Christmas parties, lights, decorations and gifts can distract us from the reason for the season. However, if we take a deeper look into the Christmas story we can discover more about the God who orchestrated it all. In our first message from our new series, The God of the Christmas Story, we learn that God is a God of hope.

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OC Church of Christ

do it.

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It's Christmas.

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Christmas is here.

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Are you excited about Christmas?

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Some of us may be excited.

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Some of us may be that, that there's,

there's a, uh, some tenderness there.

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Maybe there was some tragedy

that, that happened in your life.

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And so we understand it could be on

different extremes here at excited,

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most excited time of your life, or maybe

the most challenging time of your life.

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Some of us, it could be the

most stressful time in our life.

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We start thinking about setup

and, and trying to get gifts, and

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trying not to break our necks as we

stand on a ladder trying to put up

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lights, you know what I'm saying?

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And so it can be fun, it can be a

blast, and then we're always reminded,

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especially in the church, Hey,

remember the reason for the season.

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Let's make sure we put the

Christ back in Christmas, right?

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We hear these slogans all

the time, dropping bars, oh,

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there you go, alright, so.

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And so we want to yes, we want to do this

But I notice here and I want us I was

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praying thinking about this and as we

talk about Daniel about a sermon series

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here For Christmas, we wanted to identify

the God of the Christmas story We want

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to go ahead and that's going to be our

sermon series here is the God of the

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Christmas Story because as we embark upon

this season, and yes, we can be in all

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Jesus or, or, or ham or Thanksgiving and

presents and all these different things.

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We want to make sure that we

always see God in this story.

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And how God is still prevalent in

our lives and how the Christmas

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story provides such a blessing and

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So let's go to God in prayer.

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Father, we thank you so much

for this chance to have.

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Uh, to look into your word, to

be excited about what, about who

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you are, to learn more about you.

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God, as I step back and been thinking

about the next several weeks, I really

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am excited to get a chance to, to, uh,

study more of your word and to take

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a step back and, and get to know more

about you and, and to come closer to you.

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And I pray father that today

we can draw closer to you as we

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understand you and your character.

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We pray in the name of Jesus.

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Amen.

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I'm going to go ahead and call my wife.

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My wife Corinna is going to come

up on stage here with me today.

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And so we're going to be looking at,

uh, we're going to, for the next four

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weeks, we're going to be studying out

just the first two chapters of Matthew.

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And so Matthew is a letter written

by one of Jesus's followers.

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And so he writes this letter and

it's important that we understand

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and realize that this letter

was talking about who Jesus was.

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It's called the gospel

according to Matthew.

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But it's written to a Jewish audience.

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So as you read it, you have to

understand, you have to know a

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little bit of Jewish culture to

fully grasp all that is there in the

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treasures that are there in the text.

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And so this first week, we're going

to look at how God is a God of hope.

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Our God is a God of hope and we

see this in the Christmas story.

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Let's go ahead and let's get into it.

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In Matthew chapter 1, we're going

to read here, uh, in verse 1.

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It says, this is the genealogy

of Jesus, the Messiah, the son

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of David, the son of Abraham.

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Abraham was the father of Isaac.

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Isaac, the father of Jacob, Jacob,

the father of Judah and his brothers,

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Judah, the father of Perez and

Zerah, whose mother was Tamar.

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We'll go ahead and keep going here

in verse, uh, five, it says Salman,

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the father of Boaz, whose mother was

Rahab Boaz, the father of Obed, whose

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mother was Ruth Obed, the father

of Jesse, Jesse, the father of King

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David, David was a father of Solomon,

whose mother had been Uriah's wife.

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Then it goes on and says

a whole bunch of names.

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And if you read it before, those

names can be a little tricky.

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And so I'm not going to

butcher all those names.

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Okay.

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So we're going to just breeze through

it on your own and I want you on your

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own to look this over but we do want

to jump over here to this verse here

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because we want to see something in this

lineage of Jesus Solomon the father of

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rare bone where a bomb the father of.

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Abijah, Abijah, the father of Asa, Asa,

the father of Jehoshaphat, Jehoshaphat,

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the father of Jehoram, the father of

Uzziah, Uzziah, the father of Jotham,

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Jotham, the father of Ahaz, Ahaz, the

father of Hezekiah, Hezekiah, the father

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of Manasseh, Manasseh, the father of Amen.

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Then we jump on down to verse, uh,

what is it, uh, 16 and Jacob, the

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father of Joseph, the husband of Mary

and Mary was the mother of Jesus who

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called, who was called the Messiah.

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Thus, there were 14 generations in

all from Abraham to David, from 14,

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14 from David to the exile to Babylon

and 14 from the exile to the Messiah.

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Let's stop right there.

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This is our main text for today.

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And you're like, how are we

going to get a text out of this?

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But we're going to see the God

of hope in Jesus's lineage.

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We see a God of hope.

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And so this is to help us out here.

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This is, uh, uh, the image.

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This is all the names that were listed.

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And this wasn't an exhaustive list.

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Matthew only, he actually

took out some names.

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And for a theological purpose.

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Which is for a different sermon.

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Okay.

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But he goes and he lists all these names.

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And he starts off just with Abraham.

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And now this is important, because

you're like, Why would we have a letter

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about Jesus and get into his great great

great great great great all these great

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grandfathers Some of these names weren't

even mentioned anywhere else in the

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Bible Why are we getting into all this?

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Again, this is written

to a Jewish audience.

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For the Jews, it was important to know

your ancestry, because that's your tribe.

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And so they have meticulous

records in the temple that would

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show you where you came from.

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Better than our system that we have today.

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And so you can see this, so this

was important in general for them

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to know they had records for this.

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But here's the key, is

that he highlights this.

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He says, Jesus is the son of

David and the son of Abraham.

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Now this is important.

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Because if you know, the, the faith, even

Christian faith, but the Jewish faith,

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there are some key central figures.

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And two, you could argue maybe

the biggest figures in the

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faith was Abraham and David.

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Father Abraham had many sons.

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Come on.

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Y'all know that.

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All right.

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There you go.

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If you haven't worked with the kids,

please sign up to work with the kids.

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You can learn that song right there.

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Okay.

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All right.

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So Abraham's a father of nations.

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And so he's really big.

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And then you have King David.

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David was really, he wasn't the

first king, but he was the best king.

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All the kings were referred to

whether they were good based on what

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David was like, but here was the

key is that the promised Messiah.

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The promised one, the anointing one,

the one who would redeem God's people,

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redeem all of creation had to come through

the bloodline of Abraham and David.

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And so what's Matthew doing right here?

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He's letting his audience know and

letting you and I know from the

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beginning that Jesus is the rightful

heir to King David, the Messianic throne

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because of his bloodline, but he's

also the fulfillment of Abraham being

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a blessing to all the nations because

he comes from his bloodline as well.

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And so we see something really cool, but

we see the markings of a God of hope.

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You see this ancestry of Jesus

here that we go back to, we

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see this God of hope here.

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We see this, uh, hope and it's really,

you see it in several different

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ways, but you see this creative

grace that God has upon his people.

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And I like that phrase.

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I read that this week,

this creative grace.

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As you look at this genealogy of people,

you go, man, there's a lot of tough names.

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I don't know.

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That's probably one of your thoughts.

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But if you look at this, you

go, wow, there's some really

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some huge biblical heroes here.

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You got Abraham.

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You have David.

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Uh, you, you have, you know, certain

Kings that were awesome and they did

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these great things in Jacob and the

patriarchs, but you also have what?

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Some really wicked and sinful

Kings in there as well.

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If you have ever read 1st or 2nd

Chronicles or 1st or 2nd Kings,

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most of the kings that are listed

here were actually wicked kings

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as far as when it comes to their

faithfulness or unfaithfulness to God

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and what they led God's people to.

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But yet who comes through their bloodline?

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The Messiah.

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Despite this wickedness, you

see the Messiah being Then

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there was these names here.

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I don't know if you caught

this or hopefully you did.

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But there was four women

that were mentioned.

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And, uh, the women that are mentioned are,

uh, uh, Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, and Bathsheba.

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Now, if you know their stories,

you know that those stories would

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make the local gossip circles.

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If you know their stories, you know

that would make the inside edition

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that was going on over there.

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That would make the tabloids, if you will.

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You guys get what I'm saying.

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And so it's interesting because

there's Sarah, there's Rebecca,

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there's Rachel, there's all these

other women that could be mentioned.

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However, he mentions these four.

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Huh, why?

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Well, there's a number

of possible reasons.

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What's interesting is that these women,

at least three, possibly four, were all

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Gentiles, meaning they were non Jews.

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So from the beginning, the

Messiah and God's plan was

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always to include all nations.

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What's interesting also as well is that

again, there was some scandal through

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some questionable choices in, in, in

really all of these situations, either

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a sketchy past or questionable decisions

which affected their family line.

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And in some of these cases, you could

say that they had illegitimate children,

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which sets up for Mary, who has in.

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Illegitimate child.

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So, hey God's people, look, throughout

there's been situations in which God has

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worked despite what people were doing.

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And we see this God of hope,

cause he said, my will shall

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be accomplished no matter what.

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Even if my people go sideways, I'm

still going to accomplish my will.

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And you see this grace.

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You see Jesus, you go,

wow, Jesus is past here.

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He's got some, he's got some people maybe

that I don't know if you really want to

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have a picture of and your family room.

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I'm not that's true.

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That's the one you go.

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Yeah, man Manassas.

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That was our great great grandfather boy.

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What kind of King was he?

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And we can have family trees

in which we could feel a

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little bit questionable about.

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We can maybe feel shame or we can

maybe feel like oh, man because of

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my past my parents my grandparents

my Culture, whatever the case may be

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and we can think that we can't become

something but God shows us what?

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It doesn't matter what the history

and past was I can accomplish my will

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through you because I'm a god of hope

You see God can work in our lives despite

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our family our sin Whatever may be a

hurdle Because God works regardless.

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And He is a God of hope.

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Right now Karina is going to share

some more about how God is a God

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of hope through Jesus lineage.

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Karina: So one of the, I, I just really,

uh, was in awe this week as I thought

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about God's people throughout history

and the state of hopelessness that they

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were constantly in over and over again.

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As I looked at the, as I thought about

the genealogy of Jesus and I thought

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about the history, I thought about.

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All the adversity that God's people,

uh, were facing, and the adversity

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that was threatening to wipe them out.

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And even as, um, Um, we think

about the history and we, you know,

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Marcel brought up some situations.

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There was, there were definitely plenty of

historically chaotic situations that God's

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people were facing and the environment

for the coming of Jesus and the birth of

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Jesus was unfavorable to say the least.

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And so I wanted to go through some

of these names that stood out to me.

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You know, starting with Abraham,

Abraham was promised this son that

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was going to, that he was going to

become, uh, the father of many nations.

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And so he was going to bear this

son and yet Sarah was barren

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and was barren for a long time.

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She, that, that didn't seem

like a hopeful situation.

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for this father of many nations.

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And, uh, she was 90 years old

and laughed at the thought of

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having a child because she's 90.

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Um, they didn't actually have their kid

until Abraham was, they didn't have Isaac

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until Abraham was a hundred years old.

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And so I thought about that and I'm, and

I thought about, wow, the God of hope.

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Um, then we continue in the, in his.

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In the genealogy and we get to Jacob

and Esau and Jacob tricks his father

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Isaac into giving him Esau's birthright,

which means that the lineage of this,

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this promise, this hope, the lineage

is supposed to continue through Jacob.

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And yet because of his trickery,

he has to flee from his brother

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who's trying to kill him and is gone

from his family away for 20 years.

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Again, doesn't seem like it's

looking good for, um, for this

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lineage, and yet God is working.

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I thought about Jacob and his sons.

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You know, the sons are supposed to

become the people of Israel, and

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yet they almost die in a famine.

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They have to travel to Egypt, uh,

they have to travel to just get grain.

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They, they go, and if you know the story

of Joseph, Joseph brings them over,

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uh, to Egypt just so they can survive.

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Because things are not looking

good for the Israelites.

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And so, God's people survive,

and the lineage continues.

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The story of Judah and Tamar, that's a

scandal, but we don't have time to get

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into it, but his lineage almost ended.

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He had two sons, he had three sons,

two of them die without having kids.

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And then the third one, I don't know

what's going on, but Tamar feels the need

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to take matters into her own hands and

ends up being the one to bear Judah's, um,

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Son that continues the lineage of Jesus.

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And so, again, over and over we

see this creative grace, um, that

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God is working amongst his people.

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Uh, when, um, Salman and Rahab come

into the picture, right before that,

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the Israelites are, have been wandering

in the desert for, For 40 years,

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they've been wandering the desert.

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This idea of the promised land, it's

there, but it's, it's looking gloomy.

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Um, but yet, here it is, um,

they've been, you know, their

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leader Moses has just died.

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Uh, but there's still this promise of,

I'm going to enter this promised land.

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And Rahab ends up being the one,

this foreign woman, ends up being

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the one to save the day, to help the

Israelites get into the promised land.

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We keep going, you get to Boaz and Ruth.

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Another famine has hit the Israelites.

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And again, um, you know,

Ruth, she's a Moabite.

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She has that whole story.

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They have to She has to

travel back to Israel.

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Um, the husband that she had died

and the whole, that whole line dies.

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So Boaz ends up inadvertently

becoming the one to continue

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the lineage of Jesus with Ruth.

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Um, and that, um, you know,

that seemed almost impossible.

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Boaz was an older man.

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He says that to Ruth like, Oh, you

could have gone after any of the younger

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men, but you chose me, an older man.

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So again, uh, famine.

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Uh, these creative grace stories.

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Uh, we get to David, uh, now

the Israelites are facing war.

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So now, not, not only are they being

threatened by famine at different times,

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but now we're introducing also war

into the picture, the Philistine army,

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that's where you get Goliath and he's

threatening them and they're scared,

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but David comes in, he almost has to,

um, he almost gets killed by Saul.

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So all these things over and over again.

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And it doesn't get really

much better after that.

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And Northern Israel falls

to, is, uh, to Assyria.

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Then you have Judah who's captured, uh,

by Babylonia and they have, they are,

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the Israelites are taken into exile.

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So hopeless situations.

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Over and over again.

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Hopefully you're getting the picture.

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Um, but evil kings, famines, war, all of

that exposed God's people and the lineage

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of Jesus to destruction and elimination.

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And as I think about that And I

think about the near impossibility

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of the survival of his lineage.

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I see hope.

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I see hope and I see God's presence.

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Because all throughout what I

see is God was always there.

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Even when there was, the

Israelites were being threatened.

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God was there.

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He knew.

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He knew what was going to happen.

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And so it makes me think

that God is always there.

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There God is always present

even through the dark times.

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God never abandoned his people He

never forgot his promises not even

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to Abraham and he never gave up

on the Israelites And what that

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reminds me that he he never lost hope

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Marcel: Amen, amen And so we see again

this God of hope And the application

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then for us is that we serve, still

have a relationship with this same God.

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The God of yesterday is the God of

today and the God of the future.

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And if he's been a God of hope,

then for his people, he's a God

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of hope for today, us, his people.

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And so we can have hope

in the hope of God.

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That means there's hope for our faith.

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There's hope for this world.

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Many times we talk to people,

I was talking to my neighbor,

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she's like, I just feel so bad

about where this world is going.

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But because there's a God of hope who's

present, there's hope for the world!

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There's hope for your faith.

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There's hope for your marriage.

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There's hope for your parents.

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There's hope for your kids.

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There's hope for that relative.

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There's hope for that

challenge that's in your life.

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There's hope for your finances.

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There's hope for your job.

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There's hope for your mental

health despite what's going on.

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There's hope for that relationship.

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There's hope for maybe a potential

dating or marriage relationship.

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There's hope for overcoming that

sin that has had you in chains.

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There's hope for that addiction that you

feel like you just can't break away from.

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There is hope because

we serve a God of hope.

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He's been showing up from the beginning,

from Abraham to Jesus, and he's been

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doing that for the last 2, 000 years,

and we can testify to that as well.

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You see, our God is present, even

when it seems like it's hopeless.

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In all those situations that Karina

mentioned, I'm sure they're at one

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point like, man, there ain't no hope.

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Why should I try?

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But they kept one foot going and

God came through And so we can apply

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that to our lives today in 2023.

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Can I get an amen Church?

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And so what does this call us to do?

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Why I believe it calls us to have at

least two responses and that's to worship

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and to persevere Karina's gonna share

a little bit about what it means to

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worship in response to this God of hope

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Karina: When I think about Everything

that I talked about, the God of

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hope, I think it calls me to worship.

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That was the first thing that came

to mind because I think about how

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he's always moving and actively

participating in our lives and, um,

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that's worthy of praise because I, in.

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Um, in my limited view, uh, I can just

see problems, but God is bigger than that.

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And that's what I see.

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God is working in mysterious ways.

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God is, uh, working

creatively behind the scenes.

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And it also makes me think

that he's so much bigger.

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Uh, he's so much bigger than this.

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This, this small portion that

I can see and my small life.

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Um, and so I worship, it makes me

worship, it makes me reflect in my own

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life, but it also makes me, uh, want

to worship together because I think

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about, well, I don't know what God is

doing in this person's life or that

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person's life or that person's life.

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And I want to know, I want

to be there for the miracle.

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I want, I think about what he's doing

with the next generation, with the

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kids that are in children's ministry.

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There's so much that I don't know that

God could be doing and the hope that

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he's offering through our kids, the hope

that he's offering through the college

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students, um, the hope that he's offering

through the older generation as well.

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But I want to be around for the miracles.

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Um, I think about in the account

of Matthew, we, you know, we're

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not reading that part, but I

think about the Magi who traveled.

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To Jerusalem because they

heard of this hope they heard.

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Oh, there's something special

that's happening there.

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This Messiah that we've been waiting

for is there and they worshipped.

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It brought them to worship.

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Um, they wanted to come near to God.

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In Luke we read that the shepherds

heard about Jesus and that,

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uh, they went to see Jesus.

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And it says they returned glorifying

and praising God for all the

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things they had heard and seen.

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This, uh, this man, Simeon, he got

to hold Jesus and he praised God and

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basically said he was ready to die.

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I'm ready to die.

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I've seen Jesus.

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Uh, but just the hope that God offered

through Jesus compelled people to worship.

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And so I think about how hope

should draw me near to God.

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And even when I don't fully

grasp all that he's doing.

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That's what makes it even more special

that God is offering something greater

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than I can ask for or imagine and

that Generation after generation.

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He's offering this hope and

that brings me to worship

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Marcel: Amen, amen As we think about

worship, it leads to perseverance.

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That's a thought that came to mind

for me Is that okay if I know God is

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a God of hope and he's present and

as I worship him I go Let me hold on.

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I Yes, it might be bleak.

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Yes, it might be rough.

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It might be tough.

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But if I just hold on, I'll

see the promise fulfilled.

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In every situation.

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They were just hoping and then

God came through all the way.

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Sit down.

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We want the Messiah.

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The Messiah was born and

now we wait and anticipate.

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Where were the Messiah?

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What return?

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And he will return.

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And so we need to hold.

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And take one step each day in

the direction of the Lord And so

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what does that mean that means

turning to God surrendering?

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To him so that that hope could be

fulfilled in our lives praying We ought

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to start off with praying and then

getting help from each other and if you're

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visiting or you're visiting online Well,

we'd love to sit down with you and be able

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to show you this God of hope and how we

can provide that hope with you today You

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know generations led All these generations

that are mentioned led to the hope being

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fulfilled in Christ and again We wait in

anticipation for the hope to be fulfilled

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when Jesus Returns, we're gonna take

communion right now and I want to read

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this passage in Titus chapter 2 You know

God reveals hope in Jesus's birth and also

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in his death and isn't in his resurrection

and it says while we wait for the blessed

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Hope the appearing of the glory of our

great God and Savior Jesus Let's pray.

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Father, thank you so much again for

showing us that you are a God of hope.

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We see your hope displayed

in Jesus's birth.

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We see your hope displayed in the

resurrection and we thank you that

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we have the hope of Jesus return.

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God, we don't, I don't know where

everybody is today, whether they're

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fired up in their faith or they're

struggling, but God, I pray that we

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will worship you truthfully with our

lives that God, we will hold on to

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the truth and the faith that we have.

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And that we will persevere.

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Thank you for being a God

who has hope in us as we see.

430

God that you not only have hope

in you, but you have hope in us

431

that we will respond to your call.

432

And thank you for the

display of love in Jesus.

433

In his name, Amen.