Paul, I just want you to stand up now.
Now, turn around. Wait a minute.
Turn around. Turn around and face the choir.
Now see.
Just stay there for a minute. Now see some of you have
flashing lights at your house. Now turn back around.
No, no, no. Turn back around.
Turn that way. Turn back around.
Get off stage. Paul, Thank you.
I think we got a competition going on.
Well, Merry Christmas, Inglewood, take your Bibles turn
to Matthew chapter 1. I will be there with you
eventually. Let me share just a couple of
words. Thank you so much for being
here, braving the weather and sickness and busyness and
everything else you got going on out there.
Thank you so much. I do want to make sure that I
call attention to the Happy Birthday Jesus offering that's
still going on for a couple of weeks that supports a lot of our
missions projects as well as some additional new partners
that we have in 2026. Really important offering.
Hope that you'll give to that and and pray that you'll
continue to pray about that before the end of the year.
Also, for those who are interested in our mission trips
that we do have two mission trip meetings today if you were
interested in Uganda and you can still come.
It's at 4:00 in the edge and then Central Asia will be at
4:45 in the edge and then everything else will be on
January 4th. So for those who signed up for
2026 trips, we're nailing those things down coming together and
excited about the 200 plus of I think of you who expressed
interest in going on mission. So thank you so much for that.
And just take a good look at your worship guide.
Lots of important information during our praise time.
I was actually talking to our friends overseas and they had
signaled me earlier and I'd missed it.
And so I caught that and then we were dialoguing just a few
moments ago. I know a lot of you are
interested in what's, what's the latest, Some of you know,
they're not going to have a court date probably now until
February. And so just continue to pray for
them. But they're what's exciting, and
I was seeing some pictures, is that they're meeting with folks,
doing some training, meeting with their partners, kind of
moving along the best they can and seeing good ministry happen.
And so praise the Lord for that. And even the unreached people
group that we prayed for today falls within that, that range of
people that they work with. And so I want us to pray for
them again and lift them up. They're actually watching again
right now. And so we love you and
appreciate you very much and we want to lift you up.
So let's do that. Father, we're so grateful for
our folks who serve overseas in various places.
Thank you, Father, for the new partnerships and opportunities
we have to go to even new places this year coming up.
But Father, we certainly pray for our friends right now
through the the trials and tribulations, the opportunities
as well. Father, who knows what all
you're going to do between now and February with the gospel
through them. So I just pray you'll empower
them, you'll protect them, you'll give them grace and
opportunities, open the window to the gospel for the people
they're around. Give them the boldness to step
out and to share. And Father, we just pray, Lord,
that the people that they've trained will continue to train
others and continue to share with others and continue to
share with others. And we're going to hear
incredible testimonies, not only here on earth, but one day in a
throne room when we bring you glory and praise.
So, Father, thank you for them. Just pray you'll watch over them
and bless them and encourage them.
Help them know how much we love them in Christ's name, Amen.
Well, I hope you're getting ready for Christmas.
I, I, I don't know how well that's going for you.
I, Christmas is interesting because as we celebrate God
sending his son and we're talking about the sermon series
we're talking about is doing that in the fullness of time,
which I talked more about last week.
But we want to intentionally prepare for and to properly
observe Christmas. And it can be, it can be hard.
It can be difficult when we're surrounded by the culture that
we live in, the world we live in by and we're surrounded by so
many non biblical stories, so many fairy tales, so much focus
on stuff at Christmas. And even not that I don't love
family, but even family can kind of take priority of Jesus
sometimes. Travel, decorations, all the
stuff that we get into. So I want to talk about what
Christmas is and is not for a few moments this morning.
And then I want us to look at Matthew's story as I talk about
myths, materialism, and the Messiah.
So in Matthew, and we're going to go, we're going to share
about the coming of the Messiah. But the first, there's a couple
of things that we ought to talk about that Christmas is not.
You'll know some of this, you may not know all of this, but
let's just talk about a couple of things.
First of all, Christmas is not mythology.
So sometimes we lose the true meaning of Christmas when we
reduce it down to or we prioritize the mythology that's
all around it, right? And so that's tragic when you
consider the incredible significance and power of the
truth of Christmas, as well as the evangelistic opportunity and
frankly, consequence when we water it down this time of year,
people are actually interested in talking about Jesus Christ,
kind of like at Easter. There are opportunities to share
the gospel with people right now, and we don't want to miss
that. But but many don't know what
details are biblical and what details are not.
I mean, when we inject kings and drummer boys and talking animals
and flying reindeer and talking snowmen and elves and Kris
Kringle and of course even the Grinch.
Some even believe this is a dad joke.
Get ready. Some even believe in Olive, the
other reindeer. Oh, come on.
So there you are. So Teresa shared with me though
the other day she said, listen, this is, you know, because we're
next week, I'm going to talk about the Nativity and what
really happened at the Nativity. At our house.
We collect nativities, as some of you've heard me say, got
about 200 of them, I think at the house or something like
that. And she shared with me the other
day, she goes, here's Mary, probably totally exhausted, just
gets baby Jesus asleep. And here comes this young man
who thinks to himself, what this young girl needs right now is a
drum solo. Now I'm no Scrooge.
Turn to your neighbor and say Bah humbug.
And don't worry parents, I'm not here to ruin all of your fun and
all of your traditions. But where did it all come from?
I don't know if you know this, but the early church didn't even
celebrate the birth of Jesus. They celebrated the resurrection
and and they actually celebrated the baptism of Jesus, which is
interesting because we've lost that overtime, haven't we?
The celebration of his baptism, but the the celebration of his
birth didn't come to a lot later.
So let's talk about this. Let me ask you 3 questions about
Christmas. Why is Christmas on December
25th? And some of you will know parts
of this, but we don't know the exact date when Jesus was born.
Obviously some of you have probably heard the theory that
it wouldn't have been in winter because the the shepherds would
not have been out with their flocks by night.
But that's not necessarily true because if those flocks were in
Bethlehem, that's where they kept the temple flocks, the
sacrificial lambs, and the shepherds worked all year round
in Bethlehem. So it could have been still in
the winter. And so we recognize that we do
know the Roman holiday and some of you know it, Saturnalia, that
it was the birthday of the Roman birthday of the sun, not the the
SUN, the star. And it began on December 19th,
lasted for seven days. And so over the years, as
Christianity spread to the Roman Empire, this stuff got all mixed
up. And so many of the traditions of
Saturnalia got mixed up with Christian traditions.
And so from Saturnalia we get things like feasting and parades
and music and gift giving and lighted candles and green trees.
But then in 336 AD, Emperor Constantine declared that
December 25th was the birthday of Jesus and it became an
official Roman holiday, trying to offset the paganism.
The Pope comes along and agrees and says, so December 25th is
it. Again, it was a direct challenge
to the celebration of the Roman God and and they wanted to
replace them the immorality that was associated with the Pagan
celebrations. Yet yet Christmas being on
December 25th was not accepted by a lot of people throughout
the centuries. The Puritans for example in
early America rejected it and deliberately worked on December
25th. In 1644 in England a law was
passed that made December 25th an official working day and it
was illegal against the law to cook plum pudding and minced
pie. So stop that.
So we eventually settle in on December 25th.
Why do we decorate Christmas trees?
Well, once again the Romans. The Romans decorated their
temples with greenery and candles.
And when they conquered Britain, they found Druids and Saxons who
are who are using mistletoe and holly and Ivy in their worship.
So once again they they're trying to convert and and offset
the Pagan celebrations with Christian celebration.
Martin Luther might have been one of the first ones.
Seriously, Martin Luther may have been one of the first ones
that light a Christmas tree to decorate a church.
He actually introduced the practice of putting candles on
Chris on trees to celebrate Christmas within church
buildings. And he cited Isaiah 60.
He said, the glory of Lebanon shall come to you, the Cypress,
the plain and the pine to beautify the place of my
sanctuary and I will make the place of my feet glorious.
Now I teach that the tree and the lights and the decorations
are, are celebratory decorations for the birthday party for
Jesus. That's what we we talk about at
our house, but it's better than balloons and streamers.
And so we we decorated my house. Then, then the third question
and don't panic, who is Santa Claus?
Now, I know historically various things have been shared with you
from this pulpit. For those who've been here for a
long time, don't panic. I'm going to share with you.
There's no way I can satisfy everyone with what I'm about to
say, but I'm going to give you an alternative.
I'm going to give you an alternative.
The model for Santa was a 3rd to 4th century Bishop named
Nicholas. He and his parents lived in
Turkey and they were very strong Christians and his mom and dad
prayed and and asked God for a child much like Abraham and
Sarah in their later years. And from the time Nicholas was
born around 80 to 80, they considered him a gift from God
and dedicated him to the Lord. He was taught great devotion to
God and great generosity to the poor.
His parents died when he was a teenager, and he becomes a monk
and a priest. His uncle's a Bishop who ordains
him and actually prophesize about Nicholas, that he would
offer guidance and consolation to many people and eventually
become an Archbishop. He in fact becomes a Bishop of a
small village and his influence spread to many, many nations
before he's done. He was known to stay up all
night long studying God's word to bring it to the people, and
he was known to be an incredibly powerful prayer warrior.
He was also known for helping the poor.
He was even imprisoned for his true faith and then later freed.
He said on one of the great church councils later in
January, we're going to talk about how did we get the Bible
on Wednesday nights, How did we get the Bible?
And what do I do with this thing?
Why does my Bible have these books in it?
How did this whole thing come about?
Well, the Council of Nicaea was one of those councils that
helped determine some of this. But he said on the Council of
Nicaea, which was primarily discussing the doctrine about
the deity of Jesus Christ, and they were fighting false
teaching. And, and, and so frankly, we may
need Nicholas more than ever this Christmas, not to bring
presents to good boys and girls, but to actually confront
heretics who deny the deity of Jesus.
Right. But when Nicholas was seated at
the council, the other church fathers were debating about the
relationship between God the Son and God the Father.
And and legend says, and it's a strong legend asserts, that
Nicholas became so enraged by a man named Arias, who taught that
that Jesus was not equal to God the Father, he became so angry
with him he slapped Arias across the face in the middle of the
council meeting. I think I would have liked Old
Nick. It's my kind of guy.
And then Nicholas became became known as the giver of gifts,
patron St. of children and an annual feast is actually held in
his honor after his death every December 6th of the parts of the
world. They still do this.
They have Saint Nicholas day and on Satan.
Now listen, this is going to start sounding more familiar.
On Saint Nicholas Day eve, children will place food out for
him and his donkey and it was said that he would come from
heaven during the night, during the night to replace the gifts
of good children with toys and sweets.
Starting to sound familiar? And then he became the Christmas
Man in Germany, Pierre Noel in France, Father Frost in Russia,
Father Christmas in England, and Centre Claus in Holland, where
he was very popular and where Dutch children would expected
him to visit during the night on December 5th.
And they placed their wooden shoes by the fireplace so he
could fill them with gifts. Well, Santa Claus is simply the
Americanization of the Dutch name for Saint Nicholas, Santa
Claus. So Santa Claus literally means
Saint Nicholas in its original form.
So he was supposed to be a tall man with a long beard and a
large sack of toys. Clement Moore, who is an
American poet, comes along and popularizes our current cultural
model of Santa Claus. When he wrote A Visit from Saint
Nicholas in 1822, which begins with the famous line Twas the
Night Before Christmas, it's immediately popular.
It's been endured ever since, and the illustrations led to our
current image of Santa Claus. Now, after Santa Claus became a
part of American folklore, children discovered you get more
gifts if you put socks out there rather than wooden shoes.
American kids are smart. Then we added, we added the
elves, North Pole flying reindeer, and Santa's alter ego,
Kris Kringle, some type of elf king along the way.
I like Saint Nicholas so much better.
And at our house we have Saint Nicholas.
And we talked about Saint Nicholas because Christmas is
not mythology. Secondly, though, Christmas is
also not materialism. Sometimes in our world today,
spiritual values give way to a commercialized celebration of
self indulgence, it seems like, right?
Who got the most? Who gets the best?
I mean, if you'd never heard of Christ, or you'd never heard of
Christmas, I wonder what message you would get about this season
if you visited Walmart or tried to track Amazon.
I mean, I wonder what the Lord thinks of all this.
It's not mythology, it's not materialism, obviously, it's the
celebration of our triumphant Savior.
It's the Christ Mass that's celebration.
So it's Christ's birthday. So.
So I challenge you this season to make sure.
I challenge you to think more about what you must give him.
That's part of what the prayer meeting is going to be about
Wednesday night, More about what you must give him rather than
what you want to receive or even to give to other people.
Do we place more emphasis on the materials, on the myths then we
do on the true meaning and and what we must give him rather
than what we might receive? So, so do we we think about the
true coming of them of the Messiah.
So there are many stories of fantasy out there we share with
our kids, from nursery rhymes to animated movies, even even
Christian oriented ones like Narnia, Lord of the Rings.
But we tend to identify them as fantasy.
So you as parents and believers make decisions about how you're
going to celebrate this. I'm not saying do away with all
the fun, but during this season we do have an incredible
proactive opportunity to speak to and teach our children and
others about and giving our lives and thankfulness to the
Messiah. So please don't squeeze him out.
Let's not surrender Christmas. But thirdly, Matthew, Juan, I
told you I'd finally get there. Finally, we see that Christmas
is the coming of the Messiah. So we want to tell others from
the very beginning of time, God had this gift perfectly planned,
perfectly wrapped up, as we saw last week.
We want to tell them that God is in complete control or
orchestrating history, orchestrating the world for His
own glory and for our great blessing, and that He filled the
perfect time with His perfect will.
And it's quite a story. So let's pick up Matthew's
version of it. This miracle called the
incarnation, this miracle of the birth of Jesus, Matthew 11, the
book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the
son of Abraham. So we see this genealogy and it
goes on for several verses. Matthew has written to more
Jewish readers. So the genealogy becomes a
really important part because it's very important to the
Jewish readers to know where this guy came from.
It's very important to connect him back to the covenant
relationships of the people of God with God.
And so we see that he's the fulfilment of Scripture in this
help. So in the fullness of time, God
launches his incredible plan. Look at verse 18.
Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way.
When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph before they
came together, she was found to be with child from the Holy
Spirit. Every time I read the Christmas
story, there are a lot of things to think about, lot of focuses,
people who miss Christmas, people who made Christmas.
But one of the people I think about often is Joseph.
I mean, Can you imagine being Joseph?
Life's good. You're engaged to Mary,
wonderful, wonderful, faithful woman.
You're ready to begin your life together.
You have plans to expand the Carpenter shop, to go out and
buy that new camel everybody's talking about with those all
weather hoofs and that dual hump.
I'm telling you, it's a good day.
Then what? What your, what, how, what am I
supposed to do now if I'm Joseph?
Look at verse 19 and her husband Joseph, being a just man and
unwilling to put her to shame, resolve to divorce her quietly.
So you got to understand the law demanded that he do something.
If you're caught in adultery, according to the law, the
punishment was stoning, right? But he loved her and he was a
just and righteous man. So I'll slip you away.
No one will have to hear this crazy talk from you.
No one will have to know, right? But God had an intentional plan
and the time was full. Look at verse 20.
But as he considered these things, behold, an Angel of the
Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, Joseph, son of David.
Do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is
conceived in hers from the Holy Spirit.
She will bear a son, and you should call His name Jesus, for
He will save His people from their sins.
All this took place to fulfill what the Lord has spoken by the
prophet. Behold, the Virgin shall
conceive and bear a son, and they should call his name
Emmanuel, which means God with us.
When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the Angel of the Lord
commanded him. He took his wife, but knew or
not until she had given birth to a son and he called his name
Jesus. See, for Joseph, obedience was
more important than popularity. He listened.
And then he, he obeyed, he did what the Angel of the Lord
commanded him. We see fulfillment of Scripture
taking place recording from Isaiah Chapter 7, as we saw last
week. So, so this season, let's tell
them, let's tell our children, let's tell our friends, let's
tell our neighbors about Joseph and his willing obedience.
Let's tell them about a God who fulfills his prophecy, who
fulfills his Scripture perfectly.
But we also need to warn them about others in this story who
missed Christmas, like many, many may this year.
So all the myth, all the materialism, but missing the
Messiah. And we want to warn them.
We want to challenge him. Just as the King of Kings was
turned away from a crowded in and part of the story, he
continued to be turned away today, I'm afraid, from the
overcrowded hearts of people. In fact, there was a church
pageant the kids were putting on one time.
And so the kids had it all. You know, they're all in their
little costumes and, and they had they were going to do the
the crowded inn scene. And one of the boys was the
innkeeper. But he always wanted to be
Joseph and he was mad that he didn't get to be picked Joseph.
So he's jealous of Joseph, so he's plotting his revenge.
How can I mess this up and get Joseph during the play?
And so, you know, obviously that Mary and Joseph come and knock
on the door and, you know, can you give us board and lodging
for the night? And of course, you know, they're
supposed to be this no room in the in line that comes after
that. And and the little boy playing
Joseph's knocking on the door and waiting on the line.
But instead the boy playing the innkeeper flings the door open
and says, sure, come in, come in.
We got you can have the best room in the house.
Thank you. And he's going to really mess
things up. Well, there was a pause, but the
clever little Joseph says this. It says, Mary, you hold on.
I'm going to go ahead and take a look inside first.
It walks in, goes past the innkeeper, comes back out, says
I'm not taking my wife into a place like that.
Come on Mary, we're sleeping in the stable.
Matthew chapter 2 verse one. Now after Jesus was born in
Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod, the king, behold, wise
men from the east came to Jerusalem.
Here are the wise guys. Let's talk about the wise guys
for a minute. So Herod's half Jewish.
He's not really a full blood Israelite.
He's he's actually a descendant of Esau who made himself
friendly to the Roman Senate and they made him a governor.
And then eventually they acknowledge him as the king
quote UN quote king because he has friendship with Mark Antony.
And so he's this fake puppet king put into place and he was
power hungry and nobody got in his way.
And this is really important to this story.
He, he, he at one point had 10 wives and three sons killed
because he thought they were going to overthrow him.
In fact, the Roman emperor Augustus once said it was safer
to be Herod's pig than Herod's son.
And so he suffered from extreme paranoia, extreme suspicion.
In fact, at his death in Jericho, he ordered the most
distinguished citizens of Jerusalem's to be Jerusalem to
be arrested. And then he ordered them to be
killed at the moment of his death because he know, he knew
nobody would mourn over him. And he was determined that tears
would be shed on the day he would die.
Now, with that in mind, let's read this again.
Wise men from the East came to Jerusalem.
Look at verse 2 and it's saying, where is he who has been born
king of the Jews? I mean, alarms are going off
right now in Herod's head, right before we saw his star when it
rose, and have come to worship him.
And when Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all
Jerusalem with him. Don't miss this.
The whole city knows this is going on, more or less.
And you got to understand who these guys were.
The Persian Magi were searching for the king of the Jews.
Now, there are no characters in the Christmas story stranger
than the Persian Magi. They were not at the Manger.
They, they come much later. We'll see that again in a
moment. So fix your nativity sets.
Get those wise men out of there. There's no evidence there's
three of them, nor that they were kings.
Their legends and myths about them, their their their
mythological names were Caspar, Caspar, Bethesar and Milkior.
In fact, the 12th century Bishop claimed that he found their
skull caps and had them on display in a casket.
But but in fact, the Greek historian Herodotus tells us, he
tells us that the Magi were a priestly cast of the Medes think
Iran of the of Persia. And they were active throughout
Babylon and Mesopotamia. And this is important.
They practice Zoroastrianism, which was the official religion
of Persia, which has some some similarities to Judaism, but far
more differences. They they included sorcery and
astrology and wizardry and witchcraft and divination.
In fact, the word magic comes from the word Magi.
And so this religion and the descendants of the Persian
magi's magi are still alive today.
They're actually in India Today that because they fled Persia in
the 7th century when Muslim persecution came in.
So it's actually still being practiced in a little part of
India Today. And in the ancient world,
because there was no distinction between superstition and
science, these magi become religious leaders, scientists,
mathematicians, philosophers, doctors, and legal authorities.
Here's the important part. Here's why I'm telling you all
that These Magi proclaimed and served the kings of Persia.
They did it using magic. But no Persian could become king
without the support of the Magi. They were the Persian
kingmakers. So they're mentioned in the Old
Testament and Jeremiah, and also with Daniel they were in, they
were Daniel's rivals and Nebuchadnezzar's court until
Daniel 248. And and then the king gave
Daniel high honors and many great gifts and made him ruler
over the whole province of Babylon and chief prefect over
all the wise men of Babylon. So Daniel becomes the leader of
the Magi. Now we cannot be sure.
We have no evidence, we have no knowledge of this, but this
could be how how they learned of some of the prophecies of a
Jewish king Messiah. So if so, it's really amazing.
God is something always in complete control, looking far
beyond our limited scope and and looking ahead in history.
But when they arrived in Jerusalem in Matthew, it would
have been quite a scene. This is not three simple people
on camels that, that there's nothing like that.
They, they would have travelled with a small army under the
orders of the Persian king. These foreign kingmakers wore
cone shape hats. They were the first Gandalfs.
I mean, they, they just had, they're the ones that had the
wizard hats on. And they would have ridden
Arabian horses, not camels. This is a small armed force from
Persia coming into Jerusalem asking where's the king?
You can imagine Herod not enjoying his breakfast that day.
And so this is amazing. Rome hated them because they
could never conquer them. And so with that in mind, look
at verse 3 again. When Herod the king heard this,
he was troubled. The word means highly agitated
and all Jerusalem with him. Here were the Persian kingmakers
asking about where the new king of the Jews was.
Talk about paranoia. Talk about suspicion.
It's interesting because as the astronomers of the day, they saw
this new star. I read a recent article recently
in NASA, a NASA astronomer scientist has claimed there's
actually scientific evidence explaining the strange movement
of the star of Bethlehem that led them to Jesus.
There's actually an object gets recorded by the Chinese at this
day and time to where it's it was a comet that was visible for
days and nearly struck the earth 2000 plus years ago.
God reveals it to the magi. That's our God.
Complete control, space-time doesn't matter.
And it equaled the sign of a new king being born.
Look at verse 4 then, and assembling all the chief priests
and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the
Christ was to be born, and they told him in Bethlehem of Judea.
For so it was, So it is written by the prophet.
So here it summons all the theological scholars of the day,
most of them Pharisees, experts in the law and, and, and what
does the Bible say about the birth of Messiah?
So they quote Micah and they quote Second Samuel and they're,
and they're pointing to Bethlehem.
Look at verse 6. And you, O Bethlehem in the land
of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah.
For from you shall come a ruler who will shepherd my people,
Israel. So once again, once again, Jesus
is perfectly fulfilling Scripture.
God is fulfilling every step of the way.
It's all pointing to him. They, they knew exactly what it
said about the Christ, and yet these theological scholars
didn't seem to care. You ever wonder if even one of
them was curious enough as to ask why Herod was asking about
this? I mean, all of Jerusalem knew
about the Magi. So, I mean, there's a stir going
on. Something big's happening.
A small army of Persian kingmakers was in town and these
religious leaders knew exactly where to look.
It's only 5 miles down to Bethlehem.
I mean, wouldn't you be curious enough to go check it out?
Why do we not see a Pharisee at the Manger, right?
Maybe they were so engrossed in their routine ritual of legality
they completely disregard the Messiah.
I don't know. I sometimes think about them and
I wonder, how many religiously apathetic people do we know?
They might come to every single Christmas service, but actually
miss Christmas and not understand or appreciate it.
Look at verse 7. Then Herod summoned the wise men
secretly and ascertained from them what time the star had
appeared, and he sent them to Bethlehem saying, Go and search
diligently for the Child. And when you have found him,
bring me word that I too may come and worship him.
So obviously he's lying to them about worshiping the new king.
In fact, in his evil he had all the Bethlehem male babies under
2 years of age murdered when he discovered when the star
appeared. So he's not going to surrender
his throne to this new king. And my fear is, is some of some
of the folks you know, or maybe some of you are living that same
lie, afraid of a real commitment to Christ, afraid of
surrendering your position of power in your life to get off
your own throne and let him have it.
I mean, the true disciple is one who ceases to do what he desires
and dedicates his life to what Christ desires.
I mean, these Pagan Wizards, you got to think about it.
These Pagan Wizards were more honest and true than the
supposed leaders of the people of God and many around us right
now, I'm afraid they're honestly searching for truth.
They're honestly searching for salvation.
They're looking for something, somebody to worship.
And I pray we can get him the message.
Look at verse 9. After listening to the king,
they went on their way, and behold, the star that they had
seen when it rose went before them until it came to rest over
the place where the child was. And when they saw the star, they
rejoiced exceedingly with great joy.
And going into the house, they saw the child with Mary, his
mother, and they fell down and worshipped him.
Then opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold,
frankincense, and myrrh. Now at this point, they're not
at the Manger, they're at a house.
In fact, the word used here for child is not the word you would
use for an infant. This is some time later based
upon based upon the stars appearing based upon Herod's
murderous rampage against all new babies in that area.
Jesus is probably around 2 years old at this point, so the young
family had stayed in Bethlehem to work or or maybe to to not
have to go back and face the story that people might wonder
about Mary who knows? Certainly to fulfill God's will
for them. And gold was the gift of royalty
acknowledging his identity. Frankincense was a was was an
incense used in worship and sprinkled on the sacrifices on
the altar. Myrrh was used for embalming.
It was also an anaesthetic. They offered it to Jesus on the
cross and he refused it. But we see this prophetic
imagery, this foreshadowing of Christ here.
He is the King and the Savior. He would suffer and then he
would reign again. And the Pagan, the Pagan Wizards
bow before him. Christ came for those who need
him. Christ came for those who seek
him. Some, I'm afraid, ignore and
overlook him even this time of year.
Some, some are. Some are unhappy to allow him to
be anything else. The world's happy to let
Christmas remain mangled by myth and consumed by commercialism,
but they're not willing to let Jesus be the King of kings.
So where are you this Christmas? Where are you in it?
Are you, are you? Are you caught up and wrapped in
the maze of myth and materialism?
Is it consuming you the busyness of the season, the preparations
of the season? Or are you bowed?
Are you on your knees? Before the King of Kings had
another little Christmas pageant in church, the kids were putting
it on. And to show the glory of the
newborn Savior, a light bulb had been placed in the Manger.
And there's supposed to be this dramatic moment when every
single light in the place is turned off and only the light in
the Manger shines to reflect the glory of Jesus Christ.
But the little boy who is controlling the lights got
confused and he turned all the lights off so it's pitch dark.
And then it's very tense moment. One of the little shepherds
whispered out loud. Hey, you turned off Jesus, not
on our watch. Let's not let that happen this
year at Inglewood. We want to bring in glory.
Wouldn't want to shine the light on Him.
We want us to. We want to focus upon Him.
And I pray that's what you do in your family.
I pray that you will take this family worship guide with you.
You'll sit around your table and enjoy the holiday, love your
family, enjoy the the gift giving and receiving the love
that that represents. Enjoy the fun and the family
traditions you have. But at the same time, I pray
that you'll bring it back to the Word of God and the will of God
for your family and focus upon that this year.
So let's turn our full focus on Him this Christmas.
Father, we thank you so much that you allow us, Father, to
know you. Father, what an amazing, perfect
thing you did when you sent your Son, when you sent your Son to
become man, when the Word became flesh and dwelt among us and we
beheld His glory. Glory is of the only begotten,
full of grace and truth. Father, what a gift.
And I pray, Father, that we will fall on our knees and
thankfulness and gratitude. But maybe somebody here, maybe
somebody, if they're honest, would say, John, I don't know
that I believe. I don't know that I, I, I know
him that way. Well, Father, I just pray right
now that you will Pierce their heart and mind with your truth
and reality, that your Holy Spirit would work in them to
where they have no question about whether you exist and
whether you're right here drawing them, calling them,
inviting them, giving them faith.
Father, Lord, I pray that they would come to a point of
salvation to where they believe with all their heart that only
Jesus can save us. Only Jesus could die on the
cross for us. Only Jesus could pay the price
for our sin. And only Jesus rose again.
He's the only way. They're the only one.
And that's what Christmas is all about.
So I pray, Father, that people would surrender, they would bow
this morning, some for salvation.
Maybe there are others here, as Pastor Jean mentioned earlier,
we're going to be watching people get baptized to your
glory next week and the week after.
Maybe there's somebody here and they and they've trusted in you,
Father, but they've never told the world that.
And they need to be baptized. Or do they need to join the
church? Others might just need prayer.
So I pray, Father, that as we sing that we'll surrender, that
we'll commit. For some, it's a reset, a
recommitment, A refocus. Time to get out of the busyness,
time to get out of the worry and the anxiety of the season and
focus upon who you are and what you have for us.
Father, thank you so much for helping us do that.
I pray you'll bless us and draw us now in Christ's name, Amen.
Our worship team is going to lead us.
We're going to sing. There'll be pastors standing up
here. You can come and pray at the
steps. You can talk to one of us.
We'll have next step counsellors in our next steps room right
over there. You can go straight over there.
They're also going to be some out in the lobby after the
service that you'll see that you can visit with.
So you can come this way or after the service, you can go
that way and visit with somebody and say, here's what God's doing
in my life right now and I need to talk to somebody about it.
So let's stand and respond right now as we sing.