string(7) "m-66998" Burnt Hickory Baptist Church

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Dec 06, 2020

Gold

Gold

Passage: Matthew 2:1-12

Speaker: Matt Petty

Series: The Gift

Category: Sunday Sermons

Keywords: faith, christmas, jesus, god, salvation, jesus christ, priest, jesus christ is our bridge to god

The Gift | Gold | Matt Petty | Burnt Hickory In today's message, we will look to the story of the wisemen who travelled to worship Jesus and what it truly means to accept Jesus Christ as your king. The wisemen knew Jesus to be the King and Kings and they were compelled to give Him their most valuable gift, their hearts.

Well, Merry Christmas to everybody. I think it's officially okay in everybody's time perimeters to say that now, but I got news for you. Our trees been up for three weeks and I don't care if you judge us, because it's 2020. And anything goes this year. Hey, before we get into the message, quick shout out to Eli Loughlin last week just for bringing the word and doing an incredible job of just speaking peace into our lives. But if you've got a copy of Scripture this morning, I want you to get with me to Matthew chapter 2. Matthew chapter 2, if there's one thing that I know about all of us that are listening to this message it is that we love gifts. Now, I know that some of you are really, really, really good gift givers. All right? That is my wife, she loves to give gifts, she would give a gift to the to the mailman, she would give a gift to the UPS man to the FedEx man to everybody she's ever met, every bus driver, every health professional that we've ever met, she just loves gifts, I feel like I have the gift of receiving. I just feel like we're a little bit different in how we live. I am a terrible gift giver. I don't know why I'm just not good at it. And although I try, I'm just not there. But I did some research this week. Do you realize that 20% of annual revenue for all retail locations in the United States over 20% of their revenue comes from people purchasing Christmas gifts, purchasing Christmas gifts? It's crazy! Over, listen in 2020 over $500 billion with a B is going to be spent on Christmas gifts. Billion. I mean, this just blows my mind. I did a survey a couple years ago. Just asking people who is it that you like to give gifts to? And I mean, you can guess the number one I mean, it's pretty obvious, especially if you're a parent. I mean, number one is that we like to give gifts to our kids. I mean, unless they're those kids and it's kind of hard, but most of our kids we really like giving gifts to our kids over 70% of the people who answered the survey said that we love giving gifts to our kids. But the top of the list you can guess but the bottom of the list kind of hurt my heart a little bit. Listen to this 2% only a measly 2% of the people said that they like to give gifts to their dads. To their dads, I mean, what is it? I mean, that kind of hurts my heart a little bit. I mean, is it that hard to give us another pair of slippers? I mean, it isn't that big of a deal. But it is and here's what I know about gifts. Gifts used to mean something. I mean, you know what I'm saying? I mean, it used to be like a heartfelt deal. It used to be that thing and then gift cards came around. And then it's like forget it. I'll just give him a gift card to which we're not complaining, by the way. Why? Because we don't need any more slippers. It's just how it works in our lives. Well look, we've entered into the Christmas season. And in the church world is kind of called the Advent season. They're preparing our hearts for the calming of the king we've entered into the season. And we're stepping into our series this year on, The Gift, as a Christmas series this year. And here's what we're going to do this year.

This year we're going to walk through Matthew chapter 2, the first part of Matthew chapter 2, and we're going to look at these gifts that these guys named the Wiseman, or the Magi gave to Jesus, we're going to look at these gifts. We're going to kind of dissect what these gifts are because here's why I think we need to do this. It's because I feel like some of us are, well not really those of us in this church, but other places, right? Those churches, I feel like some of us I feel like we're kind of battling a Christmas card theology world. Do you know what I'm saying? Do you know what I mean when I say that? I feel like there's some of us that get all of our Christmas theology from two places, either A. it's from the front of some Christmas cards that someone sends you, which by the way I love, alright, don't take me off the list, I love seeing your family photos and those kinds of things. But I think for some reason, we've just kind of gotten roped into taking our Christmas or our incarnation or Advent theology from either a Christmas card, or from some Christmas song. From some Christmas song out there. And I'm not just talking about The Christmas Shoe, I'm talking about some of the classics that are out there that we've just kind of devoted and we pulled in. And we've used that as part of our theology. You say Matt, what are you, what are you talking about? Well, let me give you an example. How about this Christmas song and I'm not dogging on it. All right? How's this one, Silent Night, Holy Night, all is Calm, all is Bright?

No, it wasn't. I mean, it wasn't. Think about this. I personally have been a part of three births, one of them I don't remember because I was just coming into the world, but I've been a part of two others. There was nothing calm about this event. Amen, to those of you that have been there, right? Your life changes. Alright, changes. I don't care if you were the birther or if you were the one just getting yelled at. Things happened in that room that you are not prepared for. I mean, you did not know this was going to happen. It was not a silent night when Jesus was born. There was nothing silent about it. Think about this. Mary, she's nine months pregnant. She's riding into Bethlehem on a donkey I might add she's not in the Cadillac screaming get me to the hospital. She's on a donkey trying to get to the hotel. I mean, that's where she's going and there was no hotel. She ended up back in a back barn or a cave somewhere. You know, she's just all up in Joseph's business, at this point. I told you this was gonna happen. You did not listen to me. And he's like, I told you to have your bag in the trunk ready to go. And he's like, no, I told you we had to come. It was not a silent night. You add to that the fact that Bethlehem had swelled about five times its normal size. There was nowhere to stay. There was nowhere to go. You couldn't even bunk in with a family a little bit. I mean, because there was just nowhere to be, and she ended up in a cattle stall back there was not a silent event. Put on top of that the angels were singing over them; they were harking the Herald's all over the shepherds that were out there. And so you got the angels screaming, the cattle are lowing somewhere, whatever that means. I don't even know. And now you've got this barn activity. It was not a silent night. But here's what we're gonna do Christmas Eve baby, we're gonna get our calendars, I mean we're gonna get our candles out. We're gonna lie to them we're gonna shed a tear when we sing that song. Why? Because it's a good song. Alright? We're gonna use it, but it makes a point, though, doesn't it? Kind of shapes our theology a little bit, doesn't it? Here's another one, this one kind of goes around. The guys that we're looking at over these next couple weeks. What about the Wiseman? What about the Wiseman? Think about these guys. In 1857. There was a song written that I guarantee you that you've heard, and it kind of goes like this. We three kings of orient are, bearing gifts we traverse so far. You've heard it? I know you've heard it. I like the song. The worship team is saying like mark that one off the list. No, I like the song. It's a great song. But here's what happens. In the song. It brings some confusion. Because here's the deal.

The Bible never tells us there was three of anything. Do you ever realize that the Bible says that there aren't three? There weren't three of them there? There was a lot of them there. There weren't three kings. How do you know there weren't three kings? Well, number one, because Herod would not have been angry over three dudes riding into town on camels. I mean, an entourage. Yes. An army? Yes. But not three. I mean, secondly, they weren't from the orient, as we understand orient. I mean, they weren't guys riding in big hats with funny mustaches. No, I mean, they weren't from the orient. They were from east of Jerusalem. I don't know where we got that one. Also, they weren't kings. The guys that rode into town, these Wiseman, these magi, they weren't even kings that came in. And number four, they didn't come to the stables. It was like 10 to 20 months later that they visit Jesus, they missed Christmas all together. They weren't there. But you got them in your front yard lit up right now. I know you do. I know you do. And I love it. I love it. Look, don't go home, you know, we can't do that. We need to put them in the backyard, they're way away right now. Don't do that. Okay, don't that's not the point of this. The point is, that we let a lot of this stuff shape our theology on some things that do matter, of some things that can bring us some depth in our walk with Jesus. So, in the next couple of weeks, we're going to look at these guys, and we're going to look at what they did and why they did it. Because here's the thing, the gifts that they gave, they mattered. They mattered. Gifts matter.

I don't know if you saw it a couple of years ago, there was an America's Funniest Home Videos clip that won, they won the big prize whatever the big prize was I don't know. And there was this little kid, he's running down the stairs this Christmas morning, the lights flip on his dad's over in the corner with the video camera, like an old school video camera, you had to hold on your shoulder and he's videoing his kids like, oh my goodness. Oh, my goodness. I'm so excited. I'm so excited. He's dancing around this box in his little footie pajamas, tearing off stuff. And he's like, I've always wanted this. I've always wanted this I'm so excited. And then he stops, and he looks at the camera, and he looks in the box. He goes, what is it? Yes, I'm not getting into that, the video says because what is it? Well, that's the point, right? We all love singing the songs. We all love talking about the Wiseman, we all talking about the gold and the frankincense and myrrh, but what are they? Why do we have them? We're gonna look at them over the next couple weeks. And I guarantee you if you'll let it, these gifts, they can shape how you worship Jesus, they can remold who you see Jesus as, and they can set you up to have a Christmas that you have never had before. In fact, look, there's a lot of stuff that just kind of is misleading about these guys. But the magi over just about anybody else, they teach me, and they teach you how to worship the baby Jesus, how to worship the incarnate Jesus, the world being changed by Jesus. So, I want you to write down this principle because we're going to start with the first gift that they gave. And it was the gift of gold. And here's the principle that goes behind it. The principle is this gold is the metal of kings. Gold is the metal of kings and catch this in Jesus. He is the King of kings. Gold is the metal of kings. I just want you to write this down. And Jesus, He is the King of kings. There's one thing these magi knew. They knew that they were coming to worship the King. Not only were they going to come worship a king as they worshipped Him, they found out that He was the King of kings. Let's read the text together. Matthew chapter 2 says, this in verse 1, says, "After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, "Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose, and we have come to worship Him. When King Herod heard this, he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. When he called together all the people's chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Messiah was born, in Bethlehem of Judea," they replied, "for this is what the prophet has written: But you Bethlehem the land of Judah are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for out of you" catch this, "will come a ruler, who will shepherd my people, Israel." Then Herod called the magi secretly and found out from them exactly the time that the star had appeared. He sent them to Bethlehem, and said, "Go and search carefully for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him." That's a lie. Verse 9, "After they had heard the king, they went on their way and the star they had seen when it rose went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother, Mary, and they bowed down, and they worshipped Him. Then they opened their treasures, and they presented him with gifts, gold, frankincense, and myrrh. And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they return to their country by another route."

Now, I love this in the Gospel of Matthew, because it seems like out of nowhere, these guys pop into the scene that we know nothing about. We know really nothing about the whole conversation that they had with Herod. I mean, we've got the cliff notes here by Matthew and his Gospel, but we don't know the ins and the outs, and we don't know how Herod responded at the moment, but we know that whatever they said and whatever Herod kind of perceived this happening was an incredibly decisive, disheartening moment. For Herod, we know that it shook him to the core, it rattled him, and it rattled Jerusalem with him because so goes Herod, so goes everybody that was around him. And this is incredibly interesting, because Matthew in this Gospel just tells us that these magi or these guys from the east, these wise men from the east, they come to Jerusalem. Now, we're really not told much more about them. In the text that we're looking at right here, but here's what I know. Just like you know, over the years, there's been some incredible myths and some incredible legends that have been wrapped around these guys called the magi. They've been wrapped around these Wisemen. Let me give you a couple of them long ago, somebody came up with this idea. This is really long ago came up with this idea that the magi were the three guys that represented the families of Noah that came off the ark of Ham, Shem and Japheth. The original families that repopulated the earth. Is it biblical? No. Is it a great story? Yeah, I mean, it's a great story, somebody just came up with that trying to kind of justify who they were, well, it gets even better someone else by the Middle Ages and you can look this up, this is history. By the Middle Ages, the religious people, of the Middle Ages, they named these guys Gaspar, Baltazar and Melchor, and I'm not even kidding. Because they figured if they could give them a name and make them personal, they could bring more attention to the church and kind of give this myth that was out there. And so not only did they give them a name, they said that they actually came from different parts of the earth, that one of them came from Ethiopia, and one of them came from Tarsus, and one of them came from Arabia, which were the three kind of knowledge centers of the earth during that time. And they came to represent that all knowledge of worshipping the king. They were coming to the king. Here's the problem. Is that a great story? Yes. Is it in the Bible? No, it's nowhere there. It gets even better. Marco Polo writes about the three wise men. Marco Polo does. He heads into this Persian village one day, he meets this man, and he's just kind of stopping over to get to a nicer place. And this man goes, Hey, you need to know about our village. It's famous. He goes, Okay, why is it famous? He said, this is the place that the magi met together before they went to Jerusalem. Is there any evidence? No. Is it a great story? Absolutely. I mean, it is, it's a great story. But here's my favorite one. In the 12th century, there was a guy, actually a German Bishop by the name of Rainald of Cologne. That's a name for you right there. And he was struggling in his church. I'm not kidding, he was struggling in his church, no one was coming, knows pay attention and it was getting close to Christmas time. And so, he knew he kind of needed to come up with a story because he needed to have people come and had people give. And so, he was in this field one day, and he stumbled upon the body of a dead person. And then he kind of went to a different side and he found these three bodies that were close together, he put them in one grave together. And he claimed to have found the magi. He claimed to have found them because their eyes were still in their sockets. And they were looking towards Jerusalem. He stole some eyes from some people that had just died because he wanted people to come give to the church. I'm not kidding. This is the magi. I mean, it's not the magi, but this is the stories that people have come up with over the years. But here's the problem. None of that is biblical. But what is biblical? Have you ever thought about who these guys are? And I never assume you're like, yeah, we don't care, you need to care. Because it's really cool. It's really cool who these guys are, we can find it in the Bible.

We find these guys in the Bible. In fact, the Greek historian Herodotus, he gives us most of our information about these guys. And they were actually descended from some needs that were priests that tried to overtake the Persians multiple times, but couldn't, but they were really smart guys. So the person said, Hey, we're not going to kill you. We're going to actually just make you our advisors to the region, we're going to make your advisors to this area. And here's what happened to these guys. Over time, they became to be more and more and more smart, more wealthy, more renowned. And over time, they became the spiritual advisors to the Persian monarchies, to the greatest kind of people that were on the earth during that time. And the reality is these guys became skilled, incredibly skilled, catch this, at philosophy, at science and they were wise and catch this, they started interpreting dreams. You say, Matt, why would that matter? It matters because there was a king by the name of King Nebuchadnezzar. Now, if you know a whole lot about the Bible, you're gonna kind of go, wait a minute, I know that name. Yeah, you might know that name. He's in the book of Daniel, right? King Nebuchadnezzar one day had this dream. And he called in all of his advisors, or his magi. This is where we get these guys 600 years earlier, to interpret his dream. All right? Some of you are like, Oh, I love history. Some of you're like, just get on with it. I got it. Okay. But here's what happened. They called in all the magi to interpret the dream. They couldn't do it. So, there was this little ruddy boy named Daniel that came in and interpreted his dream because God gave him the ability to do it and King Nebuchadnezzar made Daniel, the chief of the magi. The chief of the magi and here's what happened. Daniel began to speak into the king and begin to speak into this royal line, this line of priests of the magi. Now, if you remember right, Daniel was a prophet from God. And Daniel knew exactly what God wanted to say. And Daniel prophesied, in fact, you Matt why is that important? It's important because Daniel became the head of this organization that would one day come and worship the king. The reality is, verse 2 look at the question in verse 2, we just read it. And they ask the king, where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? The answer can only be this. Daniel had spoken earlier, had prophesied earlier, had written the book of Daniel. Daniel chapter 2, Daniel chapter 9, Daniel chapter 11. And it preaches to these people that the coming of Jesus, the coming of a Messiah, the coming of a king, would happen in Bethlehem, and a star would raise. And look the Jews that stayed in Babylon, they had all of the Jewish scriptures, they had 600 years of prophecy. And now it's happening. They had the scriptures like numbers 24:17 where it said, "A star will come out of Jacob; a scepter will rise out of Israel. They had Isaiah 9:2 where it says, "The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned." So, these magi for 600 years had been looking for the coming of Jesus, of Jesus. And now it happens. So, what happens a star rose? And look, we don't have time to talk about the star, alright? You can watch National Geographic, all you want to, i hear there's some planets aligning here in a couple days, I don't know, doesn't matter. Here's what matters. God sent a star. They looked for the star. And they went in they worshipped the King. The main point of this is this; these foreign dignitaries, these Gentiles, they're not Jews, they bowed down and worshipped the King. What did they say? Where is He? Here's the Christmas story that we need to answer. Where is Jesus? Where is Jesus? That's how this whole thing started, right? These guys said, where is Jesus? What did they say? We want to know Jesus, we want to honor Jesus, we want to give our lives to this King Jesus. Do they know all the answers? No. They didn't know all the answers. All they knew is that there was a Messiah, there was a king, there was a Savior of the world being born in Bethlehem, and they're following a star. You know, what the question that just kind of popped in my mind this week? Do you worship Jesus, when you don't have all the answers? Because I guarantee you these guys didn't have all the answers. But they set their lives on a path to worship the King. And what happened? What happened was, they made the other King really mad.

They made the other King really mad. In fact, I want you to see something because Herod was not happy with these other guys popping into his reign, and saying, Hey, where is this King that's just been born? If you think about it, that's pretty raw, isn't it? If somebody that is a king over an area is now hearing that another king in your area with the same title is being born? That's not good for you. Look at verse 3, it says this, "When King Herod heard this, he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. When he called together all the people's chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them, where the Messiah is to be born?" Where is it going to be born? Look, the magi popped in and they're like, Hey, where's the King and Herod's like, wait a minute, I'm the king. There can't be another king. And if you're claiming there's another king, I'm gonna take him out. Why? Because Herod was an evil man. He was an evil man. Let me give you a little bit about Herod here. He didn't come from kind of a line of kings. His dad slipped into being the king of Judah about 60 years earlier, because he helped out Rome, he helped out Rome. So, Caesar gave him the reign of this area, which was the reign of where all the Jews lived. And he gave it to him, and his dad died, and Herod rose to the top and they gave Herod, one of his titles, and you can read it in the Bible, he was king of the Jews. So now you've got these magi coming in and asking the King of the Jews, where is this King of the Jews being born? You can see that this is about to be a problem. And Herod was a narcissist. He was so incredibly evil catch this, he killed one of his wives, because he thought that she was trying to be too powerful. He killed two of his sons because he was worried that they were going to get too old and begin to challenge his authority. It was set in Jewish history and you can read this and just leave Josephus, that it was better to be Herod's pig than his son. His pig then his son. Not only was he that evil, listen, when he was about to die, he ordered all the rulers for the areas to be arrested and then gave a command at the moment he died that every one of the rulers of his area were to be killed because he knew that no one was gonna mourn his death and he wanted people to cry on the day that he died. That's history. Listen, this is the guy that's gonna order all the babies under the male babies under two years old to be slaughtered because he was afraid of the competition of King Jesus. He was an evil, evil, evil man. And after he heard this prophecy from Micah chapter 5, by the way, the Savior that our ruler that a shepherd of Israel was about to be born, he was so mad he called the magi in, he called these guys in and he said, Hey, when you find Him, come back and talk to me and let's put our heads around this thing. Well, knew it was a trap. They didn't do it. They left his palace, they saw the star and then they went to see King Jesus I love Matthew chapter 2:10, it says, "When they saw the star, they were overjoyed." And then we get to one of the most powerful texts in the whole Gospel of Matthew because Matthew presents Jesus as King Jesus, all the way through. So, it's no kind of accident that this is the story in his. Look at verse 11. It says, "On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother, Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped Him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh." Notice they came to the house; they didn't come to the manger. The word child here is different than the word baby. This used in Luke chapter 2. He's not an infant anymore. He's older, somewhere between 10 and 20 months old, they come into this place and what did the magi do? What was the first thing that they do when they met King Jesus? They worshipped Him. They worshipped Him.

Why? Here's why. Let me tell you, you cannot meet King Jesus and not respond in worship. You can't. You say, Matt, I can. Well then, you didn't meet Jesus. You cannot walk into the presence of King Jesus and not respond with bowing and with worshipping. It's what the magi are teaching us. They're teaching us right here that before anything else happens in our life, before we see Jesus as Savior, as Messiah, as anything else, listen to me, we have to see him as King. We have to why? Because if he is not King, and he is not ruler, he cannot be any of the other things in our lives. But yet we try, don't we? We try to make Him our friend. We try to make Him our buddy, we try to make Him all of these things where look, if he is not your King, He is none of the above after that. And look, we Americans, we don't like this. Because we don't like the word sovereigns, we broke away from that, right? We don't like being under control of anybody else. We like being the land of the free, the home of the brave. But what is he saying? What are these magi saying? They are bowing down, they're giving themselves to the King first, to the King first. You see, here's the principle, before they gave their gifts, they gave their hearts. Before they gave their gifts, they gave their hearts. Now this is important because a lot of times in church, we talk a whole lot about giving our time and our talents and our treasures. And look that is incredibly important. But if that is not out of the overflow of a heart that has been given to God, that we are not bowing before our king, we are just worshiping something that we really don't know about. That's the point of the story. The point of the story is that they submitted their hearts, and then they begin to give of themselves look at the second part of verse 11. It says, Then, they open their treasures and presented him with gifts. And the first one's gold. Why is it gold? Because they had to show that he was king before he was anything else. You know, I just need to ask the question. Are you seeing Jesus as King? Are you seeing him as King? Are you really diving into the fact that he is the controller of your life? This is why gold is mentioned first. You know that gold has mentioned 385 times in Scripture? It is the most precious metal in all of Scripture. They didn't know about rhodium and platinum. That's stuff probably wasn't even created yet. I don't know. But gold, it was the absolute standard of kingship. It was the standard of royalty. Every time gold is mentioned it is mentioned as an emblem of wealth that is associated with kings and with royalty and anytime you step into the presence of a king in this time, you had to offer a gift to that king, and it was said that your gift better include gold to represent the honor that you are giving that person. That's exactly what they're doing. It's exactly what they're doing. Do you know what these Eastern gentile kind of astronomers are doing right here? They're presenting Jesus with a gift that is fit for a king and is the gift of gold. Let me ask you something. Are you seeing him as your King? As your Ruler? Do you know what this shows us? That shows us that we worship Him as Lord. Only because we worship Him as King. He's King. Christ Jesus is King. King and Kingdom is mentioned over 100 times in the New Testament, wrapping stuff around who Jesus is. I mean, even think about this when Jesus rode later on in His ministry, when He rode back into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, what were the people chanting from the crowds that were saying, blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord for why? For he is the King of Israel. What did Pilot put above his head when he was on the cross. This is Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews. Revelation chapter 19. When Jesus returns for His church, when he comes back to get us when we step into eternity with Him, on His robe, there will be a placard with the description, King of kings and Lord of lords, this is way different than the American Jesus that we worship isn't not. This is way different than the Jesus that we just put on and put off when we feel like we can. When we feel like we want to when we feel like we have nothing else going on. If He is not King, He is not Savior. If He's not King, He's not saying that's what He's saying right here. These match, I knew he was King. So, here's my question, do you worship Him as King? Do you submit your life to Him? Do you give your life to Him? Are you his servant? Are you his subject? Is He your sovereign? Is He calling the shots in your life? Or are you on the throne? Or is He on the throne? That's what answers this question. Is He calling the shots, or are you? Listen these magi, they knew that Jesus was King.

Now they figured out He was the King, when they met Him. So, let me just ask you this. What happens when Jesus becomes your King? The magi answer this question for us in just a few minutes, I just want to walk through what happened in these guys lives. Because they give us a little bit of a litmus test, to see if Jesus really is our king. They give us six things that happen in their lives, they show us how we can know that Jesus is our King. And like, there's six of them. I'm going to give you one for every day this week. And here's my goal for all of us that we take one of these a day. And we pray these over our lives this week, and how we can work them out. Number one is this what happens if Jesus is truly our King? We recognize the call of the King. When Jesus is really our King, we recognize that Jesus calls. You say Matt, what are you talking about? Look at this. Look at verse 2, says this, we saw His star when it rose. Now that doesn't really sound a whole lot to us, but they knew the Old Testament. And they knew that there was going to be a star that represented the King being born in Judea in Bethlehem at this moment. Here's my question to you have you set yourself up in a life that now you are recognizing that King Jesus is calling you? First of all, He's calling you to salvation, He's calling you to give your life to Him. Has there been a moment in your life where you have felt the calling of Jesus on your life, for you to submit to Him for you to give Him your life, to offer Him your heart to have Him forgive you of your sins, and have Him give you life? That's the first calling. Listen, if that has not happened in your life, let me tell you this, He is not king of your life. If there hasn't been a moment in your life, where you've invited Christ to be your Savior and your Lord, to forgive you of your sins, He's not your King. He's not your King, the first thing we have to do is we have to recognize this call. But the second thing is this, we have to respond to the King's plan. We got to respond to it. We see this because it's not good enough just to know that Jesus is calling us. The second part is just that we need to see that a response is needed. What did the magi say in verse 2, "we saw His star when it rose, and we have come to worship Him”? What did they do? They saw the call; they felt the call and they responded to the call. I think this is where a lot of our disconnect is in our walking with Jesus. It's not that we don't know Jesus. It's not that we don't know who Jesus is. It's not that we wouldn't even say that Jesus is King. It's the fact that when He calls us a lot of times the disconnect is that we just put Him on hold that we just don't respond to the calling. To which I just kind of asked myself the question, what is Jesus calling me to do right now? What's He calling me to do? You see when He wrote these first two together as a believer, this means that we should be positioning ourselves to hear the call of the Lord, then we should be positioning ourselves in the Word and in worship and in moments that we're studying Scripture, and we're hearing from God and when we hear, when we see, when we know there's a need, we jump into that need because it goes with number three. Number three, when Jesus is really King, we risk everything for the King. We're willing to risk everything for the King. Look, I don't think we, I don't think we realize sometimes that this calling that we have on our life, called following the king, is not a low-risk activity when it comes to the world. It's not. Most often it's the opposite. Do you realize when these magi came before King Herod in verse 2 is, they asked this question, where is the one who has been born King of the Jews? Do you realize they were putting their lives on the line at this moment? Under law, King Herod could have slayed them, right then. And no one would have cared. When they called out the king asking where the King was, this was incredibly risky. It was life or death for them. I mean, isn't this what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 1:18, where he says, "For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God." This was foolish talk from everybody else. Listen, when He calls, answer the call to the king. A lot of people around you are gonna call you foolish. It's just what's gonna happen. But when He's King, it doesn't matter. Isn't this what Matthew 16:24, says, "Whoever wants to be My disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it." Look, even when it doesn't make sense to other people, when the King calls us to risk for Him, it's an eternal risk. That's always worth it. It's always worth it and it keeps going, number four. But if Jesus is truly our King, we'll worship the King, even when no one else will. We will worship the King. Even when nobody else around will. Think about the story just for a minute.

I love this because, listen, there was no line around this house waiting for Jesus, you'd have to get in the stanchions and keep your distance and walk in just give your arms to Jesus. No, nobody else was there. Why? Because nobody else was worshipping Jesus. At this moment, the shepherds had gone, everybody else was out of Bethlehem that had registered. This is just Mary, Joseph, who knows where that guy was, I mean, it was just Mary and Jesus in the house meeting with the magi. Man, I just want you to see this point right here. Because there is going to be a moment in your life, when you put your head up in the crowd that you are with, and you realize that you are the only person worshipping Jesus. It's gonna happen. You guys that are in school right now, I guarantee you at some point in your school career, you're gonna put your head up in a classroom one day, and you're gonna realize, am I the only person worshiping Jesus? There's going to be a time in your workplace where you put your head up and go, am I the only person representing the king right here? There may be a time in your family and your relationships where you put your head up and you go, am I the only one realizing that I need to worship the King? And the answer might be, yes. To which I would just say, go for it. Why? Matthew 7:13 says, "Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the game and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it." What does that mean? Most of the time when you're following the crowd, you're not following the King? That's what it means. Have you ever realized that? Most of the time when you get in the middle of the crowd and all the crowd is moving with you? It's not the direction that King is calling you to. Guess what else is the verse says right here, "But small is the gate and narrow is the road that leads to life and only a few find it." What does that mean? When you find yourself alone following the King, that probably means you're really following the King? Probably does. Are you worshiping the King when nobody else is? If you are, then He's your King. Here's number five, love this. And when Jesus is truly your King, you'll give your best to the King. You'll give your best. And listen. Not your leftovers. You don't want your leftovers. You'll give your best. What did they do? They gave their gold, and it was much gold. It was much gold. And so much in fact, our early church fathers say that the gold that they were presented by the magi was the funds that they were needing to fund their trip to escape King Herod killing Jesus when they went to Egypt for over two years. In fact, it was not only enough to do that, but it was the gold that funded them through the early years of ministry. Why? Because Mary and Joseph were poor, they had to offer a pigeon at the sacrifice and not the real sacrifice of a lamb. They can only give pennants at the moment of their sacrifice. But now because of the sacrifice of these guys, the magi that knew that He was the King that brought their best to the King ministry listen for literally generations was funded and Jesus was set free and not slayed by an earthly evil king. Listen, your gifts matter. They matter. Your gifts matter. Two questions kind of pop up in my mind right here. Number one, are you giving the best of your time and your treasure, are you giving your best? You know, we schedule everything else in life and we carve out things that mean something to us, right? Are we doing that for King Jesus? Number two, are you giving the best of your treasure? Are you giving the best of your treasure? Are you skimping because there's somebody else that you need to give to? Most of the time, it's ourselves.

The magi said, no, no, no, no, we're giving our best. Let me just challenge you just for a minute. What would it look like for you to give sacrificially a year in gift to the ministry of Jesus? What would it look like this Christmas for your gift to be? Yes, have we saved all year for Christmas? Absolutely. What would it be for this year for you to say but hang on a minute, we're giving to the King so that generations from now, people will meet King Jesus? Listen, Daniel, he gave his best time. And what happens? 600 years later, these guys met Jesus, and they funded this ministry. These magi gave to Jesus and what happened? 2000 years later, we're still meeting in His name. Still, meaning they gave their best. But here's number six. I love this one. When Jesus is truly our King, we leave from meeting the King differently than we met Him. We leave differently. You say Matt, now what do you mean by that? It means we're always changed when we made the King. We're always changed. Look at verse 12? I love it. We kind of pull it a little bit. But look what it says. "And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route." Listen, whenever Jesus becomes your King, you will always go out differently than you came in. What does that mean? 2 Corinthians 5:17, "Therefore, if anyone's is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!" The old is gone, what does that mean? It means when you step in, you meet Jesus as King, you never step out the same. You never step out the same. That means if there hasn't been change in your life, if you haven't seen God move in your life, if you haven't seen evidence of your salvation in your life, the chances are, I'm not judging, you've never met the King. Listen, here's what I'm telling you. You can meet Him. You can meet Him right now. Every week we do this thing here it's called the next steps text. And it's kind of the invitation in the pandemic. In order for us not to kind of spread this whole deal around we just offer a text message that listen, if you want to meet Jesus today, there's a number that's popped up on the screen. If you'll text that number, I guarantee someone will reach out to you incredibly fast. And we just want to walk you through the gospel tells you what it looks like to give Jesus your heart to offer Him your life. But the reality is, the moment you say to Jesus, I'm a sinner and I need you to save me, I'm giving you my life, forgive me of my sins. The moment that's your heart, you've stepped into an eternal relationship with the King. You know what this text does. It just helps you solidify that. It just helps you kind of make that a real deal. Maybe today, you need to just say hey, Jesus, I haven't treated you as my King for a long time. I haven't held your name up in that now for a long time. Maybe today you need to step out and be baptized today, there's a place for it on that text. Maybe you need to join this church today say hey, any church that teaches, Jesus is King. That's my deal and that's where we're gonna go. We'd love to have you. But here's the purpose of this whole morning. I think sometimes we need to get off the Christmas cards. And we need to worship the King.

Lord Jesus today, as we step into this moment of invitation and just kind of contemplation. What I'm just asking that you move in our hearts. God, I just pray that today you would begin to reshape a little bit of our image of who you are Jesus, that you can never be our Savior and our deliverer God until you're our King, our Ruler. And God that means that you shape our decisions, that you shape our marriages, that you shape our thought lives, that you shape the actions in our lives, that you shape our finances, that you shape our families that you shape our morality, that you shape our sexuality, that you shape all of the many, many things in our lives that we think that we're in control of. God today we offer them to you as King and we bow down at your name and we just call you King. Thank you, Jesus.

Let us stand and worship together.

Follow Along with the Message

The Greatest Gift #1 - GOLD


PRINCIPLE:  is the metal of the kings & Jesus
is the  of kings.
Matthew 2:1-12; Matthew 2:1-2; Numbers 24:17; Isaiah 9:2; Matthew 2:3-4;
Matthew 2:10; Matthew 2:11


Principle: Before they gave their gifts, they gave
their  .
Matthew 2:11


What Happens When Jesus is Truly The King of
Your Life?
1. We recognize the  of the KING.
Matthew 2:2b
2. We respond to the  .
Matthew 2:2b
3. We are willing to   everything for the KING.
Matthew 2:2; 1 Corinthians 1:18; Matthew 16:24-25
4. We  the KING when no one else will.
Matthew 2:11; Matthew 7:13-14
5. We  the KING Our Best.
Matthew 2:11b
6. We Walk Away from  the King Different
than How we Met Him.

Matthew 2:12; 2 Corinthians 5:17
Matthew 2:1-12
1 After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King
Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem 2 and asked, “Where is the
one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and
have come to worship him.” 3 When King Herod heard this he was
disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. 4 When he had called together all
the people’s chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the
Messiah was to be born. 5 “In Bethlehem in Judea,” they replied, “for this is
what the prophet has written: 6 ‘But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,
are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for out of you will come a
ruler who will shepherd my people Israel.’” 7 Then Herod called the Magi
secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared.
8 He sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and search carefully for the
child. As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and
worship him.” 9 After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and
the star they had seen when it rose went ahead of them until it stopped
over the place where the child was. 10 When they saw the star, they were
overjoyed. 11 On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother
Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their
treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.
12 And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they
returned to their country by another route.
Numbers 24:17
A star will come from Jacob and a Ruler from Israel.
Isaiah 9:2
The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; and those who
dwell in the shadow of death, on them a great light has shined.
1 Corinthians 1:18
For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but
to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
Matthew 16:24-25 24
“…Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up
their cross and follow me. 25 For whoever wants to save their life will lose
it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it.”
Matthew 7:13-14
13 “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the
road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. 14 But small is
the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.”

2 Corinthians 5:17
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has
gone, the new is here!