Advent 2009
A Christmas Carol
Part 3: Christmas Present
Today we are going to light our third Advent candle.
We are going to examine joy.
We are going to discover that your attitude about Christmas will either
make joy accessible or inaccessible to you.
We will join Ebenezer Scrooge and his encounter with The Spirit of
Christmas Present and learn that we need objective feed back to
enable us to walk the path of joy.
Finally I am going to ask you to check your priorities,
So that you can leave here today with lasting joy.
The third candle in our Advent wreath is The Candle of Joy
The light of this third candle calls us to contemplate that the only lasting Joy
to be found in life on earth is through Christ.
All other joy is fleeting and does not last.
Luke 1:26-33 (NIV)
In the sixth
month, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin
pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin's
name was Mary. The angel went to her and said, "Greetings, you who are highly
favored! The Lord is with you."
Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of
greeting this might be. But the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, you
have found favor with God. You will be with child and give birth to a son, and
you are to give him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son
of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and
he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end."
As we draw closer to Christmas we light this candle, with the hope that we will know the joy of Christmas, that a Savior is born, and share that joy with others.
The Candle of Joy,
Joy is not happiness and happiness is not joy.
A person can be joyful but not happy,
And a person can be happy but have no joy.
Joy is a perspective, a way one looks at life,
an attitude,
Joy is found in the knowledge that one’s future is secure,
that regardless of the challenges life may throw at you,
you will be victorious.
Because you abide in the Victorious one.
Joy as a mindset can't be taken away from you.
Joy is not tied to circumstances.
Joy fuels the fires that keep you going in the tough times,
and warms you when things are going well.
When you are convinced that “regardless and whatever,”
that you will not only survive but thrive because you live in a right
relationship with God,
you've got joy.
That joy is a source of strength that keeps you in times of trouble.
That joy is a source of happiness in the good times.
Why does joy seem so elusive?
Why is it that we can’t seem to hold on to joy,
that it slips through our fingers before we can get a full grip on it and
never let it go?
I think we miss out on joy because our priorities are wrong.
There is a very familiar Christmas story that helps us see the priority that
enables us to walk a path of joy,
and the priority that makes joy out of our reach.
Matthew 2:1-12 (MSG)
After Jesus
was born in Bethlehem village, Judah territory—this was during Herod's
kingship—a band of scholars arrived in Jerusalem from the East. They asked
around, "Where can we find and pay homage to the newborn King of the Jews? We
observed a star in the eastern sky that signaled his birth. We're on pilgrimage
to worship him." When word of their inquiry got to Herod, he was terrified—and
not Herod alone, but most of Jerusalem as well. Herod lost no time. He gathered
all the high priests and religion scholars in the city together and asked,
"Where is the Messiah supposed to be born?" They told him, "Bethlehem, Judah
territory. The prophet Micah wrote it plainly: It's you, Bethlehem, in Judah's
land, no longer bringing up the rear. From you will come the leader who will
shepherd-rule my people, my Israel."
Herod then arranged a secret meeting with the scholars from the East. Pretending to be as devout as they were, he got them to tell him exactly when the birth-announcement star appeared. Then he told them the prophecy about Bethlehem, and said, "Go find this child. Leave no stone unturned. As soon as you find him, send word and I'll join you at once in your worship."
Instructed by the king, they set off. Then the star appeared again, the same star they had seen in the eastern skies. It led them on until it hovered over the place of the child. They could hardly contain themselves: They were in the right place! They had arrived at the right time! They entered the house and saw the child in the arms of Mary, his mother. Overcome, they kneeled and worshiped him. Then they opened their luggage and presented gifts: gold, frankincense, myrrh. In a dream, they were warned not to report back to Herod. So they worked out another route, left the territory without being seen, and returned to their own country.
Joy, the real stuff, is totally dependent on what you do about Jesus.
Joy depends on your attitude towards Christmas.
The wise men, those Magi from the east,
Decided that they would go and worship the one they knew to be the King of
the Jews.
They recognized Jesus as God’s Messiah,
The one person chosen by God to reestablish the fortunes
of the Nation of Israel.
One worthy of their worship.
They sought the baby,
Found the baby, and kneeled.
Kneeling a sign of submission, not just to the babe,
But also to everything the Jesus represented.
They are swearing loyalty.
It’s like when you join the military,
There is a swearing in ceremony.
"I, do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God."
(http://usmilitary.about.com/od/joiningthemilitary/a/oathofenlist.htm)
When you make that oath you are no longer your own.
You placed aside your stuff for a higher calling,
to serve a greater good.
To kneel before Christ is essentially the same oath.
The wise man kneeled,
That involves acknowledgement.
Acknowledgement that the babe is God incarnate,
solicits obedience.
Obedience is giving God His due,
Giving God his due is worship
And worship is making God your number one priority.
When your actions of love speak for themselves you are kneeling to God.
Just a quick reminder:
Love for God is obedience to His commands.
Love for Others is seeking to meet their needs.
Love for Earth is being a wise steward of the material goods God has
blessed you with.
Love for self is becoming the person God created you to be by doing
the things God created you to do.
Connect kneeling with worship
worship with love and love with joy.
Kneeling to Jesus makes God you number one priority,
And that enables you to know joy.
Herod made himself his number one priority.
This is the path that takes real joy out of our reach.
When Herod hears the news that the Messiah is born he’s terrified,
He is terrified that his kingdom will be taken away from him.
That the dynasty that he has labored to build will come to an end.
His plans, his dreams, his aspirations, his agenda, will come to
naught.
The wise men come to kneel and worship and give gifts to the new born king.
Herod will send his soldiers to destroy a threat to his sovereignty.
The wise men will leave Bethlehem with joy.
Herod will leave with the blood of innocents on his hands and frustration.
When worshiping God is your number one priority,
You will have taken firm hold of joy.
When worshiping self is your number one priority,
Joy will be like the morning mist to you, something that is fleeting and
impossible to grab a hold of.
I think we miss out on joy because our priorities are wrong.
But how do we know our priorities are wrong?
Sometimes we need an objective observer.
Someone who can give us honest feed back.
Ebenezer Scrooge has spent most of his adult life worshipping self.
The Spirit of Christmas Present is going to be an objective
Observer.
The Spirit is going to confront Scrooge with reality.
Pay close attention to the feedback Scrooge gets on how he is living his life,
How others see him to be.
And the joy he is missing because he has turned his back on
Love.
A Christmas Carol (1999)
Christmas Present.
Did you notice that there was light and warmth and plenty when Christmas
Present showed up in Scrooge’s house?
Such a contrast to the dark, cold and meagerness of Scrooge’s house when
he is left to his own devices.
Scrooge is like Herod,
Determined to worship self, he has ignored any other concern around him.
Sounds a lot like egoism to me.
The subtle trap that tightens an unseen noose around your neck
and your world becomes smaller and smaller until it
consists of only one.
And then that life is choked out.
Christmas Present takes Scrooge on an eye opening trip
We get so attached to our notions of how things are.
You can say something so long and so often that you think its true.
Then you close your eyes and shut out anything that would
argue against your understanding.
You get comfortable in our familiar surroundings,
Your heart suffers from a hardening of the categories.
You lose empathy and become blind to the needs of others
around you.
If love for another is seeking to meet their needs at the cost of a personal
sacrifice, what must hate be?
Could it simply be turning our head and looking the other way
when there is a need?
We get wrapped up in our own agenda.
We try to preserve our Kingdom, perpetuate our agenda,
Protect our dynasty.
We worship self.
Me, myself and I are our number one priority.
We kneel at the wrong altar.
And joy remains elusive.
Christmas Present is objective reality
The Spirit uses Scrooges own words to show him his hard heartedness
He is judged by the very measure he uses.
Matthew 7:1-2 (NIV)
"Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.
How did Scrooge judge?
By closing his eyes to everything except what he cares about.
Christmas Present reveals to Scrooge what he is missing.
Regardless if one is poor or rich
if there is much or little,
or you are working or at leisure,
people are celebrating the birth of the Savior.
Christmas brings a promise,
A promise that God will set things right,
Belief in that promise brings hope.
Hope motivates us to actions to be part of God’s
Great plan to set things right.
Being convinced of that hope brings joy.
Finally Christmas Present shows Scrooge Ignorance and Want.
And I can’t help but think that these are really Scrooge’s Children.
Ones he has given birth to through years of worshipping self.
He has spawned what is inside of him,
Ignorance and Want.
When we kneel to no one but our selves,
ignorance and want abound and there is no joy.
Scrooge’s response to objective reality is to run from it.
He doesn’t want to see what he has done, what he has missed,
How he has played the fool.
Now I doubt seriously if you will be blessed by a visitation of the Ghost of
Christmas Present.
But God can and does send each of us objective reality to help us see
how we are really doing in this life.
God has provided you His Word,
The Bible is a revelation of reality.
This is how things should be, align yourself with its message,
Conduct your life by the principles of its morality.
The Holy Spirit can use the Bible to show you what’s missing in your life.
What you are missing out on.
I think I can take all 66 books of the Bible and tell you that the message
proclaimed is Love.
It is God’s love for us,
That enables our love for Him,
For others, for the earth, and for ourselves.
To kneel is to pledge loyalty.
To kneel is to worship
To worship is to love.
What we love becomes our number one priority.
And our number one priority makes joy accessible or
inaccessible.
Who are you kneeling to?
Did you notice the Spirit of Christmas Present aging,
That represents the fleeting time you have to make your decision.
Whose example will you follow,
The Wise Men from the East or Herod?
Joy is a perspective, a way one looks at life, an attitude,
Joy is found in the knowledge that one’s future is secure,
that regardless of the challenges life may throw at you,
you will be victorious.
Because you abide in the Victorious one.
When you are convinced that “regardless and whatever,”
that you will not only survive but thrive because you live in a right
relationship with God, you've got joy.
Why does go joy seem so elusive?
Joy is elusive when you are kneeling to self,
When you are your number one priority.
If joy is missing from your life,
Isn’t it time you kneeled to Jesus?