18Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise: When as his mother Mary
was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with
child of the Holy Ghost.
19Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not willing to make her a
public example, was minded to put her away privily.
20But while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of
the LORD appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David,
fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is
of the Holy Ghost.
21And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he
shall save his people from their sins.
22Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the
Lord by the prophet, saying,
23Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they
shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.
1. As we come to the end of the “And His Name Shall Be Called” series, I pray
that the Lord has revealed Himself to you through the Word of God in a way
that you can be assured that God is on your side. With all of the names we
have covered in the past nine weeks of this series, a song that my
grandmother used to sing often was echoing in my spirit this week as I was
preparing for today’s message. The song says “you can’t make me doubt
Him, you can’t make me doubt Him, you can’t make me doubt Him in my
heart, you can’t make me doubt Him, for I know too much about Him, you
can’t make me doubt Him in my heart!” Does anyone remember that song?
You see, every time I just begin to think on the goodness of Jesus, and all He
has done for me, my soul begins to cry out Hallelujah! I give Him the
highest praise because He deserves it! I believe the more we live our lives
and focus our attentions on God, the more we begin to understand just
how grateful we should be in all things. Psalm 34 becomes more to us than
just a scripture of convenience that we memorize to get a response from
people; it becomes a promise, a declaration, a standard, and a right that we
proclaim to remind us that praising God’s name, bragging about his
awesomeness, and encouraging others to do the same is our testimony! I
don’t know about you this afternoon, but what really excites me about God
is that He is the only one that I know that has the power to know
everything about us—our good moments, and our not so good moments,
our potential and our hang-ups, what we want people to think we are, and
who we really are—and turn our mess into a message, our fragments into a
masterpiece, and our trials into triumphs. While we may sometimes feel
held back because of what we have been through, God uses our insecurities
to show us who He really is. I believe I have at least 5 witnesses in the
house today that can testify that your past has not killed you like you
thought it would—that your mistakes didn’t land you where they ought
have, that your missteps didn’t pluck you out of the hand of God, and that
your troubles just made you appreciate your good days even more. Is there
anyone in the house today that can declare that you’ve been through some
things, but you are grateful! I know that the word hope has been used to
win presidential contests, but can I get 15 people to agree that you define
hope as being built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness!
On Christ the solid rock we stand, all other ground is sinking sand! Can you
take a moment to turn to your neighbor and shout I’m grateful!
2. Our scripture text today gives us another reason to be grateful, for God knew
that the only way we could have hope for life more abundantly was through
His son, Jesus Christ. Another reason why you can’t make me doubt Him is
because He is more powerful than the most powerful person you know. He
sees better than a person that has 20/20 vision. He knows more than the
champion of champions on Jeopardy. You see, my God sees so clearly that
He was able to look down the line of time, and know that I would
eventually exit the womb of God and enter into the womb of my mother,
and that I would need a savior because I would be a sinner. You see, I can
talk about myself, so I don’t want to offend anyone in the house that
thought because you were a beautiful bouncing baby that was perfect in
someone’s eyes that you were automatically perfect in the eyes of God too.
It took an omniscient God, and all-seeing God, to know that if no one else
needed a Savior, it would be me. I am fortunate to have a few people in my
life that I am able to call friend. I believe these people want to see what’s
best for me. I believe these people will tell me the truth because they love
me. I believe these people would sacrifice for me, and anything they see
that would try to destroy me, they would pray and fight for me. God knows
I am grateful for my friends, because life can be hard when you feel like you
don’t have anyone on your side. But today, I declare that even if my friends
were to forsake me, even if my friends cannot answer the phone, even if
my friends turn their backs on me, and even if my friends cannot
understand what I am going through, I can turn to my Bible in Proverbs
18:24, and know that I have a friend that sticks closer than a brother, and
He sticks to me because He saw me before I knew who I was. He saw me
through the eyes of a loving Savior.
3. When He saw me, He knew me. This is because the omniscient God is also
the omnipotent God. The omniscient and omnipotent God is also the
omnipresent God. And it is because of Him seeing all, being all powerful,
and being able to be present everywhere at the same time that when it was
time for Him to redeem us, He didn’t have to send someone else to do the
job. Have you ever been in a position where there was something that you
needed to have done, and you were in position to assign it to someone to
handle it for you. You give the person the instructions that they need, and
tell them they have your full support in doing what needs to be done, just to find out that as soon as you assigned the task to this person as their leader, they recruited someone else to do the job without giving them the directions and insight that you provided to them? This is frustrating, because you
would often think to yourself you know what, it would have probably been
easier just to do the job myself. You are human, so you know you need the
help sometimes, but you know you also need to have the trust that what
needs to get done will get done. This is the proof that God is God all by
himself—that when it was time to decide on what needed to happen to
redeem us, He took counsel with Himself, and said I don’t need to send an
angel to rescue you, an apostle or a bishop, or even extra income or material
things. All I need is a body, and since I am the creator of all things, I will let
the Holy Ghost do the work for me.
4. Some wonder why you need the gift of the Holy Ghost, and my answer in
found in Matthew 1:18. If God used the Holy Ghost as the seed for His
manifestation in the flesh, what do you think you would be able to
accomplish without that same Holy Ghost? There is no seed without the
spirit. There is no fruit without the spirit. There is no peace without the
spirit. And so I come to the conclusion that without the Holy Ghost, you are
nothing more than a shell walking on this Earth waiting to return to the dust.
5. It was the Holy Ghost that made Mary being pregnant make sense to Joseph
when He knew they weren’t even married yet and He hadn’t touched her. It
was the Holy Ghost that explained Him to be Emmanuel, interpreted to be
God is with us. And it was the Holy Ghost that said you better not name this
child Joseph, Jr.... His name is to be Jesus!
6. And it is because of this, that we can declare what John 14:6 says—Jesus is
the way, the truth, and the life. You can’t get to the father unless you go
through Him, because Jesus and His father are one.
A. It’s the reason why we can declare what Acts 4:12 says—There is no
salvation in any where else, for there is no other name under heaven
given by which we must be saved. That’s why sometimes when
people are acting funny and your enemies want to get stupid, you just
have to brush your shoulders off, pick your feet up high, and step on
over to glory—because they don’t have a heaven or a hell to put you
in. All glory, all honor, all power belongs to God!
B. It’s the reason why we can declare what Philppians 2: 9 – 11 says—
that at the name of Jesus, every knew should bow and every tongue
confess that Jesus Christ is Lord!
C. It’s the reason why we can declare what Luke 10:17 says—that even
the demons are subjected to the name of Jesus Christ. Stop giving
credit to the devil. He has no authority that we don’t give to him.
Greater is He that is in us than he that is in the world!
7. We can declare these things because to us a child is born, and to us a son is
given; you can worry about the stock market, the white house, and the
coronavirus all you want, but the word declares that the government shall
be upon his shoulder. His name is wonderful counselor, mighty God,
everlasting father, prince of peace! He is the Jesus who
A. Calms the waters
B. Heals the sick
C. Raises the dead
D. Feeds the hungry
E. Clothes the naked
F. Friends the friendless
G. Provides to the poor
H. Empowers the weak
8. He is Elohim—I am that I am; He is Elohei Tehallati—the God whom we
must praise; He is Esh Oklah—a consuming fire; He is Jehovah Nissi—Our
banner; He is Jehovah Rohi—Our Shepherd; He is Jehovah Jireh—Our
Provider; Jehovah Shalom—Our Peace; Jehovah Tsikdenu—our
righteousness; Jehovah Saboath—Our God of the Angel Armies; Jehovah
Rapha—Our Healer
A. But most of all, He is the name that is above every name, He is the
name that has all power, He is the name that causes demons to
tremble; He is the name by which we are saved; He is the name that
can change the mind of the banker, that can make sense of the
chaos; He is the name that can get you the promotion you didn’t qualify for, and the name that can keep you even when you didn’t want to be kept; He is the name that is your hiding place, and the
name that is your strong tower. His name is Jesus! And just the name alone is worthy to be praised.