A Man of Faithful Obedience

Good morning, church. Open your Bibles and join me in Matthew chapter two.

I want to just say a word of praise to our choir, worship team musicians, kids choir, student choir, sound and light team…everyone involved in making last night a great success. And it was a great success because it pointed us to Jesus.

This morning, we are in week THREE of our Advent series, “The Forgotten Life of Joseph.” This Christmas season, we are taking an in depth look at the life of the earthly father of Jesus…a man who appears relatively briefly in the scripture, who has no recorded words in the Bible, but a man whose life and faith played a HUGE role in the birth and life of Jesus.

As we have looked at the life of Joseph, we have seen that Joseph was a man of purpose, he was a man of righteous integrity, and, today, we’re going to see that…

Joseph was a man of FAITHFUL OBEDIENCE.

You know, I’ve chosen to purposefully keep those two words “faithful obedience” together.

It’s one thing to be obedient. Obedience may just simply be conforming to rules. My dog is obedient (at times). You can train a dolphin to be obedient.

Not just “obedience…but FAITHFUL OBEDIENCE.”

The Christian life is a life of living by faith. Faith and obedience are inseparable.

Faithful obedience comes from the heart. It comes from a heart of love and a heart of trust.

Catch up to speed in the story…Jesus has been born in Bethlehem. Well, not too long after his birth, these strangers from the east—called wise men—show up in Jerusalem asking where they could find newborn king of the Jews.

Well, this really shakes Herod up. According to history, Herod was a lunatic. He was paranoid and drunk on power. Not a good combination. Herod sends the wise men on their way and tells them to return to him when they find the baby because he, too, wants to “worship him.” If you know the story, you know that’s not the case. Herod’s plan was way more heinous…in fact, it was demonic.

So, we pick up the story in verse 13…

Matthew 2:13–23 (ESV)

Now when they (the wise men) had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Rise, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you, for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.” And he rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed to Egypt and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet, “Out of Egypt I called my son.”

Then Herod, when he saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, became furious, and he sent and killed all the male children in Bethlehem and in all that region who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had ascertained from the wise men. Then was fulfilled what was spoken by the prophet Jeremiah:

“A voice was heard in Ramah,

weeping and loud lamentation,

Rachel weeping for her children;

she refused to be comforted, because they are no more.”

But when Herod died, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, saying, “Rise, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who sought the child’s life are dead.” And he rose and took the child and his mother and went to the land of Israel. But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning over Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there, and being warned in a dream he withdrew to the district of Galilee. And he went and lived in a city called Nazareth, so that what was spoken by the prophets might be fulfilled, that he would be called a Nazarene.

PRAY

MPS: Faithful obedience requires a heart that listens for God's voice, that responds with immediate step-by-step obedience, and understands that obedience is for God's glory and my good.

So, let’s unpack this…

Faithful obedience requires…

1. A heart that listens for God's voice.

It seems that God’s primary mode of communication with Joseph is angelic messengers that speak to him in dreams.

God speaks/calls. God spoke to Joseph repeatedly through dreams.

Chapter one verse twenty.

Three different dreams, here, in chapter 2.

To be obedient to God requires hearing from God.

Henry Blackaby—God speaks by His Holy Spirit through: His word, people, and circumstances.

“Active listening”

It’s really hard to hear God’s voice when you’re surrounded by distraction.

Sin will also drown out God’s voice in your life.

STORY ABOUT ROMANIA/NEW SANDY CREEK?

APPLICATION

Is there a sin that God is CONVICTING you about?

God is calling someone here this morning to deeper obedience. I believe that there are some of you who have been wrestling with God’s call on your life. Maybe it’s a call to step out in faith to serve him.

2. A heart that responds immediately (in obedience).

Again, I think it’s an interesting note that we never read any words spoken by Joseph.

MATTHEW 1:24

Verse 14—implies that Joseph obeyed the very same night that the angel appeared to him in a dream.

Now, you may say, “Well, of course he obeyed immediately! He had an ANGEL talking to him for crying out loud! There was imminent danger!”

When the Holy Spirit prompts you/calls you to obedience—OBEY!

Delayed obedience is disobedience.

This obedience requires adjustments to our life, though.

Making adjustments…(Henry Blackaby)

When God speaks to you…when God calls you into obedience…God’s call is an invitation for us to change and changing…growing in faith by obedience requires some adjustments. You cannot continue in life and go with God at the same time.

Noah could not continue life as usual and build an ark at the same time.

Abram could not stay in Ur or Haran and father a nation in Canaan.

Moses could not stay on the back side of the desert herding sheep and stand before Pharaoh at the same time.

David had to leave the pasture and his sheep in order to become king.

Matthew had to leave his tax collector’s booth to follow Jesus.

Peter, Andrew, James and John had to leave their fishing business in order to follow Jesus.

Where have you gotten comfortable? And…is that comfortability with the way things are keeping you from obedience?

Oswald Smith (missionary statesman of Canada) — “I want Thy plan, O God, for my life. May I be happy and contented whether in the homeland or on the foreign field; whether married or alone, in happiness or sorrow, health or sickness, prosperity or adversity—I want Thy plan, O God, for my life. I want it; oh I want it!”

3. A heart that follows (obeys) step-by-step.

God doesn’t give Joseph the “full plan” in advance.

Take Mary as your wife.

Go down to Egypt and stay there.

Go back to the land of Israel.

Warned in a dream not to go to Galilee.

This is something that God has taught/is teaching me in my own life.

God doesn’t tell Joseph, “now, go down to Egypt and here’s what you’re going to do…” and God doesn’t give him the “future steps” (???) up front.

Hey, listen—I want you to write this down—EVERY STEP BRINGS SHAPING. That’s the purpose—God shaping me at every step of my obedience.

Just a couple of days ago, I was talking with one of our church members who was telling me that they have been praying and feel that God is calling them to leave their out-of-town job and find work here in Montgomery so they can better serve God here in their home church.

Do they know what job they’re going to get? No. It’s just step-by-step obedience.

Abraham—call to sacrifice Isaac…step-by-step. Go read Genesis 22!

Step-by-step obedience even when it’s difficult…even when you’re questioning everything.

Calling out the called.

4. A heart that understands obedience is for God's glory and my good.

Fulfillment of scripture (God’s plan)

Notice how many times Matthew writes, “this was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken…”

verse 15, 17, 23

Jesus HAD to fulfill all of the OT prophecies (456) or he would NOT be the Messiah.

God’s not in heaven mapping this out as He goes.

You may be following step-by-step but God sees the whole map.

Protection of Jesus

Joseph’s immediate obedience led to Jesus’ protection—cover of night.

There are times…and some of you could testify to this…that God calls you TO something, He is protecting you FROM something.

What this boils down to is trusting in the goodness and sovereignty of God. Am I going to trust the goodness and the sovereignty of

The step of obedience you take TODAY leads you to the blessing you’ll walk in TOMORROW….OR…tomorrow’s blessing is a result of today’s obedience.

As we come to the end of another year, you may be thinking through some things that God has called you by faith to obey him in this year…and you’ve failed to obey.

Shoot…as we come to the start of a new week…how will you respond to God?

If you’ve been disobedient, God isn’t done with you.

What is the “yes” you need to say to God?

As we start a new year…

Maybe you need to say the first “Yes” — SALVATION // GOSPEL

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