Sermon Tone Analysis
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Following a Star but Finding a Shack
Matthew 2:1-12
Christmas is over.
The tree is still up, but it looks mighty empty underneath.
There may be some leftovers still lurking in refrigerator but they probably need to get thrown away now.
Those family members that you only see through the holidays are gone back home, not to be seen for another year.
All of the excitement that had built in the weeks leading up to Christmas and now it’s over.
Life has gone back to normal or as normal as it can be for some of us.
And many of us suffer from the post-Christmas blues – a kind of depressions after all the anticipation, waiting and buildup for the big day.
Have you ever noticed how life doesn’t always turn out the way we plan it?
We look at our lives, we make our plans, and we chart the course we want our life to take.
Yet, there are times when life just doesn’t play fair.
I made plans for the future when I was younger.
I was going to be a lawyer.
I was going to be a rock star.
I was going to write a best-selling book.
I was going to change the world.
And the next thing you know, you find yourself working at a meaningless, monotonous job, in a pointless career where your only hope is somehow making it to a point where you can retire and just sit back and relax.
There are times when life refuses to follow our plans.
There are times it seems that life is nothing more than a series of shattered and broken dreams.
But, listen to me, that is just how life appears.
One of the lessons that presents itself in our passage for this morning is the truth that life is a divine adventure.
The story of the wise men teaches us the profound truth that God’s hand is always on the steering wheel of our lives.
That isn’t just some cute or clever saying; that is the clear truth from the word of God.
David writes in:
The men who are mentioned in this passage, who have become known as the Wise Men, had spent about two years following a star.
This is made clear by verses 7 and 16.
We normally say that there were three of them but that’s just an assumption based on the number of gifts.
The only thing we do know is that there was more than one.
In order to follow this star, these men had left their homes, families, and professions behind.
They had left their home country and were living as pilgrims.
Along the way, these men would have faced perils, obstacles, hardships and deprivations.
Their path even led them into the presence of wicked King Herod.
When they finally arrive at their destination, they found that the star they had been following had stopped over a humble little house.
No doubt these men probably dreamed of finding the King of the Jews in a palace.
This probably explains why they went to see King Herod first!
They expected luxury, all the trappings of royalty and a very nice home.
What they found certainly did not match their dreams.
They found the King of Kings living in the home of a peasant.
The house they found that night was probably nothing more than what we would think of as a shack!
No doubt all their lofty dreams shattered before them and crumbled at their feet like so much dust.
Yet, amid the rubble of their torn and twisted dreams, these wise men encountered something in that humble setting that changed their lives.
Sometimes life has a way of shattering our dreams and destroying our hopes and plans.
This morning, I want us to see how these wise men responded when they were following a star but found a shack.
Let’s pray and we’ll read our text for today.
Pray!
There are three characteristics displayed by the wise men that that can help us when life refuses to play by our rules.
The first is:
Wise men see God in the shacks of life
The setting was nothing like they imagined, but they had traveled all that way to worship the Messiah and worship Him they did!
When those powerful, wealthy, educated, worldly-wise men entered that house, they were expecting to see a King.
What they saw instead was a small child.
Still, they humbled themselves and bowed before that child in a shack.
Those men saw something that others around them had failed to see.
Those men saw God in that shack!
When those men looked at that child named Jesus, they saw God.
You need to understand the truth that there will be times when your star leads you to a shack.
When life shatters your dreams, the first order of business should be finding the Lord.
If you are His, then nothing happens in your life that He has not allowed.
And when it happens (and it will) when your star leads you into a shack, remember that God is doing one of three things:
correction
There are times when we find ourselves in shacks and it’s the result of our sins.
We fail the Lord and there is a price to pay when we do not repent of our sin.
When we are in that condition, the Lord sends us into a storm of correction.
He uses the rod to teach us discipline and obedience.
This is not His anger on display.
It is His abundant love for His children in action!
instruction
There are times when the Lord allows us to go into a shack situation because He is trying to reveal Himself to us in a new way.
No matter how things look to us, God controls all the circumstances of our lives,
God uses various teaching tools to help us grow.
In one chapter alone, the Lord used three separate classrooms to teach His disciples.
In the sixth chapter of John’s gospel, he used
Hunger
– when He fed the five thousand
Storms
– when He walked on water during a storm
Fear
– His disciples were frightened when they saw Him
God has many more tools that He uses to teach us at His disposal.
He uses loneliness, weakness, grief, suffering, pain, emotional hurts, persecution, anger, and a thousand other things to train His children.
Think about Israel and all the trials they faced: threats from the Egyptians, the Red Sea, thirst, hunger, invaders and enemies.
And they survived.
If they had never faced all the things that had, they would have never known the truth that God could see them through it all.
He did the same thing with the disciples.
He will do the same thing with us.
He sends us into the shacks of life to teach us that He is an all-sufficient; all-powerful; all-knowing, Sovereign God!
In John chapter 4, the men of Samaria didn’t just believe because of the testimony of the woman that Jesus spoke to at the well.
They believed because they had experienced it themselves.
Think of all the lessons God has taught you during your own times of difficulties, disappointment and pain.
perfection
He is in the process of molding you and reshaping you into His image.
God desires that every one of His children be a vessel that He can use.
He has chosen you to be a vessel and He is constantly in the process of getting you ready for greater and greater service to Him!
Think about Moses.
He couldn’t have ever led the Israelites until he had first led and tended those sheep in the desert.
Someone has said, “What doesn’t kill you can only make you stronger!”
There is a lot of truth in that statement.
God uses all the hurts, setbacks, and disappointments of life to develop us into the servants He wants us to be.
I can tell you for a fact that my faith is deeper and that my determination is stronger than ever because of the valleys the Lord has led me through.
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