Joseph Awoke From His Sleep And Did As The Angel Of The Lord Commanded Him

This morning our topic is angels and as I was preparing to you know thinking Advent's coming and all this stuff I was looking at the calendar and I thought that's going to be the hard one. I'm not quite sure what to say about angels. It's kind of an interesting topic and so we're going to do something a little different than I normally do. We're going to read, I'm going to read a number of passages of scripture to you. We'll have them up on the screen for you. But I think the But I think that angels, before we get into the scripture reading, are really something that we don't think much about. We just sang songs about angels. And we just listened and read during the Advent reading about angels. And our sermons about angels, many of the same texts, will be read again. But I don't think it's something we think much about. What's that? Doxology? Yeah. It's not something we think about or talk about. When was the last time you heard someone say, I saw an angel? Or an angel told me?

And if someone did come to you and say that sort of thing, your eyebrow would probably do what Daniel's just did, just like, oh, really? Hmm, how do I, what do I say? Now, none of us would deny the existence of angels. Nevertheless, they're foreign to us. They're strange enough to us so that when we hear about them or read about them, we sort of just kind of pass over them because we don't quite know what to do with them. The problem with that is that when we pass over them, what we're passing over is not just the angels themselves, but the work that they do.

And this morning, what we're going to focus on is what the angels did, what their work was. Angels show up, I think, in this story of Jesus' birth at this time more than at any other time, concentrated time, in the rest of Scripture. They're all over the place. They're all over the place. They're very involved in the proclamation of the Savior being born. And so my hope is that God will help us to believe and to trust the things that he says to us in the same way that Mary and Joseph and Zacharias and the shepherds all believed and obeyed the things that they were told by the angels. God spoke to them through angels but doesn't only speak through angels. And so my hope is that we'll listen to the ways that he speaks to us now today and obey the way that they did. Would you please stand now as we read the word of the Lord from Matthew chapter 1.

Verses 18 to 25. This is the account of the angel coming to Joseph in a dream. 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. And Joseph, her husband, being a righteous man and not wanting to disgrace her, planned to send her away secretly. But when he had considered this, behold, An angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child who she has conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins. Now all this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet. Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and shall bear a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which translated means God with us.

And Joseph awoke from his sleep and did as the angel of the Lord commanded him, and took Mary as his wife, but kept her a virgin until she gave birth to a son, and he called his name Jesus. This is the word of the Lord. And you may be seated. Now, as I said, there's a number of places where angels show up and talk to people. I'm going to read you a couple of other passages. A couple of things I want to point out is that everything that the angels say, is crazy by our standard your betrothed is a virgin and she's pregnant and don't divorce her that's crazy right like i mean that doesn't make any sense to us that's not a natural thing to happen but we read that joseph did what the angel said said he awoke from his dream from his sleep and he did just as the lord had commanded him it's pretty incredible i want to read to you now

The account of the angel coming to Mary. This is from Luke chapter 1, verses 26 through 38. Again, pay attention to an angel coming and the sorts of things that are said to her. Now in the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph of the descendants of David, and the virgin's name was Mary. And coming in, he said to her, Greetings, favored one. The Lord is with you. But she was very perplexed at this statement and kept wondering what kind of salutation this was. The angel said to her, Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord will give him the throne of his father David. And he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and his kingdom will have no end. Mary said to the angel, How can this be, since I am a virgin?

The angel answered and said to her, the Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. And for that reason, the Holy Child shall be called the Son of God. And behold, even your relative Elizabeth has also conceived a son in her old age. And she who is called barren is now in her sixth month, for nothing will be impossible with God. And Mary said, behold, the bond slave of the Lord, may it be done to me according to your word. And the angel departed from her. Now, another crazy thing going on. If we were to list the things that are just, Astounding in this passage. You're going to get pregnant by the Holy Spirit. This one you're pregnant with is going to be a savior of the world. And by the way, your Aunt Elizabeth, who's quite old and past the years of bearing children, she's pregnant too. If someone shows up at Christmas, just to give it some perspective, if someone shows up at your Christmas dinner later this week and they say, your Aunt Jenny, who's 65 or 70 years old, is pregnant.

What would you have to do to keep your face from reacting with just unbelief? I just wouldn't believe it. It would be unbelievable. If you know the rest of the story, you know that after Mary hears these things, she gets up immediately and goes to see Elizabeth. To see this thing, to see Elizabeth's baby. It's quite incredible. And notice again that she says, may it be done to me, Lord, according to your word. So again, we see this angel come, these miraculous, incredible things said, and the response being, yes. Elizabeth had a husband. His name was Zacharias. He was a priest. And Zacharias, leading up to this, we're turning the clock back months now. Zacharias is in the temple, and he's offering sacrifices. He's by himself. The people are outside, and they're praying. And while he's in the temple offering the sacrifices, an angel comes to him.

I want to read to you that passage now. This is from just a little earlier in Luke 1. This is verses 11 through 20. It says, For he will be great in the sight of the Lord, and he will drink no wine or liquor, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit while yet in his mother's womb. And he will turn many of the sons of Israel back to the Lord their God. It is he who will go as a forerunner before him in the spirit and the power of Elijah to turn the hearts of the fathers back to the children and the disobedient to the attitude of the righteous, so as to make ready a people prepared for the Lord. And Zechariah said to the angel, How will I know this for certain?

For I am an old man and my wife has advanced in years. And the angel answered and said to him, I am Gabriel who stands in the presence of God. And I have been sent to speak to you and to bring you this good news. And behold, you shall be silent and unable to speak until the day when these things take place because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in the proper time. And so there's something interesting that goes on. Mary had a question, you remember? She said, well, how can this be because I'm a virgin? And the angel answers her.

And he says, well, this is how it's going to be. Which the answer didn't make it make any more sense, really. But he got an answer. Zacharias, on the other hand, asks the question, well, how's this thing going to be? Because me and my wife were old. And there was something of faith in her answer or her question and something of unbelief in his answer. Because he's disciplined. He's told you're going to be silent. And so he comes out of the temple and he can't talk. And he can't talk and he can't talk and he can't talk. And his wife gets pregnant and he can't talk or explain to anybody.

What's going on? And he's silent up until the time that John is brought into the temple to be named. And it was customary at that time for the husbands to say, you know, this is the name of the son. And well, here he was with no voice. And so Elizabeth says, his name's John. And they all look to him like, she's deciding? And they give him a tablet and he says, this is his name. Yup. And so his name is John. And immediately Zacharias, his voice is restored to him and he begins to praise God and to... And to prophesy. It's pretty incredible. Again, you've got an angel of the Lord coming to someone and telling them something miraculous. You and your wife are old. Your petitions have been heard. You're about to have a baby. And not only are you about to have just a baby, but you're going to have a baby who's going to fulfill the prophecy concerning the forerunner of the Lord's Christ. He's going to come in the spirit and power of Elijah.

And if you remember back in the Old Testament, that was the final prophecy about the Messiah was that one would come as a forerunner for him, Elijah. So everyone was waiting for Elijah to come back. And we're told here that John is the fulfillment of that prophecy, that he's coming to fulfill that role. Note again that Zacharias does exactly what the angel said, even after being disciplined and silent for months on end. Then we come to the shepherds. In Luke chapter 2, verses 8 through 15, it says, And they were terribly frightened. But the angel said to them, Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy, which will be for all people. For today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior who is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you. You will find a baby wrapped in clothes and lying in a manger. And suddenly there appeared with the angel a multitude of the heavenly hosts, praising God and saying, Glory to God in the highest and on earth.

peace among men with whom he's pleased. And when the angels had gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds began saying to one another, let us go straight to Bethlehem then and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us. And so again, shepherds in a field, angels shows up in the sky. They're scared. He speaks. Then not just one angel, but a multitude of angels shows up, singing, praising God. And once they leave, they go, let's go do this thing he said. Let's leave the fields. Let's leave the sheep. Let's go see this one. It's pretty incredible. So what do we learn from all of these examples? Well, there's a couple of things. First, angels are scary, okay? It's pretty simple. It's pretty basic. Artwork of trying to depict angels from long ago, centuries ago, had some better understanding of this than we do. We think of angels as being like...

grandmotherly, feminine, gentle and soft. But here, they strike fear in the hearts of anyone who sees them. And it's important to note that it's not their message in this instance. There are times when what the angels have to say is terrifying. But in this message, everything they have to say is good news. Your wife didn't cheat on you. You're going to have a baby who's going to save your people from their sins. Your wife is going to give birth to a son in her old age, and he's going to be the forerunner of the Christ. And the Savior's been born in Bethlehem. Go and see him. That's all good news. That's all good news. And yet, the majority of these were scared when they saw the angels. The angels were, in a word, manly, warrior-like, terrifying. They came from the presence of God, and they struck fear into the people who saw them.

It wasn't their message that was scary. It was them themselves. What else do we learn about these messages? Well, there are these angels. We learn that all of them are sent by the Lord. In every one of these passages, they're referred to as the angel of the Lord. And in the extended passage with Zacharias, he says, I was sent here. I have been sent here to speak to you and to bring you this good news. I stand in the presence of God and he has sent me to bring his message to you. They weren't just these otherly beings that spoke as they saw fit. They were given messages from God directly to bring to Joseph and Mary and Zacharias and to the shepherds. They were those under authority, and they were those who spoke with the full authority of the God who sent them, who ruled over them. Angels are to be obeyed.

And we see that in this passage, that all of those people, or in all these passages, all of them obey the angels. They all do what the angels say. Now, if an angel came to you today, would you listen to them? You say, well, I don't think angels come to us anymore. Okay. But if God came to you, and you could put yourself into their shoes, if the Holy Spirit was active in your life in such a way that you were struck with fear at the word of the Lord, would you obey it? I think we'd all say, I hope so. I don't know that we're comfortable saying, oh, I would. Yeah, of course I would. Because we've gotten our minds like, well, I don't always do what I'm told. But we hope we'd respond the way that they do. But there's some things that go before or go into us doing what Joseph and Mary and Zacharias and the shepherds did. One of the things we have to realize about angels is that they are simply messengers. They're just messengers. All they're doing is bringing a message from God,

to whoever he sends them to. In this case, Joseph, Mary, Zacharias, the shepherds. God sends them a message. They understood that the message that came to them came to them from God. And so they were obliged to obey. Joseph, after hearing, his obedience took this shape. After Joseph was visited by the angel, he took Mary as his wife. He didn't divorce her. And he kept her as a virgin until she gave birth. Which would have meant bringing shame upon himself. Because while he's had an angel come and tell him who his son is, it's not widely accepted and approved of this thing that she's pregnant beforehand. He would have been thought to have been unfaithful to God and have been a fornicator with Mary. Their lives would have been plagued by that sort of shame in society. We don't have that sort of thing now. When we see a woman or a man out together with children or who are pregnant but aren't married, we're just like, well, that's just how, you know.

Statistics tell us that's just how things go in our society. It's just the way it is. But in this time, that wouldn't have been the thing. You would have wanted to get away from it. That's why Joseph wanted to put her away quietly. He said, she's done something that's unfaithful. I don't want that. That's not something I want. But after the angel comes, he obeys. Mary, after the angel visits her, she says, may it be done to me according to your words. Zacharias questioned the angel's message and was unable to speak until his son was born and he acknowledged his name to be John. And the shepherds, as we've seen, left the fields and they went to see the child. All of these are examples and they teach us a simple lesson, one that's often lost on us today. That when God speaks, however foreign the message is to our flesh or our sensibilities, we ought to be obliged to obey it. We ought to listen and do what we're told. So why were Joseph and Mary, Zacharias and the shepherds so quick and so careful to obey the angels? Well, for one,

They believed that those angels spoke for God. They believed that the message that they received, those words they heard, weren't just angels speaking, but God himself. Have you ever read scripture and come across a command or come across a prohibition or come across an exhortation or a warning that kind of cut across the grain? You didn't like it. It happens. The more you read scripture and the more you're a student of it, you realize it's not just this story, this nice story of God loving people and sending Jesus. It's actually quite a high bar and high stakes to be a Christian. And I realize that's not what's largely put out in society today is what it means to be a Christian. But God really does demand perfection of all of his children. That's why he had to send his son. And he sent his son not to just die for us so that we could go be with him in heaven. The fact is he doesn't want to be with sinners.

He doesn't revel in, he doesn't approve of our sins the way that we do. He hates them. And he judges them. And for those who are Christians, he's judged those sins through his son Jesus Christ. And he sent his son to die, to come to earth and then to die a miserable death, a painful death, a death full of the wrath of God being poured out so that we would be saved from our sins. But you do have to ask the question, what are we saved to? What are we supposed to... Do with that knowledge. Is it just supposed to cause a warm feeling? Isn't that nice and wow, that's amazing? Yes, that's part of it. That's a small part of it. But what is the substance of the rest of your life after coming to that knowledge supposed to consist of? That feeling doesn't last in the same way. It can grow, but it does ebb and flow. It waxes and wanes. What is the Christian life supposed to be? Just remembering and remembering and remembering that Jesus loves me?

Yes, and therefore, I ought to respond in love and obedience. One of the things that's true of these men and women that were given here as examples is that they were righteous, that they were devout, that they actually did love God, and that that was the foundation of their obedience. They didn't just go, God loves me and isn't that nice. They went, wow, God loves me and I love him. And so, I will keep Mary as my wife. And so may it be done to me as you have said. And so, his name's John. And so let's leave these fields and let's go see this Savior. And so the example of the angels in all of these passages and the message that they bring is simple. It's meant to drive us to the reality that we ought to obey God, even in the areas where it's uncomfortable to us or where it doesn't make sense to us.

where it seems strange, where we can't see a way forward, we think, well, that's a dead end. If I do that, it's just going to cause a problem. We could give you examples, simple examples for those of you maybe who are younger. Every one of you who's had a young kid at some point thinks spanking doesn't work. Or you think that if you tell your children to be quiet, that that doesn't work, that they can be quiet. Andrew, you were just telling me that, right? Andrew and Grace, once or twice now, I've said, you know, you can tell your kids to be quiet. And Andrew was like, What did you tell me? You were like, sleeping. Yes, go back to sleep. It was a sleeping thing most recently. I was like, you can tell your kids to go back to sleep. You don't have to have a whole big thing in the middle of the night. And he was telling me, we were in the parenting class, and so he was telling me, he says, I didn't believe it would work. I didn't think you could just tell your kids to be quiet, that they could go back to sleep and it would work. He's like, then I tried and it did. He thought, and this is a simple example, but it's accessible. It was a simple example where he was like,

It doesn't work like that. I'm going to do that and it's not going to work. I don't know what you think. Because I've thought those things. Andrew didn't say all that to me, but I've thought that when people have come and said, well, you know, you should do this. And I'm like, you're crazy. It doesn't work like that. My wife won't actually follow me if I tell her we're going to do this thing. My husband won't actually listen to me if I'm respectful. We tend to think that the ways of God have to be proven by our experience and our assessment of our experience to actually be true and worth doing.

And that's not the case. If God speaks, we ought to obey. We ought to do what he says. Nevertheless, the excuses for why we can't jump right to the forefront of our minds. You don't know what you're asking me to do. I couldn't possibly do that. You don't know what the cost of that will be to me. You don't know how hard that will be. That thing you're telling me to do is unnecessary. There's no point in it. It's busy work. I can't afford to do that. Do you know what people will think of me if I say that? I'll lose my job if I do that. That may be a good thing to do, but the man telling me to do it's a sinner, so I'm not going to. He doesn't do what he says. He's a hypocrite. These are our examples, and they're all examples that we use. We have this thing that I think we do believe that if God spoke to us directly, we would obey. But if God uses means to communicate to us, we get to evaluate.

All of a sudden the authority of the command has somehow been lowered and we get to question it now. We have to assent to it or approve of it for us to actually have to do it. Because it comes to us from people who are sinful or it comes to us from people who don't understand our particular plight. Here's an incredible thing. I know for a fact that every one of you thinks that nobody understands your difficulties. Every single person in this room thinks that. And of the people in this room, they don't understand what my life is like. They think it's easy. Well, it's easy for them. My kids aren't capable of that. My wife's not capable of that. My husband is unwilling to do that. We're special. You're not special. No temptation has befallen you except that which is common to man. Okay? Now, what did I just do?

All I did was tell you what Scripture says. That last quote, no temptation has befallen you except that which is common to man, is just me quoting Scripture to you. So does that put the necessary pressure? Will you respond to what God has said in such a way to go, I'm wrong. I'm not special. My circumstances aren't so extraordinary that I don't have to, I'm free of those things. Or do you still hold on to this excuse? Well, you really don't understand. You really do have to do away with these excuses. We really do have to see them for what they are. We're very quick to accept our own justifications for our behaviors. And what happens when we come into contact with other people, whether that's our spouse or our parents or our coworkers or extended family, when they don't accept our excuses, we get angry. We get really frustrated when they won't go along with our narrative. Even if they're right, if they didn't say it in the right way,

We feel justified in discrediting them, ignoring them. We really do need to learn as Christians that even without angels coming and speaking to us, when God is speaking, we ought to shut up and listen and receive what's being said. We ought to close our mouths and pay attention. When you have teenage kids, I was, well, I'll say this so it's not just in your minds that I'm talking about my own kids because I'm not primarily thinking about them. I was a youth leader for four years, a high school youth leader, many, many years ago down in Bloomington at our sending church. And so I had the privilege of working with them. And middle school kids and high school kids are tough. They're hard to work with because they're starting to individuate and they're starting to get their own opinions and they're quite immature and quite obnoxious as a general rule.

And parents are starting to be like, why are you that way? Why do you do that? Why don't you, haven't I taught you better? Like, what's wrong with you? It's the thought that parents often have. Why would you do that? Why would you think that? Parents also have this fear, though, as their kids get older, they start to feel the clock coming to a, you know, winding down. They're about to leave. And if I push too hard, they may just walk away completely. And so the parents are caught. If you have kids this age, you've felt this pressure where you're like, things aren't the way they should be, and that kid needs to be straightened out. But if I push too hard, I may lose them forever. And so what are most parents inclined to do? Pull back. They pull back. Because they don't want to push the kid. They're afraid the kid will run away. And it is really what we expect other people to do with us.

That's not something, I'm using teenagers as an example, but really as adults, we expect that same sort of treatment. We expect that if we pitch enough of a fit to the people around us, that they'll back off. If they're pushing us about needing to repent or if they're pushing us about some obedience that we're lacking in, we do expect that if we dig in our heels and complain a little bit, that they'll know that they should just be quiet and leave us alone. And what I find with parents is that the only time that they will actually engage the issue is when they get angry enough to just start yelling and hollering and threatening. And it's no help. What's true about those parents? When they're in that situation and feeling those pressures with their children, one of the things that's true is that they love their child and that they want good things for their child. They're not trying to ruin their kid's life. They really aren't. That's the single thing that the teenager thinks is, they are trying to spoil my life. But the parent's going, no, I'm trying to keep you from spoiling your life.

And they're at loggerheads. And what's to be done? What should the parents do? I don't think, generally, that the parents should back off. Because they've been given a responsibility for the children to train them up and to raise them up. They're the messengers of God to that child. They're meant, more than anyone else, they're meant to train that child and to discipline that child and to instruct them up in the ways of the Lord. And so when the child offers resistance, I don't think you should just immediately, and as a matter of course, back off. Because what you're teaching your child in that moment is, what I say doesn't matter. I don't really expect you to do it. Now, this has been a long thing, and you're like, I thought we were talking about angels. We are. Angels are messengers of God, and they come with a message that's to be obeyed. And what happens? In our passages, we don't have examples of people not doing what the angels say. But in passages where they're like, eh, whatever.

If people brush off the things that angels say, what happens to them? The angels go back and say, oh, well, he didn't listen. Destruction happens. Judgment happens. Consequences come. And all of that happens because repentance and obedience really are the order of the day. And so as parents, you're messengers to your children of the mysteries of God, the gospel of Jesus Christ. And you really ought not to back off. When they offer resistance, because what you're doing is teaching them, you don't have to obey me and what they will learn is that I don't have to obey anybody else either. When I was a youth leader, there was a young man in our church and his dad had long before left the home and he was trouble. He was the youngest of three boys and had no dad. And his mom couldn't handle him. He wouldn't do his schoolwork. He wouldn't do his chores. He was just lazy and foul-mouthed and grumpy. And he'd grown up in the church, but he was having a really hard time.

And what I said to him, what I said to his mom eventually is I said, she kept making excuses for him about why he couldn't get his schoolwork done and, oh, he forgot it and I got to run this thing over to his school. And I just went to them and I, you know, if you're willing, we're going to put an end to that. From no longer will you talk to his teachers at all, I will. If they have a problem, they'll talk to me. If he's missing assignments, they'll talk to me. I will deal with him about school. And we went in, we had a meeting with the teachers and we set it all up. She backed off.

I came in, and that's the way it was. She had trouble at home. He'd start yelling and hollering and cussing and calling names and all these kinds of things at home, and what's she supposed to do? Calls me. So I've got to go over to this teenage boy's house, and he's all mad, and he's so angry at me. He's cussing at me and calling me names. He's like, you're just going to believe her no matter what she says. That was one of the things he said, and I said, you're absolutely right. You're absolutely right. Look at the way you're behaving. You have lost all credibility. I don't believe anything you have to say right now. Those were hard days.

Would it surprise you to know that that young man is walking with the Lord, married with children, and very thankful for those hard days? He wasn't in the moment. He really wasn't in the moment. But now that he's grown up and he's gained perspective, he's thankful for those days. He really did care and was glad that somebody was willing to stand up and say, that's enough, and we'll have no more of that. Not in this house. Don't speak to your mother that way. All of our excuses for our behavior and our sins really do need to be gotten rid of. Because someday we're going to stand before God and all the messages that have been sent to us are going to have had their effect. And the effect will either be bringing us to repentance and to faith in Jesus and to walking with the Lord in obedience, or they're going to have the effect of hardening us and making us calloused and rebellious. And you do have to realize that when God sends messages,

If he spoke to you directly, I think that you would have the response that the Israelites had at the Mount Sinai, which is we don't want him to talk to us. But isn't it interesting that if he were to talk to us, we wouldn't want him to talk to us. But when he sends messengers to talk to us, whether that's our parents or our bosses or our pastors or whoever, we don't want them to talk to us either. It's almost like we just don't want to be told what to do. Almost. But if God commands us to do something, who are we to question? He's given us his word.

And he's given us sinful men in the form of parents and pastors and husbands and elders and civil authorities to obey. And they're all sinful. And they don't do the things they tell us to do. Not perfectly. How many of you kids think that your parents are hypocrites? Nathan thinks you guys are hypocrites. He's smiling. He said, yeah. My kids think I'm a hypocrite. All of you kids should be saying, yeah, we think our parents. Cypress has big eyes. Listen. Listen. That's foolish, kids. That's foolish. Your parents are sinners and they aspire to serve God and they don't do it well. And they're still your parents. And if you don't obey them because they're sinners, then you'll stand before God and give an account for your rebellion. And you won't get to blame your parents for it. Some of you are adults and you still blame your parents' failures for your own sins.

And I'm not here to say your parents didn't sin against you and didn't fail. I know they did. And it's no excuse. It's no excuse. When you come to the throne of God, it will be no excuse your parents' failures. They'll be accountable to God for those failures, and you'll be accountable to God for your failures. It's no excuse not to listen to them. The wives don't want to listen to your husbands. Why? He's lazy. He's selfish. cares more about football or deer hunting or politics or whatever than he does about our family? Will it go better if you don't listen to him? Did he qualify to be a husband because he wasn't a sinner? He's a sinner, and you ought not to reject him. How about your pastors and elders? Have we ever been wrong? Said something out of turn in a sermon, at small group, in the foyer? Yes.

Have you ever hurt your feelings? Sinfully hurt your feelings? I know I have. I've had to go back to multiple of you and apologize for things I said that were wrong. So then I should just walk with my tail tucked between my legs, not expecting you to listen anymore because I screwed up once or twice or 500 times. No. You see, we want to live in a world that's flat, that's horizontal, where there's no hierarchy and there's no one that we're accountable to. But God didn't make the world that way. He sits at the top of the hierarchy and he's appointed all kinds of people under him in various roles and with different responsibilities to shepherd us and to care for us and to lead us. And they're all sinful and we still have to listen to them. Because when we reject them, we're rejecting the God who set them in that place. And I really do mean that. If you consider Jesus before Pilate, what did he say to Pilate?

When he refused to answer Pilate and refused to answer Pilate, Pilate says to him, don't you know that I have the authority to kill you or to set you free? What did Jesus say to him? You have no authority to do any of that if my father hadn't given it to you. I'm paraphrasing. That's not exactly word for word what he said. But he said, you'd have no authority except that my God, my father gave you that authority, the authority to kill me. And he did it. Though he washed his hands of it and said, well, you Jews see that to yourselves. I think that we live in such a way that if God were, we live going, well, I'm just going to live and do and be what I am and do what I want. And if God has a problem with it, then he'll get a hold of me. He'll grab me and shake me, he'll get my attention. What I'd submit to you is that that's an awful way to live. Because if what I just described actually happens, you will not like it. And it will be awful. Rather,

I would rather that you pay attention to the simple things that come to you from the mouth of God, from your parents and from your pastors and your elders and from your husbands and from your wives and from all the people who love you and care about you and who are Christians, that you would listen to them without it having to be a big ordeal. That you would receive the message. That you'd put away your excuses. And you'd say, you know what? It's possible I'm wrong. It's possible I'm wrong. In fact, I've been wrong many times. And so what I'm going to do is listen. What I'm going to do is what I'm told. Not what I want to do, but what I'm told to do. Here's maybe a way to evaluate. When was the last time you were told to do something that you immediately were like, I'm not going to do that. That was what your initial response was. And then you went and did it. Do you remember the last time? Okay, maybe you remember the last time. Did you do it with a happy heart? Or was it more like the son who was like, I'm not going to work in the vineyard.

And then later you're like, I got to go work in the vineyard. That's better than the one who says, oh yeah, I'll go work dad and then doesn't. But you do realize how much room there is for us to grow in receiving the message. We teach our children, we want you to obey right away all the way with a happy heart. The question turns to us, do we obey right away all the way with a happy heart? Or have we outgrown that? Do we get to tie up burdens on other people's necks now? That's what our kids look forward to. You do realize that. That's what your kids look forward to if you discipline them. They look forward to the day where they don't have to listen to you anymore and they can tell other people what to do. It's like they'll think they've arrived then. Shame on us for thinking like that. Because in that way of thinking, the word of God and the message of God and his truth have just been set aside. They don't matter anymore. Doing what he says is, we're indifferent toward it. Unless he smacks us in the face, disciplines us severely.

And then we get mad at him for doing it. Joseph and Mary and Zacharias and the shepherds are a good example to us. They were told to do incredible things or told that incredible things would happen to them. And they said, yes, yes. Zacharias had nine months to think about that event in the temple. Nine months. Why do I say he had nine months? Well, nine months he couldn't talk. And it's apparent that he could have written things. You know, that when they came to name John, they gave him a tablet and said, write it down. So he could still communicate in some way. But he'd lost his voice. He'd lost his ability to lead, to communicate. He had nine months of silence to think about it. God was very gracious to him in giving him his voice back and fulfilling his word to him. And so we really ought to give up our excuses when it comes to obeying God. Because when we make excuses for why we don't have to do what we're told,

We're undermining, we're not just attacking the person or the particular command. We're tearing at the fabric of how God's created the world, okay? When you, as a husband, decide you're not going to do something that your boss told you or that the scripture says, if you're just going to be rebellious, you are teaching and leading and making decisions for and setting an example. For many people. You're not just making a decision for yourself. You're making a decision for your wife. You're setting an example for your children. And for all of the nuance and all the explanations that you'd like to offer as to why you don't have to do this particular thing, if it's a habit that you just don't do what you're told or you just grumble and complain, what you're teaching your children is they don't have to listen to anybody. And you know who they're going to eventually not listen to? You. You ever seen the pictures of the guy sitting on the limb in the tree and he's sawing off the limb?

but he's cutting on the wrong side. The tree's over there. What he's doing is he's undercutting, you're undercutting your own authority. You're undercutting your own ability to lead. If no, if you can't, if there's no one good enough for you to listen to, that's what the lesson your kids are going to learn. And as they get older, they're going to realize, no, I listen to you. You don't listen to anybody. So it's good for us, not only for us, but those we're responsible for. It's good for us, them to see us walking in obedience. carefully walking in obedience, not just like we kind of mailed in the obedience in the direction of what we're supposed to do, but that we were conscientious in doing the thing that we were supposed to do. Do your kids know what's hard for you to do, what obedience is hard for you to offer up to God? It'd be a good thing to go talk about at lunchtime today, right? If you have a small group or if you just go home to your own, you should talk at the lunch table and say, you know what, these are the areas it's hard for me to obey God, and these are the areas I've just decided it doesn't matter.

Functionally. And shame on me. And I don't want you guys to follow my example and what I've done. I want you to follow my example in acknowledging it and working to repent of it. So we can all together be like Joseph and Mary and the rest. The angels were just messengers. Scary messengers, but just messengers. And all of this talk of husbands and fathers and mothers and parents and bosses and civil authorities, I haven't really talked at all about, but this applies to them as well. It's all meant to get you thinking about who you listen to. Or rather, who you think God will communicate to you through. Who does he have to speak to you through for you to listen? How righteous do they have to be? How agreeable does the thing they say have to be before you'll go along with it? I realize the pressures you guys face, at least some of them. You realize the pressures that you face. But are you going to be able to stand before God?

When it's all said and done and say, well, I didn't obey because this reason. Do you think that God will accept it? If you don't think God will accept the reasons you're giving to yourself right now, then stop accepting them yourself. Stop believing them yourself. Stop writing yourself a pass. Because God uses means to lead us, to communicate to us. And so we have to learn to distinguish between the sinful messenger and the message. Our goal should be to become a people. who obey our authorities and teach both by our word and our example, our children and those around us to do the same. Not because we're non-thinking, not because we agree all the time, but because we understand that God has made us and made this world and everything in it and that we're accountable to him for everything we do. And so we want to make it our life's goal to walk with him in everything we do.

and realize that if he'll speak to Balaam through a donkey, that he may well speak to you through a sinful, foolish, unbelieving even leader or coworker or boss. You know what the real sweet spot is in all of this? Like where you should want to get to? You should want to be able to get to the place where you can see the sins of the people that lead you and you love them anyway. That's really the sweet spot. If you're a parent, that's what you hope for with your children. Not that they'll never see your sins or never be able to talk to you about them or acknowledge them out loud, but that they can see them and love you anyway and respect you because you're their father or you're their mother. Not because you're perfect or you talk or think the way they do, but because they say, you know, I have an obligation to honor God in this relationship. He's made me your son or your daughter and I love him so I love you. He's perfect and you're not and that's okay. That sort of disposition,

that's what makes for the most helpful wife. You wives who don't want to talk about your husband's sins or don't want to acknowledge them, some of you can't shut up about it. And there's a problem there. But some of you are afraid to address it. You see it and you're just like, I'm not going to say anything. I'm not going to say anything. I'm not going to say anything. I can't say anything. I'm supposed to be quiet. Listen, you're his helper. And the most helpful thing you can do is see his sins for exactly what they are and love and respect and submit to him anyway.

And if he gets too far out of line and too rebellious, then you go over his head. And you want to talk about upsetting a husband. I'm here to tell you, your husband's not the top of the heap. He's not the top of the heap. He may be in your house, but he's not without accountability. And so if he's dug in in his rebellion and his sin, it would be appropriate for you as a wife, as an act of faith and faithfulness, to speak to one of the elders or the elders' wives and say, I need help. We need help. Well, what if he tells me I am not allowed to do that? It's tough, isn't it? If he's wrong, your allegiance should first be to God. And in so doing, you should be wanting to bring him back into accountability and to conformity to God and his word. Now that's tense. And most of the time, spouses won't do that. They won't do it. They'll pick their spouse and they'll cast off everything else that's around them. But it's bad for their souls. It's corrosive. And so the most helpful wife is the one who can see her husband's sins.

and can speak to him about it and submit to him in any way and not use him as an excuse for her going her own way. The most honorable son is the one who sees his father's sins and says, you know, Dad, I know you're lazy. I know you're proud. I know you're selfish. I know you love money. I know you don't love Mom well. And I don't want to emulate you in those things. And you don't want me to emulate you in those things. But you're my dad, and I love you. And I'm going to do what you say. This is the sort of disposition that makes for the most valuable employee. The best employee is the one who can see the weaknesses of the company or of the leader, of the crew, the performant or whomever, and is able not to just go, yeah, I'd do a better job, but the one who's able to come and say, hey, I'll do whatever you need me to do, and I'm here until the job's done. I was thinking about this, though. What do you think? It's a valuable employee. If we're unable to get past the sins of those whom God gives to us to lead us,

we'll never receive the message that he's put in their mouths to give to us. And that'd be bad for us. You remember Jonah? Another example of an angel coming into talking to somebody and him going, uh-uh, don't be Jonah. Don't run and say, I'm not going to do that. God will find you out. He'll deal with you. Maybe quickly, maybe in a year's time. He'll deal with you. And so make it your ambition to receive the message of God the way that Joseph and Mary and Zacharias and the shepherds did. Even if it seems impossible to you or strange or futile, live by faith and do what God says. And then see if God doesn't bless you for it. What you'll find is that God will bless you for it. And he'll bless those around you for it. Get over the fact that your leaders are sinful. So are you. It's just part of this world. You've never met somebody who's not utterly sinful. You've never met someone like that. You have no point of reference for it other than what you read about Jesus and God in the scriptures. It's just not that big of a deal that people are sinful. It shouldn't surprise you. And the fact that they're sinful doesn't remove the obligations that God's put on you to obey them because he's not ashamed to use them. He's not ashamed to use sinful men, even wicked men, to accomplish his righteous ends.

So we shouldn't just dismiss him because the vehicle he uses isn't up to our standards. Let's pray.