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December 14, 2025 · 47 min · Patria Sermons
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Adam Mesa is Lead Pastor of Patria Church and speaks to a congregation of 12,000 about how the gospel of Jesus Christ brings purpose to every life. Patria
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0:01 Amen. Well, it's good to see everybody today. We're spoiled because during service today, we had pastor Fuego and Tiffany with us, and, man, they they've already done an0:12 incredible job. So thankful for them being hanging out with us this weekend because we got all our other campuses joining right now. And so, can you do me a favor? Can we welcome Alameda, Pomona?0:24 I've already heard that there's people watching us in Newport already. I heard there's people watching us in Corona already. And I was thinking about it earlier. I mean, we got San Bernardino County0:36 represented right here. We got LA County represented with Pomona. We got Alameda County represented with Alameda. We got Riverside County represented with Corona. We got Orange County represented0:47 with Newport. And I chat GPTed it earlier. There's 58 counties in California. So, who knows? Who knows? We got like, you know, we got 52 to go or0:59 whatever that math is. But, no, I'm just kidding. But, it's so good to see everybody and have all of our campuses joining us this weekend here at Patriot as we get ready. That really, you know, the whole month is us1:11 preparing for this Christmas season. But as we go into next Sunday, you know, next Sunday is gonna begin our Christmas weekend and then our Christmas services. And you may have heard me say it last week, but pastor Diego1:23 has said this for over 30 years. He said, don't forget during the Christmas season, it's not your birthday we're celebrating. Okay? So, make sure you put it in your calendar what services you're coming to,1:34 maybe who you're inviting to. There's 2 seasons that a lot of people will say yes to come to church. It's Easter and Christmas because their mind is there everywhere that they go. I just saw something on1:46 TikTok. A lady was like, I'm an atheist, but here comes all my favorite Jesus songs. And, she was dancing to like a birth of Jesus song, you know. So, it's in this season that God is doing a work1:58 because, especially in our regions, you know, everybody is aware about what this season is about. And, it's our call as believers to make sure that they know what is the reason for the season, and that's Jesus' birth.2:10 And so, we're excited about this season of what God's gonna be doing in the house. If you all got your Bible, or maybe you got a Bible app or anything like that, wherever you're at, I'm gonna make you all look really2:21 good today because you're gonna go to the first book, the first chapter in the New Testament. Okay? Book of Matthew. Okay? So, if it's your first time here, there's nothing wrong if you've got your first physical Bible2:33 to go to a little thing called the table of contents at the beginning. Find out what page is your page to go to Matthew chapter 1, but this is the first chapter to the first book of the New2:44 Testament. The New Testament begins with the gospels. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. The gospels are all about Jesus. That's what Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. The rest of the New Testament2:56 is all about explaining our relationship with Jesus and how we continue to worship him on this planet together. And I love this chapter that we're gonna read today because it's 1 of3:08 my most favorite chapters in all of the Bible. But most of the time, when a person gets their Bible and they say to themselves, I'm gonna start reading my Bible and I wanna start in the New Testament. A3:20 lot of times, will open up to the New Testament. They'll turn to the book of Matthew. And if you don't know, the book of Matthew was written to a Jewish audience. And so, there's a lot of Jewish religion and innuendos in3:31 it and explanation in it. And majority of us in this room across all our campuses, I'm sure none of us are Jewish, were taught Jewish things, or anything like that. And so, what most people do is they open up to the book3:42 of Matthew, they go to chapter 1, and for 17 verses, they see a list of people's names. And then what most people do is they go, let's start at chapter 2. That3:54 doesn't seem like that's very important. Look at all these people's names. These are, you know, Jesus' aunts, uncles, cousins, grandma, grandpa, great great Okay. We get it. Let's move on. But I don't know about you,4:06 but if through God's sovereignty giving us the word of God, John chapter 1 says, the word became flesh and dwelt among us, and that now God gives us the word of God so that we can encounter Jesus4:18 any day of the week. I don't know about you, but if the New Testament opened in the first chapter with a list of names, I think to myself, maybe I should learn a little bit about those names. There's4:30 probably something important happening. If this is You know, anytime you open up a movie, have you ever missed the first 10 minutes of a movie and you thought to yourself, I don't know the This movie makes no sense.4:41 Because the first 10 minutes set you up for the next hour and a half, hour and 45 minutes. And, a lot of times when we skip Matthew chapter 1, you're skipping the first 10 minutes4:54 of the New Testament. And, these 10 minutes will radically change your life when you understand what Matthew is trying to say, and what the spirit of God is trying to say through5:05 Matthew when he wrote this book. And so, want you to do me a favor. Wherever you're at, whether you're in Alameda, Pomona, or Rancho, I want you to nudge someone next to you, and I want you to say this. Today's word5:16 Today's word. Is gonna talk to you Is gonna talk to you. Somewhere. Somewhere. Okay? Somewhere. Now, I'd say it's all gonna talk to you, but I won't offend anyone. Okay? Because you'll see why in a second5:28 I'm not gonna say that everything gonna talk to y'all. But something somewhere is going to talk to you. And I'd love to read all 17 verses, but I'd end up just listing a bunch of names. And I know half of the room5:40 probably has ADHD like me, and so I'm not gonna do that. But I'm gonna highlight about 6 or 7 of these verses today. And so, I'm gonna highlight verses 1 to 6, and then verses 16 to 17. I5:51 encourage you on your own time, if you like homework, just read all of the 17 verses just to get an idea of all the names. But, there's something really that's trying to happen. So, as you have your Bible open, or maybe6:02 you have it in your phone, I have it up on the screen for us right here. If you're ready, wherever you're at, would you stand for a moment for the honor of reading God's word? Here's what I want us to see today in God's6:13 word today. Here's what Matthew chapter 1 verse 1 starts with in the word of God. It says this, the book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ. Wow. That's a big deal. Right away,6:25 he's telling you, I'm gonna tell you who Jesus' family tree is. And what happens is he says this, starting the son of David and the son of Abraham. Okay? So, right there, he says6:36 these are royal lines. This is a faith line. This is the line. Jesus is coming from a thoroughbred family. This is this is David. This is the son of David. This is the son of Abraham.6:49 Now, all of a sudden, as a Jewish person, if you have never even heard of Jesus, you hear that someone is related to David or Abraham, you're leaning in. Like, oh, tell me more. Tell me more about him. Tell me more about7:01 his family. And then, want you to see what continues now in verse 2. It says in verse 2, Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of7:12 Judah and his brothers. And Judah the father of Perez and Zerub by Tamar, and Perez the father of Hezron, and Hezron the father of7:24 Ram. And Salmon the father of Boaz by Rahab, and Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed the father of Jesse. And Jesse the father7:36 of David the king. Okay. Hard flex right there. We continue on. And Jacob the father of Joseph and the husband of Mary of7:48 whom Jesus was born is called. So, I started off at Abraham with 14 generations, and then now we end here at 16. He says this, Jacob, the father of7:59 Joseph, who was the adopted father of Jesus, And he says, the husband of Mary, whom Jesus was born, is called Christ, Messiah. He's the anointed 1. He's the 1 we've been waiting8:11 on. And then the last verse in verse 17 is this. So all the generations from Abraham to David were 14 generations, and from David to the deportation to8:22 Babylon, 14 generations. And from the deportation to Babylon to Christ, 14 generations. You may be seated. Now, there was a8:34 bunch of names that I didn't mention, but the only reason why I did the first 6 verses is because we're gonna highlight 4 names. And the reason why Matthew is sharing the names, it matters. He's not just8:46 sharing the genealogy. It's like if you've ever had to fill out paperwork for a marriage license or your children were born, sometimes it wants to know, who are your parents? Who are your parents' parents?8:58 Where are they from? Where were they born? That's not what's happening in this. That's not what Matthew's doing. Matthew's not just doing like, hey, fun fact, here's his family tree. No. Matthew, for the Jewish audience,9:10 he's making a massive point for all of us to know. And, I'm gonna share it with you through 4 of the individuals that we read today, what Matthew is trying to get across. Because what he's trying to do, we're in this9:22 series called Hope Through the Ages, immediately, Matthew, number 1, is trying to strip judgment and religiosity out of people's mind, and he's also there to give hope to people9:34 for anyone that has had a broken family tree. If anyone has ever had a jacked up family, Matthew goes, get in line. He says, Jesus came from that.9:46 You may say, but I don't know how Jesus came from that. You know, many years ago, until I became a senior pastor, I kind of set this aside. But for over a decade, I owned a marketing and branding company. And9:57 my company, we worked with many big companies, many big brands, big real estate companies, and all these things like that. But 1 of the things that I was kind of most proud about10:09 within my company was a little over 5 years ago, for an entire year, my company was contracted by the Martin Luther King Junior Center in Atlanta. And so, my company10:21 produced their podcast for an entire year. And we did it through all means, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, all that kind of stuff like that. And so, basically, me and my team, we were the producers10:32 of the show, we worked with all of their interview guests, we did all of the posting, all that kind of stuff like that. And I was really honored when they reached out to want to work with my company to produce a10:44 podcast. And, I thought to myself, absolutely. Are you kidding me for the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr? And, you know, and getting to have the assets to Martin Luther King Jr's Twitter10:56 accounts and his Facebook accounts. And, you may not know, but he he's not alive, but his He has Facebook. He has Twitter under the auspice of the King Center. And they manage his legacy.11:08 They manage his traditions. And what happened was, when we started working together, I actually started getting really frustrated really fast. And I'll share with you why I started getting frustrated really fast. It's11:20 because, generally, when I worked in a marketing company, what would happen is the companies would give me full access admin permission to all of their things at all times, and then I'd get to do whatever I needed11:32 to do for their company. And, anyone that worked for me, I'd give them limited access to do what they needed to do. But, here's what the King Center said. They said, if you're going to work with us, 5 minutes11:44 before you're going to do what you need to do, we're going to send you a new password every time. And then, the moment you guys log off doing what you need to do, we're going to change the password. And we're gonna do11:55 that for every other different social media platform. So, we produced a show on Tuesdays, and sure enough, the show, they were on the east coast. I was on the west coast. It produced at 3 PM, and sure enough, at 212:07 55, I would get a password for Twitter, I would get a password for Facebook. I'd get a password for Instagram, and they had other different platforms under the King Center. And so, I got like 12 different passwords. We12:19 had to log in, connect all of them, and then the moment the show was done, they would go in, and they would change all of it. And the next week, I'd have to do it again over and over and over. How many of you guys know?12:31 Would would that not get pretty frustrating? Yes. I mean, that'd be pretty frustrating. So, 1 day after about 2 months, we have a meeting with the King Center. I said, hey, y'all. I can't do this anymore. I'm getting12:42 absolutely frustrated. Like, waiting for you guys to send me passwords and then change it, this is just frustrating. I'm not a fan of it. Why are you guys doing this? And they said, Adam, let us explain to you.12:55 You see, when you say something or someone kinda normal says something, you could go in and you can delete it. If you like something that was on accident, you could go in and change it. You can go And they go,13:07 but let's just say you or someone on your team likes or comments on something that's out of my dad's legacy. They said, what if 1 day you think you're logged into your Twitter account, and you say something13:19 about a person in office, and it's actually accidentally under my dad's account? And so, it goes from Adam's opinion or someone on my team's opinion to Martin Luther King13:31 Junior's opinion. And they said, that could create an international crisis. Depending on what it is, every news source in the world would be talking about something against my legacy. And so, they said,13:43 the the fact of the matter is we have to control our legacy and the verbiage of our legacy in order that we don't get into mess. And I said, man, that's13:54 fair. I'll just I'll be patient then. Again, I don't Listen, I don't wanna be on CNN tomorrow for accidentally doing something or any And so, I said, fair game. You keep me out of it, and I'll deal with it.14:07 And, it was in that moment I realized that tends to happen, a person with the greater the impact, their legacy has to be extremely cared for. And, the legacy moving14:19 forward has to has to be not perfect, but it does have to be perfected to a degree. I mean, you want to limit the negative things in the past. You want to limit what other people see because all you want to do is you14:30 want the legacy to be the message, and so you want to care for that. And, you would think that if you and I were here to talk about the birth of Jesus and his family tree, that in God's infinite wisdom, the Father's14:42 infinite wisdom, he would say, when I talk about Jesus' family, I'm gonna share the good people, the good stuff. Because I'm gonna control Jesus' legacy so that when they see Jesus'14:54 legacy, they see that it was full of people that were holy and righteous and prayed and loved me and served me because I'm managing Jesus' legacy.15:06 No. In fact, when the father in his infinite wisdom had Matthew write Matthew 1, he goes, Matthew, I want you to throw Jesus' family tree's dirt in those names.15:17 Because I want people to see that in Jesus' legacy, it was not full of perfect people. I want anyone that thinks that they are connected to the legacy of Jesus, that they don't think15:29 that when they join Jesus' family, that all of a sudden they're elite. All of a sudden, they're better than. All of a sudden, they figured out something that no 1 else has figured out. No. No. No. No. The father said15:41 through Matthew in Matthew chapter 1, go ahead. Share it all. Before BuzzFeed, before all of those gossip columns or what else, release Jesus' family's15:52 junk. Matthew, I want you to release it. How do I know that? Well, look. It starts first with Abraham, and it progressively gets worse.16:06 But, he shares Abraham, and if you're taking notes, want you to see this. Immediately, happens is he shows through Abraham there's hope through imperfect people. That Abraham was flawed, but he was16:18 still chosen by God. Abraham wasn't this perfect individual who had the perfect faith, who never doubted, and never struggled, and never16:30 lost hope. No. No. Abraham had those things. I want you to see in Romans chapter 4 verse 19 to 21, it says, he did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was good16:42 as dead, since he was about 100 years old, or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah's womb. No. Unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in16:54 faith as he gave glory to God. Fully convinced that God was able to do with him what he had promised. You see, Matthew begins the genealogy with17:06 Abraham, a man who believed God, yet struggled to trust him. He lied about his wife, tried to force God's promise his own way, and still God calls him17:18 the father of faith. Spurgeon says, the God who called Abraham is the same God who turns weakness into strength. That's what God did with Abraham. Abraham was not17:30 a perfect individual. Abraham didn't exercise faith every single day. Abraham had doubts. Abraham 1 day was in Egypt, and the pharaoh saw that Sarah was good looking, and he wanted17:42 her for himself. And Abraham said, yeah, this is my sister. You can have her. Because he didn't want to die. On top of that, God made him a promise that he would be a father. And as he got older, he said, I'm going to17:53 take things into my own hands, and I'm sleep with my slave to get the child that God promised. See, this is a man who struggled to see God in certain areas of his life.18:05 But yet, this is how Jesus' family tree starts. Not with just this giant in the faith that everywhere he went, he had this strong trust in God. It was a guy that as he18:17 trusted God through his life, there were moments in his own humanity that he was like, God, I don't Where are you? A lot of times people think that to be full of faith means that you can't go to God with questions or18:28 doubts. Abraham exemplifies that. And a lot of times for you and I, we think that for some reason we don't love God, we don't trust Jesus because when things18:40 aren't going the way that we think God has promised, we think it has something to do with us. But, we see through Abraham that what God was doing was through the moments of his unbelief, Abraham was still18:52 pointing his life towards God to give him glory. It's like if you've ever been taking GPS instructions to drive somewhere, and you've thought to yourself, you're worried the moment the GPS19:04 calls a u-turn. For me, when I'm driving and I feel like I'm lost, the moment I see that GPS says I need to make a u-turn, then I'm worried. But, there are times I'm lost that it seems19:16 like I'm still on the same road, and I just say, I'm just going to trust it step by step because I don't know where I'm going, but as I look at the GPS, the line is still blue. So, I'm good to go.19:28 And, for Abraham, there were moments not where God was calling him to make a u-turn, it was just Abraham just didn't know what exit to get off of. And, what he was doing is in those moments, as he was honest19:40 and saying, I don't I don't know why it's going on what's going on. I don't know why I'm getting into my old age and I still haven't had my son yet. I don't know what's happening, but yet, I'm a still trust God. I'm a19:50 still be obedient to God. That's how Jesus' family tree begins. But then, what happens is now we're introduced to another person a few verses later, and we see Rahab.20:02 You see, what happens in this family tree is we see that now Rahab, the Salmon, the father of Boaz, by Rahab If you don't know the story of Rahab, there's a the story in the book20:14 of Joshua and in the and in the Bible where what's happening is they're in Canaan, and now they've left Egypt, and they've gone through the wilderness, and there's a group of spies that go to spy20:26 out Jericho. And what happens is is they go to the house of a prostitute. And, what she does is she saves the spies from the men in20:38 Jericho, and then when Israel comes to destroy Jericho, it says that Joshua honors her and welcomes her into Israel. And then what happens is is an Israeli man,20:50 a Jewish man, marries Rahab, and that is in Jesus' family tree. That's a great, great, great, great, great grandmother, the prostitute.21:02 And right away, Jesus is born. Matthew chapter 1 goes, you got Abraham, and then 2 verses later, and his great great great great grandma, the21:14 prostitute. It's like, if you were Jewish, you would have been like, were there no other names? Like, yeah, we know Rahab's in21:26 there, but can we not publicly share that for individuals to know Graham Graham's past? Like, we we don't want people to know Graham Graham's past. Don't don't put Graham Graham's past out there. Don't even mention21:37 Graham Graham. There's just name her husband. Don't name her. We don't want her in there because what happens is people are gonna read Joshua, and21:49 they're gonna read about this woman that used to charge for people to sleep with her, and they're gonna be like, that's Jesus' family tree. And, the father goes, yeah.22:01 Put that in the manuscript. Put it in there. I want people to know right away that Jesus' family tree, the salvation of the world, the hope of the world, it came from brokenness.22:14 It came from sin. It came from what we would say is the is the outskirts of sin because we have sin that we're all comfortable with, but the moment you start going to more of the sins that make22:26 all of us comfortable with, now we all start getting a little more uncomfortable. But, he goes, put Rahab in there right away. Look at Joshua chapter 6 verse 25. It says, but Rahab, the22:37 prostitute, and her father's household, and all who belonged to her, Joshua saved alive. And, she has lived in Israel to this day because she hid the messengers who Joshua22:49 sent out to spy out Jericho. You see, there's a misconception that what would have happened was Jewish people would have loved, had they accepted Jesus as23:01 Messiah, they would have wanted to completely rewrite his past to make sure that no 1 knew that Jesus came from Gentiles. Because, Rahab was not Jewish,23:13 she was a Canaanite. She she was someone that wasn't pure, that wasn't born into Abraham's family tree. And according to the book of Leviticus, that would have made the line23:24 unclean. That wouldn't have made them a pure Jewish person. And immediately, God's like, why don't you go ahead and expose right now that within Jesus' family tree, there are people that are not Jewish, that23:36 were accepted into the salvation and the promise of Abraham. Just let people know, as a Jewish person, in Matthew chapter 1, that Jesus' family tree wasn't all that,23:48 and it wasn't as clean and pure as someone would try to make it. And, he lets us know right away Rahab was a Canaanite, a Gentile, and a former prostitute. Yet, Matthew highlights her. He doesn't hide her,24:00 and he doesn't hide her story. Her scarlet cord in Joshua chapter 2 foreshadowed the blood of Jesus. A woman with a past becomes a woman with a promise. That's who she was.24:14 Matthew chapter Matthew chapter 1 or Dietrich Bonhoeffer says, God is the God of the lowly, the rejected, the broken, and the ones who fail. And and that's what's part of the family24:26 tree of Jesus. It's it's the fact that God has taken broken past and broken people, and he's done miracles and wonders. And, even24:37 Jesus, the savior of humanity, came from people who were broken, from people who have had a past, from people who are imperfect. Because a lot of times we think to ourselves, surely God can't24:49 do anything with me? Surely God can't save me? Surely God can't speak to me? Because I'm broken. But you look at Rahab's story, and you look at the fact that if you would tell Rahab all those years25:01 ago that 1 day the savior of the world, the Messiah, is gonna come through your womb, she wouldn't there's no way she would have believed it. And, she on top of that, she would say, I'm25:13 Gentile. I'm not even Jewish. Why would God even do that? To show the world. To show the world that he takes broken things and he does beautiful things. There's art form that maybe you've heard of it before. It's in25:25 Japan, and maybe you've had a piece of pottery before that's broken. Maybe your children or grandchildren have knocked something over before, and it's shattered. And most of the time, for us, what we'll25:37 do, even if it's something that's precious to us, if it falls into pieces, we'll just get rid of it. You know? As upset as we are, we think there's nothing I can do with it. But in Japan, there's an25:48 art called kintsugi. And, what they do with kintsugi art is they take broken pieces of pottery, and I actually preached about this many years ago, and someone great in our church gifted me an26:00 authentic piece of kintsugi pottery from Japan, that the process was actually made with this. And what happens is they take broken pieces in Japan, and then they take26:11 gold. They melt the gold down and they use gold as a bonding agent. And then, they take all of the pieces of the pottery, and they take the gold that they've melted down, and they26:23 place it in the edges of the broken pieces. And then, when it hardens, it connects the pottery together. And what happens is, because pottery, all that is is just mud26:35 that's been put in a kiln, and as valuable and as beautiful as it is, it is not a precious material. But, what they do is they take a precious metal like gold, they use it as the bonding26:46 agent, and even in its brokenness, it is now more valuable than it ever was because it has a precious material in it connecting it. So, now, what it's done is it's taken something that26:58 is broken, not only fixed it, but has made it more valuable than it was when it was in its perfect condition. And, that's a picture of Rahab's life of what God did in her life.27:10 As though she had a past, and though she was broken, happened was is through her faith of concealing these spies and trusting that God, Yahweh, is bigger than the Canaanite God that she27:22 had, what happens is, though she had a broken past, when you have God's name attached to you, when you have faith in Jesus attached to you, the value immediately goes up. Your value27:34 immediately goes up. Because when God is the 1 connecting your life and your pieces back together, where even though who you once were had value in its own way, the moment God27:46 places his fingerprint on your life. The moment God puts your pieces back together and gives your brokenness now purpose, you own it. Just27:57 imagine by this time, Rahab's in heaven. I could There's no theology for this, but I could imagine that the spirit of God is talking to Matthew, and she's going, can you leave me out of it?28:10 Mention anyone else. Take me out of it. And, God's like, no, no, no, no, Your brokenness is beautiful, Rahab. Your brokenness will show the Jewish people that I have a purpose in everything that I do.28:22 And then, want you to see the next person that then he's chosen is then he mentions David. And then, he brings up David, and he mentions David in there, the king, But28:34 also, what happens is, is it says, and Jesse, so we have hope through restored failures, that's David. David was gifted but fallen. And, what28:45 happens is when David is mentioned, it's mentioned his family tree. But, what happens is it says, and Jesse, the father of David, and David I want you to see what happens is when he talks about28:57 Solomon. And David was the father of Solomon by the wife of who? Okay. Wait.29:10 Does anyone know who Solomon's mother was? Bathsheba. Bathsheba is not mentioned. He mentions, he says, the wife of29:21 Uriah. Now, if you don't know King David's story, Bathsheba was in a bath. He sees her naked. He takes her for himself. Uriah is29:33 his guy. Her husband is his guy. He's a general. And, what David tries to do is pin the pregnancy. Bethsheba gets pregnant. Wants to pin the pregnancy on Uriah. Uriah says, man, if my men aren't able to be29:45 with their wives, I won't be with my wife. I'll just sleep in I'm just gonna sleep in at the in the living room. And then, David tells his generals, hey, I got this scroll, give it to the front lines and let no 1 open it29:56 except the 1 in charge of the front lines. They read it and they said, tomorrow morning, put Uriah on the front lines of the battlefield so that he can die. And so, what happens is, Bathsheba's husband30:08 gets put to death. That first child that was fathered by David and Bathsheba, he marries her because she's pregnant. They have a miscarriage. He's heartbroken. He gets30:19 checked by the prophet. And then, they have another child. They go again, and they get Solomon. And then, Matthew records, he's not devaluing Bathsheba. What he's doing is he's30:31 taking David, this person that the Jewish people have put on the level of like practically godhood. This man can do no wrong. This guy is perfect. This is David. Anyone that30:43 would be related to David, they are the cream of the cream of the crop. They're the best. And then, Matthew goes, oh, this is the son Solomon who was birthed by the30:55 wife of Uriah. In other words, David, we ain't forget your past. Don't don't let no 1 elevate because someone's gonna be like, oh, here's Jesus's birth.31:07 He's the man, but he ain't no David. And you're like, oh, you're right. He's not a David because he's not about to sleep with someone else's wife. That's why he's not David. So, he's like, don't put David on this31:19 pedestal all of a sudden because Jesus is the only name above every name. Jesus is the only 1 that's gonna do what Jesus comes to do. And, what he's doing is he's even taking the heroes of the31:31 Jewish faith and going, y'all lost it if you think these people are perfect. And, he says the birth of Jesus is about to separate him from any man that has ever been birthed in31:42 history. And, he starts naming anyone's hero, and he starts throwing their laundry out and going, as much as we love them, don't forget they're human. Don't31:54 forget they're fallen. Don't forget they make mistakes. Don't elevate these men, and don't elevate these women to the place that only God needs to be elevated at. And it's a reminder in Matthew chapter32:06 1, whoever your hero is, even they will bow their knee to Jesus. Even them in the presence of Christ, they themselves will fall on their knees. There is no 1 who32:18 is above him. And, that's what happens. David sinned deeply, but repented deeply. And, it's a picture that though God did not forget about David's past, it was forgiven.32:30 And, when he shows us that David was gifted but fallen, but David was still used. And, it shows him it shows you and I that there may be times that we fall into sin. There may be times that you fall into32:42 temptation. But, the thing is, the difference between a person who lives in their sin and repents is the person who rectifies, who looks at what they've done and say, Lord, would you cleanse me?32:54 Because when David was checked, he wrote Psalms 51, and it was the apology letter to God to say, Lord, repent of my sins. I'm so sorry. What I did was so wrong. And, it gives us this picture of what33:06 happens is these people are not perfect. And then, the last person that is shared tonight, that we'll share with today is that we see that we have hope through every generation. And Tamar is33:18 mentioned within this passage. Tamar is mentioned who was the daughter-in-law to a man by the name of Judah, and this whole family was jacked up. All33:30 these men were messed up. These men were selfish. These men were sinful. And, Tamar gets thrown into the marriage union with these individuals, and all of a33:42 sudden, without her choice, without her asking, she gets married into like the worst guys that have ever been. Unrighteous, unholy, unloving, broken33:53 promises, all these things. And then, here's Tamar just sitting there and just getting passed from guy to guy to guy. And, Tamar's first husband, he dies because he was a wicked man. And then, what34:05 happens according to the Levitical law is that the next of kin brother has to marry marries the wife and brings her into the family or else she wouldn't survive. She would die. Back then, you had to be34:17 married to a man that if at that age, it just the family needs to take care of the next of kin. And so, she marries him and then what he does is he's using her, he's sleeping with34:29 her, but not starting a family with her. And so, then God goes, yeah, I'm going kill him too. And then, the third son, Judah goes, yeah, yeah, I'm not going let you marry that 1 because I don't want him to die34:40 too. So, she basically goes, so then you're going to bring me into the family, and then you're going to marry me to Judah. And he's like And, what happens is you have 4 men who don't know how to lead,34:52 4 men who don't know how to love, 4 men who are selfish, and then you have a person that's here that's like, I didn't ask to be here. And then eventually, she gives birth and it becomes35:04 part of the line of Jesus. And, what Matthew is pointing out is he's pointing out that not only were the men in her life imperfect and God used them and God still brought about Jesus, but35:16 also this woman who was just sitting here going, what am I doing here? God had a plan for her and was able to redeem her story. And so, are times in our own life that you're like, what did I35:28 didn't I don't deserve to be here. I don't belong here. And, we see that through the thread. God's like, but I could still give you purpose. I could still have a plan over your life. I can still use you like I35:39 did with Tamar. Genesis 38 verse 26, as we begin to close, says, then Judah identified them and said, speaking of Tamar, she is more righteous than I, since I did not give her35:51 to my son, Shelah, and he did not know her again. You see, there are sometimes you and I will be born into families with patterns that we didn't choose. Cycles you and I36:03 never asked for, dysfunction that we inherited. Tamar represents every person who says, I did not ask for this family story, but I'm stuck in it. And, in that mention, what36:15 happens, Genesis 38 is 1 of the most complicated yet painful chapters in scripture, loss, injustice, family dysfunction, generational sin. Yet, Matthew includes Tamar by name. Why?36:27 Because God never cuts out a name when the story gets messy. God doesn't see your mess and go, ah. Let's get them off stage as quick as possible. Let's get their36:39 family out of here as quick as possible. He's patient. He's kind. God's long suffering. God is full of justice. God is full of mercy. And, in the story of Tamar, do not just see that God36:51 is just, and God is merciful, and God is kind, but God had taken care of Tamar. N. T. Wright says, the genealogy of Jesus reveals that God works his plan through real families,37:03 with real failures and real redemption. And, when you and I are called to read this story, we're not called to just be notified who37:14 Jesus' family line is. We're called to look at it and go, yeah, there's there's my dad, there's my great grandma, there's me. And then, you get to the end and boom, it37:26 says, and here's Jesus the Messiah who redeems. And, you're called to go, wow, With my family and their brokenness and my own brokenness, if God will use that family, then37:38 God can do something with my life. If God can redeem that family, then God can redeem you. And, God can do something in your life. You are meant to see not only what God's37:49 history of stories was shown, but you're called to identify and say, there's my family. There's my husband. There's my wife. There there's we're right there. But, wow. But, God, he38:01 can redeem that. He can rescue that. You see, hope is not for 1 generation. Hope is for every generation. That's what's shown in this. Hope is for every line, hope is for every broken38:13 story, and hope is for every person who thinks God forgot them. And, when you get to the end of verse 17, it shows, and hope has a name. His name is Jesus.38:25 And, the beauty of that moment's like, hey, then I he's mine. I'm his. If that Jesus come and he has come to redeem me and save me, and he has been inherited and he's38:37 the Messiah, then he's mine. And, for all of you today, I'm gonna pray and I'm gonna make an invitation. I'm gonna pass it to our campus pastors, but then when we close, I'll make an invitation that if you don't know38:48 this Jesus who is here to give you hope today in any brokenness you've ever experienced. This moment today is the day that you can call upon the name of Jesus. Lord, we thank you for this message today, Father. I pray it39:00 speaks to us. We thank you for hope today, Lord. In Jesus' name, amen. As you're here today, we're gonna leave here right now in a matter of moments. But, as I shared today, I don't know your39:12 story, I don't know your past, I don't even know where you're at today. But, what I do know is that God knows. What we read in Matthew chapter 1 is none of the things of those families caught God by surprise,Show more
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