All right, good morning and welcome. We're so glad that you're joining with us online.

We're currently in the book of Hebrews, but today is going to be our Christmas service and also our Christmas sermon.

And so I'd like to invite you to join me in the Gospel of Matthew, the first chapter,

and I'll begin reading in verse 18.

Why don't those of you who are able stand, you can follow along as I read, if not where

you're seated is fine.

Matthew, by the Holy Spirit, records the account, beginning in verse 18,

by the Holy Spirit, he writes, this is how the birth of Jesus, the Messiah, came about.

His mother, Mary, was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came

together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. Because Joseph, her husband was

faithful to the law and yet did not want to expose her to public disgrace.

He had in mind to divorce her quietly.

But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, 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.

All this, verse 22, took place to fulfill Jesus. His people from their sins.

All this verse 22 took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet.

The Virgin will conceive and give birth to a son and they will call him Emmanuel, which means God with us. When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel

of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. But he did not consummate their marriage until she gave birth

to a son, and he gave him the name Jesus, the name above all other names, the only name

given among men whereby we must be saved.

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