Beauty from Ashes - Tamar’s Story

sacrifice of Jesus. So, just keep that

in mind. I did want to read a uh text

here from my mom. Uh oftentimes I let my

parents know what we're getting ready to

study so that they can pray for the

study. Um and this is her response to

today's message. She said, "Woo, you are

very brave.

I have been studying Genesis 38. Tread

lightly. I love you. I know you can do

it with the Holy Spirit's help.

>> [laughter]

>> Was that supposed to be encouraging,

Mom?

If so, you failed. All right, let's

pray. Father God, we're so blessed to be

in your house today. We thank you for

this place where we can come and worship

you. I thank you for a music ministry, a

worship ministry that is not scared to

talk about the ugly parts of of uh the

crucifixion and the blood and the the

death of Jesus as we celebrate the

victory that we received because of

that. Lord, I just thank you so much

that we get to uh just to celebrate that

together today as a faith family. Lord,

I just want to uh pray that Jesus would

feel like the guest of honor here in our

presence today. That he would come and

and save, that he would change us, that

he would heal us, that he would just

meet us where we're at and help us to

understand him better and understand the

hope that we have in him. In Jesus name,

I pray. Amen. So, this sermon series is

called Beauty from Ashes. Beauty from

Ashes. And I was inspired by the the

legend of the phoenix, which is a bird

that builds its own nest and then it uh

sets itself on fire completely consumed

by the flames. But out of those same

ashes, it rises again, reborn. And so

most of us don't need a legend to

understand ashes. Uh we understand what

problematic choices can cause. We know

how to to to make our bed and then have

to lie in it, so to speak. And so we

have this experience of watching things

unravel into what feels like a complete

disaster. We we have these moments where

we look at a situation. Maybe it's our

own situation. Maybe it's the situation

that someone else is facing and we just

think, man, that that's it. It's done.

It's over. There's no coming back from

this. It's those kind of situations

where you're thinking like, I wouldn't

trust that person to babysit a pet rock.

And now we're like, you know, now

they're they're just in this spot where

uh there's nothing good that could

possibly come from this. And then God

steps in and what should have been the

end actually becomes the beginning. What

looked ruined is now redeemed. These are

the moments where we just sat back and

all we can say is is God only God could

have made something beautiful come from

this. So, we're going to look at a few

of these moments today by well today in

the next two weeks by studying the lives

of three of the five women that are

listed in the genealogy of Jesus. and

and we're going to see how their

situations which were often written off

as completely hopeless were resolved,

restored, redeemed, and made beautiful.

So, in your Bible, you have two

genealogies of Jesus that I believe are

often skipped over when people are

reading through the Bible. Uh, Matthew

focuses on the family line of Joseph and

Luke focuses on the family line of Mary.

So you might be under asking yourself,

why are we studying the family tree of

Jesus? Well, there's three reasons.

First of all, it proves the the pedigree

of our savior. It it proves the pedigree

of our savior. So the Old Testament

foretold that the savior of the world,

the Messiah, would come from the

bloodline of Abraham. And this wasn't

some random detail. This was a divine

promise. And so when Jesus arrives on

the scene from the bloodline of Abraham,

it gave credibility to all the claims

that he made about himself. His

genealogy documents the the proof that

he is who he says he is. He is the long

awaited avenger that was talked about

all the way back in Genesis chapter 3

Genesis 3 · chapter mention

when God went to Eve and said, "One will

come from your bloodline that will crush

the head of the serpent." speaking about

Satan. Jesus family tree is not filler.

It's evidence. It confirms the fact that

the Messiah would be sent to restore

what was broken and make a way for us to

once again live in the presence of God.

See, ever since Adam and Eve and the

rebellion and sin entering the world, we

have lived on this constant quest to

restore this broken relationship that we

have with God. It's why you can check

off everything on your to-do list. It's

why you can hit every professional

milestone in life. You can achieve every

goal that you've ever set for yourself.

And at the end of the day, you can still

feel empty because you were created for

a place and that place is heaven. And

the only way to get there is through a

person and that person's name is Jesus.

And so we know that Jesus is the way in

part because uh he fulfilled every

prophecy spoken over him including the

fact that he would come from this

specific bloodline. Second, the family

tree of Jesus gives us hope. It's what

Jonah was talking about. It gives us

hope because Jesus family tree is messy.

What it tells us is you don't have to

come from a perfect place or from a a

perfect family to be the person that God

created you to be. Where you come from

does not dictate where you are going.

And then thirdly, it proves that the

Bible is reliable. Because I tell you

this, editors would have taken all this

stuff out of here. All right? They they

would have edited this whole thing. They

would not have included women in the

family tree of Jesus, especially because

this was written in a fiercely

patriarchal society. But if they did

include women in someone's family tree,

they would not have included these women

because they have such difficult and

controversial histories. But the Holy

Spirit who wrote this book boldly and

proudly includes these women in the

family tree of Jesus even though their

stories are PG-13 and some a little

TVMA. Okay, so that's where we're going

to get to today. Um, so let's start with

Matthew chapter 1 and then we'll get

Matthew 1 · chapter mention

over to Genesis chapter 38. This is the

Genesis 38 · chapter mention

genealogy of Jesus. Uh, some of your

Bibles might use the word begat. So I'm

going to go ahead and throw begott in

there because I think it sounds cool.

So, we'll go King James today. An

account of the genealogy of Jesus

Christ, the son of David, the son of

Abraham. Abraham begot Isaac. Isaac

begot Jacob. Jacob begott Judah and his

brothers. Judah begot Perez and Zarah by

Tamar. Perez begot Hezron. Hezron begott

Aram. So, genealogies in ancient ancient

times were more akin to your resume than

the family trees that we would create

today. Their family trees did not

include every single person that was in

their family line. They only included

the highlights because your family tree,

this history is what would open doors

for you. The people that you came from

would often dictate how you were

received by certain groups of people. So

to make the genealogy of Jesus, you must

have been a very important person to the

writer of the Bible, which we know to be

the Holy Spirit. So, we're going to

start this series with one of the

craziest stories in all of the Old

Testament. Um, this is one of those

chapters where if you're a parent and

you're reading through the Bible with

your child, you get to Genesis 38 and

you're like, "Uhoh, maybe we should have

started in the New Testament because

this is a little weird." Um, so that's

what we're going to talk about today.

And I'll be careful with how I I present

things for the younger ears. So, uh,

we're going to talk about Tamar and her

story in Genesis Genesis chapter 38. So

Genesis 38 · chapter mention

this woman's name is Tamar, which means

date palm. And a date palm is a type of

plant that produces fruit in

environments where most plants cannot

produce fruit. And I love how Levi

Leusco talks about her name. He says her

name refers to something sweet that

grows in the midst of adversity. But I

want you to think about it this way.

Okay. When Jesus was on that cross and

he was spilling his blood for you, part

of the blood that was being spoil

spilled onto the ground contained the

DNA from Tamar. So, let's look at

Genesis 38 verse one. At that time,

Judah left his brothers and settled near

the Aldomite camp. Uh,

let me try again. At this time, Judah

left his brothers and settled near an

Aldite named Hyra. Okay, this guy's a

doofus, by the way. uh a lot like me.

You probably can't read anyway. Uh verse

two, there Judah saw the daughter of a

Canaanite named Shua. He took her as his

wife and he slept with her. She

conceived and gave birth to a son and he

named him heir. She convinced him she

conceived again and gave birth to a son

and named him Oruron. She gave birth to

another son and named him Sheila. It was

Chz that she gave birth to him. Judah

got a wife for heir, his firstborn, and

he named her Tamar. Now, Heir, Judah's

firstborn, was evil in the Lord's sight,

and the Lord put him to death. All

right, let's talk about some problematic

choices here. So, uh, in verse two, we

see that Judah saw the daughter of Shua.

So, he saw this Canaanite woman. He

decided that she was lovely to look at.

He was infatuated by her, and he decided

to marry her. He did not ask the

question as to whether or not she

worshiped the same god that he did

because he didn't care. He thought she

was pretty and he wanted to marry her

and that was pretty much the end of his

thought process. Now, this is a a

situation and some people are in these

same situations where there's a marriage

and in this marriage you have one person

that worships Jesus and one person that

does not. It's kind of like being in a

canoe sometimes where you're paddling in

the wrong directions and you're just

kind of spinning around in circles. And

you know, God can work through that. Of

course, he can, but often it's a a

difficult journey. And that's kind of

where Judah finds himself in this

difficult journey. And the reason that

he's in this difficult journey is

because he's not obeying the Lord's

command to walk by faith and not by

sight. See, our our eyes get us in

trouble sometimes. Think about Eve. She

saw the fruit and was enticed by it.

Samson saw Delilah and was enticed by

her. King David saw Bath Sheba and was

enticed by her. Judah saw the daughter

of Shua and was enticed by her. So he

marries this woman and he has three

sons. His first son's name was heir. And

Judah did for him what he did not allow

his father to do for him, which was he

arranged a marriage for his son to marry

this woman named Tamar. Now, this was an

accepted cultural practice. So, don't

get mad at him. These arranged marriage

were just a thing that that people did

uh back then, and it's one that I think

a few moms are going to bring back if

their sons don't start dating pretty

soon. All right? So, I'm just letting

these guys know. I've heard things. So,

you guys might want to uh get on the

dating sites or something because moms

are going to start arranging things if

you don't get to work. All right.

So, so Judah knows um that he disobeyed

God in this instance by marrying someone

that didn't also worship God. And so, he

makes this classic mistake of of kind of

forcing his faith on his son. He's

telling his son to do as he says, not as

he does. So instead of repenting and

trying to make things right, he just

tells his son, "This is what you are

going to do." And of course, we know

that kids are more likely to do what

they see [snorts] rather than what we

tell them to do. And so he's life was

problematic. He did something. We don't

know what it was, but he must have done

something extremely grievous because God

took his life from him. And yes, that

does happen in the Bible from time to

time. So what do we do? Tamar has no

children, no male heir. How does how

does Heir's bloodline continue? Well, in

verse eight, we read that Judah commands

Heir's brother Onan to marry Tamar. So,

before you get mad about this, this was

actually a law that God created. Um,

it's called the the Levite law or the

Levite marriage law. So, Leverite

marriage was an ancient practice that's

laid out in Deuteronomy 25:5 and 6. And

Deuteronomy 25:5

it requires a man to marry the childless

widow of his deceased brother in order

to preserve the family line, protect

inheritance rights, and ensure that the

widow would be care for cared for,

especially later on in her life. Because

at this time, women were not allowed to

own property. They were not allowed to

make a living of their own. And so, a

childless widow was incredibly

vulnerable. without a husband or a son,

she faced the very real risk of living

in extreme poverty. And so at this stage

in human history, God came up with this

law as a practical and merciful way of

making sure that these women did not

have a destitute life. So here's how it

worked. So if a man died without a son,

the next unmarried brother was

responsible for marrying the widow. And

and so if all the brothers had already

married, then the next uh closest male

relative would then take on that

responsibility and his role would be to

care for her and if possible produce a

son with her. We're going to talk about

Ruth in a couple weeks and you'll see

this play out in uh Ruth's life as well.

And it's here's the kicker though, that

son would legally belong to the deceased

brother. So he would carry his name, he

would inherit his land, and he would

assume his role within the family.

That's why it was such a big deal that

Aaron died before Tamar could have a

son, because Tamar was left with no

protection and no future and no

inheritance, no standing on her own. So

this responsibility fell to Onan to care

for Tamar and provide a son to her if

possible to carry on his brother's

legacy. But here's Onan's problematic

choice.

Did he learn from heir's mistakes? If

you think yes, you're wrong. He did not

learn from his brother's mistakes. In

fact, he pretended to do as his father

asked him to do. He denied Tamar a

child. So, Onan, the reason he did this

is because he doesn't want to give up

his inheritance. Right now, this guy is

setting pretty because he's got a double

portion of the inheritance. Not only is

he going to get his third, but he's

going to get his brother heir's third as

well. But if he produces a male heir by

Tamar, then he loses that third. And so

selfishly, he wants to keep everything

for himself. And so he basically takes

everything away from Tamar. He pretended

to do what his father asked him to do.

And so in verse 10, we read, "What he

did was evil in the sight of the Lord,

and he was put to death also." So then

Judah makes another problematic choice

here in verse 11. Judah said to his

daughter-in-law, Tamar, "Remain a widow

in your father's house until my my son

Sheila grows up, for he thought he might

die, too, like his brothers." So he's

thinking, "This lady's cursed. There's

something wrong with her. there's a

reason my sons keep dying and so I'm not

going to put my last son with this woman

because he'll probably die too. And so

Tamar went to live in her father's

house. So now Judah is denying Tamar of

her God-given rights to an heir in his

household. And Tamar sent back to her

people in Canaan, which might sound

okay, but it's not. because when she

gets back to her people, they decide

that she is some kind of a a cursed

woman as well because they believe in

all these pagan gods and they look at

what's happened in her life and they're

like, "No, you must have made our gods

mad and they're punishing you. So, we

don't want anything to do with you

either." So, now Tamar is in a a

desperate situation. So, we read in

verse 12, after a long time, Judah's

wife, the daughter of Shua, died. When

Judah had finished mourning, he and his

friend Hyra the Adulomite went up to

Tinma to the sheep sheep shears. All

right. So, first of all, kids, choose

your friends wisely. All right. Choose

your friends wisely. Ira is a bad

influence. He's the one that talked

Judah into settling near Canaan. He's

the one who was there when Judah made

the the poor choice to marry this this

Canaanite woman, this daughter of Shua.

And now he's the one convincing his

buddy after his wife has passed during

his grieving to go to the sheep shearing

in Canaan to take his mind off of his

grief. Now sheep shearing sounds

innocent, but that's why we study the

Bible, okay? Because it is not as

innocent as it sounds. It's basically an

annual festival where people indulged in

excess and immorality. So think a lot

less county fair and a lot more burning

man festival. So that's where he took

his his buddy. And the Canaanites, they

they believe that these immoral acts

done during this festival would somehow

appease their gods and the next year the

livestock would be so much stronger if

they did all of these awful pagan

things. So don't don't just choose your

friends wisely, but choose your path

wisely. There are places that you just

should not go. And Canaan was one of

them. Canaan had a problematic culture.

Notorious names came from the land of

Canaan. people like Jezebel, uh people

like Goliath, uh their gods like Molech

that were worshiped where gods that

required things like child sacrifice in

order to be appeased. This wasn't some

neutral territory. This was enemy ch

territory. And now you got Judah who's

single and grieving and ready to mingle

and his buddy's like, "Hey, let's go to

this this festival." Well, well, Tamar

hears about this uh this quest that

Judah is on that he's coming to the

festival, and she's thinking, well, this

guy has something that belongs to me.

So, she's been promised a son from his

household. Her future, her security,

everything is dependent upon having uh

having this son that she could marry and

then having a son with him. And so, she

makes a dangerous and sinful decision.

Please understand that the Bible records

things as they actually happened. And

just because it's in the Bible does not

mean that God endorsed it. Okay? God

does not endorse the plan that she's

about to to concoct here. So, as Levi

Lusco put it, I like how he writes this.

He says this, how she's thinking, "If

you won't give me your son, then homie,

you're going to have a son with me." All

right. So Tamar disguises herself and

she meets Judah at the edge of town.

Like before he gets to the festival,

she's right there at the edge of town

and he he doesn't recognize her. But

remember this guy Judah, right? He he

sees what he wants and that's all.

Right? There's no faith involved here.

It's just if I see it and I desire it,

then I want it. And so he sees her and

he desires her and wouldn't you know it,

he left his wallet at home. And so in

Genesis 38:18,

Genesis 38:18

it says this. Well, what should I give

you? He asked. And she replied, "Your

signate ring, your cord, and the staff

that's in your hand." All the things

that signified who Judah Judah was. Like

this is his identity. The the signate

ring would be the thing that you you

used with the wax seals on the legal

documents. You'd put your ring in the

wax and it would show that you endorsed

whatever was written in there. Uh the

cord was basically a cord that you wore

around your neck and it would have a

plate on it and it would have your name

written on it kind of like your driver's

license. So if you die out in the

wilderness, they can look at the cord on

your neck and see who you were. And then

the staff was something in number 17

that we learned was given to uh to sons

as a right of passage. So Judah's father

uh Jacob would have given him this staff

and on the staff they would engrave the

name of the child. So these are pretty

valuable items, but he gave her

everything that she asked for, which

when you first read this, you're like,

that's crazy, man. Like why would you

give up all of these things? But as one

commentator put it, sin blinds you and

then it binds you.

It blinds you and then it binds you. So

Judah doesn't see what's really

happening here. All he sees is what he

wants. The heart wants what the heart

wants, right? Well, that's where Judah's

at. So later he sends his doofus friend

back to Hyra to uh doofus friend Hyra

back to the town to retrieve all of his

stuff. And he sends Hyra with a a young

goat, which apparently at that time was

extremely valuable. And so there was

going to be a little trade. Here's a

goat. Give the stuff back. But how

arrives on the scene and he finds out

that she's not there anymore and nobody

even knows who she is. And so he goes

back and tells Judah. And Judah's

flipping out. He's like, "I don't He's

like, "Let's just replace all the items.

Like, I can get stuff remade. I can go

on eBay and buy new staff, I guess. I

don't know." Um, but he's like, "Let's

just bury this. Let's not talk about it

again, and we'll keep the cover up

alive." So months later, about three

months later actually, he gets the news

that Tamar is pregnant. And of course,

he responds with compassion and and

reflection and repentance, thinking, "Oh

yes, well, I've messed up, too. So it's

okay that she made a mistake since God

has forgiven me for my mistakes." Okay,

that's not at all what he did. Look at

verse 24. He says, "Bring her out and

let her be burned to death.

So what he's thinking, of course, he's

thinking about himself. And now if she

dies, then his only remaining son is

free to marry whoever he wants to marry.

Like he's excited to get her out of the

way. And so they call for Tamar. She

shows up at the house. And I love her

demeanor here. She doesn't argue. She

She doesn't accuse. She simply presents

some evidence. She's like, "Okay, you

you can burn me at the stake, but before

I go, I I just want to identify the the

man that my child belongs to." And she

lays out all of these things, the the

staff and the the cord and the signate

ring. And suddenly Judah realizes that

the sin that he tried to hide, the

identity that he handed over, the

judgment that he rushed to pronounce has

now been turned back on him. And so in

verse 26, he finally gets to his turning

point. Says, "Judah recognized them and

said,

she is more in the right than I since I

did not give her my son Shayla."

and he did not know her again

intimately. And so what we learn from

history is that Tamar was brought into

Judah's house as a an honored part of

his household. Then look in verse 27.

This is where the beauty from ashes

comes into play. When the time came for

her to give birth, there were twins in

her womb. As she was giving birth, one

of them put out his hand, and the

midwife took it and tied the scarlet

thread around it, announcing, "This one

came out first." it was very important

to be the firstborn. A lot of rights

went with being the firstborn. So, they

wanted to make sure in a situation where

there were twins that they made sure

that they got they identified the right

one. Um, which is what the scarlet cord

is all about. And there'll be more on

that next week as we look at Rahab. But

then he he pulled his hand back and out

came his brother and she said, "What a

breakout you have made for yourself."

So, he was named Perez, which means

breakthrough. Then his brother who had

the scarlet thread tied around his hand

came out and his name was Zarah.

God brings beauty from ashes.

This is God's conclusion to a story that

is marked with all kinds of human sin.

From this moment forward, Judah and

Tamar are completely changed people.

Imperfect, absolutely. But we don't read

another word about any type of grievous

sin that came from either of them. God

doesn't erase their story. He redeems

it. Some of you need to hear that today.

Some of you got some problematic pasts.

And so what God is saying here through

his family tree is that he is not

erasing your story. He is here to redeem

it, to make something beautiful come

from it. Is there anyone else here

that's grateful that God doesn't hold

our worst moments against us? Anybody?

That God doesn't define us by our most

embarrassing moments of our life? Is

there anybody that's excited that we

serve a God who can take a full-blown

dumpster fire like the one that Judah

and Tamar created with all their

problematic choices and somehow create

something beautiful out of it? All

right, that's our God. Now, what I want

to do is in closing here is I do want to

zoom out for just a moment. Genesis 38

sits right between Genesis 37 and

Genesis 39. It's why you pay me the big

bucks right there, man. You're welcome.

He can do math. He's smart.

All right. Look, that's not an accident,

though. Because it is kind of

interesting. In Genesis 37, we start to

read about the story of Joseph. And by

the way, if you've never read Joseph's

story, start in Genesis 37 and read his

story. It is absolutely incredible. But

Joseph was the youngest brother of the

12 sons of Jacob, the 12 tribes of Judah

or 12 tribes of Israel. And so he was uh

he was the youngest son and he was kind

of the apple of his father's eye. And so

his other brothers did not like that

about him and said they decided that

they were going to kill him. So they

threw him in a ditch and they left him

for dead. But then this voice speaks out

and says, "Hey, why why don't we not

just let him die in a ditch? Why don't

we get something out of this for

ourselves? Why don't we sell him into

slavery so we can make a buck or two off

of this guy? And guess who said those

words?

Judah. Those were the words of Judah. So

even back in the beginning when he was

younger, he was still always looking out

for himself. And so Joseph is sold and

he's taken to Egypt.

And I believe that's why Genesis 38 is

where it is because I believe that this

is why Judah moved away from his father

and moved away from his hometown because

he is seeking a fresh start in Canaan.

He is carrying guilt. He is carrying

shame. He is carrying regret but he is

not carrying repentance. He knows the

forgiving nature of the God that he

serves. But he has not reached out to

experience forgiveness yet. So he is

starting to believe the lies of the

enemy. The enemy is telling him, "Hey,

you're a bad person. You sold your

youngest brother into slavery." And that

that mentality that the enemy has spoken

over him, that identity that he is in

agreement with the enemy about for

himself has it's it's like convoluted

every decision that he's made. It it's

dictated where he lives. It's dictated

who he marries. It's dictated how he

acts. And then you enter Tamar. She

could have walked away. She could have

moved on. She was not an Israelite. She

was a Canaanite. She had the rights to

kind of move on with her life. But

somewhere deep inside her, even as a

Canaanite woman, she believed that she

wanted to be part of the covenant people

of God. She wanted to be part of the

promise that God made to Abraham. a

promise that his descendants would be

numerous, that his descendants would be

blessed, that the savior of the world

would come from his bloodline. So, she

took a chance and she made a very, very

poor choice, one that should not be

copied. But God's purposes are greater

than her sinful decisions. And so, God

honored her faith. And did you see what

happened though? Her faith became the

catalyst for Judah's long overdue

repentance. So I want to show you how

this changes things. In Genesis 44,

Joseph, the youngest brother that was

sold into slavery, is now second in

command in all of Egypt. And Egypt ran

the world. Okay, so again, read the

story. It's incredible. So, Joseph was a

slave and now he's second in command in

Egypt, right behind the Pharaoh. And so,

his brothers come before him one day,

the same brothers that had thrown him

into the pit and then sold him into

slavery. And he talks to his 11

brothers, Judah included, and he tells

them that the new youngest brother,

Benjamin, is going to stay behind and be

his slave. And Judah says something that

is absolutely unrecognizable

compared to the person that he used to

be in chapter 44:33.

He says, "Now please let your servant

remain here as my lord's slave in place

of the boy. Let him go back with his

brothers." It's no longer what's in this

for me. It's take me instead. let me be

your slave so Benjamin can go and live

his life. Friends, that's repentance.

That's transformation. That's that

perspective of only God could have made

that happen moment. So, back to Matthew

Matthew 1 · chapter mention

chapter 1. Out of all the 12 sons of

Jacob, the only one that is listed in

the genealogy of Jesus is Judah.

He's the only one highlighted. Not the

good kid, Joseph. Not the priestly line

of Levi. No, God chose it. The family

that was most likely to wind up on a

daytime sitcom talk show. And even more

shocking, he he allows the promise to

continue uh not through the expected

firstborn son of Tamar, but through the

the the other son that broke through

first, Perez. And we're going to talk

more about that later, too. But the

question is why? Why would God highlight

these problematic, controversial people

on Jesus resume? Why not just skip over

them and stick to the highlights? Well,

the reason is because Judah's family

became a living testimony to our God's

forgiveness and his grace and his mercy

and his love and his power and his

sovereignty.

Jesus is the lion from the tribe of

>> Judah, right? Jesus is the lion from the

tribe of He's not ashamed of these

people. He names himself that the lion

from the time from the tribe of Judah.

And listen, I wouldn't let Judah deliver

my Uber Eatats from Taco Bell.

But Jesus wasn't ashamed of this guy.

Jesus wasn't ashamed to come from this

bloodline. Despite all of Judah's

failures, despite his his son's sin,

despite Samar Tamar's poor choices, God

accomplished his divine purposes. And

what that means is that God is more

powerful than your worst moments. Jesus

is not ashamed of you or your family.

And who you used to be is not who you

have to continue to be.

Now, keep in mind, we are given the very

sobering stories of heir and Onan to

remind us what an unrepentant life looks

like. So, don't miss that part of the

story and think this is some green light

to just keep living the way you're

living. No, this is this is not an

example to be copied. Judah and Tamar's

decisions are not ones that we should uh

we should uh act on ourselves,

but they do serve as a picture of what

happens when faith refuses to give up

and repentance finally happens. And what

rises from the ashes is our Lord and

Savior Jesus Christ, the salvation of

the world to all who place their faith

in him. That's the real beauty that came

from this incredible story. That's the

true story that only God can write.

Let's pray.

Father, I thank you for passages of

scripture like this that just act as

such an encouragement to us because

Lord, sometimes we can beat ourselves up

over the the choices that we've made or

the choices that have been made around

us. We can fall victim to circumstances

that sometimes aren't even our own

creation. And so Lord, I pray that today

if any are struggling with their

identity in Christ, if there's anybody

in this room that has determined that

they can't be the people that God

created them to be for whatever reason,

God, that you would allow them to see

that you are a God that is sovereign

over our sinful choices. You are always

in control. And if we will just and

react with faith and react with

repentance that you can take even the

the craziest most broken situations and

you can turn them to where something

beautiful comes from them. Lord we thank

you that Jesus rose from these ashes. We

thank you that our Lord and Savior was

born and died on that cross for our sin.

Giving us a hope for eternity in the

future. Giving us the change that we

need in our lives right now. giving us

the power of the Holy Spirit to become

the people that you have destined us to

be. And Lord, if there's any in this

room that for whatever reason just have

not accepted or begun to live that

identity in Christ, I pray that today

would be the day of their salvation,

today would be their turning point.

today would be their verse 26 of chapter

38 where they just realize that all the

things they've tried to bury all the the

guilt and the shame and the hurt that

has identified their their lives for so

long that those things can be put in the

past not not covered but redeemed that

they can be a wonderful part of their

story a story where God took something

that was broken and mended it together

to bring something beautiful as a result

Lord help them to understand that that

power are still available for them

today. And I pray that they would just

reach out and take it. And Lord, as we

close with this last song, I pray that

praise would be on our lips and worship

would be in our hearts. And God, that we

would be focused on who you want us to

be as your people as we leave this

place. no longer ashamed, no longer

living in guilt, but excited about the

opportunity to share our stories with

other people so that they might know the

Jesus that we love and serve and