Sermon Tone Analysis

Sermon 3

Shepherds: Hope and Joy

Desperate for Joy

We’re going to begin by considering a ghost of Christmas past.

I’m not talking about old Ebenezer Scrooge and the mistakes of his youth.

I’m talking about some of the mistakes parents have made in Christmases past.

Specifically, the lengths we went to to get the toys we were so desperate to buy our children.

For example, if you had children in the ’90s, you might remember Tickle Me Elmo and rumors of parents paying thousands of dollars on the black market for a Sesame Street character whose allure came from the fact that he went into seizures and fits of giggling if you squeezed him.

If you had a daughter in the 2000s, maybe you remember the scramble to get a Bratz doll.

There was such desperation for the right character, you overlooked how a plastic doll could carry so much outright rebellion and sass.

Why were we so eager to buy our children a toy whose primary message seemed to be “Your parents are idiots”?

Maybe you more recently searched the Dark Web for a ZhuZhu Pet so you could pay three times more than the retail price.

If we go way back, we must face one of the strangest toys of any Christmas past.

I know our younger members won’t believe it, but children of the ’70s were clamoring for Pet Rocks.

The pet box included breathing holes all around it, and inside you would find . . .

a rock.

That’s it.

I guess it became your pet.

The downside was it wasn’t very fun to watch.

The upside was you never had to flush it down the toilet.

So, what will it be this year?

Millions of parents are desperately hoping that this year they’ll find the right toy.

A toy that will both light up Christmas morning and not end up stuffed in the back of the closet three weeks from now.

I don’t even want to think about all the gifts I’ve bought over the years that scarcely held my family’s interest for Christmas Day, much less for months or years to come.

But we keep buying and keep hoping this time it will be different.

The Reason for Hope, The Foundation for Joy

The first Christmas present was significantly different from that.

The Bible tells us, “There were shepherds living out in their fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night.

An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified.

But the angel said to them, ‘Do not be afraid.

I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people.

Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord.

This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger’” ().

Luke continues the story: “They hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger.

When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them” (verses 16–18).

This Christmas present was so different.

The problem with toys and most things we look to for hope and joy is a case of diminishing returns.

In economics, the law of diminishing returns says that as an investment in a particular area increases, the rate of profit from that investment, after a certain point, cannot continue to increase if other variables remain at a constant.

With both toys and things we look to for hope and joy, we find that the more we go back to that thing or think on that thing, the less joy it brings.

Even if you had an incredible once-in-a-lifetime experience, you can only hold onto it for so long.

Let’s say you jumped out of a plane, and it was the most exhilarating thing in your life.

For the next few days, just thinking about the jump brings a level of adrenaline and delight.

But soon the memory doesn’t hold the same power.

What’s more, the next jump doesn’t quite do what the first jump did.

After a while, you find jumping doesn’t do much of anything at all for you.

In the same way, if you were given an amazing gift, it only brings happiness for so long.

Eventually, it just becomes part of the mass of stuff that you have.

But the first Christmas gift is a different sort of gift altogether.

The shepherds show us that encountering Jesus is a different sort of experience.

It had such an impact on the shepherds that they had to spread the word after they had seen Him.

This was a lasting hope and joy that they could not contain.

Three decades after that encounter, Jesus gave us insight on this sort of hope and joy for our lives: “I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete” ().

We all taste hope.

We experience joy.

How many of us would say our joy is complete?

There are about 250 passages in the NIV translation of the Bible that deal with joy.

If you read them, you’ll find the Bible doesn’t just encourage joy, it commands us to have it.

In fact, the Bible commands us to rejoice twice as many times as it commands us to repent.

We aren’t just given permission to laugh or to have some fun times; God wants your life to be constantly overflowing and filled with joy.

Is that how you would describe your life?

The shepherds’ joy was a result of what God had done.

Watching sheep at night has its merits.

But the hope, wonder, and life-changing joy for them began when they first heard of Jesus.

And the joy grew as they met Jesus.

Joy begins for us in the same way it began for the shepherds.

It begins with meeting Jesus.

Without that foundation, how can we hope to have lasting joy?

Very few things last forever.

An encounter with Jesus, however, remains and grows through all eternity.

Meeting Jesus never stops impacting, shaping, and transforming our lives!

It never stops giving us hope and opportunities for joy.

With that foundation in mind, let’s zero in on a few basic themes that recur numerous times in those 250 passages on joy.

If we are going to walk in the joy God has for us, it seems we should pay attention to what the Bible not only says but repeats numerous times.

While our foundation for joy comes as a result of what Jesus did for us, we find that embracing daily joy has little to do with what happens every day.

In fact, according to many passages in the Bible, hope and joy are more of a mind-set or posture for living that comes from what Jesus did at Christmas than simply a result or feeling.

It’s an undeniable theme concerning joy in the Bible.

Embracing the Hope and Joy That Have Been Given

The apostle Paul clearly demonstrates this truth in : “Rejoice in the Lord always.

I will say it again: Rejoice!

Let your gentleness be evident to all.

The Lord is near.”

One important part of walking in hope and joy is simply to choose to rejoice in everything!

Much of the hope, joy, and rejoicing in the Bible isn’t really connected with circumstances.

It’s connected with a decision.

In fact, one of the keys to a life of joy is to rejoice even when the circumstances are disappointing or even painful.

Take, for example, the amazing prayer of the prophet Habakkuk.

The prophet prays to God when Israel is in a state of terrible disarray.

Wickedness and idolatry ruled the land, and the Assyrians were threatening to overwhelm Israel.

As I read his prayer from , pay attention to both the circumstances the prophet is facing as well as Habakkuk’s response: “Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior.”

There’s not much more that could be going wrong in Israel.

Yet Habakkuk’s response is to rejoice.

Not just to rejoice, but to be joyful.

That’s amazing!

Normally, good things happen, and then we feel happy.

We feel joy, and then we rejoice.

Our prospects look good, and hope fills our hearts.

The Bible says, “That’s fine, but actually it works the other way around.

You start with rejoicing, and then you feel joy.”

Like the shepherds, we always have a reason to rejoice—Christ has come!

Joy flows out of rejoicing every bit as much as rejoicing should flow out of joy.