A Greater Dream

It's great to see all of you here this morning. What a wonderful time that we have had of worshiping God together and, and today feels something like a homecoming. You're seeing a number of familiar faces from the past. just a warm welcome to, everyone that's here today, thank you for choosing to worship, with us this morning.

For a time of study and the word this morning, we're gonna be looking at the part of the Christmas narrative that is found in Matthew chapter one. And verse 18 through 25. So if you have your Bibles, I would encourage you to Turn there and we'll try to look at these verses this morning and if you wanna give a title to the message today, it would be a greater Dream, a greater dream. Now I'll start my message off today on a very non-Christmassy note, if that's OK.

this past Monday, the Los Angeles Lakers retired. Kobe Bryant's 2 jerseys. And during halftime of the Lakers-Warriors game, They had a ceremony honoring his 20-year amazing career as a Laker and with great fanfare, they retired his number 8 and his number 24 jersey. And at the end of the ceremony, they gave him the microphone.

And gave him the opportunity to speak and near the end of his speech, he began to talk to his three daughters. And I want to read to you just a, an excerpt of what he said to his daughters. He said to them, hopefully, what you get from tonight. is the understanding that when you get up early and you work hard, when you stay up late and you work hard, when you don't feel like working, you're too tired, you don't want to push yourself, but you do it anyway.

What you'll see happen is that you won't accomplish your dreams. Your dreams won't come true. When Kobe got to that point of his speech, I immediately assumed that he was misspeaking. It definitely was not what I was expecting him to say to his daughters on this amazing occasion, but here's the full text of what he said to his daughters.

He said to them, you won't accomplish your dreams, your dreams won't come true. Something greater will. And if you can understand that, then I'm doing my job. As a father.

Your dreams won't come true. Something greater will. Those words have been going through my head. All week, especially in connection with the story that's in our passage today in Matthew chapter 1 because that's exactly what happens to Joseph in Matthew chapter 1 verses 18 through 25, as we'll see.

Joseph had a dream of becoming married to Mary and walking through life with her. But we'll see this morning that God essentially shatters that dream to such a degree that Joseph is left thinking that he had no choice but to divorce Mary and to bring an end to their relationship. But then an angel of the Lord appears to Joseph in a dream and gives to him a greater dream. A dream bigger than anything Joseph could have ever imagined.

And in the process, he takes Joseph. From a shattered dream to an epic dream of glorious dimensions centered on Jesus. The child that is in Mary's womb. If Joseph could be here with us today and share his testimony with us in our service today, I think he would say something like this to all of us.

He would say, if you surrender your life to God, if you trust and obey his revelation, even when his revelation contradicts the thoughts inside your own head. Your little dreams will not come true. Something greater than your dreams will come true, far beyond your wildest imagination. Joseph would talk that way because that's what happened to him.

In Matthew chapter 1 verses 18 to 25, and the journey that he takes from a shattered dream to a greater dream that is centered on the person of Jesus Christ. And as we study this passage this morning, we'll break it down this way, look, we'll look at the four stages. And Joseph's journey from a shattered dream to a greater dream centered. On the person of Jesus and Mary's womb.

And the first of these stages is found in verse 18, and that is that Joseph encounters. The miracle of the virgin conception of Jesus in Mary's womb. Look how the story begins in verse 18. Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows.

When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit. When you think of betrothal, In biblical times, just think of modern day engagement on steroids. Joseph and Mary's marital vows have already been made. They're not living together as husband and wife, but in the eyes of the law, they are legally Husband and wife, so much so that breaking their betrothal, breaking their engagement would require a divorce.

During this time period of betrothal, that Joseph and Mary are in right now. Joseph is using this time to make preparations to provide a home for Mary, getting ready for the day when he would come to her. And take her home. To be his wife.

It would be then that they would consummate their marriage and Joseph could then fulfill his dream. Of living a quiet life with Mary until death parted them. But something happens that shatters Joseph's quiet dream. Look again at verse 18.

During this time when Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit. We know from Luke's account that after being told that she would conceive the Messiah in her womb, Mary had gone to Judea to visit her cousin, Elizabeth for a period of about 3 months. And then she returned back home to Nazareth. So it was probably at that point, around the 3-month point that Joseph discovers that Mary is pregnant.

Now we the readers can read verse 18 and we know that Mary is with child by means of the Holy Spirit, but Joseph doesn't know that. All he knows is that Mary is pregnant. He doesn't realize it yet, but he has just encountered the virgin miraculous conception. of Jesus Christ, the long awaited Messiah in the womb of the woman that he is betrothed to.

How does he respond to this wonderful history making development? This leads us to the second stage in the story of Joseph's journey from a shattered dream to a bigger dream centered on the person of Jesus and Mary's womb. And that is 2, Joseph's own understanding leaves him wanting to divorce Mary for unfaithfulness. How's that?

For his response to this miracle. Look at what the text says in verse 19. And Joseph, her husband, being a righteous man and not wanting to disgrace her, wanted to send her away secretly. Joseph finds out that she's pregnant and his response is he wants to send her away and the verb that is translated send away is one of the Greek words for divorce.

In a nutshell, we learned two things about Joseph here in verse 19. We learned by explicit statement that Joseph is a righteous man. Which means that he was a man who lived his life in humble conformity to the law of God. Secondly, we learn by implication that Joseph is a gracious and merciful man.

The text says being a righteous man, he wanted to send her away. But Joseph evidently was also a merciful man and he did not want to disgrace Mary. So he was wanting to send her away secretly if possible, or as privately and discreetly as possible so as not to bring public humiliation and shame to Mary. In Deuteronomy chapter 22, you can read this at your leisure.

There's actually provisions made for what a person should do if immorality is discovered on the part of a woman during the betrothal period of the relationship. If during this period of betrothal, the woman is discovered to have been unfaithful, she was to be stoned to death. Together with the man who had been immoral with her. In the first century, for whatever reason, common practice was not to stone in situations like this, to stone the girl, for example, but simply to divorce her, declaring her unfaithfulness as the reason for the divorce and thereby preserving the husband's honor in the situation and leaving the disgraced woman to deal with the shame of her divorce on these grounds.

So Joseph is confronted with the fact that his fiance essentially is pregnant. And he uses his reasoning powers to figure this all out and he ends up in a conflicted place. In verse 19, we're told what Joseph did not want to do, and we're also told what he wants to do. He was not wanting to disgrace her, but he did want to divorce her, only secretly, but he's still paralyzed.

In fact, in verse 20 we're told that even after Joseph had figured out what he didn't want to do and what he did want to do, he's still giving it a lot of thought. The text says in verse 20 but when he had considered this, and we'll finish that in just a moment, but let's just ponder the fact that Joseph himself, even after he knew what he wanted to do, is still considering. This, he's thinking about it. The Greek word translated considered is a compound word.

It's the word in attached to the Greek word for anger. Or passion This word literally means to think deeply. Upon something about which one has very passionate feelings. And I think we can all imagine Joseph's feelings at this point.

He's hurting. He's angry and he's deeply frustrated with the lack of a simple way forward. And I want us to linger on this for just a moment. I think sometimes we read accounts like this in the Christmas narrative and we tend to view the characters as two dimensional creatures.

who know that. They're in a Christmas play. That everyone is watching. We imagine that Joseph hears that Mary is pregnant and He responds by saying, oh, I know what's going on.

This is the Christmas story, and this is going to be in the first chapter of Matthew. In a few decades, and I get to be in the Christmas narrative that generations to come will read about and sing about. That's not what Joseph is thinking. He's thinking this is my wife who has pledged herself to me, and I have pledged myself to her.

I've sought to be pure and to guard her purity, and yet she's pregnant. Which means that she has obviously been with another man, which means that she has been unfaithful to me. Which means that Mary is not the woman that I thought she was, which means that I won't be the husband to her that I had hoped to be. My dreams of our life together are over, and my next action point is simply to divorce her.

And let her go. Joseph is devastated right now. Feeling stung by Mary's apparent betrayal. He's confused.

Everything he knows about Mary doesn't fit with the fact that she's pregnant. So Joseph is thinking over These things with deeply passionate feelings, and he's arrived at what he needs to do and what he wants to do, but he's paralyzed and keeps giving more consideration to this matter. We know from verse 20 that Joseph is also experiencing fear. Being afraid to take Mary as his wife.

We know this because when the angel does show up, he has to say to Joseph, don't be afraid to take Mary as your wife. So, There's anger, frustration, confusion, hurt. Fear, imagine the turmoil and the emotions roiling inside of Joseph's head as he contemplates the need to end his relationship with Mary, and he's agitating over this and he goes to sleep. Before we go to the next stage of Joseph's journey, I wanna leave us all with this thought that's hit me hard this week.

among the many things that we can say about Christianity, we have to say that Christianity is indeed a religion of the mind. If there ever was a religion of the mind, it is Christianity. We're called in the book of Proverbs to seek after wisdom and to chase after wisdom and understanding as we would chase after hidden valuable treasures. We're called to think deeply, we're called to gird up the loins of our minds.

In 1 Peter chapter 1, we're called in Romans 12 to think sanely. Or to have sound judgment. We're called in various places to meditate. Christianity is without a doubt a religion that calls us to rigorous intellectual engagement.

And yet the same God who calls us to deep rigorous thinking is the God who also tells us that reason alone and thinking alone will never get us to the truth. The same Bible that tells us to seek after wisdom and understanding is the Bible that tells us do not lean on your own understanding. And this is the case with Joseph in our passage today as he looks at this occurrence of his wife's pregnancy, he's giving it a tremendous amount of deep thought. No one ever thought about this more than he did.

Yet with all of his deep thinking, he never arrives at the truth of what had happened to Mary. Joseph doesn't realize it yet, but he is a man who's reached the edge of his reasoning, and he stands in need of revelation from God. And that revelation is going to take him in an entirely different direction. Then the direction his own reasoning is taking him right now.

This leads us to the 3rd stage of Joseph's journey from a shattered dream to a greater dream that is centered on the person of Jesus and Mary's womb. Number 3, he receives divine revelation regarding Jesus, conceived in Mary's womb. He receives revelation that basically tells him what he had failed to arrive at on his own, through his own thinking. Look at what happens in verse 20.

But when he had considered this, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream. Notice guys, that the text does not say Joseph dreamed that an angel. Appeared To him. The text says an angel of the Lord appeared to him, actually appeared to him in the context of a dream.

Which means that the angel actually appeared. The dream was simply the venue in which the angel of the Lord made his appearance to Joseph. And look at how the angel begins to speak to Joseph and how he refers to him. He appears verse 20 saying, Joseph, son of David.

Joseph would know right away. That something pretty amazing is going down here. Joseph was no doubt used to people calling him Joseph or Joe or Broseph. Or perhaps sometimes Joseph's son of Jacob because that was his dad's name.

But Joseph, son of David, Certainly, David was his ancestor. Matthew has established that fact, but to be called by this title would have been highly unusual and probably unprecedented in Joseph's life. Joseph would know right away that something's going down here. That is truly Davidic, Messianic in its import.

Something noble is about to be asked of Joseph and before the angel gets to asking that thing of Joseph, he reminds Joseph of his identity as a royal son of David. The angel continues. Speaking as a messenger from God, the angel says to Joseph, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife. Joseph evidently had been afraid to do this for fear of displeasing God as a righteous man, and the angel is saying, Joseph, you're good with God if you marry her.

Don't be afraid to take Mary as your wife on God's account. He's good with this, and he wants you to marry her. Look at the reason he gives. He says, for the child who has been conceived in her, is of Let's pause right there.

Imagine how riveted Joseph would be. At this point The child that is Who has been conceived in her is of. No one would have cared more about how that sentence finished than Joseph. Where did this baby in Mary's womb come from?

What treacherous man is the father of this child? But instead of giving the name of some evil man who had been with Mary, the angel says, for the child who has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. Wow. This means that there is no earthly father to account for the presence of the child in Mary's womb.

This child is in her womb miraculously through the Holy Spirit who caused this conception to occur. And not only that, but the angel tells Joseph that the child in her womb will come to full term and he will be a boy. Verse 21, he says, she will bear a son, and you, Joseph, shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins. Understand that naming someone back in this day was a show of authority.

of dominion and responsibility. The angel is telling Joseph, Joseph, even though you are not the biological father of the child in Mary's womb, God wants you to name him. God wants you to assume responsibility for him. God wants you to take him as your own and be an earthly father to him and bring him up as if he were your own.

Essentially, The angel is not simply telling Joseph to take Mary as his wife, he's also saying to Joseph, take this boy. As your own And it is to you, I give the honor. Of naming him. As for the name that Joseph is to give the child, the angel says in verse 20 you shall call his name Jesus.

The name Jesus is the Greek form of the Hebrew name Yeshua or Yehoshua, which means Jehovah is salvation or Jehovah saves. And pay attention to that. The angel says, you shall call his name Jesus, or Jehovah saves, for he will save his people from their sins. Jesus' name means Jehovah saves.

And why is Joseph supposed to call this child Jehovah saves? The angel says, for he, literally, he himself will save his people from their sins. Guys, if Mary's son is to be named Jehovah Saves, And the reason given for naming him that is the fact that he will save. Then that means that Jesus is Jehovah What will Jesus save his people from?

The angel says he will save his people from their sins, making it very clear that to Joseph, that of the Messiah that Jesus will be. Jesus evidently is not coming to save his people from the Romans or to save his people, the Jews from the sins of other people right now. He will save them from a more important threat. Their own sins.

Evidently the people of Israel's number one problem in God's eyes was not the Romans. The greatest problem was their own sins. And the child in Mary's womb will somehow, some way the angel says, save them from their sins. And the language here is so exalted.

Nowhere in the Old Testament is any human person ever said. to save someone from their sins. Everyone knew that only God has the power to do that. So from the name itself, and from The way the angel describes the work that Jesus will do in saving people from their sins, Joseph would know that this child in Mary's womb is none less than Jehovah God.

At least as much as his mind could have understood that at this point. Guys, imagine the impact. That these few words of revelation must have had on Joseph and how far just these few words would have moved Joseph from point A. To point B, Joseph goes to bed thinking, my wife has betrayed me.

She's been unfaithful. She's pregnant by some other man. My dream of being married to her and walking through life together with her is shattered. Our marriage will end in divorce before it even gets off the ground, and what a disgrace this whole thing.

is going to be. That's reality for him inside his head when he goes to bed that night. Yet the angel Appears from God to Joseph and speaks merely 38 words of revelation in the Greek text. And after just 38 words of revelation from God, where is Joseph now?

At point B Joseph, now being at point B, would realize several things at once. Mary has not been unfaithful to me like I thought. The child in her has been miraculously conceived by the Holy Spirit. This child will come to full term and be born.

This child will grow up and be a savior. He will save me and others from our sins. This child is the long-awaited son of David that God has promised for centuries to send. He is the Messiah.

He is Jehovah God. And I'm being asked to adopt this Jehovah child as my own and name him. And be his dad. What Vast grand canyon of distance.

There is between point A. And point B And guys, it was just simply a few words of revelation. From God that brought Joseph from point A. To point B.

Imagine how much of a difference a few words of divine revelation in scripture. can make in your life. Or how about all 783,000 words of divine revelation in this book that is available for you to read and listen to every day. If you find yourself this morning at some awful point A.

And you need to get to a better point B. It's divine revelation. It's the Bible that will get you there just as it did. This divine revelation did for Joseph.

Actually, it's probably likely that the angel speaks more than just 38 words to Joseph. Most translations have the quotation from the angel ending in verse 21, and then they treat verses 22 and 23 as commentary that is inserted by Matthew to provide Old Testament support for what's happening here. This is perfectly possible. but it's good for us to remember that there were no quotation marks in the Greek language.

So it is an interpretive decision by translators to close the angel's quote at the end of verse 21. There are a number of commentators that would suggest that it's better if we understand verses 22 and 23 as part of the words that the angel is speaking to Joseph here and they would view these two verses as the angel's way of providing additional scriptural assurance to Joseph that everything that he had just said, describing what had happened was in keeping with God's plan. And I would lean toward that interpretation that you see reflected on the screen behind me.

You think about it, Joseph could easily, if he didn't have something solid to go on, he could have easily awakened from his dream and said to himself, I dreamed, I just dreamed that I saw an angel who told me that Mary has a child by the Holy Spirit in her, and I'm supposed to marry her, but how do I know that I didn't just dream that?

How could Joseph trust something that happened in a dream? It would seem to make sense for the angel. As he's speaking to Joseph, to give Joseph this Old Testament scripture from Isaiah 7:14 in order to give him something solid to hang his hat on, in order for him to know for sure the certainty of what the angel had said to him. So let's go with that.

This morning. According to this interpretation, it's the angel who is still speaking. And saying to Joseph in verse 22, now all this has happened, Joseph, to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, and then he quotes from Isaiah 7:14, Behold, the virgin shall be with child and shall bear a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which means God with us. Guys, this is a prophecy that is found in the Old Testament delivered by the prophet Isaiah over 700 years prior to Matthew chapter 1.

And the angel is saying to Joseph, what I've just announced to you. is the fulfillment of this prophecy of Isaiah 7:14. Joseph no doubt would have been aware of this passage, and upon hearing it from the angel, he would now have scriptural revelation to corroborate what the angel has been saying to him. And Joseph would now be thinking, this prophecy from over 700 years ago is coming true in the womb of the woman that I am engaged to, and I'm the one who's being asked to name him.

I'm being told by the angel here that people shall call his name Emmanuel. The angel has told me to name him Jesus, but I'm being told that one of the names that people will call him is Emmanuel, which means God with us. This is yet another indication. That this one in the womb.

Of Mary is God, and I'm being asked to be his earthly dad. By the way, does it seem odd to you that Isaiah 7:14 says that his name would be called Emmanuel, yet the angel is telling Joseph to call his name Jesus? Does that seem odd? I know for years, that.

It's a question that was in my mind and Mike Barry addressed this question in a Sunday school class a few weeks ago. The truth is it shouldn't strike us as odd. At all. Just looking at Isaiah alone, we're told that the Messiah will be called a handful of names.

Here we're told he'll be called Emmanuel and Isaiah 7:14. In Isaiah 9:6, we're told that his name will be called Wonderful Counselor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace, according to The Old Testament, the Messiah will be called many names and the angel is just simply giving one of those here that people will call him. If you think about it, just in your own experience, most all of us in this room have been called more than one name throughout our lifetime.

Think about the names you've been called.

Some of us could list several names that we have been called over the years. and if we were having care group tonight, the icebreaker question would be, share these names. That you have been called over the course of your life. I counted The names I've been called over the course of my life up this week, and I came up with at least 11 names.

That I've been called throughout my life by family and friends, by my wife and children, and by my enemies. And I actually, in preparation for this sermon, I made a list of the names and I was going to share those with you, this morning, but then I realized that it's actually none of your business. and I know some of you, and I fear what some of you might do with that information. Oh, come on.

But you get my point. I've been called many names throughout my lifetime. Some of them are embarrassing, but I'm sure most of you could list several names that you have been called to. And guys, the same is true with Jesus.

The point of the Old Testament is that Jesus will be called many names. Each of which reflect things that are true and wonderful about him. Emmanuel is one of those names, and that's what the angel is reminding Joseph of as he quotes from Isaiah 7:14. Anyway, let's, let's just recap for a second here.

Joseph thinks deeply about what he thinks is happening. His own reasoning fails to tell him that a virgin conception of the Messiah had miraculously occurred in Mary's womb. Joseph then receives revelation from God telling him, That this instead is what has happened, and now Joseph has a choice to make. And the choice is between what his reasoning was telling him had happened and what God's revelation to the angel and from scripture is now telling him had actually happened.

Joseph is now at a crossroads of decision and which way is he going to go? Will he stick with his own reasoning? Or will he follow God's revelation delivered to the angel and through the prophecy of Isaiah. This brings us to the final stage.

And Joseph's journey from a shattered dream to a much bigger dream centered on the person of Jesus in Mary's womb, and that is he believes and obeys God's revelation regarding Jesus conceived in Mary's womb. Look at what Joseph does in verse 24, and Joseph awoke from his sleep and did. As the angel of the Lord commanded him and took Mary as his wife. There's a wonderful feeling of immediacy here.

Joseph is clearly a man who has surrendered to God, just like Mary is. Joseph doesn't take the opportunity to spend a few minutes complaining to God about how upsetting this whole thing has been for him. And he doesn't hesitate to obey either. The text says Joseph awoke from his sleep and did.

As the angel of the Lord commanded him, and he took Mary as his wife, as the angel had told him to do. And in that one act, of taking Mary as his wife, Joseph is embracing all the mystery. And the challenges and the blessings that lie on the road ahead. I'm sure he still has 1000 questions in his head, but that doesn't keep him from obeying God.

He takes Mary as his wife, and in doing that, he is in that same moment taking Jesus as both his savior and his earthly son. So long story short, Mary moves in with Joseph and they begin living together as husband and wife, with one caveat. Look at verse 25. We're told, but he, Joseph, kept her a virgin until she gave birth to a son.

You ever wondered why the text bothers to throw that detail in for us that he kept her a virgin? Until she gave birth to a son. This is actually part of the reason I think that it was the angel who gave Joseph the quote from Isaiah 7:14. In that passage, it says, a virgin shall conceive and give birth.

The prophecy of Isaiah 7:14 is not simply that a virgin would conceive, but also that a virgin, same subject, would give birth. So in keeping with Isaiah 7:14, Joseph sacrifices his husbandly privileges and keeps Mary a virgin until she gives birth to a son. And then after that, all restrictions were off. So we're not surprised later in the gospel accounts to learn that Jesus had other brothers and sisters.

Finally, we're told the final thing that Joseph did in obedience to the angel. At the end of verse 25, we read, and he, Joseph, called him Jesus. This was so much more than simply naming of a child. This is a confession of faith, the shortest and the most eloquent confession of faith ever uttered by any human being.

Joseph looks upon this miracle child after he is born on the 8th day, the day of his circumcision. And he calls him Jesus. Yeshua Jehovah saves. Fully believing the promise of the angel that this is the one who would save His people from their sins.

So, evidently, when Joseph was faced with a choice, do I follow my own reasoning? From inside my own head. Or do I follow God's revelation? Joseph chose to follow God's revelation.

The full distance from a broken heart all the way to the greatest one word confession of faith anyone could ever utter, Jesus. And that word Jesus coming from the lips of Joseph is the last word. Of this episode. And it's left hanging in the air for all of us to behold.

And to ponder. Jesus. On the 25th anniversary of his career as a broadcaster, Larry King. was asked which figure from history would he most like the opportunity to interview.

His answer, Jesus Christ. And when asked why he would want to interview Jesus more than anyone else, he gave this reason. He said, I would like to ask him if he was indeed virgin born. The answer to that question would define history.

For me. Larry King is no Christian. But he gets it If Jesus is indeed virgin born, That fact should define history for every human being, and he should be the one that all of us most want to interview. And bring our questions to, right?

Think about the 3 most fundamentally important questions anyone can ask. Where did we come from? What has gone wrong with me and with the world, and what is the solution? Everyone, regardless of their worldview, religious, non-religious, everyone ask these three questions and they have their answers.

There's a 4th question that ranks as high as the 1st 3 questions, and that is, who should we listen to in order to answer the above 3 questions. Because there are many people who are out there happily trying to provide us answers to these three questions, and they give a whole variety of answers to us, but who among them is the most qualified person To have our ear with regard to life's most important questions. Well, if Jesus was in fact virgin born, then that means that he is the one.

Who should have our ear.

And our passage today makes very clear that Jesus is indeed the virgin born one. And keep in mind, guys, that the virgin birth of Jesus is only the beginning of his credentials. He also lived a perfect life. He did miracles and he healed the sick and he taught voluminously.

Like no one had ever taught, he raised the dead. He died on the cross for our sins, thereby loving us with a greater love than any of us have experienced from anyone else. And he was raised from the dead by the Father, and he was then ascended by God to his own right hand where Jesus now sits on high at the right hand of God in the highest position of honor in all of the universe. Guys, Jesus isn't just the most qualified person to answer those three of life's most important questions.

He's in a league all by himself. And there's an infinite number of reasons why he should be the one who has our ear. Speaking of these three questions in our passage today, we find the answer to 2 of them. We learn what has gone wrong with us and that is sin.

We are sinners who have sinned against God. We have a sin problem and our biggest sin problem is not the sins of other people. It's not the Democrats' sins or Republicans' sins, or North Korea's sins, or your boss's sins or your spouse's sins. Our biggest problem is our own sin, and we need to be saved.

According to this passage from our own sins. And our passage today shows us what the solution to our sin problem is. Jesus. Who is the only one who can save us from our sins.

And Jesus came to earth to do exactly that. He was born in a stable, laid in a manger, but in our communion service, a few weeks ago, we heard Russell Moore tell us that Jesus didn't stay in a manger. He learned to crawl and then to toddle, and then to walk and he kept walking right to a public execution. We believe Russell Moore says that he was a sacrifice there, carrying away the sins of the world.

And how true that is. Jesus died on the cross to provide real atonement for our sins, and he stands ready today, this morning, right now, to forgive anyone who's humble enough to say, yeah, my greatest problem is my sins and I need atonement from God. And I'm gonna come to Jesus. And I'm going to look to him and I'm gonna say, Jesus.

Yeshua Jehovah saves. Save me. Give me the salvation. of Jehovah.

If you've never cried out to Jesus and called upon him to be your Lord and Savior, I urge you to do that today. No matter the sins you've committed throughout your life, Jesus, would be pleasured to bring the salvation of Jehovah to you. He would say, saving someone like you fits inside my job description. It's what I came for.

In closing, we learn in our passage today. That sometimes life's greatest blessings begin with devastation and shattered dreams, just like what happens to Joseph in our story today. Joseph, when the story begins, is at the lowest point of his life. I'm sure at the end of his life, he would say that day that I discovered that Mary was pregnant was the lowest point of my life.

He's at the lowest point of his life, little realizing that the circumstances that are bringing him pain initially are actually the beginnings of something more wonderful. than he could ever imagine the most wonderful thing that's ever happened to him. So maybe Right now, you find yourself in painful circumstances. Maybe certain dreams.

of yours have been disappointed and you don't know where to go from here. Please hear me this morning when I tell you that there is a God who loves you and he is working. And he's up to something bigger than You could ever concoct inside your head. And this is the perfect time of all times for you to open your heart.

And open your Bible and let God speak His revelation into you. Through his word This is the time for you. To do what Joseph did, and that is surrender to him. Hear him.

And obey him. And believe him and let him bring you into his dreams for you, which are far richer and bigger. Than any dream you could ever dream. As Paul says in 1 Corinthians 2:9, eye has not seen, nor has ear heard, neither has it entered into the heart of man the things that God has prepared for those who love Him.

If Joseph were here in our service this morning, he would laugh out loud. At that verse and tell us all how true it is. It's what happened to him. And it can happen to you if you would join with Joseph in obeying and believing God's wonderful revelation and let you And let him bring you into his dream.

Let's pray together Lord, I know that no one is in this room today by accident. We are all here by your sovereign goodness and you are always doing a million things. And we all need to be spoken to through what we see presented in our passage today. I pray that your spirit would just Open our hearts, make our hearts soft.

that we would receive. What you are seeking to do in us today, have your way with us, Lord. I look back over my life and I had so many dreams, even wicked. sinful goals and dreams, and I'm so grateful that they did not come true.

And I'm grateful that something greater than my dreams have come true. In Jesus Save us, Lord, from ourselves. From our puny little dreams that are manufactured inside of our pea-sized brains, our ambitions are so small. And cannot compare.

To the plans that you have for us. For our good If there's anyone here today that has never called out to you, Lord Jesus, for salvation, move their hearts right now, where they're seated. To pray to you and cry out to you and call upon you as Their Lord and Savior. You are Jesus.

Yeshua Jehovah saves. Thank you, Lord, for this opportunity to give of this offering to you. Receive these funds that we give. In this offering and do much with all that is given for the glory of this Jesus.

We give ourselves to you in the name of Jesus. And all God's people said,