Hey I'm Matt, this is the 10 minute Bible hour and I know every single one of you listening has got 11 billion things to do today and you still shoehorned this in so hey that means a lot to me and hopefully

it's a really useful thing in the rhythm of your life too and helps make the other

eleven billion things you have to do with your time make more sense and be centered and grounded in something that's

a bigger story than you, me, or any of us.

And the part of that much bigger story than us that I want to look at today

is more of this birth narrative of Jesus in Matthew chapter one.

So we've been hanging around on verse 18 for, don't know whatever it's about like three days I guess

Looking at this from the big picture theological perspective from kind of the how do you explain a virgin birth perspective?

But now I want to move forward with this passage focusing on how this all would have come

off through the lenses of Joseph.

He's obviously a very important character, but I think rightly gets overshadowed by Mary.

At the same time, Joseph's conduct is what really makes this whole Jesus thing work out

because he was in a position to do a whole lot of damage or to get a whole lot right and because of his character and the work of God he gets a whole lot right.

So just imagine you're him and let's game this out. Here's a treasured Christmas verse that doesn't sound so good if you're the dad in the equation.

This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about.

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

found to be with child through the Holy Spirit.

All right, so you're Joseph, I don't know if you're a young man, a lot of people theorized

that he was maybe a little bit older, but whatever the case, you're single, you've earned a few bucks

on a pretty legitimate trade as a carpenter and through familial connections

you've kind of been wondering if you were going to end up with this young lady

named Mary who is young but she is beautiful and she is coming into marrying age and all of a

...