Micah 6:6-8, Matthew 1:18-25 (ESV)
December 6, 2020
preached by Ryan Bouton
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Guide for Home Worship

Time of Reflection Quotations

“Divine guidance set Jesus at a distance from his family and fellow townsmen, brought him into conflict with all the nation’s leaders, religious and civil, and led finally to betrayal, arrest and the cross. What more can Christians expect, while they abide in the will of God? …Sooner or later, God’s guidance, which brings us out of darkness into light, will also bring us out of light into darkness. It is part of the way of the cross.”

~J.I. Packer, Knowing God

“Well I am a good Midwestern boy
I give an honest day’s work if I can get it
I don’t cheat on my taxes I don’t cheat on my girl
I’ve got values that would make the White House jealous.

Well I do get a little much over-impressed
‘Til I think of Peter and Paul and the apostles
I don’t stack up too well against them I guess
But by the standards ‘round here I ain’t doing that awful.

Lord it’s hard to turn the other cheek
Hard to bless when others curse you
Oh Lord it’s hard to be a man of peace
Lord it’s hard.. oh it’s hard
You know it’s hard to be like Jesus.”

~Rich Mullins, “Hard”

“Per¬haps, for many of us, all expe¬ri¬ence mere¬ly defines, so to speak, the shape of that gap where our love of God ought to be. It is not enough. It is some¬thing. If we can¬not ‘prac¬tice the pres¬ence of God,’ it is some-thing to prac¬tice the absence of God, to become increas¬ing¬ly aware of our unaware¬ness till we feel like men who should stand beside a great cataract and hear no noise, or like a man in a sto¬ry who looks in a mir¬ror and finds no face there; or a man in a dream who stretch¬es out his hand to vis¬i¬ble objects and gets no sen¬sa-tion of touch. To know that one is dream¬ing is to be no longer per¬fect¬ly asleep. But for news of the ful¬ly wak¬ing world you must go to my betters.”

~C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves

“So it came to pass that Joseph was the noblest of men
With a woman on a donkey on their way to Bethlehem
And I wonder whether either was aware enough that day
To know the child would bring a Kingdom
And the old would come to pass away.”

~Andrew Peterson, “It Came to Pass”

Sermon Passage

Micah 6:6-8, Matthew 1:18-25 (ESV)

Micah 6

⁶ “With what shall I come before the LORD,
and bow myself before God on high?
Shall I come before him with burnt offerings,
with calves a year old?
⁷ Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams,
with ten thousands of rivers of oil?
Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression,
the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?”
⁸ He has told you, O man, what is good;
and what does the LORD require of you
but to do justice, and to love kindness,
and to walk humbly with your God?

Matthew 1

¹⁸ Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. ¹⁹ And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. ²⁰ But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. ²¹ She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” ²² All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet:

²³ “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son,
and they shall call his name Immanuel”

(which means, God with us). ²⁴ When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him: he took his wife, ²⁵ but knew her not until she had given birth to a son. And he called his name Jesus.