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00:00:04 now wasn't that a wonderful canata let's give them another R of appreciation the choir sets the scene for the theme of this Christmas and the theme is taken from the passage which was read and the passage on which the canata was based on and the theme is Joy how does Joy start from a tiny little village 2,000 years ago and we're going to explore this theme of joy in our own lives let's pray father Lord we just ask that you open up our hearts to listen to your words to listen to your son who came 2,000 years ago to bring us
00:00:58 joy father Lord may we leave this Hall with a supernatural joy that will flow into our lives and into our community and this world for we ask for Jesus sake amen so the scene starts off with shepherds in the field keeping watch over the flocks by night and you think about it the Shepherds in those days were a people very much looked down upon they were despised if you look at Genesis chapter 46 for every Shepherd is an Abomination to the Egyptian the Egyptians hated Shepherds in fact their social status
00:01:46 was no more than like a tax collector or dung sweeper if you look at them they were forbidden people were forbidden to buy wool or milk from them because they always thought they would have been stolen in the mishna there's a chapter that say that if a Shepherd falls into a pit do not rescue him let him die Jeremiah the historian actually writes they have no civil rights in fact they could not be Witnesses in a court of law this is what they were and of all people when the king of King comes he
00:02:24 comes to lowly Shepherds which means the Christmas message is to people who are invisible not seen but God sees them doesn't matter but it matters to God no value but tremendous value to God forgotten but God never forgets so therefore the Christmas message is to every single one of us especially those of us who feel today invisible to the world the angel appeared to them in the glory of the Lord shown around them and they were filled with great fear of course you see a Celestial event unfold before you in Disguise you would be
00:03:10 terrified then the message came and the angel said to them fear not for behold I bring you good news of a great joy will be that will be for all the people that's the central message of Christmas it a central message of Joy what is Joy if you look in the Miram web dictionary it's an emotion evoked by well-being success good fortune or the prospect of possessing what one desires and then the key word here which we all want in our lives Is possessing so therefore Christmas has been overtaken by an oversized elf dressed in red
00:03:53 suit whose only contribution to the vocabulary of English is the words ho ho ho granting everybody their wish and if you don't see him you go out and you basically shop till you drop uh basically to bring joy into your lives I like this one how many of you got Toyota car put your hands up yeah you jump you know I love this ad you know it goes right back for years even the old Toyota people are jumping even the Taliban love it you just jump uh if you want joy what do you do today well there even websites you know the
00:04:34 websites for everything okay uh here's the NPR website where you actually have a joy generator click for Joy try clicking I did you click for joy and then suddenly you will see music sounds of crackling fire because it calms you down then gives you pictures of when you were when you were a child assuming you have a good childhood okay at Nostalgia that's cure brings joy and then there are series of sounds the wind streams frogs Birds if you like that sort of thing all right and it so brings you
00:05:11 back to feelings of Joy if you don't want it the scientists say endorphins are the neurotransmitters of Joy so you go Marathon that's why a lot of you some of you go Marathon 100 kilometer 50 kilm uh and other neurotransmitters like oxytocin The Joy cuddling a baby doesn't matter whose baby just grab it and cuddle right you get oxytocin you know that brings Joy or does it uh scientists have looked at what determines happiness or joy and you can find intentional activities like hugging the baby 40%
00:05:50 circumstances you've got lottery win today 10% but the important point is that there's a set point of 50% in 50% of your joy does not depend on whether you hugged the baby or you got the Toyota car or you got a raise tomorrow it is set by your genetics you're either programmed as a fairly happy person or fairly sad person if you're a sad person whatever happens to you win a lottery tomorrow and you still be sad the next day so it goes up and down around a genetic set point all right and and it's getting Joy is C
00:06:30 inuitive there's a study done uh in the published in the social psychological and personality science uh journal in 2014 that basically they had two groups of people one group of people they told you go and buy coffee from the Barista in the shop then you take buy coffee you come out then you drink another group go and buy coffee and start up a conversation with the Barista and then you leave the shop and they found the people who actually had the conversation were 17% happier you know just same
00:07:05 coffee but just because they started up a social connection Elizabeth dun from the from Canada who's done a lot of studies on happiness showed has a survey of 200,000 people all over the world one-third of them who were surveyed gave money away in the last month and in every single region showed people who gave to charity were happier than those who did not even controlling for their financial situation which means you could be rich poor or middle class those who gave were very much happier which
00:07:36 actually goes against what Miriam Webster says joy is what you want to possess here are people giving it away and the important thing what the angel is saying to these ordinary folk is he offering you great joy the word in Greek is Mega it's a different kind of Joy it's a joy that is so overwhelming in fact Peter describes it even though you do not now see him you believe in him Rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with Glory that the joy that the Lord Jesus Christ is so inexpressible that we need 30 people in
00:08:18 the choir to sing to you so that you could feel some emotion evoked it's a fact because it's I mean it's like going to a blind man there was a interview of a young lady and she went for the interview for this highflying consulting job and the interviewer always ask you clever questions only MBA people can answer how do you describe the color of gold to a blind man anybody want to try how do you describe the color of gold to a blind man and I was scratching my head because a blind man has never seen the light never how do you describe
00:08:54 to him the color of gold and the answer is you tell him to to think back about the time he tasted honey and honey is the color of gold why because he's got one sense which is missing so therefore you go back to the default four senses and use that to approximate what the color of gold is and that's what inexpressible Joy is because we can't express that Joy but we can look for various ways look Isaiah says for you shall go out in joy and be led forth in peace the mountain Mountains and the hills before you shall
00:09:31 Break Forth into singing and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands this is the last time you saw a tree clap their hands or Mountain jump for joy well that's figurative language because it's using English language Greek language so that you can have some idea what it's like because you haven't really seen God's joy in his entirety you could approximate it just like the taste of honey for the color of gold um if you read on you shall go forth en jooy instead of the Thorns shall come Cyprus the Thorns is Thorn Cypress is on
00:10:04 the left hand side instead of Brier shall come Myrtle so therefore these are pictures which God puts into our our brains and it shall make a name for the Lord and an everlasting sign that shall not be cut of what is this it the it is our joy in the Lord do you know that our Joy Christian joy in the Lord will make a name for the Lord you know I mean mean it's like us all of us jumping up and instead of jumping up and say Oh What a Feeling because we're selling Toyota cars our jumping up is because of Jesus
00:10:39 Christ and that is our signature to the world Joy lies in God delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart you shall make known to me the path of your life of life in your presence there's fullness of joy in your right hands are Pleasures for ever more we seek for Joy what about sex study was done for couples when you instructed them to have more sex do you know more sex is more unhappiness it wasn't more happiness it was the opposite effect in fact uh if you look at people this is Naomi
00:11:18 Osaka uh she was a famous tennis player right on top great joy winning tennis tournaments and what happens she went into depression because to maintain that joy to maintain her ranking she had so much pressure in the end says it's okay not to be okay because she's not okay she's given up pursuing that Joy now the problem with the world is that the joy of the world is like a broken system Jeremiah 2 be appalled Oh Heaven at this be shocked be utterly desolate declares the Lord for my people have committed two evils they
00:11:58 have forsaken me the Fountain of Living Waters and healed up systems for himself broken systems that can hold no water the problem is the joy of the world is like a broken glass every time you pour water in it leaks out you go to the glass with great anticipation like old mother habbard goes to the cupboard the cupbo is bare you expect something but it doesn't quite live up to its name Samaritan woman at the well knew this and that's why Jesus said to you come to me and I will give you living water the
00:12:34 thing that does not exhaust see true Joy can only come from God the fruit of the spirit is love joy peace patience and the like but joy is an integral part of the gift of the Holy Spirit if you're looking for Joy the only place you're going to find it the only person going to give it to you is God for unto you is born in this day city of David a savior who is Christ the Lord this is very important what is joy joy is savior the Lord Jesus Christ now a lot of people get this wrong the story told of a young boy who at least he was
00:13:20 biblically correct instead of writing a letter to Santa he writes a letter to Jesus he writes a letter to Jesus and says Jesus you know I've been good the whole whole year so therefore you know I think I deserve good Christmas present this year hopefully you will inspire mom and dad to give me something as he was writing this he realized that I've been good the whole year sounds a bit over the top you know you can't cheat God right so he scratches off the whole year put down six months then he went back again he
00:13:55 thought a bit more all right and then he scratches the six months and put down there one month and now at the end of it he was looking oh my goodness this is not going to work out very well then he saw the nativity scene where we had the two angels Mary Joseph and Jesus that was a little you know play kind of uh figurines there then he grabbed Mary you know then he WR wrote in the letter if you don't give me the present you won't get your mother back it might sound childish but sometimes we approach God that way isn't it we got
00:14:36 something he wants you know and he got something I want and so therefore I need to gain leverage it's either our moral Behavior as leverage or you grab something else that God wants and use that as leverage but that's not what it is Joy comes in a person and this is one of the few sentences in the entire Bible where Jesus Christ three titles are given and it's totally encapsulated the first thing is that Joy comes in a savior now in Mark chapter 2 there was a man who was a paralytic his friends were
00:15:16 so good that they cut a hole in the roof and they lowered him down so that Jesus will be able to healed him because everyone has heard about Jesus when Jesus went down and looked at him it's obvious this guy is paralyzed from the neck down or the waist down that is the obvious problem and if you ask the the man who is lying down you ask any paralytic what is the greatest joy for you the walk to if only I could walk life will be good and in the sense that is emblematic of many of us if only I had this job if only I hadn't done that
00:15:59 we always have something if only because that is the only thing in our immediate Horizon but Jesus actually looked deeper than that and you know what Jesus said Jesus said your sins are forgiven and the guy looked around and say hey what what sin you see he actually meets your deepest need which you cannot see you cannot feel you cannot not anticipate he went in thinking I need to be healed but God reaches in and re and and and and basically reaches a deeper need the deeper need is to have his sins
00:16:43 forgiven that's why Bary was told she will bear a son you will call his name Jesus he will save his people from their sin it's a realization of sin that comes Mega Joy all right this is a this was a old box cart delivered to New York City some years ago and and this is a famous box cart because in this cart 70 years ago they packed in Jews and they were shipped to a place called out switch of which they were then exterminated and they were having a discussion with two ladies one of the ladies uh there who was a Jew at that
00:17:26 time was packed into this box car and when it was packed into this box car they told the the the sisters there it's okay we cram you all in it was so crowded 60 people in one box car you cannot lie down you can only sit and one pale for you to poo poo there it was a terrible thing but they said we you're going for a better life you going into a new camp the camp is called out switch and they believe actually felt not bad you know we're going to a new camp starting a new life they didn't realize
00:17:56 that end out switch would be a name for death and that's our deepest deep which we don't understand you see Mega Joy is paradoxical and The Ransom of the Lord shall return and come to Zion with singing Everlasting Joy shall be on their heads they shall obtain gladness and joy and sorrow and sighing shall flee away you see Mega Joy is paradoxical in the sense that unless you feel the pain and experience the suffering you won't see the joy unless you feel the pain and understand the gravity of your sin you cannot see
00:18:33 salvation I know there are some people in this church who lamented the fact that some of us preach and we try to convict you of the gravity of your sin and that we need to mourn our sin and you get very upset because this church isn't very uplifting every time T you for your sin but unless you feel the depths of your sin you will not feel Mega Joy look at these pictures these pictures are there because they were kept in captivity by Hamas for 49 days in a literal hell and then they were Ransom when you Ransom can you see their
00:19:12 face it is pure joy you can't feel pure joy until you actually realize the depth of your sin and situation and the one on the left is actually a Palestinian girl who had been released from an Israeli prison ransomed as well this is a gentleman Malaysia who can you see the joy he was impr prisoned for 40 years and suddenly the king pardon him in fact the joy is so great that there was a gentleman in Iran on death row pardoned by the victim's family he is so happy he died of a heart attack sometimes too much joy causes
00:19:53 pain so unless we feel the gate guilt is answered by grace Grace the response to Grace is gratitude and when you've got gratitude you have joy see Joy isn't some injection I put into you and then suddenly you got the joy it comes from understanding your guilt right realizing Grace has come to your life which you didn't deserve and your response is gratitude and that translates to Joy so when the disciples came back casting out demons performing Miracles getting so excited Jesus told them nevertheless do not rejoice in this
00:20:31 that the spirits are subject to you but Rejoice that your names are written in heaven Mega Joy transcends circumstances James says count it all joy my brothers when you meet Trials of various kinds when you know that the testing of Faith produces steadfastness and the steadfastness has a full effect that you may be perfect and complete lacking in nothing so Mega Joy is something that a bad circumstance a loss of a job or even an illness cannot take away if you have the real joy joy is also aspirational in the
00:21:08 parable the talents which Jesus told he said to the servant well done good and faithful servant you have been Faithful over little I will set you over much enter into the joy of your master you know the reward for that servant who actually worked hard and was responsible the talent he was given was to enter into the joy of his master that means with the master they will celebrate together and if you look at Jesus himself looking to Jesus the founder and in Hebrews a perfector of our faith who for the joy that was set before him
00:21:47 endured the cross despising the shame seated at the right hand of the Throne of God how did Jesus tahan the cross because he said eyes to the joy that he will be un united with his father glory and he will be United with us you say Amen there's a joy where we are reunited with God there's a description of Creation in Proverbs 8 when he assigned to the Sea its limits so that the waters might not transgress his commands when he marked out the foundations of the earth I was beside him like a master Workman this I
00:22:28 is wisd wisdom personified and if you look here and I was daily his Delight rejoicing before him always rejoicing in his inhabited world delighting in the children of man which means God when he created the world and created the universe and created you and me there was a specific purpose and that purpose is to have joy with you to have fun to laugh to jump Oh What a Feeling right from the beginning and then sin entered the world God's joy is to see you United with him so it gives you various pictures Revelation 19 a
00:23:13 picture of heaven what's the picture of Heaven yam Singh yeah why is the picture of yam Singh because it's a marital brist and everybody is joined and the Church of God which is like the bride is then United with his true love which are Lord Jesus Christ and we yaming to it Joy comes in a person of Christ what the word Christ means Messiah why is not only he's a savior he's also the Christ because Christ brings back to you the entire history of the nation of Israel all right the Covenant abrahamic Mosaic
00:23:51 every single one of them is based on a promise that God will save his people and the last person in that chain is actually Jesus Christ who is Promised salvation is not not of day God feels good and then suddenly give you salvation it's been planned all the way from the beginning of time and even though Israel rebelled God forgave them brought them back rebelled the whole cycle of evil is the exact pattern of what evil Israel has done God has always been faithful so when he says savior Messiah you know
00:24:31 that God keeps his promises and finally Lord word Yahweh which means this is God in the person of his son second person of the godhead but he is God he is a lord now you can't ask God to give you Mega Joy when you want to take controls of your own life you can't have a savior in your life if you want to be Lord of your own life life so when Jesus comes into your life to bring this Mega joy into your experience you have to let go your controls and let the Lord take over you know imagine you're in a
00:25:16 train and you're going through the countryside and if you look in the train you can look out a window on the right and the window on the left and you look look out in the window on your right you will see beautiful trees the snow the mountains and you will see your destination and as you're sitting in this train you have a feeling of anticipation anticipation because you want to get there and every time you look at it you feel happy it brings you Joy and now the other side you look at the other side of the
00:26:02 mountain you see a huge Gorge you see danger you see desolation you know for many of us Christians today we're on this train if you have accepted Jesus Christ as your lord and savior but you know what you spend all your time looking out the other window looking back and not looking towards the mega Joy which God has intended for you this morning you look back you know different than Lot's wife remember Lot's wife they were leted out safe from Sodom and the fire started and she's looking back uniglow
00:26:46 gone Sunway Pyramid gone where am I going to do my shopping and God left her where she stayed in Sodom as Christians we have a source of Joy which you can focus on this day which is why we we celebrate we celebrate because we're looking out that part of the window and looking at what is before us this is a picture of the boy who was a hostage who was saved Ohad Munda five minutes after he had the joy you know what he's doing playing with his toys that's a picture of many of us you know you saved by Jesus Christ and the
00:27:30 rest of the time you we do our own thing and you're wondering why no Joy Christian Joy John Piper says is a good feeling in the soul produced by the Holy Spirit only Holy Spirit can do that as he causes us to see the beauty of Christ in the word and in the world brothers and sisters if you really want the joy of Jesus Christ you need to look out the correct window if you're looking out the other window it's no wonder you feel sad it's no wonder you feel defeated because there's a window that you need to see
00:28:09 you need to see Jesus you need to see his Beauty you need to see his word you need to see his people you need to hear the voice of the choir and the people will sing together because this evokes to you the joy that is inexpressible that we can get some measure off in this world Mega Joy is also transformational when uh Nehemiah talked to the people of Israel who repented he says go your way eat the fat drink sweet wine send portions to anyone there's nothing ready for this day is Holy to the Lord do not be grieved after The
00:28:49 Grieving for their sin the joy of the Lord is your strength which is why if you are invited to a Christmas party tonight night with us we have grieve over our sin but in Christmas we celebrate why because the joy of the Lord is your strength and we can look on that side of the train and that gives us that see the joy is the only thing that will make us sustain our journey to the end if you don't have that Joy you just have that like that child that says you know oh I've been well for one year I've
00:29:25 been good for 6 months whatever you will surely fail you know you to be really honest you can't make it only if you come to Jesus and you have his Joy can that be transformational in fact the the Corinthian Church they were having lawsuit to one another and and Paul was chastising them and you know how he chastised them he said that as such were some of you but you were washed you were Sanctified you were justified in the name of Lord Jesus Christ by the spirit of our God he's telling them what their Joy is they were like
00:30:03 that and now by the gospel they have this great salvation it is on that that their behavior is changed the kingdom of God is like treasure hidden in a field where a man found and covered up and in his Joy he goes and sells all he has and buys that field can you imagine I'm going to ask you to go to your CB Bank account and ask you to take all the money out and give it away and you do it with joy it's an illustration I'm not asking you to do that now but I'm just saying that it can so transform you that you
00:30:48 could see things which other people cannot see and they can transform the way you feel so Joy is the thing that propels you in your Christian faith is absolutely transformational so this Christmas all of you if you do not know Jesus as your lord and savior I'm going to invite you to consider him we have a great program in this church who been running for years program's name is Alpha we're not going to push you and ask you to put your hands up now to accept Jesus as Lord and Savior I'm going to ask you to come January 4th is
00:31:30 the day that we actually will come together on Thursday in the globe Cafe over there and we're going to consider Jesus in a series of discussions with people who are also not Christian and who will walk with you for the next 13 weeks for you to discover is this Joy real is this tugging in my heart which God is doing through the holy spirit is this real you know when I when I was 17 years of age I joined uh the the Christian Fellowship in my school and I you know the thing that really really impressed me you see I've been a
00:32:10 Catholic since I was born and catholism I had a whole bunch of things I had to do go to church on Sunday do my prayers confession confession I only give up top five sins at R I never tell I want to look good right so the priest will not not look down on me you try as hard as you can because you think you want to have some leverage on God but I has no joy you know if God died yesterday I said I also won know because there was no joy and my friends in my school at time Bim bang boy school I saw them and there something different
00:32:49 about them they had Joy you know and I wanted that but I was too too proud to put my hand up and I walk up the aisle and you know so I just went back in my quietness of my room and I prayed God if you're real I don't really know you please come into my life show me your real I tell you within three months the Holy Spirit moved me I joined a Bible study for a year not 13 weeks h a year at Gospel Hall gassing and it changed my life I'm here now 40 years later on I don't regret a single day growing older got
00:33:34 more Mega Joy because one day I will be United with him you see I'm going to challenge you guys those of you who don't know God or those of you who are looking out the other side of the window and all you see in life is the deep gorge the barren desert and if you're focus on that then there's something that you need to learn to look back on the other side of the window Alpha will do that for you so just consider that so now we're going to come to a time of the Lord's supper and the Lord's Supper is
00:34:12 beautiful because it's the culmination of this sermon if you want joy if you want joy it is in what the Lord's Supper promises you all all the promises of God come in this ceremony where we say to God that we want you to be our savior we want you to be our Messiah we want you to be our Lord so what we're going to do is we're going to meditate on those words then we're going to take that later on so let's contemp plate Mega Joy remember those walls of we go sin and shame devil like Prest that we couldn't
00:35:26 escape but he came and he died and he rose those walls are Rubble now remember those giants we cold dead and gray they were like mountains that stood in our away but he came and he died and he rose those Giants are that [Music] now this is our God this is who he is he loves us this is our God this is what he does he saves us he bore the cross be the grave let Heaven it the Proclaim This Is Our God King [Music] Jesus Remember that fear that took her bread away fi so weak that we could barely pray but he heard every word every wish
00:36:52 SP all and now those s in the Wilderness tell the story of his faithfulness never once did it fail and he never will oh this is our God this is who he is he loves us this is our God this is what he does he saves he bore the cross be the grave let heaven in the Proclaim This Is Our God King [Music] Jesus who pull me out of that thing he did he did who pay for all of us sins nobody but Jesus who P me out of that P he did he did who pay for all of our sins nobody but Jesus who rescu me from that grave
00:38:14 y yahe who gets the glory and praise nobody but Jesus who rescu me from that grave yahe yahe who gets the glory and praise nobody but him because he lives I can praise tomor because all here is God together because I know hold the F and life is worth the living because he Liv [Music] because he I can face tomorrow because he is all fear is because I know he hold the and life is one the L angers because he Liv because he I can face tomorrow because he Liv all fear is God because I know we hold the
00:41:05 fut and life is wor the Liv Angels [Music] because brothers and sisters this is the bread of life Jesus said don't work for the bread that you take today and it's gone tomorrow if you take this bread emblematic of his body you will live forever he said though you it will fill up your heart with joy because he has taken the sorrow let's take this together [Music] then there's the cup the cup represents New Horizons new promise that when you take this cup the Holy Spirit descends upon your life it shines forth with a joy that's
00:42:25 unspeakable that when your friends look at you and see you whether you work at play just like it happened to me 40 years ago when I looked at my friends in school they were different they had a joy and a presence and a peace that I couldn't understand and it's that which drew me to Jesus Christ you can have that too this is what it is the New Covenant in his blood let's take it together let's put up a big hand for Kimberly and the choir for leading us into this wonderful song uh please remain standing as we
00:43:15 come into the closing song [Music] [Music] Jo did [Music] the put your hands together now Joes come let us receive her King let every heart prepare him R and heaven and nature s and heaven and nature sing and Heaven and heaven and [Music] nature Joy to the World the saor r let all their SS and GL while F and FL Rock heels and we the sounding Joy the sounding joyee the sound Jo Jo Joy UNS speakable Joy and overflowing well no time can speak Jo rises in my soul let he rules the world with true and
00:45:58 Grace and Mak the nation the glories of his rightousness and wonders of his love and wonders of his love and wonderers wonderers all is Jo I speak the Jo overflowing no time I speak of rises in my soul Never Let Me [Music] Go merry Christmas everybody Merry Christmas come let's come to the Lord with a prayer father God we thank you Lord for such Joy the joy in our savior the joy in the world and thank you Lord for all that you've given us we pray all this in Jesus name amen and the service is over big CL for everybody Merry
00:47:38 Christmas [Applause] [Music] [Applause] to wish you Merry Christmas we want to wish you a merry Christmas we want to wish you a Merry Christmas from the bottom of our heart we want to wish you a merry Christmas we want to wish you a merry Christmas we want to wish you a Merry Christmas from the bottom of our one more [Applause] the the the we want to wish you a merry Christmas we want to wish you a Merry Christmas from the bottom of our heart we want to wish you a Merry Christmas to wish you a merry Christmas we want to
00:49:30 wish you a Merry Christmas from the bottom of our [Applause] heart police police we want to wish you a merry Christmas we want to wish you a merry Christmas we want to wish you a Merry Christmas from the bottom of our heart we want to wish you a merry Christmas we want to wish you a merry Christmas we want to wish you a Merry Christmas from the bottom of our heart [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] wish you a Merry Christmas wish you a merry Christmas we want to wish you a Merry Christmas from the of
00:51:03 our heart we want to wish you a merry Christmas we want to wish you a merry Christmas we want to wish you a Merry Christmas Merry Christmas Merry Christmas Happy New Year oh
