A Messed Up Family Tree Part 2: Unsung Hero of the Christmas Story

The following message from Pastor Greg Laurie is made possible by Harvest Partners, helping people everywhere know God. Hey, I want to hear from you. Would you consider emailing me? You can reach me at gregatharvest.org. Again, that's gregatharvest.org.

And you can also make me one of your friends on Facebook and drop me a comment. Joseph is the unsung hero of the Christmas story. Today on A New Beginning, Pastor Greg Laurie highlights Mary's betrothed husband, Joseph, and how this matter of integrity fits into the story of Christmas. You know, here's Mary living in Nazareth, already known for immorality, and she's pregnant. Joseph could have said, no thanks.

No, he stood with her. And that's why I say he's the unsung hero of the Christmas story. This is the day when the lost are found. This is the day for a new beginning. Amazing grace, how sweet the sound. Again you hear when the angels are singing.

This is the day, the day when life begins. Not everyone in the Christmas story gets equal billing. Of course, there's the Christ child and Mary and the shepherds. There's the wise man, evil King Herod, and the innkeeper.

But oftentimes Joseph, who is betrothed to Mary, is barely mentioned. But a key decision he made put everything in motion in bringing God incarnate to earth. Today on A New Beginning, Pastor Greg Laurie helps us see how Joseph and other often overlooked family members figure into God's plan.

This is the day, the day when life begins. We're going to talk now about the family tree of Jesus. And you might be surprised to know there were a few rogues in the gallery. I'm talking prostitutes, liars, adulterers, even a murderer.

You heard me right. All of these people and more were in the genealogy of Jesus Christ. Let's start with David in verse 1.

What a colorful character. A lot of ink in the Bible dedicated to his life and his exploits. We know about his victories. The defeat of the massive giant of a man, Goliath, nine feet six inches tall. And we also know about his horrible failure with Bathsheba, who is identified in this genealogy as the wife of Uriah. You could sum up David's name with those other two names. David and Goliath, his greatest victory.

David and Bathsheba, his worst defeat. But yet he makes it into the most exclusive genealogy in all of human history. And he's not just a part of it.

He's the most important member of it. Because Jesus was identified in his earthly ministry as Jesus, the son of David. Let's talk about the redemption of a life and a name. Did you know that God can redeem your life and he can redeem your name as well? Number two, we have Tamar in verse 3. Who is she? I have to admit to you, I'm shocked she made it into this family tree. She was a woman who was a prostitute and not a godly woman that I can see from the story. Yet she's in the messianic line.

Again it's a story of redemption. Then there's Rahab. Usually she's just called Rahab the harlot. Rahab the prostitute.

Rahab the hooker if you will. That's what she was. That's what she did in the city of Jericho. But when two spies were sent in to check the city out before the Israelites invaded, Joshua and Caleb, she hid them in her house. And because of that she was spared when the Israeli army came in and somehow she makes it in to the messianic line.

Absolutely amazing. And finally we have Mary the mother of Jesus mentioned in verse 16. Far from being promiscuous, Mary was the very opposite.

She was virtuous and morally pure. She was chosen by God to be the mother of the Messiah. Mary is the only woman who actually had Jesus both in her womb and later in her heart. So Gabriel is dispatched from heaven with the good news that Mary will be the mother of the Messiah. Let's pop over to Luke 1 now and look at that verse together.

We will drop down to verse 26. Luke 1 26. Now in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth. To a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph of the house of David. The virgin's name was Mary. Having come in the angel said to her rejoice highly favored one the Lord is with you.

Blessed are you among women. And when she saw him she was troubled at his saying and considered what manner of greeting this was. So basically the angel says hello Mary.

Loose paraphrase. You have been hand picked by God to be the mother of the Messiah. And so what a special person she was. But I want to look at one last person in the Christmas story. And I think he is so often overlooked. Joseph.

Come on. Let's not forget about Joseph. He is mentioned in verse 16. I think in many ways he is the unsung hero of the Christmas story. But there is hardly any songs about him. Silent night it is round yon virgin mother and child.

Holy infant so tender and mild. Then there is the very well known song Mary did you know. There is no song Joseph did you know.

Joseph gets nothing. And the nativity said he sort of said over to the side yeah I know you were here. Sort of a bit part you know.

Not at all. And we have a little nativity set we put out in front of our house. And these little plastic figures that light up. So I pulled them out of the garage. Plugged in Jesus. He lit up beautifully. Plugged in Mary.

She lit up. Plugged in Joseph. He didn't light up. Of course his light bulb is dead. I thought why is it always Joseph.

So I replaced his light bulb. But I want to give him the props that he actually deserves. Just as surely as God chose Mary to be the mother of the son of God. He also chose Joseph to be the step father if you will. Or earthly father figure on earth for Jesus.

I think it is a big deal. The father in heaven said I am choosing this man. And who was he. He was a salt of the earth kind of guy.

A blue collar worker. He was a carpenter. I think he was a man's man. A man of character. A man of principle. A man of integrity. The Lord said I want that to be the man that helps raise the young Jesus. And I am sure Joseph taught to Jesus a good work ethic.

And how to put your back to a task and be responsible and such. And he had to put up with a lot of drama. A lot of drama. Because you know here is Mary living in Nazareth already known for immorality. And she is pregnant. And she says Joseph I know this looks bad but I am the fulfillment of Isaiah.

I am the virgin that will conceive. Uh huh. Right. Yeah the engagement is off girl. The Bible says he decided to put her away privately. Because he loved her. He didn't want any harm to come to her. So he would sort of do this off the radar.

And just you know we are not going to get married. But he was troubled. Because he loved her and he knew how godly she was.

And he couldn't understand how this would happen. And while he was sleeping the Bible says an angel of the Lord came to him. Not Gabriel.

He didn't get Gabriel. But he got an angel. And the angel said Joseph son of David don't be afraid to take Mary as your wife. For that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit and shall bring forth the son. And you call his name Jesus because he will save his people from their sins. Joseph could have said no thanks.

I don't want to go through life being thought of as a guy who married a girl who got pregnant before she was married. No he stood with her. And that is why I say he is the unsung hero of the Christmas story. God extended to two unknown people living in an obscure place.

Great grace. Joseph and Mary. There will never be another Joseph and Mary.

Next year we will pull them out in our nativity sets along with the wise men and the shepherds again. But though there will never be another Joseph and Mary it is also true there will never be another you. I doubt any of the people in this story had any idea of the part they were going to play in God's big plan to save the world. I don't think that thought ever crossed the mind of Tamar or Rahab or David or any of the other people that made it in here.

But they were being prepared by God. And you know sometimes in life we think I am living in obscurity. Nobody cares about me. My life doesn't matter. Your life matters.

Your life matters a lot. And God is at work in your life. And there are things that happen in your life that don't make sense. Right? Why did that happen?

What was the point of that? Because God is preparing you. God is preparing you for the plan that He has for you in this life. And He is also preparing you for the afterlife. And He is doing a work in your life right now. Now you can thwart that plan.

You can sabotage that plan. But even if you mess up. If you go to the Lord and say, Lord I know you wanted me to do this but I didn't do it.

And I made a mistake and I'm sorry. God can also redeem your life. That's what the story of the genealogy of Christ tells us. Pastor Greg Laurie will have the second half of his message in just a moment. We hear from so many people who find Christ through these studies in God's Word. Dear Pastor Greg, I wake up to your voice on the radio each day. I've been a Christian since September 12, 1978 after hearing you speak in Riverside, California. While living in Temecula, my employers told me they were praying for me.

For many years I did not believe. But after hearing your life story and all about Jesus. I began to believe and made a decision to follow Jesus. Thank you Pastor Greg for all that you've done. And continue to do for all of us who need to hear the Word daily. We hope Pastor Greg's words from scripture continue to touch lives. And if you have a comment or story to share, send it to Pastor Greg. His email address is Greg at Harvest dot org.

That's Greg at Harvest dot org. Well, we're considering the genealogy of Jesus today, as revealed in scripture. Pastor Greg continues his message, a messed up family tree.

So here's three final points I'll make. Why do we have the genealogy of Jesus Christ? Number one, that God's grace may be richly displayed. That God's grace may be richly displayed. When you look at this list of men and women, the idea is don't focus on them.

Focus on the grace of God. You know, after Jesus was born, who was the message announced to? The court of Caesar? The religious leaders?

No, shepherds keeping watch over their flocks by night. Now we've romanticized these guys. But you have to understand where they were in the culture of the day. They were on the bottom rung of the social ladder. They were looked down upon. They were even despised. So much so, the testimony of a shepherd was not even allowed in a court of law. So the Lord says, okay, now I'm going to announce the most momentous news in all human history.

Who should I tell? I know. These guys. And they heard the news before anybody else heard it. Then the star comes. And who does it come to? The Magi. The Magi were astrologers. They were steeped in the occult. They worshiped false gods.

But the Lord invaded their world and used the star that some believe was the Shekinah glory of God. To lead them to the place where Jesus was. So again, God reaching out, even in this Christmas story, to the people who were the lowest of the low.

Just again, displaying His grace. Number two, we have the genealogy of Jesus Christ. So our focus would be on Jesus and not on His family. Some people come from very impressive families. They have this great pedigree in all this. But then some of us don't come from very impressive families. We have rogues in our gallery.

Maybe we're one of the rogues in the gallery. And we say, well, I'll never amount to anything. But we have this story to show that the focus is not on the family of Christ. It's on Christ Himself.

You know, it's been said by so many. Well, the reason I'm not a Christian is there are too many hypocrites in the church. How I wish I could say, oh, it's not true.

Come to harvest. We have no hypocrites. Well, that wouldn't be accurate, would it? Every church has hypocrites. I wish it were not so. A lot of times we are not good representatives of Jesus Christ to our lost world today. I wish that we would spend less time bickering over minutia and spend more time in the church loving one another. That's what we should be doing. And that's what Ephesians 4, 32 says.

It says, be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God through Christ has forgiven you. You know, as Christmas approaches, you'll probably be gathering together with family. Some of you will be traveling. Some of you will have your family come to you. And it's extended family too. And there's some family members you're looking forward to seeing.

And there's a few maybe you're not looking forward to seeing. There's some family members that have hurt you. And it's hard because you've never forgiven them.

And I would like to offer a word of advice this Christmas. And that advice would be you need to forgive people who've wronged you and hurt you in life. You say, well, Greg, you don't even know what they've done to me. You can stand up there in your stupid stage in your ugly jacket and tell us this stuff. You don't know what these people have done. No, I don't. But I know what God has done. And what does that scripture say? Be tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you. Here's my question. Do you deserve to be forgiven by God? I'll answer for you.

No. But He forgave you, therefore you should forgive others. But they don't deserve the forgiveness.

It's not about that. Listen, forgiving someone is not letting them off the hook. Forgiving someone is a way for you to be free from a life of bitterness. You can be in a prison of anger and despair even.

It's really in a way for you more than it is for them. As they've said many times, when you forgive a person, you set a prisoner free yourself. To not forgive is like drinking rat poison and then waiting for the rat to die. The rat's not going to die. You drink the poison, idiot. So, you know, you're the one.

You're the one that's being tortured by this. So let it go. Forgive. And one last thing. We have this story so we might have hope for our future and the future of our family. I doubt most of us have murderers and prostitutes in our family tree.

We probably have a few adulterers, liars, and cheats. But here's the point. God can intervene in your life. But a word of caution.

It's been said that an ounce of prevention is better than a ton of cure. And I ask you today, what is the state of your family? Let me address men for a moment. I think men hold the key to a strong, vibrant family. I'm not in any way dismissing women or saying their role is any less. I'm just saying the way God has designed this is men are supposed to take the initiative and lead. Be the spiritual leaders.

And one of the reasons our country is unraveling and we have all of these problems and you can pretty much take every social ill that we are facing today and you can trace it directly back to the breakdown of the home and specifically the absence of a father. Men are derelict in their duty far too often. That's why I commend you men that are here today at church with your family being the spiritual leader you should be. We are to love our wives as Christ loves the church. Wives, I'm not letting you off the hook here.

You have your role to play. The Bible specifically says you should submit to the leadership of your husband. And by the way, don't get hung up on that submit stuff. Oh, that's chauvinistic.

No, it isn't. The word submit is used first to both husbands and wives. It says submit to one to another in the fear of God. Submit means to support, to undergird. I get under my wife and I support her. She gets under me and supports me. Not always because I weigh too much, but we support each other. So take the word submit.

I put support. But it says specifically, wife, support your husband. Submit to your husband.

And it also says respect your husband. Now some of you are single saying, well, I don't relate to any of this. Well, listen, you don't want to end up in a marriage that's unraveling, so choose well. Choose well. Choose a godly man. Choose a godly woman when you're making the second most important decision of your life, and that is who you will marry. The most important decision of all is your relationship with Jesus Christ.

You want to make that choice. Listen, maybe your marriage is unraveling as we come to the end of a year. We'll put the brakes on it. Don't let it happen. Well, we've already filed papers. Tear the papers up. Change the course. Change the narrative. God can still intervene and save your marriage.

But you need to apply yourself. But, Greg, we have your reconcilable differences. As I've said before, I've had a reconcilable differences with my wife, Kathy, for 46 years. But we love each other more than ever. Everybody has their reconcilable differences.

Give me a break. Do what God has called you to do. He can turn it around. That's what this story is all about. It's about redemption.

It's about a second chance. Let me close with a verse that tells us why Jesus came. Hebrews 7.25. It says of Jesus, He is able once and forever to save everyone who comes to God through Him. No matter how bad your situation, He can save you. He can forgive you. Jesus will save you and, if necessary, give you another chance.

And as we close today, I wonder if there is someone listening to me here that does not have Christ living inside of them. You say, well, I'm a loser. I'm not good enough.

No, you never were good enough. But Jesus died for your sin. And He rose again from the dead.

And now He stands at the door of your life and He knocks and says, if you will hear His voice and open the door, He will come in. The greatest gift of Christmas is the gift of eternal life. Whatever gift you are looking forward to giving or getting is going to be soon forgotten. I bet you can't even remember what gifts you received last year.

You may remember what you gave because you had to pay for it. But a lot of those gifts are forgotten. But the gift of eternal life that the Bible calls the unspeakable or the indescribable gift. That is the gift that God offers to everyone. The gift of knowing that you will live forever in heaven.

In the presence of God. Have you received that gift yet? That is all you have to do is receive it.

Here it is. The Lord says, I give it to you. You can never repay Me for it, but it is a gift.

Accept this gift. And if you are not sure that Christ is living inside of you, that can change for you today. And in a moment we are going to pray and I am going to extend an invitation for you to be forgiven by God. And I am also going to extend an invitation for someone that is well just messed up.

You relate to some of these people in this story. Yeah, I blew that. Well, God can, as I said, turn your mess into a message. He can forgive you. He can give you a second chance. But you have to admit you are a sinner.

Yeah, David blew it. But what did he do? He asked God to forgive him. He said, Lord, against you and you only have I sinned and done this iniquity in your sight. And God forgave him. And God will forgive you if you will ask Him to. So in a moment we are going to pray and I am going to give you this opportunity to ask Christ into your life if you need to or to make a recommitment to Him.

Let us all pray. Father, thank You for loving us so much that You sent Jesus to be born in the manger, to die on the cross, and then to rise from the dead. And we know Jesus is here with us right here, right now, ready to come into any human heart that will ask Him. And I pray for any person here, any person watching or listening, wherever they are, if they don't know Jesus, let this be their moment where they believe.

Amen. Pastor Greg Laurie with an important closing prayer. And if you'd like to make a change in your relationship with the Lord today, Pastor Greg will help you do that in just a moment before today's edition of A New Beginning concludes. If you weren't able to hear Pastor Greg's full presentation, you can get caught up by hearing the message again online at harvest.org.

The title to look for is A Messed Up Family Tree. Or call us for a CD copy at 1-800-821-3300. We're here to take your call anytime, 24-7.

Again, dial 1-800-821-3300. You know, Pastor Greg, we announced a few months ago that more than 100,000 people had registered decisions for Christ just this year through Harvest Ministries, and it's actually more than that now. Now, that's in spite of the church being shut down and the Harvest Crusade this year being canceled. It's sort of as if God said, canceled? Shut down?

Watch this. I mean, he really showed up in a big way, and it actually surpassed our goals exponentially. We've seen more people touched with the gospel this year than any year in our history. That's really true, Dave. You know, the Bible says when life gives you lemons, make lemonade. Actually, the Bible doesn't say that.

But the Bible does give us a much better statement, Romans 8-28, for we know that all things work together for good to those who love God and are called according to his purpose. And so what we did, as our listeners know, is we pivoted. When we found out we could not have our live event in the stadium as we always do, and we've done for the last 30 years, we created what we called a cinematic crusade. One person described it as the greatest evangelistic film they'd ever seen before. It was our goal to do something that was beautiful and artistic, but yet had a gospel one-two punch in it, and the result of that was our movie that we put out called A Rush of Hope. It was seen by thousands and thousands of people around the world. Thousands came to Christ as a result of it, and our hope is next year to do another movie. It's not titled yet, but I'm already talking with the Irwin brothers about our next cinematic crusade that we're going to do, but here's the cool thing. Now you can own your own copy of what we call A Rush of Hope, this beautiful film that had vignettes from other kingdom films in it, like I Can Only Imagine, I Still Believe, and Woodlawn, along with special sections that we recorded, live concert with For King and Country, and Jeremy Camp, and a message that I did against one of the most beautiful backdrops of nature I've ever seen in my entire life, and we've seen that this really moves people deeply. This is a tool you're gonna be able to use again and again and again. You can invite someone over and say, watch this movie with me.

It's not longer than an hour, and then you can talk to them about how they can come into a relationship with God. What a great tool to have in the holiday season, especially as we're having our first Christmas in the middle of a pandemic. So not only will we send you this DVD copy of A Rush of Hope, we'll also send a special information piece that shows you how to host a watch party. That simply means that it tells you how to put an event on at your house using this film, inviting people over from your neighborhood, or from your family, or your workplace, or wherever you wanna do it.

Wherever you can show a DVD, you can do this. And also, we have a downloadable version as well that you can show on a tablet device, or a computer, or even a phone. We also, in this special offer that we have right now, have a little evangelistic booklet called A Rush of Hope, Find Answers to Life's Most Important Questions.

And so all of this is in this special resource that we wanna send you for your gift of any size. And this is so we can finish 2020 strong. It's been a crazy year, it's been a surprising year, but it's also been a very spiritually fruitful year. And we're praying that 2021 will even be more effective in reaching people with the gospel.

Listen, here at Harvest Ministries, you know, we're all about teaching the word of God, but we're also about proclaiming the gospel and calling people to Christ. Because of your prayer and support, we've been able to reach more people in this last year than we've reached in all of our years in doing this, and we're praying we'll reach even more next year. So, as this year comes to a close, would you prayerfully consider giving to us right now, financially? And I would ask you to give generously, because when you do that, we can reach even more people.

And guess what? It'll be spiritual fruit to your account. And I would like to send you, as my way of saying thanks, this brand new DVD copy of our cinematic crusade film, A Rush of Hope. Yeah, that's right. And if you haven't seen it, don't miss out.

If you have seen it, of course, you know what a special movie this is. So thank you for your generous year-end donation right now, and we'll thank you tangibly with A Rush of Hope on DVD. You can write A New Beginning, Box 4000, Riverside, California 92514. Or call 1-800-821-3300. That's 1-800-821-3300.

Or go online to harvest.org. Well, Pastor Greg, you mentioned how someone can become a Christian with just a simple prayer. Yeah. Maybe somebody would like to do that right now. Could you help them?

Sure, I'd love to. A simple prayer is right. In fact, I would like to just pray a prayer, and I would ask you to pray it after me right now. Pray these words. Lord Jesus, I know that I am a sinner, but I also know that you are the savior because you died on the cross for my sin and you rose again from the dead. Jesus, come into my life and forgive me of every sin I've ever committed.

I choose to follow you from this moment forward. Thank you for hearing this prayer. Thank you for answering this prayer, Lord, and I pray all of this in Jesus' name, amen. If you just prayed that prayer and meant it, I want you to know on the authority of scripture, God Almighty has heard your prayer, and he will answer this prayer. You are now a newly-minted child of God, so congratulations.

You've made the right decision, and welcome to the family of God. I want to send you a special gift because of that prayer you've just prayed. It's called the New Believer's Growth Packet, and in it is a copy of the New Testament in a very understandable translation called the New Living Translation. It also is filled with hundreds of notes that I wrote that will encourage you in this commitment you've made to follow Christ, and there's some other outstanding materials in this little packet I'll send you as well. So order your copy today, and let me be the first to say to you congratulations and welcome to the family of God. Yeah, and to get that New Believer's Growth Packet, just get in touch, and we'll be glad to send it right out. You can write A New Beginning, Box 4000, Riverside, California 92514, or call us at 1-800-821-3300.

Call anytime 24-7 at 1-800-821-3300. Or go online to harvest.org and click the words Know God. Well, next time, Pastor Greg takes us back to the first Christmas all those years ago in Bethlehem. We'll consider Simeon and Anna, two people who may be unfamiliar but who played a significant part in the story of Messiah coming to earth. Tune in next time for A New Beginning. This is the day, the day when life begins The preceding message from Greg Laurie was made possible by Harvest Partners, helping people everywhere know God. Sign up for Pastor Greg's free daily email devotions at harvest.org.