What's going on? I think there was probably, excuse me, even room in his heart for hurt. It's thinking on this thing. And here's what I want you to realize tonight.
Well, this was a Lord, for a home in my heart. It was the will of God causing this conflict. It was the will of God causing this conflict in his heart. Then it was God who willed Mary to be the virgin that we conceive, and therefore it was God that willed Joseph would be the one who would guide and provide throughout this entire thing.
Here's what I want you to see. Often times in the Christian life, the will of God is going to bring conflict to your heart. Often times in my life as a Christian, the will of God brings conflict to my contentment. You would love to have peace and quiet and peace on earth, good will toward men.
We'd love to have that. But I had to tell you tonight, sometimes the unexpected parts of God's will is going to create a conflict in the life of the believer. I read something this week, I have never thought of it. I know that's probably, but I wish I thought of it.
The evangelist said this. The Bible says that Mary is highly favored. Yes? Highly favored.
And this evangelist said this, and I screen-shotted it. She was highly favored, but was almost put away by the man she loved the most. She was highly favored, but she laid on the dirt floor of a barn and gave birth to a baby. She carried nine months.
She was highly favored. And the middle of the night, she had to leave. All she knew to move to a strange town because God said so. Favour never looks like favor at first.
Favour sometimes takes you through frustration, failure, and fear. I wish I had thought of that. We love to think that the Christian life, all this is hard. This is conflict.
This is difficulty. And yet, one of the most highly favored women who ever walked the planet had to endure all the unexpected of God's will for her life. I don't know about you. My soul, that brings comfort to me.
Sometimes in God's calling on our life, there's going to be conflict simply because of the will of God. Now, understand this. Understand this. God's will is either going to bring conflict to your life or your life is going to bring conflict to the will of God.
Understand tonight that doing the will of God and being in the will of God and fulfilling the unexpected that God's called you to at times. I want you to know this is going to up into your life. God, this is not what I planned. God, this is not what I pictured.
When I was speaking of the jolly kings today, we were talking about Joseph. And you have to know as a man that Joseph's pride kept rising up on the inside. This is not the way it's supposed to be. This was not the plan.
This is not how I had it pictured, the picket fence in the house. This is not how I had it. And inside, in order for Joseph to fulfill the unexpected will of God and his life, he's going to have to deal with this conflict. And I believe that's what's happening in verse 18, 19, and 20.
Before they came together, Joseph is thinking on these things. Matthew chapter 16 verse 25, the Bible says, for whose whoever will save his life shall lose it. And so whoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it. Notice the Bible is showing us in andor, but it's really inor.
We save our life, we lose it, we lose our life, we find it. And this is what Joseph is having a conflict with. Oftentimes the conflict is the will of God. Watch.
It's not what God is calling to do is hard. It's what God is calling me to do is not what I want to do. Let that one think in. You know, sometimes God, listen, I was thinking on Logan this morning.
Logan, I think the Lord is calling to be a missionary to the jungles of South America. We talked about this morning. Amen, that's right. We're having a problem going to pray for you tonight as he prepares to go.
Look, we're living in 2025. We have technology. You can call home, talk to mom and dad. You can Skype and FaceTime and all of that.
And it's not like it used to be in the old days. It's not necessarily that what God calls us to do is hard. What's the hard part is not doing what I want to do instead of what God's calling to do. There's where the conflict comes in.
I mean, look, how hard is it to give somebody a gospel track? I hate this shirt because there's no gospel track pocket. I want to encourage you, before Christmas, take our Christmas card, they are so fun to give out. People's eyes light up.
They're excited about getting the track before they realize it's a track. I got a Christmas card. I do a Christmas card for you. Give a Christmas card.
Thank you so much. They have no idea. You just gave them the gospel. Walk off.
You plan the bomb and run. Okay? How hard is it to give somebody a gospel track? It's not hard.
You're literally taking them out of your pocket and you're giving it to them. What's the hard part? The hard part is when we have to stop what we want to do to go get the track. That's the hard part.
You see, the conflict is the will of God and what God's calling us to do and what we desire to do. Relations five spells it out. The Bible says we have these two warring members inside of us. Some of you have three or four, but I know I at least have two.
Some of you have 2000. All right. You know who that guy is? Anyway, the Bible says it's the lush of the flesh and the spirit.
They're warring on the inside. The relation to the flesh and the spirit against the flesh. These are contrary to the one to the other so you cannot do the things that you want. Don't tell me.
I know Joseph is far more of a godly man than I am. I know that. I have no doubt that God would choose to be the earthly guide and provider for his son was a godly man, but he was a man. He was a man.
That man had hopes and dreams. That man had desires. Can I tell you what I think if I'm in Joseph's position, one of the hardest things is. It's knowing that people are talking, knowing people are talking, knowing that this is of God, but you don't have a hard time convincing anybody of that.
I promise. I promise. You know Joseph was shunned. You know it had to happen.
You know people looked at him differently. You know it had to happen. You know Joseph endured a lot of conflict because it was the will of God for his life. Now I want to give you this for a second thing tonight and I hope I hope this thing is in.
This one hit harder than Mary. Joseph hit harder than me because it's a man. The truth tonight is you and I as believers are always going to have conflict. The question is who we're going to have conflict with.
We're either going to have conflict with God because we want it the way we pictured it or we're going to have conflict with our desires because we're going to do it the way God said it, but you're going to have conflict one with the other. I wish it was that easy for me in my heart sometimes because I still want what I want. Right? We still want what we want.
And God this is the way I pictured it. I'm sure I remember when Leslie and I got engaged long before we got engaged long before I met her. I had this envelope and in this envelope I had my dreams. Okay.
I have a hope chest. I literally had a US post office priority mail envelope that I would stuff clippings in from magazines I tore them out of the hospital for giving me for that, but I would. This is the house I want to build. This is what my yard is going to look like.
This is what my outdoor kitchen is going to look like. I had all stuff in there and I had all of these dreams. And yeah, there's nothing wrong with having dreams. But oh God's will has got to come before our dreams.
I think Joseph probably had an idea of what he wanted. And now when I read recently when I just read over verse 20, but while he fought on these things, all of a sudden Joseph's heart is in turmoil. It's not what he thought it was going to be. But wait a minute.
There's nothing else I want to give you. Number one, there's an unexpected conflict. Number two, verse 20 ought to make you cry a little bit. But while he fought on these things, we hold the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying Joseph, the thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee, Mary thy wife.
For that was just conceived in her as of the Holy Ghost. Number one, we see the unexpected conflict Joseph has. We're going to have unexpected conflict. But notice how God rims it.
Number two, there's an unexpected comfort. What a beautiful picture tonight of how God works. God gives us comfort in our conflict. Here's Joseph.
When I read verse 19, I picture him laying down at night. That's the way I picture him. He's in his bed. As oftentimes we lay there, I don't know how it is for everybody else.
I lay in bed and my mind is running. My mind is thinking. What I have to do tomorrow and problems to resolve and how to fix this. And my heart is turning and I'm laying there and I'm talking to the Lord about it.
I felt like Joseph is laying there in bed and he's turning this in his heart. And I know that I trust her and I know that what God is doing in her life. But oh my soul, this is so unexpected. And then all of a sudden God sends an angel to give him some comfort.
Isn't it good tonight to know the conflict in the will of God is going to be real? Isn't it good to know tonight that even though the conflict is real, the comfort is too? The Bible gives us a beautiful picture of it. John 14 verse 18, years ago I preached in that sentence on 14 18.
Jesus says, I will not leave you comfortless. And I look up that word and you start parsing the word out because you know Greek words a lot of times they're way more layered than our English words are and you figure out the tint that's in all that. And all of that to say this, the word comfortless, one of the synonyms basically is this. Orphaned.
Orphaned. He says, I'm not going to leave now. Here's Jesus, he's going to be ascending. Can you imagine how frightening that is knowing, hey Jesus, who we have followed and walked with, he's going to leave us and we're here to serve him alone.
That's frightening. He said, I'm not going to leave you comfortless. I'm not going to leave you authentic. Tonight can I tell you something as a believer when we have those conflicts?
Concerning the will of God for our life. Yes, the conflicts are going to be there. But so is the comforter. And what did the comforter say?
We just talked about that he could speak to me to go. The Bible says the Spirit will guide us in all truth. That's the comforter. He's there.
Listen, don't tell me. Joseph was a man with passions like you and I have. There was probably a little confusion, probably a little hurt, probably maybe even a little anger. I don't know.
But boy, there was a comforter there too. There to tell him, watch Joseph's sort of David's fear not to take him to the Mary, thine wine, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost. Second Corinthians 1, 3, the Bible says blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort. Sometimes we overlook little words.
In that passage in Second Corinthians 1, the Bible uses the word all. He's the God of all comfort. All right, now watch. We're going to have times in the conflict of doing God's will for our life to where there's going to be a void or hurt, confusion, question marks, but the Bible promises us there is nothing outside the reach of God's comfort because he's the God of all comfort.
I'll be honest with you. I'd be scared to death if I read my Bible tonight and say, God of some comfort. Or can you tell me what the sum means because I'm going to say away from the things you're no, he's the God of all comfort. Then it's Joseph lays there in his bed, contemplating these things in his heart.
Watch this. Watch this. I don't know if any of us are dealing with a conflict like Joseph was dealing with. Your fiance is going to have a baby and it's from God.
Go ahead and figure that one out logically. And you get back with me on that one. Oh, no. God says, don't worry.
I'll explain it to you. I'll give you peace. I'll give you comfort. The Bible says it's not the Holy Ghost.
So first off, we see the conflict. The unexpected conflict is going to be there. Praise God for unexpected comfort. You know, tonight, only God's comfort can surpass our conflict.
Only God could step in this conflict he was having and give comfort. I think about Shadrach and Abedra, Abednego. Watch. Hey, if you don't fall down and worship our God, we're going to throw you in the fire.
What do I do? They're going to throw us in the fiery furnace. Oh, can I tell you, there was a comforter in the conflict with them. That's our God.
You know, our kids play ball. They play piano and things on that line. We're like, hey, that's my kid. You know, when they're throwing a fit in Walmart, we don't say that, do we?
That's their daddy's child right there. Yeah. We love that. Well, that's my child.
Man, look at him. Go. Do you know what? Our God, the one that walked around in the fire.
Listen, that's the same God we're serving. That's our God. Listen, you may need to preach this to me tomorrow, but I want you to understand. There's always going to be conflict.
There's things we're going to be moling over in our heart concerning the will of God for our lives, but we have a promise of a comforter who's not left as orphaned. I'm going to guide you through this. I'm going to get you through that even though it's unexpected. So number one tonight, notice the unexpected conflict.
Number two, the unexpected comfort. Finally, in your thinking, could he really be the finally at 546? Yeah, absolutely. We're doing good.
I want you to look down. I want you to look down to verse 21, and she shall bring forth a son, and that shall call his name Jesus. He shall save his people from their sins. Now watch verse 22.
Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the Prophet saying, Behold, a virgin shall be with child and shall bring forth a son and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted as God with us. Now we've got to get something real quick for you in the last thing. We know the end of the story. Okay, it's easy to look over the shoulder of Joseph and say, this shouldn't have been that hard.
You're going to get to be the earthly father of Jesus. This shouldn't be that bad. But Joseph doesn't know all that you and I know. You know, it's easy to agree to the end of the book and say, relax.
It's going to be okay, but not Joseph. All right. Now there's an important truth I want you to see as Joseph is being obedient to the unexpected in his life. And the Bible shows us what it is right here in verse 22.
Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled. Watch how God is working this number three tonight. I want you to notice his obedience was fulfilling and unexpected calling and unexpected calling. Now here's what we don't realize.
A lot of times we look at ourselves and we're thinking, I'm just a little old me and whether I do the will of God or I don't do the will of God. It's not that big a deal. And in of ourselves, we may not be that big of a part of something, but what we are a part of is Joseph is thinking to himself, you know, God, he's mulling this over in his heart. What is God doing?
My fiance is a child and in God's sense, this is the Holy Ghost and you're thinking, you know, I just don't know if I want to play this part. Listen, I don't know if we realize tonight, you may not be a key player in your eyes, but the part of what we're playing and the plan of what we're playing it in is bigger than we will ever imagine. Joseph had no idea the part he was about to play. You see the Bible says in verse 22 that it might be fulfilled.
Joseph had no idea in his role, he was about to fulfill something big. I love this story. I heard it a long time ago. I went back to the day after you looked at the details, I tried it right back in 1934.
Two teenage boys showed up. I believe it was a tent revival. Two teenage boys showed up to a tent revival, a tent packed out. They can't find a seat.
So those two teenage boys walk around can't find a seat and get ready to leave, walk home. And usher and usher. This shows you the value of an usher. An usher sees those two teenage boys about to walk away from that tent.
His heart burdened for what God may want to do in their life. He says, please don't go. I'll find you a seat. Of course, we're the only place there's going to be a seat in the front row.
The splash is all. Nobody wants to sit up there. He takes the two boys. He finds them a seat on the front row and sits them down there.
The services given the invitation is given the two boys except Christ. And one of those boys happens to be Billy Graham. Can I ask you how important is an usher? How important is an usher?
I'm so thankful for ushers. They're not even in here tonight. They're out there. They're listening.
They're listening. I know they are. We walk right past them. They don't have a chair up here.
I think they ought to. They don't have a chair up here. I mean, they're ushers. Is that like a side job?
They don't even get paid. And yet there have been hundreds of thousands of people, millions of people that have heard the gospel through Billy Graham. All because of an usher. Fulfilled is calling.
Tonight, do not underestimate what God has called you to fulfill. Don't underestimate it. Don't think tonight. You know, I don't know if I'm going to fulfill it.
I don't know. Listen. Oh, you have no idea. Look, you may not see yourself as a key player in anything, but I want you to know.
What you're playing a part in is eternal. It's huge. When Jesus came to John to be baptized in Jordan, I love John's attitude. Matthew chapter 3 verse 13, John says to Jesus, no, I can't.
I can't. I mean, I'll be honest with you. If Jesus came to me and wanted me to baptize him, I'll let brother Beau do it. If I'm afraid you get it wrong, you get struck by lightning, right?
Let him get struck by lightning. I mean, and then Jesus told him something. It's the basically the same thing that he's telling Joseph. And I'm Matthew 3, 13, and Jesus answering, said unto him, suffer it to be so now that he's suffering it to be so now.
For thus it be comeeth us to fulfill all righteousness. John, you got to be willing. John, I know you're not interested. John, I know that you don't feel worthy of it.
John, you got to do it. Why? Because we've got to fulfill something. And I love the fact that he uses the word us.
For thus it be comeeth us to fulfill all righteousness. Then I can tell you, there is no small roles that comes to the will of God. There's none. It doesn't matter what you do, whether you work on housekeeping, whether you go out and you weed the flower beds or weed eat in the yard.
Everybody has a role in a part of the work of God here at Central Baptist Church. And I want you to know, listen, there's going to be conflicts against the will of God. But there's also comfort in the will of God. Why?
Because this is our calling. No matter how minute of a person or a talent we may have, we have no idea the part we're playing in God's plan. I'll give you this before we close. Oh Esther, Mordecai is trying to convince Esther.
This is your part to play. Esther, there's a job for you to fulfill here. Listen, I know it's conflict. Here's Esther knowing if I walk into the king I could be killed.
Conflict. Mordecai says, Esther, don't you realize that you've come to the kingdom for such a time as this? This is your calling. But Esther said, I didn't expect all this to be happening.
Well, that's how God works. Sometimes God works through the unexpected circumstances to fulfill what He's called us to do. Tonight, let me close. There's conflict on the beginning.
But what outweighs the conflict is knowing there's a calling that has to be fulfilled. There's a calling that has to be fulfilled. I can give you a book of reasons to quit. I've written it.
I can. And I can even make them sound spiritual. I can back them up with scripture. I want you to know tonight the conflicts are worth the calling.
And they're made possible by the comfort. God says, Joseph, I know you don't understand it as an unexpected conflict. Joseph never thought he was going to have to answer the question of, do I follow through with this wild story? Yeah.
Yeah. You're going to do it through the comfort that God will give you. That it will only give you while you're in His will. In the end, Joseph, you're going to fulfill an unexpected calling.
Tonight, I'm thankful for people, Sunday school teachers, preachers, pastors, evangelists, friends. Listen, not all of them at a title. You know, there were faithful people in my church as a kid who had no idea. I watched their faithfulness that influenced my life as a Christian.
They had no idea. They served their role. Some people just stood there and they would open the door. That's an open door.
They would never stand behind a podium. They would never stand on the platform. They just would open the door. But you're in, you're out.
They just stood there and opened their door. Well, there must be something to this. Do they get paid? No, they don't even get paid.
They're faithful. You see, they were fulfilling their calling. Tonight, I don't know where you're at, but I do know this. Sometimes you're going to have to endure being unexpected.
The boy, it is worth it in the end. When you look back and see what God was doing in a life of Joseph, can I tell you? The life of Joseph, imagine him looking back. The Messiah.
You know, one of the things I told you all, I promise I'm done this time. The girls are counting. I know the count. How many times I'm done.
I'm not done. You know, after Jesus and that interaction with his family in the temple, we don't hear about Joseph anymore. We really don't. I kind of feel like Joseph got shorted.
He should have a statue or a plaque somewhere. He played his role. He fulfilled it. And now, can you imagine what he has in heaven?
All because he dealt with that conflict in his heart. Accepted the comfort from God. He fulfilled a very unexpected calling. Our heads are bowed tonight in our eyes or clothes.