Skip to content Jesus' Messy Family || Inside the Manger Pt.1 || Pastor Adam Mesa Dec 3 · 43 min ...more
Jesus' Messy Family || Inside the Manger Pt.1 || Pastor Adam Mesa
December 3, 2023 · 43 min
Inside the Manger Pt. 1 discusses Jesus' family tree and how it is filled with brokenness, dysfunction, and damage. Pastor Adam discusses various characters in Jesus' lineage, such as Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Judah, David, and Solomon, highlighting their flawed actions and relationships. Despite the messy family history, God can redeem and work through damaged family trees. It is our job to focus on God's ability to work wonders in their families, even in the midst of messiness and damage.If you would like to create and register for your Church Pass visit: https://alfc.church.ai/onboarding/create-profileIf you would like to support this ministry in reaching people around the globe, click here: https://www.alfc.faith/giveIf you’ve just made a decision for Christ and said YES, please respond HERE: https://www.grow.faith/If you are new, please click HERE: https://bit.ly/alfcnewguestJoin us every Sunday for service at 9am and 11am, as well as Wednesdays at 7:00pmStay ConnectedALFC Website: https://www.alfc.faith/ALFC Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alfc.church/
Series Patria Sermons December 3, 2023 · 43 min · Patria Sermons
Inside the Manger Pt. 1 discusses Jesus' family tree and how it is filled with brokenness, dysfunction, and damage. Pastor Adam discusses various characters in Jesus' lineage, such as Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Judah, David, and Solomon, highlighting their flawed actions and relationships. Despite the messy family history, God can redeem and work through damaged family trees. It is our job to focus on God's ability to work wonders in their families, even in the midst of messiness and damage.If you would like to create and register for your Church Pass visit: https://alfc.church.ai/onboarding/create-profileIf you would like to support this ministry in reaching people around the globe, click here: https://www.alfc.faith/giveIf you’ve just made a decision for Christ and said YES, please respond HERE: https://www.grow.faith/If you are new, please click HERE: https://bit.ly/alfcnewguestJoin us every Sunday for service at 9am and 11am, as well as Wednesdays at 7:00pmStay ConnectedALFC Website: https://www.alfc.faith/ALFC Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alfc.church/ ...more Show the full description Show less Inside the Manger Pt. 1 discusses Jesus' family tree and how it is filled with brokenness, dysfunction, and damage. Pastor Adam discusses various characters in Jesus' lineage, such as Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Judah, David, and Solomon, highlighting their flawed actions and relationships. Despite the messy family history, God can redeem and work through damaged family trees. It is our job to focus on God's ability to work wonders in their families, even in the midst of messiness and damage.If you would like to create and register for your Church Pass visit: https://alfc.church.ai/onboarding/create-profileIf you would like to support this ministry in reaching people around the globe, click here: https://www.alfc.faith/giveIf you’ve just made a decision for Christ and said YES, please respond HERE: https://www.grow.faith/If you are new, please click HERE: https://bit.ly/alfcnewguestJoin us every Sunday for service at 9am and 11am, as well as Wednesdays at 7:00pmStay ConnectedALFC Website: https://www.alfc.faith/ALFC Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alfc.church/
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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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In this video 0:00 Jesus's Messy Family
Jesus's Messy Family 0:01 Welcome to the ALSC podcast. Here at ALSC, we seek the lost, teach the found, and send the disciples. We truly hope you are encouraged by this week's message.0:13 Well, let's jump into the word today. If you have your bible, you could turn to Matthew chapter 1 as we launch our series called inside the manger leading up into our Christmas Eve services and today, what we're gonna be0:24 talking about is either a chapter in the Bible that maybe you've never heard in church preached before, or if you're like me, when I first got saved, I got really excited and I said, I'm gonna buy a Bible for0:36 myself. And you either nowadays go online or you went to a bookstore and you bought a Bible and you ripped off the Saran wrap off of it and you think to yourself, what book in the bible am I gonna read from? You say, oh,0:48 I know. I'm gonna read from 1 of the gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. And so Matthew being the first gospel, you turn to Matthew chapter 1 and then you see for an entire chapter just a list of names.1:00 And then you say to yourself, I know what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna start in Matthew chapter 2. That's where I'm gonna start reading. Well, we're gonna read the part that most of us normally skip over today and that is1:11 Matthew chapter 1. More from Matthew chapter 1 than you could ever believe today. And also, it's gonna practically apply into your life more than you could ever believe today. Because if you're taking notes, the sermon1:23 title for today is Jesus's Messy Family. Jesus Messy Family. You may think you have a messy family. Wait until you hear about Jesus's Messy Family. So would you stand with me in
1:35 the honor of reading God's word in Matthew chapter 1? That's where we're going to find ourselves. We have about 6 or 7 verses removed from that just for the sake of time. If you'd like to later on on your own, read the
1:45 rest of the bunch of names in Matthew 1, you're more than welcome. But we'll read the majority of them here today with us. So it says this in Matthew 1, in verse 2. It says, the book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ,
1:57 the son of David and the son of Abraham. Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac was the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers, and Judah the father
2:09 of Perez and Zarah, by Tamar, and Perez the father of Hezron, and Hezron the father of Ram, and Salmon the father of Boaz by Rahab, and Boaz the father of Obed
2:21 by Ruth, Jesse, and Jesse the father of the very famous David. And David was the father of Solomon by the wife of Uriah,
2:33 and Hezekiah the father of Manasseh, and Manasseh the father of Amos or Amon in your bible, and Amos the father of Josiah, and Josiah the father of Jeconiah and his brothers at the time
2:45 of the deportation to Babylon. Now stick with me, and after the deportation of Babylon, Jeconiah was the father of Shealtiel, and Eliakim the father of Azar, and Azar the father of
2:57 Zadok, and Zadok the father of Akim, and Akim the father of Eliadun, and Eliadun the father of Eleazar, and Eleazar the father of Nathan, and Mason the father of Jacob. Y'all with
3:08 me? And Jacob, I know you guys know every person in this book right here. You're like, oh yes, Mason, yes, yes, okay.
3:23 Let's pray this morning. God, we thank you so much for this word today, Father God. I pray that as your word is open, may you speak life into us today father God. May your word bring a fresh vision and a fresh
3:35 grace today Lord. We came here not to hear an opinion of man or philosophy of man, we came to hear from your word today God and your spirit. So may you speak today in Jesus name, amen. You may be seated. Thank you so
3:47 much. So why are we reading from Matthew 1 today, and why did we read what we just read in that chapter? Well, the first thing is this, is I wanted to impress you guys that I can pronounce
3:59 Hebrew names. That 1 of the things that I wanted to show. I mean, hey, takes a lot of work to know how to pronounce those names. Bible you know, well money invested, dad, in the Bible school. That's
4:11 for anytime I can pronounce a Hebrew word. He's like, that that dollar that went to bible school that that mattered right there. So And then outside of that, what we want to talk about today is understanding the names
4:21 that we just read because they matter. Here's the first reason why Matthew is writing in his book and he starts his book and his testament of Jesus with first Jesus's genealogy. Well, each 4 of the gospels
4:33 Matthew, Mark, Luke and John were written to different audiences. So some 1 book is written to the Roman audience, 1 written book is written to a gentile audience. Well, the book of Matthew being that Matthew was a Jew,
4:45 is that he was writing this book to the Jewish audience. And he wants to start off right on the bat to show that Jesus has legal rights to be the descendant of King David because there's a
4:57 prophecy that says that the Messiah has to come from the line of David. And so many people were speculating to say,
5:12 come from? Well, we know fully that Jesus is fully God and fully mannered by the power of the Holy Spirit. He begot Jesus through the womb of Mary, but also through Joseph
5:24 adopting Jesus means that now Jesus has all legal rights to be the inheritor and have the inheritance and have the heritage of his father Joseph. It's very different
5:36 than nowadays. In Jesus's day and in those days, if someone adopted someone there was no difference between adoption and blood. There's none. They they viewed adoption completely, now
5:48 he's blood. You can't reverse it, you can't strip it away. So for Jesus to be adopted by Joseph means that he now is part of the line of David. So Matthew chapter 1
6:00 says that right off the bat. Jesus has legal right to be the king of Israel. Number 2, what's happening is God wants all of the Jewish people through that heritage to see
6:12 that Jesus came from an imperfect messy family. And if God can redeem that family, he can redeem your family. That's what God wants to show. And so
6:23 for the Jewish audience when they're reading the names that Matthew chose, he's pointing out a few things and those are the few things we're gonna learn today. And it's God's ultimate message in there to say, not only
6:34 does Jesus have the right to sit on the throne of God and be the king of kings and lord of lords, he also has the ability to redeem even the most messiest families because
6:46 Jesus came from a messy family. So what does that look like today? Let let's look at let's look at a little bit of Jesus's family tree. And so with Jesus's family tree, here's some things that
6:58 we see today and because I don't know if you're like me, if I'm imagining that Jesus is gonna come to this earth, I'm thinking that God is gonna be looking for the most perfect family to ever live.
7:10 Like the family that has no imperfections, the family that seems like they have it all together, the family that seems like they go on the perfect holidays, and family vacations, and go to church every week. I'm
7:21 thinking, God, if there's a family that you're going to do something in, you're going to do it in that family. But what we actually see is that's not the case. God does it in a totally different type of family
7:33 tree. So I want to survey some of the characters that Matthew points out which Jesus came from. So number 1, we know the famous ones, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Well, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob was good men. They,
7:45 you know, sometimes they made a little bit selfish mistakes, but overall, really followed God, really trusted God, really was obedient towards God. It's like, man, we could learn a lot from those guys and
7:57 them as leaders. Not perfect, but they really followed God. They trusted him above all things. Same thing over here, Hezekiah. Hezekiah and Josiah, these are great kings. Some of the best kings that
8:09 ruled Israel. Hezekiah brought reform to Israel, great leadership to Israel, great standards to Israel. Josiah being the youngest king to ever be ruling in Israel. He
8:21 was ordained at 7 years old, anointed at 7, and then king at 18. And then also he brought the bible, the old testament back into Israel. He he he got rid of all of the
8:33 pagan temples. I mean, this was a guy who loved God. It's like, okay. Great. Those sound like guys that Jesus would come from. So that's fine. Me personally, in my family tree, I don't
8:44 think that I have any kings that come in my family tree. So hard for me to relate to that type of family. So say, hey Jesus, good for you. You got, you got some great, great, great, great granddads. Man, they're amazing.
8:56 Well, let's go a little deeper into this family tree though. You have 2 individuals right here, you have Tamar and Rahab. If you don't know about Tamar's story, basically Tamar was the daughter-in-law to
9:08 Judah, which is 1 of the 12 tribes of Israel, and Judah gave his son to her. His son died before she could have a child, which means no inheritance for her. So he gives 1 of
9:20 his other sons who's not married to her, and he actually doesn't want to sleep with her, so every time they're intimate, he makes sure that he doesn't impregnate her. And so she's
9:32 thinking to herself, I need a child through this family to have the inheritance, what am I to do? So what she decides to do, is she decides during 1 of Judah's trips, because he was a wealthy man, was that she was going
9:41 to disguise herself because he was a wealthy man, was that she was gonna disguise herself as a prostitute, and sleep with her father-in-law, and by sleeping with her father-in-law,
9:53 get pregnant and then have her inheritance. And guess what? She goes out in the streets, she dresses as a prostitute, and Judah passes by her, he says, I don't got no money on me. She says,
10:05 great, give me some of your possessions and I'll hold on to them as collateral, and when you go home and get money, you can come back and then you can come pay me. He says, okay bet. He gives her some of her possessions.
10:18 He sleeps with her. By the way, Judah is a married man as well. So, there's a whole other mess going on over there. So he sleeps with the prostitute, being his daughter-in-law, who's not a real
10:30 prostitute, and then she comes home sometime later and she's pregnant. And he says, yo, you've been out in these streets, you need to die. He he
10:41 said that you've been you've been out there fooling around because at first he says, oh you're pregnant with 1 of my son's child and the son says, no, no that ain't my baby. Because I I haven't been, they call it
10:51 spilling the seed but really it, I don't want to get too graphic but he pulled out every time. Your Bible says this stuff, you should read it. It'll trip your mind out. If you think it's boring, it's not.
11:03 You learn so much about the real world, right? Like, your kids don't need YouTube, just every night tell them a story like this and they'll be like, wait. Wait, the Bible's crazy.
11:15 I'll go to church more if they got stories like that. That's what happens. So he says, no I pull that every time, that's not my baby. So Judah says, well whose baby is it? We're gonna kill you until you tell us. And
11:25 she's like, it's your baby. I was the prostitute. He's like, you're lying. She's like, here's your possessions you gave me as payment. He's like, oh shoot. You hungry? Come on
11:37 inside. Let's have dinner. I mean, that's what he does. He just glosses over it, and he's like, cool. Okay. You have the inheritance. You're having a child. Come on in. Like, I'm not telling
11:49 your family story. This is Jesus's family story. Like, King David comes from this, Jesus comes from this, and then what happens, Rahab, is is she lives in
12:01 Jericho. She's a gentile. She's not even Jewish. And what happens is is 1 of the 12 spies are sent into Canaan before they overtake Canaan and turn it into Israel, Rahab is occupationally a
12:13 prostitute. That is her job. She's not faking it. That's how she makes a living. And so then eventually, 1 of the spies hangs back around, finds her to be pretty enticing. It's
12:24 like, hey, I want to marry you. Let's have a baby. She's like, okay great. So he marries a prostitute because she showed him kindness in Jericho and sheltered them when everyone was looking to kill them.
12:36 So he marries her. This is this is 1 of Jesus's great great great great grandmas. Was a sex worker. Like worked as spearmint rhino,
12:51 and then got saved and God's like Jesus you're gonna come from that woman. It's like, okay. Okay. And then you have Ruth. Ruth is known, she's a
13:03 gentile just like Rahab. So these 2 right here, they're both gentiles. So any Jewish person that believes in King David or they say, hey, you know, you gotta be Jewish or whatever whatever, like you
13:14 have 2 gentiles in your family lineage lineage. So God's saying even with Gentiles mixed in there, I can redeem it. It's not even a pure line. There are there are Arab people.
13:26 Canaanites are Arabs. There are Arab people built into that line. And God says that that's the line I'm gonna come from. And then over here you got David and David and Solomon. You you know King David's story. I mean,
13:38 David is a married man, married to Saul's daughter who Saul's dead now. He sees Bathsheba bathing naked, calls her up to his room, sleeps with her, she tells him I'm married, and
13:50 it's like I know to 1 of my generals named Uriah. He's like, I really like you. What I'm gonna do is I'm gonna send your husband to the front line, get him killed so that you and I can have a baby because I don't like my
14:01 wife. He's remember, he's married to Saul's daughter. Yeah. But remember, she gets mad at him because he dances around the ark and she don't like that. So he
14:13 decided I'm never going to sleep with you again, my wife. I'm going to take Bathsheba. She was nice, so I'll just marry her because she got pregnant. Oh, once again, I'm not talking about your family tree.
14:25 I mean, you're you're like, dang, this sounds like my aunt and uncle story. Like, this is crazy. Yes. It's it does. Jesus is messy. Family, so you see what happens with David. And
14:37 then it says in your bible, it says, Solomon had had Solomon of the wife of Uriah. It's almost like God's little like, David, I I forgave you, but
14:49 like I'm still gonna remind you about Uriah from time to time. Like this happened thousands of years now and they're writing the Matthew 1 and he doesn't even say Solomon the child of David. He says, Solomon,
15:01 the son of the wife of Uriah, the guy David killed. That's like the pettiness, you know, like that you have in your family and bringing up old news. It's like there's it's
15:13 got to be Matthew had to have some type of petty in there when he wrote that part. So we know and in Solomon's story, he had 300 wives and 700 concubines. I mean, I struggle with 1
15:25 wife. 1 wife. He had 299 more wives and 700 girlfriends. Like, I
15:37 mean, come on. Now it's no excuse to say, see I'm not that bad. Don't look at it, don't leave here and try to have a family conversation and see see, I'm not, I don't have 700. And like, but still,
15:49 and Solomon writes the book of Ecclesiastes solely to point out, I did all that, I chased all that, and it was meaningless. I didn't enjoy it. It didn't bring fulfillment. Everything is lost.
16:01 Everything is like chasing the wind other than knowing God. So these men, even though they have a check or pass, at some point they start realizing, not all, but some of these guys, Solomon David, no I need God. I need
16:11 God's forgiveness. I need God's redemption. And then here you have Manasseh and Amos till the day they died. Wicked kings. They murdered children, sacrificed children, they worshiped pagan gods. So they encouraged Israel
16:23 to pursue paganism. They were wicked kings and they encouraged Israel to be wicked in that way. And then lastly, these 3 right here, Azar, Zadok, and Nathan, these were priests. So these were religious folk. They
16:35 went into religion, they went into the temple, they were temple workers, they were temple priests. And to me, when you look at this, it looks a little bit about like our family tree. When you reflect this family,
16:47 and I have a little family tree here, and it may look similar to yours. I want you to see what this consists of when it comes to Jesus's family tree. So here's down here, Here's Jesus.
16:59 Here's Mary on this side right here. And you had Mary's line, which Mary comes from the priestly line, but there were still priest in Joseph's side as well. And so when you look at Jesus's family tree coming from David,
17:10 I mean, what do you have in there? You have some prostitutes? You got you got some players? You can't tell me Solomon
17:21 wasn't a player. He would Go read Song of Solomon. Dude was a smooth talker. How many letters did he write to 1 of those 700 girlfriends like that? I mean, dude was a player. There was pagans.
17:33 There were pagans in there. There were priests in there. There were princes in there. Kings, princesses in there. And I look and I go, man, they might
17:45 kind of look like your family. This is Jesus's family. It might kind of resemble your family in some ways. Might have some prostitutes in your family, might have some players in your family, You might
17:57 have some pagans in your family. You might have some priests in your family, the religious folk, they always got a scripture for everything. They always coming around, they always sending you verses and stuff like that.
18:08 You got some priests. But you also might have some people who act like princes and act like princesses in your family as well. Might not be a real prince or prince, but they sure do act like it.
18:20 And so here it is. This isn't your family tree, this is Jesus's family tree. And so God's whole point of coming into this family with all of their brokenness, with
18:32 all of their background, with all of their depravity, with all of their mishaps, their hang ups, is God is trying to say, listen, if I'm willing to send the savior of the world to this family,
18:44 then I can send the savior to your family. That's what I could do. It's meant for us to say, because I I don't know if you're like me, the holidays are an easy
18:56 way that you start getting around family a little bit more or maybe you're not, you don't have a big family, but regardless you start realizing what you don't have. Like man, my family kind of they're kind of full of
19:06 drama. My man, my family, they're just impossible to please. My family, man, we're broken. My family, we got so much mess ups and so much hang ups and so much argument. And then and then if you're
19:18 like me, you go on Instagram or Facebook and you see those families that be doing like name cards on the table and and and they got the nice napkins with the little metal thing in between.
19:34 Cheers ing, and everybody got the matching, jammy jams on with the last name in the back, and you're like, dang. My family, we use plastic forks and
19:45 knives, paper plates. Can't nobody like each other's food. It's like, what's going on? So it's really easy during the holidays to
19:57 be like, man, my my family is not all that. But if you were talking with Jesus, Jesus would be like, my family wasn't all that either. But but but Jesus said, but I but I worked with my family and what
20:09 I had. Because it's very quick and easy. And this 1 we're gonna look at with a few moments we It's quick and easy to have an excuse on why we have not, asked not, or do not based off of, oh, but my family. See God, it's
20:21 it's the dad you gave me, it's the mom you gave me, it's the grandparent you gave me, it's the it's the sibling you gave me, it's the community you gave me and and so Jesus, he has every excuse. He he's got a
20:33 mother that everybody says is out on the streets. Because think about it, even till Jesus's death, most naysayers didn't believe that the Holy Spirit gave Mary a child.
20:45 They believed that was a cop out for her being in the streets. Like, also you don't want to fess up and say who you slept with, so you're gonna say it's God's baby? Okay. Okay, Mary. So imagine
20:57 Jesus at at at 4 years old playing soccer out in the street, everybody's like, hey Jesus, who's your real dad? I mean, you don't you think this stuff don't exist, but it does.
21:09 You you don't think that people at 10 are are going to Joseph saying, Joseph, how do you do it man? How you raising that kid for your own after what your wife did with you? It's not like they just
21:21 said yes to God and then all the other stuff just dropped off. It's not like people could say, oh you know what Joshua Joseph, you must have married someone like your grandma because when Mary out
21:33 there doing things sounds a lot like Tamar, sounds a lot like Rahab. You you don't think he's experienced that type of ridicule? Come on, pastor. So so when you read
21:45 the gospels, yes, it's summarizing what's happening, but there is context in there. And there's enough context for you to say, man, if that's how Jesus is was walking, Jesus was walking in life, Amen. Then I need to
21:57 be able to walk in life. If that's what Jesus's family looked like and God is redeeming it, then maybe God isn't done with my family. God isn't done with my story. God isn't done with what's he
22:09 doing. And so here's some things if you're taking notes, just a couple things today that we see that your family maybe looked like, that Jesus's family looked like, but God can redeem. And so the first thought is this,
22:20 is your family tree may be a little damaged. Your family tree may be a little damaged. There may be some damage in your family. Maybe
22:32 damage from decisions, maybe damage from hurt, maybe damage from the past, but reality is just like Jesus's story and his family tree is is there is gonna be some damage in there, some damage of
22:44 ex relationships, ex spouses. James Dobson, the famous focus on the family individual, He said this, doctor James Dobson. He said, the family is the cornerstone of our society more than any other
22:55 force. It shapes the attitudes, the hopes, the ambitions, and the values of the child. And when the family collapses, it is the children that are usually damaged. And so may maybe in
23:07 your own life, may may maybe you're a product of you once were a child and you experienced some of that damage or maybe you have children now that have been in the crossfire of some damage. But what we have to
23:19 understand is even through those type of damages, because we see it in the scripture, it doesn't mean that God can't heal and God can't restore things that get damaged. Doesn't mean that God's done.
23:32 Doesn't mean you have to walk away. Doesn't mean you have to give up. Doesn't mean that you have to say, oh well, since there's damage there, it means God's not in it. No. Look at Jesus's family, there was a lot of
23:41 damage in there. Jesus own parents were experiencing damage. But Jesus still became who he was. Ultimately saving all of us. And so we see Philippians chapter 3 verse 20. It
23:53 says, for our citizenship is in heaven for which we also eagerly await the savior Lord Jesus Christ. Your earthly family may look like or
24:05 regardless of what your earthly last name may look like, when you say yes to Jesus, which we talk about in a few moments, God adopts you into the family. Which means you have a new citizenship. Which means you have a new
24:17 family. And when the whole family comes in it, the whole family gains that citizenship. The whole family gains that favor and that grace from God. And so even through the damage,
24:36 family has to be perfect. Doesn't mean the individual doesn't have to be perfect. That's something God can work through. That's something God can work on. It's it's amazing how David is known as the man after God's own
24:45 heart, even after the things I just shared. Because this is a man who made mistakes, but when he made mistakes, he'd go to God with a broken heart, with a contrite heart. He would recognize God even in my damage, even in
24:57 my failure, I need you. And so we see in the damage God can do wonders. Also on top of that, if you're taking notes, your family tree may be a little dysfunctional.
25:09 Service, amen, at that part. For whatever reason, they might be speaking about their own family or what, but your family tree and your family may have a little bit of
25:20 dysfunction. It may not be functioning the same way. And so within your family tree, there may be some things that were functioning the right way, and there's different things in the relationship and in the friendship.
25:31 And now you have some areas with uncles and cousins that come around, be a little crazy. And maybe during Thanksgiving, you guys got together and all of a sudden within a matter of moments, someone
25:42 brought up politics and it started an outrage, or maybe someone started bringing up early on how much money someone else owed them, a cousin, or a brother, or an auntie, or an uncle, or maybe someone showed up from
25:54 the family that wasn't invited that y'all didn't expect to be there, that you try to put them in the backyard and they don't want to or maybe someone got a little too drunk or a little too this and so
26:06 you're sitting there with the dysfunction and it's so easy to say, God, where are you in all this? Well, God is in the middle of even those things. God is in the middle of dysfunction
26:18 because we never know where God is doing and what God is doing in a person's life in that moment. Because we're all in a process of God trying to get our attention or if he has our attention, he's
26:30 trying to lead us somewhere. I'll show you what that means. First John chapter 3 verse 1 and 2 says this, see what kind of love the father has given to us. Speaking of God. That we should be called children of
26:42 God. And so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God's children now and what we will be has not yet appeared. But we know that when he
26:54 appears, we we shall be like him because we shall see him as he is. And so we see that you and I, we have to consider ourselves children of God. Which means believe
27:05 it or not, the people sitting around you and next to you in church today are part of God's family and part of God's children. And I know through our dysfunction, sometimes it's hard to believe.
27:18 Because if God is trying through Jesus, trying to get all of humanity's attention every single day to invite them into the family. To invite them to join the family, even with their
27:30 damage and even with their dysfunction. So every day is an opportunity to engage someone else that's in God's story in 1 of 2 ways. Either a, God's trying to get their attention to join the family,
27:42 or they are part of the family, and yet they are still working their salvation out every single day. And so it ought to give us a little bit of grace for the people that around us to say, God, nobody is
27:53 perfect except for Jesus and the only time we attain perfection is the day that Jesus comes back for his church. So until then, every single day, I'm gonna be a work in progress. And
28:05 so that uncle, that auntie, that cousin, that ex spouse, that ex husband, that ex wife, that whoever, they're either a, a work in progress or God is trying to get their attention.
28:17 And God may just be using you because you're sitting here to get someone else's attention for him. To use us even in our dysfunction. Even through that person sometimes, you know, here at the
28:29 church people come to faith from all shapes and backgrounds in our church. So we got people that come to abundant living that you know have different backstories, backgrounds, everything like that and and so we got
28:41 businessmen who come to abundant living that wear 3 piece suits and we got businessmen who come to abundant living that do business outside of the back of Buicks. Those type of businessmen, you know. So all types
28:53 of businessmen. And so, 1 time there was a guy who came to me a couple years ago. He came to after church and he's about a man in his fifties and he was Hispanic and and you could kind of tell
29:05 he he had done some time out in the streets before. And so the reason why I knew that, he had tattoos in places that weren't normal and then he told me he used to be out in the streets. That's also how I knew as well. So
29:16 he came up to me 1 Sunday and his wife was with him and he said, pastor, I just gotta tell you, you know, God has done a work in my life and he's teary eyed and he's saying, God has changed my life. You if you knew me
29:28 a year ago, I was hard, I was a stone cold man. I wouldn't smile for nothing. I'd angry at my kids all the time and the wife's just sitting there nodding. Yes, he was. Yes, he was. You know, yes, he was. Disagreeing at
29:39 that moment. She said, pastor, you wouldn't believe it. This is not the same man as today. I'm thinking, man, this is beautiful. And he said he said, man, I owe it to what the Lord is doing but this it's it's from this
29:49 church. It's coming here and God softened my heart and I'm experiencing his love and where I'm like, Man, it's amazing. He's like, I love this church. I love you pastor so much. I'm thinking, Man, it's so nice. Thank you
29:59 so much. And then finally he says, but however. And I'm thinking, okay. He says, pastor, if you ever find yourself needing to
30:11 get your hands dirty, He's talking about violence. He says, if you ever find yourself having to get your hands
30:23 dirty with someone, don't ever feel like you have to do it. You call me and I will do whatever it is that you need me to do
30:35 because we cannot have our pastor going to prison. And he says, I've been there before. The wife jumps in, she says, he's been there before. He says, I've been to prison before, I have no problem going back
30:47 because you've done so much for my life, if there's 1 person I would go back to crime for, it'd be you. I'm thinking, well very sincere, thank you so much.
31:00 How about none of us do crime? But, noted. And he was adamant, he was adamant to say, and you know, you can tell you had a Catholic background. He
31:12 said, as a man of the cloth, you're a man of the cloth, you you should not be doing anything that's crime related. But I know everyone's human. You may find yourself in that predicament. I'll happily do it for
31:24 you pastor. I think to myself, little dysfunctional, but you're moving forward and your hearts in the right place. God's doing something in your life and so for that I'm happy.
31:36 Okay. Let's let's move forward. And what we gotta remember all the time is in church, outside of church, there are people who are starting to experience God's love and favor, but we still got that dysfunction.
31:48 We we we still got those things we're working through. We still got that damage and that dysfunction we're trying to fight through. So so believe it or not, that person that you get in a fight with out in the parking lot
31:59 when you guys are trying to get parking spots, Now you when you go to heaven, you may not be fighting over parking spots no more, but you still got to see that person in heaven. So we
32:11 we can either start working on it right now in the dysfunction, start getting better now, or in heaven when God finally perfects us fully, we can have it figured out then. But until then, in the defunction and in the
32:22 damage, God can still be doing a work. Yeah. So don't lose hope. Don't lose hope that God isn't doing a work in your family. It's very quick to pull out the magnifying
32:34 glass, to look at the defunction, to look at the damage and say God where are you in this? He's very much in the middle because he was very much in the middle of Jesus' family tree. And when we see that, we can see there
32:45 is hope. Here's the last thought is this and we'll close. Your family tree may be a little different. It's a little different. A little different than what the normal family looks like.
32:57 There may be some step brothers and stepsisters involved. There may be some new spouses and ex spouses involved. There may be a first marriage or a second marriage involved. There may be some step cousins and step aunts
33:09 and step uncles. There may be adopted friends and family in your life that people you grew up with, but regardless of this, just because your family looks different doesn't mean it's not a family. Doesn't mean that
33:21 God's not in the middle of it. Doesn't mean that God's not doing something with it. When you look at Jesus's family tree, there are stepbrothers, stepfamily. There are second wives, third wives. There are messy families,
33:33 but God is in them in their difference, in their difference. So even in your family, it'd be different cultures, different colors, different backgrounds. Just because it's different, doesn't mean God's not
33:45 in it. Because here's what the scripture says for Romans chapter 8 verse 14. For as many of you are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to
33:57 fear, but you received the spirit of adoption by whom we cry Abba Father. The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. And if we are children, then we're heirs
34:09 and heirs of God, joint heirs with Christ. If indeed we suffer with him that we may also be glorified together. You see here's what we have to realize, is when
34:21 Joseph decides to adopt Jesus as his, he is saying that though he may not be my blood, I see no difference when I look at him. And what Joseph is mirroring is something that God does
34:32 with you and I. Because when we're born in sin, we're born as strangers to heaven and strangers to God. But what we do is when we choose to follow Jesus and receive Jesus, Romans chapter 8 says,
34:44 God adopts you and I. So when God adopts you and I, it means that you gain every right, every privilege, every heir, every inheritance and every heritage that God has for you.
34:56 He immediately brings you into his family and he immediately says, every grace, every favor, every covering, every acknowledgement has been now given from me in heaven to you as my child.
35:08 When I see you, I see you as mine. God adopts us into the family. That's a huge great blessing in the way that Joseph would adopt Jesus and now he'd be part of the Davidic line. When God adopts us, we
35:20 become children of heaven. We become heirs to heaven. We become favored of heaven. 1 of the things that often breaks my heart the most and man, this feels like a dagger in the heart because I hear it so often is when me
35:31 and my wife do marriage counseling and sometimes I'll do marriage counseling just by myself, sometimes me and my wife will get the chance to do it. And 1 of the things that breaks my heart is if we're sitting down with a
35:42 couple that's in their second marriage. And in their second marriage as they're arguing or talking and we're all wrestling it out together, here's 1 of the things that you know is a great perspective shift that needs to
35:53 happen is when they say these words. It happens on both sides from the husband and the wife is when they say these words like this. Well, that's your daughter. That's your son. Because that's the child they had in a
36:04 previous marriage. And so they don't use language like that's our child, that's our daughter, that's our son. In their head, they fully have not adopted that child yet as their own. And I'm
36:16 just thankful that that God doesn't view me in that way. That as when I've been far from him and I've been distant from him, He doesn't say, well Adam, right now you're acting like a child of Satan right now. You're
36:28 you're you're you're Satan, that's your son Adam that was doing that yesterday. No. God God when God adopts us, he adopts us. And I know we're on the process of dysfunction, so I'm not here to
36:40 put any pressure or blame on, but what I am here to say is maybe, just maybe, God is looking at us and humanity to start to mere heaven a little more. To say, listen, if I'm adopting you as children of
36:51 heaven, then you can start adopting some other people into your life and consider it your problem. God, that's not my problem, that's my wife's problem. God, that's not my problem, that's my husband's problems. No, maybe
37:02 when we start to say, hey, this is my problem, This is the family that I said yes to. I didn't say yes to the individual, I said yes to the family. And so since this is my family that I now inherited, then what I'm going
37:13 to start doing is I'm going to start praying for this family, I'm going to start encouraging this family, and I'm going to start treating this family as my own. And there's even times where, you know, when you get
37:24 married, there's often times I'll catch I'll I'll catch myself when I was early on in marriage and I've worked for the past couple years to get better with that. That I'd say, oh, talking to my wife about her side of the
37:33 family, like, oh, your nieces and nephews. Your and now, now I felt God a couple years ago check me, it's like, those are your nieces and nephews. So now when I talk to her, I say, our nieces, our nephews. Because when I
37:43 said yes to her, I said yes to that family. And there is a bit of separation there, but still there's also a heart that says, this is our family. And my wife does the same with my brother's kids. It's an idea that says,
37:53 you know, I'm gonna start perspective shifting the way that I view my family because what I'm trying to do is distant myself from the messiness, but instead, baby, I should just start embracing the messy
38:07 marriage, middle of what's going on in my family, in the dysfunction, in the damage, God, you're doing a work because you did a work in Jesus and Jesus did a work for us. So therefore God can do a work in you.
38:18 Let's pray this afternoon. Praise God. Let's pray. God, we thank you so much for this word today. Lord, I just pray that you transform us through this message today God. As we go to spend the next couple of weeks leading
38:30 to Jesus's birth and into the manger father God, I pray that we may see your word clearer than ever. And may we see Jesus's hand more than ever in our life father God.
38:42 May we start not to look at in a magnifying glass how broken or tattered our family may be, but just how the very fact that God you can do wonders in our family, even in the messy, even in the dysfunction, and
38:54 even in damage. So God, I pray if there's anyone here that's struggling with some family things today, God. May your presence be in the middle, Lord. May your provision be in the middle, Father God. And may your peace be
39:05 in the middle of that family, Father God. Whatever distress may be going through, whatever dysfunction may be there, God. I pray Lord that you're the 1 who can bring function to all things. Jesus is the great physician.Show more
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