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com/ 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. 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.
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. 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.” (Matthew 1:18-20)
Do you believe in miracles?
Can you imagine yourself in Joseph’s shoes –
everything is going well,
until he encountered an angel
that blew his mind and
caused his perfect little world to come crashing down.
He discovered that Mary was pregnant.
When your life takes a nasty turn, like Joseph, listen for that still small voice from God saying, “trust me.”
Because God’s ways are not always our ways. His thoughts are higher than our thoughts, and we may never understand everything that God is doing this side of heaven, but God says, “trust me, and all things will work together for your good.”
Are you like Joseph and have some trust issues? Because a good relationship has to be built around trust. Without trust, whatever else happens has absolutely no meaning.
And some of you have been in so many relationships that you find it difficult to build trust because you have been taken advantage of.
But Dr. Seuss put it like this:
“You have brains in your head,
You have feet in your shoes.
You can steer yourself in any direction
You choose.
You’re on your own.
And you know what you know.
You are the guy who’ll decide where to go.”
Grandma would come back with something like this: “If you keep laying down with dogs, you will keep on getting up with fleas.”
I came across an article on “Five Reasons Why Good Relationships Go Bad.” Don’t you sit up in here and act like you have never had any relationship issues. Because the truth of the matter is, if you have had a relationship, YOU HAVE HAD SOME ISSUES.
And the five reasons that relationships go bad are that:
- We become too physical, too fast.
- We have too much unchecked emotional baggage. You have to get yourself together, before you try to connect with somebody else.
- We have too much dishonesty and deception. You can lie yourself into a relationship, but only truth can keep that thing together.
- We become too clingy.
- We have too many fairy tale fantasies. Cinderella is not real. Not one time in her story did she have to pay a power bill, phone bill, or car note.
Mary was giving birth to a miracle, not a fairy tale.
When you are pregnant with possibility, drama can sneak up on you at any time. We find out in Matthew that even Mary and Joseph had some Baby Momma and Baby Daddy drama. Anybody know anything about drama?
Some people have drama written across their forehead and they can’t function until they stir up something.
But drama can be just birthing pains that occur when you are on the verge of a major growth spurt. And that’s a word for somebody this morning – the reason that things look like they are falling apart and the reason that folk are falling out with you is because God is stretching you.
And you are pregnant with possibilities, eyes hath not seen nor have ear heard what God is getting ready to do through you.
And you can trust God to bring it to pass – as long as you don’t settle for less than his best.
Many of us are pregnant with a word that God has spoken to us either directly or through someone else. But if you have been carrying that word for a season and it looks like it’s not happening fast enough don’t you get discouraged.
Isaiah 40: 31 – “But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.”
God is renewing somebody’s strength right now as I speak. You walked through the doors this morning weak and torn down from the weight of the world. But before you leave this place God is going to give you some wings to fly over some stuff, and the things that used to make you tired and drain you of your energy, God has put under his control.
Because what God is doing through you is too big for the microwave, too fast for the Crockpot, but just right for the flames. The Bible tells us that as long as man has a mouth they will lie to you. But God is not a man that he should lie: if he said it, he will bring it to pass.
The problem that most of us face is not our promise or the provision, but some of our prayers ought to be, “Lord, develop my patience and help me wait out this process because after the wait comes the promise.
A lot of us have developed spiritual ADHD – attention deficit disorder – and you allow the devil to easily distract you, and you are so hyper that you can’t focus on nothing and you and your mind are all over the place!
The devil is trying hard to keep you from your destiny.
But somebody ought to thank God for your PRE-NATAL promises. That protection is around you, and provision and safety are on you because God is “no respecter of persons.”
What God did for Mary, Joseph, and the crew, he will do the same thing for you.
God has a promise growing inside of you –
you need to tell the devil
that you have decided not to settle,
not to compromise or give up
on what God has proclaimed for you.
His plan for Joseph was to cover Mary and raise Jesus and God always has a way of turning what the enemy meant as a stumbling block into a stepping-stone.
God has the ability to take the negatives in our lives and turn them into positives.
“And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:28).
Whatever God has begun in your life,
he will finish.
What God has spoken,
he will manifest.
What God has promised,
he will perform—
as long as you can endure the process?
Joseph obeyed God and proceeded with the marriage plans. Because you have to do what God tells you to do regardless of whether others may disapprove of it. Joseph went ahead with what he knew was right.
Sometimes we avoid doing what is right because of what others might think. Like Joseph, I’d rather obey God and live rather than seek the approval of others and die and go to hell.
Mary had some Baby Daddy Drama. Because it’s hard to get along with somebody who doesn’t believe in you. But like Mary you can’t let somebody else’s insecurity –JOSEPH INSECURITIES – keep you from giving birth to the promises, dreams, and aspirations that the Spirit of God has put inside of you.
Is there anybody here who knows that favor is on your life and God is about to do some great things through you?
Joseph was about to lose his mind.
Because he thought that Mary had tripped out on him.
Because the word came to Joseph that Mary was pregnant.
Isn’t it strange that when people don’t have anything to do with what God is doing through you that they start tripping. You have to make sure you hookup with people who have holy common sense. That if the Lord said it you can count on it he will do just what he said.
Joseph knows that he isn’t the father, and he knew that he wasn’t the baby’s daddy. And she had to be messing around and the baby was by somebody else.
And he decides to get a divorce, and because he loved Mary, he wants to do this thing quietly because the penalty for committing Mary’s crime was death by stoning. But before he could draw up the papers God sent an angel to tell Joseph that things are not like he thinks they are.
He tells Joseph that Mary is carrying a child that was miraculously fathered by the Holy Spirit.
What they didn’t realize is that this baby who was growing in Mary’s body was none other than JESUS, our possibility for salvation who would one day die for the sins of the whole world..
Can I preach? Verse 25 tells us that Mary eventually delivered JESUS.
You are just like Mary this morning, pregnant with possibility.
Firstly, YOU ARE SPECIAL.
So when God births something in you you don’t need to do nothing but wait for due season….too many of us are busy bodies and we don’t know how to be still and watch God.
Secondly, YOUR MIRACLE IS ON THE WAY.
Mary was giving birth to a miracle child.
I’m looking for a miracle
I expect the impossible
I feel the intangible and
I see the invisible
The sky is the limit
To what I can have
Just believe and receive it
God will perform it today
Hey, Hey, Hey
Just believe and receive it
God will perform it today
I’m looking for a miracle
I expect the impossible
I feel the intangible
I see the invisible
I’m walking in authority, living life without apology
It’s not wrong, dear, I belong here
So you might as well get used to me
My mother may not be a queen
But my Father’s King of everything
I’m adopted into the family
So I guess that makes me royalty