”Joseph, Son of David” Pastor Jamey Houghton, December 13, 2025

Hello and welcome to church. We're so

glad that you were able to join us here

at the McDonald Road 7th Day Adventist

Church for our worship time. I hope that

your time is blessed. I hope the music

blesses your soul. I hope the message

touches your heart. And if if it does,

we would be honored if you would share

this content with somebody else so they

can be blessed as well. We're so glad

that you can be a part of our online

church here at McDonald Road and hope

that you are blessed in your worship

together with us today. God bless and

enjoy our worship service.

Merry Christmas everybody. It's fun to

say that, isn't it? It feels good to say

that now this time of year we can say it

and uh it's fun to hear it as well.

One of the things about Christmas is uh

a lot of times we try to get together

with family and we see family. Um it's

it's good to have my family here. My

folks are visiting from my home in San

Diego. Callie's back home uh visiting

from uh from where she lives now in

British Columbia temporarily.

Temporarily.

Um but family is something that uh that

is important. It's fun to see where

people's families are from. I always

enjoy talking to people and hearing

about their family story.

Where were your grandparents from? Where

were your great-grandparents from? Um I

I enjoy hearing people's journeys and

stories. And uh it's it's always been

fascinating to look at those big long

ancestry um papers where there's like 20

or so generations on there. And it's

always made me think to myself,

there had to be a lot of our ancestors

that met each other and got married in

order for us to even be here.

Like if your 15th greatgrandparents

didn't meet and fall in love, you

wouldn't be here.

And then your 14th greatgrandparents had

to meet and fall in love. And if they

hadn't, you wouldn't be here. There's so

many things that have to happen just in

line for you to be here. You're a

miracle. It's a miracle you made it

here.

A lot had to happen for you to be

sitting in this church today. Ancestry

is fascinating. It's fun to look back at

where you come from. I've got a long

line of ancestry stuff right here. And

you can see I've had to add a few on

here. The last name all the way on the

right. Um, and the biggest font you can

see, I'll I'll share a little bit. The

rest of it is pretty small. But, um, my

legal name is Timothy James Howton.

Nobody's ever called me Timothy in my

life. And if you call me Tim or Timothy,

I won't respond.

Never been called Tim or Timothy, it's

been James or Jaime my whole life. And

just above me is Daniel Franklin. is my

dad right over here. He's the next one

up in the line. And then Mary Lee

Sharpton is my grandmother. She lives

down in Texas. And then uh then you see

the rest of the official record. My

grandmother went through and got a whole

line of uh had done a whole bunch of

research with her sisters on family

trees. Her on her side of the family,

her maiden name was Sharp. And if you go

all the way up to the top left, those of

you on the sides can probably see it on

your screens a little bit better. It's

it's squared and there's an arrow right

there. And the name that's squared there

all the way up my family tree on this

side is Robert the Bruce the King of

Scotland.

You had no idea you had royalty for your

pastor, did you?

I'm an heir to the King of Scotland.

Now for our family trees, it's it's

anymore today. If you know who your

greatgrandparents are, that's probably

as far as as you likely met in your

lifetime. But beyond then it doesn't

really matter a whole lot. We don't pass

down titles anymore really. Um and and

so the long family trees are are kind of

going away. In fact, you're lucky if you

know and can can track it back five or

six generations. Um in royal families in

Europe, they track all this stuff. And

and this is probably a uh some faces

that you're familiar with. This is they

took our family's place.

This should be me and my dad and my son.

Uh, I think we would make way cooler

royals than these guys. And if if we

did, watch the faces. Watch the faces.

Ah,

we would be way cooler royals, uh, I

think, than the current ones there. Uh,

but, you know, we don't we don't really

follow ancestry that much. We don't uh

it's interesting to follow it as far

back as we can, but most of the time we

can't really uh trace it that far back.

And even if we could, it would just be

kind of interesting. There wouldn't be a

whole lot more meaning beyond that. In

the Bible, we see a whole lot of

ancestry. In fact, there's books filled

with ancestry. And this person begat

this person and this person begat this

person. Have you ever tried to go

through then read the Bible in a year

and you get to the bigs and you get to

the bigs and you're like, "H, here we

go. Got to slog through the begats." But

it's pretty cool when you get there and

so and so begat so and so and then you

you see a name that you recognize.

you're like, "Oh, oh, oh, I recognize

that name." And then there's maybe 15 or

20 more that you don't recognize. But

then you get to another one and you're

like, "Ah, I recognize that one, too."

It's pretty interesting. And it's fun to

see names that you recognize. I find it

fascinating that Matthew, in the very

beginning of the Gospels, turn with me

to Matthew chapter 1.

Matthew 1 · chapter mention

I find it fascinating that Matthew

begins

his account of all of this with 17

verses of genealogy.

17 verses of begats, a family tree, a

long family tree, quite a few

generations.

This is how the gospels begin. The book

of genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of

David, the son of Abraham. Abraham

begot Isaac, Isaac begot Jacob, and

Jacob begot Judah. And it goes all the

way through there. I'm not going to read

through all of them because that's a

pretty long list.

And then it comes down and explains that

Jesus,

as it says in verse one, is a son of

David and a son of Abraham.

The first thing we see is genealogy.

And in fact,

when the angel Gabriel shows up to talk

with Joseph,

he talks in his address to Joseph, we

see a hint at genealogy and the way he

addresses him. Go over to verse 18

and we're going to uh chapter 1 of

Matthew verse 18. It says, "Now the

birth of Jesus Christ was as follows.

After his mother Mary was betrothed to

Joseph, before they came together, she

was found with child of the Holy Spirit.

Then Joseph her husband, being a just

man, and not wanting to make her a

public example, was minded to put her

away secretly. But while he thought

about these things, behold, an angel of

the Lord appeared to him in a dream,

saying, Joseph,

son of David, do not be afraid to take

to you Mary, your wife, for that which

is conceived in her is of the Holy

Spirit, and she will bring forth a son,

and you shall call his name Jesus, and

he will save his people from their

sins." Let's back up just a minute. It

says, "An angel of the Lord appeared to

him in a dream."

Dreams are fascinating, aren't they?

Dreams can be really weird, too. You can

wake up in the morning and and and

remember little bits of your dream and

you're like, "Wow, what just happened in

my dream? I was here doing this and all

of a sudden I was over here doing to

something totally different." Dreams

don't make sense often. And if you eat a

lot late at night, your dreams get

really weird. I can remember when I was

in college, I could go and eat a full

large pizza. the the Papa John's guy

would bring like 20 pizzas into the

lobby at 11:00 at night. I'd get a large

pizza for five bucks, demolish it at

11:00 at night, feel great the next

morning. If I ate a large pizza at 11:00

at night right now, I would feel like

death. It would be horrible.

But sometimes if you eat late at night,

it can mess up your dreams a little bit.

Dreams are fascinating. But did you

notice what it said? It said that the

angel spoke to Joseph in a dream. That

means the heavenly powers can jump into

your dreams and communicate through your

dreams while you're asleep but kind of

awake. Isn't that wild

that the angel could say, "We're going

to wait till he goes to sleep. Then I'm

going to jump into his mind."

That blows my mind that an angel can do

that. And at the end of the dream,

Joseph comes out of the dream and he

knows it was God. He knows it wasn't

just some weird fluke. He knows he

didn't just eat too much late at night.

When he wakes up, he knows this is from

God.

He knows God has spoken to him through

this angel. And the angel says this,

"Joseph,

son of David." Why does he say that? Why

doesn't he say, "Hi, Joseph.

It's me, Gabriel. I'm in your dream, but

this is real." Why does he say Joseph,

son of David? Now, my dad's name is Dan.

A lot of people know we're related.

Never has somebody come up to me and

said, "Hey, Jamie, son of Dan, it's good

to see you." Be a little weird, right?

We don't really do that here. But the

significance of the of the term son of

David has meaning. Now, David wasn't

Joseph's father.

So why does he say Joseph son of David?

What is the meaning for this for this

title that he addresses Joseph by in

this dream?

The term son of David had a lot of

meaning in it. And people then knew what

this meaning was. The son of David

reference pointed to the coming of the

Messiah.

People knew that this phrase was linked

to the coming of the Messiah that

they've been looking forward to for so

long. ong his arrival. So when the angel

says, "Joseph, son of David," it's

almost as if he's saying, "Joseph, son

of David, you know what I'm about to

talk to you about.

The reason that I'm here is because you

are a son of David. You are of the line

of David, which makes you eligible

to be connected to the Messiah,

Joseph,

son of David.

a reminder of the messianic promise and

a hint as to what this conversation is

about to go down in in discussion type

of the topic.

In Desire of Ages, page 44, it says,

"Only a few were longing to behold the

unseen. To these heaven's embassy was

sent."

Mary and Joseph were part of a small

group that were focused on scripture.

focused on reading God's word and

preparing themselves for the first

coming of Jesus.

And I'm impressed by that because I

think that's a great example for us

today as we approach the second coming

of Jesus.

My question for you today is, are you

like Joseph and Mary reading the

scriptures and preparing yourself for

Jesus' second coming like they were

preparing theelves for the first coming

of Jesus? That is our challenge

is to walk in the footsteps of these two

godly people as they prepared for the

first coming of Jesus by studying the

scriptures, reading through places like

Daniel chapter 9.

Daniel 9 · chapter mention

Is that us today? Are we preparing in

our own hearts for Jesus' second coming?

Because the signs that we see

prophetically here for the first coming

of Jesus came true. If those came true,

I would say to you today that we can

also trust the prophecies about the

second coming of Jesus. And I would

suggest also that we are getting close

to the second coming of Jesus based on

God's word here in the prophecies.

Says while he thought about these

things, an angel of the Lord appeared to

him in a dream. Joseph, son of David, do

not be afraid to take to you Mary your

wife. For that which is conceived in her

is of the Holy Spirit, and she will

bring forth a son, and you shall call

his name Jesus. And here is the pinnacle

of the mission of Jesus. Right here it

says, for he will save his people from

their sins. Jesus came on a mission to

save you and me. That's the whole

purpose that this baby was born was to

save you and me. He says to Joseph,

"This baby boy will save his people from

their sins." Now, Mary has already had a

similar visit. Turn with me to Luke

Luke 1 · chapter mention

chapter 1. Luke chapter 1, Matthew,

Luke 1 · chapter mention

Mark, and Luke, just a couple books

over.

In Luke chapter 1

Luke 1:26

verse 26 says, "Now in the sixth month

the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a

city in Galilee named Nazareth to a

virgin betrothed to a man whose name was

Joseph of the house of David." Did you

know that he notice that he mentioned

that? Of the house of David. Mary is

also of the house of David. And having

come in, the angel said to her,

"Rejoice, highly favored one. The Lord

is with you. Blessed are you among

women."

Let's pause here for just a minute. I've

thought about this and and a lot of nice

things are said about Mary and and what

an incredible honor to be chosen by

heaven for this role, but she's a a

fairly young lady, very likely. And I

thought to myself, who were her parents?

And what a fantastic job they did

raising this young lady

as she grew to make choices that honored

God. so much to the point where the

angel Gabriel says, "You are highly

favored.

The Lord is with you. Blessed are you

among women."

Wow. Those are some parenting goals

right there to raise somebody like Mary,

someone who loves God and honors God

like that. She must have had incredible

parents.

And she made good choices in her life

and honored God.

Verse 29 it says, 'When she saw him, she

was troubled at his saying and

considered what manner of greeting this

was. Then the angel said to her,"Do not

be afraid, Mary. You have found favor

with God. And behold, you will conceive

in your womb and bring forth a son and

shall call his name Jesus. He will be

great and will be called the son of the

highest. And the Lord God will give him

the throne of his father David." You see

that reference to David there again?

"And he will reign over the house of

Jacob forever, and his kingdom there

will be no end." And Mary said to the

angel, "How can this be since I do not

know a man?" Now her question is

different than the question of

Zacharias. You remember Zachcharias,

he was also visited. He was told that he

and his wife in their old age were going

to have a baby. Now, no doubt that would

that would ruffle his feathers, make him

question things. How is this possible?

He asks a similar question.

Gabriel has a different answer for

Zacharias than he does for Mary. Why is

there a difference? I think that

Zachcharias's response to Gabriel when

Gabriel says he's going to be a father.

He says, "I want a sign so I know this

is going to happen." And Gabriel's like,

"All right, I'll give you a sign. You

can't talk until the baby comes."

He asked for a sign, but his sign was

more of a skeptical question, like, "Are

you sure God can do this?"

Mary's question was a little bit

different. You can tell by Gabriel's

response that hers is more of a

respectful like, I am totally in. I'm

not sure how this is going to work. Can

you help me understand this? So, we seem

we seem to see a little bit of a

different approach here from these two

different individuals who are both

visited by the same angel.

How can this be? She says in verse 35,

it says, "The angel answered and said to

her, "The Holy Spirit will come upon

you, and the power of the highest will

overshadow you." Therefore also the one,

the Holy One who is to be born will be

called the Son of God. Now indeed,

Elizabeth, your relative, has also

conceived a son in her old age, and this

is now the sixth month for which for her

which was called Baron.

And then Gabriel

says one of my favorite lines in the

whole Bible.

I'm sure Mary's thinking, "This is

impossible. I trust God. I know God, but

I don't know how this is going to work.

I've never heard of anything. I've never

seen anything like this. I've read the

scriptures and things. I know I know

what's supposed to happen, but but it

sounds impossible." And it does, too,

doesn't it?

It It's unlike anything ever anybody's

ever seen before. But here here is

Gabriel's words. Here are Gabriel's

words at the end to Mary.

after he says all of this stuff first

verse 37 he says for with God nothing

will be impossible

have you ever been in your life and

you've faced a situation you've got

thought to yourself this is impossible

this is absolutely impossible it's too

complex I don't know what to do I don't

know that there's anything good that can

come out of this seems impossible

did you know that God has never said

that God has never woken up one morning

or not woken up but got not how do I say

this I'm keeping on human terms. God has

never started a day and said this is

impossible.

Never.

Gabriel who serves at the right hand

there says with God nothing shall be

impossible.

That means when you face tough

situations where you think this is

impossible,

it's possible for God. There is nothing

you'll face in your life where God is

stumped and not sure what to do. What a

privilege we have to go to him and ask

for help because he already knows what

to do. Gabriel says, "For with God

nothing shall be impossible." I love

that. I love that. Mary says, "Behold

the maid servant of the Lord. Let it be

to me according to your word." And the

angel departed from her.

Let's jump back to Matthew, back to

Matthew, Joseph's part of the story.

Matthew chapter 1.

Matthew 1 · chapter mention

Why again does Matthew start with this

list? I think that in this list, we are

getting a little bit of a prophetic hint

as to the purpose of salvation with this

baby with Jesus Christ and his arrival.

Now, like we were talking about, family

was a big deal. Tracing your family

lineage, especially since the messianic

prophecies indicated that they needed to

come from David's family, right?

But if you look closely in these first

17 verses at some of the people that are

listed in the family of Jesus,

you find some interesting people. In

fact, you find some people that are

Gentiles and not even Jews.

Four of them. I want to bring your

attention to verse three, Tamar.

Verse five, Rahab.

Also verse five, Ruth.

Verse six, Ba Sheeba.

All four very likely Gentiles, not Jews.

Three of the four

are known for scandal in their stories.

And these are listed

in the family of Jesus.

And there's even some matriarchs that

are missing. These ones are added, but

some matriarchs are missing in here that

you would think might be in there. But

Matthew brings up Jesus' family here.

And it's quite a wide variety of people,

some Gentiles,

some people with a past.

You know,

one of the things that is so awesome

about Jesus

is that everybody is part of his family.

It doesn't matter where you've been in

life.

Doesn't matter what choices you've made

in life.

Jesus still calls you family. He calls

you to a new life

that you are part of his family.

And the grace that he came to shed on us

covers all of us when we turn from the

ways that we've been doing things and

repent of our sins.

His grace covers every single one of us.

No matter what our past is. No matter if

our past is like Tamar, Rahab,

or any of the others in this list.

Jesus came to save people from their

sins no matter what their background is.

We see that the last thing that Gabriel

tells Joseph here, the mission of Jesus

coming all the way down here to be born

a baby. It says, "You shall call his

name Jesus for he will save his people

from their sins."

This is a a lifesaving salvational

mission of Jesus here for every single

person born on this earth.

Every single person on this planet was

made in the image of God.

And Jesus came to save as many as would

choose to follow him.

This is the whole pinnacle of the whole

Bible right here is Jesus saving you

and Jesus saving me.

The whole purpose of this story, the

prophecies, and it's an extensive story

throughout all the Bible, the prophecies

in the Old Testament that perfectly

describe what happens

as Jesus comes the first time.

God's people were looking forward to

this birth for for many many many years.

And his whole purpose

was to save his people. You know who his

people are?

You're his people.

He came here because of you.

If you were the only person on this

planet, he'd have come just for you.

He'd gone through all that just for you.

He came here to save his people. And you

are his people.

Jesus

showed his love by coming here

and taking the guilt of our sin

to the cross,

substituting himself on our behalf

so that we could have a way to

salvation.

I don't know about you, but this world's

kind of getting under my skin. I don't

like it much anymore.

I'm tired of all the heartache, the the

wars,

the pain that people go through here on

earth. It's a pretty tough existence if

you stop and think about it. Not what

God had in mind in the beginning.

But God has a plan to heal us in our

hearts. And God has a plan for a better

place for us someday.

And you are part of that plan.

Jesus' whole purpose was to come and

save us from our sins, to appeal to us,

to work on our hearts.

You know,

throughout our our days in our lives,

we've got different choices that we make

and and God, I believe, is always

tugging at our hearts, prompting us

through the Holy Spirit, pointing us in

the direction he wants us to go.

And

if you have family who maybe have walked

away from God, I believe God is tugging

on their hearts as well, pulling them up

just just drawing them close to them in

to him in ways that we might not even

know.

I've seen it happen with people where

people who've who've put God on a back

burner or rejected God, God has not

given up on them and he still appeals to

them and still pulls them close to him

in ways that we don't even know about.

convicts their hearts. I've seen people

respond to it in different phases of

their lives,

different stories that they've been

through. I've seen God working on

people's hearts. Still today,

that's the purpose of his arrival here

as a little baby. Many years ago,

I was

in my office at another church where I

was pastoring in Colorado, and I got a

message that was left on our church

phone from somebody I didn't know. And

it was from a lady probably in her 60s.

Her name was Sylvia, and she lived about

maybe 10 minutes away from my church.

And in her message, she said, "I would

like uh to talk to the pastor, and if he

could come and visit me in my home, I'd

appreciate it. here's my phone number

and address.

So, I gave her a call and I said, "Hey,

could I swing over? When's a good time

for me to swing by your place?" She

said, "This afternoon." So, that

afternoon, I drove over to her house and

knocked on her door and uh she greeted

me with a smile, welcomed me into her

house, and we sat down in her living

room in a couple of rocking chairs

and we started to kind of just chitchat

and get to know each other a little bit.

and and she shared with me that she

hadn't been to church in probably about

25 years or so.

And she kind of started to explain why

and and some kind of some excuses why I

haven't been to church and whatnot. And

I had gone to a 7th Adventist church 25

some years ago, but h some things have I

haven't been in a long time.

I said, "Well, hey, we're only 10

minutes away. Next Sabbath. Why don't

you come on down to church?" And she

smiled.

She shared a little bit more of her of

her story

and then she said, "Uh, I wanted you to

come visit with me because I just found

out that I've got terminal liver cancer.

Not going to make it more than a couple

more months." She looked good at the

time, but she she didn't look sick at

all. And I said, "I'm so sorry to hear

that." And she shared a little bit of

how that had had kind of started to

alter her thinking a little bit. and she

said, 'You know, I've been thinking a

lot about God lately since I've had this

diagnosis.

And I've been thinking a lot about

church and worship and and what happens

next.

And we talked quite a bit. And I said,

"Do you have any questions for me before

I left?" And she had some questions. We

talked about those things. We talked a

little bit about heaven. And I went to

visit her every week for the next three

and a half months. I'd come in, sit

down, we'd talk, we'd talk a little bit

about heaven, talk a little bit about

God.

And during that course,

three and a half months or so, I was

able to ask her some questions that that

uh made her think a little bit more

about her relationship with God. And I

invited her to rededicate her life to

the Lord there in her living room. By

this time, her skin was was yellow and

she was she was declining quite quickly.

And there in that living room as she was

responding to the Lord's impressing on

her heart, she rededicated her life to

God.

And a couple of weeks later, I did her

funeral at my at my church there.

And we buried her in the ground

as she waits for Jesus to call her name

someday soon at the resurrection.

She's one of the reasons why Jesus came.

I believe Jesus was working on her

heart. Maybe a long time before even she

got a cancer diagnosis.

And the more the Lord worked on her

heart, the more she was open to

responding to the love of Jesus.

And Jesus changed her heart.

She gave her heart to the Lord.

That's the reason Jesus came.

He came for people like Sylvia.

He came for people like you. And he came

for people like me.

And he went through all of this

so that we could experience

the grace that is offered to us because

of his sacrifice on the cross. So that

someday

when our adversary says, "Hey, what

about Jamie Hton?

He did some rotten things, said some

rotten things,

he shouldn't be allowed in heaven."

Because of the grace of Jesus, he will

stand up by my side and say, "Actually,

Jaime confessed those sins and I have

forgiven him of those sins and I earned

the right to forgive him of those sins

on the cross at Calvary.

You can blame me for all those things

and I've already taken care of the

punishment for those sins."

That's what Christmas is all about. Our

savior coming here, being born, living a

life here, sacrificing himself on our

behalf so we can go to home, go home to

heaven with him someday. To a place

where there's no more sickness, no more

sorrow, no more death, no more

headaches, no more stubbed toes,

no more hurt feelings, no more being

offended,

no more of the stuff that bogs us down

here.

And he told John, "Be sure and write

this down. For these words are true or

faithful. No more tears. No more death.

No more sorrow.

Jesus came here

to save you and me

this Christmas. I hope that you feel all

of the love from heaven this this year

because this whole Christmas season is

us remembering what Jesus did, how far

he went to save you and me.

What a good God we serve.

What a loving God we serve. He wants you

in heaven more than anything in the

whole world.

May we commit this Christmas season to

honoring God and following him until he

comes to take us home. And I am looking

forward to that day.

Someday

the ground in a little cemetery

in Colorado is going to open up

and a lady named Sylvia is going to come

forth when Jesus calls her.

And there's going to be a whole lot of

other graves just like that that are

going to open up from people that have

given their hearts to the Lord as he

calls them home

to our home in heaven someday. That's

going to be a good day.

>> And I can't wait for that day. I want to

invite my family to come up and help us

uh sing our closing song, Joy to the

World. And uh the first verse says, "Joy

to the world, the Lord has come. Let

earth receive her king. Let every heart

prepare him room and heaven and nature

sing. May our hearts be open to the Lord

this Christmas season

to feel the love that he has in his

heart for us and to promise in our

hearts to follow him and to do our best

to lead those around us to him as well.

Let's stand together as we sing our

closing song, Joy to the World.

I'm so glad we're a part of the family

of God. And somewhere in God's family

tree, we're there. And what an awesome

thing that is.

This Christmas season, I'm so thankful

for Jesus sacrifice to go from from

heaven where angels cover their faces

when they say his name. To come down

here to be born a little baby,

to go through everything that he did

for you and me. What an incredible gift

we have to celebrate this year and to be

thankful for. I hope that this Christmas

season you feel the love of Jesus in

your life as we go through this month.

Let's bow our heads. Father in heaven,

Lord, we thank you so much for creating

a plan to save us.

Thank you for going through everything

you did for us, God. Help us to honor

you in our lives and in our decisions

that we make. And Lord, we ask that you

give us divine help to keep us faithful

to you until you come to take us home to

our heavenly home.

And Lord, we are so grateful that we're

one Sabbath closer to worshiping with

you in heaven. In Jesus name I pray.

Amen.

Thanks so much for joining us here at

the McDonald Road 7th Adventist Church

for worship. Each month we reach between

25 and 30,000 people with gospel content

online. We're looking to expand our

audiovisisual department this year and

looking to raise $30,000 in this

project. We would love for you to

partner with us on this and consider

making a donation to our audiovisisual

department as we look at expansion and

reaching more people with the gospel

across the internet this next year. You

can go to mrcsda.org

to make a donation directly to our

audiovisisual department.

Thank you so much for considering making

this donation and the privilege is ours

to partner with you in making this a

bigger and more effective ministry here

at the McDonald Road 7th Adventist

Church. God bless each one of you and

thanks again for joining us here at the

McDonald Road 7th Adventist Church.