Joseph: The Fear Of Others Opinions

Those of you online with us today, we're so glad that you're with us. I know some of you we haven't seen since the pandemic, and we just hope that you're doing well. We're praying for you, and hopefully our online service is doing well for you. Let us know that you're here by connecting with us online and raising your hand, giving a thumbs up, and we have some people online that will be connecting with you during the service. Feel free to give a good amen from home.

That's great. But we do miss you, and if you're new with us watching today, we would love for you to fill out that connection card as well. Let us know you're here right from your home. We're just so thankful you're here with us today. I'm excited about the Christmas season, guys, and every year we have one of the biggest events of the year, and that's our Christmas services coming up.

So if you walked in today, you probably received some cards, some invite cards. So I want to challenge you to use those cards. Great way to invite somebody to church. Just give them a card. Let them know we're having two services, 915 and 11 o'clock, and it's going to be a blast, guys.

It's going to be amazing. We're going to have so many things for the kids. This is for the whole family, guys. It's not only our traditional candlelight and all that we usually do, but we're going to have selfies with Santa. We're going to have gifts for everyone that comes in the door.

So it's just going to be fun. We're also going to have some food for you and things like that, some nice Christmas treats and all kinds of stuff. So I'm going to challenge you. If you've been trying to invite somebody to church for a while, this is the time to do it because they will say yes more than any other time of the year to come to church. And the reason we're doing two services is so that we can keep social distancing and follow all the CDC requirements.

So don't worry about safety, guys. There's two services available for you. We've got plenty of room, and we've got spaces even here in the auditorium that we've closed off that will open up. So we just really want to bring some normalcy to this season, and Christmas is a time we want to do that. So many of our church is still not back with us right now, and just a really challenging time for a lot of people, a lot of fear out there, fear on the news and things.

And we don't want to respond in fear. We want to respond by celebrating Jesus. Yes, it's a dark season, but He is the light of the world. He came into the darkness, and we believe that God is going to do something amazing in your lives. So do pray about who you're going to invite this week.

Grab some connection cards or some cards on the way out. Also, we have some signs available, too. If you weren't here last week, we had those available. You can go and grab those as you leave as well. And next week is a really fun week, too.

I mean, we just love December, right? So if you haven't planned to be here next week, you want to bring your family. We're going to have pitchers and pastries, okay? Pitchers and pastries. And these will be professional family pitchers, Christmas pitchers.

And they're not just selfies. They're professional family pitchers that you can use for your Christmas cards and for the rest of the year. Give your family some Christmas gifts. Your mom or your dad wants, you know, my mom, I know she always wants family pitchers. That's the one thing she wants for Christmas.

This is a great time to do that. So if you have some friends that are looking to get pitchers, professional pitchers, they're free. They're on us. Everything's covered. We'll take care of them for you.

And we'll also have some pastries. All right. As you're waiting to get your picture taken, right? Oh, wow. Okay.

So there's one more thing I want to mention today. And last week is kind of interesting because we're going through this series, Hark. And, um, We talked last week about interruptions, right, that these interruptions take place, God kind of often interrupts us, and with MOCA, and with where we're currently meeting, we got a phone call this past week, and it was a bit of an interruption for us, and that interruption is the board has decided to close MOCA until the end of March, starting the turn of the year, because of the pandemic, and because of the concerns, and for many of you are like, oh no, you know, what are we going to do? Well, we hit the ground running, and we've got a few options. I'm still holding out that MOCA's going to find favor for us and let us stay here, so we're praying for that, but we do have some options.

One of those options, the most significant one that we have right now is the Holiday Inn on the oceanfront at 39th and Atlantic. They're opening their doors to us, and plenty of room there. The location's a little smaller than this room, so we might have to do two services during the season. Go ahead to two services so that you guys can stay socially distanced and stuff like that, but we just want to let you know that we will not stop meeting, okay? We believe that we should continue to meet, and we're going to, and it'll be a short, I mean, three months isn't very long, and we'll be back for Easter.

The staff loves us here. The faculty, everybody loves us here. They don't want to see us go, but we have to respect the board of directors here who make these decisions to close shop if they need to for a while out of health concerns. So, we'll let you know more about that as we head that direction. The days come.

Things could change, but I just wanted to let the church and everybody know that for the first three months of the year, we may be in a different location, okay? All right. Let's talk about Hark. Are y'all ready? All right.

So, we're in a series called Hark, and the idea of Hark is, listen, listen, lend an ear, right? Hark the herald angel. Hark, harken, whatever you want to call it, you know? Hear ye, hear ye. Here's a message for you, and God often harks to us.

He says things, and he's always harking. I don't even know if harking's a word, but he always harks, okay? Hark. He's always calling us to listen because he has a message for us, and we can go to Scripture and see that, and the point is that we need to open up and listen to what he says. So, we're looking at the Christmas stories, the time where God harked through angels and asked people to listen to what he had to say, and we're looking at different perspectives.

And again, we're in a season where fear is at a very high point, and I wanted to approach fear this season of what God is calling us to do, and that's what we talked about last week when Mary was called by God. That fear that was probably there, well, God, this is a big thing. So, last week, we learned the fear of what God is asking us to do. Next week, we're going to talk about the shepherds, the simple shepherds in the field that God can use anybody, no matter, he harks those who, he calls out, hear ye's to those who are very of simple upbringing. He can use anybody for big things, and I want to talk about that next week, the shepherds, so be here for that.

But this week, I want to talk about Joseph, the perspective of Joseph, and his encounter with the angel of the Lord, of the Lord, in a dream. And if you were honest with yourself today, would you say that you often are concerned about what other people think? By raising hand, how many of you have caught yourself being concerned? Raise your hand up high, proud, loud, proud. Now, now, If you didn't raise your hand, you're probably concerned about what other people think, all right, all right, and I think all of us in some way have been concerned about how others see us, or the way we look, how does my hair look today, I don't want to go out because I'm concerned about what other people think, or my clothing, I got to get the right style down, you know, because I'm concerned about what other people think, or what car I drive, I don't want to drive my hoopty anymore because people might be looking at me.

I drive a Honda Element that has 205,000 miles on it, and it's still going, it's squeaking on the back, and, you know, things are happening, but I love my Element, but some people probably wouldn't be caught dead in there and driving with me because they are concerned about what other people think. Some of you are concerned about how you look in pictures and videos. Come on now. I got to make sure my hair is just right because I got to get on Facebook Live, and I got to post it just right. You spend about 45 minutes just getting the right video because so many people are going to be seeing you.

You got to get the right filter, and you got to get all those things just right. Oh, that doesn't look good. I got to do that again because I don't want people to see the real me, right? Because we're concerned about what other people think. Yeah, it's all about the lighting.

I got to get the lighting right because I'm concerned about what other people think about me. Well, Joseph dealt with the fear of what other people thought himself in a different context, but nonetheless, the same idea. He had to make a decision. What God wanted him to do or the opinions of the people around him. God often calls us to do things, but we respond often by the opinions of other people around us.

And he had to make a decision between what is easy and what is right. What is easy? It's easy just to go with the crowd. But sometimes we have to ask, what is easy and what is right? What is easy and what is right?

So looking at the context of Joseph and Mary, we looked at the perspective of Mary last week, but we're looking at the perspective of Joseph. So Joseph and Mary were engaged to be married. And engagement was a really big deal. Engagement was a binding agreement, and it was as good as a marriage. You had to be engaged for a year.

And the only way to get out of the engagement was either to file for divorce or the other person would die. So that's how big of a deal it was. And so you either had to be a widower or a widow. So marriage was very serious, and they celebrated marriage, even in and of itself, for weeks. You know, the marriage ceremony.

They would just go out of their way to build up this big thing because it represented something special in the Jewish culture. It was taken very seriously. In modern day, if you're engaged to somebody and something happens, you can break off that engagement. No problems, right? But in the Jewish custom, you were locked in.

You were ready to marry. It was good as marriage. And Matthew writes the account that we see of the Christmas story, starting with, and if you have your YouVersion app on your phone, you can go there, click on there, and find the event, Salt Church, and go on there. And that way you can take notes and keep up with the Scripture, and also interact with people during the week. You can save it.

It's a great tool that we use here, especially during a pandemic. We're not passing out things. And so follow along with me in Matthew 1, beginning with verse 18. It says, This is how the birth of Jesus, the Messiah, came about. His mother Mary...

was pledged to be married to Joseph. But before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. Now, that was an odd conversation, I'm sure, or would have been an odd conversation to say, you know, Joseph, I've got something to tell you. I'm pregnant, but I'm not pregnant by just anybody. I've been pregnant by God.

Now, what two things would you imagine would come out of your head if you heard that? First of all, she's crazy, or she's a liar. She's either crazy, or she's a liar. And what are other people going to think about this, if I continue with this marriage? Because from her perspective, she's already marked.

There's no hiding a pregnancy. I mean, it's a small community. People know. She's there. And it was, you know, death was her sentence if they were to see that she was pregnant before.

They took it that seriously. It was death by stoning if you were found to be pregnant before marriage. It was a very, very serious offense. But for him, he's blacklisted for the rest of his life. He got, because people are going to think he got her pregnant or that somebody else or someone else got her pregnant.

So, they're thinking, this Joseph guy, he's hiding something, right? So, in their custom, he probably wouldn't be able to find a job for the rest of his life. No one else would let him marry their daughters if he divorced her because of what had happened. And he might find it hard to do business with anybody in town. If he wanted to take his donkey to be oil changed, you know, we don't have those kind of donkeys here, those people here, you know, you need to go somewhere else.

So, he would find it hard to even do normal life. And we don't know what's going on in his mind, but he's done, and he's ready to quit. What we can see in Scripture that he was thinking, and perhaps he loved her, and perhaps he even believed her, but just didn't think it was going to work. And that leads us to verse 19, because Joseph, her husband, was faithful to the law and yet did not want to expose her in public disgrace. He had in his mind to divorce her quietly.

So, he was thinking in his mind, I might as well just send her away. I might as well quit. I might as well not do this. And I think it's interesting that he wanted to divorce her quietly because most commentators would say this, and I would agree with it, that divorcing her quietly was a noble thing. He cared about her.

It was a noble thing. He was concerned for her and probably wanted her to go ahead and have the baby and have opportunity in life, and he was just going to release her and divorce her quietly. Nobody had to know. But overly, he may not have believed her and thought she was crazy, but he was afraid ultimately about what other people thought. Let's do this quietly.

But hark. But hark. But hark. Matthew 1, beginning verse 20, as we lead into verse 20, but after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, Joseph, son of David, fear not. Do not be afraid.

Do not be concerned about what you're seeing and what's happening. Do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit? She will give birth to a son and you are to give him the name Jesus because he will save his people from their sins. So Joseph is faced with something. He can either please the people or he can please God.

He's got a decision to make. There's two ways he can go with this. He can either please people or he can please God. And I can only imagine the emotion that he was feeling. On the one hand, wow, what an honor to be a part of a prophecy that's been going for hundreds of years.

God was using people to prophesy about a Messiah. And here I am, a part of that story. And on the other hand, this is going to be really hard. It's going to be a hard decision. What are people going to think?

People are going to say, this is crazy. This is silly. You shouldn't do this. You should run from it. You could lose everything if you do this.

So he had an option here. He can follow God or follow people. If you are a follower of Christ, there is going to be times in your life where God's going to ask you to do something that's going to be hard. Because on one hand, you want to please others. And we all want to please others, right?

We're in the people pleasing business, it seems like. And we want to hold a reputation. We want to have reputation. We want people to like us. But on the other hand, you want to please God.

So you're going to be given that choice in life. So let me say it like this. The quickest way to forget about what God thinks of you is to become obsessed with what others think about you. But on the flip side, the quickest way to forget what others think of you is to be obsessed with what God thinks about you. And I don't know about you, but I want to be obsessed with what God thinks about me.

There's going to be times where you're going to have to make a decision whether to please God or please people. And as believers, we have to make the ultimate decision no matter what or how hard it is, we are going to please God. Because the truth is, you cannot please everyone. You cannot please everyone. If you please one group, you're going to displease another group, right?

If you I go back to high school and, you know, you have all these different people in high school, the kind of rings of different types of people. And in my high school, it was the jocks. You know, they had their group and then you had the skaters and surfers and then you had the heavy metal dudes. And, you know, they had their long hair and, you know, their pentagrams and stuff like that. And they kind of, back then we had smoking areas.

I don't think they have those in schools anymore, but they would all hang out there and different ones. And then you had your geeks, you know. You had the geeks and then you had the nerds and different ones. And no group really were pleased with each other, you know. It doesn't matter if you're in the geek group and you start being cool, then the geeks ostracize you, you know.

Like, you just can't please anybody. And it's so funny to see the dynamic of these things. If you change your hairstyle, if you go get a new hairstyle, you just want to really do it well. You're going to walk out of there and some people are like, that's incredible. That looks so good on you.

That is the best haircut I've ever seen on you. And then somebody's like, oh, that makes you look fat. Why did you do that for, you know. So, you're not, you know, you're not going to please everyone. The good news is, though, you can please God.

You can please God. So, how do you please God? How do you please God? How do you live for God instead of people? Here's, I want to make two points today.

The first point is, if you're not ready to be criticized, you're not ready to be used by God. If you're not ready to be criticized, you're not ready to be used by God. Because walking with God often brings criticism. Maybe you've decided not to hang out with a group that you've been associated with. When you gave your life to Christ, maybe you're taking, you know, maybe there's a lifestyle or something.

If you're not ready to go, you're not ready to go, you're not ready to go, you're not ready to go, you're not ready to go, you're not ready to go, you're not ready to go, you're not ready to go, you're not ready to go, you're not ready to go, you're not ready to go, you're not ready to go, you're not ready to go, you're not ready to go, you're not ready to go, you're not ready to go, you're not ready to go, you're not ready to go, you're not ready to go. That you've been a part of, but you decide to leave that because you want to honor God. You're not going to please some people. Some people are going to think you're crazy, you're weird, you're not right because you've decided to choose a different group or you disconnect from certain lifestyles. You don't go to the bars, you don't drink, you don't do all those things that you used to do, you don't party like you used to because you've decided to take a stand that you decided that you want to live a life that honors God.

Maybe you're single here today, whether you're in high school or college or whatever, or maybe you're an adult that is single today and you want to honor God with sexual purity and the world's going to tell you, well, you can't do that, that's weird, that's so not the norm, but you want to honor God with your life because you want to wait for that right person in your life because you want to do it God's way because you know that God's way is the best way and you want to honor God that way. Maybe you take a lower paying job so that you can position yourself to do something significant and people are like, you're crazy, you're making so much money, you're doing things, you know, and you're like, I got to honor God. See, perhaps you've been there, you're making decisions, and sometimes it's hard to give up things for God, but God has something better for you. The more you do for God, the more pain you will experience. The more you do for God, if you want to make a difference in this world, you are going to experience pain.

If you're going to do something that's life-changing in this world, that's culture-changing in this world, that's environmental-changing in this world, that's power-kingdom-minded changing in this world, you are going to have to do some things that aren't very popular, and it's going to bring pain. If you want a life of no criticism, let me say it like this, if you want a life with no criticism, do nothing, stand for nothing, and have nothing. If you want to live a comfortable life, just do nothing, and then stand for nothing, and bring nothing to this world. But if you want to be a God-changing, world-changing, God-empowered person in this world, you are going to face criticism. You are going to face criticism in this life.

I love the scene in A League of Their Own where Tom Hanks, who is the baseball coach, and Gina Davis, who is one of the pro stars on the team, she's ready to give up. She says, I'm done. And she says, it's just too hard. And I love that moment in the scene where Tom Hanks' character looks at her and says, it's supposed to be hard. If it wasn't hard, everyone would do it.

It's the hard that makes it great. It's the hard that makes it great. Come on, house. I want to hear you today. It's the hard that makes it great.

And God's calling us on some hard stuff, but it's not just hard. It's great. And God wants to use you. I remember when we were in the brewery at Salt Church, and we were just starting off, and we were, you know, people were just coming in from everywhere. And there were rumors going around the community that we were a cult because we were in a brewery, you know.

Like, they're a cult, never been to our services before, knew nothing about us, knew nothing about me. But that cult over there, they worship salt or something like that, and they're in the brewery over there. God forbid we meet in a brewery and open up some doors so people could come in and hear the gospel of Jesus Christ, and then we become a cult, right? But someone told me, if you're not called a cult at least a few times a year, you're not doing something right. So I said, okay, amen, amen, because you're reaching people that nobody else is reaching.

Anything that is significant and life-changing will be met with criticism, anything. I remember a friend of mine in Goldsboro, North Carolina, had a real successful church. He took over a church of 50 people, and over a course of 50 years, he took over a church of 50 people. It was just a fast-growing church at the time, and there were rumors and criticism going around the community, as there always is with any church that's reaching people, right? Oh, what is that church doing?

I can't believe what they're doing. People are going there because it's comfortable or it's entertaining or whatever they want to use to criticize a church. And he says he had a guy come into church one day, and he was like, wow, you know. He walked up to the pastor, and he says, man, I thought y'all had recliners in this church. And I was disappointed because somebody had told him somewhere to that recliner church over there, you know, is doing this or doing that.

But he was like, and he thought about it. He said, you know what, I'm going to go to that church and check it out because I want to see what a recliner church is all about. That sounds interesting to me. But he didn't find recliners, but he found something else, and he found Jesus Christ. Amen?

You're going to be criticized when you're doing things for God, when you're called to do things for God. It's interesting that the things we tend to criticize are the things that God uses to reach people far from God. And we think we got God figured out because we put church and God in a box. Amen? But we don't have them figured out.

He can use anything. So it's going to come with criticism. There's going to be challenges there. And number two, extraordinary acts of God start with ordinary acts of obedience. Extraordinary acts of God start with ordinary acts of obedience.

Think of it this way. Joseph and Mary, two, nobody would have known their names, two young people who simply obeyed God with a small act of obedience. And they are forever a part of a world-changing story, guys. These are ordinary people. I can just imagine what was going through their minds.

I mean, you know, they had never had a baby before. They had never had a family before. They had never done this before. And God was telling them they're going to have the Son of God. I mean, how do we even...

we don't even know how to change diapers. I mean, how do we even discipline the Son of God? Does He discipline us? I mean, well, how does all of that work? I mean, imagine what was going on, all the details that were going on.

But they didn't know. It was a very fearful, scary thing for them. Jesus Christ, the Christ? The Christ child is going to be our child? How are we going to do this?

But they started with small acts of obedience. God often doesn't give us the whole picture. You know why? Because if He gave us the whole picture, it would blow our minds. We wouldn't take the first step because we wouldn't even know how we would do it.

We would say, you know, there's no way. God just asked you to take the first step. It's time to take the first step of obedience, church. Are you ready to take the first step of obedience? Obedience.

We don't have to understand everything to obey. Because, like we said last week, outcome is God's responsibility. Obedience is ours. Outcome is God's responsibility. Obedience is ours.

Because you have no idea what a small act of obedience will do. The ripple effect. A single act of obedience can set something into motion that could change the trajectory of someone's destiny. Did you know that? When I give you these cards, when this church gives you these cards, I want you to think about that as you're inviting somebody to church this week and next week up until the Christmas service.

That that one little card that you give somebody, you have no idea the ripple effect that's going to happen when you give them that card. You have no idea. I think about the young farmer from... From... From...

Outside of Charlotte, North Carolina, there was a man named Albert McMacken, if I pronounce his name right, because nobody knows his name. Why does nobody know his name? Because he was an insignificant guy, he was a farmhand, but God used him to do something incredible, because here's what Albert did. He invited a young man named Billy Graham to a service, a special service at church. And what happened?

Billy gave his life to Jesus that week, and thousands of people under Billy Graham's ministry, the greatest evangelist in our century, God used. You never know what a simple act of obedience does. Sharing an invite card, or joining a team here in the church, just serving and connecting people to ministry here, or opening a small group. Whatever you're doing, you just don't have any idea. You have no idea the little acts of obedience that seem insignificant.

You may feel insignificant, but can I tell you, in the kingdom of God, you are not. Start with small acts of obedience and watch what God does to bring about amazing things in this world. Amen. So, Joseph had a choice. Does he do what he wants to do, or does he do what God wants him to do?

Does he allow people to determine what he should do, or does he listen to God? Verse 24, and when Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord commanded him, and he took Mary home as his wife. Small act of obedience, and the rest is history. Because he did what the angel said, because he heard, he heard, hark, listen. He heard the greatest event in history took place.

The world will never be the same because of Joseph. The world will never be the same because he took that act of obedience. The billions of people's lives that have been changed through the centuries because Joseph said, here I am, Lord, just like the prophet. Here I am, Lord, send me whatever it takes. It's going to be hard, but hard is hard is hard, but with greatness comes hardness.

And I'm going to march, and I'm going to do it. How many of you believe that today? Are you ready to take the next step? Because you have a choice here today. You have a choice whether you're going to sit back, and you're going to be comfortable and cozy, and do nothing, be nothing, and change nothing.

The day you can start making steps of obedience where God can really use you in the kingdom of God. No matter what it is, where you are, where you're going, God can use you. God will use you. You just got to be an open vessel. Starts with small act of obedience to bring about the greatest things.

So you have a choice today, and I'm ready for a movement of God. I'm ready for a movement of God. We're already seeing it in our church. God has been stirring this church. God has been doing some things in this church.

I'm telling you, like this whole thing about mocha shutting down, this whole thing about the pandemic and all that, it's God's getting ready to do something. The question is, are you ready to step it up, people? Are we ready to step it up and get rolling? We've got the Christmas season coming. We're going to fire into the year.

It doesn't matter where we meet. We might have to meet out in the cold. I don't care. We're going to throw on our coats. We're going to get together.

We're going to pray. We're going to rejoice. We're going to go out. We're going to reach people for Jesus Christ. Amen.

We're going to do it. How many of you are with me? How many of you are ready? Let's do this. This together, God has given you gifts, God has given me gifts, and it starts with small acts of obedience.

And in closing, I just want to say that. I just want to pray that your small act of obedience might be taking that, starting that ministry, or might be just connecting to a team here in the church, or might be grabbing a connect card, or might be being baptized, or might be, that might be your first. See, the reason we started this church is to help people take the next step, to grow closer to Jesus. If we're not helping you grow closer to Jesus, then we're not doing what we're called to do. We desire you to know and grow closer to Jesus.

And everybody is on a spiritual journey, and you're on one today. Where are you in that process? What is God calling you to do? God, I pray in the name of Jesus, by the power of the Holy Spirit, that you would begin to stir hearts for the things of you, God. That people would start seeing visions for their lives, God.

Or not even just the big picture, Lord, but just the small acts of faith that you've called them to, the communities, the person next door, the occasional person they run into in the supermarket, or whatever it might be, Lord. Maybe it's leaving their jobs and pursuing something that, for a greater cause, it might be a sacrifice, Lord. But you're stirring their hearts. You've been stirring it for a long time. Now is the time for us to step in and make that choice.

So, God, begin to stir the hearts of the people in our church today. God, we just ask you to do that, Lord. In that same spirit of prayer, with all heads bowed and all eyes closed, I want to ask another question. Your small act of obedience today might just be, maybe that's your small act of obedience. Maybe that's where you are.

You've held back for a long time. You haven't made a decision for Jesus. You haven't made a decision for the one who gave his life for you. Because the scripture says she will give birth to a son and you will give him the name Jesus because he will save his people from their sins. See, sin has misplaced you.

It's taken you away from God. It's separated you from God. It's missing the mark. We have been, we have been, that thing that's inside of you that you just can't shake, that's been hurting you and beating you up for a long time, that steers you towards darkness. That's called sin.

And God, Jesus himself came to this earth so that you could be set free. And he says, he who calls on my name will be saved. He will be freed from sin because that's why I came. So if you, that's you today, I want you just to pray this with me and I want you to pray it boldly and pray it with anything, everything that's inside of you. Jesus, I believe that you died on the cross for my sin and that you came to this world to save me from myself.

Today, I give my life. I give my heart to you. I make you Lord of my life. Come into my heart. Lord, change me from the inside out.

I receive you today as my savior. Amen. Let's just celebrate God. If y'all just stand and celebrate God, come on, come on church. This ain't a time to sit still.

This is a time to celebrate God for salvation, salvation in the name of Jesus. We thank you, God. Listen, if you gave your life to Christ today, let's take the next step. Small acts of obedience. Let us know.

You're ready to plug in. You're ready to grow. You're ready to get connected so that we can help you get to the next step in your spirit. The Connect section. You'll see, I gave my life to Christ.

I made a decision for Christ today and we'll connect with you with our church and we'll give you some information to help you take that next step. We love you so much, guys. Thank you so much. Miranda's going to end the service here and I'll see you outside.