← ArchiveMissing ChristmasSunday, December 9, 2018DateDecember 9, 2018Speaker—TextMatthew 1Passages in this sermonMatthew 10:33Micah 59:55Matthew 1311:34Matthew 230:45TranscriptClick any line to jump there.0:00I'll see you next time. Well, good morning.0:30If you have the Word of God with you today, please join me in Matthew, the first book in the New Testament, Matthew chapter 1, and we will begin in verse 18 this morning. I need help from our teenagers. You guys are looking this way. Excellent. If I say the word FOMO, F-O-M-O, what do I mean? For those who are probably not with today's culture, like me, if they're not as hip as I am, help them out.0:57For those who are probably not with today's culture, like me, if they're not as hip as I am, help them out.1:13Fear of missing out. So we'll have to help our teenagers here, right? Fear of missing out. And that is, you guys have never heard that before.1:28Really? See, again, let me just, church, y'all, you don't realize how cool I am. And our teenagers especially don't. So the fear of missing out, and that fear is real. There's two stories that come to my mind. I'll never forget my grandfather, who's now passed away, but they wanted to go on a lifetime trip to Yellowstone. And they finally made the trip, and they were probably in their 60s at this point. And so they were waiting at Old Faithful to see Old Faithful erupt.1:54And I get the genes from him. He just was not patient enough, because there's 90-minute intervals. And so if you've ever been to Yellowstone, there's an ice cream stand that you can go to while you wait for Old Faithful to erupt. So sure enough, when he turned his back and went to go get ice cream, Old Faithful went off. And so he completely missed Old Faithful. But I guarantee you that's the best ice cream he's ever had. And I remember also when Casey and I, we went to a bowl game, Liberty Bowl, watched Mississippi State play UCF.2:25And it was the coldest game I've ever been. It's one of those games where you're envious of people who are walking down the aisles with the hot chocolate. I mean, just your bones are cold. And so finally, in the fourth quarter, she gave up. And she said, I'm going to get hot chocolate. And a touchdown had not been scored the entire game. And sure enough, when she went to go get hot chocolate, she missed the only score. And looking back, I wish she would have left in the first quarter, because my team was the one that scored.2:51But we're starting a new series, simply entitled Missing Christmas. And we're going to look at people in the Christmas story who either missed or almost missed out on what Christ was doing in their life. In my prayer, in our prayer as we read the Word of God, is that God would put in our lives a holy fear of missing out on what He wants to do. That we would not live in fear, but that we would fear, God, I don't want to miss what you have in my life.3:21Knowing that you are the God who is living and active and you want to work in our lives today. So with that, we're going to begin with Joseph today. Matthew 1, verse 18, that Lord would create in us a fear of missing out. Beginning in Matthew 1, verse 18, I'm reading from the Christian Standard Version of the Bible.3:50The birth of Jesus Christ came about in this way. After his mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph, it was discovered before they came together that she was pregnant from the Holy Spirit. So her husband Joseph, being a righteous man, and you might want to circle that or underline it, we'll come back to that word.4:15And not wanting to disgrace her publicly, decided to divorce her secretly. But after he had considered these things, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, because what has been conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.4:34She will give birth to a son, and you are to name him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins. Now, all of this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the word through the prophet. See, the virgin will become pregnant and give birth to a son, and they will name him Emmanuel, which is translated God with us.5:02And when Joseph woke up, he did as the Lord's angel has commanded him. He married her, but did not have sexual relations with her until she gave birth to a son. And he named her, named him, Jesus Christ. Let's pray. Father, as we read your word right now, as we meditate on your mercy and your grace that is freely bestowed,5:30Lord, as we saw the testimony of men and women who boldly will stand up and be baptized because of their faith in Jesus Christ, will create in us this morning a holy fear that we would never miss out on what you want to do in our life.5:52So restore to us the joy of your salvation, and that we would humbly see Emmanuel, God, with us. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. We're going to walk through quickly Joseph, and hopefully this morning we'll be new and fresh of who this man is,6:18and then we will look at application for us. So we're going to spend the first half looking at Joseph, the man, and then turning our eyes towards our lives and saying, Lord, how is this impacting me? If you were to open a Bible dictionary and look up Joseph, this is what you would find. Literally, it says, Joseph, husband of Mary, mother of Jesus.6:42So if you were to look up in a Bible dictionary who Joseph is, even Bible dictionaries immediately point you to Mary. So if you were to look through the Bible and look through the words that Joseph had spoken in the Scriptures, you would not find one word that Joseph ever spoke that is recorded in the Bible.7:10You only find 12 mentions of Joseph in the Scriptures. The last mention you have in Matthew and in Luke is Joseph going back to the temple because he's left Jesus there for three days, if you remember that episode. And that's the last mention we have of Jesus Christ in the Scriptures, which leads most scholars to conclude that Joseph died before Jesus began his earthly ministry.7:32So we need to dig deeper than who is this man that had such an important role in the life of Jesus Christ. And as important as it is today is the same in ancient world. If you meet someone new, you're going to ask several things, right? So who's your family? And where are you from?8:01And what do you do, right? If I know one of those things and we can connect dots and we can begin a conversation. So for Joseph, where is he from? We see in Luke that Joseph went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to the city of David, to Bethlehem. Why? Because he was of the house and the family of David.8:27Now we're not entirely sure if Joseph was raised in Nazareth and journeyed to the city of David, Bethlehem, or if he was raised in Bethlehem and he went to Nazareth to bring Mary back to the city. But either way, we know where was David, where was Joseph from? The son of David from the town of Bethlehem, a small town, 500 maybe to a thousand people. Bethlehem was known as Bethlehem, right?8:56The house of Lechem, which is the house of bread. It was known for its barley and wheat fields. That's why it was termed the house of bread. And it's not irony or accident that Jesus Christ called himself and was named the bread of life, who was born in the town of David, which was called the house of bread. Bethlehem was also the place that shepherds kept their watch by night.9:27And most of the sheep that were given to the temple to sacrifice were raised and born and bred in Bethlehem. For me, it's a reminder that the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, that the perfect sacrifice for us was born in Bethlehem. It's the same town that Micah, in Micah 5, 2, prophesied.9:55And I can imagine that Joseph, growing up or being from this family, knew the prophecy about Bethlehem.9:59David, this mighty king, was born in Bethlehem.10:26And David, you know, that grew up to be king over Israel. But before he grew up to be king, he was known for several things. He would keep sheep and he would play the harps. But he also, he was a really good shot with a sling. And he killed Goliath. I can just imagine boys who grew up in Bethlehem, picking up stones, imagining they were David, running through the streets of Bethlehem, slinging stones and getting in trouble by their parents. Obviously, don't throw stones.10:55And they were saying, well, we're being David. And can you imagine Joseph growing up in this town, being from the line of David, from the house of David? And you have to wonder, did Joseph know that one day his son would be the one who would sit on the throne of David? This is Joseph. This is where he was from. But what did he do? We know in Matthew that the Nazareth town people looked at Jesus Christ and they scoffed when they said this.11:21But they said, isn't this Jesus, the son of the carpenter? Now, the word carpenter is, in Matthew 13, is tecton. It's not really the word woodman, but it's the word craftsman or artisan. Because most houses in Israel are not made from wood, sticks like we build, but from stones and from mortar.11:42And they fashioned those out of clay. And so Joseph would have been an artisan, if you will. And we know in the Greek that ark, tecton, is a master builder. And it just brings to mind when Jesus says to the world that I am the chief cornerstone that the builders rejected.12:04That Jesus is speaking as a master technician and builder because Joseph has passed down that craft to him. Joseph was an artisan. He was born in Bethlehem. We also know, here from the word of God, that he had an important relationship. We see in Matthew that Joseph was what to Mary?12:32He was engaged. Or some of your versions say, which is a better translation, he is betrothed. Now, let's kind of unpack this from our mindset. So in the modern world, engagement means what? You've given a ring and you're about to be married, but you're not currently married. Correct? So you're going to get married. In the ancient world, entirely different. To be engaged meant that you had all of the moral and legal responsibilities of being married.13:03Practically, legally and morally, Joseph and Mary were married in the eyes of God and in society. And what would take place during the engagement of the betrothal would, now, the family would have time to get ready for the wedding. They'd have about a year. And also, Mary and Joseph would have time to know each other.13:30So this is often the time of chosen marriages. And so families would bring their son and their daughters and say, you guys are getting married. And so we'll give you a year to get to know each other. And this was taking place. But we know from ancient documents that one of the most important reasons for the engagement process was for the bride to prove her purity and her chastity during this process.13:48This was the engagement of the betrothal. So think what's going on now in Joseph's mind when he hears the word of the angels. He hears that Mary was with child and he knew that that child was not his own. And the most important part of the engagement process was for the future bride to show that she was committed to the relationship.14:19Thankfully, we know that Joseph was not only engaged, but he was a righteous man. What does it mean that he was righteous? We see here in Matthew that the word of God says that so her husband, Joseph, being a righteous man, did not want to disgrace her publicly, but decided to divorce her secretly.14:42Why was Joseph a righteous man? So let's just camp out on this thought. He was not righteous because he was legally keeping the law. He was not righteous because he was keeping the law. Actually, if Joseph were to keep the law, the law instructed him to divorce her publicly.15:09So if he was a law-abiding, a cultural, ritualistic, law-abiding, righteous man, he would have immediately divorced her to prove his innocence, to prove his righteousness. Just think about Jesus when he's encountering the Pharisees who bring this woman who's caught in adultery.15:32And with this lady, these Pharisees, they bring what? They bring stones. Why? Because the law required that anyone caught in adultery would be stoned under penalty of their transgression. That's what the law required. And yet, Joseph was a righteous man. He did not want Mary to die.16:03He wanted to divorce her quietly. Now, if he were to divorce her quietly and privately, what would happen? It's a great question. Several things. One, they would no longer be together because infidelity in the betrothal process would not end in divorce. It would just show that the marriage was never legitimate from the beginning. It would absolve the relationship. But if Joseph divorced her privately, they would no longer be in relationship.16:34And eventually, the people of Nazareth would find out that Mary was pregnant. And the natural understanding would be, well, obviously, this is Joseph's son. And so Joseph would be taking the shame upon himself. Think about that. So if he divorced her, he would take the shame upon himself. And if Mary's parents required him, he would have to marry Mary.17:00And I believe this was a way that Joseph was showing his love for Mary, not wanting to publicly put her to shame. He did not do what most of us would have done. He did not go to social media and rip her to shreds. But he wanted to honor her. And he wanted to take the shame of this pregnancy upon himself. Why?17:31Why? Why would Joseph do such a thing? Why would he do something that we would most likely not be willing to do ourselves? Because Scripture tells us. What was his character? Joseph was a righteous man. Not according to the law, but according to the Lord. What a great testimony of his faith. Now, why is this important to us? And so now we're going to apply this in our lives. What is Joseph? How does that relate to us?18:01And how did Joseph maybe miss some things that we don't want to miss in our lives spiritually? Well, first, what we see in Joseph's life as we look at the Word of God is we have to ask ourselves, are we living by our strength and our understanding, or are you living by the Lord's strength? Are you living by faith, or are you living in your power and your strength? You say, well, where do you get that from? Well, let's look back at verse 18.18:30I think we have some clues to Joseph's life. Joseph, a righteous man, verse 18, does this about Mary. We see that he discovered before they came together that she was pregnant from the Holy Spirit. Now, how did he discover this? We don't know. Was it from Elizabeth and Zechariah when Mary was staying with them? Did it finally get to the point where he just noticed and said, hey, something is up here?19:00But whatever the reason, Joseph, in his mind, understood that she was pregnant and that child was not his own. And look how he goes about this process. So 19, her husband Joseph, being a righteous man, not wanting to disgrace her publicly, decided to divorce her secretly. So he discovered, he decided, and then the next verse, look what we see about Joseph, after he considered these things.19:27So what's Joseph doing here? He's making decisions based on the best information that he has. Mary is obviously pregnant. And he doesn't want her to die. He doesn't want her to be put to shame. So he's going to divorce her privately. So he's willing to take the shame of this pregnancy upon himself and take care of this child that he knew was not his.19:55But what is Joseph doing? He's doing the same thing that we do today and that you and I would have done in this situation. He is making a decision based on what he sees and what he discovers and what he understands and what he considers. And he's making good choices. But he's making decisions based on what he says.20:23And I can't help to think to ask ourselves this question. Am I living by faith or am I living in a way that my sight is limiting God? Am I living in a way that I say, God, I know you can do all things, but I'm going to make, I'm just going to make my decisions based on what I know. Or I know that you can do anything, but I know what I see. And so I'm going to make decisions of what I discover and what I consider and what I think.20:53How often do we do that? We make decisions. We know the word of God. We know the power of the word working in our life and the power of the spirit. But we say, Lord, I'm going to live what I know. And how often does my faith and my limited sight limit God? Thankfully in Joseph, he did not let that happen.21:24He almost did. He almost missed it. But thankfully, the Lord opened his eyes to something that was greater than what he considered. I love this quote by Corrie Ten Boom. She says, Faith sees the invisible, believes the unbelievable, and receives the impossible. Let me say that again. Faith sees the invisible, believes the unbelievable, and receives the impossible. Do not limit what Christ is doing in your life based on your short-sightedness.21:55Don't limit what Christ is doing. Because that is our natural inclination. But do not limit what Christ is doing in your life. Secondly, we see this in Joseph's life. He's making decisions based on what are good. He's making good choices. The law says divorce her publicly.22:21Joseph decides to divorce her secretly. But we see this truth over and over again in Scripture. Good and good choices do not always equal godly choices in our life. Good does not always equal godly. Think about what Jesus tells us. This man, this rich, young man comes to Jesus Christ and says,22:49Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life? And Jesus stops him right there. I think that's a great question to ask. And Jesus stops him and says, Why do you call me good? No one is good except God. No one is good except God. So Joseph is making good choices. But God doesn't want us to make good choices. He wants us to seek godliness.23:18And begin to ask that question in my life. Lord, we live in a world where we elevate and make heroes out of good people. We elevate, I mean, if I ask you right now, Think of people who are good in your life. You have a list of five people. These are good people because of what they do. But God doesn't ask us to be good people. He wants us to pursue godliness. And may that be our desire in our life,23:46That we don't stop at what we think is good, But that we live for godliness in our life. Spurgeon says that he has a great quote about this. Spurgeon says that this sermon is not about choosing right from wrong. But it is choosing right from almost right. Do not be content to stop at good. Seek godliness.24:16Seek godliness. Can you imagine if Joseph was content as making good decisions? What would have happened? No, may we seek the power of the Spirit of God working in our life. Do not miss out on what God is doing in your life, Because you settle for the almost right choice. Do not settle for the almost right choice in your life. We see this in Joseph's life.24:46And this makes us pause. Missing Christmas. Are we open to the power and presence of the Lord in our lives? Are you open to the power and the presence of the Lord in your life? Look what happens to Joseph. Righteous man. Making righteous, good choices. Not wanting to shame his engaged fiance. And he's sleeping one night. And I can imagine he's dreaming about this.25:16I mean, can you imagine how he's agonizing? Lord, how do I honor you and divorce Mary who I love secretly? And I want to do what's right by you. And I can just imagine him falling asleep every night. Just weighing on his heart, weighing on his mind. And then one night, in verse 20, he's considering these things.25:42I would imagine again and again and again. And an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, Joseph, son of David. Now that's interesting because we see already in Matthew that David is not Joseph's dad. His dad is named Jacob. But his great-great-great-great-great-great-28 great-grandfathers ago26:10was David, the man born in Bethlehem. Son of David, don't be afraid to take Mary as your wife. Because what has been conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. And listen to how Joseph answers. He never says, Lord, is that you?26:37Lord, I know you spoke to Joseph in Genesis through dreams. But Lord, I don't know if you still do that. And Lord, I know what you're saying about Mary being with child from the Holy Spirit, but I've never seen that happen before. And I just, I can't help but think, if God were to speak to us right now,27:02would we believe the word of the Lord? What was it in Joseph's life that when God spoke to him, he knew? He said, God, this is obviously you. And so I just simply ask you right now, if the Lord spoke to you, as we open his word, if Yahweh spoke to your life right now, would you actually discern his voice?27:31Or would it freak you out? Would you say, hey, something happened today, I don't know what was going on, hunger pangs? Something that normally doesn't happen when I worship happened. Or would we say, man, I heard the voice of God. And I knew it was the Lord speaking. And I knew I had to act upon it because I was ready for God in my life.27:56How does this happen? We have to regularly commune with God to know his voice. And I can't help but think that too often we play church and we miss God speaking because of static in our life, because we're not ready to hear or listen. Are you ready to hear the voice of God in your life?28:25And maybe you hear God speaking to you. And maybe you need the refreshment and the boldness that God gives Joseph. Look what the angel says to Joseph. Son of David in verse 20. Do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife. Maybe you're here right now and you're terrified because you know God wants you to do great things and you are awestruck by what that is. Do not be afraid.28:57If God is asking you to do it, that is the safest thing you can do in your life is to be in the presence of God. Are you ready to hear the Lord working? To hear him speak and say, God, when you do speak, I am ready. So that leads us to the second point of all of this. One, is our short sightedness,29:25does our mind, does our human perspective limit God? And secondly, does my obedience, is your obedience today limiting God? Look at Joseph. This is what happens. This is the most anticlimactic verse in all of the Bible. We have never, other than this story, I have never heard of the Holy Spirit conceiving a child. Just think about that.29:54We take the story of the virgin birth for granted. We should read this and say, this doesn't make sense. And yet, the angel is giving this news to Joseph and look at verse 24. Joseph hears all of this. Don't be afraid to take Mary as your wife. She was faithful to you. This is from the Lord and this is what happens in verse 24. Joseph wakes up and he did it. That's it.30:24That's it. Joseph woke up and he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him. Simple obedience. Simple obedience in our life. The Lord's instructions were clear to Joseph. Three times he comes to him in a dream. Take Mary as your wife. The second time in Matthew chapter 2. Flee and go to Egypt. A foreign nation. A nation that has been enemies of the people of God. But you can go there. Flee because Hera's trying to kill30:53all the children of Bethlehem. And then the third dream. Go back to Israel because it's now safe. And over and over again, Joseph did as he heard. And the second time, Joseph woke up and did as the Lord commanded. Third time, Joseph woke up and did as the Lord. Simple obedience in our lives. And how often are we waiting for the complex plan of God and we forget that he simply requires simple obedience?31:23Simple. Look at what Joseph does. He wakes up and he does. The FDA says right now, they call it the new drug epidemic. Now some of you, you're guilty of this, right? And they call it the new drug epidemic. And they found, the FDA study found this, that millions of people do not take their medicine correctly or quit altogether. I've been guilty of that, right?31:54Here's your antibiotic pack. And as soon as I start feeling good, I'm like, eh, there's three left. Why does it matter? And guess who is most likely not to take their medicine? People who are symptom free. So what are we doing? The doctor gives us a clear prescription to health and well-being. And for whatever reason, we refuse simple obedience to the plan32:21that will give us health. And do we not do the same thing spiritually? We know what God wants in our life. We know in his word that the path to keep a young man pure by walking according to your word. We know that we should flee sin and run in godliness towards Jesus Christ. And we don't do it. Because we don't value simple obedience. And Joseph reminds us of a man32:51who just simply obeyed God. Never underestimate the power of daily obedience in your life. Never underestimate that. And watch God work. It takes just as much faith to obey God as it does to claim the promises of God. We sometimes pray, God, give me faith. I will go and I will break down the gates of hell.33:20I'm claiming that promise. And God says, but Josh, I just want you to obey today. Just as much faith is required. Are you ready to obey him in your life? Or does your obedience limit God? Lastly, we see this. God asks us to obey even when it's difficult. God asks you to obey even when it's difficult. How often do we wave our hands33:49and say, God, I will follow you anywhere. And as soon as the trail of faith gets narrow, as soon as it goes uphill, as soon as the terrain is rocky or darker than we can see, we say, God, I don't know about this. God, I said I would follow you when the asphalt was smooth, when the lines were defined. But God, don't ask me to follow you34:18when it's difficult. What does Joseph do? We see that he obeys even when it's difficult. Joseph demonstrated that when he married Mary, you know what he was telling the world? That he believed she was faithful. Think about that. He was showing the world that he believed that Mary was faithful and that he believed the promises of God34:48were true unequivocally. Can you say the same in your life? Do you believe that God loves you and that he has restored you and that he has called you to live a different life because it is by faith and grace you have been saved? I read a story this week of a missionary to Iraq. And I want to read a Southern Baptist missionary. Her name was Karen Watson. God calls us to obey35:20even when it's difficult. She wrote this letter and she gave it to her pastors and this is what it read. Dated March 7, 2003. She was killed just over a year later in 2004. Listen to the words of Karen. Before I say this, most missionaries in the most dangerous places in the world right now are not men. They're women. Man, did you catch that?35:52We need to be the ones that are running into the fire. We need to be the ones that are putting our life on the line. And thank God for women who are manning up and taking bold steps of faith when we want. We need to rise up and be the men who God's called us to be for the kingdom. This is what Karen says. Dear Pastor Phil and Pastor Roger, you should only be opening this letter in the event of my death.36:21And this is what she concludes with. This is the missionary heart. Care more than some think is wise. Risk more than some think is safe. Dream more than some think is practical. And expect more than some think is possible. And then she says this line. This is the salutation of her letter. I was called36:50not to comfort or success but to obedience. There is no joy outside of knowing Jesus and serving Him. I love you too and my church family in His care. Salaam. Peace. Karen. I was not called to comfort or success but to obedience. And what a godly example in the life of Joseph. A man who37:20simply wanted to obey God. And because he obeyed he did not miss what Christ did in his life. What a powerful testimony. Can you say the same in your life? I pray this morning that we would have a fear of missing out. That we would not leave these doors without hitting our knees in our time of response shortly and saying God37:50God I don't want to live a life of disobedience. I don't want to live a short sighted life where there is no faith where the power of God is not working. Lord I'm not content to just live a comfortable semi-good church existence. Lord I want to care more than people think is wise. And Lord I want to risk more than people think is safe. And God I want to expect more than people think is possible.38:19If we live in our strength we will miss Christmas. We will miss Christ. If we live in disobedience we will miss Christ. And I just pray right now for us that we would hit our knees and say God will we daily simply obey your word. Maybe you're here this morning and you have never heard the voice of God. You have had seven people already stand up and say Jesus is our king.38:48Maybe you're thinking right now how can I do that? I want you to know this is the voice of God. This is what his word says. You are created in his image according to his likeness. And because of your sin there is a broken relationship. God did not turn his back on you. You turned your back on God. But he sent his son born of a virgin in a manger who lived a sinless life to pursue you. To rescue you because he loves you.39:17That while I was still a sinner Christ died for me. And the promise of God because he loves you is this whoever calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved. And if you have never done that we want you to know that God will save you if you trust in him. If you stand up and say I know I'm a sinner and I know Jesus will save me from my sins and I need that and I want that and I believe that39:46and today I declare he is Lord. Do you have a fear of missing out? May we live a Joseph life where we hear the word of God and where we simply obey and watch the world change through the power of the Holy Spirit. Let's pray. 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