When you hear the Christmas story, do you ever wonder like me, hey, what about Joseph?
I mean, like he's there early on, then he disappears. Is there anything we can really learn from this disappearing father in the story? Well, I've got to tell you, there's some great things to learn, and we're going to cover that today. Welcome to this Edition of Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. We are a discipleship-driven ministry on a mission to encourage Christians everywhere to live like Christians. We're in the middle of our series, Peace on Earth, Discovering Hope in the Christmas Story. So far, Chip and our guest teacher, Tim Lundy, have highlighted how Mary and Zachariah responded to the angel's command to fear not. In today's program, Chip will begin to unpack the story of Joseph. There's a lot to get to, so if you're ready, let's dive right into Chip's message, Fear Not, God Uses Costly Obedience, from Matthew chapter 1. The Christmas message can be summed up as God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life. God really does love you, and He really has a wonderful plan for your life. Bill Bright, 1952, he wrote a little pamphlet called The Four Spiritual Laws, and that's law number one.
And then law number two is about all mankind has separated from God because of our sin, and law number three with Christ paid the penalty for our sin, and law number four is you must receive Christ personally. And then in that booklet, there was a little prayer. The first time I heard that God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life, I was a junior in high school. My sister Punky had, I didn't know it, but she recently had come to Christ. We were sort of a religious semi, but no relationship with God growing up. And so she invited me to go to, you know, a thing at some guy's house.
I don't know if it was Young Life or Campus Crusade, but there were some guitars and they sang some songs and people were pretty nice. And then we got done, and the guy who owned the home had a pretty nice home for all these people to come. And I was new, so he said, Chip, you're Punky's brother. I said, yeah, because can I speak to you for a few minutes?
And I said, sure. So we walk in the back, and there's one of these big tables, and he sits on one side and then me on the other, and he hands me these four spiritual laws. And he said, I just want to share this with you. And so follow along as I read. So he reads through this, and then he gets, there's a little prayer at the end. And then at the very end, he said, just repeat after me.
And he read part of the prayer, and I mean, I don't know the guy from Adam. I don't know what's going on. You know, all I know is my sister is this wonderful person, and she asked me to come to this thing. I'm being a little flipped out like, you know, what am I going to say? No, I'm going to read this thing, buddy. You know, so anyway, he read something. I read something, and he kind of bowed his head and then said, congratulations.
I said, for what? He goes, well, you're a Christian now. I said, really? I grew up in America. I thought I was always a Christian.
I never went back. It was weird. It wasn't real.
I think he was super sincere, super well-intended, and I bet he got on the phone and told people that, you know, some young guy came, and he became a Christian tonight. See, God does love us, and he does have a wonderful plan, but over time, some people, maybe to try to make the gospel a little bit more appealing, they've sort of shifted what that word wonderful means, and as a result, we have, I think, a lot of people who think that if you just follow Jesus, you have a marriage problem, that'll go away. You have a problem child, that'll go away. You have financial problems, it'll go away. If you don't believe it, just turn on the TV. You send them money, they tell you God will, you know, send you money. I mean, there's this crazy, crazy thoughts that this wonderful life means painless, easy, free.
Everything gets solved, but what I want you to know, God really does offer a wonderful life, but it's a bit different. In fact, our Christmas story, exhibit A, Zachariah and Elizabeth, elderly, barren couple receive miracle baby who becomes first prophet in 400 years, John the Baptist. Is that wonderful or not? It's miraculous. Exhibit B, Mary, humble peasant girl from wrong side of town becomes earthly mother of Jesus through virgin birth. Is that wonderful? It's amazing. Exhibit C, Joseph, blue collar worker, Mary's unwed mother, and becomes the earthly father of the savior of the world, Jesus.
Those sound like headlines, don't they? See, we spiritualize all this and romanticize it, but that's, those are the wonderful things that happen. Do you know what the word wonderful actually means?
Look at your notes. This is the definition in the dictionary of wonderful. Marvelous thing, miraculous, inspiring delight, an object of astonishment. Literally it comes from full of awe or wonder, extremely good. It's seeing something that is just so magnificent. In fact, the Hebrew word pala is a phenomena outside of the realm of human explanation, that which is separate from the normal course of events. Wonderful doesn't mean easy, nice, everything works okay.
In fact, just lean back, you don't need to turn there. Let me give you a biblical example of the word wonderful. Psalm 139, filled with the Holy Spirit, David writes, Lord, you have searched me and you know me. You know when I lie down and when I rise up. You understand my thoughts from afar. You scrutinize my ways and my path and my lying down. You're acquainted with all my ways. Before there's a word on my tongue, behold Lord, you know it all.
Think of that. Before you say a word, God knows what you will say. Every private thought, every part about you. He goes on to say, even before there's a word on my tongue, behold Lord, you know it all. You have encircled me behind and in front and you've placed your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me.
I cannot comprehend it. Here's what I want you to get. God has a wonderful plan as in astonishing, supernatural, miraculous, not to be confused with easy, painless, fulfilling.
Everything's going to be great. As you open your notes, I have a question that I'd kind of like to ask and answer because if you're a thinking person, if God really does have this wonderful life, astonishing, miraculous thing He wants to do in us, why are there many people, I mean many people, disappointed and disillusioned with God? I thought Jesus offered a wonderful life.
I thought He was going to make things better. I just don't understand it. I've tried to do what God wanted me to do and my husband left me.
You know what? I've struggled. Our priorities, our finances are in line and we went bankrupt. We met this group and they said they were wonderful Christians.
They said these and they ripped us off. I've really tried to be the person God wants me to be and my daughter is suicidal and she's severely depressed. It's been hard. It's been difficult.
There's been injustice. There's been pain. I've had suffering.
I've had difficulty. If God is so good, then how come my mom died of cancer? If God is so good, do I need to go on? Anybody know anybody, maybe including yourself, who's been disappointed with God? You see, here's the deal. If we believe wonderful means, Jesus solves everything, that you just come to Jesus.
I've been working on that twirl. And everything's going to be great. That's called an illusion. And you know what illusions produce? Disillusionment. And by the way, this isn't just TV and prosperity gospel stuff. This has gotten into the fabric of America and especially the church culture, where somehow we think when we are committed, when we do what God wants us to do, when we're righteous, when we're faithful, somehow things ought to.
And I just want you to know, I don't think anyone graduates out of this. It's so subtle. I mean, I remember 13 years ago, my wife got cancer. Lord, are you kidding? I remember when one of my sons in his teenage years, I mean, went through a horrendous rebellion. I remember when I was involved with another Christian ministry and they literally ripped us off for big dollars.
I've been overseas and met people who said, God, I'm trying to follow you and this is what we get? Here's what I want you to get. The answer to this question literally flows right out of the Christmas story. And the answer can be found in a study of Joseph's life. Joseph teaches us the high cost of receiving God's wonderful plans.
Please don't throw out the baby with the bathwater. God wants to do something in you, in me, and through you that will astonish people, that you would look back and marvel, that you would go, I'm just a regular person. How could God have ever done this? But it doesn't happen right away.
There's a process you go through. There's much perseverance. There's great difficulty and pain, tribulation and suffering. And those are a part of a fallen world, even for those that love Jesus with all their heart. In fact, let's check out Joseph's life. The context here, Matthew opens it up. So Matthew, right, remember? Tax collector, not a follower of Judaism, let alone Jesus, comes to Jesus, is transformed. And what he realizes is the Jewish community he's going to write believes that the Messiah is going to come. He's going to crush Rome.
They're better than everybody else. Life's going to be great. And the Messiah is going to solve everything. But he gives us a genealogy. And the genealogy challenges and upends his audience's worldview and their expectations about Messiah.
So don't miss this. Matthew starts with Abraham because that's the father of the Jewish race. And the first promise to Abraham was about through you, all the world, all peoples, not just Jews, all people will be blessed. Matthew puts four women, three of which, are you ready, are Gentiles. One's a prostitute. One sleeps with her father-in-law because he betrayed her and didn't keep his commitments. And then you have one that the way the world worked, you know, David made some really big mistakes, but Bathsheba wasn't innocent. Women in the Middle East were very conscious about being very modest. She decides she goes up on the roof to bathe.
That was a duo. All I want you to get is he's poking holes at these expectations. He's going to say it started with a concern for Gentiles. It ends with a list of group of people that no one hardly even knows. And there's embedded four women who don't have a lot of status, three of which are fairly immoral at some season of their life. And Matthew says, you want to know the context of the God's wonderful plans?
It's for people who you would never think even deserve it. And then he goes on and introduces Joseph. This is the man who will be the earthly father of Jesus.
And I would like to say the situation is not so wonderful. And we pick up the story in verse 18 of Matthew 1. Now, this is the birth of Jesus the Messiah and how it 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, you know, again, the romantic side of the story is, oh, he found out it was from the Holy Spirit.
Everything's going to be great. I'd like to suggest that Joseph's response is a very painful dilemma. First, he, as far as he knows, he's been betrayed. Anybody been dating someone and find out they cheated on you? You don't have to raise your hands.
Anybody been married to someone and found out they cheated on you? So your response is, oh, it's okay because I'm a Christian and everything's wonderful, right? Or are you livid, angry, mad, betrayed? It's where Joseph is.
You're listening to Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. We'll return to our series Peace on Earth in just a minute. But quickly, I want to remind you that we're in the middle of our year-end match. Thanks to a few close ministry friends, every gift we receive until December 31st will be matched dollar for dollar.
For more information about how to partner with us, go to livingontheedge.org or call us at 888-333-6003. And thanks for doing whatever God leads you to do. Well, let's rejoin Chip now for the rest of his talk. Here's the dilemma. According to the law, the consequences for this behavior is Mary should be stoned. But because Joseph, her husband, was faithful to the law, or another translation will say because he was a just man. It means he was a righteous man.
Joseph believed, he trusted, he lived out his faith. Because he was a righteous man, he did not want to expose her to public disgrace, but he had mind to divorce her quietly. He had every right to say, she's pregnant, I'm innocent, let the law be the law. And you got to remember he loves her. He's deeply wounded. And he's thinking, I don't want her to be stoned. And so, where it says divorce her quietly, what he knew is he could get two witnesses, he could write a bill of divorce, and quietly, maybe she'll move to another community.
This gets out of town. He's been betrayed. But the Old Testament talks about a compassionate justice.
Isaiah 42, the first five verses, we're speaking of the coming of the Messiah. And he talks about the compassion and the tenderness in which this Messiah, the God who has every right to judge all the sin and all the idolatry, it says He will bring about justice. And so the dilemma here is, I've been betrayed, I'm hurting deeply.
Yes, I could have my way and expose her, maybe feel better about myself, but I love her. So his righteous compromise is, I'm just going to put her away quietly. I want to follow the spirit of the law. I want to be compassionate.
I want to give her what she doesn't really deserve. And I'd like to encourage you, he has a emotional barrier to overcome. You'll notice in the next section where it talks about the angel's intervention, it says, but after he had considered this, would you just circle that and then we'll come back to this section? That word considered is a very, it's a word in the New Testament that has two meanings. One it can mean to consider or to ponder, but its use throughout the New Testament has much more as it means to be angry, to be deeply disturbed, to be mad.
In Luke 4 28, remember Jesus reads the text, says, I'm the Messiah and they take him out on a hill and they're going to throw him off. This word is used, it says, and the wrath of the people from the synagogue, same word. It's a picture of someone who emotionally feels so angry. Any of you felt really angry when someone did something terrible to you and you want to say something or do something, but Joseph takes time and he ponders and he goes, okay, there's a righteous compromise here. I'm not denying there's a wound. I'm not denying that I haven't been really angry and really, really hurt, but I want to be righteous.
I want to treat her in a way that she doesn't deserve. And notice because that's what he does, the response. The response is, and after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid. Take Mary home as your wife because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit and she will give birth to a son and you're to give him the name Jesus because he will save his people from their sin. The angel intervenes and basically says what?
Fear not. What I want you to get, this story, Joseph is going to have this incredibly wonderful, miraculous life with unmentionable privilege of being the earthly father of the Savior of the world who will come and live a perfect life, die for the sins of all mankind, and offer forgiveness to whosoever would believe. That's the great reward, but the process is he was a righteous man.
You know, can you imagine the guys down at the Jerusalem coffee shop? Did you hear about that guy in Nazareth? Yeah, yeah, everybody thought he was a really righteous guy and, you know, he's got his girlfriend pregnant.
They slipped out of town. You know, I was going to have him do our carpentry work, but he lost his reputation. His family name is disgraced.
I mean, his world's falling apart. How many people do you think would believe this, oh, this baby's from the Holy Spirit one? Oh, oh, yeah, Joseph, yeah, I mean, you know, it happens all the time.
You know? See, we again, we got this picture of the nativity scene and the lights and all the notions and all the little movies and Bible stories. Here's a man whose life, whose work, whose family, whose reputation is absolutely disgraced, and he chooses not to be afraid regardless of the cost and the consequences because he hears a word from God through an interview.
I'm going to swim upstream. It's hard to believe, and the price is really high, but this child is of the Holy Spirit, and I want you to do two things. Number one, Mary's going through a big struggle. I want you to marry her right away. I want you to take her home. This legal contract that you had, right? It's a betrothal. The only way you can get out of a betrothal is a writ of divorce. No, I don't want you to divorce her. I want you to find her, and I want you to bring her into your home. I don't want you to have sex with her, says it a little bit nicer in the New Testament here, and then I want you to name it.
You name him Jesus because, as you know, that word Joshua, savior of his people, Joseph, here's your assignment. It's hard. It's difficult.
It's painful. It's not fair, and people are going to think all kind of stuff of you, but you're my man, and what I want you to do is I want you to embrace it. I don't want you to be afraid because life is more than just now. You are a part of this wonderful, astonishing, miraculous plan that I've put in place, but there's a big high price to it, and that's what he does. All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet, Isaiah 7.14. Virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel, which means God with us. Your expectations about what was going to happen have been painful, difficult, costly.
From the outside, this is what people think, and they're judging you. You were actually chosen because you were a righteous man because you would trust his word. So all the world now thinks this of you, and God is saying, I have this wonderful, miraculous, astonishing, I mean in awe, and you are going to be the one who raises this little baby to become a young man, and I will use him in ways like no one who has ever been born because he will be fully man and fully God. He will live a perfect life. He will die for the sins of the world. He will rise from the dead, and that is your role in your life, and the price is very, very high.
That's not exactly Joseph and Mary on the little donkey with the violins in the background. It was hard. It was painful. How many of you have been deeply disappointed with God? How many of you really wondered, if God really cares and loves me, why this?
Why now? This is so challenging, and here's the thing, as though something is strange or wrong or unbiblical when the fact of the matter is, Joseph tells us there's a very high cost to obedience. The wonder that he wants to do in you, the miraculous that we talked about, doesn't happen casually. It happens to people that hear his word, are willing to swim upstream and to trust God when all the things around you just feel like, oh, God. So what does Joseph do? What's his response?
It's immediate, radical, and costly. When Joseph woke up, notice the immediacy. When Joseph woke up, he did, underline that. How many times has God given you a little prompting, call so and so?
Go ahead and share your faith. I want you to help them out and pay their rent. I want you to go volunteer for that.
I want you to ask the person at work that you can tell is really struggling, you know, is everything okay? Right, those little promptings? Here's God's will. Obey immediately. Just respond, radically obey to what he shows you. God's plan is to give us these little tiny windows of light, and you obey, then he gives you more. Then you obey, he gives you more.
But if you don't obey what he says, you don't get more light. That's the teaching of Jesus. And so he awoke and immediately he did what the angel of the Lord said. What? He took Mary into his home as his wife.
He didn't consummate the marriage until she gave birth to a son. And then he gave him the name Jesus, the one who had saved the world from our sin. This is Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram, and you've been listening to Part 1 of Chip's message, Fear Not, God Uses Costly Obedience, from our series, Peace on Earth. To learn more about this ministry or our many resources, visit livingontheedge.org or call 888-333-6003.
That's 888-333-6003 or livingontheedge.org. Chip's back in studio with me, and Chip, we're in the middle of our year-end match. Each day you've highlighted some of the discipleship work we're doing globally. But this time, if you would, take a step back and share a bit of your heart for this ministry work. What keeps you going? You know, Dave, that's an interesting question. And of course, first and foremost, I believe God's called me to do this, and he's gifted me to do this, and I'm going to be obedient. But from the emotional standpoint, I just have to tell you, it's the impact in people's lives.
I mean, every day people... I was at the airport, and a lady looked at me kind of funny, and she walked up and said, Hi, my name's Wanda. And for the last twenty-some years, my husband and I, every single morning, have listened to Living on the Edge, and it's shaped us, and it's how we raised our kids, and our kids have grown. And she just began to talk about it, and I got a letter from a young man that trusted Christ at twenty-five and had had a pretty rough life. And he writes to me and says, I've listened to every sermon you've made available over the last sixteen years, some of them I've listened to four and five and six times. And then he goes on to share how his dad died when he was fourteen, and I didn't know how to be a man, I didn't know how to be a husband, I didn't know how to be a father. And just recently, God had led him to become a pastor of a small little country church. And he just writes, pouring out his heart, I got all this just from listening to Living on the Edge.
And Dave, I've got a longer email, just a couple hanging on by dear life. I mean, cancer and struggles and lost jobs and pain and things that you just think, are they ever going to make it through all this? And you know, just saying, every day we get up and we listen to God's Word through Living on the Edge.
So the reason I do what I do is God's Word doesn't return void. And by the grace of God, we teach God's Word to millions and millions and millions of people every year. And it's going across the nation and across the world, bringing some to Christ, strengthening others, and may in turn make a difference in the life of others. And when I have my down days, I take stacks of these emails and letters, and I just read them, and I remind myself, it's not about you. And I love what I get to do, and we're going to keep on doing this. And that's why we're asking people to help us, why we're asking them to pray and to give so that regular people who are really hurting and need hope and help can get it, and we can give it to them together.
Thanks for sharing those stories, Chip. It's so humbling to hear how God is using this ministry to touch people's lives. Well, if you'd like to join us in the work that we do, now is a great time to become a financial partner. Thanks to a handful of donors, every dollar we receive between now and December 31 will be doubled dollar for dollar. To send a gift, call us at 888-333-6003, that's 888-333-6003, or go to LivingOnTheEdge.org.
Have listeners tap donate. Well, with that, here again is Chip to share a few final words. As we close today, let me remind you, God uses ordinary people. But I meet a lot of believers that they're moral, they're pretty religious, they're trying very hard. But as we talk, what I begin to recognize is they don't experience much of God's presence.
You know what I mean? They're not getting promptings from the Lord. That might be you. It might be like, you know, I've got to have good morals, and I need to go to church, I need to read my Bible. But what separates really knowing Him versus knowing about Him is what Joseph models.
It's called costly obedience. You see, in our relationship with God, he says, if you'll respond to the light or the truth that I give you, I'll give you more. In fact, he wants to give us more and more and more and more. But the Lord speaks to us, and He might say you need to forgive someone, or He might say, I'm prompting you to get in My word on a regular basis, or He prompts you to help someone, or He prompts you just a passing thought, you know, financially, give some money over there to help those people. And when you respond to that light, you get more light, and you begin to experience His presence. If you don't, even the light you have according to Jesus often gets taken away. Could I encourage you to sit quietly for 30 to 60 seconds and simply say to the Lord, is there any action I need to take? Is there a baby step that I need to take?
Is there anyone I need to forgive? Here's the key. When you hear God's word, and when you read God's word, the most important thing you can do is act. Take some step of action that demonstrates you trust God. As you do that, you will begin to experience Him like never before.
That's so true, Chip. Thanks. And before we wrap up, I want you to know that as a staff, we ask the Lord to help you take whatever your next faith step is. And if there's a way we can help, we'd love to do that. Give us a call at 888-333-6003, or connect with us at livingontheedge.org. And while you're there, take a moment and look through our resources on various topics, many of them absolutely free. Well, be sure to join us next time as Chip continues his series, Peace on Earth. Until then, I'm Dave Drouie, saying thanks for listening to this Edition of Living on the Edge.
