Tis the Season // Feeling of Generosity and Worship

We're gonna be in Matthew chapter number two.

Matthew two, we are in a series entitled, Tis the Season to Feel Everything.

How many of you guys in the room, you would say, I am a feeler and I am emotional.

I feel all types of things, right?

How many in the room you're like, I don't even have emotions.

I don't even know what those are.

Right?

We're looking at very real people like you and like me in the first Christmas story, The Christmas, and how they experience very real emotions like you experience and like I experience.

And today what we're gonna look at, we're gonna look at the emotion of worship.

The emotion of worship.

Now, a lot of times when we think of worship, we think of worship music.

That's what we think of.

We think, okay, yeah, yeah, like there's worship music, we come into service and the team's up there.

Like, that's worship.

And music is part of worship.

But how do you understand that worship is actually way more than just music?

In fact, one way we could define worship is worship is a heart posture that puts something on the throne of your life.

See, all of us in the room, we all have something that we attach our hopes, our dreams, our identity, our meaning, our well-being to.

And whatever that something is, is what we truly worship.

To the mom, it could be our family.

To the employee, it could be a promotion, or it could be like getting the next pay raise.

But all of us, we all worship something.

Now, some of you are like, Pastor Nate, I'm I understand we're in church service.

So of course we're gonna, I understand, like you're talking about worship, but I don't worship anything.

I call the shots for my life, I make the decisions, I believe in myself, I do what I want to do.

It's all it's it's me.

Then I would say, friend, you know who you worship?

You worship you.

There's never been a non-worshiping human in the world because all of us are born as worshipers, we all worship something.

And when we get to a passage of scripture where there is these very unlikely people, they made this decision to worship Jesus.

And if worship is having something on the throne of your life, then for Jesus followers, what worship is, worship is simply our response to God's greatness.

It's it's our response to God's greatness.

And it's funny because whenever you're around somebody great or something great, it kind of like affects you some type of a way.

I for example, have you ever met somebody famous?

Or maybe been around somebody that was very notable.

In fact, somebody wanna somebody want to shout, shout out, raise their hand, somebody tell me somebody maybe you've been around that's famous, or you met somebody that was famous.

You've met Kobe Bryant?

Bro, that's so cool.

Kobe.

So cool.

Somebody else.

Anybody else?

Everybody's like, man, it's cold, tired this morning, and now Pastor Nate's asking me to actually talk in church.

No.

Anybody else?

Who's that?

Orlando Sotero.

Orlando Sotero.

Who's Orlando Sotero?

A baseballer, that's cool.

Orlando Capeta.

You met Orlando Cepeta, that's super cool.

Yeah, yeah.

She does have a statue.

You met Jerry Rice?

Oh my goodness.

All the 49ers fans in the room were like.

Who else met somebody famous?

You met Joe Montana?

Joe Montana.

Oh my goodness.

Anybody else meet somebody famous?

You met Mac Lake?

Wow.

He's so cool.

I walked right into Kobe Bryant and said hello face to face.

He said Kobe said hi back.

Did Kobe say hi back to you?

You shook his hand.

Okay.

So so I oh Janet's got somebody.

Oh, Joe Montana signed a book.

There we go.

So oh, okay, we have more.

Deuce McAllister.

You met Deuce McAllister.

That's a baller football player.

Yeah.

Anybody else, just for fun.

Brent Jones.

You met all the 49ers.

I gotta hang out with you more.

You meet all the football players.

Speaking of football players, I met a football player of this that plays for the San Francisco 49ers.

He is a Niners legend, at least in my book he is.

His name, Patrick Willis.

So, let me tell you the story.

I saw Patrick Willis, and I immediately started fanboying out.

My heart started Patrick Willis, Patrick Willis, Patrick Will.

I'm like, so I start to walk up to him.

I'm like, don't say something dumb.

Don't say something dumb.

Don't say something dumb.

I'm like, what do I say to him?

I just say something dumb.

You know what I mean?

Like you probably.

And I'm like, uh, can I get a picture with you?

He was like, yeah, let's get a picture together, right?

So he took a picture.

I was probably like the millionth person that's asked him for a picture, and he was super cool.

It was so funny because I left, I walked away from him and I was like, Why did I just fanboy out?

Like I was like some little kid or something, but in the presence of Patrick Willis and those massive muscles, I was like, whoa, this is Patrick Willis.

And and it's funny because when we're in the presence of greatness, doesn't it do something to us?

Like you think about the people you were saying you just met, you probably can go back to some of the feelings that you had when you met them, how you experience meeting them.

You may even be a big-time nerd and you remember what they were wearing when you met them.

Because when we're in the presence of greatness, it affects us.

And guys, when you realize God's greatness, it will affect you.

When you realize how great God is, it will cause you to want to worship Him, to have this expression of allegiance and love towards Him.

And if you have a heart that chooses to put Jesus on the throne of your life, then everything else will flow out of that.

It's amazing how sometimes in our life we have all these different struggles.

But when we choose to put Jesus on the throne of our life, it seems like all these different struggles tend to minimize, and some of them even go away because the lordship of Jesus, the worship of Jesus changes everything about you.

And here's what we're gonna see.

We're gonna see some people.

They were unlikely, they didn't fit the bill, but they chose to worship Jesus, and because of that, it changed everything else about them.

So let's pick it up in Matthew chapter number two, verse number one.

If you're ready for it, would you say amen?

It says this it says, After Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, in the days of King Herod, wise men from the east arrived in Jerusalem.

How many of you guys you like going around and you like looking at Christmas trees and Christmas lights?

And how many guys like doing that?

How many of you guys like nativity scenes?

You guys like nativity scenes?

Okay, I'm about to ruin your nativity scene life right now.

So you go to the nativity scene, you see them, they're so cute, you have Miriam, you have Joseph, and then you have some wise men standing there, right?

They're cute.

Now, look at what the text says.

It says, after Jesus was born, the wise men weren't there at the birth of Jesus.

Your nativity scene is teaching you bad theology.

Also, something interesting.

Whenever you see a cute uh nativity scene, major scene that we love, how many, how many wise men are always there?

Right, right?

Because of gold, frankincense, and myrrh, they brought three gifts.

But the reality is there was probably way more than three people because they traveled hundreds of miles, they traveled from the east.

And second of all, the verses are gonna tell us that these men caused an entire disturbance.

This group caused an entire disturbance in the city.

Three people aren't gonna cause a massive disturbance in an entire city.

These wise men they came to Jerusalem.

What is Jerusalem?

It is the capital of Israel, so it's the capital, it's the center point of worship life for the nation.

And they go to Jerusalem with one purpose and with one thing in mind.

And verse number two tells us why they came to Jerusalem.

Look what it says in verse number two.

It says, Where is he who has been born king of the Jews?

For we saw his star at its rising and have come to, what's that word?

Have come to worship him.

Now, who were these wise men that came from the east?

Well, we know they were men that studied the stars.

These men had political and social influence, they had some type of financial resources because they brought very expensive gifts.

And these men come to worship.

Now, what that word worship means literally is to fall prostrate on the ground.

These are influential men, influential people.

They come to Jerusalem to find the king, the messiah, and to fall prostrate before him.

That is unusual, especially for these people.

See, these people, they were very unlikely people to worship Jesus.

And something that you need to know is that all people are invited to worship Jesus.

What do you mean they were unusual?

They were not Jewish.

Why would non-Jewish people come all the way to Jerusalem in this time period to worship the Messiah?

That doesn't make sense.

They didn't know about the Jewish law, they weren't learned in this area, but they still came to worship Jesus.

And when you realize the greatness of Jesus, the only response is to worship him.

In fact, the reason why the wise men came was because they realized the greatness of Jesus, that he was the Messiah.

So they came to worship him.

When you read scripture, there was only one of two responses that people had to Jesus.

Either one, they ran away in a rebellion, or two, they bowed in surrender and allegiance to follow Jesus.

You never see in scripture people being indifferent towards Jesus.

You don't ever see it.

All the examples, they followed or they walked away.

Why?

Because of who Jesus claimed that he was.

Jesus said he was God in the flesh.

Jesus says he was king, he was Messiah, he was lordship, he's Lord.

And there's only one of two options.

You can run away in rebellion, say, I want nothing to do with you, or you can bow and worship in allegiance to him.

Those are the only two responses.

And you know the reason why we gather here today as a church family?

To worship him.

That's why we gather.

Our gathering this morning is to worship him.

Now it reminds me of a story where a mom was telling her son that he needed to go to church on Sunday morning, and on Saturday night, he told his mom, Mom, I don't want to go to church.

She said, No, son, you are getting your hind parts to the church building tomorrow morning, and I'm waking you up.

He said, Mom, you don't understand.

People don't really like me at the church.

And it's kind of awkward and weird.

Like some parts I'm just, I just don't get it.

And I'm like, I don't want to go.

Why should I go to church tomorrow?

She said, Well, first of all, you're a Jesus follower.

And as Jesus followers, we gather with the church family to worship Jesus.

She said, second of all, you're the lead pastor.

So because you're the lead pastor, you need to go to church tomorrow.

And sometimes we can forget that when we gather, we gather to worship Jesus.

This is not a religious exercise.

We don't come to see our friends and network with people.

We come to worship Jesus.

And in Revelation chapter 5, scripture tells us that one day, every person who's a follower, a believer in Jesus, from the history of the world, from the beginning of the world, all the way to that time, ten thousandths upon ten thousands, we're gonna gather around the throne of Jesus and we're gonna worship him and praise him.

Revelation 5 · chapter mention

And we're gonna say, you are worthy of honor and praise and glory because of who you are.

And if all of us are gonna do that, because we're gonna see him accurately, as righteous, as holy, as all powerful, then can I just say our worship services here should be a small taste of what we're gonna experience there and then that if one day all of Jesus' followers are gonna gather and worship him, then we should gather with a heart of worship towards him.

Now, for some of us, the idea of like worshiping through song and worshiping expressively, it's kind of like kind of almost weird.

Some of us we walk in here and we see the worship team up here and we're like, they're pretty good today.

That's a pretty good song.

You walk in here, maybe you're like, yeah, they're all right.

Kind of like it.

This is like kind of like a concert.

No, this is not a concert.

No, this is not for entertainment purposes.

This is a team that's supposed to lead us to worship Jesus together.

That we worship him, we worship him in spirit and in truth.

And when the people of God gather, there's power when we say, hey, hey, hey, I just want to worship Jesus.

It reminds me, there's somebody in our church that does this so well.

How many of you guys know this lady?

She comes to 1115 service.

Uh, it's her name is Miss Dottie Good.

And you guys know Miss Dottie Good?

Miss Dottie has had lots of health challenges over the last many years, and she walks with a walker, and she comes with her health challenges.

And so many times I have seen her during the worship music portion of the service where we're singing, I have seen her get up from her seat, one hand on her walker to stabilize herself, and the other hand raised in worship to Jesus, singing to him.

I've seen a tear come down her face, her cheek.

And I look over, and I'll be honest, sometimes I'm like, why would she do that?

Like, it took so much work for her just to show up today.

And here she is, she's like standing up, like, why would she do this?

And this is what she would tell you because she has a heart to worship Jesus and she loves Jesus.

And when you see his greatness, you can't help but want to worship him.

And John chapter four tells us this that God is looking for people that will worship him.

Now, sometimes they're gonna be like, Man, if I worship him through song, what are other people gonna think of me?

Like, like the only place I sing is in the shower or in my car if it's really that song that I like.

Like singing in church, I what are people gonna think about me?

What am I gonna look like?

This is uncomfortable, this is weird.

But here's the reality is that our worship is not based on us, our worship is based on the greatness of the king, of who he is.

And Jesus invites everybody to worship him.

But but something that you're gonna find is if you choose to worship, to have him on the throne of your life, not everybody else will make that same decision.

Some people will opt out.

In fact, in verse number three, the king, Herod, heard this and he was deeply disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him.

He heard that there's another king, and people are coming to worship another king.

Herod was like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

That doesn't make me very comfortable.

So this is what Herod did.

He assembled all the chief priests, these are the religious leaders of the day, and the scribes, these were experts on the law, the Old Testament law, so they knew all the ins and outs and all the different parts that the prophet said.

And he asked them, where the Messiah, that's who Jesus was, the son of God, the forgiver of sin, the one who shalom will be found in.

Where would he be born?

Verse number five.

Remember, they're experts, they knew what the prophet said, and they immediately go to a prophecy in Micah chapter 5, verse number 2.

Micah 5 · chapter mention

They say, In Bethlehem of Judea, because this is what was written by the prophet, Micah, and you, Bethlehem, they quote it verbatim, and you, Bethlehem, and the land of Judah are by no means least among the rulers of Judah, because out of you will come a ruler who will shepherd my people, Israel.

The chief priests and the scribes, they were like, Oh, yeah, yeah, like we we know we know in Micah what he says, Jesus is gonna be born in Bethlehem.

They knew that, but you know.

What's crazy?

These people knew, but they didn't care.

In the rest of the text, they never went to go see Jesus.

You know what's dangerous?

Here's what's dangerous is you can have a knowledge of spiritual things, but if you've been journeying with Jesus for a while, you can grow indifferent and cold to spiritual things.

Yeah, I know Jesus loves me.

Yeah, I know he's the savior of the world.

Yeah, I know he died for my sins.

Yeah, I know this stuff.

And these men were the people, the men that knew the most, but did the least with what they knew.

And this is a caution to us because just because we know some spiritual things and we have some spiritual lingo, and we know where the book of Matthew is, and we know how many apostles there were, and we know some of these different songs, that does not mean nothing.

Because it's not what you know, but it's what you do with what you know.

And these people were indifferent to Jesus.

And in your life, there will be some people that will be indifferent to him.

But the wise men, they said, We are going to worship Jesus.

In fact, in verse number seven, it says this Herod secretly summoned the wise men.

So he's like, Hey guys, guys, guys, come here.

Come here, come here.

Come here, come here, come here.

What's up?

He asked them the exact time the star appeared.

He sent them to Bethlehem.

Bethlehem, five miles from Jerusalem.

So we're talking Fairfield to Bacchaville.

He sent them to Bethlehem.

He says, Go and search carefully for the child.

When you find him, report back to me so that I too can go and worship him.

That's bull.

It's bull.

We'll just leave it at that word.

Bull, right?

He didn't want to go worship Jesus.

He wanted to take him out.

He was a threat to him.

After hearing the king, they went on their way.

And there it was, the star.

They had seen at its rising.

It led them until it came and stopped above the place where the child was.

And when they saw the star, they were overwhelmed with joy.

Can I just say, when you have a heart to worship and you follow Christ, it's going to produce joy in your life.

They see the star, they pursued after Jesus, they they're there, they're about to worship him, and they're filled with joy.

Entering the house, they saw the child with Mary, his mother, and falling to their knees, they worshiped him.

Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts: gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

And Jesus had done nothing for them.

His baby.

Not because of what he had done for them, but because of who he is.

And this is what spiritual maturity is, friends.

Spiritual maturity is worshiping Jesus for who he is, not just what he gives you.

I'm gonna say one more time.

Just take your notes, write this down.

Spiritual maturity is worshiping Jesus for who he is, not just what he gives you.

So if I'm worshiping Jesus for who he is, I can worship him when I get promoted, and I can worship him when I get let go.

If I worship him for who he is, I can worship him when I go to the doctor and everything's good, and I can worship him when I go to the doctor and things are not as good.

If I worship him for who he is, I can worship him when life is great and I can worship him when life is hard.

Because spiritual maturity understands that I'm not worshiping him because of what he can do for me, but I'm worshiping him because of who he is.

And if you notice in the text, when they go to the house, it doesn't say that they worshiped them.

It doesn't say that that these men worship Jesus and Mary.

It says they worshiped him, they worshiped Jesus alone.

And while Mary is an amazing woman, Mary isn't worshipped here because she's a human like the rest of us.

And they worship and they give gifts, and then they return home.

It says in verse number 12, being warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they return to their own country by another route.

Why would some wise men literally take a pause from their entire life, rearrange their priorities, travel hundreds of miles in the desert, not knowing what they're gonna face?

Why would they do this?

Why would they give gold, frankincense, and myrrh?

This is super expensive stuff.

Like that doesn't make sense.

Why would they do it?

Here's why they did it because they had a heart of worship, and a heart of worship transforms people.

When Jesus is on the throne of your heart, it will transform you.

It transformed these men into being financially generous.

Now you may never have thought about this, but part of our worship is financial giving.

In fact, something I've learned is you can give without worshiping, but you cannot worship without giving.

If Jesus is on the throne of my heart, I can't help but give.

If Jesus is on the throne of my heart, I can't help but say, Okay, you're my Lord, you're my king.

What do you want me to do with the resources that you've given me?

A lot of times we think giving's about money.

Giving isn't about money, giving's about our heart.

Sometimes I look at my budget and I look at the number there and I'm like, whoo.

But that is just a reflection of my heart, of what I give.

And if my allegiance is to Jesus, then naturally my resources will flow from that.

And I wonder how many of us need to take a step in our financial giving.

And it really begins with this with just seeing Jesus accurately and making him the Lord of your heart and putting him on the throne of your life.

Now we're gonna do something a little differently this morning.

I was up way too late last night.

You guys ever up way too late last night?

Which late one night, right?

And what I was doing is I was thinking through this message.

And usually I'll end with like, all right, these three steps, or all right, uh, this is like a little quote that I hope you guys remember, or here's a story or something.

I was like, we're not gonna do that.

I was up late last night because I was thinking through, and I'll invite the worship team to come up here.

I was studying out like what is worship, and I literally changed the entire end of my message at way too late last night, which I never do.

And this is what we're gonna do this morning.

I was studying what worship is, and I want us to practice what worship is in scripture, Psalm 100, one of the ways they worshiped, they gathered corporately to worship, is they worshiped by shouting.

Now, it's gonna be a little uncomfortable for some of us.

But if one of the ways they worship in scripture is by shouting, what I want us to do, if God is worthy of our worship, I want us to shout praise the Lord on the count of three.

If he's worthy of your worship and they worship by shouting, let's shout praise the Lord on the count of three.

Ready?

One, two, three.

Okay, let's get it.

Psalm 47.

They worship through clapping.

Oh, clap your hands, all ye people.

If God is worthy of our worship on the count of three, can we clap our hands?

Ready?

One, two, three.

In Psalm 63, they worship through raising their hands.

Some of y'all are like.

Oh no.

Like raising my hands?

I wanna be When people raise their hands, you know what this is?

This is the universal sign of surrender.

So, if a bro's coming at me and he wants to fight, if I go like this, we're about to fight.

If I go like this, I'm like, I surrender, you're way too big of a guy.

This right here is our sign of surrender to God.

And in Psalm 63, they worship through raising their hands.

And this is what I invite you to do on the count of three.

If he's worthy of your worship, would you raise your hand, ready?

One, two, three.

Let's all stand to our feet.

Here's what I want us to do.

Revelation chapter five, we are gonna be gathered around the throne of God.

And we're gonna be the people of God.

We're gonna be praising, we're gonna be worshiping, we're gonna be shouting, we're gonna be clapping.

And if we're gonna do this in Revelation chapter five one day, can we just let this moment be a small taste of what that's gonna be?

Here's what I wanna do right now.

I wanna give some of you permission to worship.

Some of you that you don't you don't ever sing, I wanna give you permission.

If you think God is worthy of it to sing.

Some of you that you've never raised a hand before, I wanna give you permission to raise a hand.

Maybe not let's just talk For some of us, there's gonna be a line in this song, it might touch you.

You can you can shout.

If God is worthy of our worship, let's let the next few moments be a small taste of what we're going to do one day before the throne of God.

Let's all worship together