Genesis 38, and then look up at me.
When you have it, look up at me,
so then I'll know I can begin, so
then I'll know that you all have it.
If you can't find Genesis, I don't know
what to tell you.
I really don't.
But it's the first book in the Bible,
for those of you who might be new
to the scriptures.
Now, when God chose out a people to
bless the world, and when he chose out
a people through whom the Messiah would come,
he started with one man who he promised,
even though he was old and his wife
was old and barren, that he would be
the father of a great host of people
and even nations, and that man's name was
Abraham.
Abraham started a seed, a promised line, a
line of people through whom the Messiah would
come.
No one knew when, they were waiting, but
it was gonna be through Abraham.
But not through every one of Abraham's children,
through a select line of people.
For example, Abraham had Isaac, but he also
had another son by a slave woman.
What was the name of that other son?
Anyone know?
Ishmael.
Was it gonna be through Ishmael?
No, it was gonna be through Isaac.
Okay?
Isaac had Esau and Jacob, among other children,
and who was the seed gonna come through?
Jacob.
Abraham, Isaac, and?
Now, Jacob had 12 children.
Those 12 children basically became the 12 tribes
of Israel so that when the land, when
God sent them back into the land after
they went into slavery in Egypt and after
Moses led them out and Joshua took them
into the land, they divided the land into
12 states or territories and each territory was
named after one of the sons of Abraham.
Now, two sons dropped out and were not
mentioned.
It was Joseph.
He didn't have a territory.
There's no tribe of Joseph territory.
And who else?
Remember who, what was the priestly tribe?
The Levites, Levi.
They didn't have any land because their portion
was the Lord and they were cared for
by Israel as a whole.
So that's 12 take away two is what?
10.
So how do we get back to 12?
Joseph had two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim, and
those two sons joined together even though they
were grandsons, they joined together with the 10
and that's how you get the 12 tribes.
Now, out of those 12 sons that I
mentioned, which son would the line come through
that would bring the Messiah?
Judah.
No, that can't be right.
Jesus would come from the tribe of not
Simeon, not Naphtali, not Asher, not Benjamin, like
Saul, King Saul.
No, he would come from Judah.
And with that thought, the name of this
message is a bad family tree.
Have you ever looked up what some of
your ancestors did and wish you hadn't looked
it up?
I had a friend who knew for sure
that one of his ancestors who fought was
at the Alamo when everyone perished there in
the war with Mexico.
So he said he was so proud.
My great, great, great, great, great, great fought
at the Alamo.
So he went back and researched it only
to find out that his great, great, great,
great, whatever panicked and tried to run away
and got shot in the back by one
of his own men for leaving his post.
That's the last time he looked in his
family tree.
He said, I don't wanna know anything more.
And we probably all have, how many have
a relative that you in the natural wish
you didn't have?
Or how many, come on, don't lie.
Come on, how many have somebody that you're
just like, wow, wow, what's this about?
Well, let's read about Jesus', according to Joseph,
through Joseph.
We know Jesus was born of a virgin
birth through Mary, but his supposed father who
was identified with was Joseph.
And Joseph came through the line of Abraham,
Isaac, Jacob, Judah.
38, verse one, at that time, Judah left
his brothers, the other ones I just told
you about, and went down to stay with
a man of Adullam named Hira.
There, Judah met the daughter of a Canaanite
man named Shua.
You know, he shouldn't even been messing with
Canaanite women.
They never tell the name of the woman
he married.
It's just the daughter of Shua.
He married her and lay with her.
She became pregnant and gave birth to a
son who was named Ur.
How'd you like to have that name?
Every time somebody stutters and goes Ur, and
then you can say, here I am, what
do you need me for?
Ur, no, here I am again, stop calling
me.
Had some odd names back then.
She conceived again and gave birth to a
son and named him Onan.
Now, Judah has two sons by this unnamed
woman, Canaanite woman.
She gave birth to still another son and
named him Shelah.
It was at Kezib that she gave birth
to him.
Now, Judah got a wife for Ur, his
firstborn.
And her name was Tamar.
So Tamar was the daughter-in-law who
married Ur.
But Ur, Judah's firstborn, was wicked in the
Lord's sight, so the Lord put him to
death.
Then Judah said to Onan, that's the next
oldest brother, lie with your brother's wife and
fulfill your duty to her as a brother
-in-law to produce offspring for your brother.
Look up here.
The tradition back then was that if a
widow was left with no children, that the
family would then, the next oldest would have
relations with her so that she could have
a seed and have a family and not
be left desolate.
Verse nine, but Onan knew that the offspring
would not be his.
See, he knew that it wouldn't be counted
as his son.
So whenever he lay with his brother's wife,
he spilled his semen on the ground to
keep from producing offspring for his brother.
What he did was wicked in the Lord's
sight, so he put him to death also.
Judah then said to his daughter-in-law
Tamar, live as a widow in your father's
house until my son, the third one, Shelah,
grows up.
He's too young.
For he thought he may die too just
like his brothers.
So Tamar went to live in her father's
house.
After a long time, the other son has
grown up, but Judah's made no move to
get him hooked up with Tamar.
After a long time, Judah's wife, the daughter
of Shua, died.
So now he's a widower.
When Judah had recovered from his grief, he
went up to Timnah, to the men who
were shearing his sheep, and his friend, Hira
the Adelamite, went with him.
This is usually like a carnival type of
thing.
They celebrate it during the sheep shearing time.
When Tamar, the daughter-in-law, was told,
your father-in-law is on his way
to Timnah to shear his sheep, she took
off her widow's clothes.
Wow, she's still mourning.
Covered herself with a veil to disguise herself,
and then sat down at the entrance to
Enayim, which is on the road to Timnah.
For she saw that though Shelah had now
grown up, she had not been given to
him as his wife.
When Judah saw her, he thought she was
a prostitute, because of the way she was
dressed with the veil, for she had covered
her face.
Not realizing that she was his daughter-in
-law, he went over to her by the
roadside and said, come now, let me sleep
with you.
And what will you give me to sleep
with you?
She asked.
I'll send you a young goat from my
flock, he said.
Will you give me something as a pledge
until you send it?
She asked.
He said, what pledge should I give?
In other words, what's the guarantee?
Your seal and its cord and the staff
in your hand, she answered.
So he gave them to her.
The seal, the cord and the staff.
And he slept with her.
Uh-oh.
And she became pregnant by him.
After she left, she took off her veil
and put on her widow's clothes again.
Meanwhile, Judah sent the young goat by his
friend, the Adolamite, in order to get his
pledge back from the woman, but he did
not find her.
He sent the young goat to get the
pledge back, but nobody could find the lady.
He asked the men who lived there, where
is the shrine prostitute who was beside the
road at NAM?
There hasn't been any shrine prostitute here, they
said.
So he went back to Judah and said,
I didn't find her beside.
The men who lived there said there hasn't
been any shrine prostitute here.
Then Judah said, ah, let her keep what
she has or we will become a laughing
stock.
After all, I did send her this young
goat, but you didn't find her.
In other words, I did my best.
About three months later, Judah was told, your
daughter-in-law Tamar is guilty of prostitution.
And as a result, she is now pregnant.
Judah said, bring her out and have her
burned to death.
What kind of people are in my family?
As she was being brought out, she sent
a message to her father-in-law.
I am pregnant by the man who owns
these, she said.
And she added, see if you recognize whose
seal and cord and staff these are.
Hello.
Judah recognized them and said, she's more righteous
than I, since I wouldn't give her to
my son, Shelah.
And he did not sleep with her again.
When the time came for her to give
birth, there were twin boys in her womb.
And as she was giving birth, one of
them put out his hand.
So the midwife took a scarlet thread and
tied it on his wrist and said, this
one came out first.
But when he drew back his hand, his
brother came out.
And she said, so this is how you've
broken out.
And he was named Perez, which means breaking
out.
Then his brother, who had the scarlet thread
on his wrist, came out and he was
given the name Zerah.
My, my, my.
What in the world is that doing in
the Bible?
I thought this was the good book.
That's a bad story in the good book.
Now, we see one of the sons now
of Jacob, Judah, not only being unwise, not
only being duped by his daughter-in-law,
we see him morally weak.
We see him not only fail spiritually and
morally, we see him as a hypocrite.
We see him basically as a disaster.
I wanna talk about what Judah means beside
the meaning of his name, what the meaning
of his name from this story tells us.
And why in the world does Hebrew 7
.14 say this?
When talking about the priesthood of Jesus, what
was the priestly tribe again?
Levi, right?
But when the writer to Hebrew says that
Jesus is the great high priest, but he's
of a different kind than the priesthood of
Aaron, because Aaron came out of Levi, right?
He says in Hebrew 7.14, for it
is clear that our Lord descended from Judah.
From Judah?
Why mention it?
Why take our precious Lord Jesus Christ and
put him within any proximity of the name
Judah?
The guy who slept with a hooker who
turned out to be his daughter-in-law.
In other words, if you have somebody like
that in your family tree, why not just
not talk about it?
Why would the writer to Hebrew say, but
everyone knows that our Lord came from Judah.
In other words, Judah, according to the genealogy
of Jesus on the human side, Judah was
his great, great, great, great, great, great, and
so on and so forth.
And then on top of that, if you
do have a Judah in your background, why
not hide it?
Why not say, and we all know that
Jesus came out of Abraham?
Because Abraham, he made his mistakes, but I
mean, Judah?
And what does Jesus have anything to do
with Judah?
Why even talk about them in the same
breath?
In fact, why tell this story?
If you're gonna mention that Jesus came from
Judah, why not leave out this story?
I mean, not everything in the life of
everybody in the Bible is recorded in the
Bible.
John tells us that if everything Jesus did
were ever put down, what does it say?
That the world couldn't contain all the books
that were exaggerating, saying all the things that
he did.
We don't know everything Jesus did.
We don't know every day of Abraham's life.
We don't know what Joseph did every day
of his life.
We don't know all the mistakes David made.
We just know a few.
So if you're gonna mention Judah, why not
just take chapter Genesis 38 out of the
Bible and just say, and Judah was a
fine old guy who had some problems, but
don't we all?
Why tell in such gory detail such a
nasty story?
What's the point?
You've reached the end of side one.
Please turn the tape over and rewind to
the beginning of side two.
It's because the reason that Jesus came was
because of people like Judah.
Aren't you happy that Jesus didn't come for
good folk because where would you and I
be?
Jesus is called the Lion of the...
In heaven, they mention his name, Revelation 5
.5. No one's worthy to open up the
book that was closed, the scroll, but one
is worthy who is called the Lion of
the tribe of...
I would have, if I were up there
in heaven and saying, you're gonna make an
announcement like that, I would say, the Lion
of the tribe of...
Yeah, he comes from somewhere there, yeah.
No, what Judah stands for, which is what
we stand for, is why Jesus came.
And this is a great weapon against the
devil when he comes to accuse and attack
us.
Because we read, first of all, that Judah
stands for a colossal moral failure.
I don't expect a lot of amens from
this part of the message, but you listen
to me anyway.
I'm not interested in amens.
I wanna preach the word of God to
you.
Judah, in this story, stands for a very
ugly sin.
What in the world was he doing going
over to this hooker, this prostitute, and saying,
how much do you want to sleep with
me?
This is an ancestor of Jesus?
Not only is he being duped, what's he
just doing it for?
Did he learn anything from the heritage of
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob?
So, the Bible tells us that Judah here
stands for a colossal moral failure.
This is not a little lie that he
told under pressure.
This was something that he thought about, he
went over, he had a bargain with her.
And the truth of the matter is, is
that Jesus came for people just like Judah,
just like you and me, who have flopped
and made mistakes.
I don't wanna go into detail about your
life or anybody's life up on this platform
about some dark days in your life when
you messed up royally, when you did something
or said something or was involved in something
that you wouldn't want anyone to know about
or maybe some people already know about it.
And sometimes at night, when you think back
over your life, you just regret so much
that you did such and such a thing.
Jesus understands all about that, that's why he
comes from the tribe of Judah, that's why
he came.
Jesus came to show mercy to people who
have messed up, hallelujah, oh hallelujah.
Jesus didn't come to judge people, he came
to save people.
Jesus came to show mercy on people who
wanna take a gun to their head and
say, why even go on?
Jesus came to take up the side of
people, the plight of people who can't even
look in the mirror because they don't like
what they see.
I remember a woman here in the church
who has served so faithfully here now, when
I first met her years ago, she had
five children, basically from five different men.
That was the kind of life that she
lived.
And you would say, I mean, this is
a loser of a woman, she's uneducated, she
just was used and misused.
Jesus came just for her.
And don't you look down on her because
you're in the same boat, Jesus came just
for you.
There but for the grace of God goes
you.
How many are happy he's full of mercy?
Ephesians 2 verse 4 says, but God who
is rich in what?
Mercy.
You know, people make a big thing about
the clouds.
I have to admit, sometimes I'm up in
the airplane, I look out and I see
the clouds and you see the sun and
you wanna sing How Great Thou Art and
you see us, you know, the nature, but
nature never has touched me.
Yeah, God is rich in power and God
is rich in beauty, but the thing that
melts me is he's rich in mercy.
He can take people who have messed up
so bad and turn them around and show
mercy.
In fact, God delights in showing mercy.
He's rich in mercy, he's full of mercy.
The Bible says so much about that and
in Titus 3.5 it says, he saved
us not because of righteous things we have
done, but because of his mercy.
Brothers and sisters, the only reason if you're
a Christian here, how many are Christians and
love the Lord today?
You've put your faith in Christ.
The only reason you're sitting here in this
building is because he's rich in mercy.
He has saved you not because you've lived
a good life, for all have sinned and
fallen short of the glory of God.
You might compare yourself with another person and
look good, but on judgment day, people are
gonna be compared with God and compared to
God's glory and God's holiness, we're all a
mess, but he has saved us because of
his great mercy.
God loves to show mercy and that's why
we're here today.
In fact, James tells us mercy triumphs over
judgment.
People say, do you know what that guy
deserves?
And God is looking, how can I get
him back?
How can I show mercy?
How can I get him to ask for
forgiveness?
Because mercy triumphs over judgment.
If all of us here in this room
would have been judged for some of the
mistakes we made, how many know the population
would be very scarce this morning?
How many are happy that mercy triumphs over
judgment, that God said, no, I won't judge
Carlo Bogstad, I'll show mercy on Carlo Bogstad.
I won't judge Ralph Bird, I'll show mercy
on Ralph Bird.
Oh, no, I know what they've done.
No, I know what he did.
I know what that guy did, but that's
okay.
I delight in showing mercy.
No wonder God is not ashamed to say
that Jesus came from the tribe of, but
there's more.
He slept with her, the Bible says, and
she became pregnant by him.
Now, you know what Judah also means?
A horrible, tangled mess.
Now, it could have been that God oversaw
the thing and he just slept with her,
and it wasn't at that time of the
month when she could have conceived.
Think of all the few days of the
month that a woman could conceive.
No, it happened right at that time, and
guess what?
Now, God could, he has control over all
those things.
No, God says, Jacob, son Judah, impregnated her
and she became pregnant.
Now, that's a mess.
He doesn't know it yet, but now you
have a mess.
You have a father-in-law who has
impregnated his daughter-in-law, and isn't that
just lovely?
Who he thought was a hooker.
Now, can you even conceive of a bigger
disaster?
You wanna talk about a mess?
You're here today and saying, Pastor Cimbala, my
mistakes have gotten me into a mess.
You wanna talk about a mess?
That's a mess.
What's gonna happen to the baby?
Should we just toss it out?
Should we forget about it?
Because it's born out of a mess.
This is an unholy thing.
Whatever this child is gonna be, or children,
turns out it's twins.
Whatever's gonna happen to these twins or these
children, it's not gonna be good because how
can something good happen out of a man
hitting on a prostitute who happens to be
his daughter-in-law and she gets pregnant?
Could anything good come out of that?
Oh yeah, because you know why Jesus came?
To take the biggest messes in your life
and my life and touch them with his
power and his grace and his mercy.
And out of a mess, he can make
something beautiful.
Come on, let's put our hands together and
thank God.
Out of a mess, he can make something
beautiful.
Out of a mess, out of a mess.
Pastor Cimbala, I'm in a mess.
Did you know that Jesus is a master
at cleaning up messes?
Oh, how many of you have had some
messes in your own life already that Jesus
fixed up and oh, it's like that song
I heard in Oklahoma years ago, a little
southern gospel tune using words I had never
really related to the Lord quite like that,
but they were singing in this church, let
Jesus fix it for you.
He knows just what to do.
Whenever you pray, let's let him have his
way and Jesus will fix it for you.
But fix it means something's broken.
Jesus loves to take broken situations like you're
facing today, if you'll trust him, and turn
it around where sin abounds, hallelujah.
Grace, what, even more abounds.
When you're in a mess, he can get
you out.
I tell people sometimes when I'm counseling, I
don't care, all right, you told me everything.
Now, this mess is gonna turn around somehow
for good.
If we just turn to the Lord, the
Lord has a way out of every mess.
You might not see it, but the Lord
has a way out of a mess.
You know, one day she's gonna give a
testament.
Let me just say this and then I'll
move on and close.
But Pastor Johnson and I know about this
case the best.
Brother, of all the messes we've seen, is
that one of the top five messes in
the whole world?
We got a girl in the choir, she's
from Guyana.
She was living out there, just a nut,
just living very loose, Hindu family.
And she has a boyfriend and she's sleeping
with him and she's carrying on with him.
She doesn't know the Lord.
And then she doesn't see him for a
few months, right?
And he has a record already with the
police.
He's getting in a lot of trouble.
But she doesn't see him for three months.
So now she comes back to see him
at the end of the summer and he's
been arrested for murder.
Three guys were hanging out in the street
corner.
Somebody drove by, said something.
And her boyfriend, so she's all confused.
She doesn't know the Lord.
She doesn't have the first thing about life
and what God wants her to do.
She's just out there.
So he's being sentenced, what, 12, 14 years.
I think he pled down to murder second
degree.
Pastor Johnson helped me on this and his
background as a detective with the police department
really helped because we wanted to find out
what's going on here.
So you know what she did?
She did the most logical thing in the
world.
She married him.
That's right.
She married him.
Someone going away for 14 years, she married
him.
Then he got in more trouble before he
got up to his final prison.
So they tacked on more years.
She's 22 and then she, now is that
a mess?
Is that a mess?
That's your basic mess.
And then she found the Lord and she
got saved and joined this church.
And she came after me one Tuesday night
and said, could I talk to you?
I said, I've got to tell you this
story.
She told me this story.
I started to weep because this girl has
really met God.
The hand of the Lord is on this
girl.
Very advanced spiritually for how long she knows
the Lord.
So what should I do?
You know, there's conjugal visits.
I'm not sure if he's been true to
me.
There was some female guard, there's this and
that.
And I don't know, and what's my future?
And am I, you know, but I want
to do, Pastor Simba, right?
I want to do what the Lord wants
me to do.
I will do whatever the Lord wants me
to do.
And she says, you know, I did witness
to him.
I said, you did?
She said, yeah, I think he's writing me
and he's telling me now that he loves
the Lord, but I'm not sure if he's
just conning me.
So I got a letter from him, but
I wasn't sure.
And he's saying, you know, my wife doesn't
believe in me.
So I said, Pastor Johnson, go up there.
And Pastor Johnson had already met with her
and said, look, I looked at this guy's
jacket.
This guy's police record, he has a heavy
jacket.
This guy's been in more trouble, am I
right?
He's been in trouble out of prison, in
prison.
This guy is just trouble.
So he went up to see him two
weeks ago.
He just was going to go in there
and tell him, stop conning this girl and
just, you know, you did the crime, do
the time.
Guess what?
The guy is full of God.
Listen, listen, wait, wait, wait.
The guy is, is he a born again
Christian?
Pastor Johnson said that when he came into
the meeting area, it was like a shaft
of light came into a dark place.
It's like God's presence is resting on him,
just full of the word of God.
Listen, full of the word of God, full
of Jesus, praising the Lord.
Pastor Johnson was gonna come in there and
read the riot act and he just put
up his hands and said, thank you, Jesus,
thank you, Jesus.
Come on, let's put our hands together.
God can take a mess, turn it around.
Oh, praise the Lord.
God can clean up a mess.
And now other things are developing and this
is not justifying his crime, but now he's
found the Lord.
God used his connection to this girl, their
marriage connection, their marriage, to bring him the
gospel.
And who knows who he's gonna win to
the Lord in that prison through a situation
that you would have said, just blow this
thing up, there's no way.
Oh, God is an awesome God.
Do I get a witness here?
God is awesome.
And listen, for those of you that think
that there's a mess that God can't turn
around, how about this one?
In Matthew 1, 3, when it gives the
genealogy that Jesus came through.
God, listen to me as I close here.
This is something that you gotta listen to
and remember.
In the genealogy of Jesus, it comes Abraham,
Isaac, Jacob, then Judah.
Now Judah had many sons.
What do you think the son is that
Jesus came through?
Out of all the sons God could have
said, that's who I want as an ancestor
of my savior, of the savior I'm gonna
send in the world, my son, Jesus.
Guess what son of Judah is mentioned next
in the genealogy of our Lord Jesus Christ?
Perez.
God takes the son born out of a
mess.
Oh, hallelujah, let's just lift our hands and
thank God.
Don't clap, let's just lift our hands up.
You're not ashamed to do that, are you?
Come on, let's thank him for his mercy.
We thank you for your mercy and your
grace, Lord.
There is no God like you, so full
of mercy, Lord, who takes things we're ashamed
of and works them out for good.
What the devil meant for evil, God, you
can turn around and make good.
Oh, Lord, take the messes that are in
this room right now, in this building, in
this auditorium.
Make these messes into something good for your
glory, Lord.
With sons and daughters and marriages that are
straining right now, Lord.
Oh, we praise you, Lord.
Isn't God awesome?
And look how he identifies to encourage us.
Judah's the biggest mess on two feet.
And God says, no, it'll be Judah and
then Perez.
That's what Jesus came for, to take our
messes.
And we're just musicians playing.
And then the Bible tells us, oh, this
is another part of what God wants to
do in us.
Why Jesus came about three months later, Judah
was told, your daughter-in-law, Tamar, is
guilty of prostitution.
And as a result, she's now pregnant.
They must've gone to him and said, excuse
me, Tamar, your stomach, are you eating a
lot?
Or what is that little bulge there?
And she said, no, I'm pregnant.
And they said, well, how'd you get pregnant?
This had to happen because how else could
they have told this to Jacob, to Judah?
And she said, I turned a trick.
Because they said she's guilty of prostitution.
She didn't say it was some guy I
met some night at the...
No, she said, I turned a trick.
And they brought this to Jacob and said,
Judah, and say, Judah, did you know that
Tamar, your daughter-in-law, the widow of
your first son-er, did you know that
she's pregnant?
And she's pregnant because she was, played the
role of a prostitute.
And Jacob says, what, what kind of girl
is this?
Don't people have morals?
Burn her.
Isn't that just like you and me?
We're so quick to judge other people for
stuff we've done ourselves.
Oh, isn't that so?
This is why this is in the Bible.
We're so good at saying, what's the world
coming to?
Yeah, look in the mirror.
That's what the world is coming to.
Yeah, the best of us here it's true
for.
If the truth were known about all of
us, if we dropped the screen now and
put up all of your lives on the
screen, every secret moment, how many know how
we would exit out of this building, right?
And break the world's record for exiting a
building.
And yet, God has shown us so much
mercy.
And we're so quick to condemn other people.
Do I get a witness?
Oh, we're, as I said a few weeks
ago, that's why I get very uneasy when
I hear people talk kind of like a
redneck theology.
You know, people should get what they deserve.
Praise God.
Excuse me.
Did you get what you deserve?
How many didn't get what you deserve, but
God gave you mercy?
Come on, wave your hand at me if
God didn't give you what you deserve.
Oh, hallelujah.
Am I right, men?
Am I right?
That's why Jesus said, I desire mercy.
You know what Jesus came to do is
to make us straight and sincere.
I noticed not only for ourselves, if it's
someone in our family or someone from our
country or from our island, we use a
double standard, a double weight, which God hates.
God hates an unjust weight.
In other words, if something's wrong for a
person to do, and you're gonna pontificate about
it and really get on a soapbox and
say, people who do that, that's wrong.
Then why do you justify it for someone
in your family?
You ever see people do that?
I see mothers do that for their sons
and for their children.
These kids are terrible.
Not my little boy, Johnny.
Johnny never made a mistake in his life.
You know, you have no business to mess
with my son.
Oh, I see that all the time.
Yeah, but he held up a bank.
No, it was just a bad day.
He didn't know what he was doing.
He ate something he shouldn't have eaten.
You know what Jesus came?
Is to make us sincere and straight and
humble us.
Oh, how many wanna show mercy on people
after all the mercy God has shown to
us?
And this is what Jacob stands for.
He's such a hypocrite.
And Jesus, if he, his harshest words, ask
the pastors, Pastor Bogstad, you know the Bible
very well.
Am I right, Pastor Hammond, Pastor Johnson, Pastor
Byrd, Pastor Ware?
Who are the harshest words Jesus used in
the whole New Testament?
Hypocrites.
You Pharisees, you hypocrites.
You judge one way and you look down
at people and meanwhile you're doing the same
thing behind everyone's back.
Jesus came to make us real and to
teach us that he desires mercy.
He doesn't delight in people being put down.
And that's why Galatians 6, 1 and 2
says this.
Brothers, if someone is caught in the church
in a sin, you who are spiritual should
restore him.
Gently, but watch yourselves or you also may
be tempted.
Carry each other's burdens and in this way
you will fulfill the law of Christ.
You wanna know how to fulfill the law
of Christ?
Put up with other people's problems and mistakes
and sins and don't condemn them.
Minister to them and restore them gently.
Because if I remember correctly, isn't that what
Jesus did for you?
When you failed Jesus and when you've sinned
and you came to the throne of grace
and asked God for help, did you ever
find Jesus just standing there like that and
going, uh-huh, ah, how many happy he
never is like that?
We're like that.
You that are spiritual, don't bury them, restore
them.
Jesus is not speaking about people in rebellion
and you
could get in trouble soon.
That's why Jesus came.
That's why he's called the Bible.
And lastly, the Bible that Judah stands for
just outright open shame.
Judah recognized the seal and the staff and
the cord and he said to everybody present,
she, the daughter-in-law, who's not a
Jew, who played the hooker, who duped me
and fooled me, she is more righteous than
I.
You wanna talk about a diss?
You wanna talk about a put down?
You wanna talk about embarrassment?
You ever hear people say embarrassing?
Talk about embarrassing in front of everyone.
Judah has to say, she's more righteous than
me.
He says, and now, dear children, continue in
Jesus.
Keep what you will be unashamed.
He's the lion of the tribe.
And say, Lord, give.
But Jesus took a mess.
We thank you for your mercy.
And if someone here has not experienced your
mercy, Lord, we pray that right now, they
will open their heart to you this very
moment.
That you love to show people.
Don't let them carry their sins for a
second more, Lord.
Their disobedience, their rebellion, their secret sins.
We thank you that you can take a
mess and make something beautiful out of it.
We thank you that even though we have
been forgiven so much, play the hypocrite and
get judgmental with other people, you're that
you deliver us.
But there is therefore now no condemnation to
them.
Thank you, Lord, that you don't mind.
Before we go today, I would like to
remind you again that our mailing address has
changed.
If you would give us the honor of
praying for you, no matter what your situation
is, we would love to receive your prayer
request.
Our new mailing address is this week at
the Brooklyn Tabernacle, 17 Smith Street, Brooklyn, New
York, 11201.
That's this week at the Brooklyn Tabernacle, 17
Smith Street, Brooklyn, New York, 11201.
If you have the internet, you can always
go to our website at brooklyntabernacle.org and
email your prayer request from there.
The scripture says draw closer to God this
week and he'll draw closer to you.
Walk with him hand in hand.
He'll get you through everything and we'll see
you next week.