The Christmas Dilemma

The Miracle of Christ's Birth

We're going to talk about love. But before we get to that, one thing that just stands out to me is about the miracle of the birth of Christ. And that we wouldn't lose sight of the miracle of the birth of Christ. No matter how many times we've read these passages in Matthew or in Luke, that we don't lose sight of it. Suanne read that from Matthew 1 verse 18. And it starts with now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows. After his mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Spirit. They were betrothed, which is like similar to being engaged in our day. They hadn't yet come together. They hadn't had sexual relations. Yet she was found with child. You know, you remember when the angel Gabriel, I believe it was the angel Gabriel. I don't think it makes it clear in that text, but in many of the passages, Gabriel is active. You remember when the angel visited Mary and told her she would give birth to a son? And she said, "How can this be since I do not know a man?" And in Luke 1:35, watch the response she gets. The angel answered and said to her, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the highest will overshadow you. Therefore also the holy one who is to be born will be called the son of God." And this morning in the passage that Suanne read, it says she was found with child of the Holy Spirit.

Something that is impossible by human standards is the way that God chose to have his son born into this world. Born of a virgin. Let us not ever lose sight of the miraculous way in which Jesus came down from heaven. And you remember also in Luke 1 what the angel said to Mary after he told Mary that she would give birth to a son even though she was a virgin and after he told her that her cousin Elizabeth who was old and barren was going to give birth and she was pregnant too. Luke 1:37 for with God nothing will be impossible.

That the way that Jesus came it was miraculous. And hey, that verse, I love that verse. For with God, nothing will be impossible. I don't know about you, but to me, that verse encourages me. And no matter what is going on in your life, all things are possible with God. For with God, nothing will be impossible.

Joseph's Dilemma

You know, today Suanne and Danny, they did a great job. And Danny spoke to that word love. I love that passage 1 Corinthians 13 that he went to and we're going to be speaking a little bit about that. But one more thing I just want to share the title of the message today is called the Christmas Dilemma. And when I think about this passage that Suanne read from Matthew 1:18-25, I think about how we get a perspective in this passage from Joseph's perspective.

And if you stop and think about it from Joseph's perspective, he was in a little bit of a dilemma.

It says that before they came together, Mary was found with child. Now, we don't know from the Bible how Joseph found out that Mary was pregnant, but we know he found out because in this passage, the angel's visiting Joseph in a dream and telling him at the end we read, "Don't be afraid to take Mary as your wife." He was already afraid. He knew she was pregnant and he knew he was not the father.

He knew they hadn't yet had sex.

So imagine the dilemma that Joseph must have been in. I don't know how he found out. We know from the Bible that Mary, she went to visit her cousin Elizabeth after she was visited by the angel Gabriel. And she was probably there, I think it says about 3 months. She was probably there until about the time that Elizabeth gave birth to John the Baptist. And probably by the time she came back, she was probably showing. She would have been about 3 months. At some point and some way, Joseph found out that Mary was pregnant even though he had never had sex with her. Imagine the dilemma that Joseph was in. How was he going to handle this situation? They weren't even yet married. I don't know. Mary might have told him, no, really, let me tell you what happened and how I'm pregnant. This angel came to visit me and told me that I have a child of the Holy Spirit. And Joseph very likely was like, "Yeah, right." And if Mary told her parents and if Joseph's parents found out, they were probably like, "Yeah, right. Cuz that has never happened. That's impossible." And if Joseph's friends knew about it, which they likely could, they were in a small town. Boy, word travels fast in a small town, right? Oh, don't you know people were probably starting to find out. And boy, don't you know they were probably talking. You know, we don't know any of that from scripture, but I just imagine. I'm trying to put myself in the shoes of Joseph and imagine the dilemma he was in.

Choosing Love in Hard Situations

And you know, when I think about that and I think about love and we think about the way that Joseph had planned to handle this situation before he was visited by the angel, I believe it's a reminder to us that we can choose to be loving even when it's hard to be loving. You know, the Bible says there in verse 19, "Then Joseph, her husband, being a just man, and not wanting to make her a public example, was minded to put her away secretly." That's verse 19 of that text. In other words, right now, all he knows is that she's pregnant and all he knows in his mind, I would imagine, is that, man, she's been running around on me. So, he could have by Mosaic law actually had her stoned. He could have definitely spoken very bad about her, which by the way, you might be like, "Oh, no, don't do that, Joseph." But think about how you would have acted because at this point, Joseph all he knew was she was pregnant.

He could have been mean to her. He could have been rude to her. But it said he had purposed in his mind. He was minded to put her away secretly. In other words, to divorce her quietly, to not humiliate her, to not make a public example of her. When I think about it and how he was handling it, it seems to me like he was trying to handle a hard situation in as loving a way as he knew how. And you know, it reminds me when we think about love and we think about as Christians how we are to be loving. And by the way, the Lord always we read a lot in the Bible about being forgiving. We read a lot in the Bible about being loving. It's a reminder that we can choose with God's help to be loving even in hard situations. To be loving even when it's hard to love. That's what Joseph had minded to do. I hope that that example encourages us.

You remember what as believers, we know that we're to put on love, right?

How are you doing sharing the love of Christ with others in your life? You know, sometimes it's not even a hard situation and we can be downright mean, right? Sometimes we're just hungry and we're like, "Hurry up and get my food after Sunday church, right? We go down the street to KFC. We just had church. We just had worship. We might have to wait a couple minutes. We're like, "Man, where's my food?" We can be unloving even when it's not that hard to be loving.

And man, when it's a hard situation or where somebody wrongs us, have you ever had times where you're unloving? I know you have. You know what the Lord said when the scribe tested him? What's the greatest commandment of the law? You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. We're commanded in the word of God as believers to be loving. We say at Long Leaf, we want to be loving, teaching, reaching. That loving is because we're commanded in the word of God to be loving. How are you doing being loving? And how are you doing being loving when it's hard to love? You know what Jesus said?

Bless your enemies. Do good to them that hate you and pray for them that despitefully use you and persecute you. How are you doing when somebody's talking bad about you? Are you responding back and talking bad back about them? Be like, "Man, they're going to talk bad about me. I'm giving it back. They're going to talk bad about me. I'm talking bad about them." How are you doing when somebody wrongs you? Are you responding in the flesh or are you asking God to help you respond in love? Hey, a funny story. We were uh Gabriel had a ball game yesterday. He had a few this week and all the parents from the team from our team were all right together like 30 of us and it was a heated game and none of us were doing anything wrong. We're just getting fired up, you know what I mean? And the ref's talking to us and the ref's looking at us and the ref's like, "All right." And the ref knows us. The ref's like, "You guys calm down. You guys calm down now." And then one of the guys said, "And I'm preaching tomorrow." And I said, "And I am too."

But in all honesty, all jokes aside, like all kinds of situations in life, we have the chance to respond in a loving way. But if we're not careful, the flesh will come out. Right? Have you ever had that happen? How are you doing sharing the love of Christ? And I tell you, I think when we think about love, one thing we should ask ourselves is, how can I do better? Especially in the hard situations of life. Matthew 5:16 says, "Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your father in heaven." One way we can shine the light of Jesus is how we put on love and how we respond to people even when maybe they're hard to love. I think one challenge we should be reminded of is to ask God to help us to be loving even when it's hard to love. That doesn't mean to be run over top of. Joseph had still determined to quietly divorce her, but he was handling it in a loving way.

Love Requires Sacrifice

I tell you another takeaway I think we can take from this. Crystal and I were talking about this when we were looking at this text earlier this week. Love requires sacrifice. You know what I mean? Loving others requires sacrifice. Loving God requires sacrifice. And Joseph, we know as we read this passage, we know that he gets visited in a dream and when he wakes up, he obeys God and he does take Mary as his wife. And we might say, "Well, that was easy. He had an angel come to him." Yeah, but he had a dream. A lot of us could have woken up and been like, "That was just a dream. I'm not marrying her. She's been running around on me." But Joseph, he obeyed God. And if you think about it now, Mary, this passage isn't looking at it from her perspective, but boy, did she make a sacrifice, too. She was a young girl and all of a sudden became pregnant. But from Joseph's perspective, he was making a sacrifice because even when he married her first, he was making a sacrifice because he was marrying her. And you know, everybody else in that town, I can't imagine they believed them. You know, they're engaged and they're engaged to be married and she's already pregnant and they're either like, "Yeah, you two been getting busy before you got married and you ain't supposed to do that." Or they might know what happened. And they're like, "Joseph, you're going to marry her even though she was pregnant and it wasn't from you?" So, there was a level of sacrifice Joseph was making just for what he had to put up with in those months. Love requires sacrifice. In marriages, love requires sacrifice. Amen. In marriage, in relationships with others, love requires sacrifice. I hope we're reminded of that today that for us to love others well, it means we have to be selfless and sacrifice and love and if we want to love God, it requires sacrifice, right? I mean, part of loving God is being like, I'm going to worship even when I'm a little weary, I'm a little tired, I want to come and worship God. It ends up blessing us. And sometimes God will call us to something that is very hard for us, but God knows best, but it's hard for us. Loving God requires sacrifice.

God's Incredible Love for Us

You know, I want to get to this in verses 20 and 21. I want to read those, but as I'm reading those and going on through the rest of the passage, kind of that first part, we're thinking about loving others a lot. But I'm thinking about the way God loves us as I read that passage. God loves us more than we can ever imagine. Watch what it says in verse 20. But while he thought about these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, "Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take to you Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit, and she will bring forth a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins." I read that I'm like, "Wow, think how much God loves us. That God sent his one and only son down from heaven to this earth. And we know why he sent him. He sent him to die. Why? To save us from our sins."

Think about how much God loves us that he did that. God's love for us is incredible.

He sent Jesus to dwell with us. Jesus came down from heaven to dwell with us. And Jesus came and he knew he was going to suffer and he still came. God's love for us is truly more than we can imagine. It's more than we can wrap our minds around. You know, I love that verse. It's in the bulletin today, too. And it's one most of you know by heart. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life.

God gives us a way to be forgiven. Isn't that amazing?

As awful as we are, as the Bible says we're like filthy rags, as sinful as we are, God loves us that much. It says Isaiah says, "All we like sheep have gone astray." Have you gone astray before? I believe you have, right? We have turned everyone to his own way. But the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. When Jesus hung on that cross, he was laying all of our sins on him, making the one and only, the only sacrifice that could be made. He was born of the Holy Spirit. So, he was God in the flesh and he walked a perfect life. Born of the spirit. He was God here and he walked a perfect sinless life and only his sacrifice could be made. That was the only way. The Lord laid on him the iniquity of us all. And when he went to the garden, he was in agony cuz he knew what was coming. This wasn't easy. He was still human. Fully human, but fully God. But he felt human emotions.

And he was in agony cuz he knew the punishment coming. But he still went. The Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. Talk about love.

He made a way. God demonstrates his own love toward us. And that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. He even said, "Father, forgive them for they know not what they do." while he was hanging, dying. Talk about love. God's love for us is more than we can imagine.

Responding to God's Love with Obedience

And I just it's a simple message today, but I just want to say this, knowing how much God loves us, and we see it in this text. When we read that passage and we think about him sending his son into this world, we see how much he loves us. Knowing how much God loves us, we ought to obey and live for him. You know, when we read this passage about the miraculous birth of Christ and when we think about how he came and how much he loves us to come down from heaven to do that and to die for us, to hang on the cross, I hope it encourages all of us as believers to live more and more for him to be more dedicated as believers because of his love for us. Think about Joseph. It says in verses 24 and 25, after Joseph hears from, I believe, Gabriel, then Joseph, being aroused from sleep, did as the angel of the Lord commanded him and took to him his wife, and did not know her till she had brought forth her firstborn son, and he called his name Jesus.

What a beautiful picture of love and obedience to the Lord that Joseph gives. He his whole world, whether he was convinced or not, his whole world still, I would imagine, thought, "Yeah, right. Sure, sure. This child is of the Holy Spirit." But he had total obedience to the Lord. He didn't hesitate either. That's an important point for us to remember.

Don't put it off when you know what God's telling you to do because you might just keep putting it off and never do it. Joseph aroused and he immediately obeyed the Lord to the point that when Jesus was born, he called him Jesus, too. He called him the exact name he was told to call him. You know, and Joseph could have easily woken up and said, "That was just a dream." Sometimes I think we can do that. Sometimes I think we might be even praying for a sign or praying for something specific and even after God answers it, we still say, "Well, no, that just happened." Or sometimes we might feel God kind of tug on our heart to obey him in some area, to do something. You know what God's telling you to do and then you just you let No, that's too hard. That requires too much sacrifice. Love requires sacrifice and loving God requires sacrifice, right? He sacrificed for us far more than we're going to ever sacrifice for him.

But with all he did for us and the way he loves us, I hope it shakes us and wakes us up and that we say, "I want to live more for him." And some of us might be thinking, "Well, I'm doing pretty good."

I hope we all know we can do better, right?

We can do better with the way we love others.

We might say, "Well, I do pretty good with loving others. I bet there's some way that every one of us could love others better."

Sometimes we tend to look at others sin instead of our own. One way we can live for the Lord more is by loving others. One way we can live for the Lord more is by being loving even when it's hard to love. And I hope we all ask ourselves, what can I do to better live for the Lord? And I hope none of us are so prideful that we think, I'm already doing real good. I don't need there's nothing. Every one of us can live for the Lord better.

And I pray that God convicts us. He convicts us. Yeah, he loves me and I know he loves me that much. And I want to live for him. I want to be more dedicated to him. And when God's calling me to something, I'm not just going to push it to the side. And I'm not going to put it off. I'm not going to say, "Well, that probably wasn't God." Don't you know the enemy loves that? When we just God's making it clear to you. You're having a moment with God. You have a moment where you just feel God telling you, "This is what I want you to do."

Don't you know the enemy loves it when you just say, "Oh, yeah, that wasn't God."

Knowing how much God loves us, I hope we're encouraged today to obey him the way Joseph did. By the way, Mary too, I love what Mary said after she was visited by Gabriel and told she would get pregnant and give birth to the Savior of the world. Don't you love what she said? Behold the maidservant of the Lord.

Behold, when God calls you to something, are you saying, "I'm yours. I'm your servant. I'm ready." This Christmas and obviously beyond. But when we think about God's love and we think about how much he loves us to save us, it's incredible to me to think about how much he loves me to save me. I hope that we're reminded to live and obey the Lord more and more. How are you doing obeying the Lord?

How are you doing walking with the Lord today?

What is in your life that doesn't need to be in your life?

What way do you have? Do you have some kind of sin that needs to not be in there? Or are you not loving your spouse the way you need to love your spouse? Or are you getting angry when you don't need to get angry? Or are you filling your mind with things you don't need to fill your mind with? Or are you watching things that you don't need to watch? Or are you doing things you don't need to do? How are you doing loving and living for God? And how are you doing being obedient to the Lord? I hope and I pray with all God's done for us that we remember to put on love. We remember to love others even when it's hard to love.

And that we remember to love God with all of our heart, with all of our soul, with all of our mind, and out of how much we love him to live more and more for him. God, we love you. Help.