Matthew 2:18-25 18 This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. 19 Because Joseph her husband was faithful to the law, and yet did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly. 20 But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21 She will give birth to a son, and you are to provide him with the name Jesus because he will save his people from their sins.” 22 All this took place to fulfil what the Lord had said through the prophet: 23 “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel”(which means “God with us”). 24 When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. 25 But he did not consummate their marriage until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus. The verses above tell us the story of how Jesus was conceived. It’s a short tale, but if you look closely in each of the verses, it speaks of faith, courage, love, obedience and sacrifice. There are a lot of lessons that can be taught from these verses, but I will focus on verse 2:25: “But he did not consummate their marriage until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus.” The angel of the Lord just told Joseph about the grand plan that God had for his family. He would be the stepfather to the Messiah. He and his wife Mary was entrusted with the responsibility to raise the Saviour of humanity. It was a mind-blowing task! Of course, like any brilliant plan, it came with burdensome obligations, one of which was not to consummate until Jesus was born. The couple had to adjust their honeymoon plans because of the vision God gave them. There were still a lot of difficult duties that came along with this plan of God for sure. Joseph and Mary did their best fulfil their obligations to raise Jesus. Whenever God gives us a vision, the devil will do everything that he can to prevent us from completing our purpose. We can see this in Joseph and Mary’s life. When the time came for Mary to give birth to Jesus, they couldn’t find room in the inn. When Jesus was born, the devil used King Herod to kill Jesus as a baby. Imagine this, King Herod sent an army to kill a single baby. Nevertheless, the devil is no match for the plans of God. It didn’t matter if there was no room in the inn; God’s plan is for Jesus to be born in a stable. It didn’t matter if the devil sent an army to kill a baby; the soldiers wouldn’t find Baby Jesus because God planned to send Him to Egypt. Despite extreme challenges, Joseph and Mary were able to do their part in the salvation of humanity. Jesus grew in favour of God and men. Why am I sharing this story? Because in a way we are all pregnant. This is not crazy talk. All of us are pregnant with the promises of God in our lives. Since we are pregnant with God’s plan, I want to talk about three things: 1. We cannot do everything that we want. 2. The devil will try to destroy God’s plan for us. 3. God’s plan will prevail. We cannot do everything that we want. We have a great responsibility to take good care of the promises that God has planted within us. We need to be responsible enough to choose to do things that will help God’s vision turn to reality. Ask yourself, “What does God want me to do?” “Are my activities in line with God’s purpose?” “Am I developing myself for God’s plan?” The promise of God will allow us to change the world. It is far too valuable for us to ignore. It is bigger than us and our desires. We cannot do everything we want. The devil will try to destroy God’s plan for us. The devil is a cunning character. We often underestimate the power of his lies. He uses the things that we are passionate about to distract us from our destiny. His lies come in beautiful packages that are almost impossible to resist, but when we open them, they are filled with death and destruction. We know what happened to Samson; he was not able to resist the vineyards, the thrill of death and the lust for Delilah. His compromise made him lose his strength, his sight, and freedom. David gave in to laziness and compromised as well. He didn’t go to war when he should have, and this action led him to Bathsheba. David gave in to his desires, and he became a murderer. The consequence of his downfall made him lose peace within his family. Be cautious of the works of the devil. Focus on Jesus. Despicable sin starts with something simple. Be careful! Don’t risk losing the vision. God’s plan will prevail. The journey from conceiving the dream to its birth will be hard. Most of the time it will take a while as well. Some ideas turn to reality right away, but some may take decades or even a lifetime. If you feel that it is taking too long for your dreams to come true, hang in there. God’s plan will prevail. Samson became a blind slave, but he didn’t die that way. He regained his faith, strength and slaughtered his enemies at the time of his death. David became a murderer, but he didn’t stay that way. He died as the most beloved king of Israel and a man after God’s own heart. Both of them ended up fulfilling their purpose. Stepping into God’s plan will be extremely challenging, but sooner or later we will give birth to God’s vision. We will see the dream come to pass and it will be unique.