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[ Pause ] [ Music ] [MUSIC] [MUSIC]

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[ Music ] [ Music ] ♪ And day to night ♪ ♪ The grass gives growth of heavy ♪

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♪ And gather all above ♪ ♪ The birds of sleep, they wake up sweet ♪ ♪ And watch the water flow ♪ ♪ For all is God's together ♪

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♪ Proclaim the holy birth ♪ ♪ And praise his name to all the kings ♪ ♪ And kings to him honor ♪ ♪ How splendidly ♪

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♪ How splendidly ♪ ♪ The wondrous gift is given him ♪ ♪ So God impart to you, my heart ♪ ♪ The blessing of his heaven ♪

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♪ You'll hear, may hear his cry ♪ ♪ While in his world of sin ♪ ♪ Having so filled with faith and sin ♪ Let's take our seats as we sing the last stanza and let's sing it softly as a prayer.

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O holy child of Bethlehem. ♪ O holy child of Bethlehem ♪ ♪ We send all of us we pray ♪ ♪ That Thou our sin not enter'd ♪

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♪ Be born in us today ♪ ♪ Hear the Christmas angels ♪ ♪ A-ringing high in splendor ♪ ♪ O come to us, O come, let us ♪

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♪ Adore Him, and unite ♪ Speak to our hearts, O God, and grant that we may be hearers of the Word, but not hearers only, but doers. In Jesus' name, amen.

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The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. Matthew chapter one, verse one. All the generations from Abraham to David

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14 generations and from David until the carrying away into Babylon of 14 generations and from the carrying away into Babylon unto Christ of 14 generations same chapter verse 17 the subject the genealogy of Jesus genealogy of Jesus. Language of our texts says a book of generations. This is the way

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Matthew introduces his gospel. And one may well ask the question, why is this important. All the years I've spent in the ministry, 50 years, I've never heard a sermon on this chapter. We overlook it. But it must have been important for Matthew to include it. It was very important. What significance then does

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this genealogy have in relation to Jesus Christ? That's what this message intends to explore. Genealogy is concerned with family beginnings. Father, mother, grandfather, grandmother, great-grandfather, great-grandmother, great-great, on and on

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it goes, has to do with our beginnings, how we got here. And in this is included an enumerable host of others other than just parents and grandparents, but a an enumerable host of other relatives. Some keep the record of the family line in the Bible.

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Go to the old family Bible and you'll find out when mother was born, when father was born, and grandfather and so on. So from ancient times to the present, people have been concerned about tracing their family history. We have focused on it more in recent years as a people. We have family reunions.

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but here we have in Matthew's genealogy what we often call the begets. Abraham beget Isaac, Isaac beget Jacob, Jacob beget Judas and his brethren and on and on it goes until we reach Jesus Christ. Well, the begets appear to be very dull and uninteresting reading. That's

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possibly why we don't deal with it. But I suggest that they are extremely important. Genealogies have symbolic significance. They convey a message related to what we call today in another way the rites of passage. Much is involved in the begets. It's more than just that word sliding over and

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forgetting it, but it has to do with transition that occurs from generation to generation. It's a whole lot involved, it's represented in my mother and father's generation, to my generation, and to my children's generation. In fact people have already, are already reminding me, you know, "Rev. that was in your day."

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This is a different generation. But a great deal is involved in each generation so Abraham begat Isaac, Isaac begat Jacob, Jacob begat Judas. Great deal is involved. What is it then of lasting value that is passed from father to to son, from mother to daughter.

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What is it of lasting value that is passed on to subsequent generations? Abraham is passing on more than just some folkways to Isaac. He is passing on to Isaac a living faith.

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And that's the concern of every generation. I used to hear my mother say, "I don't want you to have to go through what I went through." From generation to generation.

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This symbolism that I'm talking about is expressed in what we often call the passing of the torch, passing the torch from one generation to the other. President John F. Kennedy in his inaugural address said, "Let the word go

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forth from this time and place to friend and foe alike that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans born in this century, tempered by war, disciplined by a hard and bitter peace, proud of our ancient heritage, and unwilling to witness or permit the slow undoing of those human rights to which this nation has always been committed

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and to which we are committed today at home and around the world. The torch, she said, has been passed from generation to generation.

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This torch is an expression of commitment. Abraham's faith is passed from generation to generation. Abraham, the father of the faithful. Now this book of generations traces the history of God's people from Abraham's expectation

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to the fulfillment in David. Oh, we're always concerned about pedigree. We want to know as much as possible about those who have preceded us because what we are is in large measure determined by what they were. I look the way I look

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because they look the way they looked and I have certain problems because they had certain problems. I have problems with my eyes because my ancestors had some problems with their eyes and my children wear glasses because I had to wear glasses. All of these things are somewhat interrelated.

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So we are what we are in some measure because they were what they were. When I was serving as a member of the Board of Regents at Texas Southern during the '60s,

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one of the students stood up and said that, those who have preceded us have failed us. They have not done what they should have done. They have misled us.

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But you know, we don't select our ancestors. We don't select our grandparents. We don't get to choose who they are. Abraham beget Isaac.

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Isaac beget Jacob. Jacob beget Judah. What we have here is symbolism and an understanding. We come to engage many times in a search as to who we are

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and why we're here as we better understand our background. And Alex Haley has done a great deal in this way in his book Roots because it's the results of his search for his ancestors and an understanding.

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And it led him into Africa, to the backwoods of Africa, to a remote section in Gambia, this remote tribe of his ancestors. The begets convey a message of symbolism regarding who we are, what we may become. So, and this somehow from generation to generation

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has to do with the ongoingness of life. It goes on, doesn't stop with one. It goes on from generation to generation. There is that remains when all around us may be shaken.

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that goes on from generation to generation. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, on and on. Symbolism there. Continuity has to do with the continuities of history

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as well as the discontinuities, the ongoingness as well as some things that don't go on from generation to generation. begets convey this message. And then they also here, if you look at this list, they convey a message about

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symmetry, balance, some balance, look, those names, some balance. They belong to a period when we may say that was a patriarchal society in control. And there was a tendency to trace the lineage just through the male line, through the men.

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Well, we all know that it takes two, both men and women, for birth to occur. And so there is some balance there in this list of

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names from generation to generation as some balance Men in it. There's some women in it and He names some women

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Tamar is one And Others are listed there along with Tamar rehab is another And Besheba is another. Ruth is another. All of these. So we have Tamer, Rahab, Ruth.

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Besheba is, her name isn't given, but she was the wife of Uriah. So at least you have right there four women that are listed in this genealogy have some balance and life has some balance from generation to generation and it's not all the same you have some some zigs and you have some zags you have some ups

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you have some downs you have some successes you have some failures some balance in life it's a balance as it moves from generation to generation There's this balance. Oh yes, it has some symbolism in it. It has some symmetry, balance. It has some shame because when you think about this genealogy, Tamar,

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Tamar was a shady character. You know what she did? She tricked her father, in-law, Judah, into fathering her twin sons. That's a pretty terrible thing for anybody to do but that's what Tamar did. So and Rahab, Rahab was a prostitute. She possibly ran a house of prostitution there near the Jericho wall.

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That's not an honorable vocation but she's listed here. Ruth was a foreigner. Jewish people did not think of foreigners as being on the same plane that they were on and yet Ruth is a foreigner. She's a Moabite woman and she has somehow gotten into this family line and her name is here. Uriah had a child

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by David when she, I mean Bathsheba had a child by David. She was the wife of Uriah. She had a child by David when her husband was off in the army. Now this doesn't seem to be an honorable list and I suspect that if many of us were trying to write a history and had that kind of background we would like to

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sort of leave that out. In fact a man was having his family history written and he had a member in the family that had a pretty bad reputation. He had lived the life of a criminal. He ended up in the federal penitentiary and was finally electrocuted. And so the man said, "Well now I want you to be honest

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in writing this family history but I want you to try to doctor this up." So the author said, "I think I could do that." So he wrote that this particular member of the family was identified with one of the outstanding institutions in the country and that he was so attached to his profession that he literally died

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in the chair so that was the way he handled it we like to sort of doctor these things up. Like the man who was having his picture painted by an outstanding artist and he had some warts and so the artist said well I'll arrange it so I'll leave these warts off. He said no no, include it all, warts and

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all. And that's the way the scripture is. The scripture includes everything. warts and all. So Tima you see would be looked upon as a wart. Rehab the harlot, Bathsheba the wife of Uriah, all of these would be looked upon. We'd sort of lead them off, but the scripture doesn't. They're there to show the

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lineage of Jesus Christ, he came through this lineage. In other words, that which we would ordinarily consider as shame, God takes that and glorifies those persons. They become glorified because somehow they are involved in the coming of Jesus Christ. Their lives are glorified and they remain outstanding

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persons in history. Well, we're a little different. I can remember as a lad when King Henry the 8th fell in love with Wally Simpson. He was king of England and his the royal family said you can't marry this woman. She is an American divorcing and she's a commoner. You're from the royal family, there's royal blood in your veins. You can't marry this woman.

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The family told him that and the church told him that. The Anglican Church said that. No, no you can't do that. Well he had to give his answer and I remember listening to his speech when he abdicated the throne. He said that he would surrender the throne for the woman he loved. So he had a relationship that

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transcended all of those things. Here we have, here we have these women and even we come on down the line 14 generations 14 from Abraham to David 14 from David to the Babylonian captivity 14 from Babylonian captivity Jesus Christ balance 14 each way 14 all three periods 14 we come down to the time of Jesus

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Christ and we have another woman, Mary. She's an unwed mother. Our society frowns on that and yet somehow this is the way God did it. She became pregnant and he said that which is in her is of the Holy Spirit. So doesn't seem that some of these people have impressive credentials but God makes the difference because it

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is through this line that Jesus Christ comes. And why is it important? Not just because of symbolism? Why is it important? Not just because of symmetry and some balance. Why is it important? Not because of the grace of God in being able to embrace shame and turn shame into glory, but why is it important? It is important

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because it is through this channel that the salvation of the world comes. So this This genealogy you see my brothers and sisters ends with Jesus Christ. So genealogies have to do with beginnings and endings. Jesus Christ is Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end.

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Jesus Christ, the only begotten son of the Father. He said of himself that before Abraham was, I am. So all of these generations point to Jesus Christ because all life in God is through Jesus Christ.

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Because it is through Jesus Christ that the eternal, endless time salvation comes to those who are unfit, life in Jesus Christ. That's why it's important. This book of generations, this in the beginning, God somehow is at work in Abraham and he keeps

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on working, he keeps on working and even in Babylonian captivity, God keeps on working and there he culminates the manifestation of himself in Jesus Christ. Oh how wonderful it is to see how he works and it's a wonderful thing as we look back can see the family in all of these generations, how it continues. The family

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of God, family of God. And here we are today, children of Abraham, embracing the same faith, saying that we belong to the family of God. And I'm so glad, I'm so glad I belong to the family of God. Although sometimes I go to strange places but I try to find the family of God. Those who honor God as Father and

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who honor Jesus Christ as our elder brother. I'm so glad, so glad I belong to the family of God. I belong, God is my father, the source of my strength. He's your father, the source of your strength. He's the source of our hope. He's not only the ground of our being, He's the goal of our striving. I'm so glad I belong to the family of God. He showers His love upon us from day to day, from

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generation to generation. So we're not offerings. You know we all come into this world one by one and we leave that way. One by one. And sometimes we may be left alone. One lady said the other day, "You see, I'm the only one in my family." I said, "But you have a family. You have a family. You have the family of God. You have brothers

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and sisters here at Ebenezer. You are not alone. You are not alone in the world. We We are not offerings. We have a Father who loves us. And we have a brother.

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I was reared as an only child. My wife was reared as an only child. But when you recognize that you have a family, doesn't matter, doesn't matter, doesn't matter, you're always at home with brothers and sisters and you can say, "I'm so glad I belong to

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the family of God. For we have Jesus as our elder brother and he's our companion. You see God, God has wrapped himself up in human flesh and he has sent him to tabernacle among us and to be with us to be our bread in a starving land. To be our water when we are thirsty, to be the true vine, to be the door that is open to

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us when all other doors may be shut, that he opens a door that no man can shut, to be that vine that's the true vine, and to be the light of the world. He's given us an elder brother to be healing for our sickness, to be hope in time of despair, to hear the resurrection and the life that when we are down, he raises us up

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time and time again. I'm so glad I belong to the family of God. I have God as my father, Jesus as my brother, and the Holy Spirit as my comforter. I'm so glad, so glad, so glad I belong to the family of God. So we need not be disturbed by our genealogy. You know sometimes people say well you know you didn't get here the

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right way. You don't have to worry about that. You don't have to worry about that. Most of us can't go back very far without genealogy. That really doesn't matter. It's who we are! It's who we are in God! It's what we are doing for him! and how we are linked up in his spirit,

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that's what matters most. - That's what matters most. I'm so glad. Glad.

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- Glad, glad! - That I be there, aren't you glad? - Yes. - That you belong to the family of God.

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That he's with us. He watches over us. - Whether we are on land, whether we are on the sea,

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whether we are on the mountains, wherever we are, He was able to look after him. We come now to the time of invitation.

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There may be somebody here who needs to unite with the family of God here at Ebenezer. We extend that invitation to you now to come. the church is open. I invite you to come. A profession of faith, by letter, by Christian experience, only trust Him.

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♪ Every soul has been oppressed ♪ ♪ Let mercy win the war ♪ ♪ For he who should be weak ♪ ♪ Will not stand trusting in his God ♪

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♪ Only trust him, only trust him ♪ ♪ No need to spend now ♪ ♪ He will save you ♪ ♪ He will save you ♪

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♪ He will save you now ♪ ♪ For Jesus healed this wretched heart ♪ ♪ Which was then to be scorned ♪ ♪ But God to the prince of love ♪

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♪ And that she'll joyous smile ♪ ♪ Only trust Him, only trust Him ♪ ♪ Only trust Him now ♪ ♪ He will save you, He will save you ♪

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♪ He will save you now ♪ ♪ Jesus is the truth, the Word ♪ ♪ And lead to them to rest ♪ ♪ Believe in Him and love Him ♪

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♪ And you are fully blessed ♪ ♪ Only trust Him, only trust Him ♪ ♪ Only trust Him now ♪ ♪ He will save you, He will save you ♪

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♪ He will save you now ♪ ♪ Only trust Him ♪ ♪ Only trust Him ♪ ♪ Only trust Him now ♪

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♪ He will save you ♪ ♪ He will save you ♪ ♪ He will save you now ♪ - Amen, amen.

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The genealogy of Jesus is important, not only because it includes all those generations, from Abraham to David, from David to Babylonian captivity,

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and Babylonian captivity to Jesus Christ, but because it includes us, that we are his children, we are his people. Those persons who are celebrating birthdays

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who stood earlier, would you go now of the sanctuary please and stand. We invite the visitors to join us. Will some Ebenezer member invite them to come with you

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to the fellowship hall following the benediction. Let's bow our heads. O gracious God. [INAUDIBLE]