WEBVTT 00:00:00.650 --> 00:00:03.169 Hello, you are listening to Second City Sermons, 00:00:03.270 --> 00:00:06.209 a ministry of Second City Church in Midtown Harrisburg. 00:00:06.870 --> 00:00:08.750 It's our hope that these sermons will draw you 00:00:08.750 --> 00:00:11.169 more into the life of following God, Father, 00:00:11.330 --> 00:00:14.150 Son and Holy Spirit. Please consider coming and 00:00:14.150 --> 00:00:16.469 joining with us each Sunday morning at 10am in 00:00:16.469 --> 00:00:18.809 the heart of Midtown Harrisburg. You can find 00:00:18.809 --> 00:00:22.329 us online at SecondCityChurch .org and on Facebook, 00:00:22.629 --> 00:00:25.030 Instagram and YouTube. We hope you enjoy this 00:00:25.030 --> 00:00:30.019 sermon. God Bless. Father in heaven, we thank 00:00:30.019 --> 00:00:33.740 you for this text, familiar as it is, that speaks 00:00:33.740 --> 00:00:37.420 to us of your grace to us in Christ Jesus. Jesus, 00:00:37.700 --> 00:00:41.960 for he will save his people from their sins and 00:00:41.960 --> 00:00:47.799 Emmanuel, God with us. Lord, I pray now that 00:00:47.799 --> 00:00:52.409 you would unstop our ears. Quiet our minds that 00:00:52.409 --> 00:00:55.409 are often so distracted with so many things that 00:00:55.409 --> 00:00:57.229 are going on in our lives and the world about 00:00:57.229 --> 00:01:04.370 us. Give us hearts, not of stone, but of flesh. 00:01:06.030 --> 00:01:10.909 God, do your work in us, we pray. In Jesus' name, 00:01:11.269 --> 00:01:17.609 amen. Okay, I would guess that at least some 00:01:17.609 --> 00:01:21.829 of you Maybe it was last year when it came out, 00:01:21.849 --> 00:01:25.750 but over this last year have seen Nate Bargatse's 00:01:25.750 --> 00:01:28.909 Nashville Christmas special from last Christmas 00:01:28.909 --> 00:01:34.650 Eve. If you haven't, I would recommend him. He's 00:01:34.650 --> 00:01:38.870 sort of a regular name in the Rowan household. 00:01:39.250 --> 00:01:41.750 He's pretty clean, which is nice if you got little 00:01:41.750 --> 00:01:45.870 kids for a comedian. Anyway, among other things, 00:01:45.989 --> 00:01:50.379 there is a little skit. where Nate plays the 00:01:50.379 --> 00:01:53.379 angel of the Lord who comes to the nativity scene. 00:01:54.459 --> 00:01:57.200 There are Mary and Joseph on either side of a 00:01:57.200 --> 00:02:00.099 little manger and on the other side of the stage 00:02:00.099 --> 00:02:03.000 there's the three wise men and in walks Nate 00:02:03.000 --> 00:02:06.200 Bargazzi with this curly wig on and this sort 00:02:06.200 --> 00:02:11.080 of Romanesque breastplate that is shining gold 00:02:11.080 --> 00:02:14.500 and a white robe not too unfamiliar from the 00:02:14.500 --> 00:02:19.349 one that I have on. And then enormous white wings. 00:02:21.229 --> 00:02:24.930 And they start to talk about Christmas and how 00:02:24.930 --> 00:02:28.889 for generations and centuries people will remember 00:02:28.889 --> 00:02:34.030 that night with things like pine trees, which 00:02:34.030 --> 00:02:39.550 of course Mary and Joseph say pine trees. Yes, 00:02:39.689 --> 00:02:43.710 pine trees. And he talks about how they will 00:02:43.710 --> 00:02:46.800 remember that night with singing songs. about 00:02:46.800 --> 00:02:50.719 the events of that day. Mary responds, songs 00:02:50.719 --> 00:02:56.639 about Jesus? To which the angel says, a few boring 00:02:56.639 --> 00:03:05.300 ones, yes. I love Christmas songs. He says, there 00:03:05.300 --> 00:03:09.340 will be songs about you, Mary, and songs about 00:03:09.340 --> 00:03:14.699 you, three wise men. And will there be songs 00:03:14.699 --> 00:03:21.270 about me? Joseph? Joseph asks. They're going 00:03:21.270 --> 00:03:27.509 to be lots of songs, the angel replies. Since 00:03:27.509 --> 00:03:29.229 most of them won't be about what's happening 00:03:29.229 --> 00:03:32.129 here, they will be about snow and snow related 00:03:32.129 --> 00:03:36.430 activities. But there's no snow here. We are 00:03:36.430 --> 00:03:42.090 in the desert, says Mary. Right, replies the 00:03:42.090 --> 00:03:44.750 angel. But I want you to think about Joseph's 00:03:44.750 --> 00:03:50.509 question. And there will be songs about me to 00:03:50.509 --> 00:03:56.550 Joseph. I mean, we have songs about the names 00:03:56.550 --> 00:04:01.310 of Santa's reindeer. We have songs about Santa 00:04:01.310 --> 00:04:07.210 getting run over by reindeer. We have songs pleading 00:04:07.210 --> 00:04:10.009 for it to snow. Let it snow, let it snow, let 00:04:10.009 --> 00:04:13.560 it snow. We have questionable songs about how 00:04:13.560 --> 00:04:16.399 cold it is outside and how your baby needs to 00:04:16.399 --> 00:04:21.759 stay in, you know? But we do not have Joseph 00:04:21.759 --> 00:04:27.060 songs. And if I'm actually honest, I was thinking 00:04:27.060 --> 00:04:29.339 about this. So the text we just heard are the 00:04:29.339 --> 00:04:31.459 lectionary texts for the fourth Sunday in Advent 00:04:31.459 --> 00:04:34.660 for this year. Because we finished up 2 Corinthians 00:04:34.660 --> 00:04:37.230 last week. week, and we still had a week left 00:04:37.230 --> 00:04:40.209 in Advent. I was like, I'll just use the lectionary 00:04:40.209 --> 00:04:43.189 texts. I'll take the wisdom of the church's lectionary 00:04:43.189 --> 00:04:47.829 and use that. And it kind of struck me that the 00:04:47.829 --> 00:04:49.389 lectionary text for the fourth Sunday of Advent 00:04:49.389 --> 00:04:50.910 this year is actually one of the texts that we 00:04:50.910 --> 00:04:55.029 often read at Christmas itself, right? But what 00:04:55.029 --> 00:04:57.089 struck me as I was studying for this a couple 00:04:57.089 --> 00:05:03.490 weeks ago is just how present Joseph is. Again, 00:05:03.490 --> 00:05:07.699 I have preached Numerous sermons sort of focused 00:05:07.699 --> 00:05:12.079 on Mary. I have preached sermons on Elizabeth. 00:05:12.839 --> 00:05:15.660 We have looked together, I think actually two 00:05:15.660 --> 00:05:18.839 times over the last 10 years, since this will 00:05:18.839 --> 00:05:21.459 be my 11th year around Christmas as the pastor 00:05:21.459 --> 00:05:24.920 here at Second City, on the mothers of Jesus 00:05:24.920 --> 00:05:27.660 in the genealogy in Matthew. So we've looked 00:05:27.660 --> 00:05:33.040 at Rahab and Ruth and the others there. But I 00:05:33.040 --> 00:05:36.920 have not. preached a text that is focused much 00:05:36.920 --> 00:05:39.540 on Joseph. And of course, there's some reasons 00:05:39.540 --> 00:05:49.199 for this. You know, Zachariah is present. Simeon 00:05:49.199 --> 00:05:56.759 gets a song. Mary gets a song. Joseph never talks. 00:05:57.959 --> 00:06:04.639 Okay, kind of interesting. But if you look at 00:06:04.639 --> 00:06:08.759 actually the texts of the incarnation of Christ, 00:06:08.980 --> 00:06:10.959 primarily which we find in Luke and Matthew, 00:06:13.060 --> 00:06:16.480 Mary is very present in Luke and actually Joseph 00:06:16.480 --> 00:06:18.560 is the one who's most present in this Matthew 00:06:18.560 --> 00:06:22.319 text. Mary's certainly there and she's certainly 00:06:22.319 --> 00:06:25.420 a key figure, but she's mentioned four times 00:06:25.420 --> 00:06:28.120 by name in chapters one and two, and Joseph is 00:06:28.120 --> 00:06:31.000 mentioned seven times by name in chapters one 00:06:31.000 --> 00:06:37.329 and two. Interestingly, the Magi get a speaking 00:06:37.329 --> 00:06:40.449 part. You might remember, where is he who is 00:06:40.449 --> 00:06:43.870 born King of the Jews, right? He asks Herod. 00:06:44.610 --> 00:06:50.250 And of course, Mary gets her song in Luke, but 00:06:50.250 --> 00:06:53.629 Joseph never speaks. He's quiet. And yet, he's 00:06:53.629 --> 00:06:55.790 very present. And I think it's in this quiet, 00:06:56.170 --> 00:06:58.290 faithful presence that we actually have something 00:06:58.290 --> 00:07:00.470 that we are being taught that's very, very important. 00:07:01.279 --> 00:07:04.779 But first, I want you to just look with me how 00:07:04.779 --> 00:07:07.660 present Joseph is, okay? Because I think Joseph 00:07:07.660 --> 00:07:09.860 needs his due in some ways this morning. So do 00:07:09.860 --> 00:07:12.680 you have your Bibles open hopefully to Matthew? 00:07:14.360 --> 00:07:16.920 This little section on the end of chapter one 00:07:16.920 --> 00:07:21.500 after the genealogy that began our chapter. And 00:07:21.500 --> 00:07:24.839 what you see, he's mentioned... By name there 00:07:24.839 --> 00:07:28.300 in 18 right when his mother Mary had been betrothed 00:07:28.300 --> 00:07:33.759 to Joseph verse 19 and her husband Joseph and 00:07:33.759 --> 00:07:36.600 then verse 20 the angel of the Lord appears to 00:07:36.600 --> 00:07:42.259 him in a dream saying Joseph son of David We 00:07:42.259 --> 00:07:46.660 could go down Verse 21 he's mentioned as his 00:07:46.660 --> 00:07:49.360 pronoun. She will bear a son and you Speaking 00:07:49.360 --> 00:07:52.639 to Joseph shall call his name Jesus If we go 00:07:52.639 --> 00:07:56.519 down, verse 24, when Joseph awoke from sleep, 00:07:57.379 --> 00:07:58.860 he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him, 00:07:58.860 --> 00:08:01.939 he took his wife, verse 25, but he knew her not 00:08:01.939 --> 00:08:04.879 until she had given birth to a son and he called 00:08:04.879 --> 00:08:09.839 his name Jesus. So every verse except for verses 00:08:09.839 --> 00:08:12.660 22 and 23 in this little section mention Joseph 00:08:12.660 --> 00:08:16.079 either by name or by the pronoun and in his action 00:08:16.079 --> 00:08:19.860 and his presence is pervasive in this passage. 00:08:21.160 --> 00:08:25.360 He may be absent in songs. He may be not sort 00:08:25.360 --> 00:08:27.339 of present with his voice, but he's very, very 00:08:27.339 --> 00:08:30.000 present in this text. And I think, again, he's 00:08:30.000 --> 00:08:32.019 teaching us something incredibly important that 00:08:32.019 --> 00:08:34.559 you find throughout the Bible, but he's showing 00:08:34.559 --> 00:08:39.000 us the beauty of living a faithful life, okay? 00:08:39.000 --> 00:08:41.779 The beauty of living a faithful life with our 00:08:41.779 --> 00:08:45.879 faithful God, okay? Now, here's what I want you 00:08:45.879 --> 00:08:50.870 to hear first. There are all kinds of calls for 00:08:50.870 --> 00:08:53.970 unfaithful action. There are all kinds of calls 00:08:53.970 --> 00:08:56.029 for unfaithful action. What do I mean by this? 00:08:58.710 --> 00:09:01.389 Well, I don't mean that there's part of this 00:09:01.389 --> 00:09:05.250 passage that is specifically saying, Joseph live 00:09:05.250 --> 00:09:08.769 in unfaithfulness to God and to those about you. 00:09:10.370 --> 00:09:15.070 But what I am saying is that, In our minds and 00:09:15.070 --> 00:09:16.889 in our hearts and actually in the world about 00:09:16.889 --> 00:09:19.350 us, we have all these different calls to unfaithfulness. 00:09:20.470 --> 00:09:26.350 Okay, consider this. What does the angel say 00:09:26.350 --> 00:09:31.190 to Joseph? What do angels say to people? Don't 00:09:31.190 --> 00:09:34.309 fear. That's what angels say to people. Don't 00:09:34.309 --> 00:09:38.889 fear. Do not fear to take Mary as your wife. 00:09:39.740 --> 00:09:41.899 You remember that this is what the angels said 00:09:41.899 --> 00:09:45.200 to Mary also, and to the shepherds, which means 00:09:45.200 --> 00:09:47.820 that they were much scarier than Nate in that 00:09:47.820 --> 00:09:50.860 costume, right? On some level, it wasn't just 00:09:50.860 --> 00:09:52.659 the circumstances, but there's something about 00:09:52.659 --> 00:09:54.379 angels that are probably rather frightening, 00:09:54.460 --> 00:09:59.840 okay? But think about this, fear often can be 00:09:59.840 --> 00:10:03.539 a call to unfaithful action. And Joseph had real 00:10:03.539 --> 00:10:09.549 reasons to fear. He had found out that his fiance, 00:10:09.730 --> 00:10:12.690 this woman who he had been betrothed to, was 00:10:12.690 --> 00:10:17.529 expecting a baby. And he knew how babies come 00:10:17.529 --> 00:10:20.370 into the world, and he knew that he had been 00:10:20.370 --> 00:10:25.169 faithfully waiting until he and his fiance were 00:10:25.169 --> 00:10:30.789 husband and wife when they were wed. And so, 00:10:30.850 --> 00:10:34.320 unquestionably, undoubtedly, He must have thought, 00:10:34.320 --> 00:10:36.679 the person who I trust the most in the world, 00:10:36.899 --> 00:10:40.200 who I was gonna unite to for the rest of my life, 00:10:40.840 --> 00:10:45.299 I can't trust, who can I trust? Is that not fear 00:10:45.299 --> 00:10:49.659 inducing? Of course it's fear inducing. He probably 00:10:49.659 --> 00:10:53.460 actually said, what kind of judgment do I have 00:10:53.460 --> 00:10:59.919 that I would... be engaged, be betrothed to somebody 00:10:59.919 --> 00:11:01.860 that would do such thing. I must not even be 00:11:01.860 --> 00:11:03.559 clear thinking myself. I thought I was thinking 00:11:03.559 --> 00:11:05.600 all right. So he probably lives in some level 00:11:05.600 --> 00:11:08.200 of fear of his own ability and his own trustworthiness 00:11:08.200 --> 00:11:11.940 of his own mind and his own thinking. No doubt 00:11:11.940 --> 00:11:15.620 he feared what this would mean for his own future 00:11:15.620 --> 00:11:18.019 life and the future life of this young woman 00:11:18.019 --> 00:11:21.639 who he was betrothed to. In his commentary on 00:11:21.639 --> 00:11:23.600 the Gospel of Matthew, Stanley Hauerwas, some 00:11:23.600 --> 00:11:25.399 of you hopefully are familiar with Hauerwas, 00:11:26.200 --> 00:11:35.379 says, the Matthew story of Mary's pregnancy lacks 00:11:35.379 --> 00:11:38.919 the charm and detail of Luke's account, but that 00:11:38.919 --> 00:11:42.600 may be its value. One of the great enemies of 00:11:42.600 --> 00:11:46.659 the Gospel is sentimentality. and the stories 00:11:46.659 --> 00:11:50.960 surrounding Jesus' birth have proven to be ready 00:11:50.960 --> 00:11:54.419 material for maudlin sentiment, Matthew's account 00:11:54.419 --> 00:11:57.360 of Jesus' conception and birth is unapologetically 00:11:57.360 --> 00:12:01.600 realistic. Which is to say, Joseph is engaging 00:12:01.600 --> 00:12:03.899 with this scenario that for all kinds of reasons 00:12:03.899 --> 00:12:08.580 would cause him to fear. It's unapologetically 00:12:08.580 --> 00:12:13.210 realistic. Part of the realism of it is that 00:12:13.210 --> 00:12:16.690 it shows that Joseph says I've got to act here. 00:12:16.690 --> 00:12:22.250 I've got to do something. Because his fiance 00:12:22.250 --> 00:12:24.889 is expecting and he knows he isn't the father. 00:12:26.570 --> 00:12:29.110 No doubt the question swirling around is what 00:12:29.110 --> 00:12:32.409 will tomorrow bring? What kind of unknown am 00:12:32.409 --> 00:12:36.090 I living into? What kind of new uncertainty will 00:12:36.090 --> 00:12:39.679 happen to me? after the one thing that I thought 00:12:39.679 --> 00:12:42.299 would happen for the rest of my life is not going 00:12:42.299 --> 00:12:47.279 to be happening. The person I thought I knew 00:12:47.279 --> 00:12:51.580 best, I don't really know. Fear, what I'm suggesting 00:12:51.580 --> 00:12:55.980 to you in some ways is fear often calls us to 00:12:55.980 --> 00:12:59.980 unfaithful action, living into fear, okay? Another 00:12:59.980 --> 00:13:02.519 thing that often calls us into unfaithful action 00:13:02.519 --> 00:13:06.950 is shame. Now, The angel says, do not fear. The 00:13:06.950 --> 00:13:09.610 angel does not say, don't live in shame, but 00:13:09.610 --> 00:13:12.529 shame is in this passage. We'll look at it again 00:13:12.529 --> 00:13:18.509 in a second. The passage actually doesn't necessarily 00:13:18.509 --> 00:13:23.129 mention that Joseph is sort of in this state 00:13:23.129 --> 00:13:29.639 of shame. But what it does do is it calls, It 00:13:29.639 --> 00:13:33.279 calls Joseph to action in the exact place where 00:13:33.279 --> 00:13:35.340 shame would cause him to hide. Let me try to 00:13:35.340 --> 00:13:39.779 explain this, okay? Joseph, we're at the very 00:13:39.779 --> 00:13:42.460 end, it says, and he called his name Jesus, right? 00:13:43.419 --> 00:13:46.240 She will bear a son and you shall call his name 00:13:46.240 --> 00:13:50.159 Jesus. So Joseph is the one that's supposed to 00:13:50.159 --> 00:13:54.559 name this child, this child who he did not have 00:13:54.559 --> 00:13:58.320 a part of conceiving. he's supposed to take on 00:13:58.320 --> 00:14:03.820 the fatherly role of. That would have been the 00:14:03.820 --> 00:14:08.340 act of the father to do the naming. Related to 00:14:08.340 --> 00:14:10.980 this role, you might remember that is the presentation 00:14:10.980 --> 00:14:13.399 of Mary and Joseph of the Child of the Temple. 00:14:13.399 --> 00:14:14.639 We're going to look at that in a couple weeks, 00:14:14.679 --> 00:14:18.200 actually, as we consider Simeon and Anna. But 00:14:18.200 --> 00:14:20.399 that would have been a fatherly action and a 00:14:20.399 --> 00:14:25.399 public fatherly action, right? So they do that 00:14:25.399 --> 00:14:29.049 in Luke. Chapter two. But what this is saying 00:14:29.049 --> 00:14:32.509 is that the angel is inviting Joseph to take 00:14:32.509 --> 00:14:36.870 on the fatherly role. So everyone around them 00:14:36.870 --> 00:14:39.389 would have known that this baby was conceived 00:14:39.389 --> 00:14:42.070 before their wedding, right? I mean, everybody 00:14:42.070 --> 00:14:46.990 would have known that. We aren't exactly told 00:14:46.990 --> 00:14:49.409 how Joseph found out that Mary was with child, 00:14:49.809 --> 00:14:53.190 but we are told in Luke that when Mary finds 00:14:53.190 --> 00:14:56.370 out from the angel, she immediately goes to Elizabeth. 00:14:57.190 --> 00:14:59.289 So it's not like she immediately goes to her 00:14:59.289 --> 00:15:01.149 fiance and tells him what's going on. She immediately 00:15:01.149 --> 00:15:04.110 goes and spends some time with Elizabeth. So 00:15:04.110 --> 00:15:07.429 it's very, very possible that Joseph doesn't 00:15:07.429 --> 00:15:10.190 know that Mary is expecting until she's showing. 00:15:11.710 --> 00:15:13.990 Maybe a few months in, we don't really know. 00:15:14.389 --> 00:15:18.169 We don't know this, but it's very possible. And 00:15:18.169 --> 00:15:24.389 what's certainly true is that, They would have 00:15:24.389 --> 00:15:27.929 known, okay, this baby was conceived before you 00:15:27.929 --> 00:15:31.789 were you were wed. Mary started to show, this 00:15:31.789 --> 00:15:35.549 is the time frame. And Joseph is supposed to 00:15:35.549 --> 00:15:39.110 act like he is the father. He takes Mary with 00:15:39.110 --> 00:15:41.830 him down to Bethlehem to be registered for the 00:15:41.830 --> 00:15:45.129 census. And this is kind of interesting. Unlike 00:15:45.129 --> 00:15:47.289 in Luke chapter two, when we're told the end 00:15:47.289 --> 00:15:49.090 of Luke chapter two is the story of, the only 00:15:49.090 --> 00:15:51.370 story we have of Jesus and his youth. And he 00:15:51.370 --> 00:15:54.330 goes down to celebrate the Passover. And it specifically 00:15:54.330 --> 00:15:57.289 says that they went down with relatives and friends 00:15:57.289 --> 00:15:59.909 and stuff. It's interesting that that details 00:15:59.909 --> 00:16:04.019 there in Luke and it's not here. in Matthew when 00:16:04.019 --> 00:16:05.659 they're going down to Bethlehem, which would 00:16:05.659 --> 00:16:07.620 have actually been fairly close to Jerusalem. 00:16:07.879 --> 00:16:09.940 And so the norm would have been if you're traveling 00:16:09.940 --> 00:16:12.500 a ways, you would travel with other people, right? 00:16:12.879 --> 00:16:15.220 Well, how far is it from Nazareth to Bethlehem? 00:16:15.360 --> 00:16:20.639 Does anyone know this? It's about 90 miles on 00:16:20.639 --> 00:16:22.440 the trail. It's about 70 miles as the crow flies. 00:16:22.480 --> 00:16:26.299 It's a 90 mile trek. It's a long walk. It's a 00:16:26.299 --> 00:16:28.620 long walk when you're nine months pregnant. Do 00:16:28.620 --> 00:16:30.500 you think you want friends and relatives helping 00:16:30.500 --> 00:16:34.820 you out along the way? Yeah, yeah you would. 00:16:35.139 --> 00:16:38.500 Where are they? They're probably so unsure of 00:16:38.500 --> 00:16:40.200 what is happening with this young couple and 00:16:40.200 --> 00:16:42.720 how in the world is she pregnant already? And 00:16:42.720 --> 00:16:45.980 now Joseph's supposed to own this dynamic, right? 00:16:46.539 --> 00:16:51.600 I mean this, you can see that there's a lot of 00:16:51.600 --> 00:16:53.480 shame and this social shame in this scenario 00:16:53.480 --> 00:16:55.879 that can be taking place and Joseph is actually 00:16:55.879 --> 00:17:01.620 called to live into it in a way. Had they been 00:17:01.620 --> 00:17:04.299 promiscuous. Have they brought shame on their 00:17:04.299 --> 00:17:05.900 family? Is that why their family's not there 00:17:05.900 --> 00:17:09.960 with them? Maybe it took the family a couple 00:17:09.960 --> 00:17:12.420 years to buy into this whole story of an angel 00:17:12.420 --> 00:17:14.740 appearing to Mary. Probably not something that's 00:17:14.740 --> 00:17:19.799 easily believable. Where this little boy had 00:17:19.799 --> 00:17:22.019 come from, who they finally got around to saying, 00:17:22.180 --> 00:17:24.740 yeah, we'll travel down south with you to Judea 00:17:24.740 --> 00:17:28.559 and to Jerusalem. But what I'm suggesting is 00:17:28.559 --> 00:17:31.440 that shame is often actually a call to unfaithful 00:17:31.440 --> 00:17:35.140 action. I don't want people talking about me 00:17:35.140 --> 00:17:40.579 like that. I want to be with this lady. I heard 00:17:40.579 --> 00:17:46.880 last week that 87 % of adults say that they are 00:17:46.880 --> 00:17:53.920 rather constantly stressed. 87%. And I first 00:17:53.920 --> 00:17:55.980 heard that and I thought, is that surprising? 00:17:57.019 --> 00:17:59.140 And I thought, I actually don't think it's terribly 00:17:59.140 --> 00:18:04.400 surprising if it's that high. There's a lot of 00:18:04.400 --> 00:18:08.000 things that can stress us out, right? As adults, 00:18:08.299 --> 00:18:11.420 maybe it's like, maybe it's how do I afford life? 00:18:12.619 --> 00:18:15.859 How do I pay for children? What do I do with 00:18:15.859 --> 00:18:18.740 my older children that aren't talking to me and 00:18:18.740 --> 00:18:22.940 we're estranged? Maybe we're worried about aging 00:18:22.940 --> 00:18:27.000 loved ones. Of course, the unbelievable political 00:18:27.000 --> 00:18:30.799 polarization. neighbors not talking to each other, 00:18:31.279 --> 00:18:33.660 friends disowning you because you voted for X, 00:18:33.660 --> 00:18:37.680 Y, Z, whatever. I mean, there are innumerable 00:18:37.680 --> 00:18:40.339 sort of reasons why we say we are stressed out. 00:18:42.460 --> 00:18:46.559 How are you? The most common response. Oh, well, 00:18:46.559 --> 00:18:48.680 I guess you could say I'm fine. But most of it's 00:18:48.680 --> 00:18:52.700 like, I'm busy. We just live busy lives, stressed 00:18:52.700 --> 00:18:56.019 out lives. Here's the thing, in a state of stress, 00:18:56.269 --> 00:18:58.589 we are often ruled by just a tiny little part 00:18:58.589 --> 00:19:02.150 of our brain and this tiny little part of the 00:19:02.150 --> 00:19:06.109 brain releases hormones like adrenaline and cortisol 00:19:06.109 --> 00:19:10.349 which means we react quickly and emotionally 00:19:10.349 --> 00:19:14.970 and we do this to stay alive and this little 00:19:14.970 --> 00:19:19.049 part of our brain releases these these hormones 00:19:19.049 --> 00:19:21.789 this little part is the amygdala as many of you 00:19:21.789 --> 00:19:24.710 are familiar with and the interesting thing is 00:19:24.710 --> 00:19:28.779 that it actually blocks our clear thinking part, 00:19:29.579 --> 00:19:31.700 right? Our prefrontal cortex. That's what's happening, 00:19:31.720 --> 00:19:34.740 right? So here's what's happening is that 87 00:19:34.740 --> 00:19:39.440 % of adults are just reacting. We're just reacting 00:19:39.440 --> 00:19:43.559 because we want to stay alive, which is called 00:19:43.559 --> 00:19:47.759 amygdala hijacking, right? It's taking over. 00:19:48.980 --> 00:19:50.900 And there's a time when this is actually really 00:19:50.900 --> 00:19:54.680 helpful and good, okay? And this time is when 00:19:54.680 --> 00:19:56.920 you're actually needing to stay alive, like truly 00:19:56.920 --> 00:20:00.660 stay alive. Because what happens in this whole 00:20:00.660 --> 00:20:03.180 fight, flight, freeze response, we're seeking 00:20:03.180 --> 00:20:07.380 to protect ourselves. But oftentimes we're doing 00:20:07.380 --> 00:20:08.920 that out of this sense that we don't know the 00:20:08.920 --> 00:20:11.599 whole story. Like we're trying to control, we're 00:20:11.599 --> 00:20:13.859 trying to figure out how do we stay alive. Actually, 00:20:13.900 --> 00:20:15.720 our bodies react, this is kind of interesting, 00:20:15.880 --> 00:20:18.819 right? In this state, our eyes dilate and we 00:20:18.819 --> 00:20:21.000 get a tunnel vision. So we literally can't see 00:20:21.000 --> 00:20:23.519 as clearly, like literally our eyes get more 00:20:23.519 --> 00:20:28.299 tunnel vision. Our breathing changes, our blood 00:20:28.299 --> 00:20:32.460 constricts, our blood veins constrict. So we're 00:20:32.460 --> 00:20:35.579 kind of, we're preserving ourselves for what's 00:20:35.579 --> 00:20:38.819 gonna come, right? And we just live in this state. 00:20:39.039 --> 00:20:41.160 87 % of adults say, this is the state that I'm 00:20:41.160 --> 00:20:44.900 living in. Which means they're not really thinking 00:20:44.900 --> 00:20:49.400 very clearly. If you're in real danger, it's 00:20:49.400 --> 00:20:52.460 very helpful. If you're not, it's actually very 00:20:52.460 --> 00:20:56.359 destructive. We're mostly living stressed out 00:20:56.359 --> 00:20:58.720 lives full of fear and shame. And for the most 00:20:58.720 --> 00:21:02.700 part, these stressed out places of fear and shame 00:21:02.700 --> 00:21:06.039 are actually calling us to live unfaithful lives. 00:21:06.180 --> 00:21:08.839 So think about this, right? What do we do? We 00:21:08.839 --> 00:21:14.380 often live lives very defensively. We're often 00:21:14.380 --> 00:21:16.660 trying to seek to control our environment, to 00:21:16.660 --> 00:21:20.240 control those around us, to control our image. 00:21:22.140 --> 00:21:26.349 What we're often doing is we're demanding that 00:21:26.349 --> 00:21:28.190 we are in the right and we get angry when other 00:21:28.190 --> 00:21:31.829 people want to challenge our thinking or our 00:21:31.829 --> 00:21:33.529 feeling or whatever. Like, you know, we get this 00:21:33.529 --> 00:21:35.609 really defensive kind of angry posture towards 00:21:35.609 --> 00:21:39.289 others. We lash out. Or often, you know, that's 00:21:39.289 --> 00:21:41.369 kind of that fight response. Oftentimes we just 00:21:41.369 --> 00:21:44.970 numb out, right? Football game after football 00:21:44.970 --> 00:21:46.970 game. You probably know people that want to place 00:21:46.970 --> 00:21:50.390 bet after bet after play after play on different 00:21:50.390 --> 00:21:57.440 games. I mean, how good are potato chips? How 00:21:57.440 --> 00:22:03.660 good is MSG? I mean, right? It's delicious. And 00:22:03.660 --> 00:22:05.579 so we just reach for it because it's like, oh, 00:22:05.579 --> 00:22:08.220 at least I can have this sense of delight for 00:22:08.220 --> 00:22:10.759 a little while and sort of check out from the 00:22:10.759 --> 00:22:17.920 stress around me. Of course, we are in a world 00:22:17.920 --> 00:22:20.660 that tells us that the highest good is individual 00:22:20.660 --> 00:22:24.420 self -expression. You do you, you be you is the 00:22:24.420 --> 00:22:28.599 most important thing, which aggravates this idea 00:22:28.599 --> 00:22:31.660 of self -preservation and self -delight and the 00:22:31.660 --> 00:22:41.480 self, right? The self. All this, what I'm suggesting 00:22:41.480 --> 00:22:43.480 is this place of fear and shame, which is so 00:22:43.480 --> 00:22:45.480 related to our places of stress, which is so 00:22:45.480 --> 00:22:47.559 influences our brain, which so influences our 00:22:47.559 --> 00:22:51.690 body, so influences our community. calls us to 00:22:51.690 --> 00:22:55.410 a life of unfaithfulness. There are all kinds 00:22:55.410 --> 00:22:57.930 of calls that Joseph was experiencing socially 00:22:57.930 --> 00:23:03.750 and probably in his mind and in his body and 00:23:03.750 --> 00:23:07.849 places of his heart that were calling him to 00:23:07.849 --> 00:23:11.869 unfaithfulness. Circumstances he found himself 00:23:11.869 --> 00:23:14.750 in, the hormones pulsing through him, the culture 00:23:14.750 --> 00:23:19.779 around him. But interestingly, if anything, Joseph 00:23:19.779 --> 00:23:23.299 is not said to be someone who goes along with 00:23:23.299 --> 00:23:29.380 this. There's no sense in this passage that Joseph 00:23:29.380 --> 00:23:32.220 heard these calls and said, okay, I'm going to 00:23:32.220 --> 00:23:35.920 live in this unfaithfulness. If anything, it's 00:23:35.920 --> 00:23:41.119 the exact opposite, isn't it? If there's a call 00:23:41.119 --> 00:23:43.339 to unfaithful action around him, what we see 00:23:43.339 --> 00:23:46.960 actually in Joseph is a very faithful man. The 00:23:46.960 --> 00:23:51.220 descriptor actually for Joseph in our text, verse 00:23:51.220 --> 00:23:56.519 19, and her husband Joseph being a just man. 00:23:58.599 --> 00:24:06.180 The descriptor there, just man, is the word decaios. 00:24:07.059 --> 00:24:10.940 Most of the time we translate that word righteous. 00:24:12.720 --> 00:24:15.579 I mean, if there's one descriptor for Joseph, 00:24:15.759 --> 00:24:18.680 it's actually, it's not unfaithfulness, it's 00:24:18.680 --> 00:24:24.819 righteous, just. Righteousness, often in the 00:24:24.819 --> 00:24:28.799 Bible, particularly if you're around Protestant 00:24:28.799 --> 00:24:30.700 churches, the primary way we use righteousness 00:24:30.700 --> 00:24:33.299 is like what we do when we confess our sins and 00:24:33.299 --> 00:24:36.369 we receive the righteousness of God. We're declared 00:24:36.369 --> 00:24:39.089 righteous before a just God because of the righteousness 00:24:39.089 --> 00:24:42.250 given to us. But so in the Bible, righteousness 00:24:42.250 --> 00:24:45.289 often, and particularly in Matthew of the Gospels 00:24:45.289 --> 00:24:49.230 actually, is a reference to right living, to 00:24:49.230 --> 00:24:52.009 faith living in light of who God is, in light 00:24:52.009 --> 00:24:56.869 of who we are. And Joseph here is called a righteous 00:24:56.869 --> 00:25:03.029 man. Right living in the Bible and right faith 00:25:03.029 --> 00:25:06.109 in the Bible always go together. Faith in what 00:25:06.109 --> 00:25:10.390 God does and living in light of it. So what do 00:25:10.390 --> 00:25:13.890 we see in Joseph? First we see he's not willing 00:25:13.890 --> 00:25:16.529 to play the shame game. I said we'd come back 00:25:16.529 --> 00:25:18.769 to this, but specifically it actually mentions 00:25:18.769 --> 00:25:21.049 shame, right? And Joseph's not willing to play 00:25:21.049 --> 00:25:25.329 it really. So verse 19, and her husband Joseph 00:25:25.329 --> 00:25:28.109 being a just man and unwilling to put her to 00:25:28.109 --> 00:25:34.200 shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. Now, 00:25:34.240 --> 00:25:36.099 we think of divorce, of course, in our age is 00:25:36.099 --> 00:25:38.440 primarily connected to marriage, but we know 00:25:38.440 --> 00:25:41.339 that they were not yet married because the angel 00:25:41.339 --> 00:25:44.259 says, do not fear to take Mary as your wife. 00:25:45.319 --> 00:25:47.160 What you need to understand is that in the ancient 00:25:47.160 --> 00:25:51.279 world, engagement was a much weightier thing 00:25:51.279 --> 00:25:54.519 than it is today. They were bound together and 00:25:54.519 --> 00:25:57.500 to break that bond would have been a very significant 00:25:57.500 --> 00:25:58.980 action. It wasn't quite marriage, but it was 00:25:58.980 --> 00:26:00.680 sort of more than even sort of engagement in 00:26:00.680 --> 00:26:05.109 our world. He didn't want to be a part of a corrupt 00:26:05.109 --> 00:26:08.569 marriage and actually he had every right to cancel 00:26:08.569 --> 00:26:10.470 this engagement Okay, this would not have been 00:26:10.470 --> 00:26:12.390 something that would have been remotely outside 00:26:12.390 --> 00:26:17.049 of his right thing to do to cancel this He could 00:26:17.049 --> 00:26:20.410 have exposed Mary as an unwed mother to public 00:26:20.410 --> 00:26:24.329 disgrace That would have been a norm of his day 00:26:24.329 --> 00:26:27.869 and there would have been certain Penalties punishments 00:26:27.869 --> 00:26:29.690 rather severe that would have gone along with 00:26:29.690 --> 00:26:35.150 that, but he doesn't do any of this No. There 00:26:35.150 --> 00:26:37.190 were better and quieter ways to do this that 00:26:37.190 --> 00:26:39.609 still sort of preserved some of her dignity and 00:26:39.609 --> 00:26:43.950 he sought to do that, okay? And this is interesting 00:26:43.950 --> 00:26:45.450 actually. One thing I read in studying for this 00:26:45.450 --> 00:26:48.849 is righteousness in Matthew particularly is often 00:26:48.849 --> 00:26:52.769 connected to this idea of treating other people 00:26:52.769 --> 00:26:57.029 with dignity. So righteousness often is actually 00:26:57.029 --> 00:27:00.670 combating shame in Matthew. It's kind of interesting. 00:27:02.210 --> 00:27:04.529 Joseph lives into this kind of righteousness, 00:27:04.630 --> 00:27:07.710 into this faithful action because he's unwilling 00:27:07.710 --> 00:27:09.970 to play the shame game, which he totally could 00:27:09.970 --> 00:27:11.549 have played and which would have been the norm 00:27:11.549 --> 00:27:15.410 of his day. But the other thing here, and this 00:27:15.410 --> 00:27:17.450 is kind of interesting, is that Joseph isn't 00:27:17.450 --> 00:27:22.509 controlled by fear. So the angel does speak to 00:27:22.509 --> 00:27:26.690 the place of his fear, right? The angel doesn't 00:27:26.690 --> 00:27:30.059 just go, oh, it's okay. something else is going 00:27:30.059 --> 00:27:33.839 on here and you should still marry her. The angel 00:27:33.839 --> 00:27:37.039 does actually say, hey, this child was conceived 00:27:37.039 --> 00:27:39.940 by the Holy Spirit. So he actually addresses 00:27:39.940 --> 00:27:45.339 the place of his questioning and his fear. Mary 00:27:45.339 --> 00:27:48.400 had been pure, which is to say, the angel does 00:27:48.400 --> 00:27:51.539 say Mary has been pure. She's been holy. She's 00:27:51.539 --> 00:27:56.099 been faithful to you as you had hoped, right? 00:27:57.259 --> 00:28:01.140 But he also doesn't allow the social fear, which 00:28:01.140 --> 00:28:03.920 he no doubt would have known and felt as we all 00:28:03.920 --> 00:28:09.900 do, to run his life. So despite what others may 00:28:09.900 --> 00:28:13.480 say or do, despite how others may not join them 00:28:13.480 --> 00:28:17.619 in the journey, may not, you know, throw the 00:28:17.619 --> 00:28:21.869 baby shower and all the rest, He takes Mary as 00:28:21.869 --> 00:28:24.369 his wife and he takes her down to Bethlehem and 00:28:24.369 --> 00:28:26.430 he names that child as he would have done if 00:28:26.430 --> 00:28:30.589 he were the biological father. He owns this place 00:28:30.589 --> 00:28:37.509 of fear and he acts faithfully within it. Okay, 00:28:38.970 --> 00:28:41.930 so here's the interesting thing and I hope this 00:28:41.930 --> 00:28:44.470 is kind of where you're going. How do we do this? 00:28:47.380 --> 00:28:49.839 How do we not live into the shame game and how 00:28:49.839 --> 00:28:55.299 do we not live into fear? I mean seriously, if 00:28:55.299 --> 00:28:58.680 87 % of adults are just living out of stress, 00:28:59.700 --> 00:29:02.880 probably a lot of us are doing that and probably 00:29:02.880 --> 00:29:05.099 a lot of that stress is related to the idea of 00:29:05.099 --> 00:29:12.059 fear and shame. So what do we do? What's the 00:29:12.059 --> 00:29:16.569 answer? How do we actually kind of... live like 00:29:16.569 --> 00:29:20.309 Joseph here, right? How do we learn? How do we 00:29:20.309 --> 00:29:23.869 not just live stressed out and angry and controlling 00:29:23.869 --> 00:29:29.029 and vindictive and numbing lives? Because we 00:29:29.029 --> 00:29:31.670 all know that that's the norm. We all know that 00:29:31.670 --> 00:29:33.130 that's mostly what people are telling you to 00:29:33.130 --> 00:29:41.130 do, right? Live angry. How do we do this? Well, 00:29:41.609 --> 00:29:45.680 if you've been around religious folk, not just 00:29:45.680 --> 00:29:49.039 Christians, but Christians too. Maybe you've 00:29:49.039 --> 00:29:54.779 heard things like, dare to be a Daniel and be 00:29:54.779 --> 00:29:58.819 brave like David. And maybe you've heard a sermon, 00:29:58.839 --> 00:30:00.420 I really haven't, because I haven't heard sermons 00:30:00.420 --> 00:30:04.400 about Joseph. Be just like Joseph, Joseph the 00:30:04.400 --> 00:30:11.079 just. That maybe the answer is just to put these 00:30:11.079 --> 00:30:14.390 figures before you and live into their kind of 00:30:14.390 --> 00:30:18.710 way of being. But that's a moralism, right? It's 00:30:18.710 --> 00:30:21.630 a moralism. And moralism leads you to pride, 00:30:21.970 --> 00:30:23.789 which leads you to look down on others, which 00:30:23.789 --> 00:30:26.750 does not help the world. So what do we learn 00:30:26.750 --> 00:30:33.549 from this text? Well, one thing, and I actually 00:30:33.549 --> 00:30:35.970 didn't know Dave was going to mention this, because 00:30:35.970 --> 00:30:38.490 he was doing this devotional. He says there's 00:30:38.490 --> 00:30:41.549 the names in this passage. There's two names 00:30:41.549 --> 00:30:44.660 that are highlighted for us. and both names are 00:30:44.660 --> 00:30:48.160 given actually their meaning. It's an interesting 00:30:48.160 --> 00:30:51.799 little detail here in Matthew. First, Jesus. 00:30:52.000 --> 00:30:55.359 Look at verse 21. The angel speaking to Joseph. 00:30:56.420 --> 00:31:00.400 She will bear a son, and you shall call his name 00:31:00.400 --> 00:31:04.460 Jesus, for he will save his people from their 00:31:04.460 --> 00:31:09.839 sins. Jesus is, in Greek, the Hebrew name Joshua. 00:31:10.160 --> 00:31:15.130 Yeshua. God saves. But Matthew translates it 00:31:15.130 --> 00:31:17.609 for us in a way. He says this is why. Because 00:31:17.609 --> 00:31:23.250 he's gonna save his people from their sins. Now 00:31:23.250 --> 00:31:27.410 we think we have done bad things. We have, we 00:31:27.410 --> 00:31:31.910 all have. That's why we confess our sins. We've 00:31:31.910 --> 00:31:35.950 done bad things and so I am bad. You have done 00:31:35.950 --> 00:31:40.670 bad things and so you are bad, right? This is 00:31:40.670 --> 00:31:42.369 what, this is, you know, you go back to the garden, 00:31:42.569 --> 00:31:45.089 Adam and Eve go against what God has called them 00:31:45.089 --> 00:31:47.329 to do. And what they say is their sin invites 00:31:47.329 --> 00:31:49.329 them into a place of shame. And so they have 00:31:49.329 --> 00:31:51.130 to cover themselves. I don't want you to see 00:31:51.130 --> 00:31:57.369 me, right? That's what we do with our sin. We 00:31:57.369 --> 00:31:59.730 say, not just that I have done bad, but I absolutely 00:31:59.730 --> 00:32:06.960 am bad. Not just guilty, but full of shame. And 00:32:06.960 --> 00:32:10.079 Jesus' name alone says, I am doing away with 00:32:10.079 --> 00:32:15.380 that. I'm doing away with it. The thing that 00:32:15.380 --> 00:32:21.359 you want to hide, the thing that causes you to 00:32:21.359 --> 00:32:23.660 want to lash out at others or just numb, the 00:32:23.660 --> 00:32:25.359 stuff you don't want to deal with, I'm doing 00:32:25.359 --> 00:32:32.559 away with that. Places of shame don't have control 00:32:32.559 --> 00:32:35.789 over us. as we honestly bring them to the Lord 00:32:35.789 --> 00:32:40.930 and we truly receive that he is Jesus, the Joshua, 00:32:41.609 --> 00:32:47.869 the God saver. Savior that comes from God to 00:32:47.869 --> 00:32:51.309 redeem his people from their sins. But the second 00:32:51.309 --> 00:32:54.630 one, right, is this title, Emmanuel, this other 00:32:54.630 --> 00:32:57.609 name, verse 23. Behold, a virgin shall conceive 00:32:57.609 --> 00:33:00.450 and bear a son and they shall call his name, 00:33:00.470 --> 00:33:04.970 right? 21 said, you shall call his name and this 00:33:04.970 --> 00:33:11.049 says they shall call his name Emmanuel and then 00:33:11.049 --> 00:33:19.789 Matthew says which means God with us our fear 00:33:19.789 --> 00:33:24.849 you know which is what causes us often to fight 00:33:24.849 --> 00:33:28.910 back or actually just sometimes to freeze or 00:33:28.910 --> 00:33:33.339 to run hightail it out of here is often related 00:33:33.339 --> 00:33:37.859 to our inability. We want to try to control things, 00:33:38.460 --> 00:33:44.519 or we go, actually, I can't, I gotta run. But 00:33:44.519 --> 00:33:50.200 what this says is God is with us. And if God 00:33:50.200 --> 00:33:54.539 is for you, who can be against you? If the God 00:33:54.539 --> 00:33:59.200 who spoke the world into being is with you, it 00:33:59.200 --> 00:34:03.549 says you have no reason to fear. That's the constant 00:34:03.549 --> 00:34:06.450 message of the Bible. If God is with you, you 00:34:06.450 --> 00:34:08.809 can go out into the world, not a confidence of 00:34:08.809 --> 00:34:11.389 your own, not a demanding that others follow 00:34:11.389 --> 00:34:14.429 you or be controlled by you, but with a quiet 00:34:14.429 --> 00:34:16.949 confidence saying, whatever God calls me to do, 00:34:17.309 --> 00:34:19.710 He will give me the resources to do, the time 00:34:19.710 --> 00:34:22.630 to do it, the energy to do it, the ability. There 00:34:22.630 --> 00:34:27.909 is a rest and a quiet presence that Joseph embodies 00:34:27.909 --> 00:34:32.860 because he knows that God is both Jesus and Emmanuel, 00:34:34.559 --> 00:34:39.960 saves him from his sins, is present to him in 00:34:39.960 --> 00:34:45.639 his fear. Let me end by returning to Nate Bargatze's 00:34:45.639 --> 00:34:51.139 Nashville Christmas Nativity, which half of you 00:34:51.139 --> 00:34:54.940 will watch this afternoon. So he's telling Mary 00:34:54.940 --> 00:34:57.420 and Joseph and the Magi all about the stuff that 00:34:57.420 --> 00:35:00.750 we do to commemorate the great gift of God for 00:35:00.750 --> 00:35:04.429 the people of God in the incarnation. And so 00:35:04.429 --> 00:35:06.690 he talks about like eulogs, which of course they're 00:35:06.690 --> 00:35:10.150 like, what's that? The question is, what does 00:35:10.150 --> 00:35:13.369 that mean? And of course in Nate Bargatze's way, 00:35:13.409 --> 00:35:23.849 he says, who knows? And anyway, one of the wise 00:35:23.849 --> 00:35:28.349 men, being wise, says, none of what you're describing 00:35:28.349 --> 00:35:35.989 feels connected to Jesus. These celebrations 00:35:35.989 --> 00:35:43.250 do not just honor Jesus. Nate says, they honor 00:35:43.250 --> 00:35:46.550 the almighty being that resides on the top of 00:35:46.550 --> 00:35:54.090 the world. God? The Magi responds. Nate says, 00:35:55.090 --> 00:36:04.900 no. Santa Claus. Who is Santa Claus? Santa Claus 00:36:04.900 --> 00:36:08.699 is a bearded, all -seeing mortal who sorts the 00:36:08.699 --> 00:36:12.579 righteous from the wicked. But isn't that what 00:36:12.579 --> 00:36:17.119 God does? Yes, but Santa does it to children, 00:36:17.460 --> 00:36:23.539 only children. It's funny, but it's also revealing 00:36:23.539 --> 00:36:26.579 because it's so confusing, isn't it? It's so 00:36:26.579 --> 00:36:31.320 confusing. And let me leave you with this idea. 00:36:34.880 --> 00:36:42.400 If Joseph confused who God was, if Joseph confused 00:36:42.400 --> 00:36:45.400 himself with God, as we are so often told to 00:36:45.400 --> 00:36:47.940 do, you get to decide what is right and wrong. 00:36:48.179 --> 00:36:52.579 You decide your life. If he would have put himself 00:36:52.579 --> 00:36:57.920 in... As his only savior, right? As the one who 00:36:57.920 --> 00:37:00.679 has to deal with his shame. As the one who must 00:37:00.679 --> 00:37:05.619 control because life is a scary place. This would 00:37:05.619 --> 00:37:09.139 not have gone well. It would have been a wreck. 00:37:11.219 --> 00:37:15.480 If he would have just thought of God like a cosmic 00:37:15.480 --> 00:37:21.769 Santa Claus or a cosmic elf on the shelf. Then 00:37:21.769 --> 00:37:25.070 he would have only continued on into the long 00:37:25.070 --> 00:37:29.110 cycles of fear and shame like so many of us do 00:37:29.110 --> 00:37:33.530 But instead he was invited into this life of 00:37:33.530 --> 00:37:38.329 peace and rest and quiet presence Because he 00:37:38.329 --> 00:37:43.349 learned that God is Jesus Not the one who is 00:37:43.349 --> 00:37:46.289 just sitting on top the world bearded making 00:37:46.289 --> 00:37:50.250 his lists of oh did Joseph do right or wrong 00:37:51.690 --> 00:37:54.710 but instead he is the one who comes to save his 00:37:54.710 --> 00:37:58.570 people from their sins. And the God who does 00:37:58.570 --> 00:38:04.409 not stand far off, but is God with us, Emmanuel. 00:38:08.030 --> 00:38:13.230 Brothers and sisters, this is the answer to us 00:38:13.230 --> 00:38:18.820 not just living reactive lives. but being able 00:38:18.820 --> 00:38:22.900 to enter into the places that we most fear with 00:38:22.900 --> 00:38:27.659 a quiet faithful presence. The answer is that 00:38:27.659 --> 00:38:33.719 God is Jesus. Your sins don't define you, and 00:38:33.719 --> 00:38:40.760 God is Emmanuel. He is with you. Amen. Let me 00:38:40.760 --> 00:38:45.000 pray. Lord, pray that we would know these truths. 00:38:46.539 --> 00:38:51.519 that we would know you, that we would know your 00:38:51.519 --> 00:38:54.320 presence with us, that you would lead us and 00:38:54.320 --> 00:38:58.099 guide us in the way of faithfulness to you and 00:38:58.099 --> 00:39:02.920 life for others. God, that we would not just 00:39:02.920 --> 00:39:05.679 live out of what we are so inclined to do, which 00:39:05.679 --> 00:39:09.980 is to shame others, to lift ourselves up towards 00:39:09.980 --> 00:39:18.119 self -protection, towards control. animosity 00:39:18.119 --> 00:39:22.019 towards others. God, heal us of this and heal 00:39:22.019 --> 00:39:24.260 us of this with this message that you proclaim 00:39:24.260 --> 00:39:28.599 in this season that you are Jesus, the God who 00:39:28.599 --> 00:39:33.739 saves, that our sins do not define us. We are 00:39:33.739 --> 00:39:36.039 washed clean, they are removed from us as far 00:39:36.039 --> 00:39:39.219 as the East is from the West. And that you are 00:39:39.219 --> 00:39:44.070 Emmanuel, that you actually desire us. that you 00:39:44.070 --> 00:39:49.250 will long to be with us and to lead us, that 00:39:49.250 --> 00:39:54.829 whatever may come, neither height nor depth, 00:39:56.349 --> 00:40:00.289 angels nor demons nor anything else, all of creation 00:40:00.289 --> 00:40:05.010 can separate us from your love and there is nothing 00:40:05.010 --> 00:40:10.409 to fear. God, I pray that like Joseph, you would 00:40:10.409 --> 00:40:14.480 give us this quiet, faithful confidence because 00:40:14.480 --> 00:40:20.139 this is who you are our savior our lord our friend 00:40:20.139 --> 00:40:26.159 our jesus our emmanuel amen thank you for listening 00:40:26.159 --> 00:40:29.179 to second city sermons podcast we hope this sermon 00:40:29.179 --> 00:40:31.440 has encouraged you to worship god and to celebrate 00:40:31.440 --> 00:40:34.300 the gospel of jesus please consider subscribing 00:40:34.300 --> 00:40:37.159 to this podcast and joining us in person each 00:40:37.159 --> 00:40:40.849 sunday at 10 a .m You can find us online at SecondCityChurch 00:40:40.849 --> 00:40:43.909 .org and on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube. 00:40:44.289 --> 00:40:46.309 Thanks again for listening. God bless.