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Hey, family. Before we get into the message, Taylor and I wanted to invite you into something big happening right here at Social Dallas. God has given us an incredible 90,000 square foot building, and we're believing for $6 million to break ground to make it home. Yes, and every dollar moves dirt. If this ministry has ever blessed you or spoken to you in any season, would you prayerfully consider partnering with us? Your generosity, it helps us turn this building into a home where people will meet Jesus for generations. Absolutely. You can give Dallas.com give or click the link in the description because we are almost home. Well, it's Social Family Christmas. You look good. As a matter of fact, you look planted in the house of the Lord. And because of Social Family Christmas, I'm not here by myself. I got my son, Robert Madu iii, with me today. And today, everything is about family. Family. This truly is a family. And if you're a part of Social family, you know we've had a word for the entire year, and that word is planted, planted. We believe we're going to flourish because we're planted in the house of the Lord. So every Single Sunday of 2025, we have declared our Verse of the Year. Psalm 92, 13:15, Y', all, this is our last Sunday to read it together as a family in person. So I thought to myself, who better than my son, my namesake, Robert Madu iii, to lead us in the verse of the year? Is that all right with y'? All? All right, let's do it. Bubba, you ready? Let's go. Those who are planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the court of our God. They shall still bear fruit in old age. They shall be fresh and flourishing to declare that the Lord is upright. He is my rock, and there are no unrighteousness in him. Come on. What you think, bubba? What you think? Sound good? They sound good. They sound good. You sound great. Good job, buddy. Remain standing. Remain standing. I do have a word I want to share with you, and I promise I will not be before you long. But I want to turn your attention today to Matthew, chapter one. And I want to read verses one through 16. New King James Version. I'm convinced that the verses I'm about to read to you today have to be universally the most skipped passages of scripture in all of the Bible. But we gonna read it today. Matthew, chapter one. Starting at verse one, it says, the book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham, Abraham begot Isaac, Isaac begot Jacob, and Jacob begot Judah. And his brothers. Judah begot Perez and Zerah by Tamar. Perez begot Hezron, and Hezron begot Ram. Ram begot Amminadab and Amminadab begot Nahashon, Nahashan begot Salmon, and Salmon begot Boaz by Rahab. Boaz begot Obed by Ruth, Obed begot Jesse, and Jesse begot David the king. David the king begot Solomon by her who had been the wife of Uriah. Solomon begot Rehoboam. Rehoboam begot Abijah, and Abijah begot Asa. Asa begot Jehoshaphat, Jehoshaphat begot Joram, and Joram begot Uzziah. Uzziah begot Jotham, and Jotham begot Ahaz, and Ahaz begot Hezekiah. Hezekiah begot Manasseh and Manasseh begot Ammon, and Ammon begot Josiah. Josiah begot Jeconiah and his brothers about the time they were carried away to Babylon. And after they were brought to Babylon, Jeconiah begot she Atelier and Shiatil begot Zerubbabel. Zerubbabel begot Abiud, and Abiud begot Eliakim. And Eliakim begot Azor, Azor begot Zadok, and Zadok begot Achim. And Achim begot Eliad. Eliud begot Eleazar, Eleazar begot Nathan, and Nathan begot Jacob. And Jacob begot Joseph. Finally, a name. Somebody know the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called the Christ. I want to tag a title to this text today and just preach to you from this simple thought. The Christmas list. The Christmas List. I want you to look at your neighbor. You know how we do. Anyone that you like the best, get in their face. Get in their personal space. Come on, say neighbor, be afraid of the Christmas list. Now that neighbor was stuck up. Find another neighbor. Come on. Say other neighbor. You my second option. I gotta. I gotta tell you about the Christmas list. If you believe God's gonna speak, would you give him some praise in here today? Lord, have your way. Amen. You may be seated in the presence of the Lord. The Christmas list. I think I want to go on record and speak for everyone in here when I say, whenever we think about the Christmas story, you do not think of the passage of scripture that I was just sweating bullets to read. As a matter of fact, it's almost like Matthew, who is the author of the Book of Matthew, made a mistake and forgot that his book was going to be the intro for the entire New Testament. You understand that when you turn the page in your Bible, from Malachi, that closes the Old Testament to Matthew, that opens the New Testament. You have actually Traveled in time 400 years. 400 years of what scholars call the silent years. 400 years where God said absolutely nothing. There was not a word from heaven, no prophet said anything. 400 years of silence. And when you get to Matthew, chapter one, it is as if Matthew has gathered the whole room and said, shh, be quiet. I'm about to tell you something big. But instead of going to shepherds and the manger and the star and Jesus, he decides to give us a list, y'. All. Not just a list. A long list. A long list of names. Let's be honest, some of these names sound like diseases. And you almost want to say, come on, Matthew, do better. This, this is Christmas. Don't start with the list. You need to start your gospel like John starts his gospel. John, I love his intro. In the beginning was the Word, and the word was with God. And the Word was God. All things were made by him and without him was not anything made that ha been made. That's an introduction. Or maybe start your gospel like Mark, who doesn't even have time for baby Jesus, skips Christmas and goes to full grown Jesus. Start your gospel like that. But he does not do that. He decides to scripturally inundate us with baby daddy after baby daddy after baby daddy after baby daddy, y'. All. That's what that bat is. Bhagat is the King James version of baby daddy. I'm trying to figure out Matthew, why would you begin Christmas with the list? I'll be honest with you. Today I almost did what a lot of y' all do when you read this part of the Bible and what a lot of preachers do today. I almost skipped all 17 of those verses and just went straight to verse 18. Come on. This is what most preachers do on a Christmas. They go straight to verse 18. This is verse 18. This is the verse that we love. 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. Everybody knows you skip 1 through 17 and you just cut straight to verse number 18 and you just skip the list. But I came to tell you on this social family Christmas, I cannot skip the list today. I gotta preach this list today because I wanna let you know there is power in this list. There is revelation in this list. If you skip this list, you will never understand what Christmas is really about. If you skip this list, you will never comprehend how in the world a field became an angelic amphitheater where angels began singing praises to God. If you skip this list today, you will never understand how a God who the heavens could not contain chose to be held by human hands. How many of you know you don't understand anything about Christmas until you understand Jesus family tree. Because without his family tree, there is no Christmas tree. Without his story, you can't even understand your story. So you can't skip the list. Ooh, this is a good time to slap your neighbor and wake them up and say, don't skip the list. Don't skip the list. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Don't skip this list. This list is packed with powerful truth. As a matter of fact, to skip this list of names in verses 1 through 17 would be the equivalent, hear me, of handing out gifts this Christmas without wrapping them. Can you imagine if you just said, Here you go, iPhone, and you just chunked it at them? No wrapping paper or anything. How many know you gotta wrap those gifts? You have to put wrapping paper on those gifts. I'll be honest with you. I am not a good rapper. No, no, no. I. I can't. I missed that day in kindergarten where they taught everybody to rap. I have not wrapped a gift in years. Okay? The last time, I had a bad experience, so I still got ptsd, y'. All. I cannot rap together. Last time I did it, the corners were all uneven. I couldn't find the tape because it's never, you know, sprawled out. You always got to figure out where it was. I'm telling you, it looked like a mess. I had to get wood glue and a jackhammer to get it all together. And then I started arrogant because. Have you seen people do this move? I tried it years ago, where they take, like, the edge of the scissors and they take the ribbon and they do the. Like that, and it becomes a scrunchie, y'. All. I tried that. Almost cut my thumb off. Thank God the wrapping paper was red. It just. Blood just blended all in. And then I did all that work. The first time I wrapped it and gave it to somebody for them in 3.2 seconds just to rip that thing apart. I said, oh, no, never again. I am not doing that. It takes too much time to wrap a gift. But why do we wrap gifts? You wrap a gift because you understand that the wrapping paper seems peripheral, but it's Actually essential to the gift. Matter of fact, I can tell how good the gift is by how you wrapped it. Oh, come on, somebody. You ever had one that was wrapped so nice? You're like, what is this papyrus? I can't rip this right here. I gotta take my time and carefully take this apart. And it's sitting. Something about how you present the gift that makes the gift better, that creates anticipation. What you're saying, Pastor ROBERT I'm saying that those list of names is the wrapping paper around the Christmas story. And you can't appreciate the gift that Jesus is until you look at the names on that list. The names on the list are the wrapping paper. And so I love this list. This is a powerful list. I love this list because this list proves that Matthew knew his audience. Yeah, he knew his audience. There's a saying in communication that if you ask an amateur to speak, his first question will be, what am I gonna say? But if you ask a professional to speak, his first question will be, who is my audience? Who is my audience? Because if I know my audience, then I know the actual angle that I have to take. If I know my audience, I know my approach. Because your audience often determines your approach. How many? There's two ways to close a message. I can close a message two ways. I can close a message and say, even though you've been through trials, your heavenly Father will always be with you. Let us pray. Amen. That's one way. Or if I was in another audience, I could also close the message a different way and say, neighbor, I've been through the fire and I've been through the flood. I've been broken into pieces, seeing lightning flashing from above. But through it all, I remember that he loved me. And he cares and he'll never. I mean, that's another way. I wouldn't do that today because I know my audience. Your. Your audience determines your approach. So Matthew, he knew his audience, and he knew he wasn't just writing scripture. He was communicating to a primarily Jewish audience. And he knew that this Jewish audience have been wrestling with something that I think everybody in this room wrestles with. Expectation. Let me say a better word. Expectancy. Have you ever had expectancy? I'm talking about expectancy, I think is different than expectation, because when you have expectancy, it's like you're God. I know you're about to do it. I know you're about to. You have had expectancy. Expectancy. Expectancy. I'm expecting something you ever had expectant, like, expect. And that's why you need expectancy? Because if you don't expect, you probably won't. Yeah, expectancy is powerful. The problem with expectancy is sometimes you expect and you expect, but you don't. When you don't see and you're waiting and waiting and waiting, sometimes the wait can extinguish your expectancy to the point that you go, God, are you even gonna do it? God, are you even gonn fulfill your promise? Because if you are gonna fulfill it, you should have done it a long time ago. Some of y' all couldn't even sing Joy, joy, joy, joy. Cause you still in your feelings talking about God, I thought this was gonna be my year. And it's almost over. What are you doing up there? Because you were expecting some stuff in January, and here it is all the way in December, and you still haven't seen it yet. Do you realize they had been waiting for generations for the Messiah to come? And as they waited and waited, it seemed like it was gonna take forever. Finally showed up. You know, when you've been waiting for a while, sometimes you start to ask yourself, God, is it for real? Come on. When you've been waiting for a long time, when you actually get the thing, sometimes you question, is this for real? Okay, I got to really bring it to your front doorstep. When you've been waiting for the one, and you had a whole bunch of bad dates and a whole bunch of uhs, when you finally get the one, there's something in you that goes, is he really the one, though? I know I've been praying for like eight years, but he too nice. Oh, Lord, is he a serial killer? Sometimes when it actually shows up, Some of you have been praying for peace in your marriage because there's been World War three every single night, and God actually does the work. And you don't know how to function in a house that actually has peace because chaos has become your normal. So you're finding a way to get another fight because you don't even know in your nervous system how to handle peace. Sometimes when you have waited for so long for something, when it shows up, you want to ask yourself, is this for real? Come here, John the Baptist. Are you the Christ, or should we look for another? So before Matthew tells them what Jesus did, he answers the question they're already asking, does this Jesus qualify to be the king? That's why Matthew starts with the genealogy, and right at verse number one, watch what he does. He traces Jesus all the way back to Abraham and all the way back to David. Why? Because Abraham represents the promise and David represents the kingdom. So Matthew is saying, this Jesus didn't come out of nowhere. He has a lineage that legitimizes and authenticates the validity of his kingdom. Matthew is saying Jesus has a bona fide right to be the king. You gotta understand, in biblical times, you could not just decide that you wanted to be something cause you felt like it. Like you couldn't just wake up one day and say, ooh, I just feel like I'm called to be a priest and I'm just gonna be a priest. You could not do that in biblical times. You had to prove it in your bloodline. Because your family didn't just give you history, it gave you identity. I wish they would do that today. Can you imagine today if we had the same principle? If you're like, hey, I'm a podcaster, how we know? Well, I got a camera and a microphone. No, no, no, let me see. Your lineage was your daddy's daddy's daddy's daddy a podcaster. Otherwise you need to shut this channel down. That was the biblical world in which they were in. Matthew is doing exactly that. He's saying kingship runs in his family. He's saying through his he qualifies to be king because he's connected to David. And he's also saying he also qualifies to be king because he did not come from earth, although he came to earth. How many know the song said he came from heaven to earth. So in other words, he's saying either way, you cut it through his earthly lineage or through his heavenly origin, Jesus is still the king. Either way you look at it, he is the king. If you look at his humanity, he's got a right to be king. If you look at his deity, he's got a right to be king. He is bonus. He is 100% king, 100% God, and 100% man. He is the king. That is his identity. Now I understand why Jesus moved the way he moved. Now I understand why he could speak the truth and not care what anybody else thought after he said it. Now I understand why they could pick up rocks to get ready to stone him and he just walk away unscathed. Talking about, they can't kill me until it's my time. Now I understand why he would walk in a temple and not ask for permission, but start flipping over tables. Why in the world do you have so much authority? Jesus had authority because he knew his identity. And when you know your identity, you move different. I know why some of y' all Sitting down because you don't know who you are. But can I tell you, when you know who you are in God, you have authority. You move different. You don't give up because somebody said something on your Instagram page. Say what you want. I know who I am and whose I am. So my authority is coming straight out of my identity. Woo. I wish somebody would take, like, 10 seconds and give God some praise, like, you know who you are and whose you are. Oh, that's a cute golf clap. Really praise them like you know who you are. Woo. Authority always flows from identity. Identity, then authority. I A yeah. See, we have a culture that's obsessed with AI, But I'm telling you, you ever get some ia, you ever know who you are, you'll have a different level of authority, because your authority will come straight from your identity. Jesus knew he was a king. And Matthew knew that in the days of prophets and kings, in the time of Mary of Joseph, it wasn't your line of credit or your line of work or even your line of accomplishments that explained who you were. It was your family social fam. In that day, your family was like your resume. Why? Because family gives you context. Family gives you a framework for understanding who you really are. Come on, don't act like you ain't never met somebody's mother or father. And all of a sudden, in two seconds, it made sense. Because family, it gives you context. I know you don't like it. And every Christmas and holiday, you're looking across the table like, how in the world am I related to you? But the reality is we are shaped by our family, and Matthew knew that. And so he starts with a genealogy. I'm gonna look at verse 17. Cause look at what he does in verse 17. I think this is intriguing how he breaks this thing down. He says, Thus, there were 14 generations in all from Abraham to David, 14 from David to the exile in Babylon, and 14 from the exile to Messiah. So he got three sets of 14. 14 plus 14 plus 14 is what? Oh, you don't do math? 42. 42, 42. 42 generations that Jesus came through. 42 generations. Another way you could say it is that we have six sets of seven. I'm ready for social youth next year, y'. All. We got six sets of seven. That's 42 generations that Jesus came through. Matthew knew that. I got some issues. Because if you go over to Luke's Gospel, Luke does not trace the lineage of Jesus to Abraham or to David. He goes all the way back to Adam. Because Luke Knows his audience too. And Luke is writing to a gentile audience, and so he's writing to the world, not just the Jewish audience. So I like Luke. He's like, don't get it twisted. He's not just for the Jew, he's for everybody. So he traces his lineage all the way up to Adam's 77 generations. But here's the thing that I did. I looked at Matthew's list and I looked at Luke's list. I looked at both the list. I did the work for you. I looked in great detail at the list. I looked at the list, they made the list. I checked it twice. I was trying to find out, just trying to wake some of y' all up, who was naughty and who was nice. And here's what blows my mind about the list. There are some names that are on Matthew's list that are not on Luke's list. And there's some names on Luke's list that's not on Matthew's list. Which means both Matthew and Uncle Luke edited the list. They edited certain names and kept some names on and kept some names off. And before I said that, I said, man, that's messed up. How you gonna edit the list? But then I thought about life. How many know there's some people in your family that if you could edit them out, you would do the same too. Come to find out, that was what they did in that culture. Because hear me, your genealogy was your resume. So you didn't wanna put people on the list that made you look bad. So they would edit the accordingly on their account to make them look better. So if it was a name that didn't make them look good, they took that off their genealogy account. They edited their accounts to make them look better. They edited their accounts to make them look better. They would show the best and hide the mess. They edited their accounts to make them look better. Isn't that funny? Here we are in 2025, and people are still editing their accounts to make you look better. Come on, you know you didn't wake up like that. Come on. You know there's a hundred filters on that picture you posted. Isn't it funny? We curate our lives and we love to show the good parts and we hide the parts of us that we don't want anybody to see. All the way from biblical days till today, everybody's curating their accounts, trying to present their best foot forward. But the thing that blows my mind is who Jesus left on his list. I'm shocked that if your genealogy is the Account that you're trying to look good. Did y' all notice who Jesus left on the list? Did y' all see the names that he left on the list? Of course you don't see it because you skipped verses 1 through 17. But it's interesting to me, the names that Jesus left on the list. And most of us skip the list and we just go straight to the Nativity scene. I wish I had a Nativity scene. I will show you. Because we jump straight to verse 18. Because verse 18 is the nativity scene. And that's what we usually skip to, is to the. Oh, look at the Lord. Yeah. This is what most of us do with our lives. We like to curate our lives to the Nativity scene. Oh, ain't that pretty? That's why you skip to verse 18, because we just love the scene. Isn't this pretty? I think we got this at Hobby Lobby. Beautiful little scene. Got the angel, got Mary, got Joseph, got a little lamb looking at Jesus. Isn't it cute? Isn't that just a little, cute little scene? Interesting to me. You know, they're in the Middle Eastern climate, but still got pale skin. Isn't this an interesting. It's an interesting little Nativity. Nativity scene. It's a scene. It's a scene. Let the church say scene. It's a scene. Now, that's a Nativity scene. Now, here's what I've learned about scenes. Scenes are not the full story. Sometimes you can see a scene and you love the scene. But don't ever think when you see the scene that the scene is the full story. Because the scene is always clean. The scene can look pristine, but the story will be messy. The story will have some drama. The story will have some issues. Don't ever be fooled by a scene and not realize that there is a full story behind the scene. Can you prove it with a Christmas illustration? Yes, I can. You send that pretty Christmas card with your whole family smiling and the puppy standing still, and you got your matching plaids on, and you send it to everybody. Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays. And we look and say, oh, isn't this a beautiful family? I do it, too. Oh, don't they look great? That's the scene. We know the story that was behind that scene. Before those pictures got printed, there was a mama saying, I promise you, it's gonna be a dark Christmas in here if y' all don't smile for this picture. I will take every gift back right now. If y' all don't look at this camera, we're Gonna get a good family picture. I mean, there was bribery, there was fighting. Weave was pulled out, all to get the scene. But the scene is not the full story. Ooh, let me just bring it. Since it's almost home. Sunday today, there's coming a day where we are gon put a ribbon at 10110 Technology Boulevard. And we will walk into our permanent home. And we won't go from venue to venue. Oh, I hope you come. It's gonna be amazing. I'm guessing like 20, 28. Come on. Keep praying, keep giving. And all of a sudden, we gonna cut a ribbon. It's gonna be a beautiful scene. I hope you show up. But don't get it twisted. That scene is not the story. The story is. We've been in 14 different venues and four years. The story was when we were at Granada theater with about 100 people and I was still preaching just like this. The story is showing up at Gillies, and you can tell. Oh, somebody got high in this place tonight, but we still going to lift up Jesus. That's the story. The story is, before we ever had permanent seats, we had a serve team that was setting out seats, praying over every single one, saying, whoever sits in this seat, their life is going to be changed by the power of the Holy Spirit. Oh, I'm telling you, don't get it twisted. There's always a story behind the scene. That's why folks are jealous of you right now. Because they see your scene, but they don't know your story. Oh, if you knew my story, you would celebrate with me. You wouldn't be hating on me because I went through a whole lot to get to this scene. So this is the nativity scene. Barrett, play and make it sound real. Spurcher, can I fix? Actually, don't play yet. It's gonna sound spiritual in a moment. Can I fix? Can I fix the nativity scene? Y' all ain't gonna cancel me. Can I fix? I wanna fix the scene and let it reflect the full story. Because I just think you gotta get an accurate representation of what the full story is. I know y' all skip and go to verse 18. Cause you want the scene and not the story. But this is a better picture. Yeah. Of the full story. I wish they would sell that at Hobby Lobby. An amalgamation of Disney and the nativity. Because, believe it or not, this is what you read in those 17 verses. Notice that Jesus does something interesting with his genealogy. Nowhere in your Bible, in a patriarchal society do you ever see women mentioned in a genealogy. I Did my homework. Read it when you get to the crib. Genesis, chapter 5, Genesis chapter 10, Genesis, chapter 11. You'll see a whole list of names and a nice. Not one of those genealogies. Do you see a single woman on the list? In that misogynistic society, they would never put a woman on the list. Because in that culture, if you wanted to show who you were, you didn't say who my mama was, you said who my daddy was. It is not until we get to the birth of Jesus Christ that we don't just have one woman in his genealogy. Jesus puts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 women on his list. And I thought I would have some sisters in here that would give God some praise. Because you serve a savior that says, you cannot tell my story and exclude the women of God. I'm thankful for the men of God, but Jesus is the only one that says, y' all so insecure you can't put a woman on the list. Guess what? I'm gonna put five women on my list to show you my power, to show you who I am. Five different women. I started having church when I saw that five. Because when I saw five, it reminded me of one word that has five letters. And that one word is a word that will put you on a list that other people tried to take you off of. That word is what woke me up this morning. That word will put you in rooms that people tried to lock you out of. That word is the reason I hadn't lost my mind. That word is the reason I'm still standing here. Can I tell you my five letter word? It is grace. Somebody ought to thank God for his grace that will put you on a list that other people tried to take you off of. Thank God for His grace. Amazing grace. How sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I'm thankful for grace. Grace will put you on the list that people tried to take you off of. No wonder we skip those 17 verses. We want to get to the scene that's cute and pretty. Not realizing God's grace was being shown throughout his entire genealogy. I love grace. Grace is not karma. Karma is when I get what I deserve. Grace is not mercy. Mercy is when I don't give what I do deserve. But grace. Grace is when I get something I don't even deserve. It is the goodness of God. His grace. You can be seated. Maybe somebody's tried to write you off of a list this Christmas, and God just sent me to tell you. Grace puts you back on a list that people Tried to take you off of Grace writes in the people that everybody wants to write off. Oh, I wish I had time. Five women. Do you know who these women are? Whoo. I don't have time to give you the full version because it's not rated PG13, but do you know who this woman on the list is? Not Elsa Tamar. Read it when you get to the crib. Genesis 38. Tamar has been widowed twice by some brothers. Her father in law deceived her and didn't fulfill his promise. And here she is without a child. Sister girl dresses up like a prostitute and tricks her father in law into doing the unthinkable, and she ends up getting pregnant. Her father in law shames her and is about to stone her. Lucky for her, she kept some evidence. And because she kept evidence, when they got ready to stone her, he said, before you stone me, she said, let me tell you whose baby this is. It's his. And guess what he said. This is my version. Let her go. That is in the Bible. Do you know who this is? Not Jasmine. Rahab. Rahab's on the list. Rahab didn't disguise as a prostitute. She was one. She was the leader of the hot mamas. Joshua, chapter two. Joshua, chapter two. She hides some spies because she knew how to hide men. And because she hid those spies. Watch this. Her entire family was saved and delivered. That's on Jesus list. Hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on. Do you know who this is? Who that is? Ruth. Not Tiana. Ruth is a Moabite. She's not even worthy to be in the temple. But I love Ruth because she knows the power of connection. She connected to Naomi and said, guess what, girl? Your God's gonna be my God. I'll follow you wherever you go. There's power in hookups, because how many of you know? Because she connected with the right person. She ended up meeting Boaz and she got her man. I'm trying to tell some of y', all, maybe the reason you hadn't found the right connection is because who you already connected to. 2. Do you know who this is? Not Ariel. Bathsheba, who wasn't under the sea. Y' all ain't appreciate this grade A preaching I give y' all was taking a bath. Notice the shade Matthew throws. He doesn't even say her name. He says the father of Solomon and the wife of Uriah. What's he doing? He's reminding you that King David, the man after God's own heart, committed murder and killed one of his soldiers after he slept with Bathsheba. Why in the world is she on the list? And Mary, did we celebrate during this season? That song, Mary, did you know? It's a beautiful song. I don't know whether she knew or not. I'm not here to debate that. I wish they would remix the song, though, and add some lyrics. Mary, did you know you were gonna be ridiculed? When you're a teenage girl pregnant out of wedlock? Mary, did you know you were gonna walk through the marketplace and they were gonna whisper about you and say, look at that girl talking about God did it. Don't put your ratchetness on God. Mary, did you know that she had to endure the shame and the pain of that? This is who God keeps on the list. Do you realize on this list you have prostitution, you have incest, you have murder, you have a girl who's pregnant out of wedlock and a teenager. You got all kind kinds of issues. You got all kinds of trauma and drama. What in the world could God be telling us about this Christmas list? Why would he include these names when everybody would edit their genealogy to make them look better? What is Jesus trying to show us today? What is the message of Christmas to somebody that feels like you're disqualified and God can't use you? I'll tell you, the message is Christmas. And the message of this list here it is, God can use anybody. God can use anybody. That's the message that ought to make you shout, God can use anybody. I'm too broken. God can use anybody. I got a path. God can use any. I don't have enough education. God can use anybody. I've been through pain. God can use anybody. I didn't have a father. God can use anybody. I didn't have a mother. God can use anybody. If God worked through all this dysfunction and all these people with issues made the list, what is your excuse that God can't use you? What can you really bring to the table that you think disqualifies you? I finally figure out why God uses flawed, broken, messed up people. Took me 41 years to figure this out. You ready? It's gonna be an aha moment. I finally figured out why he uses broken, flawed people. You ready? That's all he's got to choose from. There ain't nobody else. God's grace doesn't move around you. God's grace moves through you with your issues, with your weaknesses and social fam. The only thing that makes this jacked up picture and this jacked up list make sense Is who is in the center. If Jesus is not in the center of that scene and that story, there's not a chance. And I came today on this last in person gathering that we have of 2025 to tell somebody. You have to put Jesus at the center of your life. If he is not at the center, your life cannot be transformed and changed. He refuses to be on the periphery of. He must be at the center. And when he's at the center, hear me, there's no life that cannot be changed. There's no story that cannot be redeemed when you put him in the middle. I'm gonna ask every head be bowed and eyes be closed. Today I'm thankful for this Christmas list. Maybe the enemy wanted us to not do the work of looking at that list. Cause we would look at the names on that list. But I'm thankful that God put some shady, scandalous, messed up people on that list. Because that's what his grace is for. Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. You cannot see the amazingness of grace until you understand what a wretch you are. Thank God for this Christmas list. Because when Jesus is at the center, he can change everything. Hear me. I don't care what has run in your family. If you put Jesus at the center, it can stop with you. And so, with heads bowed and eyes closed, today, in this last gathering that we'll have at 2025, I want to invite somebody to put Jesus at the center. Some of you might have been coming to church for years, but if you are honest, you are at the center. You call yourself a Christian, but you are at the center of your life. When he's at the center, that means he is lower. He guides my decisions. He tells me what to do in my life. He tells me what to do in my love life. He tells me what to do with my money. When he's at the center. Everything that I have and everything that I am is here when he's at the center. Because he is Lord. He refuses to just be an extra on the set. He must be at the center. So with heads bowed and eyes closed, today, if you'd be so honest, say, hey, Pray today I need to put Jesus at the center of my life. If that's you, would you just lift up your hand high enough and long enough to where I could see it today? Thank you, Jesus. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you, God. Thank you. Anybody else? I see those hands. Anybody else? Thank you, God. I'm gonna ask you to do something Heads are still bowed, eyes still close. If you lifted up your hand, would you do me a favor? Would you just stand to your feet? Heads are bowed, eyes are closed. But I just want you to stand. Thank you, God. Yeah, yeah. All over this place today. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, God. I want you to stand because we're gonna pray a prayer in a moment. And who you were before you got up is not who you're gonna be. And hear me, it is not predicated on your works. It's not predicated on what you do or how many scriptures you read. Salvation is a gift. All you can do with the gift is receive it. You can't work for it. You can't earn it. You just gotta receive it. And it was paid for with the precious blood of Jesus, who didn't stay a baby, but lived a sinless life, died on a cross and got up from the grave. So right there as you stand, I'm gonna ask you, you to repeat after me this prayer. You say it from your heart. We're all going to say it as a family. Would you say this? Say, jesus, I need you, Lord. Thank you for being king, Lord. Thank you for loving me enough to leave heaven and come to earth and live the life that I was supposed to live. Live and die the death that I was supposed to die. You took my place. So, Jesus, I stand here today in full surrender. I give you my heart, I give you my mind. I give you my soul. I give you all of me. I'm putting you at the center, center of my life. From this moment forward, I'm walking with you in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Come on. Can we give Jesus some praise today? Oh, come on, you can do better than that today. Can we give king Jesus all the praise that he's worthy of today? Thank God. Hear me today. That right there is the most important thing that we will do today. That's what Social Dallas is about. And every single one of you that prayed that prayer, can I say welcome to the family. Welcome to the family. We want to be the church community that comes alongside you. We have team that's in the lobby that wants to meet you. We have to do one more thing today. I'm going to ask that you just honor this moment. We're going to dismiss in a moment, please. I'm going ask everybody that can to stand. If you've been a part of this journey, you know that we always end the year with a moment of giving. This is our almost home offering And I've been declaring, this is bigger than a building. This is a space and a place where lives are gonna be transformed and changed. And so many of us have been preparing at the Social Dallas, as your family, we've been preparing and praying for this moment today to give above the tithe towards this crazy, ridiculous goal that I know God can do 6 million for us to break ground. You saw it. You've seen it. Look what God did yesterday in a building that we haven't even renovated yet. We are already making an impact before we ever step into it. Why? Because we're just going to be faithful with what God has put in our hands. And so right now, our elders and our pastors are coming forward here to the front. And then we have team that's also going to be right there on those second aisles and levels. And we're asking everybody to participate in some way. If this is not your home, you can still, on that envelope that says almost home, you can write in what you are trusting and believing God to do when we step in that new building. How many got faith to believe that you're going to live to see every single thing that you write on that paper? If you've already given, I still want you to write something and come down. And that's how we're going to close today. I'm going to ask that you would just honor this moment. Whenever you're ready and you're prepared. If you need some time, you can fill that out. We're going to ask that you bring it to the front or right there on that second left. Right there. We're all participating in this today, and I cannot wait to see what God is going to do with this. Once all of it has been received, I'm going to be joined by my wife and we're going to pray over every single gift today. And then we'll have our official dismissal. But I just want you to come as the worship team leads us whenever you're ready. If you'll just come and place it here at the front. Oh, come let us adore him oh, come let us adore him Christ the Lord, Somebody give him glory. Come on. Can we give King Jesus all the glory, all the honor and all the praise? Thank you, Lord Father. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Father, for the privilege that we have to come to you and adore you, Lord, like the wise men we come and we bring all that we hold dear because we know who you are. You're worthy of it. So, Father, today we pray over every single one of these gifts. God, I thank you for the sacrifice it represents. God, I thank you that you are going to use this God for your glory. Father, I pray that there would be a harvest and an increase of souls and lives changed God, not just in this city city but around the world. Father, would you help us to continue to trust you that all the days of our lives, Lord, we would put you at the center. Let Social Dallas be a church that always puts you at the center. We love you today. We give you everything because you're worthy of it. In Jesus name, amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Are you glad you came to God's house today? As always, these altars are going to be open. If you would like personal prayer. We have all kinds of experiences out there. Santa Claus, I think there's hot cocoa, the Grinch, everybody's out there. But this is our last in person gathering for 2025. We'll be online next Sunday and the last Sunday of the year, but January and for most of 2026, y', all, this is home right here at Texas Trust Theater 9 and 1130. So in social family Christmas tradition, I'm gonna ask my family to join me on stage. My son, Robert Madhu iii, my daughter Everly, and my youngest, Remington Elaine. And we just want to say from our family to yours, merry Christmas, everybody. Come on, give God some praise. Oh, we got confetti. Come on, give somebody a high five. Tell them Merry Christmas.