In the Fullness of Time: Myths, Materialism and the Messiah | Dr. John Ewart

Paul, I just want you to stand up now.

Now, turn around. Wait a minute.

Turn around. Turn around and face the choir.

Turn around and face the choir. Now see.

Just stay there for a minute. Now see some of you have

flashing lights at your house. Now turn back around.

No, no, no. Turn back around.

Turn that way. Turn back around.

Get off stage. Paul, Thank you.

I think we got a competition going on.

Well, Merry Christmas, Inglewood, take your Bibles turn

to Matthew chapter 1. I will be there with you

Matthew 1 · chapter mention

eventually. Let me share just a couple of

words. Thank you so much for being

here, braving the weather and sickness and busyness and

everything else you got going on out there.

Thank you so much. I do want to make sure that I

call attention to the Happy Birthday Jesus offering that's

still going on for a couple of weeks that supports a lot of our

missions projects as well as some additional new partners

that we have in 2026. Really important offering.

Hope that you'll give to that and and pray that you'll

continue to pray about that before the end of the year.

Also, for those who are interested in our mission trips

that we do have two mission trip meetings today if you were

interested in Uganda and you can still come.

It's at 4:00 in the edge and then Central Asia will be at

4:45 in the edge and then everything else will be on

January 4th. So for those who signed up for

2026 trips, we're nailing those things down coming together and

excited about the 200 plus of I think of you who expressed

interest in going on mission. So thank you so much for that.

And just take a good look at your worship guide.

Lots of important information during our praise time.

I was actually talking to our friends overseas and they had

signaled me earlier and I'd missed it.

And so I caught that and then we were dialoguing just a few

moments ago. I know a lot of you are

interested in what's, what's the latest, Some of you know,

they're not going to have a court date probably now until

February. And so just continue to pray for

them. But they're what's exciting, and

I was seeing some pictures, is that they're meeting with folks,

doing some training, meeting with their partners, kind of

moving along the best they can and seeing good ministry happen.

And so praise the Lord for that. And even the unreached people

group that we prayed for today falls within that, that range of

people that they work with. And so I want us to pray for

them again and lift them up. They're actually watching again

right now. And so we love you and

appreciate you very much and we want to lift you up.

So let's do that. Father, we're so grateful for

our folks who serve overseas in various places.

Thank you, Father, for the new partnerships and opportunities

we have to go to even new places this year coming up.

But Father, we certainly pray for our friends right now

through the the trials and tribulations, the opportunities

as well. Father, who knows what all

you're going to do between now and February with the gospel

through them. So I just pray you'll empower

them, you'll protect them, you'll give them grace and

opportunities, open the window to the gospel for the people

they're around. Give them the boldness to step

out and to share. And Father, we just pray, Lord,

that the people that they've trained will continue to train

others and continue to share with others and continue to

share with others. And we're going to hear

incredible testimonies, not only here on earth, but one day in a

throne room when we bring you glory and praise.

So, Father, thank you for them. Just pray you'll watch over them

and bless them and encourage them.

Help them know how much we love them in Christ's name, Amen.

Well, I hope you're getting ready for Christmas.

I, I, I don't know how well that's going for you.

I, Christmas is interesting because as we celebrate God

sending his son and we're talking about the sermon series

we're talking about is doing that in the fullness of time,

which I talked more about last week.

But we want to intentionally prepare for and to properly

observe Christmas. And it can be, it can be hard.

It can be difficult when we're surrounded by the culture that

we live in, the world we live in by and we're surrounded by so

many non biblical stories, so many fairy tales, so much focus

on stuff at Christmas. And even not that I don't love

family, but even family can kind of take priority of Jesus

sometimes. Travel, decorations, all the

stuff that we get into. So I want to talk about what

Christmas is and is not for a few moments this morning.

And then I want us to look at Matthew's story as I talk about

myths, materialism, and the Messiah.

So in Matthew, and we're going to go, we're going to share

about the coming of the Messiah. But the first, there's a couple

of things that we ought to talk about that Christmas is not.

You'll know some of this, you may not know all of this, but

let's just talk about a couple of things.

First of all, Christmas is not mythology.

So sometimes we lose the true meaning of Christmas when we

reduce it down to or we prioritize the mythology that's

all around it, right? And so that's tragic when you

consider the incredible significance and power of the

truth of Christmas, as well as the evangelistic opportunity and

frankly, consequence when we water it down this time of year,

people are actually interested in talking about Jesus Christ,

kind of like at Easter. There are opportunities to share

the gospel with people right now, and we don't want to miss

that. But but many don't know what

details are biblical and what details are not.

I mean, when we inject kings and drummer boys and talking animals

and flying reindeer and talking snowmen and elves and Kris

Kringle and of course even the Grinch.

Some even believe this is a dad joke.

Get ready. Some even believe in Olive, the

other reindeer. Oh, come on.

So there you are. So Teresa shared with me though

the other day she said, listen, this is, you know, because we're

next week, I'm going to talk about the Nativity and what

really happened at the Nativity. At our house.

We collect nativities, as some of you've heard me say, got

about 200 of them, I think at the house or something like

that. And she shared with me the other

day, she goes, here's Mary, probably totally exhausted, just

gets baby Jesus asleep. And here comes this young man

who thinks to himself, what this young girl needs right now is a

drum solo. Now I'm no Scrooge.

Turn to your neighbor and say Bah humbug.

And don't worry parents, I'm not here to ruin all of your fun and

all of your traditions. But where did it all come from?

I don't know if you know this, but the early church didn't even

celebrate the birth of Jesus. They celebrated the resurrection

and and they actually celebrated the baptism of Jesus, which is

interesting because we've lost that overtime, haven't we?

The celebration of his baptism, but the the celebration of his

birth didn't come to a lot later.

So let's talk about this. Let me ask you 3 questions about

Christmas. Why is Christmas on December

25th? And some of you will know parts

of this, but we don't know the exact date when Jesus was born.

Obviously some of you have probably heard the theory that

it wouldn't have been in winter because the the shepherds would

not have been out with their flocks by night.

But that's not necessarily true because if those flocks were in

Bethlehem, that's where they kept the temple flocks, the

sacrificial lambs, and the shepherds worked all year round

in Bethlehem. So it could have been still in

the winter. And so we recognize that we do

know the Roman holiday and some of you know it, Saturnalia, that

it was the birthday of the Roman birthday of the sun, not the the

SUN, the star. And it began on December 19th,

lasted for seven days. And so over the years, as

Christianity spread to the Roman Empire, this stuff got all mixed

up. And so many of the traditions of

Saturnalia got mixed up with Christian traditions.

And so from Saturnalia we get things like feasting and parades

and music and gift giving and lighted candles and green trees.

But then in 336 AD, Emperor Constantine declared that

December 25th was the birthday of Jesus and it became an

official Roman holiday, trying to offset the paganism.

The Pope comes along and agrees and says, so December 25th is

it. Again, it was a direct challenge

to the celebration of the Roman God and and they wanted to

replace them the immorality that was associated with the Pagan

celebrations. Yet yet Christmas being on

December 25th was not accepted by a lot of people throughout

the centuries. The Puritans for example in

early America rejected it and deliberately worked on December

25th. In 1644 in England a law was

passed that made December 25th an official working day and it

was illegal against the law to cook plum pudding and minced

pie. So stop that.

So we eventually settle in on December 25th.

Why do we decorate Christmas trees?

Well, once again the Romans. The Romans decorated their

temples with greenery and candles.

And when they conquered Britain, they found Druids and Saxons who

are who are using mistletoe and holly and Ivy in their worship.

So once again they they're trying to convert and and offset

the Pagan celebrations with Christian celebration.

Martin Luther might have been one of the first ones.

Seriously, Martin Luther may have been one of the first ones

that light a Christmas tree to decorate a church.

He actually introduced the practice of putting candles on

Chris on trees to celebrate Christmas within church

buildings. And he cited Isaiah 60.

He said, the glory of Lebanon shall come to you, the Cypress,

the plain and the pine to beautify the place of my

sanctuary and I will make the place of my feet glorious.

Now I teach that the tree and the lights and the decorations

are, are celebratory decorations for the birthday party for

Jesus. That's what we we talk about at

our house, but it's better than balloons and streamers.

And so we we decorated my house. Then, then the third question

and don't panic, who is Santa Claus?

Now, I know historically various things have been shared with you

from this pulpit. For those who've been here for a

long time, don't panic. I'm going to share with you.

There's no way I can satisfy everyone with what I'm about to

say, but I'm going to give you an alternative.

I'm going to give you an alternative.

The model for Santa was a 3rd to 4th century Bishop named

Nicholas. He and his parents lived in

Turkey and they were very strong Christians and his mom and dad

prayed and and asked God for a child much like Abraham and

Sarah in their later years. And from the time Nicholas was

born around 80 to 80, they considered him a gift from God

and dedicated him to the Lord. He was taught great devotion to

God and great generosity to the poor.

His parents died when he was a teenager, and he becomes a monk

and a priest. His uncle's a Bishop who ordains

him and actually prophesize about Nicholas, that he would

offer guidance and consolation to many people and eventually

become an Archbishop. He in fact becomes a Bishop of a

small village and his influence spread to many, many nations

before he's done. He was known to stay up all

night long studying God's word to bring it to the people, and

he was known to be an incredibly powerful prayer warrior.

He was also known for helping the poor.

He was even imprisoned for his true faith and then later freed.

He said on one of the great church councils later in

January, we're going to talk about how did we get the Bible

on Wednesday nights, How did we get the Bible?

And what do I do with this thing?

Why does my Bible have these books in it?

How did this whole thing come about?

Well, the Council of Nicaea was one of those councils that

helped determine some of this. But he said on the Council of

Nicaea, which was primarily discussing the doctrine about

the deity of Jesus Christ, and they were fighting false

teaching. And, and, and so frankly, we may

need Nicholas more than ever this Christmas, not to bring

presents to good boys and girls, but to actually confront

heretics who deny the deity of Jesus.

Right. But when Nicholas was seated at

the council, the other church fathers were debating about the

relationship between God the Son and God the Father.

And and legend says, and it's a strong legend asserts, that

Nicholas became so enraged by a man named Arias, who taught that

that Jesus was not equal to God the Father, he became so angry

with him he slapped Arias across the face in the middle of the

council meeting. I think I would have liked Old

Nick. It's my kind of guy.

And then Nicholas became became known as the giver of gifts,

patron St. of children and an annual feast is actually held in

his honor after his death every December 6th of the parts of the

world. They still do this.

They have Saint Nicholas day and on Satan.

Now listen, this is going to start sounding more familiar.

On Saint Nicholas Day eve, children will place food out for

him and his donkey and it was said that he would come from

heaven during the night, during the night to replace the gifts

of good children with toys and sweets.

Starting to sound familiar? And then he became the Christmas

Man in Germany, Pierre Noel in France, Father Frost in Russia,

Father Christmas in England, and Centre Claus in Holland, where

he was very popular and where Dutch children would expected

him to visit during the night on December 5th.

And they placed their wooden shoes by the fireplace so he

could fill them with gifts. Well, Santa Claus is simply the

Americanization of the Dutch name for Saint Nicholas, Santa

Claus. So Santa Claus literally means

Saint Nicholas in its original form.

So he was supposed to be a tall man with a long beard and a

large sack of toys. Clement Moore, who is an

American poet, comes along and popularizes our current cultural

model of Santa Claus. When he wrote A Visit from Saint

Nicholas in 1822, which begins with the famous line Twas the

Night Before Christmas, it's immediately popular.

It's been endured ever since, and the illustrations led to our

current image of Santa Claus. Now, after Santa Claus became a

part of American folklore, children discovered you get more

gifts if you put socks out there rather than wooden shoes.

American kids are smart. Then we added, we added the

elves, North Pole flying reindeer, and Santa's alter ego,

Kris Kringle, some type of elf king along the way.

I like Saint Nicholas so much better.

And at our house we have Saint Nicholas.

And we talked about Saint Nicholas because Christmas is

not mythology. Secondly, though, Christmas is

also not materialism. Sometimes in our world today,

spiritual values give way to a commercialized celebration of

self indulgence, it seems like, right?

Who got the most? Who gets the best?

I mean, if you'd never heard of Christ, or you'd never heard of

Christmas, I wonder what message you would get about this season

if you visited Walmart or tried to track Amazon.

I mean, I wonder what the Lord thinks of all this.

It's not mythology, it's not materialism, obviously, it's the

celebration of our triumphant Savior.

It's the Christ Mass that's celebration.

So it's Christ's birthday. So.

So I challenge you this season to make sure.

I challenge you to think more about what you must give him.

That's part of what the prayer meeting is going to be about

Wednesday night, More about what you must give him rather than

what you want to receive or even to give to other people.

Do we place more emphasis on the materials, on the myths then we

do on the true meaning and and what we must give him rather

than what we might receive? So, so do we we think about the

true coming of them of the Messiah.

So there are many stories of fantasy out there we share with

our kids, from nursery rhymes to animated movies, even even

Christian oriented ones like Narnia, Lord of the Rings.

But we tend to identify them as fantasy.

So you as parents and believers make decisions about how you're

going to celebrate this. I'm not saying do away with all

the fun, but during this season we do have an incredible

proactive opportunity to speak to and teach our children and

others about and giving our lives and thankfulness to the

Messiah. So please don't squeeze him out.

Let's not surrender Christmas. But thirdly, Matthew, Juan, I

told you I'd finally get there. Finally, we see that Christmas

is the coming of the Messiah. So we want to tell others from

the very beginning of time, God had this gift perfectly planned,

perfectly wrapped up, as we saw last week.

We want to tell them that God is in complete control or

orchestrating history, orchestrating the world for His

own glory and for our great blessing, and that He filled the

perfect time with His perfect will.

And it's quite a story. So let's pick up Matthew's

version of it. This miracle called the

incarnation, this miracle of the birth of Jesus, Matthew 11, the

book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the

son of Abraham. So we see this genealogy and it

goes on for several verses. Matthew has written to more

Jewish readers. So the genealogy becomes a

really important part because it's very important to the

Jewish readers to know where this guy came from.

It's very important to connect him back to the covenant

relationships of the people of God with God.

And so we see that he's the fulfilment of Scripture in this

help. So in the fullness of time, God

launches his incredible plan. Look at verse 18.

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

When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph before they

came together, she was found to be with child from the Holy

Spirit. Every time I read the Christmas

story, there are a lot of things to think about, lot of focuses,

people who miss Christmas, people who made Christmas.

But one of the people I think about often is Joseph.

I mean, Can you imagine being Joseph?

Life's good. You're engaged to Mary,

wonderful, wonderful, faithful woman.

You're ready to begin your life together.

You have plans to expand the Carpenter shop, to go out and

buy that new camel everybody's talking about with those all

weather hoofs and that dual hump.

I'm telling you, it's a good day.

Then what? What your, what, how, what am I

supposed to do now if I'm Joseph?

Look at verse 19 and her husband Joseph, being a just man and

unwilling to put her to shame, resolve to divorce her quietly.

So you got to understand the law demanded that he do something.

If you're caught in adultery, according to the law, the

punishment was stoning, right? But he loved her and he was a

just and righteous man. So I'll slip you away.

No one will have to hear this crazy talk from you.

No one will have to know, right? But God had an intentional plan

and the time was full. Look at verse 20.

But as he considered these things, behold, an Angel of the

Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, Joseph, son of David.

Do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is

conceived in hers from the Holy Spirit.

She will bear a son, and you should call His name Jesus, for

He will save His people from their sins.

All this took place to fulfill what the Lord has spoken by the

prophet. Behold, the Virgin shall

conceive and bear a son, and they should call his name

Emmanuel, which means God with us.

When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the Angel of the Lord

commanded him. He took his wife, but knew or

not until she had given birth to a son and he called his name

Jesus. See, for Joseph, obedience was

more important than popularity. He listened.

And then he, he obeyed, he did what the Angel of the Lord

commanded him. We see fulfillment of Scripture

taking place recording from Isaiah Chapter 7, as we saw last

Isaiah 7 · chapter mention

week. So, so this season, let's tell

them, let's tell our children, let's tell our friends, let's

tell our neighbors about Joseph and his willing obedience.

Let's tell them about a God who fulfills his prophecy, who

fulfills his Scripture perfectly.

But we also need to warn them about others in this story who

missed Christmas, like many, many may this year.

So all the myth, all the materialism, but missing the

Messiah. And we want to warn them.

We want to challenge him. Just as the King of Kings was

turned away from a crowded in and part of the story, he

continued to be turned away today, I'm afraid, from the

overcrowded hearts of people. In fact, there was a church

pageant the kids were putting on one time.

And so the kids had it all. You know, they're all in their

little costumes and, and they had they were going to do the

the crowded inn scene. And one of the boys was the

innkeeper. But he always wanted to be

Joseph and he was mad that he didn't get to be picked Joseph.

So he's jealous of Joseph, so he's plotting his revenge.

How can I mess this up and get Joseph during the play?

And so, you know, obviously that Mary and Joseph come and knock

on the door and, you know, can you give us board and lodging

for the night? And of course, you know, they're

supposed to be this no room in the in line that comes after

that. And and the little boy playing

Joseph's knocking on the door and waiting on the line.

But instead the boy playing the innkeeper flings the door open

and says, sure, come in, come in.

We got you can have the best room in the house.

Thank you. And he's going to really mess

things up. Well, there was a pause, but the

clever little Joseph says this. It says, Mary, you hold on.

I'm going to go ahead and take a look inside first.

It walks in, goes past the innkeeper, comes back out, says

I'm not taking my wife into a place like that.

Come on Mary, we're sleeping in the stable.

Matthew chapter 2 verse one. Now after Jesus was born in

Matthew 2 · chapter mention

Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod, the king, behold, wise

men from the east came to Jerusalem.

Here are the wise guys. Let's talk about the wise guys

for a minute. So Herod's half Jewish.

He's not really a full blood Israelite.

He's he's actually a descendant of Esau who made himself

friendly to the Roman Senate and they made him a governor.

And then eventually they acknowledge him as the king

quote UN quote king because he has friendship with Mark Antony.

And so he's this fake puppet king put into place and he was

power hungry and nobody got in his way.

And this is really important to this story.

He, he, he at one point had 10 wives and three sons killed

because he thought they were going to overthrow him.

In fact, the Roman emperor Augustus once said it was safer

to be Herod's pig than Herod's son.

And so he suffered from extreme paranoia, extreme suspicion.

In fact, at his death in Jericho, he ordered the most

distinguished citizens of Jerusalem's to be Jerusalem to

be arrested. And then he ordered them to be

killed at the moment of his death because he know, he knew

nobody would mourn over him. And he was determined that tears

would be shed on the day he would die.

Now, with that in mind, let's read this again.

Wise men from the East came to Jerusalem.

Look at verse 2 and it's saying, where is he who has been born

king of the Jews? I mean, alarms are going off

right now in Herod's head, right before we saw his star when it

rose, and have come to worship him.

And when Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all

Jerusalem with him. Don't miss this.

The whole city knows this is going on, more or less.

And you got to understand who these guys were.

The Persian Magi were searching for the king of the Jews.

Now, there are no characters in the Christmas story stranger

than the Persian Magi. They were not at the Manger.

They, they come much later. We'll see that again in a

moment. So fix your nativity sets.

Get those wise men out of there. There's no evidence there's

three of them, nor that they were kings.

Their legends and myths about them, their their their

mythological names were Caspar, Caspar, Bethesar and Milkior.

In fact, the 12th century Bishop claimed that he found their

skull caps and had them on display in a casket.

But but in fact, the Greek historian Herodotus tells us, he

tells us that the Magi were a priestly cast of the Medes think

Iran of the of Persia. And they were active throughout

Babylon and Mesopotamia. And this is important.

They practice Zoroastrianism, which was the official religion

of Persia, which has some some similarities to Judaism, but far

more differences. They they included sorcery and

astrology and wizardry and witchcraft and divination.

In fact, the word magic comes from the word Magi.

And so this religion and the descendants of the Persian

magi's magi are still alive today.

They're actually in India Today that because they fled Persia in

the 7th century when Muslim persecution came in.

So it's actually still being practiced in a little part of

India Today. And in the ancient world,

because there was no distinction between superstition and

science, these magi become religious leaders, scientists,

mathematicians, philosophers, doctors, and legal authorities.

Here's the important part. Here's why I'm telling you all

that These Magi proclaimed and served the kings of Persia.

They did it using magic. But no Persian could become king

without the support of the Magi. They were the Persian

kingmakers. So they're mentioned in the Old

Testament and Jeremiah, and also with Daniel they were in, they

were Daniel's rivals and Nebuchadnezzar's court until

Daniel 248. And and then the king gave

Daniel high honors and many great gifts and made him ruler

over the whole province of Babylon and chief prefect over

all the wise men of Babylon. So Daniel becomes the leader of

the Magi. Now we cannot be sure.

We have no evidence, we have no knowledge of this, but this

could be how how they learned of some of the prophecies of a

Jewish king Messiah. So if so, it's really amazing.

God is something always in complete control, looking far

beyond our limited scope and and looking ahead in history.

But when they arrived in Jerusalem in Matthew, it would

have been quite a scene. This is not three simple people

on camels that, that there's nothing like that.

They, they would have travelled with a small army under the

orders of the Persian king. These foreign kingmakers wore

cone shape hats. They were the first Gandalfs.

I mean, they, they just had, they're the ones that had the

wizard hats on. And they would have ridden

Arabian horses, not camels. This is a small armed force from

Persia coming into Jerusalem asking where's the king?

You can imagine Herod not enjoying his breakfast that day.

And so this is amazing. Rome hated them because they

could never conquer them. And so with that in mind, look

at verse 3 again. When Herod the king heard this,

he was troubled. The word means highly agitated

and all Jerusalem with him. Here were the Persian kingmakers

asking about where the new king of the Jews was.

Talk about paranoia. Talk about suspicion.

It's interesting because as the astronomers of the day, they saw

this new star. I read a recent article recently

in NASA, a NASA astronomer scientist has claimed there's

actually scientific evidence explaining the strange movement

of the star of Bethlehem that led them to Jesus.

There's actually an object gets recorded by the Chinese at this

day and time to where it's it was a comet that was visible for

days and nearly struck the earth 2000 plus years ago.

God reveals it to the magi. That's our God.

Complete control, space-time doesn't matter.

And it equaled the sign of a new king being born.

Look at verse 4 then, and assembling all the chief priests

and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the

Christ was to be born, and they told him in Bethlehem of Judea.

For so it was, So it is written by the prophet.

So here it summons all the theological scholars of the day,

most of them Pharisees, experts in the law and, and, and what

does the Bible say about the birth of Messiah?

So they quote Micah and they quote Second Samuel and they're,

and they're pointing to Bethlehem.

Look at verse 6. And you, O Bethlehem in the land

of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah.

For from you shall come a ruler who will shepherd my people,

Israel. So once again, once again, Jesus

is perfectly fulfilling Scripture.

God is fulfilling every step of the way.

It's all pointing to him. They, they knew exactly what it

said about the Christ, and yet these theological scholars

didn't seem to care. You ever wonder if even one of

them was curious enough as to ask why Herod was asking about

this? I mean, all of Jerusalem knew

about the Magi. So, I mean, there's a stir going

on. Something big's happening.

A small army of Persian kingmakers was in town and these

religious leaders knew exactly where to look.

It's only 5 miles down to Bethlehem.

I mean, wouldn't you be curious enough to go check it out?

Why do we not see a Pharisee at the Manger, right?

Maybe they were so engrossed in their routine ritual of legality

they completely disregard the Messiah.

I don't know. I sometimes think about them and

I wonder, how many religiously apathetic people do we know?

They might come to every single Christmas service, but actually

miss Christmas and not understand or appreciate it.

Look at verse 7. Then Herod summoned the wise men

secretly and ascertained from them what time the star had

appeared, and he sent them to Bethlehem saying, Go and search

diligently for the Child. And when you have found him,

bring me word that I too may come and worship him.

So obviously he's lying to them about worshiping the new king.

In fact, in his evil he had all the Bethlehem male babies under

2 years of age murdered when he discovered when the star

appeared. So he's not going to surrender

his throne to this new king. And my fear is, is some of some

of the folks you know, or maybe some of you are living that same

lie, afraid of a real commitment to Christ, afraid of

surrendering your position of power in your life to get off

your own throne and let him have it.

I mean, the true disciple is one who ceases to do what he desires

and dedicates his life to what Christ desires.

I mean, these Pagan Wizards, you got to think about it.

These Pagan Wizards were more honest and true than the

supposed leaders of the people of God and many around us right

now, I'm afraid they're honestly searching for truth.

They're honestly searching for salvation.

They're looking for something, somebody to worship.

And I pray we can get him the message.

Look at verse 9. After listening to the king,

they went on their way, and behold, the star that they had

seen when it rose went before them until it came to rest over

the place where the child was. And when they saw the star, they

rejoiced exceedingly with great joy.

And going into the house, they saw the child with Mary, his

mother, and they fell down and worshipped him.

Then opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold,

frankincense, and myrrh. Now at this point, they're not

at the Manger, they're at a house.

In fact, the word used here for child is not the word you would

use for an infant. This is some time later based

upon based upon the stars appearing based upon Herod's

murderous rampage against all new babies in that area.

Jesus is probably around 2 years old at this point, so the young

family had stayed in Bethlehem to work or or maybe to to not

have to go back and face the story that people might wonder

about Mary who knows? Certainly to fulfill God's will

for them. And gold was the gift of royalty

acknowledging his identity. Frankincense was a was was an

incense used in worship and sprinkled on the sacrifices on

the altar. Myrrh was used for embalming.

It was also an anaesthetic. They offered it to Jesus on the

cross and he refused it. But we see this prophetic

imagery, this foreshadowing of Christ here.

He is the King and the Savior. He would suffer and then he

would reign again. And the Pagan, the Pagan Wizards

bow before him. Christ came for those who need

him. Christ came for those who seek

him. Some, I'm afraid, ignore and

overlook him even this time of year.

Some, some are. Some are unhappy to allow him to

be anything else. The world's happy to let

Christmas remain mangled by myth and consumed by commercialism,

but they're not willing to let Jesus be the King of kings.

So where are you this Christmas? Where are you in it?

Are you, are you? Are you caught up and wrapped in

the maze of myth and materialism?

Is it consuming you the busyness of the season, the preparations

of the season? Or are you bowed?

Are you on your knees? Before the King of Kings had

another little Christmas pageant in church, the kids were putting

it on. And to show the glory of the

newborn Savior, a light bulb had been placed in the Manger.

And there's supposed to be this dramatic moment when every

single light in the place is turned off and only the light in

the Manger shines to reflect the glory of Jesus Christ.

But the little boy who is controlling the lights got

confused and he turned all the lights off so it's pitch dark.

And then it's very tense moment. One of the little shepherds

whispered out loud. Hey, you turned off Jesus, not

on our watch. Let's not let that happen this

year at Inglewood. We want to bring in glory.

Wouldn't want to shine the light on Him.

We want us to. We want to focus upon Him.

And I pray that's what you do in your family.

I pray that you will take this family worship guide with you.

You'll sit around your table and enjoy the holiday, love your

family, enjoy the the gift giving and receiving the love

that that represents. Enjoy the fun and the family

traditions you have. But at the same time, I pray

that you'll bring it back to the Word of God and the will of God

for your family and focus upon that this year.

So let's turn our full focus on Him this Christmas.

Father, we thank you so much that you allow us, Father, to

know you. Father, what an amazing, perfect

thing you did when you sent your Son, when you sent your Son to

become man, when the Word became flesh and dwelt among us and we

beheld His glory. Glory is of the only begotten,

full of grace and truth. Father, what a gift.

And I pray, Father, that we will fall on our knees and

thankfulness and gratitude. But maybe somebody here, maybe

somebody, if they're honest, would say, John, I don't know

that I believe. I don't know that I, I, I know

him that way. Well, Father, I just pray right

now that you will Pierce their heart and mind with your truth

and reality, that your Holy Spirit would work in them to

where they have no question about whether you exist and

whether you're right here drawing them, calling them,

inviting them, giving them faith.

Father, Lord, I pray that they would come to a point of

salvation to where they believe with all their heart that only

Jesus can save us. Only Jesus could die on the

cross for us. Only Jesus could pay the price

for our sin. And only Jesus rose again.

He's the only way. They're the only one.

And that's what Christmas is all about.

So I pray, Father, that people would surrender, they would bow

this morning, some for salvation.

Maybe there are others here, as Pastor Jean mentioned earlier,

we're going to be watching people get baptized to your

glory next week and the week after.

Maybe there's somebody here and they and they've trusted in you,

Father, but they've never told the world that.

And they need to be baptized. Or do they need to join the

church? Others might just need prayer.

So I pray, Father, that as we sing that we'll surrender, that

we'll commit. For some, it's a reset, a

recommitment, A refocus. Time to get out of the busyness,

time to get out of the worry and the anxiety of the season and

focus upon who you are and what you have for us.

Father, thank you so much for helping us do that.

I pray you'll bless us and draw us now in Christ's name, Amen.

Our worship team is going to lead us.

We're going to sing. There'll be pastors standing up

here. You can come and pray at the

steps. You can talk to one of us.

We'll have next step counsellors in our next steps room right

over there. You can go straight over there.

They're also going to be some out in the lobby after the

service that you'll see that you can visit with.

So you can come this way or after the service, you can go

that way and visit with somebody and say, here's what God's doing

in my life right now and I need to talk to somebody about it.

So let's stand and respond right now as we sing.