A prostitute. A hero. An adulterer. A man. A woman. A murderer. A liar. A faithful servant. These are the types of people that are in Jesus' family tree. How does your family tree look? Do you have murderers, adulterers, prostitutes, liars or heroes? The great thing about this genealogy, is that it is made up of people. Of course, you say! By that, I mean ordinary men and women. People who had a hard time trusting God, people who chose to walk in sin, people who didn't believe in God. Yet God used them all to bring forth Jesus. If Jesus came from messy people, it has to be said that He cares for the messy people. Throughout the Bible, Jesus astonishes people because He chose to love the unlovely, serve when He should have been served, forgive when He should hate.
God does everything for, and with a purpose. He didn't randomly pick people that would be a part of Jesus' family tree. He chose them. He called people to Himself, He asked people to trust Him, He even used people that turned from Him. It was part of God's plan. Why? Well I believe it teaches us one thing. Jesus is the Savior of all. He didn't come to save the self-righteous. He didn't come to just save the smart, or the rich, or the successful. He came to save the prostitutes, the heroes, the adulterers, the men, the women, the murderers, the liars and the faithful. In Genesis 3, God curses the serpent, Eve and Adam. In His speech to the serpent, He said, "I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and your shall bruise his heel." This reference to "her offspring" and "he shall bruise your heel" is a foretelling of Jesus. God also made a promise to Abraham, back in Genesis 12. He promised Abraham, "I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you and to those that dishonor you, I will curse, and in your all the families of the earth shall be blessed." In 2 Samuel 7, God made a covenant with David saying, "When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever." In order to keep His promise to Abraham, fulfill his covenant with David and accomplish what He said to the serpent, Jesus needed to come through Abraham's family line. If you read through the Old Testament, you will see how God has His hand in building the family genealogy right from the start.
God still does everything for and with a purpose. He didn't randomly create you- you were put on earth for a purpose. He doesn't randomly pick who He draws to Himself- He carefully chooses them. A testimony is the name for the story we have of how God chose us. It often explains the time of conversion where we passed from death to life and also includes things that God is doing currently in our lives. A testimony often briefly describes our old creation: the prostitute, the adulterer, the murderer, the liar and then goes into detail of how God took our sin and used it for His glory: the hero, the faithful servant. We all have a story. If Jesus, in His perfection came from a line of imperfect people, it's safe to say that He loves imperfect people. The church is full of imperfect people- and the ones that think they are perfect, are the most imperfect ones. Romans 3:10 says, "None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one." But I have good news! In verse 22-25 says, "(There is) righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith." FOR ALL HAVE SINNED- even the "heroes" in the Bible have a past. David, "a man after God's own heart" slept with another man's wife! Then because she got pregnant, tried to make it look like it was her husbands by asking him to come home from the army for a bit, thinking that he would have sex with his wife while home. In honor to his soldiers, he didn't- since they were without their wives. David was in a bit of a predicament then, wasn't he? Instead of confessing his sin before men, and dealing with the consequences, he sent Uriah- Bathsheba's husband- to the front lines of the battle field, expecting him to die, which he did. Even after all this, God used David to do great things. If God saved and used people like David, regardless of his mess and sin, God can save you and use you regardless of your mess and sin. Jesus doesn't ask that we try to clean up our mess before we surrender to Him. We won't do a good job of cleaning it up. Jesus wants us to come to Him with our messes, so He can clean it up. Jesus wants to use your for His purposes. He wants to take you and make you a new creation. He wants you to be apart of His family.
Got a mess? Let Jesus clean you up. Got a past? Let Jesus be your future.
~Leanne~
God does everything for, and with a purpose. He didn't randomly pick people that would be a part of Jesus' family tree. He chose them. He called people to Himself, He asked people to trust Him, He even used people that turned from Him. It was part of God's plan. Why? Well I believe it teaches us one thing. Jesus is the Savior of all. He didn't come to save the self-righteous. He didn't come to just save the smart, or the rich, or the successful. He came to save the prostitutes, the heroes, the adulterers, the men, the women, the murderers, the liars and the faithful. In Genesis 3, God curses the serpent, Eve and Adam. In His speech to the serpent, He said, "I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and your shall bruise his heel." This reference to "her offspring" and "he shall bruise your heel" is a foretelling of Jesus. God also made a promise to Abraham, back in Genesis 12. He promised Abraham, "I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you and to those that dishonor you, I will curse, and in your all the families of the earth shall be blessed." In 2 Samuel 7, God made a covenant with David saying, "When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever." In order to keep His promise to Abraham, fulfill his covenant with David and accomplish what He said to the serpent, Jesus needed to come through Abraham's family line. If you read through the Old Testament, you will see how God has His hand in building the family genealogy right from the start.
God still does everything for and with a purpose. He didn't randomly create you- you were put on earth for a purpose. He doesn't randomly pick who He draws to Himself- He carefully chooses them. A testimony is the name for the story we have of how God chose us. It often explains the time of conversion where we passed from death to life and also includes things that God is doing currently in our lives. A testimony often briefly describes our old creation: the prostitute, the adulterer, the murderer, the liar and then goes into detail of how God took our sin and used it for His glory: the hero, the faithful servant. We all have a story. If Jesus, in His perfection came from a line of imperfect people, it's safe to say that He loves imperfect people. The church is full of imperfect people- and the ones that think they are perfect, are the most imperfect ones. Romans 3:10 says, "None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one." But I have good news! In verse 22-25 says, "(There is) righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith." FOR ALL HAVE SINNED- even the "heroes" in the Bible have a past. David, "a man after God's own heart" slept with another man's wife! Then because she got pregnant, tried to make it look like it was her husbands by asking him to come home from the army for a bit, thinking that he would have sex with his wife while home. In honor to his soldiers, he didn't- since they were without their wives. David was in a bit of a predicament then, wasn't he? Instead of confessing his sin before men, and dealing with the consequences, he sent Uriah- Bathsheba's husband- to the front lines of the battle field, expecting him to die, which he did. Even after all this, God used David to do great things. If God saved and used people like David, regardless of his mess and sin, God can save you and use you regardless of your mess and sin. Jesus doesn't ask that we try to clean up our mess before we surrender to Him. We won't do a good job of cleaning it up. Jesus wants us to come to Him with our messes, so He can clean it up. Jesus wants to use your for His purposes. He wants to take you and make you a new creation. He wants you to be apart of His family.
Got a mess? Let Jesus clean you up. Got a past? Let Jesus be your future.
~Leanne~
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