The Surprise In Bethlehem

Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, in the days

of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the East came to

Jerusalem, saying, Where is he who has been born of the Jews?

For we saw his star when it rose, and have come to worship

him. When Herod the King heard this,

he was troubled in all Jerusalem with him, and assembling all the

chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them

where the Christ was to be born. They told him in Bethlehem of

Judea. For so it is written by the

prophet. And you, O Bethlehem in the land

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

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

Israel inherit summoned the wise men secretly, and ascertain 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. After listening to the King,

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

seen when it rose before them, until it came to rest over the

place where the child was. When they saw the star, they

rejoiced exceedingly with great joy, And going into the house

they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and

worshipped him. Then opening their treasures,

they they offer him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh.

And being warned in a dream not to return to hear it, they

departed to their own country by another way.

This is the word of the Lord. What's going on Port City family

and friends how are we doing? Good, why and pumped to be with

you. My name is Tanner, I'm Lee

pastor here. It is a joy to be with you.

We are super excited about next weeks Port City Christmas

service going to be awesome. Invite a friend, invite a couple

friends. You know, people are hungry for

truth. They really are.

And I think some people are really tired of, of the answers

that secularism has to offer them a follow in their own

heart. And, and we have the answer.

You know, we, we have the answer in Jesus and the worst they

could do is say no Amen. So we're excited to celebrate

with you next week. I want to say a quick word of

prayer over this text and then we will dive in.

OK, let's pray. Our Father, we're so grateful

for this moment. We're so grateful for this true

story. God, that you sent your son,

born of the virgin in our midst, God, and you didn't come on an

extraction mission to get us out, but to bring yourself in to

the mess here with us. We praise you for that Lord, And

we pray over our friends, God, those who you are drawing to

yourself, God, that that we've been evangelizing and, and

sharing the gospel with and inviting to our homes and, and

our just our friends and family. God, we pray they would come and

hear the good news. So give us boldness, give us

confidence that that you are God and you are drawing people to

yourself. Lord, as we turn our attention

to this text, would you what we know not would you teach us what

we have not Would you give us and what we are not Father God,

please make us and everybody who agreed with that said, Amen.

Y'all being surprised is such a unique experience, isn't it?

There's there's a few different types of surprises.

I don't know if you've ever been surprise at like a birthday

party. You've been the recipient of

that kind of surprise. It's like a good surprise.

You realize what's going on and you're like, yes, OK, there's

another type of surprise where you find out there's a test in

10 minutes and you did not study.

Has that ever happened to you? That's the one where your your

throat gets that frog in it and you're just fearful of what's

about to happen. That's another way that

surprises can happen to you. And then there's the surprise at

like the end of a good movie where the twist comes and you're

like, what? That was this the whole time.

That was him. Y'all with me?

I love that feeling. And here's what's so unique

about Jesus's arrival a couple thousand years ago is it's all

of those at the same time. That makes sense.

Some people are feeling the frog in their throat because they're

threatened by his arrival. Some are excited and everybody

who's been paying attention to the story from beginning to end

is like, you mean to tell me that when you said in this, in

that So God is the great storyteller.

Some people are in trouble and some people are excited.

OK. And that's what we have in

today's text. And my hope for us is that we

would see Jesus's arrival here today as the greatest surprise

of all time. We would walk out submitted to

him, trusting him, worshipping him.

Amen. To get there we're going to take

a look at 3 surprises in the text.

We got the surprise in Jerusalem, the surprise from the

east and then the surprise in Bethlehem.

If you already let me hear you say I'm ready.

All right first surprise surprise number one is that

Herod in Jerusalem are the God squelchers.

And if you're like what is squelching?

Think like snuffing you, you, you squelch the candle.

I don't know if that's technical one of y'all English people can

let me know. But you snuff the candle, you

squelch it. OK, so that's that's what Herod

and Jerusalem try to do to Jesus.

Let's check it out. Look with me at verse one.

Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days

of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the east came to

Jerusalem saying, where is he who has been born king of the

Jews? For we saw his star when it rose

and have come to worship him. We'll talk more about the wise

men here in a moment, but for now, just think truth seekers

who stumbled upon a prophecy and saw a star and they came to the

place where that should be known about.

They came to the place, the hub of Jewish life.

And you don't need to think just a few guys rolling up.

They probably had a caravan like a bunch of people rolling up.

So it was enough people that the whole city was stirred up.

They all noticed their arrival. Think like the Aladdin kind of

arrival of Prince Ali. That's kind of the size of

caravan rolling up into Jerusalem here.

And what's so interesting is that, again, they wanted to come

to Jerusalem because what they knew of the the Jewish story was

like, if anybody knows about what we kind of know, they'll

know here. Does that make sense if

Jerusalem to the the Jewish way of life in terms of knowing the

scriptures and all that kind of stuff is kind of the hub of

their culture, the way like a New York City or a Washington DC

is to ours. So they show up there and they

don't find excitement. They don't find a bunch of

people running around talking about what they saw, which is a

little ironic. Look with me at verse 3.

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

Jerusalem with him. Herod is known for two things in

history. The first one is his buildings.

He built a lot of buildings, palaces.

Many of the people in the region were employed by him to build

his palaces. Of course, the biggest one being

his own house. OK, and it stands to this day to

some degree. The second thing he's known for

is his cruelty. He put members of his own family

to death. His his sons, his wife was the

victim of his own cruelty. When he felt threatened, he

flexed. You have this in common with

Herod. Maybe you ain't killed nobody.

But we all when we feel threatened, we we, we, we, we

protect, you know, we get we get territorial.

I remember shout out to my millennials and anybody remember

stoop kid from Hey Arnold? Anybody y'all are my people?

OK, Stoop kid never leaves a stoop.

If you got near stoop kid stoop, he would run you off screaming

at you. This is my stoop.

Get away from my stoop. But then they all stood up to

him and said stoop kid never leaves a stoop.

And they stood up to him. OK.

But there's a little stoop kid in all of us.

If you get near that, which is precious to our identity and we

think it could be taken, we flex, OK.

And that's what Herod does here. But you all, there's no

indication in the text that anyone from Jerusalem is excited

the way the wise men are scholars like, well, maybe

Jerusalem was nervous because if Herod's in a bad mood, that's

bad for them. And I, and I understand that,

but there seems to be an indication there that they're

troubled as well. Are you with me?

All Jerusalem with him is troubled by this news.

Look at verse 7. So after finding out from the

the people, 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.

We'll see next week kind of what Herod chooses to do.

And many y'all know that he, he basically goes on a rage and

once he's tricked by the wise men later and but what we see is

him attempting to snuff, to squelch, right?

And we see that Jerusalem as well is not leaving to go find

this out. Herod seems to be trying to keep

it on the low a little bit. So maybe if they heard more,

they would. But again, we see that there was

enough evidence for the town to be stored stirred up and they

were not, which is our first Christmas surprise, y'all.

Jerusalem does not move a muscle for the Messiah.

That's just a a staggering sentence.

These are the people that have watched every Marvel movie and

can tell you every character and how it connects.

Amen to my kids and preteens. They're like, I know that I know

all that. I watch till the credits every

time. They know the scriptures.

The chief priests and scribes almost casually can come and

tell him what how this is supposed to go, but they

themselves don't move a muscle. Do you see that this is this is

finding out that a Marvel hero has come and you don't even go,

you stay through the credits. It's it's just not adding up.

We see that at worst, Jerusalem is threatened and at best

they're disinterested. They do not move a muscle upon

hearing about the Messiah. You know, this is kind of the

first just shocking thing about the first Christmas is those who

were supposed to be excited by his arrival yawned.

They wanted to keep the status quo.

His his arrival is a threat. If you're a king, another king

showing up as a threat to you, right?

And if you want things to stay the way they are, the

announcement that a Kingdom is being inaugurated threatens you.

It it makes you yawn. Potentially that's the first

surprise we see in Jerusalem. But there's another surprise in

the text, which is that the wise men from the east are the God

seekers. So if Jerusalem squelches this

news, the the men from the east are the ones stirring it up.

Look with me again at verses 1 and 2.

Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days

of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the east came to

Jerusalem saying, Where is he who has been born king of the

Jews? For we saw his star when it

rose, and have come to worship him.

OK, somebody say wise men. OK, maybe culturally you've

heard the phrase 3 Kings. There's a there's an old song,

We 3 Kings, right? There's a cool Kirk Franklin

version of it that's got a little beat to it.

Just to put the facts straight. They are not kings and there's

not three of them that we know. OK, where that comes from is the

three gifts, gold, frankincense and myrrh.

It just kind of became, well, maybe one of them, one gift, one

person. So that's where three got in the

imagination a little bit. The concept of king comes from

Psalm 72. There's this imagery of kings

coming from the nations and coming and falling down before a

kingly figure, this almost Messiah type figure, which fits

what's happening here. But that doesn't mean that

they're kings. And in First Kings 10, you might

remember the story of the Queen of Sheba hearing about Solomon's

wisdom. And she goes and gets a bunch of

gold and spices and shows up to hear about his wisdom and then

worships him for what she finds. So there's a lot of parallels in

the Old Testament imagination that fit kings coming and

worshiping, but that doesn't mean it was 3 and it doesn't

mean they were kings. Are you with me?

Even though I love the movies and that song is really good by

Kirk Franklin. OK.

But basically these wise men are astrologist priest type people.

They are truth seekers. They're they're priests.

They're, they're just kind of like astrology, like think Tara

cards like that sort of headspace is their headspace.

OK. And they hear some kind of way

through the Jewish story about Numbers 24 and a prophecy about

a star. You can go back and read the,

the, the Baylock Balaam stuff in numbers 24 is fascinating.

And that's where the prophecy of the star comes from.

And they somehow had heard something about that and saw the

star connected some dots show up in Jerusalem.

Are y'all with me? That's about what we can

actually know. All the other stuff is a little

bit conjecture, but it is a surprise that the people leading

the charge to go meet the arrival of Messiah are from the

East. Somebody say East, the East in

the Bible is a place that is distant from the Lord.

OK, When Adam and Eve fall and are kicked out of the garden,

they have two sons, Cain and Abel.

OK, And when Cain kills Abel, what the Bible says is that part

of Cain's curse, it says is he sent from the presence of the

Lord to the East, OK. And there's a famous book by a

dude named John Steinbeck in the 20th century called East of

Eden. OK, he's picking up on the

further E you go in the Bibles way of thinking you're going

distance from the Lorde presence.

So it's a metaphor with literal implications.

Are you with me? So for people to be coming from

the East towards the Lord is sort of a big deal.

What it means is that those who were furthest from the Lord are

first in line to meet Messiah. Are y'all tracking with me?

What's happening in front of us is a reversal.

If the east was furthest, now look, E is first in line.

Are y'all seeing that they were last?

Now they're first, right? Are y'all tracking?

So what Matthew is giving us a picture of is the first people

ready to worship the newborn king are not Jews.

They are gentiles, they're not from Jerusalem, they're from the

east. Are y'all with me?

This is a surprise. The first one showing up aren't

the scripture memorizers, it's the stargazers, the weirdos, the

tarot card holders are in line to meet Jesus and the ones with

the scripture memorizer, like he over there I guess.

Let us know though. Sounds fun and don't move.

I mean, just think about that. It's so backwards of what you

would think, which leads me to ask the question to the port

city family here who might come to faith that you think is an

astrologist weirdo kind of end of the spectrum is out in the

East. I think we tend to think if

they're in Jerusalem, they're coming close to coming to the

Lord. Are you with me?

We think if they grew up in this, if they know this, we

think if there's some values there, if they like this, if

they like that, if they listen to this podcast, they're really

close. Y'all just I understand that and

my flesh does the same thing. But what we see in the

scriptures is the people who are on the bottom and have no

anchors of worldview are coming to faith like crazy, explosion

of grace. They hear the message, they hear

the story and they're like what? Let me get a piece of that.

And ironically, the people with the building blocks of values

and stuff are very protective over what they have and they

don't want to change it. They'll take the system and

leave the Savior. Does that make sense?

So let's just dream about who God might save and who that

might even impact you to invite this week or share the good news

of Christmas with even the people you think are too far

gone. Share the gospel with people.

God is drawing people like the wise men to himself.

And if you are here right now and you have sort of a tarot

card background, what I hope you feel encouraged about is those

who have no proximity of the Lord and their background are

not disqualified from access to the King.

There is no amount of Scripture memory you need to get before

you get in His presence. It's once you understand the

story, once you understand the things we're talking about in

the gospel and you agree with God, y'all, that's the path.

It's the poor in spirit the Lord is looking for, not just those

who have a lot of knowledge stored up.

Let's look at verse 10. Let's look at verse 10.

When they, the wise men, 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 and frankincense and myrrh.

And being warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they

departed to their own country by another way.

We see here their response of joy and worship.

Some of the elements of this text.

We'll talk about more next week as we build on it with the end

of the chapter. But for now, we see that worship

is a response. You see that they already have

joy and they're worshipping Jesus for who he is.

So they know enough already to be worshipping Jesus.

So the question is, what did they know, right?

Some of the hint was the fact that they're from the East and

still feel qualified, feel worthy.

At some level they feel like this king would allow me in

their presence. That's because they understand

at some level the Old Testament story, you know, God's plan was

always to bless all the nations through the chosen people of

God. Through you, all nations on

earth will be blessed. He told Abraham the goal was

through the One to get to the many, and in this text we see

the many coming to the One. Do you see that?

What they knew about Yahweh, what they knew about the Old

Testament story, was that this God wants to be known.

And you don't have to be pure to know Him.

He purifies you so you can know Him.

They're showing up there Doesn't mean they have confidence in

their own morality. It means they're confident that

He is willing to have them in His presence.

Are you with me? They understood enough about

that, which leads us to an important thing we need to point

out in our in our cultural moment.

Y'all truth and sincerity matter.

Let let me explain the men, the wise men were still their

personality and all that stuff and probably sincerely believed

their astrology stuff that was wrong.

I think in our culture we worship and idolize sincerity.

As long as you're sincere about what you worship, it doesn't

matter what you worship. Just be sincere about it y'all.

The object of your worship matters.

You can be sincerely wrong. Are you with me?

So like, we can't worship sincerity of you, do you?

As long as you're authentically worshiping what you want to

worship, do you? That's not true, y'all.

They are to be emulated because the object of their faith is

correct, not just because they worship well.

Does that make sense? It don't matter if you bring

gold and frankincense and myrrh to a fake God that don't exist.

Are you with me? So they both matter.

And what they're pointing out through their worship is to be

contrasted with Herod. Herod was troubled by the news.

They were overjoyed. Herod did not move.

They moved hundreds of miles. They gave up their life.

Herod kept his y'all. Which again, just points out

something to us that we really need to wrap our minds around.

Y'all check this? Do we see that God's love is

free and cost you everything at the same time?

Let me explain this because we can get confused by what

unconditional love means. Y'all, the conditions of you to

be loved are met by God. That's what unconditional love

means. It means He meets the

conditions. Therefore you don't have to

bring any with me. That's what the cross is about.

That's what Him spilling His blood for you is about.

He is meeting the conditions for you to be in the presence of

God. The conditions for Jesus to be

worshipped for both parties was met Jerusalem and the East, but

only the East showed up. So unconditional doesn't mean

you get access to it even if you don't do anything.

Are you with me? The people from the East, the

wise men gave up everything to get that which was free.

But you don't get that which is free if you don't move in the

text. Are you with me?

Jerusalem had access and did not take advantage.

Are you with me? We can hear unconditional love

and think that means you don't got to do nothing.

That's not true. When is that ever true?

The way I would say it like this, you should give up

everything to get God's free gift.

The gift is free, but it costs you everything.

It's still unconditional. Are you with me?

We just confuse what that means. You have to go get it.

The wise men went to Jesus. Jerusalem did not move a muscle.

It was free to Jerusalem. They didn't want it.

Are you with me? So we must go to God this

Christmas. I just want to ask some of us, I

think what we want is a feeling, a disembodied, nostalgic,

unconditional love feeling. And y'all, when that's what you

want, and a lot of times the Christmas season, that's the

package, that somehow you just get it by eating a meal with

your family, that's that. Yeah, nostalgia is a great gift

that can point to some good things.

But yo, go get God. Don't settle for a feeling.

Go to the person, the Savior, Messiah, the chosen one.

Copy The wise men seek Jesus. Don't just chase a feeling.

There's an old little hemline that says nothing in my hands.

I bring simply to the cross. I cling.

The idea is God only fills empty hands.

If you want the Lord, you do have to empty that which you're

holding. The wise man gave up everything

and got Jesus. Jerusalem knew something, did

not want it, didn't change nothing.

The Bible teaches that if you want to gain your life, you got

to lose it. And if you try to keep your

life, you'll lose it. It's it's upside down and it's

backwards. That's the second Christmas.

Surprise, surprise #3 Jesus is the shepherd king.

Jesus is the shepherd king. Verse two said this.

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

Somebody say born kiddos. I love y'all y'all, y'all with

me y'all. What's y'all's favorite

Christmas movie that's come out in the last few years that's

animated? Got a donkey in it.

Thank you. It's the star.

OK, Love that movie. But I do want to point something

out. This is hard, y'all.

Jesus was not an infant when the wise men showed up.

OK? So there's some good things that

movie do does. OK.

But when the wise men show up, Jesus is already a child.

You see the word child in there? He's not a baby.

OK, let me explain something to you.

They probably got there when Jesus was like, he's not infant,

he might be baby, he's pushing toddler.

Are you with me? It's like he was already born,

saw star and then it LED them there.

OK, but this is a months long journey.

They did not show up as Jesus is being born.

Are you with me? I love that movie by the way.

And the older you get kiddos, you'll notice more things like

oh, the sheep is Ruth and Bo is short for Boaz Ruth the boy.

You'll just start noticing the layers.

Somebody loved Jesus on that, on that crew.

We don't know if all of them did.

They're trying to make some money.

Amen, somebody. But yeah, they show up to a kid,

but the kid has been born king of the Jews.

OK, so that's a threat to Herod because Herod was made king of

the Jews. OK.

The Romans put him in place. He's their puppet to administer

what they want done. Jesus is born a king, y'all.

This points to the doctrine of the incarnation.

What the Scriptures teach is that Jesus is the eternal Son of

God coming into the story of God's people.

He is born under the Virgin Mary, born under the Law.

He lived a life like us. He is fulfilling the story of

Israel. As we'll talk about more next

week. He is the fulfillment of that.

He's also God. He is the God man.

He is worshipped for who he is in this text.

Not yet what he's done. Y'all see that one day he would

do a lot to be worshipped for, but the start of his life is

worship just for who he is because he's God.

You worship God in the first title given to him by somebody

else in the book of Matthew is king of the Jews by some wise

men from the east. And it's interesting because in

Matthew 2737 you can write that one down.

Many of you know that Pilate, what he writes on the cross

above Jesus is what king of the Jews.

So think about the first use of that phrase and the last use of

that phrase. First use some dudes from the

East looking at some stars. Last use a Roman political

figure who didn't know how true what he was writing.

OK, Jesus was the king born to defeat death.

He's called it when he's born. He's called it at his death.

And the irony is that he was born that man no more may die.

Y'all with me? They don't know how right they

were. So this Jesus is a king born to

defeat death. And it's in Bethlehem.

Look with me at verse 5. They told him in Bethlehem of

Judea. For so it is written by the

prophet. And you, O Bethlehem in the land

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

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

Y'all, we're really excited. This is a Micah chapter 5

Micah 5 · chapter mention

reference mixed with some Second Samuel 5.

It's a kind of a double pot reference, you know, mix it in

the pot a little bit. In the new year, mid January,

we're going to start a series called 12 Prophets.

We're going to hit a prophet every week.

I'm so excited to dive more into the context of the prophets, how

it ties to the New Testament. It's going to be dope.

Hope you're with us for now. What you need to know is that in

the prophets, things are not going well, OK, for the people

of God, and it's their own fault, their own sin, OK?

And these type prophecies like this one is a moment of comfort

in a backdrop of pain brought about by themselves and by

wicked outsiders. And he's telling the people, but

don't worry, something's coming. Someone is coming, OK?

And what he's saying is coming is a shepherd, which is pulling

in a reference from Second Samuel 5 where King David is

being made king of Israel. And they say you will, you will

be God, shepherd of us. You will rule us.

And here's what the prophets, the David, the link, Here's the

link. OK Jesus kings us by shepherding

us. He shepherds us by kinging us.

Are you with me? He rules us by caring for us.

He cares for us by ruling us. It should comfort us that he's

king. We are comforted by his

kingship. And his kingship feels like

being shepherded. Are you with me?

In contrast to a ruler, a king like Herod, who uses you to

build his buildings, he's going to send somebody who is going to

rule you like a shepherd. So ask it like this.

What were the wise men coming to worship Jesus for?

They are praising their shepherd.

They have found the King who wants to shepherd them.

Are you with me? To worship Jesus is to submit to

his reign and ask him to shepherd you.

What the Bible presents is that God longs to rule over a people.

The problem is nobody wants to be ruled by the Lord and our

sin, so in the person of Jesus we have the person who is

purchasing the people and ruling them at the same time.

Because Jesus is both sheep and shepherd, that's what makes him

so unique. Isaiah 53 talks about how he was

the sheep led to the like a lamb.

He was led to the slaughter. What the scriptures point to is

a God man, a Messiah who would step into our story as a sheep,

like live a sheep life, be a lamb and show us the way.

Be the one led by God. He's a baby, He has parents, He

poops, he needs things, OK, he submits.

So he lived the sheep life and that's what makes him authorized

once defeating death. He is the Good Shepherd, John

10, who lays his life down for the sheep.

So he is both sheep and shepherd.

He has defeated death. That's what he did on the cross

was he conquered sin and death in Satan so that he could

shepherd us. You know, what shepherds do is

they keep you safe. What shepherds do is they move

you when the grass is running out.

They do some calculations. They're like, let's get a fake

fake. You know, one of the ways that

they lead you right is they have to make you fearful of danger,

which is fake danger, to get you to move somewhere safe or we're

so dumb we would never move. Did you know that?

OK, So what a shepherd will do is stir you up in a Safeway,

make you scared to move you, or you would never move.

You would stay there till you die.

You'd stay in the pasture with no grass.

You know that, right? So they got to stir you up and

move you over by the waters. But we wouldn't want to move.

He moves you. He keeps you safe.

He sustains you. He looks out for you.

Y'all, God wants to be a shepherd.

We need a shepherd. We want a shepherd, y'all.

Here's the one application for y'all today, OK?

Seek Jesus Christ the Shepherd, King of the world, with all of

your heart. Seek Jesus, the Shepherd of your

soul. Seek him.

I want to hear somebody say I'm a sheep.

That is a fact. If you said it, If you didn't, I

hope you thought it. Listen, to be human is to be

sheep. To be sheep is to have a

shepherd. Here's what you need to hear.

You have a shepherd right now. It might not be Jesus.

You are a sheep. You have a shepherd.

And what we say to our shepherd in our souls consciously,

subconsciously is keep me safe, protect me, help me, lead me, do

for me what I can't do for myself because I know my you got

to help me get over to the green pasture.

And so let me tell you this, to be a Sinner isn't just to make

mistakes and break God's laws, which it is.

You have cosigned your own false shepherds.

Think about that. You have asked somebody other

than the Lord in your sin. You have signed the dotted line

of shepherd me to something that can't.

You've asked a relationship to shepherd you money to shepherd

you comfort. We have asked anything, anybody

other than the one true shepherd to make us safe.

And it can't. What's so convicting at the

Christmas season is much of the pain we find ourselves in and

y'all some of it is from the outside and it's other people's

failures and I get that. But a lot of it is self induced

because we signed on the dotted line of the wrong shepherds

where peacekeeper like we we've wanted to keep the peace will

make us happy. Just all of the ways that we've

signed anything but the Lord has LED us to a place where there's

pain and y'all bad shepherds are like Herod, they are using you.

Ultimately the one pulling the string back there theologically

is sort of kind of Satan using you.

Herod, His legacy was his buildings.

Herod's legacy is what you did for him.

Jesus's legacy was his blood. There is no building.

He built where we go. And you know, that's what's so

amazing about the gospel is Jesus just came to serve, not to

be served. So I want to give some of y'all

permission this Christmas, y'all to come to Christ is first you

have to agree with God that it's your own fault.

You've signed on the dotted line for the wrong shepherds.

He wants to be your shepherd. But first you got to fire the

wrong ones. And the person you've trusted

most, a shepherd you, is you. And you got to give up on that.

You've got to let go of the right to rule your life and

agree with God that you need a shepherd.

And Jesus is unique. He is the sheep shepherd combo.

He is 1 God. He is man, He is one person and

two natures. He's the eternal Son of God.

And he is authorized to shepherd you.

He knows what's best for you. He spilt his blood for you.

So that's the question for you this Christmas is are you

squelching King Jesus or are you seeking him?

Somebody say seek. And in light of this text with

dreams and stuff, you're like, what does that mean?

OK, which reminds it is you don't need a dream to seek

Jesus. OK.

You know the Scriptures teach in the book of Hebrews that at one

time the Lord LED us through prophets.

He led us through the Old Testament story, through

prophets. But in these last days He has

spoken to us by His Son. Let me tell you what that means.

You seek Jesus by submitting to Jesus.

You seek by submitting to what's been revealed about Him.

Think about it. They heard news and they trusted

it and followed it. OK, The news we've heard is

clear. We've heard the news that crisis

came. We've heard the news that he

came to shepherd us. We've heard the news that we're

a sheep. So at a real basic level, it

means to agree with that and then submit to it means to agree

I'm a sheep. I agree I need a shepherd.

I agree he is the shepherd and I'm not.

I agree that I want to be shepherded by him and stop

shepherding myself. I want to be that sheep.

And you probably know more and those 10 sentences I just said

then the wise men knew when they came to worship Jesus.

OK, So to seek Jesus is to agree with him and submit to him.

And for some of y'all, I'm praying for the first time in

your life this Christmas season, you will submit to Jesus, agree

with him. And for the faith family in

here, the church, the people of God, y'all, I alluded to it.

We just got to trust our shepherd.

And sometimes wolves are stirring us up and sometimes

he's stirring us up. But when he's moving us, he has

his reasons and intentions and he sees the whole, He sees it,

OK? Psalm 23 is one of the most

famous psalms of all time for a reason.

We just have to get to where the Lord is.

My shepherd I shall not want. There's just such trust in being

held by him. Such trust.

You are a better shepherd than me.

OK, so some of y'all repentance is again firing yourself from

being the shepherd. It's laying down the right to

say you've got it figured out more than him.

That doesn't mean you can't be sad at how it's going upset.

You need to mourn some things this Christmas.

That's OK. You need to weep some things.

But there is a line where it's just God.

You are shepherd. I am sheep.

I trust you, so the invitation to you this Christmas is just

once again. Remember, He's got your best

interest at heart. Goodness and mercy are following

you right now, even if your life feels like chaos.

OK Savior, like a shepherd. Lead us much.

We need Thy tender care In Thy pleasant pastures.

Feed us for our use. Thy folds prepare.

Let's pray. Our Father, we love you.

Thank you for the Christmas story.

It is so surprising. It is so backwards of how we

would write it up. It is so opposite of what we

would think we would read. But God, this is who you are.

Your drawing goes on the outside to yourself.

God, I pray even in our great city you would draw some far

from you who have no idea that they're going to come to Christ

this Christmas during 2026. Draw them to yourself.

Lord, send us out in boldness to declare your goodness.

And would we, your church, be the first ones to say you are a

Good Shepherd and we trust you. We love you.

Doesn't mean we love everything about our lives or always

understand every intricate detail, but we are just joyfully

submitted, worshipfully submitted to you being our

shepherd, and we will gladly be your sheep.

And I pray for my friends under the sound of my voice who don't

know you. God, may you help them lovingly

to see God that they are asking Herod's to rule them.

And God, you want to be a better king to them than they are to

themselves. So Father, do this for your

glory. We pray in Jesus name, Amen.