Episode Transcript
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Well, let's hear God's word tonight
from Luke Chapter Two. Luke two,
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I'm going to be thinking about a
one particular phrase in verse ten, but
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I'll read from eight to eight to
twenty. And in the same region,
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there were shepherds out in the field
keeping watch over their flock by night,
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and an angel of the Lord appeared
to them and the glory of the Lord
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shone around them and they were filled
with fear, and the Angel said to
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them, fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great
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joy that will be for all the
people, for unto you is born this
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day in the city of David,
a savior who is Christ the Lord,
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and this will be a sign for
you. You will find a baby wrapped
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in swaddling clothes and lying in a
manger. And suddenly there was with the
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angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying glory to God
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in the highest and on earth peace
among those with whom he is pleased.
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When the angels went away from them
and to Heaven, the shepherd said to
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one another, let us go over
to Bethlehem and see this thing that has
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happened, which the Lord has made
known to us, and they went with
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haste and they found Mary and Joseph
and the baby lying in a manger,
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and when they saw it, they
made known the saying that was told them
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concerning the child, and all who
heard it wondered at what the shepherds hold
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them. But Mary treasured up all
these things, pondering them in her heart,
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and the shepherds returned glorifying and praising
God for all that they had heard
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and seen, as it had been
told to them. May God bless his
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word to us. Please be seated. Was We continued to think of things
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that typically accompany this time of year, Christmas time to name it. One
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of them is joy, and it's
the thing I want to focus on this
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evening in particular, joy as it
comes in the news of the incarnation,
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joy which spreads to us and comes
to us in all of our lives.
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Joy is one of the great emotions
that come, I'm with the incarnation.
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We have that here, as I
mentioned earlier. In verse ten, the
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Angel Appears to the shepherds and he
says, fear not, for behold,
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I bring you good news of great
joy. You know, we often talk
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about the Gospel is being good news
well from this particular phrase. We might
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define it as great joy news,
not just good news, but great joy,
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great joy news. The angels Harold
it, the News as joy.
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The wise men, I'm felt the
joy that the angels proclaimed in the news
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this morning when we considered the wise
men following the star to go and give
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gifts to Jesus. We read,
we read there that they rejoiced exceedingly with
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great joy. The angels heralded it, the wise men felt it. Jesus
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is cousin. John the Baptist leapt
for joy even in his mother's room.
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Luke one hundred and forty four tells
us when Mary came and greeted her sister.
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And this makes sense because, as
proverbs fifteen thirty reminds us, good
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news refreshes the bones. When you
hear a good news, it make you
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happy, it makes you feel good. If you get a phone call this
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evening, a family member calls you
up and says I've got some good news,
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you can barely wait to hear the
rest, to know what is what
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is to be told. Even before
you hear the news, just knowing that
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it's great, just knowing that it's
good, brings that joy well, all
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the more so with the incarnation of
the son of God, with the birth
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of Jesus, this great joy news, this good news that brings joy.
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Joy is an emotion that we all
want, isn't it feels very good.
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It's something we seek, but it's
not always found. We often find ourselves
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in places and in times where we
don't have joy that we want to know
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how to get it, where it
comes from. Well, tonight we want
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to think about this. Has it
a joy, in particular as it connects
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with Jesus. We want to think
about the different kinds of joy, sinful
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joy, earthly joy and heavenly joy. We want to hear why the birth
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of Jesus is news that is so, that is news to be joyful about.
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Now I'm going to tell you in
advance that I'm going to be quoting
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a lot of scripture, and here's
one reason. and Jeremiah, fifteen,
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seventeen says, your words were found
and I ate them and your words became
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to me a joy. There is
a way in which the word of God
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itself brings delight to our hearts.
It helps remind us of the truth of
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the good news. Sometimes news that
we hear we become hardened to it,
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desensitized because of our own sinful natures. There's all kinds of reasons for this,
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but whatever the reason may be,
this happens with the Gospel as well,
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and it we lose a sense of
its preciousness, of the goodness of
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it, of the delight in it, and hearing the word of God,
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we are reminded of why that is, of what makes it delightful, what
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it is that fills our hearts with
joy. This morning is in our Sunday
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school hour, we were considering pilgrim's
progress and we thought about this, didn't
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we? It's Christian lost his sword. That sword was the word of God.
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He struggled, but upon picking it
up again, he was he gained
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some strength. So we'll do that
this evening, considering joy in the word
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of God. First consider sinful joy, and we'll get it quickly out of
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the way, not because it's unimportant
but because it's somewhat obvious. We find
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joy in dark places. Joy is
an exceedingly good thing, but we not
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all joy is derived from good things. We must recognize this, admit this,
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that sometimes we take pleasure and delight
in the wrong things, and this
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is not something to be joyful about. This is not the kind of joy
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we should seek to instead, we
should avoid it. The Bible Warns Us
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and tells us about this kind of
sinful joy. Proverbs to fourteen speaks of
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those who rejoice in doing evil and
delight in the perverseness of evil. They
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have fun, they enjoy the bad, they enjoy the sinful. Proverbs fifteen
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twenty one says folly is a joy
to him who lacks sense. The fool
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gets in trouble and where the wise
person learns from it and says, I
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was an idiot. Why did I
do that? The fool enjoys his folly
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and falls into it all the more. This is a bad and evil kind
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of joy. Proverbs twenty or seventeen
warns us of a very particular kind of
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sinful joy, though there are,
of course, others. Proverbs twenty four
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seventeen says do not rejoice when your
enemy falls, and let not and let
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not your heart be glad when he
stumbles. God even attaches a sort of
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consequence to this when he says less
Jehovah see it and be displeased and turn
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his anger away from him. I
think the implication of that is toward you,
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that you laugh at your enemy,
and God is displeased and you become
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the enemy. This is the kind
of sinful joy the Bible warns against.
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Joy In sinful things, joy in
folly, joy at the fall of others,
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even the fall of an enemy.
It's sinful joy and it is to
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be hated. There's something better,
though. There is, of course,
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earthly joy, and the Lord has
filled the world with many, many,
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many things that bring us joy.
When I spent time reflecting on this this
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this week, it doesn't take long
when you start counting your joy or thinking
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about things that you're joyful about,
that that smile inside begins to work its
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way outward. I'm not sure what
things in particular bring you joy. Maybe
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it's coffee and a cold morning,
maybe it's when the weather finally cools off
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here in Tucson. Maybe it's a
sunset, all kinds of things that we
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can rejoice in, and the Bible
mentions many in particular proverbs. Again,
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it speaks of joy when justice is
done, a kind of pleasure that we
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find when righteousness happens, particularly in
justice. Proverbs twenty proverbs also says that
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in apt answer brings joy. That
kind of perfect word at the right moment
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and the right way and the right
time, it makes you smile. The
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the the Bible talks about marriage as
bringing joy and even commands it in great
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ways. Let Your Fountain Be Blessed
and rejoice in the wife of your youth,
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a lovely dear, a graceful dough. Let her breasts fill you at
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all times with delight. Be intoxicated
always in love with her. These earthly
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joys that the Lord gives to us
are are wonderful. Even the creation is
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said to exhibit a kind of joy. In Psalm six, five twelve,
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we read that when the Lord provided
AIDS in a great abundant way on the
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earth, through rain and vegetation,
things like that, that the hills,
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the hills gird themselves with joy,
the meadows clothed themselves with flocks, the
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valleys deck themselves with brain. They
shout and sing together for joy. The
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Way, the Bible speaks even of
the non human elements of creation as just
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glorying in the Lord and the things
that he is given them. The hills,
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the meadows, the valleys, the
earth. Maybe it's chocolate during a
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difficult day a shoulder rub from a
friend, five bucks that you find in
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your pocket, or the Scythe of
a horse standing among the trees. There
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are all kinds of wonderful, wonderful
things that the lord fills the earth with,
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things for which we are joyful.
But this earthly joy has its limits.
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It has its limits. Proverbs and
speaking about the joy of justice and
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marriage and apt answers and other things
has this dark proverb as a well.
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Proverbs fourteen thirteen. Even in laughter
the heart may ache, and the end
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of joy maybe grief. ECCLESIASTES to
verses ten through twelve. Here the preacher
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expresses his project and which he went
out into the world and sought these joys
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to the Max in every possible way
he could, and he finds himself frustrated
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in the end. He says in
Chapter Two, verses ten and eleven,
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and whatever my eyes desired, I
did not keep from them. I kept
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my heart from no pleasure, for
my heart found pleasure in all my toil,
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and this was my reward for all
my toil. Then I considered all
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that my hands had done and the
toil I had expended in doing it,
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and behold, all was vanity and
a striving after the wind, and there
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was nothing to be gained under the
Sun. This aching in the heart,
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even in the midst of joy that
proverbs describes, and the way that the
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preacher describes in Ecclesiastes of going out
into the world and setting his hand in
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his mind and his heart to do
good work, to learn, to grow,
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to experience, he also finds that
in all that toiling and all that
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good work that was supposed to bring
him lasting joy, he finds it all
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vanishing well, going away even as
in the wind. And this is not
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the experience of him alone. Many, many people feel this the every day
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and it's what keeps people searching.
It what's keeps them searching for the next
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best thing, a kind of joy, a kind of thing that will finally,
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finally bring things together, whether that's
a certain amount of money or a
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perfectly optimized schedule or a certain kind
of relationship or family. The list goes
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on and on and on. Maybe
sometimes we put it in even very low
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things, cars or or gadgets,
or even in base things, sinful things.
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But though God deck's the earth with
all kinds of good things, things
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for us to enjoy, there is
a kind of greater joy that goes even
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beyond the earthly. That is the
joy that people really want, the joy
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that ultimately, at they are after. It's a heavenly kind of joy,
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a heavenly joy. It's called this
because it both comes from heaven and it
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transcends the thing of the earth.
There's no vanity in it, there's no
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moment in which it seems to exist
and then vanishes, just crumbles under you,
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sifts out from between your fingers.
There's no other side of the coin
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when it comes to heavenly joy.
It's perfect, it's complete, it's eternal
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and it's that kind of joy.
Not Sinful Joy, not good earthly joy,
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but this eternal, heavenly joy that
is being announced by the angels in
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our passage tonight, when the shepherds
are are there in their fields and this
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angel appears and announces to them this
good news of great joy. This is
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what they are describing. It's what
the shepherd's experienced and felt when they went,
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what the wise men experienced and felt. It's what John, I guess,
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felt when he was in the womb
and he leaped for joy. It's
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a heavenly kind of joy and it's
an eternal kind of joy because it's from
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God and it's in God. Listen
to Psalm forty three, versus four and
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five. Then I will go to
the altar of God, to God,
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my exceeding joy, and I will
praise you with a liar. Oh God,
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my God, why are you cast
down, O my soul, and
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why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God, for I shall
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again praise him, my salvation and
my God. In these two verses we
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have the word God, one,
two, three, four, five,
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six times, over and over and
over again, and very clearly put even
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at the very beginning. Then I
will go to the altar of God to
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God my exceeding joy. A heavenly
joy is, as I said, from
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heaven in the sense that it is
from God and it transcends the earth and
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that it is God himself. Our
joy is eat our heavenly joy is eternal
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and everlasting because it is grounded.
It comes from the God who made everything
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himself. We're reminded in Romans fourteen
one that the joy that we have is
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joy in the Holy Spirit. We
have joy, the Bible says, in
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the strength of the Lord. Well, because of Joel this kind of joy
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is from God. That means it
is great, it means it's everlasting,
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it means it's the kind of thing
that can't be frustrated. It's the kind
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of thing that won't come in vain. Jesus is a rival on earth hit.
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This incarnation, the son of God
taking on Flesh, is not something
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that is going to just not work
out. It is going to bring about
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the things that God has promised,
things that can be described as news of
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great joy, the releasing of people
from captivity, the conquering of Satan,
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the defeat of death, the securing
of an inheritance for a people that is
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eternal and spiritual and everlasting. Psalm
sixteen eleven says you make known to me
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the path of life. In your
presence there is fullness of joy. At
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your right hand are pleasures forevermore.
This is a different kind of joy than
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enjoying a chocolate bar at two o'clock
on the Friday afternoon. That's Nice,
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might get you through the next hour. You might really enjoy it, but
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it is not going to fill you
with the fullness of joy. You will
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not find pleasures forevermore, and you
won't find it there or any of the
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other places that we often see it, but in the Lord, in God
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himself, he gives to us that
the fullness of joy, delight in the
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heart, pleasure that's everlasting. Now
this joy, this great gift that God
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gives to us, is indeed a
gift. It's given to you. This
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is an important thing to know.
This joy that we have is not a
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sinful joy. It's not a joy
that's stolen. We don't climb into the
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heavenly places and somehow rip something out
of God's Throne Room and say, Aha,
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I have one of the treasures of
the king. No, this is
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one of his treasures that he gives
to us because he loves us. He
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gives it to us in particular in
the salvation that comes to us in Jesus
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Isaiah six, one hundred and ten. I will rejoice greatly in Jehovah.
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My soul shall exalt in my God, for he has clothed me with the
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garments of salvation. You hear the
connection there? You hear the connection between
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rejoicing in God and why we rejoice
in God, the the way it is
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that we come to rejoice and have
this kind of eternal joy. It's because
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of salvation, because he has clothed
me with the garments of salvation. Isaiah
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goes on to describe on what that's
like and he uses three metaphors, one
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of a bridegroom sort of putting on
his wedding garments, of a priest being
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clothed in his head dress and a
bride being, I believe it's, covered
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with jewels. This is the way
in which we are clothed with salvation.
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It's this kind of entering into this
position of glory, of goodness, of
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joy, and it's one of the
great gifts of God, isn't it?
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Joy? It's one of the gifts
that he's given. It comes to us
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as a promise that is fulfilled.
We find joy in the fact that God
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is doing the thing that he said
he would do. Remember Isaiah's in the
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Old Testament, Jesus is born a
much later on in him. In this
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coming of the Christ, this coming
of the Messiah, we have God doing
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the things he has said he will
do, giving the gifts he is promised.
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But Jesus not only fulfills promises,
which brings us joy, but there's
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also joy in the hopes of future
things to come. Jesus promises US A
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place in heaven. He promises us
that when we die, we will raise
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from the dead, then we will
live forever, and that we will do
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so without sorrow and always with joy. These kinds of hopes sustain us.
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This gift of joy that God gives
to us in the salvation that comes in
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this baby, it sustains us.
This gift sustains us in a way that
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even sorrows become opportunities for joy.
This gift that God sustains us in the
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salvation of Jesus is effective in such
a way that even sorrows become opportunities for
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joy. A back three hundred and
seventeen describes famine becoming famine, a promised
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famine, and then can continues with
yet I will rejoice in the Lord,
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I will joy in the God of
my salvation, or persecution. Acts five
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hundred forty one. We read of
Jesus's disciples departing from the council I'm after
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being persecuted, joy saying that they
were worthy to suffer shame for his name.
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Joy in famine, joy in persecution, joy in imprisonments and acts sixteen
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we read that we read of Christians
being beaten and imprisoned, and at midnight
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there is Paul singing with joy.
HEEBRES thirty four describes the loss of property.
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You joyfully accepted the plundering of your
property, since you knew that you
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had a better possession and an abiding
one. You see how these future things,
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these promises that Jesus or these gifts
that Jesus is, Jesus secures and
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promises to us, have a way
of affecting our lives here and now,
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so that even when we suffer for
his name, we find that we can
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rejoice, even when our property and
our wealth is taken from us, when
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our backs are ripped open by the
whip, when we lose even our very
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lives, we can joyfully accept these
things because of the better possession, the
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abiding one, that is to come
first. Peter Twelve characterizes all these things,
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and he talks about rejoicing in the
midst of all kinds of fiery trials,
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joy the gift of God that comes
in the Salvation of Christ. That's
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what the angels were announcing. That's
why the aim though the wise men fell
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to worship at the manger. It's
why John Leapt in the womb, because
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in the birth of the son of
God, the world was given by God
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himself, salvation, hope and a
guaranteed future without any sorrow. In other
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words, we were given joy,
a lasting treasure. Indeed, it wasn't
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only Jesus birth that was touched by
joy. We read that as his at
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his resurrection, the women departed quickly
from the tomb. Matthew Twenty eight eight.
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They parted quickly from the tomb with
fear and great joy at his coming,
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at his birth, at his resurrection, at his ascension to also touched
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by joy, Luke fifty two.
He was carried up into heaven. They
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worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with
great joy. Even at the cross,
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even at this low low point,
the lowest point, when Jesus was suffering
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and dying, Hebrews tells us that
it was for the joy that was set
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before him that he endured the cross
and despised the shame. The Good News,
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the Gospel, the great joy news
that God proclaims so clearly to these
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shepherds is what has also proclaimed to
you tonight, and in that news,
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in this Jesus, there is great
joy, joy, eternal joy without swore
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sorrow, joy and delight in God. So here and believe and look at
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the world in a new way.
And when your heart is filled with the
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joy of the Lord, the joy
of God, the joy of the Holy
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Spirit, the joy of his strength, the joy of his promises, the
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joy of Christ our king, you
don't need to bottle it up, but
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you can share it with others and
you can worship your savior. Let us
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pray
