WEBVTT 00:00:00.160 --> 00:00:02.145 The sermon tonight is called. 00:00:02.145 --> 00:00:07.187 It's a sermon about the Minnesota North Star's resumes and the family of God. 00:00:07.187 --> 00:00:08.664 Take out the Bible in front of you. 00:00:08.664 --> 00:00:09.205 There's a Bible. 00:00:09.205 --> 00:00:10.480 It should be in the pew back in front of you. 00:00:10.480 --> 00:00:11.926 It's the black one, not the green one. 00:00:11.926 --> 00:00:21.806 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. 00:00:21.806 --> 00:00:24.266 And I believe it's on page 783. 00:00:24.266 --> 00:00:25.001 Am I right? 00:00:25.001 --> 00:00:25.564 I think I'm right. 00:00:25.564 --> 00:00:28.419 So open up to page 783. 00:00:28.419 --> 00:00:30.606 When you're there, give me a sh-pah-pah. 00:00:30.606 --> 00:00:33.942 You guys are fast, you're already there. 00:00:33.942 --> 00:00:34.625 Awesome Good. 00:00:34.625 --> 00:00:38.249 By the way, out of the three services, that was the most responsive we've had all day. 00:00:38.249 --> 00:00:38.810 That was awesome. 00:00:38.810 --> 00:00:40.003 Keep bringing the energy. 00:00:40.003 --> 00:00:40.424 I love it. 00:00:40.424 --> 00:00:42.426 Okay, hold your finger there. 00:00:42.426 --> 00:00:45.624 I'm going to talk about Matthew one in a moment, but not just yet, so hang tight. 00:00:46.100 --> 00:00:56.889 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. 00:00:56.889 --> 00:01:02.011 A man called Norm Green, who was the owner of the North Stars, was taking the. 00:01:02.011 --> 00:01:03.865 I know, I know, I know. 00:01:03.865 --> 00:01:09.230 Like I said earlier, dante has a book about the seven different levels of hell. 00:01:09.230 --> 00:01:17.250 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. 00:01:17.250 --> 00:01:18.243 I love that response. 00:01:18.243 --> 00:01:18.644 Great. 00:01:18.644 --> 00:01:28.769 And to rub salt in the wounds of Minnesota fans, hockey fans, he moved the North Stars not just anywhere but to Dallas Texas. 00:01:28.769 --> 00:01:33.969 Yeah, dallas Texas, not exactly the hub of hockey fandom, if you know what I mean. 00:01:33.969 --> 00:01:36.647 Excuse me, I'm still choking up about it. 00:01:36.647 --> 00:01:37.061 I can't believe. 00:01:37.061 --> 00:01:37.563 This is horrible. 00:01:37.563 --> 00:01:40.266 And the news broke. 00:01:40.266 --> 00:01:47.087 And once the news broke, and once the headlines were announced, there was nothing anybody could do about it. 00:01:47.087 --> 00:01:48.129 That's what it was. 00:01:48.129 --> 00:01:49.152 That's what news does. 00:01:49.152 --> 00:01:53.664 News sort of breaks, and there's literally nothing to be done, just the news to be announced. 00:01:53.664 --> 00:01:56.040 One second, excuse me. 00:01:56.040 --> 00:01:58.224 So what's done is done. 00:01:58.224 --> 00:02:02.290 Whenever news is announced, whether it's headlines, whatever is done is done. 00:02:02.290 --> 00:02:04.748 There's literally nothing that you can do about it. 00:02:04.748 --> 00:02:05.503 That's what news is. 00:02:05.503 --> 00:02:07.807 It's an announcement about what's already happened. 00:02:07.840 --> 00:02:09.606 This is different, then, of course, from advice. 00:02:09.606 --> 00:02:17.449 Advice, on the contrary, is actually counsel or sort of wisdom about how to make some future thing happen or not happen. 00:02:17.449 --> 00:02:25.504 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. 00:02:25.504 --> 00:02:30.945 Or maybe if you bought a built-in arena, maybe he would have kept them in town. 00:02:30.945 --> 00:02:36.563 Or maybe if the fans had just cheered a little bit louder, maybe not, I don't know if that really does anything. 00:02:36.563 --> 00:02:38.086 Cheering louder, these are professional athletes. 00:02:38.086 --> 00:02:40.004 Come on, not great advice to cheer. 00:02:40.004 --> 00:02:45.586 It's like the dad at baseball games little league baseball games who just keeps on yelling keep your eye on the ball. 00:02:45.586 --> 00:02:46.789 Yeah, no duh. 00:02:46.789 --> 00:02:47.070 Thanks dad. 00:02:47.070 --> 00:02:48.174 I've been doing it the whole time. 00:02:48.174 --> 00:02:49.304 I still miss it when I swing. 00:02:49.304 --> 00:02:51.723 Not great advice. 00:02:51.723 --> 00:02:58.826 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. 00:02:58.826 --> 00:03:01.848 It makes you do something you ought to, you should. 00:03:01.848 --> 00:03:14.706 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. 00:03:14.706 --> 00:03:15.866 Does that make sense? 00:03:15.866 --> 00:03:22.490 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. 00:03:22.490 --> 00:03:23.170 It's the same thing. 00:03:23.639 --> 00:03:33.907 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. 00:03:33.907 --> 00:03:35.671 There you go, so we can watch. 00:03:35.671 --> 00:03:39.064 You know, that's the without the dome on the top, anyway, yeah. 00:03:39.064 --> 00:03:40.163 And now here's the deal. 00:03:40.163 --> 00:03:45.747 Once the news broke, there was nothing for you to do except go to the game and enjoy some baseball. 00:03:45.747 --> 00:03:46.222 Am I right? 00:03:46.222 --> 00:03:59.960 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? 00:03:59.960 --> 00:04:01.102 Number two, let's go. 00:04:01.102 --> 00:04:05.091 Yeah, yeah, yep, I'm just going to brag for a minute there. 00:04:05.091 --> 00:04:11.709 So I'm over there on the side somewhere, but all there is left to do when news breaks is to just respond accordingly. 00:04:11.709 --> 00:04:13.873 But it doesn't change the news. 00:04:13.873 --> 00:04:14.980 That's what news is? 00:04:14.980 --> 00:04:16.584 It's a report about what's already happened. 00:04:16.944 --> 00:04:25.851 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. 00:04:25.851 --> 00:04:27.826 And here's how it reads this is the story. 00:04:27.826 --> 00:04:28.810 Go ahead for me, sarah. 00:04:28.810 --> 00:04:31.386 But the angels said to them don't be afraid. 00:04:31.386 --> 00:04:37.666 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. 00:04:37.666 --> 00:04:41.653 The reaction is like terror and also wonder, which is kind of cool. 00:04:41.653 --> 00:04:47.793 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. 00:04:47.793 --> 00:04:49.423 But I bring you good news. 00:04:49.423 --> 00:04:53.209 The angels said that will cause great joy for all people. 00:04:53.209 --> 00:04:57.865 Today, in the town of David, a Savior has been born to you. 00:04:57.865 --> 00:05:00.192 He's Messiah Christ the Lord. 00:05:00.192 --> 00:05:05.773 This will be a sign to you that you will find a baby wrapped and lying in a manger. 00:05:05.773 --> 00:05:09.386 This is news, not advice. 00:05:09.386 --> 00:05:12.213 It's an announcement about something that's already happened. 00:05:12.213 --> 00:05:21.629 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. 00:05:21.629 --> 00:05:31.048 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. 00:05:31.048 --> 00:05:31.810 That's what light does. 00:05:31.810 --> 00:05:32.961 It's kind of like news. 00:05:32.961 --> 00:05:35.689 It just does it whatever it wants to, whether you respond or not. 00:05:36.439 --> 00:05:42.826 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. 00:05:42.826 --> 00:05:45.459 In the ancient world, in the Greek language, they had a word for this. 00:05:45.459 --> 00:05:46.764 They called them Angeloids. 00:05:46.764 --> 00:05:47.487 Everyone say Angeloid. 00:05:47.487 --> 00:05:51.867 Now an Angeloid shows up and gives the message. 00:05:51.867 --> 00:05:53.632 In the Greek, these are messengers. 00:05:53.632 --> 00:05:56.485 In the English, we call these angels. 00:05:56.485 --> 00:05:57.528 You figured it out, good job. 00:05:57.528 --> 00:05:57.930 Where'd it go? 00:05:57.930 --> 00:05:59.781 You're tracking Angels. 00:05:59.781 --> 00:06:00.502 These are messengers. 00:06:00.502 --> 00:06:05.793 They show up and they announce the news of something that's already been done. 00:06:05.793 --> 00:06:08.884 It's happened, they just had to tell people. 00:06:08.884 --> 00:06:13.913 So in the middle of the night they show up to a bunch of shepherds and they tell them this good news. 00:06:14.480 --> 00:06:23.634 This is the story of Jesus, the good news about Jesus, not the good advice about Jesus, but the good news about Jesus. 00:06:23.634 --> 00:06:24.641 And it's really good news. 00:06:24.641 --> 00:06:26.805 It's really good news. 00:06:26.805 --> 00:06:29.951 In fact, it's almost too good to be true. 00:06:29.951 --> 00:06:35.290 Just ask Rahab and Ruth and Tamar. 00:06:36.600 --> 00:06:42.932 Luke, his story about Jesus opens up with some shepherds in the field and some angels, some Angeloids, some messengers. 00:06:42.932 --> 00:06:47.589 John's Gospel about Jesus opens up with light coming to the world, shining in the darkness. 00:06:47.589 --> 00:06:48.552 The darkness can't understand it. 00:06:48.552 --> 00:06:56.033 And Matthew, though totally out of left field, he opens his story about Jesus in a super unconventional way. 00:06:56.033 --> 00:06:58.624 He opens up with a genealogy. 00:06:58.624 --> 00:06:59.485 Open up Matthew 1. 00:06:59.485 --> 00:07:01.370 It's on page 783. 00:07:01.370 --> 00:07:01.750 Are you ready? 00:07:01.750 --> 00:07:05.107 If you got it, say Shippah bow, lovely, I love it. 00:07:05.107 --> 00:07:05.548 This is great. 00:07:05.548 --> 00:07:07.442 So here's how it goes. 00:07:07.562 --> 00:07:13.052 A genealogy is basically a family tree and I'm going to warn you, it's not the most compelling reading. 00:07:13.052 --> 00:07:15.886 It's an odd opening for the Savior of the world. 00:07:15.886 --> 00:07:18.091 There's no fireworks, no dramatic display. 00:07:18.091 --> 00:07:21.730 It's a genealogy, basically a family tree, and here's how it reads. 00:07:21.730 --> 00:07:31.711 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. 00:07:31.711 --> 00:07:33.182 And then it goes on from there. 00:07:33.182 --> 00:07:44.711 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. 00:07:44.711 --> 00:07:46.463 Have you fallen asleep yet? 00:07:46.463 --> 00:07:49.170 Like, what is Matthew doing? 00:07:49.170 --> 00:07:55.591 Why on earth does he open the story of the Savior of the whole world with this boring genealogy? 00:07:55.591 --> 00:07:57.641 What's he doing? 00:07:57.641 --> 00:08:09.963 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. 00:08:09.963 --> 00:08:15.254 He's sort of recommending Jesus to us as the savior of the world through this genealogy. 00:08:15.557 --> 00:08:22.254 Now, today, in our individualistic culture, which is what we live in, they were much more tribal, familial and kind of more communal. 00:08:22.254 --> 00:08:22.865 We're not. 00:08:22.865 --> 00:08:23.495 We're more individualistic. 00:08:23.495 --> 00:08:25.375 In our society, we do the same thing. 00:08:25.375 --> 00:08:27.742 We recommend ourselves to people all the time. 00:08:27.742 --> 00:08:37.919 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. 00:08:38.134 --> 00:08:43.360 I was at a party one time years ago and this guy was talking about how he just ran a 5K that morning. 00:08:43.360 --> 00:08:46.202 Well, not to be outdone, was the guy across from him. 00:08:46.202 --> 00:08:47.339 He was like oh, you ran a 5K. 00:08:47.339 --> 00:08:49.801 Well, that reminds me of the time I ran a 10K. 00:08:49.801 --> 00:08:54.244 Oh, excuse me, mr 10K, the floor is yours. 00:08:54.244 --> 00:08:55.025 He's like oh, yeah, yeah. 00:08:55.025 --> 00:08:59.621 And then I went home that night after running a 10K and I maxed out my bench press. 00:08:59.621 --> 00:09:07.940 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. 00:09:07.940 --> 00:09:10.580 Oh well, good for you. 00:09:10.580 --> 00:09:14.000 And then the weirdest part was that this guy still plays the wortel. 00:09:14.000 --> 00:09:15.740 Let's be honest, I mean, who plays the wortel? 00:09:15.740 --> 00:09:16.957 I'm just kidding, I do too. 00:09:16.957 --> 00:09:18.336 I do, I do every day. 00:09:18.336 --> 00:09:18.498 I play. 00:09:18.518 --> 00:09:26.900 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. 00:09:26.900 --> 00:09:36.844 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. 00:09:36.844 --> 00:09:37.618 We'll dress them up. 00:09:37.618 --> 00:09:39.738 You know that's what we do even in conversation. 00:09:39.738 --> 00:09:41.620 We kind of dress or we like leave things out. 00:09:41.620 --> 00:09:50.042 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. 00:09:50.042 --> 00:10:00.158 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. 00:10:00.158 --> 00:10:03.418 So we do, we kind of dress it up, we edit it a little bit. 00:10:03.875 --> 00:10:09.720 And in ancient times they were very much so, except they didn't really have resumes, they had genealogies. 00:10:09.720 --> 00:10:14.820 They would recommend themselves by giving their family history, like who were you related to? 00:10:14.820 --> 00:10:16.961 And they would brag and boast with their pedigree. 00:10:16.961 --> 00:10:19.741 Their genealogies were their resumes. 00:10:19.741 --> 00:10:24.864 It was them announcing to the world this is who I am, like resumes do for us today. 00:10:24.864 --> 00:10:27.522 But the way Herod was very much. 00:10:27.522 --> 00:10:35.903 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. 00:10:35.903 --> 00:10:40.562 I mean, we all do have that crazy uncle who we want to kind of just get rid of, and so Herod does that. 00:10:40.562 --> 00:10:43.356 He expunges people from his record, from his genealogy. 00:10:43.356 --> 00:10:54.206 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. 00:10:54.206 --> 00:10:56.663 It was your chance to flex on everybody else. 00:10:56.663 --> 00:10:59.043 That's what genealogy does. 00:11:00.198 --> 00:11:06.344 Matthew gives us the genealogy, the resume, of Jesus, the savior of the world. 00:11:06.344 --> 00:11:13.774 This whole book hinges on Jesus and this is his resume, his genealogy. 00:11:13.774 --> 00:11:18.006 This is how we know who Jesus is. 00:11:18.006 --> 00:11:20.663 So who was he? 00:11:20.663 --> 00:11:22.534 Who was Jesus? 00:11:22.575 --> 00:11:27.951 Well, shockingly, matthew doesn't edit out anybody that he probably should have. 00:11:27.951 --> 00:11:33.888 Shockingly, he keeps in all kinds of scandalous people, which actually only lends credibility to the gospels. 00:11:33.888 --> 00:11:38.576 Like there's many reasons why the gospel accounts can be trusted, this is one. 00:11:38.576 --> 00:11:43.254 If you were to make up an urban legend or a Matthew, you would never have done this. 00:11:43.254 --> 00:11:47.224 Matthew leaves in all the scandalous people in the family tree of Jesus. 00:11:47.224 --> 00:11:49.590 He doesn't edit it at all. 00:11:49.590 --> 00:11:53.375 Why not, like dude, this is the hero of our faith. 00:11:53.375 --> 00:11:56.043 Why not just sort of cut out a few people and add a few in there? 00:11:56.043 --> 00:12:03.815 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. 00:12:04.457 --> 00:12:15.427 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. 00:12:15.427 --> 00:12:16.495 You would never have done this. 00:12:16.495 --> 00:12:18.918 It's very important to have a family tree that never have done this. 00:12:18.918 --> 00:12:20.857 It virtually never happens. 00:12:20.857 --> 00:12:25.251 And we're outsiders Now to boot. 00:12:25.673 --> 00:12:31.403 Several of these people were Gentiles and to ancient Jews, gentiles were unclean. 00:12:31.403 --> 00:12:34.980 They couldn't even worship in the temple or the tabernacle. 00:12:34.980 --> 00:12:39.217 They weren't allowed to worship God because they're outside their racial outsiders. 00:12:39.217 --> 00:12:40.441 They were excluded people. 00:12:40.441 --> 00:12:54.417 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. 00:12:54.417 --> 00:13:02.798 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. 00:13:04.511 --> 00:13:06.698 It's kind of odd, though Maybe you found this to be true. 00:13:06.698 --> 00:13:20.081 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. 00:13:20.081 --> 00:13:21.323 Are you with me? 00:13:21.323 --> 00:13:24.695 Jesus keeps him in, or Matthew does. 00:13:24.695 --> 00:13:29.298 He doesn't ignore the sordid, shadowy, shaded past of Jesus. 00:13:29.298 --> 00:13:30.953 Tamar, for example. 00:13:30.953 --> 00:13:32.339 If you know the story of Tamar, you can look it up. 00:13:32.339 --> 00:13:38.096 She was the daughter of love, judah and Judah, who was really unjust. 00:13:38.096 --> 00:13:40.000 Or she tricks him into sleeping with her. 00:13:40.000 --> 00:13:43.552 That's incest, but it's in the Bible. 00:13:43.552 --> 00:13:49.102 Why would Matthew include this scandalous story of incest in Jesus's resume? 00:13:49.102 --> 00:13:50.063 Why would he do that? 00:13:50.063 --> 00:13:57.484 Well, I'll tell you, it's because he's letting you know, out of this dysfunctional family, the Messiah will come. 00:13:57.484 --> 00:14:02.354 And all the dysfunctional families in the room said amen, let's go. 00:14:02.354 --> 00:14:03.719 All right, we're gonna be okay. 00:14:05.052 --> 00:14:05.975 Now, how about Rahab? 00:14:05.975 --> 00:14:11.955 Rahab was a Canaanite woman, a prostitute yeah, a prostitute. 00:14:11.955 --> 00:14:17.203 You could easily have just cut her out, no problem, no one even remember her name, and yet Matthew includes her. 00:14:17.203 --> 00:14:18.793 Why does he do this? 00:14:18.793 --> 00:14:20.577 And how about King David? 00:14:20.577 --> 00:14:25.509 Oh, finally we get the King David, a man of God, the King, israel's greatest king. 00:14:25.509 --> 00:14:26.793 Thankfully, we get the David. 00:14:26.793 --> 00:14:29.741 Finally we can have a nice golden shining star. 00:14:29.741 --> 00:14:32.758 But Matthew mentions David like watch. 00:14:32.758 --> 00:14:33.198 I mentioned him. 00:14:33.198 --> 00:14:34.202 This is what he says about David. 00:14:34.202 --> 00:14:35.287 It's hilarious. 00:14:35.287 --> 00:14:35.908 Well, it's hilarious. 00:14:35.950 --> 00:14:42.384 Now he says David was the father of Solomon fair enough whose mother had been your Ria's wife. 00:14:42.384 --> 00:14:44.895 Now, ain't that some drama? 00:14:44.895 --> 00:14:47.859 Or, as the kids say, that's some tea right there. 00:14:47.859 --> 00:14:49.775 Why would he say that? 00:14:49.775 --> 00:14:52.636 Why not just say, oh, he's the father of Solomon? 00:14:52.636 --> 00:14:54.361 Why bring up your Ria's wife? 00:14:54.832 --> 00:14:55.740 You remember who your Ria was? 00:14:55.740 --> 00:14:57.955 Your I was one of David's homeboys, he was his man. 00:14:57.955 --> 00:15:03.503 He protected David when they were on the run out in the wilderness and Saul wanted to kill David and your rising. 00:15:03.503 --> 00:15:05.697 I got you and he had us back the whole time. 00:15:05.697 --> 00:15:07.100 He's one of his buddies. 00:15:07.100 --> 00:15:14.604 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. 00:15:14.604 --> 00:15:16.855 Then he has your Ria killed. 00:15:16.855 --> 00:15:18.634 That's his homie. 00:15:18.634 --> 00:15:19.476 Why would he do that? 00:15:19.476 --> 00:15:24.176 Absolute moral failure on David's part. 00:15:24.176 --> 00:15:33.370 And yet Matthew Mentioned your Ria by name, drawing to attention, our attention, to the fact that this story happened. 00:15:33.370 --> 00:15:34.995 It's incredible. 00:15:34.995 --> 00:15:36.578 Why would he do this? 00:15:39.225 --> 00:15:52.278 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. 00:15:52.278 --> 00:16:00.529 There were cultural outsiders, racial outsiders, gender outsiders, even those excluded by the law of Moses from worshiping God. 00:16:00.529 --> 00:16:01.432 They couldn't worship God. 00:16:01.432 --> 00:16:08.589 Those people are in the ancestry of Jesus, they're in the family tree, they're in the family of Jesus. 00:16:08.589 --> 00:16:10.250 What in the world? 00:16:10.250 --> 00:16:23.705 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. 00:16:23.705 --> 00:16:27.394 It doesn't matter your pedigree, it doesn't. 00:16:27.394 --> 00:16:31.990 You can put your resume away, I don't care and, more importantly, god doesn't care. 00:16:31.990 --> 00:16:33.730 It doesn't matter what you've done. 00:16:33.730 --> 00:16:44.636 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. 00:16:44.636 --> 00:16:46.770 And you know who you are. 00:16:46.770 --> 00:16:49.292 I see you every Friday morning there. 00:16:49.292 --> 00:16:52.412 Oh, the rule's going to apply to you, I guess. 00:16:52.412 --> 00:16:54.567 Okay, the rest of us will just go. 00:16:54.567 --> 00:16:55.089 Okay, I'm done. 00:16:55.089 --> 00:16:58.230 Maybe you've done really shameful things. 00:16:58.230 --> 00:16:59.688 Maybe you're rooted for the Packers today. 00:16:59.688 --> 00:17:01.494 Oh hey, sorry. 00:17:01.494 --> 00:17:02.958 Hey, where's Barb? 00:17:02.958 --> 00:17:03.681 You saw her earlier. 00:17:03.681 --> 00:17:04.544 Don't punch me, barb. 00:17:04.544 --> 00:17:07.511 Okay, the Raiders, you wrote it root of the Raiders. 00:17:09.285 --> 00:17:12.673 Maybe you are one of those folks who never have used your turn signal in your life. 00:17:12.673 --> 00:17:13.836 I don't know where the turn signal is. 00:17:13.836 --> 00:17:15.406 I know who you are too. 00:17:15.406 --> 00:17:22.515 Or maybe your whole life you've been a religious outsider. 00:17:22.515 --> 00:17:25.691 Maybe you've been excluded from the church. 00:17:25.691 --> 00:17:28.904 Maybe you don't really know about this whole God thing. 00:17:28.904 --> 00:17:32.013 You're like I don't know, ryan, my parents when we came, I don't know. 00:17:32.013 --> 00:17:37.125 Yeah, maybe you've never even been to church. 00:17:37.125 --> 00:17:38.048 Maybe it's your first time. 00:17:38.048 --> 00:17:39.588 Well, welcome, first of all. 00:17:39.588 --> 00:17:42.130 Maybe that's your deal. 00:17:42.345 --> 00:17:48.390 Maybe you've hurt someone deeply, someone you loved, and you can't forgive yourself, let alone ask them to forgive you. 00:17:48.390 --> 00:17:51.369 Maybe you've even liked David. 00:17:51.369 --> 00:17:52.348 Maybe you've killed somebody. 00:17:52.348 --> 00:17:55.143 Don't raise your hand. 00:17:55.143 --> 00:18:15.089 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. 00:18:15.089 --> 00:18:19.194 And if it's good news, friends, nothing you do will change that. 00:18:19.194 --> 00:18:24.660 Now you can live in response however you want to, but you might as well. 00:18:24.660 --> 00:18:28.049 Get a hot dog and some soda and enjoy the game. 00:18:29.493 --> 00:18:30.355 This isn't good advice. 00:18:30.355 --> 00:18:35.753 It's not a 10-point way to get into or sneak into the family of God or be good enough to get in. 00:18:35.753 --> 00:18:36.275 It's not what it is. 00:18:36.275 --> 00:18:41.291 It's good news Brought by an angel, a messenger to shepherds. 00:18:41.291 --> 00:18:45.874 And, by the way, you're in not because of your credentials. 00:18:45.874 --> 00:18:47.190 David had credentials. 00:18:47.190 --> 00:18:50.752 He was a dude, he was a Jew and he was royalty. 00:18:51.144 --> 00:18:54.712 But even David only gets in because of the grace of God. 00:18:54.712 --> 00:18:56.317 That's why he's in. 00:18:56.317 --> 00:19:00.694 It's not that all the good people are in and all the bad people are out. 00:19:00.694 --> 00:19:04.771 Sometimes we say that, right, and churches can be like the worst culprits. 00:19:04.771 --> 00:19:08.053 Oh well, all the good folks are in and all the bad folks are out. 00:19:08.053 --> 00:19:11.913 And we wonder why the church is not compelling anymore to people. 00:19:11.913 --> 00:19:13.651 It's not how it works. 00:19:13.651 --> 00:19:18.934 See, everybody's in only because of the grace of Jesus Christ. 00:19:18.934 --> 00:19:26.295 Jim Keller says it this way Jesus in Jesus Christ, prostitute and king. 00:19:26.525 --> 00:19:29.013 I just love seeing both of those words next to each other. 00:19:29.013 --> 00:19:30.388 I love that's awesome. 00:19:30.388 --> 00:19:42.151 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. 00:19:42.151 --> 00:19:43.714 I love that. 00:19:43.714 --> 00:19:47.295 So welcome to the family. 00:19:47.295 --> 00:19:50.167 Welcome to the family. 00:19:50.805 --> 00:19:55.011 When I was a little boy, I longed to be a part of a family, a tribe, a village, a community. 00:19:55.011 --> 00:19:56.410 I've always longed for that. 00:19:56.410 --> 00:19:57.653 You might know my story. 00:19:57.653 --> 00:19:59.191 I didn't grow up in the nuclear family. 00:19:59.191 --> 00:20:00.730 My parents were divorced when I was about eight years old. 00:20:00.730 --> 00:20:07.193 My dad was an alcoholic Lots of things going on there and as a little boy I just longed to belong somewhere. 00:20:07.193 --> 00:20:08.468 And here's the thing. 00:20:08.468 --> 00:20:09.772 That's never left me. 00:20:09.772 --> 00:20:11.907 It's never gone away, even now as an adult. 00:20:11.907 --> 00:20:15.951 I longed for community, for village, for friendship, for tribe. 00:20:15.951 --> 00:20:18.351 It's probably why we ended up having four kids. 00:20:18.351 --> 00:20:20.429 I can create my own little village, you know. 00:20:20.429 --> 00:20:24.147 Also, we didn't really know what was causing it until the fourth one. 00:20:24.147 --> 00:20:32.192 Just kidding, I knew, come on, I wanted my own basketball team, but I was one shy. 00:20:32.192 --> 00:20:32.630 So, whatever. 00:20:36.070 --> 00:20:38.136 It's why I moved from Colorado to Minnesota. 00:20:38.136 --> 00:20:42.751 My family had all gotten married and moved out of state and I'm like we're going to live by Katie's family. 00:20:42.751 --> 00:20:44.087 That's why we're in Minnesota. 00:20:44.087 --> 00:20:46.590 It's why I live in the same city. 00:20:46.590 --> 00:20:54.705 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. 00:20:54.705 --> 00:20:56.030 By the way, stop me if you see me. 00:20:56.030 --> 00:20:57.346 I love that, even at Planet Now. 00:20:57.346 --> 00:20:58.611 I see folks at Planet Fitness all the time. 00:20:58.611 --> 00:21:10.211 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. 00:21:10.565 --> 00:21:21.892 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. 00:21:21.892 --> 00:21:27.832 It maybe makes worse our sense of loneliness or isolation and deepens our pain. 00:21:27.832 --> 00:21:29.847 I get that, I do. 00:21:29.847 --> 00:21:35.971 But here's the good news you can be a part of the family of God. 00:21:35.971 --> 00:21:47.909 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. 00:21:47.909 --> 00:21:55.849 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. 00:21:55.849 --> 00:22:00.273 I think God shows up in this place because of us. 00:22:00.273 --> 00:22:04.222 So if you aren't a part of a church or you don't really know where you're coming. 00:22:04.222 --> 00:22:06.567 Come hang out here and just see what we do, what we're all about. 00:22:06.567 --> 00:22:08.771 Come on Sunday mornings and worship with us. 00:22:08.771 --> 00:22:10.250 Come go bowling with us. 00:22:10.250 --> 00:22:11.048 That's what families do. 00:22:11.048 --> 00:22:15.569 Come hang out at our house churches and journey groups or go out for coffee with us. 00:22:15.569 --> 00:22:22.612 You'll find that we're just as dysfunctional and weird, but also beautiful and lovely and kind of trying to find God ourselves. 00:22:22.612 --> 00:22:30.907 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. 00:22:30.907 --> 00:22:36.777 I think we long for God and we long to be home and belong. 00:22:37.765 --> 00:22:43.970 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. 00:22:43.970 --> 00:22:46.834 I love that. 00:22:46.834 --> 00:22:47.688 It's good, it's true. 00:22:47.688 --> 00:22:51.169 I thought you know what actually this is what God is too. 00:22:51.169 --> 00:22:52.609 So I just changed the wording. 00:22:52.609 --> 00:22:56.890 I said the God is the place where, when you have to go there, they have to take you in. 00:22:56.890 --> 00:23:00.752 I told my buddy I go, cory, what do you think of this? 00:23:00.752 --> 00:23:01.535 How does this sound to you? 00:23:01.535 --> 00:23:03.291 He's like that's good, but I can do even better. 00:23:03.291 --> 00:23:04.430 And he sent me this text back. 00:23:04.430 --> 00:23:06.192 He said no, here's what God is, ryan. 00:23:06.192 --> 00:23:06.425 He goes. 00:23:06.425 --> 00:23:23.788 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. 00:23:23.788 --> 00:23:25.799 That's God. 00:23:27.510 --> 00:23:31.819 Tonight we're gonna gather on the table and, just so you know, everybody's welcome at the table here tonight. 00:23:31.819 --> 00:23:35.819 If you're hungry and you want to come, come and eat and come and drink. 00:23:35.819 --> 00:23:39.799 You don't have to be a member, you don't have to have it all figured out. 00:23:39.799 --> 00:23:41.405 You don't have to be a Lutheran. 00:23:41.405 --> 00:23:47.096 You can just come because you want to, and when you come you can hold out your hands and receive the wafer. 00:23:47.096 --> 00:23:47.819 We'll help you how to do it. 00:23:47.819 --> 00:23:49.184 Maybe you've never done it before. 00:23:49.184 --> 00:23:49.626 That's okay. 00:23:49.626 --> 00:23:52.266 We'll help you because we're family, so family does. 00:23:52.266 --> 00:23:53.107 Oh, here's what you do. 00:23:53.107 --> 00:23:54.230 Take this, dip it in here. 00:23:55.547 --> 00:24:02.648 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. 00:24:02.648 --> 00:24:05.799 I mean any more than he's ashamed of the people in his own family tree. 00:24:05.799 --> 00:24:07.184 How about this one? 00:24:07.184 --> 00:24:07.728 I love this. 00:24:07.728 --> 00:24:13.739 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. 00:24:13.739 --> 00:24:16.799 He made them to be their true selves. 00:24:16.799 --> 00:24:19.307 I long to be my true self. 00:24:19.307 --> 00:24:21.306 I really do, and I bet you do too. 00:24:21.306 --> 00:24:23.567 The child of God self. 00:24:23.567 --> 00:24:24.984 How about this one? 00:24:26.321 --> 00:24:37.571 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. 00:24:37.571 --> 00:24:39.025 You can be made whole. 00:24:39.025 --> 00:24:42.884 That's what Jesus came to do by his love. 00:24:42.884 --> 00:24:47.819 Long ago, long, long ago, he decided to adopt us into his family through Jesus Christ. 00:24:47.819 --> 00:24:51.458 And, by the way, what pleasure he took in doing this. 00:24:51.458 --> 00:24:57.788 The Bible says he wanted us to enter into celebration with his lavish gift-giving by the hand of his beloved son. 00:24:57.788 --> 00:24:59.295 That's the news, my friends. 00:24:59.295 --> 00:24:59.759 I'm just telling you. 00:24:59.759 --> 00:25:01.375 I'm just telling you the news. 00:25:01.395 --> 00:25:01.799 How about this one? 00:25:01.799 --> 00:25:05.708 Last one, first, john what marvelous love the Father has extended to us. 00:25:05.708 --> 00:25:06.803 Just look at it. 00:25:06.803 --> 00:25:08.268 We're called to be the children of God. 00:25:08.268 --> 00:25:09.982