Sermon

Jesus Changes Everything - Chris Osburn 11/17/19

Church of Christ - Bakersfield, Ca

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  1. It's good to see everybody that came out this evening.

  2. Thank you for your presents and spend a few minutes tonight.

  3. Studying God's word. Please open your Bibles to the

  4. first chapter of Matthew, will be kind of touching some on some

  5. verses in Matthew chapter 1 and Matthew Chapter 2, and

    Matthew 1 chapter mention Matthew 2 chapter mention

  6. referencing some passages from the Old Testament, as well.

  7. For the next few minutes to just a very simple aim that I have.

  8. And that is to show Jesus and God's word in a way that by the

  9. time we're finished here, that were more encouraged that were

  10. more enlightened and more more have more faith in Jesus, and

  11. what he is, and what he does for us.

  12. And for those who, you know, may be young and still fully

  13. grasping the whole concept of the gospel.

  14. And also, for those who have been in the church for a long

  15. time, 50, 60 years, whatever, maybe hope that we just have a

  16. new Fresh Vibrance of Jesus and who he is and what he has done

  17. for us. So, I wanted to, I wanted to

  18. touch bases on how Jesus Changes Everything.

  19. Everything Changes Things in our life changes things, in

  20. perspective, that, that a lot of people in the gun in the world.

  21. Don't know. And we're going to start, of

  22. course in the Book of Matthew in verse 1.

  23. And it says there, Matthew chapter 1 verse 1.

    Matthew 1:1

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

  25. son of David, the son of Abraham, I'm going to stop right

  26. there. We're going to notice eight

  27. points on how Jesus changes everything.

  28. And the number one way that that Jesus changes everything is

  29. Jesus redefine. Ends history.

  30. You know, the first book of the New Testament starts with

  31. genealogy that is really not very pleasant to read sometimes

  32. and it's just redundant when we get into the genealogies and we

  33. want to skip over it but there's a strong significance.

  34. Why it's in there and there's reasons why every single passage

  35. in the Bible is in there and from from the start of the Book

  36. of Matthew, which Matthew was a disciple of Jesus, It's showing

  37. that all the history is pointing to Jesus.

  38. Everything in the Old Testament, Matthew calls that the book, the

  39. book that he wrote the book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ.

  40. Now, of course, if there's any confusion we know that Christ is

  41. not a last name. Christ means messenger or the

  42. anointed one. The Messiah, the promised one

  43. ever since the entrance of sin into the world, in the beginning

  44. of the Bible, God promised the coming of an anointed one in

  45. Messiah. I'll Messiah or one who would

  46. defeat sin and deliver people from sin.

  47. So in Genesis 3 and 15, we remember that were right after

  48. sin entered into the world. God said to the serpent, which

  49. was the tempter. It says I will put enmity

  50. between you and the woman and between your Offspring and her

  51. Offspring and then it talks about one Offspring from the

  52. woman and said, is he shall bruise your head, And you shall

  53. bruise his heel. So all the way back in the

  54. beginning of the Bible, there was there was an immediate

  55. prophecy of Jesus and he would be the one to come the one who

  56. would come to from The Offspring of a woman and would bruise.

  57. It, he would bruise The tempters Head, and some translations say

  58. he will crush your head. So the first verse of Matthew

  59. Matthew says, That basically the snake Crusher has come Jesus is

  60. here. This is what all the Old

  61. Testament has been pointing to. Jesus is The Offspring of from

  62. the woman and he has come to conquer sin and Satan and the

  63. rest of the chapter will tell us the miraculous story of how

  64. Jesus would be born, uniquely from The Offspring of woman and

  65. not a man, not from Adam, the first man who was, of course

  66. succumb to sin. This man Jesus that we read

  67. about, he would not be like us, he would not succumb to sin, he

  68. would save us from sin. If we go back, of course,

  69. looking still at the first verse in Matthew, it says, the book of

  70. the genealogy of Jesus Christ. The son of David Jesus is The

  71. Offspring from David, who can't who has come to reign as king

  72. forever. And we reference back in Samuel.

  73. 2nd, Samuel 7. We read that David wanted to

  74. build a temple for God, but God told David know your son Solomon

  75. is going to build that temple in that passage God, promised David

  76. that his offspring would continue.

  77. Then one from his line would reign as king forever.

  78. If we look at second, Samuel chapter 7 verses 12 through 13.

  79. It says, when your days are fulfilled and you rest with your

  80. father's I will set up your seed after you who will come from

  81. your body and I will establish his kingdom.

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

  83. Throne of his kingdom forever. Now it's obvious that he was

  84. referencing Solomon in this but he was also pointing towards

  85. Christ as well towards Jesus. Build a house in God's name and

  86. will establish a throne forever. We read the same thing in the

  87. 16th verse of second Samuel 7, it says in your house and your

  88. kingdom shall be established forever.

  89. Before you, your throne shall be established forever.

  90. We read in the in, in the entirety of the Old Testament

  91. over and over again, the promise that promise being repeated,

  92. Also, in Isaiah 9:6 through 7 talks about the Prince of Peace.

    Isaiah 9:6–7

  93. Who would come to sit on the throne of David?

  94. Jeremiah 23:5 through six tells about a king from the line of

    Jeremiah 23:5

  95. David who would who would bring perfect Justice and

  96. righteousness into the Earth and his equal, Ezekiel 37 verses 24

    Ezekiel 37:24–25

  97. through 25 tells about a davidic king, who would Reign Over a New

  98. Covenant for all nations and we could keep going over passages

  99. and passages and passages of scripture in the Old Testament.

  100. Spent that reference at the point, is that through the Old

  101. Testament? God's people were continually

  102. looking for a different King. Unlike any other key to come in

  103. the line of David and what Matthew is saying here is that

  104. the King has come Jesus is here. This is the one that you guys

  105. have been looking for. In Matthew 1 17.

  106. It says they're you know as we read these names it's not

  107. actually a comprehensive genealogy in verse 17 that we

  108. read. Not every descendant in that

  109. family tree is included. In fact, some entire Generations

  110. that have been skipped. So why did Matthew do this?

  111. Why did Matthew decide to skip Generations in here?

  112. We read in in, in the 17 verse There it says so all the

  113. generations from Abraham to David are fourteen Generations

  114. from David until the Captivity in Babylon are fourteen

  115. generations and from the Captivity in Babylon until

  116. Christ are fourteen Generations. So the number 14 is mentioned,

  117. three times in this one verse. And you know, I kind of wondered

  118. why why would he specifically say fourteen generations?

  119. And I kind of started doing some research on this.

  120. And this, this is just interesting to me.

  121. It may or may not make any sense to anybody, but it goes all the

  122. way back to the Hebrew name of King David.

  123. Going back to a little bit of Hebrew information in the Hebrew

  124. language. They have something called

  125. Gematria in. Gematria is the Jewish alphabet

  126. had specific numbers identified to each letter of the Hebrew.

  127. Alphabet, for example, like we have in this slide here, this is

  128. the, this is the Hebrew alphabet, and the value under

  129. each letter, They came up with a number that was identified to

  130. each letter of the alphabet. So example, you would have a

  131. number of soy sauce associated with your name and what happens

  132. is the Hebrew name of David? Is this here?

  133. And then you add these numbers together for each letter that

  134. number comes out to 14, For whatever it's worth, you know?

  135. I think Matthew may may, if we want to take it that far, again,

  136. putting the stamp that this is the line of David, and Jesus is

  137. here. I thought that was very

  138. interesting to me. Now we go back one verse Jesus

  139. is the son of David and he's also the son of Abraham.

  140. So one more look back at the Old Testament remember that we read

  141. in Genesis 12 1, through 3 1, God said to Abraham now, the

  142. Lord had said to Abraham get out of your country from your family

  143. and from your father's house to a land that I will show you, I

  144. will make you a great nation. I will bless you, and make you a

  145. great new your name. Great.

  146. And you shall be a blessing. And I will bless those who bless

  147. you, and I will curse him who curses you and in all, and in

  148. you all the families of the Earth shall be blessed.

  149. If we keep reading in Genesis verses 15 through 16 where God

  150. tells Abraham that he would bring a blessing to all the

  151. nations and the Kings would come from his line and then says, in

  152. verse 10 of chapter 49 from the line of Judah would come a king

  153. who shall be The Obedience of the people's.

  154. So, now, in Matthew 1, verses 1 through 2, when it says, the

    Matthew 1:1–2

  155. book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the

  156. son of Abraham Abraham was Father of Isaac, and Isaac, the

  157. father of Jacob, and Jacob, the father of Judah.

  158. So we can see that Jesus is The Offspring from Abraham who was

  159. come to bless all nations. So what's the point of all the

  160. Old Testament? History of David?

  161. The Bible is making it extremely clear and very clear that

  162. nothing is done by accident. Nothing was ever done by

  163. accident in the Old Testament, leading up to Jesus, we just

  164. study this a little bit on Wednesday, last Wednesday,

  165. evening throughout history from the very beginning.

  166. Everything in the Old Testament has been pointing to a King who

  167. would come then from the first verse in the New Testament, the

  168. Bible is announcing. The King has come Jesus Christ.

  169. The son of David, the son of Of Abraham is here.

  170. He is the center of history, and that's really important for us

  171. to hear because you and I are not the center of History.

  172. Our Generation that we live in is not the center of History.

  173. The United States is not the center of History.

  174. Throughout history, billions of people of come billions of

  175. people have gone empires have come empires, have gone

  176. countries Nations, Kings presidents, dictators rulers,

  177. have come and gone. And at the center of it all

  178. stands. One person who has never left

  179. and that is Jesus. He is always been there.

  180. So, the second thing that she's Jesus changes is he Jesus

  181. reunites Humanity, Jesus, redefines history and reunites

  182. Humanity. Here we have a list of different

  183. people, different Generations, different backgrounds, there are

  184. men, and women Jews, and Gentiles from the upper class

  185. Kings to lower class prostitute, but they all have one thing in

  186. common. They all point to Jesus.

  187. Okay. So let's go over to Matthew to

  188. and we're going to read the first 12 valve.

  189. Versus a Matthew too. It says there.

  190. Now, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days

  191. of Herod, the king behold, wise men from the East came to

  192. Jerusalem saying, where is he, who has been born King of the

  193. Jews? For we have seen a start in the

  194. East and have come to worship him.

  195. When Herod the king heard this. He was troubled and all

  196. Jerusalem with him. And when he had gathered all the

  197. chief priests and the scribes of the people together, he inquired

  198. of them where the Christ was to be born.

  199. Or was to be, yes, was to be more.

  200. So they said to him in Bethlehem of Judea for thus it is written

  201. by the prophet, but you Bethlehem in the land of Judah,

  202. are not the least. Among the rulers of Judah for

  203. out of you shall come a ruler. Who will Shepherd My People

  204. Israel then Herod when he had secretly called, the wise men

  205. determined from them? What time, the star appeared and

  206. he sent them to Bethlehem and said, go and search carefully

  207. for the young child and when you have found him bring back word

  208. to me, That I may come and worship him also.

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

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

  211. and stood over where the young child was when they saw the

  212. star, they rejoiced with exceedingly great joy.

  213. And when they had come into the house, they saw the young child

  214. with Mary, his mother and fell down and worshipped him.

  215. And when they had opened their Treasures, they presented gifts

  216. to him. Gold, frankincense, frankincense

  217. and myrrh. Merv then being divinely warned

  218. in a dream that they should not return to Herod.

  219. They departed for their own country, another way.

  220. That's a pretty fascinating story when we think about it.

  221. There's there's been some mystery around these guys and

  222. you know, by the way, it never says there was three wise men As

  223. sometimes as depicted in what we see is nativity scenes.

  224. But there was never never says that there was three wise men.

  225. They also weren't just some crazy stargazers, these were

  226. well respected men with prominent religious and

  227. political influence. Their name literally means great

  228. or powerful ones. Their High position was also

  229. evident in the wealth that they brought of course with their

  230. Caravan that they probably likely had beside them as they

  231. went. We learned about about men like

  232. this and Daniel. It's likely that they had been

  233. influenced by some Jewish teachings from the Old

  234. Testament, when the people of Israel had been scattered across

  235. the East during the Exile. Now, of course, through their

  236. studies of the Stars, they were drawn from the East to worship

  237. the king. King of Jews of the Jews.

  238. There's Old Testament background, but of course, that

  239. we don't have time to look out, but nothing is accidental.

  240. Back in the Book of Numbers. Balak, the king of Moab had

  241. called for Balaam and which was a magician or a Seer from the

  242. East to come and curse Israel for him.

  243. And in that story Balaam refused to do that for Bay them and

  244. instead he actually blessed Israel.

  245. And in his last words Bayless Balaam said this and numbers 24

  246. 15 through 17. It says so he took up his Oracle

  247. and said the utterance of Balaam the son.

  248. Son of beor and the utterance of the man, whose eyes are opened

  249. the utterance of him who hears the words of God and has the

  250. knowledge of the most high who sees the vision of the almighty

  251. Who falls down with his eyes wide open.

  252. I see him but not now I Behold Him but not near a star shall

  253. come out of Jacob and a scepter shall rise out of Israel.

  254. So Balaam said from the people of Israel, a star would come out

  255. a scepter or a king would rise a star would announce a king.

  256. Then as we if you continue to read and numbers 24, you see

  257. this King would be king. Who would save people of God.

  258. So think about, you know, we can think about this and numbers of

  259. well-respected magician, a Seer from the East told about a star

  260. and a king that would rise from or would rise among the Jews.

  261. And then now in Matthew a powerful influential magicians

  262. or Magi from the East. Follow a star to see the one who

  263. was born, King of the Jews. God in this whole entire

  264. history, starts orchestrating everything, he arranges the

  265. planets and the stars in the sky, to shout to the world.

  266. That Jesus is here. Our God does that?

  267. Jesus is the king to whom all nature points.

  268. And he's not just King of the Jews, their non-jewish men from

  269. the East. These were non Jewish men from

  270. the East. So what do they do when they get

  271. to see Jesus? And in this scene, these Magi

  272. are, these wise men come and they worship a baby.

  273. When you think about it. Jesus is just born and they are

  274. worshiping a baby because they know that Jesus is the king

  275. before whom All Nations bow. Jesus has come as king not just

  276. for one type of people, but for all types of people in All

  277. Nations, you know, as we read this in as we learn more and

  278. more about how the Old Testament points to Jesus, there is no

  279. denying that it was all purposeful from God.

  280. In fact, we almost have to consciously deny the facts.

  281. In order to disprove the Bible and that it was all pointing to

  282. Jesus. So we it's just pretty amazing.

  283. We know that Jesus is the king of all Nations, the Lord's

  284. church is made up from people, from countless Nations and we've

  285. got and we've gathered here. We gathered here in Bakersfield

  286. and across California, the United States and the world.

  287. Not because of our politics are the same.

  288. Not because our ethnicities are the same.

  289. Not because our backgrounds are the same, but we come because we

  290. come, we have one king. That's the reason why we are all

  291. worshiping together. And his name is Jesus and he

  292. reunites Humanity but we're human race.

  293. Of course that is sinful. So what does all this history?

  294. Mean for our lives and that point system gives us the point

  295. number three and that is Jesus gives a fresh start.

  296. So back to Matthew chapter 1, in the first 17 verses, there's a

    Matthew 1 chapter mention

  297. list of names of sinnard after sinner after sinner in the line

  298. of Jesus family. and, Judah and Tamar.

  299. And verse 3 had twins by incest in verse 6.

  300. The story of David's adultery with it with the wife of Uriah

  301. from and then whom Dave David, then murdered Then we have evil

  302. king, after evil King, who led people into idolatry and or

  303. immorality, even resulting in the destruction of Jews in

  304. Jerusalem and deportation to Babylon story.

  305. After Story of people who rebelled against God, And if you

  306. think about it, you know I was looking at this and you think

  307. about the great, great, great, great grandparents of Jesus

  308. hated God and were leading others to hate God.

  309. Then we get to verse 18. I might have this wrong.

  310. Yes, Verse 18. I've got 17 up there on the

  311. screen but it's wrong. Matthew writes here.

  312. Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows so that word

  313. birth there and they want to underline it highlighted Circle.

  314. It That word in the Greek, the original language of the of the

  315. New Testament that word means Genesis.

  316. That is the Greek definition of that word, so it's pretty

  317. awesome to think about it. You know, the very choice of

  318. language that God decided to inspire Matthew about is taking

  319. us back to the very beginning. When sinful Humanity started, he

  320. started, you know, and he's saying, you know, God is

  321. bringing us a new start. This is the new way that we're

  322. going to do things because Jesus changes, all of that.

  323. Jesus is who we are going to rely on.

  324. His very name in the Greek version of the Hebrew word,

  325. Yeshua or Joshua, it means the Lord saves or Yahweh saves just

  326. as God use Joshua in the Old Testament, to lead his people

  327. into the promised land. So Jesus or the Lord saves has

  328. come to lead people into eternal life.

  329. I want to read the verse 18 through 21 in the first chapter

  330. of Matthew. It says, they're now the birth

  331. of Jesus Christ was as follows. After his mother, Mary was

  332. betrothed to Joseph before they came together.

  333. She was found with child of the Holy Spirit, then Joseph, her

  334. husband being a just man and not wanting to make her a public

  335. example was minded to put her away secretly but while he had

  336. thought about these things behold, an angel of the Lord

  337. appeared to him in a dream saying Joseph, son of David do

  338. not be afraid to take this to take your marry your wife For

  339. that, which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit and she

  340. will bring forth a son and you shall call his name Jesus for.

  341. He will save his people, from their sins.

  342. And that, that that is the reason Jesus came to save us

  343. from our sins. And tells us right there in

  344. verse 21, he came to save us from our sins.

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

  346. they'll go to heaven because of all their good deeds and they

  347. hope that their Good Deeds are going to weigh out their bad

  348. deeds. And that is not biblical.

  349. They hope that they have done enough to over done enough good.

  350. Overcome their bad. But here's the problem with that

  351. whole way of thinking, one sin against an infinitely.

  352. Holy God is worthy of infinite separation from God.

  353. One sin. No matter how much good we've

  354. tried to do, we can't erase that one sin, we have committed so

  355. many more scenes than that. Of course, everyone of us has

  356. we've turned from God's ways, to our own ways, are selfish ways,

  357. all the time, but the beauty is that we don't have to try to

  358. overcome bad with good. We are not saved from our sins

  359. because we are good enough. We are saved from our sins

  360. because Jesus Died for our sins and he is gracious enough for

  361. us, because Jesus has come, and he paid the price for all of our

  362. sins. Not based on anything we can do

  363. to earn it. Jesus died on the cross to cover

  364. over all of our sins is the greatest news that any of us

  365. could ever know ever have. We can be forgiven of all, of

  366. our sins today before a holy God, not, because of the,

  367. because we do enough good things, but because we are

  368. following Jesus as he commands us to do.

  369. To all of us who are guilty of sin which which is all of us.

  370. He gives us a new identity and not just that.

  371. If I mean, think of all the names of the shame associated

  372. with some of the stories in the Old Testament of sin of incest

  373. adultery Rahab, The Prostitute even Ruth was a moabite from a

  374. people known for their sexual immorality, but Jesus gives a

  375. fresh start to all of those who are stained by sin.

  376. Every one of us. He gives us new be in new

  377. dignity and that family tree of Jesus is not the straightest

  378. family tree. It's pretty crooked.

  379. When we when you go back and look at all the history of it,

  380. I've always wondered, you know why?

  381. Why are the names of such shameful, Sinners, included in

  382. the line of Jesus. And I think the answer is the

  383. same reason that our name is included from Jesus, be on

  384. Jesus. It's totally by the grace of

  385. God. I mean, God's grace covers a

  386. multitude of sins that what we're told.

  387. God sent his son, to save an undeserving, an unlikely people

  388. like you. And I I mean, Matthew, the one

  389. who was writing this book was a tax collector that people hated

  390. because Tax Collectors were were looked at as people who extorted

  391. the public stole from people who made a living off, ripping up

  392. ripping off the Jewish people in Matthew 9, all the people that

  393. Matthew had at his House at the time or were considered moral

  394. reprobates and, and I think Matthew knows that he's probably

  395. the least likely person to be riding a gospel book, but that's

  396. what makes the gospel such an encouragement to all of us.

  397. The good news that God Saves us, not based upon our vain efforts

  398. at goodness but based upon his Supernatural Gifts of Grace.

  399. We can have a new identity and new, I didn't and new dignity

  400. and Jesus. Next Jesus gives us fresh hope.

  401. You know, you think about all these stories of sin and shame

  402. that we read about often in the Bible and what if that was it?

  403. What if all those sinful shameful stories and shameful

  404. decisions that people made? But if that was all there was

  405. You know, we may have circumstances in our life that

  406. we look upon or sins that we may have committed or actions that

  407. we may have done that. We can feel like there's no way

  408. that we're going to get back from this.

  409. I've made this poor decision and I'm not going to get back from

  410. this. Maybe we've sinned in a way that

  411. could take, you know, that we can think that the sin is going

  412. to Define my life forever. and if we have ever thought that or

  413. thinking that that's I think that's Satan working his way in.

  414. We need to be careful of that because Jesus gives us fresh

  415. hope that sin does not define Our Lives.

  416. But as we read the gospel, stories will see story after

  417. Story of people who have sinned, but when they encounter Jesus,

  418. Everything Changes, Everything Changes for these people all the

  419. way to the cross, with the thief was dying next to him, and ask

  420. for forgiveness. Jesus said today, you will be

  421. with me in Paradise, Jesus ensures that sin will do not do

  422. not Define our life, and that's pretty good news.

  423. Then there are those are those of us or here that suffer as a

  424. result of sin, you know, sin causes consequences, not only to

  425. ourselves, but those around us and it has an impact that we

  426. don't consider sometimes when we make those choices and, you

  427. know, some of us here, a lot of us, I would say, probably most

  428. of us here have family members that are no longer part of the

  429. church or worship here because sin and Satan in the Gold has

  430. taken hold of them. Because the devil works so hard

  431. to divide the family unit that God has created.

  432. And then for those who have family members that aren't here,

  433. because of the choices that they've made doesn't have an

  434. effect on us. Doesn't that hurt us?

  435. Doesn't their choice affect us. Don't we suffer because of other

  436. choices and other sinful nature. Not just, of course attendance.

  437. It's not what we're talking about solely but also because

  438. the choices that they make out in the world or, you know,

  439. worldly decisions that may have an effect on somebody, you know,

  440. the choices we make whether we like it or not or have an effect

  441. on people around us. And we need to understand that

  442. before we make a choice suffering is a reality, you

  443. know, we try to raise our children teaching them, raising

  444. them by God's standards, and the way that God would have us to

  445. do, and Then all of a sudden, things get flipped 180 degrees,

  446. blindsided completely, blindsided.

  447. Or someone who we have entrusted and ensured, all of our trust

  448. into becomes the person who hurts us the most.

  449. Or sudden death of a loved one, or a family member.

  450. You know, of course we get down. Of course we lose heart but if

  451. we have lost heart, understand that Jesus gives us fresh hope.

  452. Because he ensures that suffering will not be the end of

  453. the story. You know, are we need to

  454. understand or mark it down, whatever it takes suffering is

  455. not the end of anyone's story because we trust in Jesus.

  456. The one who had saved us from our sins, and came and conquered

  457. death itself. With Jesus suffering, will never

  458. be the end of our story with Jesus even Earthly, tragedies

  459. turns into Eternal Triumph because Jesus changes

  460. everything. That brings us to our fifth

  461. Point, Jesus is presence will never leave you alone in Matthew

  462. 1, 22. It says, all this took place to

  463. fulfill what the Lord had spoken.

  464. By the prophet, behold, the Virgin shall conceive and bear a

  465. son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which means God

  466. be with us. That prophecy was given seven

  467. year hundred years before Matthew one, that Jesus is god

  468. with us. It's the astounding truth of

  469. Christianity. It seems income.

  470. Principal to those who don't believe it.

  471. But those who believe it is an irresistible truth.

  472. The stairs. And there was a story of a group

  473. of man in the Middle East who who said to themselves or to

  474. others, they were in a group talking that that there's no way

  475. that God himself could come to this person.

  476. There's God is too great and too glorious to debase himself and

  477. become a man like us and a Christian man replied to him.

  478. And said he said, let me ask you a question in my life.

  479. I once met a woman and my heart fell in love with her, when it

  480. came time for For me to tell her that I loved her.

  481. Do you think I got somebody to go and tell her that I loved her

  482. for me? Or do you think that I went and

  483. told her myself? And of course the man in the

  484. Middle East said, of course she went and the Christian Man

  485. replied in matters of love. One must go himself and not send

  486. somebody else and that's the point.

  487. Our God is so great. And So Glorious that he is not

  488. just sent the Prophet. This Prophet or that Prophet, or

  489. this person, or that possible person.

  490. God Has Come himself in jazz Jesus.

  491. Because in matters of love one goes himself.

  492. It's pretty amazing when we think about that, the God who

  493. spoke the world into the, into being, who rules, and Reigns

  494. over creation, who knows every star in the sky by name, who

  495. tells every ocean wave where to stop.

  496. The god around whom multitudes of angels worship and sing and

  497. praise, and continually day and night.

  498. Worship Him. The god, whose glory is beyond

  499. our imagination, who's Holiness is beyond our comprehension that

  500. God came here for us. Jesus is the constant companion

  501. that our soul. Craves, no matter what happens

  502. to you. No matter what happens around

  503. us, no matter what we may go through.

  504. To all who follow Jesus Commandments, we are never alone

  505. in the world. You can do we ever feel alone?

  506. I think all of us at some point I felt alone in our lives.

  507. Like people don't understand what we're going through like

  508. what we're experiencing even heard it in a description at

  509. times you know. Have you ever been in a A crowd

  510. of people, but filt absolutely alone.

  511. Will know that Jesus has come so they we might never be alone.

  512. He will never ever leave our side if we don't leave his

  513. Number 6, Jesus will never lead you astray in the middle of

  514. Matthew 2. We read from a quote, from Micah

    Micah 5:2

  515. 5:2 about the promises of a coming Messiah and at the end of

  516. Matthew verse 6, it says from from you shall come a ruler.

  517. Who will Shepherd My People Israel?

  518. That picture of a Shepherd is actually not in.

  519. Micah 5:2, it goes all the way back to Samuel second.

    Micah 5:2

  520. Samuel 52 were God. Anointed David as king over

  521. Israel. And God told him.

  522. You were not just to lead my people.

  523. You were to Shepherd my people. You don't just rule over them.

  524. But you should you lead them and you Shepherd them, you care for

  525. them, you protect them, you provide them, this is a picture,

  526. this is Jesus. And as Jesus Will Shepherd us as

  527. well, he's not just going to Reign Over Us.

  528. He's going to Shepherd us as well.

  529. And you know, do we ever wonder which direction to take in life?

  530. What choice? We ought to make.

  531. Jesus is the Y Shepherd that we need.

  532. We need to always go to. What Jesus has instructed us to

  533. do to make the choices in life. We are never without guidance.

  534. And number 7, Jesus is word. Will Never Let You Down in the

  535. Old Testament. Quotations, just keep the keep

  536. the quotation from the Old Testament.

  537. The first couple chapters of Matthew were, are quite a bit.

  538. I thought, when I started reading it, And in Matthew 215,

  539. after Joseph and Mary flee to Egypt and then return Matthew

  540. says that that was not by accident.

  541. He says this was to fulfill what the Lord has spoken by the

  542. prophet out of Egypt. I called my son just like God

  543. had brought Deliverance out of Egypt into from Egypt in the Old

  544. Testament. Jesus coming is coming out of

  545. Egypt to bring Deliverance in the New Testament.

  546. And then we get down into verses 17 and 18 of Matthew Chapter 2,

    Matthew 2 chapter mention

  547. where he quotes from Jeremiah 31 verses, 15 through 17, and his

  548. family's were weeping because babies were dying in Bethlehem.

  549. Because King Herod made a decree to have all the, all the male

  550. babies killed because he was afraid of Jesus was going to

  551. rise above it. So, so hair decided to have all

  552. the male babies killed. Matthew takes us back to

  553. Jeremiah 31, where families were weeping as they were being

  554. ripped apart from each other. In the deportation to Babylon in

  555. Jeremiah 31, God promises just as I brought hope in Jeremiah 31

  556. when I said you helped, you'll have a future in this.

  557. Will not be the end. He is now promising.

  558. Even though you have weeping and are experiencing, this, this is

  559. all perfect. The whole point is that God is

  560. always faithful to his word. Jesus is the faithful deliver.

  561. Our deliverer, our soul desires. And we need to understand that

  562. God's word will prove true every single time.

  563. Jesus is a picture of that all these promises that God had made

  564. over the hundreds of years are now coming into fulfillment.

  565. When Jesus comes the Bible tells us all of God's promises are in

  566. Jesus and that's found in 2nd Corinthians 1 verse 20 he's the

  567. picture of God's faithfulness. That brings us to.

  568. Our eighth point where Jesus is Love, is worthy of Our Lives.

  569. The Jesus is, the thing is all these things.

  570. We talked about and he is worthy of our life.

  571. He is worthy of everything that we can give to him and the rest

  572. of the Book of Matthew. We can see the question over and

  573. over again, that who is going to believe Jesus.

  574. Jesus is living, and he's teaching and Performing Miracles

  575. and he's seeing who was going to follow me.

  576. And we see that religious leaders reject him, Roman

  577. rulers, reject him, but then a small band of disciples believe

  578. that he's worthy of their lives and Jesus changed their lives.

  579. And then threw him. He quite literally change the

  580. world through a small band of guys and Jesus.

  581. So Do we believe that Jesus is the one whose love is worthy of

  582. our entire life? Followers of Jesus are not

  583. people for whom Jesus is just part of their lives.

  584. Us as followers of, Jesus are not people who kind of do what

  585. they want to do with their lives.

  586. And and then tack on Jesus, on Sundays, actually, that's not

  587. following Jesus, that's actually patronizing.

  588. Jesus, I think, You know, we have to is he Lord of our life.

  589. Does he determine every decision that we make?

  590. Does he change everything in our lives to follow him everything?

  591. You know, the curse wrote this down, the curse of nominal,

  592. Christianity is people who claim the name of Jesus, but have no

  593. real love for him or desire to follow him as their life

  594. followers of. Jesus are not people who for

  595. whom Jesus is part of their lives.

  596. Followers of Jesus are people in whom Jesus is their life.

  597. When we put our trust in Jesus and confess his name, and be Pat

  598. back baptized into his name, then we can be sure that life is

  599. yours forever. As long as we keep his

  600. Commandments, no matter what, inspect unexpected, things come

  601. in to us in our lives. Or this week, we can be sure

  602. that we are secure in Jesus and his promises as long as we don't

  603. leave his side. So how can we not see in the

  604. first just here in the first two chapters of the New Testament

  605. that all the Old Testament prophecies pertaining to Jesus

  606. as coming as a king. How can we see that?

  607. We those are not fulfilled, you know I'm as I mentioned before

  608. we would have to make a conscious decision to deny the

  609. writings and the Prophecies of the Old Testament.

  610. It would have to be a mental choice that we make to deny it.

  611. So what has Jesus changed in your life or a better question?

  612. Does Jesus change your life? Every day, does he change the

  613. way? We think?

  614. What we do, the decisions we make everything.

  615. Jesus changes everything. Have, we surrendered all to him

  616. is Jesus, lord of, or law, Lord of our life.

  617. Or not. We thank you for listening to

  618. our podcast, put on by the Church of Christ at 22:15 plans.

  619. Road in Bakersfield, if you would like any additional

  620. information or you would like to receive a free Bible

  621. correspondence, course by mail. Please email us at info at True

  622. Church of Christ Bakersfield.com.

  623. Our service times are on Sundays at 10:30 a.m. and 5 p.m. and

  624. Wednesdays at 7:30 p.m. M, please make plans to join us.

  625. We would love for you to be our honored guest