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Seeking the King (Matthew 2:1-12)
36 Plays2 years ago
Seeking the King (Matthew 2:1-12)
Sunday Message recorded 11 December 2022
by Associate Pastor Josh Shell
First Baptist Church
1700 Milam
Columbus, TX, USA 78934
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction and Christmas Greetings
00:00:06
Speaker
Well, good morning everyone. How are we doing? Good. Merry Christmas.
00:00:13
Speaker
Guys, I don't think we can hear that enough during this time of year. Am I right? Merry Christmas, man. This is a great time of season. Especially in Texas, where when you wake up and it's 80 degrees outside and pouring down rain, thunderstorms, not a big deal, versus what we could have as cold air and snow, right? Well, it's good to be with
Sermon Introduction: Message from Matthew 2
00:00:33
Speaker
you guys. I am excited to be able to bring God's word to you this morning. If you have your Bibles, you can go ahead and get them out and open up to Matthew, chapter two.
00:00:42
Speaker
Matthew chapter two. While you guys are doing that, I'm gonna pull my phone out and I'm gonna start a timer. Everybody's seeing that, right? Okay. You're welcome.
Focus Shift: Ephesians to Christmas
00:00:56
Speaker
So, as many of you guys know, we're gonna be taking a break from our current study through the book of Ephesians. It's been an incredible book so far, and I pray that after the Christmas season, we'll get back to it, and we'll learn a ton more from Paul as he wrote that letter to the city of Ephesus. But we are now turning our attention to the holidays, and when I say the holidays, to Christmas. We began this series seeing it's Christmas through the eyes of
Joseph's Perspective on Christmas
00:01:23
Speaker
So last week we had an incredible message from our brother and now deacon, Davis Bragg, who gave us a glimpse of Christmas through the eyes of Joseph. And we saw this great parallel between Joseph as the earthly father of Jesus to our heavenly father when he gave his son Jesus to us.
00:01:44
Speaker
to Mary and Joseph as our Savior. So it was a really great message. But today, we're going to be looking at another set of individuals that are very popular during this time of year of Christmas. As you can see, we actually have three of them up here behind us. Great decorations by Miss Modena, by the way. But it's the three wise men.
Discussion on the Wise Men
00:02:05
Speaker
That's what we're looking at today and how fitting that I'm talking about the wise men, right?
00:02:09
Speaker
I thought about wearing, I thought about dressing up as a wise guy, but I figured this was enough, right? But we're going to be spending time looking at Christmas through the eyes of the wise men.
00:02:24
Speaker
And I say that the wise men are pretty popular during this time of year because of one of the most popular and iconic decorations and one of the decorative scenes that we see. Many of you guys probably have in your house right now or out in your front yard and it's the nativity scene.
00:02:40
Speaker
It's a scene where you see this makeshift barn, and inside the barn there's a husband and wife, which is Mary and Joseph. And then between Mary and Joseph, they're looking down into this little feeding tropus, the baby Jesus, which is very accurate. It's a very accurate depiction of the birth of Jesus.
00:02:59
Speaker
And then as you kind of zoom out a little bit more, you see the animals, right? Which is also very accurate because they were born. And I said, Jesus is in a manger, which is a feeding trough. And then if you zoom out even more, who else is in the nativity scene typically? The shepherds. That's right. You see the shepherds. And then who else?
00:03:21
Speaker
The wise men, right? The wise men. And in theory and practicality, this gives us a full glimpse of the interactions that Jesus has a baby with these different individuals. And it's a beautiful picture. But for us as believers, we have a tendency of thinking of that as it's accurate.
00:03:40
Speaker
as if all of those interactions occurred in that moment. And that's not the case. And what we see is that Mary, Joseph, and Jesus actually had different interactions with the shepherds. And then in later times, they had a different interaction with the wise men. And that's what I want us to look at today when we look at Matthew chapter
Reflection on Matthew 2:1-12
00:03:59
Speaker
2. I want us to dive a little bit deeper into this, this scene, this interaction
00:04:05
Speaker
between Mary and Joseph and Jesus with these three wise men that we also oftentimes, as Medina and Christophe actually just played, we three kings, we often refer to him as kings. Well, we're fixing to dive deeper into that as well. So I'm gonna pray for us and then we'll read this passage together and dive in. So will you pray with me? Lord God, we just come before you and Lord, we ask that you go before this time.
00:04:33
Speaker
Lord, that you'll just truly be with us as your people, that your spirit will lead us and guide us, and that he will just teach us from your word, and that if there's anything that I say, that he will not go into the ears of the people. But Lord, I pray that you will speak, and that you will show who you are in light of your word through this interaction of the wise men and with your son Jesus. Lord, just be with us this time, in Jesus' name, amen.
00:05:00
Speaker
All right, now I'm gonna invite you guys to stand with me as we read this passage together. Again, we're gonna be in Matthew chapter two.
00:05:11
Speaker
We're gonna read verses one through 12, and it is up on the screen if you don't have your Bible, but I invite you to have a Bible to read with me. It says this in verse one, it says, now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea and the days of Herod the king, behold, the wise men from the east came to Jerusalem saying, where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.
00:05:36
Speaker
When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. In 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 of 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.
00:06:05
Speaker
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.
00:06:25
Speaker
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 had come 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 worshiped him. Then opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh.
00:06:53
Speaker
And after being warned in a dream not to return to here, they departed to their own country by another way. Thank you, guys. You may be seated.
00:07:05
Speaker
This is a very incredible interaction that we see here. And as I said, there's a lot of ideas about how this interaction actually played out. And my goal this morning is to bring insight to the, bring more accuracy to this event. Because there is so much that we can learn from these wise men and how they responded and ultimately went and worshiped and then ultimately discerned the spirit
00:07:29
Speaker
at the end of their journey. And so let's look at this together. But before we learned these simple truths from the wise men, I'm gonna give you a little bit more detail on the characters at play. And the characters that I'm gonna be looking at this morning obviously are the wise men, King Herod, and the chief priests and the scribes, the religious leaders. So the first people I wanna look at though are the wise men.
00:07:54
Speaker
And instead of, what I wanna do first is I wanna look at what we don't know about them. Okay, what we don't know. What we don't know is how many there were. And you're like, what are you talking about, Josh? There's three wise men up there traveling across the baptistery. That's true.
00:08:10
Speaker
But we actually don't know the number of wise men that were there. Based off tradition with the gifts that were given, we can assume that there was at least three because there was three different gifts, but it can be two, it can be 10, it can be 20. The verbiage that we see here from Matthew is that in the days of King Herod behold wise men from the east. It does not give us an accurate number.
00:08:36
Speaker
And that word wisemen translated from the Greek is actually magos, which means magi or wisemen. And so it's just plural. Okay, so there's not a definitive number.
00:08:49
Speaker
The other thing that we don't know as well are their names. And you guys are probably thinking, well, I've never even thought about putting a name to these wise men. Well, in history's past and in tradition, there actually have been individuals who sought to put a name to these wise men. And not only sought to put a name to these
King Herod's Rule and the Wise Men
00:09:06
Speaker
wise men, but they also apparently have found their bodies and they have now have them in a special place.
00:09:12
Speaker
overseas somewhere. It's pretty incredible. These are things that as a kid or even as an adult now, I'm like, why would you even worry about that? Like, what's the point of that? But some of their names that they have mentioned are Melchon, Bathazar, and Gaspar. Talk about names, right? But these are the guys that they supposedly have found. But we don't actually know their names because it's not written in biblical history.
00:09:38
Speaker
And then the last thing that we don't know is when they actually arrived to Jesus. Again, when we look at the Nativity scene, we have this tendency to think that it was during the early season of Jesus's life. I mean, we see Jesus in the manger as a baby. But when we actually read the account of Matthew, it says here that when they actually found Jesus, they went into a house where the child was.
00:10:05
Speaker
So the verbiage is different, which means it gives us into a glimpse of that. This is actually probably a year or two after Jesus was born. Jesus is no longer an infant, but rather he's probably a toddler.
00:10:16
Speaker
And they're no longer in the barn, but rather they're in a house, most likely given to them from a relative of Joseph. And so this gives us a pretty incredible time span here of what actually could have happened during the time of when the wise men first saw the star to when they actually met Jesus.
00:10:37
Speaker
Now, what we do know about these men are their origin and their setting, right? So we do know that these wise men, as they're called Magi, when we look at this, is most likely from the Persian Empire, the Babylonian Empire, which means that they are from the Far East. And this is a big deal when you are considering the cultural context of what we're looking at here, because these are not Jewish men. These are non-Jewish men. These are Babylonians, Persians.
00:11:06
Speaker
And they know, they see this star in the sky, they see it, they investigate it, because what we will later find out is that a magi, what they do is an astrologer. They study the stars, they're students. And so the likelihood of them gazing in the stars, seeing this supernatural phenomenon, and then for them to drive to go and to search what it's about, it's pretty incredible.
00:11:32
Speaker
And if anything, that in itself is an example for us as believers today of how we are to search scripture. But the reality is there's a commentator named Homer Kent who says, it is entirely conceivable that these men had made contact with Jewish exiles. So going back to the Babylonian captivity of the nation of Israel,
00:11:56
Speaker
that their ancestors had made contact with these Jewish exiles and their scriptures or their writings of like Daniel and Isaiah in the book of Numbers, they had access to these manuscripts. So they studied Jewish texts. It's pretty incredible. So it says that they had made contact with Jewish exiles or with the prophecies and the influence of Daniel and thus were in possession of the Old Testament prophecies regarding the Messiah.
00:12:26
Speaker
And when you go to Numbers 24, 17, it is actually a prophecy regarding the star of Jacob, which is talking about the Bethlehem star. And so with all this in mind, these astrologers, these magi, when they're back in their own land are studying these manuscripts. And when they look up into the star or into the skies and they see this incredible
Wise Men's Journey and Worship
00:12:44
Speaker
star,
00:12:46
Speaker
It triggers them to go and to seek what it is about. And what they find is that it's about this prophecy stated back in not only numbers, but also back in Micah and Daniel about this Messiah King, this true King of the Jews who is to be born, who will come and reign forever. So that's what we don't know what we do know about the wise men.
00:13:09
Speaker
And then the other two characters to play, I don't want to go into them too terribly deeply, but are Herod the Great, or King Herod, and then the religious leaders. King Herod, guys, many of you guys probably know more about King Herod than I do, but he was a very vicious, vicious king. He was a tyrant.
00:13:26
Speaker
He came into the position as king from the Roman Empire. He was put as king over Judea. And while he was king, he was so extremely insecure that if he ever caught word about anybody trying to overthrow him or to take his throne, including his own family, he would have them murdered. He murdered his wife and his own sons because of the threat that they were gonna try to take over his throne.
00:13:53
Speaker
And so he was a vicious, vicious king. And it's actually said about Herod by another historian, Macrobius. He wrote this. He says, when Caesar Augustus, Caesar, heard that Herod the king of the Jews had ordered boys in Syria under the age of two years old to be put to death, and that the king's son was among them that were killed, he said, I'd rather be Herod's pig than Herod's son.
00:14:23
Speaker
That's the kind of king Herod was, and he was the king of the Jews. So obviously with all this in mind, there was a little bit of tension there between King Herod and the Israelites. And so that's why when we read here in the text of when Herod heard this talking about the Messiah, the king of the Jews, he was troubled, and what does it say thereafter? And all Jerusalem with him. So if King Herod wasn't happy, guess who else wasn't happy? Israel, right?
00:14:53
Speaker
So that's who King Herod is. And the chief priest describes, obviously, these are the religious leaders in the Jewish culture. So the chief priests are the ones who oversee Jewish worship, and then the scribes are the ones who oversee Jewish law. And the reason why I wanna bring them into light today is because of how they respond to the prophecy.
00:15:13
Speaker
When we look at the prophecy, when Herod brings them in and he inquires of them of what this Messiah is and where he was to be born, they read this prophecy that's a combination of Micah chapter five verse two and then also out of Isaiah where it says, and you of Bethlehem in the land of Judah are by no means least among the rulers of Judah.
00:15:33
Speaker
For from you shall come a ruler who is a shepherd for my people, Israel." See, and it goes on and it says, and it kind of cuts the scene to where Herod then goes back to the wise men secretly. But what I want to point out is the demeanor of these religious leaders. Just like the Magi, they have access, more access to all the historical manuscripts of their time, of the Old Testament.
00:15:58
Speaker
So for them not to be aware of the Bethlehem star of this supernatural phenomenon shows indifference. They were more worried about their social status and their hierarchy in the Jewish culture than worrying about what the word of God was telling them and preparing them for.
00:16:16
Speaker
So again, the magi, these wise men, give us a greater example of how we as believers today are to be studying God's word and preparing ourselves for the things to come than even the own religious leaders of the Jewish culture at that time. That's incredible. So I hope, again, just by this information alone, I hope it broadens your perspective about the nativity scene and the significance of these wise men coming. Because this is one of the first occurrences of non-Jewish men coming to worship Jesus.
00:16:48
Speaker
powerful, powerful stuff. So again, why is this information important? Because it gives us more accuracy to the picture and understanding of the journey that would take place of these wise men who were far from home, dealing with an insecure king from another nation who had ill intentions of using them to destroy the only person who had the greatest threat to his throne.
00:17:14
Speaker
This is a powerful, powerful story. All right, so now let's turn our attention to specifically the wise men and what we can learn from them. And the first thing I want us to see here is that these wise men, they studied the scriptures. They studied the manuscripts. And this is important for us because many of us in this room today say that we read our Bible and that we read scripture and that we dwell with God, but yet we neglect it most often.
00:17:40
Speaker
But these guys studied scripture. We see that in verse one, right? It says, now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of hair of the king, behold, the wise men from the east came to Jerusalem. Now, why did they come to Jerusalem? Well, one, they read in the manuscripts about this great, this prophecy of the Messiah coming that would be led by this great star. They see the star and they go to the one place where it's the most conceivable idea of where the king and the Jews are to be born, which is the capital of Israel, Jerusalem.
00:18:08
Speaker
So they studied the manuscripts, they saw in context where this king should be born and they go. And when they get there, they interact with the wrong king of the Jews, not the rightful king of the Jews. But another fun fact here is actually the descendant of Esau, okay? So Esau, the brother of Jacob who gave up his birthright back in Genesis 25, same guy.
00:18:33
Speaker
Okay, so Herod is not the rightful king of the Jews, but rather Jesus is, because he comes from the line of David. So these wise men studied the scripture. The second thing I want us to pull from them is that not only did they study the scripture, but they responded to scripture. They responded to the manuscripts. They responded to the information that was given to them, to these prophecies. They didn't just sit back like, wow, this is a really incredible prophecy. Wow, we see this really incredible star. It's beautiful. Can you take a picture of it for me? Right? No.
00:19:03
Speaker
They read the manuscript, they read the prophecies, and they went and sought who was to come from the prophecy, which is Jesus. They responded. And we see that in verses, the second half, verse one into verse two, where it says, they came to Jerusalem saying, where is he who has been born king of the Jews? So they automatically, they know who the prophecy is about.
00:19:27
Speaker
For we saw his star, and when it rose, and we have come to worship him. So they not only knew who he was, but rather they responded and wanted to come and worship him. These non-Jewish guys. Incredible. And then if you jump down to verses eight and nine, it says, and he sent them to Bethlehem, talking about Herod, go and search diligently for the child, and when you have found him, bring me word that I made so you can worship him. And after listening to the king,
00:19:57
Speaker
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. So these guys lay out for us true act of obedience.
00:20:10
Speaker
They see the prophecies, the prophecies are stirring their heart, their spirit to go and to see who the Messiah is. They go and they seek the true king of the Jews. When they interact with the false king, he tells them to go and to find him. So he encourages them to go and find him out of ill intent. And then when they go, they still see the same incredible supernatural star that will ultimately lead them to the true Messiah, the true king of the Jews. So they responded.
00:20:41
Speaker
The third thing I want us to pull from this is that these wise men not only study the manuscripts, not only do they respond to it, but what else do they do? They worshiped.
00:20:52
Speaker
they worshiped. When they finally came to where the star stood still above the house where Jesus was, they went in, what does the text
Significance of the Wise Men's Gifts
00:21:01
Speaker
say? It says, when they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy. Verse 11 says this, and going into the house, they saw the child with Mary, his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him.
00:21:18
Speaker
Again, not to sound like a broken record, non-Jewish men. This is not their Messiah. At least at this point, it wasn't communicated that way. But now obviously with new insight and with Jesus coming, He is now our Messiah, right? But as a result of them arriving to the house, walking in and seeing the child, what was their reaction?
00:21:48
Speaker
How many of you guys fall on your knees daily to the name of Jesus? I don't. That's what's so convicting about this. Sorry if I step on your toes, but it's the reality of us in the heart condition of worshipers of Jesus. We have diluted the beauty of Jesus coming.
00:22:10
Speaker
This was not just any normal baby, but rather this is the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, the one the prophecy who was told from of old, who came to fulfill the will of the Father so that we should not die and perish, but what? Have everlasting life. And when these guys saw Jesus in the house, they fell down to worship him, a child. How do you think Mary fell? And Joseph. And not only did they worship him, but what else did they do?
00:22:41
Speaker
They gave him gifts. They gave him gifts, this child. And it's not just any gifts. These were extravagant gifts of their time.
00:22:54
Speaker
They gave him gold, frankincense and myrrh, gold being a pure, valuable, nearly indestructible metal that is fit for a king. They gave him frankincense, which was a resin of bitter taste, that when mixed with oil, gives a fragrantful odor meant not only to be used to anoint priests, but also to be used when sacrificing in the temple.
00:23:18
Speaker
And then the last one was myrrh, which is another aromatic substance which was used to prepare dead bodies for burial. I know it's kind of a weird thing to think of when you're giving a gift, right? But this substance was used to cover the odor of decaying bodies, okay? But these three gifts were significant.
00:23:40
Speaker
Now, I don't know if these were actually intentional gifts that the wives were like, man, this is the Messiah, then we should give them gold, we should give them frankincense, and we should give them myrrh. But what I do believe is that God put on their heart to give them these gifts as a symbolic representation of what Christ will do. Because when you think about these three gifts again, gold is a gift for royalty for a king.
00:24:02
Speaker
Frankincense is a gift for a priest, is a priestly gift for anointing. So not only Jesus, he would ultimately come to be our king, he would be our great high priest and through the order of Melchizedek. And then the last one is myrrh, a gift foreshadowing the inevitable suffering and death of Jesus on the cross to fulfill his role as Messiah's savior. So this last one ultimately foreshadowed his death.
00:24:32
Speaker
Absolutely incredible the significance of these three gifts. But the last thing I want us to see here as we start wrapping up is that these wise men, not only did they study the manuscripts, not only did they respond to the manuscripts, but they worshiped out of response, but they also became wise. It's the last thing I want us to see, that they became wise. You're like, well, Joshua, we're already wise men. How do they become more wise?
Transformation Through Encounter with Jesus
00:24:59
Speaker
As I said, these are non-Jewish men
00:25:03
Speaker
who were in their own society considered wise. But after this encounter with Jesus, they truly become wise, they become enlightened. Their eyes become open to who the true Messiah, Savior, King is. And what we see out here in verse 12, it says, being warned in a dream not to return to here, they departed to their own country by another way.
00:25:26
Speaker
So as a result of this encounter, the wise men encountered the promise Messiah from of old, like I said from chapter five verse two, forever changing the trajectory of their lives. And through this special revelation by God, once again, we see that He comes and He warns them about not returning to Herod. And they learned about the true intentions
00:25:51
Speaker
Sorry, my timer just went off, so I'm almost done. They learned about the true intentions of the false king of the Jews, Herod, who wanted to use them for ill intent to kill baby Jesus, what we will later see in verses 16 through 18.
00:26:06
Speaker
But rather, they hear God's warning and their minds and their eyes and their heart become enlightened to the reality of the situation. They just encounter the true King of the Jews, Jesus, the one who would come to redeem and save the world. As a result of that, they don't need to go back to the one who's trying to kill them.
00:26:27
Speaker
So instead of remaining true to the false king of the Jews, they remain true to the true king of the Jews and they find another way back to their own land. Guys, has this given you a glimpse into the reality of what it is like for us as believers today?
Modern Believer's Faith Journey
00:26:46
Speaker
The same experience that these wise men had through their journey is the same experience that we gained when we received Jesus today.
00:26:55
Speaker
When we read through His word, our hearts are stirred. And when our hearts are stirred, we go and we seek to respond. And when we respond, we can't do anything else but to worship Him. And when we worship Him, as a result of all these things, our minds, our eyes, our hearts become enlightened to the reality of who our King is and to who our God is. And there should be no other response but to worship and to share the good news of Jesus to those who we encounter.
00:27:31
Speaker
For as Jesus would later say in his ministry in John chapter five, verse 24, it says, truly, truly I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him, who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life. And I believe that these wise men experienced that this day when they encounter Jesus.
00:27:54
Speaker
And it also goes on in Proverbs 14, 16, it says, I believe that these wise men accurately displayed this for us. Upon hearing of the ill intent of King Herod, they turned away from evil and they went a different way.
00:28:15
Speaker
So as we wrap up our time, though, and as we conclude this time and go into time of invitation, there's one last truth I want us to point out, though, as a result of this interaction, of this journey of the wise men. This narrative doesn't just give us a glimpse of a divine encounter between a group of non-Jewish men and the newborn king of the Jews, but rather it is also preparing us for another day. It's giving us a glimpse into another day where we ourselves will encounter the true king of the Jews.
00:28:45
Speaker
Many of us have already encountered him in a very real way when it comes to our hearts, our spiritual journey. Our hearts, our eyes have been enlightened to the reality who Jesus is. But there will be a day where we will meet Jesus face to face. Except this time, we won't meet him as Messiah, Savior. We'll meet him as Messiah, King. And I pray that when we meet him that we will have no other position but to fall down to worship.
00:29:14
Speaker
And for those of us who are in Christ Jesus today, this is a glorious day, something that we should be anticipating to see. We should be excited about. Granted, there's a lot of beautiful things in life on earth, but let me tell you something. This is what you experienced here on earth on your best day is just a glimpse of what you'll experience in heaven for eternity.
00:29:35
Speaker
So for us as believers, this is great news. But for anyone who is outside of the will of God, for anyone who does not believe in Jesus or rejects Jesus, this is a very scary day, it should be. Because what we ultimately see is that for anyone who comes to Jesus and who does not submit to his will and does not receive him as Savior and Lord will be cast out of his presence for eternity. Okay, that's hell.
00:30:06
Speaker
It's a very unfortunate picture. So I would like to invite anybody here who is not prepared, who is not ready, who's not seeking this day, this opportunity to experience Jesus, that today will be the day where we experience Him here right now.
00:30:30
Speaker
Sure, you may never experience Jesus physically in this earth, that's fine. Because you'll experience him physically for eternity in heaven. But I pray that today you'll meet him now, spiritually, emotionally, like all the above, that you'll receive him today as Savior and Lord so that he can transform your heart and your mind.
True Meaning of Christmas and Closing Prayer
00:30:53
Speaker
That when you think about the good news that you can't have any other position but to worship. So that's you today, I challenge you to come down, talk to me, talk to Victor, talk to somebody that you know without a shadow of a doubt as a believer in Jesus. Have that conversation. And I pray that you'll receive Jesus today as your savior and Lord.
00:31:14
Speaker
But for the rest of us, I pray that as we go throughout the remainder of this Christmas season, that we will not neglect and forget what the true meaning of Christmas is about. The decorations are great. The presents are great. But without Christ coming as our Messiah, Savior, we would be lost. We would be doomed in this life. So may we not neglect to worship Jesus appropriately this Christmas season.
00:31:45
Speaker
Because again, we worship Him and we admire Him as baby Jesus, but we can't forget what He grew up to be, what He now is, and that is our King. Will you pray with me?
00:32:00
Speaker
Lord God, as we wrap up our time, I pray that you will work in the hearts of everyone in this room. Lord, if there's something on our hearts that we need to confess, that we need to get off our chest, that we need to lift to you, I pray that's exactly what we'll do. Lord, if there's anyone in this room today, Father, who does not know who you are personally, Lord, that you'll pull on their heart, that you will speak to them and that they will come to know you in a very real way today.
00:32:22
Speaker
whether it's here now in the sanctuary or on their drive home, wherever the case may be, I pray, Father, they will come to know you so that way they can have the comfort and security in Christ Jesus for eternity. But Lord, ultimately though, I just pray that as we continue this series and as we look at the different perspectives of Christmas through the different eyes of the characters involved,
00:32:45
Speaker
With the birth of Jesus, I pray, Father, that we will learn from them and that we will come back to the root of what Christmas is about. And that is worshiping our Savior and our King. So Lord, please work in our hearts, reveal the things that we need to confess. But ultimately, Father, I pray that we will worship. Lord, we love you. We praise you. We thank you for the way that you first loved us. In Jesus' name, amen.
00:33:16
Speaker
This is a ministry of First Baptist Church, located at 1700 Milam Street, Columbus, Texas.