Joseph: An Example of Christmas Obedience By Jeremy Anderson (Matthew 1:18-25)

We don't want to talk about the cost of following, but Jesus didn't have a problem talking about the cost. Jesus was okay with having those crowd reduction sermons, those statements that people would not sit, they wouldn't sit comfortably with people and they would leave. Jesus had no problem saying hey it's great you want to follow me but here's what following me is going to mean. But sometimes when we start talking about the cost of obedience to Christ, we don't want to pay too high a cost. [00:27:48] (36 seconds)  #CountTheCostOfFollowing

And so he wakes up and he does what the angel tells him. What a barometer in some ways for what it means to truly rely on the word of the Lord. When God calls you to something, is there hesitation? Is there further questioning? Or when God has made his command clear to you, do you act on it? That's relying on God's word. [00:31:36] (31 seconds)  #ObeyWithoutHesitation

Relying on God's word says we're going to read it, study it, be hearers of it, but not just hearers of it. James 1 to 22, which is on the screen for you, that tells us that we also need to be doers of it. It's great to come and to sit in a place like this and hear God's word and to listen to it, be taught. It's another thing when you go home in an hour and you have to put that into practice. It's a whole different ball game. [00:33:15] (26 seconds)  #DoTheWord

Which authority will you submit yourself to? Because it's only then, when you work through these things, you can get to the point where we can talk about responding unfaithfulness. See, obedience is deeper than just behavior. Obedience to God is about alignment. God's concerned just as much with who you are as what you do. And that perhaps His commands are less about just what we do, but about us becoming who He's called us to be. [00:38:10] (49 seconds)  #ObedienceIsAlignment

He hasn't just come to call us to something new. The Bible says that you have been made new. The old is gone, the new has come for those of you who are in Christ Jesus. That's a transformation. And it's out of that transformation that your conduct then begins to flow. Because your conduct flows out of the alignment that you have in this new creation made new in Christ. [00:40:26] (22 seconds)  #NewCreationLife

And he didn't stay in the grave, but rose from the dead to defeat sin and death once and for all, that's the fact that Jesus has become the means of our salvation. That's why we can have this conversation at all. But not only that, but for us to talk about obedience within the Christmas narrative makes sense because Jesus has also become our model. [00:42:37] (18 seconds)  #JesusModelOfObedience

He is our model because the fact that he was born as a baby was him submitting to the Father. It was him humbling himself to obedience, being obedient even to the point of death, death on the cross. That's Philippians chapter 2. So to say that obedience isn't part of celebrating Christmas is to neglect the very heart of what lies behind why we celebrate Christmas, that Jesus was obedient. [00:42:56] (23 seconds)  #ObedienceAtChristmas

Here's that career path that I want you to walk down. Here's that major decision that I want you to make. And we wait for those big things and we forget that obedience and faithfulness is seen most importantly in the little things, those simple and mundane moments of life. And we ask that question that I posed earlier, would I pay the ultimate cost? Why would I pay the ultimate cost in the big arena if I don't pay that cost in the little arenas that I'm living in day in and day out? [00:43:52] (36 seconds)  #FaithfulInTheSmallThings