Good News and Great Joy

GREAT JOY ALWAYS SEEMS TO SLIP THROUGH OUR FINGERS Merry Christmas!   My name is David Sorn, and I’m the Lead Pastor here at Renovation Church.  Not that long ago, I heard of a study where they asked mothers around the world what they most wanted for their children.  In Israel, most mothers said they wanted their children to be obedient  In Asia, most mothers said they wanted their children to be successful.  And in America, most mothers said they just wanted their children to be ____ (Happy!  Yeah, you knew it!)    And for a lot of us, we’ve spent our whole life trying to make mom proud…by trying to make sure we are…happy.  But, easier said than done.   I mean, how fast does happiness seem to slip through our fingers?  How many of you have been dreaming a little bit about Christmas morning, and how great it’s going to be?  Especially if you have kids.  You’re picturing them tearing apart wrapping paper, opening presents, and running over to you with a huge hug, and saying, “You’re the best parent in the world!”  Except they’ll probably say, “This isn’t what I wanted”  Or, play with it for an hour and say, “I’m BORRREED”  Happiness would be easy to achieve if everyone else would just cooperate, right?   It’s like, you could be happy… But you’re married…and for some reason, your spouse doesn’t always do what you want them to do.  You could be happy… But you have kids…that don’t always cooperate.  Or we tell ourselves, all the time, we’ll be happy…as soon as we get that promotion, or get married, or can finally go on that trip we’ve been dreaming about, or have kids, or can buy a house, or can finally retire…  But who in here has gotten one of those things and went, “Yes, now that I have reached one of those circumstances, I am now deeply…satisfied.”  Life doesn’t work that way…   Because just when you finally get married, you lose your job  Or just when you can finally retire, your spouse gets cancer   Happiness seems to always slip through our fingers, because for the vast majority of Americans, their happiness is based on their happenings…their circumstances.  But what if you could base your joy on something entirely different?  Something that wouldn’t fade away?   Well, you can.   THE MESSAGE COMES TO LOWLY SHEPHERDS  And that Good News comes from God’s Word to us, the Bible.  In fact, let’s take a look at the Bible.  There’s a Bible underneath the chairs in front of you  (Page 699)  By the way, if you don’t have a Bible, take this one with you.  That’s our Christmas gift to you.  I’d love for you to read the Bible for yourself.  I did that for the first time when I was 18, and the Bible was so different than what I thought it would be.   There’s even a Bible reading plan in there that will show you the easiest books to start with  So, we’re going to read from Luke chapter 2… Luke is 1 of 4 books in the Bible about Jesus’ life.  And as you heard earlier in the service, in a reading from the first 7 verses of Luke Chapter 2, the baby Jesus has just been born in Bethlehem  And we’re now going to read about what happens just outside of Bethlehem that same night  (Luke 2:8 12) – NIV  8 And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. 9 An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. 10 But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. 11 Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. 12 This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”  Okay, first of all, if we’re going to understand the truth that God wants us to see in this passage, we have to do a little unlearning together first.  Because when we read about the shepherds of the Christmas story, this is what most of us picture:  (Show ShepherdCostume picture)  We think, “Oh, shepherds!  They are so nice with their little hook staffs!  And they play with cuddly sheep!”  Although that kid looks like he’s also doing some jedi mind trick on you But historically, in Ancient Israel, shepherds were the lowest of the low.  Shepherding was the lowest form of unskilled labor available at the time.  Shepherds were dirty, smelly, and locals of that time even considered them untrustworthy So much so that shepherds couldn’t even give testimony in court unless their story was first verified by someone else   So THAT’S who we’re talking about when we read that the shepherds were watching their flocks by night, outside of Bethlehem on Christmas  And this begs a very interesting question then:  God sends an angel to bring, I don’t know, maybe the most important message of all time at that point… And why bring it…to these guys?  Why not to King Herod?  Or to the Emperor in Rome?  Or even the high priest in Jerusalem??  TO SEE THE SAVIOR, YOU HAVE TO BE A SHEPHERD  When Jesus gets older, He answers this question by teaching often about how hard it is for the rich, the powerful, and the successful to hear from God   See, if God sends an angel to Caesar in Rome, Caesar is so full of himself, that he’s not interested in God’s agenda…unless he could maybe co opt it for his own purposes. And we find out later in the Bible, that even the High Priest in Jerusalem is so full of his own pride, that, even he, would never stoop so low to go look for a baby in a dirty manger.   But the shepherds would!  And because of this, they get to hear from God!  And there is such an important teaching in this for us today:  Here’s the first part:  If we want to hear Good News of Great Joy, we must:  1. Humble ourselves like a shepherd   See, God’s good news only comes to those who have the humility to hear it   It comes to those who see themselves, like a shepherd, as one, who doesn’t know everything, and isn’t in control of everything, and doesn’t think they have their whole life put together.  See, the wise and the powerful don’t want to hear what God has to say because they don’t think they need to  And I’m not just talking about politicians and philosophers, or CEO’s and authors.   I’m talking about us  We think that our own way of living life is so right…that the vast majority of Americans have never even taken the time to really sit down and read through the New Testament of the Bible…to see what Jesus, the Son of God, really came to say to us.   Like, how crazy is that?   The God of the Universe came to earth to give us a message, and most of us said, “You know, I think I’ve got this.”  How crazy is that?   But most of us, because, well, we’re suburban, we’re educated, many of us well to do people…we say, “I don’t need that”  And in that way, we’re not really any different from Caesar, or some king, or anyone else in those days that missed the message because they didn’t think they needed it.    But hear me, if you want to see God, you want to hear “the Good News of Great Joy” you have got to think of yourself more like a shepherd than royalty.   Because that’s who actually gets the message, it’s the shepherds.  YOU HAVE TO BE WILLING TO STAND IN HIS LIGHT & HEAR THE MESSAGE  And so to hear and understand this Good News of Great Joy, you have to humble yourself to want to hear from God   But there’s a second piece here too:  If we want to hear Good News of Great Joy, we must:  1. Humble ourselves like a shepherd   2. Be brave enough to let God’s holy light shine on us Look at verse 9 in our passage again.  (Luke 2:9) – NIV  9 An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified.   There’s some more unlearning we have to do here.  Again, I say angel, and you think this:  (Show cute kid in angel costume)  We go to the kids’ Christmas play again, and we’re like, “If I was one of those shepherds, I’d say, “Oh hey!  Angel!  How are you??  Do you have a message for us”   But the Bible says that shepherds were TERRIFIED.   The angel has to literally calm them down, “Don’t be afraid!”  Not only is it dark.  Not only does an Angel appear out of nowhere and start talking!  But it says that the “glory of the Lord shone around them”  So, essentially, they are enveloped in this great holy light.  And they’re terrified.  And this is a bit counterintuitive at first.  Because normally, we’re scared of the dark, right?  Not the light!  But this is no normal light, this is the glory of God.   And when God’s light shines on you, and you actually begin to see yourself through His eyes, through His perfection…through His standards. And you see that you’re not perfect, in fact, you’re kind of messy… That you’ve hurt people, and messed up, and sinned against even God Himself.   The temptation is to run…in fear.  It takes great courage to stay in the light and listen to His message like the shepherds did!  We see people experience this tension a lot in the Bible when the light of God’s glory actually hits them.   When the prophet Isaiah had a vision of God’s glory, His first words weren’t “Oh, that’s neat!”  He said, “Woe to me!  I am ruined!”  When the disciple Peter first sees the glory of Jesus when Jesus performed a miracle in his midst, Peter says…to JESUS… “Go away from me, Lord.  I am a sinful man”  These people experience God’s holy light revealing their inadequacies and sin, and they want to run.  But Jesus, says to Peter (just like the angels said to the shepherds), “Don’t be afraid.”   But be brave…listen to this message: See, if you’re truly going to hear what God has to say to you, you have to be humble like a shepherd to hear it, but you also have to brave enough to stand in his Holy light.  And that’s not an easy thing.  I heard author and pastor, Timothy Keller explain it this way once:  What if you got a job that you were completely unqualified for?  Like, let’s say, you got offered a job about three promotions higher than you are right now…and it’s amazing…but you’re completely unqualified for it.  But, you know, it’s really good money… And your family would be so proud…and the rest of society would be very impressed…so you take it! But what would you feel like as you worked that job you were unqualified for?  You’d constantly be anxious about being found out  You’d be defensive, frightened by criticism, and frustrated that you can’t get things to work the way they should.  And if someone comes near you who IS actually qualified to do that job, you would do everything you could to avoid them.   And see, this is a good description of what we do with our lives  We’re not qualified to run our lives.  But we’d like to!  And because, deep, deep inside we know that we’re not made to run our lives, we’re often anxious about it, frightened by criticism… …and the last person we often let be close to us is God…because well, he’s the one who’s qualified to actually run it  And if we let Him get to close, and if He saw all of our mistakes, all of our mess ups then what? THE GOSPEL  But if you can humble yourself, like a shepherd, to hear his message.  And you can be brave enough to stand in his light for a moment… I promise you, the message that Jesus came to bring is Good News…and Great Joy   So look now at this Good News from the angel.   What does he say?   It’s right in verse 11 if you still have it:  (Luke 2:11) – NIV  11 Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord.   Now listen, it doesn’t say, a teacher has been born.  Or a life coach who can help you with your new year’s resolutions.   If that’s how you think of Jesus (and many people do), that’s not really who He is.  That’s like saying the Queen of England is a good cook  She may be, she’s been around for a while, but that’s not the best way to describe her.  Jesus is most importantly the SAVIOR.   And why do we need a Savior?  This is the main teaching of the Bible…and again, I encourage you to read it for yourself.  (Romans 3:23) – NIV  for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, Every single one of us has fallen short of God’s holy standard.   We’ve sinned, hurt people, sinned against God, broken his commandments.   And if we’d stop our busy lives for just a moment….and let God’s holy light shine on us…  And we’d measure ourselves against His Holy standards (not our own)   We’d see our sin…and that we can never be good enough (Romans 6:23) – NIV  For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. So the wages (what we get as a result of our sin) is death…it’s eternal separation from God in hell.  Because God is a holy God…he punishes sin He is JUST.  And right here is where people want to run away from God.  But remember the lesson of the Christmas shepherds If we want to hear Good News of Great Joy, we must:  1. Humble ourselves like a shepherd   2. Be brave enough to let God’s holy light shine on us And then fully hear the message.   And here’s the rest of it.  God is not only a just God, but He is also a loving God.  (John 3:16) – NIV  For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. So yes, you have sinned against God…and for your sins, you deserve to be separated from this Holy God.   But God loves you so much, that He sent Jesus to earth on Christmas, so  He could grow up and die on the cross for you…in your place, for your sins.  (as your Savior) And this is the primary teaching of the Bible. If you hear one thing today, hear this:  If you put your faith in Jesus, and you believe He died for you… God then takes the punishment that you deserve off of you, and puts it onto Jesus on the cross, and you are forgiven!  And that happens, NOT when you get your life together… But when you cast your life on Jesus.   And when you say, “Lord, I believe you died for me, I’m going to live for you”  And when you do that, He will forgive you, and you can know Him personally and spend eternity with Him!”  But hear me, there are a lot of people in this room are missing out on hearing this good news, and more importantly receiving it into their lives…  Because it’s really hard to humble yourself like a shepherd and admit that you need God.  That in truth, you aren’t the most qualified being to run your life    And it’s even harder to let God’s light shine on your life…and show you that you are a sinner…that needs a Savior… And without a Savior, you can’t be saved…and that you’ll spend eternity apart from God.    That’s hard! But don’t run from this Great News, just because it’s hard or scary.  Here’s the great Biblical truth that we share often here:  You are far more sinful than you ever dared to imagine, and yet, far more loved than you ever dared to hope.  That’s the Good News you can receive with Great Joy.    That you’re not perfect, sometimes you’re an absolutely mess, and God wants to forgive you and be in your life anyway!  And so this Christmas, the question is this:  Who will be your Savior?  Who will run your life?  You or Jesus.   The Good News is that He can forgive you, and the Great Joy is that the very thing we crave, joy, doesn’t have to slip through your fingers anymore as your circumstances constantly change.  When you understand that there is a God who loves you and cares for you and is with you, and DIED for you, that joy is deeper than any circumstance we will face.     If you’ve never made that decision to give your life to Jesus Christ, you can do that right now   When you meet God face to face someday, the only way you will be saved is if you have trusted in Jesus the Savior to forgive your sins.  Simply running your own life and being a good person won’t be enough.  You need God’s forgiveness…somebody needs to pay for your sins  And so I beg you, give your life to this God who has seen everything you’ve ever done, and still loves you so much He died in your place!  And so let’s just have everyone bow their head and close their eyes for a minute  If you need to do that today… To believe Jesus died for you, to make Him your savior and your leader.  You can do that right now, and He will come into your life.  It’s pretty amazing.  If you need to tell God for the first time today that you want to Make him your savior and Leader, to be forgiven,  I want you to have a “line in the sand moment,” where you tell him this…where you invite Him in.  And so if you need to believe in Jesus as your Savior & Leader for the first time today, I want you to stand up where you are right now  Repeat after me Dear God I confess to you, that I have sinned against you.   But God I believe, that you sent your Son Jesus, to take my place And God I thank you, for forgiving my sins.   And now I commit, to following you, with my life.    (NEXT STEPS) As everyone still has their eyes closed, for those of you standing up, you just made the most important decision of your life, and I believe that requires some more information… So here’s what we’re going to do to get you that…as everyone has their eyes closed, I want you, in just a second, to walk back out to the lobby where it will be quiet.  You won’t walk out there alone.  There are others standing with you, and our follow up team is going to walk out at the same time with you And I, and our follow up team are going to get you some extremely important resources & next steps to get you started on the most important journey of your life.    If you’re part of this church, and your friend or family member is standing up right now, PLEASE come out there with them.   All right, you can all go now.  As they’re walking, I’m going to thank God in prayer.    Let’s pray