Matthew 1:18-24 Fear of What People Will Think December 4, 2016

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Rosanna Rich
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1 Matthew 1:18-24 Fear of What People Will Think December 4, 2016 Before I get too far into the sermon, I want to remind you that now is a prime season to invite your friends and family to church. As usual we will have a Christmas service at 5:00 at Union and 7:00 at Zion. You should have received a business sized card that has Fear Not God is greater than fear on the front side of it. The back side of the card has the words, List three people you will be inviting to the Christmas Eve service at then there is a blank spot to put the time of the service so if you are attending Union s service write in 5:00, if you are attending Zion s write in 7:00. If you can t remember Christmas comes on December 24 th this year you can write that somewhere too, but make sure you leave room to do, as the card says: List three people you will be inviting to the Christmas Eve service. I recently read an article from Church Leaders that gave 9 reasons that I feel are relevant to our sermon today titled, 9 Reasons We Don t Invite Our Friends to Church. The author, Michael Harvey, poses that in all his world travels, (which span 12 countries across 5 continents) he has yet to find an invitational church. Everywhere he has gone he has asked church after church, is your congregation welcoming or inviting? The fervent answer every time is welcoming. This may very well be true as he found 95% of most congregational members are not doing any inviting. This caused him to ponder the question, How welcoming can we be if we are not inviting? Harvey notes, that we need to take our welcome out into the world in the form of an invitation, so that we can actually get them over the threshold. His findings led him to become a one question researcher, asking multiple churches across many denominational lines, why are we not inviting our friends to take a closer look at Christ and his church? He listed nine primary reasons in the article: We have no non-church going friends. If this is true, we have, as he put it, ghettoed ourselves in that we have isolated ourselves so much that while we may be welcoming within the walls of the church, we aren t so welcoming to outsiders. It s the pastor s job! Jesus invites us all into mission. At the center of most mission is invitation. We can all invite it is not just the church leadership s job. My friend said no to me last year. Great. Ask again. There are many stories of Chrsitians who had been asked several times, before they finally accepted an invitation to come. What if it damages my friendship? This demonstrates a fear of spoiling a good relationship, but notices it is only talking about our relationship with our human friend. What about our relationship with God. Our services and people are unpredictable. People who say this claim they need to know who is preaching; if the right hymns will be sung, and if everyone will behave. They want everything to be perfect, leaving no room for God s spirit to be at work. I fear what the congregation will think of my friend; they are not our type of people. What if it damages my church friend relationships? Let me get this straight, Jesus hung out with the dregs of society; tax collectors and prostitutes. In doing this he sent a pretty bold message, ALL are welcome. I don t want to be seen as strange This probably comes from a fear that people will see us as bible bashers or holy rollers. What a joy if we were labeled as such, for Jesus said we will be blessed when we are persecuted for his sake.

2 I wouldn t know what to say and they might ask something about my faith. The example he gave is they might ask, What is the Trinity? Let s get real how many non-church going folk had asked you to explain the Trinity? Highly unlikely but they have a point they could ask a question you don t know the answer to. Just be honest I don t know, but hey come talk to Pastor Vicki, she ll help explain it. Harvey notes number 9 that below the surface of all these answers lies the fear of rejection. Which is why this advent season we are starting the sermon series, Fear Not God is Greater Than Fear. We are in the second week of the series. Last week we looked at the fear of answering God s call in our lives. Things that get in the way of our acting on God s call include: we completely miss our call because we are too busy seeing it as an interruption, rather than an invitation to do something bigger than we could imagine. We also we get scared because we believe what God has planned will spoil our plans so we don t trust that God s plan is actually better than what we have plan. And finally it is our fear of failure, because we believe that we are in charge of the outcome. But we need to remember the outcome is God s responsibility, while obedience is ours. Let me say it again because I think that is so vital and I know some of you weren t here last week. The outcome is God s responsibility obedience is mine. This week we are looking at Fear of What People Think. It is human nature to care what people think about us. How many of you care what people think of you? Hands up high. Those of you who have your hands up, don t feel bad the only reason the person next to you doesn t have their hand up is because they care too much about what you think of them. Because on some level, it is good and healthy to care about what people think of us. It helps us live as a community, abiding by laws, both spoken and unspoken. The problem is we sometimes take it to the extreme. We obsess about what people will think about us, we become what many today call people pleasers. The consequences of obsessing about what people think about us is that we forget what God thinks about us. The quickest method to forgetting what other people think about you is to obsess with what God thinks about you. Three things help us to stand for God rather than stand for people, they are listed on the backside of you bulletin insert. We recognize the futility of pleasing all people, we need to be willing to be criticized for our obedience to God, and we need to start doing some of the ordinary acts of obedience. Today s story of Joseph exemplifies a man who was willing to stand for God rather than people. He is faced with the challenge of either doing what people would want him to do or what God would want him to do. For fisrt century Palestine being engaged was a binding agreement. You were engaged for a year, at which time the young woman would continue to live with her family of origin. Now if things got snarky back in the day, it wasn t as simple as it is today: just part ways, maybe you have to forfeit your deposit on the place you reserved for the reception. No it was much more complicated, you had to file for a divorce. Last week we looked at how Jesus birth came to be from the perspective of his mother, Mary. This week we will talk about how Jesus conception was announced from the perspective of Joseph. Matthew 18 says, When Mary [Jesus ] mother was engaged to Joseph, before they were married, she became pregnant by the Holy Spirit. Ever try to put yourself in the scene of a biblical story, even if it was just as a fly, to see what the initial response was? Because there really is a lot missing from the writing. First how did Joseph find out? Did Mary tell him? That had to have been scary. As mentioned last week, her being

3 pregnant by another man would have been punishable by stoning and Joseph had the right to cast the first one. And if she was the one who told him, how on earth could she expect him to believe the baby is of the Holy Spirit? He had to have thought she was either crazy or a liar. Her being pregnant not only marked her, it marked him. Whether he is the guy who got her pregnant or not, if he divorces her: he would have difficulty finding a job, finding people willing to do business with him or even finding a new prospective wife, for that matter. Because everyone would know what happened, or at least some version of it anyway. We really have no way of knowing what Joseph s mental process was, but we do know we was planning on ending the relationship. Verse 19 says, Joseph [Mary s husband] was a righteous man. Because why is he a righteous man? because it says, he didn t want to humiliate her, he decided to call off their engagement quietly. (vs 19) commentaries say that divorcing her quietly was actually a noble and honorable thing to do. Although he has consigned himself to the fact that their future life together is over, he s not going to expose her to public shame, nor is he going to tell everybody she cheated on me now stone her. They would quietly part ways. That is until he is visited by an angel who came to him in a dream, saying, Joseph son of David, [fear not] don t be afraid to take Mary as your wife, because the child she carries was conceived by the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you will call him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins. (20-21) At this moment when he wakes from the dream imagine the roller coaster ride his mind is taking, between excitement and horror. For centuries and centuries, it has been prophesied that the Messiah, the anointed one would come. And now an angel of the Lord has come to him, Joseph, a simple carpenter, informing him that he would play a big part of this life changing event in history. Wow! What an honor. And yet think about the other extreme, Oh no what are people going to say about me? What is this going to cost me? On one hand, he has the potential of changing the world and on the other hand there is a lot of unknowns here. A lot of people will be warning him to not marry this girl, charging that she has sinned against him and she has sinned against God. He went to bed with his mind made up but with this newfound information he is wrestling, Do I do what God wants or should I do what people want? Here is where Joseph is about to learn the principle written on the front side of your bulletin insert (see below). Being obsessed with what people think about you is the quickest way to forget what God thinks about you. Most of us drift towards wanting to please everybody. We want to be enough, to do enough, because, let s face it, we want to fit in. So we surrender our lives to other people at the expense of living to please God. Now the good news is that the flipside of that principle is true. Being obsessed with what God thinks is the quickest way to forget what other people think about you. Living for an audience of one. Saying God I want to please you with all that I do. That s the quickest way to grow beyond seeking the approval of others. Joseph has a choice to make and so will you. If you are a follower of Jesus Christ, at some point you will be put in the same position. Not that you or your spouse will conceive a child by the Holy Spirit Fear not But you will have an opportunity to decide whether you are going to obey God or do something easier to win the approval of people. Here is what will help make the decision easier. Remember you can t please everyone, you will eventually fail. Because you cannot please all people. We are all so fearfully and wonderfully made, but we are fearfully and wonderfully made differently and there are reasons for that which would require a whole other sermon to unpack.

4 Suffice it to say that when you aim to please one group, you will invariably offend another group. So what do you do when you see one group is offended? You over compensate by trying to please the offended group and ultimately ostracize the initial group who thought you were the bees knees. No matter how hard you try you cannot please everyone, but the good news is you can please one, you can please God. And that is what we are called to do. The apostle Paul has much to say about people pleasing behaviors versus God pleasing behaviors He asks the rhetorical question in Galatians 1:10, Am I trying to win over human beings or God? Or am I trying to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I wouldn t be Christ s slave. We are to be slaves to Christ, therefore we seek to please God. Paul further implores the Colossian church, Whatever you do, do it from the heart for the Lord and not for people. (3:23) And then there is one of my all-time favorites he wrote to the church of Rome, So, brothers and sisters, because of God s mercies, I encourage you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice that is holy and pleasing to God. This is your appropriate priestly service. Don t be conformed to the patterns of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds so that you can figure out what God s will is what is good and pleasing and mature. (Romans 12:1-2) Note, when our aim is to people please we are being conformed to the patterns of the world. But we don t belong to this world, we are to be in the world, not of the world. It is a choice we all must make. And it really is a choice. You can choose to live life where God looks at you and says, you did good!...you did the right thing!... You brought glory to my name!... well done my good and faithful servant. But to do that we have to overcome our desire to live for what everyone else thinks? We need to surrender to living our lives to the audience of one, because becoming obsessed with what God thinks of us is the quickest way to become set free of what people think of us. Joseph had to get to a place in his life where he would have to say I value the opinion of God above people To live this truth out ourselves, we need to be willing to be criticized for our obedience to God. It s what we signed up for as disciples of Jesus Christ. In his sermon on the mount Jesus said, Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. (Matthew 5:11) Some of us have that strangely warm feeling and we accept Christ into our lives and we forget that Jesus gave full disclosure as to what that means. But he also goes on to encourage us to be glad. Even though, you will be hated by all because of my name. But the one who endures to the end will be saved. (Matthew 10:22) If you re not ready to be criticized for your obedience to God, then you re not ready to be used by God. The reality is that anything we do of any significance, will draw criticism. Think of the kind of criticism Mary and Joseph were exposed to. They were publicly disgraced. Every time they walked by in the market place there were whispers, I heard it s not really Joseph s baby. And of course, there is the gossip and conjecture, They say the baby was conceived by the Holy Spirit, but I swear I saw him sneaking out the back door of her family s condo about a month ago, at 2:00 in the morning. They faced criticism. Be ready, because there will be a time when God s word is telling you to do something that is unpopular by worldly standards. While your friends from work go on vacation, you may answer the call to go on a mission trip to Haiti or some place. And your friends will be like are you crazy? And you even have to pay to go there and help those people? Maybe this Christmas you decide instead of spending a bunch of money on presents, you donate money to a worthy cause in honor of your loved ones. You best give them the heads up, because what will happen is they will open

5 up the envelope, they ll politely say, that s nice now where are the presents? It can make for a very awkward gift exchange. Or maybe you will leave a high paying job to go to a lower paying job because God has something else for you to do that would truly make a difference in the world or maybe you decide to live on less than you make so that you can give more generously, become a human sacrifice monetarily? People will mock you they will revile you for the cause of Christ. Jesus told us it would happen. The thing is, if you want to make a difference in this world you will have to endure more pain than those who don t. On the other hand if you want a life where no body criticizes you, then do nothing stand for nothing have nothing. Better to do something of significance and endure the criticisms than to do nothing at all. Everything that is done with significance, whether as an individual or as a church, has been met with spiritual resistance and criticism. It is nothing new. It goes back some 2000 years ago at least. We need to remember, becoming obsessed with what people think about you is the quickest way to forget what God thinks about you. So instead, become obsessed with what God thinks of you and then you can forget what people think about you. If you can handle the criticism, the truth is, extraordinary acts of God often start with very ordinary acts of obedience. Look at today s scripture. The Savior of the world was born to a young couple who said, yes. They said yes to God in a simple act of obedience. Get into the mind of Mary and Joseph, all they are told is that they will have a boy named Jesus. No more information is given. They aren t told they will have to flee to Egypt when Herod seeks to kill Jesus. The angel doesn t tell Mary what Simeon would later tell her, and a sword will pierce your own soul too. (Luke 2:35b) Although they knew society would have seen his birth as shameful, they had no idea that his death would be seen as shameful too. They didn t see that one coming. Nobody did. Because they didn t know the details. Yet they still said yes, because they knew they were on a need to know basis with God. And so are we. We don t have to understand completely in order to obey immediately. We don t have to see the whole picture in order to put the next puzzle piece in place. Because outcome is whose responsibility?... God s. What is our responsibility?... Obedience. Extraordinary acts of God start with ordinary acts of obedience. You don t know what you will set in motion with one simple act of obedience towards God by simply what God puts on your heart. You have no idea what impact you have on someone, even something as simple as inviting someone to a Christmas Eve service. You don t have to understand what a single act of obedience will do, to do the next right thing. Look at today s scripture, the angel spoke to Joseph, fear not don t be afraid to take Mary as your wife because what is in her was conceived by the Holy Spirit. You will give birth to a son and you will name him Jesus because he will save the people from their sins. Joseph had a choice to make does he do what is easy or does he do what is right. Does he do what people would want him to do or does he do what God would have him do? Becoming obsessed what people think of you is the quickest way to forget what God thinks about you BUT becoming obsessed with what God thinks of you, is the quickest way to forget what people think of you. Joseph chose the latter verse 24 says, When Joseph woke up, he did just as an angel from God commanded and took Mary as his wife. He did what the angel of the Lord commanded him and through that simple act of obedience the greatest act of God in human history was brought into fulfillment.

I repeat, you have no idea what you set into motion with a single act of obedience to God.

will prayer and fasting that will help empower you into action who knows the next act of obedience could be as simple as

It is human nature to care what people think about us.

6 I repeat, you have no idea what you set into motion with a single act of obedience to God. So, when God speaks to you you wrestle with it wrestle with it through prayer and fasting prayer and fasting to discern God s will prayer and fasting that will help empower you into action who knows the next act of obedience could be as simple as inviting someone who needs to be here. Remember the outcome of the invitation is God s responsibility obedience is yours. Fear not God is greater than fear. Let us pray Becoming obsessed with what people think about you is the quickest way to forget what God thinks about you. It is human nature to care what people think about us. And on some level, it is good and healthy as it helps us to abide the laws of society, both spoken and unspoken BUT all too often we take it to an extreme. We obsess about what people think about us, thus failing to care about what God thinks about us. Becoming obsessed with what God thinks about you is the quickest way to forget what people think about you. It s far better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust any human being. Psalm 118:8 Recognize the futility of pleasing all people. Be willing to be criticized for obedience to God. It starts with doing ordinary acts of obedience.

7 For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. 2 Timothy 1:7 Bibliography Harvey, M. (2016, December 1). 9 Reasons We Don't Invite Our Friends to Church. Retrieved from Church Leaders :

December 7-8, Christmas. Luke 1-2 (Pg ); Matthew 2 (Pg ) God Speaks to Us!

December 7-8, Christmas. Luke 1-2 (Pg ); Matthew 2 (Pg ) God Speaks to Us! rd 3 5 December 7-8, 2013 Christmas Luke 1-2 (Pg.1121-1126); Matthew 2 (Pg.1053-1054) God Speaks to Us! Connect Time (15 minutes): Five minutes after the service begins, split kids into groups and begin