Vision Weekend - Heaven to Earth - Matthew S1E1

Amen and amen and amen! How we doing church? Good? I feel like I'm in a better mood than you are. That's rare. All right. So let's go. That's exciting. Is that not exciting? All that God is doing in us and through us through 2025 and I am believing that our best days are ahead of us. Amen? I'm believing 2026 is going to be the best year that we have ever had in accordance with what God wants for us. A couple of things. We got a lot to do. You got to listen faster than you normally do or this could be a lock-in. I need you to grab this thing. We're going to walk through that. I need you to grab your Bible. We're going to go to Matthew chapter 1 verse 1 and we're going to talk about the direction of our church this year, the vision for our church this year. I hope you are excited about it. I am. If you've been here a while, you're going to realize a lot of things sound repetitive because we are heading in the same direction since the very first day we started. We're just going to continue to be a movement for all people to discover and deepen a relationship with Jesus Christ. Amen? And exciting things are happening here in Jacksonville. Amen? It's a big year. Not just this. I think this is big. I mean, I do. But that won't be the biggest thing, I promise, even though we are going to win the Super Bowl. That will be a footnote in what God does this year in and around Jacksonville. All right, that's what we're about to talk about. I also, thank you for that, did you ever think when Liam came out with Duvall, did you think? We might even have to change the way we say it to that weird way. Just anyway, whatever, that's different. But he's the man, dude. Let's go, Liam. All right. So anyway, that's not what we're talking about, people. Hey, for all of you that said I'll give you a year, welcome. I bet I met half a dozen people in the airport over the past several weeks that says, hey, I'm going to give you a year. Welcome, welcome, welcome. Thank you for being here, man. I'm telling you. If you got your vision piece, here's what we're talking about all year long. In Matthew chapter 4, verse 17, the first four chapters are basically intro. That's what the four chapters are. That's going to take us a few weeks to get through them, but don't worry about that, okay? Jesus' teaching ministry begins with this statement right here. That everything that Jesus taught was this, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. And so one of the things that you're going to see all throughout the year, in any songs we sing or texts we read, when you see the words repent or kingdom or heaven, they're going to be in this kind of font to just remind

us that this is what we are all about. That we are going to repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. That Jesus is calling us, the church, his people, to repent. It doesn't only mean change direction, it means change the way you think. We're going to get into it in Matthew because the people of God weren't thinking right. They had their minds focused on themselves instead of focused on him. They had their minds focused on what they wanted instead of the great commission of Jesus. So we've got to change the way we think, and the reason that we have to change the way we think is because the kingdom of heaven, that's not just a sweet by and by, a place that you're going to go one day. Pastor Adam did a marvelous job last week talking about what eternity is. But the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom is wherever the king rules and reigns. By the time we get to Matthew chapter one, what we find out is that the kingdom has invaded earth. That the king of kings has stepped off of his throne, and he was born as a baby in a manger, but he didn't stay a baby in a manger. That he grew up, he became a man, his name is Jesus, and wherever his rule and reign is, that is the kingdom. Heaven is supposed to invade earth, and then we as believers in Jesus are supposed to live in such a way that earth looks a lot more like heaven. And it's at hand. It's within our grasp. It's right there. And God is inviting us to partner with him to be about this. This is what all of the teaching ministry is about. As we study the book of Matthew, you can really break it up into five different teaching sections with a couple little interruptions where he tells a bunch of stories. And all of it can be summed up in this sentence. Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. We're gonna learn about what that means. This vision piece is just what we are going to do as a church to live out what it means to be the kingdom of heaven right here and right now. Everywhere from Orlando all the way to Jessup, and then all of our outposts all over the place. So, it's a little bit like origami. If you open it up, not to where a normal page would be, but the page that you're looking at right there, it says one up there. Go to one. That's where we're gonna start. This is what our church is about. We are always about this. The church of 1122 will continue to be a movement for all people to discover and deepen a relationship with Jesus. Jesus Christ, these are our marching orders. We didn't make it up.

The Bible doesn't use these exact words, but this is the declaration of what the church is to be about. Some of you, for the very first time, are gonna discover that God loves you and Jesus is the proof. Some of you can't even remember when you became a Christian because it was, I mean, it was so long ago, we didn't even have the internet yet. And you are gonna continue to take steps of obedience, to follow in the footsteps of Jesus. There's just, there's some things here. There's a discipleship journey here. I don't have time to go through it. The question I need you to ask is, what is your next step of obedience? What is your next step of obedience? And I want you to lean in this year. Give it a full year. For some of you, it's just to come to church on a regular basis. Praise God for that. For some of you, it's to begin to lift your hands and worship. For some of you, it's to trust God with your first and your best for the very first time. For most of you, it's jumping to a disciple group. It's going on a mission trip for the first time. I need you to hear from the Holy Spirit what is your next step of obedience,

and I need you to lean in. And what I'm going to do to help you discover and deepen a relationship with Jesus is I am going to, we, the bunch of us, are going to teach through the book of Matthew from chapter one all the way to chapter 28. That's what we're gonna do. Now, if you flip it over with me, now you go to two. It's very complicated. But we're going to continue to make room for one more. That's what we're about. We never intended to be a big church. It's not a goal of ours. The tattoo, one of the many tattoos that I have, and I'm getting more next week, so get ready for that, okay, is Acts 11, 24, and he was a good man full of the Holy Spirit and faith, and a great number of people were brought to the Lord. So whoever does my funeral, Vinky, hopefully you're there, remember this, I hope to live the kind of life that somebody doesn't have to lie about me that can actually say that. But he was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and faith, and a great number of people were brought to the Lord. And a great number is not all the tens of thousands of people that attend on a weekend. A great number in the kingdom of heaven is just one more.

And in my vision piece, here's what I did, because I'm varsity, I drew a little line right here, and I didn't put the name right there because he's coming Sunday, and I'm gonna write my one more's name right there. And then when God saves him this year, I'm gonna go check, and I'm gonna write my next one and my next one and my next one. Right now, get out a pen, and you should write the name of your one more. And if they're sitting next to you, just tell them, like, that's you, dude, okay? You're on your way to hell, I'm here to help. All right, tell them. Part of the reason this thing is working is because it's so personal, got it? It's so personal, be praying for your one more. Don't ever, ever, ever give up. Don't ever give up. I'm a professional Bible teacher. It was 30 years of praying for my dad before he came to Christ. Don't you ever give up on a God that doesn't give up on you, you got it? And God has placed you in that person's life because he loves you and he loves them. And he's gonna use you to share his love with that person that you love. You pray for your one more. And in addition to this, we're gonna plant,

we've got a goal by 2029 to plant 1,000 churches and 100 missionaries and launch 22 campuses, wherever. When Elon gets us to the moon, I'm gonna put one there. Why? Because we're a movement for all people. Moon people gonna need Jesus too. We're going wherever there are people. In 2026, we're gonna plant 100 more churches that'll take us to about 875 local, autonomous, indigenously led churches that we have partnered to plant. We're gonna send our 100th full-time missionary out of 1122. Boy, we need to celebrate that one like crazy. And this year, we're gonna launch our Orlando campus. Let's go. By the time we get back to school, we'll launch a campus in Orlando. Praise God for that. Also this year, we're gonna begin construction on our wildlife permanent campus. You don't even know the cheers that happen on Sunday morning in that little gross elementary school where we meet right now for those people, okay? Praise God for that. And for you PV people, we found a permanent location. And if I'm honest, might be two. So that's what we're doing. In addition to that, we somehow, God has used the teaching ministry, the ministry of 1122 to reach people

far beyond where we have facilities. And we've got people gathering all over the place. And we call them outposts. Because we just made the fundamental decision a long time ago. If you raise your hand anywhere in the world and say, will you disciple us? My answer is yes. And so currently, right now, we have outposts all over the place. We have 26 outposts. These are places, these are people in other places that gather regularly and they are 1122. They just don't live here. We got them in 30A Florida, Bell Oaks Barn, Florida. I'm gonna come see you Bell Oaks during turkey season. Blackshear, Georgia. Home of Stetson Bennett, can I get a witness there? We got him in Bluffton, Hilton Head, South Carolina, Bryan, Texas, Chesapeake, Virginia, Clifton Forge, Virginia, in the church where Gretchen's grandfather pastored. Listen, I don't have time for this, but listen. Okay, listen. Sometimes people measure the success by attendance of a church. And if you were to look at Lone Star Church, the attendance is 100, 200, something like that. It's not a big church. But you know, God measures faithfulness,

not just fruitfulness. Can I tell you about the faithfulness of Lone Star Church? You know who that church led to Christ and disciple? Gretchen Nicely. She became Gretchen Martin 25 years ago. And in a time in my life when I was this close to stepping out of ministry, you know who God sent into my life to convince me to give it one more chance? A disciple of that little church that nobody's ever heard of up there in Virginia. All of this is fruit hanging on the tree of Lone Star Church because of their faithfulness to the gospel. Can I get a witness, okay? And so they have an outpost in their church facilities on Sunday night. Dillon, South Carolina is an outpost, praise God. Indian Trail, North Carolina. Kieser, I don't know how you say that. Kieser, West Virginia, Knoxville, Tennessee, Lakeland, Florida, Lancaster, Ohio, Melbourne, Florida, Midland, Michigan, Milton, Florida, Newport, Ritchie, Florida, Nicaragua, hola, that's awesome. Orlando, Florida, Portsmouth, Rhode Island, Readsville, Georgia, Sarasota, Florida, Selmer, Tennessee, Spain. I might go visit that one. Spotsylvania, Virginia, Stroudsville, PA.

These are our outposts. And by the way, if you're watching right now and you're gathering on a regular basis with people, would you just text the word outpost to 441122 just so we can know who you are? In addition to this, we have 21 outposts in prisons. And what's happening is a bunch of the wardens are getting saved and they are like our campus pastors. We got them at Hamilton, Maine, Hamilton Annex, Putnam Union Work Camp, Tomoka Work Camp, Columbia Annex, Baker Reentry, Marion, Maine, and they're live with us right now. What's up, Kish? Marion Work Camp, they're live with us right now. Reentry Center of Ocala, they're live with us right now. Lancaster, Maine, Lancaster Work Camp, they're live with us right now. What's up? DeSoto Annex, Butler, Maine, Butler West, Butler Work Camp, Lowell, Maine, Lowell Annex, Northeast Florida State Hospital, Men of Valor Nashville Transitioning House Facility, and Men of Valor Knoxville Transitioning House Facility. And we have three prison campuses, Columbia, Duval, Women's, and Union. God is on the move, praise God. And somebody's like, why you gotta have so many? Because there's so many lost people that need Jesus, amen? And every single one of these outposts and every single one of these campuses

are full of somebody's one more. And aren't you glad that somebody loved God and loved you enough to share the good news of the gospel with you? And so the moment we get rescued, we become a part of the rescue team, so we will always be dedicated to reach one more. Now, if you turn this page over, you're gonna find number three. So if you turn this page over, you're gonna find number three. You're gonna find number three, so it's church life. And what church life describes is just the stuff that we do. And this is so important. We are commanded, we're gonna see, we're gonna get real familiar with Matthew 28, 19 this year, and the imperative there is to make disciples. These are the programs and the processes that we try to help you become a disciple. But honestly, programs don't make disciples, people make disciples. These are just the programs and the processes that get you connected with the kind of people that can disciple you, and so you can disciple people. And we will never stop doing that, that we are not in the crowd business, we are in the disciple-making business. This is very, very important. I would highly encourage you,

if you haven't done Disciple Group or Grow Track, some of these things, that you would step into that. Why? Because this is what God has called us to do. One of the things when we dig in in a few minutes in Matthew that we're going to learn is that the whole point of Matthew is that God didn't save us for us. And the people of God missed that. But he saved us that he would send us so that through us he would save one more. By the way, this is why we're also adding service times at virtually every campus. So check with your campus pastor of the new service times. And if you couldn't find a parking spot at this service, I would highly encourage you to come to one of our new service times. Here at San Pablo and a bunch of campuses, we're adding 7.30 a.m. Sunday morning. You should be there. A bunch of you should be there. Also, at San Pablo, we have a 4.22 afternoon. Spatman, if you've been a Christian more than a year, I need you to significantly and seriously pray about coming to some of those other times, okay? I thank you for attending Thursday night. Normal people come on Sunday. You don't wanna be normal, but you know what I mean? Like, new people come especially. So thank you for being an early adopter

of weird service times. But we need to do this, and the reason that we need people to move is because you gotta quit thinking about you. And what's easiest for you? Because there are people that will drive in here, can't get a parking spot, or can't find a seat, and they will turn around and go home. And you have no idea what hangs in the balance. Gretchen and I have a dear, dear friend. Now she's an incredible believer. She's in a Bible study with Gretchen. She leads medical mission trips. It's an incredible friend. But right when we first started the church, her marriage was a mess. She wakes up one morning, and she'd heard of 1122 because somebody had shared an invitation with her, and she thought, I got an idea. We should try church. She goes to her husband. She said, let's go to church. He's like, I ain't going to church, which was the problem. So she gets her three little kids all dressed. She's got one in a car seat, one on her hip. She shows up, and I know it starts at 1122, but you know, people think that's just kind of suggestion, you know, but it actually starts at 1122. So she comes pulling into the parking lot about 1122, and we're jammed.

This is when we were next door in ladies' accessories over there. The best spot she could find is she can like illegally park out past Hope's closet. She gets her three kids. She schleps them all the way to our kids' check-in, and we were just full. And somebody said, I'm really, really sorry. We just don't have any more room. Now, when you hear there's no more room in the end, that's a neat line in a Christmas pageant. And she thought, oh, no. Now, luckily, she's a very, very mature woman. She talked to her friends, and her friends were like, sorry, you gotta get here early. And thankfully, she came back. And I just happen to know that one story, but the number of people that show up, and they can't get a parking spot, or they can't get a seat, or a family of three can't sit together, it is a problem. And so for us to reach one more, in order that they can get involved in this family, in this house, in this church life, we need you to go to one of these new services. Please, please, please. So now you go to number, oh, by the way, over here in this little darker section, it says 1122 Life. This is a part of our church life.

Just like every good family lives in rhythm, we as a church, we have rhythms around here. I am already giving you the dates of the most important things that you're gonna be a part of this year. So don't schedule your dumb vacation on this, or even your incredible vacation on this. This is what we're doing this year, okay? And I get it, if Nana turns 90, just tell her her birthday's two weeks later. She won't know, do whatever it takes. My kid. Easter, we're gonna celebrate the resurrection of Jesus, okay, plan around it. Beats baptism, we're gonna celebrate thousands of people declaring Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, and rejecting and renouncing all the things of this world. Saturated, it's what we're gonna do. We're gonna pray him fast, we're gonna show up, and we're gonna saturate it in the presence of God, and then we're gonna celebrate Christmas Eve together as a family. I'm telling you, if I walk in your house, this thing needs to be posted somewhere. These are the dates that you should live your life around. Got it, got it, very, very important. And then right beside it, number four, at the end of this year, we are going to launch what we are calling Neighbors to Nations. It's a two-year discipleship journey

where we are going to, it really launches out of the end of Matthew, Matthew chapter 28, verse 19. It's a very famous verse, it's called the Great Commission. And it says this, go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you, and behold, I am with you always to the very ends of the age. And so the goal of this two-year discipleship journey is that every single one of us would be committed to leverage all that God has trusted us with in our giving, our going, and our growing to accomplish our part of his God-glorifying mission. That's what this whole thing is about. The question I want you to start asking right now that we'll actually really deal with this fall is what is he telling me to do to fulfill my role in his mission? That's it, that's it. for us to be ready for the Great Commission, Matthew 28, 19, we are going to study the whole book of Matthew. Because when Jesus says, therefore, he's not just talking about the sentence that he says before, all authority in heaven and earth has been given unto me. What he's actually talking about is the entire book of Matthew. And so I thought the best way for us to be commissioned

like Jesus commissioned his early disciples was for us to walk through the entire book where we find the Great Commission. I hope you're excited about it, because I am. By the way, we're selling these bad boys right here in the lobby. It's just a, it's a journal. It's pretty slick. It's just got the Bible on one side and blanks on the other for you to take notes. I'd highly encourage you to do it. They're five bucks. Or you can get it on Amazon for seven bucks. You dummy, okay? So get it here. Matthew 1.1. To the left there, you'll see a blank page. For 400 years, God has not been speaking through prophets like he had been in the Old Covenant. They have been awaiting the serpent crusher to show up on the scene. The guy that writes this, he's a guy named Matthew. Matthew's a tax collector. Don't think IRS, that's not what it is. I mean, nobody likes the IRS anyway. If you work for IRS, probably wouldn't tell you that. We don't trust the IRS, why? Because they're untrustworthy, that's why, okay? We have to pay tax. Jesus commanded us to pay taxes.

That's a bummer. This is worse, this is worse. Matthew is a tax collector and he's the ultimate outsider, and here's the kicker, by choice. He's born on the inside because he's Jewish. He's a part of God's covenant people. And yet, he's a tax collector. He's a part of God's covenant people. And yet, by choice, what Matthew decides to do is basically turn his back on his people, on his customs, on his religion, and he outsources himself to the Roman government. And he's not just overcharging people. It's not like your taxes were $100 and he charges you $150 and then he keeps some for himself. That's not all that he's doing. He is taking money from the Jewish people, giving it to the Romans, and then the Romans are using that money to terrorize his brothers and sisters and cousins and family. That's what's happening. He's hated, he's despised. He is the ultimate outsider by his own choice. And yet, what we're gonna find is his account, where Jesus walks up to him and essentially is gonna say, bro, your past doesn't define you. Leave this life, come and follow me. I've got a better life for you. And Matthew does that thing.

And so this is a firsthand account, and Matthew is crazy, an outsider to the Jewish people by choice is going to write the only gospel specifically aimed at the Jewish people. Because who knows better? So he has a Jewish audience. Now pay very close attention to this. If you miss this, you're gonna miss the whole year. The point of Matthew, the gospel of Matthew, you see most of the time when we do Bible study, and I get it, you read like one little story or one little section, and I get it because it's the word of God. It's chock full of divinely inspired words that will cut us to the soul. But if you back up on Matthew and you look at it in its totality, what you'll find here is that the point of Matthew is this, is that Jesus is the greater Moses, that Jesus is the fulfillment of the promise that God gave to Israel, because Israel screwed it up. This is what it is, that Israel missed the point. The people of God, the chosen people, they missed the point. Israel was chosen and blessed to be a blessing. The problem is they got wrapped up on themselves. And what Jesus is going to do, he's gonna show up, and Matthew's gonna show all these correlations,

how Moses did this, but Jesus fulfilled that. It's what he's gonna do over and over and over. And Jesus shows up to reorient our perspective without us and our wants and our traditions in the middle, and he's gonna place his purposes through his life, death, and resurrection at the center to be spread to all the people of the world for his glory. That's the point. Matthew 1.1. It says the book of the genealogy. Now, how many of you, when you do your Bible reading plan, you're just like, well, I'm skipping this. Don't skip it, man. Every word of God is theosneustos, God-breathed and useful. Now, if you are a first-century Jew, which you're not, and you saw this, the book of the genealogy, you would go, whoa, because what it literally says in Greek, it used the word for Hebrew that says the book of Genesis, the book of the beginning. So when you would read this, you would understand as a Jewish. Audience I think he's connecting this to Genesis 1 1 in the beginning That's how the same thing starts and then he says the book or the book of Genesis of Jesus Christ the son of David Now again, you don't cheer because you're a bunch of Americans, you know, yeah, that's neat. No, it's not neat He was the king and God made a promise to that King King David that someone from his line would sit on his throne And not just rule for a season but would rule forever and ever and ever and Jesus is the one that fulfills that promise

And not only is he the son of David. He's the son of Abraham Nothing right because we don't get it I'm telling you we cheer for the Jags. We're like David Abraham. All right, it's cuz we don't understand Abraham is the one that God chose to redeem and to reveal his promises to And what you got to understand we'll get to it later in the book of Matthew several times The Pharisees will come up to Jesus and they'll actually rail against him because they say that you are an illegitimate child Because of the scandal surrounding your birth and Matthew's like no, no, no, actually this is the son of David This is the son of Abraham and then it starts here verse 2 Abraham was the father of Isaac. All right So what Matthew is going to do is Matthew wants to connect Jesus back to Abraham because Jesus is the fulfillment of the promise that God gave to Abraham These next verses get used a lot these days, especially right now in the political realm Okay, so put your theology Bible glasses on and I want you to hear this Genesis chapter 12 This is the promise that God gives to Abraham says now the Lord said to Abram He's gonna change his name to Abraham later the Lord said Abram go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you and I Will make you a great nation and he did and I will bless you and make your name great and he did So that underline so that in your Bible Even if you're using one of ours underline it So when the next person picks it up, they realize this is a big deal so that You will be a blessing and I will bless those who bless you and him who dishonors you I will curse and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed and The people of God the Israelites the chosen people the Jewish people they heard this and they went sweet. We're blessed We're the chosen people for what To be chosen. No, no, no, no. No, you are blessed. You are chosen. So that they missed the so that part They were supposed to be a conduit of the blessing of God But they treated themselves like a cul-de-sac of the blessing of God you see that and so Jesus is going to show up because he is the blessing for all the families of the earth and Matthew is going to help us reorient. Remember the so that part And so who is this blessing for if you jump over Romans chapter 9, that's a fun chapter to study

Romans chapter 9 verse 6 what Paul is going to do listen You when people use words you've got to define what the word means you ever notice that And so when he's talking about he's talking about his Jewish brothers and sisters that don't know Christ as Lord and his heart breaks for them In Romans chapter 9 verse 6. He's gonna redefine what the New Testament means when it uses the word Israel ready it says Romans 9 6 But it is not as though the Word of God has failed for not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel Comes the new definition ready and not all the children of Abra not all our children of Abraham Because they are his offspring but through Isaac shall your offspring be named This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God But the children of the promise are counted as offspring And you're like, well, maybe he was confused one time, okay, he does it again in Galatians chapter 3 Galatians 3 7 he says now then that it is those of faith Who are the sons of Abraham and the scriptures for seeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith? Preach the gospel before him to Abraham saying in you shall all the nations be blessed So then those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham the man of faith So when people talk about Israel, you got to go. What do you mean by that word? It can mean at least four things it can mean that to say the descendants of Abraham the Jewish people a people group Sometimes it means the land like the geographical land Sometimes it means the nation-state like the thing that started in 48 the Netanyahu's in charge of right now Biblically what Paul is talking about what the Bible talks about when it says things like all Israel be saved It means things like all the people that put their faith in Jesus who trust God and it's counted to them as righteousness That's what it is talking about And the people of God that were chosen to be a blessing for the whole world missed that whole point. And so what Matthew's gonna do is he's gonna connect that what the old covenant folks thought, because they put themselves in the middle, Jesus is here to save us and send us

so that the world will be blessed by this gospel. Don't miss this in the book of Matthew. And pay attention, 1122, pay very close attention. We are a blessed church. I don't know how to describe or explain to you what's happening around here. The people that are getting saved, the marriages that are being restored, the prodigals that are coming home, the people that are being healed, the one mores that are meeting Jesus, I don't know how to express it, explain it, I don't know. We are blessed exceedingly more than anything we ever hoped or imagined as a ministry God is doing. But he's not doing it to us or in us for us. He wants to do it through us. So as we look at the gospel of Matthew, don't think those dumb Israelites, no, no, no, no, hold up the mirror. Because every single one of us has a propensity to get wrapped around the axle of ourself and think, God, how can you bless me? Instead of asking God, how can I be a blessing to you? Now, the way Matthew is going to illustrate this is in this genealogy that everybody skips over. I'm not gonna read it all. Pastor Britt preached on this just a few weeks ago. You should go back and listen to his sermon on Joseph. It was incredible. But he goes through this long genealogy.

And there's so much here. I could do two weeks just on the genealogy, but I'm not. But a part of what Matthew wants us to see is he's illustrating that this movement of Jesus is a movement for all people to discover and deepen our relationship with Jesus. It's not just for the insiders. It's not just for the chosen people. It's not just for the church people, but it's for all people. And you're like, how do you get that from a genealogy? Well, Pastor Britt, a few weeks ago, he went over all the Cracker Jacks that were in this thing, but I just wanna look at four of them. There's four people in this genealogy. Then if you were a first century Jewish, especially dude, and you read this, you'd be like, what's her name doing in here? There weren't a lot of her names in genealogies. And four women are mentioned in this genealogy. And you don't wanna clap, because they're scandalous. I mean, I get if you wanna throw your grandma on your genealogy, because she's awesome. I have some awesome grandmas. These are, I mean, one of them's awesome. The rest of them are not awesome. They're outsiders. Three of them are Gentiles. One of them's not.

Three of them are shady, and one of them's not. The first one is Tamar. She's a Canaanite woman. She marries the son of Judah. That dude dies. What was supposed to happen then is that his brother would take you as a wife in order to take care of you, but that dude took advantage of her. You should read about it. It's shady. I'm not gonna talk about it. There's kids in the room. And then her father-in-law kind of disowns her, and is just gonna leave her hanging out to dry. And so what she does is she dresses herself as a prostitute, hangs out at the bar, seduces him, and then keeps his ID, and then lets everybody know, hey, I got pregnant by my father-in-law. And Matthew's like, let's put her on the list. Wait, what? You ever meet, I mean, well, look, we're coming off of Christmas, man. There's parts of your family you don't talk about out loud, right? Next was Rahab. Rahab is a Canaanite prostitute that hid two of the spies. Now, here's what's crazy about Rahab.

When I read that story, here's what I think about. The spies come out, they're like, hey, we were hiding at Rahab's house, and they just keep going with the story. Nobody's like, what you doing at Rahab's house? They just immediately get to town, they go to the prostitute's house. Nobody talks about that. She's a part of the genealogy of Jesus. Then you get Bathsheba. She slept with King David while married to Uriah. Now, there's for sure a power dynamic there, but she has an illegitimate child. I want you to do this. God is using the worst decisions of some human being's life and his sovereignty is so complete that he can even use our worst day to bring about the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And then there's Ruth. Ruth was legit. She was a little forward, though. She did roll up at Boaz's party and just get up under the sheets and was like, marry me? I mean, I'm just saying, I wouldn't encourage our youth group to do that. That's what she did, though. But she's a Moabite, she's an outsider. So here are all the outsiders. What's the message in the genealogy? Well, one of it is that God can use anybody.

There's more grace in Jesus than sin in you. Your past doesn't define you. Jesus gets to tell you who you are. You see, the kingdom of heaven is a movement for all people to discover and deepen a relationship with Jesus and all means all. And he is in the business of using ordinary, uneducated people to turn the world upside down. This is how the thing starts. Don't believe me? Then you get to the next section, the birth of Jesus Christ. So who is God going to use for the king of the world to be born to? A couple of nobodies. A couple of nobody, Joseph, a carpenter, and Mary, just this little girl. A couple of nobodies who are willing to be faithful to God. Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place this way when his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph before they came together. She was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit and her husband Joseph being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream saying, Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit

and she will bear a son and you shall call his name Jesus for he will save his people from their sins. This is what we're gonna study. This is why Jesus came. Jesus means God saves. It's what his name means. When we sing that song, Worthy of Your Name, that's what we're singing. You did it. You are who you said you are. And all of this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by a prophet. And when Joseph gives the name Jesus to Jesus, he is legally adopting him as his own. Verse 23, and behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which means God with us. This is the understanding of all of the narrative of God with us. You realize this? The whole Bible could be summed up with that phrase, God with us. In creation, God was with us. In the temple system, God made a way for God to be with us. In the incarnation, God is with us physically. In the church age, he sends the spirit of God into every believer, and God is with us. In eternity, God is with us, and the us there is all people that put their faith in Jesus Christ.

And when Joseph woke from his sleep, this is key, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him. Here's what I want for you this year. God's gonna tell you to do stuff, and I just want you to do that. And he took his wife, but he knew her not until she had given birth to a son. And he called his name Jesus. Now real quick, to you people that grew up Catholic, Mary was not a virgin for her entire life. She gave birth to Jesus as a virgin. He did not know her until after the birth. If you ask me, did you eat today? And I go, I did not eat until seven o'clock. That means I ate after seven o'clock. Jesus had brothers and sisters. So somebody made that up and told you that, but it's not true. The Bible says this, so you should read the Bible. Ready? Go ahead. Speaking of doing, so so far I want you to see that what Matthew is doing is Matthew is writing the narrative of God's redemptive history with his people, and he's showing us all of the examples of how God used nobodies, and God uses the left outs, and God uses the outsiders to be a part of his kingdom. Why? Because the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Speaking of outsiders, the next thing you get

in chapter two, I just preached on it during the Christmas series, the wise men are gonna show up. Why? Because they do what God tells them to do. They've got a little bit of Bible verses, and they're looking for the king of the Jews. And so now, chapter two, verse one, now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem, saying, where is he who has been born of the king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose, and we have come to worship him. And when Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him, and assembling all the chief priests and the scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born, and they told him, in Bethlehem of Judea, for so it is written by the prophet. And they quote the prophets. And you, O Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah, for from you shall come a ruler who will shepherd my people of Israel. When Herod summoned the wise men secretly, and he ascertained from them the time the star had appeared, and he sent them to Bethlehem,

saying, go and search diligently for the child. And when you have found him, bring me word that I too may come and worship him. And after listening to the king, they went on their way, and behold, the star that they had seen when it rose went before them until it came to rest over the place where the child was. And when they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy, and going into the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down, and they worshiped him, and then they opened their treasures, and they offered him gifts, gold, frankincense, and myrrh. You see, the king Herod didn't recognize Jesus, because all he could see was himself. There's gonna be a bunch of people this year that hear the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and they will not be able to see past their nose to see the good news of the gospel. King Herod thought Jesus was there to take something from him. Oh, Jesus is a taker. You know what he takes? He takes your sin, and he takes your shame, and he takes your doubt, and he takes your loneliness, and he takes your brokenness, and he gives you life. But Herod couldn't see past his own nose. The religious leaders didn't go looking for him.

You know why? They didn't think they needed him. And you know what you need to be saved? Need. And then these outsiders, these magi, these astrologers, these people that the insiders would look down their nose at, they found him because they found what they were looking for. And they were looking for prophet, priest, and king, and that's what they found. Christ the Lord, the Son of God. And so they gave him gold, and frankincense, and myrrh. And so the story of Jesus starts with outsiders coming from afar to come and worship King Jesus. This is how Matthew starts. The way Matthew is gonna end, it's gonna close with the people of his kingdom taking this gospel to the kingdoms afar. Do you see this? This is the whole point. In verse 12, and being warned in a dream, they did not return to Herod, they departed to their own country by another way. This is what happens when you meet Jesus as Christ the Lord King. He changes the direction of your life. When you meet him, you're lost, then you're found, you're blind, then you're seen, you're dead, then you're alive. You're selfish, you become generous.

It's all about me. Now it's all about you. When you meet Jesus, it changes the direction of your life. And so now, after the Magi leave, and Herod is all mad, verse 13, now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. Do you notice how many times angels are showing up in dreams to people, and God is telling them what to do? And do you know what happens every time? There's no negotiation. Ever try to negotiate with God? Doesn't go good. The blessing is in the obedience. And so an angel comes to Joseph in a dream and says, rise and take the child and his mother and flee to Egypt and remain there until I tell you, for Herod is about to search for the child to destroy him. And he rose and he took the child, his mother, by night and departed to Egypt. And he remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophets, out of Egypt I call my son. Two things that you're gonna see on repeat in Matthew one and two. Two things, you see it over and over and over. Them doing what God told them to do, and secondly, this was to fulfill the scriptures. They did what God told them to do, and what God told them to do was to fulfill the scriptures.

This is what I want for you. In John chapter 10, we spent two years on this. In John chapter 10, Jesus says, I'm the good shepherd. My sheep hear my voice. There's another voice, the voice of a stranger. And he is a thief. And the only thing he wants to do to you is steal, kill, and destroy. But I am the good shepherd. I lay my life down for my sheep. And those who walk in obedience to my voice every single time you do what God tells you to do in accordance with the scriptures, this is how you know what He's telling you to do, you are marching towards abundant life. And every single time you listen to the voice of this world, you are marching towards death and destruction. This is what the kingdom of heaven at hand is all about. And then in the next section, Herod's gonna kill the children. And then Herod, when he saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, he became furious, and he sent and he killed all the male children in Bethlehem and in all that region who were two years old or under according to the time that he had ascertained from the wise men. Then was fulfilled what was spoken by the prophet Jeremiah. A voice was heard in Ramah weeping with loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children. She refused to be comforted because they are no more.

But when Herod died, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, saying, rise and take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel for those who sought the child's life are dead. And he rose and he took the child and his mother and he went to the land of Israel. But when he heard that Archelius was reigning over Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there and being warned in a dream, he withdrew to the district of Galilee. And when he went and lived in a city called Nazareth, so that what was spoken by the prophets might be fulfilled, that he would be called a Nazarene. Here's what's crazy. The sovereign hand of God is always in control. Herod thought he was the boss and he was pulling strings. Caesar Augustus thought he was the boss and he was pulling the strings. Little did these kings know that they were nothing but a footnote in the story of the coming king. You see, the prophet said the Messiah and the Jewish folks could not understand how this would be. The prophet said that the Messiah would come from Bethlehem and Egypt and Nazareth. Like, how is that possible? And God is like, here's how it's possible. Yahtzee, there it is. He didn't say Yahtzee, I made that up. So what Matthew, don't miss this

or you'll miss the whole book. So what Matthew wants us to see is that Jesus is the greater Moses. Jesus is the greater leader of the people of God. Right, Pharaoh wanted to kill all the little boys out of fear. Guess what, Herod wanted to kill all the little boys out of fear. Same demons, new days. As a side note, the attack on the upcoming generation is not just crazy political thought, it is demonic. The transing of kids, the abortion, like the most dangerous place to live in America right now is in the womb of a mom, you realize this. It's the same demons, it's new days. In Church of 1122, we are here to say, not on our watch. One of the things that you're going to see when we roll out Neighbors to Nations is an even higher investment in our student ministry and our kids ministry because we are here to stand on the wall and the Herods of this world and the Pharaohs of this world and the lunatics in government, they may come against our kids, but we're here to say over my dead body, not on our watch. We're gonna raise up a generation of world changers, that's what we're doing. And so Matthew's making all these connections from the birth narrative of Jesus and the story of Moses

that God uses ordinary people to protect baby Moses. There's an edict from Pharaoh to say kill all the babies and the midwives are like, we ain't playing that game. And God uses the Magi to fund Joseph and Mary's trip to Egypt. And by the way, where did Moses do all of his work? Egypt. Remember, Moses brought God's people out of bondage in Egypt and he took them to the promised land and God sent an angel of death to pass over those who had the blood of lamb on the doorpost of their house. And Jesus is gonna come out of Egypt to set his people free from the bondage of sin and shame and he is the lamb that will be slain for the forgiveness of sin. These are all the connections that should be going off, especially if you were a first century Jewish person reading that. So, that's Matthew one and two, real fast. So what's Matthew trying to tell us? First and foremost, he's trying to tell us is God has a mission to take this gospel through you to all the people of the world. And he wants to use you and me. And some of us can have a tendency to hear the whispers of the enemy and go, well, not me, because you don't know my story.

Okay, I ain't saying you ain't done some shady stuff, but have you tricked your father-in-law to make a baby? Okay, let's not, let's Maury Povich was a seminary professor back in the 90s, all right? So, not really. The question is this, what is he telling you to do and how will you be a part of the mission to take this good news of the gospel to every neighbor and every nation around the earth? Don't know yet? Okay, cool, we're in week one, give us a year, lean in. Say, Lord, I'll do whatever you want me to do. I'll do whatever you want me to do. I'll do whatever you want me to do. I'll do whatever you want me to do. I'll do whatever you want me to do. Say, Lord, I'll do whatever you call me to do. My yes is on the table. In my giving, in my going, and in my growing, my yes is on the table. I just wanna find my place in your great commission. And here's what I think the first two chapters of Matthew teach us very practically. Your life matters. Like, your life matters. I mean, Ruth thought she was destitute and left for dead. She had no idea the significance of her life in the narrative of the coming king. I'm sure Tamar thought that was probably a bad idea. Little did she know that God was even gonna use

her sinful decision, and he's so sovereign. Listen, he takes sin very seriously. Sin's a big deal. It costs Jesus all of his blood. And yet, even our sin does not disqualify us from God's plan and God's grace, amen? That your life matters, and your family matters. Your family matters. And your legacy matters. The generation coming behind you matters like crazy. To the 3,000 and something people that put your faith in Jesus Christ last year, I hope you realize, honestly, you won't even begin to see what the life of your great grandchildren are gonna look like, because it's gonna be completely different than it would have been if you had lived your whole life for yourself. You see, your life matters like crazy. And your family matters like crazy. And yet, the most important family is not the family you were born into. As important as that is, the most important family is not the family you were born into. The most important family is actually the. family name that you die with. It's the family that you were reborn into. And some of you, some of you have never joined God's family. You see, the beauty of Matthew chapter one is this, no matter who you are or what you've done,

that God loves you and Jesus is the proof. And just like the angel told Joseph, I want you to give him the name Jesus, that only God gets to tell you who you are. Not your past, not your sin, not your doubt, not even your past unbelief. But what God wants to do is he wants to adopt you into his very family because he's got a purpose for you, he's got a plan for you, he's got a future for you. And he has already done everything that needed to be done to take care of and to pay for and to wipe away all the shame and all the guilt and all the sorrow from your past. And from this day forward, you could join this family. You could join this family, the family of 1122, but even way more important than that, you could join the family of God. And if you're like, but I'm jacked up, I got good news. You're gonna fit right in at the family reunion. I mean, story time in heaven is gonna be a mess, you got me? And if you're like, okay, that sounds very interesting. What do I do? It's a little bit of a loaded question because what you do is you just receive because it has been done. The price has been fully paid. In fact, when Jesus was on the cross, he pushed up on his nail pierced feet and he said this, it's done, it's finished, it's paid in full.

And then the Bible is gonna say, and so if you will just believe that when Jesus died on the cross, somehow that counted for me, then you will receive the right to be adopted into the family of God. And then your family tree, I don't care what your 23andMe says, I'm sure you're into it, but if it was accurate, it would go all the way back and say, your dad is God, the heavenly father because you have been adopted into the family of God. So what do you do? Only thing you need to be saved is need. And so you admit it, okay, yeah, I'm a sinner in need of a savior. This ain't a new year, a new me. Theologically speaking, if you get saved, it is because the old is dead and you were made into a new creation and you admit it. I'm a sinner, I need a savior. And I believe that somehow when Christ died on that cross, even if I can't explain it theologically, I believe somehow that counted for me. And if that's you, the Bible says, then just call on the name of the Lord. And when you call on his name as Lord, what you're doing is surrendering. You're saying, I ain't the boss of me anymore. I'm gonna turn the reins of my life over to you.

Now, not perfectly at first for sure, but you're gonna say, I trust that you are my leader, that you are my king, that you are my savior. And that's what it means to be saved. This is a promise in the Bible that this prayer gets answered 100% of the time. All who call on the name of the Lord will be saved. So maybe what you need this new year is a brand new start, a brand new family, and to join the lineage of the family of God by being adopted through the blood of his son, Jesus. So would you bow your head, would you close your eyes? And if that's you, if you are ready to admit it, I'm a sinner in need of a savior, and I believe that when Christ was on the cross, somehow that counted for me. And today, for the very first time, I am ready to call on the name of the Lord. Then I just right now want you to lift your hand as high as you can. And it's not a hand in the air that saves you. It's Christ's finished work on the cross. And you just tell him in your own words. This isn't some kind of incantation. You don't even have to repeat after me, but you just call on the name of the Lord. Lord Jesus, save me. And he answers that 100% of the time. And in this very moment, when I see you, bro, I see you, sister, I see you, I see you,

every single one of you, right now in heaven, your name is written in the Lamb's book of life. You have been adopted into the family of God. Your sin has been washed away forever and ever and ever. And literally, the Bible says there's a party going on in heaven because you were dead and now you are alive. You were lost and now you are found. You were an orphan and now you were adopted into God's family. And that's the most important family you'll ever be in. Our good and gracious heavenly Father God, I thank you, Jesus, that you are worthy of your name, that you came to save, save sinners like me, to take nobodies like us. I mean, nobodies that make up the church of 1122 to be about yours. God, I pray that you would free us of ourselves. I pray that you would free us of this world. I pray that we, by the power of the Spirit at work in us, under the authority of the Word of God, that you would help us this very year find our place in your great commission for your glory and our joy. And God, I thank you that there is salvation in your house this day. Not because of what anybody's done, but because of what Jesus Christ has done on the cross and through the empty tomb. And God, we rejoice with heaven

for the brothers and sisters that have been adopted into your family. God, I thank you that you take the outsider and that you take the rejected one and you take the nobodies. Because without that, I got no chance. And you adopt us into your family. And in you, we're somebody, because you said so. And so, Lord, I pray that you use us in ways we could never imagine. We pray it in Jesus' name, amen. Church, would you please stand to your feet? We got a lot to celebrate. We got all year in front of us. And I'm telling you, I mean, receive it now, man. It's gonna be a good one. We're gonna see God move in ways we've never seen him before. And so what we're gonna do is we're gonna sing. Because what we do when we sing is we celebrate the kingdom of God because it's at hand. And we're gonna bring our tithes and our offerings. That means this world does not get to tell us what we value. We tell God we value you more than anything because where our treasure is, there our heart will be also. This is in our tithes and our offerings. And we pray, why? Because the kingdom of heaven, the king is here and he is at hand. Over and over and over in the Gospel of Matthew,

Jesus is gonna say, hey, when you pray, why don't you just come to me and ask me and ask me and ask me? And so this is how we're gonna respond. We're gonna sing, we're gonna bring, we're gonna pray. Let's respond. Amen.