The Church of Eleven22 - Vision Weekend - Heaven to Earth - Matthew S1E1

Episode Date: January 11, 2026

What if God never intended His blessings to stop with you—but to move through you to the world? As we begin Season 1: Heaven to Earth and launch our year-long study through the book of Matthew, Vision Weekend sets the vision for how we will live as a church in 2026. From Jesus’ announcement that “the kingdom of heaven is at hand” to the Great Commission, Matthew reveals that God’s plan has always been to bless His people so that all nations might be blessed. This message reminds us that Jesus didn’t just rescue us from sin—He rescued us for His mission. Through the stories of outsiders, ordinary people, and faithful obedience, we are invited to give God a year, trust Him fully, and join Him in bringing the gospel to every neighbor and every nation. The question is simple but costly: What is God telling you to do, and how will you respond? 📣 Episode Mentions: • Scripture Passage: Matthew 1-2 • Preacher: Pastor Joby Martin 📌 Supplemental Resources From This Week: • Vision Piece Handout • The Kingdom of Heaven Is at Hand  • Vision Weekend - Heaven to Earth - Matthew S1E1 (Full Service)  • God is Sovereign over every story - Deepen with Pastor Joby Martin: Matthew S1E1  • Matthew Season 1: Heaven to Earth Sermon Series  • Deepen with Pastor Joby Martin  About The Church of Eleven22 The Church of Eleven22® is a movement for all people to discover and deepen a relationship with Jesus Christ. Eleven22 is led by Pastor Joby Martin and based in Jacksonville, Florida, with multiple campuses throughout Jacksonville and the surrounding areas. To support this ministry and help us continue to reach people all around the world click here.

Amen and amen and amen. How we doing, church? Good. I feel like I'm in a better mood than you are. That's rare, all right? So let's go. That's exciting. Is that not exciting?

All that God is doing in us and through us through 2025, and I am believing that our best days are ahead of us. Amen? I'm believing that 2026 is going to be the best year that we have ever had in accordance with what God wants for us. A couple things. We've got a lot to do. You've got to listen faster than you normally do.

Or this can be a lock-in. I need you to grab this thing. We're going to walk through that. I need you to grab your Bible. We're going to go to Matthew chapter 1, verse 1, and we're going to talk about the direction of our church this year, the vision for our church this year. I hope you are excited about it.

I am. If you've been here a while, you're going to realize a lot of things sound repetitive because we are heading in the same direction since the very first day we started. That we're just going to continue to be a movement for all people to discover and deepen a relationship with Jesus Christ. Amen? And exciting things are happening here in Jacksonville. Amen?

It's a big year. Not just this. I think this is big. I mean, I do. But that won't be the biggest thing, I promise, even though we are going to win the Super Bowl. That will be a footnote in what God does this year, in and around Jacksonville.

All right, that's what we're about to talk about. I also, thank you for that. Did you ever think when Liam came out with Duvall? Did you think? We might even have to change the way we say it to that weird way. Just anyway, whatever. That's different. But he's the man, dude.

Let's go, Liam. All right. anyway, that's not what we're talking about, people. Hey, for all of you that said, I'll give you a year, welcome. I bet I'm at half a dozen in the airport, a half a dozen people in the airport over the past several weeks that says, hey, I'm going to give you a year. Welcome, welcome, welcome. Thank you for being here, man. I'm telling you. If you get out your vision piece, here's what we're talking about all year long. In Matthew, Chapter 4, verse 17, the first four chapters are. The first four chapters are. That's what the four chapters are. Now it's going to take us a few weeks

to get through them, but don't worry about that, okay? Jesus's teaching ministry begins with this statement right here. That everything that Jesus taught was this, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. And so one of the things that you're going to see all throughout the year in any songs we sing or text we read, when you see the words repent or kingdom or heaven, they're going to be in this kind of font

to just remind us that this is what we are all about. That we are going to repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand, that Jesus is calling us, the church, his people, to repent. It doesn't only mean change direction. It means change the way you think. We're going to get into it in Matthew because the people of God weren't thinking right. They had their minds focused on themselves

instead of us focused on him. They had their minds focused on what they wanted instead of the Great Commission of Jesus. So we've got to change the way we think. And the reason that we have to change the way we think is because the kingdom of heaven. That's not just a sweet by and by a place that you're going to go one day.

Pastor Adam did a marvelous job last week talking about what eternity is. But the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom is wherever the king rules and reigns. And by the time we get to Matthew chapter one, what we find out is that the kingdom has invaded earth. That the king of kings has stepped off of his throne and he was born as a baby in a manger, but he didn't stay a baby in a manger. That he grew up, he became a man. His name is Jesus. And wherever his rule in reign is, that is.

the kingdom and heaven is supposed to invade earth and then we as believers in Jesus are supposed to live in such a way that earth looks a lot more like heaven and it's at hand it's within our grasp it's right there and god is inviting us to partner with him to be about this this is what all of the teaching ministry is about as we studied the book of matthew you can really break it up into five different teaching sections with a couple little interesting sections with a couple little where he tells a bunch of stories. And all of it can be summed up in this sentence. Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

We're going to learn about what that means. This vision piece is just what we are going to do as a church to live out what it means to be the kingdom of heaven right here and right now. Everywhere from Orlando all the way to Jessup and then all of our outposts all over the place. So, it's a little bit like origami. If you open it up, not to where a normal page, one, but the page that you're looking at right there, it says one up there. Go to one. That's where we're going to start.

This is what our church is about. We are always about this. The Church of 1122 will continue to be a movement for all people to discover and deepen a relationship with Jesus Christ. These are our marching orders. We didn't make it up. The Bible doesn't use these. exact words, but this is the de-decloration of what the church

is to be about. Some of you for the very first time are going to discover that God loves you and Jesus is the proof. Some of you can't even remember when you became a Christian because it was so long ago, we didn't have the internet yet. And you were going to continue to

take steps of obedience, to follow in the footsteps of Jesus. There's some things here, there's a discipleship journey here, I don't have time to go through it. The question I need you to ask is what is your next step of obedience? What is your next step of obedience? And I want you to lean in this year.

Give it a full year. For some of you, it's just to come to church on a regular basis. Praise God for that. For some of you, it's to begin to lift your hands and worship. For some of you, it's to trust God with your first and your best for the very first time. For most of you, it's jumping to a disciple group. Go on a mission trip for the first time. I need you to hear from the Holy Spirit what is your next step of obedience.

and I need you to lean in. And what if I'm going to do to help you discover and deepen a relationship with Jesus is I am going to, we, the bunch of us, are going to teach through the book of Matthew from chapter one all the way to chapter 28. That's what we're going to do. Now if you flip it over with me, now you go to two. It's very complicated. We will continue to make room for one more.

That's what we're about. We never intended to be a big church. It's not a goal of ours. The tattoo, one of the many tattoos that I have, and I'm getting more next week, so get ready for that, okay? It's Acts 1124, and he was a good man full of the Holy Spirit and faith, and a great number of people were brought to the Lord. So whoever does my funeral, Vinky, hopefully you're there, remember this. I hope to live the kind of life that somebody doesn't have to lie about me that can actually say that. He was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and faith, and a great number of people were brought to the Lord.

And a great number is not all the tens of thousands of people that attend on a weekend. a great number in the kingdom of heaven is just one more. And in my vision piece, here's what I did, because I'm varsity. I drew a little line right here, and I didn't put the name right there because he's coming Sunday, and I'm going to write my one more's name right there. And then when God saves him this year, I'm going to go check,

and I'm going to write my next one and my next one and my next one and my next one. Right now, get out a pen, and you should write the name of your one more. And if they're sitting next to you, just tell him. I'm like, that's you, dude. Okay? You're on your way to hell. I'm here to help.

All right, tell them. Part of the reason this thing is working is because it's so personal. Got it? It's so personal. Be praying for your one more. Don't ever, ever, ever give up. Don't ever give up. I'm a professional Bible teacher.

It was 30 years of praying for him my dad before he came to Christ. Don't you ever give up on a God that doesn't give up on you. You got it? And God has placed you in that person's life because he loves you and he loves them. And he's going to use you to share his love with that person that you love. You pray for your one more. In addition to this, we're going to plant, we've got a goal by 2029 to plant 1,000 churches

and 100 missionaries and launch 22 campuses wherever. When Elon gets us to the moon, I'm going to put one there. Why? Because we're a movement for all people. Moon people are going to need Jesus to. We're going wherever there are people. In 2026, we're going to plant 100 more churches that will take us to about 875 local,

autonomous indigiously led churches that we have partnered a plant. We're going to send our 100th full-time missionary out of 1122. Boy, we need to celebrate that one like crazy. And this year we're going to launch our Orlando campus. Let's go. By the time we get back to school, we'll launch a campus in Orlando. Praise God for that. Also this year, we're going to begin construction on our wildlife permanent campus.

You don't even know the cheers that happened on Sunday morning in that little gross elementary school where we meet right now for those people. Okay, praise God for that. And for you PV people, we found a permanent location. And if I'm honest, it might be two. So that's what we're doing. In addition to that, we, somehow, God has used the teaching ministry, the ministry of 1122, to reach people far beyond where we have facilities.

And we've got people gathering all over the place, and we call them outpost. Because we just made the fundamental decision a long time ago, if you raise your hand anywhere in the world and say, will you disciple us? My answer is yes. And so currently, right now, we have outposts all over the place. We have 26 outposts. These are people in other places that gather regularly,

and they are 1122. They just don't live here. We got them in 30A, Florida, Bell Oaks, Barn, Florida. I'm going to come see you, Bell Oaks during turkey season. Blackshire, Georgia. Homeless Stetson Bennett. Can I get a witness there? We got them in Bluffton, Hilton Head, South Carolina, Brian, Texas, Chesapeake, Virginia,

Clifton Forge, Virginia, in the church where Gretchen's grandfather pastored. Listen, I don't have time for this, but listen, okay, listen. Sometimes people measure the success by attendance of a church. And if you were to look at Long Star Church, the attendance is 100, 200, something like that. It's not a big church. But, you know, God measures faithfulness, not just fruitfulness. Can I tell you about the faithfulness of Long Star Church? You know who that church led to Christ and disciple?

Gretchen nicely. She became Gretchen Martin 25 years ago. And in a time in my life when I was this close to stepping out of ministry, you know who God sent into my life to convince me to give it one more chance? A disciple of that little church that nobody's ever heard of up there in Virginia. All of this is fruit hanging on the tree of. Lone Star Church because of their faithfulness to the gospel, can I get a witness? Okay?

And so they have an outpost in their church facilities on Sunday night. Dylan South Carolina is an outpost, praise God. Indian Trail, North Carolina, Kieser, I don't know how you say that, Kesar, West Virginia, Knoxville, Tennessee, Lakeland, Florida, Lancaster, Ohio, Melbourne, Florida, Midland, Michigan, Milton, Florida, Newport, Richie, Florida, Nicaragua. Hola. That's awesome. Orlando, Florida, Portsmouth, Rhode Island.

Georgia, Sarasota, Florida, Selmer, Tennessee, Spain. I might go visit that one. Spotsylvania, Virginia, Strausville, PA. These are our outposts. And by the way, if you're watching right now and you're gathering on a regular basis with people, would you just text the word outpost to 44, 11, 22, just so we could know who you are? In addition to this, we have 21 outposts in prisons. And what's happening is a bunch of the wardens are getting safe.

and they are like our campus pastors. We got one, we got them at Hamilton, Maine, Hamilton Annex, Putnam, Union Work Camp, Tomoka Work Camp, Columbia Annex, Baker Reentry, Mary and Maine, and they're live with us right now. What's up, Kish? Marion Work Camp, they're live with us right now. Reentry Center of Ocala, they're live with us right now. Lancaster, Maine, Lancaster Work Camp, they're live with us right now. What's up?

Desota Annex, Butler Maine, Butler West, Butler Work Camp, Lowell, Maine, Lowell Annex, Norfolk. East Florida State Hospital, Men of Valor Nashville Transitioning House Facility, and Men of Valor Knoxville Transitioning House Facility. And we have three prison campuses, Columbia, Duval, Women's, and Union. God is on the move. Praise God.

And somebody's like, why you've got to have so many? Because there are so many lost people that need Jesus. Amen. And every single one of these outposts and every single one of these campuses are full of somebody's one more. And aren't you glad that somebody loved God and loved you enough

to share the good news of the gospel with you. And so the moment we get rescued, we become a part of the rescue team, so we will always be dedicated to reach one more. Now, if you turn this page over, you're going to find number three. It's church life. And what church life describes

is just the stuff that we do. And this is so important. We are commanded, we're going to see, we're going to get real familiar with Matthew 2819 this year, and the imperative there is to make disciples. these are the programs and the processes that we try to help you become a disciple but honestly programs don't make disciples people make disciples these are just the programs and the processes to get you connected with the kind of people that can disciple you and so you can disciple people and we will never stop doing that that we are not in the crowd business we are in the disciple making business this is very very important i would highly encourage you if you have it done disciple group or grow track some of these things that you would step into that why Why? Because this is what God has called us to do. One of the things when we dig in in a few minutes in Matthew that we're going to learn

is that the whole point of Matthew is that God didn't save us for us. And the people of God missed that. But he saved us that he would send us so that through us he would save one more. By the way, this is why we're also adding service times at virtually every campus. So check with your campus pastor of the new service times. And if you couldn't find a parking spot at this service, I would highly encourage you to come to one of our new service times. Here at San Pablo and a bunch of campuses,

we're adding 7.30 a.m. Sunday morning. You should be there. A bunch of you should be there. Also at San Pablo, we have a 422 afternoon. We need, expect, man, if you've been a Christian more than a year, I need you to significantly and seriously pray about coming to some of those other times. Okay?

I thank you for attending Thursday night. Normal people come on Sunday. You don't want to be normal, but you know what I mean? Like new people come especially. So thank you for being an early adopter of weird service times. But we need to do this. And the reason that we need people to move is because you got to quit thinking about you.

And what's easiest for you? Because there are people that will drive in here, can't get a parking spot, or can't find a seat. and they will turn around and go home. And you have no idea what hangs on the balance. Gretchen and I have a dear, dear friend. Now she's a credible believer.

She's in a Bible study with Gretchen. She leads medical mission trips, this incredible friend. But right when we first started the church, her marriage was a mess. She wakes up one morning and she'd heard of 1122 because somebody had shared an invitation with her and she thought, I got an idea, we should try church. She goes to her husband. She said, let's go to church. He's like, I ain't going to church, which was the problem.

So she gets her three little kids all dressed. She got one in a car seat, one on her hip. She shows up. And I know it starts at 1122, but, you know, people think that's just kind of suggestion, you know. But it actually starts at 1122. And so she comes pulling into the parking lot about 1122. And we're jammed. This is when we were next door in ladies' accessories over there.

The best spot she can find is she can, like, illegally park outpour. past Hope's closet. She gets her three kids. She schleps them all the way to our kids check in, and we were just full. And somebody said, I'm really, really sorry we just don't have any more room. Now, when you hear there's no more room in the end, that's a neat line and a Christmas pageant. And she thought, oh no. Now luckily, she's a very, very mature woman. She talked to her friends, and her friends was like, sorry, you got to get here early. And thankfully, she came. And thankfully, she came back. And I just happened to know that one story. But the number of people that show up and they can't get a parking spot or they can't get a seat or a family of three can't sit together, it is a

problem. And so for us to reach one more in order that they can get involved in this family, in this house, in this church life, we need you to go to one of these new services. Please, please, please. So now you go to number. Oh, by the way, over here in this little darker section. It says 1122 life. This is a part of our church life. Just like every good family lives in rhythm. We as a church, we have rhythms around here. I am already giving you the dates of the most important things that you're going to be a part of this year.

So don't schedule your dumb vacation on this or even your incredible vacation on this. This is what we're doing this year. Okay? And I get it. If Nana turns 90, just tell her her birthdays two weeks later. She won't know. Do whatever it takes. I kid.

Easter, we're going to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus, okay? Playing around it. Beats baptism, we're going to celebrate thousands of people declaring Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior and rejecting and renouncing all the things of this world. Saturated is what we're going to do. We're going to pray him fast. We're going to show up and we're going to saturate it in the presence of God. Then we're going to celebrate Christmas Eve together as a family.

I'm telling you, if I walk in your house, this is a day. thing needs to be posted somewhere. These are the dates that you should live your life around. Got it, got it. Very, very important. And then right beside it, number four, at the end of this year, we are going to launch what we are calling neighbors to nations. It's a two-year discipleship journey where we are going to, it really launches out of the

end of Matthew, Matthew chapter 28, verse 19. It's a very famous verse. It's called the Great Commission. and it says this go therefore and make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the father

of the son and the Holy Spirit and teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you and behold I am with you always to the very ends of the age and so the goal of this two-year discipleship journey is that every single one of us

would be committed to leverage all that God has trusted us with in our giving are going and are growing to accomplish our part of his God glorifying mission. That's what this whole thing is about. The question I want you to start asking right now that we'll actually really deal with this fall is what is he telling me to do to fulfill my role in his mission. That's it. That's it.

And for us to be ready for the Great Commission, Matthew 2819, we are going to study the whole book of Matthew. because when Jesus says, therefore, he's not just talking about the sentence that he says before, all authority in heaven and earth has been given unto me. What he's actually talking about is the entire book of Matthew. And so I thought the best way for us to be commissioned, like Jesus commissioned his early disciples, was for us to walk through the entire book where we find the great commission.

I hope you're excited about it because I am. By the way, we're selling these bad boys right here in the lobby. It's just a journal. It's pretty slick. It's just got the Bible on one side and blanks on the other for you to take notes. I'd highly encourage you to do it. There are five bucks. Or you can get it on Amazon for seven bucks, you dummy.

Okay, so get it here. Matthew 1-1. To the left arrow, you'll say a blank page. For 400 years, God has not been speaking through prophets like he had been in the old covenant. They have been awaiting the serpent crusher to show up on the same. the scene. The guy that writes this, he's the guy named Matthew. Matthew is a tax collector. Don't think IRS. That's not what it is. I mean, nobody likes the IRS anyway. If you work for IRS, I probably wouldn't tell anybody. Okay? We don't trust IRS. Why? Because they're untrustworthy.

That's why, okay? We have to pay tax. Jesus commanded us to pay taxes. That's a bummer. This is worse. This is worse. Matthew is a tax. elector and he's the ultimate outsider, and here's the kicker, by choice. He's born on the inside because he's Jewish. He's a part of God's covenant people. And yet, by choice, what Matthew decides to do is basically turn his back on his people, on his customs, on his religion, and he outsources himself to the Roman government. And he's not just overcharging people.

It's not like your taxes were $100 and he charges you $150 and then he keeps something for himself. That's not all that he's doing. He is taking money from the Jewish people, giving it to the Romans, and then the Romans are using that money to terrorize his brothers and sisters and cousins and family. That's what's happening. He's hated. He's despised. He is the ultimate outsider by his own choice. And yet what we're going to find is his account where Jesus walks up to him and essentially is going to say, bro, your past doesn't define you. Leave this life. Come and follow me. I've got a better life for you. And Matthew does that thing. And so this is a first-hand account. And Matthew, it's crazy. An outsider to the Jewish people by choice is going to write the only

gospel specifically aimed at the Jewish people. Because who knows better? So he has a Jewish audience. Now pay very close attention to this. If you miss this, you're going to miss the whole year. the point of Matthew, the gospel of Matthew. You see most of the time when we do Bible study, and I get it. You read like one little sortier, one little section, and I get it because it's the Word of God. It's chalk full of divinely inspired words that will cut us to the soul. But if you back up on Matthew and you look at it in its totality,

what you'll find here is that the point of Matthew is this, is that Jesus is the greater Moses, that Jesus is the fulfillment of the promise that God gave to Israel, because Israel screwed it up. This is what it is. That Israel missed the point. The people of God, the chosen people, they missed the point. Israel was chosen and blessed to be a blessing.

The problem is they got wrapped up on themselves. And what Jesus is going to do, he's going to show up, and Matthew is going to show all these correlations how Moses did this, but Jesus fulfilled that. It's what he's going to do over and over and over. And Jesus shows up to reorient our perspective without us. us and our wants and our traditions in the middle, and he's going to place his purposes through his life, death, and resurrection at the center to be spread to all the people of the world for

his glory. That's the point. Matthew 1-1. It says, the book of the genealogy. Now, how many of you, when you do your Bible reading plan, you just like, well, I'm skipping this. Don't skip it, man. Every word of God is theosone.

Nustas, God breathed and useful. Now, if you were a first century Jew, which you're not, and you saw this, the book of the genealogy, you go, because what it literally says, in Greek, it used the word for Hebrew that says the book of Genesis, the book of the beginning. So when you would read this, you would understand, as a Jewish audience, I think he's connecting this to Genesis 1-1 in the beginning. That's how the same thing starts. And then he says the book, or the book of Genesis of Jesus Christ, the son of David.

Now again, you don't cheer because you're a bunch of Americans. You're like, yeah, that's neat. No, it's not neat. He was the king. And God made a promise to that king, King David, that someone from his line would sit on his throne and not just rule for a season but would rule forever and ever and ever. And Jesus is the one that fulfills that promise. and not only is he the son of David, he's the son of Abraham.

Nothing, right, because we don't get it. I'm telling you. We cheer for the Jags, we're like, David, Abraham. All right. It's because we don't understand. Abraham is the one that God chose to redeem and to reveal his promises to. And what you've got to understand, and we'll get to it later in the book of Matthew, several times the Pharisees will come up to Jesus,

and they'll actually rail against them because they say that you are an illegitimate child because of the scandal surrounding your birth. And Matthew is like, no, no, no, actually, this is the son of David, this is the son of Abraham. And then it starts here, verse 2, Abraham was the father of Isaac. All right. So what Matthew is going to do is Matthew wants to connect Jesus back to Abraham

because Jesus is the fulfillment of the promise that God gave to Abraham. These next verses get used a lot these days, especially right now in the political realm. So put your theology Bible glasses on, and I want you to hear this. Genesis chapter 12, this is the promise that God gives to Abraham. Says now the Lord said to Abram,

he's going to change his name to Abraham later. The Lord said, Abraham, go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you, and I will make you a great nation. And he did. And I will bless you and make your name great. And he did.

So that, underline so that in your body. Bible. Even if you're using one of ours, underline it, so when the next person picks it up, they realize this is a big deal, so that you will be a blessing. And I will bless those who bless you and him who dishonors you. I will curse. And in you, all the families of the earth shall be blessed. And the people of God, the Israelites, the chosen people, the Jewish people, they heard this, and they went, sweet, we're blessed. We're the chosen people. For what? To be chosen? No, no, no, no, no.

You are blessed, you are chosen. So that. They missed the so-that part. They were supposed to be a conduit of the blessing of God, but they treated themselves like a cul-de-sac of the blessing of God. Do you see that? And so Jesus is going to show up because he is the blessing for all the families of the earth.

And Matthew is going to help us reorient, remember the so-that part. And so who is this blessing for? If you jump over Romans chapter 9, that's a fun chapter to study. Romans chapter 9, verse 6, what Paul is going to do, listen, when people use words, you've got to define what the word means. You ever notice that? And so when he's talking about his Jewish brothers and sisters that don't know Christ is Lord, and his heart breaks for them. In Romans chapter 9, verse 6, he's going to redefine what the New Testament means when it uses the word Israel. Ready?

It says, Romans 96. But it is not as though the word of God has failed, for not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel. It comes the new definition, ready? And not all the children of Abraham, not all are our children of Abraham because they are his offspring, but through Isaac shall your offspring be named. This means that it is not the children of the flesh

who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring. And you're like, well, maybe he's not. he was confused one time. Okay, he does it again in Galatians chapter 3. Galatians 3.7, he says, now then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham.

And the scriptures foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith preached the gospel before him to Abraham saying, in you shall all the nations be blessed. So then those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith. So when people talk about Israel, you've got to go, what do you mean by that word? It can mean at least four things.

It can mean the descendants of Abraham, the Jewish people, a people group. Sometimes it means the land, like the geographical land. Sometimes it means the nation state, like the thing that started in 48, the Netanyahu's in charge of right now. Biblically, what Paul is talking about, what the Bible talks about when it says things like all Israel will be saved, it means things like all the people that put their faith in Jesus who trust God and it's counted to them as righteousness, that's what it is talking about. And the people of God that were chosen to be a blessing for the whole world missed that whole point. And so what Matthew is going to do is he's going to connect that what the old covenant folks thought,

because they put themselves in the middle, Jesus is here to save us and send us so that the world will be blessed by this gospel. Don't miss this in the book of Matthew. And pay attention, 1122. Pay very close attention. We are a blessed church. I don't know how to describe or explain to you what's happening around here. The people that are getting saved, the marriages that are being restored, the prodigals that are coming home, the people that are being healed, the one mores that are meaning Jesus, I don't know how to express it, explain it. I don't know.

We are blessed exceedingly more than anything we ever hoped or imagined as a ministry. God is doing, but he's not doing it to us or in us for us. He wants to do it through us. So as we look at the gospel of Matthew, don't think those dumb Israelites, no, no, no, no, hold up the mirror. Because every single one of us has a propensity to get wrapped around the axle of ourselves and think, God, how can you bless me? Instead of asking God, how can I be a blessing to you? Now, the way Matthew was going to illustrate this

is in this genealogy that everybody skips over. I'm not going to read it all. Pastor Britt preached on this just a few weeks ago. You should go back and listen to his sermon on Joseph. It was incredible. But he goes through this long genealogy. And there's so much here. I could do two weeks just on the genealogy, but I'm not.

But a part of what Matthew wants us to see is he's illustrating that this movement of Jesus is a movement for all people. to discover and deepen our relationship with Jesus. It's not just for the insiders. It's not just for the chosen people. It's not just for the church people. But it's for all people.

And you're like, how do you get that from a genealogy? Well, Pastor Britt, a few weeks ago, he went over all the cracker jacks that were in this thing, but I just want to look at four of them. There's four people in this genealogy. Then if you were a first century Jewish, especially dude, and you read this, you'd be like, what's her name doing in here?

There weren't a lot of her names in genealogies. And four women are mentioned as its genealogy. And you don't want to clap because they're scandalous. I mean, I get, like, if you want to throw your grandma on your genealogy because she's awesome, I have some awesome grandmas. These are, I mean, one of them is awesome. The rest of them are not awesome. They're outsiders.

Three them are Gentiles. One of them's not. Three them are shady. One of them's not. The first one is Tamar. She's a Canaanite woman. She marries the son. the son of Judah.

That dude dies. What was supposed to happen then is that his brother would take you as a wife in order to take care of you, but that dude took advantage of her. You should read about it. It's shady.

I'm not going to talk about it. There's kids in the room. And then her father-in-law kind of disowns her and it's just going to leave her hanging out to dry. And so what she does is she dresses herself as a prostitute

hangs out to the bar, seduces him, and then keeps his ID, and then lets everybody know how I got pregnant by my father-in-law. and Matthew's like, let's put her on the list. Wait, what? You ever meet?

I mean, look, we're coming off of Christmas, man. There's parts of your family you don't talk about out loud, right? Next one is Rahab. Rehab is a Canaanite prostitute that hid two of the spies. Now, here's what's crazy about Rehab. When I read that story, here's what I think about. The spies come out there like, hey, we were hiding at Rahab's house, and they just keep going with the story,

and nobody's like, what you're doing at Rehab's house? They just immediately get to town. They go to the prostitute's house. Nobody talks about that. She's a part of the genealogy of Jesus. Then you get Bathsheba. She slept with King David while married to Eurya. Now there's for sure a power dynamic there,

but she has an illegitimate child. I want you to do this. God is using the worst decisions of some human beings' life, and his sovereignty is so complete that he can even use our worst day to bring about the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And then there's Ruth. Ruth was legit. She was a little forward, though.

She didn't roll up in Boaz's party and just get up under the sheets and it's like, marry me. I mean, I'm just saying, I wouldn't encourage our youth group to do that. That's what she did, though. But she's a Moabite. She's an outsider. So here are all the outsiders. What's the message in the genealogy? Well, one of it is that God can use anybody.

There's more grace in Jesus than sin in you. Your past doesn't defound you. Jesus gets to tell you who you are. You see, the kingdom of heaven is a movement for all people to discover in deeper relationship with Jesus, and all means all. And he is in the business of using ordinary, uneducated people to turn the world upside down. This is how the thing starts. Don't believe me. Then you get to the next section, the birth of Jesus Christ.

So who is God going to use for the king of the world to be born to? A couple of nobodies. a couple of nobody, Joseph a carpenter, and Mary just this little girl, a couple of nobodies who were willing to be faithful to God. Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place this way when his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph before they came together.

She was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit and her husband Joseph being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream saying Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit,

and she will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins. This is what we're going to study. This is why Jesus came. Jesus means God saves. It's what his name means. When we sing that song worthy of your name, that's what we're singing. You did it. You are who you said you are. And all of this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by a prophet. And when Joseph gives the name Jesus to Jesus, he is legally adopting him as his own. Verse 23, and behold, the Virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which means God with us. This is the understanding of all of the narrative of God with us.

You realize this? The whole Bible could be summed up with that phrase, God with us. In creation, God was with us. In the temple system, God made a way for God to be with us. In the incarnation, God is with us physically. In the church age, he sends the spirit of God into every believer, and God is with us. In eternity, God is with us. And the us there is all people that put their faith in Jesus Christ.

And when Joseph walked from his sleep, this is key, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him. Here's what I want for you this year. God's going to tell you to do stuff, and I just want you to do that. And he took his wife, but he knew her not until she had given birth to a son. And he called his name Jesus. Now real quick, to you people that grew up Catholic, Mary was not a virgin for her entire life.

She gave birth to Jesus as a virgin. He did not know her until after the birth. If you asked me, did you eat today? And I go, I did not eat until 7 o'clock. That means I ate after 7 o'clock. Jesus had brothers and sisters. So somebody made that up and told you that, but it's not true.

The Bible says this, so you should read the Bible. Ready? Speaking of doing, so so far I want you to see that what Matthew is doing is Matthew is, is writing the narrative of God's redemptive history with his people. And he's showing us all of the examples of how God use nobodies and God uses the leftouts and God uses the outsiders to be a part of his kingdom.

Why? Because the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Speaking of outsiders, the next thing you get in chapter 2, I just preached on it during the Christmas series, the wise men are going to show up. Why? Because they do what God tells them to do. They've got a little bit of Bible verses.

and they're looking for the king of the Jews. And so now, chapter 2, verse 1, now after Jesus is born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod, the king, behold, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem, saying, where is he who has been born of the king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose,

and we have come to worship him. And when Herod the king heard this, he was troubled in all Jerusalem with him and assembling all the chief priests and the scribes of the people. He inquired of them where the Christ was to be born, and they told him in Bethlehem of Judea, for so it is written by the prophet.

And they quote the prophets. And you owe Bethlehem in the land of Judah are by no means least among the rulers of Judah, for from you shall come a ruler who will shepherd my people of Israel. When Herod some of the wise men secretly and he ascertained from them the time the star had appeared and he sent them to Bethlehem saying, go and search diligently for the child.

And when you have found him, bring me word that I too may come and worship him. And after listening to the king, they went on their way and behold the star that they had seen when it rose, went before them until it came to rest over the place where the child was. And when they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy and going into the house. They saw the child with Mary, his mother, and they fell down and they worshipped him. And then they opened their treasures and they offered him gifts, gold, frankincense, and mer.

You see, the King Herod didn't recognize Jesus because all he could see was himself. There's going to be a bunch of people this year that hear the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and they will not be able to see past their nose to see the good news of the gospel. King Herod thought Jesus was there to take something from him. Oh, Jesus is a taker. You know what he takes? He takes your sin and he takes your shame

and he takes your doubt and he takes your loneliness and he takes your brokenness and he gives you life. But Herod couldn't see past his own nose. The religious leaders didn't go looking for him. You know why? They didn't think they needed him. And you know what you need to be saved? Need.

and then these outsiders, these magi, these astrologers, these people that the insiders would look down their nose out, they found him because they found what they were looking for. And they were looking for prophet, priest, and king, and that's what they found. Christ, the Lord, the son of God. And so they give him gold and frankincense of murder. And so the story of Jesus starts with outsiders coming from afar to come and worship King Jesus. This is how Matthew starts. The way Matthew is going to end, it's going to close with the people of his kingdom taking this gospel to the kingdom Zafar. Do you see this?

This is the whole point. In verse 12, and being warned in a dream, they did not return to Herod. They departed to their own country by another way. This is what happens when you meet Jesus as Christ the Lord King. He changes the direction of your life. When you meet him, you're lost. then you're found. You're blind, then you see, you're dead, then you're alive.

You're selfish. You become generous. It's all about me. Now it's all about you. When you meet Jesus, it changes the direction of your life. And so now, after the Magi I leave and Herod is all mad, verse 13, now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. Do you notice how many times angels are showing up in dreams to people?

And God is telling them what to do. and do you know what happens every time? There's no negotiation. Ever try to negotiate with God? Doesn't go good. The blessing is in the obedience. An angel comes to Joseph in a dream and says, rise and take the child and his mother and flee to Egypt

and remain there until I tell you, for Herod is about to search for the child to destroy him, and he rose and he took the child his mother by night and departed to Egypt. And you remain there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophets out of Egypt I call my son. Two things that you're going to see on repeat in Matthew 1 and 2. Two things. You see it over and over and over. Them doing what God told them to do

and secondly, this was to fulfill the scriptures. They did what God told them to do and what God told them to do was to fulfill the scriptures. This is what I want for you. In John chapter 10, we spent two years on this. In John chapter 10, Jesus says, I'm the good shepherd. My sheep hear my voice. There's another voice, the voice of a stranger. And he is a thief. And the only thing he wants to do to you is steal, kill, and destroy. But I am the good shepherd. I lay my life down for my sheep. And those who walk in obedience to my voice every single time you do what God tells you to do in accordance with the scriptures, this is how you know what he's telling you to do, you are marching towards abundant life.

And every single time you listen to the voice of this world, you are marching towards death and destruction. This is what the kingdom of heaven at hand is all about. And then in the next section, Herod is going to kill the children. And then Herod, when he saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, he became furious and he sent and he killed all the male children in Bethlehem. And in all that region, who were two years older under, according to the time that he had ascertained from the wise men.

Then was fulfilled what was spoken by the prophet Jeremiah. A voice was heard in Ramal weeping with loud lamentation. Rachel weeping for her children. She refused to be comforted because they are no more. But when Herod died, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, saying rise and take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel for those who sought the child's life are dead, and he rose and he took the child and his mother and he went to the land of Israel.

But when he heard that Archelius was reigning, over Judea in place of his father, Herod, he was afraid to go there and being warned in a dream he withdrew to the district of Galilee and when he went and lived in a city called Nazareth so that what was spoken by the prophets might be fulfilled that he would be called a Nazarene. Here's what's crazy.

The sovereign hand of God is always in control. Herod thought he was the boss and he was pulling strings. Caesar Augustus thought he was the boss and he was pulling the strings. Little did these kings know that they were nothing but a footnote in the story of the coming king. You see, the prophet said the Messiah,

and the Jewish folks could not understand how this would be. The prophet said that the Messiah would come from Bethlehem and Egypt and Nazareth. How was that possible? And God is like, here's how it's possible. Yotsie, there it is. He didn't say Yotsie.

I made that. So what Matthew, don't miss this, or you'll miss the whole book. So what Matthew wants us to see is that Jesus is the greater Moses. Jesus is the greater leader of the people of God. Right? Pharaoh wanted to kill all the little boys out of fear. Guess what? Herod wanted to kill all the little boys out of fear.

Same demons in new days. As a side note, the attack on the upcoming generation is not just crazy political thought. It is demonic. The trancing of kids, the abortion, like the most dangerous place to live in America right now is in the womb of a mom. You realize this. It's the same demons this new days.

In Church of 1122, we are here to say, not on our watch. One of the things that you're going to see when we roll out neighbors to nations is an even higher investment in our student ministry and our kids ministry. Because we are here to stand on the wall. And the herds of this world and the pharaohs of this world and the lunatics and government. they may come against our kids, but we're here to say, over my dead body, not on our watch. We're going to raise up a generational world changer.

That's what we're doing. And so Matthew's making all these connections from the birth narrative of Jesus and the story of Moses that God uses ordinary people to protect baby Moses. There's an idiot from Pharaoh to say, kill all the babies, and the midwives are like,

we ain't playing that game. And God uses the Magi to fund Joseph and Mary's trip to Egypt. And by the way, where did Moses do all of his work? Egypt. Remember, Moses brought God's people out of bondage in Egypt, and he took them to the promised land, and God sent an angel of death to pass over those who had the blood of a lamb on the doorposts of their house. And Jesus is going to come out of Egypt to send his people free from the bondage of sin and shame,

and he is the lamb that will be slain for the forgiveness of sin. These are all the connections that should be going off, especially if you were a first century Jewish person reading that. So, that's Matthew 1 and 2, real fast. So what's Matthew trying to tell us? First and foremost, he's trying to tell us is God has a mission to take this gospel through you to all the people of the world. And he wants to use you and me. And some of us can have a tendency to hear the whispers in the enemy and go, well, not me, because you don't know my story.

Okay, I ain't saying you ain't done some shady stuff But have you tricked your father-in-law to make a baby? Okay, that's Mori Povich stuff right there, okay? Y'all don't know, Mori Povich was a seminary professor back in the 90s, all right? So, not really. The question is this, what is he telling you to do and how will you be a part of the mission to take this good news of the gospel to every neighbor and every nation around the earth?

Don't know yet? Okay, cool. We're in week one. Give us a year. Lean in. Say, Lord, I'll do whatever you call me to do. My yes is on the table. In my giving, in my going, and in my growing.

My yes is on the table. I just want to find my place in your great commission. And here's what I think the first two chapters of Matthew teach us very practically. Your life matters. Like your life matters. I mean, Ruth thought she was destitute. and left for dead. She had no idea

the significance of her life in the narrative of the coming king. I'm sure Tamar thought, that was probably a bad idea. Little did she know that God was even going to use her sinful decision and he's so sovereign. Listen, he takes sin very seriously.

Sin's a big deal. It costs Jesus all of his blood. And yet even our sin does not disqualify us from God's plan and God's grace. Amen? That your life matters. and your family matters. Your family matters.

And your legacy matters. The generation coming behind you matters like crazy. To the 3,000-something people that put your faith in Jesus Christ last year, I hope you realize, honestly, you won't even begin to foresee what the life of your great-grandchildren are going to look like because it's going to be completely different than it would have been if you've lived your whole life for yourself. You see, your life matters like crazy. and your family matters like crazy. And yet, the most important family is not the family you were born into.

As important as that is, the most important family is not the family you were born into. The most important family is actually the family name that you die with. It's the family that you were reborn into. And some of you, some of you have never joined God's family. You see, the beautiful. beauty of Matthew chapter one is this, no matter who you are or what you've done, that God loves you and Jesus is the proof. And just like the angel told Joseph, I want you to give him the name Jesus, that only God gets to tell you who you are. Not your past, not your sin,

not your doubt, not even your past unbelief. But what God wants to do is he wants to adopt you into his very family because he's got a purpose for you, he's got a plan for you, got a future for you. And he has already done everything that needed to be done to take care of and to pay for and to wipe away all the shame and all the guilt and all the sorrow from your past. And from this day forward, you could join this family. You could join this family, the family of 1122, but even way more important than that, you could join the family of God. And if you're like, but I'm jacked up, I got good news. You're going to fit right in at the family reunion.

I mean, story time in heaven is going to be a mess. You got me? And if you're like, okay, that sounds very interesting. What do I do? It's a little bit of a loaded question. Because what you do is you just receive because it has been done. The price has been fully paid. In fact, when Jesus was on the cross, he pushed up on his nail-pierce feet and he said this,

it's done. It's finished. It's paid in full. And then the Bible is going to say, and so if you will just believe that when Jesus died on the cross, somehow that counted for me, then you will receive the right to be adopted into the family of God. And then your family tree, I don't care what you 23 and me says, I'm sure you're into it. But if it was accurate, it would go all the way back and say, your dad, is God the Heavenly Father, because you have been adopted into the family of God. So what do you do? Only thing you need to be saved is need. And so you admit it, okay, yeah, I'm a sinner in need of a Savior.

This ain't a new year, a new me. Theologically speaking, if you get saved, it is because the old is dead, and you were made into a new creation. And you admit it, I'm a sinner, I need a Savior. And I believe that somehow when Christ died on that cross, even if I can't explain it theologically, I believe. somehow that counted for me. And if that's you, the Bible says, then just call on the name of the Lord.

And when you call on his name as Lord, what you're doing is surrendering. You're saying, I ain't the boss of me anymore. I'm going to turn the reins of my life over to you. Now, not perfectly at first, for sure. But you're going to say, I trust that you are my leader, that you are my king, that you are my savior. And that's what it means to be saved. This is a promise in the Bible that this prayer gets answered, 100% of the time, all who call on the name of the Lord will be saved.

So maybe what you need this new year is a brand new start, a brand new family, and to join the lineage of the family of God by being adopted through the blood of his son, Jesus. So would you bow your head, would you close your eyes? And if that's you, if you were ready to admit it, I'm a sinner in need of a Savior, and I believe that when Christ's all under the cross, somehow that counted for me, and today, for the very first time, I am ready to call on the name of the Lord. Then I just right now, I want you to lift your hand as high as you can.

And it's not a hand in the air that saves you. It's Christ's finished work on the cross. And you just tell him, in your own words, this isn't some kind of incantation. You don't even have to repeat after me, but you just call on the name of the Lord. Lord Jesus save me. And he answers that 100% of the time.

And in this very moment, when I see you, bro, I see you, sister, I see you, I see you, every single one of you. you right now in heaven your name is written in the lamb's book of life you have been adopted into the family of god your sin has been washed away forever and ever and ever and ever and literally the bible says there's a party going on in heaven because you were dead and now you were alive you were lost and now you were found you were an orphan and now you were adopted into god's family and that's the most important family you'll ever be in our good and gracious heavenly father god i thank you jesus that you were worthy of your name that you can't

to save. Save sinners like me. To take nobodies like us. I mean nobodies that make up the church of 1122 to be about your business. God, I pray that you would free us of ourselves. I pray that you would free us of this world. I pray that we, by the power of the spirit at work in us, under the authority of the Word of God, that you would help us this very year find our place in your great commission for your glory and our joy. And God, I thank you. there is salvation in your house this day. Not because of what anybody's done, but because of what Jesus Christ has done on the cross

and through the empty tomb. And God, we rejoice with heaven for the brothers and sisters that have been adopted into your family. God, I thank you that you take the outsider and that you take the rejected one and you take the nobodies. Because without that, I got no chance.

and you adopt us into your family. And in you were somebody because you said so. And so, Lord, I pray that you use us in ways we could never imagine. We prayed in Jesus' name. Amen. Church, would you please stand to your feet? We've got a lot to celebrate. We've got all you here in front of us, and I'm telling you, I mean, receive it now, man. That's going to be a good one.

We're going to see God move in ways we've never seen him before. And so what we're going to do is we're going to sing because what we do, when we sing as we celebrate the kingdom of God because it's at hand. And we're going to bring our ties and our offerings. That means this world does not get to tell us what we value. We tell God we value you more than anything

because where our treasure is there our heart will be also. This is in our ties and our offerings. And we pray. Why? Because the kingdom of heaven. The king is here and he is at hand. Over and over and over in the gospel of Matthew, Jesus is going to say, hey, when you pray,

won't you just come to me and ask me and ask me and ask me? And so this is how we're going to respond. We're going to sing, we're going to bring, we're going to pray. Let's respond.