CJ Wakefield: Wow, good morning everybody.
It is great to be with you all.
Um, I have, uh, do we have some slides?
Do I do this?
Alright, wonderful.
There's my family.
So, one of my sons is not here with us today, he's on the west side, but, uh, the
two of them are, are here with us today.
Um, so we have, uh, Elijah is 21, then Nathaniel is 18, and Micah is
16, that's my wonderful wife Cherie.
Uh, but it's good to be here in Orange County.
This is not my first time here, so, um, I'm gonna show you a picture,
but you gotta promise not to laugh.
Okay, we've got one nod of the head.
The rest of you, I'm not trusting you.
So I was here.
Um, I came to Disneyland with my dad in about in the mid eighties.
So here I am.
So why?
Thank you.
I know they are some short shorts, right?
I'm glad it's a blurry picture.
So you can't see it that clear.
But we were also let me skip on it because that's embarrassing but we were
also here where in about 2008 I think there was an international leadership
conference in Round this in Orange County, so we've got we were blessed to come
and be a part of that But it is such a blessing, you know We Robert and career
put on a spiritual learning lab with some of the staff And, uh, my wife and
I got to be with, uh, most of the Orange County staff on that spiritual journey.
So it's been a real blessing to even to have gotten to know them and to
work alongside them spiritually.
So I'm very excited today to be able to come and share the word with you.
You know, Christmas is amazing and, uh, I hope that you're going
to have an amazing Christmas.
But today's message is entitled, uh, joy to the world and the reason why.
So if you remember, if you think about what happened.
So the angels are out in the field.
And, uh, also the shepherds are out in the field.
And an angel appears and the shepherds are absolutely terrified.
And yet the angel says to them, Do not be afraid.
I bring you good news that will cause great joy.
For all people.
In other words, he's saying, listen, what I'm about to tell
you is joy to the entire world.
And if you think about that, he could have announced, which
obviously is going to be announcing the birth of Jesus, with anything.
He could have said, I come and I bring you news of salvation.
I come and bring you news of deliverance or redemption.
And all of those things are amazing.
But he says, I bring you good news of great joy.
Joy to the world.
Now, why is that so significant?
That that is the single word that he chooses to describe the most incredible
event the world has ever seen.
Why did he choose that word?
Well, what had happened was, The Israelites, up until this point,
And even including this point, have been in 700 years of occupation.
With the Assyrians, the Babylonians, the Persians, the Greeks, and now the Romans.
700 years of oppression and of occupation.
And so can you imagine, they were a little bit short of joy.
Right?
That is why I think he says that.
And so if you look in the book of Isaiah, Isaiah in English.
I will try and say Isaiah, but I may slip back.
So in Isaiah chapter 9, this is what the Bible says.
So this is a prophecy of the very beginning of their occupation.
Of their being occupied by the Assyrians.
This is what it says in chapter 9 verse 1.
Nevertheless, there will be no more gloom for those who are in distress.
The people walking in darkness.
Have seen a great light on the, on those living in the land of the
shadow of death, a light has dawned.
You have enlarged the nation and increased, literally made great its joy.
For unto us, a child is born.
Unto us, a son is given.
And the government will be on his shoulders, and he will be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
See, this is no coincidence that the angel said, I'm giving you a
message that will bring you great joy.
Because this was prophesied 700 years before.
And look how Jesus birth is prophesied, with great joy.
Now, the thing is This was the very beginning of their occupation.
So, God is saying to them, Listen, you abandon me, you're gonna have great
distress, you're gonna go through very dark times, but I promise you,
something amazing is gonna happen that will bring you wonderful joy.
And in fact, throughout the entire book of Isaiah, it's like a book of joy.
Amen.
If you ever do a study on it, he talks about joy 33 times in that whole book.
More than any other book in the whole Old Testament, apart from the book of
Psalms, which is man talking to God.
So God is talking to us and saying, Listen, just hold on.
Yes, you abandoned me.
Yes, you're going to go through some hard times.
But it's going to be worth it.
Because I'm sending you someone.
Who is going to bring you the most incredible joy in your life
that you could ever imagine.
Does that how we feel though, as we live our lives in Christ?
Is that how we feel though, in our relationships with one another?
Because that's what Jesus promised.
That's what God promised through Jesus.
So going back to Luke chapter 2.
So the angel says to the shepherds.
Today in a town of David, a Savior has been born to you.
He is the Messiah.
He is the Lord.
You see, their joy had been realized in this moment.
He says, God is saying to them, My gift to the world, yes is my Son, but it is joy.
This year I've been studying out joy.
Thank you.
And I've read lots of books and just been really, it's been really
inspired by how central joy is to the Bible and to God's message.
I'm a big fan of Dallas Willett.
I love reading his material and listening to his teachings.
And he says that, in his book Divine Conspiracy, he says
that God is a joyous God.
Do we think of God in that way?
It seems hard, doesn't it, to connect with Him on that level.
Because He's omnipotent, He's all knowing, He sees everything.
We can easily see Him as like a little, a big grumpy dad in the sky that we
have to keep on the right side of us.
Or any other variations of our, perhaps sometimes skewed views of God.
But God is a joyous God.
Joy is essential And to God's character as His love.
I absolutely believe that.
Think back to Genesis chapter 1 in the book and in creation.
When God created all of those different things, what does it keep on saying as
He looked back and saw what He had made?
What did He say?
It is good.
When you look at that in the Hebrew, it means that it was
good, but it also means pleasant.
Beneficial, beautiful, best, better, bountiful, godly, bringing joy.
So God looked at all that he had made and it brought him joy.
God is a joyous God.
Think about when we are out in nature.
Doesn't it bring us joy?
It does something to us because we are made for joy.
Therefore, As God ushered in creation with joy, He also announced the birth
of His Son with that same level of joy.
Because we are created for joy.
How is your life of joy?
In a lot of the reading that I've done, it says that our level of
joy should be our homeostasis.
How That should be our natural state.
And if our joy is off, then we're off.
Isn't that interesting?
That should be our normal existence, living a life of joy.
Our brains function well.
Our body does well.
Our immune system is boosted.
When we are joyful people, we have no reason to not be the most
joyful people on the entire planet.
Because we're the recipients of that great news, of that news of great joy.
Even babies in the first two years of their lives, the number one thing apart
from food that they are seeking is joyful interactions with their parents.
That's what they look for.
The studies on this is quite amazing.
This is a great book if you'd like to read anything about it.
It's a little, small book, easy to read.
It's called the Joy Switch.
And what I love about it, it says, it gives this definition of joy
with, in relationship, is that joy is the glad to be togetherness.
Isn't that a nice quote?
A nice way to think about joy?
And this comes into our relationship with God.
Glad to be togetherness.
God is always glad to be with you.
Glad to be togetherness in our families, in our marriages, with
our children, with our friends.
That is the definition, I think, that we can hold on to.
We can do something with that.
The problem is that we can sometimes think that joy just happens by being in the
same room with each other or by sitting next to each other or just by being with
God and checking a box for a quiet time.
The problem is, though, is that joy, there's an intentionality behind joy.
We actually have to do certain things to be able to work on that to make it happen.
So we have to learn to live in the joy that God has given us.
There is unlearning to be done and learning, new learning to acquire, so
that we can learn how to fully make the most of and enjoy the most of
this great gift that God has given us.
In another book I've been reading called Living from the Heart Jesus Gave You.
They talk about joy as well and it says that joy is number one, it is relational.
Building joy means getting closer to God and getting closer to grace filled people.
That is a really important statement.
Is it easy to feel joyful around people who are angry?
I agree.
Is it easy to feel joyful around people who are judgmental?
No.
You see, when we have relationships that are grace filled, it opens
the door for vulnerability.
We're going to talk about that in a little bit.
But I think this describes the ministry of Jesus.
That he enjoyed his relationship with God, his Father.
And he absolutely spread joy in his relationships with other people.
Why is it that the prostitutes and the sinners and the tax collectors
felt so comfortable being around him?
Because he was full of grace and full of truth.
But he was full of grace, spreading joy, that this was
the best place for them to be.
That's how we should be in our relationships with one another.
That describes our relationship with our Father.
It should infuse the very fabric of all of our relationships.
I did a study on joy, as I said, and I looked at all the references
of joy in the whole Bible.
And this is where we find them.
In the Old Testament, pretty much all of the references to do with joy are to, are
connected to our relationship with God.
Pretty much all of them.
And it's about taking joy from being in His presence, taking refuge in Him when
we're feeling down or discouraged, taking, um, remembering God's goodness, being
mindful of how amazingly He loves us.
That should bring us joy.
Taking refuge in Him.
To having our strength in Him.
In the New Testament, again, the majority of references to do with joy are also
connected to our relationship with God.
But also it's connected to God in our, in, through the Holy Spirit that
we have in, at work in our lives.
He brings us joy.
Our righteousness and our walk with God creates joy.
But what's interesting in the New Testament is that we also see that
there is joy that comes from our relationships with one another.
There's so many scriptures that talk about bringing the gospel to others
bring us joy, having healthy spiritual relationships bring us joy, having
true agape love, caring for one another brings us joy, strengthening
and teaching one another brings joy.
I really believe that every church of Christ, where we have people
striving to be disciples of Jesus, should be the centers of joy.
That people should come in, and I know people do, and
like, what is going on here?
Where's the Kool Aid?
That, what is it that's happening?
Because they should see a level of joy that you cannot find anywhere else.
There is no reason why that shouldn't be happening.
These should be the most joy filled communities on the planet.
The problem is Satan knows that too.
So what does he try and do?
Take our joy.
And if he can do that, we can then start getting critical with one another.
Judging one another, feeling distant from God, simply because our joy has gone.
That's how powerful this is.
So, we're going to have a look.
How can we enjoy God's gift of joy this Christmas and beyond?
So I have a couple of quick things to be able to help us with, okay?
So my wife and I, we're both actually educators, we're teachers.
So, um, So I'm going to give you a little bit of homework to do.
Okay.
So you might want to take some notes because I don't think any
of us have a photographic memory.
No, maybe if you don't, you've not been blessed with that.
I'm encouraging you to take some notes.
Okay.
Right.
How do we make the most then this holiday and moving, moving forward
in our relationship with one another.
So let me give you some things.
So how do we build joy?
Through healthy relationships.
Tell me what you see about this image.
What's the first thing that stands out to you in this image?
Smiling.
Pablo, thank you.
Smiling.
Right?
We'll come to that.
Coffee.
We'll come to that.
But you see them smiling.
So, how we build joy filled relationships with one another is
that when we see each other We smile.
You're giving a message to someone that says, I'm glad to be with you.
Teenagers, when you come into the house and your parents smile,
guess what you could do back?
You can do it.
It might break your face a little bit,
but smile and let them know that you are glad to be with them as well.
It is, it's radical, it's true.
It is so powerful.
So, we're going to talk through, from this picture, how we build different things
to help, to build healthy relationships.
The reason why this is important, let me go back for a second.
The reason why this is so important is because I think sometimes our
relationships can be fear based.
Yeah.
They can be judgment based.
God never wants that to be the case.
So we have to undo and unlearn perhaps some unhealthy practices that we can have.
So here are some other things that we can do.
So in this book, Living from the Heart Jesus Gave You, it gives
a great list of ways that we can build joy in our relationships.
So one of the things it says is that we can ask questions of one
another that bring out vulnerability.
So we can say, Hey, tell me about this, or how are you feeling about this?
Sometimes though, we can be triggered and think, why are they asking?
And then our defenses go up and then the joy is just gone, it's just disappeared.
But if we can allow ourselves to ask a question with grace, we can
hear a response with compassion, and That very intimate conversation
has the potential to build joy.
It's powerful when we do that.
I sat with one of my sons the other day and I showed him this quote from
the book and I said, listen, I'm going to ask you some questions just
about how you're doing spiritually and it's not because I want to judge you.
It's simply because I want to connect with you and genuinely just see how you are.
And he's, you know, I can see his shoulders relaxing.
It's amazing.
And then the rest of the day, my wife said, Have you noticed how joyful he is?
I was like, I know, it works!
So, God wants to bless us with these powerfully deep relationships.
But we have to unlearn, perhaps, some unhealthy things.
We have to learn to treat one another with real dignity and respect.
Not with an agenda.
But just simply because they are my brother or sister in Christ.
One of the things I love, now, this sister here said she noticed coffee.
Another thing that we can do in building healthy relationships is
finding each other's joy language.
So, my wife's joy language would be this exact situation.
Sitting down with a healthy snack, some home roasted coffee, and just
talking, getting deep, piercing into my soul, trying to find out
how I'm doing and what's going on.
That's her joy language.
How am I really doing?
What's going on?
It's good for me, because I would rather not share.
So it's good for me.
But what are your joy languages?
Perhaps it's going for a walk, playing games with one another.
Watching TV is fun, but if the thing you're not watching is not producing
joy, is it really building joy in your relationship all the time?
We have to have conversations.
What brings us joy?
The other day, my wife and I, we had a midweek, and one of the questions
that came up was, what actually brings you joy, and creates joy in your life?
We both said, music.
The next day, we went out to this cafe, where they had live music, And we were
able to experience that joy together.
But how will you know what brings you joy if you don't even
communicate it or talk about it?
Okay?
So, here are some things.
You could try some of this over the holidays.
Have deep, vulnerable conversations that are filled with grace,
that are full of compassion.
Amen?
Do some things that create joy.
Go on some walks with one another.
Play some games with each other.
Okay, finally.
What's amazing is that all of the things that you saw on the last slide about
building joy relationally, we also can do the very same things with God.
And these spiritual disciplines that many of us do on a daily
basis, they are opportunities for connections of joy with God.
Sometimes, though, we can see the spiritual disciplines
as just checkbox exercises.
I'm a disciple, therefore I should pray.
I should read my Bible.
That's pretty much it.
There is so much more to our relationship with God that He
wants us to enjoy with Him.
I don't have the time to go through all of these references, but I would like
to encourage you for your homework.
Write down the scripture references, because every one of
these disciplines connects you to joy in God in some capacity.
The first one is prayer.
Read about that.
John 16, 24.
Second one, the study of God's Word.
Psalm 19, 8.
Please read that.
The one at the bottom is gratitude.
Taking time just to think how blessed we are to have a relationship with God and
all the things that He does in our lives.
Study that out.
The middle one is fellowship with one another.
That God designed it in such a way that we have those healthy
relationships bring us joy.
It brings us closer to one another and then closer to God as a result.
Last one, just simply being out in God's nature.
That's his joy language.
Psalm 65, eight.
So let me encourage you study these things out over Christmas.
Do some activities with God so that you can just simply say, God, I'm glad
to be with you because he's definitely glad to be with us as we bring it into
to, to, to close and to take communion.
As Jesus was beginning to prepare himself for going to the cross, this
is what he says to his disciples.
He says to them, listen, I'm going soon and you're going to be left.
I won't be around.
So he promises them and he encourages them and he builds their faith.
He comforts them and reminds them of it's going to be okay.
I'm going to give you the Holy Spirit.
You've got one another.
I will never be far from you.
I'm always going to be with you.
And this is what he says to them.
I am coming to you now.
He's praying for them.
He says, I'm coming to you now, Father.
But I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have
the full measure of my joy within them.
Amen.
Jesus.
was full of joy.
And he says to them, listen, as hard as this is going to get, I want you to
have the full measure of my joy in you.
What an incredible promise.
He doesn't want us just to have a little sprinkling of joy here and
there, but to have the full measure, the great measure of his joy.
We can do that.
Yeah.
Through our times with Him.
Through our opportunities of building joy with one another.
That's His promise to us.
And even as Jesus went to the cross, this is, this always blows my mind.
Hebrews 12.
Jesus, who for the joy set before Him, endured the cross.
Even facing the cross.
He was able to do it with joy.
So He left the world with the joy, the same joy in which He entered.
But this time, we were His source of joy.
You were His source of joy, even at the cross.
Let Him be our source of joy.
Every single day.
There is no reason we have, doesn't matter what circumstances come our way,
none of them are worse than the cross.
And Jesus found joy even in that darkest moment because he was able to
look at us and see the relationship with God that his suffering was
going to bring and provide for us.
I hope I've been able to encourage you today with the great gift of joy.
Please enjoy it this Christmas It's great to be with you.
Please come up and say hi afterwards.
I'm very encouraged to share God's Word with you today.
Amen