Story Behind Joy to the World

TRANSCRIPT 

Now, this has got to be the funniest topic in the world to give to me. If you happen to be online and you're new, then I'm kind of a little bit known as the Grinch around here when it comes to Christmas. So, of course, they give me this particular topic. Now, Ruth will not let me go out and buy presents for the kids.

Because she knows that I have got a very short attention span when it comes to shopping. And if it goes like, little girl, unicorns, doll, this, that and the other, she's getting a truck or a ball. Because that's about where my attention goes. So, so I'm not, I've got that reputation, but they wanted me to do joy.

And so I started to think about, what brings the grinch out in me for Christmas? Is it the busyness of the season? I don't know. The laborious pursuit of the perfect gift for that person? I don't know, maybe. Frantic shopping crowds? Endless searching for that elusive car park. Having to be nice to people that I will see that don't necessarily like me.

Maybe. Or, or is it, is it something else? So I thought we would just have a little bit of interaction here with you and you can get your phones out and we're going to use this thing called Slido and there's going to be a thing on the screen, a QR code, and I want you to put in there, what brings out the Grinch in you?

What brings out the Grinch in you? Now I don't know what it might be for you. Like it might be some unresolved relational family tension. I mean maybe you went through a painful divorce that you didn't really want. Maybe you're alone when you really thought by now you'd be married and have kids. Maybe it's the loss of a loved one.

Maybe this year you're facing life alone because your partners are no longer with you. Or maybe it's health challenges. So, so what have we got up there? Commercialism really bugs some people. Is that, Slido? Slido bugs some people? There's a Grinch for you right there. Who's that? Come on, who's a fellow Grincher?

Here, put the Slido. No, no, no. No, you're not going to own up anyway. Grinchers never open up. Perfectionism. Toxic family gatherings. Oh, slow walkers, come on, yes. They come out in fine fashion and they just like, wander along. But they don't just walk, they just stop and go, let's have a look at my text. And they're there for like 15 minutes.

Rude people. Putting up the Christmas tree. Definitely car parks. Busyness. I don't know what it is for you. Could be those things, could be some of the other stuff, more serious thing that I mentioned. Could be health challenges. Maybe you're dealing with health challenges. I don't know. Or maybe it's just finding that elusive car park.

Bah humbug, I say to that. So the question is, what brings the Grinch out? Is it caused by that kind of stuff? Or is this something else, something deeper that causes the Grinch to come out? I met, I met a young dad several years ago. Oh, here we go. Usual, uh, pop goes my heart. Um, you want to do it? Several years ago I met this young man and, uh, he was not having a very good time in his marriage and with his family and with his kids.

And he had become the Grinch because he was desperately now pursuing his own personal happiness. And he felt that the only way that he could be happy, the only way he could He could actually get out of this was if he left his wife and his kids and he started something new. As I listened to him, I started to realize that the pursuit of happiness that comes out of brokenness does not make us happy.

And I could see that this was going to lead him to a whole lot more heartache. But the trouble is the pursuit of happiness does do one thing and that's this. It gives you the temporary illusion. of relief from responsibilities. That's what the pursuit of happiness does. It's if, in his mind, if I can just get rid of the wife and the kids and the family, everything's going to be fine.

The illusion of relief, but in the reality, in the background, he's setting himself up for a whole lot more heartache and a whole lot more work. During the middle of the meeting, when I was just chatting with him, cause he was very distraught. Uh, I felt God whisper to me something. He said, I did not create human beings to pursue happiness.

I created them to pursue holiness. Because holiness is part of my character and it's part of my nature. It's who I am. And if you pursue the right thing, then you get the right thing. Happiness, or what we think of happiness, is a byproduct of holiness. And he said, if you really think about what you think is happiness, it actually is not happiness at all.

It's actually springing out of holiness and it's a little thing called joy. Joy is what we desperately need. And it comes out of holiness. This young man believed that happiness could only be found in another relationship away from the current. circumstance and he was about to throw his whole life away and create an enormous mess in this pursuit of just happiness.

Happiness is unsatisfiable. You've never got enough, you cannot get enough of it. The pursuit of personal happiness, because I want this, or I want that, or I want this person, if I don't get that, well then I can't be complete. It's an absolute lie. And if you feel like pursuing happiness is going to help you, it's, it's not.

It's like trying to catch the wind. It's impossible to actually attain. I actually was, as I was preparing, I was thinking back of an event that happened when I toured in bands years ago, a long time when I was a lot younger. I think there's going to be a few pictures, you'll start laughing when you see them.

But, um, So my job was the lead vocalist, so that's me there. And so we would, we would, uh, have massive parties after every gig. There was always like 60, 70, 80 people. Anyway, one night we had about a hundred people back and it was the usual things that we thought was the pursuit of happiness. We will be famous and we'll write songs and we're going to do this kind of stuff and they will have the right relationships because you get the right chicks and all that kind of stuff.

We thought that was what was going to make us happy. Anyway, I'm sitting in a room. With about a hundred people, and that's all the nonsense that goes on with the band situation. And I just paused in the middle and I sat down on this seat. And I just started crying. Now, I think I'm about probably 19, 20, something like that.

I just started crying. Anyway, this young girl came up to me, she said, What's the matter? Did someone do something? Say something? I said, No. I said, No, I don't know. I don't know. But even in the midst of a crowd, I just feel so alone. I just feel so alone. She said, how can you be alone? There's a hundred of us over here.

And look, they're all partying and they're all here because of the gigs that you're doing and want to be part of that action kind of thing. And I said, I don't know. I don't understand. But in the midst of it, of a big crowd, I, I can just feel so alone. And then the Grinch comes out. Because you've got to pursue more happiness.

You're trying to fill this void, but happiness doesn't fill the void that is within and the Grinch pursuing that and going after it even more. You just end up in a place of loneliness because the void that's within us is a brokenness, which comes from a separation from our creator. When you make contact with, with your creator again, then you experience holiness, which leads you to joy.

But here's the kicker. If you get holiness, happiness does come out of it. It's a byproduct. But if you go after happiness, it leaves you barren, leaves you sitting alone in a room. I don't know what happened with that young man, but I often think about him, about what he might be feeling today if he pursued the getting rid of his family for something better.

I bet he had some horrible nights and horrible moments. of regret, thinking back, wow, how did I get to such a mess? So at Christmas, we're reminded that God entered the world to bring something that transcends the pursuit of happiness. And it's called something like this, joy to the world, joy to the world.

So now I'll give you a little bit of history of this one. Uh, joy to the world was written by an English minister. His name is called Isaac Watts. Based on the Christian interpretation of Psalm 98. Heaven and earth rejoicing at the coming of the King. Now he was looking at the coming of the King, King Jesus.

So he's looking for that. So he's writing out of that, but he's also writing for him out of the Genesis chapter three about the blessings that extend in Christ to actually get victory over sin and death and the brokenness that keeps us trapped in the pursuit of salvation. of happiness. So it was quickly embraced in 1719, uh, by the church and helped people focus on the return of Christ.

Now think about this song. It's a wonderful song. Joy to the world. It's such a lovely, happy song, you know, like what would you think the individual looks like that wrote that song? What a joyous, what an awesome person he would be, right? Well, let's have a look at him. Here he is. Perfect. If that's not the Grinch, I don't know what is.

Look at him. Was it a bad hair day or a bad painting? He doesn't look very joyful at all. Not very joyful at all. But, looks can be deceiving. I find this picture very encouraging. I find this picture very, very encouraging. Because, There's a certain, I can tell there's a certain amount of grinch in him, even though he wrote a joyful song to the Lord and he accomplished great, did something great for the Lord.

So this is encouraging to us all. Doesn't matter what you look like. Although if you've got a hairdo like that, I suggest you go and get it changed. Do whatever you got to do. What I'm trying to help you see is the fact that it, see, we're all works in progress. We're all in a state of imperfection can being conformed to the image of Christ.

God can still use you. But I'm telling you now, there's a little bit of Grinch in there somewhere, for sure. I don't know what's going on. So let's have a quick look through the song, through this carol. I'm not going to go through everything. I'm just going to pick up a few pieces of it. Very start of it, of course, is joy to the Lord, joy to the world, sorry, not joy to the Lord.

He wasn't feeling very joyful at all. Joy to the world for the Lord has come. So what do you see about that? So joy comes to the world. Has it come to the world? No, because the Lord came. Because the Lord came, joy came to the world. When this baby first turned up, joy had come to the world. The process of restoration of human beings, being able to get back into a relationship with God, was underway.

So joy resides in one when one is connected to the power of the right one, which of course is Jesus. So when When the Lord came, He came collectively to the world, but here's the deal. The Lord has to come personally for you. Has to become a personal thing, not just a collective thing that we sing.

He goes on and says, Let earth receive her King. So earth has received a king. Now in the beginning in Genesis, if you go right back to the start with Adam and Eve there, God created them. He had rule and reign over them. He was a loving and gracious God, but also a just God. He created the situation that human beings thrived under.

They absolutely thrived under His rule and reign. But because He was a loving God and a gracious God, He gave them something which He probably shouldn't have given them. free will. He didn't want robots. He wanted people to love him for who he was and have the choice. So for love to be love, you got to give a choice.

So he gave them free will. And unfortunately, they chose very poorly, even though he warned them and said, if you do choose to go along sin and death and brokenness, all this ugly stuff's going to come in, our relationship will be lost. They still pushed. That right to use their own free will. And then Joy was lost in the world and it was consumed by brokenness.

So Jesus is returning as king to establish his kingship over the world that we broke.

And we now, if we wanna experience joy, we have to receive our king at a personal level. Not a collective level. That's already done. He's done established his kingship over the whole world. But he's got to establish his kingship over us and we've got to decide whether we will receive Jesus. Which means we'll stop trying to save ourselves, stop trying to fix ourselves because it doesn't really work.

And we have to make the choice to receive him as king at a personal level. So He begins rule and reign within our hearts. And in fact, He goes on in the song and He teaches us how to do that. He says this, Let every heart prepare Him room. Let every heart prepare Him room. You've got to choose to receive the, to receive the King.

Even though the Lord has come. And it's joyful news to the world. It only becomes joyful news to you when the King comes to you, when enters into your house, when he comes into your room and you've got to prepare for him to come, which means you've got to declutter. Some of us are so full of so much stuff.

There's no room for Jesus to come in. Some of us are consumed with things of this world that are just stopping him from coming and entering. Some of us are consumed by social media and Netflix and Stan and Hubble and some of us are gaming, we're consumed with that. Others have unforgiveness because someone has hurt us and someone has wounded us.

And we won't forgive and that's causing it to clutter up. Unhealthy relationships. Relationships that we know are not doing us well. And not helpful, they're leading us astray, but we don't let it go. We don't want to let it go. So that will cause clutter that will stop him from having room in your heart.

See that young man that I talked about, he truly believed that the grass would be greener on the other side when he got rid of his wife and his kids. The grass is not greener on the other side. The grass is greener where you water it. Where you spend time, where you spend energy, where you invest, that's where the grass gets greener.

So what question I got for you is, what do you need to declutter this Christmas? What do you need to let go of? Because it's this stuff here, that's what brings the Grinch out. Man, he loves all this stuff. He's in the mess and the brokenness. And no one can do this for you. This is a decision that you have to decide for yourself.

Will you allow, even though the Lord has come and established his kingship back over this world, will you allow him to have rule and reign in your heart? And you're gonna make room for that. I love the lyrics as he goes on through, he goes, he rules the world. He's letting us know me coming back here is reversing something that happened in the garden.

It's reversing something that happened. You had authority over this earth and you handed it to someone else called Satan. And that shifted, that broke, that destroyed everything. And since then he's had control. But me coming back, me bringing joy to the world is about establishing the right control. We let go of a loving, merciful king that was over us for a tyrant, miserable tyrant king that was bent on our destruction and he is still bent on humanity's destruction.

When Jesus came back, when Jesus come, sorry, when Jesus returned on this part, when he came as the child, he's saying, the Lord has come, the Lord has come, let earth receive her King. He's saying, he's saying, here's the deal. You don't have to stay under his control any longer. You can get out of it. And I love the way he portrays for the Carol about how, well, how'd he do it?

He said, well, he does it with truth and grace. People often think, when you think about truth and grace, Oh, well, like it's like, God is the right balance of truth and grace. No, no. He's 100 percent grace. He's a loving, merciful, generous God, but he's also 100 percent true. He's a just and holy God, and he will not turn a blind eye to sin.

And those two things have to be in place in order for Jesus to be able to rule and reign well. You have to have the same things in place. 100 percent truth, 100 percent grace. When I was a kid I used to play these machines and used to have a little, I put 20 cents in, I could play for like 15 minutes or something like that.

Now you get like four seconds, whatever it is, and it costs you five dollars. But you have to, I had to invest in the head and the tail of the coin to get it to work.

Ruling and reigning means you have to invest both sides of the coin. 100 percent grace and 100 percent truth. You cannot just be all sloppy, grace, grace, grace and let people sin. That is not loving. And you cannot be just truth, truth, truth with no grace and become judgmental and unmerciful. You have to have them both.

And he's saying, that's my rule, that's my reign, that's how I'm establishing this again. After what you lost it. Then he goes on and says, he makes the nations prove, which is an interesting word. He makes the nations prove. Prove what? What are you talking about? What he means is, he makes the nations prove, he says, he basically, behind it he's saying, you can test me on this.

You can test me and not, and see if I'm ruling and reigning well. You can actually see this. He's trying to tell the nations and now people are coming out from all nations and discovering faith in Christ and receiving him as king. So if you want joy, the Lord must come, but he can only come if you make room in your heart by receiving him.

And then he goes on, just says some really quick things, which I think is just amazing about this rule and reign that Christ has established. He says the greatness of his righteousness. What does that mean, the greatness of His righteousness? See, our righteousness, it tells us, is not very good. Our righteousness is not very good.

It's filthy rags, it actually talks about. It says, but His righteousness is perfect and is holy. So what this is about is saying, there's going to come a time, if you choose to receive the King, when that righteousness, your self righteousness, your pursuit of happiness, that will all go. And I will give you my righteousness, holy righteousness that gives you right standing.

It's amazing. And he goes on and talks about the wonders of his love. It's like, when I think about this world, the, the, the amount of grace and love and mercy and generous in God, it's beyond measure. And when you think that this particular thing of Christmas, it starts in a manger that then culminates in a cross 33 years later.

with a man dying on the cross, paying the penalty for your sins and my sins and the sins of the whole world, taking the punishment that we deserved from rebelling against God, saying, no, I'll go to hell on their behalf. I'll deal with the, I'll deal with the spiritual enemy. And then I will rise from the dead because I'm holy and I'm righteous and death can't control me.

And then he rises and goes, now, whosoever wants to can come. So it starts in the minds of men, it culminates. I, you know, it's just as well that I'm not God. Cause I, sometimes I think about my life and I go, and I think about what Jesus has done for people. And I go, I don't know if I'd even do that for me.

Seriously. I, it's like there is this amazing capacity in God to love and be gracious and merciful, but there is also this truth. There's this truth and there's this justice and this righteousness, which actually makes him fit to rule and reign. The reason the world got in such a big mess is after we handed it over to Satan, he didn't have any of the other part.

He just wants to create chaos. He wants to thrive off death and sin and brokenness, and he's done a fabulous job. So, because he's establishing his kingship. Then, I love what he says. So then heaven and nature sings. Literally heaven and nature is singing again. Why? Because that which was broken at the start has begun to be repaired.

The restoration process started at the birth of the baby. And it will culminate at the return of Christ. I love why just Dr. Luke, if you ever read the book of Luke, he's Dr. Luke, he's a very intelligent man. Um, For whatever reason, a lot of people were writing about Jesus and they were writing these accounts and Luke felt like, uh, well, I need to write an orderly account.

So obviously everyone else was a bit disorderly and some of the books you read and you can see what he's saying. But the reason that he wanted to write Luke and they also wrote the book of Acts and made it very orderly is that he did, he was dealing with the upper echelon of the leadership of their day.

So there was a guy called Theophilus that was involved and he just said, I want you to have absolute confidence. That what you are reading about Jesus is absolutely correct and absolutely right. So therefore, Luke's and Acts, he wrote this to say, Hey listen, you can trust this Theophilus. Because he's trying to reach some of the more privileged people within his, um, time.

But in Luke 2 he just says this, The angels bring news of great joy. For all people the Saviour is born. Simple statement, but man it culminates everything. It just wraps it up in there. Great news, great joy for all people. The Savior is born. Jesus birth was a declaration of hope that would help a word broken by sin.

But if we continue in the pursuit of happiness, we will end up in brokenness. We'll end up missing internal security. But if you make room, if you receive the King and the Lord will come, then joy will abound, happiness is a byproduct. Go the other way around trying to discover happiness out of brokenness.

It just goes from. Disaster to disaster, because happiness is a by product of holiness. So the big question for you is, what will you do about what we just talked about? You guys online too, what will you do about it? Will you stay trapped in the brokenness of sin? Will you still try and keep pursuing happiness?

Thinking that this is going to be able to make it right for you, but it won't. It's going to just get worse and worse. Or Well, you stop trying to fill that void of emptiness and say to Jesus, I'm sorry, I can't save myself. I thought I could have had a good go, but I really can't. And then just make room in your heart to receive the King.

So his rule and reign can come back within the line. He's establishing the rule and reign over the earth. That's it. That's a done deal. He's already taken care of that. That's a legal transaction that he's done, taking the leadership back of the earth. However, our hearts, he's still working through that rule and reign in our hearts with him because it has to come from a collective into a personal space.

But when you do and that joy comes, there is an inexpressible, unexplainable joy. It's amazing. It's totally amazing.

But if you just keep pursuing happiness, I'm telling you the Grinch will come out this Christmas and wreck it again. He Some of us already have people in mind that we know where the Grinch is going to be parking, you know, around our house. Because unless something changes in us, that will be the thing.

What's best for me? What can I get out of this? What's going to happen for me? And so therefore we end up losing it. And I want to be up front. There's a lot to whinge about. There really is a lot to whinge about when you think about the world. I mean, the economy, I mean, the cost of living, the lack of leadership in not only our nation, but every nation of the world.

It's just appalling. The way people treat each other, the absolute ugliness, every current affair program, anything you look at, it's like people treat each other the most in appalling ways, very un Jesus like. So there's a lot, there's a lot to whinge about.

But the reality is you can't change that. That's all above our pay grade. It's being outworked by Jesus and will be continuing outworked until he returns. So all we can do is say, well, I just need to accept the fact that this Jesus, it's not just a biblical thing. This is a historical, there's so much historical evidence about the birth of Christ and his death, burial and resurrection.

All I can do is make room in my heart. So that I change, and if enough human beings would actually do that, the people around them would change because they would see the light and the life of Christ in them. It's the only way to stop the Grinch. I know we laugh about around here that I'm the Grinch and this, that and the other, but seriously, if it wasn't for Christ, and for me continually, because of I don't know what happened, but because of the way that I feel about it, continually recognizing and making room for Jesus, for the King to rule and reign in my life.

So when the King is ruling and reigning in my life, when one of my family members does something that I just want to do something violent, you know, I, I just go, okay, Jesus, you know, like you, you need to rule and reign here. You need to rule and reign. Come on, help me out here. And so I don't do something violent.

Most of the time. There have been times in the past where I have blown it. I'm being upfront with you here. So you got to do this. It's the only way to stop it. So what I do is I pray a prayer. This is, this is no magical prayer, but this is how I start, started following Jesus. This is how I continue to follow Jesus every day.

I pray this probably at least once a day in some way, shape, or form. And I would encourage you, whether you're online or in the room, maybe consider praying this, because this is what makes room for Jesus in your heart. This is what makes room for His rule and reign. I just stopped each day. I said, Lord, you know, you know, I'm broken.

I'm still a work in progress and, uh, I know I can't fix myself because every time I try, it always ends in disaster. So I just say, I'm so thankful, Jesus, that you came to die for me. You came to do what I could not do. And so I invite you into my heart. I make room in my heart because I know that not every room inside this house of mine that's been affected over the years.

is actually got your rule and reign in it yet. Sometimes there's a lot more of me in there. So right now I just ask you to come in, grant me that joy that dispels the grinch that's always trying to pursue happiness, that I might just be whole in you. And it's, I pray that in some way, shape or form every day, because Jesus didn't say go make a comfort and convert and say a prayer and a church service.

He said, teach people to follow me, follow me every day. And when Jesus comes into your life, yes, you are positioned. When you receive Christ, you have eternal security, but you are not fully holy yet. Someone once said, you know, yeah, Jesus might be in your heart, but I can see granddad and grandma and mom and dad in your bones.

They're in there. And that takes a while for Jesus to get into those areas and rule and reign. Can you imagine, but if we could get people to start following Jesus like this, man, the joy to the world would become joy, not only to the world that the Lord has come, but the joy to my family, because Jesus has come, joy to my school, joy to the workplace that I work, joy everywhere.

What's that joy for that fly?

See, there was a time I could lose it with a fly. Could, but you imagine how much that would change. Everything would change. Listen, the old Pentecostal preachers of yesteryear, when they would say, when someone truly fully connects with Christ, when you receive Christ fully, and Christ is in your heart and you have that joy, you are spoiled for this world.

Which means nothing else really in this world will satisfy because that is the joy of the Lord. That is an eternal thing that is changing us. It's changing us. Now I know that some of us, some of us have been a bit beaten up, which is why the Grinch comes out quite a lot, and you know, uh, and some of us can get to the point where, I don't know, you throw the hand in the air because, and you can't even really be bothered to do anything for you.

So I'm going to appeal to us now, online and here too, even if you feel like you've been so bad that you don't even really want to do anything, you can't be bothered, uh, this is not about you. There are people around you, kids and family and friends, that could do with seeing Jesus this Christmas. They don't need the Grinch.

He's everywhere. He's everywhere. And you've got to look at him, there's things going on all the time. So, just to, in closing, I want to just tell you a story about, the pastor Wayne told me about a trip that he went on. Because it kind of helped you understand, and hopefully motivate you to maybe make the change to make room in your hearts and declutter.

He tells about driving down Route 66 and he came across this general store and there was a, a, a big veranda out the front, big wide veranda. Anyway, on this veranda was a dog and he was just laying there and anyway, passed away and kind of like parked his car and came walking up and he was just about to walk on the veranda and the dog goes, And he just looks at the dog.

What the heck? So he walked up a bit further and then about a few minutes later the old dog went, ROAR! This is weird. So he goes inside and he's walking around the store and all the time he can just hear this dog about every two or three minutes. ROAR! And so he asked the owner, he said to the owner, he said, Man, he said, mate, there's something wrong with your dog.

He must be in real pain. He goes, no, no, there's nothing wrong with He said, but why is he doing this thing? He said, well, that is a perfectly good veranda, but there is one nail sitting up. And every morning he comes here and he lays on it. And then he whinges and whines and carries on all the time. And he won't move.

And he goes, that's stupid. He said, why doesn't he move? He said to the owner. And the owner said, listen. He's not uncomfortable enough to move. He's just uncomfortable enough to whinge about it.

When it comes to all the stuff that can happen, the Grinch can bring out for us, and when it comes to making room in your heart, you have to declutter. And for some of us, that means getting off the nail. It means getting off the nail. We could all sit around all day long and whinge and whine about this and that.

Oh man, the amount of people with conspiracy theories about this and that and that. And I tell them, how's your family? Oh, they all hate me. Oh, that's working well. Okay. But change, make room for Jesus in your heart. Go love, bring some joy to your family. But oh no, five seconds later, Trump is the devil. I've got no money.

It's. We've got to get off the nail. That's what I want to say to you. And if you're here and, you know, like, that prayer you go, Well, I couldn't even be bothered doing that for me. Can I say, do it for your family. Do it for your friends. Do it for future generations. And you will learn to love God in the process.

And it'll be about you. But you've got to get off the nail. Let's pray. Father, I just thank you that you brought joy back into our world. And that's the great news of Jesus Christ. And Lord, we choose to make room in our hearts right now for your rule and your reign that you've already positionally taken back over this world.

I choose every day, Lord, you know, my brokenness to not allow that brokenness to rob me of joy. I just choose to silence the grinch. May our lives, may our lives prove to the world, as this song says, that it is possible to stop whining, get up off the nail and shift and actually find a relationship in Jesus Christ that brings absolute joy and love and grace and truth more every day.

Father, my prayer this Christmas is that we'd all move into that position of helping you to help us. Represent you better. Lord, may the joy to the world rule and reign in our hearts as we prepare and make room for you this Christmas. And I thank you in Jesus name. Amen.