Happy New Year and welcome to Daily PBJ Devotionals. If you're subscribed to receive these devotionals in your email, you'll receive one in your inbox Monday through Friday in the morning. Now, reading God's Word is much more important than reading my devotional thoughts. So if you're pressed for time on any given day, read the scripture passage and skip the devotional. But I trust the combination of scripture and devotional will be helpful to your spiritual life. At the beginning of these devotionals, I'll announce a chapter of scripture, which is the daily reading for that day. And if you read the chapter I announce, you'll read through the entire New Testament this year. Or if you just read along with me as I read for the devotional, again, you'll read through the entire New Testament this year. A couple of quick notes before we get into this. First of all, my devotionals are all based on the NIV text, which is the one that I preach from and the one that I study. But for copyright reasons, I use the Berean Standard Bible for the daily scripture readings, and that's because the Berean Standard Bible is free online. So, that's why there'll be some differences between what I read in the scripture reading and what I talk about in the devotional, and you can follow along with either one. They're not that different. Next, this reading plan does not go through the books of the New Testament in the order they appear in the New Testament. Instead, I've spread each of the four Gospels out over the entire year, so we read one Gospel basically every quarter, and I mix in the other books of the New Testament between the Gospel readings. When we read through the book of Acts, we'll stop after some chapters and read one or two of Paul's letters. And that corresponds to the point in Acts where scholars think Paul wrote those letters. So be aware for change-ups as we read through the book of Acts. One more reminder, this is a Monday through Friday devotional plan. You will not receive emails on Saturday or Sunday. Now let's get to today's devotional, which is about Matthew chapter 1. This is the record of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. Abraham was the father of Isaac, Isaac the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers. Judah was the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar, Perez the father of Hezron, and Hezron the father of Ram. Ram was the father of Amminadab, Amminadab was the father of Nahashon, and Nahashon was the father of Salmon. Salmon was the father of Boaz by Rahab, Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth, Obed the father of Jesse, and Jesse the father of David the king. Next, David was the father of Solomon by Uriah's wife. Solomon the father of Rehoboam. Rehoboam the father of Abijah. And Abijah the father of Asa. Asa was the father of Jehoshaphat. Jehoshaphat the father of Joram. And Joram the father of Uzziah. Uzziah was the father of Jotham, Jotham the father of Ahaz, and Ahaz the father of Hezekiah. Hezekiah was the father of Manasseh, Manasseh the father of Ammon, Ammon the father of Josiah, and Josiah the father of Jeconiah and his brothers, at the time of the exile to Babylon. After the exile to Babylon, Jeconiah was the father of Shealtiel, Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel. Zerubbabel the father of Abiad, Abiad the father of Eliakim, and Eliakim the father of Azor. Azor was the father of Zadok, Zadok the father of Achim, and Achim the father of Eliud. Eliud was the father of Eleazar, Eleazar the father of Mathan. Nathan the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ. In all then, there were fourteen generations from Abraham to David, fourteen from David to the exile in Babylon, and fourteen from the exile to the Christ. This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about. His mother Mary was pledged in marriage to Joseph, but before they came together she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit. Because Joseph, her husband, was a righteous man and was unwilling to disgrace her publicly, he resolved to divorce her quietly. But after he had pondered these things, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, and said, Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to embrace Mary as your wife, for the one conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins. All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet, Behold, the virgin will be with child, and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel, which means God with us. When Joseph woke up, he did as the angel of the Lord had commanded him and embraced Mary as his wife. But he had no union with her until she gave birth to a son, and he gave him the name Jesus. This is God's word. When I was growing up in the church and in a Christian school, I heard preachers occasionally say that someone was on the shelf. This phrase was used to describe a Christian who had sinned in such a way that God would never ever use him or her again. Usually the sin the preacher had in mind was either divorce or adultery, but I'm sure murder would also be included, and maybe other sins too. The implication of this on-the-shelf language was that some sins were so bad that God would never use that sinner again. God wouldn't throw you away in terms of your salvation. You don't lose your salvation because salvation is permanent. But the thinking went and the reasoning behind this phrase, on-the-shelf, went like this. God will put you away where you can't do any good for him and hopefully where you won't do any damage and you're not going to earn any rewards on the shelf either. What garbage! Here in Matthew 1, we have a record of the genealogy of Jesus. It is a record of many people we know nothing about and a few that we know a lot about from the Old Testament. But in addition to being a list of names, Matthew 1 is a record of God's grace. Several people on this list would have been put on the shelf by self-righteous people and the preachers that I've described earlier, but God used them still. Here are a few examples. Abraham, he is mentioned in Matthew 1, verse 2. He believed God, but he also impregnated his wife's servant to help God out. A lot of believers would put him on the shelf after his sin with Hagar. Jacob is mentioned in Matthew 1 too. And he stole his brother's birthright and deceived his father to steal his brother's blessing. Many people would put him on the shelf as well. David and Bathsheba are both mentioned in verse 6. And mentioning their names together reminds you that their relationship started in adultery. David also murdered Bathsheba's husband, so God had multiple reasons to put him on the shelf. And I could go on, but you get the point. It is true that some sins disqualify people from serving as elders or deacons in the church. But nobody who is in Christ is ever on the shelf. God can and will use you if you trust in Him. even if you aren't qualified for an official biblical office of service. This chapter is more than a genealogy. It's a record of the grace of God. Every person listed in this chapter, except for Jesus himself, of course, but all the rest of them were sinners. And no sinner is truly worthy of serving God or being used by God. But God is so gracious and so powerful that he chose to use sinners for his purpose and for his glory, sinners that others would put on the shelf. Have you concluded that God can't or won't use you because of your past sins? Do you have present struggles that you feel make you unusable for God? Repent of those sins and turn from them if they are ongoing. But then put those thoughts out of your mind. If murderers and polygamists and adulterers and other kinds of sinners can be part of the genealogical line of Jesus Christ, then any and every sinner can be forgiven and can be used by God in some way to glorify Him. So take courage and be thankful for the grace of God. We all needed it, and we all need it in an ongoing way. So thank the Lord for His grace and think about where you're serving Him today and how you might serve Him more effectively. May God bless you. We'll see you next time. And if you liked this devotional and found this anywhere else but your email address, consider signing up by email to receive these every day. Go to dailypbj.com slash subscribe for that. This is completely free and you can unsubscribe at any time. Also, would you consider becoming one of my financial supporters? so I can keep making content like this for your spiritual growth and for others? If so, please go to dailypbj.com support. And please share this with someone else who might be encouraged by it today. And I'll see you next time. May God bless you. Hope you have a great day today.