Jesus Changes Everything | Chris Osburn

Good to see everybody who has made it here this morning to

worship, thankful for your presence and your visitor here.

We're so thankful that you're here and we welcome you back

each and every time that we assemble and you're able to

moving forward this morning, I wanted to continue kind of the

study we've had going on in Second Samuel with David and

Absalom, but I just ran out of time to put something together.

And so I'm going to give a lesson.

I gave, it's been maybe been five or six years or so already

since I've given it. But this lesson really kind of

ties into what we've been studying about how the Old

Testament points to Jesus, how the whole book of the Bible is

about Jesus and, and coming into the New Testament, how this is

the announcement of Jesus and what he is going to be doing.

And, and so I think it, it kind of hopefully flows into what

we've been kind of learning about in second Samuel.

We're going to be studying in Matthew chapter 1 and 2.

Matthew 1 · chapter mention

We're not going to be going through verse by verse.

We're just going to be kind of taking this of overall what it's

telling us moving forward. And I hope and my, my, I want us

to see that our, that the focus in our lives in this text is

solely on Jesus and what he has done and is doing.

I want us to see Jesus in this text this morning.

And it's a very simple aim for the next few minutes that I

have. And my aim is to show that Jesus

that in God's word we see him in a way by the time that maybe

we're finished, that we'll have a a more grasp of who he is and

what he does and have a greater love for who Jesus is by the

time we're done. And if we've been Christians for

most of our lives for 5670 years, whatever it may be, maybe

in a few minutes, we have a fresh way of understanding who

Jesus is. So that's my point.

That's what we're hopefully going to be studying this

morning. And I want to show you in eight

ways, Jesus changes everything. We're going to go through eight

points here, starting in Matthew chapter 1, verse one.

Matthew 1 · chapter mention

And this is how the New Testament opens up in the Bible.

It says the book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the

son of David, the son of Abraham.

We're going to stop there and we're going to dissect that a

little bit. First of all, Jesus redefines

history. That's the number one way Jesus

changes everything is he redefines history.

The first book of the New Testament starts with Jesus's

genealogy, a list of names. And honestly, I've always kind

of just skipped these first few verses when I read, you know,

who wants to read a list of names?

You know, if we, if you know, if we're being honest with

ourselves, we kind of skip over, right.

But you know, we want to get to the good stuff, to the meat and

the potatoes. If you want to say we don't want

to read a bunch of list of names, but it Matthew calls this

it's really an important list of names when we slow down and look

at it. Matthew calls us the book of the

genealogy of Jesus Christ and if there's any confusion.

Christ is not Jesus's last name. It is a title that is the

anointed 1 the Messiah, the prime promised one ever since

the interests of sin into the world in the beginning of the

Bible, God promised the coming of the anointed one of the

Messiah who would defeat sin and deliver people from sin.

And if we remember it back in early Genesis in chapter 3 of

Genesis, right after sin into the world, God said to the

serpent the to the tempter in in verse 15 of Genesis 3 says I

will put enmity between you and the woman and between your

offspring and her offspring. And then it talks about the

offspring from woman. He says he shall bruise your

head and you shall bruise his heel.

That so the tempter, the serpent would bruise the heel of the one

who would come, but this one who would come from the offspring of

woman would bruise the tempters head.

Some translations actually say that he will crush your head.

So what Matthew out of the gate Matthew was shouting here like

Jesus the snake crusher is here. He is going to take care of what

the problem has been for many, many years.

Jesus is the offspring from the woman and he has come to conquer

sin and Satan. And the rest of the chapter will

tell us a really a miraculous story of how Jesus will be born

uniquely from the offspring of a woman and not from man, not from

Adam, not from the first man who sinned.

This man, Jesus would not be like us.

He would not succumb to sin in any way.

He would actually save us from sin.

And if we go back to the book of Matthew here in verse one, like

it says before the book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, and

then it says the son of David. So Jesus is the offspring from

David who has come to reign as king forever.

And back in Samuel, second Samuel 7, we read that David

wanted to build the temple of God, but God told him, no,

you're not going to be building the temple of God.

My, your son Sam Solomon's going to be building that temple.

And in that passage God promised David that his offspring would

continue and then the one from his line would reign his king

forever. In second Samuel 2 verses

Chapter 7, verses 12 and 13, where God said to David, when

your days are fulfilled and and you rest with your father's, I

will set up your seat after you, who will come from your body,

and I will establish his Kingdom.

He shall build a house for my name and I will establish the

throne of his Kingdom forever. And it's obvious that that

promise was initially just a reference to Solomon, but we

notice it's it's more about more than just Solomon because the

throne of his Kingdom, it says will be established forever.

We read the same thing in second Samuels Chapter 7, verse 16,

where God said to David, your house and your Kingdom shall be

made sure forever before me. Your throne shall be established

forever. And when we read the rest of the

Old Testament, it's really that that promise is repeated over

and over and over again in the Old Testament.

In Isaiah Chapter 9, it talks about the Prince of Peace who

Isaiah 9 · chapter mention

would come and sit on the throne of David.

Jeremiah 23 verses 5 and 6 tells about a king from the line of

Jeremiah 23:5

David who would bring perfect justice and righteousness onto

the earth. Ezekiel chapter 3724 and 25

tells about a Davidic king who would reign over a new covenant

for all nations. We can go on and on and on and

on. This is all in the Old Testament

repeating this promise. And the point here is that

throughout the Old Testament, God's people were continually

looking for an earthly king, for somebody that they could put

their eyes on and grasp a hold of, have a physical king to

reign over Israel. But what Matthew was saying here

that that king has come. Jesus is here.

And I want to show you here in Matthew one, verse 17, as we

read the list of these names, you know, it's not really a

comprehensive genealogy. If you want to say Matthew

leaves out a couple of generations for whatever reason,

you know, maybe we wish we could leave you out a few people in

our family members in our line of genealogy.

But but we, you know, we, we understand that not all of the

line or the, the, the family tree of Jesus is listed here in

this list here in Matthew in verse 17 says all the

generations from Abraham to David were 14 generations and

from David to the deportation to Babylon, Babylon 14 generations.

And from the deportation to Babylon to the Christ 14

generations. Matthew was putting a stamp

saying that Jesus is from the lion of King David.

And if we go back to verse one, Jesus is the son of David.

That's why that reference is there.

And he's also the son of Abraham.

We see there in verse one, so one more.

If we go back to the Old Testament again, we remember

what's said in Genesis 12 verses one through 13 when God said

said to Abraham. Now the Lord has said to

Abraham, go out of your country from your family and from your

father's house to a land that I will show you, and I will make

you a great nation. I will bless you and make your

name great, and you shall be a blessing.

I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who

curses you, and in all the time and in you all the families of

the earth shall be blessed. If you keep reading in Genesis

17 verses 1516 where God tells Abraham that he would bring a

blessing to all the nations and kings would come from his line.

It says in in chapter 49, verse 10 that from the line of Judah

will come a king whom shall be the obedience of the peoples.

And then when we get back here to Matthew verses one and two,

it says the book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the

son of David, the son of Abraham.

Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac was the father of

Jacob and Jacob the father of Judah.

So we see Jesus as the offspring of Abraham through that line,

through Judah, who will bless all nations.

And so sometimes, you know, I used to think, what isn't the

whole, the Old Testament about David?

You know, what about all that history?

What about David? What about the kingdoms that

were set up? And we don't want to miss this.

And we've said this multiple times here.

The Bible is making it clear in this passage that nothing in

history is accidental. Nothing throughout its history,

from the very beginning, everything in the Old Testament

has been pointing to the king who would come.

And then the first verse in the New Testament, the Bible is

announcing the king has come. Jesus Christ, the son of David,

the son of Abraham is here. Here is when he is entering into

our physical history. And this is really important for

us to hear because you and I are not the center of history.

Our generation is not the center of history.

The United States is not the center of history.

Kingdoms have come, leaders have come, billions and billions of

people have come and gone. Rulers, empires, countries,

nations, presidents, dictators have come and gone.

But at the center of it all is still Jesus ruling as king.

And praise God for that. That's the only the first point

I'm going to make here. So we got 7 more.

Secondly, Jesus reunites humanity.

Jesus redefines history and Jesus reunites humanity.

Here we have in this list of people different generations,

different backgrounds. We've seen there are men and

women, Jews and Gentiles, from upper class and also from kings

all the way down to lower class prostitute.

But they all have one thing in common and that is they all

point to Jesus. So if you hold your place there

in Matthew chapter 1, we're going to move over to Matthew

Matthew 1 · chapter mention Matthew 2 · chapter mention

chapter 2. If you want to follow along,

we're going to read the first few verses of Matthew chapter

Matthew 2 · chapter mention

2-3, verses one through 12. It says there 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 king of the Jews?

For we have seen his star in the east, and have come to worship

him. When Herod the King heard this,

he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him.

And when he had gathered all the chief priests and the scribes of

the people together, he inquired of them where Jesus was to be

born. So they said to him in Bethlehem

of Judea. For thus it is written by the

prophet. But you, Bethlehem, in the land

of Judah, are not the least among the rulers of Judah, where

out of you shall come a ruler who will shepherd my people

Israel. Then Herod, when he had secretly

called the wise men, determined from them what time the star

appeared, and when he sent them to Bethlehem and said, Go and

search carefully for the young child.

And when you have found him, bring him back, Bring back word

to me, that I may come and worship him.

When they heard the king, they departed, and behold, the star

which they had seen in the East went before them till it came

and stood over where the child was.

When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceedingly great

joy. And when they had come into the

house, they saw a young child with marry his mother, and fell

down and worshipped him. And when they had opened their

treasures, they presented gifts to him, gold, frankincense and

myrrh. Then being divinely warned in a

dream that they should not return to Herod, they departed

for their own country another way.

It's really a fascinating story when we understand what's really

going on here. You know, there's a, there's a

mystery around who these guys from the East were.

These three men from the East, it says.

And by the way, it never says there was 3.

OK, so we when we see those pictures of the nativity that

people put up winter time around December, they say 3 wise men.

Well, it never says 3 by the way, doesn't mean that there

wasn't 3, but it never says 3. They weren't also just some

stargazers. These were well respected men,

if you want to say with prominent religious and

political influence. Their name literally means great

or powerful ones. Their high position was also

evident in the wealth that they brought to give the gifts that

they likely have alongside them. And we learned of men like this

in the book of Daniel. It's likely that they had been

influenced by Jewish teachings from the Old Testament, where

people of Israel had been scattered across the East during

the exile and now through their study of the stars, if you want

to say they were drawn from the East to worship the king of the

Jews. So there's Old Testament

background here. And you know, we don't have the

time to dive into all those stories, but there's there's

nothing accidental that happened in the Old Testament to lead up

to this point. We see back in the Book of

Numbers, Balak, the king of Moab, had called for Balaam,

which was a magician or seer from the East to come and curse

Israel for him. And in that story, Balaam

refused to do that. Instead, he actually blessed

Israel in his last words. This is what Balaam said in

Numbers 24 verses 15 and 17. It says so he took up his

Numbers 24:15

article Oracle and said the utterance of Balaam, the son of

Beor, and the utterance of the man whose eyes were opened.

The utterance of him who hears the word of God has been the

utterance of him who hears the word of God and has the

knowledge of the Most High who sees the vision of the Almighty,

who falls down with the with eyes wide open.

I see him, but not now. I behold him, but not near.

A star shall come out of Jacob, A scepter shall rise out of

Israel. You see Balaam said, from the

people of Israel a star would come with a scepter, a king

would rise, a star would announce a king.

Then we continue. If you read on in Numbers 24,

you see that this king would save the people of God.

And if we think about it, numbers in numbers, that well

respected magician, a seer from the East, told about a star and

a king would rise among the Jews.

And then we see now here in Matthew, powerful and

influential musicians, magi from the East, follow a star to see

the one who was born king of the Jews.

Everything here is purposeful, everything that all the

prophecies in the Old Testament are now coming to fruition.

It's just these first few chapters of Matthew.

It's just prophecy fulfilled after prophecy fulfilled after

prophecy fulfilled. It's almost like we can't keep

up and notice everything that's being fulfilled at one time.

But it's really amazing when we do that study.

See, God is orchestrating history.

He's even if you want to say orchestrating the planets and

the stars to announce the coming of Jesus.

It's a breathtaking scene. Jesus has come as king for

everyone and for all nations. You see, we see that all through

the Bible. We see all of all of all of the

prophecies. Like we mentioned before, Jesus

is going to be king of all nations and all peoples.

You see, the Lord's church is made-up of people from countless

nations. And we've gathered here in

Bakersfield, there's gatherings all across California and our

country and around the entire world.

Not because of we're the same social economic people, not

because of the same race, not because of the same anything.

We're here for one reason. That's because we worship our

God in heaven, and Jesus is king, reigning over all.

That's why we're gathered here and his name is Jesus.

And Jesus reunites humanity. But we're human race that's

marked by sin. So what does all this history

mean in our lives? That brings us back to Matthew

1. And the third way that Jesus

changes is everything. Because all who are caught in

sin, which is all of us, Jesus gives us a fresh start.

In these first, first, first 17 verses.

We have those lists of names, Sinner after Sinner after

Sinner, story after story. Judah and Tamar in verse three

who had twins by incest. Verse 6 is the story of David's

adultery with the wife of Uriah and then whom David had then had

murdered. Then we have the evil king after

evil king who led people into idolatry and immorality, even

resulting in the destruction of Jerusalem and deportation into

Babylon. We're actually reading some of

this early on in Second Kings. Right now in our readings, we

see all this kind of playing out story after story of people who

rebelled against God. It's pretty, pretty startling to

think that the great, great, great, great grandparents of

Jesus hated God and they were leading others to hate God.

But then we see in verse 18 right after this whole list,

Matthew writes now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows.

And if you take notes in your Bible or anything like that, if

you want to circle that word birth, it's really a pretty

awesome word. That word in the Greek, that

word in the Greek is translated Genesis.

Sorry for my handwriting. If you think about that, if you

ponder on it for just a couple minutes, it's really, really

pretty amazing. It's pretty awesome.

Think when you think about the whole very choice of language

here. God has taken us back to the

very beginning when sinful humanity started, and he's

saying, I'm bringing you a new start.

Jesus is a new Genesis. He's a new beginning.

So to all you know, if we're caught in in iniquity, Jesus

comes to give us a new identity when we choose to follow him and

become Christians and then live our life for him.

We have a new identity in Christ.

This is why we when we read Matthew the chapter 1 verses 18

and 21 where it says if you're looking at your Bible in 18

verse 21, it says now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows

after his mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph before they

came together. She was found with child of holy

of the Holy Spirit. Then Joseph her husband being a

just man and not wanting to make her a public example was minded

to put her away secretly. But while he thought about these

things, behold, an Angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream,

saying, Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take your to

take to your merry. Do not be afraid to take to you

Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the

Holy Spirit, and she will bring forth a son.

And you should call his name Jesus, for he will save people

from their sins. This is where we are told why

Jesus came. Jesus came to save us from our

sins. That is why he came.

You know, people think that he came to, to to do all these

miracles or to heal people or to get a following.

And Jesus, if we if you read some of the miracles he's done,

he tells people once he healed them.

Don't tell anybody about what we just happened here because they

don't want Jesus didn't want people believing that Jesus was

there to heal people physically or to do miracles.

The miracles were done so they could.

It could establish who Jesus was.

But Jesus main point was here to save us from our sins.

A lot of people hope that when they stand before God that day,

they'll have to go, that they'll get to go to heaven because of

their good deeds outweigh their bad deeds.

It's not taught in the Bible. They hope that they will have

done enough good to overcome their back.

But the problem with that whole way of thinking is that one sin

against an infinitely holy God is worthy of infinite separation

from God. One sin, no matter how good

we've been, no matter how hard we've tried, we cannot erase

that one sin. We've committed so many more

sins than that just in this building here.

Every one of us has. We've turned away from God's

ways and turned to our own ways. That's really the essence of

sin. But the beauty here is that we

don't have to try to overcome our bad with good.

We're not saved because we're not saved of our sins because

we're good enough. We're saved from our sins

because Jesus is gracious is not because Jesus has come to pay

the price, and he did pay the price for all of our sins.

It's not based on anything you and I could ever do to earn.

Jesus has died on a cross to cover over all sins and it's the

greatest news in the world. We can be forgiven of all of our

sins before a holy God, not because we do enough good

things, but because we become Christians and we're baptized

and we follow Jesus and we turn from our old way of life and all

of our old bad habits and sinful ways.

And now we are choosing to follow Christ in that manner.

So if we're guilty of sin, which is all of us, he will give us a

new identity and not just that. And we think about all the shame

associated with some of these stories in this of sin here just

listed in the the names here in the 1st part of Matthew chapter

one. We think about all we have

incest, we have adultery, we have Rahab the prostitute, even

Ruth, she was a Moabite from the people known for their sexual

immorality. But Jesus gives a fresh start to

all who are stained by the shame of sin.

He gives us new dignity and new identity.

And if we really look at Jesus's family tree, it's one pretty

crooked family tree. There's a lot of sin going on

through the line of Jesus up to that point.

And we ever, you know, we've, I've wondered, you know, why are

the names of such shameful sinners included in this line

that leads to Jesus? And I think the answer is for

the same reason why our name is included after the line of

Jesus, because we're all sinners.

We're all guilty of sin. You see, God sent his Son to

save the undeserving, the unlikely.

And we just think about who was writing this Matthew, the tax

collector. No, he wasn't the most

upstanding guy when before he started decided to follow Jesus,

he was he was ripping off the Jewish people in Matthew 9.

All the people that Matthew had gathered to his house are really

moral reprobates. If you want to say he knows that

he's least the least likely person to be writing the Gospel.

And that's what makes the Gospel so such good news to us is that

God saves us not based on our vain efforts or, or all the

mistakes that we've made, but it's based upon his supernatural

gift of grace that we receive and his mercy.

And we need to hear that good news today, every single one of

us. We can have a totally new start

with our sins totally wiped away.

We can have that new identity and that new dignity in Christ.

Some of these stories are disheartening.

What if these, you know, if these stories of sin that we can

read about these characters and is all that there really is?

You know, we just read these sad stories and that's it.

You know, it'd be kind of depressing.

You really wouldn't give validity to the Bible and what

it is. But there's always hope given

for those who have made those mistakes.

Jesus gives us fresh hope. Sometimes we look at the

circumstances around us, whether we've created them or people

have created the circumstances around us.

We just don't see any hope maybe in some of the circumstances

that we're facing and that we're dealing with, you know, I just

don't see me coming back from this or such and such may not

come back from what they're dealing with in their life at

this time. Maybe we've seen in a way that

we wish we could just take it back, but we can't.

It's out there. We think you know that well,

I've seen that way. That's going to redefine my life

from here on out. We we, we categorize that and we

hold on to things that we think is going to define who we are

for the rest of our lives. And that's not the case when

we're Christians, because Jesus defines who we are in every

manner. Jesus defines our life, our

sins, our previous life. Our previous sins do not define

who we are. No sin will define who we are if

we're in Jesus. And if you read the stories of

the Gospels, we see the story after story after story of

people who sin really, really, like really bad sins.

We see that. But when they encounter Jesus,

everything changes in their life.

You think about the Apostle Paul, his previous life before

he converted, you know, he, Saul of Tarsus, he was murdering

Christians. He was seeking them out.

He was asking for permission from those above him to go and

kill Christians. He was doing it.

He was at authorizing the death in the stoning of Stephen.

But when he encountered Jesus, his entire life changed from

there on out all the way to the cross where we see a thief dying

next to Jesus asking him for for forgiveness.

Jesus says today you will be with me in paradise.

You see Jesus ensures that sin will not define our life and

that's good news. Then there are those who suffer

because of result of sin. Sin has consequences that we

have to deal with. Sin causes consequences not only

to ourselves but also to those that may be around us, impacting

others that may be around us. It could do some serious

destruction. We have some of us here who have

family members that are no longer part of the church

because of sin, and Satan has drawn them away.

The world is taking hold of them because the devil works so hard,

I believe harder than anything else to divide a family.

I believe that's where State and Satan really, really starts his

division. And if we're here, we have

family members that are not here because of the choices that

they've made. Has it not had an effect on you?

Don't other family members decisions have an effect on you,

whether good or bad? It hurts sometimes we suffer

because of other people's choices.

We suffer because of someone else's poor choices and pad

decisions, not just worship attendance, but but choices that

are made all throughout the world all the time.

And it really suffering And that that that that heavyweight we

feel sometimes is a reality. You know, we raise our children

raise in a way that God would have us to raise them.

We pray that we would have the wisdom to raise them in a way,

and we do everything that we think is doing right and

everything goes smooth, and then they decide to one day not

follow Jesus. That's hard for us to

understand. It's hard for us to wrap our

minds around, blindsided by a decision.

Or maybe it's the sudden death of a loved one that's not with

us anymore, or someone who's close to you actually hurt you

the most. We lose heart, we lose, we lose,

I don't know another word for it, but we lose our heart, of

course. But if we lost of heart, if we

have lost heart, Jesus gives us fresh hope because he ensures

that suffering will not be the end of our story.

We want to make sure we understand it and mark it down.

Suffering is not the end of anybody's story because we

believe in Jesus and Jesus always gives us hope in

everything. The one who had saved us from

our sins and came to conquer death itself.

With Jesus, all suffering will never be the end of our story.

He turns tragedy into triumph. Jesus changes everything.

Jesus's presence will never leave us alone.

In Matthew one verse 22, it says all this took place to fulfill

what the Lord had spoken by the prophet.

Behold, the Virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and

they shall call his name Emmanuel, which means God be

with us. That prophecy was given 700

years before Matthew chapter 1. And it's astounding that truth

Matthew 1 · chapter mention

of Christianity to it seems so incomprehensible to so many

people. But to those who us who believe,

it's irresistible. We understand it, we we grasp

it, we can hold on to it. We we know it.

There's a story of a group of men in the Middle East that I

heard about who say, you know, God is too great, God is too

great of an entity too glorious to debase himself and become a

physical man, a human. That's what they believe.

And then a Christian man replied to them and said, let me ask you

a question. In my life, I met, I once met a

woman and my heart fell in love with her.

And when it came time for me to tell her that I loved her, do

you think I sent somebody else to go and tell her to do that,

that I loved her for me? Or do you think I went and told

her myself? And they laughed and said, of

course you went and told her yourself that you loved her.

And that Christian man said, in matters of love one must go

himself, not send somebody else. And that's the point.

Our God is so great and so glorious that he is not just

sent this prophet or that person a messenger, whatever he came

himself, Jesus, Emmanuel, God in the flesh with us.

And if we think of it, the God who spoke the world into the big

to being, who rules and reigns over all creation, who knows

every star in the sky, knows everything about everybody more

than we know about ourselves. Who tells the ocean waves where

to stop. The God who has multitudes of

angels worshipping him and singing praise continually day

and night. The God whose glory is beyond

our imagination that we can't even fathom how glorious he is.

This is the God that is with us. Jesus is the constant companion

our soul craves, no matter what happens to us, no matter what

happens around us, no matter what we go through, no matter

what we're dealing with. But all of us who are

Christians, all who follow Jesus, will never be alone in

this world. And I think it's also reality

too. Some, you know, do we ever feel

alone? I think loneliness is a reality.

Maybe you feel like people don't understand what we're going

through, what we're experiencing.

You know, you could be in a crowd, in a place with a crowd

of people all all around you, but you feel alone.

And we need to know this, that Jesus has come so that we mean

never be alone. He will never ever leave us

alone. Jesus will never lead us astray.

Number six, in the middle of Matthew chapter 2, we read a

Matthew 2 · chapter mention

quote from Micah 5 verse 2 about a promise of a coming Messiah.

Micah 5:2

And if we had time, we'd do some comparisons between the two.

But at the end of Matthew chapter or Matthew verse 6 or

chapter 2 verse 6, it says from you shall come a ruler who will

shepherd my people, Israel. And that picture of a shepherd

is actually not in Micah 2, but it goes all the way back to

second Samuel 5 verse 2 where God anointed David as king over

2 Samuel 5:2

Israel. God said to him, You shall not

just lead my people, but you are to shepherd my people.

You don't just rule over them, but like a shepherd with his

sheep, you tend to them, you care for them, you protect and

provide to them. And that's really a picture of

Jesus. Jesus has come not to reign over

us, not to demand of us, not to rule with an iron fist if you

want to say, but he's a shepherd us to lead us.

So we desire to do what Jesus wants us to do.

Jesus doesn't make any choices for us.

We make our own choices. Jesus hasn't said something in

written in stone that we have to follow.

Now we do follow the scriptures. That's not what I'm saying.

My point is, is that we're not forced, but as robots to follow

what Jesus has directed us to do.

Do we ever wonder which direction to take in life?

Do we ever wonder which direction to make in life?

Jesus is our shepherd. He's the one who shows us which

way to go and teaches us which way, which way to go, the one

who rules over you. He.

We will never be guided in the wrong direction if we always do

what Jesus has shown us to do. How to treat people, how to make

decisions, how to follow through with things, how to pray, how on

and on and on and on everything He has shown us.

And we will never be out without guidance with Him.

Jesus's word will never let us down #7 The Old Testament

quotations keep coming as we see here in verse 15 of Matthew

Matthew 2 · chapter mention

chapter 2, after Joseph and Mary flee to Egypt and then return,

Matthew says that that was not by accident.

He says this was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the

prophet out of Egypt. I called my son and just like

God had brought deliverance from Egypt in the Old Testament,

Jesus is coming out of Egypt to bring deliverance in the New

Testament. And then we get down to chapter

verses 17 and 18 in Matthew chapter 2, where he quotes from

Matthew 2 · chapter mention

Jeremiah 31 verses 15 and 17 as families are weeping because

Jeremiah 31:15

babies were dying in Bethlehem during this time, because Herod

had decreed to have all the male babies killed in order to kill

the line of Jesus Christ. Matthew takes us back to

Jeremiah 31, who's where families were weeping and they

were being ripped apart in the deportation to Babylon.

And in Jeremiah 31, God promises, it says, just as I

brought hope in Jeremiah 31 when I said you have a you'll have a

future. This was not be the end of your

story. So I'm promising you now that

this weeping you are experiencing will not be the end

of the story. And the whole point here is that

God is always faithful to His Word.

God always is faithful to His Word.

He'll deliver our soul in every way.

God's Word will prove true every single time.

We do not have to doubt that. And Jesus is a picture of that.

All the promises that God made hundreds and hundreds of years

before His coming are fulfilled in the New Testament and the

Bible tells about. All God's promises are in are,

are yes in Jesus in 2nd Corinthians 1 and 20.

He is the picture of God's faithfulness.

Jesus's love is worthy of our life.

Jesus's love is worthy of our life.

This is really where everything kind of comes to a head.

Jesus is all these things we've just talked about in which we

could summarize as Jesus is the one whose love is worthy of our

life. And the rest of the book of

Matthew. We see this is the question over

and over and over again in the book of Matthew.

Who is going to believe that Jesus is worthy of their life?

And what we see is that the religious leaders reject him and

the Roman rulers reject him. But then you have a small band

of guys who love him and follow him and quite frankly, change

the entire world just because of their belief in Jesus.

And that leads to one question I want to ask each and every one

of us today. Do you believe that Jesus is the

one whose love is worthy of our entire life?

We need to realize that he is the one that we need.

The followers are Christians of Jesus are not are are not

people. You know, we just don't have

Jesus as part of our lives. He's not just a small part,

maybe on Sunday mornings or Sunday afternoons.

No, Jesus is our life entirely our life.

We look to him for everything in every situation, in every facet

of our lives. We.

Need him and we want to understand what he needs from

us. So he doesn't need anything from

us, but we want to follow him because of what he has done for

us. We don't just tack them on a

little bit here and there. That's not following Jesus.

That's actually patronizing Jesus, if you ask me, the curse

of nominal Christianity. Whereas people who claim to be

Jesus but have real no real love for him to or desire to follow

him. Jesus is not just a part of our

life. Jesus is our life.

And when we put our trust in Jesus, when we believe who he

is, when we confess his name, when we change of our old ways,

we're baptized into believing Christians.

That's just the beginning. Our life is fresh, Our life is

new. We have a fresh start because

Jesus changed it at that point. No matter what is unexpected

before us this week or throughout the future, we can

have security and knowing that Jesus is going to fulfill the

promises that he made us. All the Old Testament, all these

prophecies, all the stories that we read about in all the Old

Testament writings point to one man, 1 Savior, our Redeemer,

Jesus the Christ. So what has Jesus changed in

your life? Or better question, does Jesus

change your life? Has He changed your life?

Have we surrendered to him? Is Jesus Lord of our lives?

Have we submitted to him? And if we haven't, we're going

to provide an opportunity, an invitation that we do here to

follow Jesus, to be baptized, to have remission of our sins.

Hear the Word, believe Jesus is who he is, change the way our

lives have been going, confess the name of Jesus before others.

Then we're baptized in contact, the blood of Jesus Christ at

that moment, and we are forgiven of our sins.

If we are here and we've done that, but we have committed a

sin in a public manner that needs a public confession, or if

we just need the prayers of the congregation, we ask you to

please come while we stand and while we see.