knowing Christ comes from what is going on deep down on the inside of you.
In a Dr. Seuss Christmas story, the small-hearted Grinch
takes food and toys away from all the Who’s of Whosville in an effort to steal their Christmas joy.
Yet on Christmas morning, the tall and the small sang without any presents at all.
And the Grinch with his grinch-feet, ice cold in the snow,
Stood puzzling and puzzling, how could it be so?
It came without ribbons! It came without tags!
It came without packages, boxes or bags!
And he puzzled three hours, till his puzzler was sore.
Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn’t before.
Maybe Christmas, he thought, doesn’t come from a store.
Maybe Christmas, perhaps, is a whole lot more.
Christmas Joy is more than just words.
Christmas Joy is God becoming human…, in the Person of Jesus Christ…, because…, we…, need…, a Saviour!
Do you know why the Grinch hated Christmas?
Because his heart was so filled with hurts…, pains of the past…, and brokenness…
That there was NOT enough room…, for joy.
We must let the Christmas Joy into our attitude
Let the Christmas Joy into our heart
Even…, when we meet up with people…, who are not big hearted…, or joyful.
If you think you are NOT a Grinch but you think you might know a Grinch just raise your hand.
I see a lot of people looking around pointing at Grinchs.
The truth is…
I. We are ALL…, a bunch of Grinchs…, who need to be restored.
Let’s think about two questions for a moment.
Have you ever been a Grinch?
Why does my life…, need to be…, restored?
Romans 3:10 says "There is no one righteous, not even one;”
What this means is no one is innocent.
Everyone has sinned.
We all stand in need of forgiveness.
Every person is valuable to God.
But no one is good enough to get into heaven on your own.
We have all fallen because of sin.
But God through Jesus his Son offers to forgive us and restore us into Gods’ Grace if we turn to Him by faith.
We live in a culture where it is easy to ignore our own sin.
People make excuses every day for why they don’t come to church.
You tell me an excuse and I will tell you a reason you need to be in church.
So, we all fall into that category of a bunch of Grinchs.
The next question is why does my life need to be restored?
“When the Lord restored his exiles to Jerusalem, it was like a dream!
We were filled with laughter, and we sang with joy.” Psalm 126:1-2
The context of the Hebrew word Restored means:
Brought back those who were captives and prisoners who are set free.
The Psalmist explains Joy as being restored by the Lord.
We need a quick history lesson here to truly understand the meaning.
Israel suffered three major exiles or forced removal and slavery of their people.
The first was the exile of the Israelites of the northern kingdom (Samaria) carried out by the Assyrians.
It occurred between 734 b.c. and 722 b.c. when the city of Samaria was destroyed and the northern kingdom literally wiped off the face of the map. 2 King 17:5-6
The second major exile involved the destruction of the southern kingdom (Judah) and the city of Jerusalem.
It, took place in 586 b.c. under the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar in Jeremiah 52:28-30,
This was when Solomon's temple was destroyed and the dynasty of David came to an end.
The third major exile takes place under the Romans in a.d. 70
the Roman general (later emperor) Titus destroyed Jerusalem and Herod's temple.
Things that happened after the resurrection of Jesus Christ
And after His return to heaven
Are significant because they speak directly to the church that exist today.
Romans 11:25 teaches us the true end of exile will be when people turn to the risen Jesus, Zechariah 12:6-14.
Repenting and crying because their sin was what nailed and crucified the Son of God to the cross.
Wow! That’s a lot to take in.
But we need to understand our need to be restored
in order to be really filled with laughter and sing with Christmas Joy.
Maureen Cleaver was just seven years old in 1939
when her father John was called to fight in the Army in World War II
and she didn't see him again for six years.
But she remembers the night he came home.
It was late and there was a loud knock at the front door.
Her mother, Elizabeth, asked Maureen to answer it.
There stood her Dad
but he did not recognize the 13-year-old girl standing there as his daughter.
In his mind, she was still a little toddler.
He said, "Oh, I'm sorry I've come to the wrong house" - and he turned around to leave!
Of course, he didn't get very far before Maureen cried out “Daddy it’s me.”
Maureen ran and hugged him around the neck.
Together they laughed with joy.
A father who had been torn away from home because of war was restored to his little girl and his family.
We have all seen news clips of soldiers come home for Christmas
That is what Psalm 126 is talking about when it says:
We were filled with laughter, and we sang with joy.” Psalm 126:1-2
But there is another type of homecoming
There is another type of being restored that each and every one of us have the opportunity to experience.
It is being restored to the heavenly father
Who comes to us and calls us into a right relationship with Jesus.
Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit
Born of the Virgin Mary.
God incarnate. What that means is when you have seen Jesus you have seen God the Father.
So when God wanted to announce what he was like he was born in the form of baby Jesus.
We are all a bunch of Grinchs who need to be restored.
II. What makes you filled with laughter and joy?
What can happen in life is you can lose joy.
Have you ever lost your joy?
You can lose joy in your work.
You can lose joy in your home.
You can lose joy in your faith.
You lose yourself in overspending.
You lose yourself as you make excuses.
You lose yourself in all kinds of hang-up, and addictions, and negative thinking
You isolate yourself in loneliness and try to go it alone.
You can build up a lot of fences for why you don’t let God in.
But God knows how to locate you.
In fact God knows how to come to where we are.
The message of Christmas Joy isn’t that you found God but that God found you.
He finds you in the places of despair
He finds you in the when you are distressed
He finds you when you are wounded and broken and lost.
God reveal Godself to you.
I think God might be saying something to you this Christmas on a personal level.
Maybe God is reminding you that he is with you in the loneliness
That he is with you in the fire
He is with you in the storm
He is with you in divorce
He is with you in the financial struggles
He is with you in the sickness
He is with you when you have sinned and you can’t forget or forgive yourself.
There is nothing you have done that God can’t forgive.
He still loves you.
He still comes to you.
He wants to restore you.
The Lord restored his exiles to Jerusalem
The Lord release those who were held as prisoners and slaves.
Captivity can take on many different forms.
Slavery is anything that defeats your purpose.
Bondage is anything stronger than you are.
But then exile took on a different pattern of behavior
The people of Israel had started believing in God once again.
This Christmas is meant to be a restoration for somebody
The greatest gift of God isn’t around you
It isn’t under a Christmas tree
It isn’t wrapped up in a box with a ribbon or a bow
The greatest gift of God is the free gift of forgiveness of your sin.
I believe today the voice of God is drawing you near.
You know sometimes we go into Christmas expecting everything to just be perfect.
And things don’t turn out exactly the way we want it.
And we can be disappointed.
That’s really strange to think about but it is true.
There can be dozens of presents under the Christmas tree
but unless you get that one gift you really wanted you can be disappointed.
Or we can have a table spread with food, but unless you have your favorite dessert you feel let down.
That is really something to stop and think about isn’t.
How blessed we are but easy it is to find our self disappointed and complaining.
How we get so frustrated and hung up on the little things in life.
We are among the most blessed and privileged people.
Yet it is as though we are walking around living in the negative,
always seeing what we don’t have…, instead of what we do have.
The next you complain. Stop and write down ten things you are thankful for.
The next time you start to walk in the negative.
Take up the cross of Jesus and walk in the footsteps of Christ.
That is all that is required to receive Gods grace is for you to open your heart and let the Father in.
The scripture says that if confess with our mouth and believe with our heart that Jesus is Lord we shall be saved.
What makes you filled with laughter and joy?
III. Are you singing with Christmas joy?
God did not forget His people, even though they were captives in Babylon.
In times of trouble it may feel as though God had forgotten you.
Are you singing with the Christmas Joy?
Joy to the world, the Lord is come. Let us rejoice and be glad in it!
Joy is much more than pleasure or fun.
Joy is divinity dancing to a new drum.
Joy is gratefulness for the greatest of gifts.
Joy is sorrow that we know turns to blessings
Joy is the glory of God now on earth.
Joy is the Amen of a spiritual new birth.
Let the psalmist help us explain it.
Let the Church gladly proclaim it.
Let the people of God say Merry Christmas again.
Let the people of God say Amen
Let there be Joy in worship again.
.
This week I saw a father pick up his child from the preschool.
He had bought his little girl French fries from McDonalds.
As he lifted her up to put her in the car seat
She dropped her fries on the ground.
She began to cry daddy I dropped my French fries.
As the father wiped the tears from his little girls eyes, I heard him say,
Honey that’s o.k. you can have daddy’s fries.
I thought to myself: That is what God has done for us through Jesus Christ.
In our distracted and careless moments we have dropped our French fries on the ground.
But God in Christ has given us his own fries.
We can have daddy’s fries.
May I ask you today, “What are do you sing about?”
No, I’m not talking about French fries.
I am not talking about how many presents you will have under the Christmas tree.
There are other matters of profound importance to sing about.
Are you still dreaming of a Hope filled Christmas, a peaceful Christmas, a loving Christmas,
a forgiving Christmas?
The presence of God is most powerful when it is most personal.
That is why God sent Jesus in human form.
Because I have been forgiven. I can forgive others.
I know it is not always easy to forgive others is it?
It probably never easy.
There is a poem that goes like this:
I’ve prayed many prayers when no answer came,
When my hopes and faith were almost gone.
But answers have come to enough of my prayers,
To make me keep praying on.
I’ve drank from the cup of disappointment and pain,
I’ve gone many days without a song.
But I’ve sipped enough from the cross of life,
To make me want to singing on.
Joy comes to those who keep praying and keep singing.
JOY COMES TO THOSE WHO ARE GRATEFUL.
When the Lord has done great things, let God’s people say, “AMEN.”
The real joy of worship is not what you get out of it but what you put into it.
Let the Amen sound from God’s people again.
15 year old Marsh asked if she could “just skip Christmas this year?”
You see, her mom had been diagnosed with cancer.
Her farther was working Christmas Eve in order to pay the bills.
Her sister was not coming home from college.
Christmas was coming and Marsha wanted no part of it.
The thing that separates Christian Joy from cultural happiness is that Christmas Joy acknowledges the pain.
Happiness is circumstantial. Happin stance. Life happens.
Sometimes there is nothing we can do about it.
Christmas Joy is about something everlasting.
A few cup of eggnog may make you merry.
But joy does more than drown our tears.
It sits with us through the night.
Joy is an abiding promise that God is with us.
Joy is more than a three letter word on the flap of a Christmas card.
Joy is the arrival of a Savior.
God’s intervention in your life.
When God arrived Jesus restores the joy.
I still can’t believe it.
And sometimes I pray: Lord, will you remind me of why you came down from heaven
Why you were born in Bethlehem.
In my feeble understanding I sometimes forget.
Our doxology should never be sung like a funeral dirge.
Our great thanksgiving should never be read like a lament.
Joyful, joyful, we adore thee, God of glory, Lord of love.
Praise God from whom all blessings flow;
Praise God all creatures here below.
Joy to the world, the Lord is come! Let earth receive her king.
Let the church say Amen again.
Let your soul be restored.
Let your heart be filled with laughter and joy again.
And God’s people said, “Amen!
