The Wise Men

I want you to turn with me this morning in your Bibles to Matthew chapter 2.

Matthew 2 · chapter mention

Last week we looked at the shepherds, and this week, well the week before that, we looked at Mary and the grace of God that was really bestowed upon the Mother Mary.

And then last week we looked at the shepherds and the adventure that these shepherds had.

And today we're going to be looking at the wise men.

And you know, as I was going back through the story, I always do this every year.

I love the stories.

God kind of gave me a different angle with the wise men.

And to make it even more practical for us today.

Because, you know, all my undergrad education was in psychology, with well, actually, an education with a minor in psychology.

And uh, in fact, I minored in psychology because I really wanted to understand who I was.

But let me tell you, it didn't help.

It just made me more confused.

But uh, and then I went into the seminary and studied uh biblical counseling for the first uh 64 hours of my degree.

Again, to try to figure out who I am and what I could be, and uh to understand the complexity of marriage.

Just a thought.

But uh, and the Christian life.

And uh actually that did begin to help because it began to apply the Word of God to every situation that you go through.

Can I say something this morning?

This precious book has the answer for every problem.

It really does, I promise you.

And so that was probably the most exciting two years of study, and then went on to do a doctorate in leadership because uh one, our church was exploding, and then I became the dean of the seminary and leading a large amount of people, and I I've always been intrigued with team building and uh building.

I'm a builder, I'm a builder, that's what I do.

God's uh called me to build, and uh I love putting a team together to build, and so I studied then for another 60 hours in leadership.

And one thing I learned about leadership if you don't have any goals, you're not gonna have, hey, you're not going anywhere.

Can I get an amen?

But then on the other hand, if you have goals and you don't know how to get there, you're not going anywhere.

On the other hand, you've got goals, you know how to get there, but if you don't do anything about it, you're not gonna get there.

And so that's what we see here with these wise men.

In fact, I've titled the message.

If you do not have an outline, raise your hand and uh Brother Larry back there make sure you get one.

But the title of the message is Wise Men, wise men, wise women seek the goal.

They seek their goal.

I I went back in some of my leadership material and looking at some stuff, and let me give you a few statistics.

Only about three percent of people, now this is unbelievable, only about three percent of people who have goals achieve them.

That's low, folks.

That's through the Bonner uh surveys and the recent leadership magazines.

Only 3% of people who have goals achieve them.

Now, 95% of people who have reached their goals, now watch this, have written them down.

Now let me ask something.

How many of you have written goals right now?

Raise your hand.

To do list count?

No, that's everyday stuff.

Now, yeah, those are goals for today.

But that would probably, yeah, that's but that's what I'm talking about.

In fact, most people, when I share this with them or when I used to teach it, they would say, Pastor Danny or Dr.

Lovett, I'm just trying to get by today.

I'll worry about tomorrow when it gets here.

And there there are some truths to that too, but you'll never reach that great goal that God has for you if you don't write it down.

Write the vision down.

Put it in front of you.

And then, in fact, you hear me talk about what we're doing here all the time.

Why do I do that?

To reinforce you and me of where we are, where we're going, and how we're gonna get there.

I mean, we're constantly talking.

Right now, our one of the projects we are, we had to build our educational facility.

We're there.

We've just about finished it.

And guess what?

We still need a little bit more.

That's why the offerings that we're giving, we we've got to finish it up, pay for it in cash.

By the way, over$60,000 has already been paid toward the$75,000 addition right now.

Did you hear me?

60,000's already been paid.

Let's give God a hand.

Amen.

But that's a goal.

That's a goal we had at the very beginning of this uh summer that we wanted to finish with with the leadership of Bob and many of our others.

We wanted to finish that educational wing so we can start, for example, a new class in January on discipleship.

And and uh we're so excited about that.

And I want every person in our church to eventually go through that that semester of discipleship.

It'll be an occurring thing, and and we're so excited about that.

And and Barry back there, stand up for me, Barry.

Barry's gonna be teaching that force.

Let's give Barry a hand.

Amen.

And he's probably got one of the best books ever written on discipleship.

He's using, it's a man by Dr.

Danny Lovett.

No, I'm just actually it is my book.

But uh anyway, it's exciting.

It's the book that I taught for 15, I mean, for almost 25 years, 22 years at in college to teenagers and college students, and and and I used it for discipleship with adults.

It's fantastic.

How to walk in the spirit, how to put on the armor of God, how to have a quiet time, just the basics, but but really stuff that is the difference between, hey, living a victorious Christian life or defeated Christian life.

How to memorize scripture, you'll learn how I do it in there.

There's one section on there, how to memorize scripture.

You'll learn how to do it the way I do it.

So that's very important.

So we're excited, but that's it.

And then the next goal was what we're gonna, we gotta build the soccer fields.

Well, we're laying the uh, you know, we're raising money right now, and a lot of the monies that we take up on our Christmas offering to help that.

It's gonna be about$15,000 just to get started.

About totally about a$30,000 label to get the fields sprinkled and laid outside everything.

That's where we're going.

It's before us.

We keep it before you.

But it's written down.

By the way, we have all that written down.

In fact, when we meet in our meetings, we put it on uh this last meeting that we had, other than the budget meetings.

Here's the projects, here's where we are, here's what it's gonna cost.

It's important.

It's important.

Write them down.

It's important that you know where you're going.

If you don't know where you're going, you'll never know if you ever get there.

Three things we have to do to achieve goals in our lives.

This is the introduction to the message.

Number one, decide what you want.

This is it's not on the outline.

This is this is really, I'm kind of sharing you what I've, this is the way I do it.

But if you're gonna see, it's a great introduction because, hey, once the wise men saw the star, they knew that they had to go to Jerusalem.

They knew where they were going.

And then, secondly, they were willing to pay a price to get there.

In other words, decide what you want.

Number two, decide how to get there.

And then they paid the price, which means you gotta discipline yourself to do it.

Now I want to share another statistic that's outrageous.

Out of a hundred people, same research, twenty-three people do not know what they want.

Now we're talking about out of a hundred people, surveyed, twenty-three of them had no clue what they wanted.

My question this morning would be to us what do you really want out of life?

If you're a Christian, it should be to fulfill the will of God for your life.

That should be your greatest desire.

To fulfill God's will for you.

Not your will, but his will.

What did he say?

Not my will, but thy will be done.

Now, are you ready for this?

That leaves 77 people left.

And 67 of them don't know how to get what they want.

Sixty-seven of them don't know how to get what they want.

What they need.

Leaves 10.

10 are left who know what they want.

They even know how to get it.

As a Christian, you're saved.

You know that you want to fulfill the will of God.

You know that.

You even know how to find out what the will of God is for your life so that you can get it by being faithful to his word, faithful to prayer, faithful to a dynamic church, getting involved, not just sitting on the sideline, getting involved.

You know that.

You know what to do.

You need a daily, and again, that's why we're going to use, we're, I'm so excited about the discipleship class, because it's going to teach you how to get God's will for your life.

But are you ready for this?

Eight out of the ten are unwilling to pay the price to get it.

So out of a hundred, that means two people actually reach their goal.

That's devastating, folks.

Devastating.

But that is reality.

That's what's really sad.

That is reality.

So today we're going to be looking at a group of men who knew what they wanted.

They knew their goal.

Their goal was to find the baby Jesus, to find a king that was born.

To go find the king.

They knew that.

And secondly, they knew how to get there because they had been given a star in the east where they were from.

It appeared, and they knew it was pointing toward Jerusalem.

Now, a lot of people ask, did the star guide them all the way?

We really don't know that, possibly, because we know in the Old Testament they were led by a cloud in the day and fire by night.

And that's possible.

But the problem was with these guys, they knew where Jerusalem was.

They had been taught by Daniel, because Daniel, remembered Daniel, you're studying Daniel right now.

That's why I was thinking about as I was going to preach this.

This would be exciting.

It gives you a little insight to Daniel.

Daniel ended up being, hey, over all the scientists and the astronomers and astrology.

All of that, Daniel was over all of them, and he had taught them the things of God.

So these men were very familiar with the teachings of Daniel from the east.

But whether or not we do know that the star appeared and directed them toward Jerusalem, and after they had gotten to Jerusalem, we'll see the star appeared again over Bethlehem, five to six miles south of Jerusalem.

So here they are.

They're excited.

Now you got to realize we're talking about the distance of about here in Alabama going all the way to where we're going to go see our daughter, our youngest daughter in Sacramento, California, or maybe to the north, or to Alaska.

We're talking about thousands of miles at least.

Two to three thousand miles they had to travel.

They had no airplanes.

All they had was camels and mules.

And oh, by the way, they had Leroy and Adam and Leroy.

Adam, Leroy.

Or mutt in jail.

They walked.

I mean, it was a long way, folks.

In other words, we know for a fact it was almost from the time they saw the star, almost two years before they got there.

Now, see, when you see your little nice Christmas plays, and there's nothing wrong with them, you have the shepherds, then you have the wise men.

The only problem with that, the shepherds were only five miles away.

The wise men were thousands miles away.

They didn't show up at the stable.

In fact, they showed up anywhere from a year and a half to two years after at a house where they were living.

You need to understand that.

And you'll see that today.

So, with all that said, they were excited.

I want to give you unbelievable ten things that God taught me about when wise men seek their gold.

Number one, that look at the interval of the seeking, verse one.

Now, when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem.

Now notice when Jesus was born, some weeks again, a year and a half, two years later, we see the wise men show up.

Probably close to two years of age by that time, Jesus would have been.

But now notice it also says in verse 1, in the days of Herod the king.

Now, this is the first mention of Herod in the whole Bible.

He was a vicious, lustful man.

Married nine times.

He beat Elizabeth Taylor.

She was married seven.

You know what her motto was.

I won't keep you long.

So this guy had been married, hey, hey, nine times.

Nine times.

Lord help him.

But now notice, notice, but he was a vicious, unbelievable man.

Anybody that he ever thought would take his kingdom, he would kill him.

Do you know he had one of his wives and two children killed?

Because he thought they were plotting against him.

He was vicious.

He was known in the world, Herod the Great, but not in the Bible.

In the Bible, he was known as a vicious, ruthless, ungodly king.

Now let me tell you what God shows me here.

Christ was born in the most perilous of times.

And this is a great illustration of God delighting to do his great work when the opposition is the greatest.

I thought about that.

For some of us that think America is in a bad situation, and that's every one of us.

But let me remind you that in the most perilous of times, right here, God did some of his greatest works.

Can I get an amen?

So don't get discouraged, get encouraged.

He did some of his greatest works.

Why?

This shows the great power of God.

Luke 137, nothing is impossible with God.

So we see the interval of the seeking.

Notice the second thing I see in verse 1.

The individuals in the seeking.

Look at what it says.

They came wise men from the east.

Now the word wise men is what the Greek word we call magos.

Magos.

Magos.

And it means it means magician.

It means wise.

It means educated.

In other words, it means like scientists.

They were the well-educated men of their day.

They had studied the stars.

They had studied all kinds of astrology.

And it was amazing.

They were highly educated, highly gifted men.

Now, tradition, in our plays, we see three wise men.

The Bible doesn't tell us how many wise men there were.

You know why they came up with three?

Because there were three gifts.

Now who's to say they couldn't have been more than three wise men with even, hey, more gifts?

We don't know.

But they just, hey, they said three wise men.

But we do know that it was a caravan, so there was more than just three men traveling together.

Because these men were men of means and wealth.

So they had a caravan with them.

Why do you think, and how you say, how do you know that?

Because not only was Herod troubled when they came into Jerusalem, but the people were troubled too.

Let me tell you, what would have gotten the people troubled when a caravan of, hey, of Palestinians possibly and Africans and whatever came in to their city.

If only three of the show had shown up, it wouldn't have disturbed the whole city.

So we see this caravan comes.

And Daniel, Daniel 2.48 tells about him being the head and had taught these men, no doubt, about it.

Being from the east indicates that they were from Arabian or Persian, Africa.

All those areas.

Notice the third thing.

Notice their initiative.

It says verse 1, from the east to Jerusalem.

And by the way, another word for Magios is Magi.

That's where you get the word magi from, by the way.

So we see that the Magi had come from the east.

They were either from Arabian or Persian, northern Africa.

In either case, it would involve a great deal of effort and time.

The initiative of their seeking Christ would change most of us.

Can you imagine?

They had to take a minimum of a year to two years out of their daily lives to go find Christ.

And sometimes we have a hard time just setting aside a Sunday to go worship Him and to seek Christ.

God help us.

Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some are, but exhorting one another so much more as you see the day approaching.

Oh, they had a hunger to seek Christ.

They loved him.

They wanted to know about him.

Jeremiah 29, 13 on your outline.

You shall seek me and find me when you shall search for me with all your heart.

And then I love Psalms 119, verse 2.

Psalms 119:2

Look at what it says.

Blessed are those who keep his testimonies.

It's one thing to keep the word of God, but in order to reach those goals, hey, you've got to seek it.

He says, who seek him with their whole heart.

Blessed, happy.

Why?

Why are you happy when you seek God?

Why are you happy when you're obedient to the things of God?

Why are you happy?

Be ye doers of the word, not hearers, only deceiving your own selves.

James 1 22.

Because the, hey, more light you see, the more light you're obedient to, the more the will of God you are fulfilling.

You're fulfilling God's will.

Can I tell you something?

You will be happy if you fulfill God's will.

Or God would be a lie.

Why do you think he says in Nehemiah 8:10, for the joy of the Lord is my strength?

Nehemiah 8:10

Jesus said, These things have spoken unto you that my joy might remain in you and that your joy might be full.

John 15, 11.

Beautiful.

Beautiful.

Notice the fourth thing, verse 2.

Notice the intent in the seeking.

We are come to worship him.

The seeking by the Magi was done to honor Jesus Christ.

I love the word.

You know what it means?

I couldn't help but for how many dog lovers in here?

Okay.

Most of you are because I've been to your house.

I don't know, there's very few people that don't have a dog or a cat.

Sylvester could tell you every cat.

Sylvester could tell you every one of them.

Or a cat.

Carolyn loves cats.

I got you cats in.

But cats aren't kind of like dogs.

Cats are more their own person.

See, you don't you don't control the cat.

The cat controls you.

Kind of.

I know I've had to.

But really, what this word means, like a dog licking the hand of its master.

In fact, that's the statement used in a lot of the Greek definitions.

In other words, it's showing affection.

A dog licks a master's hand when you rub him and you pet him.

When you're showing your affection to your dog or your animal, they'd lick your hand back, showing the affection and the love that they have for you.

Well, this is exactly what the word here means.

It means to have that kind of compassion and love for God.

It means to the point that you even in another word, the synonym means to be prostrate, that they came and they bowed before the king, their master.

In other words, when the dog or animal's licking your hand, he's talking about that you're his master and that he appreciates who you are and what you do for him.

That's exactly what the word worship means.

That you appreciate what God has done for you.

And you submit to his lordship.

You know that he knows what's best for you, and he wants what's best for you.

Is that not true?

And that's what he's talking about here.

And let me tell you what they did.

Here's the greatest definition of worship found in one verse right here.

Oh boy, this is good.

Verse 11.

And when they were coming to the house, they saw the young child with Mary, his mother, and fell down and worshiped him.

And when they had opened their treasures, they presented it to them gifts, gold, and frankincense and myrrh.

Hey, two things.

Here's what it means to worship God.

One, it means to give yourself, give all to him.

What did they do first before they gave their gifts?

They gave themselves.

We are here, Master.

We are here to love you and to serve you, to be you, to be what you have us to be.

We have come from the east to be, hey, to worship you, to adore you, to reverence you.

Why do we come to church on Sunday?

See, we miss it.

We don't have a clue.

We come to worship him, to bow before him, to reverence him, to let him know that, hey, presenter, here it is.

We come on Sundays and we present our bodies, a living sacrifice, wholly acceptable unto God, which is our reasonable service.

We're not conformed to the world, but we're transformed by the renewing of our mind that we may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

That's what worship is.

It's more than singing songs.

It's presenting yourself.

And you can't wait to do that.

Sunday ought to be at.

You ought to, in fact, I was reading a book this weekend by the old Puritans.

You know what they'd do at Saturday afternoon after around when it got started getting dark?

They would grab their Bibles or hey, and they'd start reading the Word of God, and they'd read the Word of God until they went to bed, getting their hearts ready to go on Sunday morning and worship the King.

I said, wow.

They were up bright and early on Sundays to go worship.

Sometimes we get up at the last minute to come worship.

Just a thought.

That's worship.

Notice the fifth thing.

The inquiry in the seeking.

Now notice.

Hey, if you and I are to know the will of God in our lives, you and I will often have to do some earnest and diligent inquiry.

God, what do you want me to do?

When they got there to Jerusalem, they said, Where's the king?

Where's the king?

God will give supernatural help.

We see here the star when necessary to make sure that we find God's will for our life.

If you're seeking, he'll guide.

Let me say this.

Oh, I saw this and I said, Thank you, Lord.

He will not give you any more light until you're obedient to the light that he's already given you.

Why would he show you any more light if you're not obeying the light that he's already shown you?

That's good, preacher.

If you're not being obedient to what he's already told you to do, why would he want to tell you something else to do?

When people say, I know God's called me to do this, and I used to deal with college students all the time, even young preacher boy, and say, I know God's called me to do this.

And I'd say, Do you know?

How do you know?

Well, God's word's confirmed it.

He's given me a sign, he's confirmed it.

And then halfway through the semester, they'd come up and say, Well, I don't think that's what God wants me to do anymore.

I said, Time out, time out.

You were sure that you knew God wanted you to do it.

So what are you gonna do?

Quit on what God wants you to do?

Hey, you're not gonna complete it?

I said, Why will God give you something else if you hadn't finished what he gave you to do?

And they'd look at me like, I've never thought of that.

Well, either it was what you wanted to do, or it's what God wanted you to do.

And probably most of the time it's what you wanted to do instead of what God wanted you to do.

But if God wants you to do something, when God reveals to you his will for you, he will confirm it.

I'm talking to people right now.

God's speaking to you about doing something.

Listen, if it's of God, if you stay faithful, you stay seeking him, he will confirm what you want to do.

For me, he confirmed I ought to be here.

Now, don't do, don't put out a fleece like I do.

I'm not saying if God tells you to do it, but even if it's not a fleece, he'll confirm it.

When we came here, he sold our house in two days.

And the reason I say don't say that, it took Rick a year and a half to sell his.

Hello.

But that didn't mean Rick was out of the will of God.

If you're watching Rick, I know you say an amen to that.

But here's what we're talking about, folks.

If God's in it, he'll confirm it.

Can I get an amen?

He'll confirm it.

And I've never done, Susan and I, and by the way, let me tell you, he also not only will confirm it to you, gentlemen, he'll confirm it to your wife.

Or, ladies, if God tells you to do something, and if it's God's will, and you, hey, if your husband and you are walking in the spirit, prerequisite.

He'll confirm it to you too, both of you.

Amen.

We've never, never moved.

We've only moved three times in 35 years in ministry.

But we never moved unless we knew it was God's will for our lives.

And let me tell you, when I've asked Susan, I said, Susan, we gotta go.

Now, one time has she said, I don't know about that.

If you say you got to do something, the other mate says, I don't know, well, don't do it.

Wait.

Get more confirmation, do more seeking.

See, my problem's never been seeking.

My problem's been patience.

Because, see, I don't doors, I knock on doors and then or try to open a door, and the door that God has, if you're walking in spirit, being led by his word through the power of the Holy Spirit, God opened the door.

In fact, he even says, Behold, I send the door and knock even himself with fellowship.

You know, if you hear me open the door and I'll come in.

Same way with leadership.

If you're walking with the Holy Spirit of God and in the Word of God and in your church, you'll get confirmation.

He'll open the doors.

My problem is sometimes I see that door, I like that door, I want to go through that door, and it's locked, I just kick it in.

And I pay every time.

And the Holy Spirit says, let me open it.

Now, the older I've gotten, by the way, I'm 64.

Thank you very much.

I know I don't look it.

Candy had a birthday Friday.

Now watch.

Ben had a birthday.

Anyone else have a birthday this week?

All right.

All right.

Special.

This week's special.

Now watch.

This is so good, folks.

God does not work miracles to make us to God does not work miracles for God to make us to make us lazy.

The wise men didn't see that.

They didn't say that.

They saw it, they knew it.

They took off.

Notice.

There came wise men from the east to Jerusalem saying, Where is he that is born king of the Jews?

Now notice this.

Where is he that is born king of the Jews?

Notice, they did not ask.

Now you want to see an act of faith in the seeking?

Whoa, this is so good.

They didn't ask if Christ was born here.

Where is he?

They knew he was there.

There was no doubt in their minds.

Without faith.

It is impossible to please God.

For he that comes to God must believe that he is.

That he is what?

Diligent to those that seek him.

They came believing.

We walk by faith, not by sight.

Notice, verse 2 again, where is he that is born king of the Jews?

You know what that word say?

That little word saying there.

You know I love these little word studies.

It's in the present active participle in the Greek.

It literally means that they continuously kept asking people, where is the king of the Jews?

In other words, they knew that he was there and they were not going to leave Jerusalem until they found him.

Whew! That's the kind of tenacity, that's the kind of pelp, that's the kind of fire, that's the kind of enthusiasm, that's the kind of pathos, passion that God's looking in you and me, that when God calls us and he's leading us for us to seek him with everything that we have.

With great anticipation, with great encouragement.

Knowing that being confident of this very thing, that he which begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.

Philippians 1.6.

Can I get an amen, church?

Faithful is he that's called you, who will also do it.

1 Thessalonians 5 24.

Wow, what truth.

The magi found Christ because they were persistent in their pursuit of the knowledge about Him.

I love what Paul said.

This one thing I do, I forget those things which are behind.

And I reach forth for those things which are before.

Now watch.

What does he say?

I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in and through Christ Jesus.

Philippians 3, 13, 14.

The Berean Christians were more noble than those that were in Thessalonica.

Why?

Acts 17, 11.

They received the word of God with readiness of mind.

You know what the readiness of mind means?

They're seeking with anticipation that God's going to tell them and show them what they want to do.

And he says, hey, they received the word of God with great anticipation.

And they, here's what it says, and they search the scriptures daily.

Whether those things were so.

Wow.

Now that's the kind of seeking we're talking about.

Right there.

That's so good.

The inquiry of the Magi upset many folks.

Herod was troubled.

You know why?

Because this meant a rival for his throne.

The people were upset.

Why?

Because of their sinfulness.

They knew now that they were going to have to do what God wanted them to do.

They knew about God, the Messiah.

They knew about the Messiah.

And then the religious folks didn't care because they didn't believe that the Messiah had come yet.

We're in one of those four.

And then the fourth group were the wise men.

They sought Christ.

Number six, the investigation.

Look at it.

Verses four through six.

Hey, the inquiry resulted in an investigation.

Now notice the cause of the investigation.

Now this is exciting.

This is unbelievable insight to something that God really taught me that I had not really thought about over all these years.

Look what the inquiry brought about the investigation.

Now who did they ask?

Herod.

They asked the people.

But ignorance was the cause of the investigation.

Can you believe this?

Ignorance.

Herod did not have a clue where the baby Jesus was supposed to be born.

Why was he ignorant of the things of God?

Don't miss this.

God taught me this personally this week.

Here's why.

He was too caught up in himself.

He wasn't just ignorant.

The ignorance was pride.

He was so prideful and caught up in himself, he missed what God had for him.

Folks, if that's not a warning for every one of us, God help us.

Can I get an amen?

Notice another group.

The people knew little about spiritual truths.

Why?

They were just lost.

They were living in the flesh.

It was all about the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.

But notice there's a third group, the religious group.

I call them the counselors for the investigation.

Notice Herod, now one thing Herod knew, he said, well, you know, I don't know anything about this king of the Jews stuff, but you know, I've got some scribes and Pharisees over here, but mainly the scribes, they are the ones that what study scripture and write it down.

So go, let's go call the scribes.

So at least you knew where to go.

Can I get an amen?

And let me tell you, you know where to go?

Hey, you want to go to godly men and women that know the word of God for your counsel.

Can I get an amen?

Now, undoubtedly, they they they knew they had knowledge, but they weren't godly, even though they had the title of religious.

You can be religious and still lost.

Hello.

You can even have knowledge of the word of God and still be lost.

The devil believed and trembled.

But now notice the religious hierarchy of the day, the counsel in the investigation.

Here it is.

Matthew 2, 5 and 6.

In Bethlehem of Judea, for thus it is written by the prophet, and thou Bethlehem, in thou Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, out of thee shall come a governor that shall rule my people Israel.

You know what they just did?

They just quoted the prophecy of Micah 5, 2, that would be fulfilled on the day of Jesus' birth.

There were over four, four direct prophecies fulfilled in the day of Jesus' birth.

And that was one of them.

Wow! The religious people gave the right answer, no doubt about it.

But now notice the condemnation in the investigation.

Though these religious leaders knew the answers, they did not go to Bethlehem to see about the reports of the Christ hour.

Can you believe that?

Five miles away.

Now here's a group, a caravan of wise men, the Magi have come because they have been told that the king of the Jews has been born.

And they knew the prophecy.

They turned right to it, Micah chapter 5, verse 2, and read it to Herod the Great.

Micah 5:2

Now they know that Jesus has been born.

Now they know where he is.

And guess what?

They didn't move one ounce of energy to go see the king.

82% of our community does not go to church.

82%.

Why?

No interest.

Why?

Ignorance of the truth.

How shall they know if we don't tell them?

Amen?

Isn't that what Romans says?

How should they know if they don't have a preacher?

And how can he preach if he's not sent?

Romans 10, 15.

That's why I get so excited about it.

Do you realize this week, yesterday, over we thousands of people we were going through?

Chelsea prayed and hollering, Jesus is awesome, and Merry Christmas and hitting people in the head with popsicles.

Thursday night in Children's Burg out over 700 bags telling people about Jesus.

We've given out over 1,200 pieces of ice cream and popsicles since Thursday.

Can we get an amen to that?

Why?

We're telling them.

We're telling them the good news.

That's why we do what we do.

Tremendous insight here, folks.

Notice the probing.

Let's go to number seven.

But let me remind you: knowing the word and believing it is two different things.

Write that down.

Knowing the word and believing is two different things.

The religious leaders had a head knowledge, but not a heart commitment to the word.

That's why he says in Proverbs 23, 26, my son, give me your heart and let your eyes observe my ways.

Man, that's good.

Notice the seventh thing: the instructing for the seeking.

Notice what?

Herod had some words of instruction from the Magi after he had learned where the Christ child was to be born.

Now notice in verse 7.

This is interesting.

He calls them, he takes the wise men, he says, Can I come?

Can you come here and talk with me privately?

Better be careful sometimes.

Now, private conversations are good sometimes.

But see, Herod had an ulterior motive.

You know why he wanted private audience?

Because he had already made up in his mind, remember, he's cruel, he's vile.

He'd already made up in his mind what he was going to do about this little baby, the king of the Jews.

You know what he's gonna do?

He's gonna kill him.

Already had a plan.

Now he didn't tell them that.

Oh, he said, oh, oh, please, once you find him, come back hurry, come back so that I can go worship him too.

Notice what he says.

He had a private, he had privately called the wise men.

And notice the probing here.

He inquired of them diligently, notice this, verse 7.

He inquired of them diligently what time the star appeared.

Now watch.

Are you ready for this?

You know why he wanted to know what time the star had appeared?

That would give him a timetable so that he can make sure.

This is horrible.

This is genocide, because in his mind he already knew it was up to two years.

So he was gonna have every male baby in the region killed from birth to age two.

Now he had a motive for wanting to know the time.

Oh, it's horrible.

It's horrible.

Then notice.

He said he sent them to Bethlehem, verse 8.

Oh, he encourages them.

Oh, oh, go find him, go find him.

But watch this.

Even though Herod meant it for evil, and God in his providence meant it for good.

Aren't you glad for the providence of God?

Aren't you glad for the power of God?

Aren't you glad for the protection of God?

Because notice what God did.

And I love it.

God has interesting ways.

I wrote this Bible which he promotes his work.

Can you imagine?

He used a horrible, ungodly, ruthless, vile king to get the wise men where they needed to be.

Isn't that something?

Now, don't think a minute.

The wise men have got to be kind of shocked.

Because they're coming to Jerusalem.

Why did they go to Jerusalem?

That's where the capital was.

So don't get so upset about America putting the embassy back in Jerusalem.

That's where it was, started out.

And he knew.

They thought, here's the king, the king of the Jews.

Now, what in what in their mind are they thinking?

A palace.

A baby.

A baby king.

A prince that's been born.

Yes, they went to the capital.

They went to the king.

To see the new king.

But God in his providence used Herod to send into Bethlehem.

Remember what Joseph said, you meant it for evil, but God what?

Meant it for good?

Genesis 50, 20.

The Old Testament Romans 8:20 verse, Genesis 50, 20.

Romans 8:20

Notice the plea in the instructor.

Search diligently for the young child.

He said, please go find him.

Now this plea is a good one for all mankind.

That is exactly what we ought to do.

In fact, look at Isaiah 55, 6.

Now, what he said, Herod said what each of us need to do.

He said, Go seek the king diligently.

Look, seek the Lord while he may be found.

Call upon him while he is near.

Wow.

So he was giving God's, he was giving us good instruction, even though he had an ulterior motive.

But that's exactly what we should be doing.

And that's exactly what they did.

And then he said, When ye have found him in verse 8, bring me word again.

Now there's a good evangelical message here about the fact that when we find Christ, we are to tell others.

I mean, can you listen to what Herod said.

Is God not good?

God used a vile king to tell us what we need to do.

He said, Go diligently seek the king.

Find the king.

And when you find the king of the Jews, go tell everybody.

Go tell everybody.

Go tell it on the mountain.

That Jesus Christ is born.

That's it.

That's it.

Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.

And then number eight, notice the illumination.

The star which they saw in the east went before them till it came and stood over where the young child was.

Wow.

Now there's been a lot of talk about this star.

Some say it was the alignment of some planets, a superstar, a comet.

I just believe it was a supernatural phenomenon of God Himself.

Now, you know what I think it was?

Now, this is what I think.

You know what I think?

I think it was the same bright light that appeared to the shepherds when the angels, hundreds and hundreds of angels, were shouting and singing, glory to God.

To the highest, I think it was the Shekana glory of God.

That's what I believe it was.

That's me.

Beautiful insight.

And then we see here in verse 9 the privilege in the star.

The star which they saw in the east.

The star was a spiritual privilege.

It informed them of the birth of Christ.

The Magi wisely used this spiritual privilege to grow in the knowledge of Christ and to improve their service.

I thought to myself, oh my goodness.

And I'm talking about me.

How many times have I sat in a service like this, or I've been in a conference, and God has illuminated me and given me instructions and wisdom from his word that I just listened and did nothing with it.

When these wise men got the wisdom of God, they did something with it.

They responded.

God gets wisdom out of his mouth comes knowledge and understanding.

Tremendous insight there, folks.

Don't miss that.

That knocked me side the head when I was studying this.

The privilege of the star.

Do you know we have the privilege in this country of worshiping the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords and the Word of God?

We have the privilege of not being shot for our worship and locked up for our worship.

We have the privilege of being free to worship the King of Kings in spirit and in truth.

For the Father seeketh to worship him, John 4.23.

But what do we do with it?

Do we take it for granted?

Or do we respond in adoration and glory?

Do we bow and lick the master's hand in reverence?

Saying, Not my will, but thy will be done.

Powerful, powerful.

What wise men.

What they teach us.

The great joy.

When they saw the star, verse 10, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy.

Wow.

Number nine.

The infant in the seeking.

The star led the magi to the house.

Notice where the infant Christ was born, whom they wanted to see.

I wanted to show you a few words here and I'm through.

But this is the climax of the story.

This is what we have led up to.

This is the diligently seeking of the master, of the king, of the baby Jesus.

And once they get there, look what happens.

It is phenomenal.

The insight.

Right here we see the infant, first of all, notice what he says in verse 11.

I love it.

And when they saw her come into the house, they came to the right place.

That ought to be a great example for us to come into the house every Sunday where God's word has been exalted, where Jesus is exalted, where his knowledge is exalted, where we can worship him in spirit and truth, for the Father seeketh sets to worship him.

Oh, David said, I was glad when they said, Let us go into the house of the Lord in Psalms 122.

Let me tell you a verse I had not seen about worshiping in a house.

I want you to write it down.

I don't know if it's on there.

I don't think I have this one, Jason.

Psalms 42, verse 4.

Psalms 42:4

Write that verse down.

God just illuminated that verse to me this week.

He said, I went with the multitude.

I love that.

The psalmist said, I went with the multitude to the house of God with the voice of joy and praise.

Now, let me ask you something.

When you get out of your car every Sunday morning, is your heart full of joy and praise?

Or are you just hurrying to get here?

Thankful you got here.

Are you worried about what you're going to do afterwards or what you got to do today?

I mean, no, no, no, no.

Or do you allot a couple hours knowing that this is his time for me to just, hey, honor and adore him.

The King.

I don't know about you, but yes, because I know I'm preaching every time, but I'm up early and I'm in the Word, but I'm always praise, praising Him, singing the praise music on and just getting my heart ready.

One of the reasons I stand outside to try to shake everyone's hand, hug everyone's neck for two reasons.

One, I love you.

And I care for you.

I'm your shepherd, one of your shepherds.

But you know what?

I want you to see the joy of the Lord on my face and on my heart and where he is.

I want you to be greeted with a smile.

Because a lot of people don't get greeted with a smile.

I want you to feel the joy of the Lord in my heart to you.

It's important to me.

And I noticed something else in verse 11.

With their, with Mary, his mother.

I'm going to say something right here.

It's not popular today.

Used to it, it's very popular.

Thank God for godly mothers that raise their children.

I didn't get a whole lot of amen there, did I?

You know why?

Because we don't even hear motherhood anymore.

Most women are working, have to work a lot of them.

But I thank God for those women that are committed to being the mother, hey, of their babies, of their children, and raising their children in a godly way.

Notice they didn't say Joseph with the child.

They said Mary, the mother of the child.

Moms, the greatest, are you ready?

The greatest occupation you can have is being a mom and raising your children in godliness.

That's the greatest occupation you could have.

Can I get maybe one amen?

Yes, thank you.

For you mothers that have committed yourself to do that.

Susan did not start teaching until our kids were in school.

Because we made a promise to each other that she was going to take care of our children.

And she did.

And then guess what she did?

She talked.

So guess who took our kids to school and who brought them home?

Mama.

She went to school when they went to school.

When they went into class, she taught class.

Even though that was her calling and all, but part of that was so she would be with her kids.

Meant a lot.

Moms, let me tell you something.

You listen to me.

Listen to me.

You will definitely have the greatest influence.

More influence than anyone else can have.

More than dads.

That hurts my ego.

It's your influence.

It's your influence.

And don't ever forget that.

That's an honorable place to be.

Remember what Jesus, what was what did Jesus say to John?

One of the last things he said on the cross.

A hold my mother.

A hoe!

A mother.

Man, that's good.

Proverbs 31.

By the way, and I know how we look at it.

I had someone say, I heard this literally, and I corrected him.

Why would you want to waste your time doing that?

He told he told a mother that.

I said, let me tell you something.

That's the greatest.

Do you know what God's Word says?

Children are a heritage of the Lord.

They're little arrows, psalmist tells us.

Thank God.

I know that's not popular.

Boy, I won't get an amen on that one.

I knew it wouldn't.

That's okay.

I'm going to preach what God's word says.

The house, the mother, now look at another word.

The worship.

They fell down.

We've talked about that.

Then look at the other word: the wealth.

They opened their treasures.

They presented unto him gifts: gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

If our worship is to be genuine and meaningful, it will be accompanied by gifts for Christ.

Out of their treasures, the magi gave generous gifts and expensive gifts to Christ.

Now we may not all have the wealth that they had, but that's not what he's saying.

What he's saying is that we ought to give back to God and proportionate what God's given to us.

Isn't that what scripture says?

2 Corinthians 16 1, on the first day of the week, bring to God's house that in proportionate what God has blessed you and giving back to him.

Oh, folks, listen.

It's so important.

In fact, there's several scriptures here I wanted you to see.

Haggai.

Haggai 2.8 says, the silver and the gold belongs unto him.

The silver and the gold.

Look.

Hey, the silver is mine and the gold is mine, says the Lord of hosts.

Let me ask something.

If your money, your gold, your silver belongs unto him, you ought not to have any problem giving it back to him.

Can I get an amen?

Deuteronomy 8.18, thou shalt remember the Lord thy God, for it is him that gives thee power to get wealth.

And then Malachi, go to Malachi.

This is powerful.

Listen to Malachi, for I am the Lord, I do not change.

Therefore you are not consumed.

O sons of Jacob, yet from the days of your fathers you have gone away from my ordinances and have not kept them.

Now watch what he says.

Return to me, and I will return to you.

Now watch what he says.

Says the Lord of hosts, but you said, in what way shall we return, God?

In what way?

What way?

Will a man, verse 8, rob God?

Yet you have robbed me.

But you say, wait a minute, what do you mean?

Have I robbed you?

In what way have I robbed you?

In tithes and offerings.

Then look at verse 9.

Your curse were the curse, for you have robbed me, even the whole nation.

And then verse 10, this is the one you hear me quote all the time.

Bring all the tithes into the storehouse that there may be meat in my house and prove me and try me.

That word means prove me now in this, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven and pour you out a blessing.

Do you realize the only place he says in the New Testament, I mean in the Bible, you can test him is in the area of your giving?

That's phenomenal.

And then watch, though, you can't miss verse 12.

Well, verse 11.

And I will rebuke the devourer for your sake so that he will not destroy the fruit of your grail, nor shall the vial fail to bear fruit for you in the field.

Oh my goodness.

He's saying, listen, listen, when you're obedient to God and you're giving, remember, yourself first, then your gifts, I will keep the devourer, I will keep Satan away from you.

That's huge, folks.

I don't know anyone I've ever counseled that was a tither, loving God, giving back to God that was ever in financial problem.

I've been in ministry 30 for six years, not one time.

That's faithfully given back to God.

Not one.

They're not sick.

Kids aren't sick.

There's a lot of things here, folks.

Understand.

Don't rob God of what He's blessed you with.

Here's let me tell you where I got victory.

And I've never questioned it, and that's been 38, 40 years ago.

When I realized that, hey, I'm just giving back a small portion of God's money back to Him.

I have been blessed to keep 80%.

Now I know you say, wait a minute.

You're doubling to 10%?

No, no, remember the fruit jar?

10% goes to God, 10% to savings.

You keep 80%.

That's a pretty good deal, folks, for all that God gives back to you.

Listen, we've done that since I've been married.

36 wonderful years.

God has so blessed us.

We started with very little.

And we're not real wealthy.

We're not that.

But I'm telling you, we have, we don't know anything.

We've been blessed.

We've been, he's kept us free from sickness.

I mean, we have been blessed.

Our kids are raised up serving the Lord.

I mean, we've been blessed and blessed.

And not once have we even thought about not giving back to him.

I wish you'd catch it.

If you catch it, it's over.

You got it.

You got it.

Come on.

Next Sunday, you'll have an opportunity to give back to him for how he's blessed you this year.

I want you to think about the offering you give next Sunday of how he's blessed you this year.

You give that way, we'll have a great offering.

I guarantee you.

In fact, we're talking about now, I don't even know.

He's blessed us so much this year, I don't know.

I have no idea what we're going to give, but it's going to be it's going to be a good gift.

Then I close.

The inside after the seeking.

Being warned of God in a dream.

Ha ha.

Being warned in a, hey, in a dream.

Being warned, it means that they gave a response to the one who asks or consults.

Men had sought counsel of God and he gave them an answer.

The greatest thing you can see here, when you seek him, he will answer you.

They warned the Magi not to go back to Herod.

They warned the Magi to go in the right direction.

Now listen to me.

You know why?

Think a minute.

If they had gone back to King Herod, what would have happened?

They probably would have been killed.

Why?

He would have found out where baby Jesus was and he wasn't about to let them live because, hey, they would know what he was about to do.

And they, hey, and he didn't want this caravan running around the region praising another king.

When God gives you the answer, you follow.

If you're willing and obedient, what?

You shall eat the good of the land.

But if you refuse and rebel, you shall be devoured by the sword.

Wise men still seek you.

They seek their goals.

I want you to be praying this next few weeks, new year's coming.

But your new year's goal will be to be all that God wants you to be.

Ask him to show you his will for your life.

And watch.

And he will do that.

No doubt if you seek him.

But here's what I want you to really pray.

God, give me the strength and the desire and the gratitude and the encouragement and the excitement and the joy to do it.

Remember, only two out of ten.

Only two.

That's 20%.

Let's raise it at CCW.

Let's raise that.

I want, you know what I want?

I want us to experience the fullness of God's love and grace in 2018 like we've never seen it before.