[0:00] This message was recorded at Vision Baptist Church in Alfred, Georgia. The title of this message is, They Fell Down and Worshipped Him.
[0:14] All right, take your Bibles if you would and open them to Matthew chapter 2. Matthew chapter 2 if you would, and we're going to read the first 12 verses. And if I could, I want to talk to you just a few minutes about worship.
[0:26] I have enjoyed very much learning about worship as I've prepared for tonight. And these wise men came and fell down and worshiped and gave gifts.
[0:38] Read with me if you would, Matthew chapter 2 verses 1 and following. Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem saying, Where is he that is born king of the Jews?
[0:54] For we have seen his star in the east and are come to worship him. When Herod the king had heard these things, he was troubled in all Jerusalem with him. And when he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together, he demanded of them where Christ should be born.
[1:11] And they said unto him, In Bethlehem of Judea, for thus it is written by the prophet, And thou Bethlehem in the land of Judah are not the least among the princes of Judah.
[1:22] For out of thee shall come a governor that shall rule my people Israel. Then Herod, when he had privately called the wise men, inquired of them diligently what time the star appeared.
[1:33] And he sent them to Bethlehem and said, Go and search diligently for the young child. And when you have found him, bring me word again that I may come and worship him also.
[1:44] When they had heard the king, they departed. And lo, the star which they saw in the east went before them till it came and stood over where the young child was. And when they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy.
[1:57] When they were coming into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother and fell down and worshipped him. And when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts, gold, frankincense, and myrrh.
[2:11] And being warned of God in a dream that they should not return to Herod, they departed into their own country another way. Father, I pray that you would deal with our hearts. And I pray that you would help us to learn to worship.
[2:24] And worship better than we do. To grow in our worship for you. Help us to understand what the term means. Help us, Lord, to apply it to our lives. Help us to learn from Scripture how we can worship you in spirit and in truth.
[2:38] God, I praise you and thank you for Jesus coming. And I thank you for all that you've done. And I just pray that tonight your name would be honored and glorified in Jesus' precious name. Amen.
[2:49] Probably one of those words that's often misunderstood by us and I know by me is the word worship. And there are three times in the passage we're going to look at that. We're going to talk about what it means to worship.
[3:02] Worship. Most of the time when we use the word worship, most of us, especially you younger people, you think that means the music part of the service. And we worship. And we have the boring part.
[3:13] We have the teacher come up and teach us something about the Bible. And maybe we don't understand the word worship. So I thought maybe tonight as we look at when the wise men showed up to see Jesus at the house.
[3:26] He's about two years old. They came and they worshiped him. And they are going to give us some good pictures of what it means to worship. So if you have your Bible, go with me.
[3:38] And let's go first to verse 2. And you might write this one down. They traveled a great distance to worship him. They traveled a great distance to worship him. Verse 2 says, saying, where is he that is born king of the Jews?
[3:51] For we have seen his star in the east and are come to worship him. So I spent the day, really, yesterday and today, looking up every verse in the Bible that uses the word worship.
[4:02] Studying what the word worship means. Thinking in my own life about what the word worship means. So I would worship God more. I want to worship him. I want to magnify him with my life.
[4:13] And I know that you do. And I want to spread the worship of Jesus around the world. Worship means to acknowledge that someone or something else is greater, worth more, and so ought to be obeyed, feared, and adored.
[4:27] All that comes in just what the word worship means. It kind of comes from the idea of worthy. Worship comes from the idea of worthy. It is the idea that somebody is bigger and better and greater.
[4:38] These three men are like rulers. These three men, we sing, we three kings of Orient are. And we sing that because the wise men were like leaders and rulers in their country.
[4:49] But they saw something and they knew that somebody was being born that was of greater person, greater value, greater place than they were and was worthy that they would travel a great distance, find him, take gifts to him, bow down to him, and tell him how great he was.
[5:06] And so they traveled a great distance. It's the idea of giving yourself completely to the person or object. It has apparently been nearly two years.
[5:17] He's no longer in the manger like you see. In the story, he's at a house now and he's older and these guys have seen his star and they have come traveling a long way. It's probably the Shekinah glory of God.
[5:28] And they've traveled a long way to find him because you see, worship says, I don't care what it costs, you're worth it. I don't care how hard it is, you're worth it. I don't care how much time it takes, you're worth it because you are greater than I am.
[5:42] It is the idea that I want to be mastered by something. That's why it says in Romans 12, 1 gives the idea. You remember the verse? It says, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God that you present your bodies, a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God.
[5:58] And that is your reasonable service. In other words, it's not really a big deal that I would give my life to God and I would live a sacrificial life. And I would give my money and my time and my talents because after all, he saved me.
[6:11] After all, he died on a cross for me. After all, he has showed great mercy towards me. And so the apostle Paul says, Hey guys, don't be mistaken here. It's just a normal, everyday, usual, reasonable thing.
[6:24] Why would you think of anything big to give your life to God? After all, God has done for you. These wise men believe that Jesus is worthy of whatever sacrifice, gift, work, or travel that they have to do.
[6:36] Even this trip is a sign of their worship. They were men of wisdom and leadership and they recognize that somebody was worthy of their devotion and their honor. Leave their families, leave their businesses or whatever they had.
[6:50] Travel a great distance bringing gifts of great value to find him and say, We are here to worship you. Look at verse 8. Here's false worship. In verse 8, you find some false worship.
[7:01] And he sent Herod, sent them to Bethlehem and said, Go and search diligently for the young child. And when you have found him, bring me word again that I may come and worship him. But he's a liar.
[7:13] He has no intentions of worshiping him Because worship has with it the idea of submission. Worship has it with the idea of giving up your desires and your plans, and lowering yourself to realize that the other person is higher and superior to you.
[7:31] Worship means you see him as worthy of your love and your esteem and your obedience. Worship means that you ascribe greatness to him. And obviously Herod, a lost king, had no desire to say, He is greater than I am.
[7:44] He is of far greater value than I am. He ought to be respected more than me. I ought to give my life to him. He is lying. He does not want to worship him. True worship would have meant that he would have to lay aside his plans and look to the Lord himself with no desire.
[7:58] He has no desire to set aside his plans. Could I just stop and say, It's false worship when you come to church, and you sing songs, and you think I'm worshiping, but the truth is there's no obedience there. Could I just say it's false worship when you pray and ask God for stuff, but you never say, Your will be done, not mine.
[8:15] Could I say it's not real worship when you come to him and think he's a genie in a bottle, and he ought to do what you say. That's not worship. You're trying to use him. That's like Herod. You're in the same worshiping game that Mr. Herod was in when he said that to the Lord.
[8:29] These wise men say he is worthy. He is worthy that we get on a camel. He is worthy that we travel for days and weeks. He is worthy that we get our gifts together. He is worthy that we get burned by the sun if it takes it.
[8:41] He is worthy that the desert winds blow on our face. He is worthy because he is somebody great. He's a king, and we know it, and we'll go to him. Herod says, I want to worship him too. And so Herod tells a story.
[8:54] Number three, if you would. Number three, look at verse 11 with me, if you would. Verse 11. And when they came to the house, they saw the young child with Mary, his mother, and they fell down and worshipped him.
[9:06] And when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh. They fell down and worshipped him and opened their treasures and presented unto him gold and frankincense and myrrh.
[9:22] They fell down, which was a sign that they recognized that he was superior. They fell. Kings, leaders, rulers dropped to their knees, dropped their face to the ground.
[9:39] Worship has the idea of extravagance. It's the idea of worshipping a dollar, worshipping a team, worshipping a music idol. That's where you might understand it.
[9:50] Have you ever noticed how when they worship them, they'll dress up in all their colors. They'll dress up. They'll paint their bodies or whatever it takes. They'll dress like them. Have you ever noticed how many young people have figured out to dress like Mr. Justin, whatever his name is, Bieber, Bieber, whatever that guy's name is.
[10:05] You ever, that's worship. They're saying, hey, he's big enough that I'm going to copy his hairstyle. He's big enough that I want him to make decisions about how I wear my hair. And here's what, that's exactly what's going on in this story right here.
[10:15] They're saying, hey, guess what? We worship him. We recognize, we show extravagance. What kind of extravagance? They fall down. They fall down. They express their love in words and actions.
[10:29] They express their words in love and actions. They gave extravagant gifts. They gave extravagant gifts. And everybody's going to preach about it. I don't really want to. I'm not going to this year at all.
[10:40] But you know what? They come and they bring gold to him. They come and they bring gold to him. That's the mineral of kings. That's the mineral of royalty. And they bring, a long distance, they bring gold and frankincense and myrrh.
[10:53] And they bring all of those to him. And they bring these gifts. And they lay down at his feet these gifts. They open their treasures. They don't give God what's left over. You ever considered that worship is part of, giving is part of your worship?
[11:04] You ever considered that when, I read today, you do not believe this, I read today on one of the news briefs that came out that men tend to buy their mistresses more expensive gifts than they do to their wives.
[11:22] And they just ran a whole thing and they found out that men buy their mistress jewelry and their wife a toaster. And they made the comment that it's amazing what you can see how they, which one they think one is comfortable and one's at the house, but one's worthy of whatever it costs.
[11:39] And they recognize that worship, worship. They gave gifts, gifts of real value, gifts of real meaning. They gave gifts to recognize that you are more valuable.
[11:50] No one came to visit King Solomon without bringing him gifts. When you go to visit the king, you take a gift in your hand. These wise men came in and they fell down and worshiped.
[12:04] They fell down. That was customary. And the idea of worship that you would show respect. The word worship means to prostrate, to throw yourself on your face in front of the other person.
[12:15] It's the idea that you might have from the old west of the guy taking off his coat and throwing it over the mud puddle so the lady can step across. It's the idea that you would lay down so the other person could step on you to get to the other side.
[12:26] These leaders, these rulers, these kings came in and bowed down. The Persians and where these guys come from, they had a, they have a custom when they meet.
[12:37] But they had the idea of bowing and throwing a kiss or kissing the ground where the other person walked. The books say that the ancient Persians, when they're on the same level, they kissed on the mouth.
[12:50] Both kissed each other on the mouth. And if they weren't the same level, they kissed on the cheek. If there was a slight difference. But if there was a major difference, one of them would bow down to the ground and kiss the ground.
[13:01] And then throw kisses at the person. And I was in Morocco and I'd gotten off the airplane and, and I was waiting on Aaron Bayshore. And he was coming to pick me up and I was there for quite a while.
[13:13] And I saw a woman come out. And she came out and she was dressed in all the traditional garb. And I saw a young man come over. I've never seen anything like it. I've asked a lot of guys and they've not seen it.
[13:24] But this young man came over and he fell down at her, at her feet. And he held the ground and he hugged her feet above his head. And he said, and he was crying and making noise. I couldn't understand. And then he was kissing her feet.
[13:35] Then he started kissing her legs. And he worked his way up. And she had her hand on his head and she was kissing his head. And he was showing a reverence for her. Basically, that's what's going on here. These guys are coming to Jesus and they're like, we know you're big.
[13:48] We know you're great. We know you're famous. We know you deserve respect. We know that it's bowing down. And I'd keep on telling how many times a drunk would come up and think maybe that I was a priest or a bishop of something of the Roman Catholic Church.
[14:03] So in the city of Adikipa, they'd be drunk and they'd come to church and they would bow down in front of me and kiss my ring. I've had my hand kissed on so many times because they were showing reverence. And that's what goes on.
[14:13] These kings, these wise men fall on the ground and they bow down and they kiss. By the way, notice in the verses they worshiped Jesus, not Mary.
[14:24] They recognized who deserved the honor. It was Jesus. Their gifts came as an expression of worship or reverence that they felt. I just want to take all the little things that I read and I'm going to give you a summary now of some little facts, I think, about worship that we ought to apply to ourselves.
[14:41] I'm afraid that Austin Gardner doesn't worship like he ought to. I'm afraid that we don't worship maybe like we ought to. And let me go around. Let me go through some things with you.
[14:51] Let me just get you to write some things down. Number one, did you know you become like what you worship? Worship, you become like what you worship. Look, if you will, me at Psalm chapter 115 and we'll read verses 1 through 8.
[15:03] And I could say to you that we could see that in our young people, whoever they emulate, whoever their heroes are, it begins to affect their attitude. It begins to affect the way they dress, the way they talk, the way they walk. It affects us, whoever we put up as a hero.
[15:15] And whoever you worship will be like you'll become like them because they become the focus of your life. Because they are valuable, because they're important, because they deserve your utmost given to them.
[15:29] In Psalm chapter 115 verses 1 through 8, they're talking about the idols of gold and silver. The Bible says, Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory for thy mercy and for thy truth's sake.
[15:41] Wherefore should the heathen say, Where is now their God? But our God is in the heavens, and he hath done whatsoever he hath pleased. Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men's hands.
[15:52] They have mouths, but they speak not. Eyes have they, but they see not. Ears, but they hear not. Noses, but they smell not. They have hands, but they handle not. Feet, but they walk not. Neither speak they through their throat.
[16:04] Verse 8. This is the key verse. This is one. I really, I just didn't think you could get it without all of it. Listen to verse 8. They that make them are likened to them. So is everyone that trusteth in them.
[16:17] You know what happened is they devoted themselves to that idol, as they made that idol, as they put all that stuff into it. They became like the idol. The idol became like them. When I focus on Jesus Christ, and I put him up as first, and when I look at him, and I meditate on him, and I think about him all the time, it's going to transform my life, because I have my eyes placed on Jesus.
[16:37] You can tell what a person worships by the way it rules their time, energy, thoughts, longings, and choices. What you worship rules everything about your life.
[16:48] What you worship rules everything about your life. If something is so valuable that you'd get on a camel and travel for weeks or months, maybe years to get to him, and you would bring gifts, and you would bow down and honor him, you're saying, this rules my life.
[17:04] There are people that sports rule their lives. If their team is doing poorly, they're discouraged. If their team is doing well, they're excited. They're dressed like their team. They'll go out in freezing cold weather, dressed like some idiot to say, I'm in love with my team.
[17:19] And you know what he said? He said, listen, whatever you worship rules your thoughts, rules your mind, rules your emotions, rules everything. Worship is much more than singing and emotions that come with musical worship.
[17:34] I love the singing, and that's a vital, important part, but it is, you are cheating yourself, and you're cheating the Lord if you think that's worship. That's a small part of worship, and we ought to sing.
[17:47] By the way, half-hearted songs are an insult to our God. When we sing like we don't mean them, we're saying, I'm just going to say the words. I'm just going through the act. Betty, I love you.
[17:59] Let me count the ways, and I read Elizabeth Browning Barrett or whatever her name was, poem to her, and I have no idea, and I don't care, and I don't show any emphasis. It's just, you'd say, that's dumb. You shouldn't do that.
[18:09] But we do that almost every service we come in here. It comes time to pray. Our hearts don't get lifted up in the song. It comes time for the ladies and the gentlemen are singing special music, and our hearts aren't lifted up in the song, and we're not excited about what's being said.
[18:23] We do it without emotion. By the way, in the Old Testament, I don't have time to go through all these, but in the Old Testament, worship had to do with the work you did at the tabernacle or the temple. Did you know worship, part of that's the sacrifice.
[18:35] That was part of their worship. When they would take that animal and kill that animal and take that animal and put him on the altar, that was part of their worship. They would bring that animal. They were to bring the first. They would bring one that was unblemished.
[18:46] They would bring one that had specific rules about what it was to be like. They brought the sacrifice. Their praise was a part of worship. Their prayers were a part of worship. Anything being done for God out of love for him is a part of our worship.
[19:00] And so, when you give your offering, did you know every Sunday, do you realize that a tithe is a wild and a crazy thing? And those of us who tithe or give more than a tithe and give to missions, don't you realize that everybody else thinks we're crazy?
[19:13] But we're like, hey man, we're in love with Jesus. And it doesn't matter. It's a reasonable sacrifice. I'll give God what I got, and I'll give him more of what I got because he is worthy. And he deserves what I give him. I worship him.
[19:24] And this money is to worship him. By the way, you'll go home this week, and to be honest with you, this week you'll worship your kids, and you will spend. It'll take you a year to get out of debt for what you spend for one day.
[19:36] But it's worth it because you love your kids, and you will worship. And actually, you'll feel bad if you don't spend enough, and then you'll feel bad you did. Say, man, it's like, man, I feel real guilty.
[19:48] I didn't spend more money on him the day after. But you're like, man, I feel real bad. I spent as much as I did. It'll take me a year to get out of it. But it's amazing. We don't understand that. And by the way, it doesn't matter how cold it is for the ball game, and it doesn't matter what the ticket costs.
[20:01] You can tailgate, and you can everything else because when you're in love, there's an extravagance you spend. There was an extravagance in respect and admiration paid to. Do you remember a girl named Michael?
[20:14] Or maybe Michelle would be a better way of putting it in our day and term to David's wife. And she looked out, and David was bringing the ark into town. As he brought the ark into town, they were playing all the instruments, and he was dancing. And he had taken off his outer garments, and he was not dressed like a king, and he was not acting like a king.
[20:28] He wasn't in his underwear, by the way. He just didn't have on his long, flowing robes. He wasn't naked like so many people tell you. What he had done was he had dishonored himself because a king never shows emotion.
[20:39] And a king carries himself in a certain dignified way. But all of a sudden, David said, I don't care what anybody thinks about me. I don't care how anybody looks at me. He is my God, and I love him, and I will sing, and I will shout, and I will run around, and I'll be excited about him.
[20:53] And his wife said, you're not acting like a king. My daddy would never do that. Of course her daddy wouldn't. He was Saul, who was a wicked guy. Didn't love Jesus.
[21:04] And yet there was an extravagance in the way of the respect and the admiration and the devotion. There was an extravagance in the esteem that they felt. We ought to come to church with the idea, man, I'm serving God.
[21:17] When it comes time to sing. I have a missionary friend who was in Mexico for years, and he taught a choir how to sing. And when you would go in their church, it was a little small church, but they could get a couple hundred in there. And the building was small, and they would sing without any kind of speakers and knock you down.
[21:31] I'm telling you, your hair is flying straight back when they're singing. I mean, it was like the loudest noise you ever heard in your life. And I said to him, I said, how do you get them to sing that loud? He said, I tell him, if I can't see your tonsils, you're not singing.
[21:44] And buddy, they sang. You say, well, that's ridiculous, but extravagance, it was worship. By the way, if we'd have been there, I think we'd have been a tad uncomfortable that day, unless you understand worship.
[21:57] Here come these guys in their royal bearings with their fancy clothes on and their camels and enough money. Nobody could take a trip that long if they're not already wealthy.
[22:07] And they came in the room, and they got down off their camels, and they started saying, we've come this far because we saw his star. And we know he is great, and we've come to worship him. And they fall down, and most likely they've got their forehead on the ground, and they're picking up kisses, and they're throwing them at him.
[22:22] And they're saying, he is worthy. He's the king. And we've come to praise him. We've come to say, he's great, and he's mighty, and he created the earth. He's the God that God sent him. He's going to rule the world. And after they got through saying all that wonderful stuff, and whatever all they did, then they said, and not only that, we brought him some money, some gifts.
[22:40] They whipped out gold and frankincense and myrrh. There was an extravagance. Worship is our response to God, who he is, what he says, what he does, through our mind and will and emotions and body.
[22:56] We ought to be excited. I cannot explain to you, but I think you should understand, I cannot explain to you how I felt in 1973 when a young lady named Betty Ferguson said she would marry me.
[23:13] I cannot explain to you what you have seen if you had gone up on one of them mountains, one of them hills on the backside of my daddy's farm, and you'd seen a boy in blue jeans without his shirt on, weighed 145 pounds, standing up on a tractor, screaming at the top of his lungs, singing, I'm going to the chapel, and I'm going to get married.
[23:33] You'd have said, that guy's crazy. I'd sing, and I'd talk about her, and I'd holler at God, man, God, I love you. Thank you for sending Betty to me. You know, you would have said that. He's crazy, and I probably wouldn't have done that if you'd have been watching, but guess what?
[23:44] When you love Jesus, you just want to tell him how much you love him. By the way, you know what keeps our marriage good is when you learn to be a little extravagant in some of the nice things you would say. By the way, we worship God in spirit and in truth, not in some prescribed physical manner.
[23:59] Look, if you would, at John chapter 4, verses 23 and 24, if you would. But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshiper shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth.
[24:10] For the Father seeketh such to worship him. God is spirit. They that worship him must worship him in spirit and truth. Not so physical, not so outward as many religions have made it.
[24:22] But can I remind you that I'm pretty sure these Persians probably looked a lot like what you might see when some Islamic God bows down and goes to knees.
[24:33] You know, they got that spot on their head because they've hit the ground so many times in their worship. Can I just remind you that it was probably very outward and, but people have learned how to play the outward game.
[24:44] And by the way, we've learned how to play it, haven't we? We all know how to carry our Bibles and we all know how to say amen at the right time. We even know how to hold our hand up at the right time. We know how to act like we're really worshiping Jesus.
[24:56] And Jesus said, I'm not into what you're doing with your body. Oh, it's okay. He said, but I'm not into that. I want to know, is it coming from your heart and is it true? Is it from your innermost being? Is it an expression of who you really are?
[25:10] This is a great one you should write down. Not mine. I stole it. Worship is your identity before it's your activity. Worship is your identity before it's your activity.
[25:25] Worship's your identity. And by the way, we carry his name and call ourselves Christians. In every way, we are saying we worship Jesus.
[25:41] When you worship him, everything you think about, desire, choose, do or say is shaped by your worship. I grew up in the country with a lot of country hicks, but I never heard my granddaddy say anything without saying, Lord willing.
[25:58] My granddaddy would say, we're going to go to town tomorrow and buy some corn. Lord willing. He said, well, that's ridiculous. That's just an outward show. It might have been, but I don't think it really was with him.
[26:08] I remember every time one of us young guys would take our girlfriends that we were thinking about marrying, we'd go see my grandmama, my granddaddy. Buddy, they were older and dirt.
[26:19] My mother was number 10 of 10. They were all born two years apart. And so, you know, I came along 18 years or 19 years after they got married.
[26:29] And I walked in with Betty and my grandmother. Always had the same question. You're a Christian. You love Jesus. My grandmother always pushed my hair back because I let it grow too long to suit her.
[26:41] In the front, she'd push my hair back and say, won't you love Jesus? She was pretty much an ignorant country lady. She didn't know any philosophy. She didn't know any theology to speak of. She just knew she loved Jesus.
[26:53] It is who you are. It is who you are when you're truly worshiping. By the way, if this trip had taken five minutes, these guys had just run over real quick to bring some gifts. They'd wrapped up and say, here, this is for Jesus.
[27:04] We're on our way to another party. Wouldn't have been much worship to it. But every morning as they got up and packed their stuff up on their camels and loaded back up on the camel and rode another 10 or 12 hours and got off the camel and unpacked their stuff and spent the night and got up the next day and rode on every day.
[27:18] They were saying, we believe in him. And we're going to go worship him. He is worthy of our worship. Being a worshiper means that you attach your identity, your meaning, your purpose, your inner sense of well-being to the one you worship.
[27:35] Jesus is all the world to me. I'd rather have Jesus. Silver or gold, I'd rather have Jesus. We sing those songs. Those are worship songs.
[27:45] No one can even understand the reasoning for why we are so fanatical about our worship. What are we doing here on a Thursday night before Christmas when it's raining that hard? I'll tell you why.
[27:56] We decided we love Jesus. You know why we'll read our Bibles tomorrow and why we'll spend a little time in prayer? Because we decided we love Jesus. You know why we give sacrificial offerings to get the gospel around the world and to glorify Jesus?
[28:08] Because we decided we love Jesus. Do you truly worship Jesus? By the way, the worship service starts in the morning when you're getting dressed.
[28:21] The worship service starts in the car as you're riding in here. The worship service is every minute you're thinking about him and how wonderful he is. The worship service is that quiet time. The worship service is definitely that singing time.
[28:32] The worship service is when they bring that offering plate back. The worship service is when the words preached and you listen and the Holy Spirit speaks to your heart and you say, yes, I'll do that. Yes, I'll apply that to my life. And yes, God's speaking to me.
[28:44] The worship service is when you go home and your wife finds out if you're really living it. Do we really worship Jesus? Does he dominate our thoughts? Does he dominate our thoughts?
[28:57] Most of the lost people I've known, one thing seems to dominate their life. Friday afternoon, getting off work, getting to go home, getting to go to the ball game. What dominates their vacation?
[29:09] Their retirement, their money, their Jeep, their car, their horse, their sport. But it dominates them. You can see it. You can see it. Boy, you can see it with the icons that stick on the back of their car.
[29:23] You can see it with the stuff they wear. You can see it with the tattoos they put on their body. It dominates them. You and I worship Jesus. Do we worship Jesus? Does he dominate your thoughts?
[29:34] As you raise your children, do you think to yourself, I am raising them for Jesus? As you get up in the morning, are you thinking, I'm living for Jesus, I want to worship him?
[29:45] Do you focus on Jesus? Last question. Do you consider any sacrifice you've made simply your reasonable sacrifice? Some of us, somewhere along the way, start worshiping ourselves and we start acting like, man, I have really given a lot of money and I've really given a lot of time and I've really given a lot of talent.
[30:05] And we forget it's all for Jesus. I think it's an interesting story. These wise men, however many there were, we say three because that's what everybody's told us and because there were three gifts, but there probably weren't three.
[30:23] They've traveled a long ways. They've gotten to the house. They walk in that house. And when they get in that house, they fall down. Please understand, these men are not accustomed to falling down before anybody.
[30:38] They're not accustomed to bowing to anybody. They're not accustomed to reverencing anyone. They are leaders.
[30:49] They come to Jesus and they don't kneel down. The word is they fell down. They dropped like they were shot. We're in the presence.
[31:01] Of the king. They knelt. They worshiped. And they gave. It's Christmas. And the truth is the peppermint sticks and candy and stockings and trees and decorations and Santa Claus.
[31:29] And what am I getting for Christmas and gifts will dominate our thoughts. It'll dominate our thoughts. Are we spending enough money? It'll dominate our thoughts.
[31:41] Are they going to like it? But really, no matter how much we cry about people keeping Christ in Christmas, most of us don't. We three kings of Orient are traveling afar.
[32:01] They brought their gifts. They said, man, he's worth our worship. And they came and they worshiped. I don't want to work. I want to worship. I don't want to just sing.
[32:14] I want to worship. I told him today I was alone. The house was empty. That's not happened. Doesn't happen all that much. And I said, Lord, I want to worship you. I want these walls to hear me say I love you.
[32:27] I want every demon in the county to know I love you. I want people to hear I love you. I want to say it clear. I love you. And you are worthy of my thoughts.
[32:39] Worship. It's my identity before it's what I do. Worship. Worship. He is worthy of everything I could possibly give him.
[32:54] Father in heaven, I love you. And I want to worship you. And I ask for goodness for how I fail to worship you. I know I get so busy doing things and I often forget why I'm doing them.
[33:05] I'm kind of like Martha and I'm running around and all hurried and worried and bothered. And I forget to sit at your feet and soak in the words and tell you that I love you. I want to worship you.
[33:17] God, I come in sometimes and I'm so worried about what I'm going to preach that I forget to worship you in the songs. God, I get so used to giving the certain amount of money I give that I forget to worship you in the giving.
[33:29] God, I get so used to just doing things like I do things and I forget to worship you. I want to worship you. I want you to know beyond any shadow of a doubt that I love you and you are worthy of everything in my life.
[33:45] You have been listening to Austin Gardner, pastor of Vision Baptist Church. For contact information, location, service times, or more audio and video recordings, log on to www.visionbaptist.com.
[34:03] Thank you for joining me. Thank you. God damnchool. You will see us at all. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning.
[34:15] Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good afternoon. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning.
[34:26] Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning.