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Celebrating Advent - Lesson 2, by Pastor Kevin

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Sing: O Come Let us Adore Him

Reading: Matthew 1:2-6a

Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers, and Judah the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar, and Perez the father of Hezron, and Hezron the father of Ram, and Ram the father of Amminadab, and Amminadab the father of Nahshon, and Nahshon the father of Salmon, and Salmon the father of Boaz by Rahab, and Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed the father of Jesse, and Jesse the father of David the king.

Summary: This portion of the genealogy records Abraham to David. You will notice that in Hebrew thought, only the heads of the house were recorded to trace lineage. However, if you take a close look, three women were mentioned even though it wasn't customary to do so (Tamar, Rahab, and Ruth). What is even more interesting was the fact that these women were controversial. Since you are talking to your children you may not want to point out that this family tree includes things most families would rather cover up such as rape with Tamar or prostitution with Rahab. What you can say is that God chose the Israelites and people like Rahab and Ruth were not Israelites...yet they were included in God's family line because they had faith. This points us to the fact that Jesus was coming to complete the family of God and anyone can be a part of it if they have faith in Christ! You didn't have to be an Israelite!

Questions/Responses:

Do you have any relatives? Think of as many relatives as you can. Can you name them? 

 Our relatives help us understand how we got here. Do you think knowing something about our relatives will help you to understand something about yourself? Perhaps if you see lots of creativity or a hard work ethic in your family heritage it might give you a sense of those things...

 In the last lesson we discussed how Jesus would complete God's family. What can we learn about God's family from this genealogy? That people who were not Israelites could still be in God's family because they believed in God and trusted him.

 Can you get into God's family? Yes!

 How do we get accepted into God's family? Are we born into it? Do we earn it by doing more good things than bad things? NO!

 How then? We are accepted into the family of God by believing in Jesus Christ. See John 1:12-13

 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

That's right. Ruth and Rahab were not Israelites but God considers them his children because they put their faith in his power to save! God is a wonderful God!

Prayer and Ending


Father in heaven, we praise you for your awesome plan to build a family in Jesus. Thank you that all we have to do is to admit that you are God and believe that you can save us from our sins and we are your children. Help us to keep believing in you and trusting that you are our Father who loves us dearly. AMEN!

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