Daily Dose of the Word of God - Matthew 1: 20-21

Gregg DeMey, Lead Pastor

Transcript

Gregg DeMey  0:06 

Good morning! Welcome to Elmhurst CRC's daily dose of the Word of God. This is Gregg DeMey, Lead Pastor at the church and it's Friday, September 22, and Sunday's coming. This week we'll be climbing the staircase of faith with an emphasis on the letter I, which signifies God's intentions for us. Listen to two verses from the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 1, verses 20 and 21. Herein God sends an angel to Joseph of Nazareth in a dream, and this was God's message.

Gregg DeMey  0:30 

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.

Gregg DeMey 0:55 

This message was meant to give Joseph some comfort and confidence in a fraught situation. His fiance was pregnant and there really weren't many plausible explanations for how that could have come about. In these two short verses, we learned a lot about the heart and purposes of God. God purposed to bring his only begotten son from eternal heavenly realms, into earthly mortal realms; and God's way of doing this was through the Holy Spirit planting almighty God himself in the womb of Mary, who had surrendered herself to God's will and purpose to do this. What a wild intention for God to have. But, there's more: God not only intended to become one of us, but God had a vision of what would one day result from the incarnation of the second member of the Trinity. This plan of God would, "Save his people from their sins."

Gregg DeMey  1:51 

As we've noted before, sin is not just the accumulation of all the wrong things that we've done as human beings; Sin is the broken condition in which we find ourselves. It is God's intention to make things right with his people in two ways. 1: to forgive all our particular sins and errors. 2: to permanently heal and mend our warped and broken hearts. There's only one name, only one person who can do that: Jesus. God sent his Son intentionally with purpose, and God very intentionally forgives and heals those whom he chooses as his sons and daughters on purpose.

Gregg DeMey 2:33  

Let's pray. Lord, thank you for doing what was never possible on my own. Through Jesus, you have already forgiven all my wrongs - past, present and future ones. And through Jesus, you are already mending up this broken heart for an eternity of joy in your holy presence. We can't wait. Amen.