Joy to the World-The Wait is Over

Think about that. I heard it. Everybody saw it. Everybody experienced it. And thanks to the preservation of those pieces, we’ve been able to sort of lean into it a little bit and thought and now my few words.

How else, when I say it wouldn’t be forgotten, how else do we explain some of the things that unfolded? I mean, they were big things. How else do you explain angels suddenly praising on a quiet night now? But they exploded in song. And not just a few, but the sky was full of angels.

And they didn’t sing softly. They sang with a roar. That’s a big deal. What else could possibly account for the fact that shepherds abruptly went from, as we just heard read, terror. Remember there was sheep.

I doubt if they could even see into the distance it was dark to notice another shepherd with his sheep. It was just a lonely job and a lonely job. But, but in moment, it, it caused them to jump out of their skin is the best way I can picture it. Like, you know, the cartoon throwing, you know, your eyes jump out because something’s going down here and it’s like other than anything. I don’t have a column or category to put it into.

It’s something surreal. And my natural instinct in that moment is to fear, to shrink and to hide anywhere I can. Could. If it happened right now, I’d pick behind the tree maybe. It’s that moment where these shepherds went from terror we’re told in those words recorded terror at this sudden glory of God to praising God for what they saw and heard.

And this year, first time ever, I thought, what was the first things out of their mouths? What first words were recorded? Well, probably while, but it didn’t make the print. Right? It was simple words.

Let’s go. And tell everybody, we got to see it for ourselves. And there’s anthem. There’s exclamation in let’s go. These aren’t guys that go, hey, you know, I’m on shift right now, but when I’m done, I’ll know.

It was all on for them. Did you notice that everyone recorded in the birth announcement of the baby born in Bethlehem? Every single person there ended up filled with joy. It’s like it was something that descended on everyone. Do you know why?

A song we’re going to play, we’re going to sing to end our service in a few moments. Moments explains. The song is joy to the world. The question behind the song is why? The answer is in the next sentence of the song.

The Lord is come. Can you say that with me? I’m going to make sure you get the verb right. Ready? One, two, three.

The Lord. See, some of you went for word or it was or did or has. The Lord has come. In normal calendars, that would be true for us to say the Lord has come. But the songwriter got it right.

The eternal God, the same God yesterday, today and forever is in the eternal now. Okay. I don’t want to make your head hurt, but I spent a lot of time thinking about that. I immediately thought of two people. I thought of Moses way back in the Old Testament and remember Moses was told, go to Pharaoh, tell him this little prison camp is done.

My people are going to be released. And Moses is starting to shake in his boots involuntarily. He just can’t handle that news because he’s going to die trying that. He’s going to say, thanks to God. Like, wait a second.

Wait a second. I’m supposed, what am I supposed to say? Here’s what you’re supposed to say. And then, well, who, who should he’s going to ask? Who told you?

Who sent you? What do I say? And he says, tell him I am. He’s the one that sent me. I am his now.

Somebody said once, God is not the God of yesterday. He’s not the God of tomorrow. He’s the God of now. I am was a, was a favorite way for Jesus when he grew up and began to teach powerful things in John, chapter eight, not once or twice, but three times. He said, I am.

He, he did a miracle that people wait a sec. What’s the deal? How did that happen? And, and they’re questioning his identity and his answer not surprisingly was to say, I am. And they say, well, is that a big deal pastor?

Yeah, it is. Because the very next thing we’re told, they picked up rocks to stone him. Because what he said made himself out. He’s a grown man now to be God in flesh. How did that miracle happen in John 8?

Jesus. Who’s Jesus? God, Emmanuel among us. Powerful connections. Some of this is hitting you in your own world in your own way right now.

Jesus is that savior. There’s no getting around that. The infant boy predicted 740 years earlier by the prophet Isaiah. His words, are known by many most people this time of year. But they’re powerful words.

And he looked into the lens of the future. Isaiah did. And it turns out it was 740 years, seven and a half centuries later. And he says, a child will be born to you. And a son will be given to you.

That draws you closer and closer, doesn’t it? And the government, God’s government will rest on his shoulders and his name and listen to these names and answer the question yourself. Are those things important in my life right now tonight? His name be called Wonderful Counselor. How many are confused?

You don’t have to raise your hand about something going down in our world or in your part of our world, in your life. You’re scratching your head. You can’t make sense of it. Because his name he starts with will be Wonderful Counselor. You go to a good counselor and they tell you some things.

Maybe not what you want to hear all the time, but what you need to hear and it’s wise. You walk out of there and think, I just met with Solomon or somebody. Jesus. Wonderful counselor. Here’s the second set.

Mighty God. There’s a Hebrew word there. There’s a word there that’s fun to tell. It’s actually the word where we get our word. Some translations included.

Heroic God. Wonderful counselor. Heroic God. Do you need a miracle today? Do you know somebody in your life or in your path that needs God to be all that a hero is?

A heroic God. What do they do? Problem in a mess, right? That’s why they’re a hero. When you can’t fix what you’re in, they show up.

They don’t even have to roll up their sleeves. They just go, it’s fixed. I’m here. Mighty God. Here’s one more.

How many of us tell stories of being abandoned at some point? Where a friend’s no longer standing with you. No one to have your back. You’re ready for everlasting father. You need not a temporary dad.

You need a permanent dad who will occupy that place as father forever. And then it finishes, still quoting Isaiah nine verse six. And he says, he will also be, I suppose this attracts everybody that’s hearing these words. Prince of peace. There’s a reason I don’t watch too much news.

My peace goes out the window. And I want to give them a piece of my mind, actually. But anyway, it doesn’t work for me. It’s not terribly conducive to living a peace filled life by experiencing the fruit of the spirit. Love, joy, peace.

But he is the prince of peace. Peace. And then it goes on to say there will be no end to all of this. Jesus’ arrival came in a time that was dark. Isaiah made sure we understood what I just told you.

Child will be born, a son will be given, the government will be on his shoulder. Wonderful counselor, mighty God. All of that, all of that explodes. In our minds. When you know that Isaiah around that said, you know something?

The arrival of Jesus, that baby born in Bethlehem, would come at a dark time, at a distressing time, at a time of deep despair. You know what despair is? You’re throwing in, you’re tossing your keys and you’re done. In your situation. But the profit goes on to say, and I’m quoting, “That time of darkness and despair will not go on forever.”

How so? Quoting again, “The people who walk in darkness will see a great light for those living in the land of deep darkness, a light will shine.” Folks, that light arrived that night 2,000 years ago. And here’s where it comes to you and me. He continues to light people’s lives today.

Ever since he’s done that. It’s the obvious question. This light has his light shined on your darkness. Because darkness doesn’t last very long when light shows up. Remember the words of Silent Night?

His purpose in coming are contained in what he says, the songwriter. He let earth receive her King. Remember those words? It’ll all come together. Let earth receive her King.

The implications of him coming is for everyone. But how’s he gonna do that? He says next, one heart at a time. Let every heart, can you finish the sentence for memory? Prepare him room.

Make room for him. That’s something I can’t do for you. Can’t do it for anybody in my family. Anybody in this church, all these years, we’ve been here. No, it’s you.

You do it for you. Let every heart, that’s a message to me. Prepare him room. Some of us need to open our hearts. Door.

We need to open that door tonight for the first time. You’re here on Christmas Eve. Almost done. We’re gonna head home and eat. Wrap like crazy and stuff like that.

But you’re here. And if you’ve stopped scratching your head with why, maybe the answer is right in front of you. Jesus would say, I want I’m knocking on the door of your life. Your heart, I want it. And he’ll come into your life right now.

The Bible says it, you’ve heard it quoted everywhere. God loved the world so much that he sent his one and only son. And then here’s something that pulls you out of your chair. Put you right up here with me, a little closer but steps to Jesus on this display. That whoever believes in him, who he is, the Son of God.

Why he came to save people. Which people? Everybody that makes room for him opens the door. And they will be, they have their lives. It will be more than Christmas this year.

It’ll be an eternal reset. I want you to listen tonight. If you are, don’t leave here without saying Jesus, come into my heart. There’s room in my heart for thee. Something tonight need to reopen.

Or maybe open your heart wider. When you first heard about Jesus, you were all in. Send me Lord Jesus, use me. I don’t know why. It doesn’t matter why.

I don’t know. It’s like a return stop on it. And it starts to close a little by little. Maybe it’s time tonight to say, I’m going to open it wider. Perhaps your heart used to be, but isn’t anymore.

We’re going to sing in a moment a great song. Make room. And it’s a song to take action. That’s why we chose it. When we turn from our darkness to light, he will begin to rule in our lives.

He’ll begin to clean up the mess. Big or small. Known or unknown of your life, of my life. It’s the deal though, he will kick down the door. He won’t bully you into better behavior.

He doesn’t do it because it doesn’t work. You would resent him and it won’t last. I like that about Jesus, that he’s not a bully. He’s a baby. You say, well, Ashton, don’t go too far.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. But how did he come? And if you’re wondering a baby, have you got an answer? Why? Did he come that way?

Never been one before, never been one since. Is he trying to tell us something? He can’t, King Jesus, Lord at thy birth, came as a baby. Think about the charm of a baby and we’ll be done. Think about, how many of you have held a baby recently?

A few of you, lucky ones, right? No one that I know, if one of you had a baby here tonight, it’s doubtful that the room would clear out around you. That does happen on airplanes now that I think about it when they’re screaming babies. Think about a baby. Somebody’s holding a baby in their arms right now.

You know, it’s like Kryptonite, get away. No, no one does that at all. Just the opposite. We are drawn to infants, aren’t we? That’s what we want to do.

We see them, we want to touch them. We want to cradle them. You know, we want to be with them, don’t we? Isn’t that what you do with a baby? Frequently though, if you read your Bible, you won’t miss this.

Human encounters with God in the Bible were known to frequently evoke fear, which explains the shepherds. What? It’s kind of a human instinct, but Emmanuel, God with us, came as a baby. I had an encounter recently, two weeks ago, weeks three weeks ago with a baby, unexpected. I was in Tucson, Arizona.

I was at board meetings for a wonderful mission agency. And one of the senior leadership was with us. He’s the father of five. This was his fifth little teensy, waincy boy. And he was a real infant, serious, like recent arrival.

And the dad was presenting something to us and the little boy was, you know how parents now put a baby in a car seat and then bring them in and it’s easy and you set them on the piano here and you get the idea, right? So he had his little baby in this thing and the baby, I’m not sure why if it was wet or tired or hungry or whatever, but this little boy began to, I could see pools of water, tears filling up these little

sockets of the little baby and they’re getting fuller and fuller and he’s just got this, like he wants to sneeze, but it’s not a sneeze, it’s a, he’s just this face. And I thought, I’m the only guy near this one. I gotta do something, okay? And so the dad’s talking away right here and I just went down, I got down and I, and I’m whispering like that and I’m looking at him and the moment he caught my eyes, he kinda sees whatever you’re seeing right now

and he’s like, and he looks up, he looks up like he’s gonna jump out of this little teeny thing and he looks up at me and he begins to coo.

And we have this little coo on or coo out and it was so cool and it worked. And I was drawn to baby, which I think is intentional. He began cooing and I began beaming and I think that’s all part of it. Jesus came after centuries, we’ve asked you to think about of waiting. He came to be close to people who would receive him.

So close in fact, his preferred place to live is inside, to replace darkness with his light, to overcome darkness, bringing you joy and peace as he lives in you. Seems to me, it’s time for more than a few of us to make a little more room for Jesus to do whatever he wants to do in me and in you. I’d like you to bow your heads with me for a moment and

Transcript machine-generated from the sermon audio, so it may contain errors. 2,708 words.