This sermon delves into the story of Joseph in the New Testament, highlighting his obedience, faith, and action in response to the angel's instructions to protect Jesus. It emphasizes the importance of dynamic faith-driven action, obedience to God's word, and the transformative power of the cross in inspiring obedience and faithfulness in believers.

Now dear friends, let's turn to the first chapter of the New Testament, Matthew chapter 1 24th verse Then Joseph being raised from sleep Did as the angel of the Lord had bidden him and Took unto him his wife And knew her not till she had brought forth her firstborn son And he called his name Jesus Now theory, you know in the physics classroom I Learned a little bit of physics and Somehow the lab Did not interest me so much because It interfered with my tennis So I was anxious to get away to my tennis court so I was poor with my Practical lab work suppose every engineer every mechanic Every mechanical Person says oh, I know it all in my head And that's enough for me and that's enough for you I'll present you with a gleaming beautiful automobile Like you have never seen on earth but Don't you try to get into it or run it it will not run Do you want that the New Testament begins with a man of action? No words here not one single word of Joseph's was recorded and the kind of assignment which was given to him Would have knocked anybody out Anyone would have said balked and said hey, this is too much for me. This is quite beyond me You know, I have noticed When it comes to marriage Many people are so Calculated they think of the financial prospects Is this girl going to bring in any money? What sure will I get out of it? now that's That is a motivation and thought Which will destroy any marriage What will I get out of it I am boss and So, I don't want to be running errands What was Joseph really doing? He had taken on such a big job You know people weren't a Kind of Affiliation I Won't call it commitment and Affiliation which does not carry any Responsibility with it see I'm not going to be responsible for Mary, you know that don't you? Well if I'm to be Your future husband, all right But I can't be responsible for your safety The king is after the babe Herod the king wanted to eliminate the Lord Jesus and So he sent and killed all the children below 20 of Sorry to Below two years just think of that Killing all the children below two years What a carnage But you see that was the kind of hatred which Comes out Until we make Jesus Christ King this man felt his position was in jeopardy danger Now another king is born not in my country I'm going to eliminate him Before he threatens my crown you see my dear friends And who was this poor man? he was just a working fellow a carpenter and Was he going to take on the king? when he sought to protect Jesus You see obedience to the Word of God Has behind it many booster rockets You know, we say hey, how can I humble myself how can I go and return this money? You know, I had quite a battle with my pride quite a battle When I cheated my family Taylor He used to make our clothes, you know Measure us out and make our clothes well When I knew that he had forgotten to bill me for a court and just kept silent saying he has overcharged me for the rest of the clothes anyway and five years after God was saying go and return that money boy It was quite a Humiliating thing for me because he had known me he had seen me grown up. He had made my clothes for years To say hey, I owe you this money. I cheated you or some such thing It went against the grain with me Right now Irresponsibility and the cross of Jesus never go together When you come to the cross of Jesus you feel Hey Did Jesus suffer this? pain this death All because of my sin and guilt to be my Savior to rescue me Did he suffer this You know my dear friends that sends a booster into your life a booster rocket Okay, then if this is so Then I'm going to act upon it if my sinless Savior humbled himself does in this manner for me I'm going to do something about it. I'm not going to be sitting around twiddling my thumb You know religion has become an utterly impractical kind of Thing today and I can see that certain working people Say hey, we are hard-working people, you know What do you fellas do give a sermon or two once a week? that's about all you do and Bury a few people, you know, there are some pastors who actually count up the number of burials they have conducted and The prayers for the dead which they have made My dear friends. Is that any record? for a Christian My record should be hey so many alcoholics Have been rescued by Jesus so many broken families have been built up again So many broken lives were put together again Jesus did it well Instead of that to say hey, I went over and buried this man He he was always a drunkard. He was always a slave to alcohol He ill-treated his family. He ill-treated his wife And of course, I said my prayers over his grave what? Your prayers should have been said before he died Your prayers if they were real prayers should have changed the man before he died After his death, there's no change The Worm takes over and makes a little You see you dig up the grave after one year. You will see a big skull Looking at you, that's all you'll see your prayers should have made a difference before Oh people do not even think about these things Religion has become so unreal that I feel disgusted when I see talk without application What's the good of any carpenter coming and telling me this is how I'll make the place It'll be firm. It'll be strong and one year after I'm still thinking about How to do it or When to do it Certainly, I'm not going to engage that man to do any other work for me He's useless as far as I'm concerned He might be the best thinker But his thinking and his application don't Come together unless the physics the physicist and The Mechanical engineer come together. You don't have a product You don't have a running engine See we don't have a running engine today and We have so much fine theorizing now my dear friends religion is more than entertainment and It's very sad that so many people who love music Love singing love or a tell oratorios. Oh my over on the continent in many great Cathedrals you'll pay a field see the place full Why it's a great choir rendering an oratorio Beautiful voices, but alas so little reality So little Now so we see action He arose and did what the angel said, that's it That settled the matter for him Here is Mary to whom I am engaged and I couldn't tolerate this situation that she should conceive What kind of stuff is this? I can't tolerate this. I'm going to be rid of this girl and When the angel says fear not to take to you Marry your wife For that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost You see belief Trusting produced Dynamic action not hesitating Dithering kind of action dynamic action Now am I going to be saddled with this great job of Being the caretaker of the king of kings I Have no great Qualifications. I have no palace to offer. I Have no great money. I Have got to go to Bethlehem to be taxed If I can find that little money to be taxed or for the census which is ordered by the Emperor of Rome Well now I'm saddled with Mary and the impending birth of a baby I Have got to find some way to back out of this Predicament Some little excuse Excuses excuses excuses You know people are full of blaming others and finding excuses. I Couldn't do this because of this person and that person and this person Well, my dear friends There are no excuses offered here only action clear Dynamic decisive action So he rose up and said Let me do just what I have been told by the Lord I'll do it. So in doing this He found himself in a collision course that is with the king he was He had to protect the baby Jesus From the king of the land who was out to slaughter him He didn't have an army He couldn't command the police to come and say hey watch over us Look at that trust look at that faith just an ordinary carpenter taking on the king of the land and Then came the angel of the Lord to him again 13th verse second chapter 13 and When they were departed Behold the angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream saying arise and Take the young child and his mother and flee into Egypt. Oh boy Intercontinental Travel here's a jet plane waiting for you. Just get in and off you go How did he do it? How did he do it? Was he rich enough to find? mule or an ass Or a horse How did he do it? When the king was after him Where is this babe, which was born in Bethlehem? Where is he? I'm I must get him When the king was ready to get him The angel said no Joseph you have got to go right now take the young child and his mother and flee to Egypt and Be thou there until I bring you word For Herod will seek the young child to destroy him When he arose he took the young child and his mother by night He didn't look for a farewell send-off Give me a farewell party and Let me take an offering for the journey Nothing of the sort he set out for Egypt. Someone said to me a man who used to sell cars in Germany and In fact, he have a smuggling liquor and Cigarettes into the army camp the US Army and When he came and heard the Word of God, he said I have to go and put things, right? Both with the German customs and Also with the US Army, so he went to the army and said This is what I've been doing Smuggling liquor and Cigarettes into the army camp. Here's the money. He was told by the officers We don't have any Accounting for this kind of money here. So you take it and give it to some charity do you see and Then what did he do? He went to the German Customs you see to fall into the hands of the German police is a most dreadful thing And the custom said in 30 years, we've never seen a case like this and They forgave him Oh Extraordinary that he was not put in prison and he became a witness for the Lord Jesus now So going to a different country. He said to me That it was the passage to Egypt across Gaza Was so hot so dreadfully hot he said you could fry your eggs on The hood of your car so hot how did they take this little baby? right through That hot region whatever the temperature was fleeing from the king flee and He did it After a Herod was dead again the angel said now you can take the babe back what? Tremendous faith all this took It took action It took obedience It took faith the Christmas message must bring all this into our hearts. It must get into the bones Action Obedience and Faithfulness Oh to be found faithful to this great Savior To be found faithful Let us pray. Let us tell the Lord Lord The cross puts booster rockets into me Such that I can just sit around twiddling my thumbs The booster rocket Drives me fires me into orbit Into obedience the love of the cross fires me into obedience and Faithfulness, I want to be a person who obeys and Sees the great fruit of obedience. Please help us in Jesus Amen