Introduction
Let me begin with a discipleship question: will we trust and obey Jesus in the real decisions of everyday life? Christ forms us through truth received, repentance practiced, and obedience lived out.
Main Points
Grace and Justification
if you have a bible turn to luke chapter one we're going to be in our third theme of our advent series called the king is coming we looked at hope and then we looked at love remaining our joy and peace so today we come to um maybe my favorite one which is joy but uh to get there we're gonna we're gonna take a we're gonna take a journey with a story in the proclamation of the uh the plan of god over mary so if you've if you've been around church like at all around christmas you've probably heard luke chapter 1 in some form that god is going to use this young woman named mary to bring forth his son and we're going to look at her story because i find it very helpful in what i call the paradox of joy whenever you preach joy hear a message of enjoy it is paradoxical in the sense that it's it needs to be preached because it's not very apparent which is true of all of the advent themes it's like we need to talk about hope because it's part of what we're we have to have hope to look forward to a coming king and we have to talk about it because we don't always have it and that's especially true of joy around this time of year it's like of all of the things that we disagree on culture most people agree that you should be joyful around christmas and then most people also feel a resistance to that kind of spirit of christmas at times not always but if you're like me at times you're like i'm just not feeling it right now and so we're going to look at a story today that reminds us that joy is not something that you hear a message on you're like okay got it now that might be true of some of you like some of you might have come in and you know the plans that you have this week and you know the things that god's doing in your life and you're ready to approach the week with just joy in your heart and this message for you might be might be like one minute long uh if that is you sit tight you've got plenty of joy to make it through a 30-minute sermon but for everyone else exhale and know that oftentimes a message of joy can almost feel out of place in your listening because you don't feel it you don't see it and sometimes you don't really understand it so we're gonna look at it in a way today i hope that gives us all an invitation to experience something that sometimes we don't necessarily feel in our hearts so luke chapter 1 starting in verse 26 are you ready now in the sixth month the angel gabriel was sent by god to a city of galilee named nazareth to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was joseph of the house of david the virgin's name was mary so a little bit of an to the story we find ourselves in verse 26 because the first half of the chapter as it says in the sixth month this is in reference to a relative of mary's named elizabeth who's also pregnant in a way that will lead her down a road of surprising joy and will come to her because this story is really going to be broken down into two parts first the message that gabriel will bring to mary and then second mary will actually have an interaction with elizabeth to confirm this message so we'll start with a message for mary in this little town of nazareth delivered by an angel of god named gabriel starting in verse 37 and having come in the angel said to her rejoice highly favored one the lord is with you blessed are you among women again this could be a short sermon if all you ever had to do to stir up joy was say it rejoice you know it makes me think of the times that you know a mom would come into a room and say wake up kids rejoice in the lord always again i say rejoice and what is typical is not simply okay thanks since you said it mom i'm just gonna rejoice uh that's not typically how that song is received if it's in the wrong context and what we find here is this is a longer sermon than just one verse and it's a longer story than just one message because the response in mary is often true of us which is not okay it's this it's verse 38 it says but when she saw him she was troubled and his saying and considered what manner of greediness was verse 29 she was troubled the call to rejoice highly favored one god has blessed you among all women take great joy the call of christmas the call of the season the call of advent be joyful more often than not we'll meet you in a place that will cause you to respond with a troubled heart not with a joyful heart immediately and that is why i've titled this message the road to joy because joy as prescribed in the bible and exemplified in the stories of people who experience it and a call to your own life is not an instantaneous emotion it is something that god calls you into with invitation and then journeys you along a path until you get to it and that is what this morning is about it's unlikely that this sermon is going to change your heart condition simply because i tell you to be joyful or because we look at an example of someone who was but it does give us really a model for how mary goes from a troubled heart to by the end of the story she will break out in one of the great worship songs of joy that we find in the bible the question is how does she get there and that's what we'll look at this morning how joy often meets us in a troubled way the paradox is you need joy when you're troubled and it greets you in a place that doesn't always make sense and to get there we're first going to look at a couple of ways that there is joy that doesn't happen or the antithesis of joy so when we talked about hope in week one we looked at some definitions of hope here are some ways to understand what joy isn't the first one joy is not instant the heart is troubled before the soul rejoices a couple days ago tom velasco asked me my top 10 christmas movies which if you know anything about tom velasco he's a list guy i think it's because he's so smart he has to categorize everything in his mind through lists i'm not that smart so i'm not a list guy and i don't know my top ten but it did get me thinking about christmas movies and what i am looking for in one of them and as i went down that journey i realized that the great christmas movies in on my list or in my opinion get this part of joy right the great ones have a tension within the plot of the movie that allows you to see characters that are in a season where everyone around them is joyful and they're not so i can't give you my top 10 list but i'll give you my top three here they are it's a christmas carol the grinch and it's a wonderful life and in every one of these the tension exists that i love because i see myself in it the tension is this everyone's excited you're supposed to be excited everyone's joyful everyone's got their eye on the prize of christmas and then there are these main characters who don't have it and they need to go through this transformative shift in their life that almost looks like repentance that takes them from a hard heart to a soft heart from no joy to great joy and this is our life and this is the journey of joy i want you to think about times in your life where you've experienced the reward of rejoicing where something comes out of your soul that can't help but praise god because of his goodness and that thing is joy and if you're like me you can actually relate to the story of mary in a very minimal way because what she's going through are some of the great rejoicing moments that are first met with resistance think of her story she's met with trouble and then she's given the details that will come of a child that is born in bad timing out of order with when she was married betrothed to be joseph and yet she's about to get a call to carry a child that doesn't belong to joseph this is a call of great rejoicing by the end but should be met with some resistance because it doesn't really make sense with her culture and their tradition and the timeline and the design and i relate to that i remember in my own life thinking about the joy of marriage with some great resistance how many of you have thought about getting married and then thought yeah not so much i'm not sure that i'm really there yet in my heart i kind of like my freedom and my options and the ability to move quickly in life and so marriage for me is one of those moments where i think great rejoicing eventually great resistance primarily and then you march down the story it's like rejoice you're going to have a child which is one of the great joys of life to experience the miracle of life with a front row seat for the rest of the life and yet how often does that come to a as a shock to your life i remember the day that my wife told me she was pregnant with her first child i was making macaroni and cheese standing over the stove getting ready to enjoy the simple things of life and she came in and said i'm pregnant i've only been married for three months what are we doing i can't i'm not ready for that i don't want that and i realize that someday my kids are going to listen to all of my sermons and think you really hated us because all you ever talk about is how god showed you things about how good he was in our in our bad timing for your life but the reality is with great rejoicing there is great resistance god is calling us to do things that don't always make sense to us and it is not something that we initially see and it's not instant and it's not immediate and it requires a plot twist for our own lives and this is where the message continues because in god's kindness there is an answer to all of our fears in what he calls us to and god is calling every single one of us here this morning to relate to the invitation of joy in a troubled way god is not calling you to think to things that cause your natural self or your flesh to be like this is so exciting and so great it's going to be so rewarding i can't wait more often not the messenger of the lord comes and it troubles the person who receives it and then they say don't be afraid and this is what we find then the angel said to her verse 31 verse 30 do not be afraid for you have found favor with god and behold you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a son and he shall call his name jesus joy is not instant and joy is not shallow because the answer that the angel gives is filled with a substantive hope in god the journey of joy begins with a promise of hope and these are two things the instant and the shallow that all of us have to navigate in the world that we live in there is an instant and shallow interaction with god if it comes and dies on a sunday morning god is calling you to a journey with him that goes beyond the sanctuary and he's calling you to a journey that has substance that goes beyond a sermon and he's calling mary into a life that as she has questions he doesn't just pat her on the back and say trust me he says let me give you the substance of hope which is good for us to remember that just two weeks ago we talked about advent in the promises of hope without hope there is no great expectation without hope there is no joy in whatever god is calling you into because you're stuck in the troubled heart and yet it's worth thinking through what we talked about as the definition of hope definition number one that we looked at two weeks ago is that hope is confidence in the goodness of god and that is what the reply to mary is you are favored this is this is not a simple greeting this is to say to mary it doesn't look like it right now but this is god's favor on your life and this is to say to those of you in the stage of fear it may not look like it right now but the invitation to joy as you go through your troubled response as you go through the narrow gate of fear that god will work out in the substance of his hope he is saying it is my favor that calls you it is my goodness which you need to cling to because as god's plans come into your life and scramble all of your plans it may not seem like god's goodness in fact one of the reasons we resist the call of god that is unto joy one of the reasons there's resistance before rejoicing because one of the common themes in the human heart is to doubt the goodness of god in the plan and can't you relate to what mary must be going through did you call me favored don't you understand where i live i'm in nazareth i'm in a traditional jewish culture there are orders to things i am betrothed i am not even married and i don't have the right order to now give birth and yet the message says god has favor on you and one of the ways that we will march towards joy in our lives is to know the difference between god's favor and man's favor to know the difference between the culture's approval of you and god's approval of you to another way the difference between god blesses your life and the way that you want him to bless your life hope is the confidence in god's goodness even in the mysterious call that god is bringing you into here's the second thing the angel says gabriel says this he will be great and will be called the son of the highest and the lord god will give him the throne of his father david and he will reign over the house of jacob forever and of his kingdom there will be no end another reminder of where we were two weeks ago in isaiah chapter nine it is the word of god it is not a random call on her life that has no substance in the goodness of god revealed through the prophets of what is to come isaiah came on the scene and said god is sending his son the mighty counselor of his throne there will be no end and mary now it begins with you and the second definition of hope that we're going to recall from two weeks ago is faith in the good ending we looked at that one verse from isaiah and we said remember as we go through life and we're looking for the way out of hopeless situations we keep our eye on the end of the story and the end of the story of the king is coming is that he is establishing a throne that will have no end and he will reign forever and now mary in your call to joy remember the end of the story you will give birth he will come into this world to save people his name will be jesus he will be the fulfillment of god's promises to the world that there will be a throne that god occupies that no man will ever take him off of the end of the story is glorious and you're being called into it now and i think into the call of god in your life it is a call to receive the joy of the lord and it will meet you in mysterious ways that violate your plans and your orderings it will trouble your heart and cause great fear but the end of the story is glorious that the end of the story is for joy on the other side of the mysteries of the unknown details and the unknown abilities and i think again to my own life as i was called into marriage and this is a true story the day of my wedding september 22nd i'm walking down the aisle and i'm thinking what am i doing and now my wife's gonna listen to this and think you hate me but you know what song the lord put on my heart and to this day it's a it's a revival of my marriage vows i have decided to follow jesus no turning back no turning back the cross before me the world behind me i'm always like the cross before you i was waiting like it's me before you it's like the cross before me i am called into this to the end to die that's what the cross is me unto death and in my covenant before my friends and family and now before you i said to my wife here's the end of the story we're never going to stop loving each other we're going to the end and as you think about going to the end you can actually start to stand on the hope of the joy that waits you on the end that there's this is not just a passing phase for our relationship this is not a season of dating and feeling great about each other but there will be ups and downs and riches and poor and there will be sickness and health but the joy waits for us at the very end and with the eye on the end of the prize you continue down the journey towards joy in the moment join the middle joy in the end and it is so important for us to remember these two definitions of what joy isn't it is not immediate and it is not shallow joy has an invitation to a long journey with god and joy has the substance of hope that grabs roots into the promises of god and that's the opposite of how we receive it so often that's the opposite of the christmas season it comes and it goes and its roots are in decorations and yet listen to how jesus describes the way that we so often receive i especially listen to this because i consider myself type 2 soil in the parable of the sower in matthew chapter 13 jesus says the word of god what we're doing right now is like a farmer throwing seeds and this is the soil and your heart represents the condition of the soil by which you receive and bear fruit or wither away and then he gives four soil types and listen to the second type it says in matthew chapter 13 verse 20 but he who received the seed on stony places this is he who receives the word and immediately receives it with joy sounds like a good thing i got the word i'm excited about the word immediately receive it but he has no root in himself but he endures only for a while for when tribulation or persecution arises because of the word immediately he stumbles and i have to say i realize fully that i preach into a culture that receives things very easily with great joy click follow by send one shop and stop and it's in and it receives things with no roots it's like next next swipe left swipe right next thing and i also realize that oftentimes which is the opposite of how this is supposed to work the church reflects the culture rather than the culture being moved by the church the church also receives with great joy that was a great sermon pastor and those songs were top-notch and joy to the world got it and christ came and i love it and i raise my hand i believe and now i leave church and life happens and you've only received the word here the word has not become implanted the word has not gone through the troubled heart and the overcoming of fear and the wrestling with god and the walking through the hope and the substance of his promises and so there is no endurance and we have nominal believers who say they believe on sunday and then persecution comes on monday and there is nothing to grab hold of so we pause myself included because i'm a type two i love stuff until the next thing and we say god help us to be okay with a call that would trouble our hearts that would that would really require us to lay before you our plans and acknowledge that our plans and your plans collide all the time and to wrestle with how this would all work and to be people who allow the word of god to go farther down into our hearts than it's possible in a 30-minute sermon but to walk with lord through the journey not expecting the joy to be now not expecting everything to change because you listened now but saying god i'm walking with you out of this place beyond a sermon in three songs and i want to receive what you have for me and this is where the plot begins to twist because part of that wrestling mary is going to represent something that we don't often do with god but is a very realistic and good question this is what mary says verse 34. mary said to the angel how can this be since i don't know a man no to the skeptic of what's happening here um the gospel writer luke has already mentioned she was a virgin betrothed means she has not had sex with her husband yet they haven't consummated and now she herself aligns with the skeptic she says wait a minute how is this going to happen how am i going to have a child if i haven't gone through the process by which pregnancy happens it doesn't come from the stork anyway you guys get that all right okay so two things um first the answer that uh that gabriel gives i think is rooted in some real primary theology and we understand it in the beginning study of the scripture and as we go through it seems like our knowledge of the power and the greatness of god kind of wears down he says this to mary and the angel answered and said to her the holy spirit will come upon you and the power of the highest will shadow you he says well the power of god by the power of the holy spirit is going to complete this in you and when i say is we kind of wear off from scripture so genesis 1 1 says in the beginning god created by his word he speaks the heavens and the earth into existence there was a time where there was nothing god speaks and there's everything and then by his word he designs creation and it unfolds and by his word he breathes life into man and then as the story continues we accept the reality of who god is we accept his power to create we expect we respect his power to give life but then you go along the story and you think well how are we going to explain this one how did he part that red sea it's like how did that happen that seems miraculous in a sense god has the power to violate the laws of nature that we live in god by very nature is outside of the nature that we live in and god intervenes whenever he wants to show himself god and not limited by our limitations how does he you keep going you think about your life you think and now mary comes to a moment that we all come to which is this she asks now how is this going to happen i haven't been with a man and you ask god are you sure that you have the right person are you because i can't i can't that's not possible right now and then you say the same thing god calls you to rejoice this is what's going to happen to your life it's how i'm going to use you and you say are you sure you have the right person are you sure i'm going to do the things that i'm called to do by you to do i know i think that way is the examples i give it's like i've how am i going to raise a family i remember processing all of this is my wife how do i how do i provide for kids how am i a faithful husband remember abraham he says god are you sure i've got i'm a hundred and my wife's 90 and yet you want to give us a baby are you sure wouldn't ishmael the one i already provided for you wouldn't that work better and then moses comes on the scene says god are you sure you want me to be your mouthpiece but i don't speak good so how do i god is calling you to experience something that is true of a miraculous birth and it's true of the miracle of you giving glory to god his power will come upon you i myself have nothing to offer you this morning i myself am a faithless husband and a deadbeat dad in my own nature but by god's grace he called me to do things to his glory that he's empowered me to do and we come to these moments that we haven't got to the joy yet because we're just not sure that the road to joy is actually going to get there because the vessel is pretty weak the power of the holy spirit will come upon you and there is no joy of the lord without the power of the holy spirit coming upon you and then something else happens in the answer which i also find very helpful and then the angel says in verse 36 now indeed elizabeth your relative has also conceived a son in her old age and this is now the sixth month for her who was called barren and gabriel says the power of the holy spirit will overshadow your weakness and your impossibility and because we're visual people and we're people that it helps us to see it witnessed in someone else he said also elizabeth month six she's ahead of you in this she was barren and she was old and god did something miraculous in her life i so appreciate the call of the believer from the new testament church on is to experience the power of god and jesus says you will be my witnesses because there are all sorts of people all over this sanctuary that are being called into the joy of the lord in some sort of resistant trou
Conclusion
We return to the opening teaching: discipleship is not just information, it is transformation through faith and obedience to Jesus. If we receive His Word and walk it out, He will shape us into people who endure and bear fruit.
Lord Jesus, help me hear Your Word, obey it with faith, and grow as Your disciple. Amen.
Conclusion
We return to the opening teaching: discipleship is not just information, it is transformation through faith and obedience to Jesus. If we receive His Word and walk it out, He will shape us into people who endure and bear fruit.
Closing Prayer
Lord Jesus, help me hear Your Word, obey it with faith, and grow as Your disciple. Amen.