1. Home for Christmas
24 December | Advent 2017

2. expectations pressures emotions

3. intensifying dynamic of Christmas

4. The Christmas story is one of those stories… We have kind of romanticized it

5. Matthew 1:18
This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah 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.

6. Matthew 1:19
Because Joseph her husband was faithful to the law, and yet did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.

7. Matthew 1:20
But 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 to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.

8. Matthew 1:21
She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.’

9. Matthew 1:22-23
All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: ‘The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel’ (which means ‘God with us’).

10. Matthew 1:24-25
When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. But he did not consummate their marriage until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus.

11. Matthew 1:18
This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph
[CLICK] 2nd para

12. faithful to the law a righteous man sadiq
[CLICK] sadiq

13. Deuteronomy 22:21
She shall be brought to the door of her father’s house and there the men of her town shall stone her to death.

14. Matthew 1:20 But after he had considered this
Mathew says Joseph considered this

15. discouragement cynicism bitterness

16. we need to hear what happened… we will not make sense of… our lives if we don’t see it through the lens of what happened at Christmas

17. Joseph hears from God

18. You need to make time

19. Matthew 1:20-21
But 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 give him the name Jesus.”
What does God say to Joseph through the angel?

20. Matthew 13:35
Isn't this the carpenter's son? Isn’t his mother's name Mary?

21. John 5:19
I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself. He does only what he sees the Father doing. Whatever the Father does, the Son also does.

22. Don’t be afraid. Take Mary as your wife. Name Jesus as your son.

23. unwanted gifts unwelcome circumstances

24. Don’t be afraid

25. Take a risk

26. Commit yourself to Jesus

27. Do you think Joseph regretted…

28. Do you think you will regret…

29. Home for Christmas