Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
Do you ever feel tired of chasing happiness? How are we expected to stay happy all the time when life can be hard? In this video, Pastor Fredo Ramos gives us insight to where we can find happiness that sticks.
At Sandals Church, our vision is to be real with ourselves, God and others. This channel features sermons and teaching from Pastor Matt Brown and other members of the Sandals Church preaching team. You can find sermon notes, videos and more content at http://sandalschurch.com/watch
Thanks for tuning in to the Sandals Church podcast. Our vision as a church is to be real with ourselves, God, and others. We're glad you're here and we hope you enjoy this message.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:What's going on Sandals Church? So good to be with you guys. Thank you for that. And Merry Christmas, by the way. I could say that right.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:It's Christmas time. Merry Christmas to you guys. How many guys are actually ready for Christmas? Alright. Look at the the Christmas spirit in this room.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:It's alive. Man, I love this time of the year and and I kinda don't like it at the same time. Right? That's I think that's just kinda how it goes for so many of us. But what I do find rare and unique about this holiday season and about celebrating Christmas is that it's something that is shared by a lot of people.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Right? And what I mean by that is you can be very religious or very non religious and you still care about Christmas. Now you might view it as different, right, you might have a different kind of meaning that you attribute to it, but you care about Christmas. You could be a Jesus follower or not following Jesus, but to some degree, you still care about Christmas and we we celebrate it. We we share a lot of things in common, whether it be traditions that we do, songs that we sing, smells, food, colors, right?
Pastor Fredo Ramos:There's aspects of Christmas that we're all sharing. And one of these kind of vivid memories I have during this time is walking into a store and seeing as part of their decorations this this word written in red kinda hanging from the ceiling, joy. But then I look right below it and it's chaos of clothes and product and just stuff that people are scavenging through trying to find items. And I think that's such a telling picture of what Christmas can feel like for us. We're hearing songs, joy to the world, like, you gotta get in the mood, but then it's just chaos.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:And Christmas oftentimes is another reminder for us that happiness is hard to have. Joy is difficult for you and I to actually embrace and experience. But listen now, happiness is important. In fact, I would even say that happiness is a God given desire. So it's not a bad thing that you and I wanna live a happy life, whether you follow Jesus in here or you don't.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Right? Happiness is important to life, and I think all of us, I mean it would be hard for me to find someone in this room who didn't wanna be happy in their life, didn't wanna experience some level of joy on a regular basis in their life, but it's harder to find. And the reason why it's so difficult for us is because it's not so much the desire, but the route that we go to try to be happy. That's what can be so destructive. The things that we try to do to to have a happy life.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:It could destroy ourselves, our marriages, our families, our relationships, our work. Right? We will take a very dangerous path to be happy, which is why today you and I so desperately need the Christmas story, this announcement of joy. We need this as adults, especially as adults. Man, I read this study this week, you could take it with a grain of salt, but it said that kids on average will laugh 100 of times a day.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Some even said kids will laugh 400 times a day, adults maybe 20. And there's one for you already. So you got maybe 18, 19 left for the day. But we need joy, happiness, man. We need these things even though they seem to escape us so quickly.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:But you know what the good news is for us today is that joy is available. Joy is available. It's the good news of Christianity that it's available for us. Regardless of who you are, what kinda life situation you're dealing with right now, and maybe even where you come from, it does not matter because God has made joy available for you. And we're gonna read in this story about why that's true.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:So follow along with me here in Luke chapter 2. This is from the gospel of Luke, which is like Luke's biography on Jesus, his story of this man named Jesus. And here's how his biography starts. He says that night there were shepherds staying in the fields nearby, guarding their flocks of sheep and suddenly an angel of the Lord appeared among them and the radiance of the Lord's glory surrounded them. They were terrified, but the angel reassured them, don't be afraid, he said.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:I bring you good news that will bring great joy to all people. The savior, yes, the messiah, the Lord has been born today in Bethlehem, the city of David. And you will recognize him by this sign. You will find a baby wrapped snugly in strips of cloth, lying in a manger. And suddenly the angel was joined by a vast host of others, the armies of heaven praising God and saying, glory to God in highest heaven and peace on earth to those with whom God is pleased.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:When the angels had returned to heaven, the shepherds said to each other, let's go to Bethlehem. Let's see this thing that has happened which the Lord has told us about. They hurried to the village and found Mary and Joseph, and there was the baby lying in the manger. After seeing him, the shepherds told everyone what had happened and what the angel had said to them about this child. All who heard the shepherd's story were astonished, but Mary kept all these things in her heart and thought about them often.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:The shepherds went back to their flocks, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen. It was just as the angel had told them. This is God's word. Let's pray together. Father, we thank you so much for your word, God, and we ask now that you would speak to us from it.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Would you help to remind us why we need the Christmas story? And would you help us through it to experience real joy? God, your joy, we pray that you would do this in the name of King Jesus, amen. You know during this time, one of the kinda classic movies that people will throw on is, Home Alone. Now if you haven't seen Home Alone, it's been out for a while, so let me just go ahead and spoil it for you.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:A kid, Kevin McCallister, young boy, gets left at his house while the rest of his family go on a Christmas vacation. Some of it's his fault, parents' fault also as well. And so as the movie unfolds, the humor comes as this guy tries to live out Christmas on his own. He's gotta figure things out. And one day in the movie, it's a scene that really resonates with me and I always think about it if I ever see it or someone else is watching it, but it's a scene where Kevin's been out all day trying to do Christmas on his own, he's out shopping.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:And when he's done he's walking home, it's night time, he's walking through this neighborhood, his hands are full of bags of stuff that he's purchased, and at one point during his walk he just stops. And he turns to his left and in this neighborhood he sees this big house. It's decorated perfectly for Christmas. The lights are up. On the front porch are family and friends knocking on the door, being welcomed in.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:He looks through the window and the house is packed. Family's inside, everyone is singing and smiling, they're decorating the tree. And there's Kevin on the sidewalk at night holding bags, on the outside looking in. He's looking in at everything that he wants to be true about Christmas, but just simply isn't. And the reason why I find that scene, that short brief scene so telling is because I think you and I can resonate with that at some level.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:For whatever reason, celebrating Christmas is just like not what you're in the mood to do. Because Christmas for a lot of us could be hard. It brings back memories of people who we don't have in our life. And so it's natural for us at times to feel a lot more like Kevin McCallister than the people partying inside the house. And strangely enough, in this story, when baby Jesus is born, God the father decides to announce to the world about this good news, not to people who are inside the house celebrating, but where does he go?
Pastor Fredo Ramos:He goes to the Kevin McCallisters of the world. He goes to the shepherds. He goes to people who are on the outside looking in. He goes to people who not all other people see it as popular. They don't have a lot of respect in the town.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:They're certainly not gonna believe their story. I mean, they're shepherds after all. But this is exactly the kind of person that God delivers the good news of great joy to. And so let me tell you this, if you are here today and you feel overlooked and you feel unseen to some degree, know that God sees you. And know that at Christmas time, joy is available to you, because he goes to shepherds first.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:He goes to the outsiders first. He goes to the outcasts first and he brings them what? He brings them joy, brings them great joy. And the reason why he says you can have joy is because this baby is born. You mean a baby?
Pastor Fredo Ramos:That's what brings great joy? Yes. And that's our first point today, the arrival of joy. Joy comes to us. It's not something that we actually can pursue, and that's what's so important for us to understand.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Joy is something that's found in a person. It's found in a person, not a pursuit. Listen to me now. It's found in a person, not in chasing after something, which is typically where you and I go. Right?
Pastor Fredo Ramos:That's our natural first step. We kinda aim and say, all right, my goal in life is to be happy, but if you make happiness your goal in life, you will never be happy. Why? Because happiness is always a byproduct of having something else first. And the Christmas story says it's found in this person.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Happiness is first found in a person, not in you chasing after whatever you think you need. It's found in a person. Now strangely enough, right, Jesus, a baby brings joy. And the reason why I say that is because, if you know me, you know that for most of my life, I went to a private school. And I'm not gonna say always, because that would be unfair, but a lot of the times growing up in this private school, I don't remember seeing a lot of pictures of Jesus with a smile on his face.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:In other words, if I were to ask you to make a list of the people in your life who you know to be most joyful and most happy, I don't know if Jesus is gonna be on the top of your list. But Jesus was a happy person, you guys. He was a joyful person. He was happy. Even though a lot of the pictures we have, you know, we got like Moody Jesus into some of our paintings.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:We got Moody Jesus, we got like floating Jesus. We got like crown Jesus with that yellow disc behind his head. We don't know what's going on there. We got no sleep Jesus, his eyes are always like droopy. Even though when you read the gospels, the man was asleep inside of a boat in the middle of a storm.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Jesus knew how to take a good nap. I don't think he had a problem sleeping. And then we got super skinny Jesus too where you can see his rib cage all the time. But his accusers called him a glutton, you guys. And some have even said when you read the gospels, Jesus is either leaving a party, on his way to a party, or talking at a party.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:The man Jesus knew how to have a good time. He was a happy person. He was a joyful person. And the reason why he was is because he perfectly reflected his father. He mirrored his father.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Look what he says there. Look how he describes heaven and his father here in Luke 15 there in your notes. In the same way, there is more joy in heaven over one lost sinner who repents and returns to God than over 99 others who are righteous and haven't strayed away. What a picture of heaven. It's a party.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:It's a celebration. The father is happy. Get this, God is the happiest person in the universe. You cannot find a happier person than God himself, and Jesus reflected that. Because to understand joy is to understand God.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:He is joyful, and Jesus brought that joy. Notice how he develops this teaching as he grows and ages and when he's talking to his disciples there in John chapter 15. It says, when you obey my commandments, you remain in my love. Just as I obey my father's commandments and remain in his love, I have told you these things, this is why Jesus teaches us, so that you will be filled with my what? Joy.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Yes, your joy will overflow. Not only has joy arrived to us, but it's available to us. We can have the joy of Jesus. It's available to us. The joy of Jesus.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Man, he was happy. So happy kids loved him. I mean, think about that. Kids loved Jesus. When you read the gospels, the disciples would get so upset they would be throwing kids off him.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Now you know kids don't go to grumpy people. And for some of you in here, you've been asking yourself for years, why don't kids like me? Christmas just gave you your answer. He was a joyful person. And here's the good news that the angels were announcing.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Here's the gospel in a nutshell. God, the happiest person in the universe, became a human being in his son, Jesus. God. The the infinite one became an infant child. The uncreated creator joined his creation.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:For many years, Christians have called this the incarnation. It's an important part of the Christmas story. God comes to us and joins us as one of us. It's hard for us, man, even now it still kinda boggles our mind to think that God would become a person like you and I. And so to help us understand this Christmas story, let me just give you a real brief analogy from another story, my favorite story, the Star Wars story.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Luke Skywalker, not gonna ruin the new one for you. You can go see it. But how will Luke Skywalker ever know who George Lucas is? And some of you are like, I don't even know who George Lucas is. That's okay.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:George Lucas created all of Star Wars. Right? He created the whole universe, the whole world of Star Wars. George Lucas created the character Luke Skywalker. He's the author.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:And so the only way that Luke Skywalker, the Jedi that we all know, will ever know his creator, George Lucas, is if George Lucas writes himself into the story and becomes a character in his own story. And that's what Christmas is all about. God writes himself into your story. Your joyless story is charged with joy with this announcement that God is here and joy is available to you. That's what Christmas points us to and that's what you and I are invited in to experience right now.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:That's the arrival of joy. Now, here's why we need this kind of joy, and that's the second thought. The need for joy is because of this. This kind of joy allows us, listen now, to be more happy in God and not so much in outcomes. More happy in God and not so much in outcomes.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:When you think about this story, the Christmas story, the birth of Jesus, nothing here is ideal. None of it is ideal. These are not the outcomes that Joseph had in mind when he was told he had to go back to his hometown to be registered with the government, because he gets back to his hometown and he knows no one. They gotta stay in an inn. This is certainly not Mary's idea.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:These are not the outcomes that she has hoped for either, to give birth in a strange town. I mean, no, no, even if you and I are just kinda watching this from the sidelines, I don't think any of us are like, oh, wow, this is God's plan. Yep. No. We'd be like, scandal.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:This is a problem. We certainly wouldn't be announcing joy at this event, but God does, regardless of what the outcomes look like, regardless of what the circumstances are. This is why you and I need this kind of joy, because it's a joy that goes beneath circumstances, deeper down than just circumstances. Look what the psalmist says there in your notes from Psalm chapter 4. He writes, you have given me greater joy than those who have abundant harvests of grain and new wine.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Now check this out just for a second. He's saying those who have wine, that's a good thing, you can celebrate, and those who have a full harvest, which is a way of saying you're provided for, things are going well for your life, that's all good, right? In other words, there are real times for you and I when things are going right and we feel like life is well and I'm full that we should celebrate. We should be happy. That is not a bad thing to do at all.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:It's a God given desire, and it's important that when things are well we celebrate, we're happy. But notice what he says, you, God, have given me greater joy than those who have everything going right for them. In other words, there's a brand new level to this. And joy is a feeling, yes. It is an emotion, yes, but it runs even deeper than just that.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Joy is a status of our heart. It's a position we have. You see, joy is this, joy is an inner happiness that God is God, no matter what. It's an inner happiness that God is God no matter what's going on. Whether it's great, that's fine, I'm gonna celebrate, I'm gonna enjoy, I'm gonna take it in, or even if it's difficult, even if it's painful, even if it's very much a challenge to be excited about anything, especially Christmas, joy is still very permanent.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Because what the psalmist says, the apostle Paul continues to develop as the story of the Bible goes on. Notice what he says there in Philippians 4, always, some of y'all should circle that word, like that's your Christmas gift this year, always be full of joy in the Lord. I say it again, rejoice. Rejoice. In other words, it's not just something that we can hope for, but it's a command that's given to us.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:You should take joy, take joy. He later goes on and says, even when we're sorrowful, we're always rejoicing. Because I know a moment ago when I said that Jesus was the happiest person, some of you were like, psh, no he wasn't. He was a man of sorrow. He was acquainted with grief and that is very true.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:But you know what? He was both at the same exact time. Joy can sit with sorrow. Joy can sit with pain. Happiness can be present in the midst of loss.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:It can. That's why you and I need this kind of joy. And I'm even noticing this in my own life. You know, I'm growing into my thirties now, and I realize when people ask me the question, hey, Fredo, how are you doing? That's a lot more of a difficult question than I ever would have thought.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Because if I'm being honest and someone says, hey, how are you doing? Well, I'm doing good. Like there's a lot of things in my life that I should be celebrating. A lot of things for me that I should be taking joy in right now. And at the same time, there's a lot of stuff that I'm still dealing with, and that's just me.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:We're just talking about me, because there's other stuff too going on with friends of mine, family of mine. There's both when someone says how are you doing, there's both a moment of like, well, I'm good, and then also a moment where we're like, I'm not so good as well. I'm good and I'm bad. And I think you and I can both resonate with that understanding, that you can be both joyful and sorrowful, happy and hurting. That's why you and I need this kind of joy that God offers.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:And I've seen this, man, in an amazing way. There's a lady at my church at Sandals Church, Palm Avenue, who just months ago had to bury her mother, lost her mom. And this will be her first Christmas without her mom. And I know that's why holidays are difficult for a lot of us, because we are reminded again of the people who we aren't celebrating with. The things that we once had, we no longer have.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:And you know, I saw her last weekend at church and she was excited not just to see me on the patio, but she was excited because she had invited her neighbors for the very first time to church and they joined her. In the same church where she said goodbye to her mother at the funeral, she's there. Joy and sorrow present together. It's possible. It's possible.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:And this doesn't, like, mitigate the pain. Right? We don't pretend it's not there. We don't cheapen it. And as Christians we don't certainly invite more suffering in, but we at least acknowledge that through God and in his happiness, you can have both.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Both can be very present. And if you want to experience this, I'm telling you right now, you need to let go of the outcomes you need to have. If your happiness is completely dependent on life going the way you think it should go, you are going to ruin yourself. Let go of the outcomes. You gotta let them go.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Release them. There is a happiness that is not dependent on things going the way you think they should go. And man, I was probably struck by this more than ever this week when I felt like I heard God so just clearly tell me, Fredo, my joy can sit with your sorrow but my joy cannot sit with your impatience. And that message came to me, that joy from God came to me in the form of my wife's arm in bed. Not that kind of moment, but another moment.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:You see, for me, I'm a man of routine. Every day I like to do the same boring thing over and over again. It's how I can control my life and how I get the outcomes I need. And the morning is a precious, sacred window of time for me. Even with 2 crazy young kids, it is an act of God that we get out of the house alive and that they're at school.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:But man, one morning, like this has just been happening over and over again. Ashley has just noticed my impatience. I wake up, nothing's even going wrong yet. I just jump out of bed, my eyes are wide open, I'm just like, what's wrong? What's happening?
Pastor Fredo Ramos:And that morning she felt the tension already and she just caught me. She said, just chill, stop, relax. And in that moment, we actually had less time to get Eli ready for school, he had more homework to do, and man, just her arm smacking me was enough just to release the outcomes. Release this need of mine to control every single moment. I can't do it and neither can you.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:You cannot do it. You cannot control everything that happens to you. You cannot control what happens to the people around you. You cannot be God. And you know what?
Pastor Fredo Ramos:That is a very good thing because God is here. So be happy in Him. Be happy in Him. Release the outcomes. Release this need to control so much.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:And you're gonna notice the joy of Christmas start to bubble up, I think in a fresh way for you. Now if that's why we need it, let's talk about how we experience it. The experience of joy looks like this. It begins with this question for you and I, where is your happiness? Like right now, where is your happiness?
Pastor Fredo Ramos:In other words, can you locate where your happiness is? Because what the Bible strangely tells us is that the journey to experiencing more joy starts on the pathway to confess sin. I know that sounds weird. The idea that you would confess sin as a means to more joy, but that's actually how it works. Confess sin, notice what the psalmist says here.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Oh, what joy for those whose disobedience is forgiven, whose sin is put out of sight. Yes, what joy for those whose record the Lord has cleared of guilt and whose lives are lived in complete honesty. Joy for those who confess sin. Now I know this is strange because a lot of us, maybe for some of you, you've grown up in a very kind of religious setting where confession just felt more like a self pity party. Look what I've done, look what I need to change, look what I need to get better in.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:And instead of experiencing joy, you just get more guilt, more shame, more of a reminder that you are not enough, not so in Christianity. This is why we are so different. This is why the gospel, the good news of God is so radically different than every other religion because confession is a doorway in to more joy, more joy. So confess sin. And here's what confessing sin looks like for all of us.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:It is you and I finding our happiness and realizing you and I have been trying to be happy in all of the gifts of God, but without God. That's what we do, that's what we do. I'll take everything you've made, God, except you. It's kinda a lot like this, man. Just imagine with me for a moment, let's fast forward a few days and let's get to Christmas morning.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:And let's say you're with me at my house. It's kinda small, but we'll make it work. And you're watching us open gifts and my wife actually brings out the last gift and she says, hey, this is for you. I get my gift. I see it, my eyes light up, I grab it, I hold it tightly, I tear open the wrapping, I enjoy it, I take it in, and I just say, mine.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:And then I look up at Ashley and I say, you can go. Leave. Just, you can go now. That's what we do, that's sin. And she's sitting over there, well wait a minute, wait a minute, Fredo, this is for you, yes, but this something that we can enjoy together.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Nah, you can go. I'm good. I'm good. That's sin. That is you and I trying to be happy in everything that God has made for us except rejecting him.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:We do this in our marriages. You've built a marriage around happiness, but without God at the foundation and that is why you are at where you're at right now. You've built a career with the desire to make money, be happy and that is why you feel the way you do right now. Your relationships, man, you treat people solely on the basis of does this person make me happy? And that is why you're at where you're at right now.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Yeah, you're good with God's gifts, but to hell with God. That's confessing sin and acknowledging where we have misplaced our happiness. So locate it and confess it and actually find more joy in him, because it's there. This is what is I think even for Man, maybe even if you haven't even been in the church and you kinda like for a while you've been on the outside looking in and you think this idea of following Jesus is so restricting, the Bible seems so narrow minded, and becoming godly really just means you're becoming more grumpy, but that couldn't be further from the truth. Psalm 112 says happy are those who fear the Lord.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Happy. Blessed are those who delight to do what he does. Man, holiness and happiness are friends. They're not enemies. The idea that you would grow and become more like Jesus is the same path to becoming happy.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:It's the same. So God, maybe man, isn't it not just so farfetched to think that this Christmas God wants you happy? God wants you happy in him, he wants you full of joy in him and that is not an enemy of growing and becoming more like him. They're friends. Holiness and happiness, they go together.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:They go together. And here's how you know you're beginning to experience it. You share it. Lastly, there in your notes, you share joy, the sharing of it. And in sharing it, you invite others into this same kind of happiness.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:You invite them in. You'll remember from our story, the shepherds, once they hear this news, they go and confirm it. Let's go and see. Let's go see if this is true. Maybe that's why some of you are here at church right now.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:You you've come in, you wanna see if this is true. Let me see for myself, and they go. They go to the manger. They're amazed at what they see. They're so amazed by what they see, they go and they tell everyone else about it.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:And the people who hear about this good news, they're astonished. They're amazed. You see, this is how you know that you are beginning to experience joy because it spills out into your relationships. You share it with other people. Happiness is best given away to somebody else.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:It's best shared. Joy is always best shared. So who is your joy gonna share with? Who's gonna come to church because of your joy? Because I would imagine that you are here, you found your way to Jesus, you found your way to church because at some level somebody else had joy and you didn't know what to do with it.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:You couldn't write it off. Because that's why I think it's so fascinating that God chose shepherds first. I mean, if you really wanted to convince the world that he is who he says he is and that Jesus is who he says he is, go tell the palace. Go tell the popular crowd. Go go find the person in Bethlehem whose social media accounts got the blue check next to their name because they'll follow them.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:They got tons of followers. They got tons of influence. They're popular. Don't don't go to the shepherds. They got 15 followers on Facebook and half of them are just their family.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:So they don't really even count. But I think, this could be wrong, but I think the reason why God chose shepherds is because regardless of how people might write them off in society because of their status and their position, the one thing they could not write off is their joy. Couldn't write off their joy. It was evident. You might think Jesus is silly.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:You might find church outdated. But what you cannot deny about Jesus followers is our joy. And joy is like a magnet, man. It brings people in. Keeps them curious.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:It keeps them asking questions. Go and see. Go and see Jesus. I know you got questions. I know you got issues.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:You got problems. You think we believe this? Do you think we act like this? Just go see Jesus. Go to him because he's given me a joy that I don't even know what to do with but just to tell you about.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:That's how you know you're beginning to experience it. You share it with others. And look what Mary does though, because the shepherds talked about it, but Mary thought about it. They talked to other people, but notice Luke says that she kept thinking about it over and over and over again. I love that because you and I are like Mary.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Christmas comes every year. At the end of every year, the same thing, the same songs, the same decorations, the same tree, and at some point it becomes so familiar you don't even recognize it anymore and joy is almost impossible for you to experience. But you know what? You need to keep thinking about it. Keep thinking about it.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:That's what Mary did. She kept treasuring it in her heart is what the text says. Some talked about it, others treasured it. That's how you know you are experiencing joy. You need to keep thinking about the Christmas story.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Think on it until your heart is full and you can't shut up about it. Because notice what the angels do. After they're done telling the shepherds what's happened, they break out in a song. Glory to God in the highest and peace on earth to all those whom God is pleased with. Angels don't need a savior, y'all, but they sing about him.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Angels don't need a messiah, but they're excited about him. And they've been around for a lot longer than you and I. They know way more than you and I, but they can't stop singing about Christmas. And why are you and I in here and we just can't stop thinking about lunch? What are we missing?
Pastor Fredo Ramos:What do we not know that they know? They know that God is here and they know that joy is available and they don't even need a savior. You and I do. You and I do. We need this savior.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:So think about it. You're bored with Christmas? Think about it some more. Think about it until your heart is full and you can't stop singing. You can't stop being excited and it's gonna change you.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:I love how Luke's gospel ends. This is the last verse there in your notes. It says, then Jesus led them to Bethany. Lifting his hands to heaven, he blessed them. You know what that means?
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Jesus made his disciples happy. While he was blessing them, he left them and was taken up to heaven. So they worshiped him and then returned to Jerusalem filled with what? Great joy and they spent all their time in the temple praising God. Luke begins his story, the gospel according to Luke about how Jesus has come and he brings joy and then he ends that same story by saying Jesus has now left us, but he's left us with his joy.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:He's left us with his joy and they can't stop talking about it. How will your joy impact other people? Man, I know I'm standing right here because somebody else in my life was joyful, was joyful. And I didn't know how to account for it. I'd known this person for years and now all of a sudden he's talking about Jesus, he's got joy and it brought me to Jesus.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Your joy can do the same. He invites us in. He invites us in to know him, to experience his joy, and to hopefully, like the shepherds, like Mary, and certainly like the angels, to sing because we are happy in him. Let's pray together. Father, would you make us the kind of people who are joyful, who are happy just like you?
Pastor Fredo Ramos:God, would you help us to repent of our sins, to confess sin right now, to acknowledge that we have placed our happiness in other things? Would you help us to return to you this Christmas season and find our life and our happiness in Jesus alone? And would you give us boldness to share with others? Give us boldness to invite other people into this place so that they might come and see this baby who was born to live and to die for them, and they might find their joy here as well. We pray all of these things in Jesus' mighty name.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Amen.
Morgan Teruel:Thanks for listening to the Sandals Church podcast. Our vision here is to be real with ourselves, god, and others. At Sandals Church, we wanna see a movement of authenticity take place all over the world, and donating to the work of Sandals Church helps make that happen. If you wanna support this movement here at Sandals Church, I wanna invite you to visit donate.sc. Thanks again for listening, and God bless.