Good morning, church family. Happy Lord's Day. We're gonna go ahead and start our service. I'm going to read this Psalm 45 to you, just as we reflect on this first song. It says, "Your throne, O God, is forever and ever. A scepter of uprightness is the scepter of your kingdom.

You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness. Therefore, God, your God, has anointed you while the oil of joy above." As we come before God, sometimes we get into a rote-ness of coming week to week, but I wanted to encourage us to remember why we're here, who we're approaching. He is the God of God, King of kings, and Lord of lords.

So we're gonna sing this first song, "Before the Throne of God," that we reflect on who it is we worship, that we come with reverence and honor. All right, good morning. Welcome to Berean Community Church. We're gonna get to a few announcements before we get started. Pastor Nate's gonna come up, and he has an announcement for our college ministry.

Okay, so we're gonna be having a college welcome lunch. So especially for those of you who haven't been able to make it out to some of our weekday events, and this, you've been coming out to our Sundays, at 1245, after second service is complete, in the building right across the way, this is a cafe.

There's another part, we're gonna be having a sign right out that door to help you to identify where it is. It's gonna say Berean College Ministry. But please come, and we're going to be giving you some lunch to eat. But beyond that, to help you to connect with some of the students, introduce you to our college staff, some of the visions of our church, and other ways that you can connect to our church as well, middle of the week.

We have rites, ministries, and different service things going on. And so, please, we wanna warmly invite you to that. I hope you can join us there. All right, as you guys know, this week we have All Church Praise and Prayer. This Friday at 730, so we don't have our regular Bible study.

So please, we encourage you to come on time so we can get started right at 730. Thanksgiving regional dinner. I've been told that we have enough homes now that's signed up. But those of you who are planning to sign up, that we ask you to sign up today if possible, because they're already making--diving up the groups and to place people.

And again, I wanna just give you a heads up. If you sign up late, we're gonna have to plug you wherever it's open--Diamond Bar, LA, wherever it's open. And so, if you sign up late, we're gonna have to just plug you into 20, 30, 40 miles away. So just come, and if you're planning to come, just sign up as soon as you can so we can get that going.

Trunk Formation, they said that they do have enough volunteers for the Trunk Formation. If you wanna just help out that day, serving food, making food, prizes, just dressing up, acting silly, whatever it is. If you wanna volunteer, you can do that, but they're also still asking for--if you wanna-- if you can't volunteer in that way, but you still want to participate in some way, and they're still taking donations for the prizes.

So it doesn't just have to be candy. These are things that maybe the children would like for prizes, and you wanna donate that. There are places where you can donate on the other side in the cafe area. So they're asking for more of that before that day. And then we have, again, one last thing, the BAM Park Day Fellowship happening in November 5th.

So just kinda keep that in mind, okay? All right, so again, if you are joining us and you're new to the church, we have a offering box in the back for physical offerings. So whether it's a check or whatever it is, please visit that as you're going out. But for the rest of us, if you're gonna give electronically, let me pray for us, and then we'll give you a minute to get to that, all right?

Let's pray. Gracious Father, we thank you so much for the privilege that we have to come and worship you. I pray that whatever distractions that we've been entangled with this week help us to lift up our eyes to Christ, knowing, Father God, that that is where we find our refuge, our comfort, our hope.

I pray that you will strengthen the church, Lord God. Remind us again and again and again of the hope that we have in him so that all that we do, Father God, will be for the sake of your glory and for your kingdom. I pray that even this giving, help us to give in a way that honors you as an act of worship, not under compulsion, but in joy, that it may be multiplied for your glory and for your use.

In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Church family, let's all rise together as we come before God and sing. Let's put our hands together. In the name of the Father, in the name of the Son, in the name of the Spirit, Lord we come. We're gathered together to lift up your name, to call on our Savior, to fall on your grace.

Hear the joyful sound of our offering, as your saints bow down, as your people sing. We will rise with you, lifted on your wings, and the world will sing that our God sings. Our God sings, there is hope in your name, Lord. One more time, in the name. In the name of the Father, in the name of the Son, in the name of the Spirit, Lord we come.

We're gathered together to lift up your name, to call on our Savior, to fall on your grace. Hear the joyful sound of our offering, as your saints bow down, as your people sing. We will rise with you, lifted on your wings, and the world will sing that our God sings.

Our God sings, there is hope in your name. One more time. And morning turns to songs of praise. Our God sings, our God sings. Hear the joyful sound of our offering, as your saints bow down, as your people sing. We will rise with you, lifted on your wings, and the world will sing that our God sings.

Our God sings, there is hope in your name. And morning turns to songs of praise. Our God sings, our God sings. Amen. Now I love the voice of Jesus on the cross of Calvary. He declares his work is finished. He has spoken this hope to me. Though the sun has ceased its shining, though the war appears at last, Christ had triumphed over evil.

It was finished upon that cross. Now the curse. Now the curse, it has been broken. Jesus paid the price for me. All the pardon he has offered, great the welcome that I receive. Boldly I approach my Father, called in Jesus' righteousness. There is no more bill to carry. It was finished upon that cross.

Death was once. Death was once my great opponent. Fear once had a hold on me. But the Son who died to save us, wrote that we would be free indeed. Death was once. Death was once my great opponent. Fear once had a hold on me. But the Son who died to save us, wrote that we would be free indeed.

Yes, he wrote that we would be free indeed. Free from every plan of darkness. Free to live and free to die. Death is dead and Christ is risen. It was finished upon that cross. Onward to eternal glory. To my Savior and my God, I rejoice in Jesus' victory. It was finished upon that cross.

It was finished upon that cross. It was finished upon that cross. And you may be seated. All right. This morning, we have a special presentation of our children. We -- our church has been very fruitful in multiplying. This is the fastest growing age of our church, zero to one.

Yeah, so we're going to have the parents come, and one by one, they're going to be presenting their children. So if we can -- are we going to call them one by one, or -- yeah, can we have everybody just come? Yeah. Let's welcome all the parents. Okay. So some of them are in the thick of things.

You can tell by the bloodshot eyes. Some of them are starting to come out of it. And so they're going to all come up, and they're going to present their children. And, again, we want to -- before they begin, I wanted to give a short encouragement. I want to read a text from Psalm 127.

It says, "Behold, children are a gift of the Lord. The fruit of the womb is a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior, so are the children of one's youth. How blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them. They will not be ashamed when they speak with their enemies in the gate." So it's interesting in this text where children are described as quiver, they're basically arrows.

You know, it's interesting that children are described as warriors in our generation. And the Bible describes, like, the many children that you have, how blessed you are because we're able to raise up warriors for the next generation. And so, again, we live in a generation where, you know, less and less there's, you know, population decrease in certain cultures because they see children as a burden.

But, again, that should not be the case with Christians, that every child that is born into this world is an opportunity for them to be equipped and trained to do the Lord's work and bring glory to God and be the light in this world. So we're going to give an opportunity for all the parents to present their children.

Okay? Hi, church family. My name is Jeremiah. This is my wife, Carrie. These are our babies, Karis and Seth. So a little bit about them. They were actually brought into our family through adoption. We adopted them five days post-fertilization, so they were actually created by another couple through IVF.

And they were frozen for ten years before we transferred them. So they're technically 11 years old, but as you can see, developmentally, they're about five months now. So Karis means grace, and we named her just a reminder that the fact that she's here, alive, and providentially God has brought her into our family is of grace.

We just pray that she would receive saving grace and that she would remember God. God is a God of grace and has sovereignly orchestrated all things. And then Seth, we named him. We were introduced to Seth in Genesis 4 after Cain kills Abel. God gives Adam and Eve another offspring, and Eve says that he has appointed another one in place of Abel for Cain killed Abel.

And we see that it was Seth's descendants that called upon the name of the Lord and ultimately received the Messiah from the line of Seth. And so in a similar way, we were thinking that, you know, although Seth doesn't share genetic relationships with us, but God has sovereignly brought him into our family, and we pray that he would bless Seth and his descendants with godly individuals and just bless the world and have a multi-generational impact for his glory.

Good morning, church family. This is my wife Sharon, and this is our third Ayla. And we chose her name because it starts with the letter A, and our other two also. And we like the name. Our other two starts with A, too. And our prayer for all of our kids would be like they would come to Saving Faith at an early age.

And out of our three kids, she seems to be the most strong-willed. 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. 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, bearing fruits in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.

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, and that we would be able to continually preach the word to her and live it out in our daily lives. So thank you. Hi, I'm Jeremy, and this is my wife, Sarah, and this is our daughter, Coraline, which means something related to the heart or a maiden.

But we didn't choose her name based on what it means but what it doesn't mean to us. I'm a teacher. My wife used to be a teacher. We taught thousands of kids, and certain names have certain connotations. So we tried to not pick a name that has any sort of negative connotation.

So think of it, Coraline, we hadn't had any, so blank slate. But we do pray that she would come to faith, that God would give a heart of repentance, eyes of faith, so that she would be a blessing to others, including us. So thank you. Hi, everyone. My name is Joseph.

This is my wife, Jessica, and this is our son, Benjamin. He's nine months old now, and the name Benjamin in Hebrew means "son of my right hand." But we mostly just like the way the name sounded, and we usually call him Ben, which just means "son." Our prayer request for him will be that he comes to know Christ early on and that he'll grow up to be a man who loves God.

And for us as parents, that we'll have patience and wisdom when raising him. Thank you. Hi, good morning. My name is Herman. This is my wife, Jennifer. And Aria, who's asleep on my shoulder. Her name, we just really like the name Aria, so there's not a real story behind that.

But our prayer request for her is that she would grow up to love God and accept Christ as her Savior, and that you would pray for us to have wisdom and be examples for her. Hi, everyone. My name's Davey, and this is my wife, Jenny. As you guys can see, our son has stage fright.

His name is Jonathan, and we named him after the character in the Bible, as well as the meaning of the name. It's also "gift from God," so he's definitely a gift from God. His middle name is Leo, it means "lion," and we want him to have a heart of a lion, to be brave, to preach the gospel, and to follow Christ.

And also, our prayer request is for him to get to know Christ at a young age, as well as to have a good, loving relationship with his brother. Yeah, that's it. Thank you. All right, before we dismiss them, we're going to take a minute to pray for them. And our prayer, again, is for all the parents, that they would come to faith at an early age, that each one of them will become warriors for the kingdom of God.

Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for the fruitfulness of our young families. We pray, Father God, that as each of the fathers have shared their desire and their prayer for their children, Lord God, to open their ears and soften their hearts, that they may understand your grace and your love, your forgiveness, Lord God, upon their life.

That they would truly be able to live long lives, Lord God, proclaiming the kingdom and your love, Lord God, to this dark world. Lord, I pray for protection for them. I pray that you would help us to build a community where we can share our love for you, for one another, that we would become brighter and brighter lights, Lord God.

Help us as adults and parents to build a church, Lord God, that our next generation of souls will be able to take the baton and continue the work, Lord God, of spreading the gospel and being greater and greater light, especially as the world is becoming darker, Lord God. Give them strength from an early age, that they would be able to support one another, encourage each other, and sharpen one another toward loving good deeds.

So we lift these families and these children to you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. All right, let's give them one more round of applause. All right, so as they are being dismissed, if you can turn your Bibles to Luke 3, and we will be reading from verse 23 all the way to verse 38.

And yes, we will be reading the genealogy. Okay? Okay, so if I pronounce it wrong, just keep it to yourself. Okay? I've already practiced with first service, but I do want to read them, even though we're not going to go through the names one by one. It is in the Scripture, and there is nothing in the Bible that we shouldn't pay attention to.

So even if we're not going to be studying name by name, I think it is important for us, at least in principle, to know that these names are here for a reason. Okay? Luke 3, verse 23. "When he began his ministry, Jesus himself was about thirty years of age, and he was the son of the son of Eli, the son of Methot, the son of Levi, the son of Melchi, the son of Jani, the son of Joseph, the son of Mattathias, the son of Amos, the son of Nahum, the son of Hesli, the son of Nagai, the son of Mattathias, the son of Samin, the son of Joseph, the son of Jodah, the son of Joannon, the son of Rishah, the son of Zerubbabel, the son of Shertiel, the son of Neri, the son of Melchi, the son of Addi, the son of Cossam, the son of Elmodam, the son of Ur, the son of Joshua, the son of Eleazar, the son of Jorim, the son of Methot, the son of Levi, the son of Simeon, the son of Judah, the son of Joseph, the son of Jonam, the son of Eliakim, the son of Melia, the son of Menna, the son of Mattathah, the son of Nathan, the son of David, the son of Jesse, the son of Obed, the son of Boaz, the son of Salmon, the son of Nashon, the son of Ammedad, the son of Admin, the son of Ram, the son of Hazron, the son of Perez, the son of Judah, the son of Jacob, the son of Isaac, the son of Abraham, the son of Terah, the son of Nehor, the son of Saruq, the son of Rehu, the son of Peleg, the son of Heber, the son of Shelah, the son of Canaan, the son of Arphaxad, the son of Shem, the son of Noah, the son of Lamech, the son of Methuselah, the son of Enoch, the son of Jared, the son of Mahalaleel, the son of Canaan, the son of Enosh, the son of Seth, the son of Adam, the son of God.

Let's pray. Gracious Father, we pray for your blessing. We pray for the Holy Spirit to lead us and guide us. May your intentions of why these words are here, Father God, strike us, invite us, guide us, and build us. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. As you guys know, right now we're kind of in election season, and so you've probably been getting a lot of advertisements or push to vote for this candidate or that candidate.

Typically, when you see the candidates being presented, if you've watched any debates, they usually start out by giving their credentials. And they'll say, "You should vote for me because I have this background. I went to this school. These are the experiences." Or if they've been in office, they'll say, "These are my accomplishments." And the reason why they do that is obvious.

It's because they're selling themselves so that you can vote for them, that they will be the best leader. And obviously, a lot of that is fluff because they're trying to sell themselves. But they do that in order for you to understand who they are. So if they do get elected, you know what their credentials are, so that you would pay attention to them and possibly follow their leadership.

Luke has been preparing for the presentation of Christ from chapter 1. Obviously, all the Gospels is a detailed presentation of who Jesus is. Up to this point, we've been learning the background about who Christ is and how John the Baptist showed up on the scene and what he did for the preparation of Christ.

And so we looked at, first of all, a couple of weeks ago, not only John the Baptist's ministry, but his confirmation. In his baptism, he rises up and heavens open up, and God the Father speaks, and the Holy Spirit descends. And there's a confirmation of the Trinity, where he said, "You are my Son in whom I am well pleased." And the Holy Spirit rests upon him.

And again, a confirmation for anybody who is questioning, "Who is this man? How is he any different than anybody else who has been baptized?" And so clearly, it's a presentation of who he is. Next week, we're going to be looking at the temptation of Christ. So the temptation of Christ is, again, a confirmation before he enters into ministry of redemption, that people understand that he is worthy to take away our sins.

That every part of this test is to confirm that he is capable and able to stand in the way 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, if he truly is perfect without sin.

And so that's the confirmation that we're going to see next week. Today, the confirmation is in his genealogy, that he is the fulfillment of the prophecy given, not only to David and Abraham, but all the way back to the time of Adam. In the Bible, as you know, there are two separate genealogies of Christ.

We have one in the book of Matthew, and then we have one here. The one in the book of Matthew is very particular in that it is written to the Jews so that they would recognize that he is the fulfillment of the prophecy given to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and then to David, that he is the Messiah that they've been waiting for.

So in order to establish that, Matthew, as the whole theme of the book, is that Jesus as king, his genealogy is written starting from Abraham in a descending manner all the way to Christ. There's about 42 of them that are mentioned. Luke's gospel, the emphasis is not the Jewish community.

The emphasis is to mankind. And so for that reason, the connection goes all the way in an ascending order, starting from Jesus all the way to Adam, and there are 77 different people who are mentioned here. Now you have to understand that genealogies are extraordinarily important to the Jewish community.

In fact, the Bible has over 34 different genealogies, depending on how you count it. Some will say 27, some will say 34, depending on how you count these genealogies. So our natural tendency is when we see genealogy, it's like a, you know, they call it fan reading. Turn on the fan and let the pages flip and say, "I did it.

I saw it." But we don't really spend a lot of time digging through what the purpose of this genealogy is. They did not randomly write these things. These are here for a particular reason. In fact, sometimes the parts of the Bible that we don't normally preach on, there's so much more treasure that are buried in there because we don't pay much attention to it.

But these are here for a reason. In a Jewish community in particular, genealogies were very important because it fulfilled two purposes. And one main one, the reason why it was important, is because he said that the seed of the woman is going to come basically save the world. And so from the get-go, they took meticulous order of their genealogy.

Now, in our generation, like how many of you know your genealogy beyond your great-grandparents? Right? If you know that, right? And because so many of us immigrated or our parents immigrated, we don't know a whole lot beyond our grandparents or great-grandparents, right? But even if that wasn't the case, most people don't know beyond maybe the second or third generation up, if you know that.

But very few will know 400, 500, 600 years of our ancestral background, right? Every once in a while, you'll take one of those genetic tests and say you have 2% Irish, 4% Chinese, 5% Japanese, or whatever it is that you have. But it's more out of curiosity. Not necessarily it has any effect.

So you find out that you have some Western or European blood. It's just interesting, and that's it. Well, the Jews took meticulous genealogical record, one, because God told them that this was going to happen. But secondly, if you read the Book of Numbers, their inheritance was based upon their genealogy.

So if you can trace your genealogy back to the tribe of Judah, you got a larger piece of land. So if there was any kind of land dispute, they would have to go back into their genealogy and say, "I am deserving of this because I can prove to you that I'm from the tribe of Benjamin or tribe of Judah." Or if you're from tribe of Simeon, you might have got a little piece of land, right?

And so for that reason, for personal reasons, they took meticulous record of the genealogy. So it's not like us. We know, just out of curiosity, I wonder what my grandparents were like. And I asked before my father passed away, like, "Where did Christianity come into our family?" And found out that it was my mother, my grandmother's mother, who were the first ones that received Christ.

But outside of that, I know very little. But the Jewish community knew meticulously where they came from, 500, 600, 700, who married who, what happened, what kind of problems did they have, what kind of blessing, what land they owned. Because all of this was record of their inheritance. And secondly, it was a record of their spiritual inheritance, like the promise that God made that this was how the covenant was coming by.

The reason why this is so important was when Matthew and Luke presents the genealogy, if anybody wanted to contest it, they could have easily contested it. If I told you this morning that I am a direct descendant of Genghis Khan, right, you can easily prove me wrong, right, because my birth records are somewhere else, right?

And you can easily look at, you know, just even looking at me, right? If I told you that I came from Europe, you could tell, right? Well, in the first century, before the destruction of the temple, if somebody presented themselves and said, "I'm a direct descendant of David," or began to say, "I give false genealogy," they were so meticulous about keeping genealogy of every Jew, and it was kept at the temple, they could have easily taken this and said, "Are you kidding me?" They could have easily gone to the temple and said, "There's no way.

Jesus says that's not his father, that's not his mother, that's not his grandfather." They could have easily dismissed that. So the fact that these two genealogies are written for people who could have easily dismissed it is, again, proof to us that all of these things are true. Because if it wasn't, they could have easily been debunked.

What's interesting is that after Christ comes, after all the purposes of why these genealogies were kept was fulfilled in Christ, the temple was destroyed at AD 70. And as a result of that, all the genealogical records has been erased since AD 70. So today, if you meet a modern-day Jew, and they tell you they're from a tribe of Judah, it's just by family tradition.

There's no way to prove it. If they say they're from the tribe of Judah, because there's no legal record that traces them back further than AD 70, they wouldn't have any record of it. It's just they were told this from their grandparents and great-grandparents. So the fact that these were presented to that generation in and of itself is evidence of its accuracy.

The genealogies, although it became obsolete when Christ came to fulfill it, we want to look at what's happening in this genealogical record. And there's something very different than the book of Matthew, because I don't know, some of you guys may remember when we were going through Matthew, there's actually quite a few names that we can point to and then flip to the Old Testament and find their story in the Old Testament.

Three-fourths of the names that are mentioned in the Gospel of Luke are nowhere to be found in the Bible. You'll recognize, as I was reading it, you probably recognize maybe about half a dozen names, whether it's Noah and his children or in the beginning or Adam or Seth. But three-fourths of the people that are mentioned here out of the 77, there's no trace of them.

And their names may be mentioned, but there's no record of who they are, so we don't know anything about them. So this morning, my intention is not to go back and dig through the history and find extra biblical evidence, because we don't have any. It's really for us to have a broad understanding as to why is this here?

Why was this necessary? Obviously, one is to prove that Christ fulfilled the promise that was made in the beginning. But secondly, it is a record of God's faithfulness to all of us. 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, but I want to give a large overview of why this is important.

Genesis chapter 315, right? There's a reason why Luke's genealogy goes all the way back up to Adam, because Jesus is not just the fulfillment of the prophecy to the nation of Israel, but to mankind. In Genesis 315, where the theologians call this the pre-gospel, that there's traces of what God has intended that he was going to do to mankind right after the fall, and he says this, "And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed.

And he shall bruise you on the head, and you shall bruise him on the heel." In that text alone, obviously, we don't know the gospel, right? But when you start to trace the history of what he says and how this is fulfilled, clearly you can trace it back and say he had this intention from the beginning, right?

And so the promise was that because of their failure, sin and death had come to reign. But God makes a promise that he's going to restore them through the seed of the woman. So you would think that after this promise is made, that we get to chapter 4, and then when they have their first seed, that this curse would be reversed, right?

That's what you would expect. If you read this understanding that that's what he meant, you would expect something completely different in chapter 4. But what happens in chapter 4? They have another child, and what does that child turn out to be? A murderer. So the first seed, the first seed that comes out of Eve after the fall is another murderer.

And who does he murder? His own brother because he's jealous. And so you would think, "Okay, well maybe it's not this generation. Maybe it's the next one." So we skip down to chapter 6, and the numbers of the descendants begin to multiply. So there's many seeds that have been multiplied, and then we get to chapter 6, and the more they multiply, the more they sinned.

And so God is so grieved over all the seeds of her children that he ends up deciding to wipe them all out, with the exception of Noah and his family. So Adam then gets spared, and he's going to basically repopulate the earth because all the seeds have been corrupt.

So you would think, "Okay, they started over, so Noah and his family repopulate, and everything's going well." Except by the time we get to chapter 11, when they repopulate, what happens? They become more advanced. They're one together, and they're greater in number. They have more money, and they use that to do what in chapter 11?

They decide to build the Tower of Babel, and they're going to challenge God like Satan did. And as a result of that, God has to judge them, and he destroys the Tower of Babel, and he confuses the language. Imagine, like today in our generation, how much talk about becoming one, being united, we have to be one.

But we have a clear record when sinful people gather together, they sin even greater. Unity in and of itself is not a blessing from God, because that's what man does in chapter 11. But despite that, God breaks in in Genesis chapter 12, and he says, "Despite the sins of mankind, I'm going to raise up your descendants.

Your descendants are going to outnumber the stars in the sand, and I'm going to give you land, and because of you, all the other natures are going to be multiplied." So from chapter 12 to chapter 50 is a story of the line of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. So you would think now that God has confirmed and specified how he was going to bless and save mankind, you would think that the story would start to flourish from this point on.

Instead, you have chapter 12 to 50 of an entanglement of sin, of infighting, of brothers wanting to kill each other back and forth. And then at the end of Genesis, instead of ending in hope, there's more despair. At the beginning of the book of Exodus, they basically get enslaved.

Before they become an official nation, they're enslaved for 400 years. 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. And then for 400 years, after God told Abraham that your descendants are going to be a blessing to all the world, they become slaves.

And as a result of becoming slaves, they cry out to God. God has mercy on them, and God delivers them miraculously from the greatest superpower, human power, at that time. And so you would think that after they come out, they say they finally learned their lesson. The nation of Israel is established, and then we see the book of Leviticus.

Those of you who are with us in the book of Leviticus, if you carefully study the book of Leviticus, is that a very welcoming book? No. Everything about the tabernacle does not say welcome. If you read it, it says, "If you do this, you will die. If you do that, you will die.

If you touch this, you will die. If you eat this, you will die. If you stand here, you will die. If you offer up a string fire, you will die. If you come too far, you will die. If the animal is defected, you will die." It says over and over again, it is not very welcoming.

In fact, the book of Leviticus is telling sinful people, "Do not be arrogant to think that you can possibly come into my presence." After he gives the instructions and warning, the very first offering that is given is rejected. And just as he said, "Nehudah ben Abihu" dies, just as he said.

So imagine the fear that came upon the nation of Israel as a result of the tabernacle. It wasn't like, "Oh, our God is there. I want to go see him today. I'm so lonely. Can I come and abide in his tabernacle?" No. The presence of the tabernacle was terrifying.

Leviticus is a reminder to them to take God's presence seriously. And then we get into the book of Numbers. That as God is leading them into the promised land, that the spies who went and saw it, they wouldn't believe. Even after all that they have experienced with God, they go and see these fortified cities.

Like, "These guys are giants. We can't beat them." And as a result of their unbelief, they wander in the desert for 40 years. And that's the book of Numbers. And you would think that during the 40 years that they would be faithful servants, but there's infighting, idolatry, every sin that you can imagine happens, even as they are wandering in the desert for 40 years.

And then right before they get in, God has an assembly. And he tells them in the book of Deuteronomy, "I'm going to take you into the promised land, like I said. And I'm going to finally fulfill the promise of land that I said to Abraham. But when you get in there, if you obey my law, you will be blessed.

And here is the blessing." And then he says, "But if you do not obey my commandments, here is the curses." And there's three times more descriptions of the curses than the blessing. It's almost like God already knew what was going to happen. Sure enough, we get into the book of Joshua.

And Joshua, this young servant, comes in strong general. And God uses him to conquer and enter into the promised land. And so in the book of Joshua, the first few chapters, most of you have probably memorized Joshua chapter 1, verse 8, verse 9. "Have I not commanded you, 'Be strong and courageous, do not turn from the Lord to the left or to the right.'" Because all the excitement happens at chapter 1.

But as soon as they get into the promised land, what happens? As soon as they enter, they break God's law. And they start falling into sin. So the rest of the book of Joshua is the compromise of the nation of Israel after they conquer and they go in. So they finally go in, and then we get into the book of Judges.

And the theme of the book of Judges is that everyone did what was right in their own eyes. They will continue to fall into sin in the promised land. And as a result of that, the enemies will come. They conquer them. God has mercy on them. And raises up a judge and delivers them for a period.

But as soon as they become comfortable, they forget God. They turn to their sin. The enemies come back. And then they cry out to God, and God has mercy. So this cycle of this over and over and over and over of their rebellion against God in the book of Judges.

Now, by this time, you would think, okay, they're done. They have to be done. Hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years that they've been rebelling one generation after another generation. Right in the midst of all of that, right, after the curse of God is being added upon them generation after generation after generation, we see a strange book, a book of Ruth.

And God breaks into their rebellious history, and this strange girl out of nowhere, who's not even a Jew, is faithful to the mother-in-law, and they introduce to us a figure named Boaz, a kinsman redeemer, who is a foreshadowing of the coming of Christ. And reminding us that even in the midst of this darkness, that God has not forgotten his covenant.

And that's the book of Ruth. Then we get into 1 Samuel, 1 Kings, and 1 Chronicles, which is the establishment of the kings until the end. Now, you know, there was an earlier part of the church years ago, I was preaching through this section of the Bible. By the time I was about a third way through, I was finished.

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. Because every single Sunday, I would come and say, "Well, this king did this, and because of their sin, God judged them this way.

And so we need to make sure that we live righteously." And then the next week I would come, "Well, this king started out well, but they fell. 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." The next week I would come, "But then this king, they come, and they seem to be okay, but eventually they fall out." So basically, it was months and months and months of how every single king rebelled against God and led them astray.

So by the time I was about halfway through, I said, "I see why there's no material in the Old Testament." 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. But if you go back into the Old Testament and look for expository preaching in the Old Testament, it doesn't exist.

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. But it's very, very difficult to find expositional teaching, preaching from king to king to king to king. I started it, so I had to finish it, you know, and I felt darkness coming over me, you know what I mean?

And I said, "Oh my gosh, I got to do this again." And I would see on the people's faces, like just darkness. And I literally would dread, after the king is over, I got another king, and another king, and another king. And I was eager to get out of the kings and the chronicles.

In the midst of that, I was like, "Finally, we get through." And to be honest, I stopped at Psalms. I went through Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther, and parts of Job. I was so depressed, like I was so eager to jump to the Book of Matthew, you know? Ezra and Nehemiah that comes after 1st and 2nd Chronicles, basically it's, they don't heed the warnings of the prophets, and they get taken away into captivity, and God has mercy and raises up a king, Cyrus, and they're able to return.

But when they returned, it wasn't a glorious return. Majority of them got comfortable where they were at, and only a fraction of the Jews remember the covenant that God made, and came back to Jerusalem. Why would we need to go to Jerusalem when our life is fine over here?

Some of them had become officials, some of them became wealthy, but they leave that behind to go back where? To go back to what's there, other than God's covenant promise. So very few of them returned. So when they built a temple, you had the old people who remember the glory that they fell from, and in their celebration, they would be weeping because it was, it was, it was so, it was so tiny.

It was, the glory did not match what they remembered, and then the young ones, that's all they knew, they're like, that's awesome! And so even as they are rebuilding, it's a reminder of their constant sin. And then again, Esther breaks in. In the midst of all of this, God gives us hope that through this one person, that it just seems like a random story, but again, it's a foreshadow reminding us that a Savior is going to come, that despite the darkness of their history, God is going to come.

Then we have the book of Job. We don't know exactly where Job fits in, but the theme of the book of Job is basically no matter how righteous you are, if you're living in this fallen earth, you will experience suffering. And the answer to that suffering is God. That's pretty much the theme of the book of Job, which is the condition of every human being.

And then we get to the book of Psalm. You know, most people don't know this about the book of Psalm, because we pick and choose the Psalms that we like. Psalm 23, Psalm chapter 1, Psalm 119, and so the Psalms that uplift us, right? Three-fourths of the Psalm is sinners complaining because of the suffering.

Why did the righteous suffer? Why did you allow this? Where are you, O God? Where can I run? So three-fourths of it is honest prayer before God in their suffering. Read Psalm all the way through. It is not uplifting. You'll come out depressed. A lot to relate to, but it basically is a highlight of the suffering of all mankind.

And then you get to the prophets. All the prophets are--falls into three categories. They're pre-exile, exile, and post-exile. So the pre-exile are prophets that God sends to the nation of Israel saying, "If you don't turn from your sin, your enemies are going to come and take you captive, and all your leaders, all your young men, all the women, all your children are going to be taken to captivity.

You're going to lose your country." And so they're warning them, and then they don't listen, and they go into exile. And then God sends prophets during the exile saying, "To turn from their sin, even after you've experienced all of that, you continue to go after idolatry? Didn't you learn your lesson?" And then we get to post-exile, that after they return, it's like, "Did you not learn your lesson?" So it's the prophets pleading with a rebellious nation to turn and return.

"Did you not learn your lesson?" It is a depressing thing to study. Because at the end of a careful systematic study from Genesis to the book of Malachi, it is the judgment of God that is repeatedly coming upon the nation of Israel over and over and over and over again for thousands of years.

But the only glimmer of hope in Israel's history is that every one of these prophets, after they pronounce judgment upon them, says, "Despite that, that God will remember His covenant, and your Messiah is going to come, and He's going to establish a kingdom that is everlasting, and He promises that this Messiah is going to come." And then silence.

Silence. For hundreds of years, no prophet, no voice. And just as God said to Amos, "There's going to be a famine of the Word that's going to come because of your rebellion." And then Jesus shows up. So this genealogical record is a history of God's faithfulness through thousands of years of Israel's rebellion.

And so this genealogy basically is the light being turned on. That He has finally come after all these years. The promise that God made in Genesis chapter 3, right after they fell, generation after generation after generation after generation after generation after generation, God keeps His promise. And that is Christ.

And that's who He is. That's being represented. At what point would you have turned to despair if you were a Jew? My guess is chapter 4. My guess is chapter 4. My guess is your seed's going to come, and then the seed comes, and murderer! And your own brother!

I said, "Okay, okay. Maybe chapter 6? Maybe chapter 6? Chapter 11, maybe? Maybe chapter 12 you started, gets a second wind, and by the time you get to chapter 50, it's like, "Oh my gosh. These are the people that God's going to fulfill His promise?" And then you get to the book of Exodus, it's like, "These slaves?" And then they get delivered, it's like, "These are the people that God delivered?

And they're the ones that God's going to use?" And then they get into the promise line, it's like, "Then? They're the promised people? They're the ones who are going to declare the glory of God?" At what point would you have fallen into despair? How often do we fall into despair because God didn't answer our prayer today?

How often do we fall into despair because He didn't answer the way we wanted? How often, how short-sighted are we because we measure His faithfulness based upon this thin timeline that we've given Him? See, this whole genealogy is a record of God's faithfulness beyond what you and I can compare.

Last week I gave an illustration about the men stop poking. And I asked you guys, "What was the whole message about?" Some of you guys forgot already, but you remember the poking. So I'm going to give you another illustration about dating. So that you can remember. Remember the rest of the message too, okay?

I give an encouragement to not to poke because the person that you're poking is not tomato, it's not melon, right? This is a person that's possibly the mother of your child. So make up your mind and commit, right? Commit. You know, early on in dating, that's a very fragile stage of your life when you're dating because you're kind of checking each other's credit, basically.

Can I trust him? Is he trustworthy? Am I able to invest in him? And so every time they act a certain way or they say something or they do something, you always go back to ask, "Is this worth investing?" "Do you really care about me? Do you really love me?

Is this going to work out?" And so because you're in the beginning stages, there's no credit yet. There's no record of faithfulness yet. But the benefit of being married, especially being married for a long period of time, that you have years and years and years of a track record, right?

Assuming that there was faithfulness, years and years and years of track record of proving that you care, proving that you love. So as a result of that, like Esther and I, we've been married for 30 years, going on 31 years. We have 30-some years, you know, and we went through the same thing in the early part of our dating life.

It's like, is she the one, right? If she doesn't answer my phone call on time, it's like, "Oh, maybe she doesn't care." Or if I don't call her back, it's like, "Maybe he doesn't care." But now that we've been together for 30-some years, there's a lot of peace, right?

Because we have good credit, right? We have 850 and above credit score, right? It hasn't been perfect, but at least we have good credit, right? Now, again, obviously I'm saying all of this because no matter how great your credit is, no matter how tight your relationship is, it's based upon a few years.

God's nature has been proven for thousands of years, not even through our faithfulness. In the midst of unfaithfulness of His people, He has been proven over and over and over and over again that what God says, He does. What God says, He does. Every single generation that is mentioned here, every single generation, there's not a single generation we can look at and say, "Well, at least here we can see why God would be faithful." Every single generation that is mentioned here, people are saying, "He should have quit here.

He should have quit here. He should have quit here." No one would blame Him if He forgot them here. No one would have blamed Him because every generation. Everyone says, "When you read the Old Testament superficially, people say, 'Oh, God is so harsh in the Old Testament.'" It's because you have not read it.

You've only skimmed through it. When you study the Old Testament carefully, you will come out exactly the way I came out. How did God put up with these people for that long? How did God—imagine the restraint. Imagine how easily we fall into despair when somebody disappoints us. Even for one, two, three.

In fact, the older we get, the less trusting we are. Very rarely you see somebody who's untrusting when they're young, and they become very trusting when they get older. It's usually not. It's very difficult to excite older people. What I mean by older, you judge yourself. I'm not talking about 40-year-olds.

But the older you get, it's more difficult because you've experienced life. You've experienced people. You've been disappointed. You've been disappointed in relationships with friends, your husband, your wife, your children. The older we get, it's very difficult to get excited about anything. Whatever happens, you're like, "Yeah, we'll see. We'll see how long this lasts.

We'll see if they're really going to be faithful. We'll see if this friendship really lasts. We'll see." The reason that happens is because we experience disappointment after disappointment after disappointment, and we harden our hearts because we don't want to be disappointed again. God has been walking with unfaithful people for thousands of years.

For thousands of years. If there's anything that we can trust is His Word. Because He has not reneged on any of His promises, not a single promise. And that's what Jesus says, "Not an iota will pass away until it is fulfilled." Not even an iota, not even the smallest of the letter that God has spoken will pass away until it is fulfilled.

This genealogy is a record of that promise in the midst of all the rebellion, God remembered His covenant. In Ephesians 1 through 5, it says, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world." He chose us.

He didn't poke at us. He didn't test us. He made up His mind. And He chose us, and He committed to us. And as a result, He says that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us. He didn't just randomly select us. He says in love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself according to the kind intention of His will.

Everything that you and I experience today as a child of God is intentional. It's intentional. That despite our failures, despite our weakness, I am more aware of the grace of God today than the first day that I started. Because I am more aware of His holiness, and I am more aware of my own sins.

I have less confidence today in myself than I did when I first started. I know more today. I've experienced more today. I've done more today. I've borne more fruit today. But I have less confidence today. And I have less and less confidence every year. Because I am more and more aware of my flesh.

Just how deep this sin goes. Just how deep this pride goes. Just how deep this coveting goes. Just how easily my heart wanders. Just how easily my heart gets hearted. The way that I respond to slander. And I am more and more aware of how fragile my soul is without the grace of God.

This genealogy reminds me. Every generation, He persevered. Every generation, He persevered. And all of this is a reminder to us that this is Christ in us. This is Christ in us. Sometimes we quit because we think that our sins are too deep. Sometimes we give up. Maybe not physically give up, but internally we give up.

We stop trying because we don't want to get hurt. We don't want to be disappointed or oftentimes disappointed in ourselves. But this genealogy reminds us. That He demonstrates His own love toward us. While we were yet sinners, Christ dies for us. He didn't die for us because of our potential.

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. He said while we were yet sinners. While we were rebelling. While we hated Him. Why? Because that was the only way. That was the only way that sinners can come to a holy, holy, holy God.

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. Therefore you, O sons of Jacob, are not consumed. I want you to really let that sink in. The reason why you and I are not consumed.

Why the fire of God does not fall from the sky today. Why are we not struck for our sins today? Think about it. Think about if you were in God's position, how easily you get angered. Somebody cuts you off in the freeway for no reason. Right? And because you are a good Christian, you are going to hold your wrath back?

How often have you thought, if I didn't meet the Lord in 1983, the wrath, this guy deserves wrath. Simply because he cut me off. Or somebody spoke to you a certain way. They didn't respect you. Imagine how easily we get triggered when we are wronged. Imagine the tremendous restraint of our God.

Imagine this tremendous restraint of our God. And he says, it is because he does not change, we are not consumed. Just that alone. The fact that you and I are able to be here and worship God, call him our Abba Father, to have eternal hope that we are not consumed simply because God said.

Simply because God said. That alone. Not because God answered our prayers, not because we have wealth, not because we are healthy. But simply because we are not consumed for our sins. We should come into this room every Sunday praising God for the breath in our lungs. I am going to cut to the chase and introduce next week for us.

Okay? First service, I didn't get here. But I am going to skip a bunch of this stuff because I want us to be prepared for next week. In 1 Corinthians 15, 22 it says, for as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive. And in Romans 5, 14 it says, nevertheless death reigned from Adam until Moses.

He reigned. 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. There is a reason why the genealogy goes way up to Adam. And it is in ascending order where Jesus is connected all the way to Adam.

There is a reason. Because the Bible says the first Adam came and sin came in. And as a result of that sin, the record of this genealogy in history is a record of the damage of sin in mankind. That is the genealogical record. That is the Old Testament. And then what happens?

Jesus comes in. In that genealogy, in the midst of this curse, Jesus comes to absorb this curse upon himself. He who knew no sin became sin so that you and I would become the righteousness of God. So all of this is to introduce Jesus as the consumer of our curse.

The way he dealt with their curse is to take it upon himself. If you believe this, even like a mustard seed, how can that not change you? Even if you don't have the greatest of faith, even if you have a tiny little mustard seed of a faith, but you believe that the God of the universe who created us, who should have consumed us thousands of years ago, and not even then, even in our lives, even after we became a Christian, all the sins that you and I have deliberately committed, and yet he consumed all of that upon himself.

That if you believe even a mustard seed of that, how can that not humble us? How can that not change us? How can that not consume us? That every Sunday we come and worship this God who forgave my sins, past, present, and future. This is a God worth worshiping.

This is a God worth following. This is a God worth giving everything that we have. I pray that the next time you read these genealogies, that you and I would remember the love of God. And every one of these names would scream out, "I love you. I love you.

I love you. I love you." Let's pray. As our praise team comes to lead us in worship, let's take some time to cry out to our Lord. Have you known him from a distance? Do you only know him from other people's testimonies? To come to the Lord and confess your sins.

Ask for his forgiveness. He says he will be faithful and just to forgive us of all our unrighteousness. Don't be satisfied by watching the author of life from a distance. Come. Come to him. All who are weary and heavy laden. And he will give you rest. The only true rest.

He's the living water. He's the bread of life. So I invite you now to come. Invite him. Take some time to pray that God would soften our hearts and renew our devotion to him. Let's take some time to pray as our worship team leads us. Let's all stand up for the closing praise.

Let's pray. Psalm 139, 13 to 16. For you form my inward parts, you wove me in my mother's womb. I will give thanks to you for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works and my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in secret.

And skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth, your eyes have seen my unformed substance. And in your book were all written the days that were ordained for me, when as yet there was not one of them. Lord, we pray that your faithfulness throughout history, and your faithfulness, Lord, in our lives, would cause us to firmly plant all our hope and joy and life in Christ and Christ alone.

Help us, Lord God, to be the aroma of Christ wherever you send us. Help us, Lord God, to be people who shine the light of Christ, that in this dark world, as the wickedness increases and the love of many grow cold, help us, Lord God, to be passionately in love with Jesus.

That everything that we do will be an overflow of the tremendous grace that you have given us. Help us, Lord God, to be humbled. Help us, Lord God, to be grateful. Help us to be worshippers, that we may worship you in spirit and in truth wherever you send us.

In Jesus' name we pray, amen. God sent his Son, they called him Jesus. He came to love, heal, and forgive. He lived and died to buy my poverty. An empty grave is there to hold my Savior there. Because he lives, I can face tomorrow. Because he lives, all fear is gone.

Because I know he holds the future. And life is worth the living just because he lives. Amen.