Joy in the Waiting
Notes
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Glorify God. Worship Jesus. Love People
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Read Scripture Philippians 4:4-7
Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Sermon
Have you ever seen the movie Inside out?
Its a Disney Pixar movie that personifies the emotions of a young girl as she is trying to navigate some huge changes in her life
In the movie the personified emotions, Joy, Anger, Disgust, Sadness, Fear, discover that in the midst of life there can be mixed emotions that are not only necessary but actually give deeper meaning to situations and seasons of life.
We are continuing our sermon series… In the Waiting
During Advent we celebrate the coming of Christ
We have the 3 purple candles which are a representation of somber tones of remembrance and even penetence in some traditions. Then there is one Pink Candle
We take time to prepare our hearts and minds just as the children of Israel did for thousands of years waiting for Christ. Talking through Hope, Peace, and Love in pretty heavy and contemplative ways. And then we speak about Joy in the middle of that
Advent is a time of expectation and a time of anticipation. A season for waiting. But not a season to allow the joy of life to slip past
As those who are living in between the first advent of Christ where he came as a baby and the second advent when he will come as the conquering king…
we are looking at what this advent looks like
As we are in the waiting
Whether you are waiting for the pandemic to end, for your school semester to be over, or for your test results.
We are ultimately in the waiting for our Lord to come and right all wrongs. To wipe away all tears
So here is the question for today? How do we have Joy in the waiting?
This is probably the toughest one for this current ministerial context
Especially now, The world doesn’t give us a lot to be joyful about, right?
One major issue in the world that’s joked about too much to be false is the overwhelming experience of people lacking joy and hope
People joke about being depressed so much that it has become en vogue not to simply acknowledge when you are dealing with depression or mental illness and then seek ways to manage and navigate those waters
but it’s now expected that you have something wrong in your life. That you have no real joy in your life and that you are seeking to simply mask your emptiness with conveniences and distractions
This is the message the world is sending
When you pair that with the very real seasonal sadness and depression that accompanies Christmas time for those of us who have lost loved ones… Joy becomes a topic that is difficult to dive into without sounding trite or nieve
So how do you keep Joy in the waiting?
I have to look to the children of Israel
In their history, they have dealt with slavery, exile after exile, attempted genocide, oppression, repression, and military occupation
How did they keep any since of Joy in the waiting between being delivered from Egypt and the coming of Christ?
How do we keep joy in the waiting between our first experiences with Jesus to his coming in completeness?
For the Hebrews, they found joy in Hope. They found Hope in the promises. And they knew they could trust the promises because they knew the one who made the promise.
The children of God could have Joy because they were able to rest in the hope that tomorrow will come. And since tomorrow will come, the pain of today is temporary
Therefore I can find light even while living in the darkness because I know the one who said He will always be with me
Therefore I can not fall victim to despair because I know the one who gives life and that in abundance
The Hebrew people during all their trials and tribulation held on to their identity as the people of God. They made celebrations a way of life. They sang and rejoiced… we read this throughout the psalms… at even some of their most trying times. They made remembering their stories and their history a part of how they communicated
We look to the early Church from which we get our passage from today
Paul is writing to churches who are dealing with persecution. Like actual persecution. They are in the waiting of the Kingdom of God to be revealed to free them from their physical persecution
He is calling them to rejoice
To choose joy even during the waiting. During the pain. During the process
He doesn’t say that you have to hide your pain and pretend to be happy but he said rejoice in the Lord and the peace of God will guard your hearts and your minds
There has to be something deeper. Something that you can base your joy in that is beyond your surroundings
This idea is that even when the world is going to heck in a hand cart… you can still rejoice in the Lord if nothing else
This doesn’t mean that the pains, the loss, the struggles that you deal with are not important
But it does mean that by focusing your heart on the hope of the Lord, you can find joy even in the midst of the pain
Paul says in Romans that the God of all Hope is the one who fills us with Joy
In Galatians he tells us that Joy is actually fruit of the Spirit of God living inside you
Peter tells us in 1 Peter that we are filled with joy unspeakable in believing in Jesus Christ
The truth of this life is that you will go through tough times
You will deal with heart ache and sadness and dark nights of the soul
You will have to navigate the valley of the shadow of death
But God will be with you
He will always be there to give you a deep and profound Joy in him that is actually fruit through him
So how do you have joy in the waiting
As churchy as it sounds, its Gospel truth. Turn your eyes upon Jesus
AS you continue to keep your heart and mind on him you will begin to see moments to smile again. You will begin to see hope. You will notice the little gifts that God gives you to get through the day
The sound of the birds outside, the laugh of children, some funny story that will come to your memory
You will also become more aware of the depth of joy that, though mingled with sadness or fear or whatever, brings meaning and sustains you through the most difficult situations you’ve ever faced
As a believer your and my life are supposed to be marked by Joy
Joy is a common attitude of the people of God
If you are lacking in Joy, I would suggest that you spend some time reflection on where your hope and your focus is
This isn’t to shame you. If you’re dealing with stuff in this season, that’s real and I’m not taking that from you
But if you don’t have something that you know you can lean on through the pain. Something that gives you meaning.