Joseph: Obedience When It’s Hard By Ethan Wentzlaff (Matthew 1:18)

Devotional

Day 1: Obedience when it’s hard and costly

Joseph’s world collapsed with news he didn’t expect, yet his first instinct was not revenge or public shame. He was a just man whose life was already anchored in God, so his response flowed from character, not impulse. Christmas reminds you that obedience is not sentimental; it is steady faithfulness when your reputation feels at risk. Build your life on Christ now, so when pressure comes, your reactions are already trained by His Word and ways. Choose integrity over image, mercy over noise, and trust over panic. May you choose a quiet, righteous response when the gossip is loud. [09:38]

Matthew 1:18–19 — Before Mary and Joseph lived together, she was discovered to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. Joseph, a righteous man who did not want to disgrace her, decided to end the betrothal quietly.

Reflection: Where are you feeling the pull to protect your image, and what specific, quiet action of integrity will you take this week instead?

Day 2: Identity in Christ shapes your instincts

Pressure doesn’t create who you are; it exposes who you’ve been becoming. Joseph had cultivated a life centered on God, so when crisis hit, he moved with calm resolve. Let your daily habits in Scripture, prayer, and humble service shape your reflexes long before the test comes. God’s character—patient, compassionate, steadfast—becomes the pattern for your character. Ask Him to make your inner life sturdy enough to carry hard news with grace. Small daily faithfulness prepares you for big, costly obedience. [20:21]

Psalm 145:8–9 — The Lord is kind and deeply compassionate, slow to anger and full of faithful love. His goodness reaches everyone, and His tender care rests on all He has made.

Reflection: What one small practice (e.g., a psalm at breakfast, three minutes of silent prayer at lunch) will you commit to for seven days so your reactions are shaped by Christ?

Day 3: Listen before you move

Joseph didn’t rush to defend himself; he paused long enough to hear from God. In that quiet space—even in sleep—God met him with clarity: do not fear, take Mary as your wife, and name the Child Jesus, the Savior. God’s guidance often comes to the heart that slows down, lays down self-protection, and listens. In a noisy season, make room for holy stillness. The One who seemed silent for centuries spoke at the perfect moment and still knows how to speak to you now. Resist haste; make space. [26:25]

Matthew 1:20–21 — As Joseph weighed his options, an angel appeared in a dream: “Joseph, descendant of David, don’t be afraid to take Mary as your wife. The child in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will have a son; name Him Jesus, because He will rescue His people from their sins.”

Reflection: What decision are you facing that needs a 24-hour pause for prayer and listening, and when will you schedule that quiet space?

Day 4: Immediate obedience, even without full clarity

When Joseph woke, he did exactly what God said—no bargaining, no delay. He didn’t receive a handbook for raising the Messiah; he received a clear step and then took it. Christmas calls you to trust God’s timing: He calls when He’s ready, not when you feel ready. Don’t confuse careful listening with endless postponing; once God has spoken, move. Take the next faithful step, trusting that more light comes after obedience, not before it. Delayed obedience is often disobedience; say yes today. [29:25]

Matthew 1:24–25 — Joseph woke from the dream and obeyed the angel’s instruction: he took Mary as his wife, refrained from marital relations until after the birth, and he gave the child the name Jesus.

Reflection: What is one clear instruction from Jesus you already know (forgive, confess, reconcile, give, serve), and what first step will you take before the day ends?

Day 5: Emmanuel—God with us, our hope and joy

Christmas is not finally about lights or lists but about a Savior who came near. Jesus is God with us—the Rescuer who does not leave us in our sin, shame, or fear. His arrival invites worship, repentance, and joyful generosity from a grateful heart. Receive the gift of His presence, and let your life become an offering in response. Center your celebration on the One who saves, guides, and stays. Let your hope rest in Emmanuel today. [32:56]

Matthew 1:21–23 — “She will bear a son, and you will name Him Jesus, because He will save His people from their sins.” All this fulfilled what God promised: “A virgin will conceive and bear a son, and He will be called Emmanuel,” which means “God is with us.”

Reflection: How will you tangibly center Jesus in your week—through a specific conversation about Him, a planned act of worship, or a purposeful gift of generosity—and when will you do it?

Sermon Summary

I celebrated how God has been faithful to Zach and Liz and invited us to consider what it looks like to be “all in” together this December—prioritizing Jesus in our giving, aiming for full household participation, and trusting God to fuel ministry here and around the world. Then we opened Matthew 1:18-25 to ask, What does Christmas mean to me? Through Joseph’s story, I shared that Christmas meant obedience to him—even when it was hard and costly. Before angels or miracles appear, Matthew identifies Joseph as “a just man,” a person formed by Scripture and shaped by God’s heart. When devastating news surfaced and the whispers of shame swirled, he chose restraint, mercy, and integrity. Pressure didn’t create his character; it revealed it.

We saw three movements of obedience in Joseph. First, true obedience flows from identity. Because his life was already rooted in God’s Word, his choices in crisis were steady, wise, and compassionate. Second, true obedience listens for God’s direction. Joseph paused rather than reacted—and in the quiet, God spoke with clarity: do not fear, take Mary, name the child Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins. Third, true obedience follows immediately. Joseph didn’t wait for every answer; he trusted God’s voice more than his need for control and moved forward.

I encouraged us to build the kind of daily walk with God where obedience in big moments is simply the overflow of who we’re becoming in small moments. Ask: What has pressure revealed about me? Am I forming instincts through Scripture, prayer, and humble community, so that when God calls, I’m ready? We then came to the table of communion to remember why Christmas matters: Jesus came not just to be admired but to save us from our sins—Emmanuel, God with us. We examined our hearts, received grace, and stepped into the season resolved to share the true hope we have.

Key Takeaways

1. Build identity before the crisis Obedience in the hard moments is born in the hidden ones. Joseph’s reflexes were shaped long before the scandal broke, because his life was anchored in God’s Word and character. When pressure arrived, integrity surfaced—not because he tried harder, but because he was already formed. [17:29]
2. Slow down and listen well Hurry fuels fear and self-protection; holy pauses create space for God’s direction. Joseph considered, reflected, and resisted impulsivity, and in that posture God spoke with startling clarity. Listening is not passivity—it is the courage to wait for God’s voice before we move. [25:19]
3. Obey immediately, even without clarity Faith often requires moving with enough light for the next step, not the whole path. Joseph didn’t bargain or delay; he trusted God’s word more than his need to control outcomes. Immediate obedience is how trust takes shape in real time. [29:00]
4. Christmas centers on salvation, not sentiment At the heart of the season is a Savior who came to deal with our deepest problem—sin—not to decorate our lives with nostalgia. Emmanuel means God has stepped into our condition to rescue, not merely to inspire. Communion reminds us that Christmas begins the rescue that the cross completes. [32:56]

Youtube Chapters

[00:00] - Welcome
[00:45] - Zach and Liz: serving all-in
[01:22] - All-In campaign vision
[03:19] - All-In Sunday invitation
[05:05] - Prayer for generosity and teaching
[06:15] - What Christmas means to me
[09:12] - Reading Matthew 1:18-25
[12:41] - Joseph: a just, grounded man
[14:24] - Betrothal, scandal, and stakes
[22:17] - Listening before acting
[25:19] - The angel’s call and Isaiah
[29:00] - Immediate obedience modeled
[32:22] - Communion: Jesus saves from sin
[36:35] - Share the hope this season

Bible Study Guide

Bible reading (ESV)
Matthew 1:18–25
18 Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came

Sermon Clips

``Amen. Amen. I want to invite you to open your Bibles to the book of Matthew. We are going to be kicking off a new Christmas series asking the question, what Christmas means to me? We're transitioning out of a six-week series that we did in Jonah, where we got to explore the prophet of Jonah, and in many ways, we saw how Jonah was not all in for the mission that God called him to. And here, what we're going to get to do in this series is we're going to go back to the first Christmas and see the people that God used in the first Christmas and seeing just exactly how they were all in for what God was doing. [00:06:03] (37 seconds) #ObedientLikeJoseph

But I want to ask us this question, is what does Christmas mean to you? What does it mean to me? It means a lot of things to a lot of people. Santa, reindeers, Christmas lights, ugly sweaters, family, friends, even fun music. But what does it mean to you? And I grew up in a Christian home, so from a very young age, I was always told that Christmas is about Jesus. That was hammered home. In fact, in my home, if the word Santa was brought up, my dad was like, no, do not talk about Santa. So it was all about Jesus. [00:06:40] (35 seconds)

And now today, for me personally, gifts are more of a pain than a pleasure. I don't really, every once in a while I get a gift that I truly, truly love. But more often than not, gifts are, I can give or take them. And then buying gifts for people, it's not always my favorite thing. But it's a season of giving. I get that. I should like giving more than maybe I do. But personally for you, what does Christmas mean for you? We all have our own memories of Christmas. But what we're going to do in this series is we're going to go back to the very first Christmas and see the people that God used in it. [00:07:57] (37 seconds)

And the goal of this isn't to do a character study, but it's to look at them and see how God was able to use them and what we can take from their example and apply to our holiday season. Is we want to see how God used them and redefine what Christmas means to us. And today we're going to look at Joseph and see how for Christmas to him meant obedience even when it's hard. Meant obedience even when it's hard. [00:08:46] (26 seconds)

So, to set the context is we have the entirety of the Old Testament behind us. And Matthew is one of the four Gospels that chronicles the life, death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. And Matthew was written by Matthew, a former tax collector, written to Jews, and tried to convince them that Jesus was, in fact, the Messiah. Messiah, that the entirety of the Old Testament points to the arrival of a Messiah, and Jesus is it. That is what Matthew is arguing here. [00:10:37] (32 seconds)

And I know for us, obedience isn't easy all the time. And really, from a young age, that's something that we're taught as kids, obedience is to obey your father and mother. We're taught to be obedient. But more often than not, any chance we get is, who do we really want to be obedient to? It's just ourselves. Right? End of the day, who I want to listen to is just me. [00:11:19] (22 seconds)

And the world teaches us this, too. I know when I was a kid, Disney taught me to follow your heart. Follow your heart and seek what makes you happy. And that's the worldly mentality, is we tend to only obey when we absolutely have to. This idea is foreign and non-human to a lot of people. But that's where this text comes in. Because as Christians, we need to be obedient to what God calls us to, no matter how we feel about it. [00:11:52] (28 seconds)

God calls us to be obedient, and we need to fight against the temptation of the flesh to only be obedient to our sin nature. So what we are going to do today is we're going to look at three things that Joseph kind of models for us. And the first is that Joseph shows us that true obedience flows from our identity in Christ. It flows from our identity in Christ. In our text, right away, we're told that Joseph is a man of character. Joseph is a man of character. And the thing that grounds him is his relationship with God. [00:12:20] (31 seconds)

Ask a question about this sermon

Chatbot

How does Joseph model immediate obedience?

What did betrothal mean in first-century Judaism?

Why name the child Jesus and Emmanuel?