Faith Under Pressure

Good morning, Shepherds Gate. Good morning. It looks like we’re gonna have a white Christmas after all, maybe.

Well, who knows? We can only wish, right? It’s good to see you all this morning. I’m very excited to be here and bringing the word to you this morning. I’m Eric Chamberlain, Discipleship Pastor here at Shepherds Gate.

I’m new here, as some of you know, only been a few months. So if I haven’t met you yet, come say hi to me. I’ll be out there in the lobby after the service.

I’d love to meet you and probably won’t remember your name, but I’m working on it. But I’d love to meet you if I haven’t met you yet. And if you have any questions, I’ll be out there too to talk with you.

So looking forward to that as well. We’re in our new series, as you know, Christmas series. We have moved on from the marriage series and now we’re on to the Christmas series, which is interesting because there’s a lot of give and take in both.

There, you know, marriage and Christmas. It was a joke. Okay.

And there actually is a marriage in today’s scripture lesson today too, so it’s really interesting. But we’re moving on. We had the war from behind Christmas last week.

Today, faith under pressure. We’re going to be looking at the story of Mary and Joseph. And maybe you’re in the midst of some pressure.

I know I saw, met some, a lot of high school students here today. You know, college students. How many have midterms or have exams that you just had or are coming up? I know my daughter’s in ninth grade, so I know we’ve been studying a lot for these exams coming up.

It’s a lot of pressure. Remember those days when you’re having to study and get ready for a big exam? Remember those days of pressure? It’s a lot of pressure when you’re in school. Also, maybe having a new job.

I can relate to that. The pressure here at Shepherd’s Gate. Tim puts a lot of pressure on me.

No, he’s fine. Maybe you’ve got a new job recently or maybe a new phase of life. You know, Christmas alone has some pressures.

You got to buy the right gift for this person. You got to go to these parties. You know, a lot of obligations, a lot of pressure to have a nice Christmas even though it’s stressful.

So, you know a little bit about pressure. So, we’re going to look at the pressure that Mary and Joseph have to go through, which is pretty amazing that we’re going to learn about here in just a minute. So, let’s get into that.

These are, this story is from the, you can read this, the first chapter of Luke or the first chapter of Matthew. You can read about these, this story. This is a combined kind of story between the two of them.

In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin named Mary who was pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. Let me talk about a few of these things here. First of all, Elizabeth is Mary’s cousin, a much older cousin, but they’re cousins.

So, Mary and Elizabeth are cousins. And Elizabeth is going to be the mother of who? John the Baptist. That’s right.

She’s prego with John the Baptist. Six months ahead of time of, we’ll hear about this later. But the main thing I want you to see here is you have Mary.

Now, she’s probably a teenage girl. We’ve got some teenage girls here, probably a younger teenage girl. I met a few of you this morning.

So, imagine that, okay, young teenage girl here. An angel meets you and speaks to you. Would you tell other people about this? Probably not.

I think you’re crazy. You might think yourself as crazy. So, Mary’s being visited by an angel, Gabriel, who’s actually first mentioned in the Old Testament in the book of Daniel.

If you want to go back and read about Gabriel, this is not his first time he appears. He’s in the Old Testament too. Now, this is an arranged marriage.

This is not the 21st century America. This is a couple thousand years ago, Israel. This was an arranged marriage.

That’s why it says that Mary was pledged or some translations say betrothed to Joseph to be married. So, this is an arranged marriage that’s happening here. Joseph’s a descendant of David, King David from the Old Testament.

So, that means he’s in the royal line of King David. So, there’s some things here that Luke and Matthew are pointing out that will make sense later as you read the story. But it’s enough to shake your faith to have an angel visit you.

Would you admit? Yeah. If you have an angel visit you, that’s going to make you ask a lot of questions and wonder whether you’re crazy, whether God’s crazy to send you an angel. That’s going to shake your faith a little bit.

The angel came to Mary and said this, greetings earthling. No, she didn’t say that. It’s a different movie, I think.

Greetings you who are highly favored. The Lord is with you. Now, it says Mary was troubled by this and I have a theory on this.

I think of Mary as kind of an introvert maybe. You know, someone who doesn’t want to be in the spotlight, who doesn’t want to be on stage, doesn’t want to be pointed out, doesn’t want to be asked to do anything. You know, like Tim comes around to you and says, hey, you know, you’re like, Tim’s coming, run.

You know, he’s gonna ask me to do something here. I think Mary is like that. She doesn’t want to be the center of attention.

That’s how I think of her. And so when an angel greets her and says, Mary, you are so important to God, you know, you think she’s like, oh no, he’s gonna ask me to do something. You are so highly favored.

The Lord is with you. She’s greatly troubled. I think that’s why.

And she wondered, what does this mean? What is God asking me to do? What is Tim asking me to do again? But the angel says to her, don’t be afraid. Don’t be afraid. You found favor with God.

Kind of reassuring Mary. It’s gonna be okay. Don’t be afraid.

You found favor with God. That’s a good thing, Mary. It’s a good thing.

Except now he’s gonna tell her something else that’s gonna be a teenage girl. She never kissed a guy probably. Okay.

This is, you will conceive and give birth to a son. Imagine that. Imagine getting that message from an angel.

You’re gonna conceive and give birth to a son. And the angel goes on. The angel’s really excited.

You’re gonna give birth to the son of God. You’re gonna call him Jesus, which means God saves. He’s gonna be great.

He’s gonna be called the son of the Most High God. The Lord’s gonna give him a throne, a royal throne. He’s gonna be a king forever.

He’s gonna reign over the house of Jacob forever. His kingdom will never end. Imagine that.

You’re gonna give birth to an immortal king who’s never gonna die. It’s gonna be amazing. Aren’t you so excited, Mary? Mary’s, that sounds nice.

But let’s go back to that first part about being pregnant. I can see my daughter doing this. Like, okay, let’s go talk about the pregnancy thing.

Like, what are we talking about here? How’s this gonna work? How can this be? I’m a virgin. I’m, she’s pledged to be married, but that’s just like an engagement. Like an arranged marriage, right? She knows she’s betrothed.

She’s been promised to this guy, but that’s it. They’re not like, probably not dating or anything like that yet. She’s young.

Well, the angel once again tries to reassure her. The Holy Spirit, let me reassure you, the Holy Spirit will come upon you and God will overshadow you. Do you think she’s feeling better about this? Probably not.

Can you imagine? It’s like, what? That’s not helping me, angel. The Holy Spirit will come on. The power of the Most High will overshadow you.

The child will be born, will be holy. He will be called the Son of God. Okay, this is a lot of pressure on a young teenage girl.

Can you imagine being in her, being in her shoes in this moment? Now, the angel goes on to say, your, because she doesn’t know this yet, your cousin Elizabeth, your older cousin Elizabeth, she is pregnant. Now, that’s significant to Mary, because I’m sure Mary knew that her older cousin was infertile. She was an older cousin.

She was past the bearing age of giving children, okay? She was much older and she never had kids. So, she bore that shame her whole life. And the angel’s saying, by the way, your cousin, who couldn’t give, couldn’t have kids, is pregnant, six months pregnant.

So, what’s impossible with God, with man, is not impossible with God. Nothing is impossible with God. So, this is the message the angel gives to Mary.

And here’s where we see Mary’s true colors. We see Mary’s, you know, why, why she’s favored. Because she responds and says, I’m, I’m your servant.

I’m the Lord’s servant. May it be done to me according to your word, God. Let your will be done in my life.

Right? This is her attitude. Let your will be done in my life. And the angel left.

It’s pretty amazing to see her, her faith, her belief under all this pressure, under all this expectations. But in the end, she says, here I am, God. Let your will be done in my life.

I don’t understand how this is going to happen. I’m not sure I like what’s happening, but here I am. Use me.

It’s amazing. But, you know, she’s not the only one who faced pressure here. Don’t forget Joseph.

Remember, Joseph is thinking his fiancee just cheated on him. Right? How many have been betrayed? You’ve been betrayed before? You know what betrayal feels like? Doesn’t feel good. Joseph has just been betrayed in his mind.

He’s been betrayed by this woman that he was going to marry. She cheated on him. But, you know, Joseph’s a good man.

He’s an upstanding man. In fact, it says here, he was faithful to the law. And so he’s a righteous man.

He could have put this all on her. He could have made her, told everybody, hey, hey, hey, I didn’t do this. I got nothing to do with this.

She’s the one who betrayed me. It’s all on her. She’s the one who did this.

You know, he could have done that, right? He could have put her to shame and made himself look good. But he didn’t do that because he cared about her and he was a righteous man. But he wasn’t going to marry her because she betrayed him, right? So he’s planning to divorce her.

It says here, he didn’t want to expose her to public disgrace, but he was going to divorce her quietly. But then the angel stepped in. The angel steps in into his dream, actually.

Interesting. And tells Joseph, Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife. Don’t be afraid.

Yeah, it’s going to be hard because you’re a righteous man. And even if you take her, you know, take her as your wife, people are going to know that you, they’re going to thank you guys, you know, before you got married. Right? You know, so it’s going to be some, a little bit of public disgrace there.

But the angel says, don’t be afraid because this is God’s doing. This is God’s plan. It says, marry your wife.

What’s conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She did not betray you, Joseph. She’s favored of God and God’s going to use her and use you in his plan.

You’re going to give birth to a son. You’re going to give his name, give him the name Jesus, which means that, you know, it’s actually the same name as Joshua. Did you know that? The Old Testament, it’s the same name.

In the Old Testament, Joshua is when it’s translated into the Greek, it ends up being Jesus. It’s a long story, but it’s just the same name. It all means God saves.

That’s what it means. Joshua means that, Jesus means that. God saves because he will save his people from their sins.

Wow. Joseph, he takes Mary. And what does it say about Joseph? What kind of man is he? It says here, look at the end of this.

It says, when Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary as his wife. Way to go, Joseph. He was someone who loved God and obeyed God.

This was a fulfilled prophecy, right? This was a prophecy of the Old Testament. The book of Isaiah said, the virgin will conceive and give birth to his son and they will call him Immanuel. We sang that song, God with us.

Okay. I want to take a moment here. We’re going to take a break from this.

I’m going to nerd out. How many nerds are here? Okay. Be proud.

Yes. I like that. He’s roses.

I’m right here. Who’s a proud nerd this morning? Okay. We’re going to nerd out a little bit.

We’ll see if you can go with me on this. I’m going to show you a picture. This is a process by which metal can be strengthened without using heat.

It’s called cold rolling. And you put metal between these two rollers and the pressure compresses the metal and it becomes strong. So, pressure produces strength in this model.

Maybe some of you work with metal and understand this strain. They call it strain hardening or cold rolling process. One more for you nerds.

What is this? What do you think this is? It looks pretty cool, doesn’t it? I know there’s like, Ooh, that looks nice. It’s actually a cubic press. It’s what they use to make artificial diamonds.

Some of you might be wearing artificial diamonds. You just don’t know it, right? It’s called a cubic press. It uses high pressure and high heat and it makes something beautiful.

It makes something beautiful. Okay. Here’s one for the jocks.

Burnouts, I got nothing for you. Sorry. The jocks, you get this one.

What do you call this process of building muscle growth? Hypertrophy. That’s the actual technical name. Hypertrophy.

And it’s the building of muscle. It uses the pressure of weight to break down muscle and to build it up. Build it up.

It causes growth. So, the pressure of the weight causes growth. So, think about these three processes here.

Pressure can produce strength, growth, and beauty. And what’s true in the physical world is true in the spiritual world in your life. It can be.

It can be true in your life. It was true in Mary and Joseph’s life. It can be true in your life.

It can be true in my life. But when you’re going through the pressure, that’s the hard time, isn’t it? And I’ve had those times in my life as well. In fact, I think I’ll share one with you.

And it kind of relates to the story because it’s about infertility. You know, I was always excited, even as a teenager, to get married and have a family. I always wanted six kids.

That’s what I always wanted, six kids. I don’t know why. I just, I don’t know.

I just always wanted a lot of kids. And I didn’t get married until, as you know, if you were here last month with the Marriage Series, I didn’t get married until I was in my early 30s. And I discovered that I was infertile.

And it was very difficult for me. I don’t know, I just didn’t feel like a man. I know, you know, all the stories in the Bible are about women who experience infertility.

It’s never a story about a guy, you know. And it’s just something that guys don’t want to talk about and think about. You know, it’s hard.

I mean, I’m sure it’s hard for a woman too, obviously. But it’s also hard for a man. I just felt less of a man, you know.

Like I couldn’t, I don’t know. It was really hard for me and difficult. And I kind of suffered, you know, by myself with that.

It was hard to really share that. Now, unfortunately also, my wife had some issues too. So the combined, we were told we probably couldn’t have kids without some miracle happening, right? So it was really hard.

That was a real deep sorrow to think about that and to think that that might be the situation for my life. It wasn’t the plan I had, you know. It wasn’t the promise I wanted.

It didn’t feel too good. But, you know, we sought some help. And we did discover that there was a procedure that could really increase our chances.

And so we had to pray about it. And we, you know, we prayed about, you know, talked about adoption, you know. There’s lots of different things you can do, foster kids.

There’s lots of great things you can do. But we really felt God was leading us to try out this procedure. It wasn’t cheap, you know.

And we had to think about that. But we went through it. And it wasn’t easy to go through either.

It was difficult. The whole process, I’m not going to go into the details, but the whole process is difficult too. And you’re constantly just worried about it the whole time.

And because it doesn’t always work. And we had a miscarriage one time. So that was really difficult.

He’s with the Lord. I thought that was my son. My only son.

I thought that was it. That was my only chance to have a son. So I thought maybe I wouldn’t have a son.

I remember just weeping one day thinking I wasn’t going to have a son. Really hard. Really difficult, you know.

Difficult time. But as you know, something beautiful did come out of it. Two beautiful ones actually.

Three. One’s in heaven. Two are sitting over there.

John and Gloria. But it was difficult. But you know, the process of it also was good for our relationship, you know.

That difficulty together gave us strength and growth. And in my spiritual life I really was able to, you know, grow closer to God and really understand and really commit to His purposes and His will in my life no matter what. Even if I didn’t get what I wanted.

Even though God did bless me, I didn’t have the six I wanted. It doesn’t always work out exactly how you want it. But God produced the strength and growth and beauty in my life.

I’m very thankful for that. You know, the scriptures also talk about this process. And I want to share a couple verses with you that talk about this process of how God can take the pressure, the trials, the temptations, the difficulties, the dark spaces of your life, and He can turn it into something beautiful.

Consider it pure joy, my brothers, this is from James chapter 1, and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds. Because the testing of your faith produces perseverance. And let perseverance finish its work.

Sometimes you got to wait. You got to be in that waiting space so that you can become mature and complete, not lacking anything in your life with Christ. Listen to this one from Romans.

Paul says, we rejoice in our sufferings knowing that the suffering, that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope. So how can it do this? Because you know, it doesn’t always, let’s be honest, sometimes it creates bitterness, right? Suffering and difficulty, you can turn against God. You can shake your fist at God.

So what’s the difference? How can it create beauty and strength and growth in your life, right? Well, I want to offer you three things. Things that we see in the story of Mary and Joseph, and in these scriptures that we just read. The first one, when your faith is tested under pressure, is believe God’s promises.

Don’t put your faith and trust in your feelings or in your circumstance. You know, we live in a very unstable world. I know young people get this.

It’s very unstable. You don’t know who to trust. You don’t know, you know, you’re constantly bombarded with people wanting your attention, wanting you to buy, wanting you to listen, wanting you to click this and click that.

It’s just a lot of pressure. You don’t know who to trust. You see everything that’s happening in the world, all the murders, all the wars, all over the world.

You see it happening all the time. It’s right in your pocket. And there’s a great sense of anxiety and instability in the world.

And we’re looking for something that we can trust, we can, a solid ground we can put our feet on. And let me tell you what that solid ground is. It’s the Word of God, and it’s the man, Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever, right? That’s who our God is. He doesn’t change. You can count on Him.

His promises are the one thing you can count on. That’s where you put your faith and trust in. And that’s what I think Mary was doing too.

Love Him and obey His commands. We think obedience is burdensome. It’s not.

When you love somebody, when you love Jesus, obeying Him is an honor. It’s an honor and a privilege to obey Jesus when you love Him. In fact, Jesus says that Himself.

He said, if you love Me, you will what? Obey My commandments. It’s a joy. It’s not a burden.

So love Him, obey His commands, rejoice, and consider trials pure joy. Wow, that’s hard. It’s really hard when you’re in the middle of the trial, isn’t it? All these are hard.

All these are difficult. You know, the promise, I’m not getting the promise that I want always. God’s not promising what I want all the time.

And when I’m upset with God because life isn’t working out the way I wanted it, I’m not feeling too loving toward Him. I may even have some words with Him, right? I might ignore Him because I’m upset at Him. I might stop going to church because I’m upset at life.

Did I rejoice in the Lord when I learned of my infertility? Not really. Not initially. It’s hard, isn’t it? It’s not easy.

This is not easy. It’s not easy to do that. Who can actually do this? Who can live this way? Christmas, is the story of what’s impossible is possible with God.

That’s what Christmas is. Remember, Christmas what? Unto us a son is given. The impossible is possible in your life.

He takes up our trials. Remember, the baby is born in a wooden manger, but the ultimate goal is to be hung on a wooden cross to give us life, to give us hope, to give us peace. That’s what Christmas is about.

Christmas is about God making the impossible happen through His Son, Jesus. Christmas is a story of the impossible being possible with God. Unto us a son is given.

This Son, Jesus, believed. He obeyed, right? Not my will, but your will be done. The book of Hebrews says, why did Jesus do this? It says, for the joy set before Him, He endured the cross.

What’s that joy? You. You’re the joy. The joy of giving you hope, giving you salvation, eternal life, giving you peace in this world.

That’s the joy that was set before Him. You’re the joy set before Him. You’re the Christmas joy.

It’s that God giving you hope and salvation. I want to encourage you to invite Jesus into your Christmas this year. Don’t miss the opportunity to invite Him, not just into your pressures, into your trials.

Invite Him into all that, too. Invite Him into your struggles, into your pain. Invite Him into Christmas.

Invite Him into your family. Invite Him into the life of your children. That’s what prayer is about.

The Elf’s fine, but it’s not Christmas. Okay? The Elf isn’t Christmas. Maybe the Elf, if the Elf was bringing a gift to baby Jesus, like the Magi, Santa Claus was a real Christian person named Nicholas, who was a pastor in Turkey, who loved Jesus.

Did you know that? It’s true. That’s what the whole legend’s about. It’s a Christian pastor who loved Jesus and gave to the poor during the time of Jesus’ birth.

Invite Jesus into your Christmas. It’s easy to neglect it. Obviously, coming to Christmas Eve service, it’s a great way to do it, right? But Christmas morning, take some time out before you open those presents to acknowledge the greatest gift you’ve been given, Jesus, the greatest gift.

I want you to hear these words. These are closing words from 1 Peter. We’ll close with this.

Peter is speaking to Christians who are going through trials and tests. And I don’t know what you’re going through this month. You may be under a lot of pressure for your job, for expectations in your life.

Maybe it’s just the stress of the holiday and being around family. Maybe you’re in a new phase of life and you’re not with everybody you wished you could be with. Maybe you’re struggling physically or mentally.

Whatever it is you’re going through, I want you to hear these words from Peter, because Peter is talking to you. He’s talking to you who love Jesus, but you’re struggling. You’re going through something.

He says, in this faith under pressure that you’re going through, you rejoice. Just like we sang in that song, Emmanuel, right? Rejoice, rejoice, Emmanuel. Though now for a little while, if necessary, you’ve been grieved by various trials.

God knows, God knows. He hasn’t promised to take away the pain, but He does promise to be with you. That’s what Emmanuel means, right? God is with you.

God is with us. That’s the message of Christmas. He hasn’t taken away the pain, but He’s with you.

Why? So that the tested genuineness of your faith may be found to result in the praise and glory of Jesus at the revelation, at His revelation of Jesus Christ. You get to, you get to come before Jesus one day and when He says, well done, good and faithful servant, you’re going to say it’s all for your glory. Not for me, for you.

Whatever crowns you earned in this life, you’re going to put at the feet of Jesus and the praise and glory of Him. Though you have not seen Him in your life, maybe there was times, some dark times in your life that you’re still struggling with. You’re still dealing with the trauma of your past and you didn’t see God then, but you love Him.

And though you do not see Him now, maybe you’re going through something else now and you don’t see Him, but you believe in Him. Rejoice with the joy that is inexpressible. Joy is not happiness.

Happiness is based on circumstance. Joy is much deeper and it’s based on the promises of God and the hope you have in Jesus. You can be, you can have joy when you’re going through the pressures and trials of life.

It’s inexpressible. It’s filled with the glory of God. And ultimately, it’s about obtaining the outcome of your faith by God’s grace and all He’s given you, by the Son that was given to you, the salvation of your souls.

So be encouraged, brothers and sisters, whatever you’re going through, God is with you. He’s creating something beautiful if you invite Him in. As you trust Him, as you love Him, as you live in the joy of Christmas, let Him make something beautiful in your life.

As you say to the Lord this Christmas, I’m yours, Lord. I don’t understand what’s going on, but I’m yours. Come into my life, come into my family, come into my children’s lives, come into my friends.

I’m inviting you in. Let’s do that this Christmas. Amen