"Do you know what you are doing, Lord?"

If we're honest, we have all asked that question. In this sermon, Jim Keener uses the story of Jesus and Lazarus to take us into the heart of this question.

Jesus does family differently than we do: we don’t invite people to the family Christmas table because we don’t like their sins. Jesus comes to us to save his people from their sins. We exclude the wounded; Jesus came to be wounded. We leave out the messy. Jesus was a magnet for the messy.

As we walk through the family tree of Jesus, there are two lessons to learn from David and the wife of Uriah.

We’re being warned: don’t blow it like David.

And we’re being invited: the family of Jesus has a place for people who have blown it like David.

If you feel empty, it’s tempting to let the light hearted cheeriness of commercial Christmas make you think this season isn’t for you. But gently, God says, it’s for people exactly like you. This story and this season give you permission to ask: Where is God when I am empty?

The promise of Christianity and the message of the book of Ruth: Jesus can relate to whatever emptiness you bring to Him. Jesus puts you in a family that will walk with you through the ongoing emptiness of this life. Jesus guarantees a future where all you will know is fullness.

Who gets to be part of the family of Jesus?

Before Rahab comes through as the hero, before her place in the family is etched in stone, her life was no walk in the park. Her occupation left her own to being constantly victimized. As she faces the loss of her very life, where she chooses to put her faith and trust in this moment will determine everything!

Who gets to be part of the family of Jesus?

Judah is the rebellious church kid and Tamar is the desperate outsider. It takes a breakthrough of grace for either of them to have a place in the family of Jesus. But if there is room for them, there's room for us.

When things get hard, our hope can disappear or latch onto small things that can't hold up. To the people of Israel, it felt like God didn't want them anymore. Into that fear, God speaks and says. "I see you and I care for you. There is hope, with me."

Micah knew the world; he wasn’t shy about naming what he saw; but he also knew God, and he wasn’t shy about rejoicing over what he knew of God.

He’s the same today as He was then. His promises are just as true now as they were then.

When you see the bad news, do you know what Micah knew?

These words from Micah provide a measuring stick that we can use today just as Israel used them 2700 years ago. There’s two measurements being taken: our heart commitment to do good to all people and our heart determination to live close to God.

But God, in His grace, has turned this measuring stick from a test into an invitation, to a new kind of living, for the good of the world, and for our closeness to Him.

Is God limited by what appears possible? Can God make a way through the present impossibility in my life? For Israel, for his people now, God opens a new way, but we probably have to let go of something before we can see it.

God invites us to a process of letting go that creates space for newness and growth, as we follow a God who makes a way of life out of death, a way of resurrection out of crucifixion.