Jim Cymbala preaches on Genesis 38, focusing on the flawed character of Judah and the messy circumstances surrounding his family. He emphasizes that despite Judah's moral failures, God chose to bring the Messiah through his lineage, illustrating that Jesus came for those who are broken and in need of mercy. The sermon highlights the importance of recognizing our own shortcomings and the grace that God extends to us, encouraging believers to show mercy to others as they have received it themselves. Ultimately, Cymbala reassures that God can turn our messes into something beautiful, reflecting His redemptive power.

Genesis 38, and then look up at me. When you have it, look up at me, so then I'll know I can begin, so then I'll know that you all have it. If you can't find Genesis, I don't know what to tell you. I really don't. But it's the first book in the Bible, for those of you who might be new to the scriptures. Now, when God chose out a people to bless the world, and when he chose out a people through whom the Messiah would come, he started with one man who he promised, even though he was old and his wife was old and barren, that he would be the father of a great host of people and even nations, and that man's name was Abraham. Abraham started a seed, a promised line, a line of people through whom the Messiah would come. No one knew when, they were waiting, but it was gonna be through Abraham. But not through every one of Abraham's children, through a select line of people. For example, Abraham had Isaac, but he also had another son by a slave woman. What was the name of that other son? Anyone know? Ishmael. Was it gonna be through Ishmael? No, it was gonna be through Isaac. Okay? Isaac had Esau and Jacob, among other children, and who was the seed gonna come through? Jacob. Abraham, Isaac, and? Now, Jacob had 12 children. Those 12 children basically became the 12 tribes of Israel so that when the land, when God sent them back into the land after they went into slavery in Egypt and after Moses led them out and Joshua took them into the land, they divided the land into 12 states or territories and each territory was named after one of the sons of Abraham. Now, two sons dropped out and were not mentioned. It was Joseph. He didn't have a territory. There's no tribe of Joseph territory. And who else? Remember who, what was the priestly tribe? The Levites, Levi. They didn't have any land because their portion was the Lord and they were cared for by Israel as a whole. So that's 12 take away two is what? 10. So how do we get back to 12? Joseph had two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim, and those two sons joined together even though they were grandsons, they joined together with the 10 and that's how you get the 12 tribes. Now, out of those 12 sons that I mentioned, which son would the line come through that would bring the Messiah? Judah. No, that can't be right. Jesus would come from the tribe of not Simeon, not Naphtali, not Asher, not Benjamin, like Saul, King Saul. No, he would come from Judah. And with that thought, the name of this message is a bad family tree. Have you ever looked up what some of your ancestors did and wish you hadn't looked it up? I had a friend who knew for sure that one of his ancestors who fought was at the Alamo when everyone perished there in the war with Mexico. So he said he was so proud. My great, great, great, great, great, great fought at the Alamo. So he went back and researched it only to find out that his great, great, great, great, whatever panicked and tried to run away and got shot in the back by one of his own men for leaving his post. That's the last time he looked in his family tree. He said, I don't wanna know anything more. And we probably all have, how many have a relative that you in the natural wish you didn't have? Or how many, come on, don't lie. Come on, how many have somebody that you're just like, wow, wow, what's this about? Well, let's read about Jesus', according to Joseph, through Joseph. We know Jesus was born of a virgin birth through Mary, but his supposed father who was identified with was Joseph. And Joseph came through the line of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Judah. 38, verse one, at that time, Judah left his brothers, the other ones I just told you about, and went down to stay with a man of Adullam named Hira. There, Judah met the daughter of a Canaanite man named Shua. You know, he shouldn't even been messing with Canaanite women. They never tell the name of the woman he married. It's just the daughter of Shua. He married her and lay with her. She became pregnant and gave birth to a son who was named Ur. How'd you like to have that name? Every time somebody stutters and goes Ur, and then you can say, here I am, what do you need me for? Ur, no, here I am again, stop calling me. Had some odd names back then. She conceived again and gave birth to a son and named him Onan. Now, Judah has two sons by this unnamed woman, Canaanite woman. She gave birth to still another son and named him Shelah. It was at Kezib that she gave birth to him. Now, Judah got a wife for Ur, his firstborn. And her name was Tamar. So Tamar was the daughter-in-law who married Ur. But Ur, Judah's firstborn, was wicked in the Lord's sight, so the Lord put him to death. Then Judah said to Onan, that's the next oldest brother, lie with your brother's wife and fulfill your duty to her as a brother-in-law to produce offspring for your brother. Look up here. The tradition back then was that if a widow was left with no children, that the family would then, the next oldest would have relations with her so that she could have a seed and have a family and not be left desolate. Verse nine, but Onan knew that the offspring would not be his. See, he knew that it wouldn't be counted as his son. So whenever he lay with his brother's wife, he spilled his semen on the ground to keep from producing offspring for his brother. What he did was wicked in the Lord's sight, so he put him to death also. Judah then said to his daughter-in-law Tamar, live as a widow in your father's house until my son, the third one, Shelah, grows up. He's too young. For he thought he may die too just like his brothers. So Tamar went to live in her father's house. After a long time, the other son has grown up, but Judah's made no move to get him hooked up with Tamar. After a long time, Judah's wife, the daughter of Shua, died. So now he's a widower. When Judah had recovered from his grief, he went up to Timnah, to the men who were shearing his sheep, and his friend, Hira the Adelamite, went with him. This is usually like a carnival type of thing. They celebrate it during the sheep shearing time. When Tamar, the daughter-in-law, was told, your father-in-law is on his way to Timnah to shear his sheep, she took off her widow's clothes. Wow, she's still mourning. Covered herself with a veil to disguise herself, and then sat down at the entrance to Enayim, which is on the road to Timnah. For she saw that though Shelah had now grown up, she had not been given to him as his wife. When Judah saw her, he thought she was a prostitute, because of the way she was dressed with the veil, for she had covered her face. Not realizing that she was his daughter-in-law, he went over to her by the roadside and said, come now, let me sleep with you. And what will you give me to sleep with you? She asked. I'll send you a young goat from my flock, he said. Will you give me something as a pledge until you send it? She asked. He said, what pledge should I give? In other words, what's the guarantee? Your seal and its cord and the staff in your hand, she answered. So he gave them to her. The seal, the cord and the staff. And he slept with her. Uh-oh. And she became pregnant by him. After she left, she took off her veil and put on her widow's clothes again. Meanwhile, Judah sent the young goat by his friend, the Adolamite, in order to get his pledge back from the woman, but he did not find her. He sent the young goat to get the pledge back, but nobody could find the lady. He asked the men who lived there, where is the shrine prostitute who was beside the road at NAM? There hasn't been any shrine prostitute here, they said. So he went back to Judah and said, I didn't find her beside. The men who lived there said there hasn't been any shrine prostitute here. Then Judah said, ah, let her keep what she has or we will become a laughing stock. After all, I did send her this young goat, but you didn't find her. In other words, I did my best. About three months later, Judah was told, your daughter-in-law Tamar is guilty of prostitution. And as a result, she is now pregnant. Judah said, bring her out and have her burned to death. What kind of people are in my family? As she was being brought out, she sent a message to her father-in-law. I am pregnant by the man who owns these, she said. And she added, see if you recognize whose seal and cord and staff these are. Hello. Judah recognized them and said, she's more righteous than I, since I wouldn't give her to my son, Shelah. And he did not sleep with her again. When the time came for her to give birth, there were twin boys in her womb. And as she was giving birth, one of them put out his hand. So the midwife took a scarlet thread and tied it on his wrist and said, this one came out first. But when he drew back his hand, his brother came out. And she said, so this is how you've broken out. And he was named Perez, which means breaking out. Then his brother, who had the scarlet thread on his wrist, came out and he was given the name Zerah. My, my, my. What in the world is that doing in the Bible? I thought this was the good book. That's a bad story in the good book. Now, we see one of the sons now of Jacob, Judah, not only being unwise, not only being duped by his daughter-in-law, we see him morally weak. We see him not only fail spiritually and morally, we see him as a hypocrite. We see him basically as a disaster. I wanna talk about what Judah means beside the meaning of his name, what the meaning of his name from this story tells us. And why in the world does Hebrew 7.14 say this? When talking about the priesthood of Jesus, what was the priestly tribe again? Levi, right? But when the writer to Hebrew says that Jesus is the great high priest, but he's of a different kind than the priesthood of Aaron, because Aaron came out of Levi, right? He says in Hebrew 7.14, for it is clear that our Lord descended from Judah. From Judah? Why mention it? Why take our precious Lord Jesus Christ and put him within any proximity of the name Judah? The guy who slept with a hooker who turned out to be his daughter-in-law. In other words, if you have somebody like that in your family tree, why not just not talk about it? Why would the writer to Hebrew say, but everyone knows that our Lord came from Judah. In other words, Judah, according to the genealogy of Jesus on the human side, Judah was his great, great, great, great, great, great, and so on and so forth. And then on top of that, if you do have a Judah in your background, why not hide it? Why not say, and we all know that Jesus came out of Abraham? Because Abraham, he made his mistakes, but I mean, Judah? And what does Jesus have anything to do with Judah? Why even talk about them in the same breath? In fact, why tell this story? If you're gonna mention that Jesus came from Judah, why not leave out this story? I mean, not everything in the life of everybody in the Bible is recorded in the Bible. John tells us that if everything Jesus did were ever put down, what does it say? That the world couldn't contain all the books that were exaggerating, saying all the things that he did. We don't know everything Jesus did. We don't know every day of Abraham's life. We don't know what Joseph did every day of his life. We don't know all the mistakes David made. We just know a few. So if you're gonna mention Judah, why not just take chapter Genesis 38 out of the Bible and just say, and Judah was a fine old guy who had some problems, but don't we all? Why tell in such gory detail such a nasty story? What's the point? You've reached the end of side one. Please turn the tape over and rewind to the beginning of side two. It's because the reason that Jesus came was because of people like Judah. Aren't you happy that Jesus didn't come for good folk because where would you and I be? Jesus is called the Lion of the... In heaven, they mention his name, Revelation 5.5. No one's worthy to open up the book that was closed, the scroll, but one is worthy who is called the Lion of the tribe of... I would have, if I were up there in heaven and saying, you're gonna make an announcement like that, I would say, the Lion of the tribe of... Yeah, he comes from somewhere there, yeah. No, what Judah stands for, which is what we stand for, is why Jesus came. And this is a great weapon against the devil when he comes to accuse and attack us. Because we read, first of all, that Judah stands for a colossal moral failure. I don't expect a lot of amens from this part of the message, but you listen to me anyway. I'm not interested in amens. I wanna preach the word of God to you. Judah, in this story, stands for a very ugly sin. What in the world was he doing going over to this hooker, this prostitute, and saying, how much do you want to sleep with me? This is an ancestor of Jesus? Not only is he being duped, what's he just doing it for? Did he learn anything from the heritage of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob? So, the Bible tells us that Judah here stands for a colossal moral failure. This is not a little lie that he told under pressure. This was something that he thought about, he went over, he had a bargain with her. And the truth of the matter is, is that Jesus came for people just like Judah, just like you and me, who have flopped and made mistakes. I don't wanna go into detail about your life or anybody's life up on this platform about some dark days in your life when you messed up royally, when you did something or said something or was involved in something that you wouldn't want anyone to know about or maybe some people already know about it. And sometimes at night, when you think back over your life, you just regret so much that you did such and such a thing. Jesus understands all about that, that's why he comes from the tribe of Judah, that's why he came. Jesus came to show mercy to people who have messed up, hallelujah, oh hallelujah. Jesus didn't come to judge people, he came to save people. Jesus came to show mercy on people who wanna take a gun to their head and say, why even go on? Jesus came to take up the side of people, the plight of people who can't even look in the mirror because they don't like what they see. I remember a woman here in the church who has served so faithfully here now, when I first met her years ago, she had five children, basically from five different men. That was the kind of life that she lived. And you would say, I mean, this is a loser of a woman, she's uneducated, she just was used and misused. Jesus came just for her. And don't you look down on her because you're in the same boat, Jesus came just for you. There but for the grace of God goes you. How many are happy he's full of mercy? Ephesians 2 verse 4 says, but God who is rich in what? Mercy. You know, people make a big thing about the clouds. I have to admit, sometimes I'm up in the airplane, I look out and I see the clouds and you see the sun and you wanna sing How Great Thou Art and you see us, you know, the nature, but nature never has touched me. Yeah, God is rich in power and God is rich in beauty, but the thing that melts me is he's rich in mercy. He can take people who have messed up so bad and turn them around and show mercy. In fact, God delights in showing mercy. He's rich in mercy, he's full of mercy. The Bible says so much about that and in Titus 3.5 it says, he saved us not because of righteous things we have done, but because of his mercy. Brothers and sisters, the only reason if you're a Christian here, how many are Christians and love the Lord today? You've put your faith in Christ. The only reason you're sitting here in this building is because he's rich in mercy. He has saved you not because you've lived a good life, for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. You might compare yourself with another person and look good, but on judgment day, people are gonna be compared with God and compared to God's glory and God's holiness, we're all a mess, but he has saved us because of his great mercy. God loves to show mercy and that's why we're here today. In fact, James tells us mercy triumphs over judgment. People say, do you know what that guy deserves? And God is looking, how can I get him back? How can I show mercy? How can I get him to ask for forgiveness? Because mercy triumphs over judgment. If all of us here in this room would have been judged for some of the mistakes we made, how many know the population would be very scarce this morning? How many are happy that mercy triumphs over judgment, that God said, no, I won't judge Carlo Bogstad, I'll show mercy on Carlo Bogstad. I won't judge Ralph Bird, I'll show mercy on Ralph Bird. Oh, no, I know what they've done. No, I know what he did. I know what that guy did, but that's okay. I delight in showing mercy. No wonder God is not ashamed to say that Jesus came from the tribe of, but there's more. He slept with her, the Bible says, and she became pregnant by him. Now, you know what Judah also means? A horrible, tangled mess. Now, it could have been that God oversaw the thing and he just slept with her, and it wasn't at that time of the month when she could have conceived. Think of all the few days of the month that a woman could conceive. No, it happened right at that time, and guess what? Now, God could, he has control over all those things. No, God says, Jacob, son Judah, impregnated her and she became pregnant. Now, that's a mess. He doesn't know it yet, but now you have a mess. You have a father-in-law who has impregnated his daughter-in-law, and isn't that just lovely? Who he thought was a hooker. Now, can you even conceive of a bigger disaster? You wanna talk about a mess? You're here today and saying, Pastor Cimbala, my mistakes have gotten me into a mess. You wanna talk about a mess? That's a mess. What's gonna happen to the baby? Should we just toss it out? Should we forget about it? Because it's born out of a mess. This is an unholy thing. Whatever this child is gonna be, or children, turns out it's twins. Whatever's gonna happen to these twins or these children, it's not gonna be good because how can something good happen out of a man hitting on a prostitute who happens to be his daughter-in-law and she gets pregnant? Could anything good come out of that? Oh yeah, because you know why Jesus came? To take the biggest messes in your life and my life and touch them with his power and his grace and his mercy. And out of a mess, he can make something beautiful. Come on, let's put our hands together and thank God. Out of a mess, he can make something beautiful. Out of a mess, out of a mess. Pastor Cimbala, I'm in a mess. Did you know that Jesus is a master at cleaning up messes? Oh, how many of you have had some messes in your own life already that Jesus fixed up and oh, it's like that song I heard in Oklahoma years ago, a little southern gospel tune using words I had never really related to the Lord quite like that, but they were singing in this church, let Jesus fix it for you. He knows just what to do. Whenever you pray, let's let him have his way and Jesus will fix it for you. But fix it means something's broken. Jesus loves to take broken situations like you're facing today, if you'll trust him, and turn it around where sin abounds, hallelujah. Grace, what, even more abounds. When you're in a mess, he can get you out. I tell people sometimes when I'm counseling, I don't care, all right, you told me everything. Now, this mess is gonna turn around somehow for good. If we just turn to the Lord, the Lord has a way out of every mess. You might not see it, but the Lord has a way out of a mess. You know, one day she's gonna give a testament. Let me just say this and then I'll move on and close. But Pastor Johnson and I know about this case the best. Brother, of all the messes we've seen, is that one of the top five messes in the whole world? We got a girl in the choir, she's from Guyana. She was living out there, just a nut, just living very loose, Hindu family. And she has a boyfriend and she's sleeping with him and she's carrying on with him. She doesn't know the Lord. And then she doesn't see him for a few months, right? And he has a record already with the police. He's getting in a lot of trouble. But she doesn't see him for three months. So now she comes back to see him at the end of the summer and he's been arrested for murder. Three guys were hanging out in the street corner. Somebody drove by, said something. And her boyfriend, so she's all confused. She doesn't know the Lord. She doesn't have the first thing about life and what God wants her to do. She's just out there. So he's being sentenced, what, 12, 14 years. I think he pled down to murder second degree. Pastor Johnson helped me on this and his background as a detective with the police department really helped because we wanted to find out what's going on here. So you know what she did? She did the most logical thing in the world. She married him. That's right. She married him. Someone going away for 14 years, she married him. Then he got in more trouble before he got up to his final prison. So they tacked on more years. She's 22 and then she, now is that a mess? Is that a mess? That's your basic mess. And then she found the Lord and she got saved and joined this church. And she came after me one Tuesday night and said, could I talk to you? I said, I've got to tell you this story. She told me this story. I started to weep because this girl has really met God. The hand of the Lord is on this girl. Very advanced spiritually for how long she knows the Lord. So what should I do? You know, there's conjugal visits. I'm not sure if he's been true to me. There was some female guard, there's this and that. And I don't know, and what's my future? And am I, you know, but I want to do, Pastor Simba, right? I want to do what the Lord wants me to do. I will do whatever the Lord wants me to do. And she says, you know, I did witness to him. I said, you did? She said, yeah, I think he's writing me and he's telling me now that he loves the Lord, but I'm not sure if he's just conning me. So I got a letter from him, but I wasn't sure. And he's saying, you know, my wife doesn't believe in me. So I said, Pastor Johnson, go up there. And Pastor Johnson had already met with her and said, look, I looked at this guy's jacket. This guy's police record, he has a heavy jacket. This guy's been in more trouble, am I right? He's been in trouble out of prison, in prison. This guy is just trouble. So he went up to see him two weeks ago. He just was going to go in there and tell him, stop conning this girl and just, you know, you did the crime, do the time. Guess what? The guy is full of God. Listen, listen, wait, wait, wait. The guy is, is he a born again Christian? Pastor Johnson said that when he came into the meeting area, it was like a shaft of light came into a dark place. It's like God's presence is resting on him, just full of the word of God. Listen, full of the word of God, full of Jesus, praising the Lord. Pastor Johnson was gonna come in there and read the riot act and he just put up his hands and said, thank you, Jesus, thank you, Jesus. Come on, let's put our hands together. God can take a mess, turn it around. Oh, praise the Lord. God can clean up a mess. And now other things are developing and this is not justifying his crime, but now he's found the Lord. God used his connection to this girl, their marriage connection, their marriage, to bring him the gospel. And who knows who he's gonna win to the Lord in that prison through a situation that you would have said, just blow this thing up, there's no way. Oh, God is an awesome God. Do I get a witness here? God is awesome. And listen, for those of you that think that there's a mess that God can't turn around, how about this one? In Matthew 1, 3, when it gives the genealogy that Jesus came through. God, listen to me as I close here. This is something that you gotta listen to and remember. In the genealogy of Jesus, it comes Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, then Judah. Now Judah had many sons. What do you think the son is that Jesus came through? Out of all the sons God could have said, that's who I want as an ancestor of my savior, of the savior I'm gonna send in the world, my son, Jesus. Guess what son of Judah is mentioned next in the genealogy of our Lord Jesus Christ? Perez. God takes the son born out of a mess. Oh, hallelujah, let's just lift our hands and thank God. Don't clap, let's just lift our hands up. You're not ashamed to do that, are you? Come on, let's thank him for his mercy. We thank you for your mercy and your grace, Lord. There is no God like you, so full of mercy, Lord, who takes things we're ashamed of and works them out for good. What the devil meant for evil, God, you can turn around and make good. Oh, Lord, take the messes that are in this room right now, in this building, in this auditorium. Make these messes into something good for your glory, Lord. With sons and daughters and marriages that are straining right now, Lord. Oh, we praise you, Lord. Isn't God awesome? And look how he identifies to encourage us. Judah's the biggest mess on two feet. And God says, no, it'll be Judah and then Perez. That's what Jesus came for, to take our messes. And we're just musicians playing. And then the Bible tells us, oh, this is another part of what God wants to do in us. Why Jesus came about three months later, Judah was told, your daughter-in-law, Tamar, is guilty of prostitution. And as a result, she's now pregnant. They must've gone to him and said, excuse me, Tamar, your stomach, are you eating a lot? Or what is that little bulge there? And she said, no, I'm pregnant. And they said, well, how'd you get pregnant? This had to happen because how else could they have told this to Jacob, to Judah? And she said, I turned a trick. Because they said she's guilty of prostitution. She didn't say it was some guy I met some night at the... No, she said, I turned a trick. And they brought this to Jacob and said, Judah, and say, Judah, did you know that Tamar, your daughter-in-law, the widow of your first son-er, did you know that she's pregnant? And she's pregnant because she was, played the role of a prostitute. And Jacob says, what, what kind of girl is this? Don't people have morals? Burn her. Isn't that just like you and me? We're so quick to judge other people for stuff we've done ourselves. Oh, isn't that so? This is why this is in the Bible. We're so good at saying, what's the world coming to? Yeah, look in the mirror. That's what the world is coming to. Yeah, the best of us here it's true for. If the truth were known about all of us, if we dropped the screen now and put up all of your lives on the screen, every secret moment, how many know how we would exit out of this building, right? And break the world's record for exiting a building. And yet, God has shown us so much mercy. And we're so quick to condemn other people. Do I get a witness? Oh, we're, as I said a few weeks ago, that's why I get very uneasy when I hear people talk kind of like a redneck theology. You know, people should get what they deserve. Praise God. Excuse me. Did you get what you deserve? How many didn't get what you deserve, but God gave you mercy? Come on, wave your hand at me if God didn't give you what you deserve. Oh, hallelujah. Am I right, men? Am I right? That's why Jesus said, I desire mercy. You know what Jesus came to do is to make us straight and sincere. I noticed not only for ourselves, if it's someone in our family or someone from our country or from our island, we use a double standard, a double weight, which God hates. God hates an unjust weight. In other words, if something's wrong for a person to do, and you're gonna pontificate about it and really get on a soapbox and say, people who do that, that's wrong. Then why do you justify it for someone in your family? You ever see people do that? I see mothers do that for their sons and for their children. These kids are terrible. Not my little boy, Johnny. Johnny never made a mistake in his life. You know, you have no business to mess with my son. Oh, I see that all the time. Yeah, but he held up a bank. No, it was just a bad day. He didn't know what he was doing. He ate something he shouldn't have eaten. You know what Jesus came? Is to make us sincere and straight and humble us. Oh, how many wanna show mercy on people after all the mercy God has shown to us? And this is what Jacob stands for. He's such a hypocrite. And Jesus, if he, his harshest words, ask the pastors, Pastor Bogstad, you know the Bible very well. Am I right, Pastor Hammond, Pastor Johnson, Pastor Byrd, Pastor Ware? Who are the harshest words Jesus used in the whole New Testament? Hypocrites. You Pharisees, you hypocrites. You judge one way and you look down at people and meanwhile you're doing the same thing behind everyone's back. Jesus came to make us real and to teach us that he desires mercy. He doesn't delight in people being put down. And that's why Galatians 6, 1 and 2 says this. Brothers, if someone is caught in the church in a sin, you who are spiritual should restore him. Gently, but watch yourselves or you also may be tempted. Carry each other's burdens and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. You wanna know how to fulfill the law of Christ? Put up with other people's problems and mistakes and sins and don't condemn them. Minister to them and restore them gently. Because if I remember correctly, isn't that what Jesus did for you? When you failed Jesus and when you've sinned and you came to the throne of grace and asked God for help, did you ever find Jesus just standing there like that and going, uh-huh, ah, how many happy he never is like that? We're like that. You that are spiritual, don't bury them, restore them. Jesus is not speaking about people in rebellion and you could get in trouble soon. That's why Jesus came. That's why he's called the Bible. And lastly, the Bible that Judah stands for just outright open shame. Judah recognized the seal and the staff and the cord and he said to everybody present, she, the daughter-in-law, who's not a Jew, who played the hooker, who duped me and fooled me, she is more righteous than I. You wanna talk about a diss? You wanna talk about a put down? You wanna talk about embarrassment? You ever hear people say embarrassing? Talk about embarrassing in front of everyone. Judah has to say, she's more righteous than me. He says, and now, dear children, continue in Jesus. Keep what you will be unashamed. He's the lion of the tribe. And say, Lord, give. But Jesus took a mess. We thank you for your mercy. And if someone here has not experienced your mercy, Lord, we pray that right now, they will open their heart to you this very moment. That you love to show people. Don't let them carry their sins for a second more, Lord. Their disobedience, their rebellion, their secret sins. We thank you that you can take a mess and make something beautiful out of it. We thank you that even though we have been forgiven so much, play the hypocrite and get judgmental with other people, you're that you deliver us. But there is therefore now no condemnation to them. Thank you, Lord, that you don't mind. Before we go today, I would like to remind you again that our mailing address has changed. If you would give us the honor of praying for you, no matter what your situation is, we would love to receive your prayer request. Our new mailing address is this week at the Brooklyn Tabernacle, 17 Smith Street, Brooklyn, New York, 11201. That's this week at the Brooklyn Tabernacle, 17 Smith Street, Brooklyn, New York, 11201. If you have the internet, you can always go to our website at brooklyntabernacle.org and email your prayer request from there. The scripture says draw closer to God this week and he'll draw closer to you. Walk with him hand in hand. He'll get you through everything and we'll see you next week.