“Judah, Really?” - Genesis Chapter 38 - Pastor Scotty Brown

Amen. Alrighty, if you got a Bible, turn that baby to Genesis chapter 38. I just want you

Genesis 38 · chapter mention

to know this is a little risque. So, if you got little ears in here, you might want to

plug them or find something different for them for a minute. It's pretty wild, this

chapter. We left off last time in Genesis 37 when Joseph's brother sold their little brother,

did not listening to his cries. However, this one older brother, Judah, he had the bright idea,

"Well, let's don't kill him." Right? Bless his heart. "Let's don't kill him. Let's just sell him."

And so, you know the story. They sell him and he's in shackles and he's on his way to Egypt. And then

we have a detour. All of a sudden, we're in chapter 38 and it's just strange because we

think we're going to follow the life of Joseph when we're going to, but there's a little bit

of a detour here in chapter 38 and it's Judah. And so, let's pray and we'll look at this bizarre

chapter. Father, thank you for your word that is, it is truth. And Lord, you don't pull any punches.

And we thank you for that. We thank you that you call a spade a spade here and you pull back the

veil and you show us everything that is truly in the heart of man. And that we know that apart from

you, Lord, we can do nothing good. And in and of ourselves, Lord, there's nothing good in us. We

are desperately wicked. And so, we pray for your anointing, pray for your touch, Lord. You bring

a goodness to us that we otherwise don't have. And so, just take this word and maybe encourage,

maybe convict, but use it, Lord, for your glory and use it to give understanding to your people,

myself included, Lord. And so, we love you. We praise you in Jesus' name. Amen.

So, here we are. If you have a Bible, we're going to take this off in six to 10 verse chunks. And

I'm going to start with the first 10 verses here in chapter 38. It says, "It came to pass as at

that time that Judah departed from his brothers and visited a certain Adulamite whose name was

Hera. And Judah saw there a daughter of a certain Canaanite whose name was Shewa. And he married

her and went into her. And so, she conceived and bore a son and he called his name Er." There you

go, moms. If you're going to have a boy, "Er." "She conceived again and bore a son and she called

his name Onan." This is Onan the barbarian. Just kidding. That's pretty bad, wasn't it? Okay. "And

she conceived again and bore a son and called his name Shalah. And he was at Chezib when she bore

him. Then Judah took a wife for Er," he grew up quick, "his firstborn and her name was Tamar. But

Er," Judah's firstborn, "was wicked in the sight of the Lord and the Lord killed him. And Judah said

to Onan, 'Go into your brother's wife and marry her and raise up an heir to your brother.' But

Onan knew the heir would not be his. And it came to pass when he went into his brother's wife that

he admitted on the ground, lest he should give her, give an heir to his brother. And the thing

which he did displeased the Lord, therefore he killed him also." God's not afraid to kill you.

And you know, we see in other places where the Lord had killed people, but just backing up to

the beginning there, Judah says he'd departed from his brothers, right? He says like, "This

drama is, this family drama stuff is way too much for me. I'm out." Right? Dad's upset. He's telling

us that he's going to mourn until the day he dies. He's going to mourn the loss of Joseph. And he

won't be comforted. And Joseph's demise was in our hands. And now I got to live with this guy.

I'm just gone. I'm out. And so Judah moves to the north. No doubt when they were herding sheep and

stuff up there, he saw certain places that he might have kind of liked. And it was in Canaan,

and he went up there and he sees some Canaanite hottie, and he marries her. And we know that as

we have gone through the book of Genesis, that was a no-no, right? The heart of Isaac and Rebecca was

grieved when Esau married Canaanite women. Why? Because their worship was so perverse and so

wicked. They were into all kinds of dark stuff spiritually, and they knew that it would drag him

down. Because girls, you've got the power, man. Right? And women seem to be more spiritual or

have a desire for more, have a greater desire for spiritual things more so than men. And we see

King Solomon and all his wisdom and his greatness and his Achilles heel was foreign women that

worshiped a God different than Yahweh, the God of creation and the God of Israel. And so Judah,

he's out. And when you go out and you leave the blessing of God and you're out from under that

and you go do your own thing, when all hell breaks loose, please don't blame God. That's on you.

'Cause the Lord would have you be close to him and he would have you be under the spout where

the blessings flow out. And Judah, no doubt, had seen his dad's relationship with his God. And so

he goes to the north and finds that place. He settles in and no doubt he's trying to run from

trouble. But have you noticed when you run from trouble, that seems to be all you find? Maybe is

this 'cause the trouble's right here in your own heart. You can't run from it, right? You can't

cover it up with some strong whiskey or some drugs because it always seems to come back to the

surface. Trouble does. What you have to do is you have to face your trouble, confess your trouble

to the God of heaven who can actually do something about it. And he can give you a reprieve from your

trouble. The Bible says if we confess our sin, God's faithful and just to forgive us our sin

and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. But it just, if you don't and you try to run from it,

you can run, but you cannot hide because your own wicked heart goes with you everywhere you go.

And so he meets this girl, "Hey, maybe I'll just settle down right here in Canaan land and see how

it goes." So sure enough, his little, some commentator believes she's a common law bride,

right? He just lays with her. She gets pregnant, has a boy, calls him Ur. The first one, it says

that he was wicked. Doesn't tell us what he did, just that he was wicked. Is that you? That's me.

Desperately wicked, right? The heart of man. It's funny as a pastor how I feel like I have

to constantly hammer on this thing, the depravity of man, because people just want to think that

man is basically good. Man is not basically good. You're not good. I'm not good. Our babies

aren't good. And usually they display that quite early in life. Selfish little boogers. But it just

says, "God set up, you're wicked, I'm killing you." Does he have the right to do that? Right?

Absolutely, he has the right to do that. God has the right to kill you or I. Are we not his

creation? Right? I just read it this morning, and this morning's reading in Isaiah. What right has

the thing that is made have the right to question him who made him? You have no right to question

the one who made you. Right? You don't have that right. God reserves that right to himself,

just like a potter does the clay. The potter can build a beautiful pot, killing it, everything,

look at it for a while and think, "I don't like that no more. I'm going to squish it into dust

and start over." He has the right to do that. And God has that right as well. People don't like that.

Well, that ain't fair. What do you mean it's not fair? God's not about fairness, he's about justice.

What's just? And the Bible says that we're all under condemnation, and that's why Christ came,

because we're all under condemnation. Whoever has the Son has life. He who does not have the

Son does not have life, but he is condemned already. Why? Because we fall short of God's glory. You and

I, we sin. We come out of the birth canal that way with a sinful bent. I've seen it over and over and

over again. And myself, and my wife, and our children, you know, your children, they're double

bread sinners. Right? Just in Western terms. Double bread, that's right. They got sin on both sides.

And so he kills this one son, and then it says, "And Judah said to Onan, 'Go into your brother's

wife and marry her and raise up an heir for your brother.'" And this is, he's invoking the,

what they called the lever right bow, rather the lever right custom, which was for a brother to

take his dead brother's wife to have relations with her, that he would raise up an heir or a son

for his dead brother. And it was in many of the cultures then, we see it established in the book

of Deuteronomy and in the law, when God gives a lot to Moses, that it was the same idea. And praise

God for it. Because through that custom is where Jesus came from. And it was through the Moabite

woman, Ruth, and Boaz, the kinsman, redeemer. And it's found in Ruth chapter three. I'm just gonna

read it to you, kind of what goes on there. Some of you know this story. Naomi and her husband,

Limelik, and their boys had moved to Moab, Limelik, and the two boys died. And Ruth comes back to

Israel and to Cain, the promised land, and Ruth comes with her. And there's no heir whatsoever.

And so Boaz is the closest relative to Limelik and the boys, and so he finds Ruth. And here in

verse 10, it says, "Moreover, Ruth the Moabites, the widow of Malon, I have acquired as my wife,

to perpetuate the name of the dead through his inheritance, that the name of the dead may not

be cut off from among the brethren and from his position at the gate. You are witness this day,

and all the people who were at the gate." And the elder says, "We are witnesses. The Lord make the

woman who is coming to your house," listen, "like Rachel and Leah, the two who built the house of

Israel. And may you prosper in Ephrathah and be famous in Bethlehem. May your house be like the

house of Perez, whom Tamar bore to Judah because of the offspring, which the Lord will give you

from the young woman." And so he was going to raise up an offspring and actually be a grandson

to a Limelik. And it's a powerful thing when it's done right. But when you got people in play that

don't love God, that don't respect God, that won't do things God's way, man, do you got problems.

Have you found that in your own life? You try to go do something and you kind of forget to seek the

Lord. It just kind of sounds like a good deal, you know. Might pad your pocket a little bit, and you

get into it and you just, things go crazy. Things go awry. People are cheating you and you're just

going, "Wow, why did I do that?" And so these guys are people who are actually trying to practice a

custom that God can bless, but because their heart is so wicked, he can't do it. The Bible says that

God is angry with the wicked every day. And that's people who are bent on it. Now I believe that I'm,

that I have a wicked heart. I believe there's a goodness there because of what Christ has done in

my life. And he brings a goodness to me. But I know that apart from him, like Paul said, right,

apart from God, there's, there in me, there's no good thing. And this guy, it's like he gives

himself to this onan. And so he's willing to have sex with his dead brother's wife, right? We see

back over in Genesis, and I didn't mark it, so it's going to take me a second to get there. But

it says, "And Judah said to Onan, 'Go into your brother's wife and marry her and raise up an

heir to your brother.' But Onan knew that the heir would not be his. And it came to pass when he went

into his brother's wife that he admitted on the ground." That's, that's kind of gross, but that's

in the Bible. I got chastised. I got chastised in a letter from a woman because I said consummation

from this pulpit. I wish she was here today, because it's gonna get worse. So, and this is a

bizarre verse. I remember before I was a Christian, an old man telling me, he made reference to this,

this right here. And, and he was justifying his own infidelity to his wife. He says, "You know,

the Bible says that it's, it's better to have sex with a whore than to put it on the ground." And

I'm going, "What? Where does the Bible say that?" And this is the, this is the text that he was

trying to justify that with. That's not true. That's not what this is talking about, right? Or

some in Christian circles, they will use this to condemn the, the act of masturbation. I just said

it in church. Yeah, I did. And was somebody clucking? And so, then a bunch of teenage boys

read this and they go, "We're all dead." Right? "We're all dead." But that's not what it's talking

about either, right? That's not what it's talking about. And, and so this guy doing what he did,

it was what was in his heart. He despised, he despised the idea of raising up an heir for his

dead brother. He despised that idea. That, that life-giving, right, plan that God enacted later

in the law, that that dead man would have an heir that would be raised up. And he despised that in

his heart. He despised the life of a child coming into the world. And some have used this, this

verse also as family planning methods, right? And so, and none of that holds water. What God

looks at, what he looks at here today, right, is not necessarily what you've done, but the heart

at which you do it. God looks at the heart. The Bible says man looks at the outward, right? 1

1 Samuel 16:7

Samuel 16 verse 7. Man looks at the outward, right? And men have looked at the outward of

this particular scripture and they've twisted it all up, right? There's no more twisted scripture

than Genesis 38. Sounds like a rock group, right? Twisted scripture. But it's because,

it's because this guy's heart was so terribly wicked that not wanting, and it says because he

knew, he knew the heir would not be his. And this thing, which he did, displeased the Lord,

therefore he killed him also. Now, this is the first place that we see God himself literally

killing somebody, right? Later, you'll see it in Acts chapter 5, I believe it is, where Sapphira

Acts 5 · chapter mention

and Ananias, Ananias and Sapphira, where God killed them for lying to the Lord, right? And

when God kills somebody, it usually gets people's attention. And that's what the Bible says, that

it struck fear in the people's hearts. And so, the Lord kills both of his sons and he has a third son,

right? That he don't end up giving to Tamar, this woman. And, you know, I guess you would be

suspicious after two of your sons had been killed by the Lord with this woman. In verse 11, it says,

"Then Judah said to Tamar, his daughter-in-law, 'Remain a widow in your father's house till my

son Shala is grown.' For he said, 'Lest he also be like his brothers.' And Tamar went and dwelt in

her father's house. Now, in the process of time, the daughter of Shewa, Judah's wife, died. And

Judah was comforted and went up to his sheep shears in Timnah and he and his friend, Hira and the

Edulamite, the Edulamite, and it was told Tamar saying, 'Look, your father-in-law is going up to

Timnah to shear his sheep.' And so, she took off her widow's garments, covered herself with a veil,

and wrapped herself and sat in the open place which was on the way to Timnah. For she saw

that Shala was grown and she was not given to him as a wife. And when Judah saw her, he thought she

was a harlot because she had covered her face. And then he turned to her, by the way, and said,

'Please let me come into you.' For he did not know that she was his daughter-in-law. So she said,

'What will you give me that you may come into me?' And he said, 'I will give you a young goat from

the flock.' And so she said, 'Will you give me a pledge till you send it?' And he said, 'What pledge

shall I give you?' And she said, 'Your signet and cord and your staff, that is in your hand.' Then

he gave them to her and went into her and she conceived by him. And so she arose and went away

and laid aside her veil and put on the garments of her widowhood." Sterling, the guy that does

the camera back here, he always comes up to me, "Okay, Scotty, what's the title of your message?"

And I said, "The title of my message today is Judah, comma, really? Question mark." This is

some wild stuff. These people are sinners, right? And so Tamar, right, she's trying to get even.

Isn't that amazing how sometimes our sin, when we see it on somebody else, how bad it looks? Right,

she's trying to get, "He should have given me his other son by now. He's grown and he's not." So

she plays the harlot, dresses up like a harlot. She's impersonating a harlot. She's not really

a harlot, but she's impersonating a harlot. And actually she goes through the act like a harlot

would. And it's just like, "Oh, what tangled webs we weave." And so Judah Caesar, his wife has died.

And for some reason he thinks it's okay to go into a harlot. You know, the psyche of people

sometimes just fascinates me how they can justify these things, especially sexual things. It's just,

it's bizarre. I know guys that have gone through a divorce and they because they think, "Now because

I'm not married, I'm okay to sleep with whoever, right? I'm not committing adultery." No, you're

fornicating. What's the difference, right? "Well, I am a consulting adult." Since when is it okay for

consulting adults to be perverse and to do wicked things? Sexuality God has put within the confines,

right, of marriage. Hetero marriage, I might have to say nowadays, right? A man and a woman in a

covenant relationship, that's where sex is acceptable. And some people know, "We can just

shack. We can just play the game." No, you're not in a covenant. God is a God of covenant. He

established the covenant. He said, "This is what you do. You commit your covenant, you consummate

that order." Right? It's not rocket science. And it's blessed by God. God blesses the sex act when

it's done his way, right? He loves it because of what it produces. He loves babies. God loves

babies, right? God's not into this population control thing, right? He loves babies. So we

just get all twisted up. If people would just read God's word and try to align their life,

you're not going to do it perfectly. You're sinful. You're going to stumble. You're going to fall. I

understand that, right? I'm not coming down on people, on sinners, because I'm coming down on

myself if I do, because he knows to do good and does not do it. To him it is sin. I understand

that. But it's our pursuit. And it's the heart that God is looking at. Just like he looked at

this man's heart and he saw in it, he saw no good thing. Not even a desire to know God or to do

things God's way. And yet there was great blessing available to him, just like there is to you and I,

if we do things God's way. So here's Tamar. Obviously she wants to have a child, right?

And that culture was very much a sign of success to have a little one, especially to raise up an

heir, a son. And so she makes a deal. And another goat's involved. These goats keep being involved

in all these, you know, all the scuttlebutt that goes on in these families, right? Whether it's

Isaac, or excuse me, whether it's Jacob deceiving Isaac or Jacob's son's deceiving him with the skin

of a goat. Now Tamar has duped Judah into this act and, poor goat, right? But she wanted a pledge

to make sure she got the goat. And so she got his signet and cord. The signet was Judah's,

it was like his signature signet, right? It's like his signature. And they could press it into clay

and then it would harden and that would be the sign of ownership. And then the cord was usually

personally identified as well. And then his staff. So all three of these things, all pointing to

Judah. Many believed that the signet mark could be on the staff as well, but it was his sign of

authority. His staff was his authority. And so he gave all three of them to her. And

she took them and then disappeared. She didn't keep doing that, right? She had a point she was

gonna prove and she did it in a deceitful and a seductive way with her father-in-law. Because

he thought she was a prostitute, but she wasn't. And so verse 20 says, got it here somewhere.

"And Judah sent the young goat by the hand of his friend, the Adulamite, to receive his pledge from

the woman's hand. But he did not find her. And then he asked the men of that place saying,

'Where is the harlot who was openly by the roadside?' And they said, 'There was no harlot

in this place.' So he returned to Judah and said, 'I cannot find her.' Also the men of the place

said, 'There was no harlot in this place.' And then Judah said, 'Let her take them for herself,

lest we be shamed. For I sent this young goat and you have not found her.' And it came to pass about

three months after that Judah was told saying, 'Tomorrow your daughter-in-law has played the

harlot. Furthermore she is with child by her harlot tree.' So Judah said, 'Bring her out and

let her be burned.'" So now he's faced with his own sin, notice, but he wants the judgment to be

on her and wants her to be burned. And there it is again. Our sin always looks so much worse on

someone else. So he goes to pay up, right? Kudos, he's gonna pay, gonna give her the goat, but can't

find her. And so then he finds out she's pregnant from harlot tree. And so it's okay for him to be

with a harlot, but it's not okay for her to be a harlot. She needs to be burned to death. And that's

just the way we are. And his condemnation was actually pretty short-lived, right? Bless her

heart, she kind of crossed her T's and dotted her I's when she got the signet, the cord, and the staff.

And so verse 25 says, "When she was brought out, she sent to her father-in-law saying, 'By the man

to whom these belong I am with child.' And she said, 'Please determine whose these are, the signet,

the cord, and the shaft.'" And the staff. And so he is exposed and he knows it. And I think that's

a very important point. When you're exposed. When you're exposed for your sin and you know it,

what do you do? What do you do with your sin? Years ago I had some people with some little packets,

little booklets that stopped by my door at my house. Actually, no, I was going hunting. That's

what it was. And I had stopped at this parts store, it was early in the morning. And these

two come up with their little pamphlets and started asking me about the end of the world

and all these things. And I said, "Well, I'm ready for the end of the world." I said, "Jesus has

forgiven me our sin." I said, "What do you do about your sin?" And they didn't have an answer

for me. I said, "Obviously you believe you sin, correct?" "Well, yeah, but we just believe our

good works will outweigh our bad works." I don't work that way. But when you're busted and when

you're confronted with your sin, what do you do? Right? The Bible tells us that we're to repent,

we're to turn from it. Right? That's what repentance means. It means to change directions.

And Judah seems to understand that here in verse 26 when he says, "So Judah acknowledged them,"

right? His signet, his cord and his staff, "She has been more righteous than I. I,

because I did not give her to Shilah my son and he never knew her again." Busted. You got me. I've

sinned. This is wrong. I don't know if he said, "Please forgive me," but he never approached her

again. Though he didn't know it was her to start with. And so I think Judah is being shaped by this

chapter. Right? I don't know about you, but I know that my failure when acknowledged God can use it

together for good. Right? When I acknowledge my failure, God can use it together for good in my

life. And doesn't mean there's still not going to be consequences. That just comes with the territory,

the wages of sin is death. But there's something very powerful about acknowledging and being

forgiven. It says in verse 27, "Now it came to pass at the time for giving birth that behold,

twins were in her womb. And so it was when she was giving birth that the one put out his hand,

and the midwife took a scarlet thread and bound it on his hand saying, 'This one came out first.'

Then it happened as he drew back his hand that his brother came out unexpectedly. And she said,

'How did you break through this breach be upon you? Therefore his name is called Perez.' Afterward,

his brother came out who had the scarlet thread on his hand and his name was called Zara." And

that's the end of this chapter. And like I've said before, when you go through chapters in the Bible

like this, you always look for Jesus. Right? Christ is on every page. He really is. And in

every story. And in this story you say, "Well, where could Jesus be in this story?" Look at all

this sin. Look at Ur. He was wicked. Onan, he was wicked. Tamar, she was deceptive. Judah was just

a dog. Right? He's just a dog. And yet the results from these people's lives come good news. You know

what gospel means? The good news. It comes from this very thing, though Onan wouldn't do it,

and Judah in his desires and passion after his wife died causes him to go into a harlot that

actually would get pregnant with twin boys, and the Messiah would come from one of them. In fact,

I'm convinced that Jesus is pictured in both these boys. Zara and Perez. Zara, it's interesting.

Zara means dawn. Seeing the light, but not seeing the sun. Right? So the hand comes out. Only

partially is this baby born, and they put a scarlet thread. I don't know if you've ever kind

of done his study throughout scripture on the scarlet thread. It's picturesque of the blood

of Christ that was shed for you and me. Right? And so they put the scarlet thread around the

little boy's hand, and he brings it back in. And then all of a sudden his brother wrestles,

and he gets out in front of him. What, symbolically, what does this mean? What do you think

about Jesus? Jesus, when he came, he was veiled. God was veiled in the flesh. Oh, I had a phone

call. What day was that? Friday. I had this phone call Friday. This guy's trying to convince me that

Jesus is just the son of God. He's not God. Man, did I get mad. Felt like punching my telephone.

Take that. His name was Nelson. Right? And he's one of them. He's so much smarter than me. Right?

The guy's just brilliant. But he's way off on his theology. He's greatly mistaken, not knowing the

scriptures or the power of God. So I don't even know why I was telling that story, but... About

who Jesus is, right? Jesus in his humanity, he was veiled. We only seen a little part of him. As he

went to the cross as a man, you know, marred more than any man, Isaiah tells us, that you could not

even recognize him as a human being on the cross. Right? And so the thought is, he's just a man that

died and went into the ground. That's the picture of Zara. We just had a glimpse of him. But then,

like Perez, he breaks through. Right? Jesus breaks out of the womb of the tomb. Like that? I borrowed

that from John Corson. I'm sorry. But he did. He burst forth, right? And we see who he really is.

Right? That he's God. That Jesus Christ is God. He's the death conqueror, the death eater. Death

has no hold over him. Death has no hold over anyone who puts their faith and trust in him. Right?

And so that's the picture of these two boys. It's powerful, actually, in Colossians chapter one. I

just wanted to read it to you here in my Bible. And it's starting in verse 15. It says, "He," this

is talking about Jesus, "He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For

by him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible,

whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through him and

for him." I wish I would have read this to Nelson when I talked to him on the phone. "And he is

before all things and in him all things consist. And he is the head of the body, the church, who

is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things he may have the preeminence."

He's the firstborn from the dead. It says it also in a verse in Revelation that I always use

at funerals, but sometimes I forget about it. And it says in verse five of Revelation chapter one,

"And from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead and the ruler over the

kings of the earth, to him who loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood and has made us

kings and priests to his God and Father. To him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen." Amen?

Amen. And that's right here in this wild, crazy chapter in Genesis. Jesus just jumps off of the

page in these two boys, Zara and Perez. Now people would say, "Well, Scotty, I think you're reaching.

You're reaching just a little bit there, buddy." But when you look at, I'm just going to turn there

real quick in closing. In Matthew, it gives the genealogy of Jesus and what's powerful,

it's the only place in both the genealogies of Christ where brothers are mentioned. And that is,

it says, "Abraham begot Isaac, Isaac begot Jacob, Jacob begot Judah and his brothers,

Judah begot Perez and Zara by Tamar." Here they are in the genealogy of Christ, these two boys,

right? Both pointing us to the Lord Jesus. And so you wonder how God can bring any good out of your

life, even in the messes you've made. If you'll give it to him, he can, right? Because he can make

chocolate cake out of any kind of ingredients, right? And I know some of ours are stinky and

smelly, you know, more like a skunk signed in, but God can bring something beautiful out of it.

But we got to yield. We got to be willing to do it His way. It truly is a surrender, you guys. And

not just a little bit. It's all. That old saying, "I surrender all." And I mean, you have to be

careful when we sing that song. Because if you sing it and don't mean it, it might kill you.

Might just kill you. Right? Because that's what Ananias and Sapphira did. They said, "Well,

let's just tell, you know, we sold it all, but let's tell them we're gonna give it all to them,

but we're gonna hold quite a bit back. We're just gonna give them." You know, Peter says,

"What are you doing? You think you can get away with something like that? You haven't lied to

men. You've lied to God. And God don't know that you're lying to Him?" Point well taken, right?

Just know that the Lord came for people like Ur and Onan and Tamar and Judah and you and me.

That's why He came. And He can make it all good. And that is the joy of this Christian life that

God can take the messes we make, and if we will humble ourselves, He will truly bring something

beautiful about in your life. But you just got to be willing to do it His way. Let's pray. Father,

thank you for just being real, Lord. And we've all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

We've all despised the blessings of others. And Lord, we've even taken your name in vain,

thinking we're doing something good or something for you, not realizing that everything that's

been done has been done for us, that we might have life and that everlasting. So Lord, I just

ask that you would just remind us that you're in the business of righting all those wrongs, Lord,

and that as we humble ourselves before you, Lord, you're drawn to us and you want to give us your

spirit and you want to help us to live this life that you've called us to, a life of surrender,

a life of forgiveness, a life of love that we don't possess in and of ourselves. We need it

to come from you and from your Holy Spirit. And Lord, I just love the picture of you in this

passage, Lord, these two boys that breaking through, Lord, you've broken out of the grave

to give us a future and a hope. You've shed your scarlet blood upon Calvary's cross to wash us as

white as snow that truly were reconciled by your cross. We're reconciled to God and we praise you

and we want to love you for that, Lord. So I pray that you would give us that humility. Maybe some

need to come and just be prayed for today, Lord. They need to get their life right with you. I pray

that you'd give them the boldness to come up to the prayer team and seek that out or myself or

anyone else, Lord, for that matter, that you would draw all of us to yourself as you are lifted up

and as you were lifted up on that cross for the salvation of the whole wide world. Lord, may we

look to you, the author and finisher of our faith. We pray it in the mighty powerful name of Jesus.

Amen.

Amen.