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Collierville First Baptist Church
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All right, take your Bibles today.
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Turn to Matthew chapter one. Matthew chapter one.
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We're beginning a new series of sermons here at Christmas. It'll be three sermons.
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The title of this series is this,
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Joseph's Christmas Story.
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Now, when you turn to Luke,
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that's Mary's Christmas Story.
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Matthew verses chapters one and two is Matthew's, Joseph's Christmas Story.
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Now, Larry King was a famous talk show host before Jimmy Kimmel and all these other guys.
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And he struggled with his faith greatly.
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He was once asked this question. If you could select one person across all of history to interview, who would it be?
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And he said it would have to be Jesus Christ.
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The questioner then asked him a follow-up question.
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And what would you like to ask him?
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Larry King responded, I quote,
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I would like to ask him if he was indeed virgin born.
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The answer to that question would define history for me.
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Now there's at least one person I know in human history
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who can answer that question with confidence.
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Would Jesus really virgin born? Well, you might say too, Mary, but Joseph. Think about Joseph. He had the most to gain and the most to lose concerning the virgin birth.
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Now in Matthew chapter one,
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we are introduced to the beginning of Joseph's Christmas Story.
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You know, the interesting thing about Joseph
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is he is really the unsung hero of Christmas.
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You realize that in all the New Testament, there's not one single word recorded that Joseph ever said.
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Now we have Mary's words, we have the wise men's words, we've got words from a lot of different people,
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but there's not one single word in the New Testament that Joseph ever uttered and was recorded.
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I find that interesting.
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You know, you take people who are getting ready for Christmas with their families.
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And I guarantee you that 90% of you, when you sit around with your kids and your grandkids to read the Christmas story on Christmas day,
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I guarantee you, you turn to Luke chapter two and you use that passage.
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We seem to avoid Matthew chapter one,
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Joseph's Christmas Story, but we're not gonna avoid it this year. There are gonna be three sermons in this series. And I would encourage you to be here today, obviously, in the next two weeks to hear these sermons.
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Now in Matthew chapter one, verses one to 17, there's a pretty long genealogy.
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And three names are emphasized in this genealogy.
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The name of Abraham, the name of David,
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and the name of Jesus.
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Now, Matthew drew attention to God's promise to Abraham
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that through his seed, all the families on earth would be blessed. You look at verse 16 and 17,
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"Jacob was the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, by whom Jesus was born, who is called the Messiah."
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So all the generations, look at this, from Abraham to David are 14 generations. And from David to the deportation to Babylon, 14 generations. And from the deportation to Babylon to the Messiah, 14 generations. Three names jumped to the surface in this genealogy, Abraham, David, and Jesus.
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Now, Matthew drew attention to the fact not only that God's promise to Abraham through his seed, all the families on the earth would be blessed, but also, he focused on God's promise to David,
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that his throne would be established forever. He would always have someone reigning on the throne of Israel.
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Now, both of these promises
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were highly significant to the Jewish people.
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And they were fulfilled when Jesus the Messiah was born.
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Legally, Joseph's ancestry as a descendant of both Abraham and David was transferred to Jesus when he was born.
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Now, all of this may seem mundane, but it is so important,
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it's an important part of God's plan to redeem a broken world. Now, here's what I glean from that. God always keeps his promises, always keeps his promises.
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There's one thing you'll notice in the book of Matthew, which is a very Jewish gospel.
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He talks about the fulfillment of prophecy over and over and over again throughout the entire book. And we'll notice it in our text today.
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Now, betrothal was something somewhat like our engagement period,
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but it had expectations that were much more stringent than we have in our engagement period. For instance, you can break off an engagement without any repercussions in our culture today,
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but not so with a betrothal, a Jewish betrothal. This period would normally last about a year.
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The couple, even though they were betrothed, they were considered to be husband and wife.
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The girl still lived with her family.
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The couple remained sexually pure
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and the betrothal could only be broken by a divorce.
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After the year-long betrothal, the husband would take his wife to his house and consummate the marriage, and then the families would celebrate the marriage with a reception that would last for several days.
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Now, at some point,
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during the betrothal period for Mary and Joseph, the Bible says before they came together,
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she was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit.
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Joseph had never laid a hand on her.
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No one else had laid a hand on her,
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but she was pregnant because the Holy Spirit
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took the embryo of the Messiah, the Son of the Living God and placed it in her womb.
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We call it the virgin birth, but it's really the virgin conception.
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It's the virgin conception.
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Mary knew what was going on because an angel told her about God's plan.
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But Joseph, unfortunately, was left in the dark for a period of time.
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Look at verse 19. And Joseph, her husband being a righteous man
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and not wanting to disgrace her,
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planned to send her away secretly.
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Now, Joseph was known as a righteous man. He took his faith in God very seriously.
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He wanted to do what was right in the eyes of God.
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And he wanted to do what was right in the sight of other people, especially his betrothed wife, Mary.
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So how did he find out that she was pregnant?
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Well, obviously you can't hide it too long, can you ladies?
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I'm sure Mary told him, she might've said something like this. I can just picture this happening.
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Joseph, I'm pregnant, but I'm still a virgin.
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I sort of put myself in the place of Joseph there.
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That would be a hard pill to swallow. I wonder if Joseph might not have scratched his head. Can you say that one more time?
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Joseph, I'm pregnant, but I'm a virgin. Now you understand that nothing like that had ever happened in human history, ever, ever.
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So there was nothing historically that you could look back on and say, well, I understand that.
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No, it was brand new.
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This is the work of the Holy Spirit, Joseph.
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It's all a part of God's plan for our lives. I can just imagine her saying that. Now that's not the scripture, that's my sanctified imagination.
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Now, needless to say, Joseph faced a full fledged dilemma.
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He was a righteous man.
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So he wanted to do what was right by God, but he also wanted to do what was right by Mary.
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He loved the word of God. He loved the Torah.
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And the Torah demanded divorce in these situations and the guilty party was to be punished.
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To complicate matters, Joseph loved Mary. He cared deeply for Mary.
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So he was between a rock and a hard place, so to say.
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Can you imagine how the gossiping tongues of Nazareth, the people in Nazareth would have been working?
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I'm sure that men and women alike were saying, well, they must have been immoral.
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Or she must have cheated on him.
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People would assume the worst.
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Maybe we need to learn something of that. Maybe we need to learn that we shouldn't gossip about other people.
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We shouldn't.
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We don't know everything's going on in people's lives. And those people in Nazareth had no clue what God was doing in these two lives behind the scenes. Behind the scenes.
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The impact on Joseph must have been devastating.
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His friends would shun him. His manhood would be questioned. His carpentry business would suffer. His reputation would be destroyed. His dreams were shattered.
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Can't you have envisioned Joseph pacing the floor back and forth?
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Praying to God, God, what do I do?
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God, I want to obey you. I want to do what you want me to do.
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Lord, I don't want to throw Mary under the bus.
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I don't want to devastate her in front of people.
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You see, Joseph and Mary lived in an honor, shame culture. I'm going to tell you, you need to read up on an honor, shame culture because it's much different than our culture.
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So Joseph came to a conclusion that he would put her away secretly. Now to do that, that means he would not air this publicly,
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he would not air this publicly,
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but he would take two witnesses to Mary's father's house.
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You see, Mary's father and Joseph's father arranged this marriage. Hey, young ladies, how would you like for your dad and your boyfriend's dad to arrange a marriage? You may not even know each other.
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You may not have spent any time together,
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but these two fathers get together and say, "Look, I think we ought to bring my daughter and your son together in marriage."
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And the young man's job and the father of the young man job was to give a dowry to the young lady's father.
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So in order not to shame her publicly,
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he decided to put her away privately.
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He would take two witnesses to the father of the young lady and he would write a bill of divorcement to his betrothed wife.
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So he made up his mind, that's what he was gonna do. And then one night he dozed off.
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He finally got some sleep.
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And an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and brought a message from God himself.
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In Matthew chapter one, verse 20, look at it. "But when he had considered this, putting her away secretly, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, Joseph, son of David,
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do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife.
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For the child who has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit."
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The angel is saying in no uncertain terms that Mary is still a virgin.
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Nobody's laid a hand on her.
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But God has selected her to give birth to the son of the living God.
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Now, how would Joseph respond to this startling news?
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I guarantee you, he'd never had a dream like that before.
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You know what's interesting? In these two chapters of Matthew,
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God sends a message to Joseph four times in a dream,
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four times.
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And Joseph's response is the same each time.
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So how would he respond? Would the angel also clarify the situation for Mary's family, for Joseph's family, for their friends, for the people of Nazareth, for the town rabbi?
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No. The Bible says nothing about the angel appearing to any of them, but the angel had already appeared to Mary explaining everything to her. And now he appears in a dream
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to Joseph explaining the situation and tell him, don't be afraid.
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Do not fear taking Mary as your wife.
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Now, none of this was easy for Mary or Joseph.
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One commentator observed,
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what the angel is saying here to Joseph is that the very circumstances that you fear spell the death of your relationship to Mary are actually the beginning of your salvation.
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Because Jesus would become the son of God. He is son of God. He'd become the savior of the world. So the angel continued to fill in the blank. Look at verse 21.
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She will bear a son. It was that gender reveal moment, okay?
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The angel said, you've never had a gender reveal moment like this, I guarantee you. She will bear a son.
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And you shall call his name Jesus.
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Now the name Jesus literally means Yahweh is salvation.
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There's salvation only in Jesus. That's the message.
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So the name Jesus reveals what Jesus would do. He would die for the sins of the human race.
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He would be crucified, resurrected from the dead.
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And one day he would say, I'm the way, the truth and the life. No man comes to the father but through me.
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Spurgeon commented on this name Jesus.
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He said, but if there be one name sweeter than another in the believer's ear, it is the name Jesus.
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It's the name which moves the harps of heaven to melody.
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It's the sum total of all delights.
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It is the music with which the bells of heaven ring.
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A song and a word. An ocean for comprehension, although a drop for brevity. A matchless oratorio in two syllables. A gathering up of the hallelujahs of eternity in five letters, J-E-S-U-S.
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Oh, glory to God.
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And then the angel said to him, she will bear a son and you shall call his name Jesus
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for he will save his people from their sins.
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That's why the Old Testament had prophesied by the way. In 1 Timothy 1.15, Paul wrote, it is a trustworthy statement deserving full acceptance that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners
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among whom I am foremost of all. Let me tell you, 2000 years ago,
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God the son became a tiny embryo in the womb of a virgin
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and he grew and he was given birth to at Bethlehem and he grew up for 33 years. He lived a perfect life.
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He never sinned not even one single solitary time.
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And at the age of 30, he began a three year ministry.
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And at the age of 33, he was crucified on the cross.
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The Bible says in 1 Peter 2.24,
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he himself bore our sins in his body on the cross so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness for by his wounds you were healed.
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Jesus died on the cross for your sins, not only Mary's sins, not only Joseph's sins, not only the sins of the Jewish people, but the sins of the Gentiles, the whole world. Jesus died for the sins of the world. He shed his blood so that you could be forgiven,
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so that you could have a relationship with God.
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How awestruck Joseph must have been with all this.
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He was given the responsibility of rearing the son of God. Just think about that for just a moment.
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Rearing the son of God.
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I wonder if Joseph worked in his carpentry shop.
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I wonder if a hammer ever hit his thumb.
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And I wonder if he was about to say something and he looked over, that's the son of God.
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Seriously, can you imagine?
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In Matthew chapter one, verse 22 and 23,
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Matthew records these words. Now all this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, the prophet being Isaiah.
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Look at what Isaiah wrote 700 years before this moment.
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Think about it, 700 years.
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700 years, Isaiah wrote about this moment.
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Verse 23, "Behold, the virgin shall be with child "and shall bear a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel."
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Now that's the second name we have in our text today.
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Jesus, Yahweh is salvation, Emmanuel means God with us.
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Which translated means God with us.
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The virgin conception of Messiah was prophesied. And I'm telling you, it came true to a T.
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I tell you, I love to study Bible prophecy.
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Because every time I see a fulfillment of Bible prophecy,
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it reminds me that the word of God
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is truth without mixture of error.
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It reminds me that this book,
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that we come Sunday after Sunday to look into it and receive a word from God through this book, is trustworthy.
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You can trust this book.
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Jesus is the only one who can tell us about God.
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He's the only one who can reveal to us what God is really like.
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In Jesus, we see the heart of God, we see God's compassion, we see God's power,
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we see God's love, we see his holiness, we see his grace, we see his mercy, we see his truth.
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We don't have to grope in the darkness today wondering what God is like or who he is. God is with us in the person of his son, the Lord Jesus Christ. You know what's interesting?
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Right here in chapter one,
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we are reminded in verse 23 that Jesus is Emmanuel, God with us. Turn over to Matthew chapter 28, look at this. So Matthew begins his gospel
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referring to the fact that Jesus is Emmanuel, God with us. And he ends his gospel in the same way.
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Look at verse 20.
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Well, let's look at verse 18. And Jesus, this is after Jesus was crucified,
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he was about to ascend to heaven and he came up and spoke to his disciples in his resurrected body, all authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth.
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Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son, the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you and lo, look at this now,
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I am with you always even to the end of the age.
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Emmanuel at the first of the book of the gospel, Emmanuel at the end of the gospel.
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It's amazing.
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Look at verses 24 and 25.
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"And Joseph awoke from his sleep
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"and did as the angel of the Lord commanded him "and took Mary as his wife,
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"but kept her a virgin
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"until she gave birth to a son
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"and he called his name Jesus."
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This was the first of four dreams
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that God gave Joseph
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where he instructed him exactly what to do.
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With each dream, the instructions would change,
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but the response of Joseph was always the same. He responded in submission and obedience.
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Good lesson for us.
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Joseph was willing to sacrifice his reputation,
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to lose his business,
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and to get way outside his comfort zone
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in order to obey God and submit to God's leadership.
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He obeyed God by taking two very important legal steps.
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He took Mary as his wife,
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as a public declaration that he was married to Mary.
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And he called the name of the son, Jesus,
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signifying public adoption that he would be the earthly father of the son of God.
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Joseph should not be the unsung hero of Christmas.
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His reverence for God can be seen in that last phrase. Verse 25, "And he kept her a virgin "until she gave birth to a son "and he called his name Jesus."
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Joseph did not lay his hand on Mary
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until she had given birth to the son of God.
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Now, after she had given birth to the son of God, they had other children.
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They had several other children, Joseph and Mary. The idea of the perpetual virginity of Mary is not biblical at all.
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So Joseph experienced Christmas
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like no other man in human history.
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What can we learn from him?
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Well, there's a timeless truth here that I wanna drop in your heart. I'm sure you've heard this phrase before.
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"Look before you leap."
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Now, do you know what I mean when I say that? Look before you leap. In other words, before you make a harebrained decision,
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make sure that you evaluate everything and you consider everything and you make a good decision. If you don't, you can wreck your Christmas celebration this year, I'm telling.
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Many Christmas celebrations have been wrecked for families
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because somebody made a harebrained decision and flew off the handle.
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So following Joseph's example, what do we mean when we say, "Look before you leap"? Well, number one, if you're gonna look before you leap,
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live for the Lord consistently.
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Live for the Lord consistently.
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The Bible says that Joseph was a righteous man.
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He took his faith seriously.
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Instead of making a knee-jerk decision,
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Joseph considered how to be right with God
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and how to do the right thing with Mary.
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Listen, I hope and pray that this Christmas season, you'll make a commitment
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that you will live for the Lord consistently.
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That you will read your Bible,
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that you would pray,
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that you would put God first in your life.
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Oh, how I pray that you'll do that this year.
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Don't wait until you are immersed in a crisis situation to try to get right with God
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because you'll make a harebrained decision, you'll say something you shouldn't say, you'll do something you shouldn't do and there'll be a lot of collateral damage as a result.
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So number one, the thing we learn as we think about looking before you leap is live for the Lord consistently.
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Start today and never quit. Number two, listen to God's word intently.
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This dilemma that Joseph faced was some kind of dilemma.
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I can't imagine what it was like for Joseph when he woke up from the dream
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after the angel had given him instructions from God.
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After the angel said, "Don't be afraid to take Mary as your wife, Joseph.
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"She's a virgin.
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"Everything she's telling you is truth."
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He must have awakened with a sense of relief like a thousand pound weight was taken off his shoulder and he knew what he had to do at that moment.
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Listen to God's word intently. Let me ask you, is God speaking to you this morning about something?
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Maybe he's speaking to you about a perplexing issue in your life. Maybe you have a huge decision that you have to make and you have to make it in the next week or the next two weeks.
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You say, "Pastor, does God care about the decisions I make?" Yes, he does.
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Yes, absolutely he does. Listen, if you're a born again believer, you're a child of God. He cares about you, he loves you. He wants the very best for you.
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And God directs us, chances are, chances are, you will not have a dream where an angel of the Lord will appear to you and give you instructions.
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But you have something that Joseph didn't have. You've got a Bible.
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You have a Bible.
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In the Bible is the Word of God.
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And if you study the Word of God
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and if you look at how the Word of God applies to this decision you've got to make,
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God will show you and give you confirmation about exactly what he wants you to do.
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And I encourage you, make sure that you listen to God's Word intently. Maybe he's speaking to you not about a perplexing issue in your life, maybe he's speaking to you about your own salvation.
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Boy, it was a joy to baptize Matt today.
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I praise God that Matt has repented of his sin and placed his faith in Jesus and he was ready to publicly profess Jesus before you this morning.
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And maybe that's you.
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Maybe the Lord's speaking to you about your salvation.
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He's reminding you that Jesus, the Son of God, was born
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so that you could be forgiven of your sins. He went to the cross so you could be forgiven so you could have new life in Christ.
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Listen, we don't serve a dead Savior.
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We serve a living Savior who offers a living hope to us.
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And today I wanna invite you in just a moment
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to leave your seat, come to one of our staff members
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and receive Jesus as your Savior and your Lord.
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Maybe he's speaking to you about your baptism.
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I remember several years ago I was talking with the lady about her baptism and she started crying. She said, "Pastor, God's been wearing me out about that."
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And I tell you when I baptized her,
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I thought the rapture had occurred. I thought she was gonna go all the way up to heaven from the baptistry. She was so excited that she listened to God's word and she obeyed God.
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So listen to God's word intently. If you wanna look before you leap,
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you gotta remember that you gotta live for the Lord consistently, listen to God's word intently. And number three, respond to God obediently.
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Following the Lord Jesus is not a cakewalk.
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I think one of the mistakes we make is we tell new believers well, everything's gonna go great in your life, not necessarily.
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Following Jesus is not a cakewalk.
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It's not.
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There are gonna be ups and there are gonna be downs. There are gonna be challenges and there are gonna be difficulties. There are gonna be moments when your faith is tested and moments when your faith is confirmed.
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There are consequences that come with obedience to Christ. There are people across the world today
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who are giving up their life as martyrs because they obey Jesus.
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There are people today who have lost their financial welfare because of following Jesus. There are people today who have lost friends and even family because of their commitment to the Lord Jesus Christ.
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There is a cost to obeying Jesus and obeying the word of God. Joseph was willing to embrace that cost.
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Are you?
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Are you?
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Listen, I wanna encourage you today. I don't know where you are. I don't know what God is doing in your life at this moment.
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But whatever he's telling you or leading you to do, respond to God obediently.
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Now listen, here's a fact.
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Don't procrastinate.
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Don't procrastinate.
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Do you realize that if Joseph had procrastinated
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the Christmas story that we know to be true would look totally different but he did not procrastinate.
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He obeyed the Lord obediently. He responded obediently. So the one thing I wanna challenge you today
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as we think about Christmas, look before you leap.
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Look before you leap. Live for the Lord consistently.
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Listen to God's word intently and respond to God obediently.
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That's what we learned from Joseph
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and it's a valuable lesson for us to learn.
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Hey, I'm gonna pray and after I pray, we're gonna stand and we're gonna work. I'm gonna ask our worship team to come, our staff to come.
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And we wanna give you an opportunity
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to respond to the Lord and respond to his word today. Maybe you're dealing with that perplexing issue and you wanna come to the altar here and just bow before the Lord and pray about it. You do that.
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Or maybe you wanna present yourself for baptism. Come to a staff member. Or maybe you wanna talk to a staff member about how to be saved.
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Come and talk to us about it. It's the greatest thing you'll ever do in your life, I promise you.
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Just obey the Lord.