For the Love of Christmas I, How to Maintain Your Joy

Look, get your card out of notes, please, out of your North Way notes. And again, I want to mention that there's a nice notebook now available in the Resource Center if you want to have a place to put these on a regular basis. I'd like everyone to get one of these out though. Everyone take one out, even if you don't want to. Say, you know what, I guess, Pastor Jay, I'll do it if you really want me to. Or at least look on someone near you so that we can share, because there's some important scriptures that you need to hear for today. And I want to underscore what Dave said. I'm praying that if you just take one thing with you today, I believe this message will help God have his way in your life today if you'll take heed to what he would say. We're beginning a new series today, calling for the love of Christmas. And as I was contemplating the Christmas season, do you know, it just came upon me, I guess sometimes I think I take things for granted, maybe you might struggle with this as well, but it just occurred to me that out of the ocean of our busyness, of our self-absorption with our stuff about life, I mean, out of the huge massive flow of information on the internet and out of the international events going on with the UN and Muammar Gaddafi and investigating the president, out of all of that, God stands up one day of the year and says, stop, it's my son's birthday and you're going to celebrate. Now, I'm not getting a lot of response there, but listen, it's huge, it is huge. God is saying, wait a minute, the stock market's going to close, all the international negotiations are going to stop, and for one day, I'm going to remind you that my son did come to earth. And that we do measure our entire calendar around his birth. And that it was real. And it's the season that we celebrate, it's real. And I'm excited about it because Christmas is a time that we begin to focus on some of the things that really change us. In these next four weeks, I want us to look at the values that Christmas not only represents but empowers in us, joy, peace, love, and hope. And I want to speak today about joy. This is a challenge, friends, because joy is so misunderstood. Karen's going to help me here in the overhead. This isn't on your notes, but just to differentiate, joy is the settled confidence that we have in who God is so that we're delighted, exhilarated, and lifted up. That's what joy is. Let's put it up there, please. Here's what joy is. It's a settled confidence in who God is so that the benefit to you is that you're delighted, exhilarated, and lifted up. That's joy, but it comes with God. Happiness, just slide it down, is the state of elation that accompanies positive circumstances. If the Steelers win today, I'll be happy. If the Steelers don't win today, well, man, I'll call the talk shows. But joy has nothing to do with circumstance, at least in God's definition. Unfortunately, way too many of us have fallen into this sort of, you know, when and then thinking. You know, when I get my shopping done, then I'll be joyful. Or when I get my lights up on my house, at least more than my neighbors, I'll be joyful. You know, that kind of thing. When I get my college acceptances or grad school acceptances in, then I'll be joyful. When I get married, then I'll be joyful. Hey, when I have kids, I'll be joyful. When the kids leave, I'll be joyful, you know. When we get the new home, when we get the new job, all these, when then thinking, right? Somehow we have in our mind, if our circumstances change, then we can find joy. Friends, it's not that way. If you're waiting for a problem-free life to become joyful, you're not going to make it. A little news flash for you. Life is a series of problems. It's true. I mean, I'm sorry to maybe ruin some of your days here, but you're either in one right now, coming out of one, or just about ready to go into a new one. That's the way life is. But there is a way to be joyful in the middle of all of those challenges, in the middle of the stress and the problems and the sorrows and the struggles. And I have to, I got to share with you, I knew when I took on this topic, started thinking about it a few weeks ago, I knew I was going to get hammered. I knew that the enemy would try to convince me that this is something that I need to put into play in my own life. Big challenges started happening. I mean, all this development around us has created a lot of challenges. This week, there were two deaths in close families here in the church that affected me. Last week, both of my boys' tuition bills came in for college. And then just last week, one of our cats left home. Oh, gosh. The final straw, you know, I mean, that was it. Everything else I could bear. I mean, you have to understand what a, this is a traumatic experience. I mean, we have, we have three, and one of them goes out and hunts. And comes back when it feels like it. And so it's not uncommon to be gone overnight. And then a couple of days is usually the norm. And on the third day, Carol came back and said, hon, Mr. Miles hasn't come back home. Oh, I said, oh my, it's really a shame. And then four or five days, and now it's been like a couple of weeks or so. And it doesn't look like Mr. Miles is coming home. So my joy is really under attack. Um, I have two more to try to encourage to try that route. But the worst testimony that we can have to a needy world, in my opinion, friends, is to be uptight. You know, real, just like on the edge over everything that's happening. Worried, even angry or depressed. And then say, well, just as I just love Jesus, and let's just come to the Christmas Eve services with me so we can exalt the Lord together. In the meantime, you know, you're ready to snap up. I don't get that. And I don't think people out in the world are dumb. They don't get it either. We need to be joyful in our spirit, regardless of circumstance. We need to know how to walk in joy and discover what I've learned in my life. Joy is not in getting to the destination. Joy is in the journey. And I want to share with you today about how you walk in that journey of joy. Look at the first scripture on your outline. Actually, it's the second one. It's really the core verse of Christmas. The angel said to them, do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy. And I underline for it, that will be for all the people. The word great there is the word mega. You ever heard that before? It's like supersize. Because I want to supersize your joy. I want to give you joy that overflows in your life. And it's going to come through my son. And I want us to see it through the eyes of Mary, the mom, the teenage mom who bore the son of God. Because even though we revere her in some respects for being chosen to be the one in whom Christ was incarnated, may I say that I believe she had a lot of the same struggles we do with living life in a joyful way. So first thing you need, if you're going to maintain your joy in the weeks ahead, number one, we need a perspective to live from. We need a perspective to live from. Listen, life can really be, I mean, it can be overwhelming when we try to make sense of everything that's happening day to day, all the details. I don't know about you, but I don't, I can't keep up with it all. I mean, I've got piles of, I mean, I'm at the place in life where I can walk into a room sometime and not know why I'm there. Has that ever happened to you? You know, sometimes I walk out and go back in thinking maybe it'll jog my memory. What? Oh, that's right. That had to happen to him. And if you try to make sense of all the details of your life, you can't, you can't do it. We don't see the big picture and understand how it all fits together. But God does. We don't know how things are all going to work out, but God already sees what's going to happen in the future. We don't know what's going to happen tomorrow, let alone next year, but he knows. And he sees and he promises to be with us throughout that time. And scripture teaches that the Lord began, and all the way back in Psalm 139 it says, that he, before you were born, formed you in such a way and predetermined every step that you were going to be taking in life. He knows what's going to happen to you. And he's working these things together in your life in a very special way. You see, Mary was operating from the perspective of God that she knew that God's hand was upon her. Look at the first scripture, point number one. The angel appeared to her and said, do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. How many of you would like to hear that from the Lord? Hey, Lance, you found favor with God. Devin, you found favor with God. Sally, you found favor with God. Can I tell you something, friends? For the last 12 weeks, we've been studying about what? Grace. You want to know what the Greek word for grace is? It's charas, and that word, c-h-a-r-a-s, means favor. If you look that up in your Greek New Testament, the word right there would be the word grace. You have found grace. And I want you to know that you have, Lance, Devin, and Sally, and Melinda, and all the rest, you have found grace. If you're here today, you are favored of God. The Lord has his hand on you. That's the foundation from which you should look at all of life and everything that's happening. And, you know, if you miss that, then things can seem to be coming from left field when you wonder, well, why is this taking place? And am I really in, you know, is God for me or against me? We start to ask all those questions. You see, a lot of things that happened to Mary would not to have seemed to have confirmed that she was favored of God. I want you to know, if you became a pregnant teenager back around that era, you were not, like, embraced and accepted as you might be today. Back then, you were scorned. And I can, if you read the historical accounts, I mean, there was shame to all this. If you read the Scriptures, Joseph was shamed. And he was proceeding to quietly separate himself when the Lord appeared to him and said, no, you stick with this woman. I mean, this was a difficult thing, and all the people around her couldn't understand what was happening. Do you think right then she felt she was favored? I don't think she did. Do you think that when she hopped on that donkey and rode 75 miles from Nazareth to Bethlehem, 75 miles on a donkey, nine months pregnant? That sounds painful, doesn't it? Do you think she was thinking, well, I'm favored of God? I don't think she... She wasn't having the happy circumstances of life, and yet she had the joy of God in her spirit. Sometimes you're in the will of God, you're right where God wants you, but it doesn't feel like it. Anyone here done some things lately where you felt like you were obeying God, doing the right thing, but it just didn't seem like circumstances were bearing that out? Anyone here done some nice things for people lately and you didn't seem to hear anything back in response? Anyone here feel like you were doing God's will and you didn't really feel like, circumstantially, anyone noticed? We've had lots of those around here. And the secret to maintaining your joy is the confidence that God sees and is working it together. Look at the next verse. You see, God was taking Mary from where she was down to Bethlehem, so prophecy could be fulfilled. Look at it, Micah 5, 2. But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, out of you will come for me one who will rule over Israel. God had to move Mary from where she was down to Bethlehem so the prophecy of a thousand years before would be fulfilled. Why? Because look at the next verse. Because we know that God causes some things. Is that what it says? Everything. Say it with me. Everything. Turn to your neighbor and say everything. Everything. Tell them again. Everything. That is so hard to believe at times, isn't it, friends? He causes everything to work together for good, for those who love him. If you fit that definition, do you love God? Hello? Are you called according to his purpose? Then everything is working together for good. That illness, that accident, that eroding relationship, that divorce, that bankruptcy, that rejection, that misunderstanding. God's working it together for good and you may not understand it because you don't have his perspective. I see a number of students out here, college students. I remember and I see some high school students that are applying for college. I remember my senior year, I applied to four schools. One of them was a military academy. I found out early on it didn't qualify because I didn't have 20-20 vision. Then I had three other schools and they were all pretty good schools and I was anxiously awaiting to hear from them. And my first choice put me on the waiting list and didn't appear like I could really hold out to make that school. So I had to go to my second choice school. And I remember thinking, back then, I was not a devoted Christian. I remember thinking, I was really disappointed. I felt like maybe God hadn't heard my prayer and I wasn't really where I wanted to be. Little did I know that it was at that school that some other student, like some of you, would look me up and begin to disciple me and share with me the very things I'm sharing now 25 or 30 years later with you and change my life. And I'm standing here today serving God because God put me in that school that I didn't really pick as my first choice so that some man from Washington, D.C., another student could come and show me the way to follow Christ. Friends, listen. Even when you think you've been rejected or failed, God can take that and turn it around and use it for good. Wait a minute. It's not that he can. He will. And you've got to believe that because you're going to face disappointment. You're going to face heartbreaks. You're going to face loss and failure and rejection. And you have to believe that God's working it together for good. It doesn't necessarily feel like it at the time, but you've got to trust his perspective in life. Some years ago, we took a trip out west and we were going up the Colorado Rockies, slowly up the mountain, and a train was heading in the same direction. I remember coming up on the train fairly quickly because it wasn't going all that fast. And the two engines that were pushing this long line of cars were really, I mean, they were driving those wheels. And you could hear them as we were driving. They were really 100% maxing out going up the mountain. And I could see the train of cars going up around the curve. And I mean, it was close to a mile long. And when we went around the curve and caught up to the front of the train, to my astonishment, it wasn't just the two engines pushing it. There were five engines pulling it. Stuff we don't see in this part of the country very often because to get over the mountains, that's how much horsepower it took. And that stuck in my mind is a picture of what happens in my life. Lots of times I'm in the back feeling like I'm pushing this load up a hill. You ever feel that way? When all along, unbeknownst to us, God's in the front pulling more than we can imagine. Remember his perspective. And I'm going to ask you to pray if you want to put this on your outline. Pray, pray that God would give you his perspective. Just write that down. Pray, Lord, give me your perspective on my life. Number two, we need a priority to live by. We need a priority to live by. Mary received the message and then she said, I am the Lord's servant. May it be unto me as you have said. Dear ones, we would only say that to God. Lord, let it be into me according to your word. Because all of our lives will be determined by one of two things. Listen, your schedule, friends, will be determined by one of two things, priorities or pressures. Can we put that up, please? Priorities or pressures. Write it down. One of those two things is going to control your daily life. Either you will set your own priorities according to God's counsel and wisdom in your life or someone else will lay their expectation on you and ask you to do this and bring you here and tell you to do that and push you in that direction. And I want you to know you will not live a joyful life if you're succumbing to pressures day in and day out rather than priorities that you've established. People will criticize you. They'll complain that you're not doing what they want you to do. But when you have priorities and keep them and live by them, you'll maintain your joy. About 25 years ago, this is right after I graduated from seminary, God put in my life the priority of the local church. I believe the local church is on the A priority list of Almighty God and there is no B list. And that's the reason I have thrown my life into the local church. I want to recommend a book that some of you heard me mention before called Destined for the Throne. Can we have a little cool air, please, gentlemen? Joe, Joe, a little cool air, that would be helpful. In the book Destined for the Throne, here's what Paul Bilheimer writes. And if you haven't read this book, it's up in our library. I want to recommend it to you. He says this, every event in history transpires to serve God's purpose. Nothing, no matter how small, is excluded. The universe, including this planet, was created for one purpose, to provide a suitable habitation for the human race. The human race was created in the image and likeness of God for one purpose. You follow the logic here? To provide an eternal companion for the Son. And after the fallen promise of redemption through the coming Messiah, the Messianic race was born and nurtured in order to bring in the Messiah. That's the Jewish race. And the Messiah came for one intent and only one, to give birth to his church, thus to obtain his bride. The church, then, the called-out body of redeemed mankind, turns out to be the central object, the goal, not only of mundane history, but of all that God has been doing in all realms from all eternity. Friends, may I say, in all humility, the church is God's most important activity in the universe. Why? Because he's raising up an eternal companion. Now, I don't mean this church, I mean the church. But this is a member, this is a part of the church worldwide. And as a result, I'm committed to it. Now, when you become committed to something and it begins to grow, and a place like Northwood becomes rather large and visible, I mean, it takes an awful lot of criticism. We're widely misunderstood. One of the convictions I have is, in the community at large, because people don't understand us, they just sort of put us in a sort of a category, a little box or two. Because we have chosen a biblical style of ministry and community, a biblical style of worship. People aren't used to that in this part of the country. And so they put us in a certain kind of box, in a certain kind of description. Because we're not confined in a certain way, a certain liturgy, and we're not following some form of churchianity, people just don't understand that. So they just sort of, well, they put us in a box. But the great thing is, here in 1998, they can't ignore us anymore. God's seen to that. And in that letter that I sent to you, if you haven't gotten it already, one interesting thing I discovered just a couple of weeks ago, I met with the head of the Pine Township Commission, Board of Commissioners, and he shared something with me I didn't know. That this church, this physical location, is centered in what is going to become the town center of Pine Township. At 17 square miles of land area, across Route 19 and up over the hill that direction, and up behind us here, this whole area is going to be sort of master planned to become a very unique sort of people-friendly environment. Unlike most of the strip malls and everything else that's around here, this is supposed to be a place where people can kind of relate and connect in a way that they're not in most of the North Hills. And I sat there and listened to this man very graciously sharing his vision with us, and I realized something. He thinks this may be a model for development of other communities around the area. And I thought to myself, you know, God, seven or eight years ago, I was trying so hard to do your will in another place, and you knew that right here in this location, you had a plan that was going to be developed, that maybe this whole part of the tri-state area would come and see. And guess who's sitting right at the corner of where it's all going to happen? Our church, by God's design. People are noticing. I mean, they're noticing the trees and everything is down. I've heard some real interesting stuff going on out there. You know what the latest rumor is? That we're building a Coliseum up on top of the hill. That's the latest rumor out there, that a 10,000-seat Coliseum is what I heard, and that this is a big feeder road, and we're going to have tiered parking going up, and we're going to have a retirement village over here, and on and on it goes. And yeah, people have, that's what they're hearing. I'm going to put something on the sign about, wait for our new building or something. But my only regret, my only regret really is that it's not happening, because I've calculated, Pastor Scott and I have talked, there's about 200,000 people within 15 minutes of this church that are unchurched or nominally churched. Do you believe there's room for churches to grow in this community? I want to say as long as there's one who doesn't know Christ, it should be our passion to keep growing as a church, because eternity is in the balance for these people. Friends, I issued a challenge six months ago to this service that we would prayerfully ask God to use us to reach out to others, and I don't know how well we've done. I don't know why, but we just, we struggle with it. This Christmas season, I want to implore you, stretch yourself a little bit. Reach out to a person that maybe rejected you before. Maybe today their heart will be soft. Bring them in and let them hear the good news about Christ's love and purpose for each of them. It's a priority that we all need to embrace. That enables you to see to maintain your joy because you live according to a priority, not because you're being pressured to do things. How many have a priority to make your home a warm and loving place? Let me ask that again. How many have a priority to make your home a warm and loving place? Okay, I thought so. I do, too, but I find myself at times making it a rather antagonistic place. Thank you, Dad. There's one honest dad there, yeah. Yeah, well, stuff just happens at home, right, Dad? It kind of ticks us off, and Mom sometimes. My two guys came home from break, or for break from college over Thanksgiving, and when I went into my drawers this week to get a couple of my favorite t-shirts out, they were gone. My one son's probably in this service, and he's going to stand up right now and say, no way, I didn't take it, Dad, no way. It was my brother. And I found myself a couple days ago kind of fussing about my t-shirt, and I started thinking, what in the world difference is it going to make in three years or six months even, huh? Listen, the next time you start tearing your home apart, ask yourself this question, what difference does it really make a couple years down the road? Well, you know what, I mean, I just, I really like that t-shirt. Get over it, okay? So, I mean, that's what I had to tell myself. It's no big deal, but my priorities are to maintain a positive home. A place where God's exalted and people, my kids want to be and other people want to come. That's what we all need is to set, and if you have priorities, if you have, hey, mealtime is family time, then you know what, keep it that way. If Sunday morning is go to church with the family time, then keep it that way and say goodbye to the soccer leagues and the basketball leagues and the band practices on Sunday morning. And I'll just say it real clearly, you start pulling yourself apart and letting your priorities disappear like that, friends, don't come running to God and saying, why aren't my kids like walking with you, Lord? Because when you had an opportunity to influence them about values that are just not compromisable, you didn't do it. And that's what's happening in the church. We're just losing our voice because we won't hold to our priorities. Keep your priorities and maintain your joy. Second, pray, Lord, help me, help me to keep my priorities. Number three, we need a power to live on. When Mary received the revelation that God was about to do a supernatural thing in her life, one thing was clear, she couldn't do it. She said, how's this going to happen? And look at Luke 1 35, number three in your outline there, the Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the most high will overshadow you. Circle the word overshadow. You see, the maintenance of joy requires a power source outside of ourselves. You can't do it. God's power needs to come over you. God's power needs to infuse you with life. Let's put that up, please. Episkeiozo is the Greek word for overshadow. Episkeiozo, overshadow. What does that mean? It means that God comes, you don't see him, but his shadow, his presence affects your life. It comes in and sustains you when you don't know what to do. Last week, I asked you to pray for Pastor Scott and Mack McCabe is their father, Kevin McCabe, who also worships with us, was very ill, critically ill. And then he went to be with the Lord on Monday. And we had a wonderful memorial service yesterday. And Mack was telling me about a dream that he had on last Sunday, I think if I had the timing correctly, that the Lord gave him a dream in the night about the Lord coming to take his dad home to be with him. And I can't go to all the details. Mack should tell the story. But it was a powerful dream. It wasn't just something he woke up with a dream clearly in his mind. He told Scott about it. And he said, you know, I think dad's going to go home to be with the Lord. Well, the next morning, Monday morning, they went to meet with the doctors and the doctor said, doesn't look good. Dad's not going to recover. And if he comes out of this, he could be in a vegetative state for a long period of time. But Mack said in his heart, he had a peace and he had a power because God had spoken to him that he was going to be coming to take him home. And so Scott and Mack prayed for their dad and flew back home to make some other arrangements. And little did they know that while they were on the airplane, a Kirk McCabe senior went to be with the Lord. The chariots came, took him away, took him to the Lord. And see what Mack said was, when the doctor was telling me, I could have been into fear. I could have been into all, I could have lost my joy. But I had this deep confidence because the spirit of the Lord overshadowed me. The presence of God assured me that he was in control. Friends, sometimes you have dramatic moments like that. And sometimes God just says, you know what? If you're in trouble, if your joy is draining out, just call out to me. Just say the most profound prayer in all of scripture. You know what it is? Help! Peter said that. He was walking on the water. I mean, a bold man of faith walking on the water. I wish I had the faith to do that. Then the Bible says he looked and saw the wind and the waves and his faith began to evaporate. And I love it when it says he began to sink. And Peter didn't get down and pray in some elaborate, you know, omnipotent, sovereign, ruling God of the universe. Peter said what? Help! Or exactly in the Greek, it's Lord save me. That's what he said. And friends, that's the only prayer that you need to pray when you're losing your joy. Lord save me. Step in. Help me. Give me your power because I don't have the power right now to maintain it. I'm losing my temper. I'm being brought into this temptation. I'm angry. I'm sad. I'm lonely. Help. Help. And God's power will be released in your life. Some of you are going to make some great resolutions for the new year. I'm going to lose 58 pounds this year. I need to, you know, I'm going to change my habits of TV watching or whatever. I'm going to start loving my boss who's been a real nasty person. Whatever it might be. And you know what? You'll get three or four days into it and then you'll realize you have to pray that prayer. What prayer? Help. I need your power. And can I say one last thing in this point? If you can't pray that, then you know what you need to do? You need to have someone pray for you. There are people in this church who love to pray. They're called intercessors. And you can write on your card today, your communicator. I have a prayer request and I just don't know how to pray. I pray for this situation. Pray for this relationship. Pray for this need in my life. And tomorrow, someone will confidentially be lifting your prayer request before the Lord. So number three, pray for God's power in your life. Pray for God's power when you feel inadequate. If you want to maintain your joy, you need his power. And finally, just let me mention this one. Because I'm going to make this an entire series in the new year. Pastor Dave and I have talked about a little bit. We're going to be talking to you in the new year about purpose. You need a purpose to live for. I'm so convinced that most people in the church don't really know what God wants them to do. As Roy Thompson said, there is really on all of us a call from God. And many of us don't know how to fulfill that. Mary said it very clearly when the Lord spoke to her. She said, blessed to see you as believe what the Lord has said to her will be accomplished. Actually, that was Elizabeth speaking to her about Mary's faith. Mary knew her purpose was to be the Lord's servant. Paul said it this way, for me to live is Christ and to die is gain. He knew his purpose was to serve Christ as long as he was alive. And when he died, he knew he'd be with Christ. It was as simple as that. Paul ran the race of life. Look at the next verse. Every step had purpose in it. I run straight toward the goal with purpose in every step. 1 Corinthians 9.26. You know, we admire, don't we, so much when we see a disciplined athlete, we say, wow, let's pay him $8 million to pitch next year. Or we see a gifted gymnast or figure skater who just really has that talent. I love it when a 14-year-old says, I worked my whole life to get this medal. Well, you know, big deal. Or a musician or a business person who focuses in and gives their best. And we applaud that and reward that. And rightly we should. But shouldn't we at least ask one another then? Shouldn't we ask our neighbor, our friend? Shouldn't we have the courage today to ask him, what are you doing here? What's your purpose in life? Is that the wrong question to ask? We're going to ask that question first quarter of the new year. You know, that's too cosmic for me. I'm just wondering if the Steelers are going to make the playoffs. You know, well, fine. You can think about that. But you better know what God has you here for or you could miss the reason why he placed you here. And I believe God wants us to know our purpose. Unfortunately, most Americans would answer Paul's statement, for me to live is, what would they put in that blank? What do you think? For me to live is, tell your neighbor, what do you think they'd say? For me to live is what? What would they say? Well, what do you think? For me to live is what? What would your neighbor say? You're looking at me like you don't know. Well, take a guess. What would you say? What would your neighbor say? For me to live is possessions, position in the company, nice family. What would they say? Something like that, right? For me to live is happiness. I've heard that. For me to live, I just want to be happy. Happy, happy, happy. Well, we already established the fact that when circumstances change, you won't be happy. And many Americans are living for stuff, pleasure, weekends, the whole bit. When God says no, for me to live is Christ and my purpose in Him. May God help us with that. When you find it, friends, you begin to sustain your joy because you're living with purpose in life. Every day has a certain sense of direction. And we're going to spend 10 weeks in 1999 looking at that. So pray, Lord, show me your purpose, your purpose for my life so that I can know what I'm here to fulfill for the number of yea