Dr Mark Turman 0:00

Good morning. Hope you're doing well. I wonder how many of you are stargazers? Any of you? Okay. Yeah. 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. So some of you know what I'm talking about. If you need education from those of us who are stargazers, be sure to follow, find us afterward. 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. We could just say, Lord, I'm gonna need a lot of help this week. 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. Star power. I don't know if you paid attention to the Grammys last Sunday. There was at least a few notable things like Cher getting a Lifetime Achievement award and Jelly Roll. Who, if you haven't discovered Jelly Roll, you might wanna check that out. Not something you eat in this case, but somebody you need to know. Star. In a crooked world, we use this idea of a star in a lot of different ways, not just star gazing. 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. That becomes clear to us. We talk about star power. We talk about both literally and figuratively. Things like falling stars and shooting stars and rising stars. We even talk about young star crossed lovers at times. It's so much a part of our fabric. It's not surprising that, well, people write songs and poems about our love of the stars. 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. Twinkle twinkle little star. How I wonder what you are up above the world so high, like a diamond in the sky, twinkle, twinkle, little star. How I wonder what you are. That question could get you into a lot of trouble or a lot of blessing. How I wonder what you are. 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. I went out onto the porch to look at the stars and there weren't any, they all took the night off. Well, it had something to do with those clouds probably. But asking that question, what are you. When it comes to a star, can get you into a lot of adventure, possibly a lot of trouble. I wanna talk to you this morning about three things that have been bugging me for a while now. One of those is anger, my own and others. I've also been troubled by the constant reports of apathy, of indifference in our culture. The, you know what, I just give up attitude. The other thing that's bugging me these days is that there is a serious famine of awe. Let me talk to you about what that means. You ever get, um, you ever get earworms? You know what an earworm is. I'm not talking about an actual creature. I'm talking about what songwriters love to find, which is some little phrase, what songwriters call a hook. That just gets in your ear and won't go away. You might have had one this morning or yesterday. You might have one tomorrow. 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. Well, I, I caught an earworm 60 days ago during Christmas season. 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. 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. Why don't you stand while I read the story and try to not let the familiarity of it. Lose you after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, in the days of King Herod. Herod wise men from the east arrived in Jerusalem saying, where is he who has been born? King of the Jews, for We saw his star. Come on, stay with me. People here for, we saw his star at its rising and we have come to worship him. When King Herod heard this, he was deeply disturbed and all Jerusalem with him. 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. 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. Because out of you will come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel. Then Herod secretly summoned the wise men and asked them the exact time The star, star appeared, thank you. Just like you were at a hockey game. He sent them to Bethlehem and said, go and search carefully for the child. When you find him report back to me so that I can go to go, I too can go and worship him. After hearing the king, they went on their way. And there it was the star, star they had seen at its rising. It led them until it came and stopped above the place where the child was. When they saw the Star, star, they were overwhelmed with joy entering the house. They saw the child with his mother and falling on their knees. They worshiped him when they opened their treasures and presented him gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. And being warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they to their own country by another route. You may be seated. God help us to understand what you want us to understand today. What happens when people. Hear about meet, encounter Jesus in all of the claims that he makes as Lord, what happens to us and to them? For some people, they respond and react with anger. You would agree with me, wouldn't you? That we are living in a profound age of rage, A profound one. All I have to say to you. Our familiar names and places, Minneapolis Pereti, even a well-known broadcaster, Savannah Guthrie, these stories and many more. Ukraine, Gaza, Greenland. You name your place, you name your person. There is so much anger all around us, seemingly all the time. 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. It's an angry, often violent world, but unfortunately it's not new. It seems new to us and we are concerned that it's getting worse, rightly so, but it's not new. Herod the governor of this region. 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. And notice what it says, that when Herod heard about this, he was deeply. Deeply troubled. He was scared. And that fear led to anger. Do you know that that's one of the predominant faces that fear likes to wear? I learned this in a season of parenting when I was trying to raise teenagers. I found out that when we get to get afraid, we do sometimes freeze up or we do sometimes run away. 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. We all think that we are king at times, but he was intimidated here. 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. 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. He decided he would be more crafty. 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. And so he called for the leaders and got information. He then synced that up with information from these strange travelers from the east. 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. This potential threat has arrived near me and he plans an attack. He must stop whatever is going to attempt to take over his place of prominence and power. Many people are driven to these kinds of plans. Herod is not the first person nor the last. To be really great at projects and lousy with people. I've told you that before. 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. A mountain that Herod built on his own and turned it into a castle. That has both inner chambers in the mountain and incredible features on the outside of the mountain. One of the most amazing places that you can visit in Israel today. And he built places like this all over Israel and the surrounding region. But he was terrible with people. He had three of his own children executed because he feared them as threats and many more as well. Fear is a powerful breeding ground for anger. Anger that often becomes destructive and violent. I don't know why he was angry. Maybe he learned it from his parents and his grandparents and his culture. 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. Do you realize that that is the core sin that the Bible begins with in Genesis three? 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. Sometimes we run away, but more oftentimes we get mad. 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. I have news for you today. Every one of you is a control freak, and it is the thing that we most need to repent of. The thing we need to stop being angry about so that we can actually be free. The second thing that people do when they hear about Jesus is sometimes they just don't care. They're apathetic. It says All Jerusalem was disturbed with Herod. If you ever wanted to know the biblical basis of that phrase, when mama ain't happy, nobody's happy, it's right here. Except it didn't start with mom. It started with the king. When the king ain't happy. Nobody was happy, and so he made his anger known. Calls in these religious leaders from the Jewish elite gains information about where this new potential king is going to be born. Well, he's going to be born just 25 miles down the road. King Herod, it's gonna be born in Bethlehem. Interesting enough, that word, Bethlehem, it means breadbasket. 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. 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. But then the interesting thing to me here is that. That's the last comment about the religious leaders, the scribes and the Pharisees. In this part of the story, this is the very first encounter of a very long story that plays out in Jesus' life. 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. And notice what's what it what it doesn't say. These religious leaders who knew the Bible, the Old Testament better than anyone, apparently do not have their curiosity peaked in this conversation. There's no indication that they had their own one-on-one conversation with these strange men from the east. There's no indication that they asked the king. Hey King, why are you wondering about this? Why do you want this information now? What's going on that has stirred all of this? Instead, they just disappear from the story until three decades passed and Jesus becomes an adult. Wonder what happened there? Put on your holy imagination with me for a moment. You can easily imagine, right? That they were afraid to ask this brutal governor from outside of their nation who was considered by them to be a half breed. You could understand why they would be afraid to ask him, Hey King, why do you want to know? What's this all about? They probably feared some retribution from him. Probably possibly. I, I wonder if it was. They might have been arrogant. 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. I mean, I am a religious expert. Don't you all know that? I have these wonderful little initials in front of my name that make me every time uncomfortable. But you know, the longer people say it, the more comfortable I get. Dr. Mark. 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. 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. This guy doesn't know a thing about God. He's trying to be his own God. Why would we have to come and talk to him? If God is gonna be up to something, it's gonna be up to God to tell me and start it with us. Can I tell you the most disturbing thing about being a preacher for 40 years? 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. The people who should have been on their knees before everyone else pointing to him, and instead, Jesus had to be announced. By Angels to shepherds and not the people who knew the Bible the best. At Dentist and Ministries. 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. I love doing this work, but I also know this. The devil would be totally satisfied with you and me knowing the Bible really well, as long as we miss Jesus. 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. 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. You are missing not only the message, you are missing, the Messiah that it was written to proclaim. Make sure that that doesn't happen to you by a simple and slow slide into apathy. I hope you'll watch the Super Bowl. It is a spectacle like no other. One of the people that sometimes calls the Super Bowl is a sportscaster by the name of Al Michaels. You know the name. When Al Michaels was starting and broadcasting some 30 or 40 years ago, he had a mentor, another name. Some of you will recognize, a guy by the name of Kurt Gaudy. 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. That's a challenge for all of us, especially in our relationship with God. One last thing and we'll be off to lunch. It's the lack of awe in our society. 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. You know what awe is? Awe is that sense of wonder, a sense of of astonishment. A sense of reverence, what some of our spiritual friends would call veneration. It is that thing. Wells up inside you and takes your breath away. I was disappointed. There were no stars last night and God knew about my disappointment. So when I woke up, it was a stunning red sunrise, wasn't it? Yes. It was stunning. And if you didn't see it, I've got pictures on my phone. It was amazing. Awe, is that thing that you feel. 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. It's the thing that captures you that. Holds your attention when you see the mountains or stand on them when you see a baby for the first time. 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. 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. You see, God's glory is literally and figuratively, but quite literally written in the stars, is it not? The psalmist said that the heavens, the stars, the creation, declare the glory of God. It is all around us. If we will have the humility and the intentionality to look for it, to listen for it. Seek it. 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? Think about these guys for just a minute in the. In the midst of the very trivial lives that we sometimes lead, this awe that captured them was really expressed first as curiosity. We don't know where they were from. We just know that they came from the east. Some scholars think they might have come from what you and I today called Iran. Wouldn't that be wild? What would it be like if before you and I step into heaven. We saw a spiritual awakening in the country of Iran. 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? Curiosity is a really great indicator of awe and a really great preparation. It's a really great preparation for worship. Be curious about what God is doing in the world. Be curious about what God is doing in the lives of other people. Be curious about what God wants to do in you. They also were people of pursuit. It's estimated they might have traveled eight or 900 miles by Camel. Did, don't you want to travel? Sign up for that trip. Eight or 900 miles on the back of a camel. I don't know how many days that would've taken. I don't know what that would've cost. 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. They will spend whatever amount of time they will travel however long it takes. They will spend whatever it takes. The other thing that strikes me here is that they did this together. I wonder which one of them. I wonder which one of them said, Hey, we gotta go figure out what that's about. And the others two were like, or the other three. Oh, by the way, we don't know if there were three legend has it that it was three because the three gifts. But it might've been 13, it might've been 30, it might've been 300. We don't know. But one of them had to have been the first one to suggest, wow, that's new. We gotta go check out where that is. And you can imagine the reactions. I don't know about that. That's a, that looks like it could be a long way. I need to, you know, I got other things to do, but they finally commit together. 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? 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. 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. She woke me up and she said, tpa out on the porch. We gotta go see the sunrise. She wanted to share that moment of awe that I had taught her about a few years ago. Is it always better? Some of you were here just a few months ago when Catherine led us in our Christmas Eve service. It was a breathless moment of joy. It's always better when we're doing this together. Their humility is a sign of all, a sign of worship, a sign of wonder. 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. He's no longer in a stable apparently, and he's in a house and he's growing up as a young toddler. 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. Oh, by their, by the way, that's the next characteristic They. 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. Offering is the very best word to use to define worship as a disciple of Jesus, and they celebrate. 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. It's clear where their allegiance is. All of those things, all of those things are the reason why we are still talking about them. 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. That's what a gold star means. It means something honorable. These guys are gold star examples of what it means to be worshipers and followers of Jesus. Full of awe. And guess what? When you are full of awe and it is overflowing from you, it becomes contagious to the people around you. You know, sometimes wonder when I'm studying the Bible, what would happen if this story were not here? What if you just took this and just cut out these few verses out of Matthew chapter two. And you just took this part out, how would the story read? What would it be like? What would we miss? Would we even notice if this story were not here? Because here's the thing that I just can't get over. It's verse nine in this story. After hearing the king to have this conversation with Herod wasn't easy for a bunch of men to stop and ask for directions. Never has been. Never will be. Guys. Ladies, sorry. It just that way. After hearing the king, they went on their way and there it was the star they had seen at its rising. That makes me wonder, did the star disappear? 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? Why in the world did they have to stop and have this encounter with Herod in the first place? 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. What is going on here? 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. This conversation unfolded and then they step out and it reappears. Why did God possibly do it that way? Lemme just tell you straight up, I have no idea, but here's my best guess. God created this conversation as an invitation, an invitation to religious leaders who had grown in different numb. And apathetic. It was even possibly an invitation to a scared, angry regional king who needed a new king in his life. It was an invitation, I think, and it is an invitation to you and I as well. God committed himself way back in the early pages of history to a guy named Abraham and he said, I love you. Will you follow me? 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. You and I have become the recipients of that inheritance. We are a part of that legacy. 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. And the very first time we ever find it in print is in 1866. The year after the end of the Civil War. An unknown poet picked up a pen and wrote another poem. Let's see if you remember this one. Star light, star, bright, first star I see tonight. I wish I may, I wish I might. Have this wish. I wish tonight. Don't you know those first wise men went home thanking their lucky stars. Father, thank you for this great day and for this great example. Lord, may we be people of all. Lord, may we turn away from all apathy, indifference. God, may we be willing to bring our fears into subjection. 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. Lord cause our awe to take our breath away as we see evidences and indications and glimpses of you even today. And God may it overflow to the people and the generation around us. In Jesus name, we pray and everyone said together. Amen. Amen. Thanks.