Sunday Morning Service 10:30AM-The Gifts of Christmas pt 4 - Restoration - Pastor Ryan Nichols

Good morning, church. Great to see all of you. My name is Grace. I'm a Davis, and so I'm here for Christmas break. I work over in Hawaii, and so it's a blessing to be here with you guys and be able to lead you in worship this morning. I just wanted to open up with a psalm. It's Psalm 100. Shout joyfully to the Lord, all the earth. Serve the Lord with gladness. Come before him

with joyful singing. Know that the Lord himself is God. It is he who has made us, and not we ourselves. We are his people and the sheep of his pasture. Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise. Give thanks to him. Bless his name, for the Lord is good. His loving kindness is everlasting, and his faithfulness to all generations. So God, we thank

you that we can come to you this morning, Lord, that we can worship you freely. God, without persecution, and Lord, that we get to choose to do that. Lord, we just humble ourselves before you this morning. May your spirit just fill this place, Lord, and fill each and every one of us as we come before you. In Jesus' name, amen. Would you all stand with me? I've been held of the goodness of

Jesus Christ, and bear my shame. The cross, as we sing about our Jesus, raising from the dead, then came the more. God, that we can trust him, and that he is faithful even when we are faithless. Amen. Pray to you, Lord. Can we fall to our knees? God, we thank you that we have the ability, Lord, freedom to choose you, God, because that's love. God, you wouldn't force it of us. Lord,

you give us a choice. So we thank you that we have the free gift, Lord, that you have offered us. Thank you that you are in us, God, that you are working day by day to renew us day by day. So God, as we go before this morning, Lord, with hearing from your word, God, I pray that you just fill Ryan afresh with your Holy Spirit, God, and fill each of us afresh, Lord, that we may, receive what you have for each and every one of us this morning. In Jesus' name,

amen. You can turn and greet those who are worshiping around you.

Good morning. If you could begin to locate a seat, grab a bulletin. We'll get ready to go over some announcements. Welcome to Calvary Chapel. I'm glad that you have joined us this morning. The biggest announcement that I need to make is that there's nothing else going on this week except for the candlelight service. So all other midweek services and studies are canceled this

week. So just to let you know, we're going to be doing a little bit of a little bit of a join us Tuesday evening at 6.30 p.m. for the Christmas Eve service. Also, if you are interested in, I think I sent this out last night too, if you're interested in Christmas caroling this afternoon, talk to Jana Lumbert after the service. Is Jana in here somewhere? There she is.

Because she is going to be leading a group to some places to do a little bit of Christmas caroling. So, also, so a few weeks ago, the crew from, Operation Christmas Child went down and worked in Texas. And we from this church were able to send 325 boxes, right? We're able to send 325 boxes. So that is pretty cool. And then they went down and helped pack those boxes into bigger boxes to send off overseas. And so we've got a little video

about their experience. So pretty cool what God's able to do when some people just do something really simple. God uses it in powerful ways. So, all right, for our responsive reading this morning, we are going to be in Luke 2, Luke chapter 2, looking at the new American standards so that we hopefully all sound the same. If you need a copy, it should be one in a row around you. And as you are turning to Luke 2,

if you are able, please stand in the honor of the reading of God's Word. We will be doing verses 1 through 20. I will read the odd verses if you will follow along with Pastor Allen and the even verses. Luke chapter 2. Now in those days, a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that a census be taken of all the inhabited earth. This was the first census taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria.

And everyone was on his way to register for the census, each to his own city. Joseph went up from Galilee, from the city of Nazareth to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he, he was of the house and family of David. In order to register along with Mary, who was engaged to him and was with child. While they were there, the days were completed for her to give birth.

She gave birth to her firstborn son and she wrapped him in cloths and laid him in a manger because there was no room for them in the inn. In the same region, there were some shepherds staying out in the fields and keeping watch over their flocks by night. And an angel of the Lord suddenly, stood before them and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terribly frightened. But the angel said to them, do not be afraid for behold, I bring you good news of great joy, which will be for all the people.

For today in the city of David, there has been born for you a savior who is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign for you. You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger. And suddenly there appeared with the angel a multitude of the, heavenly host praising God and saying, Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace among men with whom he is pleased.

When the angels had gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds began saying to one another, let us go straight to Bethlehem then and see this thing that happened, which the Lord has made known to us. So they came in a hurry and found their way to Mary and Joseph and the baby as he was laid in the manger. When they had seen this, they made known the statement, which had been told them about this. Child and all who heard it or wondered at the things that were told to them by the shepherds.

But Mary treasured all these things, pondering them in her heart. The shepherds went back, glorifying and praising God for all that they had heard and seen, just as it had been told to them. And Father, we thank you for the coming of Jesus Christ, Lord, that he came to be born as a baby to live among us so that he could be our savior. That's the Lord. Keep our hearts focused on you.

In this time of year, we pray in Jesus name. Amen. You may be seated. And if you would open up in your Bibles to the book of Matthew chapter one, Matthew chapter one. Today, we come to part four in our series, The Gifts of Christmas that we've been doing throughout the month of December. And I kind of changed directions throughout this week on this. I originally had intended to cover the word redemption.

But as I was going through this, I was like, I was doing some studying and kind of thinking, like I have been doing about kind of the opposite of things. I was, I was thinking, okay, so what's the opposite of redemption? And I thought about the word brokenness. And I thought, no, brokenness is the opposite of restoration. And I was like, restoration. Now that's what I want to talk about.

And so that's, I use the same passage of scripture. But restoration, I feel like, is what God laid on my heart. And so we'll do like we have been doing. We're going to talk about restoration and we're going to talk. We're going to talk about brokenness and then we're going to talk about Jesus. So as we think about restoration, I told the first service when we first moved back down

to Arc City as an adult about 15 years ago, I noticed something. Every guy in Arc City has two cars. One of them runs and one of them does not, right? The one that runs is the one that they drive. The one that does not, and every wife is looking at their husband, right? It's the most fascinating thing I've ever seen. And they have one that runs and that's the one they drive and they have one that doesn't

run and that's the car that they're restoring, right? Now I have a car that doesn't run in my driveway, but I'm not trying to restore it. I'm just too cheap to buy a battery for it. And so it just sits there. I've tried to jumpstart it a couple of times. I'm like, close enough, right? But it seems like restoring things is what people like to do in Arc City.

And it's kind of fascinating because my wife likes to watch the Devil's Channel, HGTV, and they're always restoring houses on there, right? Because we love the idea of bringing restoration to something that's broken. And so restoration. Restoration is defined as the act of returning something to its original state or former condition. The act of returning something to its original state or its former condition.

If you think about it, that's the gospel. That's the hope of the gospel, right? Is that we were in this original state of perfection. We were in this original state of fellowship with God. Sin broke that state and God restores that state to its original form or condition through the work of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And quite frankly, that's what the world is hoping for right now.

They're hoping for some form of restoration, some form of being brought back. The problem is most of the world goes about it in the wrong way. Most of the world is trying to find easy fixes for major problems, and they forget that at the heart of it all, there's really one issue that we all deal with, and that is brokenness. When I look at the world today, I think that that's a really good word to describe the world that we live in.

It's the world that we live in is very broken. It's very broken mainly because of sin. Now brokenness is described, is defined as this. It means fractured or damaged and no longer in working order. Fractured or damaged and no longer in working order. Of course, that brokenness is because of sin in the world. People's lives have been broken because of sin. And so as I thought about that definition, I thought about brokenness, I thought about

three areas where we really see that brokenness take place. First of all, brokenness. What I tend to see is that individuals are broken. People are broken because of sin. They've been damaged. They're no longer in the working order that they would like to be in because of the effect of sin in their lives. And quite frankly, the world is full of very broken people, which is why the world is full

of a great deal of brokenness. The second area where I see brokenness is I see that families are broken. Whether it be because of the sin of an individual or the sin of the collection of the family, they're very broken. And as we see this, there's, especially when we come to this time of year, when perhaps you get together with the parts of the family that you don't see very much, or maybe worse, you don't get together with parts of the family because of brokenness, because things have caused that to take place.

And we see that within families, there's a great deal of brokenness, and it's always because of sin. And then the last thing that I thought about is that some of us just have a broken story, right? Like, we feel like the story of our life is not the story of health. It's not the story of money. It's not the story of money. It's not the story of goodness. It's not the story of love.

It's just a story of brokenness. And sometimes when we look at our story, we think, can God ever bring anything good out of this? Can God ever restore this and do something beautiful with it? And all of this brokenness is what's plaguing our world right now. When both of my girls were kids, I think I lied to the first service on accident because I told them the wrong song.

When my girls were really little, they loved when I would sing songs to them at night. They don't anymore. They actually ask me not to. But they would really like when I would sing songs to them at night, and they each had their favorite song. Violet's favorite song was As the Deer Pants Before the Water. I said it was He Has Shown Thee, Oh Man, which is a song that my dad wrote.

They both love that song equally. But the one that was specific to Violet was As the Deer Pants Before the Water. But Nora always loved this song called I Will Serve You, only she called it Broken People. Let me read the lyrics to you. It says, I will serve you because I love you. You have given life to me. Heartaches, broken people, ruined lives are why you died on Calvary.

She loved that song. She wanted me to sing it to her over and over again, only she always called it Broken People. I always found that to be kind of fascinating, that that was how she termed that song because I thought that's exactly what that song is about. It's about broken people and the way that the gospel of Jesus Christ heals them. As we think about our desire for restoration, our need for restoration.

We are reminded of the brokenness of the world, but in the midst of all of it, remember there's Jesus. And so what I'd like to do is I'd like to read to you out of the book of Matthew chapter one, the first 16 verses. So follow along if you will. It says this, the record of the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham. Abraham was the father of Isaac, Isaac the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Judah

and his brothers. Judah was the father of Perez and Zerah. By taking the father of Jacob and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers. Beshen, by taking altars of Judah, and taking the father of Zerah and Jacob his brothers, Perez was the father of Azariah, and their brothers. Hapost, was the father of Esau, who was the father of Esau. Jericho, the father of Gath, who was the father of Plautus, the father of Zerah.

Ahab, was the father of Ezra and σε and thab which was the father of apologies and Hezron. Gerud was the father of전� orbits, his father. Ameredam was Raman's father. Amene littor was Amene этот. transformation was created by Jesus Christ. In 2 Thessalonica, the whole rankings. Solomon was the father of Rehoboam. Rehoboam was the father of Abijah, and Abijah the father of Asa.

Asa was the father of Jehoshaphat, which is a fantastic name, by the way. Jehoshaphat was the father of Joram. Joram, the father of Uzziah. Uzziah was the father of Jotham. Jotham, the father of Ahaz. And Ahaz, the father of Hezekiah. Hezekiah was the father of Manasseh. And Manasseh, the father of Ammon. And Ammon, the father of Josiah. Josiah became the father of Jeconiah

and his brothers at the time of the deportation to Babylon. After the deportation to Babylon, Jeconiah became the father of Sheltiel. Sheltiel, the father of Zerubbabel, also an amazing name. Zerubbabel, the father of Abihu, Abihu, the father of Eliakim. Eliakim, the father of Azor. Azor, the father of Zadok. Zadok, the father of Akeem. Akeem, the father of Eliud.

Eliud, the father of Eleazar, the father of Matan. And Matan, the father of Jacob. Jacob was the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, by whom Jesus was born, who is called the Messiah. Now, I bet you're thinking to yourself, why do I care about that entire list of names that you kind of struggled to read, except those two really, really fun names, right? Because that story of the genealogy of Jesus Christ

is one of the greatest stories of restoration in all of the Bible. And what I would like to do is I would like to go through this genealogy and tell you all of the stories of broken people who found their restoration in Jesus Christ. The first name that I would like to give to you is actually not in the genealogy. It's actually at the top of the page, and that name is Matthew.

Because Matthew is the one who will write the very first gospel account. The first gospel account that we have in here is written by this guy who, before he came to know Jesus Christ, was a tax collector. Now, that doesn't mean very much to you and me that perhaps he worked for the IRS, but it meant everything to the people. To the people living in that time.

Because the tax collectors that worked for the Romans were considered traitors to their people. They were usually liars. They were usually thieves. They were usually untrustworthy. Think Enron on steroids. That's what the tax collectors were at the time of Jesus. And when Jesus walked by Matthew's tax collecting booth, he looked at Matthew, who, as far as the world was concerned,

was very wealthy, but as far as God was concerned, was about as bankrupt as possible. And he looked at Matthew, and he said, I want you to follow me. And so Matthew left his tax collecting booth. He left behind a life of wealth, but he also left behind a life of sin so that he could follow Jesus with all of his heart. A man who was probably hated by all of his countrymen,

and maybe even hated by a lot of the guys that followed Jesus, found that the only place of restoration he had in his life was in the one who had called him by name to follow him, Jesus Christ. The second set of names that I want to point out to you are the very first three that are listed in verse two. It says, Abraham was the father of Isaac. Isaac was the father of Jacob.

Now, those three names were some of the most important names for the nation of Israel. Those were, if you will, the patriarchs. Those were the three that everybody in the nation of Israel looked at and said, those guys started the nation. They are men of faith. And they were men of faith, at least as far as I know. As far as we read in the New Testament. But if you read in the Old Testament,

you find that these were three of the most flawed individuals possible. They all three struggled mainly with one main sin. They were all three liars. Abraham, when God called him to go to the promised land, was married to, apparently, the hottest woman known to man at that particular point in time. Because everywhere that Abraham went, he looked at his wife and he said,

could you do me a solid and lie and tell everybody I'm your brother? That's the best thing that you could do for me. Now, fellas, I just want you to know, the last thing you should ever put on a Valentine's Day card is, I love you, don't tell anyone you're my wife, right? Like, that's just, it's not winning friends or influencing people. And so, so that's what she did.

And we read of two instances of it in Genesis. But there's an interesting verse in Genesis that says that it was Abraham's practice that everywhere he went, that's what Sarah did for him. Indicating that it was not just two times that this took place, it was probably a lot of times that this took place. And yet, Abraham was a man of faith. Because eventually, he left behind,

that feeling that he had to lie to protect his wife and ultimately became the man of faith who trusted God in the most difficult of circumstances. And he became the father of Isaac, who was a child of promise. And Isaac was the promised son, the one everyone was looking forward to. And then one day, apparently, Isaac was married to the second hottest woman known to man because Isaac looks at his wife and says, hey, by the way, could you tell people that you're my sister and not my wife?

That's gonna really be good for me and it's really gonna help me out a lot because otherwise, people are gonna wanna steal you and then they're gonna wanna kill me. And so he has the exact same problem. You wonder where he got that from, right? Might've picked that up from dad. And so he's in the exact same place and Isaac played favorites. Isaac had a tendency to play some favorites with his sons.

His favorite was his son Esau. His wife's favorite was his son Jacob. And because of that, there were great issues in their family, but do you know at the end of the day, Isaac was fully surrendered to God and Isaac became a man of faith. Jacob was a man of faith. And so he was a man of faith. And so he was a man of faith. And so he was a man of faith. And so he was a man of faith.

And so he was a man of faith. And so he was a man of faith. And so he was a man of faith. And then comes Jacob. Jacob, his name means supplanter. Now, we don't know what that means. You look at somebody and say, his name meant supplanter. And they're like, what does that mean? Well, Gail Irwin in his commentary has something really interesting to say. He says, his name means dirty, rotten, sneaky thief.

So that tells you a little bit about what the character of Jacob was like because that's exactly who he was. He was a swindler, a conniver. He did everything he could until one day in his life, one day in his life, he was running for his life, and he had an instance where he ran into Jesus. We're told that he wrestled with God all night long, and when he wouldn't give up, God did the one thing that would cause him to give up, and he reached, and he touched his hip, and he put his hip out of socket, and he said, will you please bless me? And he said, what's your name? He said, my name's Jacob,

dirty, rotten, sneaky thief. And he said, your name's not Jacob anymore. Your name's going to be Israel, governed by God, because that's the restoration that God brings into our lives. And so these three men, known for being liars, but also used powerfully by God to be in the line of the Messiah. So Abraham begot Isaac. Isaac begot Jacob. Jacob, one of his sons, was a guy by the name of Judah, and that's the next guy that we want to

talk about, Judah and Tamar. Now, I'm going to reference some scriptures. I don't want you to turn there, but you might write it in the margin of your Bible so you can look it up later. So Judah and Tamar, that story is told in Genesis 38. Genesis 38. Judah was one of the 12 sons of Jacob, and Judah had married a woman and had three sons. The older two were named Onan and

Ur, and he took a wife for the oldest son, whose name was Tamar. Now, Onan was an evil man. Literally, that's what the Bible says. He was an evil man, and so God killed him. God literally just took him out. We are not given any indication of what he did to be that evil, but for God just to stuff you out like that, it must have been pretty bad, right? So he completely wipes out Onan. Well,

then Ur comes along, and the custom at that point in time is if a woman is not able to provide kids for the oldest son, she's going to be the oldest son. So he's going to be the oldest son, and he's then the next youngest son will marry her so that he can continue on the line, and so that she can be taken care of, because that was the culture at the time. So the next youngest son, Ur, comes along, and he marries Tamar, only he doesn't care about propagating the line. He just cares about having fun, and I'm just going to leave it at that, and you can read Genesis 38 and read the details. But he just cares about having fun, and so God says, you only care about one thing. I'm

going to wipe you out, too. And so now Judah's going, my oldest two sons have just bought me and both been killed, and he's got one more son, and he says, I don't know if I want her to marry him. This feels like a poison ivy sort of a situation. I'm just going to wait. Hey, wait till my son's old enough, and then you can marry him. Well, the oldest son became of age to be

married, and Tamar still wasn't married, and that meant everything to a woman at that point in time. No one was there to take care of her, and so in the course of time, Judah's wife passes away, and it's the time of the year when the harvest is coming in, and so they go up to the threshing floor because they're going to have a big celebration, and as Judah is on his way, someone tells Tamar, hey, listen, your father-in-law is on his way up to the threshing floor, and so she takes off her widow's garments, and she puts on the garments of a prostitute, and she stands by the road, and Judah looks at her and says, how much? And she tells him how much, and he says, I don't have those things with me. What should I give you in pledge? And she says,

give me your signet ring and your staff, which were very specific to individuals, only one person would own that particular thing. Well, he goes on, and the course of time comes, he sends someone to pay her what he said he would pay her, and she wasn't at the same corner, and so he said, forget it, it's my signet ring and staff, I'll just get something new, don't worry about it, we're going to embarrass ourselves. Well, Tamar had gotten pregnant because of that instance, and it came to light that Tamar was pregnant, so somebody came to Judah and said, hey, your daughter-in-law's pregnant, do you know that? And Judah's going, finally, I can be rid of that. And Tamar's like, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know,

Tamar, bring her out and I'll burn her to death. And it's like, what the heck, dude, what are you doing? And so she comes out and basically stands trial, and she says, the father of this baby owns this signet ring and this staff. And Judah goes, oh. Well, the babies, because she ends up having twins that she has, are named Perez and Zerah. And so here, in the line of Jesus, you have someone who is a Gentile, separated from the promises of God,

but also did so in the means of prostitution. In other words, an immoral means, and yet God is going to use that to do something beautiful to bring about the Messiah. So Judah and Tamar have a son, and his name is Perez. It says, and Perez goes on and has a son named Hezron, and Hezron has a son named Ram, and Ram has a son named Amenadab, and Amenadab has a son named Nashon, and Nashon has a son named Salmon, and Salmon marries a woman named Rahab.

And they have a son named Boaz. Rahab is the one that I want to talk to you about next. So Joshua chapter two is what tells the story of Rahab. You don't have to turn there necessarily, but that's what tells the story. When Jacob and his sons were living in Israel, there was a major famine that hit the land. So they went down to Egypt to be preserved from the famine. And over

the course of time, after Jacob died, a Pharaoh rose up, saw that the nation of Israel was growing really big, and he was concerned about what that would mean for the nation of Israel. And he said, so he enslaved the nation of Israel. And as he enslaved the nation of Israel and put them to forced labor, they cried out to God for help. And God sent them a deliverer named Moses. And Moses

brought them out of the land of Egypt, brought them across the wilderness, and brought them to the edge of the promised land. At the edge of the promised land, Joshua took over, and Joshua sent a couple of spies to spy out the very first city that they were going to take over. And that first city was Jericho. And so as the two spies go into the city to spy out Jericho, they're going to be found out. And so they go someplace to hide. And they find a woman's house named Rahab to hide at.

And we're given one little commentary on Rahab. She was a prostitute. And so as Rahab houses these two spies, she says, I know that your God is the one true God. I know that your God is going to take over this land and that he's given you guys victory. How can I be saved? And they said, well, we'll work out a deal with you. You protect us, we'll protect you.

You be in this house. Hang this scarlet cord off of the window. And everybody that's in this house is going to be saved. And that's exactly what takes place. Well, as Rahab's family is saved, it becomes a part of the nation of Israel. That's when Salmon goes and marries this Gentile prostitute. Now, these are important things. Because once again, we have another Gentile who has a very shady background,

a very shady past, a broken past, if you will. And she's going to be in the line of Jesus. Well, Boaz, or excuse me, Salmon and Rahab have a son named Boaz. And Boaz has a son, or, and Boaz has a son named Obed by a woman named Ruth. And that brings us to our next story, Boaz and Ruth. Now, I didn't just write Ruth twice up there. I just wrote the book of Ruth because that's, it's named after her. And so

there's four chapters in it. It didn't make sense. But then the other one is Deuteronomy 23.3, and I'll get to that in just a minute. Now, Ruth was a Moabitess. In other words, she was a descendant of a guy named Moab. Now, I am going to tell you the story of Moab. So it's a little bit of a sordid story because I think it adds to what we're doing here because of her broken past.

So if we go all the way back into the book of Genesis, back to the time of Jacob, Jacob had a nephew. His name was Lot. And Lot was living in a city called Sodom and Gomorrah. And because of the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah, God had to judge Sodom and Gomorrah. And so Lot and his family were the only two daughters. And they go up into the mountains, and his two daughters think to

themselves, there's no men left. There's no way we're going to be able to continue on the line. What are we going to do? I know. Let's get dad drunk, and we will sleep with him and see if we can propagate the line. I'm telling you, kids, the Bible is a little scandalous sometimes, right? Sorry for those of you that are in here under the age of 13. I should have put a warning on it.

So that's exactly what happens. And through that incestuous relationship, there is a baby born that they named Moab. And he becomes the father of the Moabites, who Ruth is a member of. You talk about somebody that had a twisted family history, right? That's about as twisted as it gets. Well, Ruth is a part of this family. And there's one other problem that Ruth has. In Deuteronomy chapter 23, verse 3, because of the way that the Moabites had

treated the children of Israel when they were going across the wilderness, God told Moses, he said, the Moabites are cursed and can never enter the sanctuary of God. So not only does she have a twisted family history, but she also, because of the law, is separated from the nation of Israel. She can't be a part of it. And yet through a series of events, she finds herself the love attraction of this guy named Boaz. And Boaz does everything he can to win her heart.

He even goes so far as to buy all of her family's land in order to be the kinsman, redeemer, so that he can marry her because of his great love for her. And now this woman, who comes from a twisted family past and is separated because of the law, is now made a part of the family of God through Boaz. Isn't that beautiful? Well, Boaz and Ruth have a son named Obed. Obed has a son named Jesse. And Jesse was the father.

Obed is the son of David, the king. Ah, King David. And we all love stories about David, right? Like David who killed Goliath. David who God preserved the wilderness when he was running from Saul. David who wrote all of the Psalms. David who was a man after God's own heart. Well, David had become king. And as David became king, he became the most successful king of Israel.

He was kicking rear end and taking names and taking over new lands and making the nation wealthy and strong and powerful. David, who wanted to build a temple for God, was given a promise that one of his descendants would always sit on the throne. But David had one problem. David struggled with lust. And one day, towards the end of his reign, there was a day when the kings went out for war. But David stayed home.

He stayed in Jerusalem. And from his rooftop in Jerusalem, he could see this woman named Bathsheba bathing. And he said, she's pretty cute. Go find her for me. He saw her. He took her. He slept with her. And she got pregnant. Only there was one major problem. Bathsheba was married. And she wasn't just married to anybody. She was married to this guy named Uriah. Now, Uriah was one of David's

mighty men. In other words, one of David's trusted warriors. So David had to do something because he knew that if everybody found out that Bathsheba was going to be a king, he was going to be a king. And when Bathsheba was pregnant, it was all going to fall back on him. So when he couldn't get Uriah to sleep with his wife, he had to have Uriah put to death. And that's exactly what he did.

And so David and Bathsheba committed a great sin, which I pin wholeheartedly on David, not Bathsheba. Committed a great sin. And that first child that they had died because of the judgment of God. But they went on and they had another son. And that son's name, was Solomon. And Solomon would be the one who would build the temple. And Solomon would be the one through whom the line would come. Have you noticed that we've had four women mentioned so

far? And they've all been Gentiles because she was a Gentile as well. And they've all either been prostitutes or committed sexual immorality. And they're all in the line of Jesus. Isn't it beautiful how God takes broken people and he does beautiful things with them? Well, as we've been talking about this, we've been talking about this for a long time. And I'm

going to follow the line down. There's a line of kings that comes after Solomon. After Solomon comes Rehoboam. And after Rehoboam comes Abijah. After Abijah comes Asa. After Asa comes Jehoshaphat. After Jehoshaphat comes Joram. And then Uzziah. And then Jotham. And then Ahaz. And then Hezekiah. By the way, Hezekiah was a fantastic king. Some of these were good. Most were bad.

But after Hezekiah is the next name that I want to talk about. His name was Manasseh. His story is told to us in a couple of different places in 2 Kings chapter 21 and 2 Chronicles chapter 33. Now the fascinating thing about Manasseh is this. His dad was truly one of the greatest kings Israel had ever had. He brought spiritual reforms to Israel unlike any other king

had up to that point in time. He was truly a king who followed God wholeheartedly. That's the commentary that we're given about Hezekiah. And yet Hezekiah had one problem. He had a son who was rebellious. And that son's name was Manasseh. Because as great as Hezekiah was, Manasseh was that much worse. As a matter of fact, in 2 Kings 21-11, we're given this commentary about Manasseh.

We're told that he committed abominations like all of the nations around him. He built altars for foreign gods. He caused his son to pass through the fire. In other words, his son was a human sacrifice. And in the place where God had said, I'm going to kill you, I'm going to kill you, I'm going to kill you, he said he would establish his name in Jerusalem in the temple. He set up altars to

foreign gods. And then we're given the rest of the little statement. He did more to offend God than all of the Ammonites whom God had driven out of the land. In other words, the people that God drove out so that the nation of Israel could live there, Manasseh was worse. It was so bad that even when the nation repented, God said, I still have to judge your nation because of the abominations

that were committed. And when you hear that, you're just like, that is the saddest thing in the world. How can that much brokenness be in the line of Jesus? Well, I want to show you one mildly happy ending here. Hold your finger here and go to 2 Chronicles chapter 33. 2 Chronicles chapter 33. I'll give you a minute to get there. And I want you to look at verse 10. 2 Chronicles 33.10 says this,

And the Lord spoke to Manasseh and his people, but they paid no attention. Therefore the Lord brought the commanders of the army of the king of Assyria against them. And they captured Manasseh with hooks, bound him with bronze chains, and took him to Babylon. And when he was in distress, he entreated the Lord his God. And he humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers.

And when he prayed to him, he was moved by his entreaty. And he heard his supplication, and he brought him again to Jerusalem, to his kingdom. And then Manasseh knew that the Lord was God. Now after this, he built the outer wall of the city of David on the west of Gihon in the valley, even to the entrance of the fish gate. And he encircled the Ophel with it. It made it very

high. Then he put army commanders in all the fortified cities of Judah. He also removed the foreign gods and the idol from the house of the Lord, as well as all the altars which he had built on the mountain of the house of the Lord. And in Jerusalem, he built the fortified cities of Judah. And he threw them outside the city. And he set up the pillar of the Lord and sacrificed peace

offerings and thank offerings on it. And he ordered Judah to serve the Lord God of Israel. I'm so happy for that commentary. I'm so happy that we are given 2 Chronicles chapter 33. Because for as great as Manasseh's sin was, nothing gives you more hope. Nothing gives you more peace. Nothing gives you more joy than to see that God is with you. God will restore someone as broken as Manasseh. Someone as flawed as Manasseh. Because that's

exactly what God did. He cried out to the Lord. He humbled himself before the Lord. And God forgave him. And God restored him. Isn't that the most beautiful story you've ever heard? And so, back to Matthew chapter 1. Now, I'm going to tell you one really happy story here. Because Manasseh, verse 10, is the father of Ammon. And Ammon, is the father of Josiah. Oh, man. Okay, the one bright spot. I got to tell you the one bright

spot in here, okay? Because Josiah is the bright spot in all of the genealogy. Josiah was eight years old when he became king. And at eight years old, he was preserved, if you will, by the priest and taught the truth by the priest. Well, when he was old enough, I can't remember if he was 18 or 26. I always get that confused. When he was old enough, he started reforms in the temple. And

they started remodeling, rebuilding, restoring. And he was the father of Ammon. And he was the first whirlwind creator. He was replaced by the寂しい king. John 3, verse 17. John 3, verse 17. John 3, verse 17. candle lit, kind of unrolls the scroll and starts reading. And the longer he read, the more the tension gripped him on the inside because he realized something. The nation of Israel had

fallen so far from the things of God that he was not sure if there was any way back. And it broke him so much that he literally wept before the Lord and tore his coat, tore his clothes to show just how broken he was over what the nation of Israel, over what his people had been doing with the law of God. And so he goes to God and he says, what are we going to do? And God says, because of your broken heart over your sin, because you were willing to see the truth and repent from it, I will not punish the people while you are king. Judgment has to come because the nation has gone

too far, but I will withhold it as long as you are king. So judgment has to come because the nation has gone too far, but I will withhold it as long as you are king. So judgment has to come because the nation has gone too far, but I will withhold it as long as you are king. Josiah holds almost like a little mini revival. He calls the nation together, at least the elders of the nation together,

and he stands in front of them, and he just reads the law to them. And everybody just weeps because they know what they've done. They know how broken they are. And for a time, for a short time, there was revival in the kingdom. It was short-lived, but it was revival nonetheless. And Josiah brought that about in the kingdom. Now, after Josiah, Josiah became the father of Jeconiah

and his brothers at the time of the deportation of Babylon. And I don't know any nice way to say this. Jeconiah was an idiot. He was just a moron. That's just all that there was to it. Basically, the Bible says the same thing. I may have editorialized just a little bit there. But Jeconiah's the next guy I want to talk about. And if you want to write a little,

a little reference down, you might write Jeremiah chapter 22, verse 30. Because in Jeremiah chapter 22, verse 30, it says that Jeconiah will be cursed and all of his descendants, which means none of the descendants of Jeconiah could ever sit on the throne again. I don't know if you've thought about this. That creates a problem. God had made a promise to David.

He said, one of your descendants, you will always be on the throne. And yet Jeconiah is now cursed. None of your descendants, who's in the line of David, are ever going to sit on the throne. If anybody's story was broken beyond repair, it was because of Jeconiah and it was the story of redemption. It was the story of the genealogy. So how is God going to restore a story

that on the outside seems so broken? What's he going to do? Well, if we were to go all the way back to David, we would find that David has another son. And that son's name is Nathan. Nathan was named after the prophet Nathan who confronted David with his sin. And if you were to follow Nathan's line, which is not given to us in Matthew, but is given to us in the book of Luke,

you will find that if you follow Nathan's line on down, you come all the way down to a young lady by the name of Mary. Now, why is that important? In Isaiah chapter nine, it says, unto us a child is born and unto us a son is given. Those are two very different Hebrew words. The word born speaks of natural birth. The word given speaks of adoption. Jesus was naturally born of the line of David

through Mary because of Nathan, but he was in the kingly line through Joseph by adoption because he was born of the son of David. He was born to Mary and adopted by Joseph. Is that not the most beautiful thing you've ever heard? That God restored a story so broken and brought about so much grace, even though from all outward looks, everything was destroyed.

Well, you keep following it down. And it says, and Josiah became the father of Jeconiah and his brothers at the time of the deportation to Babylon. After the deportation, Jeconiah became the father of Sheltiel. And Sheltiel, the father of Zerubbabel. And again, parents, just think about that. Zerubbabel, I don't know what I would do if one of you actually named your kid.

That'd be the most amazing thing. It'd be the greatest dedication ever. Zerubbabel was the father of Abihu. Abihu, the father of Eliakim. And Eliakim, the father of Azor. Azor, the father of Zadok. Zadok, the father of Akeem. Akeem, the father of Eliud. Eliud, the father of Eleazar. The father of Matan. Matan, the father of Jacob. And Jacob, the father of Jacob.

And Jacob was the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, by whom Jesus was born, who was called the Messiah. It's so fascinating because if you just know the history, if that's all you know about those people, that's the most broken story you've heard in your entire life. When you follow that, there is no soap opera that has anything on the genealogy of Jesus. I mean, right?

They are primed to be on Jerry Springer. And yet, there was one thing that brought restoration to their entire story. And it's that very last verse that we read. Jesus. What brought something beautiful out of all of those stories? Jesus. And he brought restoration to all of those things. You know what's kind of fascinating? All of those people that I just told you

very twisted histories about, do you know we don't read about any of their sins in the New Testament? Why? Jesus. As a matter of fact, some of these guys, they're even listed in the hall of faith where they are not remembered for their sin, but they're remembered of their faith. Why? Because of Jesus. Because that's what Jesus does. And that brings me to the very end

of how we kind of wrap this thing up. Let's wrap this thing up with three little points, put a nice bow on it, and give it to you for Christmas. Number one, God restores broken people like Matthew and Manasseh. God restores broken people like Matthew and Manasseh. I don't know where anybody sits in here this morning as far as what you've done in your life, what you feel like you're guilty of in your life,

how you feel broken in your life, but there's nothing that you've done that's beyond the forgiveness of Jesus Christ. Matthew tells us that, right? Matthew declares to us that you can be the most evil of human beings and you can still be called and used by God because of the grace of God and that brokenness can be healed. And if you don't believe Matthew's story, then you ought to believe Manasseh's story.

Because Manasseh's story is so bad that it said that he was worse than any other person, worse than the people that God had driven out of the land so that Israel could live there. And yet when he cried out to God, God forgave him because God restores broken people. And that's who we are. Apart from the grace of Jesus Christ, we are the most broken of people.

And then Jesus steps in and he takes something that's broken and he turns it into something beautiful. He takes something that's destroyed and he makes it something brand new. I'm not a big car show guy, but every now and then when I see those cars cruising down Main Street and they've got that beautiful paint finish and they actually run, I'm always just like, it's amazing. I love seeing the before and after pictures of those things.

It's amazing to see when somebody takes something so broken and they make it something so beautiful. And that's what Jesus can do with you because Jesus restores broken people. Number two, Jesus restores broken families like the family of Tamar or the family of Ruth or the family of Rahab or the family of Bathsheba. Whether it's because you have been hurt by a bad person, a man, ladies, I know that there's some of you in here that you've been hurt.

You've been hurt by men in your life and they've done terrible things to you. Whether you've been abused, whether you have a broken family because of addiction, whether you have a broken family because of you name the sin, God is in the business of restoring broken families. God's in the business of doing that sort of thing. And he wants to take your broken family and he wants to get rid of everything that's ugly and he wants to make something beautiful out of it because that's what Jesus does.

Jesus is in the business of doing. Jesus took Ruth, someone who had one of the worst family histories ever and was completely separated from God because of the law and he made her not only a part of the family of God but he made her a part of the lineage of the Savior because he restores broken families. Tamar, can you imagine the family trauma that she could have unloaded on a counselor? How'd your kids come about?

I slept with my father-in-law. Tell me more, right? I mean, and he restored that and he made something beautiful out of it. Because God restores broken families and you may be sitting here right now going, you don't know what my family's like. Well, I may know a little bit more than you think.

But if you think your family's beyond restoring, look at these people. Look at what they went through. Look at what they did to each other. And God still restored it. You know why? Because of Jesus. It just takes that one thing to restore something so broken and make it something so beautiful. Number three, God restores broken stories. God restores broken stories.

Kind of like the genealogy of Jesus Christ. He restores those broken stories. What's your story here this morning? Maybe your story started off so good and you were like, man, everything's going great. And now everything fell apart. Your marriage fell apart. Your job fell apart. Your life fell apart. You don't know what's going on. You don't know what's going on.

You don't know what's going on. You don't know if God could ever use you ever again. You don't know if you're ever gonna be back in that place of fellowship that you were in ever again. And you're going, I think I've finally done it. I have broken the story and God can't make anything beautiful out of this. Just remember the genealogy of Jesus Christ. Because he takes broken stories

and he turns them into stories of redemption. He takes broken people and he turns them into people of restoration. He takes broken people and he takes broken families and he turns them into families that honor him because they become restored through the gospel of Jesus Christ. Amen? Let's all stand.

The worship team's gonna come up and share one last song with us. But I want to just pray for us this morning. I know it's Christmas. It's supposed to be a happy time. But man, I also know when we come to the end of the year, when we come to Christmas, man, all the reflection starts. And sometimes holidays aren't as happy as they should be, right? So I want to pray for us this morning.

So let's all bow our heads. Father, we come to you now and I just want to thank you for who you are. I thank you that you are that God who restores, the God of restoration.

Before I continue on with that prayer, I just want to ask a question. Keep your heads bowed, your eyes closed. I do this sometimes. I just want to be able to pray for the broken people in here this morning. Whether it's because of your own sin, whether it's because of your family, whether it's because you feel like your story is over. If that's you this morning,

I just want you to put your hand up because I want to pray for you and I want to pray for God's healing in your life. I want to pray for God's restoration for you. And this is nothing magical about putting your hand up. It just tells God, it's me, Lord, and I need you. Praise God. It's going up all over the place. Lord, I know you're there. I know you're there.

I know you're there. I know you're there. I know you're there. I know, I know there's some hurt right now. Lord, I know that there's some broken people and they really need to be restored by you. And so, Lord, for every hand that's up, every hand that's raised, and Lord, for the hands of those that are just, they're too weary to even put their hand up right now.

Lord, I just want to pray for your restoration in their lives. Father, I want to lift up the people that are broken because of their own sin, mistakes they've made, things they've done. And they just need to move past. They need to move on. They need to let go and know that they're restored in you. Lord, may they truly know the forgiveness and the grace of Jesus Christ.

Father, I want to lift up the families that have been broken by sin. Lord, I especially want to lift up the young ladies that have been hurt by men.

And they need to know the healing touch of a Savior. Lord, work in their hearts and their lives.

Lord, may we know that our stories aren't done. But Lord, this is just another picture of your grace flowing in our hearts and lives. And so, Father, be with us as we go out from here. And Lord, this Christmas, may we not just be people that attend a party or attend a family meal, Lord, but may we be conduits of your grace as you restore our lives. May we bring that restoration to others.

Father, we just pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Be blessed.

Yes, God, we just thank you so much, Lord, that you are in control. Lord, that you are in the details. God, that you restore. That you are faithful, that you are loving, that you are good. Even when we can't see it, Lord, you are working. And you're working it all for your glory and for our good. God, so we thank you. We love you. We ask that as you go before us this week, Lord,

in this crazy holiday time, Lord, that we can not take it for granted, Lord, but take advantage of the time with our families, with our friends, with those that mean the most to us, Lord, and to share your love, Lord, nothing of us but all of you. God, we thank you. We love you. In Jesus' name. Amen. God bless. Have a great week.