This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

Hi, this is Pastor Tom and I want to welcome you to day five of our look through
Matthew chapter two. We're learning together about how we obey God, learning
from Joseph. How do you obey?

You obey immediately and consistently and sacrificially we've seen. And today
two more ways, you obey courageously and you obey wisely. What does it mean to
obey in those kinds of ways?

To obey courageously, that means you take a risk, you take a risk. In verses 19
to 21, "After Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in
Egypt and said, 'Get up, take the child and his mother and go to the land of
Israel, for those who were trying to take the child's life are dead. '" So he
got up, he took the child and his mother and he went to the land of Israel.

Here is Joseph, Joseph and Mary and Jesus, they're just getting settled in Egypt
and now he's told to go back to Israel. But Israel is where the danger had been
and I know he's getting assurance from God that there's no danger there anymore,
but if you've been a Christian for any time, you know that sometimes even with
that assurance from God, you still have worries as a parent, you still struggle
with fears. This was a risk and because he trusted God, he took God at his word
and he obeyed, he took the risk to go back, even though he must have had fears.

Psalm 56. 3 says, "When I am afraid, I will trust in you. " What I like about
that verse is the word when at the beginning, not if I am afraid, when I am
afraid.

We want a life with no fears, there's no such thing. Life is filled with fears
and this last week as you looked at your life, you might be willing to admit it,
not admit it, but your life was filled with potential fears, big fears and
little fears, fears about the future, about your job, whether you'd be able to
pull out of this, fears about what people think of you, even how you look, you
have all these kinds of fears in life. Now, when you think about your fears in
life, they may be different than somebody else's, but the truth is even though
we're all unique with our fears, we all face them.

There is no such thing as a no potential fear life, so I have to choose, am I
going to allow those fears, those worries, those anxieties to control my life or
am I going to choose to trust him? Only those who are controlled by their fears
know the prison that can happen when you're controlled by those fears and only
those who trust God in spite of those fears know the freedom that comes when you
trust him. A few years back, I had to have a heart procedure, I had to have a
stent put into my heart.

I felt fine, everything was fine, but I had a little bit of pain and I went in
and the doctor said, "Oh, you've got an artery that's 99% blocked, you're like a
ticking time bomb ready to go off, I can't believe you walked in," he said. I
had no idea, I felt fine, but he did an angiogram of my heart and because he did
that angiogram, that test, it let me know there was something wrong, they were
able to treat it and get me right. So let's do an angiogram of your spiritual
heart because I found when it comes to our fears we found a lot of ways to lie
to ourselves, to get around them, to not face them, to stay away from those
things that would cause us to have fears.

So it's just a one question test. How long has it been since you've taken a risk
because of your faith? The risk to love someone, the risk to give, the risk to
move out of your comfort zone, the risk to worship God in a way that you haven't
worshipped him before, the risk to trust God in a way that you haven't trusted
him before, the risk to obey God in a way that he's been asking you to obey for
a long time, but you haven't been willing to take that risk.

How long has it been since you've taken a risk because of your faith? Now I'm
talking here about faith risks. There are really three kinds of risks in life as
I think about it.

There are crazy risks, there are calculated risks, and there are Christ-like
risks or faith risks. Crazy risks are just when you're tired of life and you
want to just risk anything. It's like throwing the dice.

I'm going to quit my job and go start a new business. We're moving across the
country. You're desperate so you take a crazy risk.

That's not what I'm talking about. Then there's the calculated risk. You figure
it out.

You work it around. You think, "Okay, I can do this. It has the potential to do
this.

" It might not work out, but there's a 56. 73982% chance that this is going to
work out. You've got it all calculated, and I think it is good to count the
cost.

The Bible tells us to count the cost, but I'm talking not just about human logic
here. It's not just about human logic. I'm talking about a faith risk, talking
about a Christ-like risk, and when you think of a Christ-like risk, what's the
greatest risk that he took?

He took the risk to serve. He took the risk to be born in Bethlehem, to give his
life for us in teaching and in ministry, and then to give his life for us on a
cross. Jesus took the risk to serve, trusting that our hearts would be drawn to
him.

Now, as God, he knew what would happen, so I know he did have some things that
you and I don't have, but that's why it's a risk for us. You see, when I talk
about risk, many times people think about how can I take a risk to make more
money, and maybe sometimes you need to do that, or how can I take a risk to
become more popular, and maybe sometimes you need to do that. That's God's
direction in your life.

As long as it doesn't bring pride and it's God's direction, it can be a good
thing, but that's not the greatest risk. The greatest risk is to take the risk
to serve, to give of yourself to other people, to love someone else, to serve
someone else. So where can you take a Christ-like risk?

When's the last time you took a risk because of your faith? You didn't do it
just for you, you did it for someone else. Faith means you take a risk,
obedience means you take a risk.

And then there's a fifth thing that we learn from Joseph about how to obey God.
The fifth thing you learn is, I'd say it this way, you use your brain when you
obey God. He obeyed wisely.

You use your brain, the brain that God gave you. In verse 22 to 23, when Joseph
heard that Archelaus was reigning in Judea in place of his father Herod, he was
afraid to go there. Having been warned in a dream, he withdrew to the district
of Galilee, and he went and lived in a town called Nazareth.

So it was fulfilled what was said through the prophets, he will be called a
Nazarene. So Joseph is obeying God, but I want you to notice, he'd heard from
this angel, but he's also looking at the political situation in Jerusalem. He
has this fear, this fear of going back where Archelaus is reigning in Judea.

That's where Jerusalem is. He doesn't want to go there, where Jesus has been
born in Bethlehem, he doesn't want to go near Bethlehem, which is right next to
Jerusalem. And in praying about that, God says to him, you're right, don't go
there, I need you to go, I need you to go to Galilee.

That's exactly where he was supposed to be. This is a reminder to me that
obedience isn't some mindless action. Even for Joseph and Mary, who are hearing
from angels what to do, their mind is still engaged.

Some people think that obedience is you disengage your mind to engage your
faith, and there's nothing further from the truth. Obedience takes your mind,
your will, your emotions. You love the Lord your God with all your heart, all
your mind, all your soul, all your strength.

So how do you and I think through what God wants us to do? How do we engage our
mind? Joseph had an angel appear.

He seemed to have conversations in his mind, and with this angel even. How do we
get to this place of understanding God's will? Well, we might not have an angel,
but we have God's Word.

We have the Bible. You want to live the excitement and freedom of this life of
obedience? You have to hear from God.

You can't do it without hearing from God. And how do you hear from God? You hear
from God through His Word.

Some people see God's Word as just a list of instructions, mindless action, but
I see it instead as a conversation with a Father who loves me. As God talking to
me, telling me, "Here's how to live life. Here's what to do.

Here's my advice for this circumstance. Here's what you do in this circumstance.
And when you get afraid, here's what to do.

When you feel insecure, here's what to do. " As you read, you might pray a
prayer like Psalm 1, 19, 34, and the message paraphrase it says, "Give me
insight so that I can do what you tell me. My whole life, one long, obedient
response.

" That's worship. Your whole life, one long, obedient response to Him. That's
obedience.

That's combining the two things we've talked about these two weeks, worship and
obedience together. And our example in this is Joseph, but our example in this
is also Jesus. Because He was obedient to God's will, He gave His life for you.

He gave His all for you. He followed the Father's instruction. Now when you and
I look at the cross, we don't see torture.

We don't even see primarily death. We see love. We see God.

We see obedience. So what's your response going to be? Second John 1, 6 says,
"Love one another.

" There's a place to start. Who can you pray for right now? That's obedience.

Who can you forgive after so many years? That's obedience. What small kindness
can you do for someone this week?

That's obedience. Let's take some time to pray together. Our Father, help us to
learn from Joseph.

Let the story of his life become the story of our lives. This kind of obedience,
do it now. Keep on trusting.

Let it go. Take a risk. Use in our brains to obey Lord immediately and
consistently and sacrificially.

We want to obey in that kind of way. We want to be those kind of people, to obey
courageously, to obey you wisely. We want to be that kind of man, that kind of
woman.

So we ask that you would strengthen us to do this. And we ask it in Jesus' name,
amen. Well next week, next week we're going to change up on things a little bit.

We are beginning our transform campaign at Saddleback Church. For the next seven
weeks, we're going to be in that campaign for drive time devotions, talking
about your spiritual health. We're going to be reading the devotions.

So you can listen to them rather than read them. Some of you would rather listen
than read. So you can hear them on drive time devotions as you're on your way to
work or wherever else.

I wanted to start Matthew at the beginning of the year. So we did the first two
chapters. Next seven weeks, we'll do the transform campaign.

Then at the end of that, we'll get back to Matthew with Matthew chapter three.
So I am glad you've joined us for the beginning of Matthew. I'm glad you're
going to be part of joining us for the transform campaign.

Whether you're at Saddleback or not, I know you'll benefit from those devotions.
And I'm glad you'll be with us as we get back to Matthew in seven, eight weeks.
Thanks for being a part of drive time devotions.