Wisemen: The Fear of Inconvenience

So we are in a series called Hark. I'm reminded of this poem, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. How I wonder what you are up above the world so high like a diamond in the sky. Very familiar, huh? Then the next verse goes, and a lot of people aren't familiar with this one, then the traveler in the dark thanks you for your teeny spark or tiny spark.

He could not see where to go if you did not twinkle so. This poem was written in 1806, and it was very true today when that second verse was recited or written. It related a whole lot. We have a constellation of 24 satellites and six different orbital plans at an altitude of 12,400 miles and circles the earth at 864,000 miles per hour. They circle the earth twice a day sending signals and radar stations all around the world.

We have two atomic clocks that keep those signals in sync that are so accurate, if left unadjusted, they would not lose one second in 160,000 years. A GPS is accurate for four meters, four meters. We plug a destination into our phones and into our GPSs and multiple routes, times, and traffic patterns come to us instantaneously, and we take that for granted. And I believe that's why it's so tough for us to really understand in context the story of the Magi, the wise men who traveled. In the first century, the average person never traveled outside of 30 miles of their radius in most cases.

And the wise men were believed to be from the area of Babylon, although we're not quite sure where they were from. And if we believe that, and most commentators do, and historians do, that's 500 miles as the crow flies. And if you follow the track of the Euphrates River, which was the modern or the most known pattern of travel during that time, it would have been about 900 miles of travel. To put that into context, think about Eric the Red that sailed 1,000 miles from Norway to Iceland, and then another 750 miles from Iceland to Greenland, and just 1,000 years earlier on Camelback, the wise men accomplished a very similar task. And if I were a person choosing what method to travel, I would choose a ship, which Eric the Red, over a camel 1,000 miles any day of the week.

So the Christmas story is an amazing story, and the primary plot line is this, for God, so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whosoever believed in him would not perish, but have everlasting life. So in this series, Hark, we're talking about God speaking. We're talking about when God says that we listen up, and we looked at the Virgin Mary the first week, and how she responded to the call of God, even when it wasn't a call that anyone would want to take. And last week, we looked at Joseph as he dealt with the call and the obedience of God through the messenger angel, and taking a step out, even though other people would think differently about him, or he could lose everything. Well, this week, I want to talk about the wise man, and it's a little different this week.

Next week, I want to talk about the wise man, and it's a little different this week. Talk about the shepherds in the fields and their fear of how they stood with God, but this week I want to look at the wise men. I think this is a crazy subplot. Some Eastern philosophers that are studying the stars have revealed to them that there is a Christ child, and this is how God chose to reveal himself to mankind. He could have used any Jewish king or leader, but he chose to use astrologists and from another nation.

It just doesn't work that way, but any time we try to figure out God, we try to put God in a box in the way he works and the way he reveals himself to others, when we try to do that, he throws us a curveball every time. He is big enough to be found through Eastern astrologers living a long time ago, and God is big enough now to be able to reveal himself through anything, anyone, and any way. So, if you're with me today, if you'll turn to or visit the Bible app, the YouVersion Bible app, if you have that, and go to the events section, and you'll see Salt Church there, and you'll see this week, and you can follow along as I read this passage in Matthew 2, 1, beginning with verse 1. Now, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem, saying, Where is he who has born king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose, and have come to worship him.

And when Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him, and the assembling of all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born. And they told him, In Bethlehem of Judea, for it is written by the prophet, that is the prophet Micah, and you, O Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah, for from you shall come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel. Then Herod summoned the wise men secretly and found out from them what time the star had appeared. And he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, Go and search diligently for the child. And when you have found him, bring me word, and I too may come and worship him.

After listening to the king, they went on their way, and behold, the star that they had seen when it rose went before them until it came to rest over the place where the child was. And when they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy. And going home into the house, they saw the child with Mary, his mother, and fell down and worshiped him. Then opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh. And being warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they departed to their own country by another way.

Okay, so today I just want to share with you a simple message. There's a lot of things we could take from the wise men that we could learn from the wise men. But there's two things I want to direct towards you today. The first thing is that wise men or wise women, that is, go out of their way to get to God. They go out of their way to seek God.

They do whatever they can in whatever way they can to seek God, to know God more, to find God. The Jewish religious leaders knew the prophecy. They knew it very well. A Messiah was to be born in Bethlehem. And they weren't willing to go five miles to the next city over to experience this child.

And instead, these wise men who hadn't... No idea where the star would lead them, where they would go, thousands of miles, or a thousand miles, close to a thousand miles on Camelback. They were willing to go to the ends of the earth to know this prophecy, to know this child. And I believe that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but through Jesus.

And there is no other name under heaven which any man can be saved. But Hebrews says that God rewards those who earnestly seek Him. And if people are seeking, God can use any and every means, even a star, even creation, to reveal Himself even to the most eastern of people. And He does that. He rewards those who earnestly seek Him.

Because God is big enough to reveal Himself through the stars. And if you didn't believe that, your God is too small. If you don't believe that, your God is too small. It is going to lead a person to Jesus Christ. And God is that big that He can use anything.

I was reading a story of a pastor, church planter, who was heading to Ethiopia. He was going to work with the Eden Project, which is a project that plants trees in other countries. And Ethiopia has been devastated with deforestation and lack of wooded areas and things like that over the years. And a friend of his asked if he could go on this trip with them. And as he boarded the plane, he started experiencing some fears about doing this.

He felt like God wanted him to do it. But he says, you know what? Should I really do this? Should I? First of all, I'm going to have to leave my family.

I don't want to do that. I have a fear of flying. I have all these fears. And you know, I'm planting trees. What difference is that going to make anyway?

And feeling guilty about his attitude, he began to pray. And he prayed this, God, I'm sorry. I'm trying. I just don't get it. I don't want to be on this plane.

I feel like I'm wasting my time and money. If this is important to you, will you please overcome my ignorance of doubt and blindness? Will you connect the dots and show me what I'm missing? And after he prayed that, this well-dressed 30-something-year-old Ethiopian man looked over to him and says, well, why are you heading to Ethiopia? He could have gave him the missionary response and, you know, the pastor response or the development card response.

But he gave a really small, simple response. And that was, I'm planting trees. I'm planting trees. The young man looked over at another elderly woman in the seat next to him, started talking to him in their tribal language. And she responds back by standing up in her seat and waving her hands and praising whatever she was doing, dancing and praising.

And he was like, wait, whoa, whoa, whoa, what's going on here? This is kind of strange. What did she say to you? He asked the young man. He said this, she has been praying for 38 years that someone or somebody would come along and help them restore their forests and their trees.

38 years asking that God would forgive them for stripping the trees out of their land. See, your obedience, and write this down, your obedience is the answer to someone else's prayer. Your obedience is somebody's prayer. And it could be hundreds of years of centuries of prayer that have been prayed over a region. And you could be that person.

Or it just could be simply somebody in that area that's been praying their entire life for something to happen or someone to happen. Sometimes we don't get it because we don't know what's going on. And you might be doing something in the grand scheme of things, the grand scope of things, and you think it doesn't have much impact. But you could possibly, you're Just your small stepping out, your small listening to God and taking the first steps as we talked about in week one. Taking that first step, that small step of obedience, could be the very thing that someone has been praying for years.

And I love how the response of the pastor in this story made it very clear. He said, my gospel is too small. Our gospel may be too small because our God is so big and our obedience is the answer to someone else's prayer. Jesus is the way to truth and life, but God is big enough and good enough to reveal himself in any way and in any shape and any time. So the question is, are we seeking God?

Are we seeking God? Because he is a rewarder to those who earnestly seek him. Matthew 6, 33 says, but seek first, what, the kingdom of God and his righteousness, right? And all these things will be added to you. But we like the all these, we like to switch that up, right?

We like the all these things first, God, you know, give me all these things and then maybe I'll seek you first. So you don't seek opportunity, you seek God for the opportunity. You start with God, you make decisions that are going to seek God first. All right, when we don't know what God's calling us to do, what does God want me to do? How does God want me to step out?

First of all, we seek God. What does that mean? It means that your life is going to revolve around seeking God. Your life should be designed and placed around and on the idea of seeking God, not just the power of his resurrection, but even identifying with his suffering. And knowing him every day and in every way, a desire to know the creator of the universe, the one who designed us, the one who redeemed our souls in a new and fresh way, always leaning in and knowing him more.

Well, what does that look like? What does it look like to, to seek God, to be a seeker of God? What does it mean that I am a seeker? Tom Seaver, if you're baseball fans, many of you know, record, world record holding a Tom Seaver or major league record holding Tom Seaver. He spanned a career of 20 years.

He compiled 311 wins, 3,640 strikeouts, 61 shutouts, a career of a 2.86 ERA. If you're a baseball fan, you know exactly what that means. It means phenomenal. They called him Terrific Tom.

And when he was inducted in the Baseball Hall of Fame at the time, he was by the largest percentage ever, 98.84% inducted into the Hall of Fame. How did Tom Seaver perform at the level, at a level so astounding for two decades, which was unheard of for a baseball player? Here's what he said. Pitching determines what I eat, when I go to bed, and what I do when I'm awake.

It determines how I spend my life, when I'm not pitching. Why? Because he's a pitcher. His whole life revolves around pitching. If we're seekers, our whole life revolves around what?

Seeking God. If we're seeking God, the omnipotent and omniscient God, and listen, and we're listening to him, you can know that you know that you are saved, but those who think they know something do not yet know as they ought to know, according to 1 Corinthians 8. So the more we think we know, we really don't know, so we pursue our lives knowing him more, because there's always things that we need to dig deeper and lean in deeper about God. to know Him more. And most of us follow God to the point of inconvenience.

We're good to follow God when it's convenient, but when the inconvenience steps in, what do we do? God, I, you know, seeking you first? Wait, all these things have to come first, and then maybe I'll go a little further. As long as it's comfortable and convenient, as long as it fits with our plans, it's a nice addendum, we're okay with it. But true discipleship, here it is, true discipleship begins when it's inconvenient, when it hurts a little.

And these wise men were not just willing to go to the convenience and the addendum of things, right? They were willing to go to the far reaches of the world to figure out who this God was, who this Savior was, who this King was, and that honors God. I think about the tax collector that climbed into a tree named Zacchaeus. He was willing to go up into the tree and do anything to reach Jesus, and what did he do? He went home with them that day.

He went to his home. If we're willing to seek God, seek truth, seek Him, if we're seekers, God will come and have lunch with us. God will show Himself, and God will reveal Himself. We have a desire for God to reveal to us who He is at any moment, at any place. And the moment we think we got Him figured out, we don't.

The longer I walk with Jesus, the more I realize I don't know Him well enough, and I need to know Him more, and I need to dig in more. So my challenge is, seek out opportunities to inconvenience yourself for the sake of Christ. If you really want to grow in Christ, seek out opportunities for the sake of Christ to inconvenience yourself. What am I talking about here? I'm talking about the people who wake up at 7, 6, 5 o'clock in the morning on Sundays to get here and help volunteer in the church every week.

They inconvenience themselves to serve God so they can experience God in a special and unique and powerful way. I'm talking about those who are loving their neighbors as their self. They're doing things that they normally wouldn't do for the people around them going over. You've got these random acts of kindness cards that we've been doing for weeks, and they're stepping out, and they're doing things that they've never done before, taking steps of faith and loving people. Or tithing is inconvenient, right?

I mean, let's just be honest. Tithing is very inconvenient. It's just not convenient for a lot of people. Does that first 10% fit in your budget? Like, oh, that's hard.

But I have found that when I inconvenience myself in these different ways, God has a way of meeting me and revealing himself to me even more, realizing that I have nothing outside of him, and I get to be a part of a big God. God, it's often inconvenient, but we also have to work out our salvation. Salvation, let me just say this. Salvation is free gift, okay, guys? I want you to understand that.

Grace, the salvation grace, only through Jesus Christ can we be saved, but we also have to work out our salvation with fear and trembling, that we work and we inconvenience ourselves. You tell me the last time you were uncomfortable, and I'll tell you the last time you grew. The last time you got uncomfortable in an area in your spiritual life to take a step forward, I can show you the last time you really got closer to God, and you grew, and you matured in Christ. It's like going to the gym. It's uncomfortable to go to the gym when you're first going to the gym.

In fact, you got to get into the routine. You got to get into the discipline. You got to keep going to the gym. You got to work through it. Some day, some day, some day, some day, some day, some day, some day, some day, some day, some day, some day, some day, some day, some day, some day, some day, some day, some day, some day, some day, some day, some day, some day, some day, some day, some day, some day, some day, some day, some day, some day, some day, some day, some day, some day, some day, some day, some day, some day, some day, some day, some day, some day, some day, some day, some day, some day, some day, some day, some day, some day, some day, some day, some day, some day, some day, some day, some day, some day, some day, some day, some day, some day, some day, some day, some day, some day, some day, some day, some day, some day, some day, some day, some day It doesn't feel good to go, you know?

You're hurting, you're aching, you're tired, whatever it is, but you work through it. And the minute it starts getting easy, what do you do? You change it up. You do something different to stretch yourself even more. And it's like that in the spiritual life.

We're like in a spiritual gym. We're lifting weights. We're going through the spiritual disciplines. We're going through the discipline of knowing God. What do I mean by that?

I'm talking about getting into God's Word. I'm talking about a place of prayer. I'm talking about learning to worship, not just a couple of songs on Sunday morning and go home in the week and not think about God at all. I'm talking about worshiping as a lifestyle, really knowing and worshiping God. I want to know for sure, wise men still seek Him and wise women still seek God.

Wise men go out of their way. Wise women go out of their way to know God more. And secondly, wise men come bearing gifts. Wise men come bearing gifts. Because true joy is really found in giving.

True joy. Jesus said it, to give is better than to receive. Right? Jesus said it. And scripture doesn't reveal the full identity of these wise men.

But my best guess is that they studied, and what we know of them, as I mentioned earlier, is that they studied stars. They studied the skies. And it's fascinating that these men kind of allude to the book of Daniel, where we see wise men in the book of Daniel. So I want to kind of connect these two together. And I want to talk about the gift that Daniel had, and that you have a gift as well.

I think about the movie, It's a Wonderful Life. I think I got a clip of It's a Wonderful Life, one of the scenes. Is that available? And so, how many of you have seen this movie? This is like the classic movie.

And I'm going to pray over you if you haven't seen this movie, yak, okay? Because this is like the movie. I want to live again. Clarence, Clarence, Clarence. If y'all know Jimmy Stewart, my Jimmy Stewart impression.

I know it's not that great, but you know. I tried, right? Peter Zuberg used to get a good laugh out of it. That's one of our board members here at this church. But you hear the scene, and here we have George Bailey's brother, Frank, who was a war hero.

And there was a moment where he goes and visits the grave as his younger brother, as Clarence takes him back in time to a place where, or in another world where he's in a place where his life is, he didn't live, because Clarence didn't want to live. I mean, George didn't want to live. George Bailey didn't want to live. And Clarence took him back to see what his life would be like, and his world, the world would be like without him. And he takes him to visit the grave of his younger brother, Harry, who instead of winning the Medal of Honor, oh, I said Frank, but I meant Harry, who instead of winning the Medal of Honor, and don't throw anything at me, all of you classic movie fans, okay?

How do you get Frank and Harry wrong? Yeah, okay. Who instead of winning the Medal of Honor during World War II for saving the transport ship that saved many lives, he died at eight years old because George wasn't there to save his life. See, George's life was a gift. Our lives are gifts.

And Daniel's life was a gift. Realize this, that without Daniel, we pray. We probably wouldn't have this part of the Christmas story. Let's just watch how this, just track with me for a second, because see how this pieces together. Without Daniel, we probably wouldn't have this part of the Christmas story, because when the wise men of Babylon couldn't interpret the dreams of King Nebuchadnezzar, he ordered that all the wise men of Babylon be martyred, be killed.

But then Daniel comes along and interprets the dream. He gives the dream to Nebuchadnezzar, and it saves everybody in that kingdom today. And the wise men that are connected to Babylon are a part of the Christmas story. Isn't that cool, how that kind of connects? A part of the Christmas story, and they come to Bethlehem to see the Christ child.

And not only do they come, they come bearing gifts. Gold, frankincense, and myrrh. So, by Daniel responding to God with his gift, he saved many wise men, who in turn, the wise man came to Christ to give a gift. And watch how this gift worked out. Now, how in the world would a carpenter from Nazareth be able to afford to flee to Egypt in the middle of the night and spend years running from King Herod, who wanted to kill his child, who wanted to kill the quiet child.

How would that happen? Now, gold, maybe. Gold, maybe a little frankincense. Very expensive commodity in that day. See how God works.

Now, why in the world would they bring gold? I mean, a kid. It's a kid. Why not bring a toy? Because God knew well that this would be the way to preserve.

Maybe, and I got to watch and be careful how I say this, because God is sovereign and over everything. But without Daniel, and without the wise men, and without the gift, we perhaps wouldn't even have Jesus. Because that's how God works. Those gifts, those George Baileys here, you're a gift. You have a gift.

We come bearing gifts. Because your gift, write this down, your gift is someone else's miracle. Your gift can be someone else's miracle, but we have to start connecting the dots. Wise men, wise women come bearing gifts. Small, unexpected acts can change someone's day and possibly someone's life.

And we have those to give. We have, whether it's material, or whether it's just our personalities, or our giftings, our spiritual giftings. Whatever we have, we come bearing gifts. Bringing a gift is such a simple thing, but such a powerful thing. Proverbs 18, 16 says it like this.

A man's gift makes room for him and brings him before great men. So he's saying, if you want to sit with kings, bring gifts. If you want to sit with kings, bring great gifts. You can't bribe, and if you do it for the wrong reasons, it will backfire for sure. But the Proverbs says that a man's gift will make room for him.

That's a powerful statement. And if you really want to start experiencing some good stuff, if you really want to start experiencing what God has for you, if you really want to know more of God, if you want to really see his blessing in your life, start living a lifestyle where you start giving when it's unexpected. You start loving when it's unexpected. You start going out of your way when it's unexpected, and doing things, and touching people's lives with your gifts. It's because wise men, wise women come.

Wise men still seek God, and wise men come bearing gifts. My prayer for you today is that you would be a seeker of God, and that you would bring every gift before the Lord that you possess, and watch how He changes, transforms, enters into situations, and brings betterment to our reality, to this world, and for eternity. My heart today is that we have people who are seekers of God, who are hungry for more of God, who want to know Him more, who want to take the next step, who want to connect with God in new ways, who want to experience God a greater, not just sit, not just know God on a Sunday morning, not just know God by singing a few songs, but really, really, really experience Him in a new way, to live a lifestyle of a seeker, that the way we live, the way we walk, the way we talk, the way we work, the way we play, the way we do our family lives, the way we do everything in this, that we just want to be people of God, and watch the kingdom of God come on this earth through people who give it all, who are 100% in, and that's my prayer for you today. How many of you want that? You want more of God?

How many of you want to take the next step with God? How many of you want to see God move? How many of you want to see God experience, or you experience more things of God? How many of you want to know the goodness of God at a greater level, even in our sufferings? How many of you want to know that?

As believers, as people who walk with Christ, people ask us, why, why, why can we experience and how, how, how can we experience joy in such times, in desperate times? Because we have a joy. We have a hope. It's not a tangible hope, although it looks that way to people, but it's something beyond what we're currently experiencing, because this momentary affliction does not compare to the weight of the glory that we will experience. May the kingdom of heaven come on this earth.

We are salt. We are light. And salt always makes a difference. Amen? Let's pray together.

Father, God, I pray for wise men and wise women here today that have a passion to seek after you, a passion to know, because you put the stars in place so that we could know you. You formed the planets and positioned them in such a way so that we could live and we could breathe and breathe and you place the universe in such a way that we could explore who you are so that we could know you more because you reveal yourself through everything. You use nothing to waste. You use it all. More can we do but come and bear good gifts.

So I pray that the spirit of God would seal our hearts this weekend and help us live out. Live this out. In that same spirit of prayer, I just want to ask, some of you may be here and you're like, how do I start seeking God? God this way, Pastor. Everybody is on a spiritual journey.

Everybody's somewhere. Everybody's heading to eternity in some way. But maybe you've never even taken that first step to know God. He doesn't care about anything else but knowing you. He wants you to know that He put the stars in the place so that you can know who He is, that you can know His name.

That He formed your life in such a way and He placed everything in such a way so that He's inviting you. He's inviting you today to take a dance with Him. If that's you today and God's just calling you and you say, I've never made a decision for Jesus. That today is your time. This is the place.

Hold it back any longer. Just go for it because He's got great things for you. Just pray this with me. Because He who believes in the name of the Lord will be saved. Father, I believe that You are the Son of God, that You died on the cross for my sin.

Today I commit my life to You. Come into my life. Come into my heart. Make me. Today I commit my life.