Finding Joy in Our Discouragements

So we are in our 3rd week of advent and I want start with a little recap of where we’ve been. In week 1 we talked about looking for hope in uncertainties. And is it ok if I admit that the week leading up to me preaching that, I struggled a little bit with hopelessness Then last week I shared with you all, that I woke up one morning and everything felt chaotic, but God’s peace broke through. Let me just tell you on Monday morning when i woke up and starting thinking about how we were going to find joy in our discouragements. I said nope. No discouragement this week. We are choosing joy! I mean I just chased after it this week, finding all the happiness I could in my family, my church, refusing to allow discouragement to make it’s way in. I’m not going to say i didn’t see flashes of discouragement in my peripheral, but It’s almost as if God honors us for seeking the things He tells us to seek?

I’ve got a little illustration for you this morning but I’m going to need a volunteer. (choose someone who wouldn’t open the can) Thirsty and ok with lime la croix

2 Cans of sparkling water, one shaken, why won’t you open it.... some people can’t even handle being around too much joy.

We know that the contents of both of these cans are refreshing but one needs to calm down, one needs to not draw attention. You know i’m not sure there’s anything that would draw people closer to Christ than if they knew some happy Christians. You ever hear a preacher get up and ask the question, when was the last time you shared your faith with someone? We all go, man He caught us. But i read something interesting this week. An author posed the question, when was the last time someone asked YOU about your faith? In other words, it’s great to share your faith, but wouldn’t it even be better if you lived out a faith so full of joy that other people wanted a piece of it? Well there’s your evangelistic challenge for the morning

me of shout TJ watt

Joy is the trait we’re exploring today on this third Sunday of Advent. Advent means “arrival,” and the season is marked by expectation, waiting, anticipation, and longing, and because Christ has come to be God With Us, we can experience joy no matter what discouragement we may be going through.

As we move into our main teaching, we’re going to look more closely at this joy we can experience as we explore the stories of Elizabeth and Mary.

Elizabeth and Mary: Mothers’ Joy

There’s a lot of joy throughout the biblical Christmas story, especially early in the story. But it’s important to note that this joy isn’t separate from pain and disappointment. In fact, much of this joy is born out of long disappointment and grief.

Luke’s Christmas story begins a little earlier than Mary and Joseph and Jesus, with a prophet named Zechariah and his wife, Elizabeth.

Let’s jump into Luke 1 at verse 5.

TEXT: Luke 1:5–7 “In the days of Herod, king of Judea, there was a priest named Zechariah, of the division of Abijah; and he had a wife from the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth. They were both righteous in the sight of God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and requirements of the Lord. And yet they had no child, because Elizabeth was infertile, and they were both advanced in years.”

This short paragraph would have spoken volumes of information to Luke’s original audience. We’ve got Herod, the Roman king keeping the Jews under harsh Roman control. These are difficult times. And here we meet Zechariah and Elizabeth, both of priestly lineage. And in a day with a lot of religious corruption and power plays by the Pharisees and Sadducees, Zechariah and Elizabeth are a stark contrast. They are described as righteous, blameless, faithful. This is especially important in light of what Luke tells us next. Zechariah and Elizabeth are old but have never been able to have children.

That changes suddenly and miraculously when the archangel Gabriel shows up and tells Zechariah that his wife is going to have a son; a powerful prophetic son who will prepare the way for the coming Messiah. Zechariah is so overwhelmed he can hardly believe this news and when he questions the news, the angel says, “OK, here’s your sign. You won’t be able to speak until the child is born.” And the prophet is left writing and signing to everyone to explain what’s happened.

It seems Elizabeth is quicker to believe the news, and when she becomes pregnant, she says, Luke 1:25 ““This is the way the Lord has dealt with me in the days when He looked with favor upon me, to take away my disgrace among people.””

Mary received the news faithfully and willingly, but at some point early on, Mary must have known that her challenges and disgrace were just about to begin. The scorn and shame she would face—and her family and her fiancé as well—would be tremendous when it became obvious she was pregnant and unmarried. How do you make people believe the baby in your womb is God’s Son? Mary’s journey would not be an easy one.

Maybe that’s why, as Luke tells us, Mary went into the hill country with haste, to a city of Judah” Mary must have heard about her relative Elizabeth’s miraculous pregnancy and if anyone would unterstand, maybe Elizabeth would. And she was right!

This is where the joy erupts. Against the past backdrop of discouragement, disgrace, grief, and shame, the joy comes bursting through for these two mothers-to-be.

Luke tells us, Luke 1:41–45 “When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. And she cried out with a loud voice and said, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! And how has it happened to me that the mother of my Lord would come to me? For behold, when the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby leaped in my womb for joy. And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what had been spoken to her by the Lord.””

What a relief this must have been to Mary. She didn’t have to explain herself. She didn’t have to worry anymore about being understood. All she had to do was say hello, and Elizabeth knew. Even her developing baby knew and leaped within her. This was just the affirmation and encouragement Mary needed. Her joy came bursting through as well, and she sang and praised and thanked God.

This is a beautiful passage of Scripture. It’s a celebration and connection in the midst of miraculous events, it’s two expectant mothers sharing a deep understanding and affirmation that burst with joy. There is so much we can take away from this story, but I’d like to focus on three simple things. First…

1. It’s OK to be joyful—and happy.

I know it’s hard for some of us to believe, but some people don’t want to be happy. And misery loves company! We’ve all been guilty of wanting to stay upset, grumpy, or bitter. We’ve said we have the right to not be happy, and you are correct, we do have the right to be unhappy, but why would you want to be?

We’ve probably all heard joy described as somewhat different than happiness. I’ve probably even described the emotions that divide the two basically along these lines: Happiness is fleeting and temporary. Joy is deeper and more fulfilling. Often in our Christian culture, the two get split into happiness as secular and less valuable or fulfilling, and joy as spiritual and more important or fulfilling. Sounds familiar, right?

Those of you that know many of the old hymns knew that we used to sing a song called joy unspeakable and full of glory… imitate discouraged faces/attittudes. oh the half has never yet been told.

But the Bible doesn’t make any distinction between joy and happiness. They are essentially different words for the exact same thing. They may have slight differences, but those are often cultural and shifting. They’ve been translated somewhat differently in our different English translations of the Bible, but the original Hebrew and Greek terms used in the Bible to describe joy and happiness are essentially interchangeable. Our longing for happiness and joy is a natural desire that God has placed within us as a reflection of His own joyful nature. True joy isn’t found in earthly ideas, so when our joy is fleeting perhaps that’s where we have our focus. True joy exists in the presence of God which moves through His people in the form of the Holy Spirit. Once we’re born again, we become like Jesus so we have the ability to bring HIS joy to earth. What an amazing opportunity we have been given, knowing it all flows from Him and through us.

Whatever you want to call it, the most important thing to understand is that our source of joy and happiness comes from above… Next…

2. Joy is our strength.

When we struggle to experience joy, discouragement is right around the corner. Remembering our prefixes from grammar school we know that the prefix means without, lacking or not having. When we are dis-courage we are literally without, lacking, or not having courage. Courage empowers us to face our fears. In our staff meeting this week we discussed that the thing that you fear the most might very well be the thing you need to do the most.

There’s a great example of this principle in the story of Nehemiah. You remember Nehemiah was the Old Testament leader who got permission from King Artaxerxes to return from exile in Babylon and rebuild Jerusalem, starting with its walls.

The process was more than just a return to the physical city, it was a spiritual reawakening for the people. In chapter eight of the book of Nehemiah, he brings all the people together and they bring out the Law of Moses and read it. Nehemiah is calling the people to remember and return to their relationship with God. As he does this, the people are weeping. Maybe there are some tears of joy from some of the people who remember God’s words from years past, but most of them weep from sadness as they recognize their guilt and drifting from God.

But The Bible tells us, “Nehemiah said, ‘Go and enjoy choice food and sweet drinks, and send some to those who have nothing prepared. This day is holy to our Lord. Do not grieve, for the joy of the LORD is your strength’” (Nehemiah 8:10). “Celebrate! Enjoy it!” Nehemiah says. Why? Because this is a time for happiness that God has brought us back and is restoring our city and our hearts—and because our source of strength is the very joy of the Lord. It’s what fuels us and sustains us.

Today you can choose to be discouraged for trailing off rom the Lord or you can celebrate that your eyes have been opened to His truth and move forward with joy.

Our true source of happiness, joy, and fulfillment comes from Christ. Christmas is a season of joy because the Messiah has brought joy into the world and provided us the way of ultimate fulfillment and life. Peter describes it like this: “Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls” (1 Peter 1:8-9).

An inexpressible and glorious joy sounds like deep stuff, the kind that finds its source even deeper than our pain and sorrow and the problems that can bury us. It’s a deep well that we draw upon, no matter what we are facing. Wherever you find yourself today, let me encourage you that the joy of the Lord can be felt no matter what we are facing.

Transition: But we have to choose joy. That’s our 3rd thought today.

3. We can choose joy.

When the virgin teenage Mary discovered she was pregnant with Jesus, and yet unmarried, she knew that in that culture there was a lot of discouragement to be found from her family, from the culture, sadly even the church. But rather than staying in an environment of discouragement she ran to joy. She went to elizabeth who was also experiencing miraculous pregnancy and when you get home you can read Luke 1:46-56 where we see Mary’s song which is referred to as the Magnificat. The text there goes on to say, that Mary stayed there for 3 months. In difficult times we need to move to sources of joy instead of sources of discouragement. Even it it seems a bit unrealistic or unorthodox. For 3 months they were able to rejoice together.

There are a lot of uses of the word rejoice in the Bible. It’s not a word that we use very often in our culture, but maybe we should. Rejoice is the verb form of joy. It’s the action of feeling or expressing joy and delight.

And if you look a little more closely at the word, you’ll notice that it begins with the prefix re-. I know, two trips to grammar class in the same sermon, but this prefix RE means once more, or again, or a return to. So to rejoice is to return to joy. It’s a choice and an action we can take to return to joy. I’d like to add that for us, it is a return to our source of joy; it’s a return to Jesus.

And I believe the process is the same for all of us, whether we are feeling the happiness and joy of this season or not. Whether we are buried in discouragement, or everything is going our way, none of us can conjure an unending supply of feel-good happiness all the time, no matter how optimistic or positive our natural disposition is. Sooner or later, we all have one of those days, or weeks, or years. And in reality, we all have them way more often than we’d like.

That’s where the prefix RE- comes in. That’s where we must return regularly… daily… constantly… to Jesus, our source of joy. It’s why rejoicing is our process of refueling our tank, restoring our strength, and renewing our spirits. It’s reconnecting with our Savior. And it’s in this process that the apostle James’s words make sense, when he encourages us, “Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything” (James 1:2-4, NIV).

I’ve got to admit, sometimes verses like this are the last thing we want to hear when we’re hurting. Joy can feel so far away when we’re grieving or depressed or afraid, as our pain and problems loom. But let me encourage you that James isn’t necessarily saying be happy about our trials and problems. He’s saying we can find joy in them when we see the bigger picture beyond them. The bigger picture that God is working for our good in every situation. That bigger picture starts at our source in Jesus.

This is where and how we find authentic joy. This is how we can celebrate in this season as we remember and turn to Jesus, who is come to be with us and to give us joy.

Conclusion INVITE TEAM

Let’s rediscover Christmas this year by embracing joy, no matter what we’re going through. Let’s remember each day that Christ is the source of our joy. All other ideas are merely temporary distractions. Let’s seek our happiness, not simply in the seasonal festivities and traditions around us, but in returning constantly to our source of joy. Let’s choose to continue the process of rejoicing, despite the pain and challenges we are facing. Let’s remember the good news of the angels that will discussed last week that will bring great joy to all of us: A Savior has been born, our Messiah, the Lord, and He will carry us through, and complete His work in us NO MATTER WHAT.

MAYBE? My Benjamin was 4 years old, his arm got caught in a treadmill and third degree burns had us at Akron children’s hospital just hours before I had to jump on a plane to go away for a week, and in my despair thinking about how I could have kept him from getting hurt, how I failed him, how I wished it could have been me Instead of him. Ben stood up in the hospital room and started dancing the macarena with a movie as it played in the room. Then he looked at me and said now it’s your turn daddy. Church let’s stand this morning and take our turn, being joyful in the face of discouragement. Knowing we are still called to dance, called to shout, called to rejoice. Let’s turn up the joy this morning.

PRAYER?

JOY IN THE HOUSE OF THE LORD, AND WE WON’T BE QUIET, SHOUT OUT YOUR PRAISE

ANNOUNCEMENTS: THRIVE GROUP EMPHASIS, NAN PARENTING GET IT RIGHT ANDY SANDRA STANLEY, TUESDAY/WEDNESDAY MIX-UP

Send you away with this closing thought from Pastor Timothy Keller… While other worldviews lead us to sit in the midst of life’s joys, foreseeing the coming sorrows, Christianity empowers its people to sit in the midst of the world’s sorrows, tasting the coming joy.

Make it your choice this week to rejoice and be joyful in all things. Have a great week!

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