OFFERING
We gratefully give our offering as worship to the Lord Jesus who has graciously given us so much - especially new life. So we faithfully, passionately, and generously respond to Him in praise and trust with all we have.
In the Sanctuary, you can give your offering in the front baskets or online. See our Welcome Team for envelopes.
CALL TO WORSHIP
REJOICE, PRAISE THE ONE WHO HAS FORGIVEN US OUR SINS
Blessed are those to whom God attributes no wrong,
those in whose heart there is no deceit.
When we keep silent about our wrongdoings,
our lives disintegrate with worry and guilt;
when we struggle to hide from our Lord,
the heaviness in our hearts consumes our strength.
But when we seek your truth, O God,
and acknowledge our sin, we experience your forgiveness.
Let all people reach out to you in prayer, dear Jesus,
and know your forgiveness and assurance of pardon.
We praise you who took away our sins
by taking our punishment upon yourself.
You took our reproach and gave us your righteousness.
So this day we will sing your praise; we shout for joy.
Give us strength to worship you and say no to sin; we want to be controlled by you and no longer slaves to sin.
Lead us to listen to your word and follow your direction for our lives.
When we fail to listen, and persist in following other than God’s way,
our hearts are hardened and our lives tormented.
But when we put our trust in you Jesus Christ,
we are surrounded and filled with the Lord's steadfast love.
Be glad in the Lord and rejoice, O righteous.
Rejoice and shout for joy all those who are upright in heart.
Rejoice and praise all those who Christ has redeemed.
Rejoice and sing all who forever belong to our blessed Redeemer.
We are here to praise you, Jesus, the Savior of our souls.
BASED ON PSALM 32
KNOWN. Jesus Christ knows my deepest sins and He died for my darkest sins. Christ shows me who I really am. In trusting who He really is, Jesus forgives me and frees me from my sin to live in His righteousness.
KEY WORD
“By the man to whom these belong, I am pregnant.” And she said, “Please identify whose these are, the signet and the cord and the staff.” Then Judah identified them and said, “She is more righteous than I, since I did not give her to my son Shelah.” And he did not know her again.
GENESIS 38:25-26
the great story
Genesis 38 turns our focus to Judah, the future leader of Israel from whom will come a line of kings from David to the King of Kings, Jesus Christ. And that is what makes this chapter all the more shocking - how in the world is such a massive mess going to turn into good?
Once again, we see that the LORD is actually moving through human sin to continue to accomplish His sovereign purpose. It looks like Judah’s line is going to be wiped out. Yet, God graciously works through the awful sinfulness of Tamar and Judah to bring forth two sons that will replace Judah’s first sons and lead to the Lord ultimately fulfilling His promise to crush the serpent and sin and bring blessing to the nations through Abraham’s line right through Judah and Tamar!
That the bizarre episode of Judah and Tamar should contribute to the genealogy of Jesus Christ is a vivid demonstration of God’s grace and how He wonderfully, sovereignly, and perfectly turns our evil into our good, for His glory (Matt. 1:3–16).
the great NEWS
Like Judah, we too must all come face to with the real me. We too must face our sin and unrighteousness before the holy God. And just like Judah we are powerless to fix the great mess of our lives and free ourselves from our sin.
So what can I do with all of my sin?
The Lord graciously reveals to us who we really are as sinners And He graciously shows us our great need for Him, our Savior, who is the only one who can deal with our sin. By taking our sin upon Himself, Jesus takes away the shame of our sin, undoes the penalty of our sin, and forgives the rebellion of our sin.
And in liberating us, Jesus calls us to follow Him as His disciples who continually throw off the remnants of sin on us by battling through sin's temptations. We battle by God's power (Eph. 6:10-20), knowing who we are in Christ (Eph. 1) and continuing to come to Jesus in repentance and hope (Psalm 32).
When we fail to listen, and persist in following other than God’s way, our hearts are hardened and our lives tormented. But when we put our trust in Jesus Christ, we are surrounded and filled with the Lord's steadfast love. So be glad in the Lord and rejoice, O righteous. Rejoice and shout for joy all those who are upright in heart. Rejoice and praise all those who Christ has redeemed.
NEXT WEEK GENESIS 39
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