God is: What Christmas Reveals About God (3)

GOD IS JOY

Text: 1 Samuel 2:1–10 (KJV)

Two weeks ago, we stood in Bethlehem with the prophets and declared: God Is Faithful.

Every word He speaks, He fulfills with unfailing precision.

Last week, we stepped into Joseph’s confusion and discovered: God Is Near.

The God who keeps His promises is also the God who draws close to His people.

And tonight, as we turn to Hannah’s song,

I know what your thinking, what has this to do with Christmas

glad you asked.

Hannah’s song reveals another truth about the heart of God—

The truth is: God Is Joy.

Not just the source and the giver of joy. like we saw this morning But joy itself.

Because when a faithful God draws near, He doesn’t come empty-handed— He comes carrying joy that no circumstance can cancel out.

And Hannah becomes our teacher on the God of Joy.

Her story opens not in celebration but in sorrow.

She knows barrenness.

She knows mockery.

She knows the ache of unanswered prayer.

By every human measure,

she should be bitter.

She should be hopeless.

She should be silent.

But when the God who is faithful draws near in mercy,

Hannah bursts into one of the most joy-filled songs in the entire Old Testament.

Her mouth sings what her circumstances could not explain: Joy .

So tonight, her song will show us four truths about the joy of God— a joy fulfilled in Jesus Christ.

God is Joy because of many things, but I want to focus on three reasons from this passage…

God is Joy because…..

I. HE TURNS PAIN INTO PRAISE

1 Samuel 2:1–2 (KJV)

Like Mary and Elizabeth did this morning, Hannah teaches us something essential about joy that our culture constantly gets wrong.

Joy is not the absence of pain. Joy is the presence of God.

Hannah knew pain intimately.

She knew barrenness — a deep, personal sorrow.

She knew mockery — Peninnah provoked her “sore.” 1:6

She knew misunderstanding — Eli thought she was drunk. 1:12-14

She knew long waiting — year after year, prayer after prayer.

Nothing in Hannah’s story suggests a joy that is produced by our circumstances

Like Mary and Elizabeth, Hannah had every reason to lift a fist and say why me Lord.

If anyone had a reason to stop praying, to stop hoping, to stop praising, it was Hannah. Yet Scripture says:

“Hannah prayed ”

Pain drove her to God, not from God.

She was Anchored in the LORD

Listen carefully to what Hannah says:

“My heart rejoiceth in the Lord, Mine horn (strength) is exalted in the Lord”

She does not say:

“My heart rejoiceth in my son”

“My heart rejoiceth in answered prayer”

“My heart rejoiceth in my circumstances changing”

Those things mattered—but they were not the source.

Hannah goes on to say:

“I rejoice in thy salvation.”

That word matters.

Because Her song reaches further than Samuel.

Hannah is looking beyond a babe in her arms to a Redeemer that saves.

salvation is always where true joy begins.

That’s why Mary will later sing: “My spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour.” (Luke 1:47)

Same joy. Same source.

similar circumstances Same God.

Her joy was anchored in the God of Joy.

v.2

She is celebrating who God is Not what God did

This is the difference between happiness and joy:

Happiness reacts to circumstances.

Joy rests in character.

And when joy rests in God’s character, pain does not get the final word.

Application:

Hannah’s circumstances didn’t erase her scars. But God’s salvation redefined her story.

And tonight, someone needs to hear this:

Joy is not waiting on your situation to improve.

Joy is rejoicing when God is still silent .

If God is faithful, and if God is near, then God is joy—

II. HE REWRITES OUR ENDINGS

1 Samuel 2:3–8 (KJV)

Hannah’s song now widens its lens.

This is no longer just her story — this is God’s pattern.

God is joy because He is the God who rewrites endings and raises those the world forgets.

God Reverses What the World Calls Final

Hannah declares a series of divine reversals:

Strength reversed — “the bows of the mighty are broken”

Pride humbled — “talk no more so exceeding proudly”

Hunger satisfied — “they that were hungry ceased”

Barrenness removed — “the barren hath borne seven”

What the world calls:

Permanent

Hopeless

Final

God calls:

Temporary

Changeable

Redeemable

Joy lives in knowing that no situation has authority over God.

SHE GOES ON TO SAY:

Vs. 6-8

God does not merely rearrange circumstances — He rescues people.

DUMP is where the world puts what it no longer values. But THE DUMP is where God DOES HIS BEST work.

What The world overlooks — God lifts.

Hannah Is Living Proof

Hannah sings what she has lived.

In chapter 1, she was:

Ignored

Mocked

Misunderstood

Praying while judged. Crying while dismissed.

Now she is:

Testifying

Rejoicing

Proclaiming God’s glory

The woman once accused of being drunk is now declaring divine truth.

God didn’t just change her situation — He changed her position.

Christmas Is the Ultimate Expression of lifting the overlooked

Hannah’s song finds its fulfillment in Bethlehem.

God chose:

A poor virgin

From an obscure town

With no earthly reputation

The world saw:

A stable

A peasant couple

A helpless baby

Heaven saw:

A King

A Savior

Joy entering the world

What the world overlooked, God exalted.

Application

God’s joy is found in this truth: No ending is final, and no person is forgotten.

If God can reverse outcomes and lift the lowly, then joy is possible — even in our worst situations

Because when God steps in, the world never gets the last word.

III. HIS PURPOSE CANNOT BE STOPPED

1 Samuel 2:9–10 (KJV)

“He will keep the feet of his saints… the LORD shall judge the ends of the earth; and he shall give strength unto his king, and exalt the horn of his anointed.”

Hannah’s song now rises to its highest point.

She moves from:

personal joy,

to divine reversals,

to God’s eternal purpose.

This is joy at its deepest level — joy rooted not in the present, but in God’s unstoppable future.

Hannah Believes What Has Not Yet Appeared

At this moment in Israel’s history:

There is no king.

There is no anointed ruler.

There is no throne established.

Yet Hannah boldly declares:

“He shall give strength unto his king, and exalt the horn of his anointed.”

This is prophetic joy.

A Joy that rejoices before God finishes A Joy that rejoices before fulfillment arrives. A Joy that rejoices in God’s plan even when evidence is absent.

Why? Because God’s Purpose Is Greater Than Human Power

Hannah proclaims:

“He will keep the feet of his saints.”

Kings rise. Nations shift. People fail.

But God’s purpose does not stumble.

Joy flows from this assurance:

The future of God’s people is not fragile — it is secure in God’s hands.

No enemy can stop what God has decreed. No failure can cancel what God has promised.

What Hannah saw by faith, Christmas reveals in flesh.

Jesus Christ is:

The True King

The Anointed One

The Joy of all nations

When the angels declared:

“I bring you good tidings of great joy,”

they were announcing that God’s purpose had arrived — unstoppable, undeniable, fulfilled.

Herod could not stop Him. Rome could not stop Him. Death itself could not stop Him.

Application

God is joy because He is God and He His purpose cannot be stopped.

If God has spoken, He will fulfill it. If God has planned it, He will complete it.

And that is why we rejoice — not only for what God has done, but for what He is still doing.

Because the same God who fulfilled Hannah’s prophecy has secured our future in Jesus Christ.

CONCLUSION:

Hannah began her story in silence and sorrow. Chap 1 But she ends it in song.

Because when a faithful God draws near, He reveals who He truly is:

He’s present enough to heal the broken hearted - He turns pain into praise

He’s powerful enough to turn the ruined into the redeemed

He’s sovereign enough to accomplish His purpose without fail. That is why God is joy.

Not because life is easy. Not because pain disappears. But because God is present, powerful, and purposeful.

Hannah’s joy didn’t come from pretending the pain never happened. It came from trusting the God who was working behind the scene and beyond what she could see.

So let us do what Hannah did. Let us lift our voices. Let us trust His future. Let us rejoice — in who He is.

God is faithful. God is near. God is joy.