"The only decision that you can make and you have to do it yourself maybe you're here today you're a Christian but man you've lost your joy." [40:40] (Download)

"I say this week is a great week to revive your purpose and one of the greatest thing you can do as a child of God let to point people to him." [41:21] (Download)

"Joy is much much different than happiness... Joy depends on inward character happiness depends on what happen to you Joy depends upon who lives inside of you." [25:42] (Download)

"The greatest announcement that will bring the greatest joy is that the savior has been born to you. This is the greatest statement of joy in your life and mine." [14:09] (Download)

"Every single person in the world who does not know Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior is on the highway to hell. That's a hard truth that needs to be told." [14:50] (Download)

"Jesus came and he saved us, he rescued us from that crash collision and gave us an opportunity to be saved, be rescued. All of us are on a crash collision with death and only Jesus came to save you from that." [20:00] (Download)

"My friend I don't care who you are, Jesus loves you, he came to be born for you till one day die on the cross for your sins." [40:00] (Download)

"The darker the night, the brighter the light, and that light is Jesus. Christmas is a wonderful time of the year where we can see the brightness of who Jesus is." [04:21] (Download)

"Christmas is not just Joy To America, it's not a national Joy; Christmas is not a joy to the rich, it's not a financial Joy; Christmas is not Joy only for the educated, it's not intellectual Joy; Christmas is not Joy to the happy, not emotional Joy; it's not Joy to the healthy, it's not a physical Joy. See, Christmas is Joy to the World, in fact, it's a universal joy for all of us." [08:11] (Download)

"The angel personalized this birth announcement to the Shepherd that is for you too; they got the greatest message of Joy about a savior and the Savior was born for them, was born for them. The Savior came to save them too." [11:13] (Download)

Well, we're so glad that you're here today, and we are excited about what God is doing. Again, Christmas Eve is next week, and make sure you invite somebody.

But man, I've been loving praying for our missionaries and just really been doing that. I do that a lot already, but just specifically emailing them, letting them know that we're praying for them. I hope you've been doing that—just been encouraging them.

One of the things about our mission, as we kind of get toward the end of the year, is our end-of-year offering. Our goal is to raise $29,000 in our mission giving for this month, and I know that we can do this. This is above and beyond your regular giving, and as we get closer to the end of the year, I think it's interesting for you to know how this works for our missionaries.

A lot of our missionaries have bills; they have to buy food just like you do. As we send them into different parts of the world, know what they do before they go to that mission field. If they're called to go to Africa or South America, what they would do is, for about three to four years, they would travel around the United States to churches like ours. They would present their mission field and say, "Hey, can you pray about considering support?"

A lot of churches—some churches, you know, it's not an exact amount—but some churches might do $25 a month, some might do more, $100. Some churches might do a lot more than that; they might support a missionary at $500 a month. So, missionaries would travel for two, three, four years until they can get to 90% or 100% of their support before they can even go to the mission field.

So, that's to understand how that works. There’s not a sugar daddy somewhere in Italy, you know, that’s going to pay for them to go. They depend on churches to do that. I want you to be praying about how you can give.

Originally, the goal was $205,000, but we increased it because one of our missionary partners in South Africa, Jim Falter, and they’ve just been hit left and right. Some churches that used to support them have either closed up or are just financially not able to support them. They've lost about 25% of their support in the last couple of years.

Jim and his wife, Christina, they don’t have health insurance. They've been living for the last year without health insurance, and they’ve been underwhelmed with different things and bills that they have not paid for. So, they've really been praying about whether they need to come back and lose a couple of years on the mission field or if there are some churches that can really help.

They specifically called me. I was just reading one of their prayer letters and felt God say, "What can we do as a church to help them out?" We want to be able to step up a little bit more this year and just be able to help all of our missionaries, including Jim and Christina Falter in South Africa, so that they can continue to do the mission work.

So again, pray about what that means. As we get to the end of the year, you can give online, you can give here in the offering basket, you can mail it in, you can give through our app, and you can also set aside or designate under missions. You can say, "Hey, this is my mission special gift for the year as we close out 2023." I know that we can do this together.

As I think about these missionaries, they are lighthouses all around the world in a dark world. We've been talking about the darkness of humanity, and it's been dark ever since man fell in the Garden of Eden. Ever since Adam and Eve, humanity has been dark, and it's been getting darker. We look around our world today, and we see darkness everywhere.

We said a few weeks ago, and we said it last week, that the darker the night, the brighter the light, and that light is Jesus. Christmas is a wonderful time of the year where we can see the brightness of who Jesus is. I love that in our American culture, you know, that all you see on mainstream media. I was watching the Rockefeller Christmas a few weeks ago when they lit up the Christmas tree, and they were singing.

You know, the different artists were singing on the platform songs about Jesus, and I thought, "Man, the message of Jesus is still ringing through." Even though people may not get it in their heart, they’re singing out of their mouths. I’m saying, "You know what? The light of Christ is still shining."

You know, I was in the Old Testament. There’s a man named Micah; he’s a prophet. Micah looked at the darkness everywhere—Jerusalem, Judea, Israel. They were a conquered state, a slave state, and everything was in rubble. Micah, in Micah 7:8, in the Old Testament, he said, "Though I sit in the darkness, the Lord will be my light." He still shines; He still shines.

If you were to ask anyone today what the most joyful time of the year is, without any question, it would be unanimous that Christmas is the most joyful time of the year. One of the carols that we hear everywhere on our radio stations is "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year."

In 1719, a man named Isaac Watts wrote a song in four verses, and this song came from Psalm 98. He wrote the beloved "Joy to the World." What’s interesting about this song is that it talks about Jesus being born only one time in all four verses. All it says in the very first line is, "Joy to the World, the Lord has come."

No mention of the wise men, no mention of Mary and Joseph, no mention of the manger, no mention of Bethlehem, no mention of the shepherds. And yet, it's one of our most beloved Christmas carols because it really captures the essence of what Christmas is all about—the joy of Christmas.

You see, Christmas is not just joy to America; it's not a national joy. Christmas is not joy to the rich; it's not a financial joy. Christmas is not joy only for the educated; it's not intellectual joy. Christmas is not joy to the happy; it's not emotional joy. It's not joy to the healthy; it's not a physical joy.

See, Christmas is joy to the world. In fact, it's a universal joy for all of us. We go back to our main passage of Scripture that we've been looking at the past couple of weeks in Luke chapter 2. Again, we see the shepherds and the angels.

In verse number nine, an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone all around them. The Bible said the shepherds were terrified. I promise you, you would be terrified if an angel showed up in the middle of the night. They were terrified, but the angel said to them, "Don't be afraid. I bring you good news, good tidings that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David, a savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign to you: you will find a baby wrapped in cloths lying in a manger."

And suddenly, a great company of 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."

Here you are, your shepherds. We talked about these last couple of weeks, but the shepherds were just minding their own business, keeping their eyes on the flock, making sure a big bad wolf didn’t come around to eat them up. They were considered to be very low class in that time period. They wouldn’t even let them in the local government to testify in a court of law because they weren’t trusted. Nobody grew up thinking, "Oh, one day I hope to be a shepherd." Nobody thought that. No kid ever said they would grow up to be a shepherd.

And here you have the lowest of the low, and all of a sudden, a beautiful, holy, majestic angel appears before them and gives them the special announcement: "Don't be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people."

For everyone. And then he said, "Today in the town of David, a savior has been born to you." The angel was telling the shepherds he will be born to you. He is the Messiah, the Lord. The angel personalized this birth announcement to the shepherds. That is for you too. They got the greatest message. The shepherds got the greatest message of joy about a savior, and the savior was born for them.

The Lord, the savior, came to save them too. We see the word "savior." If you're taking note, the word "savior" has a couple of definitions. A couple of my favorite ones are "rescuer" and "liberator." That’s what a savior means. In fact, the name Jesus means "the one who saves."

In fact, the Hebrew word—I find it interesting—the word Jesus is a very common name. It’s so common that in the English language, you know, in Hebrew, it’s pronounced "Yeshua." We get the English word "Joshua," a common name. But the name Jesus, Joshua, or even in the Old Testament, another name is "Hosea." It’s the same word; it means "the one who saves."

A savior had been born for you. You see, Jesus came into this world for presidents and for the papers. Jesus came into the world for kings and the commoners and everyone in between. He came for you—a savior, a rescuer, a liberator.

So, the statement "a savior had been born for you" is the greatest message of joy. That great message of joy—man, I hear a lot of good messages. I’ve heard good announcements. I hear a good announcement when a couple is engaged to get married. Oh, everybody loves that announcement.

You know, or the announcement of "I’m expecting." That’s a good announcement, right? Or "I’ve got a new job, and it pays ten times better than the old job." That’s a pretty good announcement. But the greatest announcement that will bring the greatest joy is the announcement that the savior has been born to you.

I want to give you three thoughts on why that is the greatest statement of joy in your life and mine.

Number one: the savior is born to save you from an eternal hell. The savior is born to save you, save me from an eternal hell. You know, a lot of people don’t like to think about hell. I know a lot of churches, a lot of pastors that just don’t want to talk about hell. They say, "Well, you know, if I talk about hell, it might scare some people away. It might offend some people; it might turn some people off." So, we just kind of don’t really talk about hell.

But here’s the hard truth, and we need to hear this because we’ve got to know why the savior is saving us. The hard truth is that every single person in the world who does not know Jesus Christ as their Lord and savior is on the highway to hell. That’s the highway to hell, and that’s a hard truth. That’s not a fun truth, but it’s a truth that needs to be told.

If you don’t know Jesus Christ as your Lord and savior, you, my friend, are on a highway to hell. Jesus talked a lot about heaven and hell. In fact, he talked more about hell than he did about heaven. Multiple times in Matthew 25:46, he talked about both of them. He said there will be some that go away to eternal punishment. He’s making a reference to people that will go to hell. He said, "And the righteous, those who are in right standing with God, those who have a relationship with God, the righteous will go to eternal life."

In John 3:3, Jesus said, "No one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again." The most familiar verse that we know is John 3:16. I call it the gospel in a nutshell. In fact, I love it. Last night, my wife and I, my family, we walked down the street of Rochester. You know, you’ve got to do that, right? If you live around here, you’ve got to see the Christmas lights. You’ve got to fight the crowd, the madness of parking spots. It’s just kind of almost that obligatory thing to do.

We went downtown Rochester to look at the lights, and we stumbled across a coffee shop. The coffee shop said "Cafe 316," brand new. We go in there, and plastered on the wall, I love it, they’ve got John 3:16: "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life."

John 3:16 teaches about God’s love for the world. It teaches God’s love for you, but it also teaches us that we’re perishing. The word "perishing" means to be utterly destroyed. In this verse right here, it means that we will be separated in an eternal death, that we will be separated from God eternally—perishing, utterly destroyed—the reference to hell.

He gave his Son so that you wouldn’t perish, so that you wouldn’t be utterly destroyed, so that you won’t be separated from God for eternity.

In 1998, a movie with Bruce Willis and Ben Affleck came out called "Armageddon." That’s a classic summer blockbuster hit. Of course, all summer blockbuster hits have a major common theme: there’s a villain, a good guy comes in, beats the villain, and we win.

In "Armageddon," the villain was a giant asteroid, and it was coming to planet Earth. The world was going to be the victim; we’d be destroyed by this giant asteroid. It was headed toward a crash collision with the United States, with the world, with everybody. We were going to be destroyed.

By the way, it’s not a true story, okay? But it’s coming. Of course, Bruce Willis, he’s the man of the hour. He said, "I’ll take on the asteroid." He flies on the spaceship, lands on the asteroid, and blows it up. He saves the world. Now, he dies while saving the world, but he saves the world.

I thought, "Man, what a powerful truth of what Christmas is all about." Because you and I, we were on a crash collision to hell, to death and hell. It was all of us in the same boat. This was coming, and then Jesus came, and he saved us. He rescued us from that crash collision and gave us an opportunity to be saved.

All of us are on a crash collision with death, and only Jesus came to save you from that. He’ll save anyone who calls upon his name. Romans 10:13 says, "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord." By the way, everyone—you can put your name in the place of everyone. You can say, "John who calls on the name of the Lord," "Becky who calls on the name of the Lord." Whoever you are, whosoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

It doesn’t matter what you’ve done; it doesn’t matter who you are; it doesn’t matter what family you were born into. None of that matters. Whoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be rescued. You should be rescued.

It’s a statement of joy because Jesus came to save you and me from an eternal hell. But it’s also a statement of joy because, in the second thought, the savior is born to save us from a living hell.

Growing up, I used to sing in church. Back in those days, we had a hymn book. I’m talking about opening up the page or H number 217. You open up 217, and the piano starts to warm up and play. We’ve got to sing the first, second, and fourth stanzas. We always skip the third stanza for whatever reason. I always felt bad for the third verse.

We’d sing one of these hymns, and some of the old-timers know this: "In the Sweet By and By." Y’all know that song? Okay. "In the sweet by and by, we shall meet on that beautiful shore." That’s salvation, alright? That’s God saving us from an eternal hell.

But you know, salvation is also for the nasty now and now. He saves us from a living hell. Maybe you’re here this morning and you say, "You know, God, I know I’ve been saved from eternal hell. I know I’m going to heaven, but I’m living in hell with my life. My life is falling apart. My spouse has left me. My life has taken one financial hit after another. I feel like I’m treading water. I can barely get my head above water. I can barely make it. I’m addicted to this; I’m addicted to that. My life is just miserable."

I may not be going to hell, but I’m experiencing hell in my life. I remember my grandparents went on vacation, and they came back and brought me back a souvenir. It was very popular back in those days. The souvenir would be a T-shirt, and the T-shirt said, "I went to the Bahamas, and all I got you was this lousy T-shirt." Y’all know what I’m talking about? Have you got one of those?

You know, I’ve got a couple of those T-shirts. "Hey, I went to Colorado," and that’s what it says on the T-shirt. "I went to Colorado, and all I got you was this lousy T-shirt." I said, "Okay, thank you, Grandma. Very thoughtful."

Some of us here thought, "Man, I became a Christian, and my life hasn’t come together. In fact, all I feel like I got is just a lousy T-shirt." Maybe that’s where you’re at today. I thought when I became a Christian, life was just going to come together perfectly. It was going to be great, but it’s gotten worse. If that’s getting better, and you’ve been frustrated, and you’re here, you say, "Man, I feel like God has abandoned me. God doesn’t love me because life doesn’t make sense."

You may say that you’re experiencing a living hell, but the savior has come. He has come, and that is good news, my friend. It’s good news of great joy—great joy to save you, not just for eternity, but to save you right now, to fill your life right now with the good things of God.

In fact, God wants you and me to live a life of joy now. Joy is much, much different than happiness. He didn’t promise you a happy life; he promised you a life of joy.

See, there’s a big difference between happiness and joy. Happiness is all external; joy is internal. Happiness depends on outward circumstances; joy depends on inward character. Happiness depends on what happens to you; joy depends upon who lives inside of you. Happiness is based on chance. In fact, the word "happiness" comes from "happenstance."

There are moments of happiness, but joy is based on a choice. You can be joyful without being happy. I’ve done several funerals over the years, and a wonderful saint—those who love the Lord—often when I go to the widow or the widower to comfort them, it reverses itself. They comfort me. They’re sad; it’s not a happy moment. They’ve lost the love of their life, but they have a certain joy that’s unspeakable. They can’t explain it. They say, "You know, I have a joy in my heart. I know that God is in control."

You see, my circumstances—my joy is not determined by my circumstances. My joy is determined not by a feeling because joy is not a feeling; joy is a person, and that person is none other than the Lord Jesus Christ. He’s all you need.

After the first service, a couple came to me and said, "Pastor, I know exactly what you’re talking about. This past weekend, I buried my dad. He was 92 years old. Although I’m sad, there is a certain joy in my life knowing that I will see him again. I know where he’s at, and I know that God is still on the throne."

C.S. Lewis said, "Joy is the serious business of Heaven." Not over 450 times in the Scripture does God talk about joy and rejoicing—450 times. So, we can experience joy in the now.

Joy can be defined as the positive confidence I feel from knowing and trusting God, regardless of the circumstances around me. I trust that God is still on the throne in my life, even when life does not make sense. Even when the darkness is all around, I keep my eyes focused on him.

He is the author; he is the finisher of my faith. He who began a good work in me will keep working in my life, and he will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. He is not finished with me, even though it feels like life is falling apart. I trust him because I know what he’s doing. That’s joy.

So, we have the statement of joy, and the angels said, "Hey, don’t be afraid. Don’t be scared. I’ve got great news that will cause great joy for all the people."

In the angels, in verse 14, they said, "Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests." God wants to give you his joy. He wants to give you his peace. He wants to give it to you.

But you know that we have an enemy—a spiritual enemy—that wants to take it all away. He’ll do that the moment you leave these doors and get on the road this afternoon because there’s nothing joyful right now happening out there. You can lose it all, and that’s what Satan wants to do. He wants to take a circumstance in your life and throw a curveball at you.

The Bible said in John chapter 10, Jesus warned about it. He said, "The thief comes only to steal, kill, and destroy." That’s what he wants to do. He wants to steal your joy; he wants to take it all away.

See, the devil wants to do two things. He wants to keep you on the highway to hell; he doesn’t want you to have a relationship with God. But then once a person does become a Christian, when someone enters into a relationship with God, then the devil has to do everything he can to make your life miserable. He wants to steal it all away; he wants to kill it all away; he wants to destroy that joy that can only be found in Jesus.

But in the rest of verse 10, the powerful truth of Jesus is this: Jesus said, "But I have come that you may have life and have it to the fullness." I love another translation: "have it more abundantly." I give you life plus so much more. That’s what Jesus offers us.

There are two ways to go in life. You can either go the Lord’s way, you can go God’s way, or you can go the devil’s way. The devil’s way leads to destruction; it’s misery, darkness. It leads to a living hell. But God’s way leads to heaven; it leads to life; it leads to abundance. Jesus said, "I’ve come that you may have life and have it more abundantly."

So, that’s a statement of joy. He delivers us from a living hell.

The third thought, and we’re done: the savior is born to save us from a meaningless life—a meaningless life. He wants to save you from a purposeless life.

In Luke chapter 2, verse 15, so the angel had gone. The shepherds looked at one another and said, "What should we do with this?" One of them piped up and said, "Let’s go to Bethlehem. Let’s see this thing that has happened. Let’s look for this sign of a baby born in a manger."

Now, a manger, by the way, is a feeding trough. I said that would be kind of funny to see a baby in a feeding trough. That’d be very unusual. If what they said is true, then we’re going to town, and we’ll find a baby in a barn or in a cave. There are different ideas of where they were, and they want to look and see if he was born and where animals were.

If we see that, they would know that the angels were telling the truth. The Bible said that they hurried off, and guess what? They found Mary, Joseph, and the baby who was in a manger. When they saw him, they knew it was true. They said, "Man, the angels said it; now we believe it."

They spread the word concerning what had been told about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. Meanwhile, the shepherds returned back to their fields with a new purpose—a new purpose. They were glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.

They said, "Man, we’ve been taking care of sheep for everybody to have their sacrifice, but man, we saw today with our own eyes the ultimate Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world." Of course, they glorified God; of course, they praised God because they saw a savior that was born for them too.

They came back; they were changed. They started, after that night, as ordinary men just shooting the breeze with one another, just passing the time. Just like that, their lives had been changed.

I love the story of Mark chapter 5. Pastor Tom did a message a while back on that, and I remember it well. Tom, happy birthday, my friend! He had a birthday yesterday, and I’m so proud of him. He preached a message, and the title of that message I’ll never forget: "The Naked Bloody Guy."

Now, I was like, "Okay, we’re going to talk about a naked bloody guy?" Sure enough, in Mark 5, there’s this guy who was naked, bloody, and possessed with demons, living in a cemetery. He was just a terrifying person, uncontrollable misery. People stayed away from the cemetery because of this man.

And there he is, and Jesus comes by, casts out the demons, and changes his life just like that. The next thing you know, that man’s in town. Everybody looks at him and says, "You look different. You’ve got clothes on, number one, okay? But you look different. Are you the same guy?" He said, "Yeah, I’m the same guy."

"Well, what happened?" "I can’t explain it all. I just know that there was a man named Jesus who came to save, and ever since I met Jesus, I’ve been changed."

Jesus was about to leave town, and the old bloody naked guy—he’s not bloody and naked anymore; he’s clothed and sane—said, "Jesus, where are you going?" Jesus said, "I’m leaving." The old guy said, "I want to go with you."

Jesus said, "I’ve got a new purpose for you. Your new purpose is to stay here and tell others about what happened." Sure enough, Mark 5:20 says, "So the man went away and began to tell in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him, and all the people were astonished."

A couple of years ago, there was a lady named Kat Von D. She’s been in the news lately. Kat Von D is her celebrity name. She started a reality show called "LA Ink." She had been involved in Satanism, did not believe in God—agnostic, atheist—lived a very hard life. A few years ago, she realized that the life she was living was on a highway to hell.

She started looking around, started searching for the truth, and somehow came across the gospel truth of John 3:16—that God so loved the world, including her. In 2022, she gave up her life and gave it to Jesus. Of course, she was on the "LA Ink" show, so she naturally would have had tattoos all over the place—tattoos that represented the cult of Satanism.

She said, "I’ve got to get it off." Her life was changed, and so she did everything she could to cover up all those old tattoos that represented the old life. Two months ago, she went back to her hometown in Indiana, the old little church that her parents still go to. She went to the pastor and said, "I need to get baptized."

Let’s get baptized! She probably put it out there on the social media world: "I’ve been changed by the blood of the Lamb. Jesus came into my life, rescued me from an eternal hell, rescued me from a living hell, and now gave me a life full of purpose."

My friend, I don’t care who you are; Jesus loves you. He came to be born for you to one day die on the cross for your sins. If you don’t know Jesus today, don’t leave here without talking to someone about Jesus. The most important decision is for you to make. I can’t make it for you; your friends, your family members can’t make it for you. The only decision that you can make, and you have to do it yourself.

Maybe you’re here today, and you’re a Christian, but man, you’ve lost your joy. I pray today that you get your eyes off the circumstances, know that there’s a God in heaven who loves you, and he’s still in control. That you renew your joy in him.

And maybe you’re a Christian here today, and you know life is fine, but you’ve got no purpose. You’ve been kind of spinning your wheels. I say this week is a great week to revive your purpose. One of the greatest things you can do as a child of God is to point people to him.

Christmas Eve service is coming up. Why don’t you get on the phone, text somebody, email someone, Facebook someone, Snapchat someone? I don’t know, whatever you do. Let them know, "Hey, why don’t you get with me on Christmas Eve?" We have three services so that they can experience the light that you want to receive, and he’s still living inside you even today.

Our heavenly Father, we ask you to help us today. We thank you for a joyful time of worship because you came. You delivered us from an eternal hell. You delivered us from a living hell, and you have given us a new life—a life of purpose. Oh God, I pray that we don’t miss it. I pray we don’t miss the message of Christmas: a savior has been born. In Jesus' name, I pray. Amen.