Three Gifts

Well, uh, we are excited about the Christmas week coming up here at the church. Uh hope you paid attention uh to the details of the video because it’s a little bit different. So, what we’re doing is Sunday morning, a very Merry Christmas. It’s gonna be a big fun, wild Christmas bash. That’s gonna be Sunday morning the 22nd at 10 a.m. And then candlelight service is gonna be that Tuesday night, of course, Christmas Eve at 4 p.m. Hope you can uh make both of them.

And I wanted to just uh take a minute before I get into the message and share something that’s been on my heart uh about this Christmas season. And so I I’ve just been thinking uh what my prayer has been is God help it to extend beyond Christmas. And because there’s all the way that it always works, churches know this, pastors know this. There’s like the church numbers, they swell because we have lots of people that come, we joke, we call them CEOs, uh Christmas and Easter only. There’s a lot of people that come, just a lot of CEOs that come.

Uh, but my prayer has been for us in this season that it wouldn’t just be a time when people would come to church at Christmas, but that my prayer is that for the people coming at Christmas that it’s a day of transition for them, where they transition from uh transition maybe out of other habits into the habit of coming to church. You know, because a lot of people have gotten out of the habit of coming to church for whatever reason, right? They’re still Christians, they’ll still go into heaven when they die, uh, but because of the pandemic, lots of other factors, there’s a lot of people that have just gotten out of the habit of coming to church. They’ve just drifted away.

And so I’m asking you to join me in praying for people, but also in um getting people and considering people and going after people who have not gotten back into the habit of coming to church. And so we’re asking you to go the extra mile and make the invite. Maybe if even that’s like getting you out of your comfort zone. But we would love for you in the next couple weeks to start considering this question. Who do you know that’s not part of a local church? Who is that? And then I want to give you a tool for maybe how you might broach the subject with them.

Christmas is a great time to start coming to church

So I’m hoping that we can make a little shift in our terminology this year. And let’s not say Christmas is a great time to go to church. Let’s not say that. Let’s not say, oh, if you just come this one time at Christmas, I won’t bug you again until until Easter. Like, let’s not say that. Instead, let’s say this. Christmas is a great time to start coming to church. Okay? You hear me? Can you tell the difference? Let’s not just, it’s a great time to come to church. Say this. Christmas is a great time to start coming to church. And then share with people. Share with people what coming to church has meant for you. How attending church has helped you, how your faith has helped you.

And so I’m just gonna say, on behalf of me and the executive team and the pastoral staff and the staff and the creative department and the worship department and the kids department, like we’re gonna come prayed up. We’re gonna come practiced up in the case of all these people that do all. We’re gonna come full of faith, we’re gonna be bringing our best. We’re gonna be doing what we can do, and then we’re asking you to do what you can do, and then we’re gonna trust God to do what only He can do. Right? So let’s so let’s believe together as a church that this Christmas week people are gonna change the habit uh from not coming to church into a habit of coming to church. Can you say amen to that? And so we’re asking you to pray, and we’re asking you to bring. Both. So pray, but also bring. Okay? Okay, let’s go.

Three gifts

Matthew chapter two. Uh I love how the Holy Spirit works. Me and Pastor Cindy did not communicate that we were both talking about uh Matthew chapter two this morning, but I just love how the Holy Spirit uh is a great DJ. He just plans things out and it just it just works cool. So beautiful. I’m gonna read uh some verses. She already read them, but we’re gonna read them again. Uh repetition is good when it comes to scripture. It’s not something to uh avoid, it’s something to intentionally do. Matthew chapter two, we’re gonna be reading uh a number of verses. Uh probably Matthew chapter two, verse one through twelve, I think is what we’ll do.

Uh so here we go, Matthew chapter two, beginning in verse one is this after Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea during the time of King Herod, Magi. So Magi, this these are the wise men that she was talking about from the Middle East, came uh to Jerusalem 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.

Focus on that phrase. We’ve come to worship him.

When King Herod heard this, he was disturbed.

So this isn’t surprising because here we have a king hearing, and these wise men come up and say, Hey, have you heard and seen about this new king? Herod perceives Jesus to be a threat to his kingship. He’s not. Jesus was never gonna be that kind of king, but Herod didn’t know that.

And so he was very disturbed, and all of 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 to be born. In Bethlehem in Judea, they replied, for this is what was uh the prophet has written. But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah.

This is the prophecy.

For out of you will come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel. Then Herod called the Magi secretly,

so he brings the wise men back

and found out from them the exact time 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.

This is a lie. See, Herod was never going to go worship Jesus. He wanted to kill baby Jesus. Did you know that not everyone who says they’re with you is with you? Just let you know that. And so you have to listen to their words, but you have to be sensitive to the Spirit too. You listen to them and you listen to the Holy Spirit.

Verse 9. After they heard, uh had heard the king, they went on their way.

Notice that they went 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 worshipped him.

Focus on that. Bowed down and worshipped him.

Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

So these are the three gifts that they offered Jesus. Last verse.

And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route.

I want to preach for a few minutes from this subject. Three gifts. Three gifts. And so, Father, in Jesus’ name, we ask that you would speak clearly to us, and that you would speak powerfully to us, and that you would let our you would help us not let our minds get clouded and distracted by the cares of the world, and miss all that this season means uh for the Christ follower. And may we love you and we thank you. And it’s in your sons and we pray. Everybody said so.

I have been amazed uh how much gift giving has changed even in like my short lifetime. When I was a kid growing up, I don’t know if anyone was like this, uh, Thanksgiving was of course for being thankful and uh eating lots of food, but also it was about getting the newspaper uh and looking through all of the ads uh for Christmas gifts, right? And so there’s this the paper was huge and fat on Thanksgiving. It was a monster, and they’d give it to you whether or not you got the paper because it’s just at ad is just adds and ads and ads. Well, part of what we did on Thanksgiving is we would open it up and we would look through all the ads and we would decide what we wanted for Christmas. And then we would tell our grandparents. And the reason that we did this is so that our grandparents could wake up, you know, at 4 a.m. that morning and like after nearly being killed, save three dollars on Legos. But that was kind of like the tradition for us.

Uh and I know that Black Friday, I Black Friday, you know, shopping is still a thing, but I’ve been amazed that for me and my family, just how much our gift giving has evolved towards the Amazon wish list. Anyone? Right, and so in fact, if if uh a birthday’s coming up or uh Christmas is coming up, you can bet you’re gonna get a text from Carol Eifert, my mom, that says update your wish list. So update so you go on there and you don’t even remember what’s on there, you go and you look and you remember all the things you didn’t get last year’s because they’re still on there. You delete all those and you add new stuff uh onto your list.

But it’s kind of weird. I think gift giving is kind of weird if you think about it. It makes sense when it’s a kid, but when it’s like two perfectly affluent uh adults, it’s kind of a strange thing, especially when you have family members that ask for gift cards or cash. I don’t know if you’ve ever had the experience of giving someone cash and they give you cash. It’s just like just hold on to our money. The reason, of course, though, is this is that gift giving is not transactional. It’s not about like making a transaction. Gift giving at least should be a heart thing, and it’s a way of expressing your love and care for the people that you love.

And everyone is familiar with the story of the wise men coming to bring gifts to Jesus, gold, frankincense, and myrrh. And the symbolism of those three gifts, gold, frankincense, and myrrh, is often speculated. But we do know that they’re listed precisely because they’re costly. And even though we think that these men were probably pretty wealthy people, of course, they could meet with the king, you know, they’re people of affluence. We know that this was still a sacrifice for them.

And so here we are in 2024. And I’m thinking, okay, it’s a little bit harder. You know, Jesus has ascended into heaven. He sits at the right hand of the Father, and so though we believe that Jesus like lives on the inside of us, it’s a little bit harder for us. We can’t just like go and drive to a location where there’s a physical baby, or I guess in this particular case, like a toddler, where we just go and say, like, here’s a new iPad. You know, and so the question then becomes like, how is it that we give gifts to Jesus? Because it’s trickier now that it’s not a physical person that we go and give gifts to. Have you thought about it?

Well, scripture shows a couple different ways uh that we can give to God. Of course, Proverbs chapter 19, it talks about how when we give to the poor, we lend to the Lord, and that he repays. So that’s one way that we can give to God is by giving to the poor. Also, there’s lots of examples all throughout scripture, how giving into the storehouse, which is the local church, giving into the storehouse is giving to the Lord. But the story of the wise men, I think, I hope you uh will engage with it, shows us not just the three gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh, it also shows us three additional gifts that we have the opportunity to lay at the feet of Jesus. And so if you’re taking notes, this is three gifts that we can give to Jesus.

Your crown

Uh, number one, you can write this down, your crown. Your crown. You could say it like this. My next slide, if Jesus is king of your life, it means you are not. That’s good. All right. Did you notice what the wise men said? They said, We’ve come to worship not just Jesus, not just a baby, we’ve come to worship the king. You know, like Jesus at this point was not a king of anything. He was a poor kid that like grew, you know, like he had nothing. There was no sense where he was any sort of king. But uh they’re saying, even at this age, they’re saying we came to worship the king.

And so if Jesus is king, the reason Herod was threatened by it is that if Jesus is king, it means that Herod is not. At least this kind of king, the kind of king that they’re talking about. If Jesus is king, Herod is not, in the same way, if Jesus is king, I am not. If Jesus is king, I am not. And so if you say in your life, if you say if Jesus is king, then a shift of authority has taken place.

And so if you think about it like this, when you were born, your parents were king of your life. Right? Like you eat when they put the bottle in your mouth. Right? But you’re totally dependent on that. Right? You take a bath when they put you in the bath. You wear what they put on you. But eventually you become king of your own life. Let’s say you’re seven, you’re eight, you’re nine, you’re ten, right? And so you can think what you want to think. You say what you want to say. Right? And your parents can tell you what to do, but you choose whether or not to do it. You know, you can like scream and say no and throw things. And so you get to choose because you’re the king of your own life.

But when you decide to follow Jesus, the way that it works is Jesus becomes the king of your life. And none of us do that perfectly. Just understand this. None of this is like condemning in any way, because it’s all going to be an imperfect attempt. But when we say we’re making Jesus the Lord of our life, one thing that we’re doing is we’re making him the supreme authority when it comes to what we do, who we are, what we say, and what we think. The goal, if you say Jesus is king, the goal for you is to align your mind with the thoughts of God. Is to model your actions after the actions of Jesus. To treat your friends how Jesus wants you to, to treat your enemies the way that Jesus wants you to.

And so when you’re saying like Jesus is Lord, one thing you’re saying is that Jesus is King of my life. It’s easy, you know, there’s like Jesus is Lord, that’s uh lyrics. You’re if you come in here and you sing, you’re gonna be saying things about the lordship of Jesus. One of the things that means is that he is the supreme authority in your decision making. Right? And and and Herod was disturbed by this, but you shouldn’t be. He was disturbed by the idea of Jesus being Lord, uh, but you should not be disturbed by that because you are a terrible king.

Come on. Like you like you are. Right? And I don’t mean I don’t mean I don’t mean being a king of like a country. I mean being king of something that’s actually a lot harder than that, which is being the king of your own human heart. You’re not good at it. And it’s it’s it’s left to our own devices, our flesh gravitates to what all flesh gravitates to sin and destruction. Right? And Herod was disturbed by King Jesus, but you should be disturbed by being your own king. Now that’s frightening. Right? You you need a king. You need a final authority in your life that’s not you. And so and so having Jesus at king, I should make you sleep really good. Because he’s saving you from the nightmare of self-governance.

Like I don’t know if you’re still in in any way hopeful that humanity can produce anything positive apart from God. But if you still think that, I just feel like you’re not paying attention. Humanity has proved over thousands and thousands of years that they are incapable of good decision making apart from the lordship of Jesus Christ. That’s that’s the only hope we have. You know, like I say this, I I believe that Jesus is the Savior of the world. And and that’s like an easy thing to amen. But like I actually believe that. Like, I think the only hope humanity has, has ever had, and will ever have is only Jesus. Like that, he is the Savior. And so you in your that’s true for us globally, and that’s true for you individually.

Like, let’s say you have a five-year-old and they’re in complete control of their diet, let’s say. Right? Well, they’ll probably just eat nothing but cotton candy all day. You know what I mean? Like, I think if a kid had total autonomy with his food and they had an infinite supply of cotton candy and chicken, they would die. Because you you can’t survive on just cotton candy. That’s it. That’s all they would eat. And it’s not because it’s a bad kid, it’s because listen to me, they don’t have the wisdom to make choices that benefit them. Right? There’s a reason that the Lord of the Flies didn’t turn out well. Because kids don’t know any better. And you know what? You don’t know any better. Humanity doesn’t know any better.

The ultimate example of this is the crucifixion. That’s humanity, we’re down here and we’re suffering and we’re hopeless in our sin, and God, perfect God, all-knowing God, looks at us and has compassion on us, so much so that he puts on flesh to come and give us hope and a new beginning. And how do we thank him? Are you ready? We murder him. That this is humanity apart from God. Right? The climax of the human condition is us mocking the Savior on the cross. So you need you don’t need just a savior. You need a king. It’s not just about him saving you, it’s about him leading you. Like it the good news is this is that we have a good king and his name is Jesus.

But like we don’t understand that. I don’t think I don’t think we understand kingdom in America, right? Because we have presidents that we vote in and we vote out. We’ve got governors that we vote in and we vote out. We’ve got mayors that we vote in or vote out. But listen, like when we’re singing, oh come let us adore him, we’re not singing to president Jesus. We didn’t vote him in. And we can’t vote him out. And so no matter which way we vote, Jesus is still king. No matter who is elected and nominated in the cabinet position, like Jesus is still king. No matter what laws get passed, Jesus is still king. No matter if there’s prayer in school or not, Jesus is still king. That’s that’s all important. Don’t email me. That’s that’s all important, but Jesus is still king.

And when you received Jesus into your life, you received him as Lord and King. Like maybe you didn’t know that. Maybe you just thought like you were receiving him as Savior. You know, someone just scared you into the kingdom, you know. You know, say the prayer, and then you don’t have to go down, you get to go up. Listen, there’s nothing spiritual about wanting to avoid pain. What you signed up for, even if you didn’t know it, was signing up for him to not just be your savior, but your king. But people want to be their own king and just simply appoint Jesus as the Secretary of Afterlife Affairs. Right, where his primary job is to sponsor your entrance into the luxury resort we call heaven. Right? Like, like you want to check the box of now I get in, right? But you’re the one that wants to be king. It’s not how it works, right? Like when you receive Jesus, you receive him as Lord and Savior. He saves you, but he also leads you. Or at least he’s supposed to.

Grace, I’ve got a beautiful seven-year-old daughter that I talk about probably every week. She’s amazing. She’s very smart, but she needs a decision maker. Like without me and Jordan, like she would adopt every stray animal in a five-mile radius. She would be living at the zoo. Her solution to every problem would be more glitter. She needs a decision maker. And so do you. I would say this. I think you should trust your own intuition even less than you think you should. That’s not what scripture says. The scripture doesn’t put a whole lot of like stock into your intuition. Give me some examples. No problem.

Proverbs chapter 14, verse 12. There is a way that appears to be right, but in the end it leads to death.

Uh-oh. So you could do all the research. You can make the smartest decision in the world. You can weigh the pros and the cons, and it seems right. Like you made the right choice, but it still leads to death.

Jeremiah chapter 10, verse 23. Lord, I know that people’s lives are not their own. Listen to this. It is not for them to direct their steps.

Did you know that? Did you know it’s not for you to direct your steps? It’s not for you. What’s for you is to participate in the one who directs your steps. But it’s not for you to direct your steps.

Proverbs chapter 3, verse 5. Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways, submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.

Who will? I will. I’ll make my own path straight. No. He will make your paths straight. Right? But we don’t lean on our own intuition, our own way. The way I reckon, like who cares what you reckon? Like you can reckon, you can reckon all the way to the it’s about it’s about what Jesus teaches. And it’s about submitting to what he teaches and where he leads. You need a decision maker.

Proverbs chapter 28, verse 26. Those who trust in themselves are fools. But those who walk in wisdom are kept safe.

You need a decision maker. You need a Lord and you need a king. Here’s the good news life is better when he’s in charge. He leads you to the path of life.

You know, I we’ve got currently, my wife and I, we’ve got two dogs, um, Poet and Charlie. The one I’m wanting to uh point out to you today is Charlie. I’ve got a picture of Charlie. Um, Charlie is a beagle, uh, as I’m sure you can tell. Uh, there’s too many funny stories, so we’ll just move on. But we got him as a puppy, uh, so trained him from nothing. So clearly he’s not trained well, because we’re not getting come sit, go, heal, doesn’t do any of that. Uh but you know, we we did teach him to go on walks. I don’t know if you ever had the experience of trying to leash train a dog that’s never been on a leash before. But it’s like, man, the first few times it’s just like this, right? You’re just and you’re just like pulling, you’re just dragging them on the side, like in the part you’re just pulling a dog and it not participating at all. It’s just torture.

So, like, I’m I’m doing it, I’m pulling, I’m pulling this dog, and it’s like, look, Charlie, I love you, but you’re making it hard on yourself here. If if you walk close to me, this will be a lot easier for you. Oh, y’all missed it. If you walk close to me, it’ll go easier for you. You could say it like this: the closer you get to the master, the easier the walk becomes. Right? So you can live your life pulling against God. You for sure can. It’s just not the best way. The best way is to let him lead and you follow. Because God knows what’s best for you. It’s not because he’s a control freak, it’s because he knows the safest place for you to be is at his side.

See, I let Jesus lead and I sleep great. Because I think he’s gonna make better decisions than I will. A lot of people don’t think that. People think people say, Oh, Jesus teaches, it’s just not practical. It’s like, well, consider the alternative. Now, what’s the alternative to Jesus? You, you know, like you’re gonna put you up there? So it’s like, I sleep great even though I’m not king because I don’t want to be king. Like, like when you’re when you’re walking a young child in a parking lot, you hold their hand. You’re not you’re not controlling the child, you’re protecting the child. Because you know things they don’t know. You see things they don’t see. You have knowledge they don’t have. Right? And so when you’re saying, like, Jesus, you’re my Lord, what you’re saying is, I’m choosing to follow you. If I thought this was the right way, but you’re saying this is the right way, well, then I go with you.

And here’s where it’s different than having a kid. God will not make you hold his hand. Modern culture is proof of that. He wants everyone to hold his hand, right? God wants you to hold his hand. He even tells you to hold his hand, but God has given you free will and the power to choose. And so you have to decide to let him decide. Did you hear that? You have to decide to let him decide. Jeremiah, God speaks through the prophet Jeremiah to us, and he says, This I’ve placed before you life and death. Hint, choose life. And when you choose life, it’s gonna go well for you. When you choose life, it’s gonna go well for your family. It’s gonna go well for your children. But understand this that God is a gentleman. And he doesn’t force anyone to hold his hand. All he does is hold it up. But you’re the one that has to choose.

This is a question I like to ask sometimes. I’ve got it on the screen. What beliefs would you not change if you became convinced Jesus taught something else? What beliefs would you not change? Well, I I realize that’s what Jesus thinks, but sorry. Like the answer should be none at all. Whatever it this is my prayer. This has been my prayer for the last 20 years. God, everything I think, everything I believe, the way I process the world, the way I process my marriage, the way I process what a pastor is, what a church is, what a city, like that’s all I open all of that up to you. You can come in, there’s no there’s no secret compartment.

You know what I mean? Like, like I don’t have two compartments in my life the Christian me and then the rest of me. That’s what a lot of people do. This though a lot of this is the way that people reconcile being their own king and still being a Christian because you’ve just found a way to have two of you, right? Where you’ve got the Christian, you am I supposed to be responding like the Christian me right now? Is this the Christian me? Or is this like the other me? Jesus informs all of my life. Right? Every everything, and so and what’s cool is I don’t need to agree with Jesus on everything, just so long as I know that he’s right and I’m wrong. Right? Like, I disagree, Jesus, but let’s go. You know, let’s do it.

Uh look at this, Galatians chapter 2, verse 20, Paul says this I’ve been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live.

Oh my God. I don’t even live anymore.

But Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.

So, so I don’t even live anymore. But my and again, no one’s gonna do this perfectly. You, me, Pastor Marshall, Pastor, none of us are gonna do this perfectly. Just understand that the goal is to not live anymore. But the goal is to let him live through you. Because he’s your king. And so you’re probably not gonna have gold, frankincense, and myrrh to offer Jesus this Christmas, but he will accept that crown. He’ll take that off your hand. It looks heavy. You don’t look like you’re having a good time holding it. He’ll take that from you. Not just Savior, but Lord and King. Number one, your crown.

Your heart

Gift number two that you can give Jesus your heart. Uh reading again, uh, verse 11 says this.

On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshipped him.

So worship. Worship is not just what we do here to warm up the crowd before the preacher comes up. Oh, it’s Chris, worship is not Christian karaoke. I don’t want to mess anybody up, but worship is not singing. That’s right. Now you can worship God through singing, but worship is not singing. Worship is a lifestyle. Worship is bowing down. It says the wise men, bow down and worshipped him. Worship, worship means to express worth. It says it’s that it’s not about worship, is not about feeling something. It’s about expressing something.

It’s a bit like marriage. You know, like I think some days you probably wake up, I bet my wife, like, you’re just madly in love, you’re madly in love with your husband, and he’s so dreamy. And other days he just like stinks up the bathroom and just like bugs you. You know, it’s like the feelings say come and go. I wouldn’t trust it. And as I’ve told you many times, a good marriage is built not on feelings of love, but on a commitment to love. Right. And so the the question is not how do I feel about my spouse today. The question is, how am I going to treat my spouse today? It’s not about feeling love. It’s about expressing love.

Worship is the same way. It’s not about feeling something, it’s about expressing something. And you might be thinking, but yeah, but yeah, but you know, but I I want it to be both. Look, you can feel something you don’t express. And you can express something you don’t feel. That’s one of the things that you’re doing on a Sunday morning when you come in here, is you’re coming into God’s house, his designated meeting place. Can I worship anywhere? You bet. You bet. But it’s it’s kind of like when grandma says, like, hey, Christmas Day, everyone’s coming to my house, right? Jesus told us to meet him here. And so we come. This is the designated meeting time, the designating meeting place, and we come here not to feel something, but to express worth to God. That’s right.

And and we’re world blessed here at this church. I I sometimes I think I think uh highly skilled worship leaders like this can be a blessing, and they are a blessing. They can also be a challenge because they’re so good that they can tap into something on the inside of you, and you can start thinking it’s mostly about you having some sort of experience. And we’re not opposed to uh experience. Like we’ve got lights, we’ve got the big LED wall, we’ve got the hazer. We’re not opposed to the experience, just so long as you don’t get it twisted. Because it’s not about feeling something.

And so when I’m when I’m up here, like I’m I’m praising, I’m expressing worth to God. I’m not saying, am I feeling something? What am I feeling right now? Like, don’t you dare just raise your hand when you feel something. It’s not about you, man. You mean like well, I don’t like these new songs. Well, you know, scripture says, like, sing a new song to the Lord. So you’re gonna have to learn new songs every once in a while. And you know what? It’s not about you. Right? I’m expressing worth to God. I’m receiving, I’m receiving, but I’m giving. Right? And I’m God is in charge of the giving to me, but I’m coming with the motivation to express worth to God. If we’re talking about worship, what worship is is you expressing worship.

I think about like the worship team. Uh, I don’t know if you know all of these different people that are up here. Uh Pastor Dobb, he’s the only one that gets paid for anything that has to do with worship. He leads the team. But besides that, everyone that’s up here, like they’re doing this for free. And some of them they play play like every week, you know, so they’re showing up here on Sunday mornings at 7.20 a.m. Uh and they’re they’re doing that for free. Right. And I imagine that when their alarm bings at, you know, like 5 a.m., it then I just like, man, they’re just like feeling love. You know, so like, oh, just feeling love, you know. Right? They they’re practicing these songs. They’re listening to the songs in their car. They’re there, you know, at 9 p.m. Saturday night, practice learning their little guitar parts. They’re doing that. Not because they’re feeling something, it’s not because they’re feeling love, it’s because they have a commitment to express love.

So worship’s not about feelings. It’s about the loyalty of your heart. It’s about bowing down and saying, like, God, you’re the greatest. God, you’re omnipotent, which means all powerful. I’m not. You’re omniscient, all knowing. Almost all worship is going to be some form of these things. God, you’re omnipotent, all powerful, you’re omniscient, all knowing. You’re omnibenevolent, all loving. You’re omnipresent. You’re all places at all time. I’m not. What am I doing there? Am I doing that? Ooh, I’m getting goosebumps, but it’s no. I’m expressing worship to God. I’m expressing something. And if your emotions get super involved, like praise God, that’s awesome. Like you get goosebumps and you cry, and there’s like boogers, like fantastic. Right? Like, like we got tissues on the like we’re not opposed to. We like the emotions. It’s cool. But it’s not about that. Right? It’s it’s about expressing worth to God.

So come in here and decide. Like, decide when you’re in your car on the way. I’m gonna worship. I’m not waiting for them to impress me. You know, they’ve got this whole routine because people are because we’re such a pain in the butt, people, that that, you know, I’m gonna start with a fast song and then I’m gonna move it, and it’s like they have this whole formula to try to get us to worship. Man, don’t even don’t even worry about that. Just come in here and saying, like, man, I’m gonna be singing. And if they’re singing in like the key of H, you know what I mean? Like, like awful. Man, raise your hands and praise God like it’s the best worship you’ve ever heard. It’s not about you. It’s expressing, right?

And I’ve told you this before, everyone worships. The only choice you get is what to worship. There’s something or some things that are ultimate to you. There are some things that have your ultimate allegiance. The question is just what? And what and what you worship is not determined by the songs you sing in church. What you worship is determined by what’s at that center seat of your heart. Right? And so I know I’m talking about worship like during, but I hope that’s just an example, a small example of a life of worship. That everything I do, the decisions that I make, I’m exalting, I’m expressing my worth to God. So when I when I give money to the homeless guy, even though I hate it, because he told me to, I’m expressing worth to God. God, your opinion matters to me. What you told me to do matters, and I reckon, but who cares what I reckon? Because you because you’re not just my king, you you don’t just have my crown, you also have my heart.

Romans chapter 12, verse 1. Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God. This is your true and proper worship.

So what’s worship? This is what it is to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice. Everything that you do, your entire life, your words, your actions, your vocation, it’s all an offering to God, and that’s what worship is. So just like the crown, we give him our heart. And it’s not because he’s insecure. It’s not because he’s a control freak. It’s because he wants what’s best for you. And he knows that putting your heart in his hands is the safest place for it to be. Because the world is pulling for your heart. It wants your heart. It’s it’s reaching for your heart. It’s reaching for your affections.

If you were here a few weeks ago on election night, I preached from Rome uh Revelation chapter two, where Paul is he’s um, he, or excuse me, Jesus is talking to the church in Ephesus. It’s like a critique. And he says to the church, he basically says, you believe right and you act right, but you’ve left your first love. Right? So he changes it from a belief issue and a behavior issue to a heart issue. Where your heart is. Did you know, did you know that you can believe the right things and even do the right things and still be in the wrong? Because your heart is in the wrong place. Right? You can be forensically and technically correct and still be wrong. Because it’s not just about what you say, it’s not just about what you do, it’s about what what’s going on in here. And so the wise men, when they’re coming, they weren’t just they weren’t just offering their crown symbolically, right? Acknowledging him as king, they also worshiped him. It’s not just the crown, it’s the heart. Number one, your crown, number two, your heart, number three, and I’m done.

Your direction

Your direction. Your direction. Let’s read again, verse nine. It says this.

After they had heard the king,

so this is this is King Herod. They’re not talking about Jesus.

After they had heard heard the king,

King Herod,

they went on their way.

So notice that that they went their own way, right? They went their way. But then let’s jump forward three verses. This is after they meet Jesus.

And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route.

Right? So they went to Jesus one way, and after meeting him, they went home a different way. They went to Jesus one way, and they met Jesus and they came out a different way.

Maybe you’ve been going your own way. Maybe you’ve been going your own way long enough to realize it ain’t getting you anywhere. How much longer are you going to insist on going your own way? Trying to find the abundant life on your own path. Like with all due respect, at a certain point, an intelligent person would realize this ain’t working. And so, and so what’s great about Jesus, though, is he changes your direction. You go one way, you come out another way. I’m gonna hit you with a big Bible word. Are you ready? Repent. Repent, it means to change direction. That’s what it means.

Like I growing up, I was a youth group kid, and uh I had amazing youth pastors. I’m so sick of people remembering their own past wrong. I had a I mean, I loved my experience growing up in church. I loved growing up in church. It’s the best life. Pastor Sherman, man, I love these people. I had amazing children. I had children’s pastors. I had incredible youth pastors. So grateful. But man, when I was when I was a teenager, I used to think repenting was like coming down to the altar after a sermon, right? The keys were playing just like that. And I’d come down and I’m slobbering and I’m crying and I feel so bad. And then I would like to go home and throw away my secular CDs. That was like that’s repenting. Feeling bad, crying, throwing away your CDs. That’s what like that’s not what repenting is. Repenting is changing directions.

Look at this Acts chapter 3, verse 19. Repent then and turn to God. Repent and turn to God so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord.

So let me see if I can explain it. Repentance is one movement that does two things. So it turns you from sin and it turns you to God. It’s one movement, but you’re simultaneously turning from something and to something. So you’re not just cutting something out, you’re adding something in its place. And man, this is this would have changed my life if I would have got it. I’m sure they told me, but I didn’t get it.

Repenting involves replacing

If you could get this, young people, repenting involves replacing. Y’all need to hear that. Repenting involves replacing, right? So the question is not like, do you want goosebumps for five minutes at the end of service? Like the question is, do you actually want to get better? Because lovingly, who cares about the goosebumps? You know what I mean? Like the goosebumps, if the goosebumps don’t produce life change, you’re literally wasting your time. So if the answer is yes, though, and you actually do want to change direction, well, then you have to understand that involves replacing. You got one thing, you’re turning from it, and you’re turning to something else.

So, like you want your marriage to get better. Right, replace unhelpful voices with helpful voices. Right? Repent. Turn direct, but you’re not just leaving, you’re not just leaving something, you’re turning to something. Right? Like you want your emotional health to be better. Well, then stop listening to depressing music all day and scrolling Instagram 24. You know what I mean? Like, like start a gratitude journal. So don’t just sit there saying, like, boy, I sure wish I could scroll on it, like do something else. Do a gratitude journal, you know what I mean? Like go to counseling.

You you want freedom from addiction? Well, replace that addiction with something positive. People can tell you. People could tell you, you don’t just sit at home saying, Boy, I sure wish I could use right now. I sure wish I could use right now. Boy, remember how fun that was when I like, no, you replace that addiction with something positive. Maybe it’s like going to a support group. Going to celebrate recovery, you know, cutting out toxic enabling friends, and but not just sitting there by yourself, replacing them with positive friends. People who are gonna call you to something higher. You you can have friends that call you down, and you can have friends that call you up. The question is, what are you gonna put up with? And so if you want to be free from that, you’re not just gonna cut people out, you gotta replace them with someone like you’re struggling with drinking, right? Well, then going to the bar on Friday night is probably something you’re gonna have to swap out. You know, oh but I still go to play pool. Let’s not do that. Right? Like, like if you if you want freedom, you’re gonna have to replace unhelpful patterns, unhealthy patterns, with healthy ones.

Repenting involves replacing. But see, if if if you repent and you don’t replace, well, then it only works as long as the emotion is there. A lot of people repent on Sunday, but they don’t replace on Friday. Did y’all hear that? A lot of people repent on Sunday, but they don’t replace on Friday. So they repent for four whole days, right? But they haven’t done the work to replace like you want to get healthier. Well, then you know, change some patterns. Change your diet, change your daily routine. A lot of people think they can just say the sinner’s prayer, and then all your problems will all automatically go away. Unfortunately, that’s not the case. You have got to do the work of changing direction, offering God where you’re going. This is my pattern, this is how I live my life. But Jesus, I’m I’m telling you, you can change it. Right? And it doesn’t need to be sad, slobbery, crying. It’s just changing direction. That’s it. Just change in direction.

Did you know you can you can repent right now? Like you can repent with me down here, you know, and we can pray and maybe the slobber or whatever. But you can also repent right now. You could change direction right now. Save me from the slob. Just change in direction. You don’t have to cry.

Uh, this past week, my wife and I and my daughter, we went uh to Colorado, a little vacation, a little road trip. Uh went to a couple different places uh in Colorado just for fun. And I’m man enough to admit that I missed the exit a couple times. Well, here’s what’s cool though. I got the maps. And so, so it’s you know, I I miss the turn, and then my phone springs to action. You know, it says rerouting, rerouting, and then like, boom, and then it changed, and then it finds it, it finds another way. Right? Like, and without one tear shed, it’s back on track. That’s repenting, getting back on track.

I don’t know the details of your life, but I do know this that you can go another way. You can, you can get better. Man, I’ve tried so many, like you can get better. You can you can change direct like that way hasn’t worked. It’s time to try God’s way. And and that’s not a thing about guilt. There’s no guilt, there’s no shame, there’s no condemnation. Repenting is victory. That’s right. Be proud of it. Repenting means that you do, you’ve done something that most people will never do. You got better. Right. No one is heading the right direction that hasn’t repented. If you say, Man, I really look up to that. Well, that guy has changed his direction. Man, Pastor Shirley, she’s so incredible. It’s like, have you ever repented? All the time. Right? And so it’s not, it’s not something that is a shame. It’s something that’s a joy, that’s a privilege. It’s just changing direction. That’s what I love about God. It’s like every day is a new day. You know, it’s like, boy, I blew it today. Thank God. Tomorrow’s a new day. You know? You could change direction.

Look at this. This is my last verse of the morning.

Ezekiel chapter 46, verse 9. When the people of the land come before the Lord at the appointed festivals, listen to this. Whoever enters by the north gate to worship is to go out the south gate. And whoever enters by the south gate is to go out the north gate. Listen to this. No one is to return through the gate by which they entered, but each is to go out the opposite gate.

Why? Right? God says, when you come to me, you’re gonna leave different. When you come and you give me your crown, you give me your heart, you’re gonna come in one direction and you go out another. It’s so amazing. Is God’s call is not just to do it, it’s also his grace that empowers you to do it. You’ve been going south? Listen to me. One of your pastors, I can tell you this. You can go north. Not on your own, right? But you can change direction. You can offer God your direction and give him the freedom to change it.

So here’s the three gifts. Number one, your crown. Number two, your heart. Number three, your direction. Here’s my closing statement. Like the wise men who brought precious treasures to honor the newborn King, we bring our own gifts to lay at the feet of Jesus. Number one, your crown, acknowledging Jesus as the as the supreme authority in your life, surrendering to his perfect wisdom over your limited understanding. Number two, your heart, moving beyond mere actions to genuine worship, making Christ the center of your deepest affections and ultimate allegiance. Number three, your direction, allowing God to redirect your path, replacing old patterns with new ones that lead to God’s best for you.