Dr. William Horton | Fugitive Messiah

I just want to invite you all to stand up and join in. I just want to invite you all to stand up and join in. It's the only name that saves and it's worthy of all praise. I call you Jesus. I call you, I call you healer. Risen and reigning in power. Something comes out of the grave. Every time I call you Jesus. I call you, I call you savior. Worthy of glory forever. Something comes out of the grave. Every time I call your name. Over me. There's a million over there. Hold to the peace. And it's falling down God's hand. It's the healing. And it's crushed the serpent's head. There's a red and gray island. I call you Jesus. I call you, I call you healer. Risen and reigning in power. Something comes out of the grave. Every time I call you Jesus. I call you, I call you savior. Worthy of glory forever. Something comes out of the grave. Every time I call your name. Chains break, dry bones break. Every time I call your name. The face of hell shakes. Every time I call your name.

Chains break, dry bones break. Every time I call your name. The face of hell shakes. Every time I call your name. It's the healing. And it's falling down God's hand. It's the healing. And it's crushed the serpent's head. It's the healing. And it's crushed the serpent's head. When all that is now your sin And all that is now your victory When all that is now your sin And all that is now your victory Deadly come alive Deadly come alive Deadly come alive In the name of Jesus Deadly come alive Deadly come alive Deadly come alive I call you Jesus. I call you, I call you Jesus. A man's got a brain, he's got power. Something comes out of the grave. Every time I call you Jesus. I call you, I call you Savior. You're worthy, you're worthy forever. Something comes out of the grave. Every time I call you Jesus.

I call you, I call you Jesus. A man's got a brain, he's got power. Something comes out of the grave. Every time I call you Jesus. I call you, I call you Savior. You're worthy, you're worthy forever. Something comes out of the grave. Every time I call you Jesus. I call you, I call you Savior. You're worthy, you're worthy forever. Something comes out of the grave. Every time I call you Jesus. I call you, I call you Savior. You're worthy, you're worthy forever. Something comes out of the grave. Every time I call you Jesus. I call you, I call you Savior. You're worthy, you're worthy forever. Something comes out of the grave. Every time I call you Jesus. I call you, I call you Savior. You're worthy, you're worthy forever. Something comes out of the grave. Every time I call you Jesus. I call you, I call you Savior. You're worthy, you're worthy forever. Something comes out of the grave. Every time I call you Jesus. I call you, I call you Savior. You're worthy, you're worthy forever.

Something comes out of the grave. Every time I call you Jesus. I call you, I call you Savior. You're worthy, you're worthy forever. Something comes out of the grave. Every time I call you Jesus. I call you, I call you Savior. You're worthy, you're worthy forever. Something comes out of the grave. Every time I call you Jesus. The Spirit is your love and faith. The Spirit is your love and faith. Jesus, you are worthy. There's a something about your name. There's a something about your name. There's a something about your name. There is a seed that grows. The Spirit is your love and faith. The Spirit is your love and faith. Jesus, you are worthy. There's a something about your name. There's a something about your name. There's a something about your name. Jesus, you are worthy. ♪ Jesus, your name is love and hometown. The one the darkness can't deny. The resurrection and the life. Jesus. Jesus, your name.

Save your name believe. Your name can make a storm disappear. You never fail. You never lose. Jesus. Jesus, the bread of life forever. The wounded and the wounded one. The first and last and still. Jesus. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ It's our best and awful dream You can have it all, God. You can have it all. Calmly we call the voice More than we asked a day ago Spirit of God, move all our praise Heaven and earth are calling your name I'm going to surrender Don't do what you will and keep Just take me on and soar It's our best and awful dream I'm going to surrender Don't do what you will and keep Just take me on and soar It's our best and awful dream

You can have it all, God. You can have it all. You can have it all, God. You can have it all. guitar solo Oh, I am spirit on a praise I'm never alive or in this place Serve my faith for greater things For we ask, we seek, we pray For there's no land I can't protect Jesus Christ, the highest name Send out your power like the flame For we ask, we seek, we pray Oh, I am spirit on a praise I'm never alive or in this place Serve my faith for greater things For we ask, we seek, we pray For there's no land I can't protect Jesus Christ, the highest name Send out your power like the flame For we ask, we seek, we pray Oh, we ask, we seek, we pray Oh, we ask, we seek, we pray Oh, we ask, we seek, we pray Oh, we ask, we seek, we pray You can have it all, God. You can have it all You can have it all, God. You can have it all You can have it all, God. You can have it all You can have it all, God. ♪ God is your lamp, your pamphlet ♪ ♪ Jesus Christ, our highest day ♪ ♪ That's your power, light of day ♪

♪ Oh yes, we seek you grace ♪ ♪ For all your spirit, all our praise ♪ ♪ Come, let revival fill this place ♪ ♪ You're our buffet for greater things ♪ ♪ Oh yes, we seek, we pray ♪ ♪ God is your lamp, your pamphlet ♪ Come on, church. ♪ Jesus Christ, our highest day ♪ ♪ That's your power, light of day ♪ ♪ Oh yes, we seek, we pray ♪ ♪ Oh yes, we seek, we pray ♪ ♪ Oh yes, we seek, we pray ♪ ♪ Oh yes, we seek, we pray ♪ ♪ Oh yes, we seek, we pray ♪ ♪ Oh yes, we seek, we pray ♪ ♪ Oh yes, we seek, we pray ♪ ♪ Oh yes, we seek, we pray ♪ God, we are so thankful. Yes, Lord. We are so thankful that you allow us an opportunity to come and to worship you, to gather in your name. Your sons and daughters are right here to gather in your name. And God, it is you who lights the fire in our life. And I feel some of us wondering right now in our life, where did the fire go? Where was the feeling that I once felt before? Why did I feel it then, but I do not feel it now in my life? And God is calling you back home right now. And he's saying, son, come down to the altar.

He says, son, you've been trying to light your own fire for too long. And son, you do not light it, but the Lord lights that fire. Yes, Lord. So bring yourself down to the altar as an offering, because your life as an offering. And say, God, you can have it. You can have my marriage. You can have my children. You can have the addiction. You can have the depression. You can have it. And let's declare this as a church body right now. You can have it, you can have it. You can have it, you can have it. You can have it, you can have it. Follow me. Come on. You can have it, you can have it. You can have it, you can have it. You can have it, you can have it. For I trust the inner word. All we ask, we seek, we pray. You know, I was looking back on everything from the start of this church to where I was now. And if I'm being honest, I've been asking the Lord to fix my heart. Because sometimes I'm like, God, you already died for your church, why is this such a sacrifice?

Why is this always such a sacrifice? Why are things always hard when it comes to a move of God? Because what you guys see out here is not what the sacrifice took to be here. I feel like the whole word, through this song as I was practicing it, I just started sobbing, because God's like, can I have it all? Where's your heart at? Can I have it all? Am I worthy of your sacrifice? Because I gave you my life and I asked you to pick up your cross. So can I have it all? Can I have every inch? Because that's what I deserve because that's what I'm worthy of. I don't know what you're going through. I don't know the storm I don't know the weight of your sacrifice But let me tell you when we give it to God, there's a purpose There's a plan that he's doing something with every hard moment with every sacrifice With every tear with every loss with all of the grief What we see now God sees the bigger picture He sees the bigger picture. So he's like, hey give me it all Because you're only seeing it in part when I'm seeing it in full You can have it all You can have it all If you receive that can we give some praise in the house today Hallelujah, you can have a seat tell your neighbor welcome. Welcome. Welcome. Welcome. Welcome home You You know, I said it's all time it's very hard to transition in moments like that Because the Spirit of God is undeniable and his moving is undeniable And as Catherine was talking about that I couldn't help but be reminded when we just came back from a Missions trip in LA. I went on my first missions trip

In Preparation for that missions trip, though. I had a lot of anxiety about what I would be leaving behind That I would leave my children behind that I would miss baseball games in their life that I would spend time away from my people That I would skip a paycheck at work. All of these things were happening in my mind And I felt It just dropping my spirit in the Lord said I blessed you with all those things Hey, would you give them back to me, but would you give them back to me and serve me and That is what this life is church is A holy and living sacrifice to God and we have missions teams that are here right now And We tell you welcome home because we believe that you are Actually home and for you to think that you're home. You got to be what thinking that you belong we're here to tell you as a church body that you do belong the exact way that you walked into those doors and If you are a first-time guest or a first time in a long time, we say welcome home That the invitation that you received was not by happenstance It was not by the universe sending it out It was not by energy or the earth doing it But an almighty God who was using people to bless you in your life to get you into God's church so that you may receive a message and that message may pierce your heart and that piercing of your heart would transform your heart and Your desire to change in your life and our prayer as a church that you would not walk out of here saying We are reaching the one that is far from God and helping them become a passionate. Somebody say passionate passionate follower of Christ For the ones that's watching on Pando in a prison cell We say that you are loved you're seeing you're cared for you have a purpose and God is not done with you We Are eternally grateful for what God's doing right here in this house. Anybody else really grateful for what God's doing in this house? We have a great message prepared for you, I'm not gonna labor up here long a message you will be blessed by and part of our life of being a living and holy sacrifice is giving of all of us and i don't want to shortchange the lord in anything that i do

there are a lot of ways that you could give you could give in your time your resources and you could give in your finances as well and here in kingdom builders which is a above and beyond your tithe our kingdom builders goes towards a lot of the mission work so the teams that are coming in from across the united states that are eating and that are doing things around the church and being fed and all of those things help contribute to that and you may not be able to say yes i'll go but you also may you will you do you do have the chance to say yes i will give we all have that opportunity okay so i'm going to get some ushers up here we're going to take up an offering and we're going to get into an exciting rest of our fall man happy father's day that's a happy father's day up in here man what about that salute i got no salutes back but that's cool i'm still saluting you god we thank you god we praise you give you glory give you honor we thank you lord for this opportunity to gather here what a privilege it is and we sometimes would look a past but god thank you lord for the for the provision that you have provided in our life we walked in with clothes on our back and we are thankful for what you are doing ask that you would bless the gift you would bless the giver in jesus mighty name king solomon the wisest man on earth he wrote over 3 000 proverbs in which one of them in proverbs 14 23 he describes that work will lead to profit but mere talk will lead to poverty so he's saying that yes as men and fathers that yes we need to work we need to labor we need to be diligent in those tasks but later on in ecclesiastes he writes and he describes this toiling and this work as a burden and yes it is a burden a burden that is placed on men it is placed on fathers but that burden is designed to be not just a burden but to be a blessing a blessing to the ones that are watching to the hearers the little eyes that are looking up at the fathers as they toil and they labor with their hands and they labor with their minds and they do this so that they may be a blessing to their children and so today on this special father's day we want to remind you dads that you are seen in your love and that you are cared for and that there are many eyes that are looking up to you and your work is a blessing the one thing i admire about my father is his hard work ethic and his willingness to follow what god tells him my dad likes me play with him my favorite thing about my dad

is that i love watching animes with him when he plays catch with me in the yard i like my dad because um he lets me learn more about the bible i love my dad because he's very inspiring encouraging and funny i love when i'm upset and i just really like struggle with not having my mom in my life he brings out the mom side to him and he always helps me when i need some help with even if it's like weird like he's always there and he always supports me no matter what i'm doing with my life he supports us and he's a really hard worker i love that he's kind hearted i love my dad because he honors what he says he's funny he's nice and he's always there for me when i need him i love my dad because he's encouraging and kind that's everything the thing i love most about my dad is how he never gives up on what he loves doing he always finds a way through no matter how difficult the road is and he just he always stays strong no matter how hard the challenge is he always perseveres it's pretty inspiring amen come on to all the fathers in the room amen can we give it up for the fathers one time amen one of the things i was thinking about when tucker was talking he says a burden and a blessing and one of the things i was thinking about is a commission and a call because the men are commissioned and you know all the fathers in the room Oftentimes, you will see in churches that men kind of, you know, we receive, you know, women walk in and they get praised and then men walk in and they get beat down, you know? And it's like, you need to do better and we should. But here's the thing that I know is that God has commissioned every single one of us. And here's how I know this is because if you lead a child to the Lord, okay? If you lead a child to the Lord, there's a 3% chance that the rest of the family comes to the Lord. If you lead a mother to the Lord,

there's a 17% chance that the rest of the family comes to the Lord. But if you lead a father to the Lord, 97% chance that there is, I think it's actually 93% chance that the rest of the family will come to know the Lord. Why? Because when a man walks in and says, all right, guys, it's time to get up. Where are we going? Don't worry about it, get dressed. And we're gonna all get in the car and we'll find out on the way, amen? Everybody just follow suits and get in. And so men, we salute you. If you are a man in the house, a man of God, like we just wanna encourage you, lift up your arms, let you know that we fight for you in prayer, we fight for you and just believe that God has something amazing for your life and for your family, amen? Can we give it up for the families and the fathers one more time? In the house, changing generational downfalls and spirals of just things that have been passed down and we are just so thankful for that. One of the things that I'm also thankful for is that we get missions teams that come to Kansas City, they bless our church, they help us build things,

they help us do ministry, they help us do all kinds of stuff because the Lord has blessed us with the opportunity to be able to house them in an inner city ministry that we can go out and just do great things for God and the connection and partnership that we have with Pastor Doug and his wonderful wife, Jeannie, can we give it up for them one time? Come on somebody, if you don't know them, you should. And we are just so thankful for that relationship and in that, we have got to meet a wonderful team and a brother and a friend that is from H-Town. Come on, if anybody knows about H-Town, you know, the chopped and screwed, you know, yeah, down there. But there is a good friend that comes from the same background as us and when he got out of addiction and everything, he actually went on to pursue his doctorate's degree. Come on somebody, how many of us know that our past can't hold us down, amen? That God can do something amazing in and through every single one of us and so I want you guys to lean in as we welcome my friend and pastor, Will Horton, to the stage. Come on somebody, lean in, take notes. We get better seats in heaven when you do, amen? Amen. How many of you guys remember me from last year?

Woo! Tall, skinny, white guy, pretty hard to forget. All right, here's the thing, every time I come here, which is gonna be around June time, I'm gonna ask the same question every single time. How many of you all got your Bibles? You got your Bibles, hold them up. You got your Bibles here, okay. Look around, tier one Christians here. Y'all are getting a better place in heaven. The rest of you, bring the right tool for the right job. You got it this time, pastor. Oh no, he doesn't. Stole it. Not my pastor. Okay, anyways, if you got your tree book. Oh, you got it? See, you're a real Christian. Your wife, she's got a phone. Are you a millennial or what? E-book or tree book? Turn with me, Matthew chapter two. We're gonna be picking up in verse 13 and as you're turning there, I do wanna thank the fathers in this room. Happy Father's Day. Whether you're a real father, a grandfather, a spiritual father, a man who stepped into fatherhood into somebody else's child's life, because that's my dad.

What I'm thankful for about my dad, when I was three years old, my mom married him and he never treated me like I wasn't his son. Even though he had other children, I was always his son just like they were. And so I'm thankful for my dad. And it's hard to be a dad. Fatherhood is a sacred responsibility. I didn't realize how hard it was gonna be to be a dad until I became one. I was terrified, I know that right now. So thank you, dads. Let's give the dads a round of applause. But as we get started, I do wanna make something pretty clear here. This isn't a Father's Day message. It involves the Father and it involves the Son. I bet you can know who the Son is, right? Jesus. All right? But that's where we draw the line here, okay? Because this message is for everybody, okay? This message is for every believer. And so for those of you guys who remember me, for those of you guys who don't remember me, I was a drug addict and alcoholic from the age of 14 to the age of 29, if you can put that picture up. Let's see. You'll see my ugly mug there. Woo! That was me at the age of 29 years old when God radically rescued me.

That was 15 years ago. When I look at that picture, I'm like, who is that man? I mean, I feel like I look 15 years older there than I do now, hopefully. Y'all can lie to me. But God is good. All the time, God is good. God can deliver us. God has no respecter of persons. You realize that, right? If he can deliver me, he can deliver any of y'all, okay? If he can move in my life, if he can do things in my life, I am nobody special. He can do something in your life. Amen? Yeah, you guys got to be pretty loud, because the first crowd was pretty loud, and Pastor Adam said, you guys are the better crowd, the more responsive crowd. Woo! Okay. He said, this is the Pentecostal crowd, actually. As you guys can see, I'm covered in tattoos. And for whatever reason, when I was in my addiction, I got almost 90% of my tattoos. And for whatever reason, I kept getting all these Jesus and religious tattoos. And my friends who were all addicts, they were like, it's pretty weird you're getting another Jesus tattoo, going out to the bar, getting high, getting drunk, and telling people about Jesus. All right? Like, but for whatever reason, I was drawn towards the Lord. And I'm sure some of you guys, in your addiction, the Lord was drawing you in, but you didn't really understand. I didn't understand it. Right?

And that's why I kept going, give me another Jesus tattoo. Give me another one. And even the tattoo artist started getting freaked out. He's like, are you high right now? I'm not sure if I want to put another Jesus tattoo on you. Okay? But here's the thing. Like, I have an insane phobia of needles. I am deathly afraid of needles. For whatever reason, like, I'm afraid that the nurse is going to stick a needle in my arm and the needle is just going to break off in my vein. Like, I know it's not going to happen, right? But like, I'm paranoid about it. Okay? Like, I am so afraid sometimes. I will remain sick instead of getting a shot to get better. Okay? Like, she's like, you want the COVID shot? Nope. You want the flu shot? Nope. You need to get a steroid shot. You'll be better tomorrow. Nope. Like, but how foolish is it, like, to reject a cure that can fix you because of a phobia? Right? I mean, it's interesting. I went on a mission trip a few years back, 2016. And I went to this small island in the Philippines. And so, I don't know if you guys remember when Jesus healed the lepers.

Well, in this small little island in the Philippines, 2016. Ten years ago, right? They still have leprosy on this island. Okay? And so, we went for this medical missions trip. And my wife was like, how did you get on that trip? And I like to tell her that it's because I'm handsome and charming. And I talk to the right people. And so, I'm on this trip. I'm no doctor. But I pretended to be one on TV. And it didn't work. But we were on this trip anyways. And there's this long line of people. I'm like, what are they lined up for? And the doctor's like, all of those people have leprosy. Okay? And so, they had to take this pill. And it was like over a seven-day period. So, they had to come back every single day. Right? To take this pill. And so, they would go in. They'd take this pill. But the odd thing was, at the end of the line, after they were given a pill, before they could walk out the door, there was a doctor there. And the doctor made the patient open up their mouth. Why? Y'all been in jail. Right?

Y'all cheek some pills in here. Okay? And so, they wanted to check if they've actually swallowed the pill. Because they found out some of the patients were cheeking their pill. And as soon as they would leave, guess what they would do? They'd spit it out. Like, why would they do that? Right? Here's why. Because they didn't want to take the meds. They didn't really want to get help. Their family forced them to come. Right? They wanted to remain sick. Because they were professional solicitors. They were professional beggars. And it is amazing how much money these lepers make from begging on the streets. Sorry. The leprosy ends. Now, what ends up also? The money's gone. Right? Leprosy ends. Money's gone. So, they would rather remain and stay in their sickness rather than be cured. Because of the financial benefits. And the craziest thing, even crazier than that. And it's Philippine Island. Right? The doctors told us that some of these parents actually expose their kids to leprosy.

Like, they rub their arms on their kids. And now their kids get leprosy. So, that way when they pass away, the parent passes away, there's still money coming into the house. Right? I mean, I thought I had a point. pretty rough childhood. My mom never exposed me to leprosy. Right? Like, I'm like, mom, you did a good job. You didn't give me leprosy. Give me a hug. But can you imagine having a disease and then, like, wanting to hold on to that disease? And not only that, then you pass it down to your children. Like, I'm sick. You're going to be sick too. Right? Like, why not? But here's the thing. That's what happens all the time spiritually. Like, when it comes to the salvation of our souls, Jesus Christ is the cure for whatever ails you. We know that, right? But there are people who reject Jesus and they stay in their sickness. They reject Jesus and they hold on to their sinful lifestyles rather than be cured. And they pass it down to their children. And look, I know this for a fact because I have been in ministry long enough. There are some of y'all here today who claim to be a Christian and you're not. I mean, when I moved to Texas, I'm not from Texas. I moved there. And when I moved there, I thought I'd die and go to heaven. You're a Christian. I'm a Christian. You're a Christian. I'm a Christian. Everyone's a Christian. I'm like, is this heaven? It's so awfully hot here. And I'm cynical too because I'm like, maybe you're a Christian, maybe you're not. Like, let me hang out with you for a week or two and let me see your fruit. Because anyone can claim to be a Christian. I mean, there are some of y'all in here today that are coming here every Sunday. You're involved in a life group or a small group or a connect group or whatever you call it here.

And you're still holding on to sin. First John 1-6 says this, you are lying to yourself if you say you have fellowship with God. But keep living in spiritual darkness. If you say that you are a believer and then you leave this building and you go on and live in blatant habitual sin, even though you know what's wrong because pastor teaches the word and you can read to yourself, you're lying to yourself. If you think that you're a Christian, you have fellowship with God because you don't. You have God. You have made God in your own image. And guess what? The God of your own image doesn't get you to heaven. Now, when Jesus came, the Bible teaches us that he came for his own people. Who are his own people? The Jews, right? The Israelites. And it says his own people received him not. They didn't want the cure. I mean, what is astonishing though is when we read the Gospels, like we see Jesus as a grown man, and we see how the Jews like reject him, right? They chase him down. They try to stone him. They try to kill him. All these things, right? But what's astonishing to me is how early this actually manifested. Jesus from his childhood begins to be rejected. Anyone in here felt rejected by society? Come on. I mean, I know I have, right? But guess what? So has your King. So has your Savior. So has your Messiah. So has your Lord. And so Matthew, he actually gives us a glimpse at Jesus when he was younger. So as a youngster, Jesus goes from Bethlehem, if you remember this story, to Egypt, and then from Egypt to Nazareth. And you may be thinking to yourself, who cares where Jesus lived? It'd be like me saying, like, I was born in Michigan, I went to First Street in Ohio, I went to East Walnut Street, and I went to Berry Street. Who cares? But it matters, okay? It matters because what it does is that it actually fulfills prophecy.

And it proves that Jesus is the Messiah. And so what Matthew's trying to do here is he's trying to establish the credentials of the Messiah. And so Matthew chapter one, if you remember the story, it gives this long list of genealogy. This person begot this person. You know what I'm talking about, right? The part that you skip, because I do sometimes. I'm not gonna lie up here. And so, but that part is important because what it shows is that Jesus is from the tribe of Judah. What that shows is that Jesus comes from this royal lineage of King David. And so then Matthew tells us that Isaiah prophesies that the Messiah will be born of a virgin. Then he goes on to tell us that Micah predicts that the Messiah will be born in, anyone? Bethlehem, you're much better than the first crowd. They didn't even know that. I'm like, you never heard the Christmas story? What are you teaching over here? But all these fulfill the Old Testament prophecies, okay? And so as we continue in verse 13, he continues to talk about prophecies and prophets and other predictions that Jesus will fulfill as a child. So as we read verses 13 through 23, what I want you to do is pay close attention to the early response to God's heavenly plan. And here's God's heavenly plan. John 3 16. Y'all know that one? For God so loved the world that he gave his, only beyond. That's God's grand plan, right? Anyone who shall believe in him shall not what? Perish and have. You guys are great. Man, look at that, Pastor Adam. You are teaching them something. All right, and so what we're gonna see is the response on earth to God's plan.

I'm gonna tell you what, it ain't good, okay? It's not trending positively. And it's still that way today, right? And so you have people who are spitting out the medicine before Jesus can even grow up and deliver it. And it begins at the very beginning of a story with a fugitive Messiah, okay? Any ex-fugitives in here? Come on, like, so is our Messiah, all right? We're gonna read verses 13 through 15. It says this, after the wise men were gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. He says, get up, flee to Egypt with a child and his mother. The angel said, stay there until I return because Herod is going to search for you and kill the, or he's gonna search for the children to kill him, the child to kill him. And it says, that night Joseph left. You know what that's called? Obedience, okay? He says, get up and flee. And Joseph's like, well, let's wait till the morning. I need a good eight hours of sleep before I start traveling. Gets up, leaves that night. He says, he left Egypt with a child and Mary, his mother. And they stayed there until Herod was dead. This fulfills what the Lord spoke through the prophets. I called my son out of Egypt. So if you remember the story, right?

The wise men actually come to King Herod and what did they ask him? Where's the King of the Jews, right? And Herod obviously didn't like that too much because it really troubled him. And so the wise men leave Herod's presence and they go five miles. Is this just a five mile hike from where Herod was to Bethlehem? I have walked farther than five miles to get drugs, okay? I have walked farther than five miles to get alcohol and I'm from the North, so I've done it in the snow, okay? They walked, they hiked this five miles to go inside the house and find this little eight pounds, six pounds, baby infant Jesus. Anyone? Talladega Knights, come on. Shake and bake. Anyways, the wise men come and they leave gifts fit for a King, okay? Help me out here. Gold, frankincense and? Myrrh, okay? Not only that, they worship him. So right off the bat, we see these non-Jewish Gentiles worshiping Jesus and yet his own nation, his own people, the Jews, they reject him. And it's funny because the Jewish scribes knew exactly where Jesus was gonna be born because they told Herod the Messiah

is going to be born in Bethlehem but they don't even bother going to check. They don't even bother going to find out, let alone worship him. It's but these three wise men, they traveled hundreds and hundreds of miles not only to find the King of the Jews but to worship him. And then after they leave, an angel comes back and he speaks to Joe in a dream. He says, get up, flee to Egypt with your child and his mother. Now, I'm kind of a nerd for God's word, anyone else? The more you fall in love with God, guess what? The more you'll fall in love with his word and you can't tell me that you love God if you don't love this. This is his love letter to you, okay? And also, the more you mature in your faith, the easier it is to be obedient to this. There are things that I do for my wife in 10 years that I would never have done in year one. Like put away my underwear. Anyways, he says, get up. I'm a little bit, I'm a comedian, I'm like goofball, sorry. He says, get up, flee to Egypt. Okay, that word flee, flee to Egypt and the Greek means, in the Greek it's fugo. Say that with me, fugo. Now you guys are scholars, fugo, okay? And fugo is where we get our English word fugitive.

So Jesus is going to be a fugitive at a very young age and y'all thought that you started young. I thought, man, I'm 14 years old. Man, now, Jesus is under the age of two and he's already a fugitive. He's like the OG of fugitives. So he's fleeing, he's running, but the interesting thing is the angel tells him to go where? Egypt, okay? Now, why not go to Galilee? It's closer, it's just a little bit up north. Why not go east to Edom? See, you're getting it, come on. Here's the thing, if I was Joseph, I would have followed the wise men. Those fools got money. That means they gotta have protection. They ain't traveling alone, okay? Or, how many of y'all like to go to the ocean, the beach? Why not go to Surf City, Joppa? Beautiful weather year round. degrees, no humidity, okay? Instead, they go to Egypt. To get to Egypt, it's 75 miles to get to the border, okay? It's another hundred miles to get to any meaningful city, okay? So they're traveling 175 miles. I travel 12 hours one time to to Cape Girardeau, Missouri. It's on the other side of the state with my baby in the back. Never do that again. Let alone travel 175 miles on foot. Maybe have a donkey with a two-year-old. Doesn't sound like it's good trip to me. In fact, the last time we drove that way, because my in-laws are there, I'm like, we are never doing that again. We're flying. I'll cough up that money somehow. I won't drink any energy drinks anymore. And here's the thing. Why do they

do it though? Why do they go to Egypt? It's because it fulfills another prophecy. Jesus doesn't know it, but he's just being obedient to God. But in that obedience, he's actually fulfilling a prophecy that Hosea spoke. Out of Egypt, I called my son, right? So Mary, Joseph, and Jesus. The thing is, when they go there, when they go to Egypt, they're going to find this enormous, enormous amount of Jewish refugees in Egypt. Because, I don't know if you know this, between the Old Testament and the New Testament, there's like this four to five hundred year gap. Okay? And during that time, there's this thing called the Maccabean Revolt. And so the Maccabees, they waged war against the Syrians. And there's hundreds of wars that happened during that time. And so during that time, hundreds of thousands of Jews fled to Egypt. Okay? So when they went there, they would find their culture. They would find their people. They would be able to fit in there. They would be able to blend in there. Okay? And so we don't know how long Jesus was there. Whether he was there months, whether he was there years. But Jesus began his life, began growing up in Egypt. That sounds a lot like who? Moses, right? And so we call these the silent years, because we don't really know what happened during that time. But what I want you to notice in verse 15 is this. Matthew quotes the prophet Hosea. I called my son out of Egypt. Now, I don't want to go on too much of a rabbit trail, but how many of you guys have read the book of Hosea? Any of you? I suggest you read it. It's not that long. It's an amazing book. One of my favorite, favorite, favorite Old Testament books. But if you haven't read it, let me summarize it for you real quick. Okay? You got Hosea. He's a prophet. He's a man of God. He gets married to a girl named Gomer. First off, ugly name. Second off, I know people like to name their kids biblical names. Maybe skip that one. Okay? Because you know there's trouble ahead of you when you marry a Gomer? Don't even date one, because it's all going to go downhill. All right? And then listen to that. And it does go downhill from there, okay? Because Gomer, she turns out to be a prostitute, right? And after they get married, she leaves Hosea, and she goes back to prostitution, and she even has bastard children. And I can say that because I am one, okay? In fact, Hosea names one of these bastard

children, Not My Child. You thought you got picked on for your name in school? Imagine if your name was Not My Child. Come up front. I feel bad for that kid. He's definitely changing his name as he gets older, right? So anyways, she leaves the house. She starts sleeping around. Not a lot of sleeping, if you know what I mean. But she's going around to people's beds, and Hosea follows her around, and he provides for her. He gives her food. He gives her money. He gives her a place to stay. And when I read this story, I'm going to be honest with you, I start to think to myself, like, I must not know how to love very well, because if that was my wife, that hussy would be on the street. That's termed for a divorce for me, okay? But not Hosea. He loves her. And here's the thing. Things go from bad to worse, because when you're not serving the Lord, that tends to be how things go, right? Anyone? Can I get a witness? Okay, and so Gomer, she finds herself being sold off in a slave market. But guess who shows up? Hosea. Her husband is there, and he actually buys her back, okay? Empties out his 401k. She better have been worth it. He takes her home, and he honors her as his wife. But that's what Jesus has done for us. I mean, I have done some pretty shameful things in my addiction, anyone? That I can't take back. But Jesus never gave up on me, and he will never give up on you. Hosea didn't just preach the love of God, he lived the love of God. It's one thing to say I love you, and it's another thing to put in the actions that show you love somebody. I could tell my wife I love her all the time, and if I leave my underwear there, guess what? At 10 years, she's like, you must not love me that much. And so, I just love this story. He lived it out. And just as Hosea redeemed Gomer, God redeems us. The prophet Hosea, it's this beautiful picture of God's heartbreaking love for his people, including you. And that's how good our God is. Amen? So, back to our main text.

We have the son of man on the run, and when I was preparing this message, I was listening to classic rock and roll. And so, when I was thinking about this next part, you got the son of man on the run, and I started thinking, man on the run, man on the run. You guys know. Little River Band, 1979. The first crowd, they didn't even know who it was. I thought they were all like 19 or something. Like, what do you mean? You don't know who that is. But he's on the run from this jealous king called King Herod, and it's as if hell is already stirring up people's earthly reactions to reject Jesus. They're ready to spit out the pill before they could even get the cure, right? So, you have this fugitive messiah, and in these next verses, verses 16 through 18, he's going to go from a fugitive messiah to a hunted messiah. Verse 16 through 18, it says, Herod was furious when he realized the wise men had outwitted him. He sent soldiers to kill all the boys in and around Bethlehem who were two years old and under. Based on the wise men's report of the star's first appearance, Herod's brutal actions fulfilled what God had spoken through the prophet Jeremiah. A cry was heard in Ramah, weeping in great mourning, Rachel weeped for her children and refused to be comforted, for they are dead. So Herod, honestly, he's a pretty paranoid guy. You ever been around a drug addict? We're a little too high, they're paranoid about every sound. Cop there, is that a cop? Is that a cop? Is that a cop? Bro, that's a minivan.

Pretty sure they don't drive that anymore. But you've been around some paranoid folks, like, he's a paranoid man, okay? He's going to slaughter every child in this area because he's afraid that one of these babies is going to possibly grow up, this dude's almost like my age, okay? If I'm still alive when a baby grows up and takes my thorn, he can have it, okay? But that's his thought process, okay? And so in an attempt to kill Christ, and here's the thing, he's doing all this in an attempt to kill Christ, but the problem is, he doesn't know who he is, and he doesn't know where he is, so he's just like, kill them all. In all fairness, ancient Bethlehem, it was so small that this probably only represented around 20 children, but how many of you guys know that one is too many, right? And so you have Herod, and if you don't know anything about Herod, Herod is known for his brutality. He has killed so many people on so many occasions, the newspapers don't even write about it anymore, including his wives and some of his children, because he thought they were trying to usurp him. So can you imagine this unimaginable horror that's happening in this area? And historians say, the way that these men, he sent out men to travel to Bethlehem, and the way that they would kill these babies is they would thrust their swords through the middle of the babies, or they would cut their heads off. It's getting dark, I know, we'll turn the ship around, don't worry. But can you imagine, are there any mothers in here, with little kids, remember when your kid was two? What would you have done to save your child, right? I mean, you would have ran, you would have hid, you would have fought, but you would have done something, you wouldn't have just let, and imagine if the child was, imagine the horror, seeing that happen in front of you. Imagine the weeping, imagine the wailing, imagine these mothers scrambling around, hiding their children, because this is a real story, this happened, right? But all of this happened to fulfill prophecy, according to Matthew.

And here's the last thing that Herod wanted to do, the last thing Herod wanted to do was to fulfill prophecy. In fact, he actually wanted to stop it. If you remember when the wise men, they came and visited, and the scribes told him where the Messiah would be born, so his response to where the Messiah was to be born wasn't to worship, it was to what? Kill! He wanted to stop this from happening, okay? And so, Herod didn't want to fulfill prophecy, he wanted to keep it from happening, and so he hunts Jesus down, and in the process, he actually fulfills more prophecy. That's not what he's trying to do, okay? Verse 18, a cry was heard in Ramah, weeping in great mourning. Rachel weeped for her children, refusing to be comforted. They were all dead. Now Rachel, if you don't know who Rachel is, she's considered a mother of Israel. She's found in the Old Testament. So this is symbolism, okay? This weeping, they're weeping over the dead, it's symbolism of the mothers that are there weeping over their children. And here's the thing, Rachel may be weeping, the mothers may be weeping, Bethlehem may be broken, hell may be raging, but heaven already has the answer. Jesus has come, and Jesus gets the final word. Yet once again, we still have this undercurrent of rejection. Because these babies are being killed, all because Herod wanted to kill Jesus. And so, as I was writing this, I couldn't help but to think of Revelation chapter 12. And John says this in Revelation chapter 12, the dragon stood in front of the woman who was giving birth, ready to devour her baby as soon, say as soon, as soon as it was born. You know who that baby is? Jesus. Right, so he was the Messiah on the run from the get-go. Satan wanted to destroy Jesus because it was prophesied that this child who would be born would grow up and save the world. Kind of sounds like the plot of Terminator. Kill John Connor, I'll be back. Send the Terminator in, right?

So you have this fugitive Messiah, you have this hunted Messiah, and also, now the third point is simply this, you have a despised Messiah. A despised Messiah. Verse 19, it starts off by saying this, when Herod died. So growing up, I was kind of a loner, and we were also poor, so we had one of those TVs with the antennas, with the tinfoil on, anyone? Like, we didn't get real TV, okay, so you had to adjust it and everything. But every November, The Wizard of Oz would come on. And I would look forward to that every single year, and so The Wizard of Oz has become one of my favorite movies of all time. And so when I read this, when Herod died, I feel like singing, ding dong, the witch is dead, the wicked witch, the witch is dead. Ding dong, the wicked witch is dead, right? That's what I feel like singing, because Herod, he's not a very good person. When Herod died, ding dong, the witch is dead, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph. He says, get up, take your child and his mother back to the land of Israel, because those who are trying to kill your child are dead. So Joseph got up, he returned to the land of Israel with Jesus and his mother. But when he learned that the new ruler of Judah was Herod's son, he was afraid to go there. Then after being warned in a dream, he left the region of Galilee, so the family went and lived in the town of Nazareth. This fulfilled what the prophets had said. He will be called a what? Nazarene, okay? So they're in Egypt for some time, we don't know the amount of time. And here's the thing, when Herod died, he died pretty famously. And so ancient historians actually wrote how he died. He died of ulcerated entrails, like guts.

He had putrefied and maggot-filled organs, and he convulsed constantly. And because his insides were being eaten by bugs, his breath was horrible, so nobody wanted to be around him. Seems like a pretty fitting death for a man like this, right? And so, but here's how horrible of a person King Herod truly was, okay? A few weeks before he died, he was on his deathbed, and he knew that he only had a few days to live. And he also knew that when he died, there would be parties. Because everyone wanted to sing Ding Dong, the Witch is Dead. Nobody liked him, it was going to be like Munchkin Village up in there. And so everyone hated him so bad that they were going to be happy that he died. So what he did is he actually ordered his guards to go around and round up all of the noble citizens, the best people of Judah, throw them in prison, arrest them. And then the day that he died, he ordered that all of them be executed. And that's what happened. And his thought was this, I want there to be tears shed when I die. And if it's not for me, it's going to be for them. But at least there's going to be tears shed. I mean, this guy is vicious, vicious. And so we shouldn't be surprised when he's killing all these babies, okay? So now we have Joseph after Herod dies. And here's the thing, if you don't know, Joseph and Mary, they're from Nazareth, okay? And now when God radically rescued me, guess where I didn't want to go? Back home, okay? I've been clean 15 years, I still go back home and people say, oh, there's William the alcoholic,

there's William the addict. They literally say that. And I'm like, Pretty sure I'm not, I mean, I'm 15 years removed from that, pretty sure that this isn't a phase, okay, like You know when I was a kid I had phases, I would dye my hair pink, that was a phase, I'd dye my hair blonde, that was a phase, get piercings, that was a phase, like this ain't a phase, okay, this is my life right, and so the thing is, they probably wanted to go back to Bethlehem because Mary and Joseph, they wouldn't have even been welcomed in Nazareth, you know, because they had this illegitimate child, Jesus, and so if they would have went back, both of them would have been ostracized, so they really didn't want to go back, but instead they have to go back, why? Because the angel said, no, you're not going to Bethlehem, you're going to Nazareth, and so the reason they go back is, again, to fulfill prophecy, it says, this fulfills what the prophet said, he will be called a Nazarene, and so as we kind of start wrapping this up, here's what I want to say, I want to remind you of, okay, is simply this, I call it the Nazarene effect, the Nazarene effect, anyone ever heard that? No, it's okay, it's okay, so the Nazarene effect is simply this, okay, God, at like every state, every area has like that town, when I say that, you know what I'm talking about, right, that town, you know what I'm talking about, right, that certain town that's just backwards, that town that people talk about, that town like, it's just all these old podunk hillbilly towns, these people are missing teeth, they're married to their cousins, is anything ever good come out of this little town, where I'm from, that town's called cut and shoot, it's so hillbilly they kind of have their own laws there, and if you're found guilty, they cut or shoot you, kid you not, hence the name, cut and shoot, that's actually the name of the town, hillbillies, okay, and so here's the thing about Nazareth, it was one of those towns, okay, it was a despised place, where no one wanted to be from, and in fact, when Philip came and told Nathaniel, we found the Messiah, Jesus of Nazareth, Nathaniel goes, can anything good come out of Nazareth, and here's the thing, Jesus talked about Nathaniel, he said he's a man of complete integrity, so a man of complete integrity is saying this, think about what the scumbags are saying about Nazareth, right, and so here's the thing, Jesus' ultimate rejection when it comes to Nazareth is this, when Jesus died, he was hung on a cross, guess what sign Pontius put above his name, above him as he died, Jesus of Nazareth, Jesus of Nazareth, but again, this is all to fulfill prophecy, that he will be called a Nazarene,

so when Matthew said that, what this really was, was a way of saying that he will be rejected, and he will be despised, and the thing is, a lot of prophets must have said that, because it says the prophets, plural, not prophet, okay, so he was rejected, Jesus was rejected, so that way you could be accepted, okay, and I think really like this is why God gave me this message, is because of this Nazareth principle, because here's the thing, by design, God takes the marginalized people, anyone, by design, he takes the addicts, by design, he takes the dope dealers, by design, he takes the prostitutes, the broken, the discarded people, he takes the people that the world threw away, right, he takes them, and he uses them for something great, he takes them, and he uses them for something awesome, he takes them, and does greater things than we can think or imagine, and I can think some pretty big things, and when I say that, you should be sitting up straight, because you should be thinking like, wait, that's me, because it is you, it is you, Jesus, our first Corinthians says that God used the weak to profound the wise, any weak folks in here, I mean, I know I'm weak, sometimes I stand in front of a congregation, I'm like, who am I, but here's the thing, it doesn't matter your past, it doesn't matter how much time you spent behind bars, it doesn't matter how many drugs you've used, it doesn't matter if you've come in from a broken home, all that matters is who you are when Jesus gets a hold of you, you hear what I said, all that matters is who you are when Jesus gets a hold of you, Jesus said that you will do greater things than him, and that's the Nazarene principle, Jesus's disciples, I hope you know this, but they weren't the cream of the crop, they're fishermen, tax collectors, zealots, these are bottom of the barrel people, and yet God used them to change the world, and God wants to use each and every one of you to change the world, so do it. Be like Nike, just do it, okay? Can anything good come out of Nazareth? Only salvation, only the greatest thing ever. Can anything good come out of an addict, out of an inmate, out of brokenness? Well, with God, all things are possible, right? Here's what I know. If, like as soon as I turned 40, all of a sudden my body started falling apart, okay?

And so I had to have all these surgeries. And so I had a surgery on my knee and I went into the hospital, they performed this surgery, and I went in there thinking, this is gonna go down a hitch, okay? This doctor gets paid a lot of money, he's a professional, and this is a hospital. And so he did my surgery and it went great. But take that same doctor and throw him in the middle of the jungle and give him a Swiss army knife and have him perform that same surgery. If he's successful in those conditions, you say, wow, what a doctor. The point here is this, the skill of the doctor is more noticeable when he uses inferior tools like us, right? God uses the weak to profound the wise. We, I am weak, but God shows us. God shows us to do great and mighty things for his kingdom, amen? Stand with me if you will. Today we heard about a Messiah who was rejected before he ever even preached a sermon, before he ever healed a body, before he ever went to the cross. From the very beginning, hell tried to stop him, but didn't win.

Heaven already had opened up that door. Hell couldn't stop him. Herod couldn't stop him. Nazareth couldn't stop him. The cross couldn't stop him. The grave couldn't hold him. Jesus came anyways. And he came for the addicts. He came for the broken. He came for the rejected, for the ashamed, for those who look fine on the outside, but on the inside, you're still broken. So today, Jesus stands before us with the cure. And the question is, will you receive him or will you spit out the medication? Because here's the thing, you're not too far gone. You're not too dirty. You're not too broken and you're not too rejected. If anything good can come out of Nazareth, something good can come out of your life as well. So right now, you need to stop running from the cure. I mean, some of you need to surrender to Jesus for the first time. Others of you need to come back to Jesus. Some of you are living one way in here and another way out there, and you need to give your life to the Lord again. So if that's you, any of those things are you. You've never given your life to the Lord. Put your hand up.

All right. If you walked away and you wanna return, put your hand up. Okay? This is the most important decision you'll ever make in your life. If you are living one way in here and another way out there, and you say, Lord, I need to rededicate, refocus my life, I want you to put your hand up. There's no shame here. I was that person. Thank you. Anyone else? We don't wanna miss this opportunity, because here's the thing. The devil's a liar. He says you can get right with God tomorrow. The problem is you're not guaranteed tomorrow. So if that was you, if you put your hand up, I want you to come over to the prayer team, and they're gonna pray with you. Come on. This is an important moment. Yeah, come on over to the prayer team. Come on over to the prayer team. Yeah, let's give them a round of applause. Yeah! You'll never make a better decision than this in your entire life. Anyone else?

This is too important of a moment to rush through. Anyone else? All right. For those of you guys who are still here, don't miss this Nazareth principle. Don't miss this Nazareth principle. Nazareth is a place people look down on, the place that people mocked, and the place that Nathaniel said, can anything good come from there? Yet Jesus carried that name. Jesus of Nazareth. Can anything good come from an addiction, from failure? from prison, from divorce, from a broken home, from your shame. What the Nazareth principle says, when you put it in God's hands, the answer is yes. So today, as you leave here, I want you to ask God to use you in a mightier way, a bigger way than you can. Here's the word of God says that he would do exceedingly abundantly above what you can think or imagine. Think about the greatest outcome of your life for the kingdom and God will do greater than that. And then I want you to start living that life today. Because Jesus isn't done with you. He didn't save you for you to just sit in a pew. Okay, how selfish is that? Say, well, I'm saved. I'm getting to heaven, but forget everyone else. You have the greatest gift. Now share it. Be bold. Step out of your comfort zone. The fact is that you'll never grow if you don't step out of your comfort zone. It should feel uncomfortable because it's not about you. When it's uncomfortable, it becomes all about leaning into our Lord. Amen. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we praise you. We worship you, Lord God. I pray that you would take us out of our comfort zones. I pray, God, that you would mold us and shape us and form us into who you have created us to be. I pray for each and every individual in this room, Lord Jesus, that you would show them their calling, that you would show them their purpose, that you would show them that they're not here to just warm a pew. They're here to do kingdom work. I pray, God, that you would open up doors, divine appointments, shut windows, close doors,

open up doors, open up windows, whatever it is, Lord God, that you would have the path you'd have them to go down. I pray that each individual in here would lean not on their own understanding, that they would acknowledge you in all of their ways, and you'll direct their path, because your Word of God says that you will, Lord. So I pray for those individuals in here today, that you would give them courage to move mountains for your kingdom. I pray today, Lord Jesus, that you would open up hearts, that you would stir hearts with conviction, that they're just sitting on the pew doing nothing. I pray that each and every person in here would punch holes in the darkness for your kingdom. We pray this in Jesus' mighty and holy name. Amen. Amen. Let's give the Lord a round of applause. Amen. Thank you all.