WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.560 Good morning. 00:00:01.439 --> 00:00:02.656 Hope you're doing well. 00:00:03.826 --> 00:00:07.485 I wonder how many of you are stargazers? 00:00:08.326 --> 00:00:08.836 Any of you? 00:00:09.721 --> 00:00:10.201 Okay. 00:00:10.441 --> 00:00:10.891 Yeah. 00:00:10.980 --> 00:00:17.580 Any of you have the little app on your phone that if you point the phone at the sky, it starts telling you about the star. 00:00:17.580 --> 00:00:19.800 So some of you know what I'm talking about. 00:00:19.981 --> 00:00:24.990 If you need education from those of us who are stargazers, be sure to follow, find us afterward. 00:00:24.990 --> 00:00:35.250 All right, so to set the, uh, theme of what I want to talk to you about, the Bible says in Philippians chapter two, do everything without grumbling or arguing. 00:00:35.731 --> 00:00:38.250 We could just say, Lord, I'm gonna need a lot of help this week. 00:00:39.331 --> 00:01:04.650 Do everything without grumbling or arguing so that you may be pure and blameless children of God who are faultless in a crooked and perverted generation among whom you shine like stars in the world by holding firm to the word of life like stars in the world. 00:01:05.161 --> 00:01:06.480 Star power. 00:01:07.066 --> 00:01:10.335 I don't know if you paid attention to the Grammys last Sunday. 00:01:10.695 --> 00:01:18.436 There was at least a few notable things like Cher getting a Lifetime Achievement award and Jelly Roll. 00:01:18.465 --> 00:01:22.006 Who, if you haven't discovered Jelly Roll, you might wanna check that out. 00:01:22.426 --> 00:01:25.846 Not something you eat in this case, but somebody you need to know. 00:01:26.656 --> 00:01:27.376 Star. 00:01:28.816 --> 00:01:34.756 In a crooked world, we use this idea of a star in a lot of different ways, not just star gazing. 00:01:35.146 --> 00:01:48.915 We talk about the North Star as a fixed point for our direction, our navigation, but we also talk about it in terms of, you know, figuratively following the purpose of our life. 00:01:48.915 --> 00:01:50.385 That becomes clear to us. 00:01:50.775 --> 00:01:52.036 We talk about star power. 00:01:52.036 --> 00:01:55.275 We talk about both literally and figuratively. 00:01:55.396 --> 00:01:59.896 Things like falling stars and shooting stars and rising stars. 00:01:59.896 --> 00:02:04.215 We even talk about young star crossed lovers at times. 00:02:04.635 --> 00:02:07.335 It's so much a part of our fabric. 00:02:07.335 --> 00:02:14.506 It's not surprising that, well, people write songs and poems about our love of the stars. 00:02:15.135 --> 00:02:30.825 Little more than 200 years ago that an English poet by the name of Jane Taylor, no relation that I know of to James Taylor, but Jane Taylor wrote a poem that you probably instantly recognize if you do say it with me. 00:02:31.485 --> 00:02:34.725 Twinkle twinkle little star. 00:02:34.966 --> 00:02:45.346 How I wonder what you are up above the world so high, like a diamond in the sky, twinkle, twinkle, little star. 00:02:45.496 --> 00:02:48.270 How I wonder what you are. 00:02:48.580 --> 00:02:55.121 That question could get you into a lot of trouble or a lot of blessing. 00:02:56.401 --> 00:02:59.221 How I wonder what you are. 00:02:59.221 --> 00:03:06.241 I was a little disappointed to be honest with you, because before I went to bed last night, I do what I do every time I come out here. 00:03:06.901 --> 00:03:15.151 I went out onto the porch to look at the stars and there weren't any, they all took the night off. 00:03:16.441 --> 00:03:18.871 Well, it had something to do with those clouds probably. 00:03:19.711 --> 00:03:24.811 But asking that question, what are you. 00:03:25.515 --> 00:03:32.205 When it comes to a star, can get you into a lot of adventure, possibly a lot of trouble. 00:03:33.256 --> 00:03:37.936 I wanna talk to you this morning about three things that have been bugging me for a while now. 00:03:39.526 --> 00:03:43.066 One of those is anger, my own and others. 00:03:44.265 --> 00:03:51.105 I've also been troubled by the constant reports of apathy, of indifference in our culture. 00:03:51.105 --> 00:03:53.536 The, you know what, I just give up attitude. 00:03:55.741 --> 00:04:01.621 The other thing that's bugging me these days is that there is a serious famine of awe. 00:04:03.330 --> 00:04:04.980 Let me talk to you about what that means. 00:04:04.980 --> 00:04:07.800 You ever get, um, you ever get earworms? 00:04:09.091 --> 00:04:10.531 You know what an earworm is. 00:04:10.621 --> 00:04:12.480 I'm not talking about an actual creature. 00:04:12.480 --> 00:04:21.810 I'm talking about what songwriters love to find, which is some little phrase, what songwriters call a hook. 00:04:22.680 --> 00:04:25.771 That just gets in your ear and won't go away. 00:04:26.641 --> 00:04:29.011 You might have had one this morning or yesterday. 00:04:29.011 --> 00:04:30.810 You might have one tomorrow. 00:04:31.380 --> 00:04:41.490 You wake up and the first thing that really is conscious in your brain is that phrase over and over again from a song that you heard or that you love, or that you despise. 00:04:42.961 --> 00:04:47.821 Well, I, I caught an earworm 60 days ago during Christmas season. 00:04:49.185 --> 00:05:05.295 I was at church, at the church I attend when we're not here, and the pastor shared a story that's familiar to all of us, but it's been an earworm just staying in my consciousness for the last 60 days. 00:05:06.706 --> 00:05:11.776 Let me read you the story and out of honor for God's Word and just to get your blood flowing a little bit more. 00:05:11.776 --> 00:05:16.755 Why don't you stand while I read the story and try to not let the familiarity of it. 00:05:17.925 --> 00:05:24.406 Lose you after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, in the days of King Herod. 00:05:24.435 --> 00:05:30.915 Herod wise men from the east arrived in Jerusalem saying, where is he who has been born? 00:05:30.915 --> 00:05:36.375 King of the Jews, for We saw his star. 00:05:36.886 --> 00:05:37.771 Come on, stay with me. 00:05:37.771 --> 00:05:44.451 People here for, we saw his star at its rising and we have come to worship him. 00:05:45.315 --> 00:05:52.605 When King Herod heard this, he was deeply disturbed and all Jerusalem with him. 00:05:53.415 --> 00:06:01.696 So he assembled all the chief priests and scribes of the people and asked them where the Christ would be born in Bethlehem of Judea. 00:06:01.725 --> 00:06:10.966 They told him because this is what was written in the prophet and you Bethlehem, in the land of Judah are by no means least among the rulers of Judah. 00:06:11.370 --> 00:06:15.990 Because out of you will come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel. 00:06:16.651 --> 00:06:24.180 Then Herod secretly summoned the wise men and asked them the exact time The star, star appeared, thank you. 00:06:24.180 --> 00:06:25.531 Just like you were at a hockey game. 00:06:26.190 --> 00:06:30.750 He sent them to Bethlehem and said, go and search carefully for the child. 00:06:30.805 --> 00:06:37.560 When you find him report back to me so that I can go to go, I too can go and worship him. 00:06:38.130 --> 00:06:40.531 After hearing the king, they went on their way. 00:06:41.310 --> 00:06:48.120 And there it was the star, star they had seen at its rising. 00:06:48.750 --> 00:06:52.201 It led them until it came and stopped above the place where the child was. 00:06:53.146 --> 00:06:58.605 When they saw the Star, star, they were overwhelmed with joy entering the house. 00:06:58.605 --> 00:07:02.355 They saw the child with his mother and falling on their knees. 00:07:02.355 --> 00:07:08.985 They worshiped him when they opened their treasures and presented him gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. 00:07:09.105 --> 00:07:14.956 And being warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they to their own country by another route. 00:07:15.735 --> 00:07:16.545 You may be seated. 00:07:18.136 --> 00:07:20.925 God help us to understand what you want us to understand today. 00:07:20.925 --> 00:07:22.216 What happens when people. 00:07:23.146 --> 00:07:33.346 Hear about meet, encounter Jesus in all of the claims that he makes as Lord, what happens to us and to them? 00:07:34.305 --> 00:07:38.235 For some people, they respond and react with anger. 00:07:39.855 --> 00:07:41.235 You would agree with me, wouldn't you? 00:07:41.235 --> 00:07:47.565 That we are living in a profound age of rage, A profound one. 00:07:48.946 --> 00:07:50.355 All I have to say to you. 00:07:51.060 --> 00:08:05.281 Our familiar names and places, Minneapolis Pereti, even a well-known broadcaster, Savannah Guthrie, these stories and many more. 00:08:06.211 --> 00:08:09.031 Ukraine, Gaza, Greenland. 00:08:09.031 --> 00:08:11.011 You name your place, you name your person. 00:08:12.120 --> 00:08:19.771 There is so much anger all around us, seemingly all the time. 00:08:21.211 --> 00:08:35.850 I heard a terrible story a couple of weeks ago about the death of a child, and I thought to myself as I got up from the couch after seeing the story on tv, I thought, Lord, I was a lot happier when I didn't know everything going on in the world. 00:08:37.380 --> 00:08:42.630 It's an angry, often violent world, but unfortunately it's not new. 00:08:42.900 --> 00:08:49.081 It seems new to us and we are concerned that it's getting worse, rightly so, but it's not new. 00:08:50.115 --> 00:08:52.785 Herod the governor of this region. 00:08:52.785 --> 00:09:13.576 When Jesus was born, he hears about this new baby king from strangers who have come a long way off, that they had seen a strange star because they had been watching, and that this star signaled to them that, well, the God above that they were seeking to know was up to something and that there was a new king, a new authority coming. 00:09:14.956 --> 00:09:19.216 And notice what it says, that when Herod heard about this, he was deeply. 00:09:19.831 --> 00:09:21.211 Deeply troubled. 00:09:22.260 --> 00:09:23.701 He was scared. 00:09:24.120 --> 00:09:27.990 And that fear led to anger. 00:09:29.071 --> 00:09:34.321 Do you know that that's one of the predominant faces that fear likes to wear? 00:09:35.071 --> 00:09:39.541 I learned this in a season of parenting when I was trying to raise teenagers. 00:09:40.620 --> 00:09:48.091 I found out that when we get to get afraid, we do sometimes freeze up or we do sometimes run away. 00:09:49.831 --> 00:10:13.740 Some of us have a natural reaction to just get angry and look for a fight, and sometimes that pattern that starts with being afraid that then moves to being angry, turns into violence, and I think that's a pretty good explanation of what's going on in our world because. 00:10:14.160 --> 00:10:21.000 We all think that we are king at times, but he was intimidated here. 00:10:21.000 --> 00:10:33.841 It was, and that fear that welled up into anger, overflowed into violence, into disruption, into disturbance among all of the people of Israel, and would create a conspiracy. 00:10:34.770 --> 00:10:40.620 Now we're not sure why he didn't just call for his soldiers and march them down to Bethlehem, but Herod didn't do that. 00:10:40.620 --> 00:10:43.500 He decided he would be more crafty. 00:10:44.806 --> 00:10:50.865 He decided that he would call in the Jewish leaders'cause he didn't know anything about a potential king coming out of their group. 00:10:51.046 --> 00:10:53.895 And so he called for the leaders and got information. 00:10:54.046 --> 00:10:59.206 He then synced that up with information from these strange travelers from the east. 00:10:59.385 --> 00:11:10.485 He found out about timing that would become strategic to him later when he gets thwarted by these wise men and he decides, you know, somewhere in the last 8, 9, 10 months. 00:11:11.370 --> 00:11:17.581 This potential threat has arrived near me and he plans an attack. 00:11:19.171 --> 00:11:25.620 He must stop whatever is going to attempt to take over his place of prominence and power. 00:11:27.721 --> 00:11:30.870 Many people are driven to these kinds of plans. 00:11:31.831 --> 00:11:34.076 Herod is not the first person nor the last. 00:11:35.400 --> 00:11:40.321 To be really great at projects and lousy with people. 00:11:40.321 --> 00:11:41.461 I've told you that before. 00:11:42.750 --> 00:11:52.770 You go to Israel today and you see astounding remains of some of the things that Herod the Great Built, one of the most impressive is a place called HEROs. 00:11:53.341 --> 00:11:58.110 A mountain that Herod built on his own and turned it into a castle. 00:11:58.846 --> 00:12:05.176 That has both inner chambers in the mountain and incredible features on the outside of the mountain. 00:12:05.176 --> 00:12:09.105 One of the most amazing places that you can visit in Israel today. 00:12:09.466 --> 00:12:14.416 And he built places like this all over Israel and the surrounding region. 00:12:15.796 --> 00:12:17.716 But he was terrible with people. 00:12:19.096 --> 00:12:27.765 He had three of his own children executed because he feared them as threats and many more as well. 00:12:29.160 --> 00:12:32.671 Fear is a powerful breeding ground for anger. 00:12:32.671 --> 00:12:36.750 Anger that often becomes destructive and violent. 00:12:38.130 --> 00:12:39.360 I don't know why he was angry. 00:12:40.291 --> 00:12:44.490 Maybe he learned it from his parents and his grandparents and his culture. 00:12:46.110 --> 00:12:57.721 Maybe he was like all of us thinking that he needed to be in charge of his own life and not really excited about the idea of letting someone else be over him. 00:12:59.100 --> 00:13:04.051 Do you realize that that is the core sin that the Bible begins with in Genesis three? 00:13:05.910 --> 00:13:26.010 That the very foundation of all of our sin and rebellion against God is really what teenagers and young people called fomo, the fear of missing out that we would miss out on something the devil suggested if we let God be God instead of letting us be God and we get afraid. 00:13:27.600 --> 00:13:31.561 Sometimes we run away, but more oftentimes we get mad. 00:13:32.910 --> 00:13:40.681 As a philosopher, many years ago named Nietzsche said, we all have our own struggle with a will to power to be in charge of our own life. 00:13:40.681 --> 00:13:41.971 I have news for you today. 00:13:42.270 --> 00:13:48.961 Every one of you is a control freak, and it is the thing that we most need to repent of. 00:13:50.461 --> 00:13:54.635 The thing we need to stop being angry about so that we can actually be free. 00:13:56.610 --> 00:14:00.990 The second thing that people do when they hear about Jesus is sometimes they just don't care. 00:14:01.860 --> 00:14:02.671 They're apathetic. 00:14:03.691 --> 00:14:08.610 It says All Jerusalem was disturbed with Herod. 00:14:09.091 --> 00:14:17.400 If you ever wanted to know the biblical basis of that phrase, when mama ain't happy, nobody's happy, it's right here. 00:14:18.181 --> 00:14:20.100 Except it didn't start with mom. 00:14:20.100 --> 00:14:21.510 It started with the king. 00:14:22.171 --> 00:14:23.581 When the king ain't happy. 00:14:24.120 --> 00:14:29.431 Nobody was happy, and so he made his anger known. 00:14:29.610 --> 00:14:39.600 Calls in these religious leaders from the Jewish elite gains information about where this new potential king is going to be born. 00:14:39.630 --> 00:14:43.171 Well, he's going to be born just 25 miles down the road. 00:14:43.201 --> 00:14:45.990 King Herod, it's gonna be born in Bethlehem. 00:14:46.380 --> 00:14:50.280 Interesting enough, that word, Bethlehem, it means breadbasket. 00:14:51.316 --> 00:15:00.495 It literally was laying the prophetic foundation for when Jesus would later declare as a 30-year-old rabbi, I am the bread of life. 00:15:01.905 --> 00:15:16.125 That same bread that's reflected back to us every time we take communion together, that he is the very essence of life and the life giver that he would be born in the bread basket of the nation of Israel. 00:15:17.355 --> 00:15:19.905 But then the interesting thing to me here is that. 00:15:20.655 --> 00:15:27.765 That's the last comment about the religious leaders, the scribes and the Pharisees. 00:15:27.765 --> 00:15:39.296 In this part of the story, this is the very first encounter of a very long story that plays out in Jesus' life. 00:15:39.296 --> 00:15:49.270 This is the very first time that the religious leaders who should have been the first ones to recognize the Messiah, this is their first encounter with him. 00:15:51.181 --> 00:15:53.581 And notice what's what it what it doesn't say. 00:15:55.171 --> 00:16:07.921 These religious leaders who knew the Bible, the Old Testament better than anyone, apparently do not have their curiosity peaked in this conversation. 00:16:09.061 --> 00:16:15.571 There's no indication that they had their own one-on-one conversation with these strange men from the east. 00:16:15.931 --> 00:16:18.510 There's no indication that they asked the king. 00:16:18.841 --> 00:16:21.451 Hey King, why are you wondering about this? 00:16:21.451 --> 00:16:23.581 Why do you want this information now? 00:16:23.671 --> 00:16:27.900 What's going on that has stirred all of this? 00:16:28.951 --> 00:16:37.140 Instead, they just disappear from the story until three decades passed and Jesus becomes an adult. 00:16:39.061 --> 00:16:40.081 Wonder what happened there? 00:16:40.081 --> 00:16:42.421 Put on your holy imagination with me for a moment. 00:16:44.130 --> 00:16:45.780 You can easily imagine, right? 00:16:45.780 --> 00:16:55.081 That they were afraid to ask this brutal governor from outside of their nation who was considered by them to be a half breed. 00:16:55.201 --> 00:17:02.581 You could understand why they would be afraid to ask him, Hey King, why do you want to know? 00:17:02.880 --> 00:17:03.900 What's this all about? 00:17:03.900 --> 00:17:07.471 They probably feared some retribution from him. 00:17:07.471 --> 00:17:08.820 Probably possibly. 00:17:09.601 --> 00:17:10.651 I, I wonder if it was. 00:17:12.121 --> 00:17:14.280 They might have been arrogant. 00:17:15.691 --> 00:17:33.871 What I mean by that is this, as religious leaders, they faced the temptation that all religious leaders like me face, which is if God is going to be up to something, especially something new, then he's gonna tell me first before he tells you the in the pew. 00:17:35.010 --> 00:17:37.980 I mean, I am a religious expert. 00:17:38.040 --> 00:17:39.181 Don't you all know that? 00:17:40.530 --> 00:17:45.421 I have these wonderful little initials in front of my name that make me every time uncomfortable. 00:17:45.421 --> 00:17:48.391 But you know, the longer people say it, the more comfortable I get. 00:17:48.451 --> 00:17:49.351 Dr. 00:17:49.381 --> 00:17:49.980 Mark. 00:17:51.361 --> 00:18:08.941 I'm a religious expert, so surely if God is gonna do something, he's gonna let me in on it before he lets you in on it and our day and in theirs, it's what's called the spirit of fundamentalism, the spirit of. 00:18:09.661 --> 00:18:20.101 I know more and first and better and deeper than you do, and maybe they were standing there with the king going, I don't know why we've been drug in here today. 00:18:20.760 --> 00:18:22.921 This guy doesn't know a thing about God. 00:18:22.921 --> 00:18:24.631 He's trying to be his own God. 00:18:25.560 --> 00:18:27.391 Why would we have to come and talk to him? 00:18:27.391 --> 00:18:33.990 If God is gonna be up to something, it's gonna be up to God to tell me and start it with us. 00:18:35.881 --> 00:18:39.721 Can I tell you the most disturbing thing about being a preacher for 40 years? 00:18:42.000 --> 00:18:50.760 It's the realization that the people that were most responsible for putting Jesus on the cross were the people who should have recognized him first. 00:18:53.371 --> 00:19:03.000 The people who should have been on their knees before everyone else pointing to him, and instead, Jesus had to be announced. 00:19:04.711 --> 00:19:10.711 By Angels to shepherds and not the people who knew the Bible the best. 00:19:13.171 --> 00:19:14.070 At Dentist and Ministries. 00:19:14.070 --> 00:19:23.431 We love to say that what we're trying to help people with, we're trying to help them think critically and live faithfully and serve intentionally by giving them biblical resources. 00:19:24.570 --> 00:19:28.681 I love doing this work, but I also know this. 00:19:29.250 --> 00:19:38.461 The devil would be totally satisfied with you and me knowing the Bible really well, as long as we miss Jesus. 00:19:40.441 --> 00:19:47.971 And if you don't think it can happen to us, just read John chapter five where Jesus says to the religious leaders when he's an adult. 00:19:48.750 --> 00:19:59.280 You search the scriptures because you think that in them there is eternal life, and basically what he's saying to them is you are missing the very point of the Bible. 00:20:00.661 --> 00:20:07.830 You are missing not only the message, you are missing, the Messiah that it was written to proclaim. 00:20:09.780 --> 00:20:16.921 Make sure that that doesn't happen to you by a simple and slow slide into apathy. 00:20:18.675 --> 00:20:20.175 I hope you'll watch the Super Bowl. 00:20:20.205 --> 00:20:21.885 It is a spectacle like no other. 00:20:23.566 --> 00:20:29.776 One of the people that sometimes calls the Super Bowl is a sportscaster by the name of Al Michaels. 00:20:29.955 --> 00:20:30.675 You know the name. 00:20:32.175 --> 00:20:37.395 When Al Michaels was starting and broadcasting some 30 or 40 years ago, he had a mentor, another name. 00:20:37.395 --> 00:20:41.175 Some of you will recognize, a guy by the name of Kurt Gaudy. 00:20:42.556 --> 00:20:54.645 Kurt Gowdy became a mentor to Al Michaels, and at the beginning of his career he told Al Michaels the greatest challenge to your career is that you will lose your enthusiasm. 00:20:56.625 --> 00:21:00.256 That's a challenge for all of us, especially in our relationship with God. 00:21:01.395 --> 00:21:03.675 One last thing and we'll be off to lunch. 00:21:04.695 --> 00:21:08.115 It's the lack of awe in our society. 00:21:08.701 --> 00:21:22.951 A WE we get all excited when AWS goes out and our computers don't work or the AWS truck pulls up to deliver us some new thing, but we don't have enough awe in our lives. 00:21:22.951 --> 00:21:24.181 You know what awe is? 00:21:24.211 --> 00:21:29.101 Awe is that sense of wonder, a sense of of astonishment. 00:21:29.101 --> 00:21:34.590 A sense of reverence, what some of our spiritual friends would call veneration. 00:21:36.121 --> 00:21:37.171 It is that thing. 00:21:38.326 --> 00:21:41.895 Wells up inside you and takes your breath away. 00:21:42.915 --> 00:21:43.905 I was disappointed. 00:21:43.905 --> 00:21:47.836 There were no stars last night and God knew about my disappointment. 00:21:47.955 --> 00:21:53.655 So when I woke up, it was a stunning red sunrise, wasn't it? 00:21:53.655 --> 00:21:54.076 Yes. 00:21:54.195 --> 00:21:56.086 It was stunning. 00:21:56.086 --> 00:21:59.026 And if you didn't see it, I've got pictures on my phone. 00:21:59.925 --> 00:22:02.175 It was amazing. 00:22:03.105 --> 00:22:05.175 Awe, is that thing that you feel. 00:22:05.701 --> 00:22:21.151 When you see the ocean for the first time or for the hundredth time after you've been away for a month or a few years, it, it's that feeling you feel when you see see in the stars or you witness an incredible sunrise or sunset. 00:22:21.270 --> 00:22:23.066 It's the thing that captures you that. 00:22:23.790 --> 00:22:30.480 Holds your attention when you see the mountains or stand on them when you see a baby for the first time. 00:22:30.540 --> 00:22:41.401 Or you watch your grandchild take his first step when you see an amazing athlete on the ice or in the air, or even curling, maybe, maybe. 00:22:43.155 --> 00:22:59.205 When you see these kinds of beautiful, awesome things and it just captures you and you hear it, you see it, you know what awe is, and yet we are living in a famine. 00:23:01.726 --> 00:23:08.895 You see, God's glory is literally and figuratively, but quite literally written in the stars, is it not? 00:23:09.165 --> 00:23:15.435 The psalmist said that the heavens, the stars, the creation, declare the glory of God. 00:23:16.996 --> 00:23:18.586 It is all around us. 00:23:19.276 --> 00:23:26.566 If we will have the humility and the intentionality to look for it, to listen for it. 00:23:28.215 --> 00:23:29.115 Seek it. 00:23:30.736 --> 00:23:48.020 Aren't these strange men a great example of how awe around the activity of God and around the Messiah of God can stir in your heart and completely change the direction of your life? 00:23:49.590 --> 00:23:52.576 Think about these guys for just a minute in the. 00:23:53.250 --> 00:24:05.250 In the midst of the very trivial lives that we sometimes lead, this awe that captured them was really expressed first as curiosity. 00:24:06.361 --> 00:24:07.830 We don't know where they were from. 00:24:07.830 --> 00:24:09.421 We just know that they came from the east. 00:24:09.421 --> 00:24:14.310 Some scholars think they might have come from what you and I today called Iran. 00:24:14.730 --> 00:24:16.080 Wouldn't that be wild? 00:24:18.060 --> 00:24:21.181 What would it be like if before you and I step into heaven. 00:24:21.586 --> 00:24:25.425 We saw a spiritual awakening in the country of Iran. 00:24:25.486 --> 00:24:39.855 Do you know that God may be stirring that even today, and it may have its roots all the way back to these men who came following this star that they had curiously seen in the sky? 00:24:42.046 --> 00:24:47.776 Curiosity is a really great indicator of awe and a really great preparation. 00:24:48.780 --> 00:24:50.611 It's a really great preparation for worship. 00:24:51.750 --> 00:24:53.911 Be curious about what God is doing in the world. 00:24:53.911 --> 00:24:56.820 Be curious about what God is doing in the lives of other people. 00:24:56.820 --> 00:24:59.580 Be curious about what God wants to do in you. 00:25:00.451 --> 00:25:02.431 They also were people of pursuit. 00:25:03.361 --> 00:25:08.851 It's estimated they might have traveled eight or 900 miles by Camel. 00:25:09.270 --> 00:25:10.560 Did, don't you want to travel? 00:25:10.590 --> 00:25:11.820 Sign up for that trip. 00:25:12.840 --> 00:25:16.290 Eight or 900 miles on the back of a camel. 00:25:17.701 --> 00:25:19.590 I don't know how many days that would've taken. 00:25:19.590 --> 00:25:21.421 I don't know what that would've cost. 00:25:21.750 --> 00:25:40.111 I don't know how much beef jerky or camel jerky you would've eaten over eight or 900 miles, but just imagine the kind of pursuit and commitment that these men commit themselves to because of this a, this thing that has captured their attention. 00:25:40.695 --> 00:25:45.105 They will spend whatever amount of time they will travel however long it takes. 00:25:45.105 --> 00:25:47.266 They will spend whatever it takes. 00:25:48.405 --> 00:25:51.976 The other thing that strikes me here is that they did this together. 00:25:53.536 --> 00:25:55.006 I wonder which one of them. 00:25:55.080 --> 00:25:59.401 I wonder which one of them said, Hey, we gotta go figure out what that's about. 00:25:59.580 --> 00:26:01.621 And the others two were like, or the other three. 00:26:01.621 --> 00:26:07.171 Oh, by the way, we don't know if there were three legend has it that it was three because the three gifts. 00:26:07.171 --> 00:26:10.141 But it might've been 13, it might've been 30, it might've been 300. 00:26:10.141 --> 00:26:10.740 We don't know. 00:26:12.540 --> 00:26:16.770 But one of them had to have been the first one to suggest, wow, that's new. 00:26:16.951 --> 00:26:18.871 We gotta go check out where that is. 00:26:20.040 --> 00:26:21.510 And you can imagine the reactions. 00:26:21.601 --> 00:26:22.530 I don't know about that. 00:26:22.530 --> 00:26:24.391 That's a, that looks like it could be a long way. 00:26:24.510 --> 00:26:29.820 I need to, you know, I got other things to do, but they finally commit together. 00:26:30.901 --> 00:26:39.270 Haven't you noticed that when you see something that just takes your breath away, it's even better when somebody shares it with you? 00:26:40.861 --> 00:26:46.336 Judy would tell you that she's irritated, that I make her come out on the porch to look at the stars before we go to bed. 00:26:48.316 --> 00:27:01.665 You know what the greatest compliment I've had as a grandfather here at PK was about a year ago when my granddaughter, seven years old, was here with us, and she came into my room early on the morning. 00:27:01.665 --> 00:27:06.046 She woke me up and she said, tpa out on the porch. 00:27:07.185 --> 00:27:08.596 We gotta go see the sunrise. 00:27:09.705 --> 00:27:14.476 She wanted to share that moment of awe that I had taught her about a few years ago. 00:27:16.030 --> 00:27:17.355 Is it always better? 00:27:19.516 --> 00:27:23.746 Some of you were here just a few months ago when Catherine led us in our Christmas Eve service. 00:27:23.746 --> 00:27:27.826 It was a breathless moment of joy. 00:27:28.996 --> 00:27:31.726 It's always better when we're doing this together. 00:27:32.955 --> 00:27:37.641 Their humility is a sign of all, a sign of worship, a sign of wonder. 00:27:39.601 --> 00:27:52.080 That when they see this star and they are finally led to this home because Jesus, by this time might have been a few months, might have even been a few years old, and they finally find the exact house. 00:27:52.080 --> 00:27:57.691 He's no longer in a stable apparently, and he's in a house and he's growing up as a young toddler. 00:27:58.276 --> 00:28:10.516 That when they come in full of joy because they have finally reached their destination, they can't help but just fall to their knees in excitement to celebrate, and they open up their gifts. 00:28:10.516 --> 00:28:13.875 Oh, by their, by the way, that's the next characteristic They. 00:28:14.461 --> 00:28:28.951 They are eager to offer not just their attention, not just their pursuit, but they're offering financial, intangible things that express the feelings of their heart about what God has been stirring them toward. 00:28:29.820 --> 00:28:39.181 Offering is the very best word to use to define worship as a disciple of Jesus, and they celebrate. 00:28:41.336 --> 00:29:08.685 One last characteristic that might even be pointed out here is it's clear that their all led them to an allegiance to this baby king, toddler king over every other allegiance because they are so filled with awe, so filled with joy, so filled with commitment that they are willing to defy the very king that they know is currently ruling over this region, and they go home another way. 00:29:10.050 --> 00:29:11.760 It's clear where their allegiance is. 00:29:12.871 --> 00:29:19.921 All of those things, all of those things are the reason why we are still talking about them. 00:29:20.881 --> 00:29:28.230 You know, in a military sense, we talk about gold star families, families that have lost a loved one and meritorious service to our country. 00:29:29.280 --> 00:29:30.691 That's what a gold star means. 00:29:30.691 --> 00:29:32.641 It means something honorable. 00:29:33.121 --> 00:29:38.415 These guys are gold star examples of what it means to be worshipers and followers of Jesus. 00:29:39.195 --> 00:29:40.395 Full of awe. 00:29:41.266 --> 00:29:42.076 And guess what? 00:29:42.135 --> 00:29:47.685 When you are full of awe and it is overflowing from you, it becomes contagious to the people around you. 00:29:49.756 --> 00:29:57.675 You know, sometimes wonder when I'm studying the Bible, what would happen if this story were not here? 00:29:58.996 --> 00:30:04.306 What if you just took this and just cut out these few verses out of Matthew chapter two. 00:30:05.236 --> 00:30:08.205 And you just took this part out, how would the story read? 00:30:08.266 --> 00:30:09.105 What would it be like? 00:30:09.105 --> 00:30:10.215 What would we miss? 00:30:10.395 --> 00:30:12.976 Would we even notice if this story were not here? 00:30:13.875 --> 00:30:17.026 Because here's the thing that I just can't get over. 00:30:17.086 --> 00:30:18.915 It's verse nine in this story. 00:30:19.185 --> 00:30:25.605 After hearing the king to have this conversation with Herod wasn't easy for a bunch of men to stop and ask for directions. 00:30:25.665 --> 00:30:26.445 Never has been. 00:30:26.445 --> 00:30:27.105 Never will be. 00:30:27.105 --> 00:30:27.496 Guys. 00:30:28.006 --> 00:30:28.756 Ladies, sorry. 00:30:28.786 --> 00:30:29.536 It just that way. 00:30:30.526 --> 00:30:38.385 After hearing the king, they went on their way and there it was the star they had seen at its rising. 00:30:39.705 --> 00:30:41.986 That makes me wonder, did the star disappear? 00:30:42.826 --> 00:30:49.576 Is that the reason that they had to make a left turn and go have a conversation in Jerusalem with Herod and whoever else might have been in? 00:30:49.756 --> 00:30:56.355 Why in the world did they have to stop and have this encounter with Herod in the first place? 00:30:56.401 --> 00:31:08.820 Us what had happened to the star and why is it when the conversation with Herod is over, they step back out onto the street, they look up in the sky and apparently there's the star again. 00:31:09.780 --> 00:31:11.941 What is going on here? 00:31:13.651 --> 00:31:23.490 I don't really know if that's in fact the way it happened, that it was there and then it disappeared for a time. 00:31:24.270 --> 00:31:28.891 This conversation unfolded and then they step out and it reappears. 00:31:29.431 --> 00:31:32.101 Why did God possibly do it that way? 00:31:33.480 --> 00:31:37.621 Lemme just tell you straight up, I have no idea, but here's my best guess. 00:31:39.030 --> 00:31:51.211 God created this conversation as an invitation, an invitation to religious leaders who had grown in different numb. 00:31:54.570 --> 00:31:55.411 And apathetic. 00:31:57.901 --> 00:32:11.371 It was even possibly an invitation to a scared, angry regional king who needed a new king in his life. 00:32:13.976 --> 00:32:20.580 It was an invitation, I think, and it is an invitation to you and I as well. 00:32:22.425 --> 00:32:32.266 God committed himself way back in the early pages of history to a guy named Abraham and he said, I love you. 00:32:32.326 --> 00:32:33.465 Will you follow me? 00:32:34.215 --> 00:32:49.576 And if you will follow me, marched him out into the open space in the middle of the night sky and said, Abraham, if you will love me, if you will trust me, if you will follow me in faith, I will make you as numerous as the stars in the sky. 00:32:51.496 --> 00:32:54.496 You and I have become the recipients of that inheritance. 00:32:54.496 --> 00:32:56.476 We are a part of that legacy. 00:32:59.236 --> 00:33:17.986 So let's be stargazer a little less than 200 years ago, another poet picked up the pen right after the worst chapter in our history as a nation, that thing that we call the Civil War. 00:33:19.756 --> 00:33:23.955 And the very first time we ever find it in print is in 1866. 00:33:23.955 --> 00:33:26.236 The year after the end of the Civil War. 00:33:26.865 --> 00:33:30.885 An unknown poet picked up a pen and wrote another poem. 00:33:31.846 --> 00:33:33.375 Let's see if you remember this one. 00:33:34.185 --> 00:33:40.846 Star light, star, bright, first star I see tonight. 00:33:41.445 --> 00:33:44.385 I wish I may, I wish I might. 00:33:44.925 --> 00:33:46.336 Have this wish. 00:33:46.605 --> 00:33:48.076 I wish tonight. 00:33:50.326 --> 00:33:56.326 Don't you know those first wise men went home thanking their lucky stars. 00:33:57.615 --> 00:34:00.855 Father, thank you for this great day and for this great example. 00:34:01.486 --> 00:34:03.586 Lord, may we be people of all. 00:34:04.665 --> 00:34:08.626 Lord, may we turn away from all apathy, indifference. 00:34:08.626 --> 00:34:13.666 God, may we be willing to bring our fears into subjection. 00:34:14.056 --> 00:34:26.896 To faith that trusts you, that God, we might be people who are shining as bright lights in an angry, often twisted, dark and broken world. 00:34:28.036 --> 00:34:36.735 Lord cause our awe to take our breath away as we see evidences and indications and glimpses of you even today. 00:34:37.965 --> 00:34:41.416 And God may it overflow to the people and the generation around us. 00:34:42.376 --> 00:34:45.436 In Jesus name, we pray and everyone said together. 00:34:45.795 --> 00:34:46.306 Amen. 00:34:46.306 --> 00:34:46.315 Amen. 00:34:47.115 --> 00:34:47.596 Thanks.