This recording is from Christ Kingdom Church in Waterford Lakes, East Orlando. Visit us online at christkingum.org for our calendar, driving directions and more audio recordings. Thank you, Don. Well, good morning again. Good morning. This morning's message I've entitled Gift Delima. And I suspect that you might all relate to one degree or another, especially... Probably the older you are, the more gifts you have to buy, perhaps. How many of you have encountered any kind of gift dilemma this holiday season already? All right. Most of you. Most of you, that's good. Well, actually, maybe that's not good, but you've experienced that. What would Christmas be, right, without gifts? There's lots of things like the songs, some of the stories, obviously. Lots of things we remember about that, the decorations. But if you were to take gift giving out of this holiday, it would feel drastically different. I think we all would agree with that. So, what happens when you have a gift dilemma? Now, some of the ones that you might be experiencing now, just to draw light to, I'm hopefully not more anxiety to you, but there's the giving side of the gift dilemma, right? At Christmas time, it's like, what to get somebody? How many of you are struggling with what to get somebody? Raise your hand. Right? Okay. How many, maybe how much to spend? It's kind of like, well, you know, especially if some of you are in the dating realm here, well, if I get this expensive of a thing, you might, this, if I get this expensive of a thing, well, it might mean that. You know, that's a dilemma, right, guys. How about, do you re-gift or not? How many of you are wondering, should you re- yeah, I didn't think you'd raise your hand on that one. But maybe you're just asking yourself, will they like it? You know, I'm trying to put some thought and time into this. Will they even like it, or use it, or keep it, or so on? Well, that's the giving side of a gift dilemma. There's also the receiving side of a gift dilemma. And it might mean something like this, well, you know, some of you might be wondering, well, I get anything, you know, put yourself back in that dating scenario there. You know, it's like, they're dating now. What if they do get me something, or what if they don't? What does that mean? What's communicated about that? What do you want, maybe, as a gift dilemma? Maybe you have the awkward gift. These experiences are ones that we don't cherish or look forward to, but we probably haven't forgotten, you know, it's like you open it up. They're on Christmas morning and you're like, you don't know what it is at first. And you have that tension right of going, I need to surprise, and, you know, thankful, but I don't really know what I've just received. And then maybe you open up one, and you know exactly what it is, but you're thinking maybe a little more discretion would have been appropriate if this person maybe had exercised that maybe it's an embarrassing gift or something. Or maybe, what if it's a gift that they've already gotten you in a previous year? Gentlemen, work hard on that if you're married. What about if it's a gift that you knew that if they really knew you, though, if they really knew you, they probably wouldn't have chosen this gift. I remember growing up as a kid, this is back during the days of the cassette tapes and stuff like that. Kids just do a search on YouTube and you'll figure out what a cassette tape is. But, you know, I had relatives who would try to always get you to something, they think they know what kind of music you like, but that's a big risk if you don't know the person. You know, so when you do pull up something and it's just not really what's on your listening thing there, you're like, all right, that's not if they knew me, they probably wouldn't have gotten me that. But there is no bigger gift dilemma in all of time than what to do with a gift of Jesus Christ. And every single person who has been born on this planet has had a wrestle with that gift. They were wrestling with it two thousand years ago as we just read about, and they're still wrestling with it today. And you and I will have to wrestle with it and are wrestling with it. And there's three common responses. In fact, we see them all reflected here in this text here this morning. And those common responses, and it's probably more than three, but there's at least three, are still prevalent here today. I think the most common responses. So if you are one of those that likes to fill along the outline there, the sermon insert that's in your bolt in here, this is when you'd want to write something down. The first one I want you to look at here is, one response is to ignore him. One response to becoming of Jesus Christ is, ignore him. I remember years ago, Lord and I had worked to pick out a gift for a relative and our family and we had, you know, it was one of these relatives that's difficult to find a gift for. So, you know, we're kind of looking throughout the year trying to figure out what could be just the right thing. And we thought we found one. In fact, we probably spent more than we should have on it because it was like that. This is, we're not sure we're going to find a better one than this. Let's just go ahead and do it. And it was something that we knew that they enjoyed, something that they had had talked about, and so on with that. So we got that gift, we had it for months beforehand. So we got that gift, we had it for months beforehand. We came and that gift was presented around Christmas time. And in that particular time, they're actually right at our house. They couldn't take it with them for one reason or another. It was somewhat fragile. We got that. So they said, hey, I'm going to come back and give you guys hold it for me. And we're like, yeah, no problem with that. Well, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven months went by. And we began to think here a little bit. Well, maybe the gift wasn't quite as good as we thought it was. Because it hasn't come up again. And worse, we still have it in our closet. Eventually they did get the gift. But that's one response. Is that we can ignore the gift of Jesus Christ. Let's look for a second here at who these magi were. And maybe who ignored the gift in this story. The magi, we think, probably part of a priestly political class that the parthians who lived in the east of Palestine is our best guest, probably, who they were. We know that they were astronomers, people that study the stars. Obviously, that's pretty easy to come by here in this story. But we also know that they were influenced by Judaism and the Old Testament teachings to at least some degree. Reason being, right, it's because they are coming and they're looking for this king that has been prophesied in the Old Testament scriptures. And arriving somewhere between one to two years after Jesus' birth is what brings them here on this journey. Let's look over verses four through six, say in that passage we already read. Let me read it again. It says, when he had called together all the people's chief priests, this is King Herod. When King Herod had called together all the people's chief priests and the teachers of the law, he asked them where the Christ was to be born. They answered, in Bethlehem, in Judea, they replied, for this is what the prophet has written. But you, Bethlehem, and the land of Judah are by no means least among the rulers of Judah, for out of you will come a ruler who will be the shepherd of my people Israel. Interesting response of the chief priest and the teachers of the law. These are the Jewish experts on the Messiah. When they come and when Herod consults them, these are the guys that know the Old Testament scriptures the best. They are the experts, resident experts of the day. They know the prophecies of the Messiah and they had studied them better than anybody living in that day and age. Yet they do absolutely as far as we know, nothing other than answer Herod's question. Wouldn't you have thought that if some magi, some foreigners that aren't even Jewish are coming and saying, we're following the star that seems to line up in forecasts with the coming king of your nation when you have thought that chief priest, those who had primary responsibility for intercession and mediation between God and his people, when you have thought that teachers of the law who had studied the scriptures and knew the Messiah and the prophecy is better than anybody would have said, can we tag along with you guys just to check it out? But we have zero evidence that they had any interest other than coming to the king who had summoned them and answering their questions and then going back and going on with their normal ordinary life. They ignored the reality of the coming of Jesus Christ. They aren't interested enough to even go along with a magi just to check it out. They are indifferent in essence. The gift is rejected. Well, I asked myself as I was thinking about this, why? What are some of the reasons why they would have done that is we pull back the layers of the onion to look deeply. What's going on there? And there may have been at least some pride element here. I mean, let's be honest, the Jesus was constantly pointing out to those particular religious leaders and confronting them on their pride. That's a good guess. You know, they might have been thinking, hey, if the Messiah really was coming, we would know about this way before some foreigners coming in that claimed to have some indication of ability to follow the astronomy of the sky. Maybe there were some pride involved with that and they were a little bit like, well, these guys can't know more than us. But maybe there are some very practical reasons. Like, it's a baby. You're coming now to follow the Messiah and He's a baby. He's just been born. A potential Messiah has little interest or actually no interest for them. A potential Messiah. The gift appears to be completely irrelevant to them at this stage. There's no value in knowing the Messiah now. Why? Because what could He possibly do for them now as a baby? So they are interested in worshiping Him. You know, it's a lot like our natural heart. Each of us, we share as well too, like they had as well. Why worship someone that can do nothing for me? Because Jesus at this stage in the game, let's be honest, was really doing nothing for anybody. Other than He had showed up. You know, honestly, I believe this is at the root of all idolatry. Any kind of worship, if any kind of God, whether it's a religious God that we talk about, or whether it's the gods that we walk in and around here in our culture, money, power, sex, fame, whatever it is. At the root of it, we are always looking for a God that's going to do something for us. Compare this to God's commands from the Old Testament. The command of worship, God in the Old Testament Bible, teaches us that is based on who He is first, and second, it's based on His ability to bless according to promises. First, it's based on who He is. You might remember some verses that say this, that God comes and He says, he is the God who created the heavens and the earth. That's who He is, therefore, listen to what He will do for you. Or I might, as many texts say, He is the God of your father's Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Here's who He is. So now listen to what He's going to do. Or I might say, He is the God who brought you out of the land of Egypt. That's who He is. He's got a word for you this morning. The worship of other gods, whether religious deities or not, is based on the promise of blessing first, and who He is, second. But when it comes to worshiping the one true God, it's always based on who He is first. And don't get me wrong, He's a God of many promises of blessing. But it is the gift or not the gift that is to be worshiped. The chief priest and the teachers of the law have an idolatrous view of worship, and it makes it easy to ignore the gift of Jesus at this stage. So let me ask you this morning, how about you? How about you today? This holiday season. Or this stage of your life, if you completely ignored the gift of Jesus Christ, is Jesus irrelevant to you in your life? You might say, well, how do I know? Here's some things to ponder. Are you primarily only concerned with what Jesus can do for you? Does your prayer life to God look like this list of things that you're asking? Does your tyranny of list bless this? Do this? Help me here. As opposed to worshiping for who He is. God invites us to come and ask. When He tells us to come and see and taste that He is good for who He is, and also for what He does. Or maybe you say, I'll follow God's commands for marriage, money, or relationships, as long as they serve my goals. Or maybe you wonder, is who Jesus is at the core of your life or your love for Him? Is at the core of your love for Him, is it based on who Jesus is, or is it based on what He does for you? These are the kind of questions that begin to unveil the motives of our heart. So here's the key point I want you to take away here this morning. Is that the greatest gift is to know and worship Jesus Christ. The greatest gift is to know and worship Jesus Christ. Having chosen to ignore the gift of Jesus at His birth, the chief priest, and the teachers of the law, will soon, as Jesus gets older, follow the path that King Herod took. And let's look at the path that He takes here. His response to this is to kill Him. I thought of nicer words to put in there, remove Him, you know, get rid of Him. But no, it was really one objective for King Herod. Kill Him. And He will kill hundreds. We don't know exactly how many little boys, two years and under, at the chance of catching and getting the right one. You've ever gotten a bad Christmas gift? How many here have ever gotten a bad Christmas gift? Raise your hand. Come on. All right. Really? I think some of you are not thinking very hard. You know, all we need is a little help from Hollywood to think about how bad can it be sometimes, right? Well, as I was thinking about it and take long before for me to remember what was one of the bad ones that I got. And what it was, it was a T-shirt, but it wasn't just an ordinary T-shirt. It was a form fitting T-shirt. You know what I mean, men. It was a T-shirt that you put on that's supposed to kind of keep things in and make things look a certain way. And you know, it wasn't cheap. It was actually kind of expensive. And I thought, wow, thanks with it. But, you know, I never wore that T-shirt. Not because I didn't need it. Okay. But it was this reminder of, dude, you know, you're getting old, you're getting out of shape, you're getting flabby. And you need this T-shirt. Here you go. Yeah, that T-shirt is not in my house any longer before that regifting. There you go. I didn't want to do that to anybody. But somebody meant well and somebody cared. And it was a person that also had the T-shirt as well too. But it was just a reminder of everything that I didn't want to be reminded of. So I did want to kill it. Get rid of it. Get it out of there. You know, King Herod does not respond like the chief priests and teachers of the law. He is anything but indifferent. That's not his response at all. He doesn't have any plan to ignore the Magi or the birth of Jesus. In fact, he feels threatened by the news. Even knowing that it's just a baby, he feels deeply threatened. Look what verse three says. It says, when King Herod heard this from the Magi, he was disturbed. And all of Jerusalem with him. Why was all Jerusalem disturbed with him? Because the King is disturbed. And whatever disturbs the King, disturbs at least his loyal followers. So he certainly was making it public about this problem that was coming up. So he's inviting the community around him to also share in his disturbance. It was a big deal to him. Verse 13 goes on and says, when they had gone and angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and says, get up, he said, take the child. And his mother and his escape to Egypt, stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him. Herod's response is not ignoring. It's hostile. He wants to kill Jesus. He wants to reject the gift. Why? Well, seems pretty obvious. The gift appears harmful to Herod. It feels to be a potential rival, King, to him. And if it's not a rival, King, to him since it's just a little baby, it is to his heir or his heirs down the line. Or to maybe even the Roman Empire that he is in conjunction and working with at this time. He could either hurt Herod or his heirs, and Herod was going to have nothing to do with it. Or take every action he could to eliminate the threat. He is not ignoring Jesus, but he certainly isn't interested in worshiping him either. Even though that's why he tells the Magi, go come back and tell me where he is so I may worship him. This is the last thing he wanted to do. So how about you this morning? Jesus is a threat to you. There's a thought of serving him as Lord of your life. As he comes and enters this world and says that he is King of Kings and Lord of Lords. There's a thought of serving him sound ridiculous. Sound a little religiously fanatic. Sound a little bit over the top, a little too religious. Does it seem extreme? Does it feel like it would ruin all the fun of life if he did it? And by the way, some of us aren't public killers of Jesus. We're just private. We don't want him to have anything to do in the heart area of our lives. Maybe we're not just completely ignoring him like many do at Christmas time, but we're just making sure there's no life of him anywhere to be found in us. He's dead in our lives. If Jesus is a threat to you, you'll work hard to eliminate his presence in your life anyway and every way possible. Some do this through the extreme forms like atheism, but it's way more common to see another types of religious choices that we make. If you can reduce Jesus, this is in the Christian realm. If you can reduce Jesus to a theory, to a formula, to a magical prayer that you prayed at some point in your life growing up, and that you've appeased this God of the Bible, so you're in good standing with him. If you can reduce him like that, you have in essence killed who he is because that is not who he is. He is a living king. He's one that has come to reign in a rule and he's won his port out of his spirit. Remember, Jesus himself says, you want to know what good gift I have for my children or the father has that he's giving to you through me, the great gift of the perfect Heavenly Father in heaven? It's my spirit. And Jesus says that, you who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children. Your father in heaven knows how to give you the spirit for those that ask. What is his wish and desire to give you his presence? What motivated a group of magi to travel for? We don't know weeks, months, maybe, longer? It was to be in his presence. And they could have made a toast right from somewhere far east of Palestine and said to the king, here, here. But now they had to come. They had to get close. But they didn't realize that someone else was already moving to get close to them. I believe our hearts know, I believe each of our hearts know or remember through Adam and Eve, that you really believe Jesus as the Son of God means he deserves all of our life, all of our affection, all of our service. We either ignore that or we put it to death in our hearts and minds. If we understand, if we look deeply at the story that Christmas tells us of who Jesus is, we have to do something radical with that. We're going to radically ignore something that makes no sense to ignore if we really believe it, or we're going to radically put it to death in our hearts and minds anyway we can, or we're going to radically embrace it. There's really not a mediocre, a halfway decision when it comes to the person of Jesus. So some of us choose to reject and get rid of the gift in the way possible. Remember hearing Tim Keller write and talk about, actually I was at a conference he was speaking at, and he was speaking about his experience that he had with parents that would often come and say, hey, will you come talk to my child? They've gone off to college and they've really shifted their viewpoints here. I don't know what's happened to them. And would you come, or she's willing to meet with you when you meet with them? And he will say yes, he's been a pastor 30 plus years now. So he said lots of opportunities with that. So you know what the common denominator is when he comes and he talks to a student who's now questioning their faith. He says nine times out of 10, they have already started to shift their lifestyle, to begin to live in such a way that's in conflict with the way they had been raised or grew up or with convictions they'd once held as a child. And between that conflict, in fact it's like a lot of psychologists call it cognitive dissonance. There's tension in your brain. There's like, I know this is what I was raised. This is what I said I believe. This is what I thought all my life. These are my values. And all of a sudden now I've got these opportunities. I've got these situations. I've got choices to make. I'm experiencing or trying things and it's fun. It's enjoyable. And there's something that happens here. And they think the issue is really about what they believe. And the issue is really about how they rejected who they believe. And he says nine times out of 10 after they've shared with me their theological problems with God or how they're struggling with belief in God, he'll bring up the question, well tell me about your lifestyle. Are you doing this? This or this? And nine times out of 10 the answer is, well yeah, but my real struggle here is how can a God of the Bible blah blah blah. And he finds out he points it back and tries to with them that the decision, what you're resting with is really not up here as much as this in here. And what it means to worship a God who would be king of kings and Lord of lords. Well, this gift, this greatest gift is to know and worship Jesus Christ. And the problem with this gift is if you choose to open it, it will change you. It's a game changer. It changes everything. And the Magi were discovering that along the way. The third response and the one of the Magi come with is one to worship him. Not ignore him. They could have done that and stayed right at home where they were. Not kill him. They could have taken on the king here and said, this is a threat. It's a threat here in Israel and Rome. It's a threat to our country as well too. But they didn't. They came to worship him. Look at verse 9 through 12. It tells us they went on their way and the star they had seen in the east, went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. 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 worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with the gifts of gold, of incense and of murder and having been worn in a dream not to go back to Herod. They returned to their country by another route. The Magi are on a journey to fulfill their heart's desire. And it cannot be fulfilled until they see him and they can worship him. The true worship of God is always accompanied by at least three things that we see here with the Magi. A longing for his presence, a presentation of offerings and a responsive obedience. And you see all three right here with them. A longing for his presence. Again, we've already mentioned it. The great journey that they take and the great effort that they make to come and actually in person to be in his presence. Even though they know he's just a baby. What's he going to do for them? Absolutely nothing is what he's going to do for them on that day. But it's not about what he's going to do for them. It's about who he is. And that changed everything. He was the Son of God. He was the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. And what does it matter what he's going to do for them? The question is what can they do for him as such? And that led to the second thing the offerings, the presenting of their gifts. It would have been a lot easier right to bring a gift card. Let's be honest. Do you know how heavy gold is to carry it on such a journey? How precious, murder, and other things where they had to get. Thread of being robbed or different things like that could have happened at any point. It was a hassle. But they were going to bring no small gift, no insignificant gift for a king. And then thirdly, we see obedience. They obey the warning by God in a dream to not go back to Herod. Even though the resident king who had the power to imprison or even kill them for violating his laws who had said to come back and tell him, they didn't do it. They followed what God told them in the dream. Obedience wasn't even an issue or question. They followed. So how do we know if we respond into the gift of Jesus Christ in worship? How do we know that we're not in the camp of ignoring Him in some way or trying to kill Him in our own way? This Christmas season or in life. Well, one, He has become no longer irrelevant. If He is indeed creator, king, and judge of all things, then He certainly deserves our worship. There's still more question of irrelevancy. There's still more question of what does He, can He do for me? The question is who is He? We realize the real threat to us, by the way is us. King Herod missed the real threat. He thought the real threat was somebody rivaling His throne. The real threat was the king that already settled on the throne of Herod's heart. Sin, death, and a dark enemy that Jesus came to conquer. When we come to worship, when we come to realize the real enemy is sin and self-centeredness. And it's not your boss and it's not your spouse and it's not your children and children is not your parents. It's not that bully at school and it's not that next door neighbor that doesn't cut the grass. Only as you like for them to do, it's not anything on this planet is the ultimate enemy. It's sin. It's rebellion against God. It deserves a holy God to respond in judgment because He's pure, because He's good, because He's making a home for us. Heavens and stuff that you dream about and you can't wait to see one day. And it can't be tainted by sin. So He's got to deal with sin. And in this season here on earth, it's with mercy and grace. A call of salvation of those who will believe, but one day the day will come when no one no longer be one of mercy and grace, but one of final judgment and declaration and consummation of his kingdom. And therefore the removal of all sin and any connection with it completely. That's why we have to have new bodies. That's why these bodies have to die. Or if we're alive when Jesus comes back, these bodies will be taken into the heavens and the scripture say will be transformed in the twinkling of an eye. Because the old things must completely pass away. Our response looks like the magi if we're worshipers of Jesus. Longing first presence, the magi were not content to just know the king had been born. They had to come themselves. They had to worship him. The chief priest and the teachers of the law had no interest in that. King heard no interest in that. But you haven't opened the gift of Jesus until you receive the presence of Jesus in worship. We come with offerings. Once the magi decided to follow the star, they had to decide to bring offerings. Hearts that have come to worship always come with offerings. It's all that we have. It's all that we are. And they always come, hearts that come with obedience. Love compels us to want to obey him. For who he is and what he's come to do. I love first John 5, 2, 3, 3. It says, this is how we know that we love the children of God. By loving God and caring out. I'm sorry, this is how we know that we are the children of God. By loving God and caring out his commands. This is love for God to obey his commands and his commands are not burdensome. How do you know of you are worshiping a king this morning when you come to Christmas or every day? His commands are not burdensome or that's a growing thing in our lives. Delighting and worshiping him. Delighting and serving him. Delighting and obeying him. That's what it looks like. The greatest gift is to know and worship Jesus Christ. But let's not kid ourselves. We each have a dilemma in life. Even as those of us who walk with Christ, we have an ongoing dilemma. Because there is a gravitational pull of ignoring him or killing him in our own way that pull us all the time versus worshiping him. Am I goodness? Is Christmas not maybe the hardest time in some ways? To focus on him? And who he is and the gift that he's given us? Who is for me so often. So what we do, what's your choice? Let's pray. God, just thank you for the opportunity. I know that there may be some here or even just one here that knows that they have in their own way been ignoring this gift of Christmas. They have been killing this gift of Christmas their entire lives maybe. And perhaps this is the morning. This is the day of salvation. Then they come and go, I give up. I want to worship. And they realize that they were made for worship. And God, perhaps many of us here are the ongoing struggle. I know like I feel ongoing. I'm feeling that being torn and pulled, God, from worship of you, for who you are. And you're immersing your grace and your goodness to us. So God, would you bring our hearts to repentance, to newness, refreshment of life? God, for some of us, your commands have become burdensome. God, would you let them let your love so penetrate our hearts that we would see our great need for you and your great love for us? That God, we would be transformed more and more to take the light in serving, obeying you, looking for opportunities to do that. So God, would you transform our hearts? Would you let us to come and worship you this Christmas? Perhaps in ways that we haven't ever before. In a deeper way that we've never had before. Would you come and meet with us? Would you bring your manual presence? If I would pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.