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We're talking about being good. 
Anyone here ever get told to be 

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good when you were growing up? 
Get told to be good? 

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Anyone tell anyone else to be 
good when they were growing up? 

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I've said it to my kids. 
I've said it to my dogs. 

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Try saying it to the cats. 
They don't listen to anything I 

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say. 
But this question of being good 

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is important because goodness is
important. 

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It's important for goodness to 
exist. 

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A world without goodness is an 
ugly, awful, nasty place to 

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live. 
We seem to see more and more and

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more of that these days. 
Or, or maybe it's just that it, 

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it gets the, the non goodness, 
the Vadnais rises up and takes 

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center stage periodically and it
feels like there's more Vadnais 

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and less goodness than there 
used to be. 

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I, I, I think really based on 
the scripture, we should be able

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to say there's more goodness in 
the world than there used to be 

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because the church is continuing
to grow. 

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The Kingdom of God is continuing
to grow and spread on this 

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earth. 
So there should be more 

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goodness. 
But if we're going to talk about

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goodness, we need to talk about 
what goodness is. 

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If we want our kids to be good, 
if we want our well, we'll leave

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the pets aside for the moment. 
I have a higher standard for my 

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kids than for my pets. 
As long as the pets aren't 

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pooping in the house, we're 
good. 

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The kids, it's a little higher 
standard for that to know what 

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goodness is so that we can be 
good. 

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Because it matters. 
It matters whether we behave. 

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I don't like our language on 
this because it saying that we 

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behave better makes it sound 
like we're in a competition. 

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We're going to do I'm going to 
do better than you. 

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I'm going to be better than you.
That's not a good way to think 

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of it. 
I'm just going to say gooder 

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knowing that's not really a 
word, but that's really what 

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we're talking about here is not 
being better than other people, 

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but being good and being as good
as we can be and getting gooder 

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and gooder every day as we are 
able and enabled by God. 

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But to under. 
So one of the ways to understand

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goodness is to look at its 
opposite, which is Vadnais, 

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which is evil. 
And, and what a starters, we're 

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talking about Tamar today and, 
and her relationship with Judah 

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in particular. 
And I said this last week at all

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three services. 
And at the end I was like, I 

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said that wrong. 
I said it wrong at all three 

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services. 
I kept saying that, that, that 

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as bad as Judah was in his 
behavior, Tamar's behavior was 

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less bad. 
As evil as Judah was, Tamar's 

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behavior was less evil. 
But that's not what the Bible 

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says. 
And I really believe it's 

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important when we're talking 
about things in the Scripture 

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that we say what the Bible says 
and not kind of insert our own 

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little judgments and evaluations
like I was doing. 

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Because there's a difference 
between being not as bad as 

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someone and being gooder than 
someone. 

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For your behavior to be good to 
a higher degree than another's 

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is different than for your 
behavior to just be less bad 

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than another's. 
And that's a particularly 

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important distinction here 
because the things Tamar was 

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doing, objectively speaking, 
most people with a moral compass

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and moral sensibility would say 
those things are not good at 

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all. 
But when Judah ended up 

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identifying those things, I'm 
not going to get into it all 

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explicitly this week. 
You listen to the last week's 

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sermon or just read Genesis 38 
if you're not sure what the 

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things we're talking about are. 
But if it you can, you can make 

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a really strong argument that 
Tamar's behavior was not good at

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all. 
But that's how Judah describes 

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it. 
Said Tamar is not less evil than

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I was. 
He said Tamar was gooder than I 

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was, more righteous than I was. 
Her relationship with God, her 

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relationship with her community,
the people around her, her 

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family, her society, her 
community, all of this was 

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better, had a higher degree of 
goodness than Judas did. 

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Even with what Tamar had done, 
it was still good. 

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It was still good. 
Tamar was not less evil. 

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She was more righteous. 
But let's talk a little bit 

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about evil before we talk about 
the goodness of Tamar itself. 

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Tamar was more good. 
Let's take a look at evil 

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because we get pictures of evil 
in Genesis chapter 38. 

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We can't use Genesis chapter 38 
as an excuse to say anything 

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goes. 
Whatever you feel like doing, do

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it, because evil is identified 
explicitly for two people in 

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Genesis. 
UH was Judah's oldest son, 

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Tamar's first husband. 
We don't know what evil uh did, 

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but we know that the Lord said 
UH was doing so much evil that 

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God killed him himself. 
God intervened. 

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Divine intervention took her out
of the picture. 

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That's how bad UH was. 
And so Tamar was given to be 

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married to Judah's second son, 
Onan. 

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We get what he we're told what 
his evil was. 

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We're told quite explicitly that
Onan was using Tamar for his own

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pleasure, not treating her as a 
human being, not treating her as

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a person of sacred worth. 
Not treating her as someone who 

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is valuable in and of herself, 
who has her own dreams, her own 

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desires, her own hopes, her own 
plans to participate and be part

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of the world in a good and 
positive and productive way. 

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Ona didn't care about any of 
that. 

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He only cared what he could get 
out of Tamar, and what he could 

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get out of Tamar was a little 
bit of pleasure, and whatever 

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else she wanted. 
Forget her. 

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Who cares? 
She doesn't matter and we are 

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told that explicitly that God 
identifies that as evil. 

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We're told God said Onan did 
evil in the Lord's eyes and so 

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the Lord killed him. 
Lord was taken no prisoners in 

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Genesis chapter 38. 
I said last week, you know this 

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is a mess around and find out 
God that we see and and then and

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it's the same God we get all the
way through the Bible and it's 

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good for us to remember that 
sometimes God is merciful. 

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God is gracious, but you know, 
don't mess around and find out 

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with God. 
It's, it's always better not to.

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Now, the third person I have up 
here, I violated my own rule and

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I didn't realize I'd violated my
rule until after I'd prepared 

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the slides. 
And I was like, I don't want to 

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go back and change the slides on
three different sets of 

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PowerPoints. 
So I'm just going to leave the 

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mistake up here and call it out 
when we get there. 

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Because I have Judah listed as 
under the evil list. 

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But I did the same thing I did 
last week, right? 

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Because Judah didn't say Tamar 
was good and I was evil. 

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Tamar was righteous and I was 
unrighteous. 

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He just said Tamar's 
righteousness was greater than 

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my own. 
So we've got to really take 

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Judah off the evil list here and
put him on the less righteous 

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than Tamar list. 
But what made him less righteous

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than Tamar? 
What was his failure? 

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He was great at being the 
morality police, right When he 

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heard, oh, Tamar's been 
prostituting herself. 

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Get her out here. 
Burn her at the state, put her 

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to death. 
That's wrong. 

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Everybody knows it's wrong, it's
evil, it's immoral. 

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We cannot have that sort of 
thing in our family, in our 

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community, in this part of the 
world. 

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Can't have it. 
Can't have it. 

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Can't have it. 
At least with people related to 

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me, because we already know that
he goes to prostitutes. 

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But Tamar was not allowed. 
So Judah was great at being the 

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morality police. 
He was great at identifying 

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other people's sins, and Judah 
himself acknowledges that level 

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of righteousness. 
Being able to point out what is 

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wrong with other people is a 
second class, lower tier, lower 

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level righteousness. 
Not as good, not as righteous as

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Tamar, because as he was 
pointing out what he perceived 

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as Tamar's faults, he was at the
same time failing to live up to 

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his obligations, his covenantal 
obligations. 

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He was the patriarch of his 
family, of his particular tribe,

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Judah, one of the 13 tribes of 
Israel. 

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And, and this Judah is the Judah
that that tribe is named after, 

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had such a long term impact on 
his people that the entire 

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region of that part of the world
came to be known as Judea, named

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after this guy Judah. 
And it continued to be known as 

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Judea until the occupying Roman 
Empire committed an ethnic 

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cleansing and killed as many 
Jews and drove most of them out.

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In fact, that's where the word 
Jew comes from. 

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It comes from Judah. 
So Judah's had this tremendous 

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impact on world history, 
tremendous impact, but here he 

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was failing to live up to his 
covenant obligations. 

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He was failing to care for his 
family and the way that God said

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a father, a patriarch, a leader 
must care for the people under 

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their care. 
And he had just left Tamar 

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hanging with no hope, no 
security, no plan, no safety for

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the present or for the future. 
And however good he was at being

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the morality police, that wasn't
good enough, however righteous 

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it was to point out what other 
people were doing wrong. 

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It's a lower level, second class
righteousness compared to what 

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Tamar was doing. 
So let's take a look at Tamar. 

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Let's look at Tamar's goodness 
that we can see just here in 

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this chapter. 
Tamar's goodness, first of all, 

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we're going to talk about this 
one in more detail next week. 

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This just going to touch on it 
today. 

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This will be kind of the the 
theme for next week's message. 

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But Tamar rebuked Judah as 
gently as possible and as 

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forcefully as necessary. 
Tamar had choices when she was 

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in the situation she was in 
without a husband, no 

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opportunity to get a husband 
because technically she was 

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betrothed to Judah's youngest 
son. 

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But Judah was not allowing her 
to marry his youngest son 

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because he thought she was a 
jinx. 

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And so she was without hope for 
the future. 

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She could have done a lot of 
things. 

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She could have just become a 
prostitute. 

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She could have just curled up 
and and and said, I'm a victim. 

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What was me? 
There's nothing I can do. 

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When she chose the course that 
she took and she became pregnant

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by Judah, she could have, she 
had options then as well. 

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She could have publicly shamed 
and humiliated Judah. 

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She could what Judah did. 
And again, it wasn't against the

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law yet because Moses hadn't 
been given the law by God on 

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Mount Sinai yet. 
But what Judah did was, is 

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explicitly excluded in in sexual
ethics and in the behavior of 

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faithful people of God in the 
law of Moses that was to come. 

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She could have shamed Judah for 
it. 

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She could have humiliated him 
for it. 

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She could have brought him low 
in the eyes of his own family 

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for what he had done. 
But she didn't. 

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She also didn't let him off the 
hook. 

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She sent the message to him. 
The one who got me pregnant is 

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the one who owns these. 
She sent the message directly to

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him. 
She rebuked him as gently as 

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possible, but as forcefully as 
necessary. 

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Because as much as she was 
intent on not shaming Judah, she

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was also intent on not being 
sacrificed to his stupidity and 

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his superstitions as gently as 
possible, as forcefully as 

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necessary. 
We'll talk about that more next 

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week. 
Tamar, also other part of Tamar.

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Tamar exercised agency to care 
for herself and to contribute to

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society. 
That's what we talked about last

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week. 
She made decisions. 

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She did what she needed to do. 
She didn't just lie down and 

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roll over as a victim and say 
there's nothing I can do. 

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She wanted to be a fully 
participating member of society.

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She wanted to have security for 
herself of the future. 

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And, and there are a lot of 
different ways women, 

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particularly today that women 
can be full participating 

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members of society. 
In Tamar's day, those options 

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were much narrower. 
And one of the key pieces was 

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having children. 
And so she did what she needed 

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to do to have children, to make 
her contribution to the family, 

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to the society that was part of 
what she wanted to do and who 

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she wanted to be. 
And she took a tremendous risk 

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in doing this. 
She was nearly executed by being

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burned alive because of the 
agency that she exercised, 

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because of the decisions that 
she made. 

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She took a tremendous risk. 
She apparently had enough 

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confidence in Judah that when he
knew the truth, he would do the 

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right thing. 
And that's what he did, 

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acknowledging the children as 
his own and making Tamar a part 

227
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of her household and giving her 
his protection, although not 

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treating her as wife after that 
in the sense of additional 

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00:14:02,280 --> 00:14:07,080
childbearing. 
She exercised agency to care for

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00:14:07,080 --> 00:14:09,600
herself and to contribute to 
society. 

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00:14:09,880 --> 00:14:13,560
And the third thing that Tamar 
did is Tamar showed faithfulness

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to her family. 
Even when her family was not 

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00:14:17,200 --> 00:14:25,440
faithful to her, they, they let 
her down in big ways. 

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00:14:25,440 --> 00:14:28,400
I don't know where Tamar's 
parents were in all of this. 

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One would think her father would
have been advocating for her 

236
00:14:31,640 --> 00:14:35,400
with Judah. 
Hey, you know, Judah, your sons 

237
00:14:35,400 --> 00:14:37,760
are dead. 
Not because my daughter, 

238
00:14:37,760 --> 00:14:40,120
something wrong with my daughter
because your sons were awful 

239
00:14:40,120 --> 00:14:42,800
human beings. 
Just ask God, He'll tell you. 

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00:14:42,800 --> 00:14:49,680
We don't know where he was. 
We know Tate, we know Judo was 

241
00:14:49,680 --> 00:14:52,400
just being superstitious. 
She's bad luck. 

242
00:14:52,920 --> 00:14:55,440
Two sons married, two sons dead.
Not going to give her a chance 

243
00:14:55,440 --> 00:15:01,080
to kill my third son. 
She could have humiliated him. 

244
00:15:01,080 --> 00:15:03,280
She could have destroyed him. 
She could have shamed her own 

245
00:15:03,280 --> 00:15:07,600
family just by going off and and
doing any number of different 

246
00:15:07,600 --> 00:15:09,400
things she could to make her way
in the world. 

247
00:15:09,400 --> 00:15:11,080
That would have brought shame to
her family. 

248
00:15:12,440 --> 00:15:13,960
But she didn't do any of those 
things. 

249
00:15:16,080 --> 00:15:20,760
She exercised agency. 
She took a tremendous risk, and 

250
00:15:20,760 --> 00:15:24,560
she guarded the dignity of 
people who were not guarding her

251
00:15:24,560 --> 00:15:28,880
dignity. 
That's a very high level of 

252
00:15:28,880 --> 00:15:33,760
righteousness. 
Tamar's story reminds me here of

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00:15:33,800 --> 00:15:37,120
Jesus's Sermon on the Mount or 
part of the Sermon on the Mount,

254
00:15:38,000 --> 00:15:42,240
when, when Jesus said, you've 
heard it said, or you know it's 

255
00:15:42,240 --> 00:15:48,080
written, thou shalt not kill, 
referring to one of the 10 

256
00:15:48,080 --> 00:15:51,720
commandments. 
But I tell you, if you're angry 

257
00:15:51,720 --> 00:15:54,520
with your brother or your 
sister, if you hold a grudge or 

258
00:15:54,520 --> 00:15:58,800
a resentment against them, it's 
just as bad as killing. 

259
00:16:00,920 --> 00:16:02,280
You've heard it said, it's 
written. 

260
00:16:03,200 --> 00:16:05,880
Don't commit adultery. 
I'm telling you, you even just 

261
00:16:05,920 --> 00:16:09,640
you know, are, are, are lusting 
after people, desiring them to 

262
00:16:09,640 --> 00:16:13,480
possess and control and use for 
your pleasure without care for 

263
00:16:13,480 --> 00:16:16,240
them. 
That's as bad as committing 

264
00:16:16,240 --> 00:16:19,360
adultery. 
It's the attitude of the heart 

265
00:16:20,240 --> 00:16:26,400
toward the people around us. 
That's what God wants to change.

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00:16:26,560 --> 00:16:29,680
That's why being morality police
is a is a second tier lower 

267
00:16:29,680 --> 00:16:34,760
class in a form of righteousness
because the morality police are 

268
00:16:34,760 --> 00:16:38,480
just focused on behavior. 
They just want to make sure 

269
00:16:38,480 --> 00:16:41,080
everyone's behavior conforms to 
their standards. 

270
00:16:41,520 --> 00:16:44,120
Maybe sometimes it's that 
everyone's behavior conforms to 

271
00:16:44,120 --> 00:16:49,120
God's standards, but God's after
something much deeper than 

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00:16:49,120 --> 00:16:52,640
conformity. 
God wants His law written on our

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00:16:52,640 --> 00:16:59,720
hearts so that we out of our 
hearts treat people around us as

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00:16:59,720 --> 00:17:03,120
God would have us treat them, 
regardless of how they are 

275
00:17:03,120 --> 00:17:05,680
treating us. 
Remember the other one? 

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00:17:05,680 --> 00:17:07,040
Jesus said. 
You've heard it written. 

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00:17:07,319 --> 00:17:09,680
It's written an eye for an eye 
and a tooth for a tooth. 

278
00:17:10,720 --> 00:17:12,079
You know that's also in the 
Bible, right? 

279
00:17:12,280 --> 00:17:14,760
God's the one that gave that law
an eye for an eye and a tooth 

280
00:17:14,760 --> 00:17:17,800
for a tooth that came same place
that thou shalt not kill came 

281
00:17:17,800 --> 00:17:23,720
from. 
Jesus said, I tell you, turn the

282
00:17:23,720 --> 00:17:27,400
other cheek, man strikes you on 
one cheek, turn the other one. 

283
00:17:27,400 --> 00:17:30,680
Also treating people as God 
would have us treat them 

284
00:17:30,920 --> 00:17:34,840
regardless of how they treat us.
And this is how Tamar was 

285
00:17:34,840 --> 00:17:38,000
living. 
This was Tamar's righteousness. 

286
00:17:39,720 --> 00:17:41,640
She could have shamed and 
humiliated Judah. 

287
00:17:41,640 --> 00:17:43,800
She could have shamed and 
humiliated her family. 

288
00:17:44,040 --> 00:17:48,160
But she she did what she did as 
gently as possible and as 

289
00:17:48,160 --> 00:17:53,280
forcefully as necessary so that 
she could have a secure future, 

290
00:17:53,440 --> 00:17:57,480
so that she could give her 
contribution to the world, and 

291
00:17:57,480 --> 00:18:02,160
so that she could guard the 
dignity and the honor and the 

292
00:18:02,160 --> 00:18:06,000
welfare of her family. 
That's Tamar's goodness. 

293
00:18:07,080 --> 00:18:10,560
How does that fit with us? 
What does that mean for our 

294
00:18:10,560 --> 00:18:12,680
goodness? 
I think we can we can take Tama.

295
00:18:12,680 --> 00:18:14,600
There's AI mean this family 
stuff. 

296
00:18:14,600 --> 00:18:18,120
There's the family structures 
have changed dramatically over 

297
00:18:18,120 --> 00:18:21,320
the years, but these kind of 
family dynamics, man, it it it 

298
00:18:22,040 --> 00:18:23,720
family's tie. 
Family's tough. 

299
00:18:23,760 --> 00:18:26,920
It's hard, it's hard. 
I love my family, but I got a 

300
00:18:27,320 --> 00:18:29,320
Full disclosure. 
I'm the hard one in my family. 

301
00:18:29,320 --> 00:18:34,400
So just so you know, to pray for
my brother and my sister, Let's 

302
00:18:34,400 --> 00:18:38,720
take a look at our goodness when
we rebuke, when rebuke is 

303
00:18:38,720 --> 00:18:45,880
necessary, when someone we know 
has done something wrong, that 

304
00:18:45,880 --> 00:18:49,480
we rebuke as gently as possible 
and as forcefully only as 

305
00:18:49,480 --> 00:18:53,400
necessary. 
This is how God treats us. 

306
00:18:55,240 --> 00:18:59,720
The, the, the Old Testament is 
often we're, we're there have 

307
00:18:59,720 --> 00:19:01,800
been arguments made over the 
years that the God of the New 

308
00:19:01,800 --> 00:19:04,200
Testament is different than the 
God of the Old Testament, that 

309
00:19:04,200 --> 00:19:06,880
the God of the Old Testament is 
a God of vengeance and wrath and

310
00:19:06,880 --> 00:19:09,160
judgment. 
And there is vengeance and wrath

311
00:19:09,160 --> 00:19:10,640
and judgment in the Old 
Testament. 

312
00:19:10,800 --> 00:19:16,040
To be sure, we got to get dead 
guys in one chapter here, but 

313
00:19:16,120 --> 00:19:20,560
what we see in reality, if we 
read the scriptures of the Old 

314
00:19:20,560 --> 00:19:25,760
Testament carefully is that it 
was hundreds and hundreds of 

315
00:19:25,760 --> 00:19:30,800
years and hundreds and hundreds 
of generations of God saying, 

316
00:19:31,040 --> 00:19:34,320
come back to me, change your 
ways. 

317
00:19:34,560 --> 00:19:38,160
You're running toward a Cliff. 
It's going to end badly. 

318
00:19:39,480 --> 00:19:44,920
God's mercy is so clear as we 
read through the Scriptures of 

319
00:19:44,920 --> 00:19:49,240
the Old Testament because way to
God waited patiently and warned 

320
00:19:49,240 --> 00:19:52,360
patiently, and God at every 
point along the way was as 

321
00:19:52,360 --> 00:19:56,760
gentle as he possibly could and 
as forceful only as necessary. 

322
00:19:57,040 --> 00:20:00,160
And when all of that wrath came 
pouring out, it's because that's

323
00:20:00,160 --> 00:20:03,560
the level that we had reached in
our rebellion, and that was the 

324
00:20:03,560 --> 00:20:06,120
level of force necessary to 
bring us back around. 

325
00:20:09,120 --> 00:20:14,320
Don't rush to that like Tamar. 
And we need to correct someone 

326
00:20:14,320 --> 00:20:17,840
in our life, whether it's a 
family member or a friend or or 

327
00:20:17,840 --> 00:20:20,280
whoever, when, when it's right 
and not right. 

328
00:20:20,280 --> 00:20:23,240
And there's, you know, most of 
the folks in this world, it's 

329
00:20:23,240 --> 00:20:24,840
none of my business to correct 
them. 

330
00:20:25,120 --> 00:20:29,080
None of my business, none, You 
know, it's not my job, somebody 

331
00:20:29,080 --> 00:20:33,720
else's job for the folks that 
when it is. 

332
00:20:34,520 --> 00:20:38,120
And sometimes we do have that 
responsibility to be as gentle 

333
00:20:38,120 --> 00:20:41,200
as possible and only as forceful
as necessary. 

334
00:20:42,680 --> 00:20:45,840
Second part, which is one that 
I, I feel like used to be 

335
00:20:45,840 --> 00:20:48,400
emphasized a lot. 
I heard it a lot growing up. 

336
00:20:48,880 --> 00:20:52,600
I don't, I don't hear it as much
in, in culture around us. 

337
00:20:52,600 --> 00:20:55,800
I get the feeling that there's a
lot in this church and, and in 

338
00:20:55,800 --> 00:21:00,080
the culture here in Meigs County
because I, I see it around me 

339
00:21:00,080 --> 00:21:02,680
more. 
But work hard. 

340
00:21:03,000 --> 00:21:06,560
Laboring for yourself and for 
society is good. 

341
00:21:07,800 --> 00:21:13,240
Doing hard work that makes the 
world a better place is good. 

342
00:21:13,240 --> 00:21:16,200
And it didn't have to be 
dramatic work. 

343
00:21:17,360 --> 00:21:19,720
You know, if, if you, if you're 
flipping hamburgers at 

344
00:21:19,720 --> 00:21:23,240
McDonald's or serving up chicken
at KFC, whatever, whatever 

345
00:21:23,240 --> 00:21:26,280
you're doing, you know, you're 
feeding people if you're, if 

346
00:21:26,280 --> 00:21:30,080
you're cleaning floors, if 
you're, if you're, whatever 

347
00:21:30,080 --> 00:21:33,720
you're doing, plowing fields, 
laying pipe, building buildings,

348
00:21:33,720 --> 00:21:39,920
whatever, whatever it is, you're
helping society function and 

349
00:21:39,920 --> 00:21:42,360
move forward and people to live 
their lives. 

350
00:21:43,080 --> 00:21:46,760
And that's a good thing. 
And most of the time there's no 

351
00:21:46,760 --> 00:21:48,600
glamour in it. 
There's no glory in it. 

352
00:21:48,800 --> 00:21:51,720
But it's, it's not just a 
patriotic thing. 

353
00:21:51,840 --> 00:21:53,720
It's not just a self interested 
thing. 

354
00:21:53,880 --> 00:21:57,680
It is righteous. 
It is good. 

355
00:21:59,040 --> 00:22:01,080
I've heard things over the years
that have broken my hearts. 

356
00:22:01,080 --> 00:22:04,520
When I lived in Tiffin, a friend
of mine was a high school 

357
00:22:04,520 --> 00:22:07,200
teacher. 
He taught 9th grade English and 

358
00:22:07,200 --> 00:22:09,840
the public schools there. 
And he had a student in his 

359
00:22:09,840 --> 00:22:12,120
class who he said was 
tremendously gifted, 

360
00:22:13,880 --> 00:22:16,480
particularly in writing, just a 
brilliant writer. 

361
00:22:17,800 --> 00:22:20,520
And my friend said to him, 
because this kid got 

362
00:22:20,520 --> 00:22:26,240
consistently moderate to poor 
grades, my friend said to him, 

363
00:22:26,240 --> 00:22:30,800
you know, you've got a lot of 
talent here. 

364
00:22:31,560 --> 00:22:34,040
You can do well. 
You can go to college, you can 

365
00:22:34,040 --> 00:22:38,080
get scholarships, you can really
make some other of yourself. 

366
00:22:39,040 --> 00:22:44,840
And in this kid without, without
any sense of irony, without any 

367
00:22:44,840 --> 00:22:50,360
sense of abnormality, looked at 
his teacher and said, you know, 

368
00:22:51,360 --> 00:22:54,760
my grandparents lived on Social 
Security and my parents lived on

369
00:22:54,760 --> 00:22:56,920
Social Security. 
I'll probably just live on 

370
00:22:56,920 --> 00:23:06,560
Social Security myself. 
That he'd missed the value of 

371
00:23:06,560 --> 00:23:12,920
contributing, of working, the 
importance of intentionally 

372
00:23:12,920 --> 00:23:18,120
doing things to not to to to 
secure our own livelihood and to

373
00:23:18,120 --> 00:23:22,600
make the world around us a 
better place to live for other 

374
00:23:22,600 --> 00:23:26,720
people as well. 
Laboring for ourselves, laboring

375
00:23:26,720 --> 00:23:29,760
for the betterment of society is
not it. 

376
00:23:29,760 --> 00:23:34,760
It's good in that godly, 
righteous sense of goodness. 

377
00:23:35,840 --> 00:23:38,800
It was part of Tamar's goodness.
It can be part of ours as well. 

378
00:23:39,640 --> 00:23:45,080
And finally, to be faithful to 
our covenant obligations, to 

379
00:23:45,080 --> 00:23:50,240
treat the people around us well,
to care for family, to care for 

380
00:23:50,240 --> 00:23:54,760
friends, to reach out in times 
of need, to be available to 

381
00:23:54,760 --> 00:24:02,200
serve, to lift up, to encourage,
to guard the dignity of the 

382
00:24:02,200 --> 00:24:05,040
other folks. 
The opportunities we have, 

383
00:24:05,040 --> 00:24:08,720
whether it's at school or work 
or at ball games or or, you 

384
00:24:08,720 --> 00:24:13,960
know, went to Christian School 
growing up, you'd never know it 

385
00:24:13,960 --> 00:24:17,000
by the way the fans yelled at 
the refs at our ball games, so 

386
00:24:18,200 --> 00:24:23,880
never know it. 
All of these things that are the

387
00:24:23,880 --> 00:24:28,120
busyness of life, sports and 
clubs and competitions and work 

388
00:24:28,120 --> 00:24:32,320
and school, all of these things,
every moment there are 

389
00:24:32,320 --> 00:24:35,800
opportunities to either guard 
someone's dignity or rob 

390
00:24:35,800 --> 00:24:41,280
someone's dignity, to honor 
others or to dishonor others. 

391
00:24:42,680 --> 00:24:48,160
And the example that Tamar gives
us is to make a guiding 

392
00:24:48,320 --> 00:24:52,680
directive in our lives that I am
going to do everything in my 

393
00:24:52,680 --> 00:24:57,120
power to honor others and guard 
their dignity, even when they're

394
00:24:57,120 --> 00:25:01,840
not doing the same for me. 
And this, of course, is the 

395
00:25:01,840 --> 00:25:08,000
example of Jesus, who, hanging 
naked on the cross, prayed for 

396
00:25:08,000 --> 00:25:11,160
his Father to forgive the people
who had stripped him naked and 

397
00:25:11,160 --> 00:25:16,760
hung him on the cross, guarding 
their dignity, protecting their 

398
00:25:16,760 --> 00:25:18,400
honor. 
They don't understand what 

399
00:25:18,400 --> 00:25:20,320
they're doing. 
Jesus said they don't. 

400
00:25:20,360 --> 00:25:24,040
They don't understand, you know,
realize how far off track they 

401
00:25:24,040 --> 00:25:27,360
are. 
It cost him his life. 

402
00:25:28,240 --> 00:25:33,160
It cost him public disgrace. 
Tamar risked those things. 

403
00:25:34,600 --> 00:25:40,880
Jesus sacrificed those things so
that he could fulfill his 

404
00:25:40,880 --> 00:25:46,680
covenant obligations to us, to 
love us, to nurture us, to bring

405
00:25:46,680 --> 00:25:50,520
us along, to welcome us into His
family, into his fold, and into 

406
00:25:50,520 --> 00:25:54,280
His Kingdom. 
Jesus say, I created these 

407
00:25:54,280 --> 00:26:00,400
people. 
I owe them this to lay down my 

408
00:26:00,400 --> 00:26:03,800
life for them even when they've 
turned their back on me. 

409
00:26:03,800 --> 00:26:06,680
And I'm so glad He did, because 
there's way too many times in my

410
00:26:06,680 --> 00:26:11,040
life that I've turned my back on
Jesus, and I need that blood to 

411
00:26:11,040 --> 00:26:14,280
cover my sins just as much as 
anybody else in this world does.

412
00:26:14,840 --> 00:26:17,040
The only chance I have of 
getting into the Kingdom of God 

413
00:26:17,240 --> 00:26:19,840
is mercy. 
The only chance, Only chance, 

414
00:26:20,560 --> 00:26:22,200
ask the people again, talk to my
family. 

415
00:26:26,440 --> 00:26:31,600
But he he invites us in that and
calls to us in that to follow 

416
00:26:31,600 --> 00:26:38,880
his lead in that, to follow the 
lead of of folks like his 

417
00:26:38,880 --> 00:26:45,440
grandmother Tamar in that in a 
system stack against us. 

418
00:26:45,440 --> 00:26:46,880
That's what it looks like to be 
good. 

419
00:26:47,680 --> 00:26:52,320
I believe if rebuke is necessary
and we make it as gentle as 

420
00:26:52,320 --> 00:26:57,040
possible and only as forceful as
necessary in a system stacked 

421
00:26:57,040 --> 00:27:01,240
against us, we do what we can. 
We do the work that we can, the 

422
00:27:01,240 --> 00:27:05,440
hard, unglorious, inglorious 
work that we have in front of us

423
00:27:07,320 --> 00:27:10,000
for a livelihood for ourselves 
and to make our communities a 

424
00:27:10,000 --> 00:27:15,320
better place for others. 
And then we commit to fulfilling

425
00:27:15,320 --> 00:27:19,440
our covenant obligations to the 
people in our family and our 

426
00:27:19,440 --> 00:27:22,400
church and our community and our
school, at our place of work, in

427
00:27:22,400 --> 00:27:24,520
our neighborhoods, wherever we 
run into them. 

428
00:27:24,520 --> 00:27:27,680
Our covenant obligations to 
guard their dignity, to love 

429
00:27:27,680 --> 00:27:32,200
them as God loves them, to treat
them as people of infinite worth

430
00:27:32,760 --> 00:27:36,560
created in the image of God. 
I believe that's what it means 

431
00:27:36,560 --> 00:27:39,280
to be good and a system stacked 
against us. 

432
00:27:39,400 --> 00:27:40,120
Let's stand.