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- [00:03]
A
All right. All right, man. Let's get this Christmas party started. If you have your Bibles, go to Matthew chapter one. We're gonna pick up in verse 18 as you make your way there. Man, you know I love me some Christmas. I love it. I love everything about it. I've had my tree up since the day after Halloween. That's a fact. I've been rocking Christmas music since Labor Day. That's a fact. Fact number three is that I've had more pumpkin spice lattes than anybody else in the world. That's a fact. And don't judge me. Don't judge me. They're non fat, no whip. And so you keep your judgment to yourself. Fact number four. Go Dawgs. Hey. All right. And it's not quite yet a fact, but while we're at it, let's just say Go Jags. You know, they. You know, they might have to win in scuba gear and from a boat, but we're hoping they pull it off.
- [00:56]
We are starting a new teaching series called Real Men of Christmas. We're going to be looking at the Christmas testimony today, the birth of Christ, primarily through the lens of his earthly father, Joseph. Before we dive into that, there is one small beef that I have with modern Christmas tradition. And it's just a bone I would like to pick. Since I have the microphone, I'm taking the liberty. And it has got to do with this thing, this little thing called Elf on a Shelf. Whoever invented this, God bless you. I'm sure it was from Good Intentions. Six days would have been fine, but we're supposed to do this for 24 days, right? That's like 23 days longer than anybody ever kept a New Year's resolution. And so it's just too much. I can't take it. It's out there. Now. Matthew, chapter one, verse 18. Here we go. Now, the birth of Jesus Christ to took place in this way. You and I, we're gonna go through our life and we're gonna ask and answer a lot of questions. And we all know that both the questions we ask and answers that we bring, they don't all weigh the same in our life. They don't have the same kind of significance. Like, for example, what am I gonna have for dinner? And who am I going to marry? These have different implications and they weigh differently on the direction of. And there is one question that is the most significant question that will ever be asked and answered by anyone and everyone. It has more weight. It has more bearing on our life and on the eternal trajectory. Of our life than any other question in the world. The most important question in the history of the world is who is Jesus Christ of Nazareth? This is the most important question that could ever be asked and will be answered now. It is an undeniable fact that Jesus Christ of Nazareth was born. So when you go to Grandma Edna's Christmas party and your cousin who claims to be an agnostic or an atheist gets about 10 white claws too deep into the conversation and they begin to question the historicity or the credibility of Christianity. I just want to give you a few talking points. Number one, there was a man named Tacitus. He is a Roman historian in the first century and he is hostile toward Christians. He is not a Jesus follower. He hates Christians. And in his writings he writes about Jesus Christ of Nazareth who was crucified under Pontius Pilate during the reign of Tiberius. All confirming biblical narrative facts. Number two, first century Josephus, a Jewish historian, he writes about Jesus Christ of Nazareth being a wise teacher. He did remarkable deeds, also known as miracles and he was crucified on a Roman cross under Pontius Pilate. Number three, Pliny the Younger. He was a governor over hundreds of thousands of people in the Roman Empire. And he writes one generation after Jesus ascended back to the right hand of the Father. One generation later in his writings he writes that there are thousands of Christians gathering all over the Roman Empire worshiping this man named Jesus Christ in of Nazareth as God. And then the Babylonian Talmud. This is a Jewish writing written by non Jesus following Jews. And in their writing they write about a Jewish rabbi who was killed by Jews on the eve of Passover. These are all hostile to Christian historical credible testimonies of the existence of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Not to mention the four gospels that we have in the New Testament, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, that are four eyewitness accounts of this man's life, of this man's miracles, of this man's teachings and ultimately of this man's death and resurrection. The most important question in the world is who is Jesus Christ of Nazareth? Because he is a fact. He's a fact.
- [04:50]
So he's not just somebody, he is a historical credible fact. Who is Jesus Christ of Nazareth? Now the thing about Jesus is that his goal was not to be famous. Even though he is, he's the most famous person in the history of the world. His goal was not to be famous. Jesus goal was to save sinners. It was to save sinners and to make a way for people to be in right relationship with God.
- [05:20]
Continuing in verse 18 when Jesus mother Mary had been betrothed to, to Jesus before they came together. Now, betrothal is the first part of a two part practice or ritual in the Jewish marriage ceremony. Betrothal is kind of like the way we do engagement in our culture, but it's different primarily in this, that betrothal was a legally binding contract signed between the man and the woman and they legally became married. But they lived apart for one year and they didn't consummate the marriage or have, have sex because the man, in order to fully receive the woman, he had to go and prepare a place for her. He had to go and build a home and build a future, and he had to be ready to receive this woman. And so this year of being married legally but waiting to constipate the marriage was known as betrothal. They are contractually legally obligated to one another. The man's responsibility was to go and build into their future, and the woman's responsibility was to keep herself pure until they were to come together under one house. This usually happened around the time that a girl was about 14 years old. And an interesting detail about the betrothal is that the idea of this design was simply this, that a man had to earn the right to be trusted with the protection and provision of a woman and to receive a woman in this way. And he had to go and prove that he was willing to make his life about her future and the future of their family. And after that year was done, then he could receive his wife. These marriages were primarily arranged by the parents. And I have to be honest, as a dad to teenage girls, I don't think this is the worst idea I ever heard. I just got to be honest with you. I mean, it's amazing. A lot of times in life we end up picking the person that we're going to marry in the dumbest years of our life. But that's. Anyway, that's a whole nother thing. I don't have time.
- [07:12]
The man would give her a token, a pledge, a ring, and then they would enter into the betrothal process. The only way to break betrothal was to give a legal divorce certificate. It was to take it to a legal process. That was the only way to break betrothal. Now, if you take Matthew chapter one, which we're in, and Luke, chapter one, and you lay them over the top of one another, what it seems like to me is that Joseph found out that Mary was pregnant three months after Mary found out, Mary finds out, she goes to her cousins Elizabeth's house. And then three months later, it seems that she comes back and this is where we pick up. And so I don't know if she has a baby bump. I don't know exactly how the conversation goes, but I know this for sure. When Joseph found out that Mary was pregnant, he was surprised by it. He was surprised by it. Now, when I found out that my wife was pregnant with our first child, it was surprising, right? And I was. The way it happened was I was in the shower and I was in there washing my hair and I was getting shampoo into my eyes. And you're like, I don't think you were bald, man. And I used to have hair. So back up, you know? And so I'm trying to get the shampoo out of my eyes and around the shower curtain comes the stick. It's just like a hand with a stick in it. And on the other side of the shower curtain. And so I grab this thing and I kind of look at it and I don't know, I'm like, I don't know what one line means and two lines mean. I don't know what any of this means. But I just thought to myself, man, I'm glad I'm in the shower because I think she just peed on this thing. And so that's how I found out we were pregnant with our first. The second I found out, it was a gift bag on a counter. There was no tissue in it. There was nothing pretty about it. It was just a solid color bag on a counter with a pee stick in it. And that's what it was with a letter that just said, you're welcome. And that's how I found out about the. It didn't have a letter, but it was in a bag.
- [09:02]
Both times I found out about my kids, it was surprising. It was surprising because this is surprising information. However, it wasn't that surprising because we were trying to have kids, okay? Joseph and Mary weren't trying to have kids. This guy is surprised by the information. Here's the thing. The message of Jesus Christ is a surprising message. It is a surprising message. And the reason that it's surprising is because everything about it is an absolute miracle. It is a miracle from beginning to end. We're going to get there. So Joseph finds out this surprising message, verse 19. And her husband Joseph. Now Joseph is a pretty famous guy. If you were to survey what are the 10 most famous men from the biblical accounts, I think Joseph would make the top 10. The fascinating thing about Joseph is there's Actually, no recorded words of his in Scripture. He doesn't say there's no words of his recorded in scripture. But he's a pretty famous guy. And if I'm honest, I think he gets the short end of the stick in regards to how we celebrate the Christmas tradition. There's no songs about Joseph. There's no desserts named after Joseph. What's that about? This guy had significant influence. This guy steps up in a big way. He doesn't get any songs. No, man. He's up in heaven right now. And I think every time they sing Mary did, you'd know. He's like, oh, boy, she knew.
- [10:22]
You know what I mean? Like, I don't think he's upset about it, but I think he gets the short end. Here's the thing. Joseph may not have any songs written about him, but recognition is not the goal of godliness. Faithfulness is. Faithfulness is. And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly.
- [10:49]
Joseph being a just man. What does this mean? It means that Joseph was a man of character. And history gives testimony to it. He was a man of character. Now, there's some low hanging fruit here, right out of the context of the text. Low hanging fruit. In regards to being a man of character, number one, honorable people do not disparage their spouse. Nothing healthy was ever built on sarcasm or humor at someone else's expense. Character is not conditional on other people's behavior. You're going to want to write that down. Character is not conditional on other people's behavior. And you say, hold on, Pastor, Mary didn't do anything wrong. You're absolutely right. Mary didn't do anything wrong. But at this point in the testimony, with the information that Joseph had, he had some choices. Choice number one was to shame her publicly. He totally could have done it and would have been justified. He in it according to the culture of the time. Choice number two, he could have gone as far as to have her stoned. He could have had her stoned. Choice number three, he could have disparaged her and her entire family publicly and behind her back. But he didn't do any of those things. Why? Because Joseph is a just man. He's a man of character. Now, I've done a lot of funerals in my time as a pastor, but none stick with me like the first one that I did. And I think I've shared this with you before, but at the church that I was serving at at the time, a family that marginally attended reached out, and they wanted somebody to come and help officiate a funeral. And so I was happy to do it. And so I show up at the funeral home, and I go into this parlor room, and I see an open casket. And standing in front of the open casket is the son. And the deceased is probably in his late 80s. And. And I could tell that he was a World War II vet from some of the arrangements. And I'm talking to the son of the deceased, and I'm like, hey, do you. Is there anything specific you want me to share about your dad? Is there anything you want me to know before I share a few encouraging words? And he just looked back at me and he said. He goes, you know what you see laying right there? That's the meanest son of a bad word that's ever walked on this planet. Let's just get this over with. I broke out in a cold sweat. I could just feel sweat running down my back. I was like, oh, my goodness. And I go and I read Psalm 23 and some verses out of Ecclesiastes, and I try to share the good news of Jesus with this family. And as soon as I say amen, one of the daughters leans up and she looks across at her brother and she goes, hey, do we know who's getting what yet?
- [13:19]
That, my friends, is a tragedy. It's an absolute tragedy. Stephen Covey writes in his book 7 Habits of Highly Successful People, that if you want to be successful in this life, and I would contend to you, I would contend to you that success is not about being good, raise your bar and make it about being godly.
- [13:42]
The Seven Habits of Highly Successful People. One of those is start with the end in mind. What do I want history to give testimony of me as one day I have every intention to no longer be walking around on this earth and to be this body being a casket with my resurrected body, being with Jesus Christ in glory. That is the plan that I have for my life. I'm into it. And when that day comes, I want nothing more than for my two daughters to be standing at my coffin saying, I love Jesus more because that man was my dad. And if anybody else says it, praise God. But I want my life to be about one thing, and I want it to be about one person. And it ain't me, because I'm not the most important, important person that ever lived. I wanted to be about Jesus Christ. Joseph was a man of character. Character is not conditional in other people's behavior. There are five commitments that people make if they Want to live and build a life of credible character. These are five commitments you make if you want to live and build a life of credible character. Number one is that you're committed to integrity. This is the honesty of the inner life. This is about being honest on the inside. Jesus says that we are to love God with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength. That's how he explained when he says heart, he means habits. Our behaviors reveal what we love far more than what we say. He says with our soul, with our wants and our desires, that we want those things to reflect the kingdom in the heart of God. He says with our mind that we control and we limit the content coming into our minds. We don't just give our minds to anything and everything because we know what we think about, we will care about and what we care about, we will pursue. And then he says to love God with our strength, with our vocational energies, that we want all of our life lived on mission. And there's two ways to live this life. There's kind of the American's prescription, which is you have your work life and you have your family life and you have your faith or your church life and you have your financial life and you have your hobbies and that ultimately you're just trying to keep these things separate and manage them individual to themselves. That's one prescription. But the Bible's prescription is a life of integrity, which means a life that is in integrated. It is integrated. You don't have all these different pockets of your life, you just have one life. And the question that you and I have to answer is, is everything about my life about Jesus Christ that is a life of integrity. He's saying, am I committed to the integrity? So a credible character person is committed to integrity. Number two is committed to consistency. These are trustworthy patterns. You see my wife and my children, they don't need me to be perfect. They actually need me to recognize how imperfect I am and own that they don't need me to be perfect. But what they do need me to do is to be emotionally and spiritually predictable. Inconsistency in speech and behavior is a character issue. Throwing up at the mouth, a dagger said, an anger, a passive aggressive move or a moment. These are all character breaches. And we all know that relationships die by a death of a thousand cuts. Number three, a commitment to honesty. This is truth without spin. What is the simplest, most non emotional version of the truth? Not the truth as I see it, but the truth. Do I have the ability to discern the difference between what I prefer and what is right or wrong. Let me give you an example, really common one, at least in my life. My wife, she prefers me to load the dishwasher from the back. That's what she prefers. And I love my wife and I know my wife's listening right now. So, babe, I love you so much. You're the best and I'm happy because I love you to try my best to remember to load the dishwasher from the back, okay? But this is not an issue of right and wrong. And for her to make this an issue of right and wrong would be to be petty and to be intellectually dishonest. Credible character people have a commitment to the truth without spin, without it getting wrapped around the axle of our emotions. Number four, humility. A posture of dependence and teachability. The best definition of humility I've ever heard is not thinking less of yourself, but thinking of yourself less. I actually think that this is the highest form of freedom that heaven will ever afford us. That we in heaven will not live at all for one second thinking about ourselves first or thinking about ourselves at all. And this is true freedom. Can you imagine living your life not processing everything through the filter of you? This is freedom. This is freedom. Humility. Two questions that humility for humility checks. Number one is when's the last time you said I'm sorry, Not I'm sorry that you feel this way, but I am sorry. And number two is when people that you love are talking, do you listen to hear or do you just listen to respond? These are humility questions. And number five, a person of credible character lives a life committed to responsibility. This is owning the weight of your life. To live out your God given purpose, you have to accept the responsibility for your actions, for your words, and for other people. This is a life of credible character. Joseph was a character man. He was a just man. Verse 20. But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream saying, joseph, son of David. It says, Joseph considered these things. Listen, in order to make good godly decisions in your life, you have to slow down and give God room to speak. You have to slow down and give God room to speak. Slow down. Did you know that busy and hurry are soul words? Busy is a soul word, hurry is a soul condition. And somehow busy became an identity in our world. You ever thought about that? It's like, how are you doing today? Whew man, just so busy. Busy, busy, busy, busy, busy, busy, busy. It's like it's A merit badge of worth that we stamp on our life. And let me ask you this question. Have you ever talked to somebody and they told you how busy they are and you admire them more?
- [19:36]
Have you ever been around somebody that's just overwhelmed with hurry and you'd be like, I love them so much more because they're so hurried.
- [19:44]
It's just not the way it works, right? Because love and hurry are incompatible. Love and hurry are incompatible. Love, in order for it to grow, needs time, and time is the one thing that hurried people never seem to have.
- [19:56]
Love and hurry are incompatible. Maybe that's the word you need to hear. This Christmas season is slow down and give God room to speak. This is a notoriously busy season, and maybe you're facing a big life decision, right? Maybe you've been dating for a while and it's time, bro, for you to put a ring on it. Slow down and give God room to speak. Maybe it's your family stepping into a new season of having kids. Praise God for it. Slow down. Give God room to speak. Maybe it's work. The place where you went to work that you loved for years. The culture's changed, the people have changed, the direction's changed, and it's weighing heavy on you because you just don't feel aligned with the mission. Slow down and give God room to speak. Good godly decisions are made when we slow down and give God room. The angel says these words to Joseph. He says, do not fear. Do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. Now, I think he's saying do not fear for a couple of reasons. Number one, it's because I think angels are a little scary. I gotta be honest. I've read the New Testament, I've read the Old Testament. Angels usually show up. They're big, they have wings, they have swords, they do this fire thing. It's. It's probably a little scary. I gotta be honest. So, number one, he's saying, relax. Number two, he just got told by an angel, you are actually going to all the way marry. Mary, Mary, Mary. Yeah, you do. You come up here and do this, okay?
- [21:25]
You're about to get married. Here's the thing about marriage. It's serious, man. There's a soul awakening. There's a responsibility awakening. That happens when we get married. We are committing ourselves to and for somebody else. And my wife and I, we've got these words that we've learned to use to explain the seasons of life that we live in. And there are times in our marriage where busy and hurry sneak up and sneak in, right? Nobody knows the soul condition of hurry better than me. For years, when our family would go on vacation together, I would spend the first two or three days of vacation physically sick because I was pushing myself so hard and going and going and going and going. When I actually had time to rest, my body physiologically just didn't know what to do. And this happened for years. For years. So nobody knows the soul condition of hurry quite like I do. My wife and I, we learned how to work our way through this. And we've realized that life is lived in one of two seasons. Sometimes we live our life shoulder to shoulder. We're not against each other, but we're just going and going and going and going and going and going and going and going and going. And sometimes that's just the hand that life deals you, deals you. And you gotta lock arms and you gotta go. However, in order for love to grow, sometimes we have to slow down and get out of shoulder to shoulder and get into face to face. Face and face to face only happens over time and on purpose. The angel says do not fear. He's about to get married. He's also about to have a baby. Now this is normal scary. I've had it happen to me twice. It's a wild process having a child. However, think if you were trusted with the responsibility to raise the Messiah who was coming to save the world from their sins.
- [23:02]
Yeah, he's a little afraid. Here's the thing. God's asks are not always easy, but the yes is always worth it. God's asks are not always easy, but the yes is always worth it. The angel says, do not fear. Why? Why can we stand with so much confidence as God's people? Why can we receive the command which is more commanded than anything else in the Bible? Do not be afraid. Do not fear. How can we be strong and and courageous over and over and over again? How and why can we do this? Because if God be for us, who can be against us? What weapon could the enemy possibly fashion and hurl at us that could prosper? If we stand in the name of Jesus, and make no mistake about it, we do not stand on our own strength. We do not stand on our own testimony. We do not stand on our own successes. We do not stand on our own attaboys or our own worth. We stand on the foot, firm, strong foundation of the name of Jesus Christ. Good God Almighty. We stand in his name. He is our shield. He is our Strength. He is our rock. We stand in confidence because we stand on the name of the Lord God. We stand on the name of the Lord God. If he be for us, then who can be against us? Verse 21. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins. I'm going to come back to this. All that took place. All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel, which means God with us. The whole of the Bible can be summed up in these three words, God with us. You remember a minute ago I said that the entire testimony of Jesus Christ is miracle from beginning to end. And it absolutely is. It's a miracle in three parts. Part number one is God. Part number two is with. And part number three is us. Miracle number one. God. When I say God, when the Bible says God, what it means is Yahweh. It means the infinite Creator, God, who is divine, supreme sovereign. He is the ruler on high. He is the eternal judge of everything and everyone. He was never created. Eternally existing before time and long after time ends. He is all sustaining, all powerful, all knowing, all loving. He is reality in its purest form. And he exists in three persons. God the Father, God the Son, who is Jesus Christ, and God the Holy Spirit. All God, all distinct, all one, and God the Son, who is Jesus Christ came to this earth as a human, as a baby. And you would say that's a little. That sounds. That's a little surprising. Is that a surprising message? You bet it is. 100% that God the Son came to this earth in human form. Why did he do this? Well, the angel tells us, is to save his people from their sins. Another surprising part of the message of Jesus Christ is that you and I are sinners. And that the Bible says that. That sin comes inherent with consequence, and that that consequence is what the Bible calls separation. What sin does is it creates a division between us and God, between God and his people. You see, God is holy and just and righteous and pure. And he can't and won't just accept what is defiled, sinful or unclean. And we of our own merits cannot clean ourselves up. And in this case, good enough is just not good enough. There is a therapeutic morality that gets believed in or prescribed and received all over our country all the time. And ultimately it teaches that. And some have argued that all you really need to do in order to be made right with God and to spend eternity with him is to be a good moral person, that that's all that's needed. That if you just ascribe to some good moral teachings and you keep some good moral standard, and I guess you set a really low bar and be like, well, I'm better than Hitler, so I must not be that bad. Because the only way to ascribe to that kind of ideology is to say that morality is relative and that good is subjective. And so there has to be a moving definition of good in order for you to ascribe to that ideology. And if you've ever led anything, if you've led yourself, if you've led on a team, if you've led at work, if you've been trusted with other people, if you've led your family, you know that good leadership always starts with clarity. That the best leaders are the people who can bring the most clarity the fastest. And God is incredibly clear because it would be unkind of God in order for him to have a moving target of good. And it would be unjust of God to give out free passes to some and not to others based on some sliding scale of relativity. This is not the way that he is, because God is kind and he is just. That's why we're glad that He. He is God and He's incredibly clear. And so he came to do for us what we could not do for ourselves. And he was born of a virgin. Now you say, why is that necessary for God the Son Jesus to come and be born as a virgin? Well, because sin has a just and due penalty. The Bible says that for the wages of sin is death or separation. But the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. That sin has a just and due penalty. It earns something and it gets paid. And what it gets paid with is separation from God. And the Bible goes on to say that without the shedding of blood, there can be no forgiveness of sins. You see, the way that God has designed the very clear system of kindness and justice is that in order for unclean things to be made acceptable and to be covered in and made clean is that they have to be covered with the blood of something that's clean. This is what the entire Old Testament sacrificial system is about, that unclean things have to be covered with the blood of something clean. Here comes Jesus of Nazareth, God the Son. He came born to a virgin because he had to be born of a clean bloodline. What does that mean? Well, God didn't Pick someone born of man and woman and then make them clean. No. God came himself as the only one who is both perfectly clean in desire and in behavior. What that means is that Jesus never sinned and he never wanted to. He is completely perfect. He is completely pure. And that makes him the completely, perfectly pure, acceptable sacrifice to cover and pay the full, just due penalty for sin. Miracle number one. God, he, the miracle came in human form in Jesus to save sinners from the separation our sin has created. And he did it. Praise God. He did it on the cross and through the resurrection. Jesus paid the weight of sin. He looked death in the face and he walked out of that tomb. And he said, you are now forever defeated. And he is now the unrivaled King of kings and Lord of Lords. And he has the King keys to eternal life. And he's the only one who can give them out. Jesus Christ is a miracle. God the Son. Miracle number one is God. Miracle number two with. Miracle number two with. He didn't stop there. He didn't stop just paying the penalty of sin. He continued because he wants to be with us. And maybe this is the word you need to hear this Christmas, is that God loves you. He loves you and he wants to be with. With us. God with us. You see, a relationship with God through Jesus Christ is not about information. It's about transformation. It's about love. It's an absolute miracle. The most important thing about you is that the God of the universe loves you and he came to get you on a rescue mission. The anthem of grace across the entire Bible is God saying, I will be your God and you will be my. And you may be sitting there thinking, me, pastor, I've done some stuff, man. I got some stuff I'm not proud of. I may be too far gone. I may have done too many things for God's love to get to me. I'm not sure that God would want to be with me. You fine, Joseph, fine. But me. And I will just say this to you if you're there, and you would think you're too far gone. I just want you to know you are in a perfect position to get hammered by the great of God. That you are in a perfect position to be overwhelmed with his love for you. As a pastor, it does not concern me. It doesn't keep me up at night meeting people and knowing people who think they're too far gone. The people that I worry about the most are the ones that think they're not that bad. So if you think you're too far gone. Listen, I just want you to know you're in a perfect position to receive the grace of God. Let me just show you this real quick. You think your junk's jacked up? Let me just show you some things about Joseph's family. You think your Christmas parties are awkward? Try being in Joseph's family. Think about this. God, the son who has eternally existed, picked Joseph to be with him, to be raised by him because he wanted to be near him. He could have picked anybody. He picked him in the same way he picked you and me to be a part of his family. This is what Joseph's jacked up family tree looks like. You ready? Let's just kick it back to Abraham. Abraham. If you read the story of Abraham, immediately you just start going, oh boy, oh boy. Abraham, at one point, he prostitutes his wife out to save his own behind. And then at another point, he sleeps with his wife's servant and gets her pregnant. And then when his wife eventually gets pregnant, he kicks the servant and the son born out of this choice. Abraham abdicating his responsibilities as a. As a father and owning the responsibility of his life. The world still feels the ripple effects of this decision today. So oh boy is right. Number two is Jacob. Bro's a liar. He just lies. His name actually means liar, right? Anybody have those people in your family where it's like, can you just not tell the truth? Like, is it. He's a liar. Judah. You start reading the story of Judah and you're immediately like, nope, nope, nope, nope. Can't do it. Can't do it. This guy ruins his daughter in law's life after she had already been through the wringer. And then somehow he thinks she's a prostitute and he sleeps with her and it's a whole disaster. And his daughter in law, her name's Tamar. And when you read this testimony, you're like, tamar, you did what you did, huh? She gets mad at her father in law and so she dresses up like a prostitute and sleeps with him to get her own personal sense justice. I mean, this stuff's just jacked up. How about Rahab? Her story's fascinating. She was a prostitute in the city of Jericho before Joshua and the armies of Israel made the walls come tumbling down. And she's there hiding out the spies. And somehow, for good reason, she tells a lie. And then she gets blessed for it and becomes Jesus. Like great, great, great grandma or something. I mean, what? I don't. Okay, right? And then David, we know. King David, King David. This guy is crushing it for, like, four generations. He has a few bumpy road at the beginning. Saul's trying to kill him and all that. But then he becomes the king of Israel, and he's just crushing it. And things are going so good and so good and so good and so good. And then all of a sudden, David gets to a season of life where he's got some time and some money. And what's more dangerous than a man that's got time and money?
- [34:22]
David walks out on the ledge and he sees Bathsheba, and he commits adultery with Bathsheba. And then he has her husband murdered. And then he lies about it, and he torches the future generations of his family in the single act. And then he has a son named Solomon. And what Solomon watched his dad struggle with Solomon turned into a sport. He did. He was an absolute Womanizer. He had 700 wives and 300 concubines. You do what you want with that information, but a thousand, really. I mean, this is serious. Most of which were forbidden. And. And Solomon began to worship idols because of the woman. The women that he was womanized, the women that he was chasing after. Why? Because what you think about, you will care about, and what you care about, you will pursue. And then Rehoboam comes along. He don't listen to nobody. Anybody got somebody in their family with a little bit of a narcissistic edge that just doesn't seem to have ears to hear. He just don't listen. And he divided the entire kingdom of Israel. And then Joram comes along, and this is the guy that you don't want to have anything to do with because he's absolutely no fun. He killed all his brothers just because he didn't want any competition. He didn't ever want to lose at chess, so he just killed his brothers. That's ultimately what happened with Joe Ram. You ever meet a man named Ahaz? You should run for your life, because he is. Stranger danger. Stranger danger. Sacrifices his own kid to a God named Moloch. Okay, Manasseh. Manasseh gets deep into the demonic arts and into witchcraft. Deep into it. Sheds innocent blood. Worshiping as a witch. This is some dark stuff. Jeconiah ends up being a wicked king that leads Israel into and underneath a curse. Here's what I'd say to Jeconiah. Thanks for nothing. Thanks for nothing. All right, here's the point. Here's where I'm going. It's one thing to look at his family and be like, oh, but let me just ask you you got any things over your shoulder in your past were some old boy moments.
- [36:17]
You got anything in any times in your life where you could have told the truth and you just didn't? Whether it's by commission or omission, you just didn't. And then, you know how it goes. Once you tell one, you just kind of keep sticking with it and then narratives form and somehow we start believing our own lives. That's a whole nother sermon. Ever had those moments where you look back over your head? If you could talk to yourself, you'd just be like, no, no, don't do it. Stop right now. Any come on, mans. Like, come on, man, you knew better. You knew where that road was gonna lead. You knew that direction is determined by your destination is determined by your direction, not by your intention. If you walk down this road, you know where it's gonna go. Come on, man, stop. Have you ever had any of that in your past? Here's what I'm getting at. It was into this mess that Jesus Christ, God the son Jesus came to, came to landed invasion to save people from their sins. Here's what I'm saying to you. Where sin runs deep, grace runs deeper.
- [37:20]
You do not have a mess that Jesus Christ can't get into and fix. There is no stronghold, there is no burden of sin, there is no bondage of sin that the blood of Jesus cannot set people free from. And I know some of you are first first generation Christians and that there have been things in your generational history, addictions and habits and hangups. And you by the blood of Jesus, have been set free. And I praise God on your behalf for the chains of bondage that are on the floor because of the finished work of Jesus Christ in your life. Jesus can break anything. He can come into any mess and he can fix any broken thing you got. How does he do this? Well, he does it by faith. You see, when the Bible talks about faith, it's. It's not saying that I believe that. It's saying that I believe in. The best word we have for it in English is trusting. The invitation that Jesus Christ of Nazareth gave when he walked the earth was, follow me. Trust me and follow me. You go where I go. You do what I do. You say what I say follow me. This is actually a shocking invitation. And it's not only this that Jesus had many words that were shocking. CS Lewis said some version of Jesus is either God and our only hope in life and death, or he is a liar and a lunatic. Those are the only two Choices he gives. We're going back to the beginning. Who is Jesus Christ of Nazareth? Who do you say that he is? This is who Jesus says that he is. These are some shocking claims from Jesus. Number one. In John, chapter 14, verse 6, Jesus says, I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. He says, I am the only way to get back into right relationship with God. I am the ultimate truth and I am the only one who can give eternal Life. John, chapter 10, verses 7 through 9. He says, I am the door. Whoever enters into it will be saved. I am the single entry point into the kingdom of God. John, chapter 8, verse 58. This is part of what got him killed when he walked on the earth. He said before Abraham was, I am. He claims the divine name, saying, I am God. John, chapter five. It says, the Son gives life to whom he will. He decides he is the one who can give out eternal life. He holds the Future. John Chapter 5 goes on to say that the Father has given all judgment to the Son. He will alone sit in judgment over everything created on earth and in heaven. John, chapter 8, verse 24. He says, Unless you believe in me, you will die in your sins. John chapter 10. Jesus said, Nobody takes my life from me. I have the authority to lay it down and to take it back up again. In Matthew chapter 28, Jesus Christ says, I have all authority on heaven and earth has been given exclusively to me. Is what Jesus says, that he is all the power and all the authority. Who is Jesus Christ of Nazareth? We believe and we receive and we trust him by faith. Miracle one is God. Miracle two is is with. This is why Jesus came, was to save us. Because he's the only one who could do it. And miracle number three is us. Who is the us? It doesn't say God with all, it says God with us. Who is the us? Remember how we started the most important question? The us is anyone who trusts in Jesus Christ by surrendering their life to him. Have you surrendered your life to the lordship of Jesus Christ? Surrendered your life to the authority, to the truth and to the love of Jesus Christ. Have you trusted him for the forgiveness of your sins and for the salvation of your life.
- [40:57]
Now and forevermore? Verse 24 it says this and then we'll close. But when Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him. He took his wife, but he knew her not until she had given birth to a son. And he called his name Jesus. Joseph received a divine revelation and then he Made his entire life about Jesus. From that point on, the angel spoke to him. And maybe today God is opening up the eyes of your heart. He's opening up the eyes of your mind to the right biblically faithful life giving answer to the question, who is Jesus Christ of Nazareth?
- [41:38]
In Romans, chapter 10, verses 9 and 10, it says this. It says that if you believe in your heart that Jesus is Lord, if you believe in your heart that Jesus is God and that he raised from the dead, and you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, then you will be saved. It doesn't say that he shall save you. It doesn't say that he'll consider saving you. It says that you will be saved. And the way we explain this here at 11:22 is that if you want to surrender your life to the lordship of Jesus Christ, you want to follow him, you want to trust him as the person that he says he is, I want to be about him. I believe as far as I'm able and can understand it, I believe in Jesus Christ. There's three things we would encourage you to do. One is to admit that you're a sinner. I can't fix myself. I can't clean myself up. Good enough's not good enough. And even if it was, I ain't got what it takes. I. I need somebody to do for me what I cannot do for myself. And I believe that Jesus Christ has done it. I admit that I'm a sinner. And I believe is the second part. I believe that he is who he says he is and that he did what the Bible says He did. And that somehow when he died on that cross and when he resurrected from that tomb, somehow I believe that that counted for me. And I want to confess. I want to confess him as the Lord of my life. I want to be about his business, surrender my life to his authority and to live under his love. If you're here and you want to admit, believe and confess, I would invite you to do that at all of our campuses. If you would bow your head and close your eyes.
- [43:01]
And if you'd hear and if you're here and you would say for the first time, I want to trust Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of my sins and I want to surrender my life to His Lordship. I would just invite you to raise your hand as a confession of faith. I want to trust in Jesus and I confess that I want to follow him for the rest of my days. I believe somehow it counted for me. And I want my life to be about Him. Hold it up as a confession of faith. Father, we love you and we thank you. I thank you for my brothers and sisters who are believing and receiving your love for the first time. I thank you for the message of the gospel. I thank you for the good news of Jesus. I thank you, Jesus, that you came on a rescue mission for us and you came into this mess and that you fixed broken things. You did it then and you're still doing it today. We thank you that you have. You have revealed to us the divine revelation of grace. We thank you that you've called us into a life of purpose and character and you've given us everything we need to live a life in godliness. I pray that as we respond, we would do it authentically, that we would do it from a place of commitment and worship and honor. Lord, we pray that we would be able to slow down in this moment and hear from you. Please speak. It is your voice we need to hear. In Jesus name we pray. And all God's people said, Amen. Would you stand with me wherever you are? We're going to respond. We're going to respond like we always do. We're going to sing. We're going to sing true words about Jesus. We're going to bring our first and best through tithes and offerings. And you can do that on your app and you can do that in giving boxes all around the room. And we're going to pray. Our altars are open. We would invite you to come and take this opportunity to slow down and hear from God because he wants to speak to you. Let's respond to the good news of the gospel together.