Speaker 1: The sermon tonight is called.
Speaker 1: It's a sermon about the Minnesota North Star's resumes and the family of God.
Speaker 1: Take out the Bible in front of you.
Speaker 1: There's a Bible.
Speaker 1: It should be in the pew back in front of you.
Speaker 1: It's the black one, not the green one.
Speaker 1: And if you can open the Bible to Matthew's Gospel there are four, we call them Gospels four books in the Bible to talk about the life of Jesus Matthew, mark, luke and John.
Speaker 1: And I believe it's on page 783.
Speaker 1: Am I right?
Speaker 1: I think I'm right.
Speaker 1: So open up to page 783.
Speaker 1: When you're there, give me a sh-pah-pah.
Speaker 1: You guys are fast, you're already there.
Speaker 1: Awesome Good.
Speaker 1: By the way, out of the three services, that was the most responsive we've had all day.
Speaker 1: That was awesome.
Speaker 1: Keep bringing the energy.
Speaker 1: I love it.
Speaker 1: Okay, hold your finger there.
Speaker 1: I'm going to talk about Matthew one in a moment, but not just yet, so hang tight.
Speaker 1: In the meantime, perhaps you heard about on March 10th 1993, it was announced and the news broke that the Minnesota North Stars were leaving Minnesota.
Speaker 1: A man called Norm Green, who was the owner of the North Stars, was taking the.
Speaker 1: I know, I know, I know.
Speaker 1: Like I said earlier, dante has a book about the seven different levels of hell.
Speaker 1: And if there was a special spot I'm kidding, I don't really know it for sure I'm just saying Norm Green, yeah, he's still hated this day.
Speaker 1: I love that response.
Speaker 1: Great.
Speaker 1: And to rub salt in the wounds of Minnesota fans, hockey fans, he moved the North Stars not just anywhere but to Dallas Texas.
Speaker 1: Yeah, dallas Texas, not exactly the hub of hockey fandom, if you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: Excuse me, I'm still choking up about it.
Speaker 1: I can't believe.
Speaker 1: This is horrible.
Speaker 1: And the news broke.
Speaker 1: And once the news broke, and once the headlines were announced, there was nothing anybody could do about it.
Speaker 1: That's what it was.
Speaker 1: That's what news does.
Speaker 1: News sort of breaks, and there's literally nothing to be done, just the news to be announced.
Speaker 1: One second, excuse me.
Speaker 1: So what's done is done.
Speaker 1: Whenever news is announced, whether it's headlines, whatever is done is done.
Speaker 1: There's literally nothing that you can do about it.
Speaker 1: That's what news is.
Speaker 1: It's an announcement about what's already happened.
Speaker 1: This is different, then, of course, from advice.
Speaker 1: Advice, on the contrary, is actually counsel or sort of wisdom about how to make some future thing happen or not happen.
Speaker 1: So if I was going to give you advice about this story back in 1993, I would have said hey, maybe if you attended more games than the North Stars would stay.
Speaker 1: Or maybe if you bought a built-in arena, maybe he would have kept them in town.
Speaker 1: Or maybe if the fans had just cheered a little bit louder, maybe not, I don't know if that really does anything.
Speaker 1: Cheering louder, these are professional athletes.
Speaker 1: Come on, not great advice to cheer.
Speaker 1: It's like the dad at baseball games little league baseball games who just keeps on yelling keep your eye on the ball.
Speaker 1: Yeah, no duh.
Speaker 1: Thanks dad.
Speaker 1: I've been doing it the whole time.
Speaker 1: I still miss it when I swing.
Speaker 1: Not great advice.
Speaker 1: But you see, advice puts the ball in your court, tells you what you must do in order to bring about some future event or make it happen.
Speaker 1: It makes you do something you ought to, you should.
Speaker 1: You must do this thing in order to make it happen, whereas news again contrary to news is about what's already happened, what's already taking place, and you can respond accordingly if you want to or not, but it doesn't change the news.
Speaker 1: Does that make sense?
Speaker 1: That's how news and advice are different, and it works with bad news, as you heard with the North Stars, it also works with good news.
Speaker 1: It's the same thing.
Speaker 1: So in August of 2007, the twins announced and the news broke they were going to forge and build a new stadium, an outdoor stadium, the way God intended baseball to be played.
Speaker 1: There you go, so we can watch.
Speaker 1: You know, that's the without the dome on the top, anyway, yeah.
Speaker 1: And now here's the deal.
Speaker 1: Once the news broke, there was nothing for you to do except go to the game and enjoy some baseball.
Speaker 1: Am I right?
Speaker 1: Like this beautiful early spring day when the Minnesota, or Minnesota, the Elk River Elks played the Anoka tornadoes and your own starting second baseman, logan Brailey, at the plate there?
Speaker 1: Number two, let's go.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yep, I'm just going to brag for a minute there.
Speaker 1: So I'm over there on the side somewhere, but all there is left to do when news breaks is to just respond accordingly.
Speaker 1: But it doesn't change the news.
Speaker 1: That's what news is?
Speaker 1: It's a report about what's already happened.
Speaker 1: Advice is counsel about something you must do in order to make something happen, which, of course, brings me to the shepherds out in the field that night when the angels show up.
Speaker 1: And here's how it reads this is the story.
Speaker 1: Go ahead for me, sarah.
Speaker 1: But the angels said to them don't be afraid.
Speaker 1: By the way, you ever notice how, when God shows up in the Bible, the people who are being talked to they're always afraid.
Speaker 1: The reaction is like terror and also wonder, which is kind of cool.
Speaker 1: So you might know when God shows up in your life, when you're equal parts afraid and also like full of excitement or joy.
Speaker 1: But I bring you good news.
Speaker 1: The angels said that will cause great joy for all people.
Speaker 1: Today, in the town of David, a Savior has been born to you.
Speaker 1: He's Messiah Christ the Lord.
Speaker 1: This will be a sign to you that you will find a baby wrapped and lying in a manger.
Speaker 1: This is news, not advice.
Speaker 1: It's an announcement about something that's already happened.
Speaker 1: By the way, john's Gospel says that when Jesus shows up, light has shine in the darkness, and the darkness couldn't overcome it, couldn't understand it.
Speaker 1: By the way, you ever notice how light doesn't need your advice, like, hey, shine, chase it with the darkness, doesn't need my advice, it just does it.
Speaker 1: That's what light does.
Speaker 1: It's kind of like news.
Speaker 1: It just does it whatever it wants to, whether you respond or not.
Speaker 1: By the way, whenever there's a message and this is true in the ancient world as it is today you need a messenger, someone to go and tell the news.
Speaker 1: In the ancient world, in the Greek language, they had a word for this.
Speaker 1: They called them Angeloids.
Speaker 1: Everyone say Angeloid.
Speaker 1: Now an Angeloid shows up and gives the message.
Speaker 1: In the Greek, these are messengers.
Speaker 1: In the English, we call these angels.
Speaker 1: You figured it out, good job.
Speaker 1: Where'd it go?
Speaker 1: You're tracking Angels.
Speaker 1: These are messengers.
Speaker 1: They show up and they announce the news of something that's already been done.
Speaker 1: It's happened, they just had to tell people.
Speaker 1: So in the middle of the night they show up to a bunch of shepherds and they tell them this good news.
Speaker 1: This is the story of Jesus, the good news about Jesus, not the good advice about Jesus, but the good news about Jesus.
Speaker 1: And it's really good news.
Speaker 1: It's really good news.
Speaker 1: In fact, it's almost too good to be true.
Speaker 1: Just ask Rahab and Ruth and Tamar.
Speaker 1: Luke, his story about Jesus opens up with some shepherds in the field and some angels, some Angeloids, some messengers.
Speaker 1: John's Gospel about Jesus opens up with light coming to the world, shining in the darkness.
Speaker 1: The darkness can't understand it.
Speaker 1: And Matthew, though totally out of left field, he opens his story about Jesus in a super unconventional way.
Speaker 1: He opens up with a genealogy.
Speaker 1: Open up Matthew 1.
Speaker 1: It's on page 783.
Speaker 1: Are you ready?
Speaker 1: If you got it, say Shippah bow, lovely, I love it.
Speaker 1: This is great.
Speaker 1: So here's how it goes.
Speaker 1: A genealogy is basically a family tree and I'm going to warn you, it's not the most compelling reading.
Speaker 1: It's an odd opening for the Savior of the world.
Speaker 1: There's no fireworks, no dramatic display.
Speaker 1: It's a genealogy, basically a family tree, and here's how it reads.
Speaker 1: Some of you have tried to read this before and maybe you've fallen asleep, but it goes like this A record of the genealogy of Jesus, the Christ, the son of David, son of Abraham.
Speaker 1: And then it goes on from there.
Speaker 1: Abraham was the father of Isaac, who was the father of so-and-so, who was the father of so-and-so, who begat so-and-so and who gave birth to so-and-so, who had a kid named so-and-so, who was the father in so-and-so, and there was a so-and-so and so-and-so.
Speaker 1: Have you fallen asleep yet?
Speaker 1: Like, what is Matthew doing?
Speaker 1: Why on earth does he open the story of the Savior of the whole world with this boring genealogy?
Speaker 1: What's he doing?
Speaker 1: It's an odd way, not that compelling, until you look a little bit closer, see Matthew's telling us something about Jesus and you notice, if you look a little bit closer.
Speaker 1: He's sort of recommending Jesus to us as the savior of the world through this genealogy.
Speaker 1: Now, today, in our individualistic culture, which is what we live in, they were much more tribal, familial and kind of more communal.
Speaker 1: We're not.
Speaker 1: We're more individualistic.
Speaker 1: In our society, we do the same thing.
Speaker 1: We recommend ourselves to people all the time.
Speaker 1: We do the parties, we do it at workplaces, we do it with resume, we pass out our resume to kind of show who we are right, and we do it in casual conversation as well, to kind of recommend ourselves.
Speaker 1: I was at a party one time years ago and this guy was talking about how he just ran a 5K that morning.
Speaker 1: Well, not to be outdone, was the guy across from him.
Speaker 1: He was like oh, you ran a 5K.
Speaker 1: Well, that reminds me of the time I ran a 10K.
Speaker 1: Oh, excuse me, mr 10K, the floor is yours.
Speaker 1: He's like oh, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1: And then I went home that night after running a 10K and I maxed out my bench press.
Speaker 1: I got an all-time PR there and then I solved the wortel in one guess and then I sewed some sweaters for some blind children using just my feet.
Speaker 1: Oh well, good for you.
Speaker 1: And then the weirdest part was that this guy still plays the wortel.
Speaker 1: Let's be honest, I mean, who plays the wortel?
Speaker 1: I'm just kidding, I do too.
Speaker 1: I do, I do every day.
Speaker 1: I play.
Speaker 1: But this is what we do and, like this guy, oftentimes you and I will kind of dress up our resumes or the things in our past.
Speaker 1: You know we'll often, by recommending ourselves, we'll kind of tell people about our degrees, our work experiences, our life experiences or these resumes we have for applying for jobs.
Speaker 1: We'll dress them up.
Speaker 1: You know that's what we do even in conversation.
Speaker 1: We kind of dress or we like leave things out.
Speaker 1: Like, for example, if you're applying for a job and your previous job was that you were like cashier at McDonald's, which is a great, honorable job, no doubt.
Speaker 1: But if you want to dress it up, you might just say instead that you handled financial transactions for a multi-billion dollar company in corporation, slide it right in there.
Speaker 1: So we do, we kind of dress it up, we edit it a little bit.
Speaker 1: And in ancient times they were very much so, except they didn't really have resumes, they had genealogies.
Speaker 1: They would recommend themselves by giving their family history, like who were you related to?
Speaker 1: And they would brag and boast with their pedigree.
Speaker 1: Their genealogies were their resumes.
Speaker 1: It was them announcing to the world this is who I am, like resumes do for us today.
Speaker 1: But the way Herod was very much.
Speaker 1: He was a king, herod, the king of the Jews, and he expunged people from his genealogy Cause he was too ashamed to say he was related to them.
Speaker 1: I mean, we all do have that crazy uncle who we want to kind of just get rid of, and so Herod does that.
Speaker 1: He expunges people from his record, from his genealogy.
Speaker 1: This is totally normal, cause your genealogy, your family tree, was your chance to impress hearers and readers about your status and respectability of your roots and where you came from.
Speaker 1: It was your chance to flex on everybody else.
Speaker 1: That's what genealogy does.
Speaker 1: Matthew gives us the genealogy, the resume, of Jesus, the savior of the world.
Speaker 1: This whole book hinges on Jesus and this is his resume, his genealogy.
Speaker 1: This is how we know who Jesus is.
Speaker 1: So who was he?
Speaker 1: Who was Jesus?
Speaker 1: Well, shockingly, matthew doesn't edit out anybody that he probably should have.
Speaker 1: Shockingly, he keeps in all kinds of scandalous people, which actually only lends credibility to the gospels.
Speaker 1: Like there's many reasons why the gospel accounts can be trusted, this is one.
Speaker 1: If you were to make up an urban legend or a Matthew, you would never have done this.
Speaker 1: Matthew leaves in all the scandalous people in the family tree of Jesus.
Speaker 1: He doesn't edit it at all.
Speaker 1: Why not, like dude, this is the hero of our faith.
Speaker 1: Why not just sort of cut out a few people and add a few in there?
Speaker 1: For example, he leaves in five women, which for us today, in the modern world, like oh, no problem, it's not a big deal.
Speaker 1: Back then the world was much more patriarchal and you would never see a woman in a family tree, in someone's resume, recommending them for anything like the savior of the world.
Speaker 1: You would never have done this.
Speaker 1: It's very important to have a family tree that never have done this.
Speaker 1: It virtually never happens.
Speaker 1: And we're outsiders Now to boot.
Speaker 1: Several of these people were Gentiles and to ancient Jews, gentiles were unclean.
Speaker 1: They couldn't even worship in the temple or the tabernacle.
Speaker 1: They weren't allowed to worship God because they're outside their racial outsiders.
Speaker 1: They were excluded people.
Speaker 1: And yet here they are in Jesus family tree, this genealogy, this resume, to recommend him as the savior of the world, and there's five women, a couple of Gentiles, outsiders, racially, gender outsiders.
Speaker 1: People are in Jesus's family tree, that can't even worship in the temple or in the tabernacle, and Yet they're the mothers of Jesus.
Speaker 1: It's kind of odd, though Maybe you found this to be true.
Speaker 1: I found it to be true that sometimes those people who don't fit within the religious institution, sometimes they have a clear picture of who Jesus really is, because sometimes, thus, those of us on the inside, we miss it and we miss the point.
Speaker 1: Are you with me?
Speaker 1: Jesus keeps him in, or Matthew does.
Speaker 1: He doesn't ignore the sordid, shadowy, shaded past of Jesus.
Speaker 1: Tamar, for example.
Speaker 1: If you know the story of Tamar, you can look it up.
Speaker 1: She was the daughter of love, judah and Judah, who was really unjust.
Speaker 1: Or she tricks him into sleeping with her.
Speaker 1: That's incest, but it's in the Bible.
Speaker 1: Why would Matthew include this scandalous story of incest in Jesus's resume?
Speaker 1: Why would he do that?
Speaker 1: Well, I'll tell you, it's because he's letting you know, out of this dysfunctional family, the Messiah will come.
Speaker 1: And all the dysfunctional families in the room said amen, let's go.
Speaker 1: All right, we're gonna be okay.
Speaker 1: Now, how about Rahab?
Speaker 1: Rahab was a Canaanite woman, a prostitute yeah, a prostitute.
Speaker 1: You could easily have just cut her out, no problem, no one even remember her name, and yet Matthew includes her.
Speaker 1: Why does he do this?
Speaker 1: And how about King David?
Speaker 1: Oh, finally we get the King David, a man of God, the King, israel's greatest king.
Speaker 1: Thankfully, we get the David.
Speaker 1: Finally we can have a nice golden shining star.
Speaker 1: But Matthew mentions David like watch.
Speaker 1: I mentioned him.
Speaker 1: This is what he says about David.
Speaker 1: It's hilarious.
Speaker 1: Well, it's hilarious.
Speaker 1: Now he says David was the father of Solomon fair enough whose mother had been your Ria's wife.
Speaker 1: Now, ain't that some drama?
Speaker 1: Or, as the kids say, that's some tea right there.
Speaker 1: Why would he say that?
Speaker 1: Why not just say, oh, he's the father of Solomon?
Speaker 1: Why bring up your Ria's wife?
Speaker 1: You remember who your Ria was?
Speaker 1: Your I was one of David's homeboys, he was his man.
Speaker 1: He protected David when they were on the run out in the wilderness and Saul wanted to kill David and your rising.
Speaker 1: I got you and he had us back the whole time.
Speaker 1: He's one of his buddies.
Speaker 1: And they come back and you're I goes to war and David sees your eyes, wife, and he wants her and, like King sometimes do, he takes her.
Speaker 1: Then he has your Ria killed.
Speaker 1: That's his homie.
Speaker 1: Why would he do that?
Speaker 1: Absolute moral failure on David's part.
Speaker 1: And yet Matthew Mentioned your Ria by name, drawing to attention, our attention, to the fact that this story happened.
Speaker 1: It's incredible.
Speaker 1: Why would he do this?
Speaker 1: Well, to sum up, matthew's genealogy of Jesus, the savior of the world, includes moral outsiders, adulterers, adulteresses, incest prostitutes, dudes, who are absolute moral failures.
Speaker 1: There were cultural outsiders, racial outsiders, gender outsiders, even those excluded by the law of Moses from worshiping God.
Speaker 1: They couldn't worship God.
Speaker 1: Those people are in the ancestry of Jesus, they're in the family tree, they're in the family of Jesus.
Speaker 1: What in the world?
Speaker 1: Well, people excluded by culture, respectable society, even the law of God, are in the family tree of Jesus, which means this Doesn't matter.
Speaker 1: It doesn't matter your pedigree, it doesn't.
Speaker 1: You can put your resume away, I don't care and, more importantly, god doesn't care.
Speaker 1: It doesn't matter what you've done.
Speaker 1: I don't care what you've done, even the most shameful things, like people who park in front of a target in the fire lane, blocking traffic, and people right in front of the no parking sign.
Speaker 1: And you know who you are.
Speaker 1: I see you every Friday morning there.
Speaker 1: Oh, the rule's going to apply to you, I guess.
Speaker 1: Okay, the rest of us will just go.
Speaker 1: Okay, I'm done.
Speaker 1: Maybe you've done really shameful things.
Speaker 1: Maybe you're rooted for the Packers today.
Speaker 1: Oh hey, sorry.
Speaker 1: Hey, where's Barb?
Speaker 1: You saw her earlier.
Speaker 1: Don't punch me, barb.
Speaker 1: Okay, the Raiders, you wrote it root of the Raiders.
Speaker 1: Maybe you are one of those folks who never have used your turn signal in your life.
Speaker 1: I don't know where the turn signal is.
Speaker 1: I know who you are too.
Speaker 1: Or maybe your whole life you've been a religious outsider.
Speaker 1: Maybe you've been excluded from the church.
Speaker 1: Maybe you don't really know about this whole God thing.
Speaker 1: You're like I don't know, ryan, my parents when we came, I don't know.
Speaker 1: Yeah, maybe you've never even been to church.
Speaker 1: Maybe it's your first time.
Speaker 1: Well, welcome, first of all.
Speaker 1: Maybe that's your deal.
Speaker 1: Maybe you've hurt someone deeply, someone you loved, and you can't forgive yourself, let alone ask them to forgive you.
Speaker 1: Maybe you've even liked David.
Speaker 1: Maybe you've killed somebody.
Speaker 1: Don't raise your hand.
Speaker 1: Well, here's the good news Lost by angels to shepherds and John and in Matthew's genealogy, jesus has come to heal your sin and to mine and to unite us with himself, including us in the family of God.
Speaker 1: And if it's good news, friends, nothing you do will change that.
Speaker 1: Now you can live in response however you want to, but you might as well.
Speaker 1: Get a hot dog and some soda and enjoy the game.
Speaker 1: This isn't good advice.
Speaker 1: It's not a 10-point way to get into or sneak into the family of God or be good enough to get in.
Speaker 1: It's not what it is.
Speaker 1: It's good news Brought by an angel, a messenger to shepherds.
Speaker 1: And, by the way, you're in not because of your credentials.
Speaker 1: David had credentials.
Speaker 1: He was a dude, he was a Jew and he was royalty.
Speaker 1: But even David only gets in because of the grace of God.
Speaker 1: That's why he's in.
Speaker 1: It's not that all the good people are in and all the bad people are out.
Speaker 1: Sometimes we say that, right, and churches can be like the worst culprits.
Speaker 1: Oh well, all the good folks are in and all the bad folks are out.
Speaker 1: And we wonder why the church is not compelling anymore to people.
Speaker 1: It's not how it works.
Speaker 1: See, everybody's in only because of the grace of Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1: Jim Keller says it this way Jesus in Jesus Christ, prostitute and king.
Speaker 1: I just love seeing both of those words next to each other.
Speaker 1: I love that's awesome.
Speaker 1: Male and female, jew and Gentile, one race and another race, moral and immoral, all sit down as equals, equally sinful and lost, equally accepted and loved.
Speaker 1: I love that.
Speaker 1: So welcome to the family.
Speaker 1: Welcome to the family.
Speaker 1: When I was a little boy, I longed to be a part of a family, a tribe, a village, a community.
Speaker 1: I've always longed for that.
Speaker 1: You might know my story.
Speaker 1: I didn't grow up in the nuclear family.
Speaker 1: My parents were divorced when I was about eight years old.
Speaker 1: My dad was an alcoholic Lots of things going on there and as a little boy I just longed to belong somewhere.
Speaker 1: And here's the thing.
Speaker 1: That's never left me.
Speaker 1: It's never gone away, even now as an adult.
Speaker 1: I longed for community, for village, for friendship, for tribe.
Speaker 1: It's probably why we ended up having four kids.
Speaker 1: I can create my own little village, you know.
Speaker 1: Also, we didn't really know what was causing it until the fourth one.
Speaker 1: Just kidding, I knew, come on, I wanted my own basketball team, but I was one shy.
Speaker 1: So, whatever.
Speaker 1: It's why I moved from Colorado to Minnesota.
Speaker 1: My family had all gotten married and moved out of state and I'm like we're going to live by Katie's family.
Speaker 1: That's why we're in Minnesota.
Speaker 1: It's why I live in the same city.
Speaker 1: I passed her Because I love running into you guys, at Target, hopefully, at Chipotle, at Starbucks, wherever you go, I love running into you Always.
Speaker 1: By the way, stop me if you see me.
Speaker 1: I love that, even at Planet Now.
Speaker 1: I see folks at Planet Fitness all the time.
Speaker 1: That's why because I love to create and talk about community and the family of Jesus is what I do, it's what I get paid to do, it's what I love to do, and I don't think I'm the only one that longs for these kinds of things.
Speaker 1: I think we all have a deep longing in our souls for tribe and village, for connection, and for many of us, christmas only exacerbates this sense of disconnection that we already have.
Speaker 1: It maybe makes worse our sense of loneliness or isolation and deepens our pain.
Speaker 1: I get that, I do.
Speaker 1: But here's the good news you can be a part of the family of God.
Speaker 1: You can, and God isn't ashamed of you, and I know that because I look at his family tree and there's some shady people in there and welcome to the family.
Speaker 1: And when I say you can belong to the family of God, I mean like sort of the cosmic family or global or historic, but I mean this one as well.
Speaker 1: I think God shows up in this place because of us.
Speaker 1: So if you aren't a part of a church or you don't really know where you're coming.
Speaker 1: Come hang out here and just see what we do, what we're all about.
Speaker 1: Come on Sunday mornings and worship with us.
Speaker 1: Come go bowling with us.
Speaker 1: That's what families do.
Speaker 1: Come hang out at our house churches and journey groups or go out for coffee with us.
Speaker 1: You'll find that we're just as dysfunctional and weird, but also beautiful and lovely and kind of trying to find God ourselves.
Speaker 1: So you're welcome to be a part of this family as well, here at Central, because we long for connection, for community, for belonging.
Speaker 1: I think we long for God and we long to be home and belong.
Speaker 1: Robert Frost, the great poet, says this about home this home is the place where, when you have to go there, they have to take you in.
Speaker 1: I love that.
Speaker 1: It's good, it's true.
Speaker 1: I thought you know what actually this is what God is too.
Speaker 1: So I just changed the wording.
Speaker 1: I said the God is the place where, when you have to go there, they have to take you in.
Speaker 1: I told my buddy I go, cory, what do you think of this?
Speaker 1: How does this sound to you?
Speaker 1: He's like that's good, but I can do even better.
Speaker 1: And he sent me this text back.
Speaker 1: He said no, here's what God is, ryan.
Speaker 1: He goes.
Speaker 1: God is the place where, when no one else wants you and you want to be sure you want yourself, a spot is always set for you at the table, and he's eagerly watching that front door, hoping the next knock is you.
Speaker 1: That's God.
Speaker 1: Tonight we're gonna gather on the table and, just so you know, everybody's welcome at the table here tonight.
Speaker 1: If you're hungry and you want to come, come and eat and come and drink.
Speaker 1: You don't have to be a member, you don't have to have it all figured out.
Speaker 1: You don't have to be a Lutheran.
Speaker 1: You can just come because you want to, and when you come you can hold out your hands and receive the wafer.
Speaker 1: We'll help you how to do it.
Speaker 1: Maybe you've never done it before.
Speaker 1: That's okay.
Speaker 1: We'll help you because we're family, so family does.
Speaker 1: Oh, here's what you do.
Speaker 1: Take this, dip it in here.
Speaker 1: Hebrews says to this way this is what Hebrews says, and I'll close with this, these four verses Jesus is in the shame to call them brothers and sisters.
Speaker 1: I mean any more than he's ashamed of the people in his own family tree.
Speaker 1: How about this one?
Speaker 1: I love this.
Speaker 1: John says but whoever did want him, who believed he was who he claimed and what he would do, what he said he would do.
Speaker 1: He made them to be their true selves.
Speaker 1: I long to be my true self.
Speaker 1: I really do, and I bet you do too.
Speaker 1: The child of God self.
Speaker 1: How about this one?
Speaker 1: Ephesians says that long before he laid down the earth's foundations, a long time ago, he had us in mind, had settled on us as the focus of his love to be made whole and holy.
Speaker 1: You can be made whole.
Speaker 1: That's what Jesus came to do by his love.
Speaker 1: Long ago, long, long ago, he decided to adopt us into his family through Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1: And, by the way, what pleasure he took in doing this.
Speaker 1: The Bible says he wanted us to enter into celebration with his lavish gift-giving by the hand of his beloved son.
Speaker 1: That's the news, my friends.
Speaker 1: I'm just telling you.
Speaker 1: I'm just telling you the news.
Speaker 1: How about this one?
Speaker 1: Last one, first, john what marvelous love the Father has extended to us.
Speaker 1: Just look at it.
Speaker 1: We're called to be the children of God.
Speaker 1: That's who we really are.
Speaker 1: That's who you really are.
Speaker 1: I'm just telling you.
Speaker 1: But that's also why the world doesn't recognize us or take us seriously, because it has no idea who he is or what he's up to.
Speaker 1: But, friends, that is exactly who we are the children of God.
Speaker 1: And the best part, this is only the beginning.
Speaker 1: Central, may you know that you've been adopted into the family of God, not because of your credentials, but because of the grace of Jesus, what he came to do.
Speaker 1: So you might as well come and hang out and eat and drink and enjoy life in the lavish love of God.
Speaker 1: How you respond is up to you, but it doesn't change the news, my friends.
Speaker 1: This is the good news of Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1: Come and eat and come and drink.