New Joy

Pastor Phillips’ Sermon
Advent Service, December 14, 2011

Well, I know you’ve been learning a lot of things about the Advent wreath so tonight we have a quiz. Any college kids home yet? You’re used to tests. This is finals week. I figured you’d get used to this and be great.

We’re going to start off with a quiz, multiple choice. That should make it a little easier, right? You kind of eliminate certain ones immediately and then you kind of zero in on what you think you know is true. We have four questions on the quiz. Let’s see how you do.

Question No. 1: The Advent wreath was first observed in America during a) the 1870’s; b) the 1930’s; c) the 1950’s. What’s the answer? 1870’s, 1930’s, 1950’s. Who says a) 1870’s? Okay. Who says b) 1930’s? Who says c) 1950’s? The answer is “b” so the rest of you guys can leave. [Laughing] You’re going to have to retake this in the future.

Question No. 2: The color blue symbolizes a) The University of Michigan [Laughing]; b) The color of baby Jesus’ eyes; c) Hope and waiting. C, okay, yeah, good job. Okay, so you’re up to a 50% now.

Question No. 3: The rose color candle, which we lit this Sunday for the first time, reminds us a) we forgot to buy flowers for our wives on our anniversary; b) of the best wine to be served with seafood; or c) of the early dawn when Jesus was born. Okay, you’re up to 66%. That’s not bad. That’s passing. Now see if you can get the last one.

Question No. 4: The third Sunday in Advent, which we just celebrated, is called “Gaudete Sunday.” Gaudete is a Latin word which means a) go Hawks; b) I love you; or c) rejoice. Okay, you’re up to 75%. You’ll have to retake that first one, though.

New stuff you’ve learned about the Advent wreath. 1930’s. They weren’t here before 1930. So our ancestors who came to this country before that really didn’t know anything about them and Lutherans did kind of start the tradition, but the Roman Catholics also picked it up right away and they continue to observe it as well. Some wreaths only had four candles and then the fifth candle, the Christ candle, was added at a later date. A lot of interesting information, but it’s an ancient tradition.

Tonight, we’re talking about new things, new joy. How can we get new joy from an ancient tradition? Especially today, a rainy day. It’s dark, gloomy, cloudy. You have to wear raincoats. You have to dress the kids up extra to keep them dry. How can we make new joy on a day like today? Well, what do you do to make new joy in your homes this time of year? You decorate like crazy, right? Christmas lights outside, inside, put up the tree, put on the music, watch the old movies like “The Grinch.” Watch the old movies that remind you of all those wonderful family gatherings. You’re bringing joy into your homes just with all the decorations. We have them all over the house, don’t we? My wife loves snowmen, so we have those all over and our kids make fun of them. But they’re okay. They’re kind of cute, I guess. But we have decorations everywhere, just like you do.

In fact, this year, maybe you did this last year, but I don’t remember, but this year on my dresser in our bedroom, she put this ceramic Christmas tree that her grandmother made, er that her mother made. Got to get that one right. Her mother made it and it’s beautiful. You know those ceramic trees where they have the little things that poke through the little bulbs and everything and so you turn on the lights and all the things shine? Well, she put that on my dresser and she said, “Now, when we go to bed, we turn that on and leave it on.” I’m like, “I can’t sleep with that on.” So as soon as she fell asleep, I turned it off. And then before she woke up in the morning, I turned it back on.

We do a lot of things, don’t we, to make our homes festive, to make this season fun and to bring joy into our lives but that’s all external stuff. How do we get joy internally? Especially when we reflect on old traditions and old stories? Two thousand years ago, Jesus was born. How does that bring joy to us today?

The answer comes to us from God’s Word from the Scriptures. Acts 3:19, “Repent then and turn to God so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord.” And then 2 Corinthians 7:10, “Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regrets,” so the new joy that we can experience every day comes when we get right with God through the process of repentance. Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation.

It sounds like a difficult path, but it’s actually a wonderful path when we are finally humble, when we are finally broken, when we are finally real before God and He dusts us off and cleans us up and tells us how much He loves us and that Jesus died for us.

So this process of repentance is extremely important for helping us keep joy in our lives and this is how it begins. It begins with confessing. Now confessing comes from the Greek word “homologeo” which means to say the same thing. And even confessing, we’re saying the same things God says about our thoughts or our words or our actions. We’re saying they’re sin and we shouldn’t be doing them, that they don’t belong in our lives as Christians. As holy and dearly loved people, they don’t belong in our lives, those thoughts, those words, those actions. So we begin our repentance by saying the same thing God does about our choices, our behavior, our actions, our thoughts.

The second thing we do is we look at the Old Testament concept of repentance and it is that of changing direction. If God is this direction, when I’m sinning, I’m going this way. When I repent, I’m turning back to God. That’s the concept of the Old Testament, the Hebrews. That’s what they taught. Turn your past back to God, you’re repenting. And that’s often really what we’re doing. When we’re sinning, we’re kind of saying, “I don’t care, God. I’m going to do this because I want to do it. It’s fun. I like it. I don’t care. Whatever.” So changing direction, that’s the first thing we have to think about. “My sin is going away from God. To repent, I need to turn back to God.”

The next thing is the Greek concept, which comes from the New Testament, that’s “metanoia,” the word is, and it means to change our thoughts, changing the way we think about what we’re doing and saying and thinking, changing our thoughts instead of rationalizing why we do what we do or making excuses for why we do it. We say, “Well, I’m in a bad mood and I had a bad day so I can say whatever I want and it’s okay.” No. God wants us to change our thoughts back to His and say, “No, it’s never okay to be hurtful with our words. It’s never okay to be dishonest. It’s never okay to do things that hurt other people.” We have to change our thinking, and that’s what we do in this process of repentance.

So we say the same thing God says about it. We change our direction, and we change the way we think. It’s no longer something that’s good for us or that we can justify or rationalize. Now it’s something we don’t want in our lives anymore because we want to do things God’s way.

The next thing we have to do is to pray for strength to avoid that temptation or avoid that weakness or that pitfall or whatever it is we keep struggling with. A lot of times, it’s something we struggle with over and over again. So we need to pray for God’s strength and ask Him to equip us and fill us with His Holy Spirit so we can say no when that thing comes along, that bad opportunity.

Ephesians 6:10-18 describes the power that’s available to us, the armor of God. “Finally, be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes, for our struggle is not against flesh and blood but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore, put on the full armor of God so when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground and after you’ve done everything, to stand. Stand firm then with a belt of truth buckled around your waist, with a breastplate of righteousness in place and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit, which is the Word of God, and pray in the spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people.”

I can’t tell you how many times I’ll make a call to somebody who is homebound and I’ll pray for them and, as I’m leaving, I’ll tell them, “I’ll keep you in my prayers as I think of you and I’ll remember you in my prayers, but I also want you to pray for me because I need it, just like you do.” Pray for God’s people, especially those in positions of authority because those are the ones the devil wants to pick off because if he can get the leaders, then he can get the rest. So pray for God’s people. Pray for us to be equipped so we can stand against temptation. We can stand against the tricks and traps of the evil one.

Finally, Number 5, if your sin has hurt someone else, make it right. Make it right. You know what that means. I don’t have to explain that. Say you’re sorry. Go to that person. Make it right. There’s a story in the New Testament. Jesus is teaching and the disciples say, “How many times should I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?” And Jesus said, “Seventy times seven.” It’s every time. It’s not a numerical value. It’s an infinite value.

So here’s the story Jesus tells to teach this point. “I tell you not seven times but seventy-seven times or seventy times seven. Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. As he began the settlement, a man who owed him 10,000 talons was brought to him. Since he was not able to pay, the master ordered that he and his wife and his children and all that he had be sold to repay the debt. The servant fell on his knees before him. ‘Be patient with me,’ he begged, ‘and I will pay back everything. The servant’s master took pity on him and canceled the debt and let him go. But when the servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him 100 denarii. He grabbed him and began to choke him. ‘Pay back what you owe me,’ he demanded. His fellow servant fell to his knees and begged him, ‘Be patient with me and I will pay you back,’ but he refused. Instead, he went off and had the man thrown into prison until he could repay the debt. When the other servants saw what had happened, they were greatly distressed and went and told their master everything that had happened. Then the master called the servant in. ‘You wicked servant,’ he said. ‘I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?’ In anger, his master turned him over to the jailers to be tortured until he should pay back all he owed. This is how my heavenly father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart.”

God wants us to live the forgiveness He gives us. It’s not just for us, just for our sins. It’s for everyone’s sins. It’s for you and your spouse. It’s for you and your brothers and sisters. It’s for you and your children. It’s for you and your coworkers. It’s for you to share and live throughout your lives. That’s how we get the joy of God in our lives, when we understand what He’s done for us to have a desire in our heart to do that for others, forgiving them just like God has forgiven us.

And finally, we really have to understand what God’s grace is and live in that grace and just enjoy it like a wonderful luxury. Psalm 103:8-13 says, “The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love. He will not always accuse nor will He harbor His anger forever. He does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities, for as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is His love for those who fear Him. As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us. As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear Him.”

Not just any father, but a loving Father who’s tuned into the lives of His children, cares about everything they care about, knows when they struggle and grieves when they grieve. That’s the kind of loving heavenly Father we have. As far as the east is from the west, that’s how far He removes our sins when we confess to Him.

Isaiah 1:18, “Come now let us settle the matter says the Lord.” Another translation says, “Come now, let us reason together.” A friend sitting down with you to talk things over, to work things out. “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be made as white as snow. Though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.”

I know there’s another Dr. Seuss story about stains and white and red and all that kind of stuff, but only God can really purify us. Now we can try all we want and live perfect lives and be the perfect person but, in the end, we fail and we fail a lot. But when God picks us up as His loving child and as we’ve confessed our sins to Him, He dusts us off, washes us clean and declares us holy and righteous. Not because we’ve done perfect things and never made a mistake but because the holiness and the righteousness of His Son, Jesus Christ, is given to us and we are no longer Tim or Kim or Wade or anybody else. We are a child of God, holy and pure in His sight. Our identity is that we are forgiven, cleansed, made holy. We’ve lost the bad. We’ve gained the good and now we get to live in it, live with an understanding of the righteousness that God gives us. That’s what really motivates us to want to confess our sins, repent and turn from our sins, turn back to God, to change the way we think, just an understanding of His great love and mercy.

It’s really hard to comprehend all of that, but I have a story that helps me understand it. You think about your sin and what a mess you make and things you do that just make you sick and stuff like that. How can God forgive all that? How can God take that away? Well, it’s incomprehensible that He can just wash it clean but He does.

I remember when I was in seminary, first semester, and I was extremely focused and I was trying my best. I wanted to understand. I wanted to learn. I wanted to do good so that I could be a good pastor and serve God. I had this class called The History of European Lutheranism. It’s funny that I’d remember it, huh? History of European Lutheranism. Well, I didn’t know much about the history of Europe. I didn’t know anything about the geography of Europe. I didn’t know anything about the history of Lutheranism and those were the three main components of that class, so every lecture he’d say places and names and I had no clue who these people were. And the further it went, the more anxiety I had because I knew one day we were going to have a test on this. How am I going to pass it? There was one test at the end of the semester and I went up to him before the test, scared to death, because here I was studying to be a pastor. All my friends and family are cheering me on and I was going to fail this thing.

So I told him, “I can’t even understand my notes. I don’t know how I could pass this test.” He said, “Well, if I took this test, I wouldn’t pass it so there’s not going to be a final.” No final. You can’t imagine how happy I was. That’s the joy that we have of knowing God has taken away the requirement that we be punished for our sins. It’s all gone. No matter all that stuff, it’s gone. The punishment we deserve is gone. The penalty is gone. The debt is canceled, and you’re free.

So now, as you look forward for this week and a half before Christmas, I just want you to really have that joy in your hearts that we started out talking about, that new joy that comes from being able to talk to God, confess your sins, get rid of it and being cleansed by the blood of the lamb every day. Go get that joy. In Jesus’ name, Amen.