B (5:33)

But Christmas is kind of bittersweet for me, because when I was a kid, my first time performing, I was 6 years old, and I was performing in our Christmas pageant at church, and I had one line in one song. It was the song do youo Hear what I Hear? And I messed it up. I. I sang a child, a child sleeping in the night with a tail as big as a kite. That's not the way that song goes, ladies and gentlemen. People get mad when you sing about baby Jesus with a tail. But think about that song. Do you hear what I hear? It's psycho. Who wrote that? Said the little lamb to the shepherd boy. I think the shepherd boy's been in the field a little too long, don't you? Talking to the sheep.

A (6:28)

Really?

B (6:32)

Oh, we got to tell the mighty king. Gets worse. They go to the mighty king. You know, a child. A child shivers in the cold. Let us bring him silver and gold. How about a blanket? How about some soup? Child shivered in the cold. Throw some gold on him, he'll be fine. He's got pneumonia, but he's loaded. That kid is gonna be some.

A (7:11)

So true. Right? The song is kind of psycho when you listen to it. It's like, okay, what's going on in this head, by the way? If I wasn't doing ministry, that's what I would love to do. That, or a biblical archeologist or a food critic, and the list goes on. Anyway, what we have here in the story, I'm gonna look at again, the three aspects. The wise men themselves, the star that they followed, and then the gifts that they bring. And we're going to close with the gifts because it's symbolic, pointing directly to Jesus Christ. But who were these Magi? Well, the Bible doesn't really have much to say about them, but we can look back in history, and there's been so many books, so much research that has been dug into this subject on the Magi. But typically, when we talk about the Magi or the wise men, they were predominantly known as a priesthood of the Medes. Now I'm going to talk about that a little bit. They were also known as scholars or Dream interpreters. Now, some researchers and scholars will say also they were known as royal astrologers. So they did study the stars and the skies. But the priesthood of the Medes is what's very interesting. The Medes was a people group that was a part of the Persian Empire, typically around the time of Daniel. Daniel actually talked about this later in his book. But the Medes were predominantly in northern Iran for today, and they were a priesthood. These Magi. Just think of the Levitical priests for Israel. These were the priests, in a sense, for Mead and Persia. And they were scholars. They, they knew their, their, the prophecies. They knew of divine appointments with the stars. They, they studied this. And they also had this knowledge of interpreting dreams, which is very fascinating because it tells us that God gave them a dream not to go back to Herod, and then they, they followed and obeyed that dream and went back to their homeland in a different way. 6th century BC is typically what scholars agree on, is when the Magi became kind of a people group. So that this priesthood predominantly probably started in the 6th century BC. And when it says that they're from the east, it tells us right there in Matthew 2, verse 1, that is typically known as the Persian Empire. So possibly Babylon, most likely Persia, maybe Susa, the capital of Persia of that time. But they're from the east, okay. And they followed the star that they saw from where they were. And also, this is very interesting. We don't know this for sure, but we can, we can highly believe and speculate that the prophet Daniel, we do know that he's given authority over the magi. Now, that term magi, you're not going to find it verbatim in Daniel, but in Daniel 5, 11, it tells us that Nebuchadnezzar and also Darius appointed Daniel to be the chief over the magicians, the astronomers and the scribes. Now, that term magician is typically where we get the word magi. It comes from that, it's the root word. It can also refer to magistrates. But that's where most scholars and theologians will agree on, is that magi is from that term magician. And Daniel was given authority over this group. Now, I wonder and speculate, did the magi of Jesus day know about the prophecies in Daniel to know where to follow this star that was going to come and that this Messiah was to be born? Possibly. Now it does tell us that they go to Jerusalem, which is not where Jesus was born. He's born in Bethlehem. So how did they get that wrong? Well, that's where that you can only speculate and wonder. Now, Daniel's book does not tell us where Jesus would be born. That's Micah. Micah chapter five tells us where Jesus will be born. So we can only speculate on how they knew this. But it's a very fascinating topic if you want to study more about it. I'm a big fan of podcasts and listening to different speakers. I love to read, too, but if I can listen, I'd rather just do that. And it's so funny that certain podcasts, now that I listen to, one of them is, I've told you before, Blurry Creatures. It's one of my favorite podcasts out there, and they just came out with an episode about the Magi and the star, and I had to listen to it, and now I'm like, oh, this is not exactly what I had written down in my notes. So I'm like, this is. This is. There's just so much out there where people can speculate. You know, I love listening to Chuck Missler.

B (11:41)

He.

A (11:41)

He did a great segment on this as well. But there's. You can listen to so much and then just be like, well, I don't know which one is true. Again, some of this stuff we can only speculate. Also concerning the Magi. We do know that the Bible tells us that they bring gifts and three specific gifts. Gold, frankincense, and myrrh. These are not random gifts. This was purposeful. They bring this because this was known to bring these gifts to a divine entity. They were worshiping the divine. They knew that he was divine. Somehow, I don't necessarily think that they knew he was the God of the universe, but they knew something that was different about him because it had to do with his star. We're gonna talk about that as well. But the gifts that they do bring are gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Now, that's where tradition has kind of told us that we believe that there were three wise men because of three gifts, and that's just not necessarily true. There is a interesting orthodox tradition that there may have been 12 wise men. I. I do lean towards that. There may. May have been a dozen or. Or possibly more. And they probably would not have traveled alone. They probably would have come as a caravan with other scribes or. Or servants. So this is a big caravan that comes into Jerusalem. No wonder it says Jerusalem was troubled and stirred up. That's really the Greek word. Like, what is this all about? Like, who are these people? Now, in the nativity story, when you have your nativity sets for Christmas, we typically have the shepherds and the wise men bowing down to Jesus at the same time. That again is probably not true. The wise men would have come after the shepherds based on the timeline. And you have to read Luke's gospel as well to get that. But they probably would have visited Jesus between the ages of 1 and 2. He was not a little baby anymore. He was now somewhat of an infant. Now there, there's some debate on maybe he was around six to 10 months. That could still fit. But where we place on the timeline and the research that I looked into, it's a good guesstimate that is probably between the ages of 1 and 2. Now, 2 years old would make sense. Why? Because when you keep reading chapter two of Matthew, it tells us that Herod, because he felt he knew that he was duped by the wise men, he said, I'll take matters in my own hands. I don't want a threat to my kingdom. So I'm going to order one of the tragic stories in all the Bible. I'm going to order the murder of baby boys in Bethlehem. Two years old and younger. Now why would he pick two? Well, the Bible tells us that he had a private meeting with the wise men. We don't know the dialogue that they had. But it does tell us in Matthew that he determined the time that the star appeared to the wise men. And then when they got to Israel, probably would have taken a few months to get there. Then he realized, okay, well, I don't know exactly the age of this new king, but I'm gonna, I'm gonna have it just for a cushion area between 2 and. And 0, 2 and under. So Jesus was probably somewhere in that age. And also it tells us that they followed his star for navigation. They equate the star to Jesus. There was something about this star which I'm going to tell you right off the bat that I don't think this was some sort of natural phenomenon. I personally don't believe so. And I'm going to explain why. When they follow his star for navigation, it tells us that they see it from the east when they're coming from Persia. And then the Bible kind of tells us or kind of alludes to that it goes away because then it says in verse nine, when the king. 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 then stood over the young child. And when they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceedingly great joy. So somehow they see the star firsthand, they follow, possibly goes away, and then it comes back because they're, they're exceeding with joy. They're rejoicing like it's back. And they know exactly where to go now. So they make it to Jerusalem. But when they make it to Jerusalem, notice this. You know, when I've read this story countless times in my life, we, we, we sometimes depict, and this could still be true, but we sometimes depict the wise men go directly to King Herod, but it's not exactly what the text tells us. The text, the text says he goes to, they go to Jerusalem. And we know from history that King Herod would not have reigned in Jerusalem. His, his reign was from a place called Herodian, which was just near Bethlehem. So I actually believe that the wise men get to Jerusalem, it's the capital city. And they ask everybody, does anybody know where this king of the Jews is supposed to be born? We've seen a star, we've come to worship him. Where is he? And it tells us then when Herod heard this, you know, word can spread. Word spread. And they heard about this, he was troubled. And all Jerusalem with him, Greek is stirred up. He's like, what is this? What king are you talking about? What newborn king? I don't have any kids that are a newborn. And I myself is king. What is this all about? Because then it tells us in verse 4, he gathers the chief priests and the scribes of the Jews and says, hey, tell me, where's this messiah supposed to be born? He didn't even know. They say he's supposed to be born in Bethlehem. That's from the prophet Micah. So then it tells us in verse seven, then he had a secret meeting with the wise men. Then he calls them, summon the wise men to me. I want to talk to them. That's when they have the meeting. I think that's the first time they actually meet. And then they talk about, when did you actually see this star? How long did it take you to get here? Who is this newborn king? Okay, we don't know the dialogue they have, but it does say that they had a secret meeting. But all we do know is that Herod says, well, go to Bethlehem. We know he's there. When you find him, come and tell me so that I can go and worship him as well. We know that he was lying. He's not going to worship him. He's going to. He wants to kill him. And so when he gets duped by the wise men, they don't go Back to him, he says, well, I'll take matters in my own hands. I'll kill the threat right now. And that's again, it's the massacre of the innocents, one of the tragic stories in all the Bible. But it's a very interesting timeline when you see the wise men coming and they're following again this unique star. Now, what is. What is so, you know, important about this star? What is so, you know, such a big deal that scholars and theologians have debated over centuries what this is. So these first couple of bullet points that I put up are typically what some scholars will talk about and theologians will look into. Now, the conjunction of Jupiter and Venus has been a very probable concept of when Jupiter and Venus intersected. It created this phenomenon in the sky of this majestic star. And that is. That is definitely possible. I don't lean towards that it was that God can easily use natural phenomenon, but there's a concept of a supernova or a comet as well. I tend to don't lead towards that as well. Possibly could have still been. There's even one that I do tend to lean towards that it may have been an angel itself guiding the magi. Because in Matthew's Gospel verse, chapter 2, verse 9, the language is very interesting when it says the star they had seen in the east went before them and it came and stood over the young where the child was. Stars don't typically do that. Now, is Matthew just using the language because he's describing the astronomy in the sky and how that works possibly now. And sometimes in the Bible, angels can be referred to as stars. So that. That's a possibility. But I actually lean towards this is where I speculate and where I think is that it actually was a supernatural manifestation of the Shekinah glory or AKA the Holy Spirit manifesting. Now I also speculate and lean. This is my. This is my thought that the magi were the only ones who could see this. I could be wrong. I'm probably not, but I could be wrong. It's just a joke. But I would wonder why didn't Herod talk about this? Why wasn't Jerusalem talking about this? If this was such a huge thing, why wasn't anybody else talking about it? I actually think it was only the wise men that could see it because they're again, these are pagan gentile royal astrologers. These are not believers in the one true God, but they see something about this star and I think it's a supernatural manifestation of this Shekinah glory. Now what is the Shekinah Glory again, it's this glory that God has, and it's really revealed throughout the Old Testament. So if you're taking note, again, here is where I've just listed off a few bullet points of where we see the Shekinah glory appearing. You first see it with the Holy Spirit during creation, when the Holy Spirit is hovering above the waters at creation, you see the Shekinah glory in Abraham. When God reveals himself and talks about the covenant, puts Abraham into a deep sleep, sleep that is referred to as the Shekinah glory that overshadows Abraham. The burning bush, the most famous one, is definitely a topic of the Shekinah glory that is appearing in the bush. The angel of the Lord to Moses. You have Exodus 13, the Shekinah glory of the pillar of fire. Remember the pillar of fire that led them through the wilderness. That's not just a random piece of flame. That is a manifestation of the glory of God or even the Holy Spirit guiding the Israelites through the wilderness. I also think that there's the Shekinah glory at Pentecost, the tongues of fire that reside on the men and women in the upper room in Acts chapter two was again the Holy Spirit, but I think in the form of those tongues of fire, the Shekinah glory of God. Why not here with this star? Why not? Again, we can only speculate. We have no really clue or idea. But I think when the Bible is talking about certain situations of his glory and certain situations where his glory is revealed to men and women and it's guiding them, why not? For this story of the star? It's just. It's very interesting to me. And I think that the glory of the Lord, it was. So again, could it be a natural thing that God uses? Of course. But I think God is a God of supernatural, and I think he used something very creative. And for pagan scholars to see this and realize this, this, we're going to follow this, there's something important about this, and we're going to go because we believe that the divine king has been born. And. But with this Shekinah glory, you've got the star, you've got the wise men. But these gifts, and this is really what I want to hone on for the rest of the. The teaching. These gifts were not, again, just any random gifts. We talk about gold, frankincense and myrrh all the time. Some of you might be wearing frankincense and myrrh right now as essential oils. I don't know. But it's, it's not random. Gifts that these men bring. Again, these were. They brought these gifts for the purpose of worshiping the divine. Little did they know that they're worshiping the creator of the universe, God in flesh. And again, that's where I. I would love to know and see the wise men someday in heaven. But again, when we read the text, we do know that they worship him. But they bring these gifts. And these gifts are always pointing to Jesus himself. How so? We see these three gifts, and if you're taking note, you can write this down. We see the gold, frankincense and myrrh pointing to different things about Christ. The gold is always a reflection of his deity as our king. He's king of the universe. He's not just the king of the Jews, he's the king of the universe. And so it describes his deity, the gold. Gold was always a reference to a king or royalty. So when they bring the gold to Jesus, they recognize he is a king. He's a king. He's not of Herod. He's not of the Roman Empire. This is a divine king. The frankincense that they bring. Frankincense was always an incense, even used for the Levitical priesthood during, you know, at the altar that the high priest would use frankincense for offerings. So frankincense is a reference to Jesus's priesthood. So Jesus has a duty as our high priest. We're going to talk about that. You read Hebrews, you'll learn a lot about Jesus as our high priest. And myrrh was always this, this balming, if you will. This just this embalming that you would use for burial of the dead or for healing wounds. It was sort of a medicinal. Had medicinal properties, but it referred to his death as our sacrifice. They knew in a way, unbeknownst to them, that this myrrh was symbolic of him for his future death on the cross some 30 years later. So again, the gold fragrance is a myrrh deity, duty and death. I want to look at these three things real quick. What does it mean about his deity? Why is that so important? Paul would write to us in Colossians 2. 9 that Jesus is God in flesh. Okay, now when you think about this, though, we have a man, fully man, sitting on the throne of God right now. You ever thought about that? He's fully God, but he's fully man. We have a man sitting on the throne of God. He is God in the flesh, the Son of God. Paul would write that. I love the niv. The NIV says for In Christ, all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form. He is the Trinity, the Godhead. You've got God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. So our minds kind of just when we think about that deeply, we're like, this doesn't make any sense. But in the mind of God, it is one God in three persons, but you've got the Deity and all that. Paul says, the fullness of the Deity dwells in Christ. New King James says, for in him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead in a bodily form. So you've got Jesus as God in the flesh. Jesus is God, and he appears to us in the flesh here in Matthew, chapter two. But he is still fully man, but he is God supreme King of the universe. And Paul would even say in 1st Timothy 6:15, Jesus is king of Kings and Lord of lords. And I'm going to come back to that. If he's king in your life, is he Lord of your life? He's both. He has to be both. He's King of Kings and Lord of Lords. No other kingdom or lordship is greater than the kingdom and lordship of Jesus Christ. And that's what Paul would say. Paul would say in first Timothy for at just the right time, when Christ will be revealed from heaven by the blessed and only Almighty God, the King of all kings and Lord of all lords. This is Jesus. This is the deity of the Godhead. Number two. About the frankincense, his duty. Did you know that Jesus is not just sitting up in heaven, twiddling his thumbs, waiting to come back and rapture the church and then set up his kingdom? No, he actually has a duty. The Bible says in Hebrews predominantly that he is our high priest. He is doing something right now. And that something is called intercession. He is interceding for us. The frankincense, again attributed to the high priesthood of Jesus. And in Hebrews 7:25, let me read it to you. Says, therefore he is able once and forever to save those who come to God through him. And he, Jesus, lives forever to intercede with God on their behalf. Did you catch that? Now, the word intercession, when you dig deeper in the Greek, can also mean praying. That he's praying for you and me and that he's interceding for us to the Father, that we go through Jesus to get to the Father. Amen. We get to Jesus, but he's interceding for us. In a word, he's praying for you and me. And when I think about that it just. It blows my mind. I remember when Jesus says in the Gospels when he was talking to Peter and Satan was wanting to get to Peter and. And Peter has this moment with Jesus and he rebukes Jesus. Jesus says, get behind me, Satan. And then he says, look, Peter, Satan has asked me to sift you like wheat. He wants you. But he's. You know what Jesus said after that? He says, but I've been praying for you. I've been praying for you, Peter, that you would stand firm. Jesus is continually to pray. He's praying for you and me right now. How he does that, I don't know, because there's billions of people on this planet and he's always thinking about you and me at the same time. He ever lives to make intercession for you and me. That's his job right now. That's his role. He's high priest now. I love what Hebrews does because Hebrews says he's not just a high priest that doesn't get us. He's a high priest that understands us. In Hebrews 4:15, it says here that this high priest, Jesus understands our weaknesses. And. And it says he faced all of the same testings that we do, yet he did not sin. See, we serve a God who's not just a high priest that's up there and says, oh, I don't understand anything that you're going through, but just trust in me and everything will work out. No, he actually understands us. You ever say that phrase like, they just don't get it? They don't get it. They don't get me. You don't get me. You don't understand. You can't say that to Jesus because Jesus gets you. He understands you. He has you. And I love that about our high priest. He understands your weaknesses and mine. Our struggles, our temptations, our worries, our doubts, our fears. He gets it because he lived through that, yet he was without sin. So he went through those same struggles and temptations as you and I did because he was fully man. He was fully human, yet was without sin. He was perfect. But that's our high priest. Not only is he praying for you, but he understands you. So don't ever think for a second, nobody gets me. No one understands what I'm going through. I'm the only person going through this thing. And I don't feel loved and I feel distant. Not from Jesus. He loves you. He gets you. He understands you and he wants a relationship with you, understands you. Just come to him. But I can't leave this without further going through this, that Jesus reconciles us. And there's that famous verse in 1 Timothy 2, 5, Paul says, for there's only one God and one mediator who can reconcile God and humanity. Do you notice that? One God and one mediator who can reconcile or restore a broken relationship between God and humanity. And that's the man, Christ Jesus. That's it. He's the mediator. He reconciles us back to the Father. So the whole frankincense gift was pointing to the priesthood of Jesus. And last but not least, his death as our sacrifice is what myrrh was all about. And again Jesus would pay the ultimate price. He died once and for all for us. Hebrews 9:28 tells us that Christ died once and for all as our sacrifice to take away the sins of many people. And he will come again, not to deal with our sins, but to bring salvation to all who are eagerly waiting for Him. Amen. He came once to die for us. He's coming again to receive us unto him. He's not coming back to deal with sin. He's coming back to take us with him. This is Jesus. First John 2, 2 says, he himself is the sacrifice that atones for our sins. And not only our sins, but the sins of the whole world. That's Jesus. He atones for our sins. Now I don't have this on the screen. I want you to write this down though. Isaiah 60, verse 6. Isaiah chapter 60, verse 6 is all about the millennial kingdom. And in this passage of scripture I thought this was very interesting. It tells us that the peoples and the nations will come to see Jesus in Jerusalem and will bring him get this gifts of gold and frankincense, but no myrrh. They will bring him gold and frankincense, but why not myrrh? Because myrrh is done away with. Jesus died once and for all, but they will still see him as king and as high Priest. But no more dying for our sins because he already did it once and he doesn't have to do it again. He paid the way he did it once and for all. And I think that's gonna be very interesting that we will still serve him as high priest and as king, but he will not have to die again. It was enough. I close with this. I don't wanna leave this room without making this so applicable for our lives today. How can I apply this to my life right now in 2025? All I really wanna ask of you is because I've had to deal with this in My life. And I want to ask of you really quick, really quick. Is Jesus king, priest and sacrifice in your life? If Jesus is king, just say, if he's king in your life, then that means he's Lord. And if he's Lord of your life, then that means we worship someone greater than us. We are not our King and our Lord in our life. And I honestly do not understand why Christians go around saying he's my Lord and Savior when we only really act like he's just our Savior, but we never treat him as our Lord. You ever thought about that? God saved me of my sins. I love that, and that is so true. But you can't go on living the way you want to. Who's Lord of your life? Is it you or is it God? He must be Lord and Savior. He's King. Not you, not me. And you can't have Jesus be Savior, but not Lord. You can't have one or the other. So if you claim to be a Christian, I love that. We say we love our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, but serve him as your Lord and then treat him as your Savior. But that means you're not Lord, I'm not Lord. Is he priest in your life? If he's high priest, then that means he's praying, understands and has authority to forgive sins. The authority, only person, no other pope, pastor, priest, prophet, president, political figure, can claim this. Only. Only the Son of God and his name is Jesus Christ. He is the only one that can forgive sin. That's it. He was the only one. For those with Catholic backgrounds, or if you're still in Catholicism, I am praying that you see that there is no other man we go through to get to the Father. The man has already done that. His name is Jesus Christ. He's our mediator. That's the whole intercession part. Jesus intercedes for us. We go to him as our high priest. I don't go through any other man or pastor, president or pope. I go through Jesus. He is the one who is high priest in my life. And if you believe Jesus is the Son of God and can forgive sin, then he has to be your only high priest. That's it. Only one. And if he's your sacrifice, that means you are loved enough to spend eternity with him. He loved you so much that he wants you to spend eternity with him. That's how much he loved you. He died for you. He died for any sin that you've ever committed or will commit. He's died for that. I want to close with this, because I thought this is very interesting. And I. I just love how the Bible is just so complete. There's nothing random about the Bible. It's like it's full circle. And I thought it was interesting. When you read in the Bible, the first question that God asks man to Adam is in Genesis 3, 9. And the question is, where are you? Remember when Adam and Eve hid because they had sinned? And so God asked the very first question, where are you? But you get this. The first question that man asks God in the New Testament is actually found right here in Matthew 2. 2, where is he? And I think that is just a beautiful presentation of the Old Testament and the New Testament. The Old Testament is all about God asking, where are you in relation to me? Because now that sin has broken us, I want to know, where are you? And then in the New Testament, he sent his son, Jesus, and now mankind is looking for him, saying, where is he? Or where is truth? Or where was purpose in my life? Where's my identity? It's in Jesus. And that's the whole Bible. God's saying, where are you? I want you back. And then Jesus comes and he says, I'm the way, the truth and the life. And the wise men ask, where is he? Where is he born? King of the Jews. We have come and we followed his star and we've come to worship him. I love that. I love that about our Bible. I love that about our God. Full circle. So where are you with the Lord? Where is he to you? He's been searching you. He's been seeking you. Have you been seeking Him? I want to. I want to close with our heads bowed, eyes closed, and just ask the Lord God, where have you been in my life? God saying, I've been with you this whole time. Question is not if God is seeking us. The question is now, are we seeking him? And the wise men knew what they were doing in the sense that we are coming to something very special and spectacular. This divine being who came down to save sinners is God in flesh and again. Whether they knew it or not, when they saw Jesus, they couldn't help but bow the knee and worship him. And I want to know, and I want to ask, where are you with the Lord? Where is he in your life? Are you seeking Him? Do you see him as priest, king and sacrifice? Because if you don't see him in all three, then I pray the Holy Spirit will start convicting your heart, asking, hey, where is Jesus in your life? So as we close our heads, bow our hearts, I Just want a show of hands. I'm feeling like the Holy Spirit's wanting me to just get a show of hands because I want to pray for you. I don't need to know the details, but I just want to slip, flip up a hand and just pray for you. Say, pastor Tyler, that's me. I have not been treating Jesus as king. He's not been high priest in my life. I don't see him as my sacrifice, but I want to. And as the pagan gentile, wise men came and searched for the baby, they couldn't help but just bow the knee and worship him. So if that's you, I just want you to slip up your hand. I want to pray for you. This is your surrender. This is your time of saying, God, I fully surrender. And I want to treat you as Lord and savior and king, as high priest in my life and as my ultimate sacrifice. You love me enough to die for me. I want to pray for you right now. And I see some hands up. And I'm just going to ask the Lord to minister to your hearts by his Holy Spirit, encourage and convict and comfort Father God, in the name of Jesus Christ. We thank you so much for this teaching. And this time we can be in your word. And I see, Lord, the hands that have been raised, that you would just use them for your glory, that you would just envelop them with your love, your grace, your truth and God. I don't know what they're going through, but maybe they haven't been treating you as Lord and Savior or high priest or sacrifice and God, if they have. And I pray, Lord, that by the Holy Spirit, you would convict their hearts. You would allow them to start afresh even today. And, Lord, with all the hustle and bustle and the busyness of Christmas, I pray, Lord, that we would just settle our hearts. We would take a lesson from these magi, and we can speculate all we can. But, God, the main purpose is that these men came to see you and worship. And I pray, Lord, that we would do the same. God, I pray for those that treat you as savior, but they don't see you as king or Lord in their life. Would you convict them right now, Lord? I know I've been there, Lord, that sometimes I feel like I'm king and Lord of my life. I can do it myself. I don't need someone. I see you as Savior. Thank you for saving from my sins, but I move on. God, I pray that we would bow the knee, we would surrender our hearts to you, that you are king of the universe. Not just the universe, but of our hearts. You are Lord and Savior. You're my high priest. I go to you for anything I need. I go to you to get to the Father. I don't go through any other person or man. I go through Jesus Christ to get to the Father. Thank you, Lord, for not just being a high priest that intercedes for me, but understands my weaknesses. Totally gets me and God, that my identity is found solely in you. And thank you, Lord, for being my sacrifice. My death on the cross. That should have been me on the cross. But yet, Lord, you paid the price. You did it for me. And you did it just once and for all. And when we see you in that millennial kingdom, we will bring you gold and frankincense, but no need for myrrh, because you've already paid it once and for all. We thank you, Father. We thank you so much for sending your son, Jesus. God, I pray that wherever we go right now that we would be your hands and feet, the salt of the earth, the light of the world and God, that this wouldn't just be church coming in and going out, but that this would be life. You would change us from the inside out. And that we just want to be your hands and feet. Lord, thank you so much for your word. God go before us now as we go our separate ways. In Jesus name and everybody said amen.