I trust most of you enjoyed your Thanksgiving. I came across a Thanksgiving poem that might describe some of our Thursday night experience. Let’s see if you agree:
Twas the night of Thanksgiving, but I just couldn’t sleep
I tried counting backwards, I tried counting sheep.
The leftovers beckoned-- the dark meat and white,
But I fought the temptation with all of my might.
Tossing and turning with anticipation,
The thought of a snack became infatuation.
So, I raced to the kitchen, flung open the door
And gazed at the fridge, full of goodies galore.
I gobbled up turkey and buttered potatoes,
Pickles and carrots, beans and tomatoes.
I felt myself swelling so plump and so round,
Till all of a sudden, I rose off the ground.
I crashed through the ceiling, floating into the sky
With a mouthful of pudding and a handful of pie
But, I managed to yell as I soared past the trees...
Happy eating to all---pass the gravy, please.
For Christians, thanksgiving is not only a holiday and a meal but also a lifestyle, because God has given us much for which we can be thankful.
Beginning this Sunday, we enter the season of Advent, which means the coming of an important event: Christmas. We continue our five-part series on experiencing joy.
Last week, Pastor Winsome Wu taught on "Experiencing Abundant Joy in Life." He noted how the first Christians experienced joy despite persecution. They looked at life through God’s perspective, lived life with purpose and shared life with people.
Joy is not easy to describe to those who only know happiness in life. Happiness is the good feeling you have when you get what you want. Happiness is short-lived and leaves when the circumstances in life change.
Joy, however, is long lasting, even eternal. Joy results from what we think, what we do and how we relate to others, even to God. Joy is a matter of our spirit, the part of us that relates to God. Joy is calm delight, peace, contentment and fulfillment in life.
There is no secret to possessing joy. The Bible reveals joy as a fruit of God’s Spirit. In other words, joy is the result of God’s Spirit working in our lives to guide our thinking, our actions and our relationships. As we live according to God’s guidance, the fruit of joy grows in our lives. So joy does not come by accident, but by obedience to God.
Joy never goes on sale, not even during Christmas. The price of joy is always biblical expectancy. Everyone lives with expectancy. What we expect determines how we behave and how we feel. Biblical expectancy leads to a sense of adequacy, fulfillment and joy.
This morning, we will be looking at how biblical expectancy produces joy in our lives. Our passage comes from Luke, chapter 1, verses 26-38 and 46-55.
Luke records an orderly account of Jesus’ life, from before birth to the ascension of Jesus into heaven. The passage we read this morning records the news that Mary, a teen-age virgin, was expecting to give birth to a child. If you were Mary, would you be thankful and joyful or would you be anxious and troubled?
Mary, you need to know, was pledged to Joseph as his wife. And suddenly, an angel of God, Gabriel, tells her that she’s pregnant. Not only that, she is pregnant with the Son of God, who will save this world? Come on, Mary, who’s going to believe you?
It’s hard enough for some to accept a teenage single mother, but who would accept a far-fetched story like that? What would your fiancé do? What are the chances that Joseph would marry you now? She’s carrying someone else’s baby.
If that’s not difficult enough, Mary had no input about the child in her womb. She had no opportunity to name him or to dream about influencing her son to be doctor or an engineer. Instead, she had to name him, Jesus, which mean "save." After all, his purpose in life is to provide salvation to sinful people through his own death.
Now, Mary didn’t know all this in advance, but she knew that instead of a wedding celebration she is getting morning sickness and instead of a honeymoon she has the stigma of an unwed mother? Yet, Mary not only accepted the challenge, she was joyful. We see her joy expressed in her song recorded in verses 46-55.
But why was Mary filled with joy? Mary was filled with joy for the same reason that we can be filled with joy, no matter what our situation is in life. Mary held three expectations that brought her joy. These same expectations can also bring us joy. Let’s look together at what she expected.
First, Mary expected to have God’s favor. If we want joy in our lives, we must expect to have God’s favor also. Verses 26-33.
In verse 28, Gabriel greeted Mary with the assurance of God’s favor. And when Mary was still troubled, Gabriel again in verse 30 reassured her that she had favor with God. To have God’s favor is to have the benefits of God’s approval and assistance in life.
Sometimes, we don’t feel good about ourselves not because we don’t think highly of ourselves, but because those who are important to us don’t think highly of us. We never feel joy in our accomplishments or joy in our career or joy in our family, because our parents, our in-laws or whoever is important to us have expressed disapproval or disappointment in these areas of our lives.
If disapproval from people can rob us of joy, how much more the disapproval from God? Many people are feeling condemned because of something they’ve done in their past, and they have not experience the forgiveness and subsequent approval by God.
There are people who have cheated in their business and in their marriage that are waiting for God to punish them. They have no joy in life because they expect condemnation and punishment rather than forgiveness and favor from God.
Yet from the beginning of the Bible God teaches us to expect His favor. After Adam and Eve disobeyed God, we expect God to punish them. Instead, God covers their shame. Then God sends Adam and Eve away, so that they recognize rebellion against God is not okay. God was not a permissive parent. God taught consequences.
Throughout the rest of the Bible, God initiates and renews relationships with untrustworthy and ungrateful human beings. If we read the Bible correctly, we would expect favor and not punishment from God. God assures us repeatedly.
Jeremiah 29:11 reads, "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord [GOD], "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."
James 1:17 reminds us, "Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows."
Many Christians have quoted Jeremiah 29:11 and James 1:17 but they still live with negative and false expectancy about God. Romans 8:31-32 explains how the birth, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ is our assurance of God’s favor: "If God is for us, who can be against us? [God] who did not spare his own Son [Jesus Christ], but gave him up for us all--how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?"
Sometime last week, I was talking with Leah. She, like many people in this difficult economy, was warned about the uncertainty of her job. Instead of being anxious, Leah assured me that God would provide for her and her family. Leah expects to have favor with God. The Bible calls us to this biblical expectancy.
Expect to have favor with God, and you can expect joy to fill your life.
Second, Mary expected God to do the impossible. If we want joy in our lives, we must expect that God can do the impossible also. Verses 34-37
Mary lived during the time before artificial insemination or in vitro fertilization. But Mary knew enough to know that she could not give birth without having sex first. Yet, when you hear her words a few days later (verses 46-55), you knew that she expected God to do the impossible. She expected God to overpower the natural process of conception and to produce a baby apart from a man’s sperm.
Many people live as victims of human circumstances or limitations. We are satisfied with will power instead of God’s power. We limit ourselves to what science has discovered instead of believing that God can do the impossible.
Let me encourage you to expect that God can do the impossible. No sinful habit so entrenched, no financial problem so big, no relational strain so difficult, that God cannot help us overcome.
More and more, I wake up expecting there is nothing that God and I cannot handle. The Apostle Paul said in Philippians 4:13, "I can do everything through him who gives me strength." And each one of you can have this same biblical expectation of God.
I’ve learned from Hudson Taylor, the great missionary to China, that God’s work is done in three steps: Impossible; difficult; done. Pray to the God who can do the impossible. Plan to overcome the difficult. Persevere to get the job done.
By prayer, planning and perseverance, God helped me break a 20-year old sinful habit. By prayer, planning and perseverance, I raised over $60,000 to serve as full-time campus minister at UC Davis for two years. No one had done this before in Asian American Christian Fellowship, and I’m not sure anyone has done that since. I was not more holy, more intelligent or better trained than the other ministers. I simply expected that God can do the impossible.
By prayer, planning and perseverance, God helped me transform 35 complacent college students into a fellowship of more than 80 students, with 20 involved in discipleship and 11 serving in short-term summer missions.
Nothing is impossible with God. God can change our stubborn and unforgiving attitudes. God can change our impure and selfish motives. God can change our fearful and lazy habits. God can change our impatient and angry reactions.
Expect that God can do the impossible, and you can expect joy to frequent your life.
Third, Mary expected God’s words to come true. If we want joy in our lives, we must expect God’s words to come true also. Verse 38.
Christians who expect to have favor with God and expect that God can do the impossible are not presumptuous but confident in God. We are confident that God can and will do what He says He can and will do.
I have a pastor friend who told me about the time he tried to keep his elementary-age daughter busy for a few hours. He told her that for every little rock she could find in the backyard, he would give her a quarter. After three hours, his daughter called him out to the backyard to show him the hundreds of little rocks she had dug up.
When he realized he was in financial trouble, he tried to back out of his promise. But the little girl simply repeated, "But Daddy, you promised. You promised." He said that he gave her a check so big, that in order for him not to file for bankruptcy, he had to charge her for room and board from then on.
We can have the same kind of expectancy from God’s word. If God said it in His Word, the Bible, we can be sure He will keep His promise.
God’s Word says in John 3:16, "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son [Jesus Christ], that whoever trusts in him shall not be lost but have eternal life." You can expect what God says to come true. Trust in Jesus and receive eternal life.
Christmas is not about Santa Clause or Macy’s sales. These may make you and your children happy for a moment, but not joyful. Christmas is about the love of God demonstrated in the miraculous birth of His Son, his sacrificial death on the cross and his powerful resurrection from the dead and eventual return to claim those who trust in Him.
Expect God’s words to come true, and you can expect to have joy forevermore.
Let me close with a Peanuts’ cartoon:
Lucy and Linus were sitting in front of a television set, when Lucy said to Linus, "Go get me a glass of water."
Linus looked surprised, "Why should I do anything for you? You never do anything for me."
"On your 75th birthday," Lucy promised, "I will bake you a cake."
Linus got up, headed to the kitchen and said, "Life is more pleasant when you have something to look forward to."
What are you looking forward to on your 75th birthday? What are you looking forward to 75 years from now? Are you looking forward to decomposing in your coffin or pushing up daisies? Or are you looking forward to eternal life with God in Heaven?
Expectancy is something you can choose intentionally. If what you expect for each day and for your future is biblical, you will have joy every day of life, from now on into eternity.
