King For The Outcast

What if the family tree of the Messiah isn’t polished, but painfully human? We walk through Matthew’s genealogy and linger on four women—Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, and Bathsheba—whose stories carry scandal, loss, and controversy. Their names aren’t there by accident. They reveal a King who claims the outcast, rewrites legacies, and brings beauty from what others would discard. This is a Christmas message that refuses sentimentality and goes straight to the heart of grace.

We unpack Tamar’s fight for justice in a broken system, Rahab’s brave risk in Jericho, Ruth’s steadfast courage as a Moabite widow, and Bathsheba’s grief amid David’s sin. Each narrative pushes against our neat categories and shows how God’s redemption operates in the grit of real life. Along the way, we confront the inner critic, the pull of perfectionism, and the relentless voice of accusation that says we don’t belong. Instead of self-salvation projects, we point to new creation—where your past doesn’t get the final word and the King’s mercy reframes your identity.

This conversation is an honest invitation to trade shame for hope and apathy for calling. If you’ve felt like the black sheep at the table, this is your seat card. If you’ve believed you’re too far gone, this is your reminder that no one stands beyond the reach of the cross. Lean in, reflect, and consider your response: Here I am, send me. If this encouraged you, follow the show, share it with a friend who needs hope, and leave a review to help others find the message.

Chapters

• 0:00 A Christmas Message To Outsiders
• 2:05 Jesus As King Changes Everything
• 3:45 Four Women In The Genealogy
• 5:20 Tamar’s Scandal And God’s Plan
• 11:10 Rahab And The Fall Of Jericho
• 14:45 Ruth, Moab, And Redemption
• 19:10 Bathsheba, David, And Consequences
• 24:10 Why God Uses Flawed People
• 28:10 Stop Fixating On Failures
• 32:05 Battling Accusation And Shame
• 37:10 Christmas Hope For The Broken
• 41:00 Say, Here I Am, Send Me
• 45:30 No One Is Beyond Saving

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:00

All right, well, good morning. I hope everyone is doing well. I know it's kind of gloomy out today, but at least it's gonna feel like Christmas it looks like for the rest of the week. So that's a good thing, right? Um other than that, today's message really is going to be for those of you who may feel like the black sheep, uh whether it's with your family. I mean, we are at Christmas time, right? Some of us look forward to those gatherings, some of us don't. Some of us are like, hey, you know what? Like, I'm just that person, right? I don't ever feel like I belong. I don't feel like there's a place I fit in, I don't feel like this is all working out for me. Um, some of us may feel like that when it comes to Jesus. Some of us will sit here week after week after week, going, man, I just don't feel like I should be here. I talk to a lot of people who make this excuse for why they would never come to a Sunday service. Well, if I walked in, God would immediately strike me dead. And I go, I mean, I can understand where you're coming from, right? But on the same hand, if that was true, God would immediately strike us all dead as we came into the room because we all share the same things, right? But we're gonna see today, again, as we're looking at this Christmas story, and if you see the um the banner here, like we've I even changed our Advent title for the year. It was family dinner, but as I've been preparing over the past couple of weeks, I went, every single message we have deals with the king being born. Understanding that Jesus is the king and seeing him in that light changes everything about us. So we can't forget that as we jump in. Last week that's what we saw, right? That Matthew's main thrust in his gospel is to get his readers to understand that. It's to get his readers to understand that Jesus isn't just eight pounds, six-ounce baby Jesus in the manger, but that he is king of creation. And when we see that, it changes it. So today we're gonna focus on Jesus is the king of the outcast, and I'm gonna give you right out the gate what I'm talking about. There's four people when we look at this genealogy of Jesus that in the natural, like in the human understanding, should not be in this list. All right, so I'm gonna pray and then we're gonna jump into that. Jesus, we thank you so much for this day, and we thank you for your birth. And Father, as we sit here today and go through your word, I just ask that it be your word. That Father, it is not my opinion, it is not my thought, because my power is nothing, Father, but your power is everything. And I just ask and I pray that it be your word that your people here. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Alright, so today we're gonna pick up in verse three. And to Judah were born Perez and Zarah by Tamar, and to Perez was born Hezron, and to Hezron Ram, and to Ram was born that guy. Amanab. Yep. And to him was born Nashan, and to Nashan Salmon, and to Salmon was born Boaz by Rahab, and to Boaz was born Obed by Ruth, and to Obed Jesse, and to Jesse was born David the king, and to David was born Solomon by her who had been the wife of Uriah. Now it's very interesting when we read through these verses, because as we've read through this genealogy, you hear a lot of men's names, right? You hear all of these, okay, this is the father of, this is the father of. But when we get to this specific section right here, you hear these four women too. You hear Tamar, you hear Rahab, you hear Ruth, and you hear by her who had been born the wife of Uriah. And we're gonna get into all of that, but I wanted to focus on that as we go through today, because again, if you were to sit here and think about, okay, we're talking about the king of creation here. Why are these four women like called out opposed to all of the other men that we see throughout this genealogy? And I'll go ahead and tell you right now, none of the four, like when you're thinking of the king of creation, none of the four should be there. In fact, two or three of them aren't even Jewish. And and and I go, some of you might be like, okay, but what's the big deal with that? Because the culture we live in, we're not as into like, hey, you gotta be a certain nationality or a certain religion. But for this culture and for these people, that would have been huge. In fact, this week during the Bible, one of the things that we covered was um Jesus and the woman at the well. It's found in John chapter 4. And I was telling the kids how scandalous it would have been for a Jewish man to talk to a Samaritan woman because they wouldn't even go through Samaria to get to other places because they hated them so much. And see, and we have to understand history and culture that way because if we don't, we misunderstand what the Bible is actually saying. See, there's a reason why it calls these women out. And we're gonna start with Tamar. And I'm gonna be honest. There's gonna be some stuff today that we're gonna cover that is a little graphic. Now, I'm not doing it for any other reason than I want to put into full context who these people actually are. So, starting with Tamar, we're gonna start. Um, we see her in Genesis 38. All right, Judah, if you don't know, is one of the 12 sons of Jacob. He's one of the 12 tribes of Israel. In fact, Judah is the tribe that Jesus will eventually come from. Like he's he's a big deal. And Judah has this son named Ur. And he goes down. Okay, we're not there yet.

unknown: 6:11

I did not mean that.

SPEAKER_00: 6:13

So so Ur and Judah and everybody, they go down to Canaan and he meets this Canaanite woman named Tamar. So Ur and Tamar wind up getting married, but Ur dies before he can have a child. And and Tamar is now a widow, but what would have been customary in their culture would have been that the next oldest brother would take as as uh not a concubine, but but not necessarily as a wife, and would father a child with a widow to make sure that that brother's genetics lived on. So Ur dies, and then we have Judah's other son, his name is Onan. Alright, and this is the verse that was just up on screen. And Onan was supposed to be with Tamar, but we will see in verse 9 of Genesis 38, it says this, but Onan knew that the offspring would not be his. So whenever he went into his brother's wife, he would waste the semen on the ground so as not to give offspring to his brother. Like, and and this is crazy because most of us in this room, judging by your faces, had no idea that the Bible would talk about stuff like this. Now, Onan gets striked down by God. He actually gets killed by God. And and I've had a lot of conversations with people who have brought this up, and I'm not gonna lie, I was a lot like you when this first was brought up to me, and I was like, the Bible doesn't talk about that at all. And it most certainly does. Now it wasn't what Onam was doing, well, it was, but like it was what why Onam was doing what he was doing. Because again, you're trying to take away from the lineage of your brother. And and this culture, that was something that God had already established. And so God strikes him down, not because of like, hey, that's nasty, but because you are not doing what I've commanded you to do. So now Tamar is 0 for 2 with these sons of Judah. And at this point, Judah's out of sons. He has a young son who is not old enough yet to be a husband. So what he does is he tells Tamar, go back to your father's house, live with your father as a widow, and when my youngest is old enough, he will marry you and give you a child. Well, Judah at this point has kind of wised up and he went, hey, look, this chick, there is probably something wrong with, because every son I have with her winds up dying, and he doesn't want to take a chance on his last son because he wants his family to continue on as well. So he he kind of lies and he he tells Tamar, like he just kind of keeps stringing her along. Well, then Tamar finds out that uh Judah himself is going back to the land of Canaan. And so she lives, uh, leaves, she goes there, and we're gonna see in verses 15 and 16 what her plan was. So it says that when Judah saw her, he thought she was a prostitute, for she had covered her face. He turned to her at the roadside and said, Come, let me come into you, for he did not know that she was his daughter-in-law. She said, What will you give me so that you may come into me? So they they have this whole thing. He he winds up giving her a singlet, a cloak, and a staff, um, and then he goes in and lays with Tamar. But guess what? Tamar gets pregnant this time with twins. So we see this first lady here, who is not a Jew, who has had a horrific experience as far as marriage and family and all of that go, and then we see these twins, Perez and Zara, and they come from this. Now, Perez and Zara are going to wind up being in the same line that Jesus is. So Tamar gets her name in this list that Jesus comes from. The next is Rahab, and some of us are maybe probably familiar with Rahab, right? Especially if you're familiar with Joshua in the Battle of Jericho, right? Because what happens is, is as the Israelites are conquering Canaan, as they're conquering the land, they come across Jericho and they go, There is this city that we are never going to be able to overcome. The walls on Jericho, they they claim to have been wide enough for you to ride ten horses across the walls, side by side. I mean, these are thick walls, and you're talking about, you know, a couple thousand years ago where we didn't have things like bunker busters and M1 Abrams tanks and planes to drop bombs. Like we didn't have any of that. So the people of Jericho felt really, really, really, really safe. Because if anyone were to come attack, you would see them from afar away. Everyone would come inside the walls, and then they would shut the gate. So they didn't have anything to worry about. But God gives Joshua this plan and he goes, here's how you're going to take over Jericho. And it starts with this they send spies into the land of Jericho. They get caught in the land of Jericho, and this lady hides them in her rafters. And when they come to find the spies, they were going door to door to door, and she's like, nope, there's no one here but my father and my family. And so they leave, and then the spies can sneak out, and they go back to Joshua, and they go, Hey, here's what we saw. Now that lady that hid these spies is Rahab. Rahab belongs to the oldest profession in the world. She is a prostitute in Jericho. And so she helps these spies, and in return, the spies go, hey, when it's time, hang this cord out of your window, and we will make sure you get safely out of the city because God's going to destroy it all. And she does. And when she gets out, she kind of follows along with the Israelites. She eventually converts to Judaism, and she eventually marries and has a child. Now, again, is this someone that most of us would look at and go, hey, she is deserving of this? Probably not. She obviously made some bad choices in life to wind up as a prostitute, right? Like no little girl ever grows up and goes, hey, here's what I want to do with my life. But yet Rahab is sitting here going, I am in the family of the king of creation. And then Rahab has a son named Boaz. And if you're familiar with the book of Ruth, Boaz is who winds up marrying Ruth. Now, again, when we look at Ruth, we need to understand who Ruth is. Number one, she is not a Jew. She is a Gentile. And then her book, specifically in verse 1, it starts like this. In the days when the judges ruled, there was a famine in the land, and a man of Bethlehem and Judah went to sojourn, which just means he went to live in the city of Moab. He and his wife and his two sons. Well, his two sons wind up marrying women from Moab. Ruth is one of them. She is a Moabite. Now her husband winds up dying, and Naomi, her mother-in-law, and Ruth kind of formed this bond. And Naomi sends both of her daughters-in-laws away. One leaves, and Ruth goes, There's nowhere for me to go. I'm going to stay with you. And then she eventually goes back to Israel and marries what's called a kinsman redeemer, which I don't have time to really press into that, but here's what that means: someone in your family who is here to save you. And there's something very important about that word. And his name is Boaz. Okay, and Boaz came from Rahab the prostitute. Now Boaz at this time owns a lot of land, and Ruth actually meets him by going in their time period. What they would do is when you harvested your field, you would have to leave the last 10% of your field all the way around. And that way people who didn't have money to feed themselves could come to your field and go through what you left, and that's how they would get their wheat and everything to make their food and all of that. So Ruth is out there doing that, and she comes day after day after day to make sure that she had enough for herself and Naomi. And that's how Boaz is like, hey, hold up, who's that pretty girl out there, like picking on my food? Like, why is she out there picking it? Why don't you just come be a part of my house? Okay? Now, remember, Ruth is a Moabite. Does anybody know who the Moabites are? Like where they came from. Alright. This one gets even better. So in Genesis 19, 36 through 37, we see who the Moabites are. Thus, both the daughters of Lot became pregnant by their father, the firstborn son, and called his name Moab. He is the father of the Moabites to this day. If you are unfamiliar with the story of Lot, okay, here's what happens. He leaves Abraham, him and his wife, and they go settle in the lovely town of Sodom and Gomorrah. God destroys Sodom and Gomorrah, but he spares Lot, his wife, and his daughters. But as they're running away, God told them, don't look back at the city. Lot's wife, who is just so in love with the city life. Alright, this is uh I can do a whole sermon on the evils of the city here, okay? So, all you guys from Osteen, you guys got it, right? All of us here in Deltona, we're idiots. She looks back because she misses the city life so much, turns into a pillar of salt. Well, now you have Lot and his two daughters. They go live in this cave, and his daughters are getting antsy, and they're like, hey, we're running out of time to have some babies. They wind up getting their dad drunk and then going in and laying with him. So then we get the Moabites. What is Ruth? She is a product of an incestual relationship. That is where she came from. Now there's a lot we can get into there, but we're not covering that right now. I just want you to see Ruth isn't, again, from a strong lineage. She's not from this like king and queen lineage. But yet the king is going to come through Ruth as well. And then lastly, in this poor lady, she didn't even get her name answered. Right? She was just the wife of Uriah. Now, most of us in this room, I'm sure, are pretty familiar with that. But who is she? That's Sheba. Alright, she's the lady that's taking a bath on the roof. She's actually cleansing herself, which means she was just coming out of her menstruation cycle. David's hanging out on his roof, looks over and goes, Hey, there's a pretty woman taking a bath over there. And like most men, don't immediately flee from that like we should. He goes, No, I'm gonna stand here and take a look for a little longer. Then I'm gonna call her to my house. Then I'm gonna get her pregnant. Crap. She's married to Uriah the Hittite, though. So now here's what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna call Uriah back from war. And I'm gonna be like, hey, look, you've been gone a long time, man. Why don't you spend the night with your wife? And that way I can kind of cover up my sin. And Uriah goes, No, I I I couldn't do that. Like while the rest of the king's forces are at war, I couldn't sit here and in good conscience go lay with my wife. So he sleeps at the king's door all night. Well, David's now sitting here going, uh-oh, how do I cover this up? What am I gonna do now? So he literally writes a letter that Uriah carries with him back to the general that tells the general take Uriah to a place where the fighting is the fiercest and abandon him. Understand this. Uriah carried his own death warrant that David wrote. And then Uriah winds up getting killed. Once he's dead, then Bathsheba and David get Married. Now, that first baby, the one she got pregnant with, does wind up dying. But that's where we get Solomon from. Now, all four of these women I'm hoping you can see are flawed. Like I'm hoping you can see that. Let's, and let's be honest with our hearts in here. All four of these women are women that other women would make feel very uncomfortable. All four of these women are women that other women would be like, mm-mm, you know, she's trouble. And I say that with with a sincere heart. Because I sit here and go, all four of these women would have been outcast. All four of these women would have been people like, guys, you would have been like, nah, no, no, no, no, no, no, don't mess with her. Like, that's who these women would be. But yet, God in his goodness has all four of these women in the same genetic line, in the same direct line as King Jesus. These women that most of us would look at and go, hey, they don't even deserve to be able to come into this building. God is sitting here going, I'm going to use to bring about my son. Like, think about this. Some of you in here, you may be sitting here going, hey, I am one of these. Some of you in here may be going, I am so unworthy. You just don't understand my past. You don't understand the things I have done. And here's what I'm going to tell you. God used people more broken than you will ever be to bring about the birth of his son. How come he can't use you? And some of you in here are like, these people are disgusting, and I would never do this. And here's what I'm going to tell you shame on you. Because what you look at as garbage, God went, I'm going to use for my good. And see, some of us we have that. We immediately just go to, oh, you're beneath me. And what a dangerous place to be. Think about it as you go into the book of Numbers, God used a donkey. What does he need you for? And so as we look at this, we see Jesus' family tree is not this pristine, godly line. It's not full of people who are sitting here just meditating on the scriptures day after day. It's not people who are sitting here going, hey, I like have kept myself pure and unstained from sin, and therefore I am deserving to be a direct descendant of King Jesus. You know why? Because God's family or Jesus' family line is full of people. Just like every single one of us in this room. It's full of people who have like weird ideas sometimes. It's full of people that stay up too late sometimes doing things that they shouldn't be doing, that are gonna lead you down a path that you shouldn't be going down. And at every point you went, I should stop, I should stop, I should stop. But yet you just find yourself continually going a little bit further and a little bit further and a little bit further until you get to a point where you're like, yep, should have stopped. Like that's who it's full. Because it's people. And as good as some of us want to call ourselves, understand we are all wicked and depraved. Now, does that mean we have to stay that way? No, because 2 Corinthians 5.17 tells us very clearly that if you are in Christ Jesus, you are a new creation. The old has passed away, behold, the new has come. You don't always have to do what you've always done. You are not the culmination of who you were, but yet God breathed life into you to give you new life to be a new person. But yet, look what he can do. Look who he can use. David, honestly, this terrible, terrible human being. Like I've never, you know, um, been in an adulterous relationship and then had the woman's husband killed. So so I think if like I'm comparing myself to David, I'm I'm pretty, I'm doing pretty good. But yet he goes on to become the greatest king in the history of Israel. This is why Genesis 50 can tell us what you meant for evil, God meant for good. This is why Romans 8.28 can tell us that he is working all things out for good. Why? Because he's God and that's what he does. He takes what is dead and breathes life into it. Think about the the whole cornerstone of us being here is God took dirt and breathed life into it. So why can't He save and restore you? Why are you too far gone? See, all of us may understand what I'm saying here better than others, or some of us may understand this better than others, but all of us should understand it. Because as we look at ourselves, we should know we are not qualified to be in the family of Jesus. And this list is a reminder of something we all need in our bones. Listen, Jesus will use whoever to accomplish his will. Let me say that again. Jesus will use whoever to accomplish his will. He is not bound by the same uh judgmental ideas that we are. He sits here and goes, no, no, no, you don't understand what I can do. I can take the worst of the worst and put them in line for the best of the best. And here's what we need to understand we too often make our shortcomings our God. Most of us focus on our sin more than we focus on Jesus. Because we make everything about our struggle. We make everything about what we do and don't do. And all of your time and all of your attention is wrapped up in your shortcomings. Think about it. You have an evaluation at work, and they're gonna go over hey, here's your strengths and here's your weaknesses. You leave that meeting with your boss, what's the only thing you think of? My weaknesses. Oh, here's all the things I have to do so that I become perfect. Listen to me real quick. Perfection is not something you will ever hit. I don't care how well you do something, perfection is a goal you cannot hit. Think about this. I have studied this all week. I have read a Manabad, however you say his name. I have sat and listened to it. Like I have practiced it. I've watched my mouth movement in a mirror to make sure I say it right. Like I have read that all week, and I got up here and went to read the verse, and I went, nope. My mouth just isn't gonna work for that word right now. See, it doesn't matter how much you may work into it, perfection is never gonna happen. And stop sitting here focusing on your mistakes. Focus on Jesus. This is why Paul in Colossians 3 would say this don't set your mind on the things of the earth, but set your mind on the things that are above. Because if I'm not focused, look, I just messed up saying don't focus on your mess ups. Like this is how it works. But yet, so many of us, that is all we focus on. And we sit there and we focus on our weaknesses, and all we do is listen to the voice of the devil continually going, You're not good enough. You don't deserve this. You're never gonna make it. Zechariah 3:1 shows us this very clear when it says, Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to accuse him. Joshua the high priest is literally standing before Jesus, in the presence of Jesus. And Satan is still standing right there, accusing him, reminding him of every single shortcoming he has ever had, reminding him of every single time he had ever sinned, reminding him of why he is not good enough. And you think that the devil won't do that with you? You think that the devil won't just sit there and follow you around and go, hey, you remember. You remember that night. You remember the other day. You remember when you did this, you remembered when you did this. And let's be honest, a lot of us sit here and we go, I know I should be doing more. Like, I know I should be preaching to more people. I know I should be telling more people about King Jesus. I know I should be more bold in my faith, but you don't understand there's this voice in my head that is constantly just telling me why I don't deserve to be. Guys, I get it. A hundred percent. I have a past too. I have things in my life that I'm not proud of. I have things in my life that I try to like push down. You don't think that every week as I'm preparing a sermon, the devil isn't sitting here going, hey, remember though. Remember. And sometimes it ain't like far-off stuff. Sometimes it's like last week. Remember, you didn't love your wife as Christ loved the church. How are you gonna stand up here and tell others to love their wife? How are you gonna stand up here and tell others, hey, be calm when you parent your children? You just threatened to put your son through a wall the other day. And you know what? JT knows he's got five days. Five more days, and he turns the big one eight. And I've been telling him for almost a year now. That means it's no longer child abuse. That's the only difference now, right? See, but some of us we we get this. And you're sitting here carrying around this weight because this voice is just constantly reminding you of how you don't measure up. How you're gonna mess up doing this. How you're not gonna be able to sing the right key, the right note, you're gonna mess up on the words. And all week long, like you just got this knot in your stomach because you're sitting here going, I'm gonna get up here and I'm gonna mess up. Or you have this voice that's sitting here going, I don't care what you do, you're never gonna be good enough. You're never gonna be able to overcome this. You're always going to just be right here. Or you have this voice in your head that's just sitting here telling you how unworthy you are. How you're never going to be able to be used by Jesus to do the things of Jesus. Or you have this voice in your head that's just sitting here going, you're a failure. Anytime the games depended on you, you came up short. You're just a failure. And I'm sitting here going, but do you know what we're about to celebrate? Guys, we are about to celebrate the king being born. We're about to celebrate the greatest news this world has ever heard. We're about to celebrate God Himself stepping into creation to go, hey, you might have failed, but I overcame. And through me you overcome. Like we are about to celebrate the fact that you are not defined by your past, but you are defined by what the king did on the cross. You're about to celebrate the fact that when Jesus said it is finished, he was talking about the wrath of God that was stored up for each and every one of us because of our failures, because of our wickedness, because we'll never mount them up. And when Jesus walked out that tomb, he went, You can come with me. Think about this. Tamar and Rahab and Ruth and the wife of Uriah, whose name is not even important enough for the writer, for Matthew to mention, God, when I can use them, you aren't too far gone for me to use you. In fact, I would argue this that you are more well positioned for God to use when you can recognize that. One of the things I try to keep in the forefront of my mind is the same thing that I sit here and struggle with, that I'm not perfect, that I have regrets, that I have things. You know why? Because it makes my heart hungry to go, you know what? But I know what I have now. See, the reason I can have hope in me now is because I know without Christ, all of this is useless. I don't have the strength for it. I know without Jesus, it doesn't matter. I don't need to sit here and buy into the lie of the devil. Because I can sit here and go, hey, you know what, accuser, what you're saying is true. But here, let me go ahead and quiet your story down. Because the king stepped in for me and went, if you want me, you gotta go through him. And that just ain't gonna happen. You ain't got power like that. See, I remind myself of that not because I want to beat myself down, because I want to always look to Jesus. I never want to get to a point where I'm looking at myself. Because you know what? I will fail every time I depend on my own strength. If you don't believe me, you can ask Debbie, you can ask my kids. Anytime it's left up to me, I will fail. So I tell you guys all the time, don't put your hope and trust in me because I will disappoint you. There will be a time you need me and I won't be there. There'll be a time you call and I won't answer. There'll be a time where you're like, hey, I just need someone to blah, blah, blah, blah, and I'm gonna be like, hey, I can't do it. Jesus, on the other hand, Jesus goes, no, no, no, you don't understand. Matthew 28 ends with this, and I am with you to the end of the age. See, some of us, you just gotta start, you you just gotta start not buying into the lies being shouted at you. Because no, you're never gonna break those chains. But if this is you this morning, let me remind you of what we just read. Jesus' great-grandmothers are liars, they're descendants of incestual relationships, they are prostitutes, and they are home wreckers. And yet, God went, I can use them. So please, what is so wrong with you that you're sitting here going, but God can't use me? Here's all you gotta do. The same thing Isaiah says, Here I am, Lord, send me. Are you brave enough to say something like that though? Because here's what here's what this takes. You guys ready? You're gonna lose time in your life. You're gonna have to like inconvenience yourself. You're gonna have to start sailing some other things in your life. No, because you're sitting here going, here I am, Lord, use me. I can go ahead and guarantee you that yesterday, as we pulled up to Joe's house and he has his equipment opened up, he probably had other things he could have done yesterday besides open up his house to go, yeah, come decorate the float here. I can guarantee you that there are other things that each and every one of you that were there yesterday could have gone and done instead of waking up to go do that. I'm gonna tell you, if you're a fisherman in here, here's what you missed. The last day of this week that had decent weather to be able to go out and fish. Because here's what's about to happen. This cold front's gonna come through, it's gonna push all the fish down, the barometric pressure's gonna drop, and their jaws are gonna stop. So you will you have to like Wednesday, Thursday, maybe Friday, looks like it might be a good day too. You gave up your last opportunity to go do that.

unknown: 37:18

There's every day. Let's play every day.

SPEAKER_00: 37:22

But see, when you realize, but it's for King Jesus, here I am, Lord, send me, all of a sudden that's not a big deal. All of a sudden that's not a problem. All of a sudden you're excited and joyful to go, hey, I'm gonna get along with my brothers and sisters, and we're gonna go and we're gonna accomplish the mission that God has sent to us on. Because we realize that without Jesus, that doesn't even make sense. Oh, without them, without these women, Jesus is not here. Like without these people that we would throw away, without these people that our society wouldn't even look at a second time because they're not important, Jesus wouldn't be here. Without them, we are still dead in our trespasses and sin. And these women could have very easily listened to that voice too, but they chose different. See, here was why Rahab did what she did. If you go back in the book of Joshua in chapter six, you see this. Rahab did what she did because she feared their God. Was Rahab a Jew? Was she following Yahweh? No. But she knew enough about him to go, I fear him. Ruth followed her mother-in-law, like I said earlier, because she had nowhere else to go. Because she's sitting here going, Okay, great, Naomi, I leave you. Where am I gonna go to? Judah finally realized if he continued reading in Genesis 38, he gets to this point when he looks at Tamar and sees what she's done, that she is more righteous than I. Because she followed what God commanded her. See, what we have to understand is that yes, these people don't belong there. But God, being rich in mercy, with a great love for which he loved us, brought them into this. That because that is who Jesus is, he's the good shepherd, he's the great physician, he's the one that leaves the 99 to go find the one. Understand, like when Jesus is talking to the Pharisees and he goes, Hey, I didn't come for you. I didn't come for the healthy, I came for the sick. The Son of Man came to seek and save what is lost. One of the biggest things I hate when people bring this up to me. Oh, well, you're reformed. Well, that means like you don't believe in evangelism then, because you know you believe God's gonna save the elect no matter what. Yeah, I do believe that God is going to save the elect no matter what because. God is powerful enough to save whomever He wills. You know why I believe that? Because the Bible says that. But I also understand that God went, hey, but I'm gonna use you to go do it. I also understand that God empowers us by the Spirit to no longer be the old people we were because Jesus went, hey, I didn't come for the 99, I came for the one that's lost. I came for the one because understand this. Like when you're lost, do you know you're lost? All of you in here have been lost at some point.

unknown: 40:33

I never lost.

SPEAKER_00: 40:35

You were always lost. What are you talking about? And here's the thing it takes you some time while you're driving. Like those of us old enough in here that can remember MapQuest days. You know, when you printed out where you were, or if if you had an atlas in your car, right? I know some of us ain't old enough for that, but you had to find like in the grid where you are to start with. And but let's be honest, when you were driving, you could be driving for an hour before you realized, oh, we were supposed to go north, not south. Because when you're lost, you don't know you're lost. And see, and what happens is there's a world of people out here that don't know they're lost. They think they got it figured out, they think they got everything together. But what they are is dead and lost. And Jesus goes, that's who I came for. Because no one is too far gone. Because we see at Christmas, the king is born. There isn't a soul you know that is beyond the power of saving from the cross. Not one. Like you can think of the worst person in your mind. Some of you, you may be the worst person, okay? Let's throw that out there too. But they are not further than where the power the the cross can reach. No one is beyond saving. I don't even know how it came up, but during one of the classes with middle and high school this week, not 100% sure how it came up. But it was kind of like, hey, here's who I used to be. Because I'm telling you guys right now, if you think I got it all together, man, if you'd have known me in like my early 20s, early 30s, you wouldn't have the same picture. I don't know if you know this or not, but I have a mouth on me. And I was never one to shy down from a fight. And if you caught me in the bar and I'm just trying to enjoy my night, and you said like you didn't like the color blue, all this anger from all my failures would well up inside of me. And now that I don't have the power of self-control, because I may or may not have had enough Jaeger, man, we can just have fun with this. And there were plenty of times where it was like, hurry up, run to the cars before the blue lights get here. And God, please help us not find, let them not find us as we make our way to 417 and out of here. The whole point of it is this. Not that I glorify that. The whole point of it is this. If you'd have known me, you would not have been like, God's gonna use them. God's got big plans for them. I mean, uh, yes, I had people in church that were like, you know, God has a plan for you. They did not believe that any more than I did, though. I'm gonna tell you that right now. They were just like, hey, like, think about that though. You wouldn't have guessed it, I promise you. And yet, God went, no, no, no, no. Not only are you gonna start a church, but you know what else you're gonna do? You're gonna start a school. Let me tell y'all my view of school here. You may not know this about me or not. My senior year, out of 180 days of school, I missed like 175 of them. You know why? Because we live really close to some world-class fishing. And I didn't want to go to school. Because what was I gonna do at school? Y'all ain't teaching me anything anyway. It's boring, and the only thrill I got out of it was weightlifting and football. So I went, why? And God went, here's why. Because what you don't know is eventually this is gonna be your life. If you don't think God has a sense of humor, just look at your own life. Like God went, like, that's cute. I'm glad you think it's gonna work out that way. See, the question we have is simple. Are you going to continue listening to the devil and his accusations, or is today the day you realize the power of Jesus who saves? Is today the day that you realize that there is no name on earth or in heaven that has the power to save? That when Jesus saves you, you are white as snow. Your sins are as far as the east is from the west. Now, I don't know how far that is. But I'm pretty sure they didn't mean like if you just wrap around the world. I'm pretty sure they meant the east going that way and the west going that way. Forever. Like if you if you're bored later today, just go on YouTube and go, how big is the universe? They start using numbers that your brain can't even like fathom. And I go, that's how far the east is from the west. See, it's today the day you finally see that the family that brought Jesus to earth included people that had no right to be there. It included people that were just like you. But Jesus is the king of the outcast. Jesus is the king who saves, and Jesus came to earth to do just that seek and save what is lost. That the king made new what sin had killed. And as we close today, decide for yourself which voice do you want to follow? The one who says you will never be enough, or the one who says, I am enough. See, all Jesus says is this give me your everything, and I will make it new. Stop trying to hold on to those parts of you that you don't think Jesus can make new. Because I promise you, He can. Maybe today is the day you need to stop trying to fix yourself and let Jesus, who built you, breathe life into you. If that's you, you can come see me before you leave. We can pray, we can we can talk about it. But maybe today is the day you need to stop listening to those voices that keep putting you down and start fighting against darkness. So, Father God, I ask and I pray. That God, as we look at your family, that we see, God, you can use whoever. And I ask and I pray, Father, that if there's someone in here who's sitting here going, hey, here I am, God, send me. That God, you strengthen their spirit, you strengthen their resolve, that they stop searching for perfection. And that, Father, they just sit here and go take it. I'm all yours. Father, I pray for heart change. I pray, God, that as we are in this Advent season, that Father, we see we are part of that family too, just as messed up as we are. Father, I pray and I ask that if there are people in here who are struggling, who who the devil is just accusing day and night. That Father, you shut that voice. That you give them the faith to believe that, that you give them the faith to overcome that. Father, we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.