Good morning. I want to welcome you
To our church service at the Ringgold Seventh-day Adventist Church
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We are going to get into today's service, but first I want to ask is everybody here aware of what POV means?
No, we got a couple of thumbs up for those who don't know POV is just a shorthand for point of view
And so if you see if you happen to come across any things that that's POV. That means it's from that point of view
so we're going to look at
the Christmas story the birth of our Savior from
Joseph's point of view
Today before we do that though one more quick word of prayer
Loving Heavenly Father again, we are we are thankful for
Christ condescension we are grateful that before the foundations of this earth were laid you you saw us and you saw
the potential you saw the
Possibility that with free will comes risk and the and the need for a Savior
And so we are grateful that before this earth was shaped and formed the plane was in place for a Messiah
And so as we reflect right now on
Jesus as we consider an aspect of that
Reality we pray that your Holy Spirit would be present drive our points home. We ask in your name. Amen
Amen
How many of us have either gone to boarding academy or maybe have had a sibling or are a parent of someone
Who has gone to boarding academy?
We've got a couple of hands here
I have the privilege of having my middle son Evan
Currently attending Georgia Cumberland Academy, which is our conference's boarding school
He's a freshman. So he's only coming to the end of his first semester and he's still learning the process if you know what I mean
It was a rough start or making adjustments. I am glad to say that as we're nearing December
We're finally coming around to where we hope he continues
As we were kind of considering what to do with our son as he finished the junior academy level in our school
So eighth grade is he boarding? Is he going to stay perhaps at College Dale Academy here in College Dale nearby?
Would we consider another option because there there are options and all of them are good
Even if they are a little different, I'm grateful that our church has a fantastic
Educational system and I'm glad that we are blessed enough that my sons
Mostly have been able to grow up in that system
And so we wanted Evan to do this we wanted him to have this opportunity
Different than our oldest son Evan from a young age about seven ish
Seven ish I'm getting the confirmation from the back about seven
He was first introduced to boarding school idea this concept of going away to school
When we lived in Kentucky the Kentucky, Tennessee conference. I want to do that when I get old enough
I want to go away to school and and not be here
And it'll be so much fun and I can learn and I can stay in like a little hotel room and in the in the dorms
And so on I
Just about chalked it up to this is just a seven-year-old who's probably looking to get away from mom and dad and you know
Maybe I'll just get to play all day long and so on well. He'd never dropped the idea
From seven years old onward all throughout school
He kept kind of ticking off his years then saying I'm that much closer to boarding school
I'm that much closer to well. I mean as a dad. I started to go how bad are you wanting to get away from us?
We had that conversation I asked him I wanted to make sure that he wasn't just trying to leave home
But no he really had his heart set on that experience
He wanted to have a different type of educational experience
Then one normally has if they're like at home and kind of commuting locally
I said okay. I'm not I'm not opposed to that. Let's give this a try
So in in learning about Georgia Cumberland Academy and then talking to the deans and talking to other conference officials and talking to other
Parents who have either gone themselves in years past or whose kids are currently there
You kind of feel out
You know there are questions that come to mind
What are their expectations in terms of like work-school balance because most of our academies you work a little bit
What kind of quality of education are they going to have is this second rate or will they be prepared for?
Life and early adulthood and perhaps university when they come out of high school
How do we handle boy-girl relationships because in my home we can do certain things to a certain level
But how rampant do they run on campus those kinds of questions?
You know in terms of the you know I've got sons
I don't have any girls so I don't you someone else is going to have to answer this question
But I wanted to know what kind of male role models my son might have
I'm certainly not perfect, but I know that as a father
I want to raise my son according to my ideals. I'd like him to see my character
Because I believe that's the father's role
I want to demonstrate to that to him and hopefully he'll adopt the good things
And forgive me for the not so good
So you wanted to find out you know I wanted to find out about the male role models there
So I you know I would ask those kinds of questions and kind of get a sense for the character of who he would be
Around is that I think that's kind of fair when we're looking at sending our child out of our
From underneath our own roofs and under the roof of someone else
Is that relatable to those of us that raised our hands?
What I can't understand
What boggles my mind
To this day and I and I have prayed about it
And and men and women wiser than me more deeply spiritual than me more engrossed in
In these kinds of thoughts than I have wrestled with this idea of
The second person of the godhead leaving out from under the roof of heaven if you will
To come to this house
This third rock from the sun this house
And and as a baby being entrusted to
flawed
imperfect poor
stumbling
swayed
humans
What happened in that conversation?
Who knows when in the past when the three members of the godhead in
in
Discourse
Considered the plans that needed to be laid if their creation needed to be redeemed
And jesus christ said i'll do it
That's on me
If mankind trips up and falls because it's better that we grant them free will we create them with free will
And they choose to love us
Then we create automatons that by force are programmed that way that's always better to love with free will than force
But there's risk and jesus said i'm willing to bear that risk
I don't know
I don't know how that conversation went
Uh, the bible tells us that the father himself is love and loves you not because of the propitiation
But he provided it
because of the love
The love comes first and then the payment not the other way around
So maybe there was a back and forth maybe
Maybe it was not you but me. Maybe it was we can work something out. I don't know the bible doesn't tell us that
But we do know that they were on the same page the character of love is their existence
Not just an emotion
And so they couldn't help themselves they being the three members of the godhead. They couldn't help themselves but say
We will pay the price if
Well, then that also meant that heaven had to give up something
And the father
Looking at the son
Had to say who can I trust you to?
What character qualities should they possess?
How will they raise you we've seen
Uh the possibilities of free will being exercised in the pro and the con
What if I give you up and these people?
Don't live out the way that we wish they don't model our character my character
Maybe they aren't good role models for you
Maybe they don't set a fine example or their boundaries are too loose or maybe they're so tight
That it messes you up from the beginning
Maybe I mean, I don't know we're kind of hypothesizing some of these things
But we do know that at some point the father and the son and the holy spirit in unity said
Jesus is going to go out from under the roof of heaven and under the roof of these humans
And so when the fulfillment of time came and jesus was in the middle of the earth
So the fulfillment of time came and jesus was incarnate
When it was declared to mary first, you know, this is going to happen to you and
And praise god that as a teenager she had the faith to say let it be done to me
right
But we read in matthew and if you still have that open we're gonna we're gonna look at this because we're gonna shift a little to
Or a less talked about character in this story if you will and we're gonna learn about
joseph
Because there was not just one
Single parent in this household. There were two
There was the wife and there was the husband
Generally speaking
When you look at the bible and you're considering weightier matters
You look at what god has given a lot of real estate to in terms of number of words the more real estate
Typically the more weight kind of the more attention you should put into it
so the fact that love and grace and mercy and and obedience and and and
The coming salvation and so on there's a lot of real estate to that pay attention to it
Joseph doesn't really get a lot of mentions
in the bible
He's there in matthew. He's mentioned again in luke we can
correctly infer that because
Jesus gave mary over to john while hanging on the cross that that joseph had already passed away
because that kind of
Responsibility only happened when the husband wasn't there and then the son is taking care of the mom
So we know that that was going on. We know that there were other brothers and sisters
Historically it is believed that that joseph had been married before
That perhaps there were other children that were a part of this. So we're looking at like half
uh brothers and sisters of jesus
uh, so this was
I guess as you say kind of a mixed family kind of kind of relatable to us. Is it not?
Uh, this is this is not you know when when we look at these bible characters, uh, this is just a side note. Um
I'd love to find the relatability to them
I think too often we put them on such a pedestal and say I can't be like that or I can't ever and I can't
I don't know. They they were they were men and women like us. They had family dynamics like us
They had flaws and and blemishes like us and they had shining moments like we do
Praise god for that praise god for the relatability. Like I say, there's nothing new under the sun, right?
So let's look at joseph
So let's look at joseph the birth of jesus christ took place in this way. This is verse 18 of matthew 1
When his mother mary had been betrothed to joseph before they came together. She was found to be with child
from the holy spirit
And her husband joseph being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame
Resolved to divorce her
quietly
There's a lot that can be said about joseph in this
Let's place a little bit of historical context a little further into this story
One today, uh teenage pregnancy maybe out of wedlock
That happens
I believe it's happened throughout human history. It happens. We're familiar to it our society responds to it
It's different than they did differently than 50 years ago
But certainly differently than this time in history for a girl to be pregnant
Not married and I keep saying girl because we don't think that mary was very old
For a girl to be pregnant not married was deeply humiliating
deeply shameful and would always equal ostracization
Is being kicked out of the social circle if you will
And in the strictest reading of the the jewish laws she could have been stoned
She could have been put to death
That's how serious this was
It was also
If we understand joseph to be a just man
A just man according to the cultural setting a just man would have followed through with that
A just man would have understood that this was an immoral girl
That she had not controlled herself that i'm okay
And he would have followed through on the legal steps
And he could have done it publicly that was certainly within his right
Uh that would have been just according to the time and the laws
uh
He was well within all of those options
But the bible describes him as being a just man unwilling to put her to shame
I believe we start to get a glimpse into how god views a just person
In our society today I as I look around and in in particular I look at the the
Filth that we find on social media
And every study proves that it's not good for our social interactions, especially the younger. They are when they're engaged in it
But we have a real interesting and I it seems to me as i've kind of worked through this and considered it our society has flipped
Our attitudes of shame a little on its head
It is shameful now for me to stand on the pulpit or in public discourse and say I believe a marriage
Definition is a man woman union
and
Societally it could be shameful to me that to say that I believe a man is only one thing and a woman is only one thing
And because there might be some differences over here that doesn't eradicate
the two
You might be considered uh to be to be
shamed if you if you happen to think that
um this old
ancient dusty collection of just
Maybe some wise sayings, but mostly allegorian stories
Should have a moral guidance in your life definitively
People might shame you for holding that that's superstitious
That's clearly outdated. You shouldn't do that get with the times
Don't you know that we are in the time of modernity and then post-modernity?
But here's here's here's where we get it for
Long-held millennia
millennia long
held traditions and understanding about the human nature or the
the role of the family or how societies have some
Necessary connection that holds them together instead of isolating into little
compartments and little different things and if you still hold to that
Society believes that we should appropriately publicly shame you for holding on to traditional values
That's where the whole idea of the canceling of the traditional values
That's where the whole idea of the cancel culture comes in
If you hold to something traditional or you just simply read let's just use
What we read at the beginning of our praise and sharing if you read remember the sabbath day to keep it holy six days
Days shalt thou do all thy labor and all thy work
But the seventh day is the sabbath unto the lord thy god in it you shall not do any work, right?
If you read that and you go aha I can count on a calendar sunday to friday one to six
I work that's a part of the commandment. I work
But then I that's god's that's his that's sabbath day
If you read that and you want to practice it
And maybe you want to say i'd like to guide my professional experience along those lines
It's proper to to perhaps be publicly called out and get fired
If you hold to again the ideas of human nature people might find out where you work and ask
That you get fired if you if you hold on to that or
This is a real thing in society public shaming if you hold traditional values and then at the same time
What used to be understood as deeply shameful?
Is now applauded and paraded and flaunted and
Is perverting our culture left right and center
For example, it's it's not a secret that that maybe
Husbands and wives have husband and wife activities
But we understood that that was kept private
Now all of that private is not only brought out into public but all of the various options
Are also publicly demonstrated
And little kids are invited to a public event
And little kids are invited to observe
Well, we used to have laws that said that's child abuse and now it's it's proper and and no no
It should be shameful to do those things in front of little kids
It should be
If we look at joseph though
Joseph being a just man
unwilling to put her to shame shows that he had a
better
More heaven-sent understanding of what it is to be sensitive and empathetic to one another
He was well within his rights to publicly
Pull mary out and divorce her and let everyone know that she was tainted
But he understood
That if i'm going to love one another
If i'm going to practice the ideals that i've read in the torah
And the prophets if i'm going to put that into practice I cannot
Drag this girl through the mud because in his mind
Maybe she had a momentary lapse in judgment
In exercising his restraint in shaming her he demonstrates that he is a merciful
Man that he is an empathetic
man that he
understood what it would do to her
Her and he was willing to sacrifice his own rights in order to protect
and and
Help her out
I think that's a quality that we can learn for today
If we keep moving on he resolved to divorce her quietly
That was how he was going to
Protect her from the shame
As he considered these things this is verse 20 behold an angel of the lord appeared to him in a dream saying
Joseph son of david do not fear to take mary as your wife for that which is conceived in her is from the holy spirit
She will bear a son and you shall call his name jesus for he will save his people from their sins
All this took place to fulfill what the lord had spoken by the prophet
Behold the virgin shall conceive and bear a son and they shall call his name immanuel, which means god
with us
How many of us have had?
crazy dreams
Uh you eat that pizza five minutes before you go to bed
Uh
Maybe you know i've always heard this that it's like spicy foods will do that spicy foods could upset
You know maybe give you some some dreams or something. I don't I don't know. Um, I like spicy foods
But i've never had that I I know some family members of mine who have some wild dreams at times
And they wake up and they go my goodness
How did that get there?
Why am I thinking this?
This to me seems seems like
Joseph could have woken up and thought that the falafel did not sit well
Or his his flatbread or his fish or whatever he had ate the night before
Maybe the olive oil had turned. I don't know
Because maybe he could have maybe he could have woken up and gone
doesn't make sense if she is a virgin how this because
Maybe that verse from isaiah was only talking about the prophet and there are some who actually do propose that idea it didn't
Mean mary it only meant
The during the time of isaiah
He could have
But because we understand that god himself describes him as a just man
Uh, there are not very many men that get that description in in the bible
Joseph knew in one way or another and I would I would love to be able to ask him
How did you know the difference between that dream and maybe other dreams?
I think that's a great question for me. How did you know about this dream? But he he woke up
From the dream from the sleep and he did as the angel of the lord commanded him
This tells us that joseph was a man
Not foreign to the word of god
Joseph was a man who knew the words from heaven and had been blessed or had
exercised and practiced his discernment in knowing that this was from god and not
from a different source
This was a man who had put into his life
The the writings of the prophets and the understandings of the prophets
The the writings of the prophets and the understandings of moses and he had prayed and he had
Gone to to adonai. Yahweh
Jehovah
And he had he had communicated with his
With his god with the god of his fathers and his grandfathers and his great-grandfathers
So that when the time was crucial
He understood that this word was from god and not a different source
We can put into practice this very thing
Because you don't have to have it spelled out black and white but we know and how he responded that he had set the foundation for the crucial moment
Are you setting your foundation for a coming crucial moment?
How are you in your devotions?
How are you in your devotions? How are you in studying the old testament?
uh
The first five books the pentateuch. How are you in reading even the minor prophets?
We we just finished wednesday night reading through three of the minor prophets
The last one was amos was the first time I had read verse by verse all the way through
I think most of our group said the same thing
powerful book
Often overlooked except for maybe two or three verses that are kind of like picked out and used here and there
Great book. Are you reading the minor prophets? Are you sprinkling in some daniel and revelation to?
flex your
cognitive muscles
You got to wrestle with some of those
Are you praying?
I don't know whether you're on your knees or
Still laying in bed when when conscience finally breaks through
Maybe you're praying as you wash your dishes or as you walk around your neighborhood
All of those are great times
To audibly or in your own mind
Talk with your heavenly father
Get to know him when he talks back to you
Listen for those words and and ask to be sensitive for those impressions
Pray for the discernment so that when doors open or when doors close, you know that it's god saying this is my will
How are you in setting and building that foundation?
The bible tells us that the good comfortable times that one one day. I believe one day soon
Are going to come to an end
We're going to hit a tough time. You're going to hit a hard road
And it might not be right before the eastern sun
And it might not be right before the eastern sky splits
Maybe you're going to have a family member this week come to you and say
I don't know what to do. I am at a loss. I'm at my wit's end. I just
I just learned that someone else is having these ideations or these feelings or this
Sin that they've hid for 15 years
That doesn't have to be when prophecy ends that can be in your life tomorrow
When the crucial crossroads come
Are you letting are you laying out your foundation?
Now in the word of god and conversing with your heavenly father for those times
Well, joseph clearly did that
And our final point of view from joseph or about joseph in verses
24 and 5 when joseph woke from sleep. He did as the angel of the lord commanded him
He took his wife but knew her not until she had given birth to a son
And he called his name
Jesus
Not only was joseph sensitive to the shame that might come to mary
And humbly
Gave up his right to marry
Gave up his rights in order to protect her
Not only was he sensitive to the word of god
But he was also sensitive to his responsibility and obedience by faith
The angel had spoken he had already discerned this was from on high and not his own imaginations
And he
Lived it out
He didn't just say those are fine words and they make a whole lot of sense or they make me feel good
He didn't say well. Well, maybe that works in this instance, but maybe in an maybe i'll stay married to her
But i'll keep her in the back room
In obedience by faith to the word of god he took mary as his wife
And he took her into his own house and he was a man of faith
Knowing that the child was not his
And only by faith could he accept that it was of the holy spirit
This was a man
on a pillar of faith
Because I can promise you in my mind
Suddenly she goes guess what honey? I don't I don't know if I would yell
I don't know if I would slam doors, but I would certainly probably walk away. There's a 99 plus percent chance that I would walk away
If you are surprised by it and and you knew it wasn't yours because virgin
He had to believe by faith
That she was faithful in their relationship
That this was of god
And that he was to play an active part in it
And just so you know without the credit
He is not credited in the genealogy
He gets small real estate in in the bible of the Bible
He comes and then he goes and in this in this culture that would not have been the first response for a man of his
I guess position in society just being a man. He had a position
But he took mary as his wife
He knew her not till she had given birth and he took her
But he took mary as his wife. He knew her not till she had given birth and he called his name jesus
Joseph was a man of faith joseph was a man of the word of god and joseph was a man of empathy to others
And here's where I would say that he even has a little bit of a type of christ in him
It was deeply shameful for him
To be associated with her
He was always going to be the man who married the woman who had the child out of wedlock
And in his society
Even he was not high on that ladder, but maybe he was a couple rungs up. He would have fallen a couple of rungs
He was willing to be
Shamed and bear that shame with her. He was willing to humble himself to the point of a servant
In this relationship with mary and and this understanding that it was from heaven
We read that description about another man very important to the bible
And I find it
Absolutely fascinating that joseph was a man of this faith
Joseph was a man of this quality of character
And as we consider as we reflect on
The birth of jesus a little bit before now and for the next coming couple of weeks as we reflect on that gift from heaven
As we remember about the faith of mary and she was also a deeply faithful woman
As we look at how perhaps other people responded with the shepherds or with the wise men from afar
Or even if you consider how harrid reacted to this news of a challenger to his throne
Don't forget to consider joseph and wonder if perhaps his qualities should also be found in our own lives
Because when we are being considered of heaven whether or not to be trusted with a rather important
Mission
God is looking for men and for women who can be described as just
as merciful
as empathetic
As sensitive to the word of god
and deeply faithful
As you consider the gift from heaven I would encourage you to consider
The background character if you will joseph
And his point of view and wonder if perhaps some of his qualities
Could be lived out in our lives
So that god might consider you
inappropriate
roof
To place his mission under
Let us pray
Loving heavenly father. We thank you for your word. We thank you for jesus. We thank you for
the examples
of men and women throughout history that you have
Of in
Through inspiration recorded not only for their benefit but for ours today
Lord, I pray that we as a people would be found to be faithful
I pray that we as a people would be found to be gracious and humble and merciful
And empathetic to those that are around us
Our too many people don't find that in today's society and I pray that we would be that
I pray that we would be a people of your word
Lord we look forward to a time when
Knowing you through your word
Can finally come together with knowing you in person
Or we pray that
The time would come soon when you would come back to claim us as your own and take us home
And I pray that until then
Your holy spirit would fill our hearts and our lives convert us from something cold and stony
into warm
And loving and we might be prepared
To go home with you lord. We pray all of these things and we ask your blessing on us the rest of today before we pray in jesus name
Amen