Finding Grace in Exile: God's Unfailing Presence

**Transcript:**

Glorious!

Well, I want to welcome you here today to Orange Wood Church, especially if you're a guest with us today. Great to have you here with us! Welcome to those online.

Before we get to the sermon today, I did want to highlight something happening in our world. One of our values here at Orangewood is "Neighbors near and far," and one of our strategic partnerships in our world is with a children's home called Casa Hagar in Acapulco, Mexico.

You may have seen the news; you may not have. There was a category 5 hurricane, Hurricane Otis, that came right through the heart of Acapulco, Mexico, this past week. We've been trying to get reports and the latest updates of what's happening there.

What we know as of right now is the government is not involved in helping assist. They’re running out of water and food there in Acapulco. People are walking many kilometers to get help and food. It's chaos.

And that's the Acapulco update. So, Acapulco is where the children's home is. Casa Hagar. The kids are still working to clean up. Everyone's fine there; there is no water, no power. As of yesterday, food is running out, but they are using a reserved well of water for bathrooms, but that won't last long.

So, they have a team from Casa Hagar who will be going to a neighboring village hopefully to receive supplies.

Here today, Janet Yos, I'd love to have Janet up. She has been a part of our church as a member for many years and has been at Casa Hagar at least two times a year for the last 23 years. It is her home away from home.

So, we found it fitting if you would be willing to pray for Casa Hagar and for Acapulco today.

I will. Okay, let's pray.

Dear Lord, you hear our prayers. You are so mighty and so powerful, and you knew this was coming. But, Lord, you have not left us. You have protected the children at Casa Hagar; you have protected the staff. The iron gates were blown off, the water tanks were blown off the buildings, but, Lord, you kept the children safe, and I thank you. You kept the staff safe.

But, Lord, right now we pray that you will provide water and electricity and bring food to the home. Be with the small group from Casa Hagar who have left early this morning to go to Chalchingo to find food.

But, Lord, there are thieves on the way; there’s trouble, there’s violence. May you keep them safe as they get supplies, if they can find them, and may they be safely brought back to Casa Hagar.

I pray, Lord, for the church in Acapulco, not just Casa Hagar but the other churches as well. I pray that people will open their arms and help those around them. I pray, Lord, for the people of Acapulco. May they look to you for guidance; may they look to you for safety. May you bless them and keep them safe.

Acapulco is destroyed, but, Lord, I pray that you will open their hearts when they come to you, and may they see that there is hope because you give us hope. You give us hope because Jesus died for us.

I pray, Lord, that you will bless those children at Casa Hagar. In case they get internet service, may they hear that we are praying for them and know. And, Lord, I pray that you will embrace those children, and may they feel your love through those loving arms around them. May they know they are not forgotten.

In Jesus' name, we thank you. Thank you, Lord, that we are here to pray for them and try to help. In Jesus' name, amen.

Amen. Thank you. Continue to pray for our partners there and for the work there, that God would move and work.

Let's stand as we will read our scripture for the day. This is the very beginning of the New Testament. You turn in this; this is page one, verse one.

And follow along on the screen as I try to read this genealogy:

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 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 Amminadab, and Amminadab 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 David the king.

And David was the father of Solomon by the wife of Uriah, and Solomon the father of Rehoboam, and Rehoboam the father of Abijah, and Abijah 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 father of Hezekiah, and Hezekiah the father of Manasseh, Manasseh 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 to Babylon.

And after the deportation to Babylon, Jeconiah was the father of Shealtiel, and Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel, and Zerubbabel the father of Abiud, and Abiud the father of Eliakim, and Eliakim the father of Azor, and Azor the father of Zadok, and Zadok the father of Achim, and Achim the father of Elihud, and Elihud the father of Eleazar, and Eleazar the father of Matthan, and Matthan the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called Christ.

So, all generations from Abraham to David were 14 generations, and from David to the deportation to Babylon, 14 generations, and from the deportation to Babylon to the Christ, 14 generations.

Friends, this is the word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God.

Okay, you may be seated.

Today, we are finishing this series called "Jesus on Every Page." We've been looking at how scripture is trying to tell us one story. It's the story of Jesus, that all the images and the signs and the shadows, everything has been pointing and pointing. There is one to come; there is one to come; there is one to come.

And we find ourselves opening today into a lot of names, a lot of names that I just read. You may be thinking, "Wow, this was a really great day. I mean, members' baptisms, but this sermon is going to be awful."

I just ask you to hang with me. Hang with me.

The reason is because for modern people, we really don't carry or care about genealogies. It's not a big thing in our culture because we're built to get dropped right in the story. You talk to somebody about a movie, and they'll say, "Oh, how did the movie go?" "Well, it started slow." We want to get dropped right in on the action as modern people.

But for ancient people, for even traditional cultures today, if you ask them what is your favorite section of Matthew, many of them will say Matthew 1:1. Because for them, to know the story of the tribe, to know the story of where you have come from, is significant.

So maybe today, even though genealogies are not our thing, we can connect to that underlying question: How did we get here? What’s our story?

And that's what Matthew hopes that we can answer today. This genealogy, this family tree, is trying to tell us, first of all, about the story of God.

The story of God. What we see in this genealogy, it begins with this phrase: "He is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob."

Now, you may read that, and you may not think anything of it, but that became God's moniker through the Old Testament to distinguish this God, to distinguish the biblical God from all the other ancient gods that existed.

This God is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He is the God with us. The ancient gods were known to be capricious; they were known to be moody; they were known to be distant and far away.

And so the ancient people thought, "How do we get their attention then if they're far away, if they're moody?" We yell; we scream. We know of the Canaanite god Molech; he required child sacrifice to receive his favor.

Why? It was the way for the people to be able to say, "I'm this devoted to you. I'm willing to sacrifice this much for you so you will hear me, so you will put favor on my life."

And if you know that behind the scenes, that's what God is working through the story of Abraham and Isaac. This idea of child sacrifice and God saying, "No, no, no, no, no. That's not how I work. I spare; I bring grace; I bring mercy into your life. I'm a God that is with you. I'm a God that's not far away. I'm a God that's closer than you possibly could imagine."

This is what we read from the prophet Jeremiah. He says this, reminding the people later on in exile: "Am I a God at hand, declares the Lord, and not a God far away? Can a man hide himself in secret places so that I cannot see him, declares the Lord? Do I not fill heaven and earth, declares the Lord?"

Psalm 139, you may know that Psalm, says, "Where can I go from your presence, God?" It's a rhetorical question, meaning there's nowhere you can go because this is a God not far away from you. This is a God who they say is closer than the air we breathe.

This God isn't lost out there somewhere; he's not confused about where he is; he's not stuck in I-4 traffic. He's here, and wherever you are, he is with you. God is with us.

That's one thing we learn.

The second thing we learn is that God is over you. What do I mean? We learn from this genealogy that this is a God who is in control of all things. The biblical term is he is sovereign; he has authority over all things.

We actually see that here in our passage. Matthew is wanting to give us, in this amazing section, this detail to God's power throughout the course of the human story.

We read this in verse 17: "So all the generations from Abraham to David were 14 generations, and from David to the deportation to Babylon, 14 generations, and from the deportation to Babylon to the Christ, 14 generations."

And you're going, "Okay, what? I have no idea why that's amazing."

But to the first-century hearer, their mind would have been blown. You heard that refrain: 14 generations, 14 generations, 14 generations.

This idea, three times of 14, could also be seen as seven times of six. For a Hebrew person, the idea of seven was a very symbolic number. It meant completeness, fulfillment, wholeness.

Seven of six, and then comes the Christ. Seven, the fulfillment of the story, the completion of all of our longing. The one we've been hoping for has arrived.

Do you know what that means? It means your life is not an accident. It means all the joys, all the sadness, all the disappointments, all the frustrations, all the gut-wrenching things you may have carried in here with you today, that they're not outside of God's sight. They're not outside of God's hand.

That through the most awful places, God is able to use and work for his good. That God is not surprised by wars happening in the Middle East; he's not surprised by what's happening in Acapulco.

That he is sovereign, that he is good, and that he will work and move. Your life is not an accident, and the things that you're facing, God is able to use and to speak in.

How do we know that he can take the broken places in your life and my life and he can use them for his good? We can see it in this genealogy.

We read about a woman named Ruth. Ruth was with her mother-in-law as they journeyed from her land in Moab back to the people of Israel. They're returning home because Ruth had just lost her husband, which meant that in the ancient world, you have no future as a woman.

There's no financial support for you; there's no welfare back then; there's no Social Security checks to be cashed. There's no chance of a future for you.

But in that move, she ends up finding and being brought into marriage with Boaz, and Boaz became the father of Jesse, who was the father of David.

There is a story to your life, folks, just like there was for Ruth. In the midst of the brokenness, in the midst of the pain, in the midst of the gut-wrenching things that she carried, your life is not an accident. God is at work; he is in control.

I think of Joseph. Joseph in the Old Testament was sold into slavery by his brothers for a very good cause because Joseph was an arrogant jerk, pure and simple.

You just cannot go to your siblings and say, "Hey, I had a dream last night, and the dream told me that I am actually Dad's favorite." That's how you get punched and beat up.

He's thrown into a pit by his brothers, left there. They sell him off into slavery. They think, "Oh good, rid of him; he's gone. Life can move on."

Joseph is sent away into slavery; he's then accused of crimes he didn't commit. He ends up in prison, all while he could have been asking, "Okay God, what are you doing?"

But we read through the refrain of that story: "And the Lord was with Joseph." The Lord was with Joseph. God was doing something; God was working; God was moving.

At the end of that story, he is raised up in power, and he is able to save the entire people of Israel from famine that he would not have been able to otherwise.

His brothers are brought into his presence, pleading for forgiveness. This is what we read in Genesis 50: "His brothers also came and fell down before him and said, 'Behold, we are your servants.' But Joseph said to them, 'Do not fear, for am I in the place of God? As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good to bring about that many people should be kept alive as they are today. So do not fear; I will provide for you and your little ones.' Thus he comforted them and spoke kindly to them."

Joseph was betrayed, but he knew there was a bigger story.

Maybe you've been betrayed. Maybe your name has been slandered and run through the mud. Maybe you come here this morning just carrying deep-seated pain.

And I want you to know that in the midst of all of that, though I can't name why God will allow it, I do know that God is working. That God is not only with us; he is over us. He has a plan that he has had from the beginning of time, and it is coming to completion in this person named Jesus.

So we see here we can wait, we can wait, and we can trust him, and we know that he is good.

There is this genealogy, a story of God. But secondly, we see a story of us.

The story of us. In this section, we see a ton of names, a ton of names. Lots of names that I just made up on the fly as I was reading them. That's actually not true. This morning, I actually studied all of those names, and I wrote them out just to make sure I could bring them to you as best as I could.

But there were a lot of names, and you know what? All those names are telling us that the story of us is just that: it is a story of us.

That we don't live in isolation; we are invited into community as God's people. That we're actually called into community as God's people.

I read a stat by this psychologist, sociologist named Robert Putnam. Putnam wrote a book talking about the move towards isolation in America, and he gave this stat: if you attended a regular church—not online, but you attended in person regularly in the gathered community of the church—you cut your chances of dying by 50% in that next year.

Greater than smoking, greater than giving up drinking, greater than anything. You cut your chances of dying by gathering in a faith community regularly, in person, in community.

I was talking with our communication team about this stat, and I was kind of trying to promote our community groups and get involved in community groups, and they didn't like what I came up with. But I figured I'd just share with you.

I came up with the idea for community groups: "Join a community group or die."

Listen, this story, this genealogy, where it's painting, is inviting you into a story of us together on the journey with this God.

Now, you may be saying, "Tyler, I love Jack; I love his music. Your sermons are okay; I can do that." But there are people I just don't like.

I heard a story about this man who was talking about how he went on a tour bus in South Africa with his young son. It was one of those double-decker tour buses to kind of see the sights in South Africa.

They got on the bus; they sat in their seat. But the man that was in front of them had a really bad cold, and so he kept sniffing, but like breathing in from his belly—that sound.

It was a very loud and obnoxious sound, so bad that this young boy looked at his dad, and he said, "Dad, can we ask him to get off the bus?"

And the dad looked at his son and said, "No, son, he is with us on the journey. He is with us on the journey. We are all in this together."

And let me just say this: if, let's say, you were able to get that person off the bus, it still would not be a perfect situation. Do you know why? Because you're there.

And if you don't get that, then I can't help you.

The story of us is exactly that: it's the story of us. That we are all in this together, sinners and snorters alike.

Notice the story of us is also about a story of exile. Look at this family tree again. This is what Matthew tells us about a very distinct period: "And from the deportation to Babylon to the Christ, 14 generations."

The deportation to Babylon, if you don't know the story of Israel, it's the story of exile. It's the story of restlessness; it's the story of longing.

Exile was the consequence for the sin of God's people. They were driven out from God's presence into an unknown land. And now, in the first century, they've returned; they're back in their land.

But if you ask any person who was of Jewish descent in the first century, they'd say they were still in exile because of Roman occupation, because of oppression, because they were on their own ancestral land and they were in debt up to their eyeballs from the Romans.

And you think inflation's bad today?

Author Eugene Peterson put it this way about exile: "The essential meaning of exile is that we are where we don't want to be."

Friends, you know you're in exile today if there is a restlessness in your soul, a longing in your soul for something more, a sense of a need for deliverance.

Blaise Pascal, the mathematician, said this: "To be human is to be haunted by a longing for wholeness that we feel we have somehow lost."

We feel this restlessness, this exile. We carry this in the bones of our being, that we are not where we want to be.

And in the midst of that restlessness, please hear me: this is what I don't want you to do. What we constantly turn to is we see our restlessness, and we say, "Oh, I can fix this with my own hands and in my own strength. I can fix this."

But the reality is we can't. We can't.

The best thing that we can do in this moment is to see the restlessness, to see the exile in our lives, and to name it that lives in our soul.

So how do we get out of exile? How do we find what our soul is longing for?

Well, we've heard about the story of God, the story of us, and finally, the story of grace.

I love what Matthew does here in this section because Matthew doesn't give us advice; he just gives us a list of names. A list of names through the history of the people that have gone before us.

He just gives us a list of names and is saying over and over, it is not about what you do primarily; it is about what God has done and is doing in this story with Christ.

And you look at all these names, the list of the names, the people that are on this list. It's a shocking list of names—names I would not want on my resume, names I would not want to look back and go, "Oh, they're in the family tree."

We mentioned Ruth earlier; she was a Moabite, and in Israel's history, that was a huge red flag, a huge no-no.

We heard about Uriah's wife, Bathsheba; she was an adulteress with David. We read about Uriah; he was a Hittite—that was also not a cool tribe.

We read about other things happening in this story. This list of people is showing us over and over that every person is invited into the life-changing story of Jesus.

Every person—that this is a story of grace.

You look at this genealogy, and all these people, and you're saying over and over, "They can't be."

I don't know if you saw Disney's movie "Encanto." You learn in the movie there's a name we will not speak, right? What is his name? Bruno.

We don't say that name.

Friends, this is a list of Brunos given to you and to me to encourage us that this is a story of grace.

We even see it here in audacity in verse 3. This is what it says in verse 3: "And Judah the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar."

Judah and Tamar, if you don't know that story, Tamar hid her identity from her father-in-law Judah, and she went away to another village, a nearby village, and undercover as a prostitute to woo in her father-in-law to gain leverage so he would not release her if she was able to get pregnant.

Okay, just a reminder that the Bible is not G-rated.

The Bible is a mess of people in need of grace. But the good news of this story is the reminder once again that God does not meet us on the mountains.

God doesn't meet you when you make it to the top. God doesn't meet you when you can finally say, "I'm a success."

God meets us, and only meets us at the bottom, at our very worst.

And for all who would say they need grace, this is why the Pharisees struggle with Jesus, because Jesus kept exposing their heart for trying to do life on their own, away from him.

This is why Jesus kept holding up the poor, the sick, the oppressed, the kids as an image of the kingdom of God, because every single one of them knew that they lived life at the bottom and they were in need of grace.

If you want to find grace this morning, all you have to do is admit your need for it.

To say, "Lord, my soul is restless. Lord, my soul is burdened today, and I've been trying to live life in my own strength, and I know that I can't. I'm an exile; I'm where I don't want to be. But God, would you come? Would you move? Would you give me what I know I need and only can be found in you?"

It's a story of grace.

I love the way this one Puritan prayer put it in the Valley of Vision to really hone in this picture that captures my heart about this. He says this in the Valley of Vision: "Give me grace to know my need for grace. Father, give me grace to know how deep I need your grace to meet me at the bottom."

Friends, this family tree is the reminder that God never gives up. It's a reminder that God keeps calling all of us home.

It's the reminder that God's love will continue to crash like waves on the rocks of our stubbornness. It's a reminder of a God that pursues, who reaches out, who never gives up.

This genealogy is calling all of us to see that the story of Jesus is not a story about how you and I hang on with every fiber of our being. It is a story about the overwhelming, inexhaustible, unbelievable grace of God who hangs on to us.

Where this morning do you need to be reminded of this grace?

Where this morning do you need to be reminded of hope?

You know, in our day, it's so easy to lose hope. I feel it's so easy to lose hope.

Where do you need to be reminded of hope? Where do you need to be reminded that there is a fulfillment to this great story of your life and mine?

That there is one who has come, one who reaches out to you with grace this morning.

And no matter your story and no matter what you carry, you're invited into the life-changing story of Jesus.

Let's pray.

Father, you know the stories of everyone here because you're a God with us and a God over us.

And so, Lord, remind us of who we are this morning as your people in your Son. Remind us that you meet us at the bottom. Remind us that you will never leave us nor forsake us.

Remind us that you are working in us and through us and that you will use your church to be a picture of your presence in this broken world.

We receive the story of Jesus once again and the life change he offers.

We pray this in his name, and everyone said, "Amen."