Opening Illustration: “Was it worth it?”  Our lives are full of decisions where we knowingly give up something in order to gain something else. Businesses call it opportunity cost. The Sandlot – Squints and Wendy Peffercorn. This was the first scene that popped up in my head this week when I thought about counting the cost… I don’t know what this says about me! “What he'd done was sneaky, rotten, and low... and cool. Not another one among us would have ever in a million years even for a million dollars have the guts to put the move on the lifeguard. He did… [and] we got banned from the pool forever that day. But every time we walked by after that, the lifeguard looked down from her tower, right over at Squints, and smiled." For Squints, getting his friends and himself forever banned was worth his moment with the lifeguard. Our lives are full of these decisions (well, not trying to get rescued by a lifeguard): Going to college. Getting married. Having children. Starting a job. Quitting a job. I’m sure you can think of 5 scenarios pretty quickly in your life where you made a decision that was totally worth it

Today, we come to a passage where we see Joseph (and Mary) make a decision that is worth the cost. They make a decision about Jesus where they have to count the cost. They look at Jesus’ way versus their way – and they choose Jesus’ way. But that doesn’t mean it’s going to be easy. Following Jesus isn’t easy. When we follow Jesus, we are promised two things: A life of joy. A life of difficulty. Following Jesus isn’t easy, but it’s worth it. Joseph let God change his life and his priorities because Joseph saw that Jesus was worth it. And that’s what I want us to see in our time in God’s Word: Jesus changes your priorities when you see He’s worth it.

Open up your Bibles Matthew 1. As you do, let me remind you of our sermon series: Christmas List: Reordering Your Priorities. We are spending 4 weeks looking at different passages of Jesus’ birth narrative. We’re narrowing in how God reordered people’s priorities for His purpose. My hope is that we will pause throughout this month to self-examine if our priorities are in a place where God wants them to be. Read Matthew 1:18-25. Pray. In Jesus’ birth narrative, we pick up with the moment Joseph learns that Mary is pregnant with Jesus. Here’s where start: Jesus is worth what people think about you.

1) Jesus is worth what people think about you. (vs. 18-19)  Before we jump in to verse 18, we need to understand the cultural setting of this verse. Verse 18 tells us that Joseph and Mary were engaged. Engagement in Jewish culture was nothing like the way we do engagement today. There have been some crazy fads of the years regarding engagements. I’m just glad the dance flash mob trend is over…Joseph and Mary most likely never met each other before they were engaged. Probably didn’t even talk. The fathers of each family would have created a legally binding agreement for Mary and Joseph. Their engagement was essentially a marriage. For the marriage, the husband’s father would pay a bride price. Having two daughters, I wouldn’t mind seeing this come back! Because of the price that was paid, the groom’s family wanted to make sure the bride was pure. Even though the groom and bride were legally married, they would wait a year before they lived together or slept together. I’ll take the dance flash mobs any day over that tradition! So, Joseph was preparing his home for his future wife and family. And while Joseph was doing this, he gets some news…

Look at verse 18: ¹⁸ This is how Jesus the Messiah was born. His mother, Mary, was engaged to be married to Joseph. But before the marriage took place, while she was still a virgin, she became pregnant through the power of the Holy Spirit. Can you imagine what that news did to Joseph? We have the privilege of knowing the whole story of Jesus’ birth, but at the time, Joseph didn’t. He had all the anticipation of his new bride, only to find out she’s pregnant and it’s not his baby. Not only do you have the personal hurt and humiliation that Joseph felt, there was a major cultural implication. Adultery would have at the very least led to Mary being completely push out from the society – publicly disgraced. Then, she would have been on her own, trying to provide for her and her new baby. She could have even been stoned to death as a punishment. Look at what Joseph decided to do in verse 19: ¹⁹ Joseph, to whom she was engaged, was a righteous man and did not want to disgrace her publicly, so he decided to break the engagement quietly. Joseph was a good guy, so he decides to quietly let Mary move on. Or so he thinks. We’ll get to verse 24 in a minute, but we know what Joseph did – he married Mary.

You may be thinking, why is that such a big deal? When Joseph stayed with Mary, it was as if he was confessing that the baby was his. All the disgrace that would have fallen on Mary, now fell on Joseph. And in doing so, both of their reputations were now tarnished. Although neither one of them did wrong, their community would have thought negatively about both of them. Joseph and Mary both saw that Jesus was worth the public disgrace they would face. What Jesus thinks about you is worth way more than what the world thinks about you.

I’ll be the first to admit that I struggle with this. There are times when I have failed to act on a prompting from the Holy Spirit because I feared how I might be perceived by others. What am I unintentionally doing is putting my priority before Jesus’ priority because I value what others think about me over what Jesus thinks about me. Illustration: The Gnome at Panera. It’s about this time of the year that I re-tell a story that has taken on a life of its own at TCSH. Tell Gnome Story. That lady, whomever she is, just wanted to spread some “Christmas cheer.” The more I thought about it, the more it impacted me. We don’t just have some cheer to spread, we have a life-changing, soul-saving gospel that needs to be told. Now, please hear me clearly, I am not telling you to pass out gnomes. What I am saying, as the Holy Spirit prompts, share the hope of Jesus without a fear of what others may think about you. 

God was turning Joseph and Mary’s world upside down. They made the decision to not let what others think stop them from following God. They also had to make another decision about their lives that would inconvenience them. That’s what we see next: Jesus is worth the inconvenience.

2) Jesus is worth the inconvenience. (vs. 20, 24-25) Verse 20 brings us to the point where Joseph had decided to quietly divorce Mary, but had not moved forward yet. It was as if he made his decision, but had not developed his plan. Who knows, maybe he made his decision and was planning to wake up the next day and move forward. Maybe Joseph went to sleep with a heavy heart knowing the next day was going to be really hard. Then God intervenes. Let me remind you of something. God always intervenes at the right time. Don’t lose faith when God doesn’t intervene on your timing. His timing is much greater.

Look at verse 20: ²⁰ As he considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream. “Joseph, son of David,” the angel said, “do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife. For the child within her was conceived by the Holy Spirit. Joseph goes to sleep and God speaks through a dream. The way Joseph is addressed was important. “Joseph, son of David” elevated Joseph. God addressed Joseph in a way that let Joseph know he is a part of something bigger than Joseph can imagine. Jesus was to come from the line of David – and now Joseph is a major part of this line. The angel of the Lord then tells Joseph not be afraid to take Mary as his wife. Now, I don’t know this for sure, it’s a bit of speculation, but I get the sense that somewhere in Joseph’s heart, he really wanted Mary as his wife. He had to be heartbroken when he found out she was pregnant. But maybe the cultural fear took over and now God is saying, “Let that fear go. I got you.” And then Joseph was told some news that probably seemed impossible. “For the child within her was conceived by the Holy Spirit.“ “Mary was not unfaithful to you, but rather, she is being faithful to God’s calling on her life.”

We’ll come back to the rest of God said in Joseph’s dream, but I want us to skip down to verse 24. Joseph hears from God in a dream and when he wakes up, he is going to have make another decision. Will he decide to stay married to Mary or will he walk away? What does verse 24 tell us? ²⁴ When Joseph woke up, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded and took Mary as his wife. I love the immediacy of Joseph’s decision after hearing from God. He gets up and goes! There isn’t any waiting around. This shows us that Joseph completely trusted God. God told Joseph the impossible happened to Mary and Joseph believed God. Let that serve as a reminder for all us that God can still do the impossible. God isn’t done doing the impossible. Some of you need to believe that in life right now.

Even though Joseph acted quickly, he still knew the implications of doing what God said. Joseph and Mary had to accept their lives would no longer be founded on convenience. Their marriage would start off with self-denial. Look at verse 25: ²⁵ But he did not have sexual relations with her until her son was born. And Joseph named him Jesus. Not only did Joseph and Mary put intimacy aside for the yearlong engagement, but they waited even longer until after Jesus was born. This is big part of marriage that they willingly set aside for God’s plan. Joseph and Mary knew their relationships would change. They had a tarnished reputation and some people would walk away from them. They would eventually have to flee their country and start over. Their lives were turned upside down because they knew Jesus was worth the inconvenience. Do you remember what Mary said when she found out she was going to be pregnant? “Mary responded, “I am the Lord’s servant. May everything you have said about me come true.” And then the angel left her.” – Luke 1:38. Mary told God that she is ready for whatever it means for her life because she belonged to God. Can you imagine -- as a pregnant teenager -- having that kind of response? Mary’s response puts my responses to shame.

We all have the capacity for sacrifice. We all have the capacity for inconvenience. We all have the capacity to let God disrupt our priorities. When it comes to God’s calling on our lives, instead of asking “Can I do it?” or “Should I do it?” we all need to start asking the question: “Why should I do it?” It was never a question can I or should I with Mary and Joseph. Do you know why? Because they answered the question “Why should I do it?” And that’s what we see in verses 21-23. Here’s what we see last: Jesus is worth it because of who He is.

3) Jesus is worth it because of who He is. (vs. 21-23) Let’s go back to verse 21. This is where an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. The angel had already told Joseph to continue with marriage because the baby Mary is going to have is from God. Now, if you are like me, I often say that if God would just show up in-person or in my dreams, then I would not have any hesitancy to obey Him either. I want to remind you of something. First, God has shown up and spoken to us. He gave us His Word, the Bible. It’s always speaking. Second, we have been given the Holy Spirit that lives inside of us. Joseph and Mary didn’t have what we have. In some ways, we’ve been given more opportunities to hear from Jesus that Joseph and Mary did. Well, at least until Jesus started talking as baby. On top of all of that, we have the words that God spoke to Joseph and those words are still speaking today. The truths in verses 21 through 23 are eternal.

So what did the angel of the Lord say in these verses? Take a look: ²¹ And she will have a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” ²² All of this occurred to fulfill the Lord’s message through his prophet: ²³ “Look! The virgin will conceive a child! She will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel, which means ‘God is with us.’” These three verses have two big statements about God:

1. Verse 22 tells us this was a fulfillment of a promise God gave His people. 
   • Throughout the Old Testament, we see that God promised to save His people.
   • And here God is telling Joseph that He is keeping His promise from Isaiah 7:14. 
   • Our God is a promise-keeping God!
2. Verse 21 and 23 tells us that the Savior of the world will be called “Jesus” and “Immanuel”. 
   • Now, here in the south, it’s not uncommon to get two first names.
     • But that’s not what’s happening here.
   • The name Jesus tells us what he does.
     • The name Immanuel tells us who Jesus.
   • “Jesus” means, in Hebrew, “God saves.”
     • Immanuel” means “God with us.”

Jesus left heaven, enter into humanity, took on form of man, in order to save man. Jesus was born as man because He had to be man to be our true representative on the cross. Jesus came, to be both fully God and fully man, in order to save us from our sin that was keeping us from God. Our God is a people-redeeming God!  GOSPEL PRESENTATION. God kept His promise to redeem us by sending His son to save us. That is Jesus. That is Immanuel. That’s who Jesus is.

So, when we look at our own lives and we encounter inconvenience to our priorities, just be reminded about who Jesus is. Be reminded about the One who set side His glory, stepped down from heaven, the Creator entering creation, so that He could die on the cross to absorb the Father’s wrath in order that He can be the true mediator for us. I think when we see Jesus for who He is, it makes it worth it. It makes what other people think about you, worth it. It makes that sacrifice that God is calling you to do, worth it.

Last week, we saw the call to be expectant this Christmas season. As we go out this week, I want to build on that expectancy. Be so expectant for God to move, that the inconveniences of following Him aren’t really inconveniences. What if we all held on to what Paul said in Philippians 3:8? “Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ.” What kind of life – what kind of priorities – would exist if we put knowing Jesus above all else? Joseph counted the cost and it was worth it. Mary counted the cost and it was worth it. I hope the same for you and me: Count the cost and see that Jesus is worth it. Let’s pray. 

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