So whatever sin you may be struggling with, whatever prison cell you may feel like your
mind is in, whatever chains you may feel like you're holding, that same promise that God made
to them, he's making to you. Hey, I'm sending one who is a chain breaker. I'm sending one who can
break down prison doors. I'm sending one who can bend the bars to be able to break you out of prison,
to be able to make you a free man and a free woman, and his name is Jesus.
Hey, welcome to the empower you daily devotional. My name is Marcus. Today we're going to be looking
at Matthew chapter one from the ESV. The goal on this chapter is to bring out three key truths
and show how this portion of scripture is still vital for our walk and how we can grow from it.
So if you have your Bibles, Matthew chapter one, starting in verse one, it says this,
the book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. Abraham was the
father of Isaac and Isaac, the father of Jacob and Jacob, the father of Judah and his brothers. And
Judah was the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar and Perez, the father of Hezron and Hezron, the
father of Ram and Ram, the father of Amenadab and Amenadab, the father of Nashon and Nashon,
the father of Salmon and Salmon, the father of Boaz by Rahab and Boaz, the father of Obed by Ruth
and Obed, the father of Jesse and Jesse, the father of king David. And David was the father
of Solomon by the wife of Uriah and Solomon, the father of Rehoboam, and Rehoboam, the father of
Abedah and Abedah, the father of Asaph and Asaph the father of Jehoshaphat. And Jehoshaphat, the
father of Joram and Joram, the father of Uzziah. And Uzziah the father of Jotham and Jotham, the
father of Ahaz and Ahaz the the father of Hezekiah and Hezekiah, the father of Massa and Massa,
the father of Amos and Amos, the father of Josiah and Josiah, the father of Jeconiah and his
brothers at the time of the deportation of Babylon. And after the deportation of Babylon, Jeconiah
was the father of Shealtiel and Shealtiel, the father of Zerubbabel and Zerubbabel, the phone
of Abiod and Abiad the father of Elechem and Elechim, the father of Azor and Azor the father
of Zadok and Zadok, the father of Achaem and Achum, the father of Eliyid and Eliyad, the father
of Eleazar and Eleazar, the father of Mathan and Mathan, the father of Jacob and Jacob, the father
of Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is also called the Christ. So all the
generations from Abraham to David were 14 generations. From David to the deportation of
Babylon, 14 generations. From the deportation of Babylon to the Christ, 14 generations. Now that's
a lot to unpack. Those are a lot of names. I probably butchered a couple of them, but every
single one of those names actually has a really awesome key component to what we're about to
unpack. But I just want to focus on three. But before I do, I just want to share with you a
quote that was given to me by one of my dear friends from Alabama. His name is Pastor Rick
Hagans. He said this, he said, the only person to ever get the opportunity to choose their family
is Jesus Christ. When I heard that early on in my walk, I never really understood just how much
of an impact that quote is. Growing up in my family, looking at all my cousins, and my aunts,
and my uncles, and my grandparents, great-grandparents, all throughout the line, I'm
sure if you put all of us in a room, you'd be able to find one, maybe two people who you were like,
man, that person's kind of crazy. And fun fact for you, I might actually be one of those people.
But if you got all of us in the room, you'd be able to see, hey, there's one person, maybe two
people, maybe three people in this family who's crazy. I don't know about you and your family,
but I'm pretty sure when I say this person's crazy, you might be thinking of a cousin, you
might be thinking of an uncle, you might be thinking of a brother or a sister. And if you
can't think of anybody, then you're the crazy one. But with that, if you look throughout this entire
genealogy, most of these people in this list were either crazy, or they were full of drama,
or there was something about them that maybe society didn't like. I just want to focus on
three, the first one being Abraham. You see, Abraham was a non-believer who lived in the city
of Ur, who God called out and took him on a journey. And throughout that journey, what we
find out through Abraham is this, is that Abraham one time lied about who his wife was to Pharaoh.
We also see time and time again, Abraham had a lot of unbelief. When God told him one thing,
Abraham doubted in his heart. You see, Jesus's family tree is full of messed up people. You
have murderers, you have prostitutes, you have liars, you have adulterers, you have wicked kings,
and you have faithless men, just like Abraham was. The second person we could bring out and focus on
is Rahab. You see, Rahab wasn't only a prostitute, but Rahab was also part of a people who were
actually considered enemies of God. And the crazy thing about this is that Rahab was someone who is
mentioned here. So, in Jesus's lineage, in Jesus's ancestry, you have someone who was
considered an enemy of God, and someone who not only was an enemy of God, but someone
somebody whose entire occupation was something that is perverting what
marriage and sex is in the eyes of God. And yet we see her in Jesus's family
tree. And the third person I want to highlight is King David. Now you see King
David was a shepherd boy who became a king and who was considered a man after
God's own heart. And yet we see with just one affair, one situation that
happened in David's life, we see so many sins that came out of that. You see David
was at home at a time when kings were supposed to be at war so he wasn't doing
his job as a king. And because of that he found himself on the roof at an odd part
of the day and was able to gaze upon Bathsheba as she was bathing. And because
of that David lusted after her. David fell into adultery with her. And then
David tried to cover all this up by bringing Bathsheba's husband Uriah home
to be able to fix it. So he lied to Uriah and tried to manipulate Uriah
to be able to go home to his wife. And when that did not work because Uriah was
a faithful man, David had him murdered. This is King David. This is the one who
if you read the entire book of Psalms wrote majority of those Psalms
worshiping and praising God. Well why do I say this? The reason why I say this is
because every single one of these people that I've mentioned, all three of them,
Jesus rectified. God's love and God's faithfulness rectified them. And not
only rectified them but transformed them from the inside out to where you
have Abraham who is a man who doubted God continually became the father
of our faith. I mean we sing songs all the time, Father Abraham had many sons
and many sons love Father Abraham. I mean he became not only the father of our
faith but the father of many nations. With Rahab what we see with her life is
that God was able to save her from the crumbling walls of Jericho. And the
rest of her people who died and was able to bring her and adopt her into the
people of Israel to where she's able to be a part of the lineage of Jesus. And
not only that but she's able to actually be the great-great-great grandmother of
King David who's considered the greatest king the world has ever seen. And so we've
seen that God has taken this prostitute who was an enemy of God and brought her
in as a friend to the people of God to live amongst them. And lastly we see
again with King David, we see that this man who is a liar, who is an adulterer,
and who is a murderer is considered a man after God's own heart. And so with
all that said the crazy thing is this, this is the second truth. Second truth is
we see that God keeps his promise. How does God keep his promise?
Number one is this, God chooses sinners. We see in Jesus's testimony. And the
second thing is that God transforms sinners. And so with those
people that I mentioned, starting with Abraham, the promise that God kept to
him was this, God promised Abraham that he'll be the father of many nations. I
don't know if you if you've read the Old Testament, I don't know if you've read
the book of Genesis, but you'll see that through Abraham came the Hebrew people.
Through Abraham came the nation of Israel and yet he's considered the
father of many nations. Why? Well because Jesus is the bridge between between Jew
and Gentile. Because Jesus is the bridge for that, Jesus is the answer to
Abraham's promise. We look at King David, the promise that God gave King David was
that his throne would last forever. Well we know that David died, you know, we
read about it in the Old Testament, but yet the promise that God keeps that is
by sending Jesus who was an offspring of David, who was a descendant of David, who
is now sitting at the right hand of God on the throne ruling over all of
creation forever and ever. The third promise God gave that he kept in this is
the promise he gave to Satan. Now you might be thinking, whoa Marcus, like what
do you mean God made a promise to Satan? Well the promise he gave to Satan can
actually be found in Genesis chapter 3. In Genesis chapter 3 it actually says
this, in verse 15, I will put enmity between you and the woman and between
your offspring and her offspring. He shall bruise your head and you shall
bruise his heel. So the promise that God gave Satan is this, hey you may bruise
the heel of the offspring of man, but the offspring of man is gonna be the
one to crush your head. And so we see that when Jesus died on the cross on
Calvary that he defeated sin and he defeated Satan and he defeated the
entire kingdom of evil. And so what we see is this, is that the promise that God
made Satan, we see that fulfillment by sending Jesus. And then the last promise
that God made is the promise that he gave to prisoners and captives. You see
prisoners and captives, if you read throughout Jesus's lineage about these
wicked kings and King Josiah and the deportation of Babylon, the promise that
God gave them was in Jeremiah 29 11 when he says, for I know the plans I have for
you declares the Lord. Plans to prosper you and not to harm you. Plans to give
you hope and a future. God's talking freedom to them. God's reminding
them, hey there's freedom coming. It may not be now but freedom is coming. And so
that very promise that God gave to the captives and the prisoners to them, he's
given the captives and prisoners today. So whatever sin you may be struggling
with, whatever
prison cell, you may feel like your mind is in, whatever chains you may feel like
you're holding, that same promise that God made to them, He's making to you.
Hey, I'm sending one who is a chain breaker. I'm sending one who can break
down prison doors. I'm sending one who can bend the bars to be able to break
you out of prison, to be able to make you a free man and a free woman, and His
name is Jesus. That's the second truth, is that God sends His promise
through Jesus. And lastly, the third and final truth we see is in Matthew
chapter 1, starting in verse 18, it says this,
Now here's the amazing truth on this, is Jesus, His names, Jesus and
Emmanuel, actually represent His mission here on earth. It actually represents
His ministry. So it says here that, that you shall call His name Jesus, for He
will save His people from their sins. Jesus's 33 years on this earth was
that, was to be able to live a perfect life that you and I could not live, was
to be able to fulfill the law that you and I could not keep, and was to be able
to to walk with God in a way that you and I could not walk, to be able to take
a punishment that was meant for you and I, to be able to die on a cross and be
buried and rose again on the third day, to be able to sit at the right hand of
the Father. You see, those entire 33 years that Jesus lived on this earth and
died and resurrected again, was the very thing that Jesus had to do to be able to
save us from our sins. But the very next name that they say is, you shall call His
name Emmanuel, which means God with us. You see, the ministry that Jesus is in
now, is to be able to be the one to send the Holy Spirit to the believers, to be
able to live inside each believer at the day they are saved, to be able to live
inside of us. And so because Jesus's ministry to save people from their sins
has already finished, the fact that Jesus already died and is resurrected, His
ministry now is to live amongst believers, to be able to live inside
believers, to empower them, to let the Holy Spirit use them, to work through
them, to be able to continue the ministry He had 33 years ago. You may be sitting
here and wondering, man, I don't know what I can do for the Lord. Marcus, I don't
feel like I have many gifts. Marcus, I don't feel like there's much I can do in
the kingdom of God. Well, can I say this, that Jesus's ministry is His name
Emmanuel, meaning God with us. If God lives inside of you, if you were, if you
were a sinner who was bought and washed by the blood of Jesus, and you
were a Christian, and you were saved, then God could do so much in you
because you have the Holy Spirit living inside of you. So many times and in so
many days as a youth pastor, I've seen young people who belittle themselves
and turn away from what God has called them to do because they feel that they
have nothing to offer. Well friends, can I say this, you may feel like you have
nothing to offer, but Jesus has everything to offer as He lives inside
of you, as He sends the Holy Spirit to dwell inside of you. Just with those
three truths, I do hope it blesses you. Thank you so much for joining us for
this chapter of Matthew chapter 1, and we'll talk with you guys next time.