(This transcript was generated by AI. Apologies for any inacuracies)

If you have your Bibles, I invite you to open it up to the Christmas narrative.

And it's found in our Bible in Matthew chapter two.

And we're gonna read verses one through 12 of this narrative today.

And we're gonna learn from some wise men, from the Magi who traveled far away and they came to visit baby Jesus in a manger, or it was actually a couple of years after he was born in a manger.

They came to visit Jesus and worship him.

And as they were moving towards baby Jesus, actually Herod was one who stepped in the way and tried to deter them from doing what God had called them to do, which was to worship Jesus.

And we can learn some principles from their life.

And whenever God calls us to do great mighty things, you know what, how to set that battle plan in place and conquer the Herods in our life.

But let's read through that narrative here in Matthew chapter two, beginning with verse one.

The Bible says this, says Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea during the reign of King Herod.

About that time, some wise men from the eastern lands, they arrived in Jerusalem asking a question.

Where is the newborn king of the Jews?

We saw his star as it rose and we have come to worship him.

The Bible says that King Herod, he was deeply disturbed when he heard this, as was everyone in Jerusalem.

So he called a meeting of the leading priest and the teachers of the religious law and asked, where is the Messiah supposed to be born?

In Bethlehem, in Judea, they said, for this is what the prophet wrote.

And you, O Bethlehem, in the land of Judah are not the least among the ruling cities of Judah, for a ruler will come from you who will be the shepherd of my people, Israel.

And then Herod, after this, called for another meeting, a private meeting with the wise men.

And he learned from them that from when the time, when the star first appeared.

And then he told them, go to Bethlehem, search carefully for the child.

And when you find him, come back and tell me so that I can go and worship him too.

After this interview, the wise men, they went their way.

And the star they had seen in the east guided them to Bethlehem.

It went ahead of them and stopped over the place where the child was.

And when they saw the star, they were filled with great joy.

They were fulfilling the purpose of why they had come.

They entered the house.

They saw the child with his mother, Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him.

And then they opened their treasure chest and gave him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

When it was time to leave, they returned to their own country by another route.

In other words, they avoided what Herod had told them to do, which was to come back to him, for God had warned them in a dream not to return to Herod.

Now, we learned some important principles from these wise men as they were traveling to see baby Jesus, that we can apply to our life as we move forward towards what God has called us to do with our life.

And if you've been around Valerie's church for any time, you understand that we strongly believe that God didn't only come into the world to save us through Christ Jesus, but God came into the world to save us, and he's given us a set-apart calling with our life, and we're to step towards that calling and be a part of what God's doing in the world as he's reaching out to more and more people with the good news of who Jesus is.

And we believe that the scripture, the Bible teaches firmly that we're to be a part of a church, a part of a body, a part of a group of people, and we're to use our gifts, and together, we're to reach out into the world to show the loving kindness of God so that other people come to know who God is, just like we've come to know who God is and worship him as well.

And oftentimes, as we're striving to worship God with our gifts, our talents, the enemy wants to step in, and he wants to stalemate us, and he wants to stop us from doing that.

And what we learn from the wise men is how to get through those hereds, those things that wanna block us from doing what God has designed us to do, from worshiping God the way that God desires for us to worship him.

And the first thing we've gotta do, the first principle we learn from them is to move past the manipulation.

We have to move past the manipulation.

Did you catch it in the story how Herod was trying to manipulate these wise men?

In other words, Herod didn't really wanna worship Jesus.

Herod was just trying to talk around a bunch of religious jargon and manipulate them to come back and give him information so he could later go and basically kill baby Jesus.

But what happens is the wise men, they didn't fall for the manipulation, they moved past that.

Let's look back at it, Matthew 2, verses two through four.

It says, they told Herod, we have come to worship him.

And King Herod was deeply disturbed when he heard this, as was everyone in Jerusalem.

So Herod called a meeting of the leading priest and the teachers of the religious law, and he asked a question, where is this Messiah supposed to be born?

And then in verse seven, it says, Herod then called another meeting, a private meeting, back with those magi, back with those wise men, and he learned from them the time when the star that was guiding them first appeared.

So here Herod is gathering information.

He's talking a bunch of religious talk.

He's kind of getting into their world.

And then the Bible tells us in Matthew 2, verse nine, after this interview, the wise men, they didn't fall for the manipulation.

They left and they went their way.

Why did they go their own?

Why did they go the way that they were first instructed by God to go after this big conversation with Herod and all these people?

Well, it's simply this, they knew the truth.

And see, if you and I are gonna get past manipulation in our life, because there are a lot of religious talk going on in the world, there's a lot of people that will talk around religious things.

But if we're going to get past all the manipulation in life, we have to know the truth.

You know, the Bible says in John chapter eight, verse 32, you will know the truth and the truth will set you free.

And here Jesus in John chapter eight is talking to a bunch of people that were talking around a bunch of religious jargon.

And Jesus looks at them and says, look, if you know the truth, he says, that truth will set you free to basically be all God's designed you to be.

And they're like, well, hey, Jesus, we're children of Abraham.

And Jesus says something remarkable in John chapter eight verse 39.

They said, our father is Abraham.

And Jesus says, no, not because of your bloodline, not because of your religion, not because of who you were born to.

Jesus says, no, you're not children of Abraham.

Look what he says.

He says, for if you were really the children of Abraham, I don't think they have this on the screen, but it's John 8 39.

For if you were really the children of Abraham, you would follow his example.

Now think about that for just a minute.

Because they were saying, look, you know what?

Because we've been born into a certain religion, we've been born into a certain people group.

Jesus, we're really children of father Abraham.

But what happens is he says, no, no, if you were really children of Abraham, you'd follow his example.

What was his example?

His example was something called faith.

In other words, Abraham wasn't manipulated by life.

Abraham walked by faith and trusted what God said.

Do you remember what God told father Abraham?

He said, Abraham, go to a land, I will show you.

Not that I have shown you, not that you've ever been there before, but you trust me, Abraham, and follow my voice, and follow my lead by faith, and I'm gonna carry you exactly to something called the promised land, and I will deliver on what I said.

But Abraham, you must walk by faith.

I'm here to declare to you today that there will be all kinds of things that will try to manipulate you from God's plan for your life, but we're a people of faith, faith in the son of the living God, and faith in Jesus, and faith in this Jesus empowers us to do the work of God, and we're part of something called the local church.

Come on, somebody.

We live on the other side of the cross.

We live on the other side of the resurrection.

We live on the other side of the ascension of Christ, and we live before the return of Christ, and your assignment and my assignment right now is to walk by faith and be a part of what God is changing the world with.

It's called the local church, and don't you let no religious jargon tell you anything else.

Come on, somebody.

Amen.

If you know the truth, the truth will set you free, and you won't be manipulated by all the other voices around you.

These wise men weren't manipulated.

They were free to live in the sweet spot of who God had designed them to be.

Their assignment was to go and worship this baby in Jerusalem and go there and bring gifts because God needed those gifts to advance his kingdom further in the world.

I won't dive into all of this today, but most people don't understand those gifts that those wise men brought to that baby when he was about two years old, to the parents of that baby.

Those gifts were actually gifts that helped get that baby out of a land to keep that baby from being killed by King Herod.

And that baby was able to go and grow up in Egypt and later move back to the land because of the gifts the wise men brought to the baby.

They worshiped Jesus.

And the fact of the matter is they weren't manipulated by Herod and his voice.

Herod was a powerful voice.

And I need you to know today that the enemy in your life and my life is a powerful voice.

But God's voice is more powerful.

Don't be manipulated by the voice of the enemy.

I'm here to tell you that God has a calling on your life.

I don't know what you did last night, last month, last year.

I don't know how far off a track you got.

But I do know the God who says he can step in, he can forgive you of your sin, he can empower you by the Holy Spirit, and you can worship him and advance him in this world today.

Come on, somebody.

If we're gonna be battle ready, we gotta have a battle plan.

Don't be manipulated by the voice of the enemy.

The next things they did is they kept worshiping.

That's what you need to do, too.

How many people stop worshiping God because something happens in their life?

A circumstance shows up, a situation shows up, and they're like, well, if God is so good, then this wouldn't happen.

I need to give you a news alert that something called sin entered the world through the first man and the first woman in the Garden of Eden.

They didn't operate by faith.

They trusted the voice of the enemy.

They got the humanity off track.

And God is so good, he give his one and only son to bring us back in right relationship so we could get our life back on track.

God is a good God, and in the end, if you'll read his word, he has spoken that in the end, all of this will be made right.

All justice will be given.

You can't fully understand it.

I can't fully understand it.

But God has created people to be an eternal being and do great and mighty things through humans.

Though something might happen in this moment that may be challenging for me, challenging for you, God is gonna finish what he started.

Come on somebody.

And he is going to make all things new.

Put your hope in what God's doing.

He says, you know, he is doing a great work.

Let's keep worshiping God.

Don't let what happens today, this week, this month, this year, this decade, stop you from worshiping God.

Because God is completing something that sometimes we can't even understand.

Our call is to step in and trust God.

Even when the enemy starts saying none of this makes sense, we remember his ways are higher than our ways.

Look what the Bible says about these wise men.

They kept worshiping.

Look what it says about their worship.

Matthew chapter two, verse 11.

It says, they moved on from Herod.

They entered the house.

They saw the child with his mother, Mary, and they bowed down and they worshiped him.

The Bible says, then they took and they opened their treasure chest and gave him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

And again, these gifts are powerful because what these gifts do is they advance the good news of who Jesus is.

They help get Jesus to his next step in life because Jesus had to fulfill something for 33 years before he went to that cross.

And these wise men's gift stopped Herod from basically stepping in and killing Jesus.

And they let Jesus, you know what, continue to advance to what he come into the world to do, which was to later go to a cross.

And really what our guests are continuing to do is to share the good news of who Jesus is.

But you gotta understand the time and space you live in.

You live after the ascension of Christ and before the return of Christ.

He's already given his life on a cross for humanity's sin.

And he invites anyone who ever so will believe in him, will not perish, but will have everlasting life, will have eternal life.

And he invites anyone to respond to that good news.

He offered a sacrifice for all humanity on a cross.

He served us.

It's amazing.

And so we can come to him, we can believe in him, we can trust him, and then he can put his spirit in us and begin to give us a gift and give us unique purpose in this day and age, in this space and place.

But the reality of it is, is some of us, we don't really understand fully what it means to worship God.

But I want to read to you what the book of Romans says it is to worship God.

Says it in Romans 12, verse 1, says, dear brothers and sisters, those who believe in the finished work of Christ, the forgiveness of sin, the resurrection of Jesus.

He says, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he's done to you.

Let them be a living and holy sacrifice.

He says, the kind he will find acceptable, this is truly the way to worship him.

Goes on to say in that same passage, as it talks about spiritual gifts, it says in Romans chapter 12, verse 6, it says, in his grace, in his unmerited favor, just like he showed grace, he favored Mary to carry Jesus, that that same grace, that same unmerited favor is available to you and me.

It says, God has given us different gifts for doing certain things well.

You know, Mother Mary had an important task.

And she was favored by God to carry out that task.

But Mother Mary was human just like you and me are human.

And Mother Mary, you know what, needed forgiveness of sin in her life.

And Mother Mary was able to carry baby Jesus and birth him so he could go to a cross to forgive her of her sin, to forgive me of my sin, to forgive you of your sin and all the sin that happened past, present, and future.

So she was favored by God.

She was highly favored by God.

But make no mistake, my friend, you're highly favored by God, too.

In his grace, in his grace, his unmerited favor, that's what grace is, he empowers people to do certain things well.

Don't misunderstand what the grace of God is.

The grace of God is simply empowerment to fulfill what God has designed you to be and do.

Let me say it again, it's the unmerited favor.

I didn't deserve to be a part of God's great plan in this world, but God's empowered me with a unique gift in this time, space, and place to carry out his purpose in this world.

And the Bible says the way I truly worship him, though I could worship him through song, raising my hands, shouting hallelujah, all these great things, that's a form of worship.

But the Bible says the way I, or you, truly worship him is to offer your body up as a living sacrifice that he will find acceptable.

So the living sacrifice he finds acceptable is for you to step fully in who he's designed you to be.

Me to step fully in who he's designed me to be, we're to pull those gifts together and worship him in this world.

Let me give you a picture of what it looks like.

Yesterday, Giving Hope Mall is a picture.

Many people walking in their gift, come on, together shining the hope of Christ in the world around us.

Some people gave generously, financially.

Yeah, people bought thousands of dollars worth of gifts to give to kids.

Why did they do that?

Because their heart wanted to be generous towards families to show the love of Christ.

We had people to get here days early to set up Giving Hope Mall to work like donkeys.

Come on.

You know, there's donkey work in the kingdom.

Come on, somebody.

And they worked.

And the thing is, is then we had people who stepped in and served at various spaces and places.

With the gifts of administration, there was a lot of organization that went in to producing what we produced as a church family yesterday.

So there's gifts of administration.

The Bible speaks of it.

And again, if God has given you that gift of administration, then administrate and administrate well.

Because it's a certain gift that God gives.

Then there was the gifts of mercy.

And there was the gifts of help.

And there were gifts where people were praying over people and putting their arm around and crying with them and serving them and doing all kinds of things.

And it created a beautiful picture.

It was the church on mission, worshiping God.

And my friends, that is what it looks like.

And if you wanna defeat the enemy in your life, get on mission with God.

Because I can tell you right now, there were some people serving yesterday that had pain in their own life.

But as they were worshiping God and offering their body up as a living sacrifice and doing what God called them to do, and maybe saying no to something else and fulfilling the gift that God put in their life, they were being blessed as they were being a blessing.

I need you to know that sometimes the enemy wants to isolate you.

And the enemy makes you think that your pain and your situation is the only pain and the only situation in the world.

And the reality of it is, is God is saying, no, no, no, get around my people.

And I get it, I live in the same world you live in.

Sometimes God's people irritate you.

But here's what's remarkable.

It's part of his plan to build you up into all he's created you to be.

The Bible says, iron sharpens iron as one person sharpens another.

In other words, there's some friction sometimes.

But did you know God uses that to build your character?

So you're better prepared to do the assignment he called you to be.

To much who has been given, much is required.

And the reality of it is, is the way to truly worship God is to get with his people, doing his work in this world, sharing the good news of Christ, showing his kindness and goodness to those around you.

I'm inviting you into the game, but you gotta step in it by faith.

And the enemy is destroying some of us in our own little web and our own loneliness.

Because, you know what, we're not stepping in.

Man, this is a beautiful place.

And again, we're not all perfect and we don't have it all together.

But the reality of it is, our heart is for you to find your space and step into it and be who God's designed you to be.

And if you're not getting to do exactly what you wanna do, just stay around and keep doing something and see what God does.

Because I know that whenever we're faithful with the little assignment we have today, God continues to elevate.

He continues to put you in the place that he needs you to be.

It's about trusting him with our heart.

It's about worshiping him all the days of our life.

Let's don't get sidetracked with Herod's voice, the manipulation.

Let's don't stop our worship because Herod shows up and let's keep moving forward with what God wants to do.

Which leads me to my last point.

Don't go back.

Don't go back.

If God told you to move forward, then move forward.

I wanna read to you because you see, Herod wanted him to come back so he could hold them hostage, so he could deceive them, so they could give him information and he could eventually find baby Jesus.

But look what it says here in Matthew 12.

Matthew 2 verse 12.

Says, when it was time to leave, when it was time to leave baby Jesus after they had brought all these gifts, the Bible says they returned to their own country by another route.

For God had warned them in a dream not to return to Herod.

If Jesus has set you free, my friend, and he has set you free from the penalty of sin, and he's setting you free from the power of sin by working in your life, in your gifts, and in your worship, and taking you further and further and further, I invite you not to go back.

The scripture is full of people who wanted to go back, go back, go back to slavery.

The people coming out of Egypt, they had been embonded in slavery in Egypt for multiple years.

God says, I'm gonna bring you out of Egypt.

My mighty hand is gonna bring you out of Egypt.

I'm gonna take you into a land flowing with milk and honey.

And we find these people delivered by the mighty hand of God, saved by the mighty hand of God.

They begin on the journey by faith with God.

The enemy shows up, and as he shows up, the people are like, well, I just wanna go back to slavery.

I wanna go back to where I come from.

It was more comfortable there.

Can I tell you something?

Sin is a whole lot more comfortable than walking by faith.

And the enemy will lull you to sleep in your comfort, in your sin.

As God is speaking, I got more.

I wanna do something great in you.

I wanna do something great through you.

Would you step out again by faith?

Would you walk by faith?

I'm taking you to the promised land.

I'm taking you to a land flowing with milk and honey.

I'm taking you to a land that will declare my glory.

Would you step out by faith and not let the enemy's voice bring you back?

We have to learn to walk by faith.

You know, God is speaking to some of your heart right now about letting go of something in the past.

And I want to ask you, are you going to continue to let that grudge, that hate, that memory hold you hostage?

Or are you going to walk by faith and see what God wants to do?

I know some of us have had some bad experiences along the journey, maybe even in church.

But the reality of it is, is God is still healing hearts.

God is still using people.

And God is still making his name known to the nations if you don't go back and you trust that God wants to use you.

I remember when we first started this church, there was a gentleman who lived across the street from me and his wife come to faith early on in our church.

And he was kind of hostile towards church.

He was like, I like that, all that churchy stuff, you know, whatever.

I'm like, cool, dude.

But I continued to invite him.

His wife continued to invite him for seven straight years.

He said, I'm not going to church.

On the seventh year before an Easter service, all of a sudden, I'm preaching one of the services before the Easter service, and I look up, and there comes my neighbor in the back door over at Main Street, walking down the aisle, coming to the front row, because you know what?

God didn't give up on him.

We didn't give up on him.

We kept using our gifts.

He's gone on to glory now.

Come on, somebody.

But it was continually believing that God can rescue people.

Right now, there's somebody you need to get one of these invite cards in their hand and invite them to a Christmas service.

And maybe you've invited them for seven years.

Maybe you've been inviting them for 17 years, and they keep saying no.

You keep using your gifts.

You keep using and leveraging what God has put, and keep inviting them.

And I promise you, God will use you to change somebody's life.

But you've gotta put it in your heart that part of sharing this good news is sometimes you're gonna get rejected.

And the reality of it is, don't let it keep you from keeping on doing God's work.

Don't let it stop you.

Again, we had a dream over 20 years ago that by now in this community, we would be well over 5,000 people.

It hadn't happened yet.

But the reality of it is, I ain't stopping now.

Come on, somebody.

I'm believing God.

I'm trusting God.

I'm continuing to believe that He's gonna do what He says He's gonna do.

And again, I don't know why it hadn't happened yet, but I know that God's working all things out in His timing.

I believe that God wants to reach the whole community, not just two or three people, not just my street, my neighborhood, people that look like me, smell like me, and talk like me.

I believe God wants to reach every tribe, every tongue, and every nation.

And I wanna be on mission with God.

I'm inviting you to keep on worshiping, keep on believing, keep on inviting, unless don't let Herod's.

Stop God's plan.

Let me pray for you today.

God, you're an amazing God.

I thank you for the opportunity to speak from your word.

I thank you for the application we find from the wise men today.

God, I pray for every man, woman, boy, and girl here that they would recognize that God, you're on a mission.

You sent Jesus in that manger to go to a cross, to defeat death, to resurrect from a grave, to forgive humanity of their sin.

You ascended into heaven and you're coming back.

For you're a people.

God, I pray we would leave every day with urgency.

We would live every day with the sense of mission and purpose and be a church that walks by faith and trusts you and continually worships you with our gifts.

God, if there's one here today that don't know who you are, they've never stepped into that personal relationship with you by receiving Jesus for the forgiveness of their sin.

May today be the day they turn from their sin, they trust the work of Christ on that cross, they trust his resurrection, God, and you deposit gifts and your spirit in them to keep them encouraged on their journey.

My friend, if you've never accepted Jesus before, just say, God, today I put my faith in Jesus.

I turn away from my sin, missing the mark of your glorious standard, and I wanna be used by you.

I wanna worship you all the days of my life.

Till God thank you for the gift of salvation, and God is inviting you to step into his mission to change the world.

God, we thank you for Jesus.

We thank you for all he's done in our life, continues to do in our life, and through our life, may we continue to worship him. we ask all these prayers in his holy name, amen.