Joy

“It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year” is back on the charts this Christmas! It’s actually been voted the 17th most popular Christmas song of all time. In case you don’t remember, here’s some of the lyrics.

It's the most wonderful time of the year With the kids jingle belling And everyone telling you be of good cheer It's the most wonderful time of the year

There'll be parties for hosting Marshmallows for toasting And caroling out in the snow There'll be scary ghost stories And tales of the glories of Christmases long, long ago

However, some have a less-than-stellar view of the season, prompting one artist to write a different version, which goes:

It’s the most wonderful time of the year For some it is jolly but others can’t rally from forcible cheer. While the same ten or so songs clang in your ears.

Later on, it states

When over appeasing and unresolved grieving loom under it all. And the poor fragile empaths think it’s their fault.

You see, we’re in an advent series, which means that we spend our December reflecting on the birth of Jesus and looking forward to the return of Jesus, and each week has a theme: Hope, love, joy, peace, and then finally Christ.

So, this week we’re talking about joy, which is exactly what both of these songs are dealing with!

Some of us can identify with the original version: We love Christmas, we love the lights, the gifts, the meals with friends and family. We love the closeness we feel toward people, we love the candlelit church services. The season is exciting, and we’ve got enough nativity sets to prove it!

Some of us, however, have a harder time with this season. It reminds us of who won’t be at the table with us, it can make us reflect on broken relationships with parents or children. Maybe we’re going through yet another Christmas without a positive pregnancy test or another holiday after a miscarriage. Or maybe we know that we’ll have to look our children in the face and tell them that they shouldn’t expect much this Christmas because money is tight. Christmas can be hard, especially when you feel like a bad person for not loving it.

But, I think that what these songs (and ourselves) lack is a good foundation for joy. In the original song, the foundation is weak: it’s consumerism and circumstance; whereas in the parody, that foundation has crumbled away to nothing.

But, for us:

True joy is found in Jesus.

Before we get into it, let’s define joy so we’re all working with the same definition.

Joy is a state of being that involves being completely satisfied.

It’s a choice, not a feeling.

John 16:16–24 ““A little while, and you will see me no longer; and again a little while, and you will see me.” So some of his disciples said to one another, “What is this that he says to us, ‘A little while, and you will not see me, and again a little while, and you will see me’; and, ‘because I am going to the Father’?” So they were saying, “What does he mean by ‘a little while’? We do not know what he is talking about.” Jesus knew that they wanted to ask him, so he said to them, “Is this what you are asking yourselves, what I meant by saying, ‘A little while and you will not see me, and again a little while and you will see me’? Truly, truly, I say to you, you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice. You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn into joy. When a woman is giving birth, she has sorrow because her hour has come, but when she has delivered the baby, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world. So also you have sorrow now, but…”

From this, and Luke 2, I think we can really see what true joy is.

True Joy is Rooted in Christ.

Both of these passages deals directly with how joy is found because of Jesus.

Luke 2:10 “And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.”

John 16:22 “So also you have sorrow now, but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you.”

True joy can only be found in Jesus because He’s the only constant.

We can put our joy in wealth or sex or our job or our children or the season, but everything that we put our trust in outside of God will fail because everything and everyone outside of God is finite. They can’t satisfy you because it can’t be satisfied.

God, however, is.

Why?

Now, the real question is why? Why should I place the foundation of my joy in Jesus? Why should I care?

Yes, Jesus is God, yes He loves me, but all of the good Sunday school answers don’t address the heart of the matter: why should my life change because of Jesus??

2 Corinthians 5:21 “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

I like to call this the great trade, and it’s one of the main reasons that I can call myself a Christian.

Jesus was born as both man and God fully. He was sinless, and yet still He went to the cross and became sin for me! It’s not just that He took our sin from us, it’s that He literally clothed Himself in our sin so that we might clothe ourselves in His righteousness.

It’s not fair! It’s not reasonable! It’s not what I would do if I were God!

But Christ willingly and happily made that trade so that you might be with Him.

So why is my joy rooted in Christ? Because Christ is the only One who loved me enough to give me the joy that I need.

True Joy is Unfailing.

A real and true joy that is rooted in Christ is incapable of being extinguished.

It can be swamped, for sure. It can be very nearly overwhelmed. I’m not some joy guru with his head in the sand or some stoic that says you should be unbothered by everything and anything in your life. However, a true joy that is rooted in Jesus cannot be crushed.

We see an example of this in Christ!

Hebrews 12:2 “looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.”

Christ, as He was looking forward towards the cross, was not preoccupied with the pain, He wasn’t obsessed with HIs betrayal, He was joyful! Oh, of course He prayed for the torture to be avoided, of course He felt a deep pain of loss of relationship to the Father that you and I haven’t felt, but His joy was never extinguished.

It’s like what He said in John 16:21.

We have a bunch of moms in the room, so by show of hands, how many of you regretted going through labor for your children?

NONE OF YOU, or some of you and you lied, I can’t judge, I didn’t go through it.

I was in the room for the birth of my daughter, and I know that Aubree went through a pain that I can’t imagine; but the second that Sophia cried that little cry and held Aubree’s hand, the pain was no longer a factor!

In the same way, you will have suffering in your life. Your joy will be tested.

But, if your joy is rooted in Christ, it will never fail.

Jesus says that in John 16:22!

He tells us that “no one will take your joy from you”

True joy is not circumstantial.

The true joy that is found in Christ isn’t based on things or people or events, it’s based on the God of the universe who never changes and who will always be there.

True Joy is Prayerful.

Verse 23 is one of the verses that is ripped out of context ALL the time.

It is NOT saying that you get whatever you pray for. It is not saying that the Ferrari is yours if you just pray hard enough, and anyone that tells you otherwise has either not read their Bibles or is selling something.

Theres a story about a man who angrily goes in to his pastors office and tells him that prayer doesn’t work. The pastor asks why he thinks that way and the angry man says, “I’ve been praying for twenty years! I’ve been an elder for 10 years, a faithful giver since I became a Christian, I serve in so many different ministries; but God still isn’t answering me!”

Finally, the pastor says, “I see your problem, you’re praying in your name, not in Jesus’ name.

Our prayers are not a demand to a god who owes us a favor, it’s a conversation with the living and active God.

So how is true joy prayerful?

Prayer requires us to acknowledge that God is in charge, not us.

I wouldn’t pray if I had my life figured out and I knew everything. I wouldn’t need God. Instead, I’m constantly reminded of how desperately in need of Him I am.

We’ve already talked from previous verses about how true joy is rooted in Christ, which requires that we make Christ more important than us, meaning that we have to pray!

You can’t root yourself in Christ and still think that you’ve figured it out, because believing in Jesus means believing that you’re messed up!

And when you pray with the joy that’s found in Christ, God answers.

Now, some people will look at the phrase, “ask of the Father in my name,” and think “If I use the words, ‘in Jesus name amen.’ then I get what I want!”

That’s a drastic oversimplification.

Instead, it seems a lot more like this verse is saying that when you go before God clothed in the righteousness of Christ that we receive from a relationship with Him, He hears your prayers as the prayers of His Son.

When you pray to the Father, He hears it like the prayers of Jesus.

It also means that He’ll answer the prayers that are like the prayers of Jesus.

Have you ever wondered why you didn’t get an A on your math test when you didn’t study or you didn’t get the 80% raise that you prayed for? it’s not because God hates you and doesn’t want you to succeed, it’s because that’s not a prayer that Jesus would pray in your situation.

In essence, when we pray in Jesus name, God responds to the prayer that we would have prayed if we we’re complete like Jesus was.

So, for us, we can ask and receive, so that our joy may be full.

So, we now know that true joy, a real, complete, full joy, can only be found when it is rooted in Christ, when it is unfailing, and when it is prayerful.

Application: Find where your joy is rooted.

If it’s in something other than Jesus: Investigate for yourself if your joy can last.

If it’s in Christ: Make your joy influence your life!

John Bradford was a British Christian in the 1500’s who was sentenced to death by bloody Mary for not being Catholic. He was going to be burned at the stake next to a young man who was also a Christian. Before the fire was lit, he begged forgiveness of those who he had hurt and then forgave those who hurt him. Then, he looked over at his partner in death and said, ‘Be of good comfort brother; for we shall have a merry supper with the LORD this night!’

That’s a joy that is rooted in Christ, and that’s a joy that I want to have. I want to be untouchable by the world because of my love for Jesus, and I pray that you would have that love too.