Well, good morning everyone and Merry Christmas once again. It's exciting, it is here, ready or not, here it is. Well, Christmas is a season of waiting. I mean, it's also a season of parties and decorating and hot chocolate and Hallmark movies and shopping and dealing with crowded parking lots late at night when it's drizzly and cold and trudging through snow and ice. But traditionally, at least, it's A season of waiting, that's what our sermon series is titled here, The Long Expected King. When we get down to the true meaning of Christmas, This is historically a season of preparation for the coming of the Messiah. That's why it's called Advent. Advent comes from the Latin word adventus, which means coming, because we're waiting for the coming of the Messiah. And for hundreds of years the people of God waited for the Messiah. They waited for God to come and to redeem his people Israel. And so with this season of Advent we remember that waiting. Counting down the days with an Advent calendar or an Advent wreath with the candles on it. And we celebrate with joy on Christmas Day as we remember His birth and recognize the incredible, almost unbelievable truth that the Messiah has already come and we now have the joyous privilege of living this side of the incarnation because He's already appeared. He's already brought new life. His kingdom has already broken into this world. And yet, at the same time, we're not quite home yet, right? So we're still waiting for Jesus to come back and to redeem and restore all of creation, waiting for Jesus to usher in the new heavens and the new earth, waiting for Jesus to end all wars, all suffering, all pain, all heartache, all loss, waiting for the end of death and the beginning of eternal life, waiting for resurrection bodies waiting for the moment where we will finally stand before our king and worship him face to face in all his radiant glory. That coming, that adventus still awaits us in the future and so we wait. And in that sense, Advent becomes a symbolic representation of our whole lives, a countdown to Jesus's return. And so the question then becomes, what will we do as we wait for his return, for his second coming? And over the coming weeks, we're going to explore five different answers to that question. We wait with joy, we wait with confidence, we wait with purpose, we wait with holiness, and then on Christmas Eve, we'll remember that we wait with hope. And this morning, we get to talk about joy. Joy that there's snow already falling, joy at all the Christmas lights and decorations, but most importantly of all, joy in the presence of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. As David says in Psalm 16, 11, you, and he's talking about God here, our Heavenly Father, you make known to me the path of life. In your presence, There is fullness of joy. At your right hand are pleasures evermore. And this morning we're going to see three examples then of how we can wait with this kind of joy as we examine the passage that we just heard from Luke 1 of Mary's encounter with Elizabeth. And the first example of how we can wait with this kind of joy is to stop, look, and listen for joy. So look in your Bibles here at Luke chapter one, the first few verses. If you blink, this season will be over. Before you know it, January will be here. We'll all be wandering around the fellowship hall going, can you believe it's 2026 already? I can't believe it. Because December can be so chaotic, so packed with activities and parties and events that it's sometimes hard to slow down and take it all in. Christmas and Easter, the two biggest holidays on the church calendar, but it's easy to get so caught up in the planning that we can miss the moment entirely. But the Christmas story, the story of the events surrounding the birth of Jesus is filled with people who have eyes to see and ears to hear what God is doing, however surprising and unexpected that may be. So take Elizabeth, for example. Wife of Zechariah, the priest, barren for decades, yearning for a child of her own, unable to get pregnant, and then suddenly, miraculously conceiving a child, and nervously making it through the first month without a miscarriage, and then another month, and another one, and her belly slowly getting bigger and bigger. Imagine the joy. that must have radiated from her as the days went by. Her back probably hurt, her feet are aching, but every ache and pain, every moment of discomfort is a reminder for her of how blessed she is. Every moment of nausea, a sign that what the angel told Zachariah is actually really happening now in her life. And then, one day, as we read here, Luke chapter one, verse 39, her young relative, Mary, shows up at her house. Now, today, we're used to family flying in from just about anywhere around the world. 1,000 miles is just not a big deal anymore, but it's quite possible Mary and Elizabeth rarely saw each other. Remember, although Mary gave birth in Bethlehem, her home was actually further north, right, in Nazareth. And Elizabeth didn't even live in Bethlehem, but probably somewhere in the hill country of Judah. So you can see, Mary lives up here, Elizabeth somewhere way down here. This is about a hundred miles. It's like walking from Milwaukee down to here, except throwing a whole bunch of enormous hills and mountains along the way. Now this is a journey that Mary takes because the angel has told her about Elizabeth's good news and it's strongly implying like, hey, you should maybe go see her. But Elizabeth, she doesn't know anything about Mary, not until Mary walks in the door and then three things happen all at once. First, the text says in verse 41, the baby leaped in her womb. Now ladies, if any of you have been pregnant, then you know what it feels like for the baby to kick and squirm and move around, more so if you've enjoyed like a nice large peppermint mocha or something. I mean, that really gets the baby going. And that's all really quite normal and healthy, but there's something different about this movement that sets it apart for Elizabeth. John doesn't just like slightly stretch an arm or move his leg. It's like he does a back flip. And this movement is so unique, so special, so different that Elizabeth perceives almost immediately something amazing is happening here with Mary's visit. This is no longer just a family reunion. This must be an extension of the events that were set in motion when the angel Gabriel appeared to my husband, Zachariah, in the temple. So the first thing that happens is the baby leaps in her belly. Well, second, the text says that Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. Now we take that for granted now. If you put your faith in Christ, you've been filled with the Holy Spirit. But remember, before Pentecost, the Holy Spirit was given to particular people in particular places at particular times for specific tasks, right? So this filling, it's not for Elizabeth's blessing and purpose, not primarily, but it has a different purpose. It's a moment used by God to announce to the world, this is what I'm doing. This filling of the Holy Spirit is what allows Elizabeth to then speak prophetically about these pregnancies. It's the Holy Spirit who allows Elizabeth and then by extension all of us now as well, all believers, to see past the excitement of just two pregnant women excited to see each other. And to see the hand of God sovereignly, divinely orchestrating these events to bring about a plan, he set in motion before the foundation of the world. And more than that, the Spirit gives Elizabeth not just eyes to see what God is doing, but also a mouth to proclaim that insight then to Mary, which leads to the third event that happens when Mary arrives. Elizabeth exclaims with a loud cry. This isn't just a spirit-filled prophetic announcement, but also a moment of great joy, right? This is her angel singing hallelujah kind of moment. Elizabeth doesn't just sort of mumble these words under her breath. She's not shy or reserved or demure. She all but shouts them out, filled with the Spirit. She just cannot keep her joy contained. It just, blah, just bursts right out of her. Joy pervades this entire greeting because God works in Elizabeth and in John in her womb to help them see and understand exactly how significant, how important this meeting really is. It's sort of like the defroster working on your windshield to clear it of snow and ice so that you can see the road ahead. God clears away the distractions, any confusion, so all these men and women surrounding the birth of Jesus can see exactly what God is doing. And it's so exciting, it's so amazing, they can barely contain their joy. And here we are. We too have the Holy Spirit dwelling within us. We know the story now from beginning to end. We can see so much more than Mary, Elizabeth, or John could even imagine. And yet, do we really see it? Or are we so busy, we're so consumed with everything else in life that it all just passes us by like a kid on a road trip, just sort of glazed eyes watching the farms and the trees and the houses fly by past them. Aware of the movement but never really present in the moment. Running around everywhere but being nowhere. Look, we will only find joy in God's presence, but how can we expect to find and experience joy when we're always on the run, when we barely have time for each other, let alone for Jesus? Do we ever, especially this time of year, slow down enough to really see the people around us? Our friends, our family members, our loved ones, our friends here at church. Not just being around them, but actually being present with them. We used to joke at home about we need to give our kids our eyeballs, meaning our full attention, putting down the phone, shutting the laptop, setting aside the shopping list, sitting down and looking and listening instead of constantly moving in a state of unending frenetic motion. It's hard enough to do that at any time of year, but especially over these four weeks of Advent leading up to Christmas. But it doesn't have to be that way. God wants us to see what he's doing. He wants us to hear what he's saying. He wants us to participate with what he's doing. Not just individually, but together as the body of Christ. So to taste joy this Christmas, we need to pray for the spirits help us to slow down and to be present with what God is doing all around you. Our second example of how we can wait with joy comes from John. And it's this, to find your joy in Jesus. Now I think, personally, John the Baptist gets kind of a raw deal at Christmas. I mean, aside from Mary, right, he is the first one to recognize Jesus as the Messiah, and yet I have never, ever seen a Christmas pageant that lists John the Baptist on the cost list, right? He's not in any of the paintings, he's not in any of the movies, he doesn't even get onto a Christmas card. He has this massively important role in the history of salvation, and yet somehow he gets dropped from both Christmas and Easter. Not today. Today, we will recognize the other Christmas baby, which is John. Before you get all nitpicky with me, I know he was born like two or three months before Jesus. But look, the Magi, they didn't come for two years. And they still get into the Christmas pageant. So we're including John here. Now I guess to be fair, part of the problem is he doesn't actually have any lines, right? He can't actually speak. He's still in Elizabeth's womb. But the way in which he leaps in her womb, it is so important. It's as if he's yearning to say something. He doesn't just roll over. Like I said a moment ago, he leaps for joy. I imagine him doing a little happy dance. He's like, oh yeah, oh yeah, Jesus is here. It's like clicking his heels in midair. Because John recognizes this baby in Mary's womb, it's his Lord, his Messiah, right? And so even in the womb, he's fulfilling his destiny as the messenger who would prepare the way for the Lord as he enters into his temple, as we read in Malachi 3.1. And so here's John, and he's pointing at Jesus, even inside the womb. And even though he can't speak, he's proclaiming as best he can, this is him, right? He's the one, the Lord, the one we've all been waiting for, the one who's gonna come into his temple, he's here. It's reminiscent of King David, right? Dancing and leaping for joy before the Ark of the Covenant as they're bringing it, where? Into Jerusalem, into the tabernacle. representing the presence of God himself coming to dwell among his people. And now we have Jesus, right? The incarnate son of God coming to live, to dwell among his people. And what do we have? He's met by John, leaping and dancing in his presence. And what's so cool about this passage in Malachi is just a few verses at the beginning of chapter four. Look what it says, God says, look, there's this day of judgment coming, and I'm gonna strike down all my enemies. But, but for you who fear my name, what does he say? The sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings, and you shall go out leaping like calves from the stall. I've shared before about my wife's cousin who married this dairy farmer. He features in a lot of my sermon illustrations. This dairy farmer, he has no idea. But whenever we visit him, I'm always amazed at the energy that these baby calves have. It's mind-blowing. I mean, you think cows are these big, slow, lumbering creatures, but the calves, man, they can go Wild, they leap up in the air in ways that defy gravity. One minute they're just standing there and the next thing they just bolted across the yard. It's like when your dogs get the crazies and go tearing around the house. These calves are like hundreds of pounds. But that's a kind of energetic leaping. that we're to imagine John seems to be doing here. That's why Elizabeth senses like whoa, something is going on here. And it's not just excitement like the way we all got excited for snow yesterday. This is purposeful. This is a prophetic moment. John leaps for joy because he senses that the dawn, it's breaking. He senses the sun of righteousness is rising with healing in its wings. What a moment! And John wants the world to know. It's a role John will play for the rest of his life, eagerly giving himself over to this call from God to be a voice crying out to all who would listen, prepare the way of the Lord. because John's joy, it has this evangelistic component to it. He's not just doing a touchdown dance. His joy, his exuberance, it functions as a signpost, right, pointing to the Messiah. And as such, it becomes a sobering reminder that joy is not rooted in stuff, but in Jesus. Not that we cannot enjoy Christmas. I love to give gifts to others. I also don't mind getting them, but I love to give gifts to others, right? All the wrapping paper and the bows, and it's fun to see people's faces light up. Over Thanksgiving, we praise God for all the ways he has helped us over this last year. The gifts of family and friends and everything else we enjoy at Christmas are amazing, and I plan to soak up Every minute of it. It is okay, it's good. It's a gift from God to celebrate and enjoy the good in the world, as long as it doesn't end there. Because these celebrations, all these parties, these special times of joy and laughter, good as they may be, They should all redirect our attention back to the ultimate good, right? The Father of all blessing, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, the one from whom all blessings flow down into our lives. Now look ahead to John 3.29. These are John's disciples, they're confused about what's going on with Jesus, but then John tells them, right? He says, the one who has a bride is a bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom who stands and hears him rejoices greatly at the bridegroom's voice. Therefore, this joy of mine is now complete. He must increase and I must decrease. He's like, look, Jesus is the Messiah. He's the bridegroom. Me, I'm just a friend. Well, look, I stand beside him. I point to him and I find my joy being in his presence, hearing his voice. In other words, wherever he is, that's where I wanna be. That's where we should all want to be, right? How in the world do we keep this kind of perspective during Christmas? Two brief suggestions here. First, Do whatever it takes, whatever is necessary to carve out devotional time, private, personal devotional time with God this Christmas season. Something is always going to be better than nothing. You can pray in the car, on the train, while walking the dog, while shoveling snow. right, as an alternative to scrolling on your phone. They have apps now designed to give you bite-sized chunks of scripture so when you're standing in line at Costco or waiting for your kids at a, waiting to pick up your kids at an event, you can pull out your phone and instead of scrolling, you can find some small chunk of scripture to read. Of course, longer is always going to be a richer and more meaningful and significant time with God, but don't abandon it completely because you don't have your table with your coffee and your highlighters and your notes and everything else. Read something, guard that time with God. And second, look for ways to encourage and help each other, to be like John, to help each other see Jesus throughout this season, right? John gave his life to this task, literally died to do this. So how can you and I sort of leverage all this yuletide cheer that's going on around us right now to direct other people's attention to Jesus? I think many people can end up feeling let down by Christmas because all they have is wrapping paper. That's all they've got. They don't have the present. Right? They have the language of Christmas, the songs of Christmas, the festivities of Christmas, but nobody has ever shared with them the real meaning, the purpose, the point of all this hoopla. Even in our own homes, we need to continually fight against all the other messages that are being crammed down our throats at this time of year in order to cling tightly to Jesus through it all. Because it's in his presence that we will find joy. It's in his presence that other people will find joy. So we need to do what we can to cling tightly to that. Well, the third example of how we can wait with joy this Christmas comes from Mary. We sing for joy. We recently watched The Grinch. Perhaps many of you like to watch that or read the book. It's a fun, it's a colorful story, but it's fascinating to me to watch this. All the people of Whoville, The Grinch comes and he steals Christmas. And what do they do? They realize, well, we didn't need all these presents and trees and decorations and lights and candies and cookies and everything else. and they all go out into the square, and they hold hands, and they start singing together. This is sort of the real meaning of it all, but I'm just left feeling like, singing what? What are they singing? Who are they singing to? Why are they singing? I know it's just a kid's book, and I'm asking way too much, but this is what I do, I'm a pastor, I can't help overanalyzing it all. But how telling is it that what brings everyone together, what brings them joy and fellowship, what brings them meaning and purpose to their lives in that moment is to sing. Eyes closed, hearts open, hands raised, belting out their songs with all their might. Because people are wired to sing, right, in the shower, in the car. How many of you have been beside someone at a traffic light or in a traffic jam and you've seen someone next to you in the car and they are just rocking out to some music and you're like, I don't know what they're listening to, but they are having an awesome time. Or think about the massive popularity of musicals or karaoke machines, right, or once upon a time, opera, believe it or not. We love to sing and we love to listen to people who sing. And yet there is no obvious material purpose to it at all. In fact, I cannot imagine what a strict Darwinian would try to argue is the evolutionary advantage of singing. Or, how does this relate to the whole survival of this fittest principle? Unless, of course, we ended up with shows like American Idol, right? Truly, that was absolutely the worst example of pathetic singing I've ever heard in my life. That's a hard no for me. I think Christianity then is the only truly satisfying answer we have to this question. Why sing? Because it's hardwired into us. It's hardwired response of the creation to offer praise to its creator. When people come into the presence of God, what do they do? They either bow down in awe and reverence or they sing or boast. So look at what Mary does here. For example, she breaks out in song. My soul magnifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior. She's bursting with joy. Gone is all that fear, all that uncertainty that she felt when the angel Gabriel first appeared to her. It's been replaced instead with exaltation. Have you ever heard Christians talk about glorifying God and wonder, like, I don't actually think I know what that means. Like, how do I glorify God? You sing. That's what you can do. You open your mouth and you let your praises to God come out. Not merely with your words, but with your heart, your soul, your mind, your strength, everything. It's like when you were a kid and you went to birthday parties and you played the hokey pokey, right? And the very last verse of the song, you put your whole self in and you put your whole self out. You put your whole self in and you shake it all around. That's what we're called to do, to put your whole self in and worshiping God. No holding back. Mary's language, it sounds old-fashioned to us, right? It's sort of stilted and stiff and formal and rigid, not very expressive for the way we talk today. But look at the repetition. My soul magnifies the Lord. My spirit rejoices in God my Savior. A specific Greek word that she uses here for rejoice, it carries this idea of overabundant joy, excessive joy, over the top joy, joy that you cannot keep inside. The kind of joy that makes you feel like your heart is gonna burst. That's the kind of exuberant joy she's expressing here, like a spring of fresh water just bubbles right out of her and it cannot be stopped. Have you ever noticed what you do when you're in a good mood? Chances are you sing, or hum, or whistle, or something. Why? Because that's the way God has wired his creation to work. to give him glory, to respond to beauty and life and goodness and blessing by singing. We don't offer God our stuff, we offer him ourselves, singing, glorifying his name. The angels, right, in the story further on in Luke, they do the same thing when they appear to the shepherds, bursting into song, singing glory to God in the highest. And the shepherds in turn, right, they glorify and praise God after seeing the baby Jesus. Even the We Three Kings of Orient are. Right, bearing gifts, we've traveled so far. And what do they do when they finally see the baby Jesus, two years after everyone else? They rejoice exceedingly with great joy. I don't think it's possible to get more excited than that. And we sometimes have a vision of them as being sort of stuffy old men. But it sounds to me like they are freaking out in this moment. Does one of them do a backflip? Are they chest bumping or high-fiving? I don't know what Magi do exactly in this moment, but it is exceedingly more than just a, oh Mary, we are so happy for you in this moment. They are exultant. You know, I think sometimes... We want to be happier and more joyful than we feel is perhaps even appropriate, especially even in Christian circles. Like my prayer requests, they should really only be for the really bad and awful and difficult and terrible things that are going on in my life. Like I feel kind of guilty of them. I actually just kind of had a good week. Like things are going well for me. God answered my prayer requests, my kids, My kid, they're actually healthy right now. We managed finally to balance our budget at home. We should celebrate these good weeks, the positive performance reviews. These are good blessings from God and it is good to celebrate them. Every day in a fallen world like this should theoretically just be gray and boring and cold with freezing rain. Like in a fallen world, that's theoretically all it should be, day after day after day, but God blesses us with glorious sunsets, with stunning beauty, piles of fresh snow for us to play in, moments of joy and blessing that should cause us to be startled and amazed and thankful, like Mary and Elizabeth and John and the shepherds and the magi. And when we look at our lives through these lenses, we should be floored by God's goodness, God's grace and mercy, God's provision and protection. Because we don't deserve any of it, we didn't earn any of it. It's just straight up grace, right? Overwhelming, overflowing grace. Grace poured into Mary's life. Grace poured into Elizabeth and Zechariah's life. Grace poured into John's life, poured into the shepherds' lives, poured into the Magi's life, and slowly, over time, poured into the lives of the people all around them, growing and spreading through the Roman Empire, and then out through time to billions of Christians, billions of believers all around the world. because Jesus came to bring us life, not just like a bare minimum level of life, but abundant, joy-filled, exuberant, God-exalting life. And all of this so that these streams of living water, all these blessings he's poured into us would then extend out into the lives of others as well. So that God's kingdom would grow and spread like this, this flood of living water filling the earth, leading everyone to praise the Lord. How else can you respond to that except through song? It's like, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah. And who cares if it's pitchy or out of tune or off key? It doesn't matter, just sing. Clap your hands, all you people. Shout to God with loud songs of joy. Sing praises to God. Sing praises. You who dwell in the dust, awake and sing for joy. Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion. Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem. Behold, your king is coming to you. Right, oh Israel, hope in the Lord, for with the Lord there is steadfast love, and with him there is plentiful redemption. Look, Psalm 19.1, we're all familiar with it, like the heavens declare the glory of God and the skies proclaim his handiwork. Think about the recent Northern Lights, maybe some of you saw those. The beauty of a winter sunset, the delight of snow, the shimmering frost-covered grass, the snow clinging to the tree, the beauty of a single individual snowflake. These should make our hearts sing. Even when that beautiful sunset is at four o'clock in the afternoon and you're still at work. Or the beautiful frost means you now have to scrape off all the ice from your car. Or the snow means yet more shoveling and salting and shoveling and salting. I look for and celebrate the beauty of this season, the beauty of God's creation, given as a sign of his abundant grace to us, as a signpost to point to God, a giant, flashing, neon sign that says, praise God from whom all blessings flow. And in so doing, may you and I together find joy overflowing, leap up in the air, abundant joy as you wait for Jesus's return. Would you pray with me? Lord, fill us with joy in your presence this season. Through the power of your spirit, Lord, restore to us the joy of your salvation. Uphold us with a willing spirit. Help us to carve out the time that we need to see you and to savor you and to worship you this Christmas. In Jesus' name, amen.