Title: The Not-So-Perfect Family Tree
Author: Jeff Geyer
Scripture: Matthew 5:17, John 6:38-40
Big Idea:
God intentionally prepares us before we understand what we are being prepared for.
Intro:
Sometimes we can get so caught up in reading through the Christmas story without stopping to think that these are people just like us. I stopped when I came to these verses:
"This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. Because Joseph her husband was faithful to the law, and yet did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly."
Matthew 1:18-19 (NIV)
As a man and as a husband, I thought about the shock, the disbelief, the anger that Joseph would have felt. I found myself asking questions like:
- What would I have told Mary? What would I have told her parents, my family? What would I have said to our rabbi?
- What decibel level would my voice have reached in anger?
- How would this have impacted my faith? (I did everything the right way but Mary...good grief...couldn't...how could she?)
- How would this have impacted how I viewed myself as a man?
- How would I have prayed?
Here's the takeaway for me from these verses: God intentionally prepared Joseph before he understood what he was being prepared for. Like Joseph, sometimes we miss the forest because of the trees. The evidence was there all along that God was intentionally preparing Joseph and the world for Jesus. For Joseph it started 41 generations before him as God was intentionally preparing Joseph and the world for the Christmas story. We'll see from the not-so-perfect family tree that God was revealing the Christmas story is for everyone.
Hopefully we'll see this morning that God intentionally prepares us before we understand what we are being prepared for.
- Like Joseph, we can be spun up ...
Author: Jeff Geyer
Scripture: Matthew 5:17, John 6:38-40
Big Idea:
God intentionally prepares us before we understand what we are being prepared for.
Intro:
Sometimes we can get so caught up in reading through the Christmas story without stopping to think that these are people just like us. I stopped when I came to these verses:
"This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. Because Joseph her husband was faithful to the law, and yet did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly."
Matthew 1:18-19 (NIV)
As a man and as a husband, I thought about the shock, the disbelief, the anger that Joseph would have felt. I found myself asking questions like:
- What would I have told Mary? What would I have told her parents, my family? What would I have said to our rabbi?
- What decibel level would my voice have reached in anger?
- How would this have impacted my faith? (I did everything the right way but Mary...good grief...couldn't...how could she?)
- How would this have impacted how I viewed myself as a man?
- How would I have prayed?
Here's the takeaway for me from these verses: God intentionally prepared Joseph before he understood what he was being prepared for. Like Joseph, sometimes we miss the forest because of the trees. The evidence was there all along that God was intentionally preparing Joseph and the world for Jesus. For Joseph it started 41 generations before him as God was intentionally preparing Joseph and the world for the Christmas story. We'll see from the not-so-perfect family tree that God was revealing the Christmas story is for everyone.
Hopefully we'll see this morning that God intentionally prepares us before we understand what we are being prepared for.
- Like Joseph, we can be spun up ...
There are 15527 characters in the full content. This excerpt only shows a 2000 character sample of the full content.
Price: $5.99 or 1 credit
