The people in your life, they can be a great spiritual asset, or they can be a curse. The people in your life can be an asset…they can lift you up, they can encourage you and, equip you and strengthen you. The wrong people though, they can be incredibly distracting and destructive and poisonous…the can be toxic…especially…if you are not careful.

Today, I want to talk to you about your need for personal experience with the Lord. There comes a time in our lives when we move from being taught…to DOING AND LIVING…what we have we been taught! We need a personal experience! A personal experience strengthens what we have learned. Without personal experience we may be talked out of what we think…we believe! Why? Because it has not become real! It has not been tested in our lives! Our beliefs are only a theory!

This morning I want to talk to you about taking the next step in your relationship with Christ! I want you to understand that there are levels in your relationship with Christ. Just like there are levels in a romantic relationship.

This morning I want to look at one of the people in Jesus’s family tree that no one thought was good enough, but God did! Before we start talking about this person, I want to let you know that there are several people in family tree of the savior who were…shall I say…unsavory…no…that is too nice…they were rascals…they were dirty rotten scoundrels!