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 Well, Christmas is almost here.

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 Are you ready?

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 Well, you might as well get ready because it's coming, right?

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 Listen, it's certainly an exciting time of the year.

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 But if you rip off the colorful wrapping paper

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 and you tear the bows off, what do you have? What do you have? I think you might be left with a view of Christmas that matches the description that the Holy Spirit inspired Matthew to record in his gospel account.

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 Now, keep in mind that Matthew wrote primarily to a Jewish audience.

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 So he presented Jesus as Israel's rightful king and Messiah. To make his case, he sprinkled throughout his gospel account many Old Testament prophecies that were fulfilled to the T.

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 In chapters one and two, he weaves the story of Joseph as it relates to the glorious incarnation of Jesus.

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 You know, I mentioned last week

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 that the Bible does not record Joseph saying a single word, not a single word.

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 In fact, the Bible only records the Magi saying one thing. And I thought to myself,

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 but they played such a prominent role in Christmas.

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 And here's what I want you to understand.

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 They may not have said much,

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 but their actions spoke volumes, volumes.

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 And that's what we're gonna look at today.

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 In speaking about speaking,

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 I wanna say something to you.

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 I misspoke last week

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 when I said that the Holy Spirit

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 placed the embryo of Jesus in the womb of the Virgin Mary.

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 Listen to J.C. Ryle's words. They meant a lot to me this week. He said, "Let us not attempt to explain things which are above our feeble reason.

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 Let us be content to believe with reverence

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 and not speculate about matters which we cannot understand.

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 Enough for us to know that with him who made the world, nothing is impossible.

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 Let us rest in the words of the Apostles Creed." And this is what I want you to take with you. This is what I want you to remember.

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 Jesus Christ was conceived by the Holy Ghost and born of the Virgin Mary.

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 Now with that thought rooted in your mind,

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 let's move into the story

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 that I've entitled the Messiah and the Magi.

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 In Matthew chapter two, verses one and two, hear the word of God.

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 Now, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, in the days of Herod the King,

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 Magi came from the East, arrived in Jerusalem saying,

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 "Where is he who has been born King of the Jews? For we saw his star in the East

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 and have come to worship him."

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 Our entire text revolves around what happened in Bethlehem and Jerusalem.

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 They're about five miles apart.

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 Now Bethlehem, the name Bethlehem means house of bread.

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 And I want you to understand it's the birthplace of King David. It's where Samuel went to anoint David as the future King of Israel.

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 And Jesus, the eternal Son of God was born in Bethlehem.

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 Now Jesus would say later in his ministry, "I am the bread of life." So the bread of life was born in the house of bread. Interesting.

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 Here the King had been appointed by the Roman government in about 40 BC.

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 And he was extremely insecure and paranoid about any threats to his power and his position. In fact, he's known for being amazingly ruthless with people that he considered to be a threat, even his own family. He had several members of his family killed because he didn't trust them.

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 Now the Magi, they were not Kings, as we often say or we often think as we look at the Christmas plays.

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 We're not given their names.

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 They carried both political and religious roles and they played the roles of prominence in Persia or in Babylon.

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 God used their astronomical observation along with their astrological speculation to reveal to them that the King of the Jews had been born in Israel

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 and to lead them to begin a long arduous journey, hundreds of miles from Persia or Babylon to Israel to find the King of the Jews. Look at verse two again. "Where is he who has born King of the Jews?"

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 This sentence is the only words that the Magi are said to have uttered in the gospel.

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 Now the words they use mean not born to be a King, but born King. I want you to understand that when Jesus was born, given birth to by the Virgin Mary there in Bethlehem,

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 I want you to know that he was born King. He was not born to be a King, he was born King. So when the Magi would come from that distant country to Jerusalem and to Bethlehem to find the Christ child, they would offer their gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh to the King of the Jews, not someone who was born to be King of the Jews.

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 They focused on who he is, not on what he would become.

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 So these men came to worship the King.

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 In verse three, the Bible says, "When Herod the King heard this, "he was troubled and all Jerusalem with him." Now that term troubled,

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 we might could say it has a deeper meaning than just being superficially troubled.

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 That means it means he was in turmoil. It means he was terrified. It means that he sensed that his position and power as King of the Jewish nation was in jeopardy.

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 He was not alone. The Bible says all Jerusalem with him

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 had that same trouble, that same terror, that same turmoil. But who is he referring to? He's referring to the religious leaders of Israel,

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 the scribes, the Pharisees, the Sadducees. They were all troubled and in turmoil because their own position and power, which was given to them by the way by Herod,

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 was in jeopardy.

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 The rejection of Jesus by Jerusalem foreshadows

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 the rejection that Jesus would experience at the end of his life.

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 If you remember fast forward 33 years,

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 Jesus is in Jerusalem.

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 It's the end of his life.

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 And the religious crowd has stirred up the people of Israel and they're crying out, "Crucify him, crucify him."

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 So the rejection that he experienced at the end of his life, he experienced at the first part of his life also.

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 So Herod and the religious leaders were more interested in saving their positions and their power than they were in having their souls saved.

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 F.F. Bruce stated the obvious, I quote,

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 "He said the main purpose is to show the reception "given by the world to the newborn messianic king,

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 "homage from afar, hostility at home,

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 "foreshadowing the fortunes of the new faith,

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 "reception by the Gentiles, rejection by the Jews." Look at verse four.

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 "Gathering together all the cheap priests "and scribes of the people,

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 "he inquired of them, Herod inquired of them "where the Messiah was to be born."

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 It's interesting here, Herod was so insecure that he just didn't invite in four or five of the religious leaders to help him understand where the Messiah was to be born. He brought them all in. He wanted to make sure he knew exactly where the Messiah would be born. And later on, we find out he wanted to know when he would be born.

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 Now, understand this.

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 These religious leaders knew exactly where Jesus would be born. You say, "Well, how did they know?"

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 Because they read it in the Old Testament.

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 700 years before Christ was born,

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 Micah the prophet wrote the exact location of the birth of the Messiah, the ruler, and the shepherd of Israel.

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 Isn't that amazing? 700 years. Now you say, "Why is the Matthew's use "of the prophetic fulfillment so important?" Because it proves the reliability of the Word of God, and it proves that Jesus was the rightful king of Israel, the Messiah.

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 Now, look at verses five and six.

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 "They said to him," here's what the religious leaders said to Herod, "For this is what has been written "by the prophet, the prophet Micah.

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 "And you Bethlehem, land of Judah, "are by no means least among the leaders of Judah.

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 "For out," listen to what? Listen to this. "For out of you shall come forth a ruler

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 "who will shepherd my people Israel."

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 So these religious leaders knew exactly

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 where the Messiah would be born.

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 They knew because God revealed it to the prophet Micah 700 years before Jesus was born.

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 Now, this shows us something very important about these religious leaders.

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 They would not refuse to believe in Jesus out of ignorance.

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 They refuse to believe in Jesus because their heart was hard and wicked.

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 Listen, Matthew's quotation of Micah's prophecy

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 reveals another work of the Royal Messiah. Not only would he rule over Israel, but the Bible says here that he would shepherd Israel. Now that word shepherd, we get our word pastor from that. Do you realize that the pastors on the staff of this church are responsible to God for being good shepherds and taking care of the flock that he's entrusted to us? That's our job.

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 That's what it means right here.

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 Listen, Jesus said in John chapter 10, verse 11, he said, "I am the good shepherd." It's one of the great I am statements in the New Testament. It's a claim of deity by Christ. He said, "I am the good shepherd."

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 The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.

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 In 1 Peter 2.25, Peter wrote, "For you were continually straying like sheep, "but now you have returned to the shepherd "and guardian of your souls." Aren't you glad that the Lord Jesus is our shepherd? Aren't you glad that he shepherds our souls? He shepherds our lives. He cares about you. He wants the very best for you. When you are down, he wants to lift you up. When you are discouraged, he wants to encourage you. When you're grieving, he wants to bring comfort and peace to your heart the way he did Mary and Martha there when Lazarus died.

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 He's a shepherd and guardian of yours. I can't think of a better shepherd and guardian of my soul than the Lord Jesus, amen?

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 And then Revelation 7.17,

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 John wrote, "For the Lamb and the sin of the throne," that's Jesus by the way, "will be their shepherd

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 "and will guide them to springs of the water of life "and God will wipe every tear from their eyes." Oh my goodness.

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 Well, let's keep going with the story here. Matthew 2.7 and 8.

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 "Then Herod secretly called the Magi."

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 I'm not sure exactly what that means secretly. I don't know if it means that he left out some of the religious leaders,

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 but the Bible says he secretly called the Magi and determined from them the exact time that the star appeared. So he wanted to know where the Messiah was born and he wanted to know when the Messiah was born.

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 And he sent them, verse eight, to Bethlehem.

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 Now, how did he know to send them to Bethlehem? Because that's what the religious leaders told him as they referred him to Micah, chapter five, verse two.

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 And he sent them to Bethlehem and said, now here's what he said.

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 Can I just tell you,

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 not only was Herod ruthless and insecure,

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 but he was a bald-faced liar. Look at this. He said, "Go and search carefully for the child.

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 And when you have found him, report to me." Now here's the lie.

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 So that I may come and worship him.

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 That's a lie.

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 We'll find out next week

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 that Herod's goal was to kill Jesus.

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 And when he couldn't find Jesus,

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 he murdered all the children that had been born from about two years old and down there in Bethlehem.

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 He was a wicked man.

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 So he had no intentions of worshiping the one born king of the Jews. Now look at verses nine and 10.

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 And after hearing the king, that's King Herod,

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 they went their way.

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 And the star, which they had seen literally rising in the east, went on before them until it came and stood over the place where the child was. Now there's been all kinds of speculation

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 about what this star was.

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 Was it an alignment of Jupiter and Saturn? Some people think it's an alignment of Jupiter and Saturn. Some people think it was a new star being born.

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 There's a lot of speculation. Some people even think it could have been just the Shekinah glory of God.

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 But whatever it was, I want you to know, it moved to the very location

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 where the Christ child was with Joseph and Mary. So they knew exactly. It was their GPS, okay?

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 And they got to the place where Jesus and Joseph and Mary were, and they knew that was the location.

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 And after hearing the king, they went their way and the star, which they had seen in the east, went on before them until it came and stood over the place where the child was.

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 And when they saw the star,

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 they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy. You see, the Magi recognized divine guidance when they saw it. Do you?

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 Really, do you?

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 Do you understand those moments when God gave special guidance to your life?

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 Maybe you were praying about an upcoming marriage

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 and the Lord revealed to you influence in your heart. It just confirmed in your heart that this is the man or woman for you.

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 Or maybe it was a time when you prayed about a job

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 and the Lord opened a door and the Lord gave you a great job.

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 Or maybe it was a time when you or a loved one was sick and you cried out to God fervently, praying,

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 and God came through. Do you recognize those moments

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 when God gives genuine guidance and direction and help to your life? The Magi did, and they were filled with exceedingly great joy.

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 So Jesus was now between two and three years old.

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 He was born in obscurity.

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 I want you to know He was recognized

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 by the Gentile Magi as the promised Messiah,

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 the King of Israel. It was like the whole world knew that something special was taking place. The Bible says in Galatians that Christ was born in the fullness of time.

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 It was a fullness of time.

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 Now you say what makes this birth so important because nobody's ever been born like Jesus. Nobody.

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 From the beginning of history to the last person who ever lived on this planet,

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 nobody has been given birth to by a virgin, nobody.

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 So Jesus was special.

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 He's the Son of God, the eternal Son of God. The Bible says in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld His glory, as of the only being of the Father full of grace and truth.

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 Look at verse 11.

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 After coming into the house,

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 they saw the child with Mary, His mother. Now to notice, Joseph is not even mentioned.

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 Joseph is like a silhouette

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 in all of the Christmas pictures and all of the displays of Christmas. He's like a silhouette.

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 Never says anything.

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 But let me tell you this.

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 Joseph is one of my heroes.

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 Joseph did some things that were absolutely crucial to the fulfillment of the gospel story that we treasure so much.

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 He saw the child with Mary, His mother. By the way, every time in Matthew's gospel, verse 13, 14, 20 and 21, every time the child and Mary is mentioned, Jesus always comes first, not Mary.

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 It's always Jesus first and then His mother, Mary.

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 You see, Matthew's main interest is Jesus.

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 Furthermore, He was focused on the fact

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 that Gentiles came to worship the Jewish Messiah. Do you realize what an amazing moment that was? What an amazing time that was when Gentiles would come and worship the Jewish Messiah.

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 But He was also focused on the gifts

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 that the Magi brought to Jesus.

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 They brought Him gold.

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 That's for His royalty.

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 They brought Him frankincense.

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 That's for His deity.

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 And they brought Him myrrh.

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 And that was for His humanity. Donald Ray Barnhouse, the great preacher wrote this, and I quote, "We see from the symbolism of these gifts

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 "that the eternal royalty and holiness of Christ "were announced from His earliest years.

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 "He had come forth from heaven "to perform the work of redemption. "And He was prepared in every way to do the Father's will." Jesus would say during His ministry, "The Son of Man has come to seek and to save the lost."

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 That's why He stepped out of heaven.

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 That's why the Holy Ghost caused Him to be conceived in the womb of the Virgin Mary. He came to down a cross for our sins and redeem a lost world. Aren't you glad of that?

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 Matthew 2, verse 12.

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 "And after having been worn by God in a dream,

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 "not to return to Herod,

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 "the Magi left for their own country by another way."

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 They looked at their GPS, said, "We're not going through Jerusalem.

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 "We're not going to Herod's territory.

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 "We're gonna find another way home.

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 "Sometimes when you're on the interstate and it's blocked,

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 "you look on your GPS and you find an alternate route." They found an alternate route home.

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 They disobeyed the earthly king

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 to give honor to the heavenly king.

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 We call them the wise men.

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 And they were wise, but the Bible calls them the Magi.

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 Is that a contradiction? No, it's not a contradiction.

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 But let me tell you, these guys were wise.

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 They were wise.

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 Wisdom is learning how to succeed in life.

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 That's what true wisdom is.

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 Learning how to succeed in life. Listen, when you look at these three guys, when we meet them in heaven one day, we will recognize them as being super successful.

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 Because they were wise enough

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 to follow the direction of God. In Job 28, 28, the Bible says into man, he said, "Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom."

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 Having reverence for God is wisdom.

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 Do you have reverence for God?

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 Or do you treat God in some kind of haphazard way?

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 Reverence for God is wisdom, the Bible says, and to depart from evil is understanding.

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 Now let me say this to you. It's the truth I want to really emblazon on your heart this morning.

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 True, I mean, excuse me, God's wisdom leads to true success.

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 And the Magi prove this.

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 These men were wise in the true sense of the word.

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 Because their actions reveal the wisdom of God.

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 Now, let me show you three action steps that they took that you can emulate in your life and find true success in life. Some of you are in a job, in a career, and you want to be a success in your career. Some of you want to have success as a father or a mother. Some of you want to have success as a husband or wife. You want to have success on the athletic field in the music realm. You want to have success.

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 Well, how can you have success?

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 God's wisdom leads to true success. And if you'll take these three action steps,

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 you'll be on the way to true success. Now there's a success that the world offers you,

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 but let me tell you, the world's definition of success is totally opposite of God's definitions of success.

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 So what are these three action steps

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 that the Magi took that you can take? Number one, here it is. Search for the Lord.

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 Search for the Lord.

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 God revealed to these men while they were in Persia or Babylon, wherever they came from there in the East,

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 that the king of the Jews had been born.

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 Although they were hundreds of miles away, it was a long arduous journey.

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 They spared no effort in putting together a caravan

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 and making their way to Israel to find the one who had been born king of the Jews.

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 Let me ask you, are you wise enough today

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 to begin that search in your own life?

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 You may be here and you've never thought much about Jesus.

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 You never think about how Jesus wants to impact every part of your life.

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 He wants to help you with your decisions. He wants to help you with your marriage. He wants to help you raise your kids. He wants to help you teenagers as you decide what you're gonna do with your life.

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 He wants you to be successful,

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 but you've got to search for him.

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 In Jeremiah 29, 13, Jesus made this statement. I mean, God made this statement.

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 God said, "You will seek me and find me "when you search for me with all your heart."

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 I want you to understand today that we're not talking about a half-hearted search here.

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 We're talking about searching for Jesus with everything you've got, seeking him with everything you've got.

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 Are you willing to make that search today?

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 You may have come into this room today and you haven't thought much about it.

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 Well, I want you to know, today you can begin that search for Jesus.

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 I've talked with people the last few weeks who are on a search for the Lord.

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 And there are different places and one of the greatest privileges that I have as a pastor and as a Christian,

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 it's to share people with people the gospel of Christ and to show them how Jesus loves them, how he died on the cross for their sins, how he was raised from the dead so they could be justified before God.

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 To be honest with you, I've seen people

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 who are searching for Jesus haphazardly

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 and they're trying different things and they're failing.

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 There's only one way to find Jesus and that search for him with all your heart.

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 And then number two, their second action, you can do this one too.

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 Search for the Lord, number one. Number two, learn about the Lord, learn about it.

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 Now, what did the Magi do when they got to Jerusalem?

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 Well, they went to Herod and Herod brought in the religious leaders

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 and those religious leaders began to share with the Magi

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 where the Messiah would be born and where did they get their information? They got their information in the Word of God, even though their heart was not right with God,

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 even though they weren't searching for the Lord with all their heart or seeking Lord with all their heart,

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 that they had a source of truth. And I want you to know that you've got a source of truth.

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 Listen, if you own a Bible,

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 you have access to the truth of God

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 and you can read this Bible,

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 you can come to church and hear it preached and taught, you can go to your connect group and learn from others and learn all about Jesus.

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 And I'll tell you, it'll make a difference in your life.

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 Now, these Magi were the intellectuals of their culture

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 and some in their position would have let pride stand in their way,

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 but not this group of men.

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 They listened to the Word of God.

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 They discovered that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem, not the palace,

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 and not the temple.

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 And what they learned was vital

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 and it answered the question they had in their heart.

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 Now, they had a long distance to go find him,

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 but you don't have to travel a long distance today. You don't have to travel hundreds of miles.

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 You don't have to put together your camels.

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 You don't have to put together the people that are gonna join you on the caravan and make the long arduous journey to Jerusalem. The Bible says this, listen to it, Romans chapter 10, verses six through nine, listen to it. But the righteousness based on faith speaks as follows.

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 Do not say in your heart, who will ascend into heaven,

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 that is to bring Christ down. Can I tell you today to search for Jesus, to seek Jesus with all your heart, to learn about him, you don't have to go to heaven to find him.

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 The Bible says this, verse seven, or who will ascend into the abyss, that is to bring Christ up for the dead. You don't have to go into the bowels of a dark tomb where Jesus was buried to find Jesus. Listen to what the Bible says, verse eight. But what does it say? I want you to hear this.

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 The word is near, it's near you in your mouth and in your heart.

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 That is the word of faith which we are preaching.

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 It's right here, listen, it's right here.

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 Everything you need to know about Jesus is right here. Right here in the Bible, right here every Sunday as we preach and teach the word of God in our worship service and in our connect groups, in our equip groups on Wednesday night, it's right here. You have friends that are walking with Jesus. Listen to them when they tell you about Jesus, when they share their testimony with you. Listen to them, listen to this.

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 The word is near you in your mouth and in your heart. That is the word of faith which we are preaching. Now listen to verse nine.

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 Don't miss this one. That if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord

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 and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. Doesn't say you might be saved.

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 It doesn't say you could be saved. It doesn't say you should be saved. It says you will be saved. If you reach out in faith

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 and you put your faith and trust in Jesus who loved you and died on a cross for your sins and was raised from the dead,

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 you can walk out of this church today saved. You can walk out of this church today forgiven of every sin you've ever committed in your life and every sin you will ever commit in the future.

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 It just doesn't get any better than that.

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 So here's what we have to do.

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 We have to number one, search for the Lord.

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 Number two, we have to learn about the Lord.

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 And number three, we have to surrender to the Lord.

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 You gotta surrender to Him. Imagine I wanted to know about Jesus,

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 but they were not interested in knowledge for knowledge sake. I think so many people wanna just see how much knowledge they can collect about Jesus or the Word of God.

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 I guess they wanna do real well in Bible trivia.

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 But can I tell you, knowing all the facts

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 and doing well in a Bible trivia game will not get you to heaven. It will not get you to heaven.

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 Listen to me very carefully.

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 These men knew that when they found the Christ child

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 and they knew it when they left Persia or Babylon, wherever they came from, they knew that they would worship Him, that they would give Him their gifts and they would surrender their lives to Him. (Congregation Murmuring)

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 Are you ready to surrender to the Lord today?

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 Hey, the first step is searching for the Lord. That's the first step.

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 Second step is learning about the Lord.

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 But the third and the final consummating step you've got to take is you gotta surrender to the Lord.

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 Just surrender to Him.

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 Maybe you hear today, you thought,

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 you think, "Pastor, I haven't given much thought to that."

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 Maybe you hear today and you're trying to figure all this stuff out. Maybe you need to pray something like this.

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 Just bow your head just a moment.

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 If you're in this room and you're not a born again believer,

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 just pray something like this.

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 Heavenly Father, please lead me to Jesus.

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 I admit, I don't even know what it means.

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 But if you reveal Jesus to me,

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 I will receive Him as my Savior and my Lord.

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 (Congregation Murmuring)

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 And Lord Jesus, I'll follow you forever,

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 wherever you lead me.

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 Now, if you can pray a prayer like that and you can mean it in your heart,

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 you are this close to heaven.

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 This close. (Congregation Murmuring)

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 Today, I wanna invite you to place your faith in Jesus

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 as your Savior and your Lord.

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 If you believe in Him by faith

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 and you believe that He was raised from the dead, you can be saved today.

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 In just a moment, I'm gonna ask, in fact, I wanna ask the worship team and the staff to come right now.

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 And I wanna give everybody in this room and everybody watching live stream a chance

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 to do what the Magi did.

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 To bow humbly before the King of Israel

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 and commit your life to Him.

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 Jesus said something like this. He said, "If any man comes after me, "let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow me."

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 Follow Him.

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 I taught with an individual this week, shared the gospel with him.

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 And I had to really differentiate the fact because it's so easy, maybe you're here today and you say, "Well, being saved is being religious." No, it's not. No, it's not.

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 Nobody's going to heaven because they're a Baptist.

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 Nobody's going to heaven because they're a Methodist.

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 Nobody's going to heaven because they're Catholic.

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 The only way to go to heaven is to repent of your sin and place your faith in Jesus, by faith as your Savior and your Lord.

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 I'll tell you, He'll change your life. He changed mine 51 years ago. I have never been the same.

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 I've been following Him for 51 years

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 and I wouldn't take a million dollars for what Jesus has done for me and He'll do the same for you.

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 So if you want to be saved today, if you want to put your faith and trust in Jesus, come to one of our staff members, we'll help you.

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 If you want to become a part of this church today,

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 you've been visiting,

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 you feel like the Lord's influencing you to become a part of this church, come to one of our staff members and we'll help you do that.

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 But I want to say a word to every born again believer in this room.

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 If you're already a Christian, a Christ follower,

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 offer Him your gifts.

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 I'm not talking about your offering.

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 But I'm talking about offer Him your gold,

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 your frankincense and your mercy. You know what it is? Offer Him the best you have.

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 Give Him your very best. Don't hold anything back.

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 I'll tell you, that's true success.

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