Wonder Women

Sing, worthy is your name, Jesus Sing it out, sing You deserve the praise, worthy is your name Shout at church, say Worthy is your name, Jesus You deserve, if you believe He deserves it all, go ahead Would you let everything within you praise Sing, worthy is your name, Jesus You deserve the praise, worthy is your name Come on, sing it again, sing it again Worthy is your name, Jesus You deserve the praise, worthy is your name Worthy is, worthy is your name, Jesus You deserve the praise, worthy is your name Worthy is your name, Jesus You deserve the praise, worthy is your name Sing, worthy is your name, Jesus You deserve the praise, worthy is your name Worthy is your name, Jesus You deserve the praise, worthy is your name Be exalted now in the heavens As your glory fills this place You don't deserve our praise You're the name above all names So be exalted now in the heavens As your glory fills this place You don't deserve our praise You're the name above all names Be exalted now in the heavens As your glory fills this place

You don't deserve our praise You're the name above all names Be exalted now in the heavens As your glory fills this place You don't deserve our praise You're the name above all names Worthy is your name, Jesus You deserve the praise, worthy is your name Sing, worthy is your name, Jesus You deserve the praise, worthy is your name Come on Church, you know what we're just saying When the King speaks a word, it cannot be overturned It's as good as done And when heaven touches earth, it can never be avenged It's a kingdom come So get the liars out the way And let the saints come Let the saints come So get the liars out the way They don't matter if I'm ashamed And so do you I'm a sovereign and supreme Every word He speaks is holy The Lamb of God has overcome My testimony is His blood And if He says that it was done It is done So be it, God To the one overthrown Who cannot be overthrown

Sing hallelujah To the last and the first Brother of the universe Sing hallelujah To the Alpha and the Omega The last and the maker Sing hallelujah ♪ Oh God, every other name, give Him all the praise ♪ ♪ The Lamb of God has overcome, my testimony is His blood ♪ ♪ And if He said that it is done, it is done, so be it God ♪ ♪ The weapons of the enemy, they have no power over me ♪ ♪ The one with all the glory, come and sing, so be it God ♪ ♪ So be it God, so be it, so be it God ♪ ♪ From the throne to the cross, who would pay such a price ♪ ♪ For the sin of the world, His King crucified ♪ ♪ See the nails in His hand, see the wounds in His eye ♪ ♪ See the crown meant to mark, that it said prophesied ♪ ♪ That it was not the end, but the beginning of the end ♪ ♪ And from your eyes, don't forget that He's alive ♪ ♪ On the third, keep around, He's alive, He's alive, He's alive ♪ ♪ He's alive, He's alive, He's alive, He's alive ♪ ♪ He's alive, He's alive, He's alive, He's alive, He's alive ♪ ♪ The Lamb of God has overcome, my testimony is His blood ♪ ♪ And if He said that it is done, it is done, so be it done ♪ ♪ The weapons of the enemy, they have no power over me ♪ ♪ With all the glory, He covers me, so be it done, so be it done ♪ ♪ It is final, it is written, it is settled, it is finished ♪ ♪ See that old flame, He was hidden, now He is there, He is risen ♪ ♪ It is final, it is written, it is settled, it is finished ♪ ♪ See that old flame, He was hidden, now He is there, He is risen ♪

♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hey ♪ ♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hey ♪ ♪ So be it done, somebody shout it, say it, so be it done ♪ ♪ One more time, say it, so be it done ♪ But today I want to just share a word with you over the next few minutes. And I thought, you know, it's Mother's Day, but what do you call this? And I got just this word, these two words just came to me all the time. Wonder women. How many of you believe that when you see these moms, there's some super power inside of them, amen? I know what Brenda's super power is, it's she can smell anything, I'm telling you. That's her super power, smelling. And cleaning and organizing, there's a whole lot more beside that. But we're going to talk about this super power that was residing, that God extended to some ladies. But I think the best place to start is I want to look at the lineage of Jesus in Matthew chapter 1. It seems like an odd place to be for Mother's Day. And I know sometimes we talk about Mother's Day, you want to just find the one that, you know, there's no problems. There's no dysfunction here. You want to pick somebody like a Mary. You know, she wasn't sinless. She wasn't meant to be worshipped. She's not sinless. But boy, she just faithfully followed the Lord and seemed like her whole life she was just honoring God. But I discovered that's not a lot of our stories. And so some people go, yeah, but I don't think I could ever reach that. I don't think I could ever reach that. So I love what God does. He just puts it all out there He's not embarrassed What you're embarrassed about? I'm gonna say this again

What you're embarrassed about sir, ma'am, he's not embarrassed about But he changes it so let's look at this Matthew chapter 1 verse 1 Let me just kind of follow just follow along with me. It says this is the record of the ancestors of Jesus the Messiah Descendant of David and of Abraham Abraham was the father of Isaac Isaac was the father of Jacob Jacob was the father of Judah and his brothers which end up being the twelve tribes of Israel Judah was the mother I was the father of Perez and Zerah whose mother was Tamar Let's go to verse 5 it gets better Solomon was the father of Boaz whose mother was Rahab Boab was the father of Obed whose mother was Ruth Obed was the father of Jesse Jesse was the father of King David David was the father of Solomon whose mother was Bathsheba the widow of Uriah Now when you read all this stuff and you see these names, there's a reason why God puts it there So how many get to some of these lineages that you read in the Bible and you just give up? You're going I well, how do you pronounce that? I can barely say Reif Kogel not the rest of these names So what I want you to realize is that when God gives the genealogy of Jesus He's not just giving you a list of names for documentation sake what he is listing our stories and Those stories are sitting in this room and watching online right now and so out of this some of us we see Mary as that honorable woman who Jesus sinless Jesus Christ born of a Virgin Mary and you look at that and you think I'm Disqualified so God make sure you know, you are not disqualified He starts putting these lists of women in their Tamar Rahab Ruth Bathsheba It's interesting to note too that when you see this, well, I don't count me and I'm not a mother Yes, these were mothers, but the decision some of them made were made while they were single Two of which were widows and didn't have a husband So my point is this whether you're a mom or a non mom or you're a male that does not disqualify you from this message

Just because you're a male God's trying to make a point here so God makes sure we remember these women and I'm you're thinking why would he want to remember why does he list this because These ladies lives and the things that happened in their life reveal The essence of God's redemption to send Jesus Christ to get you You need to see at what great lengths he went to get us to get you and so God doesn't hide Anything these are things that people don't want to preach or talk about because they don't like talking about them Anyway with their own spouse or other people to try to walk through them But God doesn't hide the dysfunction in this family tree We hide it or we try to rename it or we just don't talk about it God says let me tell you one better. I'm not gonna hide it I'm gonna show you and I'm gonna reveal it even in the life of sinless the son of sinless Son of God Jesus Christ Jesus family tree had so much dysfunction It was plagued with problematic past It had scandalous stories in it and God says you want to hide yours and act like it didn't exist But I don't hide nothing Because I'm trying to show you What I did to get you and what I'll do to come after you no matter what help me Thank God for it the story of his redemption. Amen And what he reveals is the superpower that God gives and he allows this superpower To be revealed in these ladies lives, so if I could just real quickly, I'd like to take you just real quickly now I can't get all of this out here So I'm gonna kind of give you the cliff notes version of what happened here But the first woman that is mentioned is a woman by the name of Tamar She sows the supernatural power the power of God's grace If you want to see anything about Tamar you got to see grace now her story is Messy We should have started shaking my head series today Because this is messy

When you look at on the outset, you see no redeeming features about this story or about what happened in this family Now let me just give you a little background to Tamar. Tamar was married to a guy by the name of Ur, which was Judah, who was the father of the tribe of Judah. She was married to his oldest son named Ur. But the Bible tells us that Ur was extremely wicked. We're not sure what it was, but it was pretty vile, pretty corrupt lifestyle, and God couldn't tolerate it and brought judgment and took his life. So now Tamar, who is the daughter-in-law to this man by the name of Judah, is now left without a husband. That's what's happened. But according to custom, which is called the Leveret custom of that day, and was also put into law in Deuteronomy 25, what had to happen is if a woman of the firstborn, if he died, then the brother next in line had to marry her, therefore carrying on the name of his brother, the firstborn, to carry it on. And as a result, the inheritance would stay with the family and also the widow would not be destitute and forgotten. The lineage of her husband would live on and she would be taken care of. And this was called the Leveret custom that was part of Deuteronomy 25. You read it, it's right there. So here's what happens. Judah promised Tamar the next son in line, Onan. He was the next in line,

but he would not give her a child as well. He refused to give her a child. And whatever sin that he was done was as corrupt as his brother Ur, and God took him. So now she's a widow a second time. So Judah, her father-in-law says, here's what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna promise you the next son in line named Shelah. But guess what happens? He doesn't fulfill the promise. In fact, he intentionally withholds Shelah from marrying Tamar, the next in line. And the Leveret custom is not upheld by Judah. Now, Judah's thinking, wait a minute. Two of my boys are already died because you've married to this woman. I don't think I wanna give a third. You can kind of understand what he's thinking, but he himself was not honorable to the custom that was even in the Old Testament in Deuteronomy 25. So he withholds him. Now, here is Tamar. She is now realizing, wait a minute. I will be destitute. I have been forgotten. I have been rejected. And he is withholding from the Leveret custom in order that the lineage of the husband can live on because through this is going to come the lineage of Jesus Christ.

Guess what happens? She realizes I'm forgotten. I'll be childless. I'll be abandoned. And she says, the custom will not be fulfilled. So what does she do? She begins to plan this desperate act that she should have never done, but she did. She decides that she's gonna dress up like a prostitute at the sheep shearing festival that they would do annually. And she knew that her father-in-law Judah would be there. So she disguises herself like a prostitute in that city. And he sees her, his wife has already died. He sees her and all of a sudden he's deceived and he is seduced by her. Guess what happens? The father-in-law and the daughter-in-law come together and she gets pregnant and she gives birth to a son. I told you, you can't make this stuff up. How many are seeing a reality show in the making right now? Okay, God doesn't hide anything. Why are you hiding yours? He hides nothing. So guess what happens? She becomes pregnant and she becomes pregnant with sons. She was desperate, but she did not trust God. When you don't trust God, anything outside of his presence and his word, you will mess it up. She doesn't trust God to deal with Sheila.

He shouldn't trust God for God to turn the heart. She makes this plan, but she's trying to preserve the Leverite custom and her family and even preserve her future. But she deceives him and she becomes pregnant. But that son she gives birth to is named Perez. And guess what Perez, we just read it. He becomes a part of the lineage of Jesus Christ. You are going, are you kidding me? I wouldn't even let her be an usher in this place. But here's what God's trying to show through her. As deceived as she was, as deception, she was trying to fulfill something that she knew what they were supposed to do. And Judas said, when she was busted and he was getting ready to stone her, he goes and she exposes that he's the father because he didn't know it. He says, she's more righteous than me because she's trying to do what was supposed to be done right. But in that heart, here's what God does. In all that mess up and all that deception, guess what God does. God places her in the lineage of Jesus Christ, and he brings Jesus out of that, and he gives grace where it is not deserved. What does Tamar represent? The superpower of God's grace to come to you when you're the one that's caused all the trouble,

you're the one that's done the deception, but you say, God, would you please step in? God comes in with his grace in those moments. You're going, this is so messed up, pastor. I would never do this. You have to understand, there's a point God's making here. There are sinners in the genealogy of Jesus Christ. Why are they there? Because they're the point of the story. The point of Jesus Christ's story was not that he just came for sinners. The point of the story of sinless Jesus Christ was that he came from sinners, not just for sinners. He came into their failures, he came into their mistakes, he came into their deception, and he began to show his grace that his plan can be fulfilled. That's what grace does. It's not deserved, it's not earned. You have to understand that God's grace is not earned, it's extended, everybody. So everybody in this room, maybe trying to hide your dysfunction or your sin or your shame, or you don't want to tell anybody, you need to know that God does not allow you to earn the grace, he extends it to you. Will you receive my forgiveness and follow me? He's coming after you. How many thank God he keeps coming after us with his grace?

That's why Ephesians, Paul said in Ephesians 2.8, for it is by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not from yourselves, it's a gift of God, not by works, so that no one can boast. That is the good news of his grace and why Tamar is in there. You have to understand something, everybody. Redemption does not erase your story. It rewrites your ending. Your story is not finished. It doesn't erase the past, doesn't mean that you have to deal with things. What it does, it rewrites the ending. God doesn't revise your past, he redeems it for a purpose and shows you, if you'll follow me, watch what I'll do. How many thank God that Tamar's there to show us the superpower of grace? Then they mention in the lineage of Jesus Christ, the sinless son of God, Rahab. Now this is the power of faith. So you kind of know the background of the story. You remember Israel had been in slavery for 400 years because of their sin, the bondage. They were treated harshly by the Egyptians. God frees them as they come out underneath the blood of the lamb over the doorpost, which was the picture of Jesus Christ in the New Testament. But they start wandering in the wilderness for 40 years. It was an 11-day trip by foot to get to the promised land,

but they're there for 40 years because it takes one day to get them out of Egypt, but it takes 40 years to get Egypt out of the heart of people. And so while they're out there wandering in this wilderness, God says, it's time for you to go possess the promised land. You're gonna live in homes you didn't build, harvest out of vineyards you didn't plant, and it's because I wanna bless my people, and God gives them the promised land. But they gotta cross the Jordan, but they're facing a city called Jericho, a place that hates God and hates God's people. As they get ready to go to Jericho, Joshua says, hey, let's send out two scouts to spy at the land and see what's inside of Jericho. You know the story. Some of you don't. Go read the story. It's a great story. Joshua sends them in, and guess what they do? They're running through the city trying to scout it out, but now the king and the soldiers know that these two spies are there, and they're trying to hunt them down. Well, guess what they do? They go hide out, but guess where they hide out? They go to a place that a lot of men would frequent in that day. They were sinless.

They were godless. It was the house of a prostitute, a Canaanite prostitute, not an Israeli, not a Jewish person. It was a Canaanite prostitute by the name of Rahab, and she hides them, and they're hiding out there, and then when she sees these two spies that Joshua sent, she looks at them, and now her heart has been turning. She said, I've heard about your God. Why would God put Rahab in this lineage? Because something happened to her. She had been listening to what God had done. She heard how God had delivered Israel from Egypt and destroyed Pharaoh's army. She had heard how every place they went, God was defeating their enemies. She had heard it, but she just didn't hear it. Some of you are hearing, but you're going no further than you're hearing. She didn't just hear it. She said, I believe in your God over these pagan gods with all these ungodly practices. She believed. Look what she said in Joshua 2, verse 11 to these two spies. She said, for the Lord, your God, is the supreme God of the heavens above and the earth below. Do you know what she's saying? She used the word Elohim there in the Hebrew, which means the. supreme almighty Yahweh.

She said, your God is greater. These are not gods. He is the one true supreme God, and I follow and I believe your God. She just didn't hear it, she believed it. And she said, I'm turning from my gods and I'm following your God. I'm following Jehovah God. But see, it's not just about you hearing and believing. Now we wanna see how you act because of what's happened inside of you. She acted, guess what she did? She hid those spies up on the roof of her house. The soldiers came to her house, they started suspicioning where they were. She sends them on a wild goose chase, see how they went that way, but she's got them hidden out over there. She acted. This could have cost her her life and they could have executed her and her entire family. So when you act, it's because you believe something firmly in your heart and she believed he is the one supreme God and he's gonna be my God. And then she asked, she asked those spies, would you do me one favor? When Jericho was destroyed, would you save my family? And would you save me? She had simple faith to believe. And when Jericho was destroyed and the walls came down,

guess what? She was spared and she saved her whole family. Why? Because she heard, she believed, she acted, and she asked God to save me and my house. And God says, I want that woman in the lineage of the sinless son of God. Jesus Christ. Come on, friends. If God could do it for Rahab, how do you know he can do it for anybody in this room that has faith? And some of you going, yeah, but I haven't been here long enough. She had just heard and that was the first time. She didn't wait for the praise team to set the atmosphere and seeing so be it God. She didn't have time for that. She didn't have time for a six session podcast to learn on does God truly exist? She didn't have that. She didn't have the growth track of Grand Rapids First so she could start developing and learn how to serve and be a part of the mission. She didn't have that, friends. She simply heard, believed, acted, and started asking God, save me and my house. And that's the exact same thing. You don't need to wait. Just ask him by faith.

That's the supernatural power of God that'll change your life. Puts her in the lineage of Jesus Christ. Now you got a third woman that they mentioned here, Ruth. This demonstrates God's power of acceptance that he accepts you just the way you are, but he will not leave you the way you are sitting in this pew today. He accepts you. Now, Ruth is not a prostitute. She's not a fornicator, but she's identified as one thing, a Gentile, which means she is outside of the grace and the mercy and the blessing of God. She's outside of God's covenant in the Old Testament. And there's a reason why. She's a Moabite. Now you say, well, what's the deal with the Moabites? Well, first of all, they were very godless, with nothing to do with God or God's people, but she was a Moabite. So if you wanna know what the Moabites are, you gotta read your Bible, go to Genesis 19, and you'll discover what the Moabites were. They were a race of people that were birthed out of an incestuous relationship. Just go study it. You say, well, how did it happen? Well, you remember a guy by the name of Lot, his wife and his two daughters that lived,

wanted to live in Sodom, a very vile place full of sin, that God heard the cry of the innocent coming out of there, the violence, the death, what they were doing. God heard it and said, I'm gonna destroy Sodom. But God has mercy and says, tell Lot, his wife and his two daughters to get out of there. You know the story about his wife. But he flees and God destroys Sodom. And he and his two daughters, watch this, are running for their lives and they find themselves hiding out in a cave. And while they're in this cave for how long a period? It must've been a long period of time they were in this cave, the oldest daughter started to fear. This is what happens when you don't trust God and do things his way. She's thinking the same thing. Who's gonna keep our family line? All we have is our father here. So she and her sister devised this plan to get Lot intoxicated and drunk. While he's drunk, the daughter says, I'll sleep with dad first, you sleep with him second, because we gotta keep the family line. Here again, God's people trying to get in. I'm telling you, these are reality shows, everybody. This is bizarre stuff. So why are you hiding your stuff from God?

There's no sense in it. He's trying to point something to you again. So here she is, watch this, interesting. Here she is, they both give birth to children and the firstborn son is Moab, he's named Moab. He is the father of the Moabites. And this is what Ruth comes out of. She comes out of this background and influence of incest. And there's all kinds of ungodly practices in Moab. So how did this Moabite become a part? part of the lineage of Jesus Christ with all that dysfunction. I'm telling you, you don't need to hide your stuff. He comes into it. He extends grace. Well, here's how it happens. There's this God by the name of Elimelech. He's married to a woman by the name of Naomi, and they live in Bethlehem in the territory of Judah. That's where they live. But there's a famine that hits the land, and they said, hey, we hear that there's food in Moab. Why don't you take us and our two sons, Malan and Kilian, and let's go to Moab? We'll just be there for a short period of time while this famine ends. Well, it didn't end quickly. They find themselves living in Moab in this same territory for 10 years. And during that 10 years time, their son Malan and Kilian end up marrying two girls. And Malan ends up marrying this young Moabite girl by the name of Ruth. During that 10 year period of time, here's what happens. Something happens tragically to Naomi. She watches her husband die, then she watches her son die, and then her other son die.

And now she's stuck with her two daughter-in-laws in a pagan culture. There she is, stuck there with them. And she says, I can't live here anymore. She hears that Judah's prospering, says, I'm going to go back to Judah because I hear that God's prospering them again. And she's ready to go back. But she looks at the two girls, Orpah and Ruth, and she looks at her two daughters-in-law, and she goes, now here's what I want you girls to do. I want you to go back to your families and go back to your pagan gods. Go back there. Orpah makes a decision to take her advice. But Ruth looks at Naomi, who's come out of Judah and is headed back to where God is blessing. And Ruth looks at her, the Moabite, looks at this Jewish mother-in-law, and she says to this Israelite mother-in-law, and she says to her, Ruth 116. But Ruth replied, don't ask me to leave you and to turn back to that stuff. Wherever you go, I will go. Wherever you live, I will live. Listen to this. Your people will be my people and your God will be my God. That's what she says. She's doing the same thing that Rahab is. There's only one God, and I'm not following these pagan gods of Moab. I'm leaving this. Don't ask me to go back to that. I'm going to follow your God. I see the blessing of God, and I'm following you, Naomi. And Naomi takes her back to Judah. What she doesn't realize is that they're poor, and poor Ruth is going to be in a field, and she doesn't know which field, but she happens to pick a field of a guy by the name of Boaz. What she doesn't realize is that Boaz is related to Elimelech, her father-in-law.

What she doesn't realize is that Boaz is going to fall in love with her, a Moabite girl. What she doesn't realize is that they're going to have a child, and that child, and she's a part now of the lineage of Jesus Christ, and God puts her in that lineage as a Moabite. Are you seeing this, everybody? Ruth is a picture that God accepts you where you are, but he will not leave you that way. He accepts you, and he adopts you, and he receives you, and he calls you his daughter, and he calls you son if you will choose to follow him. That's why Paul says in Ephesians, look at this, 2.13, once you were far away, you were foreigners, in other words, far away from God, but now you have been brought near to him through, what everybody, the blood of Christ. Look at where you could have been, but God accepted you, adopted you, and calls you now, you're my son, you're my daughter. You need to think about that just for a minute. Some of us get in church so long, you got to be impressed to stay in. Do we have the right song? Do we have the right programs? It's all about all that stuff. Do we have the right preaching? Are they funny? Are they good? Do they keep me engaged? You ought to remember what you could have been had Jesus Christ not accepted you and adopted you. You know, it's so interesting that on this trip that we took, one of the ports of call for the ship was my mother's hometown where she was born, where she was raised as a Buddhist in the largest Muslim nation in the world, Samarang, Indonesia. I had no idea we were going to stop there. None of my family had been there. My mother met my father in Samarang, Indonesia in a camera shop when he was in the Royal Dutch Army.

It was during the Dutch-Indonesian conflict, and after 300 years, they had colonized, and the Indonesians were kicking out the Dutch. And my mother was there in that little town, met my father in a camera shop. And I looked around Samarang, and I drove through that city, and I knew life could have been very different. That's a picture of my mom there on the far left. That's her mother in the middle. They were not wealthy by any stretch. That's my mom outside of her home. My grandfather practiced black magic. He would keep dirt out of a mouth of a corpse given to him by a witch doctor. That wouldn't bode so well here in Christian reform country, but that was the way it was. religion of the day. That was the day my mother and my dad got married. Two weeks after they get married, they would be kicked out of the country because the Dutch were ousted from Indonesia. They were married in a Buddhist temple. That's right. That's your pastor's spiritual pedigree. Want me to hang around a little longer? Indian spirits would trail my mom from Indonesia to the Netherlands. Her whole family, that's all the families there was. They worship Buddha images their whole life. The chances of my mother getting out of there was this. When they got kicked out of that country, they could have gotten bitter. My dad wanted to stay in Indonesia as a Dutch soldier. If the Dutch weren't kicked out, your pastor wouldn't be here. This tough stuff you're going through, that bitterness and pain, let me tell you, it's a setup for the child of God. Hell is not in charge of your life.

All it takes is a desire. My mom in that Buddhist culture, in that Muslim culture, went to a Catholic school. Her dad put her in a Catholic school so she'd get education. He saw this man stretched up on a cross, and she didn't understand this man on a cross. She didn't get it, but there was something that kept track of what is that man on that cross. All God saw was a desire to know who is that guy bleeding on that cross, and she could never figure it out. God would have to force him out of her country. She'd never see her parents ever again, ever again. She'd end up in the Netherlands, and her girlfriend would tell her father about how this Dutch soldier and his Indonesian wife are just fighting, fighting, fighting, fighting, fighting. He becomes a friend to my mom, and then he invites her to go hear a preacher. He's only coming for one night, one night, and he came on June 22nd, 1954, and his name is Billy Graham. Someone in this church found this picture. They bought it for me. It's the only picture that you can find of June 22nd, 1954. That's the night that Billy Graham preached, and somewhere sitting out in that crowd is a Buddhist girl that was bound by demonic spirits, a pagan, and when Billy Graham got done giving that altar call, my mother had a vision of Jesus Christ, and that day she said yes to Jesus, and just like Tamar and just like Rahab and just like Ruth, God changed the trajectory of her entire family, bring them to the United States of America. All seven of her children would serve God. Three of us were in the full-time ministry. Don't you tell me that God will not accept you and adopt you and take you just like you are. He'll take you from being a foreigner to being family. He'll take you from being an outsider to being offspring. He'll take you from being a separated son to a son of God.

He'll take you from a distant to a daughter called in the family of God. How many of you thank God the blood of Jesus now flows through your vein. You are adopted. His blood flows through your vein. You have your father's eyes. You are a child of God through the sinless blood of Jesus Christ. So my story today to you is what are you hiding behind, sir? What demon has lied to you that said you're not good enough for God to take you where you are? Who in this culture or what preacher or what Christian made you think that you're not qualified good enough for God to say, I want you. It will take a Tamar. It will take a prostitute. It will take a Moabite that comes out of the lineage of incestuous relationships, but finally stops their pride that I can do this on my own and realize I have nothing to hide. I am a sinner saved by grace and without him, I am lost. I am lost. Life could have been very different for this guy, so I have no problems being bold about it. Not at all, because I've seen what he can do when someone simply says yes. But, pastor, it's just gone too far." Well, aren't you grateful for Bathsheba, bathing Bathsheba? Bath and body works Sheba. Some of you may not know Jesus or know the Word of God, but it's a pretty rough story. A guy who followed God, a king by the name of King David, who was supposed to be the guy after God's heart, attended the small groups, loved to worship, give offerings. But one day he's up there, a married man, looking down from his palace, and he sees a woman bathing, and she's nude, she's naked. Instead of allowing the Spirit of God to rule his spirit, he lets his soul, his mind, will, and emotions take control and rule over the Spirit of God that's alive inside of a person,

if they'll let him rule. Bathsheba calls for her. You may know the story. He sleeps with her. She's a married woman to a man by the name of Uriah. God doesn't hide anything. Why are you? Why are you? You know what makes these women wonder women? Because they didn't hide it, but they let God work a wonderful miracle in their life. David tries to hide the sin, has her husband, who's a great soldier and commanding officer, and puts him on the front line knowing that he'll get killed, and puts him right in the fray of the battle and tells everybody else to back off, let him get killed out there so I can hide my tracks. Oh, this is the guy that had been the Sunday school teacher. The guy that attended the small group. The guy that gave offerings. The guy that fed the poor. The guy that was the great guy, the king, that followed after God's heart. See, you can actually be on the right path with God and lose your steps. And then the enemy sits there and browbeats you, you big hypocrite. What are you even doing here today? But not God. God says, go talk to him, Nathan the prophet. And what he's tried to hide, now he's married her, she's pregnant, and it looks like everything's okay because he's manipulated. See, when you take things outside of the presence of God, they decay and rot. They always will. They always will. Just take my word for it.

Sure enough, Nathan says, you're the man. You think you've hidden this from God, but God's not done with you. David, he's not, that's not the kind of God he is. He's not done with you and he's not done with Bathsheba. And David begins to break. And this is what God responds to, Psalm 51, verse 10. He cries out and says, God, create in me a clean heart, oh God. My spirit is tainted, so renew a right spirit in me. Don't push me away from your presence because anything outside the presence will rot and decay. I don't care how much joy, how much circumstantial happiness you have right now, but renew a right spirit in me and don't banish me from your presence and don't take your Holy Spirit from me. But if you would, God, restore. Would everybody say that word? Restore to me again, the joy of your salvation and God, this time and every time thereafter, would you make me willing to start obeying you? And David repented the consequences that baby died for Bathsheba, but in their shame and their sin, they ran to God. David and Bathsheba ran to God and God says, I'm not done. I'm not done. You'd have gotten kicked out of most churches, but I'm not done. And in their shame and their sin, they repented and God says, I'm going to restore you. Bathsheba becomes pregnant again and she gives birth to Solomon, would be called the wisest man that ever lived. And God puts them in the lineage of Jesus Christ, the sinless son of God. Here's my point. Sin tried to destroy. God chose to restore. And I'm here to tell you the same thing.

These are not just a list of people. They're a story. They're your story. They're my story. There's nothing to hide. Put it before him and say, God, if you can do that for them, then I know you're waiting for me because grace is not earned. It's extended and I receive it. How many thank God for Jesus? Jesus Christ, in his grace.