SPEAKER_00: Ministering to the heart of Western Arkansas's River Valley for over 165 years, welcome to Chapter and First, the Bible teaching ministry of Fort Smith's First Baptist Church.
SPEAKER_00: You'll find sermons and teachings from Pastor Greg, our ministry staff, and guest speakers.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for listening.
SPEAKER_01: Today, as Jacob was getting ready for this, he came in with the uh the title for this, The Joy at Christmas.
SPEAKER_01: And so, Pastor, as we as he was thinking through that, he thought, let's make the month of December about joy.
SPEAKER_01: And if you look at the little word joy, it has three letters and and and how can the word joy can just make you smile.
SPEAKER_01: You can't help but to walk in these doors today and see the lights around the poles, the lights, and it just bring a smile to you.
SPEAKER_01: We came in this uh the last two days, Southside had been here singing, and it was just joy to hear the singing in the room about and it was a public school singing about Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: The joy of that.
SPEAKER_01: It reminds me back when I was growing up, the uh now time has changed.
SPEAKER_01: When my wife comes now and says it's time to put up the Christmas tree, I'm trying to find things to do.
SPEAKER_01: But when I was a kid, when I was a kid, I was excited.
SPEAKER_01: It was exciting.
SPEAKER_01: My dad would say this.
SPEAKER_01: We, when you get home from school, we are going to go get a Christmas tree.
SPEAKER_01: And I remember all day long I was excited.
SPEAKER_01: I was, oh, I could not wait to get home.
SPEAKER_01: I remember getting home, could not wait for dad to come home, and we would get in the car and we would head to something.
SPEAKER_01: There's not very many of them anymore.
SPEAKER_01: A tree lot.
SPEAKER_01: There'd be these trees out there, and my dad would go and he would grab the tree and he'd give it a boom like that, hoping things fell.
SPEAKER_01: And then my mom would circle the entire tree, and I think we would pick up every tree in the tree lot until we found that perfect one.
SPEAKER_01: And when we'd find the perfect one, dad would say, or mom would say, mom would say, that's it.
SPEAKER_01: We'd go pay for it and they'd wrap it in string, they would take it, and they would put it on the top of our station wagon.
SPEAKER_01: Yes, we had a station wagon.
SPEAKER_01: And normally it was the ugliest vehicle.
SPEAKER_01: I was embarrassed to ride in it.
SPEAKER_01: But the day that we put the Christmas tree on top of the station wagon, I could not have been more proud.
SPEAKER_01: That was before seat belts.
SPEAKER_01: So I was not in my seatbelts.
SPEAKER_01: I was looking out the window with the biggest smile on my face.
SPEAKER_01: So proud of what was on top of our car, the Christmas tree.
SPEAKER_01: And then when we got home, what would we do?
SPEAKER_01: We would undo it, and then dad would get his saw, and we would saw a little bit off.
SPEAKER_01: We would put it in the stand and we would look at it until it was perfectly straight.
SPEAKER_01: And when it was perfectly straight, we would take it in and we would spend time putting on ornaments.
SPEAKER_01: One at a time, putting on the lights.
SPEAKER_01: And then at the very end, we would stand at the top.
SPEAKER_01: We had all these ladders and different things, and we would dad would set the camera and we would hold on to the star and take a family picture.
SPEAKER_01: I remember the next morning I would wake up and say, I'm watering the Christmas tree.
SPEAKER_01: My sister would turn on the lights.
SPEAKER_01: You would go out of your way to do what?
SPEAKER_01: Look at that Christmas tree.
SPEAKER_01: Two weeks go into it, no one wanted to water the tree anymore.
SPEAKER_01: There were days the lights didn't even come on.
SPEAKER_01: Think about this when Christmas was over, it just sat there.
SPEAKER_01: What would we do?
SPEAKER_01: Finally, eventually, we would do what?
SPEAKER_01: We would take the ornaments off the tree, take that beautiful Christmas tree, by the way, the needles were all falling off now, and we took it to the curb for the trash men to come pick it up.
SPEAKER_01: As we think of the word joy, that's not the joy that we want to talk about this month.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus brought joy into the world in just simple, practical ways.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus brought joy into the world when he healed someone, when he cast out a demon, or when he forgave sin.
SPEAKER_01: Joy was an immediate result.
SPEAKER_01: Think about the guy that was blind and Jesus healed him, and the religious leaders came to him and said, How in the world can you see?
SPEAKER_01: What happened?
SPEAKER_01: Can you imagine the smile on his face?
SPEAKER_01: The joy because he experienced Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Remember what he said?
SPEAKER_01: I have no idea.
SPEAKER_01: I was blind, but now I see.
SPEAKER_01: What about the lady at the well?
SPEAKER_01: Remember, she snuck to the well.
SPEAKER_01: She was embarrassed who she was.
SPEAKER_01: She snuck to the well to get water, and that day, what did she do?
SPEAKER_01: She met Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: The joy.
SPEAKER_01: She went back into the town that she was embarrassed of and saying what?
SPEAKER_01: I met the Messiah.
SPEAKER_01: As we think of the joy that Jesus brought, we can also see in the early church.
SPEAKER_01: As they were preaching, as they were teaching, the book of Acts says that joy followed their messages.
SPEAKER_01: Humanity yearns for a hope, a meaning, and a purpose.
SPEAKER_01: Without God, as a vital part of our existence, we get stuck in emptiness.
SPEAKER_01: Can't we see that?
SPEAKER_01: That Christmas tree that we decorated that brought joy to our family, eventually what?
SPEAKER_01: It went away.
SPEAKER_01: Like we saw in the video, and like we talked here.
SPEAKER_01: Between the book of Malachi and Matthew, there was four hundred years of silence.
SPEAKER_01: We are setting up.
SPEAKER_01: God was setting up for one of the greatest days ever.
SPEAKER_01: That's why I think the verse in John, John 1 14, says the word, and if you look up in John 1 1, the word here is Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: The word became flesh and dwelt among us.
SPEAKER_01: God would become man and live among us.
SPEAKER_01: We see the story.
SPEAKER_01: If we look back in the first part of Luke, what Jesus staged through the prophecies that Jesus or Joseph and Mary would leave Nazareth.
SPEAKER_01: They would go to Bethlehem.
SPEAKER_01: And can you believe our Savior?
SPEAKER_01: Can you imagine the journey that Joseph was walking?
SPEAKER_01: Joseph he spoke to the angel.
SPEAKER_01: But I'm sure he still had questions.
SPEAKER_01: God, I don't get it.
SPEAKER_01: This is the Messiah.
SPEAKER_01: We're heading here.
SPEAKER_01: He w they walk in.
SPEAKER_01: And then to make it even matters even just even crazier, they go into Bethlehem and what?
SPEAKER_01: They cannot find a place to stay.
SPEAKER_01: Can you imagine Joseph going?
SPEAKER_01: The Messiah.
SPEAKER_01: And then they go into the manger.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, they go into the stable.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is born.
SPEAKER_01: They wrapped him in swallowing clothes, like the scripture says, and they laid him in the manger.
SPEAKER_01: And then I want to read to you, listen to what Luke 2, starting in verse 8, says.
SPEAKER_01: Then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified.
SPEAKER_01: But the angel said to them, Do not be afraid, for look, I proclaim to you good news of great joy that will be for all people.
SPEAKER_01: Today in the city of David, a Savior was born for you, who is the Messiah, the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: When the angels announced this, can you imagine that night?
SPEAKER_01: They're sitting there.
SPEAKER_01: The angels typically were probably saying this.
SPEAKER_01: Man, I should have gone to school.
SPEAKER_01: I would not have to be out here watching these sheep.
SPEAKER_01: Man, where is that sheep that we're always looking for?
SPEAKER_01: This is a typical night.
SPEAKER_01: They had no idea.
SPEAKER_01: They are sitting there.
SPEAKER_01: Then all of a sudden, like scripture says, can you imagine this?
SPEAKER_01: Now I've been to some pretty neat fireworks.
SPEAKER_01: I've drone, I've drove to Fayetteville when the leaves are fallen out.
SPEAKER_01: What a spectacular view.
SPEAKER_01: I have skied before when the sun was setting.
SPEAKER_01: What a spectacular view.
SPEAKER_01: But can you imagine this night?
SPEAKER_01: Just listen to it.
SPEAKER_01: Listen to it again.
SPEAKER_01: Then an angel of the Lord stood before them.
SPEAKER_01: That alone probably just made them shake in their shoes.
SPEAKER_01: But then it says this.
SPEAKER_01: And the glory of the Lord shone round about them.
SPEAKER_01: God showed up for the shepherds.
SPEAKER_01: And then he says to the angels, do not be afraid.
SPEAKER_01: I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all people.
SPEAKER_01: That great joy was the truth.
SPEAKER_01: That the God who seemed so far off had come in human flesh.
SPEAKER_01: He was to be called Emmanuel.
SPEAKER_01: What a word! What a word picture! Emmanuel is what?
SPEAKER_01: God with us.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus had come to rescue, save, and heal.
SPEAKER_01: But most importantly, he came to make mankind right with God.
SPEAKER_01: That was a cause for great joy.
SPEAKER_01: Because Jesus came and a sinful man has the opportunity to come into the presence of a holy God and be pronounced not guilty.
unknown: Wow.
SPEAKER_01: I think Paul sums it up in one verse that I think is a spectacular verse, like all the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: But listen to what 2 Corinthians 5.21 says.
SPEAKER_01: He made the one who did not know sin.
SPEAKER_01: He was perfect, never had a sinful thought.
SPEAKER_01: He made the one who did not know sin to be the sin for us.
SPEAKER_01: So that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible says in Romans, for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.
SPEAKER_01: Then if you continue, it says, for the wages of sin is death.
SPEAKER_01: We deserve separation from God forever.
SPEAKER_01: We deserve that period of silence.
SPEAKER_01: But thank goodness it doesn't stop there.
SPEAKER_01: But the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
SPEAKER_01: It reminds me of my one of the most memorized scriptures of all time.
SPEAKER_01: And the picture of, I think, what Christmas is, and that's John 3.16.
SPEAKER_01: For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
SPEAKER_01: Wow, what a gift.
SPEAKER_01: What a picture.
SPEAKER_01: So tonight, I want you to think with me.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe you're sitting here today and you realize today your sin just pops up, and you realize today that you're separated from a holy, just, righteous God.
SPEAKER_01: And today you need to get your life right.
SPEAKER_01: Through faith, you need to say, Lord, I am sorry for my sins.
SPEAKER_01: Will you forgive me of my sins?
SPEAKER_01: And then there may be some of you today, kind of like myself, that goes into cycles that I know I've given my life to Christ, but so many times in my life, I push over the king and get him off the throne, and I try to take throne myself.
SPEAKER_01: And the joy we're talking today is the joy of knowing we can set back and put the true king on the throne of our lives.
SPEAKER_01: In just a moment, we're going to sing the song Joy to the World.
SPEAKER_01: And I think after we've sung the songs we had today, and as we just dive into God's word, we can sing this song with a little more conviction.
SPEAKER_01: Listen to it.
SPEAKER_01: Joy to the world.
SPEAKER_01: The Lord is come.
SPEAKER_01: Let Earth receive her king.
SPEAKER_01: Pray with me.
SPEAKER_01: I don't even know where to start, God.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you for that spectacular day when you left heaven and you came here to live among us and live a perfect life.
SPEAKER_01: And Lord, if there's someone in this room today that needs you, Lord, I ask you just to speak to them, help them realize that sin separates them and that you do love them.
SPEAKER_01: And Lord, others like myself, Lord, help us this week and this holiday season to experience the true joy of who you are and the relationship you want with each one of us.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, as we sing this time of invitation, Lord, I ask you just to take over this service, fill this place, and speak to our hearts.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus' name I pray.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: We pray this message has been a blessing to you and helped to strengthen your walk with Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Please know we want to minister to you and pray for you.
SPEAKER_00: Send an email to contact us at fsfbc.org and let us pray for you and help you in any way we can.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for listening to Chapter and First, the Bible Teaching Ministry of Fort Smith First Baptist Church.