Advent – Part 3

Joy – December 16, 2018

 Today is the third Sunday of Advent. In the traditional church calendar, Advent is not actually part of Christmas. It begins four Sundays before Christmas and ends on Christmas Eve.  

During Advent, we prepare for, and anticipate, the coming of Christ. We remember the longing of Jews for a Messiah and our own longing for, and need of, forgiveness, salvation and a new beginning.  

As we look back and celebrate the birth of Jesus, we also look forward, anticipating his second coming as the fulfillment of all that was promised by his first coming.  

Advent is a time to prepare our hearts for Christmas.  

Last week, we talked about love. Today, we’re going to talk about hope and I want to tell you another story. Before I do, I want to share some passages of Scripture with you.

• Nehemiah 8:10 (NIV) – …the joy of the Lord is your strength.
• Matthew 5:11–12 (NIV) – ¹¹ “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. ¹² Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for, in the same way, they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
• John 16:20–22 (NIV) – ²⁰ Very truly I tell you, you will weep and mourn while the world rejoices. You will grieve, but your grief will turn to joy. ²¹ A woman giving birth to a child has pain because her time has come, but when her baby is born she forgets the anguish because of her joy that a child is born into the world. ²² So with you: Now is your time of grief, but I will see you again and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy.
• Galatians 5:22 (NIV) – But the fruit of the Spirit is…joy…
• Philippians 4:4 (NIV) – Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!
• 1 Thessalonians 5:16 (NIV) – Rejoice always.
• James 1:2–3 (NIV) – ² Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, ³ because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.

           Joy is defined as a positive attitude or pleasant emotion caused by something good or satisfying. Joy can sound like happiness, but it isn’t. Happiness is related to external circumstances while joy comes from within. And for those of us who know Christ as savior, joy is a gift from God.

          In October 1969, a little girl was born into an athletic family in Baltimore. She loved life. As she grew up, she loved riding horses, playing tennis, and swimming.

          Her first recollections of hearing about the God of the Bible were with her parents and sisters sitting around a fire on the Delaware shore. But God wasn’t personal to her. All that change when she went away on a weekend church retreat when she was 14. The speaker asked the students to measure their lives to the 10 commandments. And while she’d never committed adultery, it struck her that she didn’t measure up to God’s standards. She gave her life to Christ that weekend.

          She came home from that weekend all fired up but that fire waned as she made her way through high school—especially when she started confusing the abundant Christian life with the American dream.

          Around her senior year in high school, she understood she wasn’t living right as a Christian. She didn’t want to go off to college and mess everything up. She asked God to do something in her life to help her get things right.

          A few weeks after graduation, her sister invited her to go to the beach. At some point, she swam out to a raft. Being a good swimmer, she hadn’t even touched bottom. She climbed up on the raft and dove into the water. Because she hadn’t touched bottom, she didn’t realize that the water was very shallow. Her head snapped back when she hit the bottom snapping her neck and damaging her spinal cord.

          She was lying face down in the water desperately hoping her sister would see what was happening. But she hadn’t been watching and didn’t notice the trouble until a crab bit her toe. The sister turned around to warn about the crabs and saw blonde hair floating on top of the water.

          She swam out and turned her sister over and at that moment fresh air had never felt so good in her life.

          She was rushed to the hospital and the family’s worst fears were confirmed. The spinal cord had been severed and the girl would be a quadriplegic—she would be paralyzed below the neck for the rest of her life.

She struggled for the next two years during rehab. She struggled with life, she struggled with God, and she struggled with paralysis. She hated the paralysis so much that she would drive her power wheelchair into walls, repeatedly banging them until they cracked. She found dark companions who helped her numb her depression with alcohol. She simply wanted to die.

She tried to get friends to help her commit suicide. None of her dreams would ever come to pass. She felt useless. Her life and her faith were wrecked.

None of her friends would help her end her life. In fact, she’s still alive today—51 years after that diving accident. Some of you are familiar with her story. Her name is Joni Eareckson Tada.

While friends would not help her end her life, they did offer unwanted advice and counsel about her situation. She got tired of hearing it. She was emotionally numb, frightened, and felt like she was all alone. She had many questions and most of them came from a place of anger…which was understandable. How could a loving God allow something so terrible to happen?

She knew, in a vague sort of way, that answers to her questions were probably hidden somewhere in the Bible, but she had no idea where. She needed someone to help her sort through the emotions, bring her out of the social isolation, and help her deal with the anger. She needed someone to help her find the answers.

She found that friend in a guy named Steve who was a year behind her in school. He didn’t have all the answers, but he sat with her, talked to her, prayed for her, listened to her, and helped her begin to see God’s perspective. She found other friends also. I recently read this in an article she wrote about 50 years in a wheelchair: I do what wise Christian friends once did with me. Back in the early ’70s when I was starting to take seriously Christ’s lordship in my life, my friends didn’t merely tell me biblical truth: “Here, believe this. Rejoice in your trial. It’ll do you a world of good.” Instead, they hooked up their spiritual veins to mine, pumping compassion into my wounded soul. Com means “with” and passion means “Christ’s suffering.” They literally were Christ-with-me-in-suffering. I wasn’t their spiritual project; I was their friend.

One night, a few Young Life friends who liked to sing picked me up for a late-night drive into Baltimore City. We ended up downtown at the railway station—a massive structure with travertine floors, marble columns, and vaulted ceilings. We found a corner and started harmonizing, our voices echoing throughout the station. An officious-looking guard approached and ordered us out of the building. “See that ‘no loitering’ sign? It’s 11 p.m. and you kids don’t belong here,” he barked. Then he pointed at me: “And you…put that wheelchair back where you found it. Right now!”

“But sir,” I insisted, “it’s mine.” He told me not to give him any lip and to put it back right away. When our little group started laughing, he realized his error. That night, when my friends got me home, one kneeled beside my chair: “Joni, that’s the first time I’ve ever heard you call it ‘my wheelchair.’ Thank you for doing that. You’re helping me own my problems, too.”

I had welcomed my trial as a friend. And it felt so good.

          Welcoming her trial as a friend was a key. Over the years, Joni has authored nearly 20 books. She learned to paint with a brush in her teeth. She has recorded numerous albums. She heads a ministry called “Joni and Friends” with a primary focus on people with disabilities.

          All that sounds great, but it has been a long and difficult road. She lives in constant pain. She battled cancer and was declared cancer-free in 2015 only to find out last month that cancer has returned.

          You can read her story in the book, Joni: An Unforgettable Story.

          In this Advent series, we’ve talked about how the Word (Jesus) became flesh and blood and moved into the neighborhood, (John 1:14, The Message). That was fulfillment of God’s promise from Leviticus 26:13, I’ll set up my residence in your neighborhood; I won’t avoid or shun you…I’ll be your God; you’ll be my people.

What’s really cool is that it’s also a promise that will be further fulfilled after Jesus’ second coming. John wrote in Rev. 21:3-5, I heard a voice thunder from the Throne: “Look! Look! God has moved into the neighborhood, making his home with men and women! They’re his people, he’s their God. He’ll wipe every tear from their eyes. Death is gone for good—tears gone, crying gone, pain gone—all the first order of things gone.” The Enthroned continued, “Look! I’m making everything new. Write it all down—each word dependable and accurate.”

          Advent is a time of anticipation. We look forward to a day when all things will be made new. Until that time comes, we have many assurances of God’s presence and work in our lives. I want to mention two this morning.

1. God has promised to never leave us or forsake us.
2. God has promised that all things can work together for the good of those who love him and are called according to his purpose.

I don’t know you may be going through in your life. I don’t know what challenges you are facing…but I know this: God is with you and he wants to use the challenge(s) for something good in your life…something that will benefit you, help others, and bring him glory.

It’s not an easy road…but it is a path to meaning and purpose through the difficulty. God doesn’t waste our experiences. He wants to use them to mold us and shape us so that he can better use us to share hope, love, and joy with folks who desperately need them.

Are you willing to invite God into your pain? Are you willing to let him teach you through it…not just deliver you from it? Are you willing to let God give you joy during your struggle?

I want you to listen to Joni talk about joy before I end this message. (Click here to listen)

Did you hear what she said? “Fight back with joy!” Joy is not found in passive acceptance of circumstances, “Oh well, what choice do I have?” Rather, it is found in active acceptance of circumstances and dependence on God’s presence and promises.