Finding Joy in Our Discouragements - Advent Week 3

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The Series: Rediscover Christmas

Title of the message this Morning

Finding Joy in Our Discouragements - Advent Week 3

Introduction

Main Teaching

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.

We’re going to look more closely at this as we explore the stories and experiences of Elizabeth and Mary.

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

Luke begins: (Luke 1:5-7, NIV).

This short paragraph speaks volumes to Luke’s original audience.

We’ve got Herod, the Roman king keeping the Jews under harsh Roman control.

These are difficult times.

Zechariah and Elizabeth, both of priestly lineage.

They are described as righteous, blameless, faithful.

Zechariah and Elizabeth are old but have never been able to have children.

That changes suddenly when the archangel Gabriel shows up and tells Zechariah that his wife is going to have a son; Not just any son.

A powerful prophetic son who will prepare the way for the coming Messiah.

When Zechariah 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.

Elizabeth is quicker to believe the news, and when she becomes pregnant, she says,

“The Lord has done this for me….In these days he has shown his favor and taken away my disgrace among the people” (Luke 1:25, NIV).

There’s a note in the previous verse (vs 24)that tells us that Elizabeth went into seclusion for the first five months of her pregnancy.

Maybe this has something to do with Elizabeth’s disgrace that she mentioned.

For her, the inability to have children would have been a lifelong source of pain and sorrow and shame.

It was a big deal in that culture.

The great hopes of the young couple Elizabeth and Zechariah would have eventually faded through the years as they tried repeatedly to have a child.

At some point, she and everyone around her would have declared Elizabeth barren and branded her with this lifelong stigma.

Maybe that’s why she stayed in seclusion for five months, keeping to herself to let her hope blossom into joy personally.

If we were watching this in a movie, this is where we’d get some kind of subtitle message like, “Meanwhile, in Galilee…”

When Elizabeth is six months pregnant, Gabriel makes another earthly appearance, this time to Mary.

And he’s delivering the most miraculous pregnancy announcement of all.

Mary received the news gracefully and willingly, but at some point early on, Mary must have known that her challenges and disgrace were just about to begin.

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 “hurried to a town in the hill country of Judea” (Luke 1:39, NIV).

Mary must have heard about her relative Elizabeth’s miraculous pregnancy.

“If anyone will understand, it has to be Elizabeth,” she might have thought.

If so, 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, “When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.

In a loud voice she exclaimed: ‘Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear!

But why am I so favored, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?

As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy.

Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfill his promises to her!’” (Luke 1:41-45, NIV).

What a relief this must have been to Mary.

This was just the affirmation and encouragement Mary needed.

Her joy came bursting through as well, and she sang and praised and thanked God:

There is much we can take away from this story, but I’d like to focus on three points that we can apply to our own experience with joy.

1. It’s OK to be Joyful—and Happy

We’ve probably all heard joy described in contrast to happiness.

You may have heard the contrast of Joy and happiness described 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.

In actuality, the Bible doesn’t make any distinction between joy and happiness.

They are essentially different words for the same thing.

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.

It’s OK to want to be happy and joyful, and it’s OK to enjoy those emotions.

There is great joy in the Christmas season, and it’s good to embrace and celebrate that joy.

But to those of you who find yourselves driven by obligation and busyness and guilt in this season, it’s OK to stop, and say no, and pause and embrace a part of the season that brings you personal happiness.

And to those of you who find Christmas to be a painful, difficult season; to those of you who are hurting or grieving personally or feeling discouraged by this tumultuous last year we’ve been going through; and to those of you who are happy to revel in this season—it’s OK to feel and to embrace joy.

God sees you no matter where you are on the emotional spectrum of happiness.

My point here is that our longing for happiness and joy is a natural desire that God has placed within us as a reflection of His own joyful nature.

Whatever term we want to call it, the most important part is our source of joy and happiness.

2. Joy is Our Strength

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 (Arta Zert sees)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.

So here’s the beauty in the midst of this scene.

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, NIV).

“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.

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, NIV).

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.

I’m not suggesting that this is a don’t worry, be happy, put on a plastic smile and fake it kind of joy.

Sometimes this joy is a rushing fountain erupting from our spirits, and sometimes it is a thick, slow bubble to the surface.

Wherever you find yourself today, let me encourage you that the joy of the Lord can be felt no matter what we are facing.

And that leads us to our final point.

3. We Can Choose Joy

There are a lot of uses of the word rejoicein 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-.

Think back to grammar class or just think of other English words that start with re-, and you’ll remember that this prefix 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 to each one of you, it is a return to our source of joy; it’s a return to Jesus.

Love ones, I believe this is the only way we can find true delight and satisfaction.

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.

That’s where the 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).

In the difficult times, there’s much encouragement to be found in the “rejoices” of the Psalms.

Psalm 13 is a great example.

It begins with the painful cry, “How long, LORD? Will you forget me forever?” (Psalm 13:1, NIV).

It ends with the reminder and declaration, “But I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation” (Psalm 13:5, NIV).

It’s just one of many similar examples.

The Psalms are honest and raw as the writers pour out their feelings in these prayer-like poems and songs.

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

Love ones, let’s rediscover Christmas this year by embracing joy, no matter what we’re going through.

Let’s remember each day the source of our joy.

Let’s seek our happiness, not in the seasonal trappings 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 heed the good news of the angels 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.

Benediction

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, NIV)

Let’s pray together.

Salvation:

The Word of God says in:

John 3:16

16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

Romans 10:13

13 For “whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”

If you’d would like to receive Jesus today, please pray this prayer with all of us:

Lord I believe that Jesus is the Son of God, and that He died On the cross for my sins and His resurrection from the dead gives me eternal life. I ask forgiveness of my sins, and I accept Jesus as my Lord and Savior. Amen.

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Benediction

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.

Have a Great Week! Goodbye!