Today at New Life, we'll be looking at the life of a great dad--Joseph.  Joseph was the "stepfather" of Jesus, yet without Joseph, and his obedience to God, Jesus may never have been born, or could have died at the age of two.

What do I mean by that?  First, if Joseph hadn't agreed to marry Mary, after she became pregnant by the Holy Spirit, Mary could have been put to death for becoming pregnant outside of marriage, and Jesus would have died before birth.  Joseph took the humiliation of becoming Mary's husband, and the acknowledgement that He was the unborn baby's father, even though he knew he wasn't.  That took courage---and a visit from an angel!

Then, in the Scripture we're investigating in worship this morning Joseph received a second visit from an angel and as a result took immediate, and as it turns out, lifesaving action on Jesus' behalf.  Here's the Scripture from Matthew 2:13-15 NLT:  ¹³When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up,” he said, “take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.”  ¹⁴So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, ¹⁵where he stayed until the death of Herod. And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet: “Out of Egypt I called my son.”  You may know that shortly after the family left for Egypt, King Herod had his soldiers travel to Bethlehem and kill all the male children two years old and under, because of the wise men's timing of when they had seen the star.  Jesus would have been one of those children, if not for Joseph's quick obedience and action.

On this Father's Day, I'm grateful for my dad.  He wasn't like Joseph  He didn't even trust Jesus as his Savior and Lord until he was seventy-three,  just a couple of years before he died.  He had a terrible temper, and he worked away most of the years I was growing up.  Yet, from my dad, Clyde Marshall, I learned the importance of telling the truth, of working hard, of doing your best, and of helping others.  Those qualities have been a blessing throughout my life and particularly in my work as a pastor. 

What kind of dad do you have or did you have?  Was he (is he) kind, loving, a man of God?  Is he (was he) mean, absent, hard to get to know or love?  We don't get to choose our dads.  My prayer is that whatever kind of dad you had or have that you can think of at least one trait in him that pointed you to our Heavenly Father, who IS perfect in every way, who never leaves us nor forsakes us, and who has come to us in the form of His Son, Jesus, to redeem -- or purchase -- the pain, sin and "death" of our lives away from us and to make us whole.  My prayer is on this Father's Day, we will rededicate ourselves (or dedicate ourselves for the first time!) to the one, true and living Father, Son and Holy Spirit, who alone brings meaning to our lives, and gives us the opportunity to celebrate the blessings of life we have experienced and continue to experience!

Let's pray:  Heavenly Father, thank You for being all each of us needs, for making up the lack in our lives for what our human dads are not or were not able to provide.  Thank You for the good in our dads, which came from You, and for all the other blessings of life You give us.  This we pray in Jesus' name.  Amen.