The the theme for this worship service was really selected by my wife as most things that I do are selected by her Because she has tremendous taste with one notable exception and You'll laugh eventually and so she was mentioned to me Really just an observation that she made a few weeks ago several weeks ago now She said you ever noticed how many Christmas songs are in minor key I thought to myself that's Odd but true now. I know nothing about music the only thing I know about minor key is the Darth Vader theme song is in minor key That's about all I know, you know, but there's a there's a hint of melancholy to so many of them Even the most famous one silent night You know the song we began to use to begin the worship service let all mortal flesh keep silence There's a there's a there's a Overwhelming melancholy to Christmas, I think we see in our Christmas movies, too Don't we think about the most famous Christmas movies? What do we have? We've got you know It's a wonderful life which begins with a man can contemplating suicide. That's happy You know the greatest Christmas movie of them all is by far the most melancholy, right Charlie Brown You know every year you kind of watch it and you go why do we watch this? But there's this acknowledgement that there's a there's a darkness It's in all the Christmas texts of the Bible as well the the famous one from Isaiah 9 to those who dwell in the valley of deep dark shadows Upon them a lie has shined There's there's that that melancholy of I've gone coming to a virgin Mary and and kind of wrecking her life and Not long after Jesus is born King Herod sends in the the soldiers on A holocaust to try to kill every two-year-old boy There's a melancholy. There's a darkness. There's a sadness and And what I want us to do is we think about Christmas together as we worship together I want us to ignore see that God comes in and acknowledges the sadness with honesty because the temptation for most of us If you're like me is you want to paste a smiley face on top of that melancholy and you want to get better Christmas gifts and better Christmas food and brighter Christmas sweaters and you want to forget about it and And you think if you can just get your family together and be happy enough and have finally have the perfect Christmas that you've always wanted if you can just have that Then maybe you won't be melancholy anymore How does December 26th feel when you do that? How does January 2nd feel? It doesn't work There's a brokenness to that If you're not in the church regularly, I want to call your attention to this too because What I want I think one of the things that causes people to to shun the church is this idea that church is unrealistic Those are a bunch of happy silly people And they don't really understand pain and they don't really understand brokenness and they need to grow up Because they don't understand what the world's really like and I want you to know that the Bible shows us that God Came to us in human flesh because he understood exactly how broken this world is He said this world is so broken that my son needs to die for you That's how broken it is. I want you to see tonight in very few minutes. I'm not gonna preach long. I promise I Do lie to you, but I won't lie to you and say that I'm not lying. I'm not gonna preach long But what I want you to see in the text I'm gonna read is that God addresses our pain honestly And he gives us hope He addresses us with honesty and he gives us hope and I'm gonna show you that from one of the very first passages of the New Testament And one of the oddest ones frankly if you've never spent much time reading it or meditating on it Then I certainly understand, but I want to preach to you tonight from the very first Eight seven verses of Matthew here the word of the Lord The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ the son of David the son of Abraham Abraham was the father of Jess a father of Isaac and Isaac was the father of Jacob and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers and Judah the father of Perez and Zera by Tamar and Perez The father of Hezran and Hezran the father of Ram and Ram the father of a minedab and a minedab the father of nation and nation on the father of Salman and Salman the father of Boaz by Rahab and Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth and Obed the father of Jesse and Jesse the father of David the king and David was the father of Solomon by the wife of Euraya the Hittite Thus far the reading of God's word
Matthew says to us God comes to you and he sees you. He sees what you're really like He sees what you've done. He's seen the ugliness of it. He's seen what the world has done to you He is acknowledging the ugliness of that and He gives you hope and we think no not for people like us. Oh, we think no, that's not realistic and he says I want you to understand. I am sending Jesus my only son Exactly for people like you and I will prove it by his genealogy now You spend as much time doing genealogies I have probably I you know got on ancestry dot com It's been a good 20 minutes there Realized I was going to need to put spend money if I really wanted to learn anything and Didn't want it that badly and haven't gone back since But I figure if a long-walled uncle needs to find me and give me some money, you know I'm on there now, so that's all I really care about But to the ancient Jew in the ancient Near East in that world genealogy was very important It was very important And Matthew does something here that is scandalous and anyone's genealogy He puts four red flags in there that you could not possibly miss if you paid attention at all He lists four women and in the ancient Near Eastern genealogy women did not go
He puts four in there because he wants us to see something and I think in those four women He shows us exactly who Jesus came to give hope to The first woman he shows us is a woman named Tamar Tamar was the daughter-in-law of Judah. She was married to his oldest son Now we don't we're not told anything about what he was like all we're told is he had done evil in the side of the Lord and so the Lord took him away So we know that Tamar was left hopeless helpless. She had no one to take care of her And that world a woman without a husband or without sons was left to prostitution It was the only way they could feed themselves So she had no hope and less her her brother-in-law gave her a son. That was his job to give her a son Now own and refuse to do that
We're told that he went into her chambers We're left very told very clearly that he took pleasure in her, but he refused to give her a son He used her and he left her Desolate the one who was supposed to protect her hurt her the one who was supposed to provide for her hurt her and took things away from her exploited her and she was left Desperate and God was angry at owning and killed him too and so now Judah refuses to give Tamar his third son And she is left with no hope and she is so mad and she's so bitter about how she's been misused That she clenches her fist and she says I will get what I want by any means necessary and she results to a great evil She seduces her own father-in-law and Judah actually declares her righteous And out of that kind of pain out of that kind of brokenness God gives her a son and makes that son a forefather to Jesus Christ God Almighty
You've been hurt if you've been broken If you've been lied to is someone broken your heart recently and made you think that you can never trust again Jesus comes to give hope to you Jesus gives hope to Tamar The second one we see in the in the genealogy is a familiar name to some of you Rayhab now Rayhab we know is this much about she was a famous woman of the night she was a harlot She lived in Jericho of Canaan Now Jericho was the most evil city in Canaan and Canaan was such an evil country that God wanted everyone there exterminated Jericho is the worst town in the country He said anyone who rebuilds this town will do so a prophesied anyone who rebuilds this town will do so at the cost of the first of their first born children Rayhab was a harlot in Jericho of Canaan You don't get worse than that That's as bad as it goes And she acted out in faith and she received Israeli spies at risk of her own life And she she came to Israel and God received her and took her into his family But he said to her Rayhab you stand in the back Okay, you're in we're gonna let you into the kingdom But we're gonna put you away in a convent where no one can ever see you And we're gonna keep your story secret because it's kind of humiliating and we all know that if you send when you're young like that Well, you're scarred for life and it's done for you And so, you know, your life is injured and your damaged goods But we'll keep you in and when you get to heaven Rayhab everything will be fine in heaven Right, that's what God said to her Except he didn't Except what he actually said to her was I love you And I am proud of you and I am so proud of you I'm gonna give you a husband and I'm gonna give you children And I'm gonna make you a grandmother to the king I'm gonna make you a princess I'm gonna bring you into my home
I'm gonna show the world how proud I am of you for thousands of years They're gonna hold you up as a model of how gracious I can be because I can forgive sins or as red as scarlet and make them white as snow And for thousands of years Rayhab they're gonna be people who don't I believe that They're gonna think that church is for good people They're gonna be people who think they've sinned too much and gone too far And I want them to know that you are the grandmother to the king
That's who I'm sending my son He sends her for Tamar the ones who've been hurt and and God sends his son to give hope to to the Rayhabs of the world Who've hurt themselves by their own bad choices and then thirdly he sends his son for Ruth Now Ruth is the daughter-in-law of Naomi Naomi lived in ancient Israel obviously She's an ancient Israelite. Sorry. I'm just collecting thoughts saying stupid things But she lived in Israel at a time of great famine and drought Now honestly none of us really spend too much time on the farm these days And the idea of life on the farm kind of sounds quaint right but If you've never been on a farm they sound quaint if you've been there You know that's a lot of work and they smell bad and there is nothing quite as devastating as a year when the crops don't come in Except for two years when crops don't come in And there's no savings accounts and there's no visa cards and there's no You know houses that you can mortgage and you're kind of looking around going There's no food And you know opening the refrigerator not finding food there. That's not as fun as it sounds And Naomi was so desperate she went to Moab She took her sons her sons married off one of them married a lady named Ruth Well so far so bad right we've looked through a drought and then Naomi loses her husband And then she loses both sons and she's left a widow and childless And she is desperate and she's hurt She's been broken by the life. She's been broken by the world things haven't turned out right for her This is not where she saw herself being Right She's not in the retirement home on the golf course where I'm going to be Lord willing She is alone in a foreign land with two women looking to her sand where we're going to get food And she has no food to give them and she sends them home, but one of them won't go Ruth follows her back to Israel comes in And she is Taken underwing by a man named Boaz And Boaz redeems her and feeds her and and marries her and gives her a name
And puts a child on the lap of Naomi Naomi who said don't call me no longer in Naomi call me mora For God has been bitter to me God has been bitter to me She was angry Because she had dreams and her dreams had all fallen and failed This wasn't where she saw her children being this isn't where she saw her life going and she was bitter and she was angry And God put a son on her lap a grandson on her lap and said Naomi When you thought I was being bitter I was taking you exactly where I had to get you Don't you understand it? I had to get Ruth in the Israel And I had to get Ruth together with Boaz and I know the road I took you down was painful But I was with you and you had dreams of what you thought life was going to be like But I've got a plan that's much greater Naomi I'm going to send my son And when my son gets here he's going to look like Ruth
My plans for you are greater than anything you had ever hoped
He comes for those of us whose life just hasn't worked out the way they were supposed to He comes for Tamar those who are so bitter and hurt that their fists turn hard and they begin to fight for themselves And they he comes for Rahab those who have sinned against themselves and and done so much just solely their reputation They wonder if they could ever be saved and then Matthew includes one final woman And he does this in such a way that even the dumbest redneck like me can see that this one's inappropriate He comes right out and says it absolutely you will not miss this The son of Solomon now David was the father of Solomon by the wife of Eureia You're not going to miss that one are you now this is the one that's kind of for you and me Because you see David was the king of Israel now. I'm not the king of Israel But I have this in common with David. He had been a Christian for a long time He'd followed God for a long time some of you just snickered at me. It's okay. I guess snickered at a lot Um, he'd followed God for a long time David knew Jesus better than you will ever know God He did He wrote the 23rd Psalm have you done that recently He He killed Goliath and protected his whole nation the all of God's people had him to think have you done that recently David was the Old Testament Jesus as anybody ever said that of you He was more godly than you are and he committed a sin that was tremendous He looked upon a woman. He covered at her. He wanted her And so he stole his neighbor's wife And he committed adultery with her and then to cover it up. He murdered his neighbor He committed every sin that can be committed And they were all after he knew better And that's what I mean by when I say that this is the this is the woman who's there for us A lot of us have grown up in the church and a lot of us have had self-righteous pronouncements about things that we will never do And a lot of us have looked ourselves in the mirror one morning and went how did I get here? I never thought I would do that and we Begin to inch ourselves away from God because we know that he accepted us and he received us by grace But most of us honestly believe that he approves. I was based on our word Whether or not God approves of you, we believe Depends on the performance that we've turned in this year
And we don't think he likes us very much anymore And God goes and he gets Bathsheba the wife of Uriah and he makes her the grandmother of Jesus to say to us It's not about you. It's never been about you. It's never been about your performance It's never been about your righteousness. You are the grandmother of my son because of my grace
It's about me. It's about how much I've loved you You didn't start this relationship I didn't start liking you when all of a sudden you did something right I'm not going to stop liking you when you do something wrong. I love you I came after you You can't out-send me As a matter of fact, David you're thinking yourself you did something you would never thought you would do But I want you to know you did something I knew you were going to do Because I want my son to look a little bit like Bathsheba too
Even in your sin you're not beyond me Even in your sin you're not beyond me
That's who Jesus came for. He came in honesty He didn't come with kind of you know fuzzy camera filters and make everything look warm and happy He came with dead honesty. I know what you're like You're angry and you're bitter and you've sinned and you're going to continue sending after you know me I know what you're like And he comes to us and he gives us hope He comes to us with the real meaning of Christmas. That's something you know I don't know about you. There's always those kind of catch phrases that I think are a little silly sometimes And so I like to make fun of them one of them is the real meaning of Christmas You know, what's the real meaning of Christmas is to give not to receive right? You all know that the real minute is bet is more blessed to give than to receive and that's about Christmas right Actually, unless you're a preacher in which case it's about the offering plate you give I want you to know something that could not be a more wrong sentiment It couldn't possibly be more wrong The meaning of Christmas is not about giving It's about receiving God has given you hope God has given you his son Will you receive it? Nothing you can give him matters at all
Are you like Tamar? Are you so broken and so hurt? You've been lied to and abused so much that your fists are clenched and you can't trust him And you're afraid to open up your hands and receive anything And so you're always defending yourself And you're not getting more gracious He says I'm giving you hope But you've got to receive it Where you like Ray have been So embarrassed and humiliated by your sin that that you hate hate the idea of Sunday You don't even want Sunday to come. You wish you could take that day off the week You don't want to know that there are people worshiping God because you hate the idea that God exists because he makes you embarrassed in ashamed He says I'm giving you a new family I'm giving you forgiveness. I'm giving you hope Will you receive it? Are you like Naomi and Ruth has life just been so freaking hard that you are convinced that God has turned his back on you If God does exist you want to sue him for reckless endangerment
He says to you when you thought my back was turned I had you by the chin And I was looking you in the eye and I'm with you even now I am with you but you've got to trust me I've got better dreams than you'd ever hoped
Are you like Bathsheba are you are and David are you just tremendously embarrassed By the sins you've committed since you've known Jesus
Are you beginning to wonder how you could ever want you to be around at all
Are you thinking to yourself this year? I'm going to try harder
He says to you there's there's a funny story after the after the sin of David and Bathsheba David's army and David repents. That's a very important key It comes back and he loses his son and a comforts his wife And David's army takes a city and God has David re crowned as the king After his sin David it was never by your righteousness and it's not now He says that to you It's by my grace. Will you receive it? Not did you receive it 15 years ago? Will you receive grace will you receive the hope of Jesus tonight? And tomorrow And December 26 at infinital
Will you receive hope please pray with me