The Unexpected Arrival

So today's scripture passage is found in Matthew chapter 1, 18 through chapter 2, 20.

Matthew 1 · chapter mention

Please listen as we read.

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.

And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly.

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 her is from the Holy Spirit.

She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.

All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet.

Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall 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 her not until she had given birth to a son, and he called his name Jesus.

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, saying,

Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose, and have come to worship him.

When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him,

and assembling all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born.

They told him, In Bethlehem of Judea, for so it is written by the prophet.

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.

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, search diligently for the child.

And when you have found him, bring me word, that I too may come and worship him.

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.

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, myrrh.

And being warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they departed to their own country by another way.

Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said,

Rise, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you.

For Herod is about to search for the child to destroy him.

And he rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed to Egypt and remained there until the death of Herod.

This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet,

Out of Egypt I will call my son.

Then Herod, when he saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, became furious,

And he sent and killed all the male children in Bethlehem and in all the regions who were two years old or under,

According to the time that he had ascertained from the wise men.

Then was fulfilled what was spoken by the prophet Jeremiah.

A voice was heard in Ramah, weeping and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children.

She refused to be comforted because they are no more.

But when Herod died, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, saying,

Rise, take the child and his mother, and go to the land of Israel.

For those who sought the child's life are dead.

Good morning, Watermark.

My name is Chris.

I oversee the community groups here at Watermark.

And if you're new here today, you're just very welcome to join us with our family together.

We're looking at the moment in a four-part series looking at Advent and the coming of King Jesus.

Last week we looked at how the King was predicted in the Old Testament.

This week we're looking at the coming of the King.

And in the next couple of weeks we're going to look at how the story, the Christmas story,

continues right to the cross and the resurrection.

But today we come to a very familiar passage to most of us.

It's the traditional Christmas story.

You know, it's the kind of one you see on the Christmas cards.

You know, the three wise men sitting on the camels with the starry sky behind.

And they come to this beautiful, clean nativity scene.

With the angels are humming Silent Night in the background in four-part harmony.

And it's beautiful.

They lay down their Christmas presents to Jesus and it's lovely.

That's not the Christmas story.

Matthew, who is the writer we're looking at today, he wrote his gospel very specifically to connect the Old Testament to the New Testament.

That's why Matthew is the first gospel.

Because he is linking the promises that God has promised before of someone who's going to come and deliver his people to the birth and the life of Jesus.

That's why there are so many Old Testament quotations in Matthew.

Because he's wanting to tell you what you've heard about before.

What you've believed and hoped for has now come true.

Jesus has arrived.

And he is the king that you were expecting.

But if you looked at the title today and the title of this series, it says an inverted kingdom.

Because the way that Jesus comes, the way that God works, turns upside down everything you would ever think a king should do.

Everything you expected that God was going to do, he just overturns it all and blows your mind.

And Matthew is desperate to tell his readers, Jesus is a king like no other king.

But this passage is actually about two kings, not just one.

It's about two kingdoms.

It's about two ways of operating in the world.

It's about two ways of living which are as applicable today as they were 2,000 years ago.

So we're going to kind of run through this.

I want to look first of all at one king, King Herod.

Then I want to look at the second king, the legitimate king, Jesus the Messiah.

Thirdly, I want to look at a clash of kingdoms.

And then finally, I want to look at what it looks like to live under the rule of King Jesus.

So four things, Herod, Jesus, clash of kingdoms, and what it looks like to live under the king.

So let's start off with Herod.

Herod the Great was called great because he was the kind of king that history is full of.

In 37 BC, historians tell us that Herod managed to get himself declared by the Romans the king of the Jews.

He did this by sucking up to the Romans.

He fought a few battles for them, make a few cities, gave them the names of the emperors,

so that everyone would think, Herod, you are truly great.

He even built a temple for the Jews so that the Jews would look at him and say,

Wow, you are our king.

The problem was, Herod was not a pure Jew.

And so actually, the Jews hated him.

They did not see him as their king.

But he wanted to be the king.

He was seeking glory for himself.

The second thing you need to know about Herod is he's a control freak.

Herod, he wants to cling on to power with whatever it takes.

So basically, this leads him to both killing large numbers of his opponents.

He even murders one of his wives and his two children because he sees them as a threat to his throne.

They're more popular than him because they were pure Jews.

And so anything that is going to threaten his throne, he wants to get rid of.

You can think the tyrants, the dictators of the 20th and 21st century,

Herod would have been in one of those categories.

The problem is, in the last few years of his reign, things are beginning to unravel

because a bit like you see with these billionaires and their children

and they start fighting over the inheritance, that's what's happening with Herod.

And Herod is desperately trying to cling on to his kingdom while everything else is disintegrating.

So it's not surprising when you read the story of him wanting to kill the babies.

It's totally in keeping with the character of his reign.

So that's Herod, the kind of nice chap, the kind of guy you want to invite to your Christmas party.

But the second king is not an illegitimate king.

He's the illegitimate king.

And Matthew wants to tell you he's the king, but a king in a way that you would never expect.

He gives two names, Jesus.

So let's start reading.

Matthew 1, verse 18.

Matthew 1:18

Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way.

Let's stop there.

Jesus Christ.

That is a title.

It's not a surname.

Jesus did not go to parent-teacher evenings and it was Jesus Christ and his parents Mary and Joseph Christ.

It's not that.

It's a title.

It's a title meaning Messiah, anointed king, chosen one, God's representative who has come to save his people.

It's a king.

But he's far more than just a human representative because that's what all the Jews were expecting.

They were expecting a human king that God would send to represent him, like King David before him.

But Matthew uses another name.

If you look down in verse 23, they shall call his name Emmanuel,

Emmanuel, which means God with us.

Now here is where things begin to blow the reader's mind here because nobody expected that this king to come would be God himself come down.

Now, we sometimes get used to this idea, if you've been in church a while, that Jesus was fully God and fully human.

But it can fail to stagger us because actually this is unique in the history of all religion at any time, in any place, in the whole world.

This is unique to Christianity because normally religion does one of two things.

Either it says God is so holy, so big, so kind of up there, transcendent, so great that he would never come down to be with sinful, weak, lowly people.

He's too big for that.

So if you ask any Muslim or any Orthodox Jew, they will tell you that that very idea that God would come down and be a human being is blasphemous.

In fact, that is one of the reasons why Jesus was killed by the Jews.

Because they saw it was blasphemy for him, a human being, to call himself God.

They couldn't get their head around the idea that God himself would come.

So religion either does that.

It says God is too great and he's distant from us.

Or it says he's very close, so much so that he's basically just like us or he's just a little bit better than us.

But, you know, he's kind of all around.

We're kind of one with the universe.

Or in ancient times, there were lots of myths.

Some miraculous births took place.

But usually, all the myths were about one God fighting another God.

And basically, they would fight each other and then one of them would become the top dog.

And it would be like this big family feud.

That's the other way religion tends to view God.

He's so close that really he's just like a bit of a superhuman.

A bit like one of us, but has got supernatural powers.

But the Christian message, what Matthew is trying to say, is that is not what this story is about.

God, who is so holy, who is so great, who is unrivaled, who sits securely on his throne, far above all other things, the creator of everything.

He has come down to be with us.

He is not distant.

He is with us.

Nobody in the whole history of religion has ever said anything like that.

That's one unexpected thing.

The second unexpected thing is, God comes down, but he doesn't come down the way you would think.

Right at the outset, this God comes down in Jesus Christ.

And he comes down not in splendor, not in majesty, not in great triumph.

But he comes in weakness.

He comes in hiddenness.

He comes in suffering.

He comes in shame.

Let's have a look back at the story.

So when his mother, verse 18,

When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit.

And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly.

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 her is from the Holy Spirit.

Let's start with this.

You have Mary and Joseph.

Basically, they're engaged.

That's very different from engagement today.

Basically, it meant you were kind of married, but you didn't live together.

You didn't sleep together until finally you would have a celebration where you would come together.

And then that was the official wedding.

So it's a binding agreement engagement, and you need a divorce to break it.

So when Joseph hears that his wife is pregnant, he knows he's not the father.

Imagine Mary says, it's from the Holy Spirit.

And he's thinking, right, yeah.

Now, what's going through his mind?

And imagine, just remember that if you have illicit sexual relations in those times, it was either punishable by death or social ostracism.

You would be shamed by the whole village.

Everyone would know the kind of person you were.

But Joseph, just as he's beginning to plan, kind of, okay, what are we going to do with this?

And he's a, Joseph is amazing in this story.

Even though he must feel incredibly hurt and betrayed at this point, because he doesn't know what's going on,

he still wants to care and protect Mary.

So he plans to divorce her quietly.

But then an angel comes and assures him that this is no ordinary baby.

This is a special child.

And then what does Joseph do next?

Verse 24, it says,

Now, think about this for a moment.

Joseph is not the father.

Remember, when Joseph chooses to marry Mary, he is choosing to adopt Jesus as his own.

Remember, the Messiah was meant to come from the line of David.

Mary is not from the line of David.

Only Joseph is a son of David.

The child is not Joseph's natural child.

What does that mean?

And Joseph, when he marries Mary, he chooses to adopt Jesus, and he names him Jesus.

What does that mean?

Think about this.

God has chosen to come into the world, and he chooses the adoption route.

But he doesn't just choose the adoption route.

He chooses the adoption route to a poor peasant family in an obscure town in the midst of potential shame and disgrace.

Joseph will be identified with the disgrace that should have been just Mary's, naturally.

But that's not all.

If you're going to come as a king, you would have thought you'd do a bit of publicity.

You marketing guys out there, you would have been right on the case.

But the marketing is pretty poor.

When Jesus the king arrives, Luke tells us some smelly outcast shepherds come, and Matthew tells us some hated foreign advisors, astrologers, magicians come.

That's it.

Imagine you're having the baby shower, and all that come are drunks and outcasts.

Great plan, God.

But if that's not enough, then what does God do?

Look what happens next.

Herod plans to take and kill this king.

And so Jesus, the rightful king, has to flee as a refugee into Egypt, a place that the Israelites would have associated with slavery and suffering.

That is God's plan for his king.

That is God's plan for his king to come into the world.

That should tell us something about the way God does kingship.

It's not the way that anybody else would ever have planned.

Imagine as a man goes on a journey because he wants help from the king.

So he goes up to the palace of the king, and he goes up to the guards and says, I really need to talk to the king.

The guards say to him, if you want to see the king, you've got to go over there.

He points over there to this kind of run-down slum of a village about a mile off.

The traveler says, okay.

Walks down towards the village thinking that maybe this king is doing a kind of meet and greet of his subjects.

You know, the Bentley or the Rolls Royces outside.

The bodyguards will be around somewhere.

And he goes and walks into the village, and he can't see the king anywhere.

So he kind of walks around for a little while and sees some people in the corner.

And then he sees a man helping an old lady, an old man dressed in rags, helping an old lady out of a wheelchair.

And he goes up to him and says, have you seen the king?

And he says, yeah, he's around here.

He thinks, okay.

So he carries on looking, keeps looking around the different parts of the village, still can't see the king anywhere.

Then just as he's kind of giving up hope, he sees the same guy again.

But this time, he's carrying a sick child, and he is covered in the vomit of this sick child.

And as he carries the sick child through, and he's taking him to the doctor,

the other children around are mocking him because he smells so bad.

And they laugh at him, and they throw things at him.

And they say, who are you?

What a waster you are.

The traveler keeps looking around the village, eventually gives up, goes back to the guards,

and says to the guards, hey, I couldn't find the king anywhere.

But all I saw was this one guy in there, covered in vomit, helping people.

And the guards said to him, that's the king.

At that moment, the traveler is gobsmacked.

I don't know a king who would do that.

Every other king that I know tries to cling on to power for himself.

Every other king that I know tries to get strength and power and wealth for their kingdom.

I don't know any king who would lay down his reputation,

who would lay down his status,

who would lay down his rights for the lowest of the low

and be identified with them in that way.

Because you see, the way this king comes is the pattern of his kingdom.

It takes him all the way to the cross.

And his kingdom is a hidden kingdom.

Jesus' kingdom is power in weakness.

It's glory in suffering.

When you look for him in the palace, you see him in the slum.

When you seek him at the banquet, you see him in the elderly home.

That's our king.

And the thing is, it's a hidden glory.

But if you open your eyes to see it,

it's a breathtaking glory.

Because nobody does it like King Jesus.

Everybody else clings to their own reputation and kingdom.

He lays down his rights for the weak and the vulnerable.

So those are two kingdoms, two kings, Herod and Jesus.

Two different ways of operating.

Let's come to point three.

A clash of kingdoms.

We have seen that there are these two kings in the scene.

And now I want you to think, what happens when the true king comes?

The true king of the Jews.

So I want you to notice the progression of Herod's reaction.

Okay?

So let's look at chapter 2, verse 1 to 4.

Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea,

in the days of Herod the king,

behold, the wise men from the east came to Jerusalem,

saying,

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

For we saw his star when it rose,

and have come to worship him.

When Herod the king heard this,

he was troubled,

and all Jerusalem with him.

And assembling all the chief priests and scribes of the people,

he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born.

I want you to notice what happens.

When Herod hears that there's another king in town,

he is troubled,

and all Jerusalem with him.

That word troubled means disturbed, frightened.

Fear grips Herod's heart,

and all the advisors,

all the people who are kind of clinging on to Herod

for their perks, their benefits,

their status, their reputation,

they're all afraid.

That's the first thing, fear.

Secondly, what happens next?

Herod creates a plan,

a plan to defend and reestablish his kingdom.

So he puts up a veneer of worship.

And so verse 7,

Then Herod summons the wise men secretly,

and ascertains 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.

You see, it looks like he's going to go and worship.

Actually, he's just wanting to make sure

that he is the number one,

that he's the only one in power,

and he wants to remove any rivals from the throne.

So fear.

Plan to defend his kingdom.

Thirdly, when his plan doesn't work,

look at verse 16.

Then Herod, when he saw that he'd been tricked

by the wise men, became furious.

And he sent and killed all the male children

in Bethlehem and all that region

who were under two years old.

See, what happens next?

Fear leading to planning to defend,

leading to anger.

When his plan doesn't work,

he gets angry,

and his anger leads to destruction and murder.

Okay?

Now, why is Herod so afraid?

He's so afraid because he's so wrapped up in his kingdom.

He's so wrapped up with maintaining control of his life

that he sees the arrival of the true king as a threat

rather than a chance and a call to worship.

He's so consumed with preserving himself,

his status, his standing, his reputation,

his comfort,

that he doesn't see Jesus,

the true king,

calling him to worship and submit to him.

Why?

Because he's a tyrant.

He's a tyrant

who wants control of his kingdom at all costs.

Now, think about this for a moment.

And I'm going to offend some of you now.

But in this room,

there is probably about 250 people like Herod,

including me.

Tyrants.

Every one of us wants to rule our own kingdoms naturally

in a way to keep ourselves in power,

to keep our standing intact,

to keep our reputation.

And we want to cling on to our little kingdoms.

Let me show you how this might work.

Imagine I come home from work and I am starving.

And I remember that there is a nice dessert in the fridge.

And as I'm walking back home,

and I'm dreaming of my food kingdom,

and this land flowing with chocolate sauce and honey.

And I get in,

and I go to the fridge,

I open the fridge,

and at that moment,

I am troubled.

And all my stomach with me.

Because

someone has started a revolution

against my kingdom.

Someone has taken the dessert.

So I plan to reestablish my kingdom.

I look in the freezer for ice cream.

It's gone.

At that moment,

realizing that I have been tricked by my spouse,

and seeing,

seeing the evidence of the attempted coup

all around her mouth,

I get angry.

And then my anger leads to destruction.

Now I can do that in two different ways.

I can do it through active aggression

or passive aggression.

My active aggression

usually comes in kind of snide comments,

sarcastic comments like,

So,

didn't you know that somebody else

lived in this flat?

Didn't you realize I'd be hungry?

Now I failed to tell my spouse

that actually,

that dessert was part of my kingdom,

not hers.

But that doesn't matter at this point.

Because,

it's all about my kingdom.

And,

or I can,

so I can do active aggression,

I can do passive aggression,

I go and sulk in the corner.

She says,

Are you okay?

I say,

Fine,

thank you.

I didn't want it anyway.

You see,

that moment

was a kingdom moment.

That moment

was a moment

of worship.

I could choose

to cling

to my kingdom,

if you like,

or I could choose

to see that in that moment,

though I am disappointed,

I could live

and submit myself

to the reign of the king

who calls me

to be gracious,

who calls me

to be patient,

who calls me

to be kind,

who calls me

to be loving.

And we can do this

in a hundred ways.

You know,

you get home from work,

you're tired,

you just want comfort,

that's not a wrong thing,

that's an okay thing.

You want a break,

you want to sit

in front of the TV,

and you get home

and you're dreaming

that your kids

will be there

worshipping you,

just saying,

It's okay,

you sit on the sofa,

we'll take care of dinner.

But they come back,

and what happens?

The kids are screaming.

Your spouse tells you,

I have 15 things

I want for you to do now.

That moment

is a moment of worship.

It's a kingdom moment.

How are you going to respond?

We'll tell you.

Are you going to cling

to your own kingdom,

or are you going to humbly submit

to see Jesus in that moment

and worship him?

You see,

in every marriage,

in every family,

in every workplace,

in every school,

in every university,

there is a battleground

of kings trying to cling

to their own kingdoms.

You know this very well.

You look in your offices.

People trying to cling

to the kingdoms of respect,

status,

power,

control,

or getting your own way.

And it's peaceful

as long as there's no one

or nothing standing in your way.

But the moment

there is a threat

to your kingdom,

maybe it's threatened

by others criticizing you.

Your kingdom of respect

then begins to crumble.

Maybe it's annoying people

who just are driving you crazy,

and your kingdom of comfort

is then looking under threat.

At those points,

we often end up

murdering people

in our thoughts,

through our words,

through our criticisms,

through our complaining,

just like Herod.

So think back

just this last week.

When were you stressed

this last week?

When were you angry,

frustrated,

impatient

in this last week?

Who were you critical of?

Who did you use your words

to cut down

or to complain about

this week?

Because maybe

that's a sign

that you're clinging

to your kingdom.

Maybe God is calling you

to worship Him.

So my final point,

and we've looked

at the two different

types of kingdom.

One where we cling to it.

One where there's a king

who lays down

his rights.

We've looked at

the clash of kingdoms.

Final point,

living for the king.

What does it look like

to live under

the rule of the king?

How do we live

for the king?

You will only live

for King Jesus

and His kingdom

when you stop

seeing how much

you have to lose

by submitting

to His rule

and start seeing

how much

you have to gain.

You need to realize

that every other king

in this universe,

including you

and including me,

is a tyrant

at some point

or other

when our kingdom

is threatened.

We may try

and defend that,

say, no, no, no,

it's not me,

but if I was to ask

the people around you,

I'm sure they would tell me

just like if you asked

people around me.

At times

when my kingdom

is threatened,

I can be very

like Herod.

But there's only one king

who at every single

point in life

is not a tyrant.

One king

who rules

through suffering,

who pours himself

out for his people

rather than

exploiting people.

Only one king

would leave his glory

to enter the slum

of humanity

to be ignored,

persecuted,

ridiculed,

mistreated

for you

and for me.

That's the only king

worth worshipping.

So you need to realise that.

But secondly,

you need to recognise.

Recognise

that God brings moments

in your life,

those little moments

throughout your week,

little moments

of frustration,

moments of annoyance,

moments of things

where you just,

your plans are not

working out,

people are not responding

the way you want them to.

God brings moments

because those are moments

that he's calling you

to see him in the moment.

To not be so wrapped up

with your kingdom

like Herod was,

that he doesn't see

that Jesus is calling him

to worship.

He calls us

to worship

in those moments.

and life

is made up

of a thousand

little moments

of worship.

This week,

you are going to be worshipping.

Which king

are you going to worship?

And the thing

I learned to remember,

because by the time tomorrow,

I've forgotten this.

So what I've started

to do for myself

is to speak to myself.

In those moments,

when I'm running around

my list of why

I am right

at that particular moment,

running around

in my mind

the list of frustrations

why everybody else

is the problem,

at that moment,

I'm beginning to learn

to say to myself,

it's not my kingdom

and I'm not the king.

Maybe everyone,

say that now

after me.

It's not my kingdom

and I'm not the king.

It's not my kingdom.

Jesus is the only king

who is worth following.

Not even you

are worth following.

He's the only one.

So just realize

that he's so good.

Recognize

that he's calling you

to worship

even this week

in the little moments

and finally,

rejoice.

You notice

there are people

in this story

who do

submit themselves

to Jesus,

who bow down

and worship him.

They are

people

from a foreign land,

from a pagan religion,

who live

in the courts

of the kings,

giving advice

based on the stars,

who've been following

a different kingdom

and yet

when they see

the star

and they see

that there's another king,

they go on a journey

for at least a year,

possibly two years

to bow down

and worship this king.

And you see

in verse 10,

their response

when they see the star

is

they rejoiced

exceedingly

with great joy.

Matthew,

he's kind of like,

I don't have enough

vocabulary

to be able to say

how joyful they are.

It's like,

I'm in a shopping mall

and I'm desperate

for the bathroom

and you go on

this five minute journey

around the bathroom,

around the mall

to find

the bathroom

and then you see

in the sky

the sign

a little man

or a little woman

and you rejoice

with great joy.

But imagine

after a year

of travelling

they don't just

rejoice with great joy,

they rejoice

exceedingly

with great joy

because they were

looking for the true king

and they wanted

to worship him.

You see,

just concluding,

they shall call

his name Jesus

because he will

save his people

from their sins.

Jesus,

the true king,

comes to save you

from your kingdom.

He comes to save you

from you.

That's what sins are.

It's you trying

to cling on

to your own kingdom.

He's come to save you

from your rule,

to save you

from being so wrapped up

in your kingdom,

save you

not just in the past

but every day

this week

he wants to save you

and bring you

more and more

under his rule,

under his reign

so you worship him

and the result

is that even

in the frustration

and the hardships

of life,

you can have joy,

exceedingly

great joy

because you're living

under the prince

of peace,

the one who brings joy.

that is the Christmas story.

Let's pray.

Maybe if you'd just like

to think for a moment

over this last week,

think about some

of those questions

I raised.

Where have you

this week

been critical

of others,

been annoyed,

angry,

impatient?

What is it

in your kingdom

that you try

and cling on to?

Maybe just

here's a moment

where you can just

confess those things

and say,

Jesus,

I want you

to be the true king

of my life.

I want to live

a life

in the little moments

this week

of worship

to you.

Father,

thank you

that you're a God

who is like no other,

who has a kingdom

like no other,

who calls us

to lay down

our own kingdoms

but doesn't do

that in a vacuum.

You laid down

your rights,

your status,

your comfort,

your reputation

for us

because you are God

who wants to be

with us,

who wants to bring

us peace and joy,

who wants to save

us from ourselves.

Please help us

to see you

this week

in those little moments

and to realize

that our kingdom

is not one

that's worth

clinging on to.

but yours

is.

Thank you

that you're amazing.

Amen.

Thanks, Chris.

When you came in,

we've been talking

the last three weeks

about worshiping

and what it looked like

for us to worship

as a church

and as a church family

and a community.

And when you came in,

you should have received

a couple things.

One was on your chair.

This is some of the

initiatives that we've

been praying about

as a church family

to celebrate

and worship

in their act of giving

this Sunday,

today.

So there's three things

on there.

And in your envelope,

or in your bulletin,

you should have got

a special offering envelope.

And so today,

everything that's given

in the church,

as a church family,

we're going to give

to these ministries

that are working around here.

We said from the very beginning

as we started the church

three years ago

that we were looking

for how God is working

on this part of Hong Kong Island.

And as a family,

you guys have identified

a lot of these things

and you're a part

of serving in these things

and the community groups

are a part of these things.

Now the third thing on here

that we are going to give to

and want to be praying about

is at the very bottom

of your list,

it's sons and daughters.

And so I've asked Julie

to come up here

and we're going to do

a quick interview.

I wanted her to share

a little bit about

what God has been doing

in her heart

and then what this ministry

is all about

so you know

and you can be praying

about these things.

And by the way,

don't be worried

about your kids.

Your kids are going

to be brought up here

so you don't have

to rush down there

because we have a book table

out back and some food

and we want to have

a time of fellowship

after this time.

So don't rush off.

Your kids are going

to be brought up here.

But Julie,

or as you're known

to my family,

Miss Borth,

because she's

our littlest teacher

at ICA.

So why don't you

share a little bit

about who you are

and how you came here.

My name's Julie

and I came with ELIC

in 2009,

which Mike and Katie

had up.

And I loved it so much

that I came back

in 2011

and went back

to the States

for a couple years

and taught

and realized

this is where

I wanted to be.

So found a teaching job

and about a year

and a half ago

came here.

Okay.

And I look on

this little bulletin

that we had

in everybody's chairs

and there's this thing

called Sons and Daughters

and I think probably

a lot of us

have never even

heard about that

but it's captured

your heart

and the hearts

of other people

in our community

and so maybe

can you share

a little bit

about what is

Sons and Daughters?

Sure.

So when I arrived

actually to Hong Kong

with all of my luggage,

I pulled up

and the taxi driver

said,

oh,

here, here,

look at low.

And I looked up

and I saw Club Bunny

and I thought,

this is my new apartment

and, you know,

saw, you know,

where I was living

and there was

very explicit adult stores

and, you know,

I was just completely

in a new world

and throughout my year

that I lived on the street,

I went through

a lot of anger.

I thought,

why is this happening?

What's going on?

And then the Lord

really started

to change my heart

and he, you know,

I wanted to help

but then I thought,

who am I to do anything?

You know,

I'm just,

I'm from Missouri

and the States.

So I had a lot of fear

and I would pass the girls

and the mamas

and, you know,

start to like wave hi

and there was one afternoon

after church,

I went home

and I watched this documentary

and I saw a red light district

in Thailand

and it was there

that I heard verbatim

some things

that the girls were saying

that I had heard

on the street

as I was going home

every night

and the Lord

really convicted my heart.

He said,

you know what's going on,

so what are you going

to do about it?

And it was that same week

that I got in touch

with sons and daughters

who had heard about it before

and haven't stopped since.

So what we do,

we go out on Monday nights

to pray

just for our group,

for direction

and also for the government,

for the police force,

for the people on the street

and then on Thursday nights

we go out

and we actually talk

to the girls primarily

and the mamasans

and anybody else

who we run into.

We talk to them

and we want to share

whatever we can,

any hope that we can

with them.

And through this whole process,

what would you say

is some of the things

God's been teaching you

in this process

about yourself?

It's hard to narrow down.

Every time I go,

my faith is refined

and challenged

in a new way.

I've seen

the importance of prayer

first and foremost.

The Lord has really just

redefined what prayer is

to me.

that it is

the first resort,

that the first thing

we need to do

is pray together,

believe that the Lord

can change,

you know,

the nature of the street

and the hearts

of the people

on the street.

Through prayer,

we've seen transactions

with girls that we know

with a man standing there

and he's about to hand

over his money

and we'll just stop

and pray

and we've seen him

take his money back

and say not tonight.

We've seen girls

that we've built

relationships with

have the courage

to run away,

to get away from it

and thus break their

contracts where they

can't come back.

We've seen just

amazing things happen

and that's not us,

you know,

who are we?

It's the Lord through us.

So prayer number one

and number two,

when we go out,

it can be overwhelming.

You can look at the

situation as a whole

and think,

where is this ever

going to end?

How can this change?

And I used to go

and my primary resort

was to pray,

you know,

what programs

can we put in place?

What can we do?

Which those are good.

There's a time

and a place for that.

But the Lord has taught me

that He's the answer first.

When I go out

and when I talk

to the mamas

and the girls,

He's the first answer.

Their salvation,

their,

to be open to redemption

and grace,

that's the first answer.

So that's maybe

the biggest thing

that I've learned recently.

Okay, good.

And as a church family,

because we go,

like,

I've gone down there,

not for that type of thing,

but this,

actually one of our

favorite restaurants

is there.

So I don't know

how to say this,

but Christy and I

go on date night

every Thursday night

and our favorite restaurant

is Coyotes

on Lockhart Road

and they're usually

trying to grab me

even as she's holding on

to me in that sense.

But as we think about

what you're doing

and what's going on there,

what are,

what should we be doing?

What do you want us to do?

What can we do

about these things?

How can we pray

for these things?

And I think even more

specifically is people

have a heart for the

brokenness around them

as they hear you share.

Because that's some

of our prayers

as we share these things.

We're praying

as a church family

that other people

will see the same amount

of brokenness

and see that Christ

is the answer

like you shared.

So how can we pray

for that and how

can we get involved?

There's a,

after Jesus preaches

a parable in Mark,

he says,

he who has ears

let him hear.

As almost to say

that there's more

to the story,

there's more that's going on.

That would be

my first prayer

and that's what

the process Lord

has brought me

and several others

that are on the team

through to open our eyes

to see how the,

to see what's going on

as how the Lord

really sees it.

To see your neighbors

and our neighbors

as to what's really happening

we need prayer.

We need more

to stand behind us.

It's just,

it makes the biggest difference.

To love the people

for where they're at.

To,

we can't really expect

those,

you know,

people to come to us

but rather we're called

to go out to them

and to meet them

where they're at,

share what we can

with them.

There's a quote

from one of my

personal heroines,

Molly Mom,

who is a Cambodian woman

who's trafficked.

She says,

now she has a center

in Cambodia.

She says,

I can't change the world.

I don't even want to try.

But what I can do

is share with the girl

who's right in front of me.

And I've really taken

that to heart.

You know,

I can't change the world.

But what I can do

is pray for those

spiritual eyes

to see what's really happening

and for even that one girl,

that one person,

just to go consistently

and share the news with her.

So,

we can all do something.

We can become aware

of what's going on.

We can actively

see what's happening

in Hong Kong.

We can do something about it.

It doesn't mean

that you have to go

week after week,

but you can pray.

You can find out more.

You can talk about it more.

You can spread

what's happening

because a lot of it

is just kept in the darkness.

We want to bring that to light

and we want to bring

those girls out of

a really horrible situation

that they're in.

Okay.

And so,

if you want to hear more

or learn more

about what we're doing

with the sons and daughters

or want to become

a part of that,

you can contact the church

or we can contact you directly.

Is that right?

And I think that's something

as we've been praying about,

God continues to bring

this brokenness

in front of us.

And so,

I think it's what Julie said.

The question is,

what are we going to do

about that?

And I know that some of us

have other burdens here

in our prayers

that as we continue

on this journey as a family,

these burdens would come out

and we'd understand

and ask questions like,

why are we here as a church?

And what are we supposed

to do about those things,

right?

For God's glory

and His kingdom.

So,

on your bulletin,

we're talking about

St. Barnabas,

we're talking about

the inner city ministries,

we're talking about

sons and daughters,

and we're talking about

church planning.

And so,

we just ask for you

as you think

and move towards

worshiping

as we give our finances

this Sunday

and this week

to pray about those things.

And I'm going to pray

for us

and pray for you.

Share one more thing.

One thing that we actually need,

we're doing a Christmas outreach

on Christmas.

And we have a lot of

other churches and places

donating makeup items

and other things

that the girls would want.

Something that I would

maybe ask if you could

help with,

we want to,

again,

meet the girls

where they're at.

They're not going

to be home for Christmas.

We want to give them

calling cards

where they can call

to their home.

So,

if that's something

that you'd like

to help out with,

we could really

actually use that donation.

So,

either just money

or an actual

just calling card.

Okay,

good.

Let's pray for us.

By the way,

thank you for this day.

We thank you for Julie

and just what you're doing

in her heart,

in her life.

Thank you just for her

as a teacher.

I just think of her

loving on our kids

and just the future

generations of Hong Kong.

and I think even as she

meets the brokenness

and is continually

changed by your son,

that you just continue

to distill that passion

in her.

And I pray for those

of us in here

who have that same passion.

I pray for some of us

who have no passion,

that we need

to have a passion

as we look at

how amazing you are

and how wonderful

your kingdom is.

Help us to be convicted

of that, Lord.

Help us to ask questions

of which kingdom

we're living for

and who really is

the king in our kingdom.

And we pray

for these outreaches

that are happening.

We pray for the ICM kids

that are here in front of us

as we love on them

and care for them.

We pray for St. Barnabas

as we build a new facility

to house people,

to feed people every week,

to train up little kids,

to reach out

to those 7,000 households

that make $10,000

or less a month

in Hong Kong.

We pray for church planners.

We pray for the amazing work

you have been going on.

We're praying for the 200 churches

we're praying

and trusting the Lord

to plant

in the next five years

and for the thousands

of church planners

and people who have

a burden to reach lost people

by planting churches

that are gospel-centered

and love you.

And Lord,

we pray for our offering.

We pray, Lord,

that we don't talk

about offering a lot.

We know that it's

an amazing act,

a massive act

of worship to you.

And you know our hearts.

And so we pray

for these offerings

that are coming in today

and this week,

that you would use them

to your glory.

That whatever comes in,

that you would multiply it

and use it in amazing ways

to free people

from darkness,

to free people

from bondage,

and to point people

to your Son,

Jesus,

who we deeply love.

And so we pray

for your mercy

and grace in our life.

And we thank you

that we even have

the privilege

to worship you

here in this facility

and to take an offering.

all these things

we give back to you

right now

and pray that your kingdom

would be done

and your will be done

and your name

will be made great.

So Father,

we love you

and we worship you

and we pray these things

in your Son,

Jesus' name.

Amen.

Thanks.