No Sanity Required
No Sanity Required is a weekly podcast hosted by Brody Holloway and Snowbird Outfitters. Each week, we engage culture and personal stories with a Gospel-driven perspective. Our mission is to equip the Church to pierce the darkness with the light of Christ by sharing the vision, ideas, and passions God has used to carry us through 26 years of student ministry. Find more content at swoutfitters.com.
No Sanity Required
Christ’s Genealogy and Why It Matters | Advent Series Pt. 2
See Advent in a whole new way! In this episode, Brody and JB unpack the previous episode's sermon, exploring why Jesus’ genealogy matters and how Advent reveals unexpected depth. Brody traces Jesus’ baptism, genealogy, and wilderness temptation, showing a Savior who stands with sinners and confronts evil head-on, all pointing back to the promise in Isaiah 9.
We see how grace is woven through Jesus’ lineage in the stories of Rahab, Tamar, and Ruth. For anyone carrying wounds, facing injustice, or longing for hope, Advent shows a God who enters our story, bears our burdens, and promises a kingdom of lasting peace.
Jesus and His Crazy Grandmas | Rahab
Jesus and His Crazy Grandmas | Tamar
Jesus and His Crazy Grandmas | Ruth
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Click here to get our Colossians Bible study.
Welcome to No Sanity Required from the Ministry of Snowbird Wilderness Outfitters, a podcast about the Bible, culture, and stories from around the globe.
SPEAKER_01:Sorry everyone. A little bit different than normal. The NSR studio is actually under construction. We've got some exciting things. So hopefully it'll look different in the future, in the near future. But sorry if it looks a little funky this afternoon or whenever you're listening to this. But yeah, welcome back to NSR. Um, I hope you guys listened to last the last episode. I almost said last week, but we're dropping these back to back. So if you haven't listened to that, it's basically just a session that Birdie did at Red Oak. Um, and if you didn't listen to that, go ahead and listen to it. And we're just gonna pick up right basically where he left off, and we're just kind of gonna have more of a discussion about it. Um, but yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, like uh maybe would I would say if I was I think you actually said this, this would be like a beyond the flannel graph.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:It's kind of a deep dive. You even mentioned growing up that as a kid around Christmas time, everything's uh seemed redundant year to year. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Same passages, same not dreading it, but just kind of being like, okay, we're it's December now, so at my church we're gonna be going through Advent. And that pretty much looks the same, and just not ever like thinking about it deeply or even like doing my own study on it. And I would just kind of be like, Okay, here we go again. And so this passage or passages that you went through was super cool to listen to, and even just the genealogy. We have a series, or Brody did a series on the crazy grandmas, is that what it's called? Yeah, Jesus and his crazy grandmas or Jesus' crazy grandmas, and it goes through uh Rahab, Tamar, Ruth. Is that it?
SPEAKER_02:Uh yeah, I think that was because I don't think I did one on Bathsheba. Yeah, so yeah, it was those three. But that was in 2020.
SPEAKER_01:Yes, I'll link those episodes down below, but that is really cool. And you paint a really cool picture of all of those ladies and how they play such a huge and cool role into you know the genealogy.
SPEAKER_02:And didn't we do we did a recent episode recently? Yeah, it would kind of be like a part two to that, maybe.
SPEAKER_01:Sure.
SPEAKER_02:That was that was me and you.
SPEAKER_01:Yes. Even just looking at all of those women, and you say this in the sermon from Red Oak about how none of the it wasn't like religious people, it wasn't like these clean, proper religious people. Like they were messy prostitutes. Like if you laid out a map and said, pick out who you think would be in the genealogy of Jesus, I don't think anyone would have picked, you know, messy prostitutes and people who are just so broken, you know. But that's also just like such a good picture of the gospel, you know.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, and there was a point that I didn't elaborate in that message. There's a point that I didn't elaborate on. Uh, and that was in when Luke records this, Luke records the genealogy right after, I think right after he records the baptism of Jesus. And uh let me confirm that. It should be Luke 4. Temptation. Okay, no, Luke 3. Yeah, he records the baptism of Jesus in Luke 3 and follows it with the genealogy. And I think that's significant uh because because Matthew, the the book of Matthew begins with the genealogy, verse 1, verse 2. And I mean it literally the first phrase in Matthew's gospel is the book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, son of David, son of Abraham. What Luke does is he records the genealogy after he records the baptism of Jesus. This is this is significant because there there's there is uh important implication to that because when you think about the baptism of Jesus, you you if you I think you have to wrestle with why would Jesus need to be baptized.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, when you said that I had never thought about that, and then I was like, dang.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, yeah, yeah, to to identify with sinners. Yes, and be obedient, and to be obedient to the father, yeah, and and in identifying with sinners, also setting an example, that example being an example of obedience to the father.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:And and so in Luke's recording of the genealogy, he he has the baptism of Jesus, then he follows that with the genealogies of Jesus, where but in his genealogy, also significant, he doesn't go back to Abraham, he goes back to Adam. So he's showing that Jesus identifies with humanity in every way.
SPEAKER_05:Yes.
SPEAKER_02:And so when Jesus came to the world, he came into the world to save sinners. And he ha and he did that by becoming human, though he didn't become a sinner. And Hebrews, uh, Hebrews says, Hebrews 4, it says, he was tempted in every way just as we are, yet he was without sin. Also back to Luke. So Luke goes, baptism, genealogy, temptation of Christ. That's significant. And Luke tells us at the beginning of Luke's gospel, he says, I'm I'm writing this as basically an investigative report or a documentary. So at the beginning of Luke's gospel, Luke wrote Luke and Acts. He's responsible by volume for the majority of the New Testament, like or more of the New Testament than even Paul. So if you take Luke and you take Acts, there's more by volume than anything else in the New Testament. He begins by saying, Hey, I'm writing for this apparently an official named Theophilus, because he calls him most excellent Theophilus. So Luke says, I'm writing this account to you, oh excellent Theophilus, or most excellent Theophilus, forget how he words that. So this guy, his name Theophilus, means Theo means God. Phyllus is Phileo, means love. So he's a lover of God. That's what this guy's name literally means. This guy is an official, I'm assuming would have been a Roman official, which is also fascinating because Jesus, his the impact of the ministry of Jesus and his disciples was not just to poor people or to Jewish people. We have Roman centurions getting saved, we have Roman officials getting saved. We have, you know, the the impact that the gospel had in the first century was broad. So Luke, who was a medical doctor by trade, by profession, um, he writes this report, this account. And in that account, to this man named Theophilus, he in order records baptism of Jesus, where he's identifying with people in their sin. The Holy Spirit descends on him and then goes through, Luke, then goes through the genealogy of Jesus, tying him all the way back to Adam, which ties him to all of us.
SPEAKER_03:Right.
SPEAKER_02:He's he's one of us, one of the human race. Then it goes straight into the temptation of Jesus, showing that he submitted himself to humanity to the point that he could be tempted with evil. This is important because the Bible teaches us that God cannot be tempted with evil. James, even in the New Testament, James says it. God cannot be tempted with evil, neither does he tempt any man, but each man is tempted when he's dragged away by his own lust and enticed. And then that lust when it is conceived gives birth to sin. Right. And sin when it is matured or fully grown. Yeah, it's this progression. So Jesus could be tempted. Hebrews 4 says he could be tempted in every way, just like us. Luke records that temptation showing he's baptized to identify with sinners. Here he fits into the genealogy of humanity, and he's even tempted just like us. So we can see in our Savior that he became like us, but he did what we couldn't do. He conquered sin.
SPEAKER_01:Right.
SPEAKER_02:Which is also why the virgin birth is so significant.
SPEAKER_01:Right. In the sermon, you made a good point. You said at the very end, you tied it all up saying Jesus was born, every man is born, and every man dies. Um, but you said everything about Jesus' life, you know, like his birth was immaculate, you know, his death, he didn't stay dead, you know, even in his life, like you're saying, he was tempted in every way, but never gave in, like never uh, I guess gave over to sin. And so I I really like that point in your message, just saying like it paints such a good picture of he is fully man, but also fully God, you know.
SPEAKER_02:Another thing he went through the same progression that every human goes through. Yes. All humans are born, all humans live, all humans die. Right. And in each of those, his were ex his those experiences for him were extraordinary.
SPEAKER_01:Yes.
SPEAKER_02:Um, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. Another thing that I guess just in my personal growth, and I guess no one has like ever, I guess, explicitly taught me this, but I constantly have to break the mold of like seeing Old Testament and New Testament as like super separate, you know, and like I think it's very common that a lot of believers spend the majority of their time in the New Testament. I'm guilty of that as well. So constantly trying to break that mold and seeing that bridge from Old and New Testament. You also used Isaiah in your message from Red Oak. And we kind of talked about this before recording, but even that is so mind-blowing when you take a step back and see it for more than just you know, Old Testament and New Testament, like old writings, and then you know, the documentation of Jesus' life. But I'll read Isaiah 9 and then we can kind of um go through that. You use Isaiah 6. Oh, sorry, Isaiah 9, 6 and 7. It says, For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulders, and his name shall be called wonderful counselor, mighty God, everlasting father, prince of peace. Of the increase of his government and peace peace, there will be no end on the throne of David and over his kingdom to establish it and uphold it with justice and with righteousness from the time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this. Um, and so you even said a lot of people use this on their Christmas cards. It's kind of what we were talking about, heavily used during the holiday season, the birth of Jesus. And we can glaze over it quick and be like, oh yeah, a child is born. We knew that. But it's so cool to think about when this was written in Isaiah, nobody knew. We talked about this before. They were expecting a mighty warrior, soldier, king that's gonna come and you know, save them and heal them. And yes, he obviously we know he did all these things, but nobody expected he was gonna come as a child. And will you talk about those three things? You said uh he came as a child, everyone thought he was eternal. I'll let you talk about that.
SPEAKER_02:But yeah, but something that's really interesting. I didn't have time in the message to do this, but I'm glad you brought that up. Um, if you back up, so we we looked at Isaiah 9, 6, and 7. If you back up to Isaiah 4, it says, for the yoke of his burden and the staff of his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, you have broken, as on the day of Midian. The day of Midian is a reference to uh an Israel Israelite conquest where they uh the Midianites were um a people who oppressed Israel during the time of the judges, and they broke that yoke through military conquest. But it was a miraculous conquest where the Lord performed a miracle to give them that victory. And then it says, for every boot of the tramping warrior in battle, tumult, and every garment rolled in blood will be burned as fuel for the fire. Yeah. So it's warrior language, right?
SPEAKER_01:And then it kind of flips to a child. A child is born. Right.
SPEAKER_02:So then in the Israelite imagination, so this is written hundreds of years before Jesus came. So in the Israelite experience, they're going, okay, I'm trying to get my head around what Isaiah is saying here. Um He's saying there's gonna be this conquest that looks like the conquest of the Midianites, and it's gonna be the conquest of the warrior, which has to be by a warrior, right? Like there's gonna be, and they had these stories in Jewish history. Like, there's a story of uh of an angel sweeping through an opposing army and killing over a hundred thousand soldiers in one night. So they had these stories where God had miraculously intervened and and destroyed a whole army of Amalekites, a pagan people that was oppressing them. They have the story of Gideon, where the Midianites were defeated through, I mean, they come in with horns and lanterns, right? And and God creates chaos among the Midianite army and they destroy each other. And so they've got these in their history and in their recollection and and storytelling, they have these stories of God doing these crazy things to deliver them from kings and warriors and armies and and uh and doing it in a miraculous way, where the people didn't really do anything to conquer that.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:But but they also have the stories of David's conquests. You know, they have the stories of um many of the judges like Samson, they have the stories of Joshua leading the people after Moses' death, and they, you know, the walls of Jericho coming down and the conquest of the Canaanite peoples. So they have both. They have stories where God worked without them. You could almost say in spite of them. So, like when Gideon's conquest occurs, God is working in spite of the Israelites. He's doing it without their help. And he's and they're in the predicament they're in because they had turned their back on God. So he's working without he's he's he's he's staying true to his covenant, which is something that in that when I'm getting ready to answer your question. We talked about the covenant. He's staying true to his promises. They also have these stories that are revered in their history books or in their, you know, in their to their school-aged kids, they tell these stories of Joshua's conquest, Samson's conquest, uh Saul's son Jonathan, who was a revered warrior, who at there's a story where Jonathan takes his armor bearer, and the two of them climb a cliff to fight against a couple dozen enemy soldiers, combatants, and they destroy, they beat them. They two guys against whatever and they kill them. So they have both. They have stories of God working miraculously, an angel strikes down a whole army, and they have stories of these incredible feats of valor and courage, David's mighty men. So they read this language and they go, okay, Isaiah is recording and telling us that we're gonna go into captivity. We're gonna become a nation of slaves, a nation of people that are being um oppressed. But there's gonna be this warrior deliverance. God's gonna bring this powerful deliverance. And then he says, For to us a child is born. Right. And you go, okay, well, sure, this warrior is gonna be born as a child, but then it's a little confusing to the Jew because they're going, but wait a minute, how is he messianic? How is he gonna be is this God in the flesh? Well, God can't be a human, God is a spirit. But then they go, they're probably in their minds going, but the first prophecy in Genesis 3 was that the seed of the woman would crush the head of the serpent. And so there's that prop. You've got a lot going on in the Jewish mind and imagination and theological framework. To us, a child is born, to us a son is given. And so a child is born, but then it says in verse it later in verse six that he's mighty God. How can mighty God be a child who's born through the natural process? So that would have been almost contradictory or out of how they're trying to wrap their minds around this. Well, for us, we look back and we go, yeah, Jesus, he's the God man, it's the incarnation. Um, Isaiah also wrote um the verse about Emmanuel that God will be with us. The second thing is uh a son is given, but then that son is called everlasting father. How can this son have always been a father? Well, that's super like there that that's got their heads sort of spinning. Right. He's a son, so he's born, he's a child, he's born, he's a son, but he's mighty God and he's everlasting, which doesn't just mean future eternity. It means he's always been.
SPEAKER_05:Right.
SPEAKER_02:And then the third thing is that he's eternal because as everlasting father, um, and the the fact that of his government there'll there'll be no end. It says in verse 7, of the increase of his government and of peace, there will be no end. So he's not only everlasting father, but he's eternal. How can this child be eternal? Right. So you've got these three ideas that it's really, it's really three sets of ideas that for us link up and say, oh, this is God in the flesh. This is God with us. But for the Jew, it would have been, it would have been very, maybe even disorienting for them to wrap their brain around this. But we have the we have the wonderful hindsight of looking back and going, oh yeah, we know what this is talking about. God became flesh and dwelled among us, John chapter one. Yeah, very insightful.
SPEAKER_01:Even you mentioned earlier before we were recording of normally when a when a king comes to a town, normally rides, you know, a big war horse or something. But if they are coming to declare peace, they'll ride on a donkey. And then we see, you know, in scripture and in Sunday school, it's taught, you know, Palm Sunday, you know, Jesus rides in on a donkey. And so even like all these little details are so cool and like uh just so cool to think about, you know, it all plays out, yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, and for us to be able to look back and we have the the completed story, right? We can look back and connect dots. Yeah, and I don't know, I've read that several times and I've heard pastors talk about it. I can't quote the source for that, but I I've always heard that uh, and maybe it was a Roman practice that if a king or a general rode into town on a mission of of like a declaration of conquest, he would be on a war horse. But if he was coming for like peace talks, an expression of that peace would be that he would ride a donkey. And so, and then there's this cool Jesus came on a donkey. And you could even you can you can really run with that and say Mary rode a donkey while she was pregnant with Jesus. Yeah, but then Jesus comes into Jerusalem on a donkey. So at that point, they're they're crying, Hosanna, Hosanna, Hosanna. But the the the book of Revelation, John's revelation, records that when he returns, he'll be on a war horse.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:It'll be a mission of conquest.
SPEAKER_05:Yes, yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Gather the nations, he'll gather his people to establish this kingdom that Isaiah was talking about hundreds of years before Jesus came into the world, because it says of his kingdom, uh uh of his government and of peace there will be no end. He'll establish it and uphold it with justice and righteousness. So imagine a kingdom, we talked about this in the message. Imagine a kingdom where um justice and righteousness is preserved, it's always executed, there's never a mistake, no injustice is ever done, and no one opposes the rule of the king. And it's a rule of goodness and peace. It's literally like when when you think of what this kingdom is gonna be like, there's gonna be no conflict. And and we talked about that in the message too that well, Satan's gonna be bound. There'll be no sin, no accusation. Revelation says he's the accuser of the brothers, the brethren. He's not gonna be there to accuse us. He's gonna be bound in chains and cast into eternal darkness and the lake of fire and hell and brimstone. Like that's where he's gonna be. So this kingdom is gonna be a kingdom without evil, without temptation, without sin. It'll be a kingdom of justice and righteousness and peace. And this is very hopeful for, you know, when I'm standing there teaching that on last Sunday as a as a pastor, and I'm not the lead pastor at Red Oak, and so I typically teach one Sunday a month, but I have a lot of history with the people in that congregation. And I'm looking, and our our congregation is very blended, more blended than most churches.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:You know, you take uh a lot of old churches like like Andrew's First Baptist or Andrew's United Methodists, they've been here for over a hundred years, and a lot of times there's a little bit more of an aged congregation. There are people that have spent their whole lives there. There's like I know at First Baptist, a couple of families who are close friends of mine who like the generations before them were deacons and leaders and Sunday school teachers, and they've all passed. And now this generation is the grandparents that are there now. And so you've got layers and generations. Well, at this point in Red Oaks time frame, we're a 12-year-old church, and so um we're we're young as churches go, but then also uh there are a lot of young hip contemporary type churches where people go because the pastor's catchy or he's a good really fun communicator. Yeah, yeah. Don't get me started on that. But yes, yeah, like you know, you got guys that are, you know, trying to or they're trying to really show and display like this, I'm a masculine man, and we need to come back to masculinity, but it feels forced and it's awkward. I can think of two or three pastors right now that are big names that are that have churches of 10,000 people or whatever, you know, and you're like, ah, this feels a little forced, this masculinity this guy's sort of branding himself with. And and the dudes are probably faithful. Yeah, it's just like sometimes it feels like forced to try to create a picture or a persona. And so you've got churches that sort of take a personality, right? They and a lot of times they take the personal younger churches take the personality of the pastor, older churches take the personality of tradition, if that makes sense. And so when I'm at Red Oak and I'm looking out over that church, you know, last Sunday night, I know for a fact of women in that church and men who were sexually abused as children. I like because we've set and counseled them, little and I maybe have have have, I mean, last night, as we're recording this, last night, little and I were up fairly late counseling a couple who's dealing with some marriage stuff. And a lot of that is tied to the wife's the injustice done to the wife before they were married. So I'm looking out over this congregation and I'm going, I know that lady was married to, I don't want to say anything that would compromise her, but she was in a marriage that was really, really bad.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:And she was wronged in a really bad way. And I'm looking at an elderly, an older lady who I know for a fact was not elderly. She's she's older, she's full of energy in life, but I know she was abused as a as, I mean, over 50 years ago, over 60 or 70 years ago. And there can be this sense of injustice where you go, gosh, you feel the words of John when he says, Come quickly, Lord Jesus. We feel the weight of injustice in this world. And for the Israelites at the time of Isaiah, injustice was rampant. That was part of why God's judgment was coming, was because there were people. The poor had been oppressed, the rich had gotten richer, um, there was there was compromise in their religious fidelity because they're worshiping pagan gods. And then all of a sudden, there's this government described where justice and righteousness and peace prevail. Because we can even have a skewed view of justice where we go, oh, it's gonna be a a place of justice. But if we're not careful, that can feel like, yeah, God's gonna rule with an iron fist, he'll he won't let any evil occur. But it's also a place of peace. So you've got this utopian feel to this, what's being described, where it's like we're gonna this this ruler, this king is gonna establish a government that is unopposed, where there's always peace and there's always justice, righteousness prevails, and it's it is literally a kingdom with no end. It'll never go away, and we'll be eternal there, and he's our eternal king. So it's a beautiful and powerful picture that yeah, it it comes, you know. I've gotten this past week, I've gotten several Christmas cards from families. It's the and families do this where the you get the card and it's different pictures from the that family's year. You know, I got one, I got one this morning, and it was like the mom and the dad worked here years ago, and it's like the mom and the dad, their kids are now like, you know, 18 and 16, and it's like pictures from the football games and you know, pictures from um some sort of a school formal or something with with the daughter, and you know, dad's now gray, and you know, he he was working here when he was in college, and and and I look and it's kind of like I get to see a snapshot of what their year has looked like, and I enjoy getting that. I get those pictures, those cards, and I always look what what's on here. I think this one said, We um behold tidings of great joy, but inevitably you're gonna get a Christmas card that that quotes Isaiah 9. Yeah. And so it becomes this redundant, we lose, like what you're saying, we lose the sort of the efficacy and effectiveness of what was going on there. But I mean, it's a hope of mankind.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:And it ties into Matthew 1, where we realize, oh, Jesus would do those, he would be the son who was eternal, and he would be he would be the child who was eternal, and the son who was a father, and he would be the one who had always been and will always be, and yet he entered into humanity. And not only did he enter into humanity, but what you said earlier, JB, he he he was born among thieves and prostitutes, and he he came to save sinners.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:And I just love the stories of that are contained in that genealogy. I mean, I I'm sure there are people that that have multiple prostitutes in their family line, but I don't know anybody like that. You know, like I mean, that's crazy. In one genealogy here, we have two prostitutes. And even with Ruth, you've got a Moabite, which was a very perverse culture. Who knows? I we don't know, we don't know anything about her, but that she was a Moabite. And then we know God put her husband and and father-in-law to death. We know Bathsheba, who's not named, she's called the wife of your eye. The that the she committed adultery with King David. And so all four of those women are their scandal surrounding their lives. And then Mary, we talked about this in the message.
SPEAKER_05:Right.
SPEAKER_02:I mean, that scandal hung over her her whole life.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:You know, and I love the way they portray it in the you ever watch the Nativity story, the the 2006 version?
SPEAKER_01:I don't think so.
SPEAKER_02:You need to watch that. Um so remember the the Mel Gibson film, The Passion of the Christ, so vivid, so powerful, it brought to life all of that. There was so that came out, I think that came out in 2004 and 2006. So it's coming up on 20-year-old film. There was a film, and the guy that played Joseph, if I knew his name right now, you'd know him. He's a very prolific actor now. But it's just called the Nativity Story. So you want to look, you want to watch the the 2006 Nativity Story. We watch it every Christmas Eve as a family. We go to five o'clock Christmas Eve candlelight service at Red Oak. We come home, have a meal, and watch the Nativity Story. And it's it's the most beautiful and vivid portrayal of that of Mary's pregnancy. And the the girl that played Mary at that time was uh she just nailed the role. It you've become so endeared to her. It's the first time I've ever become truly endeared to Mary. I've always tried to, right, but it's an imaginative thing, and she brings it to life. And they do a good job in that film of showing the outcast role that she then has to play in that village of Nazareth.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Um yeah, so born into scandal. Jesus is literally not only did scandal represent his his earthly genealogy, but he was born into it even in his generation. He grew up as an illegitimate child.
SPEAKER_01:Right. Yeah. Um, kind of going back to what you were talking about, you know, the body of Red Oak and when it's talking about this justice and this government that, you know, the ultimate government or whatever. I was sitting a few rows behind a family that is a part of Red Oak, and they have a foster daughter. And I just kind of know part of her story, just you know, from from living here and being involved with that family. But you went on kind of a a tangent, a good tangent at the very end, and you were kind of basically saying all this, you know, there won't be any uh daddies who leave their families, like all this stuff. And as soon as you said daddies that leave her family, she started nodding her head. I mean, she's maybe nine, she's young, and like I was just sitting behind there thinking, like, man, so good that this young girl is like understanding that and is hearing this stuff and is nodding her head. And I I just got a little bit emotional, you know, watching that play out and just getting excited of like, not only is this true, but it's something that we get to look forward to. And, you know, I guess my takeaway from all of this, this episode, the last episode of the sermon is I need to be better at, you know, like I said, kind of bridging the gap and looking in these old testament passages to what it points to, and then in New Testament, like what that points to and like what we can look forward to, and you know, be so content in this season, this Christmas season in all of life. You know, we have so much to look forward to, you know.
SPEAKER_02:But yes, yeah. Um I saw I think I know the little girl you're talking about, and uh the I I I automatically uh think about when I'm talking about those things, I see her, and then I see several single moms in there that are struggling to raise their kids. One single mom in particular. Man, she's had a tough time because she has multiple children from a couple different baby daddies who are deadbeat jerks, you know, who don't pay child support, don't help out. This, this, this mom is, I'm very little and I are so proud of her because she works hard, she's she's making it work, she's raising, you know, she's raising children, and she's she's one of those stories where when she first came into Red Oak, you're kind of like, man, I hope, I hope we can keep her.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:We can we can keep her in sort of in the the family of faith here. And so many of those stories that just you s you lose those people. They slip back into just the they're just kind of in a rut. Their life is so just difficult. And man, this girl's done so well. And uh two weeks prior, I spoke at Red Oak. Um, we were finishing up our series on the minor prophets, and I did the message on Zephaniah, and that single mom texted me that night and uh and said it was super brief and simple, and just said, Thank you. That it was exactly what I needed to hear. And it was, excuse me, it was the the the culmination of that of Zephaniah's message is God singing over us. Were you there that Sunday? I think you were gone. Um the I made this point um in Zephaniah 3, God is exulting and singing over his people. And I made the point that we sing to God, but he sings over us.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:And his banner over us is love and he showers us. So as we're singing songs of worship to the Lord, imagine that he's singing over us. And it's this beautiful picture. And uh, and she just said, man, I and this is a girl who's this this is a lady who's had a tough, she's had a tough go, man. And and for her to, for that to connect, where she's like, I felt that. I felt like the Lord was singing over me. And yeah, and uh so anyway, I saw her the other night when I was talking about when I was that that part of the sermon you're talking about, and just thinking, how hopeful is this for all of us, but for those that have lived with injustice? And and I know there's people listening to this that have struggled with where's the justice in this situation? Why does this person, you know, the psalmist and the and the and and there's also a uh section in Proverbs, and Solomon also talks about this, and Ecclesiastes talks about this, where um there's this question asked, why does it seem that the righteous are punished and that wickedness and evil prevail? And it does feel like that. It felt like that to the Jews in Isaiah's day, it felt like that to the Jews in Jesus' earthly day, it feels like that to us today. But we're reminded that in this season we need to pause and be reminded there is coming a kingdom where righteousness prevails and justice prevails, and peace is evermore, and where there will be no pain, Jesus will wipe away tears. It's really beautiful, it's really powerful. What did you think about um did you had you ever given thought to I don't remember if we talked about this when we did the Ruth thing, the Ruth and Boaz thing? But I wonder, and I talked about it in the Jesus' crazy grandmas.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:I wonder if Salmon was one of the spies.
SPEAKER_01:Yes, yeah. I think you might have mentioned that, or maybe we've just had a conversation about that. But I thought it was so funny when you're kind of going through, you know, all those women, and then you're saying people might be looking at Boa as being like, Hey, do you know like who you're about to marry? Like, are you sure you really want to marry a Mobite woman? And he you're like, my mom was a prostitute. Like, and then he would kind of went on and were like, You think they homeschool, you think they have game night? It's funny to you know think about it like that of like truly that dynamic is so special and so unique, unique now in this day and age, but also imagine unique back then, and just thinking about that dynamic of you know how he was raised and the lessons his mom and dad were teaching him, and you know, so crazy.
SPEAKER_02:But it is, and I'll tell you something that's um you know, everything everything ties together in scripture, but you got to do the work of tying it together sometimes because it doesn't always flow natural. Okay, the story, the story of Ruth and Boaz, do you remember when we went through that? Uh Ruth is a widow who who's from Moab, and she comes to Bethlehem, that region of Bethlehem, with her mother-in-law, who's also a widow.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:And she does that because a famine has ceased in Bethlehem, and so they have they have a harvest. Remember that? Yes. Okay. So think about this. The book of Ruth begins with this man and his wife, who have left Bethlehem because there's a famine in the land. Okay. Now, the word Bethlehem means house of bread. So this place where God's abundance and and and the crops have been full, like God's blessing is represented. Now there's a famine. Now, why would there be a famine? Well, because God's judgment is on the people. Famine and that we know that was during the time of the judges.
SPEAKER_06:Right.
SPEAKER_02:Because uh this is before the kings have been installed. So it's during the time of judges. There's a famine, which would have meant God's judgment. During that famine, probably Salmon and Rahab were living in Bethlehem raising a boy named Boaz.
SPEAKER_01:Yes. That is crazy.
SPEAKER_02:So this is a woman that came out of prostitution, cried out to God, was saved, was so much hope there, was given a godly marriage to a man who didn't care what he represents Jesus so beautifully. I don't care where you've been, what you've done. They get married, but then they they come under God's judgment, not because they've been unfaithful, but but the people have been unfaithful. So they're living in this place of judgment and famine, trying to raise a boy. And so it's like, what was the grind of life like for them? Life was hard, and they raised this boy, Boaz, and every indication is he was raised in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. And so uh when he marries Ruth, the famine has been lifted, and now he's he's older, and so he's doing well, he's successful. So there's just a lot going on in that in those generations right there that I think represents so much that ties to the work that Jesus would do. Yes. You know, even just because you confess that Jesus is Lord and follow him doesn't mean life's gonna get easy. Right. And sometimes you feel the repercussions of other people's decisions, and it's just a lot going on. It's really cool. But anyway, Salmon marries a prostitute, then they have a rough go because God's judgment is on the land at some point in there. Um, you know, the generations kind of get squeezed together. And and and I don't know how it all works because some people will say, well, um, there are generations that are skipped, it's condensed. I don't know. I don't know that, but I know that they have a great great-grandson named David who's a king.
SPEAKER_05:Yep.
SPEAKER_02:And they had come under God's hand of judgment at one point.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Rahab and and and her husband Salman, and then they raised this son faithfully in hard times, famine and judgment, and they raise their son faithfully. Doesn't matter who's president or what government and world in the world you live under, as like God's plan is that men and women raise godly children. The home is discipleship 101, which is why I believe the home is constantly under attack. And so what I like to see in the genealogy of Jesus are these examples of people who are faithful to raise the next generation in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. You've got that in there too. Yeah. So much going on. Yeah. I love it.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. Super cool. Great.
SPEAKER_02:All right. Anything else?
SPEAKER_01:I think that's it.
unknown:Cool.
SPEAKER_02:All right. Well, I hope this is helpful for folks. Hope y'all and I've not looked at the camera one time. Um but I um I hope it's I hope it's helpful helpful for people. And if nothing else, maybe gives you A different a fresh perspective and insight into the Advent season. And we're gonna do, I think we're gonna drop an episode later this week where we talk about some traditions. We're gonna talk about Santa Claus.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:And uh just the like where we come up with the the the American version of Santa Claus, you know, and and talk a little bit about that. And uh and but as as we go through this Advent season, I hope you'll pause and think about all that this represents, that why we celebrate the way we celebrate. And and maybe for your family, um, this will be a season where you add some new emphasis to why we do what we do. And I'll be honest, man, I've received a lot of gifts in my life at Christmas, but there's only a small handful of them that I remember and still have. You know, we we get caught up in perishable things, but this this is imperishable truth. And uh it's good to remember and be reminded of it this season. So you guys next time.
SPEAKER_00:Thanks for listening to No Sanity Required. Please take a moment to subscribe and leave a rating. It really helps. Visit us at swooutfitters.com to see all of our programming and resources. And we'll see you next week on No Sanity Required.
