Good News of Great Joy

My name is Rene. I'm one of the other pastors here at Twin Lakes Church. So glad you guys joined us to be here together tonight. I want to invite you to take your programs and flip them over to the back. That's where you see the scripture for tonight. And also the message title, "Good News for a Change" is what we've been calling our message series all during the month of December. Because that is the point of Christmas. And would you agree, in our world today, we need some good news for a change, right?

I mean, there's so much negativity and so much anxiety. How do you deal with all that? I was reading the other day about the movie star Sigourney Weaver. Do you remember her? And her husband, they went to a remote Pacific Island location for the holidays. They found a place, had to spend extra for this, but they found a place with no cell signal and no Wi-Fi and no cable. So there was no Internet, no news, no Facebook. Why? She called it her "bad news detox." Doesn't that sound good?

Now, good for them. They can go to a place like that. But here's my question. For those few of us here tonight who probably aren't able to rent a Pacific Island, what is our option? Is there a place that we could go mentally like that? Is there a place we can go any time of any day spiritually, where when bad news starts to overwhelm us, we can find some hope and we can find some peace and we can find some good news for a change? Is there a place like that? No. Let's close in a word of prayer. No, just kidding. There is. That's why we're here tonight. Let's figure out how to get there, though.

There's a man named Anthony de Benedet, a medical doctor, and he went through a time of being just overwhelmed by bad news, kept having anxiety attacks, almost had to quit his practice. In fact, he took a sabbatical to discover, "How can I get over almost an addiction to bad news and discouragement?" And he wrote a book that just came out about his recovery. Now watch this, about how he discovered all kinds of research about what he calls the power of wonder to heal anxiety and discouragement.

It turns out that human beings need wonder and awe to thrive, not just psychologically, but also physically. He says in all the research, there are two categories of things that give people a sense of wonder: things bigger than me and things smaller than me, like the Pacific Ocean and the inside of a seashell, a redwood forest and the inside of a daffodil, a starry night sky and a baby. The big and the small gives me a sense of wonder, and it right-sizes all of my anxieties and all my problems. And so we need to go to places like that, and we need to feel that kind of wonder to get reset emotionally, spiritually, psychologically.

Well, I read that and I thought, well then the best possible place for wonder is the Christmas story, right? I mean, think about what the Christmas story is at the bottom line. The creator of all, it doesn't get much bigger than me than that, came to us as a newborn little baby, tiny and vulnerable, exactly like any other human baby, just like, well, for example, my newborn grandson, Daniel. Isn't he cute?

You know what I discovered? I discovered if they give you a microphone at the church, you can show pictures of whatever you want to show pictures of. I'm showing pictures of my grandson, but you see, that's the wonder of Christmas. God got little tiny fingernails and a little tiny beating heart. It's about both something way bigger and way smaller than me, and it can really evoke wonder.

But here's the problem: the very Bible story that's meant to evoke wonder is so familiar that it's almost got kind of the Pledge of Allegiance factor, you know, where you don't think of what the words mean anymore, "I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America," right? So what I want to do tonight is this: I want to go to the most familiar part of the Bible that describes the Christmas story from the Gospel of Luke 2 on the back of your notes there, and I want to just walk through these verses and point out just a few things that you might miss because the words are so familiar.

Because I think if you get the point, you are going to find a place to go for wonder and bad news detox, not just tonight, but every single day of the new year we're headed into. So starting in verse eight, it says, "That night there were shepherds staying in the fields nearby, guarding their flocks of sheep." Now, what do you picture when you hear the word shepherds? Because of our American culture, probably most of us think of kids in a nativity play, right, wearing their dad's bathrobe or something. That's kind of where I go, cute shepherds, darling sheep, right?

But these shepherds, in those days, there were almost no people lower on the social ladder. Shepherds were ostracized. Get this. Shepherds were not even allowed to testify in a court of law because literally no one believed them. Everybody thought they were liars. And it gets worse. Shepherds were not allowed to worship at the temple. And I just read this morning they weren't even allowed to go to synagogue, to what was for them church. They had been told their whole lives, "Your presence is not welcome here." "Oh, it's a shepherd?" "Yeah, we don't serve your kind here."

And then verse nine, God sends them an invitation. Suddenly an angel of the Lord appeared to them, to them, to them. And the glory of the Lord shone around them and they were, what? Terrified. And that little word right there, that tells me these angels did not look like kids in a nativity play, right? They would not have been terrified at kindergarteners and their dad's bathrobe. These were like mixed martial arts angels or something.

But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid of me." And here's the core message of Christmas, what he says next. This is the antidote to the bad news that these guys have been hearing their whole lives. He said, "I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all." Good news, great joy for all. You want to summarize the message of Christmas? It's those six words. Good news, great joy for all. In fact, say those out loud with me. Good news, great joy for all. Those six words have so much power. I don't want you to forget them.

In fact, when I kind of go like this gesture to you two or three times for the rest of this message real quick, I just want you to say those words out loud. Let's try it. Good news, great joy for all. Now, what could possibly be good news that brings great joy for all? Because, I mean, think about it. Any good news is bad news for somebody, right? Any news you can think of. If somebody wins a war, it's good for them, bad for the loser, right? Last week, if you're a football fan, the Dolphins beat the Patriots on that crazy no time left hook and ladder play. Bad news for the Patriots, good news for the rest of America. But that's an example of what I'm talking about.

And this is news that brings great joy. How many Warrior fans do we have here? Can I see that? Loud and proud. Warrior fans. What are the Warriors known for that makes them unique? Playing with joy, right? Well, just last week, I heard KD, Kevin Durant, one of the Warriors, explaining this to a reporter. Now, listen to his words. He says, "Happiness comes and goes, but when you have joy, it goes so deep that no matter if you lose, no matter what happens in your life, you can still have joy even when you're not happy with your circumstance." That's totally right. And that's yet another reason God wants you to root for the Warriors.

Alright, but still what good news could bring that kind of great joy for all? Now, you know what I did when I was studying this? I looked up that word "all" in the original Greek, and you know what it means? All. Every single person. Every social class, every language, every skin color. Every race, every age, every gender. Everyone ever born, ever, all. If it's not good news for all, it's not really good news. So, what could possibly be, say it again, good news, great joy for all?

Well, the angel gives a hint, a one-word hint in the next verse. He says, "The Savior, yes, the Messiah, the Lord, has been born today in Bethlehem, the city of David." The word is "savior." That's what makes it good news. Because look up at the screen for just a second. Most religion can be characterized in two words: good advice, right? Kind of tips on how to be a better person. But the angel did not say, "Behold, I bring you some good advice." He said, "I bring you good news." And news is totally different than advice. Jesus is about good news, about something that has happened, about something He did that now changes everything.

So, what's the news? The Bible says Jesus was born in a manger, died on a cross, and rose again to be your Savior. You know, when somebody's drowning off the coast, you don't stand on shore and go, "Try dog paddling." You jump in and save them. They don't need good advice. They need a Savior. And what Christmas is about is that God jumped in to save us. So that now, here's three ways that the Bible says we're saved: your past, forgiven; your present, empowered; your future, secure.

Now, imagine really believing these things were true of you. It would give you such confidence and such purpose. And you'd overflow with such generosity. That's why this is good news and great joy for all. And then the angel says, "Guys, let's wrap this up. I know this is hard for you to believe, especially for you shepherds. You've been put down for so long. So, this is going to be a sign for you. You'll find a baby wrapped in cloths lying in a manger." Here's why this was a sign for them. "Manger," as you may know, is just another word for feeding trough, something their own sheep ate out of. He's saying, "Shepherds, God has entered your mess."

The mess that makes everybody else think of you as unclean. The mess that nobody else wants a part of, and that's why you're ostracized. God has come right down into your mess. And do you see that that's true for you and me too? We all at times have mess. That doesn't keep God away. God comes all the way down into your mess. Do you see the power of this for the shepherds? Let me explain it this way kind of emotionally.

How many of you remember when you were in junior high school? Can I see a show of hands? For how many of you, that's not that good of a memory, right? Do you remember the cafeteria, all the cool kids sitting over there, and in my day it was like in their angel flight pants, polyester shirts, the guys had froze, the girls had Farrah Fawcett hairdos, and over here sitting all by himself was Rene with a girl's name in hand-me-down clothes. Now that may not be your memory, but that's mine.

You know, one day something changed my life, and one of the cool kids, and his name was Mark McCoy, he came over and he sat down at my table. He didn't even invite me over to the cool kids' table. He sat down with me at my table, and it changed everything for me. It really did. Do you see what the angels are saying to the shepherds with this sign? They're saying, "God is coming down, and He's sitting with you at your table."

And the angels now, they're seeing the wonder of this. They're just feeling this. It's as suddenly a great company, the Heavenly Host, appeared with the angel, praising God, and saying, "Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom His favor rests." Now hang on for just a second, because I don't want you to read this wrong, because you could read this and say, "Yeah, that's great for those on whom His favor rests, but how do I know if His favor rests on me?"

Well, the Bible says His favor rests on anyone who will just receive it. The point of this is it's not about your behavior. It's about God's favor. It's not about you earning favor. It's about God just letting it rest on you. And then when the angels have returned to heaven, the shepherds said to one another, "Let's go to Bethlehem. Let's see this thing that has happened." And then I love this last line, "Which the Lord has told us about."

You can kind of hear that mixture of wonder and pride, like, "That happened, and He told us, us, us, us." After a lifetime of seeing other people go to temple, seeing other people go to the cool table, seeing other people go to parties, the Lord told us. And then I love to imagine them in their moment of wonder as they go find that baby, because when like them you get, "He came for me, me," that's when you find the heart of true wonder.

I'll close with this. I had a friend named Ron Mail, and Ron was the pastor up at a church much like Twin Lakes Church in Beaverton, Oregon. And Ron's with the Lord now, but before he passed, he told me a story I'll never forget. He said one Christmas, the kids' choir in his church was on stage. They sang two or three songs, and Ron was sitting in the front pew, kind of where I usually sit. He looks over, he sees a woman with her eight-year-old red-haired son, and Ron happens to know that this little boy is completely deaf. He cannot hear any sounds.

And as the kids' choir sang, he said the little boy got easily distracted. He seemed very bored. He was squirming in his seats. He didn't pay attention. I mean, how could he find any interest? He could not understand or hear a word the kids' choir was singing. But then, the very last song, the kids' choir director had taught the kids' choir the American Sign Language motions to "Hark the Herald Angels Sing." And when they started doing the Sign Language motion, the little boy sat bolt upright, and his eyes got real big, and Ron watched as he tugged on his mother's sleeve and kept signing to her over and over, over and over and over and over.

And Ron doesn't speak American Sign Language, so after the service, he made a beeline for the mom, and he said, "I just have to ask you. I noticed your son was signing something to you repeatedly. What was it that he was saying to you?" And the mom turned to Ron, and with a tear coming down her cheek, she said, he kept signing, "Mom, they're singing to me. They're singing to me. Me." My prayer is if you've heard the Christmas story a hundred times, you will have a moment of wonder when you realize they were singing to you. And to you, and you, and you, and you, and you, and you, and you, and you, and you, and you, and you, and you, a Savior's been born. That is good news, great joy for all.

Let's pray together. Would you bow your heads with me? Lord, thank you so much for bringing us good news of great joy for all, for me. God, thank you for being our Savior. And on this Christmas 2018, we just want to offer our lives to you. For most of us, maybe a recommitment, but some perhaps for the first time, want to say, "God, that's the kind of God I want to follow. God, it would come into my mess. God, it would lavish favor on me. Me. Help me realize more and more how your favor rests on me when I receive it. And I receive that gift now. Now. Thank you. In Jesus' name. Amen.