The Pursuit | 12.20.20

[Music] so so so so so so [Music] [Applause] [Music] so [Music] so [Music] [Applause] [Music] um [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] feelings [Music] [Applause] [Music] uh [Music] [Applause] [Music] uh [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] uh [Music] uh [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] um [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] hey good morning good morning pursuit come on we're going to get started stand to your feet if you're able we're going to get started this morning want to welcome you if you're you're new if you're watching my way of internet welcome to the pursuit listen we're going to get started come on to your seat come down to this altar we want to invite you find your place in worship this morning here we go one two one hey come on put those hands together [Music] i am a holy nation i am a priestly king a chosen generation to bring my offering i'm calling out for mercy i'm crying out for let god god [Music] my words and declarations let god [Music] [Music] is [Music] you cannot silence this is [Music] on a fire goes before him and destroys our enemies you fight so valuably [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] come on shout out to god with a voice hey we'll teach [Music] you're the only one [Music] you turn season [Music] me [Music] [Music] is is there's nothing [Applause] [Music] there's nothing better than you there's nothing better than you there's nothing nothing is better [Music] is oh [Music] today [Music] you're the only one [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] me [Music] crazy [Music] [Applause] [Music] we [Music] [Music] [Applause] is [Music] is [Music] [Applause] no faith [Music] is [Music] is foreign come on me [Applause] [Music] oh [Music] [Music] is [Applause] [Music] is [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh [Applause] [Music] oh [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] we worship you [Music] four [Music] [Applause] [Music] you are [Music] is [Music] [Music] [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] foreign [Music] is [Music] is [Music] [Music] is [Applause] [Music] is [Music] is [Music] [Applause] foreign [Music] is [Music] oh come on [Music] is [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] oh [Music] he's worthy he's worthy of the lamb on the throne [Music] who was dead but now lives forever [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] come on just close your eyes all across this room the spirit of god is here it's hovering all over us and when he's giving insight giving vision giving wisdom giving healing giving emotional freedom [Music] come on your song and sound is echoing in heaven heaven is responding right now if you need a miracle just lift those hands [Music] yes breathe on us holy spirit [Music] another moment just right there just breathe in atmosphere of heaven [Music] depression is lifting anxiety is lifting miracles are happening right now in his presence someone with inner ear problems being healed right now be healed in jesus name someone with a lock jaw tmj's being healed right now in jesus name be healed well that's it one moment in his presence can change everything someone with an irregular heartbeat is being healed right now be healed in jesus name arthritis is being healed right now if you're struggling with other eyes lift your hands and be healed right now i see arthritis being healed right now the name of jesus stress and anxiety over lack of finances is being lifted off of you right now even in this moment you came in you came in with the weight of how you're going to pay your bills and do christmas and all that stuff the lord says i've got you come on receive it now in jesus name healed [Music] i [Music] am [Music] set me [Music] the altar [Music] arms wide open [Music] gracefully broken [Music] [Music] um [Music] [Music] here i am here i am here i am holding up [Music] [Music] is [Music] i'm jesus [Music] [Applause] i spread [Music] i'll surrender [Applause] [Music] [Music] is [Music] i will be [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] i'm [Music] [Applause] [Music] uh [Music] fred this morning is we've created a house of worship lifting high the name of jesus it becomes a really easy place for you to receive from the throne room and so there's 40 if you're in need of healing your need of deliverance restoration in your life come on it's an easy place to receive scripture says this according to your faith let it be done and so together if we could add our faith and believe that god is as good as scripture says he is and together i believe on your behalf today you can receive something so special from heaven and scripture says every good and perfect gift comes from the father above he is the father of light in him there is no shadow of turning and so this morning we confess god's reality on earth until it becomes our reality that we walk in and so since we know that jesus has the highest name what it means is that every other name bows its knee and confesses with its mouth that he is lord to the glory of god the father and so that means this morning friends sickness bows its knee diagnosis bowels it's need disease valves it's need come on generational curses bow their deep mental illness thousands need depression valves and steam come on cancer valves and sneeze blood disorders bowel their knee arthritis bowels their knee broken bones bow their knee come on right now in the presence of jesus every sickness every illness every spirit of infirmity it goes in the name of jesus why because mountains still melt like wax in the presence of the lord this is the god that we serve this is his goodness in the land of the living fred forget not his benefit forget not that it's by his stripes that we receive healing forget not that healing is the children's bread forget not that when his kingdom is made manifest the lepers are cleansed the sick are healed and the dead are raised and in this place as we worship this jesus those things happen in this atmosphere and so today friend if you're in need of a touch of god come on would you just raise your hand and wave it and be like a sign of faith and let's just say god do your best work god do your best work in this place god do your best work in this place we say healing and wholeness comes to bodies now in jesus name we say clarity comes to mind now in jesus name we say the giants of depression and anxiety and stress and mental illness they battle our knee in the name of jesus we declare spirit of infirmity go we say spirit of fear go and we say spirit of the living god now come upon you come on friend let's sing this house [Music] i [Applause] surrendered [Applause] [Music] right [Music] i will be [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] i'm [Music] fred it's a good day to be at church man it's a good day to worship this jesus it's a good day to come alive and the freedom that christ brings come on would you just lift a shout out to the lord this morning hey why don't you take a minute and say hi to a neighbor on the way back to your seat man thanks so much for joining us for pursuit [Music] [Music] good morning pursuit family whether you're joining us here in person or online welcome to service here are your morning announcements we are so excited that coming in 2021 we are going to three services make a note that starting january 3rd our new service times will be 9 am 10 30 and 12 o'clock just a reminder there is no vip event this month we will be starting our vip events again in the new year so stay posted for more information we are looking to grow our sunday morning kids ministry team this ministry is thriving and there are lots of new families weekly if you'd like to serve in kids ministry head over to the connection center after service to get more information hey pursuit youth remember there is no youth this week or next week enjoy the holidays with your family and we'll see you back in the new year for a special event we want to take a moment to invite you to our candlelight service this year it will be on christmas eve and there are three services to choose from 4 p.m 6 p.m and 8 p.m there will be a party after each service including pictures with santa and holiday treats we'll see you on christmas eve we have an exciting announcement about a new opportunity for connection and growth that will be starting in the new year starting january 4th and continuing the first and third monday of every month we are inviting the church community to gather here from 6 to 7 30 to enjoy a time of connection growth development and teaching see you there and that is all the announcements we have for you today stay connected with us throughout the week on all of our social media platforms including facebook instagram and youtube at the pursuit nw and check us out online at thepursuitnw.com pursuit family we want to say thank you again for joining us thank you so much for all of your financial support and prayers during this season god has continually shown his faithfulness within our community and we wanted to extend an opportunity for you to partner in giving today if you're joining us in person today in just a few moments you will have the opportunity to come forward and give if you join us at the online campus or like to give digitally there are a couple ways that you can do that on the screen here you can text to give or you can give online through our website in a few moments the band will start to play and that will signify an opportunity for you to get out of your seat and come forward to give thanks again for faithfully sowing into our church and we'll see you guys next week and have a merry christmas hey now some time come on forward thank you so much [Music] [Music] [Music] this morning lord jesus [Music] [Music] lord jesus [Music] [Music] horses [Music] it is [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] come on give her one more big hand [Music] awesome hey we want to thank all of our kids ministry volunteers and workers and pastors who serve every week you know we really believe that kids ministry is one of the best investments that we can make spiritually in the next generation and it is an active service for so many volunteers and workers and leaders to serve of themselves selflessly week after week i know that all of your children are little angels and none of them would ever be difficult to manage during a service but um lucifer was a little angel as well so uh anyways we just want to say thanks to all of our our our kids ministry workers and and all the ways in which they're helping and working and and uh serving as the church has grown the pursuit has run into a number of good problems to have and one of those problems is that we just really need more help in kids ministry than ever before and in the foyer today uh there's going to be a table set up for for those of you who might be interested in serving in kids ministry we could really use your help as many of you know we're going to a third service here in january january 3rd be the first sunday of the new year and we're starting it off with launching a third service meeting our service times are adjusting they're going from nine and then at 10 30 will be the second service and then at noon will be the third service now some of you already come to about the 11 45 service and so for you just wait another 15 come to the noon and be on time for others of you you come to come to the 10 30 you will be okay and and others of you might join us earlier at 9am but but however you so desire to plug in we're going to encourage you to help be a part of building and bringing uh and inviting one of the most powerful things that we can do as a church community is develop an invitational culture by which we're excited to tell people about what god is doing here in the northwest i believe every believer needs a church home a church family and as long as there are people without a church family to call home the pursuit has a reason to grow and so we want to invite the northwest out to see what god is doing in this place if you couldn't tell already we take ourselves not too seriously but we take the presence of god really seriously and we hope that this is a place where your family can come plug in come to life and feel like it's a real easy place for you to thrive and for you to develop god is doing some really incredible things and we are excited obviously as many of you know we're doing something new this year that we haven't done before which is host our candlelight service on christmas eve and so 4 p.m 6 p.m and 8 p.m we'll be doing three candlelight service hope you could make it out invite a fred we're going to have all sorts of animals and games and fun and food and it's just going to be an incredible night you don't want to miss it and we also have a special gift for the first 500 guests at the candlelight services and so anyways invite a family member and let's celebrate christmas eve candlelight together that's going to be uh incredible this morning i'm going to share with you a little bit on the christmas story out of the book of matthew and starting in chapter one before i do i got to make an apology i complimented somebody this morning on their ugly christmas sweater only to find out it was their regular christmas sweater and so um anyways i know we're just growing the church through insulting people here on sunday morning i know it wasn't an ugly christmas sweater to you but it was to me uh but anyways it was a little bit of a misplaced compliment there so uh yeah i think people been on lockdown too much you know people been in their pjs wearing their crocs not doing their hair and sometimes church is about the only time they ever come out of the house and so i figured figured out some of those clothing options that's helpful for us here on uh on sunday morning but uh god god certainly is doing some incredible things i i saw a a info infomercial the other day for uh for a company called 23 and me and it's this company by which you can send in a dna sample and they'll send you back a full printout readout of exactly where you came from where your ancestors came from your ethnicity your heritage your nation of origin all sorts of things they give you information that you didn't even want to know about where you came from and what percentage of what nationality you are and i was thinking about that in the context of today's sermon because i'm going to share with you a story about the genealogy or the heritage or the family tree of jesus if you've ever read the new testament you know that the first three books of the bible tell essentially the same story in essentially the same order if you're anything like me you probably ask the question why do the synoptic gospels matthew mark and luke tell us the same story three different times the reason for that is because matthew mark and luke are written all by different people with different audiences in mind matthew was a tax collector a jew who was converted into the followership of christ jesus and so as he writes the book of matthew he's writing to an audience to convince them that jesus in fact is the jewish messiah whereas when you read the book of luke luke is written by a a greek physician and he's writing to a pagan audience a greco-roman audience and he's explaining to them the deity of christ and how christ is the highest god the highest authority the highest figure of praise throughout all the known world they're telling the same story but they're communicating it to two different audiences and so it helps us understand why different books begin the way that they do and if you've ever read the bible all the way straight through if you were to be honest this morning there's probably some passages of scripture some books some chapters that you just hit the fast forward button on because maybe they weren't really interesting or you didn't really understand what it was trying to communicate i've been there i've done it and i've done it a hundred times for matthew one it's just a long list of people's names i don't understand it all i don't know how to pronounce half of them and so generally in my bible reading plan i i hit the fast forward button but not this year and this year i felt like the holy spirit reminded me that every word in scripture is placed there on purpose by him to reveal to us something about the character of god and the nature of man and so as i went back to matthew 1 i pulled out of that story some things that i think of our applicable interest to our lives today and i want to share that with you this morning starting in matthew 1 and in verse 1 the bible says this this is the genealogy of jesus he's the son of david he's the son of abraham abraham was the father of isaac isaac was the father of jacob jacob the father of judah and his brothers if we fast forward verse 17 this is kind of how this portion of scripture culminates it says thus there were 14 generations in all from abraham to david 14 from david to the exile in babylon and another 14 from the exile to the messiah and this is how the birth of jesus the messiah came about his mother mary was pledged to be married to joseph but before they came together she was found to be pregnant through the holy spirit if we were to read this entire genealogy today you would see names like this abraham isaac jacob ones that you recognize and and maybe some that you don't judah perez hezron ram abinadab nashon boaz obed jesse david solomon abba jaya asad jehoshaphat uzziah jotham ahaz hezekiah manasseh josiah and so many others it was important for matthew to tell this story and in this way because it was central to his purpose for this book in order for jesus to be who he said he was he would have needed to fulfill over 400 unique individual prophecies in the old testament there were prophecies about his place of birth there were prophecies about his line of work there were prophecies about him being born to the tribe of judah of a virgin named mary there were prophecies that govern the way in which he was raised the place in which he would die the method by which he would be executed the amount of time that it would take for him to raise from the dead there were over 400 prophecies that tell us that this jesus in fact is the messiah and is the son of god it's not random chance that this is the jesus that we worship it wasn't some fable or mythology or just world religion or or or philosophical sort of kind of amalgamated world view and we kind of worship jesus or revere him as a great teacher or otherwise a wise prophet no jesus in fact is the son of god and the old testament looked forward to this moment in time in which the culmination of history would rest on the birth of a baby boy that would shape and split time itself in fact even in the way that we understand world history it's before christ or it's a d after death now when we look at this jesus and scripture i want you to think about genealogy the way that you would think about a concert or a symphony where every note is telling a story until it finally reaches its crescendo the one we have been waiting for is here and his name is jesus it's like all of creation has been waiting to catch its breath it's like all of humanity has been wondering where this story is going to wind up the entire family line of history will reach its apex in this one statement unto you a savior is born because of his audience matthew wants to make this point not only is he christ the anointed son of david not only is he jesus the one who will save people from their sins but in fact he is emmanuel god with us and hidden in the genealogy of christ is the story of four particular women and i want to draw your attention to these four women this morning because i think it reveals to us something about the nature and the character of god here's my simple thesis for you on this sunday god has placed you in his family line and that changes everything that's the message of christmas it's not chaos it's not presents it's not carols it's not songs it's family god has placed you in his family and that changes everything when you get adopted into the family of god you are translated out of darkness into light the claim of death against your life is broken and the handwriting of requirements is wiped away the chains of bondage and iniquity and sin lose their power to hold you no longer is the grave your biggest fear for there is no fear in death because christ himself has bankrupted the grave when you get translated into the family of jesus it is not simply adding some sort of esoteric teaching on love to your already busy world view it is the fact that you have been baptized in blood and raised as a new creation your life is no longer your own you've been bought with a price this is what it means to celebrate christmas and this jesus is with us he's not just for us he's not just in us he's not just around us he's not just above us this jesus is for us and if god is for us who could be against us this god who so desperately wanted to restore the relational connection that was broken in the garden pays the highest price by sending his one and only son and now through the veil of his torn flesh you and i enter into right relationship with the father and our spirits cried out for adoption so god responded with his son and when you're adopted it changes everything it changes your name it changes your culture it changes your family it changes the generations that will come from you it changes everything when you get adopted into the family of god it's like a rock that's thrown into a pond and its ripple effects go further than you could ever imagine friend when you get born again into the family of god it doesn't just change your past it changes your future i think sometimes people think about relationship with god like i'm glad i offloaded all that sin i'm glad i can have a fresh start and certainly that's part of the gospel message but it didn't just forgive my past it didn't just empower my present it secured my future and that's why today friend you can have hope not because you know what tomorrow holds but because the one who holds tomorrow sits on the throne of your heart this is the message of christmas it's not a safe little baby that stayed in a manger and how cute so let's talk about jesus no he is the roaring lion of the tribe of judah who is jealous for his people he will not take second place he will not be set aside he will not be put in a corner he will not be ignored he calls every man woman and child into the valley of decision by which this day they will choose serve god or serve other idols this jesus that we serve has been so safe and sanitized by culture around us jesus can only ever be looked upon in a historical fashion like a piece of art hung in a museum for people to observe not alive not dynamic this jesus has been so weakened by culture that he'll affirm anything that you do and anything that you like because how dare this god call us to a higher standard but this is not the jesus of scripture this is the jesus who walks through every generation righting wrongs balancing the scales of your life not just forgiving your past but empowering you to walk in holiness this jesus is a jealous god and he is coming for the worship of his people not just a safe little quiet little emaciated little jesus he is not a frail man on a throne who is easily upset come on he is the lion of the tribe of judah and the reason why we planted this church is because i hear his footsteps in the northwest come on he's coming for a victorious bride he's coming for an awakened people and that's why the message of the new testament apostles is awaken awaken for your hope is here your glory is here your light is here oh we made jesus so safe and so kind and so gentle and so soft and so anemic that he no longer has power to save heal deliver this is not the jesus of scripture hidden in the genealogy of christ is the story of four women tamar rahab ruth and bathsheba i want to tell their story today tamar her story comes from the book of genesis she's mentioned in verse 3 of matthew 1 of being in the genealogy of christ she was a widow not just a widow but a widow twice over both of her husbands had died not just a widow but she was barren and in that culture to be both a widow and to be barren meant to be cursed by god and one day when she was finally able to get pregnant her community accuses her of infidelity and they try to kill her because they think she's a harlot by all accounts tamar has had a difficult life and she finds herself widowed barren then pregnant but alone forgotten and now fearing for her very life but her story is not without a redemptive end because out of all of the people who could have found themselves in the genealogy of christ a woman who felt forgotten was remembered by god and i want you to hear something this morning friend all of your feelings are real but not all of your feelings are true and sometimes in an effort to affirm people we in an accidental way overvalue a temporary emotion and under value in eternal truth and i'm okay we feel in all sorts of ways because god made us to feel he's a feeling god with emotions and we are a feeling people with dynamic emotions as well and it's my hope that in a service we take you to the heights of heights of encouragement and exaltation of christ we also take you through the valley of self-reflection and who am i that god would put his love and his calling and his anointing upon my life and and then end with a shout because god has triumphed and so have we and so even in the service as a conductor i want to take people through the highs and lows of their emotional context i i believe that's the way that god has made us but i think in our culture specifically today we have overvalued the temporary and undervalued the eternal i feel forgotten therefore i am forgotten no you feel forgotten but friend that's not true i don't feel forgiven but friend you are forgiven well i don't feel healed or restored or called or qualified or anointed but if you read scripture you are all of those things and more and so just because i don't feel it doesn't mean that it's not true and if we disciple people to only be primarily led by their feelings my fear is that will create a lot of people intoxicated by spiritual emotionalism but dead on the inside and i love the excitement of sunday sundays literally is my favorite day in the week not a whole lot else going on these days but i'll tell you what when i leave this place i've got to be convinced in the deepest part of who i am that neither death nor life will separate me from love neither angels or demons heights or deaths riches or poverty they can't separate me from what i know to be true about who god is and what he says about my life fred i may feel it but it doesn't make it true and i love when what i feel lines up with what is actually true the longer i live the more that i recognize the need for a spiritual discipline that helps me differentiate between those two realities here's the message of christmas god is in the business of redeeming your name and when you get born again he places you within his family line and in doing so he attaches you to his inheritance see you and i this morning we have royal blood throat flowing through our veins because when we got born again we got adopted into a king's family and here's what i love about jesus no matter how dark your past is when you get placed into god's family it corrects the narrative of your life which means this i might have come from shame but i'm headed to glory i might have come from deceit but i'm headed to truth i might have came from rejection but i'm headed to acceptance the only thing that people thought of tamar when they heard her name was the mistakes she had made but look at what god has done can i tell you fred abuse is a moment abused is an identity offense is a moment offended is an identity and sometimes we allow the moments that we came from to paint the picture of what our tomorrow will hold and can i tell you fred one of the joys of christian living and one of the benefits of being a christ follower is that even if my today was terrible there is new mercy for me in the next morning so i could wake up put on a new coat be dressed in heavenly clothes put on the armor of god and have a fresh start in a new life there's no other system in the world today that gives you that type of grace there's no other system in the world today that gives you that type of mercy we live in a world today where people will research every social media post you've made in the last 15 years just to find something that they can cancel you over but the jesus we serve when you wake up puts new mercy on your life and that's a good gospel it's not the gospel of culture it's not the gospel of false religion it's the gospel of jesus and it's the best message that there's ever been tamar was forgotten by man but she was remembered by god it's not just tamar it's rahab and some of you might be familiar with rahab's story others of you aren't it comes from joshua two and she appears in verse five of matthew one of the genealogy of christ rahab was a prostitute in the city of jericho and when joshua sent two spies to spy out the city when the king of jericho found out he went looking for them and rahab in an act of faith hid two righteous men from the nation of israel in her house when the king of jericho came by she said i didn't see them i think they might have ran off another way you got to go looking for them somewhere else but wherever they are they aren't here now this isn't a proof text on why you should lie but what it is is an analogy of what happens when you hide righteousness in your heart because when jericho was destroyed there was one woman and one family that was saved and they were saved why because when they were in the valley of decision they said that the consequence of rejecting righteousness is greater than the consequence of hiding righteousness and we'll go allow righteous men to take up residence in this house can i just speak to some men this morning some fathers this morning some young men some old men this morning it is imperative in this season that you find the spiritual courage to be the righteous leader in your family it doesn't mean somehow men are number one and women are number two it doesn't somehow mean the spirit of god or the anointing of god is greater on males than it is on females that's counterintuitive to the message of christ in the last days god says i will pour out my spirit on all flesh men servants maidservants men women young all rich poor jew gentile black white that's the ethic of the new testament however there is a special responsibility on men in our world today to be righteous leaders in their family systems and i think sometimes we have abdicated the righteous responsibility to other things and then wonder why our families are in chaos and we need to find the courage to be righteous leaders not my high righteousness not my high righteousness in my house now my family system is going to revolve around this idea of righteousness no my kids aren't going to see me complain about going to church you don't have to you get to now my kids aren't going to be raised in an atmosphere in which i'm stingy with the lord no i'm going to be generous one of the most powerful things man that you can do for your family is to allow your wife and kids to see you being a worshiper of jesus it does something in the generations you don't have to worship like me you can worship just how god has made you but i'm telling you there is a call and opportunity and i would even say a mandate on men in this area and in this age to regain righteous authority in their families now watch what happens the whole city is about to collapse everyone in jericho would be killed but a small and seemingly insignificant act of faith would place a sinful woman in a savior's story see when you invite jesus into the room of your heart it doesn't matter how bad you've been salvation will come to your family can i tell you friend the most dangerous sin is the one in your own backyard it's also the hardest to see but if you will be ruthless with your own sin you won't have a whole lot of time to be worried about others see god hasn't asked me to be the judge god hasn't asked me to be the jury god hasn't asked me to be the executioner you know what god's asked me to be a witness in jerusalem judea samaria and even to the uttermost parts of the earth which means for me my job is to be a witness of what god is up to what his heart is for this region and his love for people around me and i'm going to leave it up to the holy spirit to do what he does best which is convict the world of their sin it doesn't mean that we don't preach righteousness or don't preach holiness but i think sometimes people become so consumed and attached to the sin that's in their neighbor's yard that they forget about their own backyard be ruthless with your own sin be ruthless with your own backyard and allow god to work on the people around you and i promise you he will sin will bring destruction but if you'll hide the righteous one in your heart on the day of judgment you will be saved see long after the walls of jericho had fallen the story of rahab would live on a sinful woman who met a righteous god who enveloped her in his unfolding story of redemption it's no longer rahab the harlot it's rahab the redeemed it's not just tamar it's not just rahab but it's ruth and ruth appears in verse 5 chapter 1 of the book of matthew and ruth had a similar story you'll start to see the pattern of the types of people that god chooses he always exalts the lowly he always picks up the broken and the contrite he always exalts those who have humbled himself under their mighty hand god is always in the business of elevating those who are in the dirt now ruth she had a similar story her husband had died she was barren not only was she barren she was a moabite and in that day and in that age moabites were considered the sworn enemy of god's people there is a great famine in the land so much so that bruce mother-in-law naomi announced i am going back to my ancestral home and ruth replied with a statement that would impact her destiny in ways that she couldn't imagine don't urge me to leave you or to turn back from you for where you go i will go and for where you stay i will stay your people will be my people and your god my god so ruth went with naomi back to naomi's ancestral home and you know where naomi's ancestral home was a little city called bethlehem and naomi and ruth walked back to where they had come from and ruth who was alone who was barren who was broke and who was out of options met a man named boaz who functioned as a picture of christ a kinsmen redeemer who not only took her under his wing but they were married and in doing so ruth gave birth to obed who gave birth who who who got married and out of his offspring came jesse and jesse got married and out of his offspring came david meaning ruth is the great grandmother of king david and jesus now sits on david's throne eternally through one fateful seemingly insignificant decision ruth finds herself interjected in the greatest story that has ever been told i think sometimes for us church feels really spiritual but the more i come to church the less spiritual church feels and what i've recognized is that even in moments that don't feel spiritual god is doing spiritual things and so you might be here this morning and feel it man i feel it god is really working or you might be here this morning and go oh this is kind of cool but it's a little different and i'm not sure i'm feeling it at all but i can promise you in any atmosphere in which jesus is exalted in the way he is here he is working on things in your life that you don't even know are broken and one day you'll get to heaven and you will see the unfolded record of how many times god intervened and you didn't even know it and this ruth she's just broke barren and lonely and so god supernaturally redirects her story and in meeting boaz finds herself going from an enemy of god to being in the lineage of god do you know what you were before christ an enemy of god but through the precious blood of jesus enemies have become friends there is no other system on earth that offers that type of redemption there is no other system on earth that offers that type of forgiveness the gospel is so powerful that it takes enemies and turns them into friends and only a god as good as jesus could put a moabite woman in the genealogy of a jewish savior it wasn't just tamar it wasn't just rahab it wasn't just ruth but it was bathsheba she appears in verse 6 of matthew 1. some of you here this morning are familiar with this story she's connected to david's great sin taking the wife of another man killing her husband bringing judgment upon the entire nation see bathsheba was exploited stolen abused ripped away from her family and i assumed that the people of that day thought to themselves there is no possible way that god could redeem this story and yet here we are again don't you see the pattern barren bewildered depressed deserted god used it all and what he produced from that lineage was the perfect prince of peace friend if you get one thing this morning get this you don't get jesus without tamar you don't get jesus without rahab you don't get jesus without bathsheba and you don't get jesus without ruth and the reason why some of us miss out on the joy of christian living is because we have failed to realize that we don't get miracles without sickness we don't get revival without repentance we don't get peace without storms and we don't get resurrection without death jesus hasn't come to eliminate my pain but to give purpose to it this is the jesus we worship and that's why the broken parts of your story carries so much value because it's every broken peace that led you straight to him it's every terrible part of your story that you wish you could forget that embarrasses you that you think disqualifies you and instead it has presented you to a loving jesus who transforms your life and places you and his family this is the goodness of god it's the message of christmas no matter how far i've run or how bad i've been god picks me up and places me in his family and seats me at his table that's the goodness of god and this is the pattern of matthew 1. now you might be reading this today and go well why is it a big deal that four women appear in the lineage of christ because the time and the culture in which this book was written that would be about the craziest thing that you could ever read in that culture women were considered like property a lot of them illiterate untrained uneducated passed over left in the margins of society what i've learned about god is that when his eyes go to and fro throughout the earth oftentimes the people that he finds are the people who've been left behind in the margins of other people's stories that jesus goes after the lowly he goes after the rejected he goes after the forgotten he goes after the overlooked he goes after the orphan the immigrant the woman the gentile the moabite these are the people he goes after do you know today that what unifies us is not our victories it's our failures it's all the weaknesses that we share in common that in doing so we have reflected on the great strength and brilliance of jesus because in my weakness his strength is made manifest and all of us here in this room today we have different victories but we have common flaws and it gives us great hope to recognize that the commonality of our flaws has led us to the uniqueness of christ's message here's what christ announces i am remembered i am forgiven i am redeemed and i am not alone and only a story as good as this one could place tamar and rahab right next to mary and joseph i hope when you read scripture you don't identify with the heroes you identify with the broken i think so often when we read the biblical narrative we think of ourselves like the giants of faith we think of ourselves like jesus walking on the water not peter flailing under the waves we think of ourselves as the disciples who stuck close with jesus not the judas who betrayed him we think of ourselves as the moses the great deliverer not the pharaoh the great enslaver but when i read matthew 1 i think the thing that i'm impressed by most is that if god used a person like tamar or rahab then there's hope for people like you and me and not just using them in some sort of performative way like god is playing divine chess and just moving us as pawns on his great chessboard no god partners with them in such a way that they become part of his very lineage friends salvation is not just something that god does for us it is something that he does with us i've been placed in god's story so have you in closing today i want you to see these four chairs on stage and i wanted to illustrate to you the the four women that i have shared on this morning out of matthew 1. and in closing i want to make this appeal and this plea to you and you might be here this morning and feel alone forgotten abused exploited scared fearful or any sort of particular characteristics but when i place jesus at the center of my family's narrative what he does is he pulls all of my inadequacies together and he uses them for my good here's the problem we have adopted a jesus who doesn't stand in the center but instead exists on the peripheral but here's the problem if the jesus you serve only exists on the outside of your family dynamic then the only thing that you have to stare at is the brokenness of your last mistake but when jesus stands in the middle when my sin and my shame and my guilt seems to rise to the surface i look at him and i see redemption hope and forgiveness but it's when jesus is in the center and where do you find jesus all over scripture you find him in the middle of nebuchadnezzar's furnace you find him in the middle of a storm on the sea of galilee you find him hanging between two thieves in the middle on a cross everywhere you see jesus in scripture he is standing in the center of chaos proclaiming peace he's standing in the center of sickness declaring healing and when i place jesus at the center of my story even my fears and my failings are redeemed in his hopeful narrative this is the jesus we serve this is the message of christmas this is why the genealogy of matthew 1 can't be skipped over this year because it tells us the story of us i was broken i was forgotten i was sinful until jesus stood in the middle and now i'm a part of his family line and everything has changed come on fred would you stand as we close this morning i want to pray for you i would encourage you today maybe you're here and you'd say pastor if i were to be honest jesus isn't at the center of my life he's not at the center i know he needs to be but he ain't maybe you'd be here today and you'd say pastor man there was a time where i really felt like i was living with passion and intentionality and integrity but if i were to be honest i've been lost in my own narrative while missing out on his friend i want to pray for you i want to add my faith to yours i want to believe for a better tomorrow for fresh mercy for fresh grace that god would empower you by his spirit that you would never be the same come on would you close your eyes and bow your head with me as we close as 40. i'm going to invite you to pray out loud with me today and let's confess our great need of jesus and in doing so let's invite him to do what he does best jesus we invite you to be in the center of our lives we invite you to be in the center of our story the center of our family and god today we acknowledge the times in which we have gone astray the times in which we have broken the law of god and by doing so broken the heart of god but god we have never needed you like we need you now and so we are inviting you back to the center for you to do your best work and in doing so take rahabs and tamars and roofs and bathshebas and sit them at your table and cover them with your glory god we commit to giving you all the praise all the honor all the glory in this place both now and forever in jesus name amen amen hey friend altars are open if you'd like prayer we've got our prayer team up here on my right my left come on if you'd like prayer before you leave today maybe you say pastor i need to rededicate my life to the lord man i'd love to meet you shake your hand pray for you if not you're free to go thanks so much for joining us on thursday we're going to be back 4 6 8 p.m join us for a special candlelight service invite a friend come on let's help grow this thing together god bless thanks so much for joining us we'll see a lot of you thursday for our candlelight service you

Channel: The Pursuit NW

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Length: 93min 40sec (5620 seconds)

Published: Sun Dec 20 2020