Buckingham Palace has this unique practice that every time the king is present in his residence, there is a special flag that is flown called the royal standard. And so when the king is present, the royal standard flies. Now, when the king leaves the residence, that flag is lowered and replaced with another flag. And when the king goes to parliament and other places that royal standard stays with the king. And so the royal standard, the banner of the flag is flown when the sovereign or the king is present. And Robert Rainey has this interesting quote in which he says, joy is the flag which is flown from the castle of the heart when the king is in residence there. So just as that banner flies, when the king of England is present as Christians, the banner that we can fly and raise this Christmas season is joy. Now, what I love about this picture is that the banner is not based on the circumstances outside of the castle, but who's in residence inside the castle. And so as believers as Christians, this Christmas season, we're going to talk about the importance of joy. But really, we're gonna try to understand what true joy really looks like. And so whatever you're walking through this holiday season, I want you to know that joy is possible for you. We are in the second week of advent and advent literally means arrival. And so if you're taking notes, you can write this truth down that the arrival of Jesus is the arrival of joy. The arrival of Jesus is the arrival of joy. Last week, we took a look at the theme of hope and we defined hope as the confident expectation that God has the power to do what he promised and how our expectations influence our experience. And that if you place your hope and your expectation in anything other than Jesus, this Christmas season, you might be left wanting more. And so we're gonna jump back into this Christmas story found in Luke chapter two last week. As we talked about hope, we talked about the shepherds and how the fact that the shepherds were the first one to receive this message of hope offers hope to all of us that if if God offers hope to the shepherds in the middle of the night, in the middle of nowhere, to seemingly middle of no one that was known in that society, then we know that that hope can reach any person, any place at any time. So today, as we talk about joy, we're gonna focus on the message itself, given and declared and proclaimed by the angels to the shepherds. So, Luke chapter two is picking it up in verse nine says, then the angel of the Lord appeared to them and the glory of the Lord shown around them and they were filled with great fear and the angel said to them fear not for behold. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people for unto you is born this day in the city of David, a savior who is the Christ. And this will be a sign for you that you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloth, lying in a manger. And suddenly there was an angel uh uh with the angel was a multitude of heavenly host, praising God and saying glory to God in the highest and on earth, peace among those with whom he is pleased. Now, next week, we're gonna focus in on that piece that was delivered. But today, I want you to consider a few things when it comes to understanding joy that comes at Christmas first. I want you to notice that joy overcomes fear, joy, overcomes fear. The angels came upon the shepherds and they were terrified. And while they could have used their power, their Dominion their place in God's kingdom to lord it over them. Their first words were actually the most commonly repeated command in scripture which is fear, not. There are people this Christmas who are struggling with fear, fear that they are enough fear that they will have enough fear of what the next year holds. But whatever you might be afraid of, you can understand that joy overcomes fear. It doesn't simply eliminate fear, but it replaces it, it overcomes it. And so if you are feeling afraid, if you are feeling scared, if you are feeling overwhelmed, understand that God's joy goes further. Second thing we see is that joy overcomes any situation Just as we share that joy is the banner that is raised in the castle of our hearts because the king is present, the same thing is true, that joy is not based on our situation or or on our circumstances. And so we can see that it is deeper. Third, I want you to notice that phrase, Lord. In that Christmas story, there is the angel of the Lord shining with the glory of the Lord declaring that Jesus, the Savior, who is the Lord has come. You see that phrase? That same phrase is right in a row, actually equates Jesus as God right from the beginning. And we see this power that comes and what makes up this good news of great joy. The joy comes in the fact that Jesus is here. That the same phrase of the Lord describing the angels describing the glory also describes Jesus that Jesus in the Christmas story from the beginning is both Lord and Savior. This is why we have joy. Now many of you know that I am a basketball junkie. I love all things, sports, especially basketball. Well, last night there was a game and a player had a great game, had 40 points, 20 rebounds and as he was walking off the court, he goes, I'm him. And that's a common phrase in sports these days in which someone makes a claim. I'm him and, and really claiming that I'm the man, I'm the person you thought I was, I'm the one who stepped up to the plate, who did everything that needed to, who scored the buckets, who got the points, who got the rebound? I'm him. I'm the man. OK. Here's the reality. Well, I I'm all for a little level of confidence in sports, but Jesus actually was him. Jesus is him. That's what the angels are saying. That's where our joy comes in and he came in humility and he came in meekness. But as a baby, if he, his first words might have been, I'm him. I this is why we have joy because Jesus was everything that Israel hoped for. Everything that the prophet Isaiah prophesized about 700 years before his coming, that the people of God through oppression, through persecution, through battles and struggles, keeping and then rebelling against the mosaic law. Everybody from back all the way to Adam was this longing for, hoping for searching for comes to fruition because the arrival of Jesus is the arrival of joy, amen. And So I want you to notice something else about this joy. I want you to notice the height, the length in the depth to which God has gone so that we could have joy. This Christmas first thing, the height of joy, you know, in sports they talk about and, and I guess in, in really all positions, right, in any type of business position, you hire someone and you think someone has a floor like their lowest point and then they have a ceiling like what's the highest they can reach? Well in baseball, someone just signed for $700 million that's a lot of money and making a second guess what profession we chose. But the reason this gentleman was paid $700 million was not simply his floor. Cause at the floor at worst, he's an all time great hitter and at best he could be the greatest baseball player of all time. He is pitching and hitting at a rate. No one has seen before since the likes of Babe Ruth. And so the fact that he's got this crazy high ceiling and marketability and the ability to win both pitching and hitting the Dodgers thought it was worth paying this gentleman $700 million because of how high he could go. Now, what is the height of the joy we can experience as Christians? That last phrase there in Luke chapter two verse 14, is that glory to the God in the highest meaning that our joy goes all the way to the top, all the way to eternity, to the God who made you, that our joy goes higher than anything this world has to offer. But secondly, we see that joy goes further than anyone could ever ask, think or imagine because that verse says in there that I bring you good news of great joy. That will be for all the people. That means that you and I are actually in the Christmas story. We are all the people. Have you ever done this thing with your hands? Like the doors and here's the steep, open them up and you see all the people and I'm glad that we don't do that anymore. By the way, we got technology now. So you, you don't see a kid doing this anymore. This is we didn't have phones. So this is what we did consider yourselves lucky Children. This is what are you doing today? This we are all the people we are in the Christmas story. You know, at the end of movies when they scroll through the credits, right? Like if you ever got to be a small part in a play or an extra in a movie, you're staying to the end of that movie. So as the credits go by like, well, that's me. We're in the story, we're in the credits, we're all the people. How far does the joy of the Lord go? It goes towards to all people. But the last thing about joy that I want you to think about is how deep joy goes because with that is how much did it cost God? Because in order for those titles to be true, he was always Lord, that title of Savior came when he died on the cross. So it's crazy to think about is that when the angels proclaimed the good news of great joy in a sense, they were condemning Jesus to the cross. How much did Jesus give so that you and I could have joy, everything, everything and the reason it is good news of great joy is the height and the length and the depth to which God would go to bring us this joy. Because Jesus is Savior and his Lord. It's not just in the Christmas story. We see this throughout Luke 1910. For the son of man came to seek and to save the loss. Our joy is found in the salvation of Jesus. We often quote John 316. But the very next verse John 317 says, for God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world. But in order that the world might be saved through Him, he came for our joy. He came for our salvation. Colossians, one verse 13 and 14 says that he has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved son in whom we have redemption and the forgiveness of sins. Some might remember a few years ago when there was those miners in Chile that were trapped in the mine. Right? And somehow they survived, they figured out a rescue plan and finally came and was able to pull these people out of the mines and you know what they did when they came out of the mines, I'll tell you what they didn't do. They didn't come out of the mines going, I'm him. No, they kissed the ground. They took a deep breath, breathing fresh air. They felt the warmth of the sun, they hugged their friends and family. Why? Because they were saved, they were rescued. And this is the picture of us as Christians. We don't celebrate because we're the man we because he is and that we are saved and that our joy is tied to the salvation of our souls. John 15. Jesus is teaching on how he is divine and how we are to be connected to him. And he says this in verse 11, he says these things I have spoken to you that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be full. I didn't even say this first service. But think about when you fill up your gas tank, ok, especially in the last couple of years, right? It's painful a little bit, right? You fill up the gas tank like uh now what happens though? Is that like if you, if you don't want to fill up the gas tank, I used to do this when I was in college and I had no money. I would just fill up, like, 5, 10 bucks at a time. Now. That's like half a gallon. But, right. And, and I was like, oh, I'm saving money. I'm only putting in, like, 10 bucks. That's not bad, you know. But what do I have to keep on doing? How do you keep going back? Right. Some of you spiritually and mentally are wondering why you keep running spiritually out of gas when you're only filling your mind with $5 of God's word. Oh, but that verse 1511 says my joy may be in you. The supply that God gives the supply of joy that is available to you is not only available enough to fill your tank, but to fill your tank and everyone else's tank for all of time. And it is available to you if we have access to it and we tap into that and we lean into the joy that only comes from him, that salvation is there and is available through Jesus. Now, I want to pause because I understand the natural pushback to joy. I do because there are many probably in this room or watch it online who are saying, OK, John, I get joy of the Lord but I don't feel it. I don't feel joyful. I don't feel happy like if anything, I feel more stressed than ever. For some of us, the holidays bring happy times, but for others, the holidays really bring with it grief and stress. And if you're hurting in the holidays, it almost seems magnified because then you find yourself just feeling like, man, uh like I turn, I turn on the radio or I scroll through social media or I walk into a store and it was like Christmas and I just want to take the garland and like slap someone with it. You know, don't do that. That's not very Christmassy but and like I don't feel it. John, I don't, I don't feel it. I want, you know that's OK because you see happiness is a feeling. Joy is a focus. Two things can simultaneously be true. You can be hurting and hang on to hope. You can be sad and hang on to joy. You can be in sorrow and in suffering and in loss and still raise that banner of joy high because it is so much deeper than a feeling. Our culture tries to sell a feeling. You know what I find interesting is that we live in a culture that is afraid to celebrate Christmas. But at the same time, they have no problem making a profit off of it. We're afraid to say Merry Christmas cause we don't wanna offend somebody but give us your money because you need this to get that feeling. You're looking for if you're hurting this Christmas, if you're struggling, when no one's around, if you got tears coming down, I want you to know that it's ok that your feelings are very real. Your situation is very real, but that joy is still possible because joy is not a feeling. It's a focus. Let me tell you two things here that are gonna try to rob you of joy. OK? First one, you have to stop looking around, you have to stop looking around. Comparison will kill your joy. Comparison will kill your joy. Everyone else thought they were having a good day until they saw somebody else having a better day. You know what I'm talking about? Like I'm feeling pretty good. They went where they got what? Right? They love to post that cozy Christmas tree on the gram, but you don't see the pile of laundry next to it. You know what I'm saying? You realize you have a device of unhappiness in your pocket at all times. Like don't get me wrong. I don't want to go backwards. Like don't take away my Amazon prime and like my access to instant sports stats like I'm with you. But have you ever gone on and searched in the news, whatever social media platform that you're on and at the end of like, you know what I feel better? You don't, why? Because we live in a constant state of comparison. And what happens is that we look like my golden retriever does at the park, right? Oh dog, other dog people ball tree who who? Right. Some of you got some spiritual whiplash going on because you're walking through life going. I'm gonna have a great Christmas. It's awesome. Right? So happy for you. Stop looking around. Second one is more challenging. Stop looking inside. Most cultural movies and stories have some type of plot where there is a loss of identity and says, just look inside yourself. What is your desire and then believe, but we're messed up. The Bible actually says the heart of man is wicked. And when you look inside of, of yourself, what times what, what you feel at times is either pride on your best day. And I'm so good. Like at any take any time, take humility, man. I'm so humble right now. These people are super prideful. I'm I'm probably the most humble person at the workplace or make a t-shirt most humble. Hey, but you know what also is pride is pity. What was me? Well, of course, you can celebrate. You don't know what's happened and you're right. I don't know what's happened and that's very real. And so I don't wanna make light of that, but I want you to know that you are not defined by your worst moment. You are not defined by your shame, by your guilt, by this feeling that you are not enough. If you look inside of yourself and just try to meet whatever desire comes your way. What happens is that we live in a culture that has turned narcissism into Narnia like you wanna be happy, do whatever you want as much as you want. No, because you can't save you. If a baby is crying and needs changing or needs food, you can't look at the baby and go oh, just believe, ok, you have a need for your soul that can only be met by Jesus and our joy. As Christians, the banner that we raise in the castle of our hearts is not based on us and I am so glad. So I walk out of the house this morning, not confident that I buttoned everything correctly and actually making me doubt right now. I I've gone through a whole day, six meetings in a day. Last one, grab coffee with my buddy Corey, get to the end of the coffee. He goes, hey, is your shirt inside out? It's like, yes, yes, it is. My shirt was inside out. I went through the whole day. Appreciate Corey said something to me. Let me know you think my salvation needs to be based on me. I hope not stop looking around, stop looking inside because true joy is found in Jesus, not ourselves and not our situation. Because when we do that, here's what happens. You can find joy even amid sorrow and suffering that if you are experiencing suffering or sorrow or hardship or difficulty or stress or overwhelm or loneliness. This Christmas I want you to know that joy is still possible. Don't take my word for it. Let's look through scripture, John 1622. So also you have sorrow now, but I will see you again and your hearts will rejoice and no one will take your joy from you. It's a joy that this world cannot take from you. You didn't get it from the world and so the world can't take it from you. We see this throughout scripture in different examples. Let's start with Jesus. Jesus himself, Hebrews 12 2. Looking to Jesus, notice the focus, not a feeling. Looking to Jesus, you can see the founder and perfecter of our faith. Who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, the most gruesome thing in the history of the world and right next to it is joy. Jesus literally went to hell and back for you. Encountered it joy. He didn't say that it was joyful. It says for the joy set before Him, what is the joy you and me and the glory of the father and the plan. And this idea that through it would produce salvation and redemption says, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, despising shame through the cross. He put shame to shame. He put doubt to doubt. He defeated death itself. And now he's seated at the right hand of the throne of God, another example here the disciples acts chapter five says, and when they had called in to the apostles, they beat them and charged them not to speak in the name of Jesus and then let them go. So then they left the presence of the council rejoicing how that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name. They didn't focus on the beating, they focused on the blessing. Two things can be true. At the same time, you can be broken and blessed, you can be hurt and hopeful. You can be struggling and secure in your salvation. Another example, Paul is in prison. Philippians chapter four verse four. He says, rejoice in the Lord. Always again. I say rejoice. He's writing from prison to the church in Philippi. And the message he shares is have joy. Choose joy. James, the half brother of Jesus James chapter one verse two. Count it all joy. Notice he doesn't say it is joy again. It's not a feeling. It's like yay, I have cancer like no, it's like in the midst in the darkness, in the struggle, in the battle and the trenches of it all. You can count it all joy. My brothers when you meet trials of various kinds for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness and let the steadfastness have its full effect that you may be perfect and complete lacking in nothing. One more example here, Peter. He says in this, you rejoice though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials so that the tested genuineness of your faith more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire may be found in the result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Though you have not seen him, you love him though. You do not see him. Now, you believe in him and there's that word rejoice with the joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls. I was talking with one of my friends here in between services and he shared something that I didn't know about this passage. He shared that from what he studied is that those making jewelry, they don't stop purifying the gold until the maker can see his reflection, the gold's not done being purified until the maker can see his own image reflected back. Why is that important? Because joy goes deeper than a smile on your face. It gives strength to your soul. Someone can take that smile, right? Stress can take the smile overwhelm, loneliness, doubt can take the smile but you can still have joy this Christmas because you got strength for your soul. As the band comes up here, we recognize that first John 44 says little Children, you are from God and have overcome them for He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. The arrival of Jesus is the arrival of joy. You might not have a smile today and I want you to know that's ok. You can still have joy because it goes deeper. It is not based on you. It is not based on your circumstances. It is based on Jesus who is savior and who is God who defeated death itself. And so that while you're struggling, while you're hurting, now, you remember the height of joy, the breath of joy, the depth at which he would go that he literally went to hell and back for you. And I that we can raise that banner high as Christians that no matter what this world brings, no matter what the new Year brings, no matter what finances or physical health or relationship, tension and stress that comes and is unknown, we can raise that banner of joy high because it's not a feeling, it's a focus and that joy gives strength to our soul. Amen. So the question I have for you is simply where is your focus? This Christmas, if you're looking around, you're gonna feel like I don't have enough. If you look inside, you're gonna feel like I'm not enough. But if you look to Jesus, you're gonna find joy and it might be difficult. It might be challenging and I don't know what's coming your way. But what I know is that for 2000 years, the banner of joy has been raised high in the heart of believers because the king is present and your strength and your joy comes from Jesus and him and him alone. Will you pray with me, dear Jesus? Whatever people are walking through, gotta pray that we can just be cognizant of it. Gotta give comfort where it's needed, give love and forgiveness, where is needed. But when we find our joy, not in the things we purchase, not in the positions we hold, but in the fact that your angels proclaimed to those shepherds, that Christmas night that we have access to good news of great joy for all people. Jesus is both savior and Lord and it's in him, we choose to place our focus and it's in him. We get our joy. Your son sent me pray. Amen.