Worship the Savior

We are in the second week of the Christmas Season and the Series, Journey of Christmas. Let me ask you some questions about your favorite things about the Christmas season.

How many of you would say that decorating is your favorite activity? Not decorating but looking at other people’s decoration?

How many of you would say gifts? giving gifts?

How many of you would say, the food?

Now we know what’s the most important… right? It’s ion the word Christ mas

Christ - mas

or Christ Worship.

It’s all about worshiping Jesus and letting everyone know the most important thing about Christmas is Jesus Christ !

When you think about Christmas and worshiping Jesus at Christmas, centering on him at Christmas, we all sort of know in the back of our minds that there can’t be anything more important than that. That’s what it’s all about. But for a couple of reasons we often miss out on worship during the Christmas season .

One reason: We get too buys. There is toooo much going on. If you let it, it become a race betwen events… We try to pack everything we can into one month. We re-decorate our houses, write cards to everyone we know, buy the perfect gift for each person on our list, and you bake things you don’t bake the rest of the year. The rest of the year… your oven is the place where you store extra pans.

Then during this month, they decide to let the kids out of school for two weeks to make things interesting.

That’s one reason we don’t worship. but there is another reason...

Sometimes… many times we really don’t know how to worship. No One has ever shown us how to worship.

What is Worship? Originally, it was worth ship

Worship = Worth ship

When you worship something you are saying something is worth… You can worship money, people, or you can worship the one who is worth the worship. It’s the missing ingredient in our lives.

So what I want to do is take a few minutes together to worship Jesus. That’s why you’re here – to focus in on him. To do the most important thing you can do on Christmas. To worship. And when you worship it actually changes you.

So how do we get from here, where we are too busy to over there, where we are worshipping the Christ? It’s like a map...

Let’s look at the worshippers on that first Christmas.

Matthew 2:1–12 NIV

1 After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem 2 and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.” 3 When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. 4 When he had called together all the people’s chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Messiah was to be born. 5 “In Bethlehem in Judea,” they replied, “for this is what the prophet has written: 6 “ ‘But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for out of you will come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel.’” 7 Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared. 8 He sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and search carefully for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him.” 9 After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen when it rose went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. 10 When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. 11 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 gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. 12 And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route.

Let’s let the wise men guide us through a journey of worship.

1. Start with a sincere desire to worship

First thing is that you start with a desire to worship. It’s simple, but if you don’t have a sincere desire to worship the Lord, you won’t. You have to want it. When you want it, Worship burst into the front door of your life. The thing is, you have to go to HIS front door… just like these guys did.

Matthew 2:1 NIV

1 After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem

Who were these guys? The Magi or wise men were sort of political advisors. They were experts in agriculture, math, history, astronomy and religion. Because of this, they were the power behind the power,. or the king makers of their day. Thats why they were interested in a king that was about to be born. They had heard a king was about to be born … a special king and they had come to worship him… not just to see him but to worship him. For them it was a long and expensive journey that took months to complete. These guys were not just curious, but they wanted to see this special king.

When you think of worship, one of the things is the desire to worship… kind of like the desire we all had a the Potluck and then at Thanksgiving last week. But instead of physical need, I am talking about spiritual need. Physical needs are satisfied in physical ways… spiritual ways are satisfied in spiritual ways and that’s what worship does.

One of the mistakes we all make is trying to fulfill a spiritual need in a physical way… How do you know you are hungry inside?

It’s when you feel empty inside. You need something to fulfill you. That’s a spiritual hunger. Many times we try to satisfy this need in the physical realm so we: go shopping, we go out to eat; we drink or do drugs; we do things sexually we should not do…

This is where addictions come from… trying to satisfy a spiritual need through physical means. It doesn’t and will never work.

What we need is what only ?God can give us… He is the only one who can fulfill these needs in our lives… the needs of emptiness… the need for connection. Spiritual hunger must be fulfilled by spiritual means.

Because you have a desire to worship and because there is a hunger that has to be fulfilled, you will often find that when you read the Bible, you will read about God talking about a spiritual need in physical ways… so we can understand him. He will talk about living water that only he can give… or taste and see…

Jesus is sayin that when you have a spiritual need, go to HIM. You may think you can handle all by yourself, Go to Jesus.

The wise men came because they saw a message that they could trust. It was a message about something they knew was real. For them, they saw the star.

When you see a message that you can trust about filling your emptiness… loneliness… discouragement… depression, your need for strength, connection and fulfillment… You are drawn to that. When you hear the message that the need can be met, we are drawn to it… we want it.

Sometimes you see it in other people. You think, I wish I had their faith… their peace… their joy… their confidence… Don’t be jealous. It’s revealing where there is a spiritual hunger in your life… and that need will be met through worship.

Let’s practice this worship

Right now in your mind just recognize this desire that you have and that God is the one who can meet this desire. So in your mind you or say “God, I need your presence to fulfill my need for connection… God, I need your comfort to fulfill my need for hope and strength… God, I need your strength to fulfill my need for significance... God, I need you. More than I realize – I need you. These feelings that I have inside I want to connect with you. Through worship I want to see you meeting those needs in new ways.”

That’s where you start. With the sincere desire that recognizes worship is connecting with the one who made you. When you do that needs are met in your life at deeper levels than you can imagine.

2. Develop a spirit of expectancy

You expect that Jesus will show up. You expect God to show up…

This is called FAITH. There is something about your faith that causes God to work in powerful ways… often more than you could have imagined.

When you expect to meet God in worship, you tend to meet God in worship.

The wise men came and they expected to meet Jesus.

Matthew 2:2 NIV

2 and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.”

There is no if, they expected to find and worship Jesus. When they got to the right place, they expected to find Jesus and they were prepared to worship.

Listen, when you are on your way to worship service, begin to expect Jesus to show up in your life. Talk to him and ask him to meet you in worship. Most of us are just rushing in… can’t find a parking spot… when we do it’s across the street… the greeter was already gone… you register your kids and you finally get into the worship center and all you can think of is… I don’t care how bad pastor Robert preaches, I get free time for an hour ...

Raise your expectation that Jesus is here and you want to meet him.. to worship him. He has something for me… he loves me… that changes everything.

In this story, the wise men were expectant. Herod was resistant and wanted to kill Jesus. Then you had teh religious leaders who were indifferent. They knew where Jesus would sho up, but they didn’t go… they missed it.

Listen, God works much better in expectant people than he does with indifferent or resistant people. ILL - miracle in Africa… more than here… people expect it.

There is something about indifference that kills worship… kills your faith … you heart. These religious leaders knew the truth, but it didn’t impact their lives. When you begin to become familiar with worship, it will begin to impact your life. Maybe at first you come in here and you are bored… counting the speck o the walls… trying your best to NOT go to sleep. Then all of a sudden the heavens open up and worship begins to make an impact on your life.

I can teach you all the attributes about God, but you get to know him in worship. You need something that goes to the depths of your soul. And that happens in worship. That’s where you recognize that even though I may not be able to comprehend or understand or grasp it all God is great enough to do that. There’s something that happens in worship that answers those deepest questions of life.

So let’s do this one together too. What question do you need to ask God right now? Ask him. He can handle it. He can definitely handle it. Just ask him right now: “God, why? …. God, how? … God, when?”

You ask him that question and the answer is probably not going to immediately flood into your mind. It might. But over time as you worship there will be a confidence about God’s answer in that situation, in that circumstance. That’s what happens in worship. It’s part of worship. Part of worship is building this expectancy, this faith in our lives.

That’s what the wise men teach us.

They als teach us that we have to …

3. Choose joy

Joy doesn’t happen on your life by accident. Joy happens when you make a choice… You make a choice to trust God.

Matthew 2:10 NIV

10 When they saw the star, they were overjoyed.

They chose joy and expressed it. They were overjoyed… not just a little but a lot. The Greek here means it dripped with joy. It was like we were when the Saint’s won the Super bowl a few years ago. They expressed it. You knew they were pumped about something.

Part of worship is connecting with him in the difficult parts of your life, but part of worship is connecting with him because you know he loves you… that no matter what the plan he has for your life … it’s good. Be natural in your expression of joy. You don’t have to change personalities to express joy. For some of you an amen is right… others YEAAA or a high five… some just a little curl of a smile…

4. Decide to humble yourself

These wise men were great men and they finally sowed up in Bethlehem and what did they do? They bowed before him.

Matthew 2:11 NIV

11 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 gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.

They recognized they were in the presence of someone greater than they and they could not help but bow... to humble themselves.

When we worship, it begins when we realize that we are in the presence of someone greater than us… so much greater that we can’t really comprehend it. It doesn’t end when you leave this place. We are always to remember we are in the presence of one greater than ourselves. That’s humbling. God is God and I am not.

Mary is another example. She worshipped all the way through… from the angels announcement to the resurrection and beyond. Even though she did not understand it all, she accepted the role of carrying the SOG. She humbled herself and said yes.

I want to give you the opportunity to say yes right now. Bow heads.

There may be several ways you need to say yes to Jesus. You may need to say yes to forgiveness for the first time… recognize that he died for you and accept his forgiveness. You might need to say yes to some change in a relationship… change where you live… or some decision in your life. You may need to say yes to something he wants you to do.

Whatever you say yes to - it’s a humbling action… There is something about humbling yourself before God’s greatness that hits your emotions in ways you don’t expect. All of a sudden tears well up in your eyes for reasons you don’t know. Or you feel a chill go up and down your spine… or you feel a warm calmness.

What’s happening is that you are connecting with God’s greatness and it impacts you in ways you never imagined.

ILL - cut into a live wire… shocks… every time you do that you know you are connected to power… It’s very obvious.

When you humble yourself and connect with God’s greatness, you know you are connecting with power. And it impacts you in ways you can’t always explain.

When the wise men showed up that day, they realized Jesus, the Savior of the world, was there. We humble ourselves because Jesus is here…

The wise men teach us a fifth thing about worship...

5. Plan to give gifts (Matt 2:11)

You plan to give gifts. The most famous thing about these wisemen is that they gave three gifts. These gifts are famous because they were part of the worship in their lives.

Worship is not just taking in… being fed.,, Worship is giving out… taking action. In worship we receive from God but we also give back to God and others.

Matthew 2:11 NLT

11 They entered the house and saw the child with his mother, Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasure chests and gave him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

too many people never practice this part of worship. Think about it. what do you give God? At Christmas what do you give the person who has everything? What do you give the person who made everything? Think about that one. You might be like the little drummer boy when he said, I have no gift to bring that’s fit for my king.

What could I give that would make any difference to God?

You give him yourself. He created you to have a relationship with him. So when you give him your choice… your love… your devotion… that’s the greatest gift of all.

These first gifts that were given to Jesus were actually prophetic about who and what Jesus would be and do.

They gave him gold, they recognized him as King

Gold was the gift given to kings. By giving him gold they recognized him as a king… king of kings.

What’s that mean for you and me? These three wisemen in the way that they gave teach us how to give. You give him the best of yourself… the best of your time… the best of your resources… the best of your abilities… why? because he gave us all those tings so we give them back in worship.

Give him your

They gave him frankincense They recognized him as a priest

In the temple worship of that day, Jewish temple worship, they used frankincense as a perfume that went up before God in the sacrifices that were made.

Jesus is our priest. A priest is a bridge builder, someone who goes between God and man. Jesus is the one who goes between God and us. He stands between to bring us together because of what he did for us on the cross and at his resurrection. He wants to bring us close to God. That’s what Jesus does.

So what does this mean for us? What do I give him?

You give him your best… worst. give him your sin and guilt. That may sound odd, but he died on the cross to give you the gift of forgiveness. When you bring him your sin & guilt and ask him for forgiveness its a gift to him. It recognizes what he did on the cross and why he did it. There may be someone here today that needs to do that for the first time.

Others, you prayed that prayer but may have wandered from it lately and you are letting those old thoughts and old sins creep back in again… recognize his forgiveness.

Give him your

They gave Him myrrh. They recognized him as Savior

Myrrh was a spice that was used in the embalming of bodies. So here even in Jesus being a baby we see this foreshadowing of his death. The fact that one day he’s going to give his life for you and me so that we can be forgiven. So that we can be saved from our sins.

What does that mean in our gift to him?

It means that you give him your all… best… worst… He gave his all for you. He gave his life for you so you could live.

You give your all back to him by loving God and serving other people. You give your all to the Savior. He’ll even give you the strength to do it.

Give him your

We can see the meaning in these gifts today, but I doubt the wise men did. They just brought Jesus something of great value to themselves… something that cost them.

That’s part of worship. You give God a decision, a heart, a direction that cost you something.

So when you think about worship, how we follow these wise men there is a real simple question for us...

What gift would you like to give Jesus this Christmas?

It may be the gift of recognizing his forgiveness… trusting him with a relationship or a decision… a new habit in your life that will help you grow closer to him. What gift comes to mind? Maybe the gift of a change in your life… a hope you haven’t had...

That’s part of worship… giving gifts back to God.

The wisemen also teach us how to end worship.

6. End with an obedient Response (Matt 2:12)

You do what God tells you to do. They met with God, god told them what to do and they did what God told them to do. God will often tell us what to do next… in a job, a decision, a relationship, a change decision…

When we do what God tells us to do, we are worshipping.

Matthew 2:12 NIV

12 And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route.

Notice - they went back a different route. If they hadn’t Herod would have killed Jesus.

Here is something about worship.

Worship will often change the route of your life

It changes your direction. You go into worship one way and you leave a different way. Happens to me all the time… I come in on a selfish route and leave on a serving route… thinking about other people… or a bad attitude route… and leave refreshed in a faith attitude. Worry route… leave on a trusting route… come in in a life is here and now… and leave with eternity in mind...

When you lift your eyes like that, when you trust him like that it changes the route on your life and that’s part of what happens in worship, when we worship him.

When you trust him like that, it changes the route and direction of your life. It may take time, but it changes.

ILL - A man whose dad was in a mental hospital with schizophrenia felt God telling him to write his dad again. He had taken a break because the letters his dad would write back were ugly. So he wrote. He got a letter back and thought that since God told him to write, it would be a good letter. It wasn’t. I was the worst one yet. He wondered if he missed God… about 3 weeks later he got a letter from his dad asking his forgiveness for the previous letters… led to more letter writing and salvation for his dad.

God may tell you to do something and it may not seem like it’s going well. When you obey God, you take the long term view. Listen we are not to obey God because we think he will get us if we don’t… thats what the culture thinks. We obey God because we love him enough to know he loves us and will do the absolute best in our lives if we let him. When I think about that… of course I will obey him.

So, this next week. What are you going to do based on what you heard today? That’s a question we need to answer after every message… What am I going to do with what I just heard?

One thing you can do is bring other people into this joy of worship… into this journey of Christmas.

You and I are still benefiting from these wise men’s worship because they told other people what happened… about Jesus.

When you can… wherever you can, tell the story of what Jesus is doing in your life… they will benefit from it.

1 Peter 2:9 The Message

9 But you are the ones chosen by God, chosen for the high calling of priestly work, chosen to be a holy people, God’s instruments to do his work and speak out for him, to tell others of the night-and-day difference he made for you—

You’re the ones chosen by God. When you tell someone else, when you act on that, that is an obedient step that changes not only your life but somebody else’s life.

This Christmas season is the season above all seasons where people will come to church, want to come to church. So you invite somebody next week. A person’s name has come into your mind maybe right now. You invite that person. Just say, Would you like to come?

Some of you just had a name pop into your mind. There’s a reason their name came to your mind. God cares about them just like he cares about you. The hope that he’s given you by being here he wants to give other people that same kind of hope. I’m not responsible for how the other person is going to respond. Just say, God’s done something great in my life. Why don’t you come hear about it? God has a great joy to give you. Why don’t you come hear about it? You’re offering the greatest gift of all.

So this next week that name that’s in your mind right now I’m praying, we’re praying together God gives you the chance to invite that person so he can give joy into that person’s life. That’s one of the responses we can have in worship.

Or maybe your response is to say God I need your forgiveness. Maybe your response is to say, God I need your help with that decision. Or, I’m going to trust you in that relationship.

There’s so many people here I couldn’t imagine all the things God might be putting in your mind right now. It may have nothing to do with the message we just talked about. He has a special message for you he’s been talking about. He’s going to pull something out and say this is what I want you to do.

When you do that thing, you’re worshiping. So the worship doesn’t stop here. It just starts here and it continues as we go out into life.

As we close I’ve got to be honest with you and tell you I’d like to be a better worshipper. I do God-things all day long. I’m a pastor. But I’d like to worship more. I’d like that to be a more constant part of my life. And I think a lot of you feel that way too.

If that’s the way you feel I want to pray a prayer of commitment to worship, becoming a worshipper, letting that become a more part of my life that I know it fulfills some of my deepest needs. If you’re in that same place I invite you to join me in this prayer and we pray together. Would you pray with me? I also invite you to come to the altar after I pray and you get on your knees before God...

Prayer

Salvation… then

Say this in your heart with me

Lord, I want to move from where I am to truly worship you. So I ask you that you would develop in me these things we just talked about. Develop in me a sincere desire. Help me to want what you can give in worship, what I can only find in worship and recognize that that’s a want in my life. Help me to see and recognize my spiritual needs. God, I also pray that you give me an expectant spirit. Build my faith. Help me to expect you to show up. Give me a heart I pray that chooses to rejoice. Help me to bow down and humble myself before you. And Lord, I want to get the kind of person who gives gifts back to you because you’ve given so much to me. I pray that you help me to act. Not just think about or see or understand but to act on what you say when I connect with you in worship. Jesus, I worship you.