Speaker 1: Amen, amen, hey, good morning family.
Speaker 1: We're going to be in Matthew, chapter 1 this morning, Matthew, chapter 1.
Speaker 1: And we are starting a brand new series entitled Christmas Moments, seeing the pivotal moment of the very first Christmas, the birth of our Savior.
Speaker 1: And when we look at our life, it's been said that life isn't measured in time but in moments, moments of joy and moments of excitement.
Speaker 1: In fact, I can remember a memorable moment of joy and excitement for me.
Speaker 1: It actually happened last year at the FCC volunteer Christmas party, where I was able to put a pie in Pastor Cody's face.
Speaker 1: I think we have it on the slide.
Speaker 1: Let's go right.
Speaker 1: Round two is happening next Sunday night.
Speaker 1: If you have an RSVP for that Christmas party, it's going to be next Sunday night.
Speaker 1: If you have an artist to be peed for that Christmas party, it's going to be next Sunday night.
Speaker 1: I can remember that it was a fun time.
Speaker 1: While we have high moments, we also have low moments.
Speaker 1: In fact, I remember last year.
Speaker 1: I'm a dog lover.
Speaker 1: Are there any dog lovers in the room?
Speaker 1: Dog lover, okay, so you're with me.
Speaker 1: So last year, on Christmas Eve of all days, my dog had a seizure and, to make a long story short, I had to put my dog down and it was definitely a really hard day, and if you've had a dog, you have probably experienced that at some point.
Speaker 1: And life is filled with moments, whether they're memorable, whether they're hard and sad, and the Christmas story the birth of Jesus is really no different.
Speaker 1: There were pivotal moments in the Christmas story and today what we're going to see is we're going to see a pivotal moment of obedience.
Speaker 1: And here's the big idea of the message today is you have no idea what God can do through one moment of obedience.
Speaker 1: You have no idea what God can do through one moment of obedience.
Speaker 1: In fact, some of you can look back on your life where there was a moment in your life when you obeyed God, and because you obeyed God, all these things were set into motion.
Speaker 1: Maybe you look back and maybe you heard a message, or maybe you're reading scripture, or maybe the Holy Spirit just prompted your heart to do something or say something or forgive someone or be a part of God's church in a deeper way.
Speaker 1: And now you're on the other side of that and you look back and you're like, wow, that one moment of obedience made a difference and changed me forever.
Speaker 1: Obedience made a difference and changed me forever.
Speaker 1: I can look back at some times like that in my life.
Speaker 1: I remember when I obeyed God to become a pastor.
Speaker 1: Now, this might surprise you, but being a pastor was not on the top five things I want to do when I grow up.
Speaker 1: This was not in the cards y'all.
Speaker 1: I had no desire, I had no plans to do this, and I remember God just moving in my heart and I was at a place where I'm like, if I'm going to obey God, this is what I'm going to do, as God's spirit was prompting me and I made that decision.
Speaker 1: And now I look back years later and I'm like God has done so much in my life and God has blessed me in incredible ways that I can't even imagine, because I said yes to God in that moment.
Speaker 1: And while there's been times where I've said yes to God, if I'm honest, there's been a lot of times where I haven't said yes to God.
Speaker 1: There's been a lot of times where God has led me to do something or say something and I just was like I don't want to Like.
Speaker 1: It's hard.
Speaker 1: I don't know if I can.
Speaker 1: It doesn't really make sense.
Speaker 1: Should I do this?
Speaker 1: And maybe you can relate to a time in your life where maybe you haven't obeyed God.
Speaker 1: In fact, has there ever been a time in your life when you haven't obeyed God before?
Speaker 1: Can you just raise your hand?
Speaker 1: Okay, good Many of you.
Speaker 1: Your hands are raised, the rest of you are lying in the house of God this morning.
Speaker 1: We've all had these moments.
Speaker 1: And then maybe you look back, like I do, and think man, what would have happened if I would have said something or given something or done something in that situation when God's Spirit was leading me?
Speaker 1: Here's the reality.
Speaker 1: Sometimes it's hard to obey God.
Speaker 1: I wish I could sit up here and say it is so easy all the time.
Speaker 1: I naturally always want to do this.
Speaker 1: Sometimes it isn't, and this is why the message today is entitled when it's hard to obey.
Speaker 1: When it's hard to obey, when it isn't easy, when it doesn't make sense, easy when it's doesn't make sense.
Speaker 1: The very first Christmas, there was a moment of obedience by a guy named Joseph.
Speaker 1: Everybody say the word Joseph Ready, joseph.
Speaker 1: Joseph made a hard decision to obey, a decision that didn't make sense in the moment, but he chose to do it and it was a pivotal moment in his life because on the other side of his moment, but he chose to do it and it was a pivotal moment in his life because on the other side of his obedience, he was able to experience some great and incredible and mighty things.
Speaker 1: And here's what you need to know this morning there might be some great and incredible and mighty things on the other side of your obedience to God, when you say yes to him.
Speaker 1: So we're gonna look at this from Matthew, chapter one, and if you're ready for the word, would you say yes to him.
Speaker 1: So we're going to look at this from Matthew, chapter one, and if you're ready for the word, would you say amen, amen.
Speaker 1: Now I got to say got to talk to a couple of y'all real quick, okay, before we get into Matthew, chapter one.
Speaker 1: First of all, if you are newer to faith, you're newer to Christianity.
Speaker 1: This is the Christmas story, this is how it all went down the birth of Jesus.
Speaker 1: This is it right here.
Speaker 1: So get ready.
Speaker 1: Second of all, some of y'all have been around the church for a while and you've heard this story about 157 times.
Speaker 1: Do not go on autopilot for the greatest story in the history of the world, okay.
Speaker 1: So how many of you will promise that have been around the church for a while.
Speaker 1: You promise in the house of God that you will not go on autopilot?
Speaker 1: If that's you, would you say amen, okay, let's go, let's go.
Speaker 1: Here we go.
Speaker 1: We're going to hear and see the greatest story ever told.
Speaker 1: This is what it says, matthew 1.18.
Speaker 1: It went down like this the birth of Jesus Christ came about this way After his mother, mary, had been engaged to Joseph, it was discovered before they came together that she was pregnant from the Holy Spirit.
Speaker 1: Mary was the earthly mother of Jesus was the mother of Jesus.
Speaker 1: Joseph was the earthly father of Jesus.
Speaker 1: Now, the thing about Joseph is we really don't know a lot about Joseph.
Speaker 1: Here's what we know about Joseph.
Speaker 1: We know that he was a carpenter.
Speaker 1: We know that he was a righteous and faithful man.
Speaker 1: He was a descendant of David.
Speaker 1: David was a king in the Old Testament and for Joseph to be a descendant of David it had a lot of prophetic implications.
Speaker 1: He was also Mary's husband and he was the earthly father of Jesus.
Speaker 1: That's really all we know about Joseph.
Speaker 1: And before Joseph and Mary, it says before they came together that's just a G-rated way of saying before they had sex, before Mary and Joseph had sex.
Speaker 1: Mary is pregnant by the Holy Spirit.
Speaker 1: Now, theologically, this really matters because sin is passed down from the seed of the man.
Speaker 1: In fact, in Romans, chapter 5, 12, it says, therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man and death through sin, now you guys remember, if you've been around for a while, if you're a Bible student who sinned first in the Garden of Eden?
Speaker 1: Was it Adam or was it Eve?
Speaker 1: It was Eve.
Speaker 1: Eve sinned first, eve sinned first and then Adam sinned after that.
Speaker 1: Eve sinned first, but sin was passed down through the man.
Speaker 1: So, because of this, jesus had to be.
Speaker 1: He had to be, because he had to be a perfect sacrifice.
Speaker 1: He could have no sin in him so he could be a perfect sacrifice to forgive us of our sin.
Speaker 1: So the seed of man could not be what allowed Jesus to be born, which is why the Holy Spirit allowed Mary to have this child.
Speaker 1: But let's think about this for a second from Joseph's perspective.
Speaker 1: Second, from Joseph's perspective, mary is pregnant before they had sex.
Speaker 1: Think about this from Joseph's perspective.
Speaker 1: Mary comes up to Joseph and is like Joseph.
Speaker 1: I need to tell you something, joseph.
Speaker 1: He's like.
Speaker 1: What do you need to talk about.
Speaker 1: I mean he's excited.
Speaker 1: I mean they're going to get married In his mind.
Speaker 1: He's like he's got his dreams, he's got all these things lined up.
Speaker 1: He's like he's super excited about the future.
Speaker 1: He's like, yeah, mary, like what do you want to talk to me about?
Speaker 1: Joseph, can you just sit down for a moment?
Speaker 1: Nah, mary, I'm good.
Speaker 1: What do you want to tell me?
Speaker 1: Just tell me.
Speaker 1: Mary says I'm pregnant, but don't worry, it's the Holy Spirit.
Speaker 1: I've heard a lot of stories.
Speaker 1: That's a good one, the Holy Spirit.
Speaker 1: Oh, really, did you like fly here to tell me that with your wings?
Speaker 1: Huh, what?
Speaker 1: What was Joseph going to do?
Speaker 1: This is what Joseph did.
Speaker 1: Joseph was going to do what a lot of us would do.
Speaker 1: It says so.
Speaker 1: Her husband, joseph, being a righteous man let's all say the word righteous, ready, righteous, righteous man.
Speaker 1: What he decided to do, not wanting to disgrace her publicly, decided to divorce her secretly, even though they were engaged.
Speaker 1: There was something in this time period called betrothal, and they were actually betrothed, which is more than engagement as we know, engagement today, where they were legally married but they didn't get some of the benefits of marriage.
Speaker 1: So they were betrothed, and to end a betrothed relationship was a divorce.
Speaker 1: So Joseph says I'm going to divorce her and I'm going to do this secretly.
Speaker 1: It's so interesting to me that Joseph is described as a righteous man.
Speaker 1: To me that Joseph is described as a righteous man.
Speaker 1: Joseph is not described as an angry man or as a compulsive man or a domineering man or a controlling man, but righteous.
Speaker 1: Joseph was a man that was filled with integrity, and he's filled with character.
Speaker 1: Can I just submit to all the bros out there that what our world needs is a loving, gracious, caring men filled with integrity and character.
Speaker 1: That's what the world needs Loving, gracious men filled with integrity and filled with character.
Speaker 1: Not men that are like flying off the handle because things don't go exactly how they want them to go.
Speaker 1: Not men that are compulsive or chasing after money or fame or success or women, but men that just have integrity and character and do the right thing when the right thing's the hard thing.
Speaker 1: Joseph was a man that was described as righteous.
Speaker 1: Now here's how we know he was righteous, not just because the word says, but because of how he handled the situation According to the law, what he could have done.
Speaker 1: He could have had Mary stoned.
Speaker 1: He could have been like okay, you want to do that, like you.
Speaker 1: Just, this was your choice.
Speaker 1: We were going to have a dream life together and we had all these things planned out.
Speaker 1: But since you did that, you're going to be stoned.
Speaker 1: That's what you get.
Speaker 1: Legally, joseph actually could have done that, but Joseph says no, I'm going to handle this in a respectful way, in a way that honors her, and we're just not going to do that.
Speaker 1: I'm just going to put her away quietly, because Joseph was a man of integrity and character, but God had some other plans.
Speaker 1: In fact, god was going to do something in Joseph's life that Joseph couldn't even imagine.
Speaker 1: In fact, this is what it says.
Speaker 1: It says in the next verse, verse 20,.
Speaker 1: It says, after he had considered these things, that he's Joseph.
Speaker 1: He's like thinking about all of these things that have happened.
Speaker 1: An angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream saying Joseph, son of David, don't be afraid to take Mary as your wife, because what has been conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.
Speaker 1: If I'm Joseph, I'm like what Am I having?
Speaker 1: Did I eat bad pizza last night?
Speaker 1: What's this about?
Speaker 1: She will give birth to a son and you are to name him, jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.
Speaker 1: God speaks clearly to Joseph.
Speaker 1: This is what I want you to do and what Joseph didn't do.
Speaker 1: Joseph didn't wake up and start arguing with God and say I don't know about this.
Speaker 1: No, god, I can't man.
Speaker 1: What do my friends don't think about this man?
Speaker 1: This isn't.
Speaker 1: I can't do this.
Speaker 1: Joseph doesn't wake up and say actually, god, I'm not doing this.
Speaker 1: And let me tell you why I'm not doing this.
Speaker 1: I'm going to justify my lack of obedience.
Speaker 1: He didn't do that.
Speaker 1: And what's also interesting is God didn't let him in on everything.
Speaker 1: God didn't tell him all the details of how everything was going to work.
Speaker 1: God just said this.
Speaker 1: God said, joseph, I want you to take Mary to be your wife.
Speaker 1: Joseph didn't understand how it all would work.
Speaker 1: Now, if you're anything like me and you're probably more spiritual than I am, but if you're anything like me what I like to do is I like to have everything figured out and understand everything before I choose to take a step and obey God.
Speaker 1: God, I will obey you, but just let me know how everything's gonna happen.
Speaker 1: You know what that really is for me.
Speaker 1: Don't tell anybody.
Speaker 1: It's control.
Speaker 1: But you know what this story tells us.
Speaker 1: The life of Joseph tells us that you don't need to understand everything completely to obey God immediately.
Speaker 1: You don't need to understand everything completely to obey God immediately.
Speaker 1: You don't.
Speaker 1: Joseph didn't understand how everything was going to work out over here.
Speaker 1: He didn't understand it.
Speaker 1: God didn't let him in on everything, but he chose to obey God completely.
Speaker 1: If I'm Joseph, I got a whole lot of questions.
Speaker 1: If I'm Joseph, I'm like lot of questions.
Speaker 1: If I'm Joseph, I'm like how's this thing going to work?
Speaker 1: God, joseph just obeyed.
Speaker 1: Now here's the reality, guys, when you follow Jesus.
Speaker 1: Maybe you don't follow Jesus yet, maybe you're just checking things out.
Speaker 1: We're so glad that you're here this morning.
Speaker 1: But if you follow Jesus, what's going to happen?
Speaker 1: Is the Spirit's going to speak to you to take steps of obedience in your life, sometimes big, massive steps and sometimes small steps.
Speaker 1: There will be times where you'll be reading the Word or maybe hearing a message and like, the Spirit just prompts you to do something and God is leading you to take a step of obedience.
Speaker 1: And in those moments we have to decide what are we going to do?
Speaker 1: Are we going to obey or are we going to say I think about in a couple weeks from now.
Speaker 1: Pastor Cody was saying how we have Celebration Sunday coming up and Celebration Sunday is a day for people that have not yet taken the step of baptism, of publicly expressing their faith in Christ through baptism man.
Speaker 1: That is a day for people that have not yet taken the step of baptism, of publicly expressing their faith in Christ through baptism man.
Speaker 1: That is a step for you to take that God wants you to take.
Speaker 1: Take that step of baptism.
Speaker 1: I think a few weeks ago we had Edgar.
Speaker 1: He gave a great message about serving and the importance of having a lifestyle of serving and serving others.
Speaker 1: Which can we just pause and can we just say Edgar does such a great job here.
Speaker 1: Can we put our hands together for Edgar?
Speaker 1: Edgar's killing it?
Speaker 1: Here he is Just as our next steps director, just helping people take steps in their faith and maybe hear a message like that and God just put something on your heart about man.
Speaker 1: I need to take a step and obey and join a serve team and serve other people.
Speaker 1: Maybe God has put something on your heart.
Speaker 1: Maybe you have a grudge against somebody and God has led you.
Speaker 1: Man, I need to forgive.
Speaker 1: I need to take a step in forgiving somebody and that's a step of obedience.
Speaker 1: I don't know where God's leading you.
Speaker 1: Maybe some of you you've been coming to FCC for a little while and, man, you're kind of dating FCC a little bit, if you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: Right, what some of y'all need to do is y'all need to listen to what the prophet Beyonce says and just put a ring on it you know what I'm saying and just fully engage here.
Speaker 1: 845 service liked that joke.
Speaker 1: Y'all didn't like that joke as much.
Speaker 1: Some of y'all just need to come in.
Speaker 1: We have our Connect Lunch after the third service today.
Speaker 1: I think we got like 20 people signed up for it, but Connect Lunch, which is for newish people in the church, and here's what God's going to lead you to do in your life to take steps of obedience, to take steps of growth, because growth happens one step at a time.
Speaker 1: Sometimes what we think is we're like man, I'm just like so busy.
Speaker 1: I got like so many things going on right now.
Speaker 1: I'm behind on my Netflix episodes.
Speaker 1: I got like Netflix stuff to watch.
Speaker 1: I know I'm probably not the only one.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: I gotta do two hours of social media every day.
Speaker 1: I mean, come on, we got our priorities right.
Speaker 1: I'm too busy, and here's what God says.
Speaker 1: God says listen, just take a step of obedience and let me do something great in your life.
Speaker 1: You may not have everything figured out, and this is what God will do.
Speaker 1: Sometimes God won't tell you the whole story, but he'll lead you to take the next step of obedience in the story that he's written over your life.
Speaker 1: So sometimes what happens is we want to know all this over here, we want to know the rest of the story, the whole story, and God says no, no, no, I just want you to take the step of obedience right here.
Speaker 1: It's kind of like this Growing up, I did not like school.
Speaker 1: I was not a fan of school.
Speaker 1: In fact, is there anybody else in the room like me?
Speaker 1: You did not like school, you don't like school, can you just okay?
Speaker 1: Thank you, wayne.
Speaker 1: Thank you, thank you, I appreciate it.
Speaker 1: I see you.
Speaker 1: I see you, okay.
Speaker 1: I mean, come on.
Speaker 1: The first problem with school let's just be honest is just us.
Speaker 1: You got to wake up.
Speaker 1: You got to wake up super early.
Speaker 1: That's the first problem.
Speaker 1: Second problem is homework.
Speaker 1: Who's got time for that?
Speaker 1: We got video games.
Speaker 1: We got sports to play.
Speaker 1: Third problem is we all had boring teachers.
Speaker 1: Didn't anybody have a boring teacher growing up?
Speaker 1: Okay, yeah, so some of you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: Right, you had a boring teacher.
Speaker 1: I don't want to go to school, mom, why do I need to go to school?
Speaker 1: I mean, can you just explain to me, mom, why, every morning, every morning, get your rear end up out of bed, mom, I'm sick.
Speaker 1: You ain't sick, boy.
Speaker 1: Get up out of bed, go to school.
Speaker 1: And she's having me go to school, and you know, get ready to go to school, all that kind of stuff.
Speaker 1: Here's what I didn't know is what my mom wanted me to be was a productive member of society one day.
Speaker 1: I don't know how she succeeded at that, but that was her goal.
Speaker 1: That's what she wanted.
Speaker 1: All I saw was I got to wake up this morning and go to school.
Speaker 1: All I saw is I got to do my homework.
Speaker 1: All I saw is I got to do this stuff over here and I'm like, oh, I'd rather play video games, I'd rather sleep in, I'd rather go play sports.
Speaker 1: But what mom saw?
Speaker 1: Mom saw the rest of the story.
Speaker 1: Mom saw me being like a responsible adult that is educated.
Speaker 1: That's what mom saw.
Speaker 1: All I saw was this over here, and sometimes in some of our lives, god wants to do all these things over here, but all we see is right here.
Speaker 1: Some of us in our lives, we're so worried about all the outcomes and how's all this going to work?
Speaker 1: God says I have those things taken care of, all the outcomes and how's all this going to work?
Speaker 1: God says I have those things taken care of and obedience is our responsibility.
Speaker 1: Outcomes are God's responsibility.
Speaker 1: I wish this wasn't the case.
Speaker 1: I wish I could control outcomes.
Speaker 1: I can make everything.
Speaker 1: Nope, that's not your responsibility.
Speaker 1: Your responsibility is obedience and God's responsibility is outcomes.
Speaker 1: And God didn't tell Joseph what all the outcomes are going to be.
Speaker 1: God didn't tell Joseph how he was going to cross all the T's and dot all the I's and make everything happen.
Speaker 1: He did tell him one thing, though.
Speaker 1: God told Joseph that that baby, he's going to be the savior of the world.
Speaker 1: He said his name is going to be Jesus, and that word Jesus actually means the Lord saves.
Speaker 1: So his name was going to indicate why he came into the world.
Speaker 1: Now y'all think about it.
Speaker 1: You're like why did God send a savior to the world.
Speaker 1: I mean, god could have sent a philanthropist into the world.
Speaker 1: He could have sent a social media influencer into the world.
Speaker 1: He could have sent a scientist, athlete, a Savior.
Speaker 1: Why?
Speaker 1: Here's why Because humanity's biggest problem is sin.
Speaker 1: Humanity's biggest problem is sin, and all the problems in this world can be traced back to sin.
Speaker 1: And the son of God came to save us from our sins, because we could not save ourselves.
Speaker 1: You realize that Christmas is not just about a baby in a manger.
Speaker 1: Christmas is about a savior coming down to this world to die for our sin, to forgive us of our sin, to give us a victory over our sin.
Speaker 1: That's why Jesus came.
Speaker 1: He came so we can be forgiven.
Speaker 1: And you might walk in this room and you might be like Pastor Nate, like, first of all, you don't know how much sin I have in my life, like I got a lot of sin, like I got a lot of issues, and you look around the room and you're like maybe these people don't, like these are churchy people, but me, pastor Nate, like I can't be forgiven.
Speaker 1: Okay, first of all, we ain't as perfect as you think.
Speaker 1: We are.
Speaker 1: Okay, that's the first thing.
Speaker 1: Second thing is this there's more forgiveness and grace in Jesus than there is sin in you.
Speaker 1: There's more forgiveness and grace in Jesus than there is sin in you.
Speaker 1: And some of you look at your life and you've messed up and you've made mistakes and you think that nobody can forgive you and you think there's no way that there's a God of grace that can do this, because in your life you say, man, there's so much sin in me.
Speaker 1: But you may be a great sinner, but I have great news God is a greater Savior and there's more forgiveness and grace in you, in Jesus, than there is sin in you.
Speaker 1: Will somebody say amen this morning?
Speaker 1: Come on, man.
Speaker 1: I'm preaching about 80% better than y'all are responding this morning.
Speaker 1: Come on right.
Speaker 1: We have a great Savior and this Savior was actually prophesied and promised years earlier.
Speaker 1: Going back to Matthew, chapter 1, it says this in verse 22.
Speaker 1: It says all this took place.
Speaker 1: This is the birth of Jesus in this story.
Speaker 1: All this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet In Isaiah.
Speaker 1: It references this Verse 23,.
Speaker 1: This is what Isaiah says the virgin will become pregnant and give birth to a son and they will name him Emmanuel, which is translated God is with us.
Speaker 1: This was prophesied about.
Speaker 1: Jesus is not just a historical figure.
Speaker 1: Jesus is not just a cute little baby that came and was born so we would all have cute, funny Christmas movies to watch.
Speaker 1: I just love the Hallmark movies.
Speaker 1: Thank God for Jesus.
Speaker 1: Now we have Hallmark movies, right?
Speaker 1: No, we didn't thank God for Hallmark movies.
Speaker 1: Anyways, jesus.
Speaker 1: That's not who Jesus is.
Speaker 1: He was prophesied about.
Speaker 1: He loves you.
Speaker 1: He came to this earth to die for you.
Speaker 1: Jesus is King of kings, jesus Lord of lords.
Speaker 1: That is who he is and he is a life changer.
Speaker 1: And Joseph was able to experience being the earthly father of this baby Verse 24,.
Speaker 1: When Joseph woke up, look what he did.
Speaker 1: He did as the Lord's angel had commanded him and he married her, but he did not have sexual relations with her until she gave birth to a son and he named him Jesus.
Speaker 1: Joseph had a moment of obedience, and here's the reality about obedience Number one moments of obedience and you already know this are not always easy.
Speaker 1: It's not always easy to obey God, is it?
Speaker 1: Someone's gotten to the Christian life thinking and hoping that everything in the Christian life is going to be easy, not realizing that spiritual warfare is real, not realizing that you, although you have a new nature in Christ, you also have a very real flesh that is battling with this new nature.
Speaker 1: Some of us got into the Christian life thinking like everybody's going to be super excited and life is just going to be filled with like roses and puppies.
Speaker 1: And it's not and it's hard and it's challenging.
Speaker 1: And even though the Christian life is incredible and there's no life I'd rather live, it's got difficulties and what can happen in our life is we have maybe these mountaintop experiences in our Christian life that are amazing and wonderful that I've had.
Speaker 1: You go to the retreat, you go to the conference, right, you hear a worship song.
Speaker 1: You go to a worship conference, you hear a message or something and it's like mountaintop experience.
Speaker 1: But for every mountaintop what do we know is coming?
Speaker 1: And in the valley, a lot of times we don't have the emotions.
Speaker 1: In the valley is often when we feel all alone.
Speaker 1: It's in the valley when things are difficult and obedience was pretty a lot easier when we were on the mountaintop because we were feeling it.
Speaker 1: But now we've gone into the valley in our life, in our relationships with God, and we're in this valley and we're just like.
Speaker 1: It's just so hard and what was once easy has become a difficult.
Speaker 1: You used to love church.
Speaker 1: Now like, church is tough.
Speaker 1: Just to get up and come to man.
Speaker 1: You used to like I love the word.
Speaker 1: Now it's just like oh, man, it's.
Speaker 1: I don't even remember the last time I was in the word and here's what God does.
Speaker 1: God says, says it's in those valleys, those moments of obedience when they're difficult and you don't understand.
Speaker 1: This is when God shapes us and when God molds us.
Speaker 1: And this is when we lean into the character of God and who God is and who God says that we are.
Speaker 1: And this is when we learn that God can actually be trusted, that we have a real God that's bigger than our emotions and bigger than our problems and bigger than our issues.
Speaker 1: That God is real.
Speaker 1: And sometimes moments of obedience are not easy because sometimes we can be in the valleys.
Speaker 1: Can you imagine how Joseph must have felt when he's trying to do things God's way and wait till marriage stuff sucks with Mary and Mary comes to him?
Speaker 1: Mary's like I'm pregnant.
Speaker 1: Can you imagine how he felt Devastated?
Speaker 1: But God said obey.
Speaker 1: And sometimes the moments of obedience aren't always easy.
Speaker 1: But number two, like Joseph, your moment of obedience can be the beginning of the rest of your life.
Speaker 1: It says here that Mary took a birth to a son.
Speaker 1: You're to name him Jesus.
Speaker 1: He'll save his people from their sin.
Speaker 1: What Joseph could have done earlier, when Mary first came to him, is he could have bailed.
Speaker 1: He could have said like I'm not about that life, I'm not doing this.
Speaker 1: But God spoke to him and God said no, my plan is for you to raise this child.
Speaker 1: My plan is for you to be the earthly father of him.
Speaker 1: Think about this, guys.
Speaker 1: Joseph got to nurture and raise the son of God.
Speaker 1: Joseph got to take him to the temple.
Speaker 1: Joseph got to teach him the Old Testament law.
Speaker 1: Imagine how amazing that was.
Speaker 1: And that happened on the other side of his obedience.
Speaker 1: That happened when Joseph said yes, I will obey.
Speaker 1: And sometimes what happens is when we say yes to God and we obey, it puts into motion things that we have no idea about.
Speaker 1: It allows things to start happening that we have no idea about.
Speaker 1: Sometimes we could be at a place in our life where all we see is difficulty and all we can see is pain, and all we can see is addiction and all we can see is the stronghold and all we can see is the doubts, and this see is addiction, and all we can see is the stronghold, and all we can see is the doubts.
Speaker 1: And this is what God wants.
Speaker 1: God says I just want you to obey me and I'll take care of all those other things.
Speaker 1: God says I just want you to trust me and leave the consequences up to me.
Speaker 1: I just want you to say yes to me and I will do all the rest.
Speaker 1: And you might be in the room right now and you might just feel overwhelmed and you're like I just don't know, I can't see up from down.
Speaker 1: I just I don't even know how to move forward.
Speaker 1: Can I just say let God figure that out.
Speaker 1: And if you'll just obey God, he will figure it out, and your moment of obedience can have massive impact on people and you may not even realize it.
Speaker 1: And this is how I know, because it happened to me.
Speaker 1: Many years ago there was a family that was stationed at Travis Air Force Base and they were followers of Jesus already, but they weren't really faithful to church and the Spirit had moved in their lives and they just knew they needed to fully engage in a church.
Speaker 1: Well, to make a long story short.
Speaker 1: They ended up coming to the church I was a part of.
Speaker 1: I was raised in this community in Solano County and they took a step and came to something like what we have here at Connect Lunch and they joined the church, became part of the church and they started serving in the church neck lunch.
Speaker 1: And they joined the church, became part of the church and they started serving in the church.
Speaker 1: And the first place they started serving was in kids ministry.
Speaker 1: Well, this knucklehead right here was in fifth grade and let me tell you, I was a knucklehead in fifth grade and I didn't know this guy and his wife.
Speaker 1: I just know they were serving and they were just somebody else that serves in church, right, and you know fifth grade, I'm like, okay cool, you're my helper in my class, hopefully you're nice and hopefully you give me candy, right, and I grew up and he started serving in youth and for whatever reason, god just really used him in my life and I remember he would just serve faithfully.
Speaker 1: He wasn't like some cool guy, he wasn't some flashy guy, he just served.
Speaker 1: I remember he like went to some of my baseball games.
Speaker 1: I still remember that and he just was there, he just was faithful.
Speaker 1: I knew on Sundays he was going to be in the service.
Speaker 1: I just I remember he said, hey, man, I was a teenager.
Speaker 1: He's like, hey, you can sit in church with me.
Speaker 1: I was like, cool, and I don't know why, I remember this.
Speaker 1: But he was like taking notes.
Speaker 1: And I'm like, well, if he's taking notes, I probably should take notes too.
Speaker 1: I remember one time in service this is cool he said he wrote out on a three by five card a Bible verse and he gave it to me and he said hey, I want you to memorize this Bible verse.
Speaker 1: And I remember him saying this like it was yesterday.
Speaker 1: He says if you memorize this Bible verse, I will make it well worth your while.
Speaker 1: Like, well worth my while.
Speaker 1: What does that mean, I don't know.
Speaker 1: So I memorized the Bible verse and he took me out to Wendy's and we had lunch.
Speaker 1: I was like, oh, that's cool.
Speaker 1: You know I was a teenager and he was friends with my dad, so it was cool, for whatever reason.
Speaker 1: Like he just impacted my life and I remember, as I was getting later in my high school years, I was making decisions for what was I going to do with my life and seeking the Lord.
Speaker 1: I remember, like I had said earlier in the message, that I felt God leading me to be a pastor and I obeyed and I said, okay, I'm going to do this.
Speaker 1: And the first person I told was not my dad, was not my mom got on the phone and I called him and I said hey, man, I got to talk to you.
Speaker 1: Man, I get emotional just thinking about it.
Speaker 1: I don't know why.
Speaker 1: I got emotional at 845 service too and I said I just want you to know like God's called me to be a pastor.
Speaker 1: And he said I know, and because of his influence on my life and because of his faithfulness, because of his impact, all of you here today are indirectly impacted because of him and I honestly this is years ago now.
Speaker 1: I don't know what happened to him.
Speaker 1: They like moved out of the area.
Speaker 1: He probably doesn't even know what I'm doing now, but I'm here because he said yes to God and I don't know what those conversations look like with him and his wife for him getting engaged in a church.
Speaker 1: I don't know the kind of internal struggles that he had.
Speaker 1: I know the dude had some church baggage.
Speaker 1: I knew he had some church hurt.
Speaker 1: I didn't know, I was just a kid.
Speaker 1: I knew he had to work through some of those things, but at some point in his life he said yes to God.
Speaker 1: And because he said yes to God, my life is impacted and my life was forever changed.
Speaker 1: And here's the thing, friends, is you never know what God can do through a single act of obedience in your life.
Speaker 1: What is God leading you to do?
Speaker 1: What is God saying yes to?
Speaker 1: Where is God saying leading you to take a step in your faith?
Speaker 1: Maybe it's nothing I even said this morning, maybe it's nothing in the text at all that we talked about, but maybe God is leading you to take a step and there is a punk little fifth grader that's on the other side of that and there is a life that's going to be changed because of that.
Speaker 1: But this is where it begins.
Speaker 1: It begins today, with you, god, and you're just saying Lord, you can have my yes.
Speaker 1: And you're just saying, lord, you can have my yes.
Speaker 1: Maybe everybody else won't understand, maybe it doesn't make sense right now.
Speaker 1: Maybe you can justify all the reasons and I could probably help you justify them of why you shouldn't take a step of obedience, but will you just say yes to God, because you never know what God can do in one moment of obedience.
Speaker 1: Let's all bow our heads and close our eyes right now.