back to indexBerean Community Church Sunday Service October 23, 2022
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It says, "Your throne, O God, is forever and ever. 00:11:41.000 |
A scepter of uprightness is the scepter of your kingdom. 00:11:45.000 |
You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness. 00:11:55.000 |
sometimes we get into a rote-ness of coming week to week, 00:11:58.000 |
but I wanted to encourage us to remember why we're here, 00:12:03.000 |
He is the God of God, King of kings, and Lord of lords. 00:12:07.000 |
So we're gonna sing this first song, "Before the Throne of God," 00:15:24.000 |
All right, good morning. Welcome to Berean Community Church. 00:15:27.000 |
We're gonna get to a few announcements before we get started. 00:15:29.000 |
Pastor Nate's gonna come up, and he has an announcement for our college ministry. 00:15:33.000 |
Okay, so we're gonna be having a college welcome lunch. 00:15:39.000 |
So especially for those of you who haven't been able to make it out to some of our weekday events, 00:15:44.000 |
and this, you've been coming out to our Sundays, 00:15:50.000 |
in the building right across the way, this is a cafe. 00:15:53.000 |
There's another part, we're gonna be having a sign right out that door to help you to identify where it is. 00:16:00.000 |
But please come, and we're going to be giving you some lunch to eat. 00:16:03.000 |
But beyond that, to help you to connect with some of the students, 00:16:06.000 |
introduce you to our college staff, some of the visions of our church, 00:16:10.000 |
and other ways that you can connect to our church as well, middle of the week. 00:16:13.000 |
We have rites, ministries, and different service things going on. 00:16:16.000 |
And so, please, we wanna warmly invite you to that. 00:16:22.000 |
All right, as you guys know, this week we have All Church Praise and Prayer. 00:16:27.000 |
This Friday at 730, so we don't have our regular Bible study. 00:16:32.000 |
So please, we encourage you to come on time so we can get started right at 730. 00:16:39.000 |
I've been told that we have enough homes now that's signed up. 00:16:43.000 |
But those of you who are planning to sign up, that we ask you to sign up today if possible, 00:16:48.000 |
because they're already making--diving up the groups and to place people. 00:16:55.000 |
If you sign up late, we're gonna have to plug you wherever it's open--Diamond Bar, LA, wherever it's open. 00:17:02.000 |
And so, if you sign up late, we're gonna have to just plug you into 20, 30, 40 miles away. 00:17:08.000 |
So just come, and if you're planning to come, just sign up as soon as you can so we can get that going. 00:17:13.000 |
Trunk Formation, they said that they do have enough volunteers for the Trunk Formation. 00:17:17.000 |
If you wanna just help out that day, serving food, making food, prizes, just dressing up, acting silly, whatever it is. 00:17:24.000 |
If you wanna volunteer, you can do that, but they're also still asking for--if you wanna-- 00:17:29.000 |
if you can't volunteer in that way, but you still want to participate in some way, 00:17:33.000 |
and they're still taking donations for the prizes. 00:17:38.000 |
These are things that maybe the children would like for prizes, and you wanna donate that. 00:17:42.000 |
There are places where you can donate on the other side in the cafe area. 00:17:46.000 |
So they're asking for more of that before that day. 00:17:49.000 |
And then we have, again, one last thing, the BAM Park Day Fellowship happening in November 5th. 00:17:58.000 |
All right, so again, if you are joining us and you're new to the church, 00:18:01.000 |
we have a offering box in the back for physical offerings. 00:18:04.000 |
So whether it's a check or whatever it is, please visit that as you're going out. 00:18:10.000 |
But for the rest of us, if you're gonna give electronically, let me pray for us, 00:18:14.000 |
and then we'll give you a minute to get to that, all right? 00:18:20.000 |
Gracious Father, we thank you so much for the privilege that we have to come and worship you. 00:18:25.000 |
I pray that whatever distractions that we've been entangled with this week 00:18:33.000 |
knowing, Father God, that that is where we find our refuge, our comfort, our hope. 00:18:39.000 |
I pray that you will strengthen the church, Lord God. 00:18:41.000 |
Remind us again and again and again of the hope that we have in him 00:18:45.000 |
so that all that we do, Father God, will be for the sake of your glory and for your kingdom. 00:18:50.000 |
I pray that even this giving, help us to give in a way that honors you as an act of worship, 00:18:56.000 |
not under compulsion, but in joy, that it may be multiplied for your glory and for your use. 00:19:55.000 |
Church family, let's all rise together as we come before God and sing. 00:20:14.000 |
In the name of the Father, in the name of the Son, in the name of the Spirit, Lord we come. 00:20:28.000 |
We're gathered together to lift up your name, to call on our Savior, to fall on your grace. 00:20:38.000 |
Hear the joyful sound of our offering, as your saints bow down, as your people sing. 00:20:48.000 |
We will rise with you, lifted on your wings, and the world will sing that our God sings. 00:21:02.000 |
Our God sings, there is hope in your name, Lord. 00:21:28.000 |
In the name of the Father, in the name of the Son, in the name of the Spirit, Lord we come. 00:21:38.000 |
We're gathered together to lift up your name, to call on our Savior, to fall on your grace. 00:21:48.000 |
Hear the joyful sound of our offering, as your saints bow down, as your people sing. 00:21:58.000 |
We will rise with you, lifted on your wings, and the world will sing that our God sings. 00:22:46.000 |
Hear the joyful sound of our offering, as your saints bow down, 00:22:57.000 |
We will rise with you, lifted on your wings, and the world will sing that our God sings. 00:24:29.000 |
Now I love the voice of Jesus on the cross of Calvary. 00:24:47.000 |
Though the sun has ceased its shining, though the war appears at last, 00:25:23.000 |
All the pardon he has offered, great the welcome that I receive. 00:25:33.000 |
Boldly I approach my Father, called in Jesus' righteousness. 00:26:18.000 |
But the Son who died to save us, wrote that we would be free indeed. 00:26:44.000 |
But the Son who died to save us, wrote that we would be free indeed. 00:27:21.000 |
To my Savior and my God, I rejoice in Jesus' victory. 00:28:03.000 |
This morning, we have a special presentation of our children. 00:28:08.000 |
We -- our church has been very fruitful in multiplying. 00:28:11.000 |
This is the fastest growing age of our church, zero to one. 00:28:16.000 |
Yeah, so we're going to have the parents come, and one by one, they're going to be presenting their children. 00:28:23.000 |
So if we can -- are we going to call them one by one, or -- yeah, can we have everybody just come? 00:28:50.000 |
And so they're going to all come up, and they're going to present their children. 00:28:53.000 |
And, again, we want to -- before they begin, I wanted to give a short encouragement. 00:29:06.000 |
It says, "Behold, children are a gift of the Lord. 00:29:12.000 |
Like arrows in the hand of a warrior, so are the children of one's youth. 00:29:17.000 |
How blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them. 00:29:20.000 |
They will not be ashamed when they speak with their enemies in the gate." 00:29:28.000 |
So it's interesting in this text where children are described as quiver, they're basically arrows. 00:29:33.000 |
You know, it's interesting that children are described as warriors in our generation. 00:29:39.000 |
And the Bible describes, like, the many children that you have, how blessed you are 00:29:43.000 |
because we're able to raise up warriors for the next generation. 00:29:47.000 |
And so, again, we live in a generation where, you know, less and less there's, you know, 00:29:52.000 |
population decrease in certain cultures because they see children as a burden. 00:29:56.000 |
But, again, that should not be the case with Christians, that every child that is born into this world 00:30:01.000 |
is an opportunity for them to be equipped and trained to do the Lord's work 00:30:05.000 |
and bring glory to God and be the light in this world. 00:30:07.000 |
So we're going to give an opportunity for all the parents to present their children. 00:30:13.000 |
Hi, church family. My name is Jeremiah. This is my wife, Carrie. 00:30:22.000 |
They were actually brought into our family through adoption. 00:30:24.000 |
We adopted them five days post-fertilization, so they were actually created by another couple through IVF. 00:30:31.000 |
And they were frozen for ten years before we transferred them. 00:30:34.000 |
So they're technically 11 years old, but as you can see, developmentally, they're about five months now. 00:30:41.000 |
So Karis means grace, and we named her just a reminder that the fact that she's here, alive, 00:30:49.000 |
and providentially God has brought her into our family is of grace. 00:30:53.000 |
We just pray that she would receive saving grace and that she would remember God. 00:30:57.000 |
God is a God of grace and has sovereignly orchestrated all things. 00:31:03.000 |
We were introduced to Seth in Genesis 4 after Cain kills Abel. 00:31:08.000 |
God gives Adam and Eve another offspring, and Eve says that he has appointed another one in place of Abel for Cain killed Abel. 00:31:18.000 |
And we see that it was Seth's descendants that called upon the name of the Lord 00:31:23.000 |
and ultimately received the Messiah from the line of Seth. 00:31:26.000 |
And so in a similar way, we were thinking that, you know, although Seth doesn't share genetic relationships with us, 00:31:33.000 |
but God has sovereignly brought him into our family, and we pray that he would bless Seth and his descendants with godly individuals 00:31:41.000 |
and just bless the world and have a multi-generational impact for his glory. 00:31:56.000 |
This is my wife Sharon, and this is our third Ayla. 00:32:00.000 |
And we chose her name because it starts with the letter A, and our other two also. 00:32:09.000 |
And our prayer for all of our kids would be like they would come to Saving Faith at an early age. 00:32:15.000 |
And out of our three kids, she seems to be the most strong-willed. 00:32:20.000 |
And so we are praying that God will continue to grow her and use her to be bold in her faith and full of conviction and not easily swayed. 00:32:30.000 |
And our prayer for her comes from Colossians 110, so that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord to please him in all respects, 00:32:39.000 |
bearing fruits in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God. 00:32:43.000 |
And so pray for our family that we would be able to create an environment at home that does not hinder the gospel from Ayla, 00:32:50.000 |
and that we would be able to continually preach the word to her and live it out in our daily lives. 00:33:04.000 |
Hi, I'm Jeremy, and this is my wife, Sarah, and this is our daughter, Coraline, 00:33:07.000 |
which means something related to the heart or a maiden. 00:33:10.000 |
But we didn't choose her name based on what it means but what it doesn't mean to us. 00:33:17.000 |
We taught thousands of kids, and certain names have certain connotations. 00:33:20.000 |
So we tried to not pick a name that has any sort of negative connotation. 00:33:25.000 |
So think of it, Coraline, we hadn't had any, so blank slate. 00:33:33.000 |
But we do pray that she would come to faith, that God would give a heart of repentance, 00:33:38.000 |
eyes of faith, so that she would be a blessing to others, including us. 00:33:50.000 |
Hi, everyone. My name is Joseph. This is my wife, Jessica, and this is our son, Benjamin. 00:33:54.000 |
He's nine months old now, and the name Benjamin in Hebrew means "son of my right hand." 00:34:00.000 |
But we mostly just like the way the name sounded, and we usually call him Ben, which just means "son." 00:34:07.000 |
Our prayer request for him will be that he comes to know Christ early on 00:34:10.000 |
and that he'll grow up to be a man who loves God. 00:34:12.000 |
And for us as parents, that we'll have patience and wisdom when raising him. 00:34:21.000 |
Hi, good morning. My name is Herman. This is my wife, Jennifer. 00:34:29.000 |
Her name, we just really like the name Aria, so there's not a real story behind that. 00:34:35.000 |
But our prayer request for her is that she would grow up to love God and accept Christ as her Savior, 00:34:43.000 |
and that you would pray for us to have wisdom and be examples for her. 00:34:55.000 |
Hi, everyone. My name's Davey, and this is my wife, Jenny. 00:34:58.000 |
As you guys can see, our son has stage fright. 00:35:03.000 |
His name is Jonathan, and we named him after the character in the Bible, 00:35:13.000 |
It's also "gift from God," so he's definitely a gift from God. 00:35:21.000 |
and we want him to have a heart of a lion, to be brave, to preach the gospel, and to follow Christ. 00:35:32.000 |
And also, our prayer request is for him to get to know Christ at a young age, 00:35:40.000 |
as well as to have a good, loving relationship with his brother. 00:35:58.000 |
All right, before we dismiss them, we're going to take a minute to pray for them. 00:36:02.000 |
And our prayer, again, is for all the parents, 00:36:04.000 |
that they would come to faith at an early age, 00:36:06.000 |
that each one of them will become warriors for the kingdom of God. 00:36:11.000 |
Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for the fruitfulness of our young families. 00:36:16.000 |
We pray, Father God, that as each of the fathers have shared their desire and their prayer 00:36:21.000 |
for their children, Lord God, to open their ears and soften their hearts, 00:36:25.000 |
that they may understand your grace and your love, your forgiveness, Lord God, upon their life. 00:36:31.000 |
That they would truly be able to live long lives, Lord God, proclaiming the kingdom 00:36:41.000 |
I pray that you would help us to build a community where we can share our love for you, 00:36:46.000 |
for one another, that we would become brighter and brighter lights, Lord God. 00:36:51.000 |
Help us as adults and parents to build a church, Lord God, that our next generation of souls 00:36:57.000 |
will be able to take the baton and continue the work, Lord God, of spreading the gospel 00:37:02.000 |
and being greater and greater light, especially as the world is becoming darker, Lord God. 00:37:06.000 |
Give them strength from an early age, that they would be able to support one another, 00:37:11.000 |
encourage each other, and sharpen one another toward loving good deeds. 00:37:15.000 |
So we lift these families and these children to you. 00:37:19.000 |
All right, let's give them one more round of applause. 00:37:26.000 |
All right, so as they are being dismissed, if you can turn your Bibles to Luke 3, 00:37:31.000 |
and we will be reading from verse 23 all the way to verse 38. 00:37:41.000 |
Okay, so if I pronounce it wrong, just keep it to yourself. 00:37:53.000 |
I've already practiced with first service, but I do want to read them, 00:37:57.000 |
even though we're not going to go through the names one by one. 00:37:59.000 |
It is in the Scripture, and there is nothing in the Bible that we shouldn't pay attention to. 00:38:04.000 |
So even if we're not going to be studying name by name, I think it is important for us, 00:38:09.000 |
at least in principle, to know that these names are here for a reason. 00:38:16.000 |
"When he began his ministry, Jesus himself was about thirty years of age, 00:38:19.000 |
and he was the son of the son of Eli, the son of Methot, the son of Levi, 00:38:24.000 |
the son of Melchi, the son of Jani, the son of Joseph, the son of Mattathias, 00:38:29.000 |
the son of Amos, the son of Nahum, the son of Hesli, the son of Nagai, 00:38:34.000 |
the son of Mattathias, the son of Samin, the son of Joseph, the son of Jodah, 00:38:41.000 |
the son of Joannon, the son of Rishah, the son of Zerubbabel, the son of Shertiel, 00:38:46.000 |
the son of Neri, the son of Melchi, the son of Addi, the son of Cossam, 00:38:50.000 |
the son of Elmodam, the son of Ur, the son of Joshua, the son of Eleazar, 00:38:55.000 |
the son of Jorim, the son of Methot, the son of Levi, the son of Simeon, 00:38:59.000 |
the son of Judah, the son of Joseph, the son of Jonam, the son of Eliakim, 00:39:03.000 |
the son of Melia, the son of Menna, the son of Mattathah, the son of Nathan, 00:39:08.000 |
the son of David, the son of Jesse, the son of Obed, the son of Boaz, the son of Salmon, 00:39:13.000 |
the son of Nashon, the son of Ammedad, the son of Admin, the son of Ram, 00:39:17.000 |
the son of Hazron, the son of Perez, the son of Judah, the son of Jacob, 00:39:21.000 |
the son of Isaac, the son of Abraham, the son of Terah, the son of Nehor, 00:39:25.000 |
the son of Saruq, the son of Rehu, the son of Peleg, the son of Heber, 00:39:29.000 |
the son of Shelah, the son of Canaan, the son of Arphaxad, the son of Shem, 00:39:34.000 |
the son of Noah, the son of Lamech, the son of Methuselah, the son of Enoch, 00:39:38.000 |
the son of Jared, the son of Mahalaleel, the son of Canaan, the son of Enosh, 00:39:43.000 |
the son of Seth, the son of Adam, the son of God. Let's pray. 00:39:47.000 |
Gracious Father, we pray for your blessing. We pray for the Holy Spirit to lead us and guide us. 00:39:52.000 |
May your intentions of why these words are here, Father God, 00:39:56.000 |
strike us, invite us, guide us, and build us. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. 00:40:02.000 |
As you guys know, right now we're kind of in election season, 00:40:06.000 |
and so you've probably been getting a lot of advertisements or push to vote for this candidate or that candidate. 00:40:14.000 |
Typically, when you see the candidates being presented, if you've watched any debates, 00:40:19.000 |
they usually start out by giving their credentials. And they'll say, 00:40:22.000 |
"You should vote for me because I have this background. I went to this school. 00:40:25.000 |
These are the experiences." Or if they've been in office, they'll say, "These are my accomplishments." 00:40:30.000 |
And the reason why they do that is obvious. It's because they're selling themselves 00:40:37.000 |
so that you can vote for them, that they will be the best leader. 00:40:40.000 |
And obviously, a lot of that is fluff because they're trying to sell themselves. 00:40:45.000 |
But they do that in order for you to understand who they are. 00:40:49.000 |
So if they do get elected, you know what their credentials are, 00:40:52.000 |
so that you would pay attention to them and possibly follow their leadership. 00:40:56.000 |
Luke has been preparing for the presentation of Christ from chapter 1. 00:41:01.000 |
Obviously, all the Gospels is a detailed presentation of who Jesus is. 00:41:05.000 |
Up to this point, we've been learning the background about who Christ is 00:41:10.000 |
and how John the Baptist showed up on the scene and what he did for the preparation of Christ. 00:41:16.000 |
And so we looked at, first of all, a couple of weeks ago, not only John the Baptist's ministry, 00:41:21.000 |
but his confirmation. In his baptism, he rises up and heavens open up, 00:41:25.000 |
and God the Father speaks, and the Holy Spirit descends. 00:41:28.000 |
And there's a confirmation of the Trinity, where he said, "You are my Son in whom I am well pleased." 00:41:34.000 |
And the Holy Spirit rests upon him. And again, a confirmation for anybody who is questioning, 00:41:39.000 |
"Who is this man? How is he any different than anybody else who has been baptized?" 00:41:43.000 |
And so clearly, it's a presentation of who he is. 00:41:46.000 |
Next week, we're going to be looking at the temptation of Christ. 00:41:49.000 |
So the temptation of Christ is, again, a confirmation before he enters into ministry of redemption, 00:41:55.000 |
that people understand that he is worthy to take away our sins. 00:41:59.000 |
That every part of this test is to confirm that he is capable and able to stand in the way 00:42:07.000 |
where he can take away our sins. And that's why he needs to be tested to see if he truly can be the Messiah, 00:42:14.000 |
if he truly is perfect without sin. And so that's the confirmation that we're going to see next week. 00:42:19.000 |
Today, the confirmation is in his genealogy, that he is the fulfillment of the prophecy given, 00:42:26.000 |
not only to David and Abraham, but all the way back to the time of Adam. 00:42:31.000 |
In the Bible, as you know, there are two separate genealogies of Christ. 00:42:35.000 |
We have one in the book of Matthew, and then we have one here. 00:42:38.000 |
The one in the book of Matthew is very particular in that it is written to the Jews 00:42:43.000 |
so that they would recognize that he is the fulfillment of the prophecy given to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, 00:42:49.000 |
and then to David, that he is the Messiah that they've been waiting for. 00:42:53.000 |
So in order to establish that, Matthew, as the whole theme of the book, is that Jesus as king, 00:42:59.000 |
his genealogy is written starting from Abraham in a descending manner all the way to Christ. 00:43:09.000 |
Luke's gospel, the emphasis is not the Jewish community. The emphasis is to mankind. 00:43:15.000 |
And so for that reason, the connection goes all the way in an ascending order, 00:43:20.000 |
starting from Jesus all the way to Adam, and there are 77 different people who are mentioned here. 00:43:25.000 |
Now you have to understand that genealogies are extraordinarily important to the Jewish community. 00:43:31.000 |
In fact, the Bible has over 34 different genealogies, depending on how you count it. 00:43:37.000 |
Some will say 27, some will say 34, depending on how you count these genealogies. 00:43:41.000 |
So our natural tendency is when we see genealogy, it's like a, you know, they call it fan reading. 00:43:48.000 |
Turn on the fan and let the pages flip and say, "I did it. I saw it." 00:43:53.000 |
But we don't really spend a lot of time digging through what the purpose of this genealogy is. 00:43:58.000 |
They did not randomly write these things. These are here for a particular reason. 00:44:03.000 |
In fact, sometimes the parts of the Bible that we don't normally preach on, 00:44:08.000 |
there's so much more treasure that are buried in there because we don't pay much attention to it. 00:44:17.000 |
In a Jewish community in particular, genealogies were very important because it fulfilled two purposes. 00:44:25.000 |
And one main one, the reason why it was important, is because he said that the seed of the woman 00:44:34.000 |
And so from the get-go, they took meticulous order of their genealogy. 00:44:40.000 |
Now, in our generation, like how many of you know your genealogy beyond your great-grandparents? 00:44:49.000 |
And because so many of us immigrated or our parents immigrated, 00:44:52.000 |
we don't know a whole lot beyond our grandparents or great-grandparents, right? 00:44:57.000 |
But even if that wasn't the case, most people don't know beyond maybe the second or third generation up, 00:45:04.000 |
But very few will know 400, 500, 600 years of our ancestral background, right? 00:45:10.000 |
Every once in a while, you'll take one of those genetic tests and say you have 2% Irish, 4% Chinese, 00:45:16.000 |
5% Japanese, or whatever it is that you have. 00:45:19.000 |
But it's more out of curiosity. Not necessarily it has any effect. 00:45:23.000 |
So you find out that you have some Western or European blood. 00:45:30.000 |
Well, the Jews took meticulous genealogical record, 00:45:36.000 |
one, because God told them that this was going to happen. 00:45:39.000 |
But secondly, if you read the Book of Numbers, their inheritance was based upon their genealogy. 00:45:45.000 |
So if you can trace your genealogy back to the tribe of Judah, you got a larger piece of land. 00:45:51.000 |
So if there was any kind of land dispute, they would have to go back into their genealogy and say, 00:45:55.000 |
"I am deserving of this because I can prove to you that I'm from the tribe of Benjamin or tribe of Judah." 00:46:00.000 |
Or if you're from tribe of Simeon, you might have got a little piece of land, right? 00:46:04.000 |
And so for that reason, for personal reasons, they took meticulous record of the genealogy. 00:46:12.000 |
We know, just out of curiosity, I wonder what my grandparents were like. 00:46:16.000 |
And I asked before my father passed away, like, "Where did Christianity come into our family?" 00:46:23.000 |
And found out that it was my mother, my grandmother's mother, who were the first ones that received Christ. 00:46:31.000 |
But the Jewish community knew meticulously where they came from, 500, 600, 700, who married who, what happened, 00:46:39.000 |
what kind of problems did they have, what kind of blessing, what land they owned. 00:46:42.000 |
Because all of this was record of their inheritance. 00:46:47.000 |
And secondly, it was a record of their spiritual inheritance, 00:46:50.000 |
like the promise that God made that this was how the covenant was coming by. 00:46:55.000 |
The reason why this is so important was when Matthew and Luke presents the genealogy, 00:47:01.000 |
if anybody wanted to contest it, they could have easily contested it. 00:47:05.000 |
If I told you this morning that I am a direct descendant of Genghis Khan, right, 00:47:10.000 |
you can easily prove me wrong, right, because my birth records are somewhere else, right? 00:47:16.000 |
And you can easily look at, you know, just even looking at me, right? 00:47:20.000 |
If I told you that I came from Europe, you could tell, right? 00:47:23.000 |
Well, in the first century, before the destruction of the temple, 00:47:28.000 |
if somebody presented themselves and said, "I'm a direct descendant of David," 00:47:36.000 |
they were so meticulous about keeping genealogy of every Jew, 00:47:40.000 |
and it was kept at the temple, they could have easily taken this and said, "Are you kidding me?" 00:47:45.000 |
They could have easily gone to the temple and said, "There's no way. 00:47:47.000 |
Jesus says that's not his father, that's not his mother, that's not his grandfather." 00:47:52.000 |
So the fact that these two genealogies are written for people who could have easily dismissed it 00:47:57.000 |
is, again, proof to us that all of these things are true. 00:48:02.000 |
Because if it wasn't, they could have easily been debunked. 00:48:06.000 |
What's interesting is that after Christ comes, 00:48:10.000 |
after all the purposes of why these genealogies were kept was fulfilled in Christ, 00:48:19.000 |
And as a result of that, all the genealogical records has been erased since AD 70. 00:48:26.000 |
So today, if you meet a modern-day Jew, and they tell you they're from a tribe of Judah, 00:48:31.000 |
it's just by family tradition. There's no way to prove it. 00:48:34.000 |
If they say they're from the tribe of Judah, because there's no legal record that traces them back further than AD 70, 00:48:43.000 |
It's just they were told this from their grandparents and great-grandparents. 00:48:47.000 |
So the fact that these were presented to that generation in and of itself is evidence of its accuracy. 00:48:58.000 |
The genealogies, although it became obsolete when Christ came to fulfill it, 00:49:04.000 |
we want to look at what's happening in this genealogical record. 00:49:10.000 |
And there's something very different than the book of Matthew, because I don't know, 00:49:14.000 |
some of you guys may remember when we were going through Matthew, 00:49:16.000 |
there's actually quite a few names that we can point to and then flip to the Old Testament 00:49:23.000 |
Three-fourths of the names that are mentioned in the Gospel of Luke are nowhere to be found in the Bible. 00:49:30.000 |
You'll recognize, as I was reading it, you probably recognize maybe about half a dozen names, 00:49:36.000 |
whether it's Noah and his children or in the beginning or Adam or Seth. 00:49:41.000 |
But three-fourths of the people that are mentioned here out of the 77, there's no trace of them. 00:49:46.000 |
And their names may be mentioned, but there's no record of who they are, so we don't know anything about them. 00:49:52.000 |
So this morning, my intention is not to go back and dig through the history and find extra biblical evidence, 00:50:00.000 |
It's really for us to have a broad understanding as to why is this here? 00:50:07.000 |
Obviously, one is to prove that Christ fulfilled the promise that was made in the beginning. 00:50:17.000 |
But secondly, it is a record of God's faithfulness to all of us. 00:50:22.000 |
And so what I want to do this morning is I want to, I'm not going to dig into each part of this text, 00:50:27.000 |
but I want to give a large overview of why this is important. 00:50:37.000 |
There's a reason why Luke's genealogy goes all the way back up to Adam, 00:50:41.000 |
because Jesus is not just the fulfillment of the prophecy to the nation of Israel, but to mankind. 00:50:47.000 |
In Genesis 315, where the theologians call this the pre-gospel, 00:50:51.000 |
that there's traces of what God has intended that he was going to do to mankind right after the fall, 00:50:57.000 |
and he says this, "And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed. 00:51:03.000 |
And he shall bruise you on the head, and you shall bruise him on the heel." 00:51:07.000 |
In that text alone, obviously, we don't know the gospel, right? 00:51:11.000 |
But when you start to trace the history of what he says and how this is fulfilled, 00:51:15.000 |
clearly you can trace it back and say he had this intention from the beginning, right? 00:51:19.000 |
And so the promise was that because of their failure, sin and death had come to reign. 00:51:27.000 |
But God makes a promise that he's going to restore them through the seed of the woman. 00:51:32.000 |
So you would think that after this promise is made, that we get to chapter 4, 00:51:36.000 |
and then when they have their first seed, that this curse would be reversed, right? 00:51:41.000 |
That's what you would expect. If you read this understanding that that's what he meant, 00:51:45.000 |
you would expect something completely different in chapter 4. But what happens in chapter 4? 00:51:49.000 |
They have another child, and what does that child turn out to be? 00:51:57.000 |
So the first seed, the first seed that comes out of Eve after the fall is another murderer. 00:52:07.000 |
And who does he murder? His own brother because he's jealous. 00:52:12.000 |
And so you would think, "Okay, well maybe it's not this generation. Maybe it's the next one." 00:52:17.000 |
So we skip down to chapter 6, and the numbers of the descendants begin to multiply. 00:52:23.000 |
So there's many seeds that have been multiplied, and then we get to chapter 6, 00:52:28.000 |
and the more they multiply, the more they sinned. 00:52:32.000 |
And so God is so grieved over all the seeds of her children that he ends up deciding to wipe them all out, 00:52:43.000 |
So Adam then gets spared, and he's going to basically repopulate the earth 00:52:53.000 |
So you would think, "Okay, they started over, so Noah and his family repopulate, and everything's going well." 00:52:59.000 |
Except by the time we get to chapter 11, when they repopulate, what happens? 00:53:04.000 |
They become more advanced. They're one together, and they're greater in number. 00:53:09.000 |
They have more money, and they use that to do what in chapter 11? 00:53:12.000 |
They decide to build the Tower of Babel, and they're going to challenge God like Satan did. 00:53:18.000 |
And as a result of that, God has to judge them, and he destroys the Tower of Babel, and he confuses the language. 00:53:24.000 |
Imagine, like today in our generation, how much talk about becoming one, being united, we have to be one. 00:53:32.000 |
But we have a clear record when sinful people gather together, they sin even greater. 00:53:38.000 |
Unity in and of itself is not a blessing from God, because that's what man does in chapter 11. 00:53:45.000 |
But despite that, God breaks in in Genesis chapter 12, and he says, "Despite the sins of mankind, 00:53:54.000 |
Your descendants are going to outnumber the stars in the sand, and I'm going to give you land, 00:53:59.000 |
and because of you, all the other natures are going to be multiplied." 00:54:03.000 |
So from chapter 12 to chapter 50 is a story of the line of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. 00:54:10.000 |
So you would think now that God has confirmed and specified how he was going to bless and save mankind, 00:54:18.000 |
you would think that the story would start to flourish from this point on. 00:54:21.000 |
Instead, you have chapter 12 to 50 of an entanglement of sin, of infighting, 00:54:27.000 |
of brothers wanting to kill each other back and forth. 00:54:30.000 |
And then at the end of Genesis, instead of ending in hope, there's more despair. 00:54:39.000 |
At the beginning of the book of Exodus, they basically get enslaved. 00:54:44.000 |
Before they become an official nation, they're enslaved for 400 years. 00:54:49.000 |
400 years. This is after God made the promise that the seed of the woman is going to come crush the head of the Satan. 00:54:56.000 |
And then for 400 years, after God told Abraham that your descendants are going to be a blessing to all the world, 00:55:05.000 |
they become slaves. And as a result of becoming slaves, they cry out to God. 00:55:13.000 |
God has mercy on them, and God delivers them miraculously from the greatest superpower, human power, at that time. 00:55:20.000 |
And so you would think that after they come out, they say they finally learned their lesson. 00:55:25.000 |
The nation of Israel is established, and then we see the book of Leviticus. 00:55:31.000 |
Those of you who are with us in the book of Leviticus, if you carefully study the book of Leviticus, 00:55:37.000 |
is that a very welcoming book? No. Everything about the tabernacle does not say welcome. 00:55:48.000 |
If you read it, it says, "If you do this, you will die. If you do that, you will die. 00:55:51.000 |
If you touch this, you will die. If you eat this, you will die. If you stand here, you will die. 00:55:55.000 |
If you offer up a string fire, you will die. If you come too far, you will die. 00:55:59.000 |
If the animal is defected, you will die." It says over and over again, it is not very welcoming. 00:56:07.000 |
In fact, the book of Leviticus is telling sinful people, "Do not be arrogant to think that you can possibly come into my presence." 00:56:16.000 |
After he gives the instructions and warning, the very first offering that is given is rejected. 00:56:22.000 |
And just as he said, "Nehudah ben Abihu" dies, just as he said. 00:56:28.000 |
So imagine the fear that came upon the nation of Israel as a result of the tabernacle. 00:56:33.000 |
It wasn't like, "Oh, our God is there. I want to go see him today. 00:56:37.000 |
I'm so lonely. Can I come and abide in his tabernacle?" 00:56:41.000 |
No. The presence of the tabernacle was terrifying. 00:56:47.000 |
Leviticus is a reminder to them to take God's presence seriously. 00:56:58.000 |
That as God is leading them into the promised land, that the spies who went and saw it, they wouldn't believe. 00:57:04.000 |
Even after all that they have experienced with God, they go and see these fortified cities. 00:57:09.000 |
Like, "These guys are giants. We can't beat them." 00:57:11.000 |
And as a result of their unbelief, they wander in the desert for 40 years. 00:57:18.000 |
And you would think that during the 40 years that they would be faithful servants, 00:57:22.000 |
but there's infighting, idolatry, every sin that you can imagine happens, 00:57:25.000 |
even as they are wandering in the desert for 40 years. 00:57:29.000 |
And then right before they get in, God has an assembly. 00:57:33.000 |
And he tells them in the book of Deuteronomy, "I'm going to take you into the promised land, like I said. 00:57:38.000 |
And I'm going to finally fulfill the promise of land that I said to Abraham. 00:57:42.000 |
But when you get in there, if you obey my law, you will be blessed. And here is the blessing." 00:57:49.000 |
And then he says, "But if you do not obey my commandments, here is the curses." 00:57:52.000 |
And there's three times more descriptions of the curses than the blessing. 00:57:57.000 |
It's almost like God already knew what was going to happen. 00:58:03.000 |
And Joshua, this young servant, comes in strong general. 00:58:09.000 |
And God uses him to conquer and enter into the promised land. 00:58:12.000 |
And so in the book of Joshua, the first few chapters, 00:58:17.000 |
most of you have probably memorized Joshua chapter 1, verse 8, verse 9. 00:58:23.000 |
"Have I not commanded you, 'Be strong and courageous, do not turn from the Lord to the left or to the right.'" 00:58:27.000 |
Because all the excitement happens at chapter 1. 00:58:30.000 |
But as soon as they get into the promised land, what happens? 00:58:39.000 |
So the rest of the book of Joshua is the compromise of the nation of Israel after they conquer and they go in. 00:58:46.000 |
So they finally go in, and then we get into the book of Judges. 00:58:50.000 |
And the theme of the book of Judges is that everyone did what was right in their own eyes. 00:58:55.000 |
They will continue to fall into sin in the promised land. 00:58:59.000 |
And as a result of that, the enemies will come. 00:59:03.000 |
And raises up a judge and delivers them for a period. 00:59:06.000 |
But as soon as they become comfortable, they forget God. 00:59:12.000 |
And then they cry out to God, and God has mercy. 00:59:14.000 |
So this cycle of this over and over and over and over of their rebellion against God in the book of Judges. 00:59:21.000 |
Now, by this time, you would think, okay, they're done. 00:59:30.000 |
Hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years that they've been rebelling one generation after another generation. 00:59:38.000 |
Right in the midst of all of that, right, after the curse of God is being added upon them generation after generation after generation, 00:59:51.000 |
And God breaks into their rebellious history, and this strange girl out of nowhere, who's not even a Jew, 00:59:57.000 |
is faithful to the mother-in-law, and they introduce to us a figure named Boaz, a kinsman redeemer, 01:00:04.000 |
who is a foreshadowing of the coming of Christ. 01:00:07.000 |
And reminding us that even in the midst of this darkness, that God has not forgotten his covenant. 01:00:15.000 |
Then we get into 1 Samuel, 1 Kings, and 1 Chronicles, which is the establishment of the kings until the end. 01:00:25.000 |
Now, you know, there was an earlier part of the church years ago, I was preaching through this section of the Bible. 01:00:32.000 |
By the time I was about a third way through, I was finished. 01:00:37.000 |
And the reason why I was, and some of you, there's probably only like maybe four or five of you who was with us during that time. 01:00:43.000 |
Because every single Sunday, I would come and say, "Well, this king did this, and because of their sin, God judged them this way. 01:00:51.000 |
And so we need to make sure that we live righteously." 01:00:54.000 |
And then the next week I would come, "Well, this king started out well, but they fell. 01:00:58.000 |
And then God judged them, and as a result of that, that they need to repent, and God did this, so we need to be careful." 01:01:03.000 |
The next week I would come, "But then this king, they come, and they seem to be okay, but eventually they fall out." 01:01:10.000 |
So basically, it was months and months and months of how every single king rebelled against God and led them astray. 01:01:19.000 |
So by the time I was about halfway through, I said, "I see why there's no material in the Old Testament." 01:01:26.000 |
You know what I mean? In the New Testament, any passage I want to look up, I can find dozens and dozens of sermon on any text, any word. 01:01:33.000 |
But if you go back into the Old Testament and look for expository preaching in the Old Testament, it doesn't exist. 01:01:38.000 |
So either they would make a broad stroke, there's one sermon in the Book of Judges, two sermons in Kings, or three sermons, or a topical sermon on this particular. 01:01:47.000 |
But it's very, very difficult to find expositional teaching, preaching from king to king to king to king. 01:01:56.000 |
I started it, so I had to finish it, you know, and I felt darkness coming over me, you know what I mean? 01:02:03.000 |
And I said, "Oh my gosh, I got to do this again." And I would see on the people's faces, like just darkness. 01:02:09.000 |
And I literally would dread, after the king is over, I got another king, and another king, and another king. 01:02:13.000 |
And I was eager to get out of the kings and the chronicles. 01:02:19.000 |
In the midst of that, I was like, "Finally, we get through." And to be honest, I stopped at Psalms. 01:02:24.000 |
I went through Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther, and parts of Job. 01:02:29.000 |
I was so depressed, like I was so eager to jump to the Book of Matthew, you know? 01:02:34.000 |
Ezra and Nehemiah that comes after 1st and 2nd Chronicles, basically it's, they don't heed the warnings of the prophets, 01:02:43.000 |
and they get taken away into captivity, and God has mercy and raises up a king, Cyrus, and they're able to return. 01:02:48.000 |
But when they returned, it wasn't a glorious return. 01:02:51.000 |
Majority of them got comfortable where they were at, and only a fraction of the Jews remember the covenant that God made, 01:02:58.000 |
and came back to Jerusalem. Why would we need to go to Jerusalem when our life is fine over here? 01:03:02.000 |
Some of them had become officials, some of them became wealthy, but they leave that behind to go back where? 01:03:07.000 |
To go back to what's there, other than God's covenant promise. 01:03:14.000 |
So when they built a temple, you had the old people who remember the glory that they fell from, 01:03:19.000 |
and in their celebration, they would be weeping because it was, it was, it was so, it was so tiny. 01:03:27.000 |
It was, the glory did not match what they remembered, and then the young ones, that's all they knew, 01:03:35.000 |
And so even as they are rebuilding, it's a reminder of their constant sin. 01:03:42.000 |
In the midst of all of this, God gives us hope that through this one person, 01:03:47.000 |
that it just seems like a random story, but again, it's a foreshadow reminding us that a Savior is going to come, 01:03:53.000 |
that despite the darkness of their history, God is going to come. 01:03:56.000 |
Then we have the book of Job. We don't know exactly where Job fits in, 01:04:00.000 |
but the theme of the book of Job is basically no matter how righteous you are, 01:04:04.000 |
if you're living in this fallen earth, you will experience suffering. 01:04:10.000 |
That's pretty much the theme of the book of Job, 01:04:19.000 |
You know, most people don't know this about the book of Psalm, 01:04:22.000 |
because we pick and choose the Psalms that we like. 01:04:25.000 |
Psalm 23, Psalm chapter 1, Psalm 119, and so the Psalms that uplift us, right? 01:04:31.000 |
Three-fourths of the Psalm is sinners complaining because of the suffering. 01:04:38.000 |
Why did the righteous suffer? Why did you allow this? 01:04:44.000 |
So three-fourths of it is honest prayer before God in their suffering. 01:04:50.000 |
Read Psalm all the way through. It is not uplifting. 01:05:02.000 |
but it basically is a highlight of the suffering of all mankind. 01:05:10.000 |
All the prophets are--falls into three categories. 01:05:18.000 |
So the pre-exile are prophets that God sends to the nation of Israel saying, 01:05:22.000 |
"If you don't turn from your sin, your enemies are going to come and take you captive, 01:05:27.000 |
and all your leaders, all your young men, all the women, all your children are going to be taken to captivity. 01:05:33.000 |
And so they're warning them, and then they don't listen, and they go into exile. 01:05:37.000 |
And then God sends prophets during the exile saying, 01:05:40.000 |
"To turn from their sin, even after you've experienced all of that, 01:05:43.000 |
you continue to go after idolatry? Didn't you learn your lesson?" 01:05:48.000 |
And then we get to post-exile, that after they return, 01:05:54.000 |
So it's the prophets pleading with a rebellious nation to turn and return. 01:06:05.000 |
Because at the end of a careful systematic study from Genesis to the book of Malachi, 01:06:11.000 |
it is the judgment of God that is repeatedly coming upon the nation of Israel 01:06:15.000 |
over and over and over and over again for thousands of years. 01:06:23.000 |
But the only glimmer of hope in Israel's history is that every one of these prophets, 01:06:29.000 |
after they pronounce judgment upon them, says, "Despite that, that God will remember His covenant, 01:06:38.000 |
and your Messiah is going to come, and He's going to establish a kingdom that is everlasting, 01:06:45.000 |
and He promises that this Messiah is going to come." 01:06:57.000 |
And just as God said to Amos, "There's going to be a famine of the Word that's going to come 01:07:07.000 |
So this genealogical record is a history of God's faithfulness 01:07:13.000 |
through thousands of years of Israel's rebellion. 01:07:17.000 |
And so this genealogy basically is the light being turned on. 01:07:22.000 |
That He has finally come after all these years. 01:07:26.000 |
The promise that God made in Genesis chapter 3, right after they fell, 01:07:31.000 |
generation after generation after generation after generation after generation after generation, 01:07:44.000 |
And that's who He is. That's being represented. 01:07:48.000 |
At what point would you have turned to despair if you were a Jew? 01:07:58.000 |
My guess is your seed's going to come, and then the seed comes, 01:08:07.000 |
I said, "Okay, okay. Maybe chapter 6? Maybe chapter 6? 01:08:15.000 |
Maybe chapter 12 you started, gets a second wind, 01:08:18.000 |
and by the time you get to chapter 50, it's like, "Oh my gosh. 01:08:21.000 |
These are the people that God's going to fulfill His promise?" 01:08:25.000 |
And then you get to the book of Exodus, it's like, "These slaves?" 01:08:28.000 |
And then they get delivered, it's like, "These are the people that God delivered? 01:08:33.000 |
And they're the ones that God's going to use?" 01:08:36.000 |
And then they get into the promise line, it's like, "Then? They're the promised people? 01:08:39.000 |
They're the ones who are going to declare the glory of God?" 01:08:44.000 |
At what point would you have fallen into despair? 01:08:49.000 |
How often do we fall into despair because God didn't answer our prayer today? 01:08:55.000 |
How often do we fall into despair because He didn't answer the way we wanted? 01:09:00.000 |
How often, how short-sighted are we because we measure His faithfulness 01:09:04.000 |
based upon this thin timeline that we've given Him? 01:09:08.000 |
See, this whole genealogy is a record of God's faithfulness 01:09:16.000 |
Last week I gave an illustration about the men stop poking. 01:09:21.000 |
And I asked you guys, "What was the whole message about?" 01:09:24.000 |
Some of you guys forgot already, but you remember the poking. 01:09:27.000 |
So I'm going to give you another illustration about dating. 01:09:31.000 |
So that you can remember. Remember the rest of the message too, okay? 01:09:38.000 |
I give an encouragement to not to poke because the person that you're poking 01:09:47.000 |
This is a person that's possibly the mother of your child. 01:09:50.000 |
So make up your mind and commit, right? Commit. 01:09:55.000 |
You know, early on in dating, that's a very fragile stage of your life 01:10:01.000 |
when you're dating because you're kind of checking each other's credit, basically. 01:10:14.000 |
And so every time they act a certain way or they say something or they do something, 01:10:19.000 |
you always go back to ask, "Is this worth investing?" 01:10:23.000 |
"Do you really care about me? Do you really love me? Is this going to work out?" 01:10:27.000 |
And so because you're in the beginning stages, there's no credit yet. 01:10:36.000 |
But the benefit of being married, especially being married for a long period of time, 01:10:40.000 |
that you have years and years and years of a track record, right? 01:10:46.000 |
Assuming that there was faithfulness, years and years and years of track record 01:10:51.000 |
of proving that you care, proving that you love. 01:10:56.000 |
So as a result of that, like Esther and I, we've been married for 30 years, 01:10:59.000 |
going on 31 years. We have 30-some years, you know, and we went through the same thing 01:11:10.000 |
If she doesn't answer my phone call on time, it's like, "Oh, maybe she doesn't care." 01:11:14.000 |
Or if I don't call her back, it's like, "Maybe he doesn't care." 01:11:17.000 |
But now that we've been together for 30-some years, there's a lot of peace, right? 01:11:28.000 |
It hasn't been perfect, but at least we have good credit, right? 01:11:33.000 |
Now, again, obviously I'm saying all of this because no matter how great your credit is, 01:11:39.000 |
no matter how tight your relationship is, it's based upon a few years. 01:11:44.000 |
God's nature has been proven for thousands of years, 01:11:56.000 |
In the midst of unfaithfulness of His people, 01:12:00.000 |
He has been proven over and over and over and over again 01:12:13.000 |
Every single generation that is mentioned here, 01:12:17.000 |
every single generation, there's not a single generation we can look at and say, 01:12:21.000 |
"Well, at least here we can see why God would be faithful." 01:12:25.000 |
Every single generation that is mentioned here, 01:12:28.000 |
people are saying, "He should have quit here. He should have quit here. He should have quit here." 01:12:31.000 |
No one would blame Him if He forgot them here. 01:12:34.000 |
No one would have blamed Him because every generation. 01:12:38.000 |
Everyone says, "When you read the Old Testament superficially, people say, 01:12:47.000 |
When you study the Old Testament carefully, you will come out exactly the way I came out. 01:12:52.000 |
How did God put up with these people for that long? 01:13:00.000 |
Imagine how easily we fall into despair when somebody disappoints us. 01:13:08.000 |
In fact, the older we get, the less trusting we are. 01:13:14.000 |
Very rarely you see somebody who's untrusting when they're young, 01:13:19.000 |
and they become very trusting when they get older. 01:13:33.000 |
But the older you get, it's more difficult because you've experienced life. 01:13:37.000 |
You've experienced people. You've been disappointed. 01:13:40.000 |
You've been disappointed in relationships with friends, 01:13:46.000 |
The older we get, it's very difficult to get excited about anything. 01:13:50.000 |
Whatever happens, you're like, "Yeah, we'll see. 01:13:56.000 |
We'll see if they're really going to be faithful. 01:13:58.000 |
We'll see if this friendship really lasts. We'll see." 01:14:02.000 |
The reason that happens is because we experience disappointment 01:14:08.000 |
and we harden our hearts because we don't want to be disappointed again. 01:14:14.000 |
God has been walking with unfaithful people for thousands of years. 01:14:23.000 |
If there's anything that we can trust is His Word. 01:14:29.000 |
Because He has not reneged on any of His promises, not a single promise. 01:14:34.000 |
And that's what Jesus says, "Not an iota will pass away until it is fulfilled." 01:14:39.000 |
Not even an iota, not even the smallest of the letter that God has spoken 01:14:52.000 |
in the midst of all the rebellion, God remembered His covenant. 01:14:56.000 |
In Ephesians 1 through 5, it says, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, 01:15:00.000 |
who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the places in Christ, 01:15:04.000 |
just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world." 01:15:18.000 |
And as a result, He says that we would be holy and blameless before Him. 01:15:22.000 |
In love He predestined us. He didn't just randomly select us. 01:15:25.000 |
He says in love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself 01:15:35.000 |
Everything that you and I experience today as a child of God is intentional. 01:15:40.000 |
It's intentional. That despite our failures, despite our weakness, 01:15:45.000 |
I am more aware of the grace of God today than the first day that I started. 01:15:51.000 |
Because I am more aware of His holiness, and I am more aware of my own sins. 01:15:57.000 |
I have less confidence today in myself than I did when I first started. 01:16:03.000 |
I know more today. I've experienced more today. 01:16:06.000 |
I've done more today. I've borne more fruit today. 01:16:13.000 |
And I have less and less confidence every year. 01:16:16.000 |
Because I am more and more aware of my flesh. 01:16:39.000 |
And I am more and more aware of how fragile my soul is without the grace of God. 01:16:58.000 |
And all of this is a reminder to us that this is Christ in us. 01:17:06.000 |
Sometimes we quit because we think that our sins are too deep. 01:17:12.000 |
Sometimes we give up. Maybe not physically give up, but internally we give up. 01:17:16.000 |
We stop trying because we don't want to get hurt. 01:17:18.000 |
We don't want to be disappointed or oftentimes disappointed in ourselves. 01:17:31.000 |
While we were yet sinners, Christ dies for us. 01:17:36.000 |
He didn't die for us because of our potential. 01:17:40.000 |
He didn't die for us because we were diamond in the rough and He wanted to clean us up so He can shine our inner glory. 01:17:57.000 |
That was the only way that sinners can come to a holy, holy, holy God. 01:18:10.000 |
I want to remind us that the only reason why you and I are here in Malachi 3, 5 is for I the Lord do not change. 01:18:20.000 |
Therefore you, O sons of Jacob, are not consumed. 01:18:31.000 |
Why the fire of God does not fall from the sky today. 01:18:41.000 |
Think about if you were in God's position, how easily you get angered. 01:18:46.000 |
Somebody cuts you off in the freeway for no reason. 01:18:51.000 |
Right? And because you are a good Christian, you are going to hold your wrath back? 01:18:56.000 |
How often have you thought, if I didn't meet the Lord in 1983, the wrath, this guy deserves wrath. 01:19:13.000 |
Imagine how easily we get triggered when we are wronged. 01:19:26.000 |
Imagine this tremendous restraint of our God. 01:19:29.000 |
And he says, it is because he does not change, we are not consumed. 01:19:39.000 |
The fact that you and I are able to be here and worship God, call him our Abba Father, 01:19:43.000 |
to have eternal hope that we are not consumed simply because God said. 01:19:54.000 |
Not because God answered our prayers, not because we have wealth, not because we are healthy. 01:19:59.000 |
But simply because we are not consumed for our sins. 01:20:03.000 |
We should come into this room every Sunday praising God for the breath in our lungs. 01:20:13.000 |
I am going to cut to the chase and introduce next week for us. 01:20:24.000 |
But I am going to skip a bunch of this stuff because I want us to be prepared for next week. 01:20:30.000 |
In 1 Corinthians 15, 22 it says, for as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive. 01:20:37.000 |
And in Romans 5, 14 it says, nevertheless death reigned from Adam until Moses. 01:20:43.000 |
Even over those who had not sinned in the likeness of the offense of Adam, who is the type of him who was to come. 01:20:48.000 |
There is a reason why the genealogy goes way up to Adam. 01:20:52.000 |
And it is in ascending order where Jesus is connected all the way to Adam. 01:20:57.000 |
There is a reason. Because the Bible says the first Adam came and sin came in. 01:21:03.000 |
And as a result of that sin, the record of this genealogy in history is a record of the damage of sin in mankind. 01:21:12.000 |
That is the genealogical record. That is the Old Testament. 01:21:20.000 |
In that genealogy, in the midst of this curse, Jesus comes to absorb this curse upon himself. 01:21:27.000 |
He who knew no sin became sin so that you and I would become the righteousness of God. 01:21:36.000 |
So all of this is to introduce Jesus as the consumer of our curse. 01:21:44.000 |
The way he dealt with their curse is to take it upon himself. 01:21:51.000 |
If you believe this, even like a mustard seed, how can that not change you? 01:22:01.000 |
Even if you don't have the greatest of faith, even if you have a tiny little mustard seed of a faith, 01:22:07.000 |
but you believe that the God of the universe who created us, who should have consumed us thousands of years ago, 01:22:14.000 |
and not even then, even in our lives, even after we became a Christian, 01:22:17.000 |
all the sins that you and I have deliberately committed, 01:22:22.000 |
and yet he consumed all of that upon himself. 01:22:27.000 |
That if you believe even a mustard seed of that, how can that not humble us? 01:22:41.000 |
That every Sunday we come and worship this God who forgave my sins, past, present, and future. 01:22:55.000 |
This is a God worth giving everything that we have. 01:23:00.000 |
I pray that the next time you read these genealogies, that you and I would remember the love of God. 01:23:09.000 |
And every one of these names would scream out, "I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you." 01:23:25.000 |
As our praise team comes to lead us in worship, let's take some time to cry out to our Lord. 01:23:37.000 |
Do you only know him from other people's testimonies? 01:23:48.000 |
He says he will be faithful and just to forgive us of all our unrighteousness. 01:23:52.000 |
Don't be satisfied by watching the author of life from a distance. 01:24:19.000 |
Take some time to pray that God would soften our hearts and renew our devotion to him. 01:24:26.000 |
Let's take some time to pray as our worship team leads us. 01:31:19.000 |
For you form my inward parts, you wove me in my mother's womb. 01:31:24.000 |
I will give thanks to you for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. 01:31:28.000 |
Wonderful are your works and my soul knows it very well. 01:31:31.000 |
My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in secret. 01:31:35.000 |
And skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth, your eyes have seen my unformed substance. 01:31:40.000 |
And in your book were all written the days that were ordained for me, 01:31:48.000 |
Lord, we pray that your faithfulness throughout history, 01:31:57.000 |
would cause us to firmly plant all our hope and joy and life in Christ and Christ alone. 01:32:06.000 |
Help us, Lord God, to be the aroma of Christ wherever you send us. 01:32:11.000 |
Help us, Lord God, to be people who shine the light of Christ, 01:32:15.000 |
that in this dark world, as the wickedness increases and the love of many grow cold, 01:32:22.000 |
help us, Lord God, to be passionately in love with Jesus. 01:32:27.000 |
That everything that we do will be an overflow of the tremendous grace that you have given us. 01:32:39.000 |
Help us to be worshippers, that we may worship you in spirit and in truth wherever you send us. 01:33:18.000 |
An empty grave is there to hold my Savior there. 01:33:58.000 |
And life is worth the living just because he lives.