7: So listen, I don't wanna alarm anybody, but if you're hearing this message,
you are probably route right around 10 days left, uh,
of shopping days to finish up that Christmas list.
So hopefully that doesn't incite a panic attack in your life,
but that's a free reminder. Uh,
one other thing I wanna remind you of is it is time for you now to decide which
of our Christmas Eve services you are coming to,
who you are going to invite and go ahead and get those tickets. You know,
I was reminded last week, we've got a lot of new folks around here at Hope.
Some of you, this is like your first season, ever Christmas season,
ever at Hope.
And I was asked after a service last weekend at the Raleigh campus, Hey,
why do we have tickets for our Christmas Eve service? Just thought, man,
if you don't know, that's a great question. Uh, the reason being,
because across all five of our campuses,
we hold a total of about 16 Christmas Eve services.
We hold them on the 22nd and the 24th.
We take the 23rd off six services at Apex, five at Raleigh,
two in Fuqua Verina, two in Northwest Kerry, uh, one in Garner.
And so that leads us having about just over 19,000 total seats open for folks
to come and to hear about and to celebrate the birth of Jesus. And right now,
uh, well over half of those seats are already reserved. And so the tickets,
which are really reservations, right, because they don't cost anything,
of course, they help us make sure that there is a seat available for you,
for your family, and for your guests, uh, when you show up. Uh,
but we do want to fill up as many of those seats as we possibly can.
And it has nothing to do with wanting to have butts and seats at hope and
everything to do with.
We wanna make a huge invitation to those who desperately need to come and hear
about the love that's available to them, uh, through Jesus.
So if we can get to 75% of those tickets reserved, uh,
I'm gonna do something crazy on Christmas Eve and I'm gonna preach with my head
shaved. So you guys do, you know, whatever you can do,
go to get hope.net/christmas and, uh, get your tickets. In case you don't know,
as a church family,
we are in a series right now walking through the advent through the month of
December. We've tried to say this, uh, each week,
but Advent is a season, uh,
during the month of December where we look back to remember the birth of Christ,
uh, and then we look forward to remind ourselves, uh,
of the promise that Jesus made,
that one day he's going to return to earth and establish a new heaven and a new
Earth. Uh, if I were to say that a little bit more plainly,
he's gonna come back and put all of this brokenness back together again.
The word, uh, advent, uh, it's Latin word is Adventist, which means,
uh, who remembers from last week what it is, what it means? Anyone.
This is probably really awkward for people at other campuses where not life,
anyone remember what it means. We'll start at the beginning,
we'll go it. Uh, it means coming or arrival.
And so we are remembering and celebrating, uh,
the arrival and the coming of our king Jesus.
And so Advent has four primary themes, hope, peace, joy, and love.
We've already talked about hope and peace. Uh,
this week we are talking about joy,
and then we'll wrap up through our Christmas Eve services,
talking about the love that is available to us through Jesus.
So let's talk about joy. Uh, understand when we talk about joy,
it's not the same thing as happiness, right? They can come and go, uh, happy,
sad, mad, glad.
These are emotions that are up and down and largely circumstantial.
And so high school, college students, uh,
you think you're gonna make a c on an exam.
Somehow you end up with an a. Like, we're happy about that, right?
We're excited. Uh, Christmas time, you ask for a pony,
you get a pair of socks. That's not the same. Like,
we're a little bit disappointed. We're sad. Uh, parents,
we get a phone call from our kids' teacher, Hey,
little Johnny's acting up in school again. Uh, we're going to be angry. Uh,
how about NC State beating UNC in a football game? Yeah, I mean,
actually at this point, that's kind of normal, isn't it? I mean,
there's no real reason. Again, I'm just kidding. That has a lot to do, uh,
with your alma mater,
I understand that maybe you UNC fans getting chapel bill into town,
maybe that'll help you out a little bit. We'll see.
But our emotions change with our ever changing circumstances.
But what I wanna suggest to you is that with true joy, like this deep,
heartfelt, sincere joy that we can have with that, that's not the case.
And I believe it's possible. And,
and honestly more importantly than what I believe,
I believe the Bible tells us that we can have joy in spite of our ever-changing
circumstances. But how do we find it? Uh,
in 2006, I took a trip to an area, uh,
that goes by the name Ole Kenya. Kenya. And so the other side of the planet,
Cale is an impoverished suburb, uh, suburb just outside of Nairobi.
I went with, uh, a pastor who's actually here on our staff now, Corey Paxton.
He and I have been, uh, friends for decades. Uh, he's done a ton of stuff here.
He is oversaw adult ministry for a while.
He currently now oversees our young adult ministry. Shout out to our Yam fam.
Uh, he's involved in our student ministry.
He and I were a part of a church plant together out of hope, uh,
way back in 2006.
And we were going to Kenya to do a number of things over a 10 day trip.
But one of them was to spend time in an orphanage that one of Corey's friends
from seminary had started in this area of Ole called the Africa Hope Center.
And this was a children's home for kids who had lost both of their parents, uh,
due to hiv aids.
You wanna talk about a reason to be unhappy in life,
like being an orphan at this home. I mean, you've lost both of your parents. Um,
this is, by the way, this is not like a children's home in the United States.
It's not even like a children's home in Nairobi. I mean,
I'm talking an incredibly under-resourced area.
It's not like they had a ton of money coming in.
This is just a guy who left this community, came to America,
and he's trying to do something back for his community. I mean,
they eat like porridge every day that's warmed up on this charcoal oven.
Uh, the roads are like dirt. There's not really a lot of places to play.
Like you just think, okay, they don't really have a reason to be happy.
I will never forget walking into the welcome area of this orphanage and all of
these young children coming in and kind of flooding the, the area.
And they start singing this song. And I'll never forget how they say it said,
they said, welcome, welcome, welcome, welcome, Mr Welcome, welcome,
welcome, welcome to the Africa Hope Center. And then one by one,
they came out and they shared their name and they shared their story.
And they talked about how God had been at work in their life through the
ministry of the Africa Hope Center, through the administration there,
through the teachers there, through people that they had never met before,
that they showed up, but they knew that they were helping make this possible,
and that what they had was this contagious joy. And I went there to minister,
but like I left minister to like, wait. That's right.
We can have joy in these circumstances. Same thing happened to me in 2015.
I went with Doug and Dawn Stride, who, uh, Doug's our Apex campus pastor. Uh,
Dawn's overseeing a number of different ministries here at Hope over the years,
but we went to Uganda to Watoto Church,
which is the church that they used to be on staff, uh, at.
And they took us over to see some of the ministry that that was going on at
Watoto. And we went to, uh, these two different,
what they called them was Watoto Villages.
And so what they had set up was these houses in these remote regions, uh,
for children to live in who were orphans or who were
rescued from. Uh, maybe you remember, um, uh, a,
a name Joseph Coney, who oversaw what was called the Lord's Resistance Army.
It was actually a terrorist group where they would go into villages and steal
children, force them to kill their siblings, and then say, Hey,
your families won't take you back now. So now you're a part of our army.
And so children were fighting in these armies, uh, as soldiers.
And so they would rescue these children and then let them live in these
villages, and they live in these homes. Uh,
and then they would have moms staying in each one of these houses.
Same thing like just overcome with joy through the work that God had done
in their life in spite of the trauma that they'd experienced. Uh,
pastor Jean Alis, uh, our leader on the ground, uh, at uh, our,
our ministry partner in Haiti,
no stable government house and car getting shot up, uh,
running out of food and resources.
His wife can't stay in the area because it's not safe.
But he's still leading the church, and the church is still growing.
And he's saying, I will not leave. And if you talk to him, you don't know,
tell you, I'm joyful in the Lord, brother. I mean, that's just the way he talks.
And you gotta ask yourself like, how do we get there if it is available to us?
And so what I wanna do in our time together,
I wanna have you turn in your Bibles to Luke chapter two.
And I want us just to talk through like what is the roadmap for us experiencing
the joy that God has for us in our lives?
So we're gonna pick up the story that first Christmas night, uh,
Mary and Joseph had just given birth, uh, to six pound,
eight ounce tiny baby Jesus. Uh, but he doesn't stay that way. Don't forget,
we talked last week. He doesn't stay a baby. He's a wonderful counselor.
He's a mighty God and everlasting father, a prince of peace. But shortly after,
uh, we're gonna pick up in chapter two verse eight, shortly after his birth,
and it says this in verse eight. And in the same region,
there were shepherds out in the field keeping watch over their flock by night.
And an angel of the Lord appeared to them and the glory of the Lord shown around
them and they were filled with great fear. Uh, why were they afraid? Um,
if you haven't read your Bible cover to cover,
angels don't necessarily look like what you see in picture books, okay? Um,
angels are fierce looking, uh, mighty looking warriors.
But the angel said to them, fear not for behold.
I bring to you good news of great joy that
will be for all the people,
for unto you is born this day in the city of David,
a savior who is Christ the Lord. So the angels tell 'em, listen,
I bring you good news of great joy for who? For all people. Alright?
Not, not, not just for them, not just like for me, for you, for all people.
And so what is it? What is the good news?
Somehow this baby being born was good news.
That would bring great joy. Why? We need to understand a few things.
Uh,
shepherds in Israel would've been 100% aware of Old Testament prophecies
about the Messiah, which predicted a birth of a savior in Bethlehem.
They would've known about it. Remember, in the last series, uh,
we were in the word of the Lord.
I unpacked the overarching narrative of scripture,
and we talked about how really all of scripture hinges on the Savior being born
and rescuing God's people and being a blessing to the world.
And so when this angel shows up and makes this declaration,
there would've been this sense of anticipation.
Like you couldn't imagine like years and years of hearing stories and reading
the Torah and reading the prophets and the law,
all of a sudden there's this angel shining with the glory of the Lord that's
essentially saying, Hey,
everything that you've been reading about that you've been hoping for,
it has happened.
The promise you've been believing in your entire life has now come to be.
And so they heard this news and they understand this is great joy.
And so I wanna encourage you, as we're kind of looking for this roadmap,
how do we find this joy in our lives?
We find joy in the promises and in the faithfulness of Jesus.
One of the best things that we can do in our lives to experience joy is simply
to remember the promises that Jesus has made and the faithfulness that he's
shown to us in our lives. Did, you know, depending on which scholar, uh,
you read, um,
you will find that there's over 300 prophecies in the Old Testament that are
fulfilled through Jesus.
And that doesn't even account for God's faithfulness and doing things like
parting the Red Sea, uh, fighting the Israelites battles on their behalf. Like,
like literally having the opposing armies turn on one another and killed one
another. It doesn't talk about answering prayers of men like Moses, Daniel,
Nehemiah. And so I just ask you a question.
How about in your own life? Where have you seen God's faithfulness?
And man, I I, I don't know about you,
but I just being fully transparent with you. I, if it weren't for Jesus,
um,
it's highly likely I would be six feet under the ground or worse,
like I would,
I I would still be alive ruining my life and ruining other people's lives,
but for the, the grace and mercy of our savior.
And so we gotta understand, like in our world, especially in America,
we are programmed to see and to live into what we don't have. Uh,
we're trained about what we see on TV and in social media to focus, uh,
on the things that we don't like, quite honestly, and how bad things are. Um,
those kids in the orphanage, uh, jean leaks in Haiti,
they live day to day trusting in and seeking God to meet their needs.
And he shows up and he answers and meets their needs day by day.
And when you live your life focused on the promises of God and on his
faithfulness, what you really find is joy.
Proverbs 1722, it says, A joyful heart is good medicine,
but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.
See, our tendency is really to focus on what's not ideal
and truthfully complain.
And what that leads to is a spirit of cynicism and negativity.
You ever been around a complainer? Somebody laughed.
I don't know who they came with. Make sure they're not talking about you. Uh,
what it does is it, it has a tendency to attract more negative. Um,
I came across this quote this week. It says,
repetitive complaining will attract things for you to complain about.
Repeated gratitude will attract things for you to be thankful about.
I wanna be real careful, like in today's world of New Ages, I'm like that.
I'm not saying that like, Hey, if we have a heart of gratitude,
we're actually gonna make more good things happen to us in our life.
That's not what I'm saying. What I'm saying is like,
there's this lens that we put on, that we choose.
How do we want to view the world? Uh, clay Burgess and Tim Ling,
two other pastors on our staff, they,
they routinely talk about Manus followers to Jesus. In today's world,
we gotta be blessing hunters. Like we gotta be looking for these blessings.
And when we see 'em, we gotta celebrate 'em and lift them up high.
We have got to spend time intentionally remembering the promises and the
faithfulness of Jesus that take us to a place of gratitude and joy.
Uh, what I wanna do for us, this is a little different, but uh,
I want to give to you a gift, uh, during our, our service this week. Um,
what I was gonna do is say, Hey, so here's step one. When you go home,
spend some time thinking through the things that you're grateful for in your
life. And I thought, look man, the season's too busy. Um, I got you here. Now,
uh, you're here .
And so what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna give us time right now, uh,
across all of our campuses, one church, multiple locations,
and I'm just gonna give you two minutes.
And what I want you to do in these two minutes, and if you've got a notepad and,
and a pen, something you can write with, or if you wanna open the note section,
uh, on your phone, don't go to social media.
But I wanna give you just a couple minutes to think through the promises of God,
the faithfulness of God,
and the things that you're grateful for in your life right now.
And if you get stuck,
you can open up your photos and just scroll through there and see what it is,
uh, and how God has blessed you.
If you get done in less than two minutes and you wanna turn to your neighbor
that you came with and share and celebrate together as a part of the same church
family, go right ahead and we'll pick it back up in two minutes,
Okay? We're gonna pick back up. Same story. Luke chapter two,
verse 12. Here's what it says. And this will be a sign for you.
You'll find a baby wrapped in swaddling clothing and lying in a manger.
And suddenly there was with the angel, a multitude of heavenly hosts.
So multiple angels praising God and saying,
glory to God and the highest and on earth peace among those whom he is
pleased. When the angel went away from them into heaven,
the shepherd said to one another,
let's go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened,
which the Lord has made known to us. And they went with haste,
and they found Mary and Joseph and the baby living in a manger.
So a bunch of angels show up and they appear and they're praising God and
they're declaring peace on earth, uh, for those of whom God is pleased.
And then the angels go away. And then what do they do?
They like run to Jesus. These guys say, listen,
if this promise has come true,
like if the savior of the world has come and is bringing great joy,
we gotta see it. We gotta be there. And sure enough, when they get there,
they find Jesus, they find the one who is promised.
And so the second stop here on this roadmap to joy is this,
we find joy in our lives in the presence of Jesus.
I think one of the greatest ironies of the Christmas season is this is the time
of the year that we celebrate a, uh, uh,
if they're supposed to represent the steps that Jesus took to come down towards
us. But we've turned it into one of the busiest seasons on the calendar.
And I just wonder, man,
what would happen in our lives if we stopped and
we just spent time every day doing what the shepherds did
and just go to Jesus. And look, I I,
I hope it's obvious Jesus can be with us everywhere, right? Like if we, uh,
the spirit of God goes with us everywhere we go, if we were in Christ Jesus,
but we know we can be in the same room with people and not be connected, right?
Like the TV can be on, we can be on our phones, scroll on Facebook, Instagram,
TikTok, uh,
my kids have friends come over sometimes and I'll walk into the area where they
are. And I'm not kidding. Like in, at the same time,
a video game controller in one hand, a phone in the other,
and they got a laptop going and none of them are talking to each other.
I'm like, what is going on? Uh, I know as adults,
most of us aren't any better. So that's not to, to, to knock on kids.
But we've gotta know that with the pace that we run at in our lives,
it doesn't allow us to slow down and to connect to Jesus and just
to sit in his presence. Our prayer life suffers,
our time engaging scripture suffers.
And then we wonder why we aren't filled with joy. Uh,
I was reminded this week in a study in of, a little bit further in the,
the book of Luke in chapter 10, uh,
Jesus is now an an adult and he's with his disciples and they go to their
friend's house, Mary and Martha, and they show up.
And Martha is like cleaning the house and cooking food and getting everything
ready.
And then Mary's just kinda sitting at the feet of Jesus just listening to him
talk. And at some point Martha's like, okay, enough is enough. Jesus,
will you please tell Mary to get up and help me? And Jesus is like, Martha,
listen, Actually what she's chosen is right.
I'm not gonna take that away from her.
We say we want joy, but we choose busyness,
we choose other things. And you know, there's this saying, uh,
that I believe is true that says,
your life will closely resemble the top five people that you spend the most
amount of time with. You want joy in your life.
Do you spend time in the presence of the one who came as good news to bring joy
to all the world? So I want to encourage you,
especially this holiday seat man, let's spend time in the presence of Jesus.
Be intentional about spending time in prayer.
Let's be intentional about sitting in solitude and just listening.
Let's be intentional about the time that we spend in God's word together.
Let's be intentional about taking a sabbath. I'm just telling you this is,
this is a big one for me. I I don't really,
I I struggle with this one in my life.
What does it mean to set the whole day aside and,
and recognize the world doesn't revolve around my busyness and I can be
dependent on God and remember how he provides for me.
We find joy in the presence of Jesus. I wanna give you another gift,
another two minutes. And
this time what I want you to think through is what are the steps that I can take
in between now and Christmas to make sure that I'm spending intentional time
in the presence of Jesus, seeking the joy that he has for me in my life?
Take the two minutes again.
If you finish up early and you wanna talk with somebody next to you as a part of
your church family, feel free and we'll pick it up in just a bit.
Okay? We're gonna wrap up this text looking at two more verses, verse 17 and 18.
Luke chapter two, it says, and when they, the shepherds, when they saw it,
Jesus, they made known the saying that had been told them concerning this child.
And all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them.
See, when the shepherds experienced the good news,
when they realized the faithfulness of God,
when they experienced the presence of Jesus, when they experienced this joy,
they couldn't keep it to themselves.
Like they went out immediately and started sharing it with, with other people.
And there's something about experiencing the blessing and the joy of Jesus that
like when you truly encounter it, you just don't keep it to yourself.
You absolutely have to share it. And I'm gonna cut right to this one.
The third step on this roadmap to joy. Uh,
we find joy in sharing the hope that we have in Jesus.
You know, the Bible tells us that it is God's people as the family of God.
We are blessed to be a blessing.
And Jesus grew up and he went into the world and he announced
a new kingdom. He healed the sick. He he forgave sins,
he met needs and he set the church in motion.
And then he tells us to go into the world and to do the same thing.
But I want you to understand it's not out of obligation like it is in
response to the good news and to the great joy that we've received.
Uh, this is why we say our identity as a church family here at Hope, um,
is to be a family who loves God, follows Jesus and shares hope.
Like there's an aspect of what we receive and following Jesus that we just can't
help but share with the world.
But that's why the first step of remembering the promises and the faithfulness
of God is so important. 'cause you know, our tendency, again,
to go back to this, is to focus on our own problems.
Our own ever-changing circumstances,
decisions that were made that we didn't like, things that people did to us.
And then we get so inwardly focused,
our tendency is to get bitter or to think that hey,
maybe our best energy is spent fighting our own battles.
And then we lose sight of what it is that God's done for us.
And then we make it about us. And I just say, church, family,
we talked last week. If we're gonna experience the peace that God has for us,
if we wanna experience joy in our lives, we have got to resist that urge.
We have to remind ourselves of God's faithfulness.
We have to sit in his presence and we have to move to share the hope that we
have with other people. And the truth is,
generous people are the most joyful people that you'll ever meet in your life.
And the reason that is, is because their eyes aren't on themselves.
And so I just wanna ask you this question, like,
if we find joy in sharing the hope that we have in Jesus,
how can you share more of the joy and hope that you have in Jesus? Are, are you,
are we running into the world to share the good news of this gospel with the
world around us? And so you might ask, well Jason,
how in the world how do I do that? What does that look like?
If that's a stop on this roadmap to joy, what does it look like in my life?
And to which I would say that's why it's important for you to sit in the
presence of Jesus. 'cause I don't know exactly what it is for you.
Here's what I do know, because he wants to, he wants you to.
He, he left heaven, uh, he came to earth, he put on human flesh.
He took on our sins on his back on a cross,
and he rose from the grave so that we could have new life.
And he calls his church to be the salt of the earth,
a preservative to be the light of the world in an ever
pressing darkness. Uh,
depending on when you hear this message in about a week, uh,
we're gonna get together across all of our campuses and,
and we're gonna turn off all the lights, alright?
And we're gonna sing Silent Night and we're gonna light candles and it's gonna
be passed around to different people throughout the room.
And what's gonna happen is as the light gets passed around,
the light is going to outshine the darkness.
And my question for us is, as a church,
can we take that from being a symbol and actually live it out in our day-to-day
life, not just something that we do when we get together on Christmas Eve,
but can we actually be that light in a world that desperately needs it?
And so I don't know what it is for you, maybe it's as simple as, Hey,
I'm gonna commit to being joyful at my family Christmas gatherings this year.
Low bar, but important.
Maybe it's to practice gratitude as opposed to complaining. Uh,
maybe it's to pray for God to show you someone in your,
one of your classes at your dorm room, uh,
maybe in your workplace that God would have you share the gospel with or,
or a need that you might should meet. Or maybe, hey,
this is the person that you should invite to one of our Christmas Eve services.
I'll tell you one way that our church family could grow in its ability to share
hope would be if,
if the hundreds or maybe even thousands of those who call hope their church
family home, but who aren't actively a part of a ministry team,
are actually contributing financially to the mission and vision of what it is
that God's calling us into. To just to jump in.
And I'm telling you, if everyone who called home home said,
I'm gonna jump into a ministry,
or I'm going to give generously of my finances the way that God has called me to
in my life, the ministry that happens around this place,
I'm telling you it would increase exponentially. You,
you'd probably see less burnout from some of the other volunteers that give
everything that they have weekend and week out. But I,
I don't know what it is for you, but again,
last time here, I wanna gift you with a little bit of time.
And so I'm gonna give you two minutes. And, uh,
the question I want you to ask yourself is, um,
where is God calling me to put energy and effort to share more of the hope that
I have in Jesus? Again, two minutes,
maybe make some notes you can revisit later. And if you finish up,
I wanna share with someone next to you. I invite you to go right ahead.
Church family, Jesus came for us to experience joy in our lives.
And it makes no sense to me that Christians are viewed
at times as fuddy duddies, is that a word? I can use real word.
We have all the reason in the world to be the greatest partiers on planet earth.
Uh, in, in the Old Testament, God is even like, listen,
I want you to make sure that you set aside time,
that you do every single year to have festivals,
to remember what it is that I have done in your presence,
what I have done for my people. Uh, he says,
I want you to make sure that you take time every single week to stop pretending
like the weight of the world is on your back.
And remember what it is that I've done for you.
Remember how I've provided for you. And I want you to celebrate. In fact,
like if you take the Jason Gore version of like some passages you see in
Deuteronomy, it's like, Hey, if you don't party hard,
I'm gonna wipe out everybody.
I mean like he commands us to go and to party and to celebrate is because he
knows if we lose sight of his goodness,
we're gonna go through life without hope, without peace, without joy.
The roadmap to joy is found in the promises and faithfulness of Jesus
and the presence of Jesus. And in sharing the hope that we have in Jesus,
Spend some time over the next few weeks just kind of reflecting, uh,
on the notes that you took, um, leaning into the presence of God.
But I'm telling you,
if you show me a man or a woman or student who remembers God's faithfulness in
their life regularly,
who regularly spends time at the presence of Jesus and who is actively regularly
sharing the hope that we have in Jesus,
I will show you a man or a woman or student who is filled with the joy of the
Lord regardless of what life throws at them.
This is the bottom line.
Joy is not based in ever-changing circumstances,
but in the unchanging promises of God.
So here's what we're gonna do as people who have a reason to celebrate across
all of our campuses, we're gonna wrap up our time together,
celebrate in a little bit. And I just wanna encourage you,
we're gonna sing joy to the world and I want you to go all in.
We have a reason to celebrate.
We have good news of great joy that a child has been born and
church. Uh,
my prayer is that we would be a church that is filled with and shares the joy
that we have in Christ, our king with the world around us. Love you guys.
Merry Christmas.