October 27, 2025 • 49 mins
In this compelling sermon, Pastor Karl dives into Matthew Chapter 2, exploring the journey of the wise men and the early life of Jesus. He unpacks the historical and political context of Herod’s tyrannical rule and the profound obedience of Mary, Joseph, and the magi in the face of uncertainty. Pastor Karl emphasizes that faith grows not in comfort but through obedience, even when it feels like exile or leads to unexpected places like Nazareth. Highlighting the transformative power of worship and sacrifice, he challenges listeners to prioritize Jesus’ story over their own, trust God’s providence in difficult seasons, and remain faithful wherever God places them. Join us for an inspiring message that encourages steadfast faith and submission to God’s plan.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:01):
Welcome.
It's good to see you this morning.
It's good to be here.
It's good for us to be together.
And it is a blessingto be a part of a praying church.
And it's a blessing to be a partof a church that prays for its pastor.
So thank you.
I'll just say this.
Things arethings are improving, which is nice.
(00:23):
But we're going to get rightinto the book of Matthew today.
We're going to go to Matthew chapter two,
and we're going to bypassthe last part of Matthew chapter one.
The last part of Matthew chapterone is really part of the Christmas story.
And so we'll probably come back to it
in about a month and a half or so month,a month and a half or so.
But we're going to get to chaptertwo right now,
(00:44):
which is not part of the Christmas story,though it's always been included
as a Christmas story.
God doesnot want to just be found at Christmas.
He wants to be followed every day.
And so we're going to look at thisin the historical context of chapter two.
And to set the stage, I want to,
(01:04):
remind you the big idea.
Here's the big idea for chapter two.
Faith grows not in comfort,but in obedience.
That's our faith grows.
Faith grows in those times.
Or obedient, even when it's uncomfortable.
Which is the story of chapter two,
obedience in Uncomfortability.
And so as we go through this,just keep that in mind.
(01:26):
So what I'm going to do is I'm just goingto go through kind of verse by verse,
and we'll stop along the way and highlightsome things from the different verses.
So if you have a Bibleand brought one with you.
Get it out. Go to, Matthew chapter two.
If it helps us on page 1060, in my Bible.
But the stuff isn't goingto be on the screen except the reference.
(01:47):
So get on your smart device,actually bring a Bible with you and
and go to Matthew chapter two.
I'm just going to start readand then we'll stop along the way.
Matthew chapter two, verse one.
And afterJesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea.
So, so this is after the Christmasafter he was born
in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herodthe king.
(02:08):
Behold, wisemen from the east came to Jerusalem,
saying, where is hewho has been born King of the Jews?
For we saw his star when it rose,and have come to worship him.
So after he was born,
these when Herod was the king.
So this this isn'tpart of the activity thing.
Although most of the nativity sets havethese have these three wise men there.
(02:33):
Right?
And there's actually even this songwe three kings from Orient are.
I don't know the rest. It's super old.
Nobody really sings it anymore.
But, so we have this idea of this,this kind of activity with these,
with these wise oriental,you know, fellows there
that is so far from thetruth, so far from reality.
(02:55):
After he was born, the Bible says,
and it makes a point to say,in the days of Herod the king know this.
This portion of Jesus's story is complex.
It's,it's wrought with political implication.
There is incredible, pain and,
(03:18):
and, and confusion as a part of this,this part of Jesus's life
and Mary and Joseph and and it starts
it starts with the the recognition.
These were the dayswhen Herod the king was ruling.
We need to understandwho Herod the king was.
Herod was a tyrant.
(03:40):
He was on the throne.
His he was he had this self-giving andproclaimed title as the king of the Jews.
That's who we called himself.
That's what he madeeverybody call him the King of the Jews.
He was on the throne, through,
murder.
He killed two of his sons.
At least two of his sons.
(04:00):
Who who could threaten the throne?
He he murdered two his favorite wives.
I know you married.
Let your unfavorable wives liveand kill the favorite ones.
But you knowwho makes sense of this stuff?
And and and he knew how despised
he wasby the people of Jerusalem in that area.
(04:22):
So he made this this, this, this regal,
this royal demand that at his death,
all the nobility, Ariel would be arrested,imprisoned, and then, killed.
So at least there would be mourningat his passing
because he knew nobody would warn him.
And so he wanted peopleto mourn his passing.
And so he said, when I die, arrestall the nobility, imprison them,
(04:47):
and then put him to death.He was. It was horrible. He was demonic.
He was the one that if you knowthis story,
you know, when these these little two yearold baby boys were slaughtered.
He's the one that ordered that.
Interesting.
His son, Herod Antipaswould come to the throne after him.
And he was the one who had Johnthe Baptist beheaded.
(05:08):
And so this family is just is just evil.
They're just just demonic.
And when I when you start looking in thisstuff, there's almost a little warning.
That's. Pay attention.
There's almost little warning. Like,
if you heard that said that the sinsof the fathers passed on to the kids.
You know, there's there's there's there'sthere's some truth.
(05:30):
Like, we got to be careful.
The standard we set and or the standardwe allow or the,
the model we set for our children.
His son was just like him. Just horrible.
And so this is the King Herod.
And at this time, these wise men,the stone.
Verse one, these wisemen from the east came to Jerusalem.
These wise men, we know another word
for them, as the word startswith an M and ends with AGI.
(05:53):
What's what's the word?
Yeah.
Major MAGAy is actually how it's pronounced.
We get
our word magistrate and magicianfrom this word.
So these guys played the role
of little magicians,kind of the black arts and all that stuff.
There were astronomers and astrologers,and they were the ones who had set up,
(06:14):
kings and kingdoms and magistrates.
So they were very powerful people.
They came from the East.
Now, I want you to think of Eastas Iran and Iraq.
So that's the way up kind of near Babylon.
And they come down, travel down,and they're there for one purpose.
They're there to set up a king,and everybody knows it.
(06:35):
These guys had these huge, big canonicalhats like Big Cone
heads with big ear flaps,this royal robes.
They were so ornately grotesqueor grotesquely ornate.
Just this huge pomp and circumstancearound these guys.
And they come from the East toJerusalem saying,
where is hewho has been born king of the Jews
(06:57):
for he saw his star when it rose,and have come to worship him.
Notice their words?
Where's the one where they say,
look at your Bibles. Don't look at me.
Look at Bibles.
Who was born King of the Jews?
This is this is.
This is treasonous for them right now.
They're. They are the kingmakers.
(07:19):
And they've come down from Iran, Iraq.
And they said to King Herod,
who is self proclaimedthe king of the Jews.
Their words are profound.
Where's the one who's been born king?
See, Herod was set up as kingand self-proclaimed king.
They're saying there's onewho was born a king and he's not you.
(07:42):
And so just.
I just want you to feel the tension.
I want you to feel the tension andthe conflict that's building right now.
For we saw his
star when it roseand have come to worship him.
How did they know their IranIraq area up there?
They're in the in the east.
How did they knowthat there was the prophecy of a star
(08:03):
that would indicate a king being born?
They're not part of God's people.
They're not partof the prophetic revelation.
They're not part of the prophetic story.
How do they know?
Okay, let me tell you
the way they the reason they knew is,
is, during the Babylonian captivity.
(08:24):
So way a long time in their past.
Assyria in the north
came downinto the northern part of Israel,
and and took captive a bunch of peopleback to Assyria.
Later the Babylonians came down,took over down through Assyria
and down into Israel,and took over the ten northern tribes
(08:46):
and took them into Babylon,into captivity, into Babylon.
During that process, a man namedDaniel was one of the ones that was taken
captive.
And Daniel was a man of God,the prophet of God.
That served multiple kingdoms.
And Daniel was the one,while he was in captivity in Babylon,
who prophesied of the comingMessiah, Daniel chapter nine.
(09:06):
And so Daniel in Babylonhad all of these prophecies about the one
who would come, the king who would come,the Messiah who would come.
And part of that prophecy was the prophecy
that he would be bornin Bethlehem in Judea.
That's how they knew, because God had left
in their possessionblueprints of his plans.
(09:29):
He told them, and these guys werethe ones wise enough to pay attention.
They were wise enough to keep our eyesopen.
They're wise enough to, to noticewhat was going on.
God's own people who had the prophets,who had the word, were so dull,
nonchalant, and lazy they had no idea whatwas happening in their midst
(09:50):
because they were
lazy and they were neglectful of his word.
Those who are not God'speople are paying attention.
Just let that sink in for a minute.
We have the blueprint of his plan.
It's right here.
All we're called to do is pay attention.
(10:13):
No. What?
His plans are.
Be the ones who seek him.
So they knew his star was coming,
and they've come to worship this star.
What was the star?
Nobody knows what the star was.
There's all kinds of speculation.
When.
When Saturn and Jupiter were kind ofin alignment, they kind of formed
(10:35):
this special little, you know,light kind of coalescence in the sky.
Some people think
some people think it was a, it was alike a comment that that can perpetually
fell and burned.
And Idon't know how that would happen, but,
nobody knows exactly what it was.
A personally,I think it's what the buyer refers to
as the Shekinah glory of God,his very presence.
(10:58):
It's the same kind of glory that was overthe tabernacles of the Tent of Meeting
as it moved through the desert.
40 yearsthat led the people day and night.
It's the kind of glory of Godthat says, here is my
Messiah, here is the one.
It was God's presence saying,this is where you are to be, where he is.
And so that's what I think this is.
(11:19):
It doesn't really matter.
But that's that's the best.
Like I can understand.
And that makes sense to me.
When Herod the king heard this,
he was troubledand all Jerusalem with him,
and assembling all the chief priestsand the scribes of the people,
he inquired of themwhere the Christ was to be born.
Verse five
they told him, In Bethlehem of Judea,for it is written by the prophet, and you,
O Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are byno means least among the rulers of Judah.
(11:42):
For from you shall come a rulerwho will shepherd my people.
Israel is quoting Micah five two
and so
Herod gathers all of his own priests,the, the, the Hebrews around,
and the Jews, and says, look, you scribes,you're supposed to know this stuff.
Where's this one going to be born?
And so they go back to you,look at the Old Testament scriptures
(12:03):
and look at Micah five two
and they say, this is what it saysin Bethlehem, the land of Judah.
From you will comea ruler of the shepherd, my people.
So it's like, okay, now we know,
now we know.
And so in verse seven,
then Herod,some of the wise men, these magi,
secretly and ascertained from themwhat time the star appeared
(12:24):
and sent them to Bethlehem, saying,go and search diligently for the child.
And when you have found him, bring me wordthat I may to come and worship him.
What a snake!
It a snake.
He just. He's horrible. He's horrible.
You don't want to worship him?
Wants to what?
Let's kill him.
He's threatened.
(12:46):
He's threatened.
And so there's. He's greatly trouble.
Because he's threatened.
He's threatened by the presence of Jesus.
Verse nine, after listening to the king,they went on their way.
And behold, the star that they had seenwhen it rose went before them
until it came to rest over the placewhere the child was.
And when they saw the star,they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy.
(13:10):
And going into the housethey saw the child with Mary, his mother,
and they fell down and worshiped him.
Then opening their treasures,
they offered himgifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh.
Let me stop right there.
When?
When these wisemen saw the star,
(13:31):
the Bible says they rejoiced exceedinglywith great joy.
There were two extreme reactionsto the presence of Jesus.
The reaction
of the man who was threatened by Jesus
was great.
Troubled means distress and anxiety.
The reaction of those who came to worshipJesus was great joy.
(13:54):
And the same thingis going to happen to in your lives
if we come to Christ,if we come to His Word,
if we come to his presencewith the expectation of worship,
with the expectation of honoring it,there will be great joy.
But if we come to, to to this time,
to his word,to opportunities to worship with.
(14:17):
With feelings of.
Being troubled by him or whathe might ask.
What he might require
was not sure on the front endhow we would respond if we heard from him.
Anyway.
We'll be greatly troubled.
And so it
really is important the attitudewith which we approach His Word.
(14:39):
We approach times like this together.
It's really important.
If you come to times like this,
with, with,with the leading attitude being, I'm
going to worship, I'm going to listen, I'mgoing to sacrifice.
I'm telling you,you'll be filled with great exceeding joy.
(15:00):
But if you approach times like this one,I don't know if I believe this stuff.
Anyway, I'll
I mean, I'm willing to gothis far for you, but I don't.
They're just going to be sometimestroubling inside you.
It's just.
And so I just I want youto just be aware of the attitude,
the which we come togetherwith, at which we approach his word.
(15:29):
And going into the house,you saw the child
with Mary, his mother,and they fell down and worshiped him.
And opening their treasures, they offeredhim golden things that summer.
I want you to know something. Look.Look at what?
Look at what this says in verse 11.
Going into the house, they saw what
child?
Finish it out.
Okay. Yeah.
The child with Mary
who comes first.
(15:51):
Jesus. Why?
Because it's his story, not hers.
Jesus comes first
to destroy, not hers.
It's his story, not yours.
It's his story, not mine.
Jesus comes first.
You're going to see this overand over and over in this chapter.
And most time we just read stuff
(16:13):
and we don't stop to like,this stuff isn't here by accident.
And the words aren't in order by accident.
God has, through the Holy Spirit,has penned this through human hands,
but it's inspired by himand he's talking to us.
Pay attention. Raising it.
He comes first.
The child with his mother, childwith his mother, child
(16:34):
with his mother, child with his mother.
His story not hers. His story, not mine.
His story, not yours.
This why I titled this the seriesYour Kingdom now.
Kingdom now. Why?
Because it's about his kingdom.
When the disciples asked
Jesus to teach them to pray,one of the things he taught
them was your kingdom come,your will be done.
(16:58):
And so we have to understand this,that it's his story first.
He's first see, a lot of us
and I understand we come to Godbecause we need him to fix something
that's great.
But we have to understand
that the invitation isn't
(17:20):
to ask him to fix stuff.
The command is to submit and follow.
It's not this gentle invitation.
Just invite me in. I'll help you out.
It's a command to submit and to follow.
And when we submit and follow,then God starts working things together.
(17:43):
Because it's
his story,
not my story.
Y'all understand this.
He comes first.
His kingdom comes first.
His will comes first.
His desires come first.
His agenda comes first.
(18:05):
But what if is not my agenda or my desire?
What like, doesn't that matter?
Well, it might, but it just matters.
Secondarily, it's not.
That doesn't matter,but it doesn't come first.
The child and his mother.
The child and you.
(18:26):
The child and me.
You got it.
That's.
What verse was.
I don't even know.
Well, thank you for paying attention.
Oh, and they presented with gifts of, of,fell down worship.
Okay. Yeah.
And they fell down and worshiped him.
(18:47):
Then opening their treasures,they offered him gifts of gold
and frankincense and myrrh.
I want you to notice
something that they came to worship him,and a part of their worship was what
giving you.
We cannot biblically,
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rightfully,we cannot worship without sacrificing.
We cannot worship without giving
the two a go hand in hand.
And giving is an act of worship.
And so they offered him gold. Why?
Gold valuable is valuable.
Why else?
Because he's a king.
Remember what they said?
(19:28):
They came to Earth.
They said, where's the one? What?
Born king?
What do you give a king?
You don't give himcopper and silver, right?
You give them gold.
And so it's this.
What they're saying is this is the one.
And we're going to not just by our giving.
(19:49):
That is the king.
And we're not going to give the kingwhat's left over of what I got.
If he's the king, I'm gonna give himthe best and the first or what I got.
Right? Yeah.
And not only that, but God inhis providence
is setting them upfor what they don't know is coming.
They're going to eventuallyhave to flee to Egypt.
(20:10):
And the gold that they're given, Godis preparing them
for the call that he's placed upon them,that they're not even aware of yet.
He so good, so gold.
And then frankincense.
Frankincense was a was a resin,
an aromatic that was used in worshipto indicate divinity.
(20:32):
And so what they're sayingis this little baby
that well, he's not really a babynow. He's maybe two years old.
This little toddler is is he is
he's the king and he's divine.
And then they give him myrrh. Why?
Why is more important?
When Jesus was buried,
he was wrapped in about 100 poundsof myrrh and aloes.
(20:56):
It was a burial.
Part of the burial process.
Now think for a moment.
Mary and Joseph.
They've been toldthey have their chosen ones
to raise the Messiah of God.
And these.
These kingmakers show up with their big
old pointy hats and they're,you know, all their arraignment
(21:21):
as kingmakersand say, we're here to worship your child.
Here's gold.
He's a king, here's frankincense,
he's divine, and here's here's myrrh.
He's going to die.
I mean, as a
parent, how do you process this?
Like, let's nottake the humanity out of this story.
(21:44):
You got to be thinking,Mary and Joseph are in in such wonderment
and such amazementand but yet with such confusion,
like God, you chose us to do this.
That's amazing.
And finally, the Messiah is hereand he gets to be raised at our hands.
Can you imagine the
the the pressure that that Mary Josephare under to do a good job?
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You know, it's like, holy moly.
And then to have
the realization that, okay, wait,
I don't want to think aboutthat was a part
right?
(22:24):
And being worn
in a dream not to return to here,they departed to their own country.
By another way,I want you to underline that.
That by another way. And here's why.
Because when we have these types
of transformative interactions with Jesus,we don't leave
the same way we came.
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We don't leave the same way we came.
We leave a different way,a different way of living a different way
a believe in a different way of trusting,a different way of sacrificing,
a different way of faith
and friends,this is what it is to be a disciple.
This is exactly what it is to bea disciple.
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A disciple takes their next step.
And here's the steps.This is really easy to understand.
Like what my next step in discipleshipis the first thing.
And becoming a disciple is you belong.
You just decide to belong to the familyof God by placing your faith in Jesus,
accepting what Jesus did on the crossto forgive your sin
so that there's a possibilityof being made right with God.
(23:33):
Is that too bright for you?
Somebody really?
I don't know how you know awakeyou would be your in and check out
it would be so he made itreally bright to keep you awake.
So the first idea is belonging.
And then once you decide to belong youattach yourself to, to to
to to the kingdom of God.
You start to become someone you're not.
(23:56):
You got there's got to be a change inside.
There's got to bethis existential transformation.
I'm not who I was, I belongand then I become.
And it's a continual becoming.
I'm never completely
made new.
Like it.
Like there's still parts of methat, that, that, that, that God is
(24:18):
regenerating in me.
And it leads to this aspect of giving.
Because when I belong to the kingdomof God and the community of God
through the church,and I'm becoming I'm becoming a new person
just like it did for the wise men,it results in giving.
There's my life I give. There's my time
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I give, there's my resourcesI give, there's my energy I give.
You cannot separate giving
from becoming as someone who belongs.
The kingdom.
And it results in going
like we gothen into the world and make disciples,
which is what we're going to hearabout the end of this book.
We go then to those who don't know Jesus
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and invite them to the Christto belong to the family.
We've got to become someone new and investtheir lives in giving and then go,
can't you understand that?
And this is exactlywhat the disciples did.
And this is a great wayfor us to understand what's my next
step as a disciple?
Have I really belonged?
Do I really belong to the family of God?
By placing my faith in Jesusand confessing him as my Savior?
(25:25):
Am I becoming someone new?
Am I same old person?I used to be a physical person.
You used to be.
You got to consider how you really belongto the family of God,
and there has to resort to some level
of giving continually,
because it's an honor of this Kingwho was divine,
who died for us,and it result in us going to.
Those around us who don't know himyet do understand the process.
(25:49):
And so this is a great wayto understand what your next step
and this is where we seewill get past that slide.
So you don't have tolook at that right anymore.
Like verses 13 and following.
Now when they had departed, behold,an angel of the Lord
appeared to Joseph in a dream and said,you know what? Let me just say this.
I just noticed this in verse 13when it says it every time.
What God, an angel, appeared to Joseph inin kind of the
(26:13):
this narrative, it all we doalways appeared to Joseph in a dream.
Everybody elsethe angel appeared to was in person.
I don't know if you ever notice that.
You go back and read yourself.
But the angel appeared to Mary.Not in a dream.
Just appear to Mary. Same thing.
You know, all all through this wholethe birth of John the Baptist
and his parents, and Marythe angel appears to them with Joseph.
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The angel appears in a dream.
You know, I, I don't either.
It's just something I noticed. So,
and, said, arise, take the.
What?
I'll finish it.
Yeah.
See? You see that? That.
Take the child. His mother.
There is. Why?
Because it's his story, not her story.
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It's his story.
Not my story or not your story, child.
His mother. It's his story.
And flee to Egypt to remain thereuntil I tell you.
For here it is about to searchfor the child to destroy him.
And he rose and took the child.
Let's say this child is mother.
You see that? Yeah. Why?
Because his story. Not her story, right?
His storynow. My story history, not your story.
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Take your this mother by night
and departed to Egypt and remained thereuntil the death of Herod,
which was to fulfill what the Lord spokenby the prophet out of Egypt.
I called my son.
Take the child, his mother.
Flee to Egypt.
I remain there until I tell you.
I want you to understand something
(27:42):
that God guidesthose who are willing to move.
If you're willing to be obedient,if you're willing to be, to move.
When God says move, God will guide youevery single step of the way.
But I tell him, I used to tell my boysthis all the time when they're growing up.
I said, look,God can't even steer a parked car
if you're not willing to move.
(28:03):
God isn't going to give you any direction.
And for some people, you sit the thing.
Well, you know, I don't even knowwhat God wants for my life anyway.
And I doubt if I do it.
If you told me, well,guess what? He ain't going to tell you.
I mean, he'snot going to give you direction if you
if he knows you're not going to follow it.
Like, he'll guide you
(28:24):
and he always guidesthose who are willing to move.
But there has to be this act of submission
on the front end.
God, I want to know what you wantfor my life
because I want to follow you.
If we come to God, say, God,
tell me what you want from my life,and I'll decide
if I want to follow or not, because I'mlike a man and I'm making sense.
(28:56):
This is important.
Faith moves before it understands.
Faith moves before it understands.
Every time Joseph obeyed, direction came.
And faith will move before it understands
(29:16):
anything about why or where or how.
But think about Mary and Joseph.
They don't know what's going on. Like
we we're doingeverything God asked us to do.
We get to raise the Messiah.
(29:41):
Everything should be up into the right.
Right?
I mean, you gotta think,
I'm sure at some level, like,what could go wrong?
We got God in a board
that were raisingwhat could ever go wrong.
Let me ask you, what has gone right
since Jesus showed up?
(30:09):
Go to Egypt.
Remain therebecause Herod is going to try to kill
this little boy.
And stay there
as long as you have to.
(30:32):
So God sends him to Egypt.
They have no ideahow long they'll be there.
They don't understand what's going on.
And God takes them
and he hides them down in a distant land.
Here's what I want you to understand.
Sometimes God hired you to protect you.
Even if his protection feels like exile.
(31:01):
Mary and Joseph
ended up being in Egypt for probably threeand a half, two, maybe four years.
So look at what's happened.
We're going to raise this little baby.
We're going to raise thisthe one who is the Messiah.
God's hand is all over this,
but all of a sudden,
King Herod is out to kill us.
(31:24):
We have to leave our home.
We have to leave our family.
We leave everything familiar.
We have to leave everything that we havein this world behind.
Go to a foreign land.
We don't know anybody.
We don't know what we're going to do.
There, and we're just going to be there
(31:46):
in exile for who knows how long.
What would you be thinking at this pointif this were you?
Like, you don't know the restof the story, what would you be thinking?
Why? Why?
I don't know, I don't want to.
Yeah.
What else?
(32:06):
How? How?
I mean, what would we be thinking here?
I how many of us would think God.
I don't know if I can trust you.
I don't know if you know what's going on.
I don't know if you're still involved.
Maybe we misread this whole thing.
Maybe this has all been wrong.
How many of us.
(32:29):
Oh, at least there's four in this service.
Or only two in the first service.
Well, you you for the for the five of us.
We're the only honest oneshere. The rest of you, a bunch of liars.
I mean, what does it take us right now
to start doubting God's hand in his loveand his provision and all that stuff?
What to take now?
A bad day.
(32:53):
Oh, we get so thrown
off the course so easily.
And you got these two.
Can you imaginewhat they're going through?
They're just in exile.
God, have you forgotten about us?
Like, the.
Are the forces of evil greater than whatyou like it with?
(33:13):
It makes no sense.
Look,sometimes God hired you to protect you.
Even when that protectionfeels like you've been exiled
and are all alone.
When God hides you,he's not punishing you.
(33:35):
He's preserving you.
Listen, don't curse your Egypt place.
It may be the place of your protection.
Some.
Some of you may feel like you're in exile.
Some of you single people might feel.
Have you been exiledto the land of singleness?
(33:57):
I don't know where my spouse is.
I don't knowif they're ever even out there.
Maybe God has exiled me to singlenessand celibacy for the rest of my life.
You might feel that way,
or it could be that God is protecting you
some from really bad decisions.
Do you understand?
(34:20):
Some of you might be thinking,you know what?
God has exiled me to this jobI can't stand.
And and there's no you,no relief in sight.
And I.
God may just be protecting you
from some really bad direction.
I, I was just this this Friday,
right before,kick off of our varsity football game.
(34:42):
I was talking to one of our coaches,and we were just talking about,
you know, life out here in the ranchosand, and and,
how blessedwe are to be out here in this community.
And and he was mentioning how,
you know
God, but he didn't say anything about God.
He was just mentioned how thingsin the past weren't working out,
and now they really worked out.
And I think his words are,
(35:04):
the, the stars just alignand all the cards fell into place.
And, you know,that was I think that was his words.
And I looked at him,I just laughed, I said, Manny, funny.
I said, I talk about that in my worldas God's providence because of his grace.
Oh, no. Yeah, no, I get all that.
No that's fine. Yeah. No I agree,I agree. Yeah.
That's that's that, that's it. Right.
I know what you're saying.
(35:26):
I mean yeah.
And so we,I got to have a little talk there before
kick kickoffabout God's providence and his grace and
and that sometimes when God exilesus, he's protecting us because.
Because he has something better planned.
And so, please, my friends,if you feel like you're
in exile in Egypt
(35:49):
and things are not goinglike you'd hoped right now,
it may be God is saying, look, I'mprotecting you.
Don't curser Egypt.
It's my protection.
And so there they sit for maybe four years
for 60.
And then Herod,
when he saw that he had been trickedby the wise men, became furious.
(36:11):
And he sent and he killedall the male children in Bethlehem.
And in all that region who were two yearsold or under, according to the time
that had been ascertainedfrom the wise men.
Then was fulfilled what was spoken ofby the prophet Jeremiah.
A voice was heard in Rama, weepingand loud lamentation.
Rachel weeping for her children.
She refused to be comfortedbecause they are no more.
(36:32):
One of the saddest passages of scripture.
There's nohistorical record of this account.
There's nothing in the extrabiblical record, historical record
that this ever happened.
All we have is a biblical account of that.
But that doesn't cause meany consternation or doubt whatsoever
for a couple reasons.
One is this
and light of all of Herod'satrocities against humanity,
(36:54):
against his own family,against his own children,
the death of a few kids wouldn't meritno in his life.
I'm not saying it's not horrificand tragic.
Please don't misunderstand. I'm saying.
I'm saying in light of everything else
he's done against his own family,his own children,
there wouldn't be record of his atrocity
against other people's kids.
(37:15):
Secondly.
I want
I just want to put it inin historical terms
as far as numbers, probably we'retalking 12 to 15 little boys.
Okay.
So it wasn't a it wasn't a big,
you know, there wasn't a big areaand the survivability rate
was really low anyway.
(37:36):
And so we're talking about very fewnot that it's not horrific and so on,
I'm saying but I'm saying it wasn't this,
you know.
But I also want you to remember this,
the fact that
the murder of 15
childrenwasn't of note should not be surprised,
(37:57):
because every day, 2800 babiesare killed in America.
And that gets no press whatsoever.
A million babies a year.
And so, you know,how dare we be self-righteous
and decry that
the evil of one
(38:19):
and not the evil of the other?
I mean, think about Mary and Joseph.
They had to trust God's sovereigntyand providence the moment Jesus arrived.
Imagine their questions.
Why is this so hard?
Why is this so dangerous?
I thought if we were part of God's plan,
everything would be all rightand nothing's right
(38:41):
here. Better.
Ever been there?
Yeah,
yeah.
I mean, think about what has goneright in their life
since Jesus showed up.
Jesus.
Yeah.
(39:02):
That nothing.
I don't remember that.
Because you and I will go through toughstuff.
We'll go through timeswhere we think, God, where are you now?
You're supposed to be here.
You're supposed to take care of things.
Well, it's going to cause you to doubt.
(39:22):
It's going to cause you to fear.
It's going to cause you to run away.
Don't.
Whose story is this?
It's his story
to be a part of his story.
(39:48):
But when
Herod died, behold, the angel of the Lordappeared to him, in a dream to Joseph.
See, there it is again in Egypt,saying, rise, take what
child? Child's mother.
There it is.
Don't miss it,and go to the land of Israel.
For those who sought that child'slife are dead.
Yeah. Finally,
they been in Egypt for maybe four years.
And finally the angel shows up in a dream.
(40:10):
If I were Joseph, I'd be sleeping all daylong. Like, where's the dream?
Where's the dream? Where's the dream?
Finally, after four years,the angel shows up again.
Her dream says, hey, they everybodywant to kill this little boy there.
They're gone.They're dead. Gone. Back home.
I bet Joseph, like Mary, packed the bags.
Baby, we all just excited.
(40:30):
And he rose and did what?
Took the child?
Yeah, it took Johnny's mother. Why?
Because it's his story.
Not her sister,not mine. His or not yours. Right.
And went to the land of Israel.
Everything's back in order now, right?
Everything's good.
But dadgum, it.
When he heard that Achilleus was reigning
(40:51):
over Judah in place of his father Herod,he was afraid to go there.
And being warned in a dream,he withdrew to the district of Galilee.
Well, just when it's getting better,it gets worse.
Like we get to go home.
And now Herod's son is on the throne,is going to do what dad was trying to do.
But I want you to understandthe implications.
(41:11):
Look at how the how the street,when you heard that Achilleus was reigning
over Judah, Judea, in place of his fatherHerod, he was afraid to go there.
And being warned in a dream,he withdrew to the district of Galilee.
It doesn't say he was afraid,so he went somewhere else.
The implication is
he was afraid, and he was still obedientuntil God said, go somewhere else.
(41:32):
We got to understand this, thatwhen we follow and things are going well
and we want to bail and do something else,don't stay faithful
until God says do something different.
Even if it's scary, even it's confusing.
Even if you don't understand,even as perilous.
You stay obedient and stay faithful untilGod says, now do something different.
(41:54):
You understand?
Okay.
And when he did,
And he went and lived in a citycalled Nazareth, so that what was spoken
by the prophet might be fulfilled,that he would be called a Nazarene.
So they go to Nazareth,
they start in Bethlehem,Judea went down to Egypt,
(42:17):
and now they go back down to Nazareth.
Listen, some of God's greatest
work is often beginsin the least likely places.
Little dirty Nazareth,little dirty village.
Nobody.
Nazareth was a great place to be from.
And not to be in.
(42:39):
But some of God's greatest workshappens in those places
where you'd rather not be in.
I want you understand what God was doing.
He sent.
I'm going to exile you, and it'sgoing to feel like you're forgotten about.
You're not. I'm protecting you.
And I'm going to send you to the Nazarethplace,
the lonely place, the forgotten place.
(42:59):
I am in both of those.
And both of those are part of my plan,
because it's my story.
Most here's here's the problem
with a lot of Christians, a lot of church,a lot of pastors.
Most reject the smallbecause they want the to be magnified
(43:19):
by the acknowledgment of the large.
Don't chase the large,
don't chase the crowds.
Don't chase the opinions.
Live in the small places.
Live in the exile places.
Because that's where God isand that's where he has you.
And you'll not be left there.
(43:39):
But you might be there.
Just be obedient there.
The point is this serve God
faithfully where you are forasking, for you want to be.
Serve God faithfully
where you arebefore asking for where you want to be.
(44:00):
Does it make sense?
God's going to take some of you in here.
Have some of you in in Egypt right now
you feel like you're in exile.
You feel like you're all on,like you're forgotten about.
You're not
alone.
You're not forgotten about.
(44:22):
You just may be there for your protection.
Your exile
place might be your protection place.
And won't be that way forever.
You'll be delivered.
Some of you might be in the Nazarethplace.
That place? It's just.
It's the place you never thoughtyou'd be there.
(44:43):
Where you had.
Never where you'd hope to be.
But as part of God's plan,
you won't be there forever.
No matter where you are.
Be faithful where you are.
You're obedient where you arebefore asking to be somewhere else.
Does it make sense?
(45:11):
Let's pray.
Father.
Thank you.
Thank thank you, thank you
that you have invited usto be a part of your story.
Oh. Father.
Forgive us. Forgive me for when I.
When I arrogantly thought it was my story.
(45:33):
When I wanted you to bend,
bend reality.
Bend your hand to my story.
Rather than me bending to your story.
Thank you, father, that when you take us
to the Egypt placesthat their places of protection,
I pray you to help us remember thatand not revolt against it.
(45:57):
Thank you that when you take us
to the Nazareth places,
that is, places of preparation.
Father, I pray that wherever it is
that you take us to Egypt's places,the Nazareth places, the Bethlehem places,
that should
help us be obedient in those places.
(46:17):
It help.
Help us rememberit's your story and not our story.
Father,I pray encouragement over this church.
I pray encouragement over these people.
I feel like
like some of ushave been in these places for
for a long time,have and have wondered and questioned and
and sometimes doubted your planand your hand and your goodness.
(46:40):
And rather than just submittingand trusting.
And so, father, I pray for the hearts here
that that are growing weary,
the hearts and
and lives it just feel like they'rejust wasting a little bit.
Each day.
I pray for a renewed strengthand renewed energy
and renewed trust and faith
(47:02):
that our faith would grow by our obedience
and that we'd
obey even if we don't understand.
Thank you for your protection.
Thank you for your preparation.
You were a good Godand it is our honor and our privilege
to belong to youand to become followers of you,
to give ourselves and our resources,and to go
(47:24):
and make sure those in our livesunderstand who you are as well.
You're a good God.
We love you.
And your name I pray, Amen. Amen.
Hey, listen, this weekI want you to read chapter two
and then chapter three, chapter three.
We're going to get into Johnthe Baptizer, and,
and his role in the in,in Jesus coming to his public ministry.
(47:46):
And then we'll get into the temptationof Jesus.
It starts picking up some steam here.
It's going to be a lot of fun.
So read those to get ready.
But also do this next Sunday
three service eight, nine, 30 and 11
okay, so here's what here'swhat's going to happen.
You all you come to the 1030 service.
(48:07):
Right.
And so right,I mean, you know, you're here right?
And so it's a natural
just to kind of push that backhalf hour to the 11,
you understand that?
And so I told the first service wethere wasn't people standing at the back.
They got to choose.
Now they're in thethey're going to be in the middle.
(48:28):
So they got to choose and clock or 11.
So so if all I'm saying is
it's going to be more naturalfor you to choose the 11, which is great.
That's great.
I know it feels late, but listen,you got to choose Egypt or Nazareth.
That's just you got to choose one of them.
And so you want to make a huge leapand go to Egypt.
(48:51):
That's 8:00.
You want to push back a little bitto Nazareth? 11.
That's great, but choose well, listen,
all the comfortablepeople are going to stay at the 931.
They're a little bit more fragile,you know, they they can't
they can't handle much movementor change in this world.
So we'll we'll let them do thatand they'll be okay.
They'll grow a little bit and move to.
But but you're going to choose okay.
(49:13):
Now way big change Egypt or little changeNazareth.
But you you understand that okay.
It'd be greatif you let us know a little bit
so we could helptrying to get stuff ready.
But either way, you do thatand invite some people with you
this next week to whatever.And here's another great thing.
Come to service and then serve a service.
(49:34):
Sit and serve or serve and sit in
stand will help get you plugged inif you want that, I love you.
I'm proud of you.
Thank you for going through God's Wordtogether.
It's fun dealing.
You know, muchacho, and and.
Welcome.
It's good to see you this morning.
It's good to be here.
It's good for us to be together.
And it is a blessingto be a part of a praying church.
And it's a blessing to be a partof a church that prays for its pastor.
So thank you.
I'll just say this.
Things arethings are improving, which is nice.
(00:23):
But we're going to get rightinto the book of Matthew today.
We're going to go to Matthew chapter two,
and we're going to bypassthe last part of Matthew chapter one.
The last part of Matthew chapterone is really part of the Christmas story.
And so we'll probably come back to it
in about a month and a half or so month,a month and a half or so.
But we're going to get to chaptertwo right now,
(00:44):
which is not part of the Christmas story,though it's always been included
as a Christmas story.
God doesnot want to just be found at Christmas.
He wants to be followed every day.
And so we're going to look at thisin the historical context of chapter two.
And to set the stage, I want to,
(01:04):
remind you the big idea.
Here's the big idea for chapter two.
Faith grows not in comfort,but in obedience.
That's our faith grows.
Faith grows in those times.
Or obedient, even when it's uncomfortable.
Which is the story of chapter two,
obedience in Uncomfortability.
And so as we go through this,just keep that in mind.
(01:26):
So what I'm going to do is I'm just goingto go through kind of verse by verse,
and we'll stop along the way and highlightsome things from the different verses.
So if you have a Bibleand brought one with you.
Get it out. Go to, Matthew chapter two.
If it helps us on page 1060, in my Bible.
But the stuff isn't goingto be on the screen except the reference.
(01:47):
So get on your smart device,actually bring a Bible with you and
and go to Matthew chapter two.
I'm just going to start readand then we'll stop along the way.
Matthew chapter two, verse one.
And afterJesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea.
So, so this is after the Christmasafter he was born
in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herodthe king.
(02:08):
Behold, wisemen from the east came to Jerusalem,
saying, where is hewho has been born King of the Jews?
For we saw his star when it rose,and have come to worship him.
So after he was born,
these when Herod was the king.
So this this isn'tpart of the activity thing.
Although most of the nativity sets havethese have these three wise men there.
(02:33):
Right?
And there's actually even this songwe three kings from Orient are.
I don't know the rest. It's super old.
Nobody really sings it anymore.
But, so we have this idea of this,this kind of activity with these,
with these wise oriental,you know, fellows there
that is so far from thetruth, so far from reality.
(02:55):
After he was born, the Bible says,
and it makes a point to say,in the days of Herod the king know this.
This portion of Jesus's story is complex.
It's,it's wrought with political implication.
There is incredible, pain and,
(03:18):
and, and confusion as a part of this,this part of Jesus's life
and Mary and Joseph and and it starts
it starts with the the recognition.
These were the dayswhen Herod the king was ruling.
We need to understandwho Herod the king was.
Herod was a tyrant.
(03:40):
He was on the throne.
His he was he had this self-giving andproclaimed title as the king of the Jews.
That's who we called himself.
That's what he madeeverybody call him the King of the Jews.
He was on the throne, through,
murder.
He killed two of his sons.
At least two of his sons.
(04:00):
Who who could threaten the throne?
He he murdered two his favorite wives.
I know you married.
Let your unfavorable wives liveand kill the favorite ones.
But you knowwho makes sense of this stuff?
And and and he knew how despised
he wasby the people of Jerusalem in that area.
(04:22):
So he made this this, this, this regal,
this royal demand that at his death,
all the nobility, Ariel would be arrested,imprisoned, and then, killed.
So at least there would be mourningat his passing
because he knew nobody would warn him.
And so he wanted peopleto mourn his passing.
And so he said, when I die, arrestall the nobility, imprison them,
(04:47):
and then put him to death.He was. It was horrible. He was demonic.
He was the one that if you knowthis story,
you know, when these these little two yearold baby boys were slaughtered.
He's the one that ordered that.
Interesting.
His son, Herod Antipaswould come to the throne after him.
And he was the one who had Johnthe Baptist beheaded.
(05:08):
And so this family is just is just evil.
They're just just demonic.
And when I when you start looking in thisstuff, there's almost a little warning.
That's. Pay attention.
There's almost little warning. Like,
if you heard that said that the sinsof the fathers passed on to the kids.
You know, there's there's there's there'sthere's some truth.
(05:30):
Like, we got to be careful.
The standard we set and or the standardwe allow or the,
the model we set for our children.
His son was just like him. Just horrible.
And so this is the King Herod.
And at this time, these wise men,the stone.
Verse one, these wisemen from the east came to Jerusalem.
These wise men, we know another word
for them, as the word startswith an M and ends with AGI.
(05:53):
What's what's the word?
Yeah.
Major MAGAy is actually how it's pronounced.
We get
our word magistrate and magicianfrom this word.
So these guys played the role
of little magicians,kind of the black arts and all that stuff.
There were astronomers and astrologers,and they were the ones who had set up,
(06:14):
kings and kingdoms and magistrates.
So they were very powerful people.
They came from the East.
Now, I want you to think of Eastas Iran and Iraq.
So that's the way up kind of near Babylon.
And they come down, travel down,and they're there for one purpose.
They're there to set up a king,and everybody knows it.
(06:35):
These guys had these huge, big canonicalhats like Big Cone
heads with big ear flaps,this royal robes.
They were so ornately grotesqueor grotesquely ornate.
Just this huge pomp and circumstancearound these guys.
And they come from the East toJerusalem saying,
where is hewho has been born king of the Jews
(06:57):
for he saw his star when it rose,and have come to worship him.
Notice their words?
Where's the one where they say,
look at your Bibles. Don't look at me.
Look at Bibles.
Who was born King of the Jews?
This is this is.
This is treasonous for them right now.
They're. They are the kingmakers.
(07:19):
And they've come down from Iran, Iraq.
And they said to King Herod,
who is self proclaimedthe king of the Jews.
Their words are profound.
Where's the one who's been born king?
See, Herod was set up as kingand self-proclaimed king.
They're saying there's onewho was born a king and he's not you.
(07:42):
And so just.
I just want you to feel the tension.
I want you to feel the tension andthe conflict that's building right now.
For we saw his
star when it roseand have come to worship him.
How did they know their IranIraq area up there?
They're in the in the east.
How did they knowthat there was the prophecy of a star
(08:03):
that would indicate a king being born?
They're not part of God's people.
They're not partof the prophetic revelation.
They're not part of the prophetic story.
How do they know?
Okay, let me tell you
the way they the reason they knew is,
is, during the Babylonian captivity.
(08:24):
So way a long time in their past.
Assyria in the north
came downinto the northern part of Israel,
and and took captive a bunch of peopleback to Assyria.
Later the Babylonians came down,took over down through Assyria
and down into Israel,and took over the ten northern tribes
(08:46):
and took them into Babylon,into captivity, into Babylon.
During that process, a man namedDaniel was one of the ones that was taken
captive.
And Daniel was a man of God,the prophet of God.
That served multiple kingdoms.
And Daniel was the one,while he was in captivity in Babylon,
who prophesied of the comingMessiah, Daniel chapter nine.
(09:06):
And so Daniel in Babylonhad all of these prophecies about the one
who would come, the king who would come,the Messiah who would come.
And part of that prophecy was the prophecy
that he would be bornin Bethlehem in Judea.
That's how they knew, because God had left
in their possessionblueprints of his plans.
(09:29):
He told them, and these guys werethe ones wise enough to pay attention.
They were wise enough to keep our eyesopen.
They're wise enough to, to noticewhat was going on.
God's own people who had the prophets,who had the word, were so dull,
nonchalant, and lazy they had no idea whatwas happening in their midst
(09:50):
because they were
lazy and they were neglectful of his word.
Those who are not God'speople are paying attention.
Just let that sink in for a minute.
We have the blueprint of his plan.
It's right here.
All we're called to do is pay attention.
(10:13):
No. What?
His plans are.
Be the ones who seek him.
So they knew his star was coming,
and they've come to worship this star.
What was the star?
Nobody knows what the star was.
There's all kinds of speculation.
When.
When Saturn and Jupiter were kind ofin alignment, they kind of formed
(10:35):
this special little, you know,light kind of coalescence in the sky.
Some people think
some people think it was a, it was alike a comment that that can perpetually
fell and burned.
And Idon't know how that would happen, but,
nobody knows exactly what it was.
A personally,I think it's what the buyer refers to
as the Shekinah glory of God,his very presence.
(10:58):
It's the same kind of glory that was overthe tabernacles of the Tent of Meeting
as it moved through the desert.
40 yearsthat led the people day and night.
It's the kind of glory of Godthat says, here is my
Messiah, here is the one.
It was God's presence saying,this is where you are to be, where he is.
And so that's what I think this is.
(11:19):
It doesn't really matter.
But that's that's the best.
Like I can understand.
And that makes sense to me.
When Herod the king heard this,
he was troubledand all Jerusalem with him,
and assembling all the chief priestsand the scribes of the people,
he inquired of themwhere the Christ was to be born.
Verse five
they told him, In Bethlehem of Judea,for it is written by the prophet, and you,
O Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are byno means least among the rulers of Judah.
(11:42):
For from you shall come a rulerwho will shepherd my people.
Israel is quoting Micah five two
and so
Herod gathers all of his own priests,the, the, the Hebrews around,
and the Jews, and says, look, you scribes,you're supposed to know this stuff.
Where's this one going to be born?
And so they go back to you,look at the Old Testament scriptures
(12:03):
and look at Micah five two
and they say, this is what it saysin Bethlehem, the land of Judah.
From you will comea ruler of the shepherd, my people.
So it's like, okay, now we know,
now we know.
And so in verse seven,
then Herod,some of the wise men, these magi,
secretly and ascertained from themwhat time the star appeared
(12:24):
and sent them to Bethlehem, saying,go and search diligently for the child.
And when you have found him, bring me wordthat I may to come and worship him.
What a snake!
It a snake.
He just. He's horrible. He's horrible.
You don't want to worship him?
Wants to what?
Let's kill him.
He's threatened.
(12:46):
He's threatened.
And so there's. He's greatly trouble.
Because he's threatened.
He's threatened by the presence of Jesus.
Verse nine, after listening to the king,they went on their way.
And behold, the star that they had seenwhen it rose went before them
until it came to rest over the placewhere the child was.
And when they saw the star,they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy.
(13:10):
And going into the housethey saw the child with Mary, his mother,
and they fell down and worshiped him.
Then opening their treasures,
they offered himgifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh.
Let me stop right there.
When?
When these wisemen saw the star,
(13:31):
the Bible says they rejoiced exceedinglywith great joy.
There were two extreme reactionsto the presence of Jesus.
The reaction
of the man who was threatened by Jesus
was great.
Troubled means distress and anxiety.
The reaction of those who came to worshipJesus was great joy.
(13:54):
And the same thingis going to happen to in your lives
if we come to Christ,if we come to His Word,
if we come to his presencewith the expectation of worship,
with the expectation of honoring it,there will be great joy.
But if we come to, to to this time,
to his word,to opportunities to worship with.
(14:17):
With feelings of.
Being troubled by him or whathe might ask.
What he might require
was not sure on the front endhow we would respond if we heard from him.
Anyway.
We'll be greatly troubled.
And so it
really is important the attitudewith which we approach His Word.
(14:39):
We approach times like this together.
It's really important.
If you come to times like this,
with, with,with the leading attitude being, I'm
going to worship, I'm going to listen, I'mgoing to sacrifice.
I'm telling you,you'll be filled with great exceeding joy.
(15:00):
But if you approach times like this one,I don't know if I believe this stuff.
Anyway, I'll
I mean, I'm willing to gothis far for you, but I don't.
They're just going to be sometimestroubling inside you.
It's just.
And so I just I want youto just be aware of the attitude,
the which we come togetherwith, at which we approach his word.
(15:29):
And going into the house,you saw the child
with Mary, his mother,and they fell down and worshiped him.
And opening their treasures, they offeredhim golden things that summer.
I want you to know something. Look.Look at what?
Look at what this says in verse 11.
Going into the house, they saw what
child?
Finish it out.
Okay. Yeah.
The child with Mary
who comes first.
(15:51):
Jesus. Why?
Because it's his story, not hers.
Jesus comes first
to destroy, not hers.
It's his story, not yours.
It's his story, not mine.
Jesus comes first.
You're going to see this overand over and over in this chapter.
And most time we just read stuff
(16:13):
and we don't stop to like,this stuff isn't here by accident.
And the words aren't in order by accident.
God has, through the Holy Spirit,has penned this through human hands,
but it's inspired by himand he's talking to us.
Pay attention. Raising it.
He comes first.
The child with his mother, childwith his mother, child
(16:34):
with his mother, child with his mother.
His story not hers. His story, not mine.
His story, not yours.
This why I titled this the seriesYour Kingdom now.
Kingdom now. Why?
Because it's about his kingdom.
When the disciples asked
Jesus to teach them to pray,one of the things he taught
them was your kingdom come,your will be done.
(16:58):
And so we have to understand this,that it's his story first.
He's first see, a lot of us
and I understand we come to Godbecause we need him to fix something
that's great.
But we have to understand
that the invitation isn't
(17:20):
to ask him to fix stuff.
The command is to submit and follow.
It's not this gentle invitation.
Just invite me in. I'll help you out.
It's a command to submit and to follow.
And when we submit and follow,then God starts working things together.
(17:43):
Because it's
his story,
not my story.
Y'all understand this.
He comes first.
His kingdom comes first.
His will comes first.
His desires come first.
His agenda comes first.
(18:05):
But what if is not my agenda or my desire?
What like, doesn't that matter?
Well, it might, but it just matters.
Secondarily, it's not.
That doesn't matter,but it doesn't come first.
The child and his mother.
The child and you.
(18:26):
The child and me.
You got it.
That's.
What verse was.
I don't even know.
Well, thank you for paying attention.
Oh, and they presented with gifts of, of,fell down worship.
Okay. Yeah.
And they fell down and worshiped him.
(18:47):
Then opening their treasures,they offered him gifts of gold
and frankincense and myrrh.
I want you to notice
something that they came to worship him,and a part of their worship was what
giving you.
We cannot biblically,
(19:08):
rightfully,we cannot worship without sacrificing.
We cannot worship without giving
the two a go hand in hand.
And giving is an act of worship.
And so they offered him gold. Why?
Gold valuable is valuable.
Why else?
Because he's a king.
Remember what they said?
(19:28):
They came to Earth.
They said, where's the one? What?
Born king?
What do you give a king?
You don't give himcopper and silver, right?
You give them gold.
And so it's this.
What they're saying is this is the one.
And we're going to not just by our giving.
(19:49):
That is the king.
And we're not going to give the kingwhat's left over of what I got.
If he's the king, I'm gonna give himthe best and the first or what I got.
Right? Yeah.
And not only that, but God inhis providence
is setting them upfor what they don't know is coming.
They're going to eventuallyhave to flee to Egypt.
(20:10):
And the gold that they're given, Godis preparing them
for the call that he's placed upon them,that they're not even aware of yet.
He so good, so gold.
And then frankincense.
Frankincense was a was a resin,
an aromatic that was used in worshipto indicate divinity.
(20:32):
And so what they're sayingis this little baby
that well, he's not really a babynow. He's maybe two years old.
This little toddler is is he is
he's the king and he's divine.
And then they give him myrrh. Why?
Why is more important?
When Jesus was buried,
he was wrapped in about 100 poundsof myrrh and aloes.
(20:56):
It was a burial.
Part of the burial process.
Now think for a moment.
Mary and Joseph.
They've been toldthey have their chosen ones
to raise the Messiah of God.
And these.
These kingmakers show up with their big
old pointy hats and they're,you know, all their arraignment
(21:21):
as kingmakersand say, we're here to worship your child.
Here's gold.
He's a king, here's frankincense,
he's divine, and here's here's myrrh.
He's going to die.
I mean, as a
parent, how do you process this?
Like, let's nottake the humanity out of this story.
(21:44):
You got to be thinking,Mary and Joseph are in in such wonderment
and such amazementand but yet with such confusion,
like God, you chose us to do this.
That's amazing.
And finally, the Messiah is hereand he gets to be raised at our hands.
Can you imagine the
the the pressure that that Mary Josephare under to do a good job?
(22:04):
You know, it's like, holy moly.
And then to have
the realization that, okay, wait,
I don't want to think aboutthat was a part
right?
(22:24):
And being worn
in a dream not to return to here,they departed to their own country.
By another way,I want you to underline that.
That by another way. And here's why.
Because when we have these types
of transformative interactions with Jesus,we don't leave
the same way we came.
(22:48):
We don't leave the same way we came.
We leave a different way,a different way of living a different way
a believe in a different way of trusting,a different way of sacrificing,
a different way of faith
and friends,this is what it is to be a disciple.
This is exactly what it is to bea disciple.
(23:11):
A disciple takes their next step.
And here's the steps.This is really easy to understand.
Like what my next step in discipleshipis the first thing.
And becoming a disciple is you belong.
You just decide to belong to the familyof God by placing your faith in Jesus,
accepting what Jesus did on the crossto forgive your sin
so that there's a possibilityof being made right with God.
(23:33):
Is that too bright for you?
Somebody really?
I don't know how you know awakeyou would be your in and check out
it would be so he made itreally bright to keep you awake.
So the first idea is belonging.
And then once you decide to belong youattach yourself to, to to
to to the kingdom of God.
You start to become someone you're not.
(23:56):
You got there's got to be a change inside.
There's got to bethis existential transformation.
I'm not who I was, I belongand then I become.
And it's a continual becoming.
I'm never completely
made new.
Like it.
Like there's still parts of methat, that, that, that, that God is
(24:18):
regenerating in me.
And it leads to this aspect of giving.
Because when I belong to the kingdomof God and the community of God
through the church,and I'm becoming I'm becoming a new person
just like it did for the wise men,it results in giving.
There's my life I give. There's my time
(24:39):
I give, there's my resourcesI give, there's my energy I give.
You cannot separate giving
from becoming as someone who belongs.
The kingdom.
And it results in going
like we gothen into the world and make disciples,
which is what we're going to hearabout the end of this book.
We go then to those who don't know Jesus
(25:02):
and invite them to the Christto belong to the family.
We've got to become someone new and investtheir lives in giving and then go,
can't you understand that?
And this is exactlywhat the disciples did.
And this is a great wayfor us to understand what's my next
step as a disciple?
Have I really belonged?
Do I really belong to the family of God?
By placing my faith in Jesusand confessing him as my Savior?
(25:25):
Am I becoming someone new?
Am I same old person?I used to be a physical person.
You used to be.
You got to consider how you really belongto the family of God,
and there has to resort to some level
of giving continually,
because it's an honor of this Kingwho was divine,
who died for us,and it result in us going to.
Those around us who don't know himyet do understand the process.
(25:49):
And so this is a great wayto understand what your next step
and this is where we seewill get past that slide.
So you don't have tolook at that right anymore.
Like verses 13 and following.
Now when they had departed, behold,an angel of the Lord
appeared to Joseph in a dream and said,you know what? Let me just say this.
I just noticed this in verse 13when it says it every time.
What God, an angel, appeared to Joseph inin kind of the
(26:13):
this narrative, it all we doalways appeared to Joseph in a dream.
Everybody elsethe angel appeared to was in person.
I don't know if you ever notice that.
You go back and read yourself.
But the angel appeared to Mary.Not in a dream.
Just appear to Mary. Same thing.
You know, all all through this wholethe birth of John the Baptist
and his parents, and Marythe angel appears to them with Joseph.
(26:37):
The angel appears in a dream.
You know, I, I don't either.
It's just something I noticed. So,
and, said, arise, take the.
What?
I'll finish it.
Yeah.
See? You see that? That.
Take the child. His mother.
There is. Why?
Because it's his story, not her story.
(26:59):
It's his story.
Not my story or not your story, child.
His mother. It's his story.
And flee to Egypt to remain thereuntil I tell you.
For here it is about to searchfor the child to destroy him.
And he rose and took the child.
Let's say this child is mother.
You see that? Yeah. Why?
Because his story. Not her story, right?
His storynow. My story history, not your story.
(27:20):
Take your this mother by night
and departed to Egypt and remained thereuntil the death of Herod,
which was to fulfill what the Lord spokenby the prophet out of Egypt.
I called my son.
Take the child, his mother.
Flee to Egypt.
I remain there until I tell you.
I want you to understand something
(27:42):
that God guidesthose who are willing to move.
If you're willing to be obedient,if you're willing to be, to move.
When God says move, God will guide youevery single step of the way.
But I tell him, I used to tell my boysthis all the time when they're growing up.
I said, look,God can't even steer a parked car
if you're not willing to move.
(28:03):
God isn't going to give you any direction.
And for some people, you sit the thing.
Well, you know, I don't even knowwhat God wants for my life anyway.
And I doubt if I do it.
If you told me, well,guess what? He ain't going to tell you.
I mean, he'snot going to give you direction if you
if he knows you're not going to follow it.
Like, he'll guide you
(28:24):
and he always guidesthose who are willing to move.
But there has to be this act of submission
on the front end.
God, I want to know what you wantfor my life
because I want to follow you.
If we come to God, say, God,
tell me what you want from my life,and I'll decide
if I want to follow or not, because I'mlike a man and I'm making sense.
(28:56):
This is important.
Faith moves before it understands.
Faith moves before it understands.
Every time Joseph obeyed, direction came.
And faith will move before it understands
(29:16):
anything about why or where or how.
But think about Mary and Joseph.
They don't know what's going on. Like
we we're doingeverything God asked us to do.
We get to raise the Messiah.
(29:41):
Everything should be up into the right.
Right?
I mean, you gotta think,
I'm sure at some level, like,what could go wrong?
We got God in a board
that were raisingwhat could ever go wrong.
Let me ask you, what has gone right
since Jesus showed up?
(30:09):
Go to Egypt.
Remain therebecause Herod is going to try to kill
this little boy.
And stay there
as long as you have to.
(30:32):
So God sends him to Egypt.
They have no ideahow long they'll be there.
They don't understand what's going on.
And God takes them
and he hides them down in a distant land.
Here's what I want you to understand.
Sometimes God hired you to protect you.
Even if his protection feels like exile.
(31:01):
Mary and Joseph
ended up being in Egypt for probably threeand a half, two, maybe four years.
So look at what's happened.
We're going to raise this little baby.
We're going to raise thisthe one who is the Messiah.
God's hand is all over this,
but all of a sudden,
King Herod is out to kill us.
(31:24):
We have to leave our home.
We have to leave our family.
We leave everything familiar.
We have to leave everything that we havein this world behind.
Go to a foreign land.
We don't know anybody.
We don't know what we're going to do.
There, and we're just going to be there
(31:46):
in exile for who knows how long.
What would you be thinking at this pointif this were you?
Like, you don't know the restof the story, what would you be thinking?
Why? Why?
I don't know, I don't want to.
Yeah.
What else?
(32:06):
How? How?
I mean, what would we be thinking here?
I how many of us would think God.
I don't know if I can trust you.
I don't know if you know what's going on.
I don't know if you're still involved.
Maybe we misread this whole thing.
Maybe this has all been wrong.
How many of us.
(32:29):
Oh, at least there's four in this service.
Or only two in the first service.
Well, you you for the for the five of us.
We're the only honest oneshere. The rest of you, a bunch of liars.
I mean, what does it take us right now
to start doubting God's hand in his loveand his provision and all that stuff?
What to take now?
A bad day.
(32:53):
Oh, we get so thrown
off the course so easily.
And you got these two.
Can you imaginewhat they're going through?
They're just in exile.
God, have you forgotten about us?
Like, the.
Are the forces of evil greater than whatyou like it with?
(33:13):
It makes no sense.
Look,sometimes God hired you to protect you.
Even when that protectionfeels like you've been exiled
and are all alone.
When God hides you,he's not punishing you.
(33:35):
He's preserving you.
Listen, don't curse your Egypt place.
It may be the place of your protection.
Some.
Some of you may feel like you're in exile.
Some of you single people might feel.
Have you been exiledto the land of singleness?
(33:57):
I don't know where my spouse is.
I don't knowif they're ever even out there.
Maybe God has exiled me to singlenessand celibacy for the rest of my life.
You might feel that way,
or it could be that God is protecting you
some from really bad decisions.
Do you understand?
(34:20):
Some of you might be thinking,you know what?
God has exiled me to this jobI can't stand.
And and there's no you,no relief in sight.
And I.
God may just be protecting you
from some really bad direction.
I, I was just this this Friday,
right before,kick off of our varsity football game.
(34:42):
I was talking to one of our coaches,and we were just talking about,
you know, life out here in the ranchosand, and and,
how blessedwe are to be out here in this community.
And and he was mentioning how,
you know
God, but he didn't say anything about God.
He was just mentioned how thingsin the past weren't working out,
and now they really worked out.
And I think his words are,
(35:04):
the, the stars just alignand all the cards fell into place.
And, you know,that was I think that was his words.
And I looked at him,I just laughed, I said, Manny, funny.
I said, I talk about that in my worldas God's providence because of his grace.
Oh, no. Yeah, no, I get all that.
No that's fine. Yeah. No I agree,I agree. Yeah.
That's that's that, that's it. Right.
I know what you're saying.
(35:26):
I mean yeah.
And so we,I got to have a little talk there before
kick kickoffabout God's providence and his grace and
and that sometimes when God exilesus, he's protecting us because.
Because he has something better planned.
And so, please, my friends,if you feel like you're
in exile in Egypt
(35:49):
and things are not goinglike you'd hoped right now,
it may be God is saying, look, I'mprotecting you.
Don't curser Egypt.
It's my protection.
And so there they sit for maybe four years
for 60.
And then Herod,
when he saw that he had been trickedby the wise men, became furious.
(36:11):
And he sent and he killedall the male children in Bethlehem.
And in all that region who were two yearsold or under, according to the time
that had been ascertainedfrom the wise men.
Then was fulfilled what was spoken ofby the prophet Jeremiah.
A voice was heard in Rama, weepingand loud lamentation.
Rachel weeping for her children.
She refused to be comfortedbecause they are no more.
(36:32):
One of the saddest passages of scripture.
There's nohistorical record of this account.
There's nothing in the extrabiblical record, historical record
that this ever happened.
All we have is a biblical account of that.
But that doesn't cause meany consternation or doubt whatsoever
for a couple reasons.
One is this
and light of all of Herod'satrocities against humanity,
(36:54):
against his own family,against his own children,
the death of a few kids wouldn't meritno in his life.
I'm not saying it's not horrificand tragic.
Please don't misunderstand. I'm saying.
I'm saying in light of everything else
he's done against his own family,his own children,
there wouldn't be record of his atrocity
against other people's kids.
(37:15):
Secondly.
I want
I just want to put it inin historical terms
as far as numbers, probably we'retalking 12 to 15 little boys.
Okay.
So it wasn't a it wasn't a big,
you know, there wasn't a big areaand the survivability rate
was really low anyway.
(37:36):
And so we're talking about very fewnot that it's not horrific and so on,
I'm saying but I'm saying it wasn't this,
you know.
But I also want you to remember this,
the fact that
the murder of 15
childrenwasn't of note should not be surprised,
(37:57):
because every day, 2800 babiesare killed in America.
And that gets no press whatsoever.
A million babies a year.
And so, you know,how dare we be self-righteous
and decry that
the evil of one
(38:19):
and not the evil of the other?
I mean, think about Mary and Joseph.
They had to trust God's sovereigntyand providence the moment Jesus arrived.
Imagine their questions.
Why is this so hard?
Why is this so dangerous?
I thought if we were part of God's plan,
everything would be all rightand nothing's right
(38:41):
here. Better.
Ever been there?
Yeah,
yeah.
I mean, think about what has goneright in their life
since Jesus showed up.
Jesus.
Yeah.
(39:02):
That nothing.
I don't remember that.
Because you and I will go through toughstuff.
We'll go through timeswhere we think, God, where are you now?
You're supposed to be here.
You're supposed to take care of things.
Well, it's going to cause you to doubt.
(39:22):
It's going to cause you to fear.
It's going to cause you to run away.
Don't.
Whose story is this?
It's his story
to be a part of his story.
(39:48):
But when
Herod died, behold, the angel of the Lordappeared to him, in a dream to Joseph.
See, there it is again in Egypt,saying, rise, take what
child? Child's mother.
There it is.
Don't miss it,and go to the land of Israel.
For those who sought that child'slife are dead.
Yeah. Finally,
they been in Egypt for maybe four years.
And finally the angel shows up in a dream.
(40:10):
If I were Joseph, I'd be sleeping all daylong. Like, where's the dream?
Where's the dream? Where's the dream?
Finally, after four years,the angel shows up again.
Her dream says, hey, they everybodywant to kill this little boy there.
They're gone.They're dead. Gone. Back home.
I bet Joseph, like Mary, packed the bags.
Baby, we all just excited.
(40:30):
And he rose and did what?
Took the child?
Yeah, it took Johnny's mother. Why?
Because it's his story.
Not her sister,not mine. His or not yours. Right.
And went to the land of Israel.
Everything's back in order now, right?
Everything's good.
But dadgum, it.
When he heard that Achilleus was reigning
(40:51):
over Judah in place of his father Herod,he was afraid to go there.
And being warned in a dream,he withdrew to the district of Galilee.
Well, just when it's getting better,it gets worse.
Like we get to go home.
And now Herod's son is on the throne,is going to do what dad was trying to do.
But I want you to understandthe implications.
(41:11):
Look at how the how the street,when you heard that Achilleus was reigning
over Judah, Judea, in place of his fatherHerod, he was afraid to go there.
And being warned in a dream,he withdrew to the district of Galilee.
It doesn't say he was afraid,so he went somewhere else.
The implication is
he was afraid, and he was still obedientuntil God said, go somewhere else.
(41:32):
We got to understand this, thatwhen we follow and things are going well
and we want to bail and do something else,don't stay faithful
until God says do something different.
Even if it's scary, even it's confusing.
Even if you don't understand,even as perilous.
You stay obedient and stay faithful untilGod says, now do something different.
(41:54):
You understand?
Okay.
And when he did,
And he went and lived in a citycalled Nazareth, so that what was spoken
by the prophet might be fulfilled,that he would be called a Nazarene.
So they go to Nazareth,
they start in Bethlehem,Judea went down to Egypt,
(42:17):
and now they go back down to Nazareth.
Listen, some of God's greatest
work is often beginsin the least likely places.
Little dirty Nazareth,little dirty village.
Nobody.
Nazareth was a great place to be from.
And not to be in.
(42:39):
But some of God's greatest workshappens in those places
where you'd rather not be in.
I want you understand what God was doing.
He sent.
I'm going to exile you, and it'sgoing to feel like you're forgotten about.
You're not. I'm protecting you.
And I'm going to send you to the Nazarethplace,
the lonely place, the forgotten place.
(42:59):
I am in both of those.
And both of those are part of my plan,
because it's my story.
Most here's here's the problem
with a lot of Christians, a lot of church,a lot of pastors.
Most reject the smallbecause they want the to be magnified
(43:19):
by the acknowledgment of the large.
Don't chase the large,
don't chase the crowds.
Don't chase the opinions.
Live in the small places.
Live in the exile places.
Because that's where God isand that's where he has you.
And you'll not be left there.
(43:39):
But you might be there.
Just be obedient there.
The point is this serve God
faithfully where you are forasking, for you want to be.
Serve God faithfully
where you arebefore asking for where you want to be.
(44:00):
Does it make sense?
God's going to take some of you in here.
Have some of you in in Egypt right now
you feel like you're in exile.
You feel like you're all on,like you're forgotten about.
You're not
alone.
You're not forgotten about.
(44:22):
You just may be there for your protection.
Your exile
place might be your protection place.
And won't be that way forever.
You'll be delivered.
Some of you might be in the Nazarethplace.
That place? It's just.
It's the place you never thoughtyou'd be there.
(44:43):
Where you had.
Never where you'd hope to be.
But as part of God's plan,
you won't be there forever.
No matter where you are.
Be faithful where you are.
You're obedient where you arebefore asking to be somewhere else.
Does it make sense?
(45:11):
Let's pray.
Father.
Thank you.
Thank thank you, thank you
that you have invited usto be a part of your story.
Oh. Father.
Forgive us. Forgive me for when I.
When I arrogantly thought it was my story.
(45:33):
When I wanted you to bend,
bend reality.
Bend your hand to my story.
Rather than me bending to your story.
Thank you, father, that when you take us
to the Egypt placesthat their places of protection,
I pray you to help us remember thatand not revolt against it.
(45:57):
Thank you that when you take us
to the Nazareth places,
that is, places of preparation.
Father, I pray that wherever it is
that you take us to Egypt's places,the Nazareth places, the Bethlehem places,
that should
help us be obedient in those places.
(46:17):
It help.
Help us rememberit's your story and not our story.
Father,I pray encouragement over this church.
I pray encouragement over these people.
I feel like
like some of ushave been in these places for
for a long time,have and have wondered and questioned and
and sometimes doubted your planand your hand and your goodness.
(46:40):
And rather than just submittingand trusting.
And so, father, I pray for the hearts here
that that are growing weary,
the hearts and
and lives it just feel like they'rejust wasting a little bit.
Each day.
I pray for a renewed strengthand renewed energy
and renewed trust and faith
(47:02):
that our faith would grow by our obedience
and that we'd
obey even if we don't understand.
Thank you for your protection.
Thank you for your preparation.
You were a good Godand it is our honor and our privilege
to belong to youand to become followers of you,
to give ourselves and our resources,and to go
(47:24):
and make sure those in our livesunderstand who you are as well.
You're a good God.
We love you.
And your name I pray, Amen. Amen.
Hey, listen, this weekI want you to read chapter two
and then chapter three, chapter three.
We're going to get into Johnthe Baptizer, and,
and his role in the in,in Jesus coming to his public ministry.
(47:46):
And then we'll get into the temptationof Jesus.
It starts picking up some steam here.
It's going to be a lot of fun.
So read those to get ready.
But also do this next Sunday
three service eight, nine, 30 and 11
okay, so here's what here'swhat's going to happen.
You all you come to the 1030 service.
(48:07):
Right.
And so right,I mean, you know, you're here right?
And so it's a natural
just to kind of push that backhalf hour to the 11,
you understand that?
And so I told the first service wethere wasn't people standing at the back.
They got to choose.
Now they're in thethey're going to be in the middle.
(48:28):
So they got to choose and clock or 11.
So so if all I'm saying is
it's going to be more naturalfor you to choose the 11, which is great.
That's great.
I know it feels late, but listen,you got to choose Egypt or Nazareth.
That's just you got to choose one of them.
And so you want to make a huge leapand go to Egypt.
(48:51):
That's 8:00.
You want to push back a little bitto Nazareth? 11.
That's great, but choose well, listen,
all the comfortablepeople are going to stay at the 931.
They're a little bit more fragile,you know, they they can't
they can't handle much movementor change in this world.
So we'll we'll let them do thatand they'll be okay.
They'll grow a little bit and move to.
But but you're going to choose okay.
(49:13):
Now way big change Egypt or little changeNazareth.
But you you understand that okay.
It'd be greatif you let us know a little bit
so we could helptrying to get stuff ready.
But either way, you do thatand invite some people with you
this next week to whatever.And here's another great thing.
Come to service and then serve a service.
(49:34):
Sit and serve or serve and sit in
stand will help get you plugged inif you want that, I love you.
I'm proud of you.
Thank you for going through God's Wordtogether.
It's fun dealing.
You know, muchacho, and and.
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