Wisdom of Worship | Marcus Mecum | 7 Hills Church

If you've got your Bibles, turn with me to Matthew chapter 2, we'll look at the Christmas story together, and I know you've maybe seen it before, but maybe ask God to show you some things in a new way. After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea during the time of King Herod, magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, where is the one who's been born King of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and we've come to worship him. And when King Herod heard this, he was disturbed and all Jerusalem with him. When he called together all the people, the chief priests, the teachers of the law, he asked them, where is the Messiah to be born in Bethlehem in Judea? They replied, for this is what the prophet has written. But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judea, and by no means least among the rulers of Judah, for out of you will come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel. Then Herod called the magi secretly found out from them the exact time the star appeared. He sent them to Bethlehem and said, go search carefully for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me so that I may go and worship him. After they had heard that the king, the king, they went their way and the star they had seen when it rose, went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. And when they saw the star, they were overjoyed on coming to the house. They saw the child with his mother, Mary, and they bowed down and they worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures, presented gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. I want to talk to you, I promise I'll be very brief today on the wisdom of worship, the wisdom of worship. If you were to go to the exact spot. Where Jesus was born in Bethlehem, they say great minds, I guess, debate somewhat, but they say they more than likely know the exact spot that Jesus was born, not just the city, but the exact location. It's a cave that fits the description historically. It's very. Possible that this is the location, there's a Greek Orthodox church that has been built around that place, and if you go to the place where they believe that he might have been born to enter that place, you have to bow your knee to get in. You cannot get in there unless you bow your knee. I want you to keep that in mind until the end of some of these thoughts, and I'll come back to it that they had to bow down to get to the place that he was. We know that these wise men, most would agree, though maybe not Jewish, maybe not religious in the way that we would think that they were students of prophecy. They weren't theologians, but but they were students, they they had a respect for really probably a lot of different religions, but with that, they would have been a student of Daniel, we know that Daniel came or they took Daniel and they brought him into captivity in Babylon and the scripture doesn't say that they came from there, it says that they came from the east and most believe that it would be the east. They would have been around this Persia or Babylonian area. Well, Daniel, of course, had many prophetic insights concerning the Messiah, the first coming of of Jesus, the birth of Jesus, and so they would have been familiar with those. They would have also been familiar with the star prophecy is what it's called in Numbers chapter 24. Without getting bogged down into all the details, what I want you to see is they face the difficulty of distance for us to read about this moment and see this moment in scripture, hundreds and hundreds of miles they would have had to travel to get to the place where they bowed down and they worshiped him. The point is simply that worship in many ways will always inconvenience you, people that look for the convenient time or or that there is just perfect conditions before they worship usually miss it the most. These were people that had busy schedules.

These were people that had the pressures of life on them. We know that they were wealthy. We know that they were influential. We know that they were important people, but yet notice that they did not allow the inconvenience of the distance. They did not allow the difficulty of the distance to stop them from. worshiping Jesus. Not only did they overcome the difficulty of distance, but every single day, they would have to pack up in the morning. Actually, the Bible says that they traveled at night, so they would have to pack up at night, travel during the night, because you could only see the star at night, and then they would wake up, or they would unpack their bags. I'll get it out in a second. They'll unpack their bags and sleep during the day. They would be away from the comforts of home. They would be away from the comforts of family. They would be away from their own bed, their own pillow. How many of y'all know your own pillow matters? Come on. As you age, that's important stuff. They were away from, but those discomforts did not stop them from worshiping. Not only did they have the difficulty of distance and discomforts, but they would also face great danger. Herod was clearly a maniac, not only in how you see him in the Scripture,

but history tells us that his wife was extremely beautiful and was getting a lot of attention, and Herod did not want any attention to be taken off of him, and so he slaughtered his own wife. On top of that, he had two sons that history tells us were handsome and brilliant, and the people loved his two sons, and the same reason he slaughtered his wife, he slaughtered his two sons, and so Herod, without question, was a dangerous man, and so these men had to go through the difficulty of distance. They had to go through the discomforts of life, and they had to go through the danger. They had to face the dangers of life, and I like this because what a beautiful picture it is to us of worship, that worship is not gonna be in ideal circumstances, but if you wanna be in the center of God's will, if you wanna be where God is at in your life, if you wanna find out what God is up to, instead of you hoping he finds out what you're up to and joins that, but if you wanna find out what he's up to and say, God, I wanna be a part of that, there is something about willing to be inconvenienced, whether it's distance or discomforts or dangers, you have to overcome. These wise men taught us so much about the wisdom of worship. The first thing that they talked about

in that chapter that we read is they were wise in how they sought him. The second thing we'll look at is that they were wise in how they caught him. I love the fact that an old saying that I've heard many times is it's not about what you're taught, it's about what's caught or more is caught than taught. And I think about how sometimes we get so focused on learning and having all the right information. And I appreciate teaching and preaching and studying the scripture, but sometimes I still feel like I'll hear a story that I've read many times and think, how did I miss that part of it? And how do I not remember that part of it? But in moments like this, it's not just what you're taught. Even if you've heard this story 100 million times, it doesn't matter because something's being caught. Something is happening on the inside of you that supersedes information alone. The data is one thing, but there's something that you can catch in moments like this as well. And then thirdly, they were wise in what they brought him. They didn't come to God in an empty handed way. So let's look at these three things quickly. They were wise in how they sought him. The Bible says that they were stirred by the spirit of God.

So it took the ministry of the Holy Spirit to find Jesus. The Bible is clear that you cannot find him on your own, that it takes the ministry of the Holy Spirit to find Jesus. And they were wise in how they sought him because they were stirred by the Holy Spirit. You need to have a stirring of the Holy Spirit in your life. The Bible is clear, the Holy Spirit is a gift to us. Acts chapter two says, when you repent and receive remission of sins, it then says that you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. We need the Holy Spirit to seek Jesus. No one comes to the Father except through the Holy Spirit. You cannot say Jesus is Lord except through the Holy Spirit. We need the leadership of the Holy Spirit as God's people. It is a gift that's been given to us. And not only that, they didn't just stop with the spirit. they also searched the scriptures. Matthew 2 said that when they got to Jerusalem, they went to Herod and they said, we've come to see the king of the Jews. And he said, what king? And they said, the prophecies spoken by the Jewish people said there was to be a king that would be born in Bethlehem and we've seen the star and we've come to worship him. Herod turned to his priest and scribes and says, what are they talking about? And they said, it's true in the book of Micah,

it prophesies that the Messiah will be born in Bethlehem. So notice, first of all, they sought him through the ministry of the Holy Spirit, but secondly, they sought him through the scriptures. In other words, if you want to find Jesus, you have to hear the scriptures. You have to search the scriptures. You have to have a heart to know God's word. You find Jesus when you read the Bible. He's not just in every book. He's not just when you hit Matthew, he's in every single chapter all the way. That's why it says in the beginning, when we read John chapter one, in the beginning was the word. That's talking about before anything else, he was there. Everywhere you see God moving from Genesis all the way to Revelation, Jesus is in every book. He's in every chapter. He's in some way in every single verse of the Bible. And so when you read the Bible, if you don't find Jesus, my encouragement is reread it because he is the focus. He is the point and we need the scriptures to find him. We need the Bible. We need the word of God in our life. And so if you're here today and you feel distant, if you're here today and you can't seem to find answers, if you're here today and you're wondering, how do I solve this problem?

How do I deal with this dilemma? Or I don't know how to get through this situation or this circumstance. I want to encourage you that if you'll allow the Holy Spirit to stir you, if you'll search the scriptures, you can find him. Ask God when you open up the scriptures to speak to you, to lead you, to talk with you, and he's faithful to do it. They were wise in their worship because of how they sought him. Number two, they were wise in how they caught him. The miracle of the star notice, it was guiding them. They were serious about searching by the Holy Spirit through the scriptures, and then something that they couldn't get through that, God sent them to help, to help them find him. That bright star that out of all the stars in the sky, God said, I'm gonna cause that star to shine especially bright. It's divine guidance. It's how God in his ways can cause things to guide you to where he is. It's my personal belief that that star represents the glory of God, that that star was shining with God's glory. It grabbed a hold of them, and we need that. Sometimes in life, we just need God to get our attention. We need God to somehow, some way shake us, stir us, and get a hold of us, and they were wise in how they got him.

They were wise in how they caught him. They're just something about the wisdom of not just sitting back and saying, I'm waiting for you to get my attention, but once God does, it should move you. The Bible says that when you draw near to him, he draws near to you. So there is a relationship here with God that he's faithful to get your attention, but then that attention should grab a hold of you in such a way that it moves you. Somebody said, no, no, no, no, no. You don't choose him, he chose you. Well, that's true. The star initiated the movement, but don't stop there because the Bible says in Philippians chapter three, Paul said, I follow after that I might apprehend that which Christ Jesus apprehended me. So God apprehended him, got his attention, and then he said, now I'm following after that to find that which apprehended me. I gotta apprehend that which apprehended me. So there is a part of this that a lot of people get sung that devil's lullaby to stay stationary. They fall into the temptation of just sitting back and saying, well, I guess if God's gonna do something, he has to do it. He's faithful to grab a hold of you and apprehends you, but then there is the following after that you might apprehend that which has apprehended you

So God chose these wise men. The star grabbed a hold of them, but then they move two years in a journey. They would walk to apprehend that which apprehended them. God chose the children of Israel. It was clear that out of all the people, God would choose this unsuspecting, very small group of people that he would raise up. But notice that even though God chose them and called them out of Egypt, the next thing that you begin to see happen is the glory of God was there and they had to follow it. They had to follow the cloud by day and the fire by night. It wasn't just that God grabbed a hold of them. There was something that they had to follow after to apprehend that which apprehended them. In the book of Ezekiel, he sees a tragedy taking place and it's the glory of God lifting from the temple. It says he saw the glory of God, this brilliant light go over the threshold of the temple. He wept as he watched it go over the Mount of Olives. He wept as he watched it go out of the gates of the city until the glory departed. And what I'm trying to say is it's fitting when you read about that great cloud, the glory of God that led the children of Israel through that cold, dark wilderness. It's fitting that the same glory that Ezekiel talked about, that he saw departing, that the glory of God in the Old Testament vanished. But when Christ appeared, that star was shining. The glory of God was shining in a place called Bethlehem. And Luke says the glory of the Lord shone around the shepherds in the field. God knew how to get their attention. God knew how to draw them, but they had to be willing to also say there's wisdom. And what can I do to catch him, to get him, to grab a hold of him? I worship today, not just sitting there wondering, is God going to do something for me? Part of worship is saying, God, what do you want from my life? What, what, what do you need from me?

There's maybe some things that I need to let go of. There's maybe some difficulty of distance. There's maybe some discomforts and maybe some dangers that I've been unwilling to face. But there is a part of worship where I know God wants to show up and touch my life. But there's also a part of me that says, God, I'm here to ask you, to seek you, to follow after you and apprehend what is it that you have for my life as well. And then number three, they were wise in what they brought him. The Bible says they brought him gold, which speaks of his kingship and royalty. That was their way of saying, you're not just another baby, you're king. Not just any king, but king of kings and Lord of lords. You see, when he's on the throne of your heart, when Christ is on the throne, what that means is that self is on the cross. But if self is on the throne, then Christ is still on the cross. But you can't have it both ways. You can't serve two masters. He's either Lord of all or he's not Lord at all. He's divine. He's king. He's master. And there is wisdom in saying to God, I know that there is a part of this relationship that I don't come empty handed. There is a part of this relationship. And what I want you to see is the next thing that they brought was frankincense, which speaks of his holiness. It speaks of the purity of worship and the divine presence of God. In Exodus chapter 30, it was the sweet perfume that frankincense was that they commanded them to never alter it and to pour it out on the altar of incense for only one reason. And that was worship. And the fire would consume the frankincense and like smoke would come up and they saw that smoke going up and ascending to God and it represented the prayers of God's people.

So notice that what they brought him wasn't just a bottle of perfume. What they were bringing him was the connection between I have a need. There's prayers that I need answered. There's things that I want to see you do in my life. And I'm connecting what I bring to him to my need. I'm connecting what I bring to God to the things I want to see him do in my life, the prayers I have. And so when I bring something to God, it's not just the bottle. It's not just the gold. There's something about the bringing that I'm saying, God, I need. Because the priest would then pray for God's favor, God's blessing, that God would forgive the people. And if you're here saying, I need the. favor of God on my life. I need the blessing of God on my life. I need God to work him out. There is something that you have to connect to when I bring something to God. It's not just the physical alone or the material part of it alone. There's something about that that I'm to connect with the needs in my life. It's an act of worship when you bring something to God. The Bible says they fell down and they worshiped. They brought gold, frankincense, and then verse 11, they brought myrrh, which speaks of his death. Why would you bring baby myrrh, embalming fluid? Literally, that's what it was. It's because they were also bringing their witness. They were a witness of who he was, what he came to do,

that he was born to die, that he would hang on a horrible cross, stripped and humiliated in front of the whole world, that he died for me and for you. In Christmas time, we celebrate the cradle. Nothing wrong with it, but the truth is God didn't call us to celebrate the cradle. He called us to be thankful for the cross that he would die and bleed and give his life for us on. That's what he said to remember. You can't find anywhere where he says, remember the cradle, but you can read all the places where he says, take the bread and take the wine. And when you're taking that, I want you to do it in remembrance of me, do it in the remembrance of my death. And you do this until I come again. So they were wise in the way they sought him. They were wise in the way they got him. And they were wise in what they brought him. You see, what you do with your gold, with your wealth tells me whether you're wise or unwise. If you know, everything in my life belongs to God. If you understand, I cannot serve God and mammon. And if you don't like this part of the Christmas story, I just wanna remind you that there was a rich young ruler that didn't like it either. And he would walk away sorrowful. But this story tells us that our gold, our wealth belongs to him,

that he's King and so it belongs to him. He's God and my worship belongs to him. He's Lord and so my witness belongs to him. This means there's not one area of my life that he has not put his divine finger on. The way I live, the way I act, the way I give, the way I do life, it all belongs to him. So let's go back to that spot that we started off with in Jerusalem, where the wise men would have to bow down to get into the room and worship. Notice that the wisdom of worship, that it's in how we sought him, it's in how we got him, and it's also in what we brought him. We're joining with the wise men throughout the generations that realize it takes great humility. You have to bow your knee to come to him. I believe that there's something about the wisdom of this moment where you have to ask yourself, how's my worship looking? Am I wise in the way I'm seeking him? Because the Bible says, if you seek him, you'll find him. The Bible says he's not hard to find, as many would say it's hard, but that he's near to you. Isn't that amazing? You're like, well, I feel like he's so far away. The Bible says, no, he's near, as near as his word.

Isn't that beautiful? No matter who you are today, he's near, he's close. He's Emmanuel. Well, but maybe you have to take that step. And there's wisdom in worship. And God can get a hold of you. God can grab a hold of you. And there's a moment where you say, okay, I get it. You got my attention. And now I wanna have my grip. I wanna let go of white knuckling my life the way that I have. And I wanna say, what do you have for me? With every eye closed and every head bowed at all of our locations. The reason we do what we do as a church is we're doing everything we can to be wise. The Bible says, he who wins souls is wise. The Bible says, if Jesus be lifted up, he'll draw all men in all of our locations today. Maybe you're here worshiping with us, and maybe you showed up for one reason, but just like those wise men, just something today is shining, especially bright. Something's just standing out. Your heart is softer, more receptive than normal. And I want to encourage you, like Paul said, to follow after that, which is apprehending you. And if you've never bowed your knee, if you never surrendered, if you've never taken a moment and said, Jesus, I don't want to just know about you, I want to know you. I want to have you in my life. In just a moment, I'm going to count to three, and I'm going to encourage you just to lift your hand.

You say, Marcus, I've felt distant from God. Maybe even the things of God inconvenience your relationships, or maybe they inconvenience something or another in your life. Maybe it's even made you uncomfortable today. Good. There's wisdom in realizing that's how we seek Him. The discomfort is part of it, the inconvenience is part of it, but you can find Him today. Would you call on the name of the Lord? The Bible says, if you'll do so, you shall be saved. All across this room and all of our locations, you'd say, Marcus, today, I want to get right with God. Today, I don't want to be unwise and miss this moment. Today, I want to worship Him. Today, I want to say, God, I give you my life. Today, I want to say, God, I give you my heart. If that's you on the count of three, throw that hand up as high as you can. One, two, three, throw your hand up as high as you can. Thank you. God bless you. God bless you and you. Thank you. Anybody else? And we'll pray at all our locations. Let's all put our hand on our heart. We're going to pray with those who've lifted their hands. Say this with me. Say, Jesus, today I come, I humble myself that I might receive your gift of grace. I'm asking for you to forgive me, cleanse me, wash me. I repent. I turn towards you today.

I believe that you're God's only son and that he raised you from the dead. In Jesus' name, we all said, amen.