Wisemen | Clayton Hentzel

Crossing Nation, it is so incredibly good to be with you.

I want to welcome you joining from all of our different

locations, those of you watching online and those of you who are

part of our inside family. Christmas is right around the

corner. There is still time to buy gifts

online and get them delivered to your house.

Men, order them soon. OK, now, if you have not yet

picked out your Christmas Eve service times, we're going to be

starting our Christmas Eve services on Thursday and taking

them all the way through Sunday. And if you are going, hey, which

one should I go to? You can go to

thecrossing.net/christmas. That's us.

And you can pick your campus, pick your service and pick a

couple people that you like and maybe one that you don't like to

bring with you. I have a special message of hope

that I believe will be a blessing not just to you, but to

the people that you love. We are in the middle of a series

called In the Middle of the Mess.

Week one I talked about in the middle of the Mess Joseph chose

to trust. Last week, Jerry was talking

about in the middle of the mess. Mary chose to rejoice.

Today I want to talk to you about In the Middle of the Mess

the Wise men chose to worship. I don't know if you know this,

but sometimes life doesn't go as planned.

Do I have a home team tonight? Anybody been there?

Some of you are like that's my week.

That my week did not go as planned.

In 2016, Jennifer and I and A group of our friends, we decided

to go on a trip to Riviera Maya to spend a week.

Part of that is because Jennifer and I cannot go somewhere by

ourselves, and that is because I am a Labrador retriever.

I need someone to throw a ball that I can go fetch.

I need someone to play with and she wants to lay by the beach

and read. And I'm like, you can lay

somewhere and read at home. Like, I don't understand why we

would do that. So I have to have some.

So we have to take friends. So that way I have someone to

hang out with. And can I just tell you this

trip was an absolute disaster. It begins by us going down to

Saint Louis because we have like a super early flight and the

pictures online for the place where we were going to stay

looked pretty fantastic. In fact, it was a really bargain

price for such a nice hotel considering the pictures.

But when we got there, elevator didn't work.

Had to go upstairs. And then we had to step over

electrical cables that were and bare wires, duct tape, water

raining down from the ceiling buckets, only catching half the

water to a door that wouldn't lock.

A faucet that wouldn't turn on. It was one of those

environments. And, fellas, I don't know how

cool your wife is, but the wives on our trip said we're not

sleeping here. And the guys were kind of like,

I'll just lay on top of the bed. The sheets were stained.

We didn't even upload our bags. We were like this.

There's been murders here. We can't.

We can't. We don't want to be, you know we

can't do this. So we finally we, you know, we

just, I don't even know how. I don't even.

That part of the trip is a blur because all I know is we ended

up at the resort and we we got like the nice rooms and so

everybody got really nice robes. The problem is, I'm not a normal

sized human being and my robes stopped here.

So when everybody's getting ready to like go down in their

robes to like hang out by the pool, Nope, I'll just be me.

We did a Segway tour and I've never ridden A Segway neither

anybody else on our trip. And one of the guys, you've

actually met him before, Ryan Riggins, he's at the the Solomon

Foundation. He hopped on on his Segway and

they were doing like the training routine on how you're

supposed to navigate the Segway. And he did like 3 moves on his

Segway that looked like he was JB Maloney on riding at 8

seconds on a bull. And I don't know how his body

could go so far this way, so far that way.

And then he landed and Ben and I are on our Segways doing the did

we just watch our friend die? And when he got up we're like,

OK, so he can walk. We started laughing.

We laughed so hard, we were dangerous on our Segways.

Then we went to a really nice Italian restaurant on the

resort. And if you ever go with me, I

like a good Italian meal and I love bread with Parmesan cheese

with the little oil. And if you take the oil, put it

on a plate, put a little Parmesan cheese on it, stir it

all up real nice. It makes a nice little

cholesterol sauce and you dip your bread in it.

And they weren't bringing the bread around very fast.

And I have been known at times to be impatient.

And so I went over to where they had the bread and I started

cutting it up. Well, while I was cutting it up

I decided to be funny and I put, I put the little, the the wine

napkin, you know over your. So I look like I was official.

Well, people from the resort started coming up to me and

having me cut bread for them and put it on their plate.

Now let me ask you if you've been to a resort in the Riviera,

Maya. Do I look like someone who works

there? Oh, yeah, The 66 white guy.

He's one of our best employees. That was just a cutting away

bread, like. All right, another loaf.

Hurry, purple boar. I just my our table's like,

where did Clayton go? Just over there, just dulling

knives. How many of you want?

All right, no. Anyhow, even though the trip was

an absolute mess, it ended up being an incredible experience.

In fact, I would tell you that our best memories of the trip

were the messes and every single one of you.

You are going to have a mess at some point time in your life.

Some of you, maybe even most of you, are in a mess right now.

And I'll remind you of something I talked to you about in week 1.

The choices that we make in the middle of the mess can make all

the difference. How many of you in the middle of

a mess have written yourself a permission slip that you

probably shouldn't have written? OK, how many of you in the

middle of the mess have made a decision that you probably

shouldn't have made? What if instead of doing that,

we did something different? Let's talk about the wise men.

Matthew chapter two starts it off after Jesus was born in

Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod.

Pause. If you're reading through your

Bible, you're going to see the name Herod over and over and

over again. And you're like this guy's dead

and then he shows up someplace else in the book.

Let me unpack this a little bit for you.

So, Herod, this is Herod the Great.

He is the first of several Herod's mentioned in the New

Testament. In fact, there are 6 Herod's in

the New Testament. You're like, oh, that makes way

more sense. This Herod died, we get a new

one. In fact, Herod was like the

first George Foreman. You know how George Foreman.

He named all of his kids George Foreman.

Somebody asked him one time, why did you name your kids all

George Foreman? He goes, well, if you're going

to get hit in the head as many times as I have by Ali, Frazier

and Holyfield, you're not going to remember that many names.

OK, so Herod's like, hey, son, that's a great name.

You're Herod. And you, you're a Herod.

Herod was as bad of a man as you can find.

This Herod was as horrible of a human being as you could be.

You would be hard pressed to think of anybody in our recent

history who was as bad as this guy.

He had his wife's brother drowned.

He had his wife killed, along with her mother and two of his

own sons, five days before his death.

He had his a third son killed during the time when he was

getting ready to die. He had important and well liked

Jerusalem officials arrested and imprisoned.

The reason why he did this is he was convinced that when he died

nobody would mourn his death and he gave instructions that upon

his death that all of the well liked officials in Jerusalem

would be killed so that there would be mourning in Jerusalem

when he died. Bad dude.

After you're going to actually see at the end of the story how

bad of a duty was because you know what he actually does.

After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea during the

time of King Herod, we got that one figured out.

Magi from the east came to Jerusalem.

Pause. Two things.

You should probably call him Magi instead of Magi, but I

learned it when I was a kid and I can't switch it around.

So forgive me. OK, we don't know how many there

were. We say 3 because there were

three gifts that were given, but that's all we know.

There could have been a ton more.

We do know that they were from the East.

More than likely they were from a a priestly political class who

were known for their knowledge of science, agriculture,

mathematics, and history. In other words, these were

incredibly accomplished dudes. These were the Elon Musk, Jeff

Bezos dudes of their day. OK, we don't know if they wrote

camels, but camels seem like a cool way to get around if you're

a smart dude. So maybe they wrote them.

They were the most powerful group of advisers in the in the

Medo Persian Empire and the Babylonian Empire.

When you read about those in the Old Testament or in world

history, these guys were Ballers.

And it is from this term of these guys that we get the words

magic magician. These guys would show up and

things would change. Came to Jerusalem and they asked

where is the one who has been born King of the Jews?

We saw his star when it rose and we have come to worship him.

When King Herod heard this, he was disturbed and all of

Jerusalem with him pause. We already have established that

Herod is crazy. These important officials, more

than likely with a gigantic entourage to help them travel

from the east, show up, and they're asking where is the king

of the of the Jews? And this disturbed Herod.

Rightfully so. You see, Jerusalem was an

occupied country. They were occupied by the

Romans. Julius Caesar, who you've read

about in your history books, had placed Herod's father in charge

of Judea. And then Herod's dad put him in

charge of Galilee, the region where we're talking about.

Then Herod traveled all the way to Rome, and he was named, Check

this out, King of the Jews. This would be like somebody pick

your country, your foreign country that you don't like,

that country taking over the United States of America, and

then a foreign person who's not an American being called

president of the United States. And we would all have a huge

problem with that, right? So in order to make things a

little bit more palatable to the Jewish people, he married a Jew.

So somebody comes here to the States and they marry an

American citizen. So that way they're trying to at

least make us feel like they're part of the American people.

And so now you have a cruel, bloodthirsty ruler being who

goes by king of the Jews, being asked by a bunch of influential

people in Jerusalem, Where is this king of the Jews that's

been born When he had called together all of the people's

chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the

Messiah was to be born. In Bethlehem, In Judea.

They replied, for this is what the prophet has written.

I'm going to pause for just a second.

Prophet is written as actually a big clue when you're reading

this text because there are actually 4 geographical

prophecies fulfilled in just Matthew chapter 2.

Matthew 2 · chapter mention

If you go home and read it, you're going to see Bethlehem,

Egypt, Ramah, and Nazareth. The reason I'm telling you that

is there are over 300, more than likely 330 depending on how you

count Old Testament prophecies about Jesus Christ, and Jesus

fulfilled everyone. This is like dude perfect on

steroids. This is not him making one trick

shot. This is him making 330

consecutive, more difficult, more challenging 1 trick shots

in a row. The reason I'm telling you that

is the arrival of Jesus Christ is no small thing.

The entire Old Testament. All of human history has been

prophesying and pointing to this moment.

You those of you who claim to be a Christian, you have a reasoned

faith, not a blind faith. To those of you who maybe have

never started a relationship with Jesus Christ, I want you to

hear me say this. There are reasons to believe

that Jesus is who he says that he is.

He is a prophecy fulfiller. But you of Bethlehem, this is

one of the keys in the land of Judah, are by no means least

among the rulers of Judah. For out of you will come a ruler

who will shepherd my people Israel.

Let's keep going. When Herod called the Magi

secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had

appeared, he sent them to Bethlehem and said, go and

search carefully for the child. As soon as you find him, report

to me so that I too may go and worship him.

So you are these magi, and you have a crazy, bloodthirsty king

telling you, come back and tell me what you learned so I can go

and worship him. Let's keep going.

After they had heard of the king, they went on their way,

and the star they had seen when it rose went ahead of them until

it stopped over the pallets or the place where the child was.

Pause. I thought the star led him

basically all the way there. No, no, no.

Imagine these Magi. If they see this star, it leads

them to basically Jerusalem, and then it stops showing off.

Now we got to stop and ask for directions and then they get

directions and then the star reappears and takes them right

to the place where Jesus was. Let's keep reading.

When they saw the star, they were overjoyed because they'd

lost it. It stopped shining on coming to

the house. Pause.

We know that some serious time has taken place since Jesus was

born. In this moment, he's no longer

in a stable in a Manger. He's now in a house somewhere

between 41 days and two years of ages where we find ourselves in

the life of Jesus. They're no longer in The Cave.

They're no longer in a Manger. The journey for the wise men

could have taken months. They were not in attendance on

the night of Jesus's birth. You don't have to throw them

away. You don't have to get rid of

them from your little nativity scene.

I'm just saying, like, put them in a different room.

OK, just to scale, put them in a different room.

Maybe the garage next to the Elf on the Shelf.

OK, now, the reason I'm telling you all this is already in the

text. You see three different

approaches to Jesus. Three different groups of people

have an opportunity to interact with Jesus, and they all take a

different approach. Herod was threatened, and so he

didn't want anything to do with him.

The chief priests and the teachers of the law pay little

attention to him. They should have been looking

for this. They're religious people.

They were waiting for a Messiah. They could have been joining in

on the search, but they didn't. They should have been excited

about what was happening, but they weren't, because Jesus

didn't show up the way that they wanted him to show up.

They weren't interested in following and paying attention

to this Jesus. But the wise men, these

foreigners, these people who wouldn't have been included,

keep pursuing Jesus and they end up worshipping him.

Now let's keep reading. They saw the child with his

mother, Mary, and they bowed down and worshipped him.

We're going to come back to that.

Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of

gold, frankincense and myrrh. One time my parents had people

living in our house. I can't remember their names,

but they had a rule in their home that they only gave their

kids 3 gifts at Christmas because that's as many presents

as Jesus got. And their kids weren't better

than Jesus, which is cool for their stupid family.

But that wasn't a rule that we had and it was our house.

But we got shortchanged that year because we had to play nice

to the weirdos. But parents, if you're on a

budget this year, you can at least play the you know well,

Jesus got. Now flip side, if I'd have been

a Bible scholar back then, but yeah, but those 3 gifts were

pretty impressive, weren't they? Yeah, dad, you'd only have to

give me 3 gifts this year. But make the first one gold,

Paul. Are the girls like?

Oh, I'm in. I'm in.

Diamond sounds great. Pay attention to this.

All three gifts were expensive. They were all of great value.

Lots that has been written about these particular gifts.

At the very least these expensive costly gifts paid for

the upcoming flight of them to leave where they were at and

make their way to Egypt. You got to remember 2 weeks ago

when I was preaching to you, Joseph and Mary were poor and

now we're going to find out Herod's going to try to kill all

the people in Bethlehem, all the young boys in Bethlehem, and so

they're going to have to flee. How are these poor people going

to leave with no job, no decent means of transportation and make

a gigantic journey through treacherous areas?

And at just the right time, gifts of gold, frankincense and

myrrh arrive on the scene to provide for the journey.

That's at the very least, at the most.

They had intense spiritual overtones.

Gold was the most valuable metal that is mentioned at All in all

of scripture. It was used to adorn temples and

palaces, and it was a gift that was given to kings.

Frankincense was used on special occasions, and it was used in

the temple specifically on the Day of Atonement.

Frankincense was a gift that you gave to signify a deity to

worship a God. Myrrh was used as incense for

those of you who don't know what incense is.

You probably have an aunt or a stay at home mom who's selling

her essential oils. That's what it is.

And you don't have to raise your hand if you're one of those

people who's we can we can smell you.

We know you're here. We appreciate we appreciate your

lavender mint. And I'm I'm sure that the new

thing that your Aroma pusher is way better than the one you were

selling last year. We're happy for you.

We love it. So that's what myrrh was.

This is like the first essential oil salesperson and it was a

perfume that was used to cloak bad smells.

Sometimes you would put it on a lover's bed to make sure that

the room was set up just right, but it was also used when

somebody died and it was packed inside of the burial clothes to

keep away the smell of the decaying body.

It signified humanity. Here baby Jesus is given 3

gifts, one for a king, one for a God, one for a human.

Taken together, these gifts could indeed signify Jesus's

kingship, his deity, and his eventual sacrifice and death on

a cross on your behalf and on mine.

Let's keep going in the text, and having been warned in a

dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country

by another route. We're going to circle back to by

another route. If I have enough time in the

sermon, take away number one. You can have everything, but you

have nothing if you don't have Jesus.

Here are wise men who, from the outside looking in, have

everything that you could want. They were more than likely rich,

well to do, highly respected, influential in their spheres of

influence. There are big deals, but here

you find them chasing after Jesus.

They had everything from the outside.

But look what happens in Matthew chapter 16.

Matthew 16 · chapter mention

Then Jesus said to his disciples, whoever wants to be

my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and

follow me. For whoever wants to save their

life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will

find it. What good will it be for someone

to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul?

Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul?

At the end of the day, it is not about what you have that

matters, it's about who has you. It's not about all the things

that you can accumulate into your hands, but whether or not

you will place your life in his hands.

Parents, we spend an awful lot of time, myself included, on

sports school, getting ready for college.

But hear me, if your child does not have a relationship with

Jesus Christ, they have nothing. I would rather my kids be a high

school dropout and a follower of Jesus Christ.

I would rather have my kids get hit in the head every time

someone throws a ball at them and then have a relationship

with Jesus Christ. Parents of kids who are getting

ready to start your college visits, before you pick a

college, check out to make sure that they have a church and get

your kid plugged into that church before you sign up for

that college. Because if you don't pay close

attention in those first eight weeks of them being at school,

they will not get connected to a church.

They will fall away and a lot of your hard work will be lost.

Make sure between practices and dances and trips and vacations

that you are doing your part to make sure that your kids

recognize their need for a Savior.

Take away #2. In the middle of the mass, the

wise men chose to worship. They had orders from a dangerous

man. They had all the reason in the

world to be full of worry, to be anxious, to be nervous.

This guy kills people and they show up after Jesus anyway.

And when they get there, they do something really strange.

They worship him. Sometimes we come to church as a

way to kind of get away from the mess sometimes, and I love it

when they say it. I even agree when they say it.

Sometimes worship people say, hey, I I just want you guys to

leave. Whatever you've had going on

this week, just leave it behind for a little bit and just come

in and get some rest at the feet of Jesus and you know, leave

your troubles behind for just a little bit and connect with your

Lord. We want.

And that's what we want to do, isn't it?

We want to escape it. We want to escape the pain,

escape the trauma, escape the hurt, escape everything that's

going on. So we're just going to come to

church to escape it for a little bit.

And we get a little high and then we walk out and it's

waiting for us in the car. Sometimes it walked with us to

the car. Don't.

Careful, no nudging. OK, here's what I want to say to

you. Maybe instead of leaving it

behind, what if you brought it with you and you worshipped him

anyway? I'm not as impressed with people

who can worship God when everything's going right.

It's probably easy to worship when you got a raise.

Man, you're so good. You're so faithful.

Woo Jarrah, right? But you you tell me, which is

more impactful. I didn't get a raise.

I lost my job. Can you still sing how good he

is? Can you still sing that he's a

provider? I'm more impressed with people

who can worship in the middle of the pain than I am with people

who are worshipping without any pain.

That you take your mess and you bring it in and go.

This is where I'm at, and I'm choosing to worship you anyway.

It's one thing to worship God when you're on the mountaintop,

but it says something completely different about us when we can

worship him in the valley and the Christian life and life in

general. It's not mountaintop to

mountaintop. It is mountaintop, valley,

valley, valley, valley, valley, mountaintop.

And just so you know, the one who's on top of the mountain is

the same one who's in the valley.

If God's good all the time, that means that he's good when you're

going up the mountain and He's just as good when you're going

down the mountain. And when you bring that kind of

mentality into your walk with the Lord.

When you bring that kind of mentality into your worship, it

doesn't matter what's going on. I am worshipping him.

Take away #3. The wise men came prepared to

worship. Worship should cost you

something. It was hard for me to worship

because my seat wasn't just right.

It was hard for me to worship because it was too loud.

It was hard for me to worship because I was sitting next to

someone stinky. It's hard for me to worship

because I had a long week. These people came in advance

prepared to worship. They prepared to encounter a

king, and the idea of worshipping a king and showing

up with nothing is foreign to biblical Christianity.

When you are worshipping Jesus, he is the Lord of your life and

he is the Lord of everything in your life.

But functionally, he is only the Lord of the things that you have

placed in his hands. And there are things we will

place in his hands, like our sins.

There's things we'll place in his hands, like our messes.

And that's what we end up doing to Jesus.

We make him Lord of all the things we don't want, but we

don't make him Lord of all the things we do want.

Hey, Jesus, you're a great Lord over my messes, just not my

finances. I don't want my mess, but I do

want my money. Got you.

You're in charge. You're in control of all of my

failures. But I don't want you to

necessarily touch my successes. What they're doing is they're

bringing costly things Wherever you placed your time, your

talents, your resources, what gift are you going to bring to

King Jesus? Oh, this might be my favorite

point of the sermon. This one, don't doubt What seeds

of faith you can plant in the middle of the mess.

I'm going to go along, but I'm going to tell you a story.

There is a strong possibility that the reason that these wise

men made a trip from the east all the way to Bethlehem is

because 400 years earlier there was a young man who was living

in Jerusalem who was taken captive to Babylon.

And that young man's name was Daniel.

And he showed up in Babylon, and he was put through the wringer.

He had to take a strong stand to maintain his faith and his diet.

His comrades had to choose not to bow down to a false idol.

He interpreted dreams at the threat of death.

He was told it's illegal to pray, and he chose to pray three

times a day anyway. And because of that they put him

in the lion's den. But because he kept being

obedient to God and going from 1 mountaintop to into the valley,

and then God would save him and deliver him in and prop him up,

and then he'd be persecuted and put back down and go through a

hardship. And because he kept being

faithful to God, he was placed in charge of all of the wise men

in Babylon, and 400 years later, a group of wise men, more than

likely from the region where Babylon was, make a trip to see

baby Jesus. Daniel's life was walking from

one mess into the next and choosing to follow God anyway.

However, his legacy is what caused the journey the wise men

took to Bethlehem. Listen to me.

And the gifts that they that they brought paid for a trip

that Joseph and Mary didn't have the funds to take and didn't

know that they were going to have to his faith may have given

the wise men the courage that they needed to take a stand

against Herod and not go back to him and tell them where they

found the Christ child and they spoke or they ran away so that

way they didn't have to face him.

Hear me. To those of you in a mess right

now. Somebody is watching you and

they are taking notes. Someone is paying attention to

the story you are writing. They are seeing you go through a

hard time and they're paying attention to what kind of faith

you have. One time I was with a friend

named Jeff Nemco and he's way more charismatic than I am.

And somebody there's details about this that are tough for me

to remember. I just remember this one part

and we were praying either for me or we were praying for

somebody. And it was one of those, you

know how you have those people who pray for you and they just

pray that everything goes great for you.

God, I pray that they get healed tomorrow.

I pray that when they go to the doctor, they don't find

anything. God, I pray that when they show

up, everything goes right. I pray that the the boss doesn't

make it out of his house today. So that way everybody else gets

promoted. I, you know, they're just

praying a prayer for you. And Jeff, like, did that part of

the prayer and then he didn't shut up and say Amen.

He said another part. And he basically said, and God,

if you want to make the road harder and higher, if you want

to make him suffer more, stop praying, stupid.

We don't. Don't listen to this guy.

Jeff goes, give him the strength to walk it.

There's someone watching you in your mess and it might just make

him go for a long trip to find Jesus.

But my favorite part of this story is my final take away.

They chose to worship him for who he is, not for what he had

done. Everybody say before, before

they were worshipping Jesus. Before the feeding of the 5000

they're worshipping Jesus. Before The Walking on water,

they were worshipping Jesus before the calming of the storm.

They were worshipping him before the miraculous catch, before the

raising of Lazarus, before the casting out of demons they were

worshipping, before he healed the paralyzed man.

Before the Sermon on the mount, before the cross, before the

resurrection, before the forgiveness of sins.

They were worshipping him before because they weren't worshipping

Jesus because of what he had done.

They were worshipping him because of who He is, and He is

the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end.

The Word made flesh, the only begotten.

All things are from Him and through him and held together by

Him. He is the image of the invisible

God. He is holy, and angels encircle

him and never stop declaring it. He wraps himself in light.

He is light. He is who He is, and no one can

take it away from Him. Sometimes we get so caught up in

our circumstances and our mess is that we forget who we're

talking to. We're talking to King Jesus and

we keep trying to give God a last name.

Dad, you can relate. I get called Daddy.

Can I? All the time, Like, can I?

Is my last name Anybody been there?

Hey, Dad, can I have my friends over?

Dad, can I get a phone when I'm 13?

Dad, can I get we get a new game on the PS5 like that.

My last name's Hensel, get a job.

And how many of us are prayer life, myself included.

This whole week was God, Kenya. God, would you?

God, please. God doesn't have a last name.

He is who he is and in the middle of the mess the wise men

chose to worship. And in the middle of your mess

your marriage, your family challenges, your diagnosis, your

parenting hardships, your financial pressure, your worry,

your fear, your depression, your anxiety.

I want to encourage you to do the same that in the middle of

the mess you are pre deciding I'm going to worship and maybe

that's what we need to do. We need to step into the throne

room and see him for who he is and then we won't have to worry

as much about our message because if we saw God for who he

is, we would say this. If he's for us who can be

against us? We're moving to a time of

decision so I didn't have time to get into it.

So let's do it now. I'm going to re preach the

sermon at the end it says the Wise Men took another route home

and I'm going to pull the text a little bit further than it's

supposed to and I'm acknowledging it so you don't

get to call me a heretic. But that's what they did.

They physically took a different route home and I wonder

spiritually if there's some of you who need to take a different

route home today. You've been navigating life all

on your own. The roads that you have been

walking, you've walked before. In fact, you never stop walking

them. You've been walking the route

of, hey, if I just get enough stuff, I'll finally be happy.

How many of you have bought some more stuff this year?

Nobody bought new stuff this year.

This is the participation part of the message.

Like, no, Clayton, we are broke. Hey, we're not.

We weren't having on Christmas. This three is going to be a

stretch question. All the stuff you got.

Are you that much happier? Are you laying in bed going now

that I got these shoes? Woo, right.

I always buy white tennis shoes because I'm dumb.

Because you know what happens to white tennis shoes?

They get dirty. Take them out-of-the-box.

You're done, and you've been trying to fill the hole in your

heart with your stuff, and I'm guessing it hasn't worked.

Some of you, you're trying to fill the hole in your heart with

relationships, but yet you've found out.

You've looked in the mirror and realized that you're attracted

to stupid people. Question.

How's that working? You've been running that route

for a long time. Some of you, you're going, you

know what? I'm just going to be selfish.

I I've been for everybody else for so long.

I'm just going to be for me. And I bet you're incredibly

unhappy and lonely because selfish people don't win friends

and influence. People question.

You've tried that route. How's it working?

Some of you, you feel this incredible weight and tension

and pain in your life over the sins that you've carried.

Your mind is a little bit turned spiritually and you're trying to

figure out how to pray enough and be good enough that you will

finally get into heaven. And I got to ask you, how's that

route working? Maybe you came to church on one

Rd. but you would go home another route.

Can I tell you about a route the early Christians were called

members of the Way. Jesus is called the Way, the

Truth, and the Life. It's a narrow road, and few find

it, But those who do never regret it.

If you were here today and you have never started an intimate,

personal relationship with Jesus Christ, can I encourage you to

take a different route home today?

You've been to a lot of invitations at our church.

It blows my mind how many people get baptized and have been

coming here for a decade. Like, what are you doing during

this part of the message? I'm tuning this guy out.

I gave him 30. You took 35.

I'm done. I'm going to start the

invitation first next week. Just do it on the front end when

you're still paying attention. Question.

You've been coming to church, you come to invitation time.

You sit there, arms folded. What if during this invitation

time, you tried a different route and he walked right over

there by the Baptist? He said.

I got to, I got to, I got to talk to somebody about how do I

get this relationship with God figured out to those of you who

are Christians. I want us to be worship anytime

Christians worship in the mess kind of Christians, people who

come to God and go. I'm worshipping you today.

Not because of what you've delivered me from, not because

of what I'm going through, not because of any of that.

I'm just worshipping you today because of who you are.

If they can worship him for who he is before the cross, we can

certainly worship him for who he is after the cross.

And there are people watching you right now, watching you

walk, watching you work. Watching how you love and treat

your family. How you navigate hardship, How

you deal with pain, How you cope with loss.

They're watching you, and I'm praying like Daniel.

When they get done watching you, they go looking for what you

have in Jesus. Would you stand with me?

God, this church is nothing. I'm nothing.

This sermon is nothing unless you're in it.

And so, God, I'm begging you to be in this place right now to do

a work that only you can do, in ways that only you can do it in

your name, I pray. Amen.