[0:00] This message was recorded at Vision Baptist Church in Alfred, Georgia. It is our prayer that you will be blessed by the preaching of God's Word. Well, praise the Lord. His wounds have paid our ransom. Amen? And we can be excited about being saved and going to heaven because of what Jesus Christ did for us on the cross of Calvary.
[0:17] Take your Bible and open it to Matthew chapter 2, and I hope that you really will. I hope you'll have your Bible open, and I hope you'll look along and underline some things in the Bible. I want you to notice as we get started that the verses in Matthew chapter 2 speak of what God had promised, what God had said was going to happen, and it's so that it's prophecy being fulfilled.
[0:41] So look with me, if you would, at, we'll go to verse 5. Go look at Matthew chapter 2, verse 5. Where he was going to be born was told about in the Old Testament.
[0:52] The Bible says in verse 5, What don't you underline? For thus it is written by the prophet.
[1:04] God said that was going to happen. You have a holy book in your hand. God said it was going to happen. It happened. Verse 15, that he would come out of Egypt. The Bible says in verse 15, And there was there, and was there until the death of Herod, that it might be underlined, Fulfilled.
[1:23] Fulfilled, which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Out of Egypt have I called my son. God said that he would come out of Egypt, and that's exactly what happened. Verse 17, all those children were going to die.
[1:35] In verse 17, it said, Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremy, the prophet, saying, And so he talks about how the kids under two would die, and the moms would be crying.
[1:46] Verse 23. In verse 23, it said he would be called a Nazarene. And he came and dwelt in a city called Nazareth, that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken by the prophets.
[1:58] He shall be called a Nazarene. So do you understand? Look this way just a second. I want you to know something. You have the Word of God before you. Can you say amen right there?
[2:09] He said it in the Old Testament. He came true in the New Testament. Prophecies about his birth. Prophecies about his life. Prophecies about his death. And by the way, there are prophecies about his return.
[2:20] Prophecies about heaven. Prophecies about hell. We can be sure that the Word of God is true, and we can trust him. I want you to look, if you would, there in that verse 23. And this is just for guys that are new.
[2:32] Matthew 2, Jesus was a Nazarene, not a Nazarite. Do you notice that in the verse? He was a Nazarene, a guy from the city of Nazareth, not a Nazarite, who had taken a vow never to cut his hair, not to be around dead people, and so on.
[2:47] He was a Nazarene. Look, if you would, in Matthew 1 and verse 25, as we work our way through until we get to chapter 2, and we're going to talk about worship. In Matthew 1, 25, the Bible said, And knew not her till she had brought forth her firstborn son, and he called his name Jesus.
[3:05] This is just because I have worked so long among people that don't understand some basic Bible truths about Jesus and about Joseph and about Mary, and some who would like to elevate Mary to an immaculate conception, or Mary to a position of almost semi-deity.
[3:23] I want you to notice that Jesus was her. Look at the Bible. Are you looking at the verse? Jesus was her what son? Somebody called out to me. He was her firstborn. And by the way, when you have a firstborn, what do you have?
[3:36] A secondborn. So he was her, say it, firstborn, so she had other children. Amen? Betty and I have, Betty has a child named Chris who was our firstborn.
[3:47] He's 38 years old. Then three more followed after. God had an only begotten son. His name was Jesus, and he is the only begotten son.
[3:57] Jesus Christ, the only begotten son of the Father. Then I want you to look at Matthew chapter 1 and verse 25 again, and I want you to put a circle not only around firstborn, but around the word till.
[4:07] It says that he knew her not till she had brought forth her firstborn son, and he called his name Jesus. So there was a marriage relationship between Mary and Joseph.
[4:18] They had other children. They did not have marriage relationships until Jesus had been born, but then they did. Till. That's an interesting thing. I want to have a word of prayer with you, and then we're going to talk about worship from the eyes of the wise men and how that can be applied to us.
[4:34] Father, I pray that you would work in our lives. I pray that you would draw us close to you. I thank you for these wonderful people here today to hear your word. I pray that it would be what you would like said, and that I would not get in the way of your passage, and that, God, you would speak to our hearts.
[4:50] And I pray, God, that we would learn to worship you. We would learn to worship you, and I will give you praise and honor and glory for all that you do. In Jesus' name, amen. Well, way back in 1973, I had met this girl named Betty, and we weren't married yet.
[5:07] And some of my buddies, we were dating, and some of my buddies decided to take me to the restaurant, Shoney's, to have an intervention before interventions were cool.
[5:17] Nobody knew about interventions yet. And they took me to this restaurant, and they sat me down, and they said, you are mean to Betty. Betty, she worships the ground you walk on, and you always make her cry.
[5:30] And I said, no, you don't know Betty. I said, Betty cries because Betty cries. And it's nothing to do. It's not me. It really isn't. They said, you need to acknowledge your sin before God.
[5:44] And you need to get right. And we had this intervention. They said, she worships the ground you walk on. And, by the way, a few months after we had been married, they came back, and they wanted to have another meeting with me.
[5:55] And I was like, what have I done this time? And they said, we'd like to apologize. We now know Betty. And we realized we were wrong. She just likes to cry. And I said, thank Jesus. First time vindicated in my life.
[6:07] How many of you have ever used the term, worship the ground? Have you ever heard that? Is that just something, oh, she worships the ground you walk on? Have you ever heard that before? Have you? Amen? You know, what is worship? How do I worship God?
[6:19] How would I apply worship to God? How do I express worship to God? And in Matthew chapter 2 is one of the most beautiful pictures of worship that you could ever see. And so I want you to work your way through Matthew chapter 2 with me.
[6:32] And I want us to worship God more. I want us to worship God more. Chapter 2, verse 2, the Bible says, saying, Where is he that is born king of the Jews? For we have seen his star in the east and are come to, put a circle around it, worship him.
[6:47] They traveled a great distance to worship him. And I would like to talk to you about what worship means. I'd like to talk to you about how we worship. Because we call this a worship service.
[7:00] We came to worship. So what does it mean to worship? Maybe you could write some things down. To worship means to acknowledge that someone or something else is greater, worth more, and so to be obeyed, feared, and adored.
[7:15] To worship is to realize, boy, you are above me. You are beyond me. You are better than me. You are worthy of all of my worship. I worship you because you're so special.
[7:28] And so when a boy and a girl fall in love, we tend to, we like to use that term. It's like she will do anything for him and he would do anything for her. And we tend to use that term.
[7:39] It's to acknowledge that someone is greater, worth more, and to be obeyed, feared, and loved. The idea of worship is giving yourself completely to this person or this object.
[7:51] It's the idea of being mastered by it. It's the idea that's found in Romans 12, 1 where it says that it is our reasonable sacrifice.
[8:01] Now these wise men, they saw a star in the east, and they headed out to find Jesus, and they're going to go on a travel for about two years. They're going to be looking for him. He has become the sole focus of their life.
[8:15] I mean, they have given up their jobs. They've given up their houses. I don't know if they packed up mama and the kids and everybody or what, but I mean for two years these guys are riding on camels seeking Jesus.
[8:26] He has become somebody worth big, rich, wise men, kings to leave it all and go find him and worship him. Romans 12, 1 said, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God that you present your body a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.
[8:46] Those words have become so churchy, we don't really pay attention to them. A living sacrifice means you willingly lay yourself on an altar and allow a knife to be plunged in your heart. You willingly put yourself on a cross and you allow yourself to be crucified.
[9:00] You willingly die so somebody else can live. And Jesus says, hey, it's just a normal, or Paul says, it's just a normal, reasonable thing that after all that Jesus has done, your life wouldn't be yours.
[9:12] You'd live it for him. These wise men believe that Jesus is worthy of whatever sacrifice, gift, work, travel, or whatever they may have to do. The trip even is a sign of their worship.
[9:24] They were men of wisdom and leadership, and they recognized that there was someone worthy of their devotion and honor. Our son Chris has now been married. This year will be 18 years.
[9:37] And it seems like it flew by in a blink. But about 19 years ago, his wife, girlfriend at the time, lived in Columbus, Georgia.
[9:48] If you know where that is, that's the kind of middle Georgia right on the edge of Alabama. And we lived in Adairsville. That's north of here and north of Cartersville. And Chris would be ready to go out and preach.
[10:00] He was on deputation. And he had to go preach somewhere. And so he would be going to preach in, let's say, Pennsylvania. And he would get ready to leave, and he would say, I've got to get on the road.
[10:11] Because I've got to get to Pennsylvania. And I'd say, son, you don't really need to leave today to get to Pennsylvania. You can leave tomorrow, and you'll still have plenty of time. He said, I've got to go to Columbus.
[10:23] And I would say, Pennsylvania is that way. Columbus is that way. He said, Daddy, Columbus is on the way to everything. So it didn't matter where he was going.
[10:34] Every trip, we just knew he needed to tag on five or six hours, plus the time he planned on staying there. So he was always making these excuses, these lies up. I mean, he would say, I've got to get to Tennessee, so I'm going to run to Columbus.
[10:48] But that's what you do when you're in love. Can you say amen? And that's what wise men did. They said, he's worth it for me. He's worth it. I would like to know, what are you doing in your heart, your life, with your time, your talents, your income, that shows that he is worthy of your honor and your sacrifice?
[11:07] Worship is saying, you're worth it. You're worth the trip. You're worth focusing my life on. You're worth turning away from everything else. You are worth a trip to Columbus, even to go north.
[11:19] Number two, look if you would in Matthew chapter 2 and verse 8. Herod claims that he wants to go and worship the king. Matthew chapter 2 and verse 8. And he sent them to Bethlehem and said, go and search diligently for the young child.
[11:33] And when you have found him, bring me word again that I may come and worship him also. And worship him also. Of course, Herod's lying. You see, worship means submission.
[11:47] Worship means submission. And Herod had no plans of submitting. Now look just a second. In your mind this morning, worship is when Steve was up here leading the music.
[11:59] That's what y'all are thinking. Well, we've already had the worship service. We're in the Bible study time now. Now see, that's just, you don't even understand the idea of worship when you think that. They'll even say that they're the worship team.
[12:12] The worship team is the people that play the piano and play the musical instruments and lead the singing. And that's the worship part. And then later on we'll have the Bible preaching part. No. Worship is about submitting yourself.
[12:24] Worship is about saying, I'll give up my life to follow you and look for you like a wise man did. Worship. Herod wasn't planning on worshiping. That was a ball-faced lie. He was too big on his own throne and he wasn't about to come down off of it.
[12:38] Worship means you see somebody else as superior to yourself. Worship means that you see the other as worthy of your love and esteem and obedience. It's like you're like, this person really is worth it.
[12:52] Worship. They are worth me worshiping them. Worship is ascribing greatness. And Herod would never be able to do that to anyone. One, true worship would mean that you would lay aside your own plans and look for the Lord himself.
[13:09] But Herod has no plans of putting himself aside. He's going to get rid of Jesus. Look at this. You came to worship this morning.
[13:19] Let me explain something to you. It wasn't about the goosebumps. It wasn't about singing the song. Boy, didn't I like that last special. I thought that was really great. But it wasn't about that. It wasn't, oh, that's a good song and I like that.
[13:32] It's not about holding your hand up. It's not about saying amen. It's not about getting excited. Worship is saying He is big enough and great enough and worth me. Traveling to wherever I have to.
[13:43] Laying aside my plans. Putting Him first. Submitting myself to Him. He is worthy of my worship. Now go with me to chapter 2 and verse 11.
[13:55] Look at some expressions of worship that we can learn from these wise men. In Matthew chapter 2 and verse 11. And when they were coming to the house, they saw the young child and Mary his mother.
[14:08] And they fell down and worshipped Him. And when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto Him gifts. Gold, frankincense, and myrrh.
[14:19] They presented unto Him gold, frankincense, and myrrh. I want you to understand that we have these extremely wealthy people that can make a trip that takes a couple of years.
[14:33] They're bringing big expensive gifts. They're traveling a long distance. And they walk into that house and get in that room where that baby is laying there. And when they get in there, they throw themselves on their knees.
[14:47] They bow down. They put their head on the floor. They are saying, you are worthy. You are superior.
[14:58] I think it was Morocco where I was. I can't remember which country. And I saw this lady come out. And she had the Muslim garb on her head and covered her face.
[15:09] And she was all dressed all the way down. And we were getting off the international airport. And I'm out there waiting on some missionary to pick me up. And I sat there. It had to be Morocco and Erin Bayshore had forgotten to come get me.
[15:20] And I'm sitting there. And I'm sitting there waiting. And this lady comes out. And I'm in a little coffee shop sitting there. And I look across the way. And when that lady got to her, this kid walked up to her. And he was probably in his 20s.
[15:32] And he fell on his knees. And he grabbed her by the bottoms of her legs. And he began to kiss her. And he just started working his way up. And finally he was hugging her and kissing her on the cheeks. But it was like the most wild expression of love I've ever seen.
[15:46] Of adoration I've ever seen. He was worshiping her. It was his mom, I suppose. I think it was probably his mom. But he fell down at her feet. I love Betty. And when Betty was just recently in Peru and had been gone for two weeks.
[15:59] And I was sitting there. And who went down to the airport with me that day to pick you up from the Erin Bayshore. So Erin and I went to the Bayshore. Erin tagged along to pick Betty up.
[16:11] And I said, I've got to keep watching. Because when she comes out, you know, I've got to do the run to meet her in the airport. You know, how you run and you jump and you hold arms. Of course, me, I'm too fat to run. So I kind of walk fast.
[16:21] But Betty, don't you laugh. Betty came almost skipping. And we hugged. And there's Erin. But here's what happens right here. They fall down at his feet.
[16:33] We're not talking about a God who just healed somebody. We're not talking about a God who just fed 5,000 people. We're not talking about God setting up in heaven. They saw a young child probably under the age of two.
[16:46] That's why the story about Jeremiah in here about him killing all the babies under two. He was somewhere between zero and two years of age. That's why I say two years. We're not sure how long. But they fell down.
[16:56] And then they knew he was superior. Write that word down. He was superior. He's above me. Secondly, they showed extravagance.
[17:08] You need to write that word down. They showed extravagance. They fell down. They worshiped, which means they expressed their love in words and actions.
[17:19] And they gave extravagant gifts. You see, love like this, worship like this is extravagant. My goodness. My brother-in-law, my nephew-in-law.
[17:32] My nephew-in-law is going to get married. He's going to invite Betty's brother's daughter to marry him. And what was it? He rented out to a baseball stadium. He rented a whole baseball stadium to himself.
[17:46] And he got her out there and the lights were all on. I mean, that's extravagant. And then he gets down and invites her to marry him. I invited Betty to marry me and said, Would you mind taking your grandmother's wedding engagement ring off your right hand, put it on your left hand, and we'll get married.
[18:00] My brother-in-law's child gets invited in a Boston, I think it was a Boston Red Sox stadium. He got invited. That's extravagant. Here's what the wise men said.
[18:12] You are worthy. You are superior. You're greater than I am. I fall at your feet and I give you gifts. I mean, these weren't $50 gift cards to IHOP.
[18:24] This wasn't a $100 card to go to Longhorn. I mean, these were gifts like you would have been going, Wow! But he is worthy.
[18:36] That's worship. That's worship. They gave him extravagant gifts. They fell down and they worshipped him and they opened their treasures. They didn't give him what was left over.
[18:47] They gave him gifts of real value and meaning. They gave him gifts or tributes to another is to recognize that they're more valuable than you. That's what you do when you're given a gift.
[18:59] They fell down and they worshipped. It was customary to show respect and to prostrate yourself. The idea of bowing down or throwing a kiss or kissing the ground where they walked.
[19:12] That's what they were doing. I just want you to understand. They were worshipping. And they were saying, You're great. They're bowing. They're giving gold and frankincense and myrrh.
[19:25] They're honoring with everything that's in them. They're saying, You are great. Notice this. They worshipped him. Jesus. Not Mary. For those of you who don't know.
[19:37] They recognized who deserved the honor. Their gifts came as an expression of the worship or reverence they felt. Let me give you some gifts you give to show your reverence.
[19:48] The first gift you give is yourself. The Bible says in 2 Corinthians chapter 8 and verse 5, And this they did. Not as we hoped. But they first gave their own selves to the Lord and unto the will of God.
[20:04] You know what is, if you really worship him, you don't come, look, worshipping him and giving these gifts, it wasn't about the gold. It wasn't about the frankincense. It wasn't about the myrrh. It wasn't about the two year journey to get there or a year and a half journey to get there.
[20:17] It was saying, You are worthy. I give you my life. That's the first gift you give him. You know, I could preach today and say, But we ought to give better offerings around here.
[20:28] Let's give some gold, frankincense, and myrrh. But the first gift is you give him your life. When you get married, you say, I love you and good or bad, good times or bad times, rich or poor, I love you.
[20:43] When Betty and I got married, I've told you this before, but when Betty and I got married, her daddy had taken her to every kind of doctor, to the eye doctor, the mouth doctor, the body doctor. He had a full tune-up run on her.
[20:53] She was 19, and when he handed her to me, he says, I've had her checked out. She's in good shape from head to toe. From now on, she's your expense, not mine. That was 40 years ago.
[21:05] But she said, Here's the deal. Here's the deal. He said, I came to give myself to the Lord. Have you given yourself to the Lord?
[21:16] The cheap way out is an offering. Tithing is like the cheapest cheating way in the world to serve God.
[21:28] I'll give God 10%, $10 out of every 100, as long as I can do anything I want with the other 90. I'll give God one Sunday morning in the morning. I'll give Him an hour.
[21:39] Do I give Him two? Hey, I'll give Him, hey, I'll give Him Sunday morning, Sunday night and Wednesday, with a Thursday night. I'll give Him all those hours, but I won't do whatever I want with the rest of your life. No, you give yourself. Second thing you do is, 2 Corinthians 5, verse 14, you quit living for yourself.
[21:55] The Bible says, For the love of Christ constrains us, because we thus judge, and if one died for all, then we're all dead. And that he that died for all, that they which live, should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them.
[22:12] And Rosie, and you won't worship this morning, you give him your life. You won't worship this morning, you honestly begin to think like this, What do you want? How can I please you?
[22:23] I don't live for me, I live for you. Jesus, my life is yours, it's surrendered to you, my thoughts, my mouth, my actions, my walk, everything about it, I live for you.
[22:35] Give him a broken heart, and a contrite heart. In Psalm chapter 51, verse 17, The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.
[22:49] How have you shown that he is superior? What extravagance have you given, or shown, towards him? There was a woman in the New Testament, who came in, and cried over his feet, took her hair, and dried his feet, and broke open her most precious possession, and poured the ointment on his feet, and it was such an extravagant gift, that the treasurer of the early church said, why have you wasted that, when you could have sold it, and given that to the poor?
[23:23] We'd have had 200 days of salary, of minimum wage, that we could have given to the poor, but she was showing extravagance. Jesus, you're worth taking my hair, which according to 1 Corinthians 11, is her glory, and crying over his feet, and taking her glory, and wrapping her glory around his feet, and then taking her most precious object, and just breaking it, and pouring it on his feet, she was saying, you are worthy.
[23:50] That's worship. Here's some truths about worship. If you have your Bible, turn with me to Psalm 115, verse 1. Psalm 115, and verse 1, if you would.
[24:04] Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto Thy name, give glory, for Thy mercy, and for Thy truth's sake, underline it, but unto Thy name.
[24:15] God, I didn't come to get for me today. I didn't come so You'd prosper me. I didn't come so You'd make me wealthy. I didn't come so You'd make me healthy. I came for Your name. Number two, wherefore, why should the heathens say, where is now their God?
[24:30] Our God is in heaven, and He hath done whatsoever He hath pleased. Write this down. You become like what you worship. You become like what you worship.
[24:42] Verse 4 said, Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men's hands. They have mouths, but they speak not, and eyes have they, but they see not, ears they hear not, noses that can't smell, and hands that don't handle, and feet that don't walk, and neither speak they through their throat.
[24:59] They that make them are likened to them, so is everyone that trusteth in them. Let me tell you, listen, be careful. Here's the truth about worship. We often create a God we worship, just as much as these idol makers did.
[25:13] They might have made them out of metal. They might have made them out of wood, but we have created a God who does what we want Him to do. We have created a God who looks up to us.
[25:24] We have created a God who respects us. We come expecting Him to give us extravagant gifts. We come expecting Him to bless our lives instead of coming to Him and saying, you are worthy of everything.
[25:37] You're worthy of my life. You're worthy of my time. You're worthy of my money. I will no longer seek for myself. I'm here for you. You can tell what a person worships by the way it rules their time, their energy, their thoughts, and longings and choices.
[25:52] When you fall in love, have you ever noticed a boy, you know, of course, some of you are so far past that you don't remember. There was a time when this guy ran around with all the boys. He was playing soccer or football or video games or whatever it is young people do.
[26:07] And he's one of the guys. Everybody loves him. And they all know they can talk to him any time they want. And they call him up and let's go run and do this or that. And then he finds a girl one day. And when he finds a girl, they call him and say, hey, you want to go play football?
[26:20] You want to go to the game? And he goes, I'm busy. You're busy? You've never been busy. You're always ready to go play. Oh man, I've got something else to do today.
[26:31] I'm not going to be able to go. All right. All right. They call him back the next time and he's busy again. And finally they say, that girl took over your life. That's worship. That's what happens when you fall in love with Jesus.
[26:43] When you fall in love with Jesus, worship is more than singing and emotions that come with musical worship. Worship has to do with work in the tabernacle, the sacrifices, the praises and the prayers, anything being done for God.
[26:57] Worship always has an idea of extravagance, of abundant giving, respect and admiration, extravagance in devotion, extravagance in the esteem felt.
[27:10] Worship is our response to God, who He is, what He says, what He does through our mind, our will and our emotions. And you have to worship Him like He wants to be worshipped.
[27:22] Because that's the whole point about worship. You won't get to worship Him like you want to. He said in John chapter 4, 23 and 24, you worship Him in spirit and truth. You have to worship Him like He wants.
[27:32] It's not physical. It's not outward as many religions have made it. It's coming from your innermost being and expression of who you really are. I love you, Jesus.
[27:44] Worship is your identity before it's your activity. Worship is your identity before it's your activity. Worship. When you worship everything you think, desire, choose, do or say is shaped by your worship.
[28:02] When you worship, it affects everything about it. Being a worshiper means that you attach your identity, your meaning, your purpose, your inner sense of well-being to the one you worship.
[28:15] worship, it's all about Him. It's all about this person or this thing. By the way, no one can understand your reasoning to be so fanatical about your worship.
[28:27] See, people don't mind you believing in God. They don't even mind you coming to church. But man, don't let it bother you all week long. Don't let Jesus interrupt your normal, everyday life.
[28:39] Give Him an hour on Sunday morning, but don't get fanatical about it. But you can be fanatical about a ball team. You can be fanatical about a political party.
[28:50] You can talk about it anywhere you want. It's so funny, we were at the summit and a friend of mine said, tomorrow I'm wearing all my Ohio stuff. They're playing. So he walks in the room, he's an Ohio man, but he wanted everybody to know it.
[29:05] Yesterday I saw my grandson, I saw my grandson, Jacob, I don't know what, I don't know who got to Georgia on him. He had a Georgia cap on, he had a Georgia jacket on, he had Georgia sweatpants on, everything about him was G, G, G, G, G.
[29:17] I said, man I love that, you wear all G's for granddaddy, don't you? And he looked at me and said, no sir, these are for Georgia. Nobody understands your fanaticism.
[29:32] Put that big cheesehead thing on, can you imagine that? I went to a soccer game with one of the guys from the church one time, he took us to a soccer game, a hockey game, we went to the hockey, I could not believe the way they dress and the way they act.
[29:45] Worship by giving him glory. Give him glory with your good works. Matthew 5, 16, let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven.
[29:59] Worship him by sharing the gospel with others. In John 15, 80, he said, herein is my Father glorified glorified that you bear much fruit. So shall you be my disciples.
[30:10] Do you really worship Jesus this morning? That's the question for you. Do you really worship him? What extravagance are you showing towards him? What devotion do you show towards him?
[30:24] Listen, it's a sad thing to think that we would all be quote unquote worshipers of Jesus and yet he hardly enters our minds except when we come to church.
[30:36] He hardly affects our daily life. Does he dominate your thoughts? Betty and I got married on August the 18th, 1973.
[30:49] It was Saturday. It was five o'clock in the afternoon and we got married and we skipped church on Sunday morning. Don't tell anybody that. I did go to church on Sunday night. I mean, I didn't skip a lot of church but I skipped Sunday morning.
[31:02] And that week, that week we did not separate for the entire week. We stayed at our apartment and we did not separate one time. I mean, we were in an apartment. And that following Sunday all the students started coming back to the college I went to and they were calling up and we were buddies.
[31:16] We've been buddies all this time. They were calling us and back then they weren't any cell phones and they called and they said, hey, can you come help us put our stuff in the dorm room? And I'm like, I don't know.
[31:29] We kind of hard. I've got to be away from Betty. They said, it's a men's dorm, man. You can't bring her. Okay. So I drove to the dorm and I was helping them put their stuff in.
[31:41] And after we'd been there about 30, 40 minutes, I said, guys, I need to make a phone call. I went down to the pay phone. You know, I know they don't exist anymore but they used to. And I put my quarter in or dime in or whatever it cost back then.
[31:53] And I, hey, Betty, hey, baby, I'm missing you. She said, I'm missing you, baby. She dominated my thoughts. It was all in my mind, all I could think about.
[32:06] All the time we were apart, I was thinking, I've got to get her. But she leaves and goes to Peru and all I could, every day was when she's coming home. Do you focus on him? Do you consider any sacrifice just to be a reasonable sacrifice?
[32:21] These wise men came from a long ways off bearing gifts, giving up everything, putting their lives on hold, falling on their faces to say, whew, you are worthy.
[32:38] Now you come to church every Sunday and I appreciate that. You're faithful. I'll say that. You're faithful. But I want to know, do you worship him? Do you worship him?
[32:50] Tomorrow morning is he going to be on your mind? Tomorrow afternoon in the middle of that big business deal, will Jesus cross your mind? Wednesday, will he be on your mind at any time?
[33:03] Will he be a part of your thought process? Do you think that every time you make some money, it's thank you, Lord Jesus. Every time you're healthy and you get up, thank you, Lord Jesus. It's always, he's so good.
[33:15] He's so good. Do you worship him? Do you worship him? Father in heaven, I love you and I thank you for the opportunity to talk to your people this morning and I pray that you might help us to worship you and teach us as a church how to worship that we might magnify you and glorify you and think of you as who you are, the great God of heaven.
[33:35] I love you and I praise you and I thank you for the opportunity to be in your house and I pray, God, that you would cause us to worship you, to find you worth it.
[33:46] no gift too big, no love too great, no expression too fanatical. We love you.
[33:59] This message was recorded at Vision Baptist Church in Alfredo, Georgia. For more information, log on to www.visionbaptist.com where you can find our service times, location, contact information and more audio and video recordings.
[34:15] Thanks.