Today is the day that the Lord has made. So let us rejoice and be glad in it. And everyone said amen. So here we are at Christmas time and it is a joyful time for so many people. And many of us grew up with Christmas being a very joyful time. So let me ask you this question to get started here today. If Christmas was a joyful time? Or maybe I should ask it like this. Who, who made it such a joyful time for you?

Now I'm willing to bet someone just immediately came to your mind, so go ahead and just share that real quick with your neighbor. Who was it that made Christmas a joyful time for you? Real quick, go ahead and share with your neighbor.

I think I heard it a couple of times.

Let's see if you have the same person that I do. If you listen to me preach long enough, I'm going to bring this person up. Massive, massive impact on my life. But the person that made Christmas such a joy for me growing up was my grandma. My grandma just, she knew how to do Christmas right. We did every Christmas Eve at her house, and she always made it such a fun, joyous, happy time. She just, she did not care if we trashed the house. At least she didn't let us know if she cared that we trashed the house. She always made sure that we only had a great experience at Christmas.

It was wonderful. And then, and then I turned 16, and I got my first job and I ended up having to work for the first time on Christmas, Christmas Eve. And I was, and I had to miss part of the Christmas party. Most of the family Christmas party, I, I had a job and I was bagging groceries for people

who are too irresponsible to get their groceries the day before I'm there missing grandma's Christmas party. So you can get your pumpkin pie. I'm not resentful at all about it. I've let it go, but I remember getting to her house on that first Christmas Eve, 16 years old. And the party was basically kind of winding down. Party was basically over. And I kind of fell into that whole polar express mentality that you know, when kids are young and little, they hear the Christmas bells, but when they grow up, they no longer hear the Christmas bells. Like, you know, that's where that I kind of fell into that for a while. And then I realized, yes, yes, family can definitely add to the beauty of Christmas or take away sometimes. There are many things to, there's many reasons to celebrate Christmas and there's many things that make it wonderful.

But what makes Christmas truly joyous year in and year out is this one simple, profound, beautiful truth, and it's this, that Jesus Christ, the King, is born. That is what makes Christmas such a joyous, wonderful time. And so that's what we're going to do. We're going to talk about joy here today. Everything going on in the world, what we need to be reminded of is that Christ has come, he's on the throne, and we have nothing to do but to be joyous over that. And so let's turn in our Bibles to Luke chapter 1. You heard me talk about my relative, my grandma, and the way that she celebrated Christmas. What we're going to do now is we're going to see how Jesus' relatives heard and received and responded to the news of Christmas as we look at the news to his relatives.

So Luke chapter one, jump down to verse 39. We'll be on page 1088 if you do wanna use the Bibles that are provided. Now as you turn in there, just quick context. Last week we learned that Mary has been told that she is pregnant with Jesus Christ, the Christ child, the Savior of the world. And so during her pregnancy, she goes to live off with a relative of hers named Elizabeth. Now, one thing you need to know about Elizabeth is that Elizabeth has experienced her own miraculous pregnancy in a sense. See, Elizabeth in her old age is pregnant for the first time. After a life of being barren, God opened up her womb to be pregnant with her husband, Zechariah. And now she is pregnant. And for those of you who grew up going to Sunday school, do you remember who Elizabeth is pregnant with? John the Baptist. Mary is pregnant with Jesus Christ. And they come together and it's an incredible interaction that we want to look at here this morning. And so, Mary goes to visit Elizabeth. And when she gets there, that's where we're going to pick up on our story. So, I would ask you here now, if you are able, and if you are not, that is perfectly okay. But if you are able, would you please stand for the reading of God's Word. You here in the Worship Center, and of course in our other venues. So with that, would you hear the word of the Lord, the gospel according to Luke, chapter 1, verses 39 to 45.

Luke 1:39-45

39 In those days Mary arose and went with haste into the hill country, to a town in Judah, 40 and she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. 41 And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit, 42 and she exclaimed with a loud cry, t“Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! 43 And why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me? 44 For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. 45 And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord.”

Amen. This is God's word. Let's start with prayer and we'll continue. Let's pray together first. Father in heaven above or during this Advent season, would you please remind us of the joy that can be had when we remember what Christmas is truly about the birth of our savior and king. Father, please do this by the truth of your Word and by the power of the Holy Spirit, for it's in Jesus' name that we pray these things. And everyone said, Amen and Amen. Please have a seat. So let's have some good news here in this Christmas season. Here's some good news we're going to look at here today, and it's simply this. The reaction of his relatives show us the right response to Christmas is joy. And yes, relatives plural, because it wasn't just Elizabeth reacting in this moment. But of course, John the Baptist in utero is joining the party.

So let's look at the reaction and see what's going on here. We're going to first look at how Elizabeth

responds to what's going on and we'll see how that's going to inform us and challenge us as we enter into the Christmas season. So first thing, Elizabeth's joyful reaction to Christmas. First thing we see is that Elizabeth is moved by the spirit. I said it last week. I've said it before. I'll say it again for those in the back. When we talk about the true spirit of Christmas, the true spirit of Christmas is not generosity. It's not the spirit of giving the true spirit of Christmas is the Holy Spirit. So we have this interaction between these two pregnant women, each pregnant with absolute pillars of our faith, and the Holy Spirit is all over this interaction. But it wasn't just Elizabeth, it was her baby, John the Baptist, who's also filled with the Holy Spirit. Verse 41, look at verse 41, says this, and when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb. It's both scientific and scriptural to say that women are pregnant with human babies. You can't be pregnant with one thing and then give birth to a different thing. What you give birth to is what you are pregnant with. You give birth to a human baby.

That means you are pregnant with a human baby. And what's beautiful about this story is that this reminds us that God can work with your baby even in the womb. Here in our church family, there have been a number of families, a number of women who have experienced miscarriages recently. And I don't know why God allows what he does, when he does, but I can tell you this. God is present with your baby in the womb. And if you've had a miscarriage your baby is present with God right now and While that may not turn the tides of our emotion Hopefully at some point in our soul That's the seed of joy that we'll be able to experience in full one day the baby in Elizabeth's womb leaped for joy.

As we said, this is John the Baptist. When Jesus Christ enters the room, even in the womb of Mary, John the Baptist leaped, Elizabeth shouted.

I'll tell you what, those are true markers of celebration. Those are two markers of joy. When it comes to the fact that Christ the King has defeated Satan, sin, and death, I'm telling you, the church should respond with celebration and joy marked by physical movement and loud shouts. I don't know how a church can be filled with the Holy Spirit and stand there like a stone statue. I don't see that at all in scripture. Now, I'm not saying that we bust out the tambourines and banners and run up down the aisles. I'm not saying that, but I am saying men, bow your heads, raise your hand, lift your voice.

Christ the King is on the throne. Be more concerned about what God thinks of your worship. By the power of the Spirit, Elizabeth shouts, John the Baptist leaps, this is what we do for the newborn King. But Elizabeth also shows us something else. She's humbled by the moment. It's an amazing moment of celebration when these two people come together. And Elizabeth makes this very profound statement, verse 43, and why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me? Of course, there's some remarkable things that we see here in our passage. The firstly being Elizabeth knows that Mary is carrying the Christ child. That's a spiritual natural revelation given to Mary in that moment. But the thing I love about this is maybe something a little bit more subtle. I hope to point it out to you right now when it's the level of humility that Elizabeth shows is profound. How many other women would have just been jealous in that moment?

How many other women would have said something like, what's so special about you that you get to carry the Savior of the world? But not Elizabeth. You want to know what Elizabeth shows us? She shows us how to be happy for someone else. Elizabeth shows us this because of the humility that is in her heart.

Because of the humility that Elizabeth has, she gets to experience the fullness of the moment, and with the fullness of the moment is pure joy. And this happens because of her humility. Pride so often gets in the way of our ability to be joyous or experience joy. But Elizabeth's humility allows her to experience the blessing of gratitude and joy. And because of that, she gets the full experience of the moment. She doesn't let herself, her prerogatives, her pride get in the way of celebrating an

incredible moment. She sets herself aside to experience something wonderful. Some of us here, some of us in here, the reason that we can't get more out of Christmas is simply It's simply because we've put ourselves in the way. Our own expectations of perfection, our own insecurities, our own jealousy and pride that we've got this vision of how Christmas celebrations are supposed to go and it's supposed to be perfect, and if the house isn't perfectly in order, then we have a problem celebrating Christmas. If our special Christmas dish doesn't turn out perfect like it does every year, we think all is lost. Or if the family shows up a little late to the Christmas party, now we're all have this anxiety because the food's getting cold. Come on! That's not what Christmas is about. Christmas is about the fact that Jesus has been born. It may not be perfect because you know what? It won't be. And it never will be perfect until Christ returns and makes all things new. So don't let your vision of perfection sour what could be an incredibly joyous time. As long as we celebrate the fact that Jesus has come, please take a cue from Elizabeth. Let humility and gratitude overwhelm you this Christmas.

Elizabeth is simply humbled that she gets to be in the presence of Jesus Christ. How much more should we be humbled, church, now that we have the salvation of Jesus Christ. This leads to the last thing that we see from Elizabeth. Elizabeth is blessed by the Lord. Look at verse 44. She says, For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy.

Immense joy for Elizabeth and her baby. And if you read the New Testament, you'll find this word joy actually comes up a lot. Over 60 times we find the word joy in the New Testament. Why? Because joy is to be a marker of a Christian faith. And for around 60 times we see a very common word for joy. It's a beautiful word. Kara is a wonderful word for joy. We see all the time, but there's five times in the New Testament we see a very rare word given for joy that just adds a little extra dynamic. And that's one of the times we see this word is in this passage here when Elizabeth says this baby leaped for joy. This isn't the standard word for joy. The more direct translation for this word would be exaltation. Another way you could translate that for your rednecks is simply wild joy. It is a perfectly okay to say it's just the baby couldn't contain himself. It's a wild joy. It's a moment of blessing. Elizabeth is blessed by the Lord.

She feels her baby move. And then so what does she do? I love this. Elizabeth, in her moment of blessing, she bestows a blessing upon Mary when she speaks a blessing over Mary. I'll tell you this, this is one thing I've come to know, is that people who are truly blessed and they know they're blessed, they are a blessing to others. Because when you experience the true blessing of God, you set your pride aside and you realize all that He's done for you, you can't help but share that and extend that to someone else. So here's my challenge for you this Christmas. Bestow a blessing upon someone else if you realize that you are blessed this Christmas. I mean words of blessing. Speak words of blessing. Listen to what Elizabeth says.

She says this. She says this blessing over Mary. She says, blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord. That's words of blessing over Mary. So you speak words of blessing over someone.

And let me just say this to you, West Michigan men, because I'm one too. I know how hard it is for us to actually enter into a moment where we have to set ourselves aside. So I'm going to challenge everyone in here, but I really want to speak to the West Michigan men. Speak a word of blessing and don't try to put in some subtle jab. Be a man enough to enter into a moment and open yourself up and speak a blessing over someone else. Because if you do that and you don't undermine the moment by trying to make fun of them, of them or the moment, if you do that, I guarantee that person will remember those words for the rest of their life. And you get to share something beautiful, like what we see in scripture, which is a blessing.

If you've been blessed, be a blessing to someone else. So ask yourself, who can you bless this Christmas? Who can you speak words of blessing over? Elizabeth and her baby show us that joy is the way to respond to Christmas, and blessing others is a way to respond to Christmas.

And so, as we think about Elizabeth's beautiful example for us, let's just take a moment and let's just put ourselves in the hot seat, see how we might be able to experience more of the joy that God has for us through the birth of his son. Let's talk about how joy is from the Spirit. Now listen to me, listen to me here in the other venues. This isn't some subtle thing we see in the text. The Bible is clear that when the Holy Spirit works in our lives, he will produce these things, these various qualities called the fruit of the Spirit. We find this list given in Galatians chapter five. And so let me ask you real quick, who here remembers what the first fruit is listed in the fruit of the Spirit? Anybody remember? It's love, love, a defining quality of what it means to be a Christian, that we are people of love. Now, who remembers the second one?

Joy, love and joy. Are there two more beautiful markers of what should embody a Christian in this dark and broken world that we are people of love and people of joy. The other night I was watching this documentary on Scientology and none other than John Travolta was speaking about why he loves Scientology. Now there's some question, there's some question as to whether or not he's still involved in it, but during this interview he was talking about his great admiration for Scientology and he he said, you name me another philosophy, religion or technology where joy is the operative concept. Now listen, some of you may be intrigued by that, but I'll just tell you right now, that feels very cultish to me. It feels very culty. So let's make something clear about Christian joy. Christians are not meant to fake it.

We're not meant to put on a show. We're not meant to force a smile. Yes, we are to be strong, but we're not meant to be fake. Don't put on a plastic happiness and call it Christian joy. That's not what we're called to do. Christians have a joy that's that's deeper than that. In the last week, literally in the last week, two of our staff members here at Peace Church had family members who suddenly, unexpectedly, tragically passed away. Actually two of our staff members from our Wayland campus.

And even though even though Christmas is meant to be a joyful time, mourning will be a definitive marker of their Christmas this year. Other emotions and other ways to respond to what's happening may come to the surface. But the Christian joy is a bedrock. It's found in a truth that can't be taken away based on the circumstance. And the truth is that Jesus has been born.

So on the flip, on the flip, though, if we are never joyful, if we're never joyful, then the only thing left to believe is that you're not walking in step with the Holy Spirit. Because to walk in step with the Holy Spirit is to have love and joy. So let's ask the question, what is the base operative for Christianity? If it's joy for Scientology, what is it for Christianity? I will posit to you, it's not love. It's holiness.

Holiness is the base operative of what it means to be a Christian, that we are something other, that we're different than the rest of the world. That's what holiness means, that we're called out. And one of the ways we show that we're called out is that we have a love for those who hate us, and we have a joy that can't be taken away by even death. And so, my friends, as we think about this, don't let the holidays list of to-dos keep you from experiencing joy. Don't let it keep you from showing the world what joy looks like.

Elizabeth shows us that joy is from the Holy Spirit. It's about knowing God, encountering Christ, and being filled with Him, the power and presence of the Holy Spirit. Christmas is meant to be a joyful time because we celebrate the birth of our King. Children being born is such a happy time, isn't it? We get to celebrate that every year with the birth of our savior. So let's show it. Let's leap for

joy like John the Baptist and let's shout for joy like Elizabeth. But also let's be challenged by this. Joy is found through humility. Let me say a few things about humility and how we can experience joy through it? Let me give you some ways that pride may be getting in the way of the joy that God wants you to experience through the birth of his son First as you said before

If you can't be happy for another person Then you can't experience joy If you can't be happy for another person who gets something that that maybe you want or you think you deserve You'll never experience true joy. Likewise, if you can't be happy unless things are exactly the way that you want them to be, then you've kind of made yourself an idol, number one. But secondly, if you can't experiencing unless they are perfect, you'll never experience true joy. Or how about this one? If you can't find it in your heart to be grateful with all that God has given us with what you have, then you'll never experience true joy. Now, that's not to say that some people aren't dealing with some extremely painful and difficult things right now, but I'd say for the vast majority of us, our lives should be marked by nothing but sheer gratitude.

Enjoy. This is the difference with true Christian joy. We can have joy in the pain. We can have joy in the storm, but if you have Christ, then you have all that you need to be joyful. But if you can't be grateful, and again, I'm going to speak to the vast majority of people in here, I recognize some people got some really dark times about them, but I'm gonna speak to the vast majority, and you know who you are. If you can't be grateful with what God has given you, then I suggest you go spend the holidays Or those or the or those who are still captive a year later The vast majority of us in here have nothing nothing to complain about Are things perfect? No, and they won't be until the king returns and makes all things new but many of us have no joy Simply because we've lost perspective

But Elizabeth shows us that if we have humility, then we have the ability to enjoy the moment that God has given to us, even when things don't go according to our plans. So be humble. If there was ever, you know this, if there was ever a symbol of humility, just look at your nativity set and that little boy born in a manger, the son of God came and was born in a stable. His life from the moment he was born was marked by humility.

The Son of God born in the stable was laid in straw that was already used by the animals. The King of Kings came in a manger, so tell me again what you think you're entitled to? It's a wonderful and joyful thing to celebrate Christmas because it's a great reminder of all that the Lord did for us. Yes, we love the fact that He died on a cross, the pinnacle of our faith, but He was born in a wooden manger to show us something about humility. Christ came in humility. He rose again in victory after His death on the cross so that we could have life to the full. Listen to me, not just a full life, but a joyful life that's marked by faith for so much joy is to be had through faith.

That's the last thing I want to look at. Joy is fulfilled in faith. I love the story from Elizabeth earlier when our worship team was practicing. We're going through some things. I told him that I think Elizabeth is the most underappreciated character of the nativity story. She's just amazing.

Elizabeth can come to my family Christmas party whenever she wants. But the reason I say that joy is fulfilled in faith is because faith is what gives us perspective for the moment we are in and for the eternity that's around us. Faith gives us the ability to have joy beyond the immediate. Verse 45 says this. Elizabeth said to Mary, blessed is she who believed that there would be Fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord powerful words of blessing over Mary

Now there's this man from the 1800s. His name was JC Ryle He was he was writing a commentary on this very story on Elizabeth And he and he takes this verse and he reminds us that if there's one thing that is true for all people of all ages, all races, all religions, it's this, is that all of us will one day pass from this life to the next. And when we do, we will all stand before the judgment seat of God. When he's writing about on this verse, this is what It says, it says better a thousand times to be rich in faith than rich in gold. When the great white throne is set, when the dead are called from their graves and receiving their final sentence, the value of faith will at length be fully known. And he says this, men will learn then if they never learned before, how true are the words blessed are they that believes. When we die, and you will die, when we die, we will stand before the throne of God in one of two states. You will stand either naked in your sin and your shame, or you will stand clothed in the righteousness of Jesus Christ. I don't long for death, but when that day comes, my joy will be fulfilled in my faith because I have faith in Jesus Christ. I will be clothed in His righteousness. My joy will be complete. Christmas is a joyous time because through Christmas we get to look back in joy on the fact that our King has come and we also get to look ahead in joy knowing that our King is coming back for us.

When we look back on Christmas, we see the newborn King.

But when we look forward to his coming again, I'm telling you, he will not come again as a newborn King. He will come again as a conquering King. Your path will come before his throne. You may die before he comes back and get there ahead of time, or you'll be here when he returns. Either way, prepare for that moment now by calling on the name of Jesus Christ.

Recognize your sin against God. Receive what Jesus has done with you and for you. And be filled by the Spirit so that you could have true love and true joy, peace, patience, kindness, and all the rest of the fruit of the spirits. Have joy. Have joy before the manger. Have joy before the throne. Because remember this, the reaction of his relatives show us the right response to Christmas is joy. If it's not joy that you are experiencing at this Christmas, something else has gotten in the way. And I encourage you to bow before the manger and be reminded that Christ has come to save you and let that fill you with joy, a joy that cannot be taken away this Christmas. Amen. Amen. With that,

you with joy, a joy that cannot be taken away this Christmas. Amen. Amen. With that, let's stand and let's prepare to worship the Lord.