Sermon Tone Analysis

What is faith?

Faith according to Hebrews 11 is:

I like one definition I read of faith

Faith is an active trust in God, a belief in what He says is true that results in action.

Have you ever doubted?

Have you ever been afraid?

Have you ever worried?

This may seem to be a minor example, but I had a small trial this week.

About two weeks ago I had a dentist appointment to fix a couple teeth.

The one was giving me pain when I would bite down on something hard.

Well when the day came for my appointment, I started to get a cold so I canceled and they couldn’t get me in until this past Thursday.

Then last Monday I was eating lunch and a piece broke off of my tooth and it became really sensitive.

And of course Wednesday rolled around and I started getting a little congested and I started to worry because I didn’t want to wait two more weeks to get it fixed.

I was praying for direction because I didn’t want to wait to the last minute to cancel but I really wanted my tooth fixed.

I didn’t know what to do.

Well as I was praying through the situation.

I remember I have a device to flush my sinuses so I decided to flush my sinuses right before I left for my appointment and I was hoping that my sinuses would stay clear through out my appointment and they did.

God answered our prayers and I was able to get through it and get my tooth fixed.

One cool part was as I sat in the waiting room some fear started to creep in.

And then I remembered the prayers that where prayed for me Wednesday night and it reminded me that I was not in control and the dentist wasn’t in control.

Who was in control?

God was and is and always will be.

Just as we will see in our text this morning, so turn with me to our passage this morning in Luke chapter 1.

As you turn there, you might think my example this morning is silly compared to what Joseph and Mary went through and you might be hesitant to bring such small matters to God but God does care about such small events in our lives.

A tooth problem seems so trivial when brothers and sisters are being persecuted and there is a war in Ukraine and people are battling cancer.

But God cares about all areas of our lives because the truth is He used the trial of my tooth to increase my faith.

Remember God is in sovereign control and cares about all details of our lives.

The verse that came to mind is Matthew 10 follow along on the screen as I read

How awesome is that!

Nothing happens to a sparrow which two are sold for a penny outside of the will of God and Jesus said how much more valuable are you than a sparrow?

So we will need to keep that in mind as we examine our text this morning, how God is sovereignly in control and how we can trust Him.

As we prepare for the second coming of Christ, why It is good to look back and remember the first coming.

Why do we celebrate Christmas?

We have to be careful here, because in our culture Christmas has become very commercialized and the focus has left the real reason.

What do we celebrate?

The reason we take four weeks and study advent is to remind ourselves why we celebrate Christmas.

So why do we?

What does Christmas mean to us as believers?

Let’s look our text and discuss our answer deeper?

I think if we aren’t careful we will rush past the faith of Mary and Joseph.

Let us not miss how much faith it would have taken for Marry and Joseph to obey God.

I think I always assume that they saw the angel so it would have been easy.

But i still think it would have taken a lot of faith to live out the calling that God put on their lives.

As I prepared I had a thought.

While they saw an angel and heard the message through them, what do we have?

It we believe and call on the name of Jesus to be saved what do we have?

Listen to Ephesians 1.