Thank you for listening to this message from Life House Church.
All right, good morning, good morning.
Listen, turn to somebody, tell them we are getting close.
We are so close to Christmas.
Give them a high five.
Shake their hand.
Tell them we are close.
The kids are all jittery.
They're all waiting patiently.
And I'm talking about the big kids.
Amen.
Come on.
How many, how many like Christmas morning?
Open ended gifts.
Let's be honest.
All right.
Good.
It's good to have you here at Life House.
Merry Christmas.
It's been amazing all month long and we're getting up close and Christmas Eve
services coming, which is one of my favorites.
There's something about that soft candlelight service.
I don't know.
Just you feel God's holiness.
And you just feel that His presence.
So if you can be here, if not, if you're somewhere else, located somewhere else,
find a place to go worship and, you know, go serve God and just take a time on
Christmas Eve to worship the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords.
Well, this morning I want to start this message off with a little something I read
this week and it kind of fits nicely with what I want to talk about this morning.
But it says this, when Jake and Kelly Levine boarded their flight, they were
hoping their five month old daughter, Romy, would be able to behave appropriately.
Kelly said before the flight, I was very anxious.
You never know if people around you are going to be bothered by a baby.
It was only Romney's second flight.
The family was returning to their home from a vacation in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico.
And according to Kelly, however, Romney was transfixed for the majority of the
five hour flight by the passenger sitting next to her who was crocheting a sweater.
Kelly said entranced is the perfect word.
Romney is a very curious baby.
She loves to watch people and observe.
And Megan Rubin was Romney's seatmate and enjoyed the attention from Romney.
Rubin said she started staring at me so inquisitively.
Once Rubin finished her sweater, she looked at the curious baby and she
decided she had just enough time and just enough yarn to pivot to a new
project, a beanie for the baby.
She was hopeful she could pull it together in about an hour.
I just had to, she said, adding that she makes an effort to surprise strangers
with homemade gifts whenever she can.
A few minutes after the plane landed, Rubin turned to the couple, handed
them a tiny cream colored hat and declared, okay, it's done.
We were totally shocked.
As were the passengers around us, said Kelly, I was near tears and Kelly
placed a hat on Romney's head and it fit perfectly.
Everyone in the vicinity smiled and applauded.
She was sober one with joy that afterwards she shared the video on
TikTok where it was viewed over 7 million times.
Kelly said, I will make sure Romney knows for the rest of her life that
can't people can be nice to each other for no reason.
And this story inspired so many others to do the same.
She added that she and Rubin are staying in touch and hope to get together soon.
We want her to be a part of our lives forever.
I tell you this little story to let you know, there is power in a gift.
They're right.
Turning somebody right now.
Come on, give him a high five.
You didn't do it earlier.
I'm going to make you do it again.
Tell him there's power in a gift.
Come on.
There's power in a gift, right?
Seven million clicks on TikTok.
There's power in a gift.
People on the plane witnessed it.
This family was forever changed.
Christmas is this one time a year where we focus on giving gifts.
The perfect gift, if we can pull it off, right?
We try to nail it.
We try to get it right.
We try to get that thing that somebody has wanted all year long, right?
That thing that's been on somebody's wish list, that thing that's been in
the Amazon cart and the person just can't click on it to buy it from themselves.
Right.
They've been tempted to, but they just can't pull the trigger.
Trying to get the gift right.
Trying to get the perfect scenario.
Trying to get the presentation right.
Trying to wrap it right.
Amen.
That's my challenge.
Right.
Get it wrapped right.
And this is true for gift givers around the planet because they know the power of a gift.
In recent years, if you've watched around or talked to any young people who are around
that age where they're getting engaged, how many know giving the gift of an engagement ring?
Right.
You get a young man who wants to give a young lady the gift of an engagement ring.
How many know it has got extravagant giving that gift?
Right.
Back in the day, back when I used to be young a long time ago, a hundred years ago,
all right, it was a lot different.
It was simple.
And now, man, they rent planes and right in the sky.
They go to extravagant places, right?
They do extravagant things to give this gift of an engagement ring.
And there is power in that gift.
I epically failed at that with Dixie, by the way.
And fortunately for me, she said yes anyway.
I'm not sure if it was a pity.
Yes, I'll go with that.
All right.
I'm OK with that.
But she did say yes.
But when it comes to gift giving, I think that the Magi, the three kings, the three
wise men in scripture, they got it right.
They really did.
They did come to visit the king looking and they came not looking for what they could
get, but what they could give the king.
So this morning we're going to Matthew chapter two.
If you got your Bible, you can go ahead and turn to Matthew chapter two.
We're going to start off with verse one and we're going to take a look.
There's not a lot in scripture about these individuals, but we're going to glean what
we can because there's an important message tucked in these passages.
Matthew chapter two, verse one says this.
Now, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, in the days of Herod the king,
behold, wise men went from the east and came to Jerusalem saying,
where is he who has been born king of the Jews?
For we have seen his star in the east and have come to worship him.
Let's bow our heads.
Lord God, we ask that this word that was just read and got the scriptures that are
going to be read, Lord, that they would hide in our hearts, God, that it would speak to
our minds.
God, I pray that you would guide us and direct us today and Lord God, that we would
look to you, God, just as a result of the word that we hear and will not fail to give
you praise in Jesus name.
And everybody said together, amen.
Amen.
Well, I did a little reading about these mysterious visitors who came to Jesus
following his birth and scholars tell us that these visitors were likely astrologers
from the area of modern day Iraq, Iran or Saudi Arabia.
They traveled from one of those three areas and they probably studied the stars
and were very aware of Jewish culture.
They had studied Jewish prophecy of the Messiah, they assumed, because they
were somewhat experts on Jewish tradition or Jewish prophecy.
Experts say they traveled for months
following a star that they labeled as his star, as Jesus star.
And the other thing that is assumed about these magi, these astrologers,
these leaders, it would have been in their community that they were very wealthy.
These educated stargazers brought extravagant gifts for the king.
A king who was not their own king, who was not from their culture and likely
wasn't even along the lines of their belief system.
What's even more amazing is they got to the Jesus location led by divine GPS,
right, a star, and they came to worship him.
They didn't just come to visit.
They didn't just come to see.
They came by divine direction by God himself.
And upon entering the territory where Jesus lived, they go to visit the current
king, they check in with the leader of that area, which is King Herod.
He is the current Jewish king of Judah.
And Herod tells them of and they tell them of Herod of their plans to find this new
king of the Jews. This doesn't sit very well with Herod.
Herod pretends that he's on board with this.
He pretends that he wants to go worship the king.
He pretends that that he's he's excited as they are.
But the reality is, is that he does not want Jesus to be the Messiah.
He does not want a new king coming, taking his place.
And he fools these gentlemen by telling them, go find out where he lives and then
come back and tell me. In Matthew 2, 3, it says, when Herod,
the king, heard this, he was troubled and all Jerusalem with him.
And when he had gathered all the chief priests and the scribes of the people
together, he inquired them where Christ was to be born.
So they said to him, in Bethlehem of Judea, for thus it is written by the prophet,
but you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are not of the least among the rulers of
Judah, for out of you shall come a ruler who is who will be shepherd of my people.
Israel, then Herod, when he had secretly called the wise men, determined from them
what time the star appeared, and he sent them to Bethlehem and said,
go and search carefully for the young child.
And when you have found him, bring him back word to me that I might come
and worship him also. And when they heard the king, they departed.
And behold, the star, which they had seen in the east, went before them till it came
and stood over where the young child was.
And when they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceedingly great joy.
And when they had come into the house,
I mean, this didn't happen at the Nativity.
All right.
There wasn't a house at the Nativity.
This took place.
I know that's tradition a lot of times, but this actually took place.
Experts say probably a year or two later.
Right. So when they came into the house,
they saw the young child with Mary, his mother, and fell down and worshiped him.
And when they had opened their treasures,
and this is the part I want you to get a hold of, they presented gifts to him.
Gold, say gold, frankincense and myrrh.
Gold, frankincense and myrrh.
These kings, these magi, these leaders did not come to see what they could receive.
They came to bring gifts to the king.
They came to offer up worship.
They came to offer up adoration.
They came to recognize the divinity of the king that was born in this country
that was not their own.
And they came and worshiped in front of probably what was likely a two year old
child in front of them, seeking out, looking for God's son.
And they came with the perfect gifts.
They came with gifts that were fit for a king, were fit for royalty.
Gold, frankincense and myrrh.
These were not novelty gifts.
These were not the latest and greatest gadget that you all went out and bought
for your two year old. Right.
Come on. I know that's out there.
Right. This wasn't some practical household item for a two year old.
These gifts were extremely valuable and they were significant in their meaning.
And I believe that the scripture tells the tale of these wise men coming into this
country, this this little snippet in Jesus life for a very distinct reason,
because I think it teaches us what kind of gifts we bring to the king. Right.
This shows us what kind of gifts we should bring to Jesus.
This shows us what is fit and right for royalty.
And that's who Jesus is.
And what I'm bringing, you know, what I'm bringing matters.
And we got to ask ourselves, what am I bringing to Jesus?
What am I bringing to the king this Christmas?
What am I bringing?
Because Jesus is no longer a child.
He's a risen Savior. Heard a little bit this morning.
Right. He's at the right hand of the Father.
He's the King of Kings.
He is the Lord of Lord.
And what constitutes the perfect gift in the perfect setting at the perfect time
and place for the king?
And I think each one of these magi, they nailed it.
Right. And I believe the first one, he got it right because he brought gold.
Now, how many of you know that gold is an
acceptable gift at any point in time? Right.
If any of you want to drop a pot of gold at my house,
I'm more willing to receive that from you.
OK, there is no wrong occasion to bring somebody pure gold.
Anyone in the house want a big old chunk of gold for Christmas?
Raise your hand right now. Come on.
Six of you? The rest of you are liars.
OK, come on.
Any one of us would be happy to receive some gold.
You know, and if I told you what gold is worth right now,
gold is going for about twenty seven hundred dollars an ounce. OK.
So somebody dropped the one pound chunk of gold in your stocking.
You'd have about thirty four thousand plus in a stocking stuffer.
How many would be rejoicing? Amen.
Come on. Now I got a couple more participants.
All right. Yeah, come on.
It would be pure gold if it was a pure ring, if it was a pure necklace,
pure gold necklace, pure gold something that was molded or formed for you.
You know, it was there or just a gold chunk.
Gold is always the perfect gift.
Gold is a standard in across the world in money.
When you talk about money,
gold is a gift that is fit for a king.
And if you understand ancient times,
when you came into the presence of a king, you didn't come in empty handed.
You didn't come in just offering up some of the cheapest gifts you could find.
Right. You didn't go find something on sale at the dollar store.
Come on. Amen.
I don't know if dollar stores have sales, but that's the unit.
You don't go by in there for a king. Right.
You didn't stop in to catch the sale.
You brought your best.
You brought the top.
You brought the purest.
You brought the highest quality.
You didn't just bring it.
You know, you brought what you could, the best of what you could afford.
You brought to the king.
And we see this in scripture.
If you go in scripture, you see the Queen of Sheba, who was the Queen of Ethiopia,
comes to visit King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba or the
Ethiopian Queen, she hears of Solomon's amazing wisdom, wisdom given by God,
wisdom that had never been seen on the face of the earth or heard of on the face
of the earth before. And she goes and visits King Solomon herself.
She takes an entourage of people with her and she goes and sees and listen what it
says in First Kings 10.1, when the Queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon,
famed to the name of the Lord, she came to test him with hard questions.
She wanted to come and ask.
She wanted to see his wisdom.
She came to Jerusalem with a great, a very great retinue, a big entourage of people
and camels with bearing spices and very much what?
Gold and precious stones.
And when she came to Solomon, she told him all that was on her mind.
You don't come empty handed to the king.
You don't roll in and just make a bunch of demands and requests, right?
Come in with something of no value.
You don't just just pop you or something.
Listen, the queen, she didn't plop it.
She didn't just stop in to see Solomon and say, hey, I heard some things about you.
She didn't just plop down on a couch and say, I need you to talk to me.
She came with gifts.
She came with gold.
She came with the best.
This was King to Queen or Queen to King.
She didn't pick up a piece of gravel in the driveway and say, you know what?
This ought to do it. Right.
She didn't do that.
If you're going to approach the king, we need to bring our gold.
If you're going to give him a gift this Christmas, if you're going to come before
the Messiah, give him your gold.
Approach the king with your gold.
Approach him with your best.
He is the king of kings.
He's not even an earthly king.
He's the king of kings.
He's the Lord of lords.
He's the God of the universe.
Bring him your gold.
Bring him your best.
And if we don't bring our best to the king, right?
How do I know what you bring speaks a message?
The gift that you give speaks something to someone.
Right. If it's the Dollar Tree on sale item, how do we know that speaks something?
If we don't bring Jesus our best, if we just give him something less than our best,
we're speaking something to him.
Right. It shows how much I value him.
The gift.
It reveals my loyalty to him as king.
I show my recognition of his power and of his grace and of his position.
It shows how much I honor him.
Right.
The humility before his royalty.
All this.
My love for the king.
My gift to him reflects that.
And anything less than my best, anything less than my gold,
sends a whole different message to the king.
When I bring Jesus less than my best, I'm speaking something to him.
Right.
I really am.
I don't know which of the Magi doesn't tell us which of the Magi brought the gold,
but I think he got it right.
I think when he knelt down before the king of kings, his two year old,
and he laid down his gold, traveled for months just to lay the gift before him.
And I know this.
One day I'm going to stand before the king.
One day it's not going to be the Magi.
It's going to be me.
One day I'm going to stand before the king of kings and the Lord of lords.
And I don't know if he's going to ask me this question or not.
He might. But I'm going to have to answer.
Did I give him my gold?
Did I give him my very best?
Everything that I did when I worshiped him, right.
You worshiped and sang and did praise this morning.
When I praised him, did I give him my best?
When I worked in the kingdom, did I give him my best?
When I did anything that reflects God in any way, did I give him my gold?
Or did I give him something cheap?
Right. Did I go for, did I give him the silver or the bronze or even worse than that?
Right. The rocks, the wood, the stubble.
What did I give him?
What am I bringing to the king on Christmas?
One of the other Magi bring something different.
They all three didn't bring gold.
Actually, they don't even know if it was three.
They just talks about Magi coming.
We don't know how many of them there were.
But another one brings something.
He brings frankincense.
Say frankincense.
Just say it because it's fun to say. Say it again.
Frankincense. All right.
Come on. He brought frankincense to the king.
Frankincense is the gift of worship.
It is a gift of worship.
What I do, what do I bring to a king?
I bring frankincense.
I bring a worship.
And believe it or not, frankincense was actually a step up beyond the gold.
It really was because gold is fit for a king, right?
An earthly king.
But frankincense worship is what we offer up to God or to a God.
This frankincense was was worship.
And Frank, again, understand something about frankincense.
Frankincense is a rare and it's a valuable mixture in a perfume.
It was used in aroma therapy.
It still is, actually.
It has medicinal purposes along with it.
And it is a high quality, sweet, woody smelling aroma.
And it's rare because it comes from the
buswell tree that grows only in a few places on the earth in the dry regions,
actually of India, Africa and in the Middle East.
And frankincense was traditionally used in the temple in ancient Israel.
It was used in the temple and it was a sweet,
smelling aroma that was burned and sent up to God.
Exodus 30 and 34 says this.
And the Lord said to Moses, take sweet spices, stash and a nacha and a gallum.
Sweet spices with pure frankincense, an equal part of each and make an incense
blended as by a perfumer and seasoned with salt, pure and holy.
And you shall beat some of it into powder and put part of it before the covenant
in the tent of meeting where I shall meet with you.
It shall be for the for you most holy.
And when you make the incense, according to its composition,
you shall not make it for yourself.
It shall be regarded by you as holy to the Lord.
Whoever makes any any like it to use as perfume for themselves shall be cut off
from my people in the temple, in Israel, outside of the Holy of Holies,
where the Ark of the Covenant dwelt in the innermost part of the temple was
this incense that was burned and within that was frankincense.
And it was a sweet, smelling aroma that went up to God.
It was a sweet smelling incense that went up.
And you got to understand something about worship.
Worship, a lot of times we get this mixed up, messed up definition of what worship is.
Right. We kind of try to say, well, it's when I praise God.
It's kind of when I sing, you know, and it's when I do this.
But worship is this.
Worship is anything that comes up and is sweet in the presence of God.
I want you to think if it's a sweet smelling thing,
how many of you like sweet smelling things?
I think about this for a minute and I thought, what if I, you know,
one of the favorite places I like to go in the summer into an ice cream shop?
Come on, breathe in deep right now.
You can smell it right now just because I said it.
Right. Because it smells sweet in there.
You'll go in and it's sweet smelling.
You can go into a bakery, right?
You know, P.A. What is that?
P.A. Bakery up in Camp Hill.
I just did a plug for him right there.
They need to send me a commission.
All right.
You know, you can go up there.
You can just breathe in deep.
And you're like, oh, that's sweet.
That's what it is when you worship.
Frankincense is when you worship God, when it comes up before God,
whatever you're doing, whatever you're saying, whatever you're singing,
however you're moving and grooving in life, when it comes up and God says,
hmm, that's sweet.
That's worship.
That's the worship that God wants.
This Magi, he had it right.
He got it.
He nailed it.
Authentic worship is if you want to know what authentic worship is in anything,
it is when it comes up before God and it is sweet smelling to him.
And if you don't know what that is, go into God's word and start finding out
what is sweet smelling to him because he declares it all through his word.
Right. It is what's sweet.
Whatever makes God smile, whatever makes God breathe in, he goes, oh, look at that.
Right. I think God does that.
So I'm like, look at that.
That's sweet.
Look what they're doing.
Right. It's worship.
This Magi, they had it right.
It was a perfect gift.
Perfect gift to a God who...
How many know they were given gifts to a God who has everything?
Do you ever try to buy from somebody that has everything?
It's really hard.
God has everything.
There's no tangible thing you're going to give to God one day and he's going to be
like, wow, look at that.
All right. He owns it all.
But listen, he wants your gold.
He wants your best.
He wants your worship.
He wants something that's sweet smelling to come up to him.
Amen. It's true.
What do I bring a king?
What is holy? What is pure?
What is sweet smelling to the king?
Amen. Nails it.
You praise him this morning.
You need to...
When praise is coming off your lips, it needs to be your gold.
Right. And it needs to be something that's sweet smelling.
Or don't even bother.
Don't even go there.
Right.
Don't throw up like something half baked before God.
Let's talk about the last Magi.
Let's talk about the last one who came and brought a gift or the third gift that came.
And it was Myrrh. Say Myrrh.
It's even funner to say. All right.
Myrrh. And Myrrh has several uses in Scripture.
As I started looking at this,
it's kind of interesting in opposing uses in Scripture.
And some Bible scholars talk about this gift from the Magi.
And Myrrh was actually used in embalming as an embalming fluid.
I'm like, oh, that's a downer.
OK.
It was used in preparation of dead bodies.
And I'm like, oh, let's look at this.
OK. And, you know, some of the scholars, of course, they go super deep with this.
And they're like, well, this is the Magi
recognizing that Jesus was, in fact, the prophesied Messiah, which he was.
And that one day he would die, right, for the people's sins.
And he would be a leader who would come forward.
And they go into all this deep meaning.
And I'm thinking, well, yeah, but this gift, they gave it to a two year old.
Right.
And I'm thinking, embalming fluid?
Seriously, you know, or a bombing type of spice of some kind.
And I'm thinking in my head, this is just me.
This is not Scripture. All right.
But I'm thinking in my head, you know, an 8 BCDE or F scale with gift giving.
Like Myrrh is like F.
Here's some Myrrh.
But then I started looking at some of the other meanings of this.
And I found out that Myrrh is also used
in making anointing oil in the ancient Jewish culture.
Right. An anointing oil.
You got to understand something about anointing oil.
Anointing oil was used
in the temple. They would anoint something.
I got some anointing oil up here.
They would anoint something to set it apart for God.
When they anointed something, whether it was utensils, whether it was
the items they were using in the temple, or even if they were anointing people,
it was used and it was set apart.
A prophet or a priest would come in ancient Israel and they would anoint
something and it was set apart from God.
Exodus 30, 22 says, and the Lord spoke to Moses,
take the finest spices of liquid Myrrh, 500 shekels and of sweet smelling
cinnamon, half as much and there's 250 of the aroma it came and 500 of
cassia measured by the sanctuary shekel and a hint of olive oil.
And you shall make of these a sacred anointing oil blended as the perfumer
and shall be a holy, say holy, a holy anointing oil.
With it, you shall anoint the tent of meaning and the Ark of the Covenant
and the table and its utensils and the lampstand and its utensils and the altar
of incense and the altar of burning offering with all its utensils and basins
in its stands, you shall consecrate them so that they may be most holy.
Whatever touches them will become holy.
You shall anoint Aaron and his sons and
consecrate them in order that they may serve me as priest.
Myrrh was used as a holy anointing oil.
Anything it touched was set apart for God and God alone.
So what do I bring a king?
I bring my gold.
I bring my best.
Right.
I bring frankincense.
I bring my worship.
I bring anything that's sweet to his smelling.
And I also bring myself because God and I've got time to unfold all this.
But God wants you anointed for him.
He wants you as he's my king.
Right.
I'm his and he's mine.
He wants you set as part.
He wants you in his service.
Right.
And I started looking at this whole meaning behind myrrh.
And I started thinking about it in the context even as embalming fluid.
Right.
And if you combine these meanings, you start to really see what
what's represented here with myrrh because God truly wants us in a place
where we come before him and the word of God tells us is that we die to ourselves.
Right.
And when we die to ourselves, that's when he can anoint us and set us apart
for service for him. Jesus said it in Luke 9 23.
He said to he said to them all, if anyone desires to come after me,
let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow me.
In Galatians 2 20 says, I've been crucified with Christ.
It's not longer no longer I who lives right, but Christ who lives in me.
And the life which I now live in the flesh.
I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.
Myrrh is about dying to you and being set apart for him.
It's the perfect gift.
You can't give God anything tangible.
That's going to impress him.
But you can give him your gold.
You can give him your worship.
What is sweet.
Right.
And you can give him your myrrh.
You can die to you and you can set yourself up.
Right.
Set yourself aside for him.
These are gifts worthy of a king.
I'm going to ask you to stand this morning.
Worship team's coming.
There's not a lot in scripture about these mysterious magi who show up.
Right.
Possibly a year to two years later after the Nativity.
But what they did speaks to us in volumes.
What they did is a pattern.
What they did, the gifts that they brought was something that we should constantly
look to and be relevant in what we bring a king.
So we're getting ready to participate in communion.
And as they get ready to play,
there's a couple of things that go along with communion.
One, we know this with communion.
And particularly around Christmas time, it's an amazing thing to do communion.
But we do this.
The word of God says in remembrance of Christ.
The word tells us that every time you
break bread and you drink of the vine, you remember the body that was broken.
You remember the blood that was shed for you.
Right. And we should constantly remember that.
And not just here when we take it together here.
And this is going to be amazing when we take it here.
It is every time we do it.
But but even when you're at home and you're with your family and you pray
before you eat your meal and it's part of you recognizing the king of kings
and the Lord of lords before you break bread and you partake.
Right. So that's one of the things we're going to do.
And the word of God says we should do this not in an unworthy manner.
And what that means is that you participated in this.
If Jesus is your Lord and Savior, that's the word what the word of God says.
It's not not that we're perfect.
It's not that we're
in any way some kind of we got to get to some kind of perfect state to take
communion. But the word of God says that we should know him as Lord and we should
know him as Savior of our life. That's what it says.
And and today I want you to take it a step further.
I want you to ask yourself the question.
What am I bringing the king?
Am I bringing him the gold? My gold.
Right. Am I bringing him
my frankincense?
Is what I'm doing sweet in his sight?
Is it sweet to his smell?
And am I dying to me? Right.
I set a port for his work.
And whatever I'm doing in life.
So I'm going to ask you that.