Good morning and welcome to the last week in August. As the month draws to a close, I can’t help but watch the thermometer closely and look forward to the end of another Texas summer. I will have to admit though, there is something to the whole dry heat thing. After suffering through summers this year in Hong Kong, Shanghai, Tachang and Mexico, I can honestly tell you, even 100 in Texas is doable. If you’re going to have to deal with high heat, low humidity is the way to tackle it.
As we start chapter 38 of Genesis this morning, I want you to reach back into your memories. For some of you, like me, it will be reaching farther back. Reach back to the Sesame Street days. Do you recall that one little learning skit that sang, “one of these things just doesn’t belong here..” Well, that little diddy could well sum up the chapter today. Not only is it quite the odd story, but even it’s timing and placement is rather odd. We just started the story of Joseph in chapter 37 and you would think that we would continue on in that vein, but not so. We completely shift gears and look at a crazy tale of Judah, his sons, a daughter in law and the kids that come as a result. It’s a story of sin, deceit, sexual immorality, selfishness and death. But there is a great lesson here as we see that all of this chaos is directly in the lineage of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. It’s a dysfunctional family that is functioning to fulfill God’s plan.
I’ll let you read the chapter on your own, there’s just way too many twists and turns for me to tackle it here and keep my word count down. In a nutshell, we see that the lineage of Jesus Christ is one of the most sinful, debaucherous, sexually immoral and prideful that could possibly exist. I just wrote on genealogies last week and what you see this morning is nothing more than another genealogy, but in a narrative text instead of a list.
It’s very important for us to see that one of the main points here is where Jesus came from. He is of the line of Judah and in that line, we see murderers, prostitutes, “johns”, pagans, liars, polygamists and rapists as well as almost every other sin. You see, God goes to great lengths to ensure that we know everything about the people in the precious lineage of His Son, Jesus. And that’s our story today. The story of dysfunction that serves a function.
Let’s get personal with this lesson. Folks, no matter where your feet have taken you or where they are standing today, God can and will use you to further His Kingdom. No matter your sin, your scars, or your story, you’re not the first. Moses had a story, King David had a story, Jacob had a story and Paul had a story. They all dealt with tremendous sin, rebellion, and dysfunction, but God still used them to function for Him.
But in order to shed the dysfunction and function effectively for God, you’ve got to make a decision. You’ve got to make a decision in your heart to leave the sin and rise above. You can’t wallow in the muck of sin and still be clean. So, if you find yourself in the muck today but desperately wanting to clean yourself of it, what to do? Well, simply ask. Ask God. You see, God knows your heart. If you are ready to rise above the sin, the selfishness, and the pride that are keeping you in bondage today, He will clean you as shiny as a new penny. Drop to your knees, confess your sin to God and He is faithful to cleanse you from those sins. In the words of the great old hymn, the blood of Jesus, will wash you white as snow. God wants to use you, but in order to do so, you as a vessel must be clean. And God is the one that holds the bottle of 409.
Praise God for His Word. In it, He clearly shows us that He can produce miracles from sinners like what we see today in Genesis 38. And praise be to God that He is still doing it with sinners today.
Be blessed in your service to God and others. As you serve speak the name of Jesus.
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