LifeGroup Notes

What is your general impression of Joseph?

Read Matthew 1:18-24

What is your initial reaction to this week’s epsidoe?

Put yourself in Joseph’s sandals as he dealt with these extraordinary circumstances. What would you have been thinking or feeling…
- When you first hear the news that Mary is with child?
- When you awake from your dream in which the angel Gabriel speaks to you?
- After marrying Mary and tehn facing the rejection of family and friends?
- As you consider how you will be the earthly father of the long-awaited Messiah?
- When you arrive in Bethlehem and find there is not place to stay and for the child to be born (See Luke 2:7)?

Through all these circumstances, how was Joseph living for God’s rather than man’s approval?

Read verses 22 and 23 again. Whay are these verses so vital for Jesus’ identity and the gospel?

What does it say about Joseph that when he woke up he did what the angel of the Lord commanded him?

Most of the circumstances in which Joseph found himself were out of his control. Like him, we must differentiate between what we can’t change and what we can. Perhaps you’ve seen or heard the first part of the “Serenity Prayer”:

“God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference.” —Reinhold Niebuhr

What parts of Joseph’s circumstances could he not change? What parts could he change? How did he know the difference?

Knowing of Christ’s imminent return, how should it influence how we interact with those in our lives who don’t know Christ?

Often in life, we think we have only a limited number of options. At first Joesph saw his choices as (a) divorce Mary publicly, clearing his name as the child’s father, which would possibly subject Mary to stoning, or (b) divorce here quietly, which would save her but possibly blemish his reputation. God gave him another option: take Mary as his wife and raise Jesus as his own son.

Have you ever been in a situation in which, like Joseph, you thought you had just a couple options, but then God showed you a Plan B or Plan C?

What have you learned from Joseph about living by faith?

Prayer
What decisions do you sense you need to “sleep on” this week to discern God’s will? Spend some time journaling your thoughts.