Latest / Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive / December 24, 2019 | Love Came Down - To Bring Us Joy

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December 24, 2019 | Love Came Down - To Bring Us Joy · Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive

0:00
SPEAKER_00: Good afternoon, good late afternoon, good Christmas Eve, late afternoon, how are you?
0:06
SPEAKER_00: I was anemic.
0:09
SPEAKER_00: I was Paisley and uh Presley Divine, Jeremiah and Amanda's children.
0:17
SPEAKER_00: They're pretty good.
0:20
SPEAKER_00: They're really cute.
0:23
SPEAKER_00: We'll have uh two more songs when I'm done.
0:26
SPEAKER_00: Unfortunately, they won't be the one singing them.
0:30
SPEAKER_00: You will.
0:30
SPEAKER_00: So glad you came out on Christmas Eve.
0:36
SPEAKER_00: Merry Christmas.
0:41
SPEAKER_00: I suspect some of you have seen the video since I think one out of ten Americans have watched it this week.
0:50
SPEAKER_00: There's a cynical dad, if you've seen it, or not seen it, there's a cynical father in Los Angeles decided to prank his toddler, his two-year-old, a little girl, to give her the worst president ever on purpose, and then sell video her reaction.
1:10
SPEAKER_00: So he calls two-year-old Aria into the living room, and uh he sits her on the sofa next to her mother, told her we have an early Christmas present for you.
1:22
SPEAKER_00: This is a couple days ago, and he hands her a gift-wrapped banana.
1:28
SPEAKER_00: Yes, he does.
1:30
SPEAKER_00: He started videoing her on his cell phone, and the result was the opposite of what he expected.
1:35
SPEAKER_00: Aria tore into this uh Christmas paper, and when she spotted that familiar flash of yellow, her whole face lit up.
1:47
SPEAKER_00: With utter joy, she began shrieking, banana, banana, as though this was her best gift ever, that she now owned her own banana.
1:56
SPEAKER_00: She's bouncing around, kicking her legs so high that her mother in the video has to help her remove the last vestiges of the paper.
2:04
SPEAKER_00: At which point the little girl holds the banana up to her mom and orders her to open it.
2:12
SPEAKER_00: So her mother obediently peels the banana, she takes a bite, she says, yummy.
2:18
SPEAKER_00: Her mom asks, Are you happy with your present?
2:21
SPEAKER_00: She says, Yeah, I happy.
2:24
SPEAKER_00: So last I looked over 30 million uh people this morning had seen that video, and watching, you know, the innocent and sincere excitement of that child just makes us happy.
2:42
SPEAKER_00: A lot better, by the way, isn't it, than watching those videos, which I, for some morbid reason, am addicted to of the children who hate their present and throw it at the prayer.
2:50
SPEAKER_00: Have you ever seen any of those where you know they didn't get the cell phone or they got the wrong brand of train set or something?
2:56
SPEAKER_00: And you seen any of those?
2:57
SPEAKER_00: Don't look at me that way.
2:58
SPEAKER_00: And you know they're really mad and they scream and they throw a tantrum and you laugh, like because you're a carnal person like I am.
3:07
SPEAKER_00: But you're also sad, and we know that Christmas is not about sadness, Christmas is all about joy.
3:12
SPEAKER_00: In fact, almost all of the songs you've sung tonight have been about joy, starting with joy to the world.
3:19
SPEAKER_00: Because Christmas really is all about joy.
3:21
SPEAKER_00: It's not whiny Santa, it's jolly old Santa, right?
3:24
SPEAKER_00: And it's the central theme of Christmas.
3:28
SPEAKER_00: It just is.
3:29
SPEAKER_00: In fact, half of all of our Christmas carols have rejoice in them.
3:33
SPEAKER_00: Not just have rejoice in them, they command us to rejoice as though it's a responsibility, as though it's a duty, as though we have absolutely no choice.
3:41
SPEAKER_00: Good Christian men rejoice with heart and soul and voice.
3:45
SPEAKER_00: So come, all ye faithful, joyful and triumphant.
3:48
SPEAKER_00: Hark the herald, etc.
3:50
SPEAKER_00: Joyful, all ye nations, right.
3:52
SPEAKER_00: So I'm going to uh say that maybe they have uh maybe they have something going for them because after all, they didn't make that up.
4:01
SPEAKER_00: They get it from the Christmas story in the Bible, which no less than eight times has an angel or somebody else giving us the command to rejoice.
4:14
SPEAKER_00: The problem is this.
4:17
SPEAKER_00: The problem is, and this is my title tonight, Love Came Down to Bring Us Joy.
4:22
SPEAKER_00: The problem is that it's not always easy to be happy.
4:26
SPEAKER_00: Some December is easier to smile than other December.
4:30
SPEAKER_00: Some Christmases, there are joy drainers around.
4:35
SPEAKER_00: They usually fall into one of two categories, circumstances and people.
4:41
SPEAKER_00: Let's take people first.
4:43
SPEAKER_00: People like that, uh, like any Santa who just keeps saying ho, ho, ho.
4:49
SPEAKER_00: That'll drain your joy.
4:51
SPEAKER_00: Or then the guy who pretended to be Santa without a Santa outfit that the Wisconsin police uh arrested in a bar, mid-40s, mid-50s, Richard, and he just kept saying ho, ho, ho, and calling everybody his little elf in the bar.
5:04
SPEAKER_00: They called the cops.
5:05
SPEAKER_00: He said he couldn't go with them until his sleigh and the reindeer got there.
5:09
SPEAKER_00: They said he stayed in, you know, in costume or in part, you know, all the way down to the police station.
5:15
SPEAKER_00: My goodness.
5:16
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes it's the kids.
5:18
SPEAKER_00: It's some, let's be honest, sorry kids, but sometimes it's you kids that sort of drain the joy out of Christmas.
5:23
SPEAKER_00: The Dennis the Menace cartoon, you know, where he goes in carrying a box to his mother whose mouth falls open.
5:29
SPEAKER_00: He says, you know, we got to contact Santa right away today because you know that train set that I asked for for Christmas?
5:36
SPEAKER_00: I just found one at the top of Dad's closet, you know.
5:41
SPEAKER_00: There are certain children that make it hard to rejoice at Christmas.
5:48
SPEAKER_00: And another reason our joy tank can be low at Christmas is because of circumstances.
5:55
SPEAKER_00: Lack of money, for example.
5:57
SPEAKER_00: You have out of a job, or you know, maybe you got the Christmas card like that one guy did from the bank holding the mortgage.
6:05
SPEAKER_00: Merry Christmas, the card read, from our house to our house.
6:11
SPEAKER_00: You know, and and you and there are certain struggles, or maybe it's maybe it's sickness or some crisis around.
6:18
SPEAKER_00: You know, there's stuff going around.
6:20
SPEAKER_00: Am I right?
6:20
SPEAKER_00: There's a germ going around.
6:22
SPEAKER_00: It's just absolutely crazy.
6:24
SPEAKER_00: I mean, this week out of the 19 members in our family, parents, children, grandchildren, half of them, more than half of them, have got this bug and been down and been embracing the big white telephone, the porcelain cabinet, the whatever, for one of two or both of two reasons.
6:45
SPEAKER_00: And just crazy.
6:47
SPEAKER_00: And I have a 10-year-old grandson who's been in the hospital this week, was rushed in there a couple days ago for breathing problems, and circumstances like that.
6:56
SPEAKER_00: We've already decided it's not going to be our most fun Christmas ever, but it'll certainly be our most memorable Christmas ever.
7:04
SPEAKER_00: Right?
7:04
SPEAKER_00: There's certain circumstances.
7:06
SPEAKER_00: In fact, a member of our extended family who would normally be right here at this service.
7:10
SPEAKER_00: You know, he and his wife have to take off because close relatives in his mid-50s, a farmer in western Kansas found dead this week in his kitchen.
7:21
SPEAKER_00: And those things just shock.
7:22
SPEAKER_00: And sometimes, sometimes it's the people who are not here for Christmas.
7:27
SPEAKER_00: You're gonna miss somebody who was here last Christmas and they're not gonna be at Christmas again.
7:32
SPEAKER_00: And because of those things, sometimes your joy simply gets sapped.
7:37
SPEAKER_00: But it's as though Luke foresaw all of that when he wrote his gospel because he mentions joy repeatedly at the beginning of this gospel, even though things are not going very well.
7:50
SPEAKER_00: And this is clearly this verse, this is our theme verse today, is clearly a verse that commands joy.
7:57
SPEAKER_00: I bring you good tidings.
7:59
SPEAKER_00: This is the angel Gabriel, middle of the night, to the shepherds.
8:02
SPEAKER_00: I bring you good news, good tidings of great joy, which shall be for all people.
8:07
SPEAKER_00: Now, all people is a little bit of a surprise because he's speaking to Jews.
8:11
SPEAKER_00: Everybody's Jews back then.
8:12
SPEAKER_00: Jesus came to save his people from their sins, and he says he's bringing it to all people, which is pretty significant.
8:19
SPEAKER_00: I mean, like somebody said, roses are reddish, violets are bluish, and if there wasn't Christmas, we'd all be Jewish.
8:25
SPEAKER_00: Think about that for a minute.
8:28
SPEAKER_00: I apologize to any of you who happen to, yeah.
8:32
SPEAKER_00: But no, the interesting thing is that this is really good news for everyone.
8:38
SPEAKER_00: And it seems to me that as you look at the words that the angels said to the shepherds, we have ourselves three ways, we weak and wounded people, for whom this Christmas is not what past Christmases have been.
8:56
SPEAKER_00: A way to fulfill the command of Scripture to rejoice this Christmas.
9:01
SPEAKER_00: And the first tip, or the first way to do this, comes right out of one of the last words in the verse.
9:06
SPEAKER_00: I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.
9:09
SPEAKER_00: I uh the good tidings are here, for unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior who is Christ the Lord.
9:16
SPEAKER_00: There is a person here that is the good news.
9:19
SPEAKER_00: Your joy comes in a person.
9:22
SPEAKER_00: You can say, I'm gonna be happy, I'm gonna be glad, I'm gonna rejoice because of a person.
9:31
SPEAKER_00: The Bible is just full of this idea that the reason we should rejoice is we should rejoice in the Lord or delight ourselves in the Lord, and not in circumstances, not in uh you know, higher income, not in.
9:50
SPEAKER_00: I mean, because those things, everything lets us down.
9:52
SPEAKER_00: Am I right?
9:53
SPEAKER_00: People let us down.
9:54
SPEAKER_00: The Bible's clear about that in Proverbs.
9:57
SPEAKER_00: Don't trust people because eventually everyone, your doctor, your lawyer, your accountant, your spouse, your parents, your children, everybody will always let you down.
10:06
SPEAKER_00: You put your hope for happiness in people, you'll be disappointed.
10:09
SPEAKER_00: There was a guy who became a close friend of mine.
10:12
SPEAKER_00: He'd come here to church a few times, his life was clearly a mess.
10:15
SPEAKER_00: I wanted to talk to him.
10:16
SPEAKER_00: He said, Well, you're gonna have to talk to me where I work.
10:18
SPEAKER_00: Where do you work?
10:19
SPEAKER_00: I'm a bartender.
10:20
SPEAKER_00: I said, This is cool.
10:22
SPEAKER_00: I got I got a reason to go to a bar that I can defend in heaven.
10:26
SPEAKER_00: So, anyway, so I go to the bar and I and for a while, I just watch him serve, and then he has a little bit of a break.
10:32
SPEAKER_00: Comes, sits down, and he says, and I said, So how you doing?
10:35
SPEAKER_00: Not good.
10:36
SPEAKER_00: I said, uh, so why not?
10:38
SPEAKER_00: He says, Is it too much for me to ask God, the God that I've been listening to you talk about for the last month?
10:46
SPEAKER_00: Is it too much for me to ask God to give me a little happiness?
10:50
SPEAKER_00: I said, Really, what would make you happy?
10:53
SPEAKER_00: His answer was a woman.
10:56
SPEAKER_00: She had a name, she just wouldn't return his phone calls.
11:01
SPEAKER_00: And he's crying at the bar.
11:06
SPEAKER_00: I said, you know, buddy, you're you're settling for way too little.
11:11
SPEAKER_00: I like women, but I mean I just mean he's settling for way too.
11:14
SPEAKER_00: Then I shared with him what C.S.
11:16
SPEAKER_00: Lewis said about that, that we are like children who settle for playing to make making mud pies when there's actually a holiday at the ocean offered us, or we're like that 10-year-old that you buy the$200, you know, dollhouse for, and then she plays the rest of the day with the box that it came in, or like a little kid, you buy this expensive toy, and the child plays with the plastic.
11:38
SPEAKER_00: C.
11:39
SPEAKER_00: S.
11:39
SPEAKER_00: Lewis said, you know, our our our desires are way too low.
11:43
SPEAKER_00: He said, we we uh we fool around with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is being offered us.
11:52
SPEAKER_00: No, the Bible's really clear that our desires are too low, not too high.
11:56
SPEAKER_00: It's just that we try to fulfill them with the wrong people or the wrong things with a second income or sexual adventures or some sort of uh you know excitement.
12:04
SPEAKER_00: And that just doesn't, and you know it's never worked for you.
12:08
SPEAKER_00: But the Bible is clear there is one person, one person who's ever lived, one person born in a manger in Bethlehem, and that person can make you happy so that tomorrow, as you're sitting there, if you're absolutely angry, bored, frustrated because of circumstances or people, you can go, thank you, Lord, for Jesus.
12:28
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for the Lord Jesus Christ.
12:30
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for Christ the Lord, because a person can make you happy.
12:34
SPEAKER_00: Why settle for more?
12:37
SPEAKER_00: And miss the best.
12:40
SPEAKER_00: Miss the person of Jesus.
12:43
SPEAKER_00: The second thing that I think we learn from this comes from halfway through the verse, I bring you good tidings.
12:48
SPEAKER_00: The angel said of great joy unto you who's born this day in the city of David, a Savior who is Christ the Lord.
12:54
SPEAKER_00: I can be glad, I can be happy, I can rejoice because this person has saved me.
13:01
SPEAKER_00: Jesus said to his disciples just a year or so later, he said, How come you guys are always arguing over who's the most important and who's going to be in the C-suite in heaven, the C O O, the CFO, the CEO?
13:15
SPEAKER_00: How come you're always arguing about this kind of stuff that doesn't satisfy?
13:19
SPEAKER_00: Would you just rejoice?
13:21
SPEAKER_00: Here it comes, that your names are written in the Lamb's Book of Life.
13:24
SPEAKER_00: And what he meant was because you've trusted me as your personal savior.
13:30
SPEAKER_00: Your name's been written in heaven.
13:32
SPEAKER_00: I've saved you.
13:36
SPEAKER_00: Let me talk to you a second, just about salvation.
13:39
SPEAKER_00: Really quickly, in the Bible, it's like a four-sided painting, it's like a picture, and at the top of the picture, there is the rescuer, the deliverer, the savior, right?
13:47
SPEAKER_00: And at the bottom of the picture is you, the person needing to be rescued, the person needing to be saved, the person needing help.
13:54
SPEAKER_00: And then it's like the famous statement, Christ came and rescued me.
14:00
SPEAKER_00: And then for on the left hand side, you have this terrible horror that you're being saved from.
14:05
SPEAKER_00: You have the fire, you have the water, you have the crisis that you're being saved from.
14:09
SPEAKER_00: And then on the right hand side is the delight, the wonderful thing that you're being saved to.
14:15
SPEAKER_00: That's what salvation always is.
14:17
SPEAKER_00: There's a rescuer, a rescued, a danger, and a delight.
14:22
SPEAKER_00: And the promise of scripture is you trust in Christ, what happened?
14:25
SPEAKER_00: Let's just say you trusted him today.
14:27
SPEAKER_00: Let's say you became a Christian for the first time.
14:29
SPEAKER_00: You trusted him today, this afternoon, late this afternoon.
14:32
SPEAKER_00: You you looked at the cross, you said, Thank you for dying for me.
14:35
SPEAKER_00: I can't do it by myself.
14:37
SPEAKER_00: I trust in you.
14:38
SPEAKER_00: At that moment, you become saved.
14:39
SPEAKER_00: And what that means is now, at this moment, you trade in a hopeless end for endless hope.
14:49
SPEAKER_00: So you never need to worry about what happens after death.
14:52
SPEAKER_00: That happens guaranteed.
14:54
SPEAKER_00: Period.
14:54
SPEAKER_00: End of sentence right now.
14:55
SPEAKER_00: You're as sure of heaven as if you'd been there a hundred years already.
14:59
SPEAKER_00: As you go through life, then you are continually being saved from your addictions and your selfishness and that stuff that makes your spouse shake their head and so forth.
15:08
SPEAKER_00: You know, you're being saved.
15:09
SPEAKER_00: Gradually, the Holy Spirit works in you and you're becoming a better person, and then one day you will be saved in the future.
15:15
SPEAKER_00: That's when you are saved from death, eternal death, even, to life, to eternal life.
15:20
SPEAKER_00: That's salvation.
15:21
SPEAKER_00: And wow.
15:22
SPEAKER_00: So that tomorrow, when you're bored, angry, upset, when the circumstances of the people are driving you batty, you can go, thank you for you, Lord Jesus Christ, and the fact that you have saved me.
15:36
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
15:37
SPEAKER_00: One more thing that I added this week, because this week has been crazy for the Congden household, all right?
15:44
SPEAKER_00: And that is the fact that it did say the word this day.
15:47
SPEAKER_00: Until you was born this day in the city of David a Savior, and so I thought I'd add, I'm gonna rejoice in this day.
15:54
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna rejoice in this moment.
15:56
SPEAKER_00: And the reason I say that is two days ago, you know, the first half dozen, six, seven, eight of the Congdons got sick, but they were all the little ankle biters, okay?
16:04
SPEAKER_00: They were the ones that, you know, we'll take care of them.
16:07
SPEAKER_00: It's a hassle.
16:08
SPEAKER_00: You know, one of them threw up on Melody 11 times in the nighttime, and I was so happy that I had wisely decided to sleep elsewhere.
16:15
SPEAKER_00: So, um, but anyway, so but we're going, come on, kids, buck up, only three days to Christmas, whatever, you know.
16:22
SPEAKER_00: You know, you can do this.
16:23
SPEAKER_00: Be happy, be happy, be happy.
16:24
SPEAKER_00: We're like the angel, man.
16:26
SPEAKER_00: We're telling them to rejoice, and we've got it down pat, and then something happened on the way to Disneyland.
16:32
SPEAKER_00: It all switched.
16:34
SPEAKER_00: Like yesterday afternoon, the kids all started getting well and the adults all got sick.
16:40
SPEAKER_00: All of a sudden, Christmas wasn't nearly as much fun.
16:44
SPEAKER_00: Not at all.
16:47
SPEAKER_00: And then we sort of looked at each other and said, you know, okay, gonna be our most memorable Christmas ever.
16:52
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna just refuse not to rejoice.
16:55
SPEAKER_00: So, come in, we're gonna be happy.
16:57
SPEAKER_00: We obviously can't be happy about the sickness, can't be happy about the fact we're quarantining part of the family at this house and so forth.
17:06
SPEAKER_00: Last night I'm in the hospital with my 10-year-old, spending hours with him teaching him Jinrami and telling him repeatedly, hey, stop coughing.
17:14
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you ought to close your mouth really hard so you stop.
17:17
SPEAKER_00: You know, I'm giving him all this good advice that we adults give our grandchildren, you know, when they need our help.
17:22
SPEAKER_00: And, you know, he's just straining.
17:24
SPEAKER_00: I'm saying, maybe, maybe you ought to do this.
17:27
SPEAKER_00: So, unfortunately, today I come down with something, okay?
17:32
SPEAKER_00: And I try to hide it for a while, but it gets, it gets, it's really obvious.
17:36
SPEAKER_00: And so it gets advertised.
17:38
SPEAKER_00: And half an hour before I come here for the first of these shows several hours ago, I get a text from him on his mother's phone in the hospital saying, maybe you should wear a diaper, Papa.
17:53
SPEAKER_00: Wow.
17:54
SPEAKER_00: Can I say a word about the lack of respect in the younger generation for the older generation these days?
18:02
SPEAKER_00: But in all of this, it's been a great reminder that, yeah, we can be weak, we can be wounded, we can have trouble.
18:08
SPEAKER_00: It cannot, maybe not our ideal December, but at the same time, there's a command.
18:13
SPEAKER_00: It is a command that we rejoice, and we can go back and remember the words of the angel who said, I bring you good tidings of a great joy, which shall be to all people that unto you is born this day a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.
18:27
SPEAKER_00: That I can remember a person who's transformed my life, the most wonderful person in the world, and rejoice at him.
18:34
SPEAKER_00: I can rejoice, I can be glad, I can be happy that this person is the one who has saved me forever.
18:40
SPEAKER_00: And I can determine that I'm gonna rejoice on this day.
18:44
SPEAKER_00: Would you join me in a word of prayer?
18:48
SPEAKER_00: Father, we thank you so much for the fact that you've made everything possible for us through your son Jesus Christ, who loved us and gave himself for us and came down as we now celebrate, came down in a manger so many years ago.
19:06
SPEAKER_00: We ask that you give us grace to be glad, to be happy, and to rejoice this Christmas.
19:12
SPEAKER_00: In Jesus' name.
19:14
SPEAKER_00: Amen.