Go a little deeper
The message opens on Thanksgiving weekend with lighthearted questions about smoked, roasted, and fried turkeys and a call to gratitude. Pastor Keith expresses thankfulness for a recent baptism service and, he says, 205 baptisms in 2023 at Journey Church, framing each as a story of God's grace. He shifts to Advent—the season of arrival—and makes hope the day's theme, distinguishing biblical hope from wishful thinking. Drawing on a definition he attributes to Christy McLen, he describes hope as the active conviction that despair does not have the final word, and credits the sermon title, "Out of the mess comes the Messiah," to the late Dr. Terry O'Casey.
Pastor Keith then reads Matthew 1:1–17, Jesus' genealogy—a passage he says many readers skip. Studying it, he argues, shows that Matthew, a tax collector whose life Jesus interrupted with a call to follow him, deliberately included material conventional genealogies would leave out: Gentiles, sinners, and women. Through Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Judah and Tamar, Rahab and Salmon, Ruth and Boaz, Jesse, and David, he traces a pattern of broken families, deception, and failure that God nonetheless carried forward into the line of the Messiah.
The sermon closes with encouragement for anyone who feels defined by their past, their family, or what was done to them. If God used people like Rahab, Ruth, Judah, and David, Pastor Keith reasons, there is hope for everyone—the genealogy becomes evidence that despair does not get the final word. He connects hope to 1 Peter 1:3, Psalm 42, Job, Romans 15:13, and Hebrews 10:23, insists that hope has a name—Jesus—and extends the same call to follow him to people who have never trusted Christ and to those who have drifted. He then prays over the congregation and invites people forward for prayer during a closing song.
Take this with you
Hope is more than wishful thinking
In his discussion of Romans 15:13, Pastor Keith locates hope in trust in God and the work of the Holy Spirit. He contrasts this with relying on an improvement in circumstances. He urges listeners to continue trusting God through uncertainty.
Jesus' genealogy is worth reading
Matthew 1 is often skipped because the names are hard to pronounce, but Pastor Keith treats it as carefully crafted testimony. Matthew, a tax collector, wrote a genealogy that includes Gentiles, sinners, and women—precisely the categories tradition would have omitted—to show that God works through messy people and had a plan from the beginning. The passage's three sets of fourteen generations, he suggests, point toward deliverance culminating in Jesus.
Broken families run through the Messiah's line
Pastor Keith retells the Genesis accounts behind Matthew’s list of Jesus’ ancestors, including Abraham’s failures, Jacob’s deception and later encounter with God, and Judah’s wrongdoing toward Tamar. He uses these accounts to show God working through people who fail. Judah’s acknowledgment of wrongdoing illustrates the humility that comes with recognizing one’s own sin.
Rahab and Ruth were unlikely ancestors
Rahab, a prostitute in Jericho who protected Israelite spies, married Salmon and became Boaz's mother, and Ruth, a widowed Gentile, became Boaz's wife and Obed's mother. Pastor Keith notes that Hebrews 11:31 still identifies Rahab by her former trade, yet honors her faith—evidence, he argues, that God is not limited by someone's past and that those who trust Him are not defined by what they have done.
Hope has a name
Pastor Keith connects 1 Peter 1:3 with hope rooted in Jesus’ resurrection. His discussion of Psalm 42 encourages addressing discouragement with renewed trust in God. He uses Hebrews 10:23 to urge persistence because of God’s reliability, rather than placing ultimate confidence in health, finances, or relationships.
The conversation,
in their words.
Transcript from the recording’s captions. Select any timestamp to hear the original audio.
well we just had Thanksgiving I just want to learn a little bit more about you how many you smoked your turkeys this year come on those are the rebels out there I did it as well come on I did that surgery where you take out the spine and you break those ribs and you lay it out there you know you spatch it or something like that uh so you smoked it so I want to see The Smokers out there come on come on how many you roasted it good old Tradition Way in the oven you roasted it we got the traditional people out out there come on you're the ones that want the hems back in church all right I see it all right how many you fried your turkeys you fried your turkeys all right raise your hand if you fried your turkey all right usually those are the ones that live in duts River Woods all right so all right just just want to make sure I'm just
kidding I really meant primeville so PR Tucky is what I meant so all right we want to know who the true Rebels are the ones who need God's grace more than anything you did not have turkey on Thanksgiving raise your hand nice and all right all right look around all right we're going to judge you all right we're all wondering was it Pizza TR tip we're just wondering what was it that was so good you'd ski the traditional turkey it says a lot about us we got diversity all over this place I'm so thankful for God what a great country we live in that we take a day just just to to thank God just to a Thanksgiving that that would not just be a day but an attitude of thanks living in our hearts and I want to just camp on Thanksgiving for a moment because last Sunday we had
28 people baptized at Journey Church 28 each of those stories represents God's grace this year in 2023 we have had 205 baptisms at Journey Church I'm just so blessed and overwhelmed with gratitude that we have a God that rewrites our stories he doesn't leave us where we are you know if we're just stuck in our problems our mess that would be a miserable place but God doesn't leave us there he doesn't leave us where we are in fact God sees the potential that we can't even see in ourselves so wherever you are today I want you to know that God's he he can't leave you there it would be a sin to
stay where you are God has a great potential in your life thanks giving is now behind us and we're moving towards Christmas it's the Advent season the word Advent means arrival so the Advent season is this preparation of arrival of Christmas it's a reminder that Christ has come the Son of God has arrived and so we look at these truths of who Jesus is because he's arrived and during this time this is a chance for us to reflect to take a pause to ask God I I want to know more of who you are if you if you stepped into our story I cannot allow my story to remain the same so we're going to better understand who God is because of Christmas and today we're reminded of Hope in fact we have a saying around here at Journey Church There's Hope for say it with me everyone this is a saying
we repeat often because we believe it there's not just hope for a holy huddle there's not just hope for people that look like they have it figured out this is not a country club of people that have hope we really believe there's hope for everyone it's never too late with God it's never too early with God there truly is hope for everyone today's theme is going to be hope but I need us to understand what hope is and what it isn't because we use that word hope so loosely in our culture we often use the word hope and something that we just want really bad and so we can mistake hope is just this wishful thinking that if I just will this into my heart if I just kind of pray this there it's going to happen many of us do that some of us hope hope it'll be warmer
today some of you are hoping for a date some of you are just you're you're hoping for something in your life I hope it will snow I hope it won't snow we have these different ways of using the word hope is just this this wishful thinking in our lives now what really is Hope is it this wishful thinking that it's either going to happen or it won't happen it's just God's Providence sometimes it happens some times it doesn't or could hope actually mean something more I want to tell you today hope is not wishful thinking hope is the very thing you ought to cling to no matter what until you're with God in glory I really like how christe mclen defines hope in her own words I want to
share this with you and I'll repeat this several times in today's message she defines hope this way hope is the active conviction that despair does not have the final word what a beautiful description of hope hope is the active conviction I believe that despair does not have the final word I heard a long time ago that John Maxwell who's a a a writer a a speaker he said listen if you quote me one time go ahead and use my name I I if you say it several times you could just say I've heard it said if you're going to repeat it over and over you just say I always say and I just want to declare today I always say that hope is the active
conviction that despair does not have the final word I want you to embrace that today that Christy mlen may have been the author of that text but it originates out of God's heart that we would understand that hope is the very thing that God is greater than anything you've been through God is greater than anything you're going through God is greater than anything you will face my God is greater than anything that was done to you if you've made mistakes today I want you to know that we have a god of hope that despair does not have the final word that when you believe in this God that is Faith when you decide to trust in the Lord when you decide to surrender your whole life I'm talking about every ounce every energy every thought every dream when you give that
to God that's faith and what God gives you in faith is Hope now full disclosure as I steal that definition from Christy mcleland I also want you to know I'm stealing the title of today's message and the substance of this message it came from the late Dr Terry o Casey who once preached this message eight years ago at jurny church he's now with God and glory and has no need for Hope but today I want you to know that what was said long ago is still true today the title of today's sermon is this out of the mess comes the Messiah out of the mess comes the Messiah out of the mess comes the Messiah just a real quick survey so we understand who we're with today and if you're watching at
home or on television we want you to participate as well how many of you have a crazy family just raise your hands nice and high if you came with that crazy family just point at them right now all right just we want to know which one's the crazy one I realize that may not be politically correct to ask that in church we want to use proper terms today like dysfunctional or traumatic how many of you grew up in a traumatic home we all come from Brokenness because as David says in Psalm 51 I I was born in transgression I didn't have to learn how to sin we're born in sin the Apostle Paul put it this way for all everyone shout all for all that's every single person for all of us have sinned all of
us have sinned every single one of us no matter how well someone looks like they have it together we are all broken we've all sinned we've all made mistakes we've all had things done to us and there comes a point in the messiness of Our Lives where we question can God really use me does God really love me what is God's plan for me can I have hope despite what I've been through what was done to me some of us replay things in our minds things that were done to us decades ago or things that we did a long time ago and we can sit even in a church service and wonder is God's plan really for me and I want you to see in the Christmas story that the Messiah that's Jesus the word Messiah just means anointed one God had a plan from the
beginning to bring one an anointed one an anointed one to save the world it's where we get the word Christ it's a Greek form of anointed one he had a plan from the beginning and his plan is so perfect that he came at just the right time to show us that out of the mess comes the Messiah today's text comes from the Bible it's the opening lines of the Book of Matthew which is the first book in the New Testament now there's a gap between the Old Testament and the New Testament the last book of the Old Testament is Malachi the Bible is made up of 66 books and the Old Testament is everything before the birth of Jesus the new Testament is everything after the birth of Jesus between Malachi and Matthew we do not have any biblical text
to to cling on to we might say that it was this silent period a a long silent night but if you lived during that time there was much that was happening there were real people that were living there were real people anticipating the the hope of a messiah God's word was was present for people to to look at and study and cling to to have hope and we we come to the Book of Matthew and we're introduced to the one whom we call the Christ The Chosen anointed one of God the Messiah and Matthew is the first book that introduces us to Jesus and in the opening lines of Matthew he he's going to tell us his lineage the the the the
record of his genealogy and I want us to look at this together because it's absolutely wonderful and I don't want you to miss this so that you would understand how God worked through history and how God wants to work through your story it's going to be a long text I would like to read verse 1 through1 17 so I need you to work with me to keep you awake I'm going to ask that you would stand to your feet for the reading of God's word please stand to your feet if you have your Bible you can turn there Matthew chapter 1 starting with verse one I'll read the text that will also be on the screen I want you to stick with me here I want you to see that God wants to speak to you today Matthew 1 starting with verse 1 through verse1 17 the book of the
genealogy of Jesus Christ the son of David the son of Abraham Abraham was the father of Isaac and Isaac the father of Jacob and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers and Judah the father of Perez and Zarah by Tamar and Perez the father of hezron and hezron the father of RAM and RAM the father of aminadab and aminadab the father of Nan and Nan the father of salon and Salon the father of Boaz by Rahab and Boaz the father of OED by Ruth and OED the father of Jesse and Jesse the father of David the king are you still with me we're going to continue we're halfway through verse six and David was the father of Solomon by the wife of
UAH and Solomon the father of rehoboam and rabom the father of abijah and abijah the father of Asaf and Asaf the father of Jehoshaphat and Jehoshaphat the father of joram and jorm the father of Uzziah and Uzziah the father of jotham and jotham the father of ahaz and ahaz the father of Hezekiah and Hezekiah the father of Manasseh and Manasseh the father of Amos and Amos the father of Josiah and Josiah the father of Janiah and his brothers at the time of deportation to Babylon are you still with me if your neighbor didn't say yes just nudge them a little bit all right we're 2third of the way here we go verse 12 and after the deportation to Babylon
jeah was the father of shtil shtil the father of zerubabel and zerubabel the father of abood ab the father of eliakim eliakim the father of Azor and Azor the father of zadok and zadok the father of Achim and Achim the father of eliud eliud the father of Eleazar and Eleazar the father of mathan and mathan the father of Jacob here we're getting close to Christmas verse 16 and Jacob the father of Joseph the husband of Mary you've heard of them Joseph the husband of Mary of whom Jesus was born who is called
Christ so all Matthew notes in verse 17 so all the generations from Abraham to David were 14 everyone shout 14 14 generations and then from David to the deportation to Babylon was how many 14 generations and from the deportation to Babylon to to the Christ was how many 14 Generations Lord I pray today that you would speak through your word because this word is active it is living and you can speak to us Lord so I pray that you would speak and have your will let your will be done in our lives as it is in heaven we need your help to understand this Lord and you Holy Spirit are a great helper we thank you for these things in Jesus name amen you may be seated these are the
scriptures that are often overlooked you can get to a section like this in the Bible and just simply say I'm going to skip this section and go to the next one if I can't pronounce the names I'm not sure I even want to read them I'm not even sure who these people are or what this could mean in my life uh but I'm here to tell you today with these type of scriptures we ought to pause and ask God to teach us why this is is here we should study the scriptures we should meditate on them every single word that's in the Bible is there for a reason from Genesis through Revelation and it's through this text today we're going to see that out of the mess comes the Messiah I first want to point out the author of this text his name is Matthew he's also known as Levi
he was a tax collector which means he was born to a Jewish family but he decided as a career to collect taxes for the Roman Empire from Jews so to collect taxes for the evil Roman Empire was in some sense to deny your faith your heritage and even your family being a tax collector would be lonely but it would also come with its benefits financially you could take some from the top for yourself while you collect enough taxes to give to the king so you would have money you would have all the things that many people want in this world yet you would forfeit the things that actually matter and on one particular occasion Matthew also known as Levi was just going about his
business in his tax booth and lo and behold Jesus shows up at his work you know Jesus will show up at your work he he will show up in your car he will show up in your house you don't need to go to church to meet with Jesus he'll meet you right where you are and he looks so Matthew and he gives him a great invitation I believe today it's the invitation that God gives every single one of us he says follow me and if you accept this invitation it's a great invitation it doesn't mean with some of your life it doesn't mean sometimes it means with everything Matthew took this invitation seriously in that he literally dropped everything he quit his career and decided to follow Jesus and became a disciple aren't you glad because now we
have the life of Jesus written right here because this guy decided to take Jesus seriously but if you to look at Matthew's life you could just hear the title tax collector that has some substance in the New Testament scriptures this guy was a sinner but out of the mess comes the Messiah so that's who starts off this book about Jesus Christ and what he does in the opening line in in Matthew chap 1 verse one it sounds much like the first book of the Bible he says the book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ now that word genealogy in the Greek is the same word for the first book of the Bible Genesis the Book of Genesis the book of beginning it literally means origin this is the origin of Jesus this is the the
beginnings of Jesus this is the Genesis if you will the genealogy of Jesus he gives them the title Christ there's one title he gives us then he gives another title the son of David and the son of Abraham the son of in the scriptures is simply a a title David was a great king over Israel Jesus is an even greater King Abraham is the father of Faith Jesus is the substance of our faith this is the one whom we believe in so we start off with these titles of who Jesus is and then Matthew intentionally decides to trace back his genealogy not going all the way back to Adam as we see in the Book of Luke but he decides to start the genealogy of Jesus with
Abraham and they intentionally Luke and Matthew share different genealogies some would say Luke's genealogy is that of Mary and then Matthews is is that of Joseph but they intentionally share the genealogy of Jesus to point us that God has had a plan from the beginning now when Matthew starts with Abraham he starts off with Abraham because God made a covenant with Abraham a covenant is a deep commitment that cannot be broken and God told Abraham out of you will come a great nation unlike any other nation that Nation still exists today we call that Nation Israel and God told Abraham I'm going to bless those who bless you and I'm going to curse those who curse you and God made a great plan with Abraham but I want you to see as we look at this genealogy of Jesus that that Matthew
does something peculiar because tradition looks back and says you know when you do a genealogy you want to leave the best of your family you don't want to let people know that you had some mess ups in your family some crazies so traditionally there are three things that would damage a genealogy that you traditionally would not put in there the first thing that would damage a genealogy is is ethnic impurity that if you come from a Hebrew Heritage or Jewish Heritage you certainly wouldn't want a different race in that geneal ology that would just mess things up to have a gentile Gentile just means non-jew that would damage your genealogy the second thing that would mess up your genealogy is to
include Sinners people that have a bad reputation you want to include Saints in your story so people think you got it figured out you came from a good family line you often hear people say things like oh we we can trace back our family line to to a blink or George Washington or you know we we give the good people in our stories we rarely go back and say let me tell you how messed up my family was so you won't note the Sinners or else you damage that genealogy the third thing that you would not include in a genealogy are women if you read the Old Testament you rarely find women in in a lineage or a genealogy and it was for a reason tradition if we go back to the head of a
Jewish household men would say a prayer and is still said in some places today but we can look back in history and and a Jewish man would start off his day with this prayer and he would say it in Hebrew not in English I'm going to share it with you in English and the prayer goes something like this thank you God so far that's a good prayer isn't it thank you God and then the head of that household would go on to say that I'm not a Gentile a woman or a slave it was a simple prayer that would be said often you would say it out loud for everyone to hear because all of those things a gentile which is a
non-jew a woman which is a gender camp on that one and a slave a person that's not free culturally in the context those would be subordinate second class it's not saying that they don't have a place in society but they weren't blessed being born a Jewish man that's free if you were blessed a Jewish man that's free you could pray that prayer every single day thank God I am not a gentile a woman or a slave now it's easy easy to to read things like this in history and say they were so barbaric
they were so absolutely awful but I want to remind you that we've all sinned and fall short of the glory of God that if we were to all examine every single one of our lives and the things that we do with our lives many of us have come to the wrong conclusions in our lives some of us it's the people we dated for some it was the career you chose for some it was some other dumb decision you did and we've got to be careful to point our fingure and say oh these people that that prayed prayers like this they were absolutely awful well they were just living out what they understood in their own Hearts but Matthew came to show us that Jesus changes things Jesus is not your typical
male Jesus is not your typical head of the household Jesus comes to show us what right living is about because if you go to the first book of the Bible Genesis and you go to the first chapter we see God's plan God made a perfect place with perfect people because he's a perfect God that's God's plan by Genesis chapter 3 those perfect people that were given a free will decided not to follow God's plan but they were tempted by the devil and they gave into it and from chapter 3 on we see sin a part of the story of mankind and the place in which we live live so the place is no longer perfect the people are no longer perfect but God is still perfect he always has been and he always
will be perfect now Matthew comes to show us in this genealogy of Jesus what kind of God we have in Jesus he is the Christ he is the son of David and the son of Abraham he is fully God and he is fully man he did what no other man has done before lived a perfect sinless life he came to demonstrate who God is now we step into this story by the time we get through Genesis chapter 1 and see that this is the beginnings the origins The Genesis of Jesus he he starts us with Abraham with this commitment that God made to Abraham out of you will come a great nation now lest you think that Abraham was perfect he was far from the Bible notes that he was counted as righteous because he believed God that's What Makes You righteous even today when
you believe in Jesus you're counted as righteous not because of the Good Deeds you've done certainly not because of the family you were born into Abraham was born into a pagan family he was counted as righteous because he took God at his word he obeyed God but Abraham was a man of many mistakes Abraham lied he deceived others Abraham took matters into his own hands even after God said here's what my plan is for you how many of us can relate to Abraham Abraham was a man that we could look at and say man his life was a mess yeah often times God brings about the greatest Miracle through that mess the story of how Abraham had his son Isaac is an absolutely incredible one
but it came out of a mess it came out of conflict between Abraham and his wife it came out of a whole life without having any children some of us suffer through most of our Lives Wonder wondering God what is your plan for for me but I want you to know it's never too late with God out of the mess comes the Messiah Abraham would go on to have a son named Isaac you would think that if your father is the father of Faith your family ought to be good but Isaac had his own dysfunctional family Isaac married a woman named Rebecca and they had twins Esau came first and then came Jacob and you'd think they'd have a great family but man this was one messed up family you see the dad Isaac he loved his son Esau because Esau loved to go
hunting he was more of a manly man that loved the outdoors so Isaac just had an affinity for Esau but Jacob he was more of a mama's boy if he lived today he would have a cooking show he would have his own blog I mean all kinds of people would be following he'd be an influencer that's who Jacob would be he'd be an influencer and everybody would want to have their the his brand on Instagram and so his mama just loved Jacob Rebecca loved Jacob Isaac loved Esau Esau came forth out of the womb so he's going to get the blessing from his father that's how it worked traditionally the first son would get the birthright they would be the ones named in that genealogy but one day Jacob fulfills his
name which means deceiver he duped his brother out of his Birthright he went first further than that he went into his dad and said hey Dad hey Dad it's me Esau I'm ready for my blessing dad was catching on to this he was going blind but he could kind of tell something's a little different about your voice son let me just feel your hairy arms so Jacob he duct taped some hair to his arms and he said dad just touched me touched me his dad touched him and said well you do feel a lot like Esau and he gave his Birthright right to Jacob that didn't solve Jacob's problems some of you think if I just got this it would solve my problem if I just got
married if I just had a kid if I just had enough money if I just moved to a new place if I just it would solve my problems but it didn't solve Jacob's problem he went on the run for fear of his life always looking back thinking that his brother Esau was going to kill him and all he could do was beg God for a blessing and he wrestled with God and don't you know that God doesn't give up on you even when you've made mistakes even when your life is a hot mess Jacob meets with God and God blesses him and gives him a new name called what Israel so here you have Jacob with a new identity named Israel and now he's listed in the geneology of Jesus now Jacob wouldn't go on to have one son he wouldn't go on to have two sons he would go on to have 12 sons I mean Jacob could easily be like a TLC special this was a
great big family his grandfather is Abraham everything just looks like this family should have it figured out right he's Jacob he wrestled with god he has a new name called Israel what could go wrong in this great big family oh just read the book of Genesis this family is a hot mess because Jacob didn't favor the firstborn he actually love this boy named Joseph he just he just gave so much to Joseph he gets the code of many colors and as a result his brothers were jealous and as a result of their jealousy they sold Joseph into slavery they come back and they deceive their dad they tell Jacob Jacob I mean Dad Dad your your son he's he's died he's no
longer with us Jacob MN as if Joseph is dead but he still got 11 other Sons now these 12 sons would go on in history to be known as The 12 Tribes of is Israel I'm talking a complete mess get known to be the 12 tribes of Israel now who would get the birthright from Jacob it would seem that it would be Joseph because it was his favorite it would seem that it would be the firstborn but instead we read here in the genealogy of Jesus it was Judah who was not the firstborn who was not the second born who was not even the Third born Judah was the fourth born now if you're not familiar with the Bible don't mistake Judah as being a good guy this guy is so messed up I still have a hard time liking
him can I tell you a little bit about Judah I'm going to tell about two people over here let me tell you about Judah Judah had had three boys to start off with he ended up having five boys but he had three boys to start off with the first one's name was ER e r ER I can imagine they were in the hospital what do we name ER okay ER all right let's put that on there now er er grew up and Judah got er a wife named Tamar now Tamar she seems like a good enough girl but ER was a wicked man and as a result the Lord allowed him to die so this wicked man ER dies so Judah goes to the next boy Onin and says onen you got to take Tamar to be your wife
because she's widowed now and so Onin ends up taking Tamar to be his wife that's the second born of Judah he's wicked as well and he dies now there's another boy his name is Sheila I know judah's not good at naming his boys but Sheila's too young to be a husband and Judah he's looking at the facts here wait a second every man that Tamar is married to ends up dying so he comes up with this great idea here's a deal Tamar uh you cannot marry Sheila until he's old enough to to to be married so you just go back to doing your thing I'll come find you when the time is right and then we'll make this right and you two could get together but he was just trying to dup her that's Judah time goes on and she catches on to this she's like listen my clock is ticking I'm not sure I can
even have kids anymore uh this isn't cool what judah's done to me so one day judah's on a business trip he's on a business trip to where where Tamar lives and she decides to deceive Judah and she dresses like a prostitute I don't know who came up with this good idea but she is like a prostitute well Judah just took the bait he has no clue it's Tamar and so he sleeps with with Tamar well when she asked for a payment because she pretended to be a prostitute he said actually I don't have any animals to give you at this time and she says that's okay just give me your staff give me your signant cord I'll hold on to these until you bring the payment well then he goes and sends a servant to go get those things and they can't find this prostitute well a few months go by and Tamar gets a little belly and word gets back to Judah and says do you know what happened to your daughter-in-law
she's pregnant well judah's all upset who's she pregnant with this is absolutely awful bring her out here let's all kill her everybody grabs the stone and they come out to kill Tamar and she says hold on hold on before you kill me would y'all like to know whose baby this is everybody leans in and judah's like yeah tell us whose baby this is she raises up the staff and the sign Accord and says whoever's this is that's whose baby this is Judah drops his Rock he looks at her and this is what the Bible says the Bible says Judah looked at her and says she's more righteous than I am when you understand your sin you start to see who you are
when you don't understand what kind of a wretched sinner you are everybody else is way worse of a sinner than you at least I'm not this if you compare me to this I'm not that bad that but when you see what kind of a wretch you are what kind of a mess you are and you realize the decisions that you've made you deserve to be that person that stone all of a sudden you say I'm not that righteous so now you've got Tamar who's pregnant but she's not pregnant with one child she's pregnant with two children this is a hot mess are y'all still tracking with me this is the beginning of the New Testament this is the beginning of God's word all we're at right now is Matthew
1:2 I want you to see that Matthew points us to the Messiah but out of the mess comes the Messiah so Tamar's pregnant but she's not pregnant with one she's pregnant with twins she ends up having two children she ends up having Perez and Zarah so now judah's got five boys but those those two names are so important in history we often know of Esau and Jacob but you should know about Perez and Zarah because the word Perez means to break through it means to breach I'm not staying here I'm coming through because this child came first this was the Breakthrough child but then you have Zarah whose name means this the
the the the uh the sun's coming up what do you call that I can only think of Sunrise thank you I can only think of sunset in my mind Zarah means the sunrise now this points us forward to who Jesus is as the Christ he is the Breakthrough he is the Rising Sun at the darkest moment in history God decided to break through and to show us that the story is not over he decides to show us that when it seems dark the sun is still coming now now let me just speak to this for a moment because if you've ever wondered who you are if you've ever heard that you were an accident by your parents like we didn't think you were we didn't know you were coming you were an accident or maybe you came from some messed up background maybe maybe you're
you were the product of a one night stand or maybe you were the product of some evil that happened or maybe your parents just didn't love you the way they were supposed to love you as perfect parents if you've ever wondered what God's plan is for you may I say we can learn from these first few scriptures if God allowed you to be born then he does not make mistakes someone else might call you an accident but God looks at the potential in you and says you just might end up in the genealogy of something great that God's going to do this was a messed up story yet God will take the mess of history and he's going to make a miracle come out of it and you've got to immerse yourself in this story to understand that there were still heartbeats that were racing there were still stum
stomachs that were sick there were still Minds that were staying up all night wondering how am I going to face tomorrow and in the midst of all those things God says I will tell you this you need to believe with all your heart that despair does not have the final word I am somehow going to make some good out of this despair is not going to be the final word of your story wherever you've been whatever family you were born into whatever kind of mistakes you've made that does not need to Define you when you surrender your life to the Lord I'll tell you sin may have wrecked God's plan but God had a plan through the Messiah Our Savior and he's still working out that plan so when we say There's Hope for everyone all we got to do is go read a little bit of the genealogy to say man if God can use someone like Abraham Isaac
Jacob Judah Tamar if God can use them then maybe my God can use me only when you allow God to change your identity where you're no longer defined by where you've been what you've done or what was done to you when God redefines your story that's where there's hope let's continue skip to verse five I want you to see verse five this is so significant we read about a man named salmon not to be mistaken with the fish there there's salmon the father of Boaz by Rahab and Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth I want to look at Boaz then I want to go back to Salmon Boaz if you don't know his story can read about it in the book called Ruth Boaz ends up being a kinsman redeemer I mean this is like a love story I'm pretty sure this movie would
be like rated R because Ruth comes from a foreign Land by the way she's a gentile a non-jew and she ends up in the Hebrew country she's widowed she has nothing to her name and she sees a boy named Boaz and Boaz is just a good guy I imagine him with a six-pack and a hairy chest I just imagine this guy he carried an open holster I he just he he open car everybody could look at Boaz just be like that's a manly man okay he also had a big mustache he had a big mustache Boaz was the kind of guy that everybody just looked up he rode a big old horse everywhere that he went H but Boaz he he he he would take Ruth under her Wing where did Boaz come from well Boaz
his dad was a man named Salomon most of us don't know who he is because we don't know that much about him but let's see who he was married to Salomon was married to who was that again Rahab traditionally you would not put someone like Rahab in a genealogy of Jesus just kind of erase her story in history she's woven throughout the New Testament scriptures it's like God has a message for us through Rahab Rahab lived in a city called Jericho she actually lived in the wall that surrounded Jericho and men would frequent the house of Rahab and when when men were going into that house nobody questioned it cuz they knew what Rahab did you know what I'm saying she had a red light above her door that was on business was open one
day some men go to her house but these men they're Hebrews they're Jewish men they're not here for business they came here to spy on Jericho now she helps these men out and when she helps them out she talks about their God we've heard about your God we know that anything's possible we know he come to take back his land and Rahab simply says listen I'm going to help you but could you help me could you save me could you save my family and when the Israelites marched around those walls and the walls came tumbling down God preserved Rahab and her family tradition tells us one of those spies guess what his name was salvan Little Love Story there that's not like a Hallmark love story that's like a HBO story
Rahab who's a gentile which means non-jewish marries this man who's Jewish ends up having a boy named Boaz Boaz ends up marrying a woman named Ruth they end up having a boy named OED are you still tracking with me OED ends up having a boy named Jesse Jesse that's one of our drummers Jesse a Jesse we could say let's see Jesse's great grandmother is Rahab wait is that his grandmother help me out with the genealogy is that his grandmother or great-grandmother great grandmother so Jesse's great-grandmother is Rahab his grandmother's Ruth because his dad is
OED we got this you're still tracking right just nudge your neighbor all right here we go track with me here so his great-grandmother's Rahab his grandmother is Ruth we don't know his mother's name just his dad's name is OED and then there's Jesse now Jesse I need you to track with me track with me track with me Jesse has eight boys God sends a prophet to Jesse's house knocks on the door and says Jesse one of your boys is going to be the next king of Israel which by the way is going to be the second king of Israel this is pretty important it's going to make history now Jesse says it's got to be my firstborn he's a big boy he's going to look like a king it's got to be him he comes out and God tells this prophet Samuel nope not the first not the second not the third not the fourth not the fifth not the sixth not the seventh and Jesse's like sorry I don't
know I think you got the wrong house prophet and the prophet says do you have any other boys he says yeah I got one but he's out in the field he smells funny he's a Shepherd I'm not sure he's the little one he I don't think he's the one he's the little one you ever felt like the runt of the litter you ever felt overlooked you ever felt like maybe you have some smelly job like why would God put you in this place maybe he's just getting ready to elevate you because David was the eighth son and he's chosen to be the next king now we could just pause right here David's known by the number 14 but but Matthew he he he writes the genealogy of Jesus starting with Abraham and he goes all the way through Joseph but he decides to go to Abraham to David and he stops right there that's the first 14 14 let me just say numbers in the Bible can
have significance not all of them you don't want to get crazy and just read so much into this that you're reading every single number that that's you want to allow the Holy Spirit to speak to you but numbers can have significance the number three is perfect Unity we have one God and three persons Perfection Unity father son Holy Spirit one Perfection but now we have a group of three 14s the number 14 represents Deliverance or salvation and now we see here we see how God would use people like Abraham how God would use people like Jacob how God would use people even like David to bring about deliverance and salvation there's an even more perfect deliverer a savior that's Jesus now lest we think that David had it all figured out he is described as a man after God's Own Heart but David made more mistakes than probably most of us
in this room let's just find out are there any adulter or murderers in here I see that hand I'm not going to point out who it was we aren't judging today because out of the mess comes the Messiah do you see how these scriptures can be powerful if God can use someone like David if God can use someone like Ruth if God if God can use someone like Rahab you see Rahab will forever be known in history as a harlot as a prostitute even in the book of Hebrews chap 11 which is known as the Hall of Faith these are are Heroes of Faith men and women of Faith Rahab makes it look at Hebrews 11:31 it says by faith everyone say by Faith by faith
Rahab now if your great grandmother or if you're if someone in your family makes it and it says by faith they made in that's great but look what it says by faith Rahab the prostitute she will forever be remembered as the prostitute she didn't die in Jericho because those in Jericho were disobedient to God but she had given a friendly welcome to the spies we all know what friendly welcome to the spies means her in Salomon end up hooking up now that word prostitute in the Greek if you just simply look the word prostitute in the Greek is porne it's where we get our English word porn today the actual word is a woman that sells herself for sex comes from the root pora which is a sexual perversion that when we go
outside of God's plan for sex and I want to speak to someone today that you've been defined by things you've done in your life things you've looked at people you've been with if God can use someone like Rahab he can use someone like you our we are not defined by our past we're not even defined by our present we're defined by that which we put our hope and 1 Peter 1:3 says blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ according to his great Mercy would you just say that with me great Mercy you might just need to think of it in your mind like a preacher great Mercy he's he saved us according to his great Mercy he has caused us to be born again to what a Living Hope through the resurrection of
Jesus Christ from the dead so if hope is the active conviction that despair does not have the final word we could say according to First Peter 1:3 hope has a name and is Jesus Christ hope do hope is not dead hope is alive I have a Living Hope and I call him Jesus I know that no matter what I've been through my God is greater I know that he can take my mistakes and he can do a miracle out of that I know that I'm not defined by the family I was born into I'm not defined by what was done to me I'm not defined by the places I've been I am defined by whom I put my faith in Jesus Christ that like the psalmist said in chapter 42 why are you cast down on my soul well we've got to learn to preach to ourselves hope in God I don't hope in my career I don't
hope in my relationships I don't hope in the the places I've been my hope is in Jesus Christ and when time seems silent when we're in a silent night God is just getting us ready for something greater do you remember the Book of Job if you if you read your Bible job is in the Old Testament some of you haven't read your Bible you haven't been in church in a while you might just think that's a job don't read that book wrong it's not a way to to get a job it's a way to understand that no matter where you've been God can do something greater because job loses his family he loses his finances he loses his health his own wife says why don't you curse God and die terrible advice from your wife but job would go on to say this
though he slay me I will hope in him my hope is not in the circumstances of my life that's where despair sets in when we say My Hope Is On My Health my hope is in my money my hope is in my family if you put your hope in the things of this world they will let you down but hope is the active conviction that no matter what happens in my life despair does not have the final word I hope in God Romans 1513 declares May the god of Hope would you say hope with me May the god of Hope we have a god of Hope may he fill you with all joy and peace in believing when you believe in this God of hope you get more than hope you get the extra benefit of joy you get God's perfect Shalom peace May that God of
hope when you believe in him so that the power of the holy spirit so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in what hope so we have here the formula what we ought to do with hope you believe in a god of hope hope starts to come out of you people see hope in you but what about the mess that you're in out of the mess comes the Messiah this is no time to wander from your faith this is a time to cling to Jesus Hebrews 10:23 says let us hold fast the confession of Our Hope without wavering for he who promised is faithful I have hope today hope is not just a Christmas theme that you see at Hobby Lobby hope is not a wishful thinking hope has a name and is Jesus
that when you call upon the name of Jesus he changes your life he changes your trajectory he changes your destiny he changes your identity he changes your family he changes everything that was done to you he turns it around and out of the messo comes the Messiah you get to Proclaim to the world it's not about me it's all about Jesus you cannot put your hope in the things of this world today I want to give you a great invitation the same invitation that Jesus gave to Matthew he said follow me today I don't know where you're at with Jesus but I want to give you that invitation to follow Jesus when you follow Jesus you've got to be bold you've got to be courageous you've got to be willing to surrender all simply to say my hope is in you that when you get downcast in your
soul you can preach back to yourself what what why are you downcast you have Jesus he's alive forever more he defeated death he defeated despair he defeated the devil so that you could call upon his name I want to ask you today there's two sets of people here one is you've never given your life to Jesus and I'm going to ask you will you choose to follow him from this day forward the second group of people is you have made that decision but you're backsliding you're not following the Lord you're not reading the scriptures you're not praying to this God of Hope in fact you're just living in your mess you're wallowing in it the Bible says it's like a dog that returns to his vomit you don't you don't like what you see but you keep coming back to it you
don't have to do that anymore you have a god of hope he's going to lift you out of that myy clay he's going to rescue you so whether you're backsliding or you need to follow Jesus for the first time would you just throw your hand in the air saying I just need Jesus I need Jesus from this day forward I need Jesus Jesus praise God so proud of you praise God anyone else just raise your hand nice and high this is to the Lord just eyes wide open this is between you and the Lord praise God from this day forward you say I'm need that hope every day every day it's hope hope hope it's all about hope that when you say Jesus it's a hopel name anyone else here today you say enough is enough I need hope I need Jesus praise God praise God all over all sorts of people you
know I don't know your story but God does and he says no matter what kind of mess you've been in I'm going to I'm going to bring a miracle out of that could we all pray together I'm just going to ask just stand to our feet just in a posture on the outside can we posture our body on the outside what we want in our hearts would you just have Open Hands would you receive from God what he wants to give you today Lord I come before for you and I ask in the promise of your word that you are able to do far more immeasurably more than I could even ask or think I ask that you would fill us with your hope that the hope would abound in us that we would be a people of Hope in this community that this city would be
flipped upside right that the world would know where hope is it's in you Jesus that in a dark world that's filled with war right now we ask in jesus' name for peace in a world right now that's trying to find pleasure in the wrong things we ask you Jesus for joy in a world where the devil is still accusing us of who we are I ask that you would make that right in Jesus name that our identity would be in you and you alone we break the lies of the enemy those strongholds those Generations curses we renounce them now in the name of Jesus we bind them and say Jesus you have your will and your way restore that which the devil has sought to devour bring back fourfold we ask for your
favor in jesus' name I pray Grace upon Grace for your church Jesus you love your bride and I just pray that we would be spotless and ready for your return in Jesus name amen and amen amen before we leave we're going to sing One Last Song and I want to invite the prayer team to come to the front of the platform right now and before you leave today if you need prayer if you need hope for anything would you come forward and ask for prayer maybe today you are one of those that raised your hand and said I'm not living the way I want to live would you just come forward and ask for prayer for someone here you you need a health miracle today our God is still the Healer I'm believing someone's going to leave here healed today but it's
going to require faith for you to come forward and ask for prayer maybe it's something going on in this season and you're not even looking forward to Christmas let's come forward and ask for prayer for anything so during this last song some of us are going to be singing the song some of us are going to be going to the one we're singing to asking for Hope and then at the end of this song Pastor David is going to dismiss us and give us some final instructions but I don't want you to miss the encounter and experience with God so Lord we thank you we bless you and now we're asking for miracles you're the god that can do more than just hope you're the god of abundance and so we ask now that you would hear our prayers in Jesus name amen amen
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Hope That Is Not Wishful Thinking
In his discussion of Romans 15:13, Pastor Keith locates hope in trust in God and the work of the Holy Spirit. He distinguishes this from wishful thinking or relying on favorable circumstances, and urges listeners to continue trusting God through uncertainty.
Romans 15:13
- How does Pastor Keith distinguish confidence in God from wishful thinking?
- How does Pastor Keith connect trust in God with hope, peace, and joy in his discussion of Romans 15:13?
- Pastor Keith describes biblical hope as something to cling to no matter what. What makes that different from hoping circumstances will simply improve?
Why This Genealogy Is Worth Slowing Down For
Matthew 1:1–17 is the day's main text, and Pastor Keith argues that the list of names is not filler to skip but a deliberate witness. This section considers why Scripture's hard or seemingly irrelevant passages are worth studying and what Matthew's choices reveal about God's purposes.
Matthew 1:1-17
- Which parts of Scripture do you tend to skip, and what might be lost when you do?
- Pastor Keith notes that Matthew starts with Abraham while Luke's genealogy differs. How does the claim that God has had a plan from the beginning encourage you?
- How does Pastor Keith explain the significance of connecting Jesus with David and Abraham?
What Traditional Genealogies Left Out
Pastor Keith describes how conventional ancient genealogies would omit ethnic outsiders, people with bad reputations, and women, and explains that Matthew did the opposite. This section examines the contrast between human status-seeking and the way Jesus, in the genealogy, reshapes what counts as belonging.
Matthew 1:1-17
- Why do we tend to curate our stories, the way Pastor Keith says genealogies were curated? What do we hope to gain?
- Pastor Keith says Matthew deliberately included Gentiles, sinners, and women in Jesus' line. What does that reveal about who belongs in God's plan?
- Pastor Keith warns against looking down on the past while ignoring our own failures. Where might you be tempted toward that kind of comparison?
Broken Families and God's Persistence
The middle of the message walks through Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Judah, and Tamar, describing deception, favoritism, running, and shame. The point is not to excuse the failures but to show that God's plan moved forward through them, giving hope to anyone with a messy background.
Matthew 1:1-17
- Which of the stories Pastor Keith retells (Abraham, Isaac and Esau, Jacob, Judah and Tamar) feels most relatable to your own family experience?
- When Judah was confronted, he acknowledged his own wrongdoing by contrast with Tamar. How has recognizing your own sin changed how you see others?
- Pastor Keith says identity is no longer defined by what you have done or what was done to you once God redefines your story. Do you find that easy or hard to believe for yourself?
Rahab, Ruth, and Hope for the Overlooked
The message traces the line from Rahab and Salmon to Boaz, Ruth, Obed, Jesse, and David, highlighting a prostitute and a foreign widow and then David, the eighth and overlooked son. Pastor Keith uses these accounts to argue that God chooses unlikely people, and that hope is ultimately a person, Jesus.
Matthew 1:1-17 · Hebrews 11:31 · 1 Peter 1:3
- Hebrews 11 remembers Rahab by faith even while still calling her the prostitute. How do grace and honesty about the past coexist?
- David was the overlooked eighth son out in the field. Where do you feel overlooked, and what does this account say to that?
- How does Pastor Keith connect hope with Jesus’ resurrection, rather than a desired change in circumstances?
Answers from this recording
Start a conversation.
What does Pastor Keith mean by "out of the mess comes the Messiah"?+
It is a line Pastor Keith borrows from a message by the late Dr. Terry O'Casey, and it summarizes the whole sermon. The point is that Jesus' ancestry in Matthew 1 is full of human failure—lying, favoritism, deception, scandal, family betrayal—yet God carried His plan through that mess rather than working around it. Pastor Keith applies this to listeners whose families are complicated or whose past is shameful: if God used Abraham, Jacob, Judah, Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, and David, then messy people today are not disqualified from God's work.
How did Matthew choose to write a genealogy differently from convention?+
According to the message, standard genealogies avoided ethnic outsiders, people with reputations for sin, and women, partly to project a respectable family line. In Matthew 1, Matthew includes all three. Pastor Keith points out that the genealogy names Tamar, Rahab, and Ruth, and he identifies Rahab and Ruth as Gentiles—including a woman whose trade shamed her—and includes Judah, whose own story is marked by deceit and scandal. For Pastor Keith, this is not sloppiness but a deliberate testimony that God's grace extends beyond respectable people.
Why is the story of Rahab so important to the sermon?+
Rahab was a prostitute living in Jericho's wall whom Scripture brought into the line of Jesus through her marriage to Salmon, as Matthew 1:5 records. The message highlights that even in Hebrews 11:31, the Hall of Faith, she is still identified by her former trade, yet she is honored for faith. Pastor Keith uses her story as a direct address to anyone marked by shame over sin: if God could use Rahab, he argues, God can use someone hearing the message, because identity is defined by what we put our hope in, not by our past.
How does the identification in Hebrews 11 sit with the sermon's claim that we are not defined by our past?
What role does the number fourteen play in the message?+
Pastor Keith repeats Matthew's summary that there were fourteen generations from Abraham to David, fourteen from David to the deportation, and fourteen from the deportation to Christ. He cautions against overreading numbers, then offers his interpretation: fourteen is associated with deliverance or salvation. Three sets of fourteen appear, which he connects to deliverance and salvation culminating in the perfect deliverer, Jesus, born at just the right time. He presents this as reflection on the genealogy rather than a fixed rule for interpreting every biblical number.
Pastor Keith connects the number fourteen with deliverance and salvation. How does that theme shape the way you read this genealogy?
