Matthew 1:18-25 | Anticipating God Showing Up in your Life

Sunday Morning | December 21, 2025 | John C. Majors | Louisville, KY

Pastor John explores how to live with expectation by anticipating God showing up in our lives each day. Drawing from Matthew 1:18–25, we saw that Mary and Joseph were attentive and open to hearing from God, reminding us that prayer—modeled for us in the Lord’s Prayer (Matthew 6:9–13)—positions our hearts to listen. We were challenged to watch for the signs of God at work, as the Magi did when they followed what God revealed to them (Matthew 2:1–6). The sermon emphasized the importance of knowing God’s Word, showing how Jesus fulfills God’s promises through the lineage of Abraham and David (Isaiah 7:14; Genesis 12:1–3; Ezekiel 34:23–24; Matthew 1:1, 17). Finally, we were encouraged to believe that God desires to work through each of us, using ordinary, faithful people to accomplish His extraordinary purposes.

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Transcript

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Thank you Isaac. Good morning everyone. It's great to be with you for our pre-Christmas service. Christmas. Landing in the middle of the week kind of creates an odd time of year, but it's great to gather. Christmas is all about, I think, for many of us, anticipation. Excitement, especially for the younger in the crowd. Can't wait till Christmas morning wondering what's going to happen, what you're going to get. Part of the excitement is the fact that you don't know, hopefully, what you're going to get or not. That's what creates some of the excitement. I remember as a Christmas in particular, when I was most excited, not because of what I was going to get. There were plenty of those, but this one in particular I was excited about what I was going to give. It was one of those Christmases where I felt like I was going to have a dad win. I bought a couple of bikes for a couple of the kids and they didn't know it, they weren't expecting it. They hadn't asked for. And I was so excited for that Christmas morning. I was way more excited than anyone else in the house. I couldn't wait to give them those bikes. And as as excited as I was for that morning. When it comes to Christmas, when it comes to the Christian life, the thing where we find our greatest depth of joy and excitement is anticipating God showing up. You know, that's what happened Christmas morning. God showed up. God came in human flesh, and our excitement is more rooted in that than anything else. And it's okay to be excited about gifts. That's all. That's all great. We do that to celebrate and remember him coming. But what we want on a day to day excitement, on a day to day anticipation is the excitement, the joy, the anticipation, the expectation that God will show up in your life. There's no greater joy in life than when he shows up, especially when it's unexpected. But you've been expecting it or anticipating it and praying for it. And he shows up. That's what we all want. That's why you're here. That's what you're longing for, is that God would show up in your life, give you wisdom, give you direction, change your direction, start you on a new path. Correct or wrong, whatever. Heal the broken heart. We want him to show up. And so what I want to look at today is the story of the birth of Christ, and how in that, we can see some ways that we can increase our anticipation for God to show up in our lives day by day, to be walking through life expecting, anticipating that he's going to show up. He's going to break into our lives. We're going to be in Matthew chapter one. And if you have a church Bible, it'll be on page 757. If you don't, those are out in the lobby. Feel free to slip out and grab one anytime. Those are for you to keep. And in this story we're going to see, I think, four ways where we can increase our expectation and anticipation that God will break in, that God will show up in our lives. So let's start in Matthew chapter one, and we'll just read verses 18 and a few more here to introduce us. Remind us of the story of the birth of Christ.

Matthew 1: 2:59

18 -- now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way when his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph before they came together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit and her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, he resolved to divorce her quietly. But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins. All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which means God with us. When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him. He took his wife, but knew her not until she had given birth to a son, and he called his name Jesus. So here we have the story of the birth of Christ. The angel comes to Joseph. The angel in Luke comes to Mary as well and tells them, you're going to have a baby. The baby will be born of the Holy Spirit. And he says specifically to name him Jesus, to call him Jesus. Jesus is the Greek form. That's what the new Testament was written in. It's a Greek form of the Hebrew name Joshua, which you've probably heard the other way to say that is Yeshua. Yahweh saves. Joshua. That's what the name Joshua means, Jesus being the Greek form of that God saves. Now of course, there was anticipation at this time. They were looking for a messiah, for someone to come and save them. And mainly they wanted release from political slavery. They wanted release from the Romans. They were often looking for that. They went through these cycles of being enslaved and freed, were looking for a savior, someone to free us. But he makes it very clear in verse 21, he's here to save you, and you'll be saved from your sins. The political deliverance is great, but what's way more important? And it doesn't matter. By the way, that's why we don't talk a ton about politics. It doesn't matter who's in power, what's way. And of course, yes, I want our lives to align with God's Word. I would hope our politics do as well. But at the end of the day, the only thing I can control is and am I walking with Christ or not? Am I dealing with my sin? It's a lot easier to talk about the sins of all these other people out there. I can preach about that all day long. That's way easier. But then I got to talk about my sin. Well, let's let's not go there. We don't really want to deal with that today. He will come to save us from our sins. His name is Jesus, Savior of the world, but he is also Emmanuel, God with us. Now try to put yourself in the shoes of Mary and Joseph. Of course they're expecting. There is anticipation apart from Christmas and your wedding day, there's probably no more day of excitement and anticipation and the birth of a child. So they're already excited we're going to have a baby. This is a big change. This is something many couples have been praying for and longing for and waiting for. But layer on top of that, by the way. And of course, we all think our kids the most special, our baby when they're first born is the prettiest, most special. Everyone thinks that not only that, he is the very Son of God. He will save people from their sin. The expectation mounted upon that is tremendous, and I think we see in the way they live their lives, our first way that we can expect God to show up, hope for him to show up, anticipate him showing up. And the first way is that they were just open and ready to hear from God. Their lives were aligned, that they were wanting to hear from God. They were open to hearing from him. If you look back at the way Joseph reacted to the news, and I don't know how you would react, but if you were engaged and found out your spouse was a future spouse was expecting a lot of different ways you could react. And Joseph, he doesn't overreact. He doesn't just react, he prays. He takes time. He seeks God's will. He wants to dismiss her quietly, even though she has, in his mind, betrayed him. I'm still going to treat her with honor and respect. You can see him seeking God's will in the midst of that. There's a reason why the angel approached Mary highly blessed, favored among among people. These were two people who were wanting to hear from God, who were wanting to know his will, who were seeking out his will in their day to day life. We were hoping he would show up in their life. And I think, sadly, there's many times where we don't want that. There's many times where we'd rather he not show up. There's many times where I just want to do what I want to do, because I want to do it, and I don't really care what God has to say about it. I don't want to be bothered with what the Bible might have to say about it. I just want what I want because I want it. But the opposite of that is what we see in him. God, would you speak to me? I want to hear your will. Even in the hardest situation, one of the hardest situations you could imagine. Would you guide me and direct me? I think that's the first way we anticipate him showing up in our life, just starting out, wanting that, wanting to hear from him. There was someone else in this story who also was seeking his input, wanting to hear from him. Look at chapter two because we see another couple of of the characters come on the screen. Chapter two, verse one. Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem, saying, where is he who has been born King of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose, and we have come to worship him. The wise men here are often in some of your footnotes may say there's also the name for them in the original language was Magi or Magi. However, you say that some consider they probably were well-respected men of wisdom in their culture might have been leaders. That's why we get the we Three Kings. We don't know how many there were exactly, but they were clearly men of wisdom, men respected. And one thing that is obvious from what we see right here, and it's the second way that we can expect God to show up, anticipate him showing up, is that they were actively looking for signs of God at work, and we need to be actively looking for signs that God is at work. They were searching the heavens. God, where are you? We know, in fact, Romans chapter one talks about all of creation speaks to the fact that there is a God. You know, just about the fact that you look at the order of this world, something inside of you, even if you've never heard of Jesus, something inside of you goes, this can't just be an accident. Something must have created this. All of creation speaks to that. And these wisemen were going, where are you, God, we want to see you. We want to know you. Would you show up? Would you speak? Would you guide us? Would you be actively looking for signs of God at work in your life? Many have become blind to that or deadened to that, or have said, I don't really want to look for God at work. In fact, I don't think he can work in my life. So I'm not going to see him at work. I'm excited about though there seems to be a stirring among many right now wanting to see God at work in their lives. Back in October, after Charlie Kirk's passing, a number who came to church and just said, look, I realize now is the time I need to start pursuing God. He's been on the backburner. I haven't made it a priority, but he's stirring in my life. I've seen this happen and I've seen that happen, and I know now I need to be active. I need to get back in church for my kids, for myself, for my family. I think in our men's ministry, we're seeing a lot of stirring. At our men's retreat, a number of men were just clearly moved by what God was doing in their life. A number of them are joining together in, and an intentional Bible study series in the spring to just keep growing, to keep looking for God at work. And so I just have a simple question for you. Are you looking for signs of God at work in your life right now? Are you searching for him at work? If you seek him, you will find him. If you are looking for him. You will see him at work in your life. Now the contrast here is pretty stark. The wise men from another country probably not understanding the Jewish background and the history of God at work through Israel. They were looking for him and were led to him. But look at the contrast here between them and the one who should have seen him, the one who should have been looking for him. Look at verse three when Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him, and assembling all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born. They told him, in Bethlehem of Judea. For so it is written by the prophet, and you, O Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah. For from you shall come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel. Wise men searching, looking, longing to hear from God and Herod, the supposed king of Israel, the one who should have been most attentive to God, moving the one who should have been looking for how his kingdom expands and how God is at work. Was oblivious, was blind, was more worried about his kingdom than God's kingdom. In fact, Herod and according to the Old Testament standard, the King of Israel should have been the leader in the law. He should have been the expert in the law. Herod had to go ask some other guys, hey, can you go look in that book and maybe find out where the king should come from? I don't know, I don't know. Can you find out for me? He should have known. He didn't want to know. He was blind. And the takeaway for us, and this was the third way that I think we can be anticipating and expecting God to show up is to make sure you are in God's word. Know God's word. Herod didn't want to know God's word. He didn't want to see how God is working through it. He didn't want to know anything other than I'm in charge. I'm in power, and I don't want any threats to that. I don't want to know what God may be doing. If you want to see God show up, break into your life. Make sure you are in His Word, spending time in His Word, searching for him in His Word that is where you're going to see him. There's a saying we often say here when you're in God's Word, God's word shows up when you're reading His Word. It is crazy how when you're reading His word, how something from a verse you read shows up that day when you're meditating on His Word. He speaks to you through it. If you want him to break into your life this year, if you want to see him do miraculous things in your life, be in His word. Get to know Him in His word. We do a Bible reading plan every year as a church. We cycle through three different plans over three years. Last year was reading through the whole Bible. This coming year, we're going to read through the New Testament, Psalms, and Proverbs. Over the course of the year. Those Bible reading plans are out in the lobby. You can grab one of those. You can get a head start if you want to get a couple of days, jump on it and we try to follow a Bible reading plan together. And if you have your own plan, that's okay. But I love it when a lot of people are reading the same passages together through scripture, conversations tend to show up around those passages. You you tend to hear from someone else. Hey, did you see in this verse? Did you see what I saw? God is speaking to me through this is he's speaking to you in the same way, when you're in God's Word, God's word shows up. We got to know God's Word, hunger for his word, long for his word. That's why each week we talk about our memory verse, our monthly memory verse, and. I know that many of us feel memorized in Scripture as hard. I think a lot of us have just bought into that lie that it's hard. We've convinced ourself it's hard that I can't do it. Only little kids can, and it's not for me. I've tried and I couldn't do it. It's not hard. Memorizing scripture is not hard. The hard part is repeating it. But whatever you repeat is what you remember. That's why you memorize so many songs. It's not because the tune is catchy. That helps, but it's the fact that you played it 1000 times in the car over and over again. I mean, all I want for Christmas is you. Most of us could probably sing that right now. You've heard it millions of times, even when you didn't want to. It comes upon you. Memorize in Scripture is not hard. Repeat it. You will remember it. And if it seems like okay, but I feel overwhelmed when I try, I didn't just pick a little small section, just a few words and repeat it and repeat it. Find ways to repeat it. Record it to yourself. Play back, write it down. Find someone else to read it to you. Talk to you about it. It's worth it. The enemy wants you to think you can't do it. Hot God's word in your heart now so that when you need it, it's there. Herod needed it right now. He didn't know where to find it. He had to go ask someone else, which means it didn't mean anything to him. Know God's word. When you know God's Word, God will show up in your life. Now, the interesting part of this is that Herod should have known, and Matthew really wanted to emphasize this by the way he started the book. If you turn back in chapter one, you know, I skipped over the genealogy, and I think most people appreciate that the genealogies in the Bible are the parts that you just kind of skim right past right? But this genealogy, and I'm not going to read through it all. It is utterly fascinating, the layers and layers in here. So I'm going to read a couple of verses from it and highlight why Herod should have known who Herod should have been looking for, should have been looking for, and what Matthew is trying to tell us who Jesus is. Just do the genealogy. Look at verse one, the book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the son of Abraham. Three words. And here he's emphasizing genealogy, David and Abraham. He starts the genealogy by saying, here's the important parts. Here's where we're headed of all the names that are listed here, here are the ones I'm really emphasizing. And in your notes, I've listed a couple of these words. Genealogy is really the same word as the word we use for Genesis, and many have said this is hinting at and pointing to a reality that this is a new creation, a new beginning. Genesis was the beginning, the first creation. And now in Christ we have a new beginning. But then he says, he is the Son of David. And David had been predicted. And I listed a verse in your in your notes. But we could list many, many more over and over again. David was supposed to be the perfect king, and he wasn't surprised. And he messed up. But a perfect king was promised there will be a perfect king who comes and reigns over the nation forever. Son of David Jesus is the Son of David. Jesus is the one you've been looking for. Abraham. Abraham was the one who was given the initial promise to the nation in Genesis chapter 12. I will bless you so that you will bless the nations. Go out. Go tell the whole world about me. Through you. I'm going to bless the world. It's the same command given at the end of the book of Matthew. Go. Go teach. Baptize. I'll be with you always. So he's given them. Here's where we're headed. But he really doubles down on the name David here. If you turn to the last verse in chapter one or in the genealogy in verse 17, after he's listed out name after name after name, here's what he says. So all the generations from Abraham to David were 14, and from David to the deportation to Babylon 14 and from the deportation to Babylon to the Christ, 14 generations. And anyone who's analyzed this genealogy in depth, you go, okay, there are names missing from other lists that was common in the ancient world. You would put names in on purpose to emphasize certain people in certain things. And here the emphasis more than anything else is the number 14. And there's a couple of reasons for that. There's actually one big reason. It's to emphasize the name David in the Hebrew language you can assign and often was the case, they would assign a number to each letter of the language. And if you add up the letters of David's name, which in Hebrew they didn't have vowels. So, so it was just DVD. I don't recommend naming your children that after him. Include the vowels. Keep those in, but DVD would have been 1414 generations, 14 generations. The number 14 is important. It points to David and David's name in the list is number 14. In the list you see the layers here of the emphasis. David, David, David, be looking harried. You're not here. Be looking for another king. It's not you. Be looking for the perfect king. We have a new beginning. We have the perfect king in Jesus. And we have a promised mission to go out into the world. It's all right here. He should have seen it coming. And if you're in God's word and you're anticipating that he'll show up, he will. And that's what takes us to the last way. I think we need to be anticipating God at work in our lives this year. In the coming year, we're sliding in to the end of the year, launching into a new year. It's often a time, as Isaac mentioned, where people are anticipating that God's going to do a new thing in my life. The fourth way. I think when we're reading this, how we can be anticipating God to break in is to just simply believe God will use you. Believe God will use you. And I'm going to add the phrase, no matter what you've done. No matter what you've done, believe God will use you. And here's how I know that it's in the genealogy. One of the things to look for when you're studying a passage of Scripture, especially genealogies, are a break in the pattern. And there are four breaks in the pattern here. Well, there's more, but there's four in particular where four women show up. If you look back at verse three, due to the father of Perez and Zera by Tamar, and then verse five, Simon the father of Boaz by Rahab, Boaz the father of Obed, by Ruth. Verse six. Jesse the father of David, the king. David was the father of Solomon by the wife of Uriah. She's not even mentioned by name. That's Bathsheba. Four women are mentioned. And here's what we know about those women, and at least two of them would have been Gentiles, not part of the nation of Israel. And yet God brought his promised one through them. Three of them had serious questions about their sexual morality. Prostitute affair with the King. Okay. And here they are. Through them, God brought his son into the world. It didn't matter what you've done. And of course, what you've done has consequences. All of us have experienced that God will still use you. Do you believe that? Do you believe he'll use you? Don't let the lies of the enemy keep him from using you. He wants to use you. He wants to use you this year. He wants to use you today. He wants to break into your life. And the best way to see him work in your life, the best way to expect him to show up in your life is to first and foremost, make sure you do know him. Jesus came as a little baby, born into a manger, lived a perfect life sin free, and was executed, was killed and died for our sins. He paid the penalty that all of us should have paid. Instead, he was punished on our behalf. He took God's wrath on himself for us. But in a few months, we'll talk about how he didn't just stay dead. A lot of people die. A lot of people die on behalf of others. He didn't stay dead. He rose again for you so that you can walk in joy of knowing him your whole life. And if you don't know him, if you want that security of having life in him forever, if you want to know the joy and hope and peace that we've sung about all morning, all you got to do is just accept him into your life. All you got to do is say, Jesus, I'm a mess and I don't know how to live my life apart from you. Would you show up? I repent of my sin. I want to follow you. I know I won't do it perfectly. Will you come into my life? Will you break in right now? Hallelujah! If you don't know him, I'd love to pray with you. After the service, I'd love Jesus. Come down, find me. Meet with me. I'd love to pray with you about that and see you start that journey. It's the most exciting thing you'll experience in your life. Way more exciting than whatever present you're hoping for in the coming morning. Is walking with him day by day. Let's pray. God, thank you that you showed up that you are Emmanuel, God with us. That you are Jesus, the one who will save his people from their sins. Would you help us to be looking for you this week, this month, this year, this hour? Would you help us to be anticipating you at work in our lives? Help us to walk in the knowledge of your word, to be longing to see you, to be looking for signs of you at work, to be praying the prayer you gave us. Thy will be done. Not my will be done. Your will be done. Thank you Jesus. Thank you for the many who are here today. We love you and it's in your name we pray. Amen.