Finding God in Our New Challenges
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Sermon Summary
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When Jesus becomes part of your life, the old problems will still be there, contrary to popular wisdom in our day, but you'll also get a new set of problems and you will find Jesus in them. Excited for this, we hear about this in the beginning of the Gospel of Matthew. [00:41]
Joseph was a righteous man and it also tells us that he did not want Mary to be put publicly to shame. It's a little ambiguous how to translate this. It may be that the best translation is although Joseph was a righteous man, he did not want Mary to be put to shame. [01:57]
Righteousness, honoring the law, which Joseph would have done in that day, had real clear implications. If a woman, a betrothed woman, was unfaithful according to Old Testament law, she and the other person were both to be put to death. Now by Joseph's time, Rome did not allow Israel to do execution. [02:20]
Joseph very possibly would have paid a bride price and if he went public with her unfaithfulness, he would have gotten all of that stuff back. He decides instead of doing that, that he will divorce her quietly, give her a certificate of divorce so that she would be able to marry again at some point. [03:26]
After he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife. After he had considered this, after he had considered, are you kidding me? After he's gone through this torture. [04:08]
Why in the world didn't the angel come to Joseph before he considered all this? God would have made it so much easier for Joseph if he would have just come to him from the very beginning and said Mary's going to have Jesus, going to be the son of God. [04:29]
It's through the process of having to struggle that Joseph is able to come to a new understanding of what does it mean to be righteous and to show to Mary his heroic willingness to pay the price himself so that she could be protected from shame. [05:52]
Now what does Joseph get out of this? Well, he gets Jesus. He finds Jesus in his troubles. His reputation is trashed. People around him obviously if he says to them, yes I'm marrying Mary but I didn't get her pregnant ahead of time, this is a Holy Spirit deal. [06:11]
He will save his people from their sins. See, our real problem is not what we think is our real problem. It's not the circumstances around me. My real problem is me, my ego, my attachment to my own self-promotion, my lust, my greed, my resentment. [08:01]
To be saved by Jesus is different than what a lot of people think. It doesn't mean to be saved from pain or punishment or bad things. It is to be saved from my sins so that I can have life together with God. Salvation is God with us, including in our problems. [09:11]
Today, just for today, don't look for a way out of your problems. Look to find God in your problems. Our God is a good God who loves us with a love that never gives up. [09:41]
In the way that we rejoice in being with anybody that we love, our God wants to be with us and that is Jesus who saves. [10:17]
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Joseph was a righteous man and it also tells us that he did not want Mary to be put publicly to shame. It's a little ambiguous how to translate this. It may be that the best translation is although Joseph was a righteous man, he did not want Mary to be put to shame. [01:57]
Righteousness, honoring the law, which Joseph would have done in that day, had real clear implications. If a woman, a betrothed woman, was unfaithful according to Old Testament law, she and the other person were both to be put to death. Now by Joseph's time, Rome did not allow Israel to do execution. [02:20]
Joseph very possibly would have paid a bride price and if he went public with her unfaithfulness, he would have gotten all of that stuff back. He decides instead of doing that, that he will divorce her quietly, give her a certificate of divorce so that she would be able to marry again at some point. [03:26]
After he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife. After he had considered this, after he had considered, are you kidding me? After he's gone through this torture. [04:08]
Why in the world didn't the angel come to Joseph before he considered all this? God would have made it so much easier for Joseph if he would have just come to him from the very beginning and said Mary's going to have Jesus, going to be the son of God. [04:29]
It's through the process of having to struggle that Joseph is able to come to a new understanding of what does it mean to be righteous and to show to Mary his heroic willingness to pay the price himself so that she could be protected from shame. [05:52]
Now what does Joseph get out of this? Well, he gets Jesus. He finds Jesus in his troubles. His reputation is trashed. People around him obviously if he says to them, yes I'm marrying Mary but I didn't get her pregnant ahead of time, this is a Holy Spirit deal. [06:11]
He will save his people from their sins. See, our real problem is not what we think is our real problem. It's not the circumstances around me. My real problem is me, my ego, my attachment to my own self-promotion, my lust, my greed, my resentment. [08:01]
To be saved by Jesus is different than what a lot of people think. It doesn't mean to be saved from pain or punishment or bad things. It is to be saved from my sins so that I can have life together with God. Salvation is God with us, including in our problems. [09:11]
Today, just for today, don't look for a way out of your problems. Look to find God in your problems. Our God is a good God who loves us with a love that never gives up. [09:41]
In the way that we rejoice in being with anybody that we love, our God wants to be with us and that is Jesus who saves. [10:17]
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