The Gathering Surf City

Glad you're here this morning and love
it that we get to hang out and

worship together.

It's been a good and busy week.

Just so you know.

Everybody always asks about,

you know,

me being a grandpa.

So I did get to babysit Friday night.

Angie helped me.

It was necessary.

But anyway,

yeah, it's a cool thing and.

And God's doing some cool things
there and we're enjoying it.

So thank you all for your prayers
and all that kind of thing.

And no,

I don't know when the baby
will be premiered.

I'm not privy to some
of those things.

Today we continue our celebration of
expectation and Advent as we look

forward to the celebration of the
birth of Jesus and what we call

Christmas and.

And that kind of thing.

And so today we light the fourth
candle of the Advent.

We'll do that in a little bit.

But this candle is the
candle of worship.

It's the Wise Men's candle.

It's the candle that gives sort of us
the opportunity to examine God's

announcement, not just in Bethlehem
or in the surrounding fields of

Bethlehem, or through the prophetic
messages to God's people from the

written prophets and the spoken prophets
throughout the Old Testament,

but quite actually,

this is the candle we get to look at
where God announced the birth of

Jesus in the heavens.

All right.

And so we're going to
read from Matthew,

chapter 2,

verses 1 to 12,

and you can follow along
up on the TV.

It says this.

Now, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem
of Judea in the days of Herod the

King, behold,

Magi from the east arrived
in Jerusalem saying,

where is he who has been
born King of the Jews?

For we saw his star in the east
and have come to worship him.

And when Herod the King heard it,

he was troubled,

and all Jerusalem with him.

And gathering together all the chief
priests and scribes of the people,

he began to inquire of them where
the Christ was to be born.

And they said to him,

in Bethlehem of Judea.

For so it is written,

so it has been written
by the prophet.

And you,

Bethlehem, land of Judah,

are by no means least among
the leaders of Judah.

For out of you shall come forth a ruler
who will shepherd my people

Israel. Then Herod secretly called the
Magi and ascertained from them the

time the star appeared.

And he sent them to Bethlehem
and said,

go and make careful search
for the child.

And when you have found him,

report to me,

and I too may come,

that I too may come and worship him.

Having heard the king,

they went on their way,

and lo the star which they had seen in
the east went on before them until

it came and stood over
where the child was.

And when they saw the star,

they rejoiced exceedingly
with great joy.

Kind of like the shepherds,

right?

And they came into the house and
saw the child with Mary,

his mother,

and they fell down and
worshipped him.

And opening their treasures,

they presented to him gifts of gold
and frankincense and myrrh.

And having been warned by God in
a dream not to return to Herod,

they departed for their own
country by another way.

All right,

let's pray together.

God, we give you thanks and praise again
that we get to gather and to

worship and to sing and to celebrate and
to greet one another and to love

each other,

God, because indeed
you first loved us.

And we celebrate in this season that
incredible expression of your love,

which is our Savior,

our salvation,

our redemption.

God, we thank youk.

God. Help us to understand,

God, what yout desire
of us and in us,

God, what yout expect as we study youy
Word and this account of Magi and

pray, God,

that we would have an understanding
of how we leave this place this

morning to follow after
you and to serve you.

And we pray it in Jesus name.

Amen. All right,

so this is supernatural,

okay? This whole account is
just a supernatural event.

And quite,

you know,

accurately, we as believers
and Christians,

we call it miraculous.

You know,

this account of the star and Herod and
Jerusalem and Magi and Bethlehem

and the star going before them,

this is all a miraculous event.

And so the best way to describe
this is this is just God.

This is the kind of stuff God does.

You see,

this is the way God works.

This is the way God behaves.

This is the way God acts.

This is just God.

So what do you do when you are
confronted by or with God?

What's the response?

What is it that God longs
to see in us?

What is it that should be our,

not just response,

but our behavior when confronted
by God and with God.

You see,

because there's a little
book that I acquired.

I don't know how I acquired it.

I think some old preacher gave it to me
because it's a really old book we

studied. Paul Mayer is a historian.

He was a professor at Western
Michigan University.

He studied ancient history
and the Reformation,

and he's written a few
books like this.

He wrote this one called
First Christmas.

It's out of print now,

so don't go looking for it unless you
want to find it on digital or at

Goodreads or whatever those places.

Are. But anyway,

this book kind of gives a breakdown
of the first Christmas,

the true and unfamiliar story.

So it goes in to explain a lot of the
things that we just simply accept

and. And take from Scripture
and from the Bible.

And we believe these things and
we understand these things,

and we're like,

okay, yeah,

that's how it happened.

And yet he goes into explaining different
cultural things and different

the time and the era in which
all these things took place.

And he spends a couple of chapters just
kind of explaining magi and the

star.

And it's really interesting
to read that.

Throughout history,

for the last couple thousand years,

people have been trying to explain the
scriptural text of this star and

what this star was and how it went before
them and how it came to rest

over where the baby
was in the house.

And it's like,

okay. And I remember when I first got
this book and I read through it,

it was really cool to read.

You know,

a professor and a scholar and an intellectual
trying to explain God,

right?

Because when I read the Bible,

I don't need an explanation.

I just simply go,

okay, that's God.

Okay, God did that.

You know,

quite honestly,

I told somebody,

I said,

you know,

what if God decided the Magi leaving
Jerusalem needed a light right

there? God could put a light
right there and go,

here, follow the light.

They could follow it.

Now it says,

lo, the star appeared and went ahead
of them or went before them.

And so I'm looking at this thing,

and my response and going back over this
text and reading back over these

things was like,

that's just God,

y'all. There's some things that we are
never going to be able to explain

naturally because this is
super beyond natural.

This is miraculous.

This is the way God works.

This is the way God has drawn
our attention to him,

is by doing what only God can do,

right? And so when people come to me
and they want to explain God and I

go, I'm glad you got
him figured out.

I've been studying him all my life,

and I can't explain God.

Now I can tell you what I believe
God's revealed to us.

I can tell you what I believe the
Bible kind of presents as the

revelation of who God is.

And I can try to understand what it
is that the Bible is saying to us.

But. But once we start to.

To understand the revelation of who God
is and what God wants us to know

about him,

we've got to decide what we're
going to do with it.

How are you going to act?

What you going to do how are
you going to behave?

Right. Well,

I believe that this candle of the Advent
and this story of the magi and

this account of the star and this confrontation
between God and these

wise guys,

right? The response is worship.

We're supposed to bow before God,

we're supposed to fall before him,

and that's what we see
in this account.

So what's the point
of all this thing?

The point of all this thing
is Christmas about Jesus.

Yeah. We can do presents and we can do
family and we can do Chinese food.

Isn't that in some movie somewhere?

Somebody told me that,

you know,

you see,

you can do anything you want to around
the celebration as long as you

don't miss the point or lose the point
of what God intended Christmas to

be about.

Now, I'm going to say something
that some of you,

being from a former tradition,

the idea of Christ Mass
is actually right.

You know that.

I mean,

Christmas comes from the
phrase Christ Mass.

What's it talking about?

It is the gathering celebration that
we recognize and acknowledge and

really sort of prioritize
the birth of Jesus.

Okay, so.

And folks,

just so you know,

you know what mass means,

gathering. Just let me
define it for you.

So Christ Mass is a Jesus gathering.

Okay, so what you gonna
do Tuesday night,

Wednesday morning,

you're gonna have a Jesus
gathering somewhere.

You might be all by yourself,

but just like there was
a song years ago says,

you know,

me and Jesus make four.

Or me and God make four.

Right.

That's a gathering right there,

y'all. So I started looking back
over this this morning,

particularly as I get up at 4:30.

I was awake at 3:30,

but I was.

I was laying there,

I was like.

And quite honestly,

and I'm gonna be very forthright with
you this morning just to tell you,

at 3:30 when I woke up,

I was like,

where are you,

God?

Where are you?

And I'll be.

And I told Angie this morning,

I said,

here's what I realized.

If I'm struggling with a question
on Sunday morning,

it generally has to do with
whatever I'm preaching on.

You know,

if I wake up with a question on
my mind on a Sunday morning,

it's because God is challenging me before
I have to get up in front of

you.

And so when I woke up this morning,

I was like,

where are you,

God? And the first point of the message
of the fourth Advent candle,

that this outline was written
down months ago.

Just so y'all know,

the first point was
come and seek him.

And so I woke up this morning
at 3:30 with the question,

where are you,

God? And it was like he reminded me.

He was like,

come and seek me.

Come and find me.

I'm where I've always been.

I've not left,

I've not moved,

right? And then I started working
into the idea of the wise men.

And think about these magi.

Now, most scholars will tell you,

and Paul Mayer even comes to it,

is that more than likely these magi were
some combination of astrologer,

astronomer, magic.

Hang on,

I'll read you what it says here.

It says,

because he says,

it's kind of,

I can't find anyone.

You know,

when I turn to it,

I even underlined it.

Y'all says they were some
combination of medicine,

religion, astronomy,

astrology, divination,

and magic.

Their caste eventually spread
across much of the east.

And by the time they were later,

and they could have been Babylonian
by the time they were later,

they had kind of become a joke,

the culture.

But the Medo Persian magi were the
respected cast of educated

intellectuals. So most
scholars will say,

well, these were most likely Persian
astronomers who just watched the

stars.

And then he goes into the
fact that the star.

And they've tracked this
back historically,

the star may or might
have been this.

This sort of.

Sort of gathering in the
heavens of Jupiter,

Saturn and Mars.

And that it happens every so many
years at such and such a time.

And that it happens over a
period of several months.

And that and that.

And that because of the different zodiac
signs that were assigned at the

time, that these magi from Persia are
looking up there and they're going,

okay, that's.

That's the Middle East.

That's west of us,

but in the east.

And that's.

And that Jupiter is the king
planet and Saturn.

And something's happening
in Palestine.

Something's happening among
the Jewish people,

and we got to go.

And so,

you know,

he even says in there,

the song we three kings of Orient
are gets it all wrong.

We don't know that there are three.

They brought three gifts.

Yay. Supposedly,

three gifts represent something
of Jesus birth.

And that more than likely there were
a dozen magi and it was a caravan.

And they all come cruising
into Jerusalem,

creating a firestorm of
activity and interest.

And then they announced
to Herod that,

you know,

where is he that is born
king of the Jews?

And Herod's like,

wait a minute,

I'm king of the Jews,

and I hadn't had any baby lately,

right? And so he calls the scribes
and the chief priests together,

and they go,

well, you know,

the prophets do Say that down there
in Bethlehem there's going to be a

birth, and,

you know,

the stars are kind of lining up the
right way and that kind of thing.

He says,

all right,

well, y'all go find him and let me
know so I can come worship him.

So the Magi from Persia are.

Are watching what only God controls,

right? The heavens.

Only God controls that.

And the Magi are watching
the heavens,

and they notice something
in the heavens,

this alignment of planets.

And whether or not,

by their understanding
it's that alignment,

God intended for them to see the announcement
of the birth of Jesus,

the heavens,

right? So what did it do?

It motivated and prompted
them to go find Jesus.

Okay, now you can read some of what
we refer to as church history.

And they came up with names
for three of these Magi.

One of them is Balthazar.

You know,

you can find these names,

but they say those names appeared
in the 6th century.

So they're not really,

you know,

you don't know whether
they're real or not.

You know,

whether that's really who they were,

we don't know.

And then there's the story of their later
baptism that comes down through

church history.

Somebody went out and found them,

Thomas maybe,

and found them in Persia and
baptized the wise guys,

right? You see what I mean?

But the biblical story is as they
were watching what God does and

announces, and they went
looking for Jesus,

went looking for him.

What did they do when
they found him?

And lo,

the star which they had seen in the east
went on before them till it came

and stood over where the child was.

Folks, I'm just telling you,

that was some alignment and movement
as they were moving.

And, you know,

as you move on Earth,

the stars kind of move around,

however they interpreted,

or if God put a light right
in front of them and said,

here, follow the light.

When they saw the star,

they rejoiced exceedingly,

with great joy.

And they came into the house and
saw the child with Mary,

his mother,

and they fell down and
worshiped him.

What's the response when you are confronted
by or you encounter God?

You fall down and worship,

right? I mean,

that's the thing that God
not only expects,

but commands us to do.

So this morning,

and it's an old song,

and I was really tempted to ask Scott
and Jared and them to change up the

worship order this morning,

because I've never done that,

but I almost did.

This is the song when
I woke up and asked,

God, where are you,

God? These are the lyrics.

Draw me close to you and never let
me go I lay it all down again.

To hear you say that
I'm your friend.

Y'all know this song?

It's called Draw Me Close.

Michael W.

Smith wrote it probably
30 years ago.

You are my desire.

No one else will do.

Because nothing else can
take your place.

To feel the warmth of your embrace.

Help me find the way.

Bring me back to you.

You're all I want.

You're all I needed.

All I've ever needed.

You're all I want.

Help me know you are near 3:30 this
morning I was singing that song,

God, where are you?

Draw me close to you,

never let me go.

I lay it all down again.

Just to hear you say that
I'm your friend.

When you're encountered by God,

what does God want us to do?

To draw close,

to fall down and worship him.

You know,

everything around us is going to go
crazy in the next couple of days.

I've already heard people saying,

well, we're going here
or we're going there.

We're getting together with this and
we're getting together to do that

and all that sort of thing.

But here's the point.

Will it be about Jesus?

See, because I think what God's calling
us as believers to do is to make

Jesus the point of our Christmas,

okay? Come and seek him,

fall down and worship him,

and go and obey him.

So what God's called us to do.

You see,

I look at these things and I.

This morning I woke up,

I was like,

pretty typically when I wake up,

I look forward to Sunday mornings.

And I love getting together
here on Sunday mornings.

I think it's great.

I think we have this incredible opportunity
to turn down the noise of the

world and to focus our
hearts and our minds,

our attention on God.

To set aside those things
that draw us away.

Draw me close to you.

Never let me go.

I lay it all down again.

What is it?

I'm laying down.

I'm laying down distractions.

I'm laying down my wants
and desires.

I'm laying down what I would consider
to be my priorities.

I'm laying down the things that distract
me from the revelation of God

himself, right?

I mean,

I can imagine sitting in my little study
cubicle at the Persian library,

right? And I'm looking out the
skylight and I'm going,

oh, wait a minute.

What are those bright lights doing?

Guys, come here.

Everybody gather around.

Look, something's going on.

Well, hang on a minute,

let me get the scroll.

They start unrolling
the scrolling go.

Oh, look,

that's that King planet,

that Saturn over there.

That's that.

And they're in this constellation.

And, guys,

something's going on among the Jews.

And one of them goes,

well, let's go.

Let's go over there.

Let's pack up our donkeys and our
camels and let's get over there.

And it probably took months for them
to travel up the rivers and down

into Canaan and Palestine and get to
Jerusalem and find Herod and get an

audience with Herod and
come in there and go,

hey, look,

we were sitting there just studying
stars and planets,

and something's going on here.

Where is the king born?

And Herod's going,

wait a minute.

So he shoos out the wise men,

brings in the chief priests
and the scribes and goes,

hey, something's going on.

Have y'all not told me about it?

See what's going on in
your life today?

What you got planned this week,

right? I mean,

I've already,

like I said,

I've already heard people say,

okay, well,

we're doing this because
we got to do that.

We're going here because
we got to go there,

you see?

And I'm not saying that's wrong.

I'm not saying agendas
are bad things.

I'm not saying to do lists are not
the way we live our lives.

But here's the question.

Does Christ sit atop all of it?

Is Christmas about Jesus for you?

You see,

here's what I'm worried about.

I'll go ahead and tell you.

I'm worried that about 500 people are
going to show up here 5:30 Tuesday

night, and we got seats for 257.

See what I mean?

I love it that people are going to
make worship on Christmas Eve a

priority. I think it's great the 5:30
hours when families come with their

kids. And that's all cool and
great and we love it,

but the place will be packed,

and that's fine.

We might even have to
do floor seating.

Just sit in the floor.

Go ahead.

It'll be all right.

It'd be hard to get the
Lord's Supper out.

Won't it nick people sitting
in the aisles and stuff?

We'll throw it at you.

See, if the challenge is to come and seek
him and the response is to fall

and worship him,

then the command is to
go and obey him.

Okay? Merry Christmas.

It's a joyful time to celebrate
God's greatest gift.

Don't miss the opportunity.

Don't miss the opportunity to
tell somebody why it's Mary,

you see,

because you're going to run into
people that's not Mary for.

And they need to know Jesus.

Okay, so we light.

I hope.

Okay. We lit the candle
of the prophets,

which was the candle of hope.

We lit the candle of Bethlehem,

which was the candle of peace.

We lit the candle of the shepherds,

which was the candle of joy.

Today we light the candle
of the wise men,

which is the candle of worship.

See? Looking forward to lighting the center
candle of Christ on Christmas

Eve. Okay.

If you don't know Jesus,

you need Jesus.

Christmas is all about Jesus.

And if you don't know him,

then guess what?

For all the world that
doesn't know Jesus,

Christmas is not Christmas.

It's not a Jesus gathering.

It's just a day.

We want you to know Jesus.

This morning we're going
to sing another song.

Give you the opportunity
to respond to him.

Give you the opportunity to do
what he's called you to do.

He's calling to you to do.

Don't miss the opportunity.

Okay. Don't miss the movement of God in
the heavens to get your attention

so that you'll come to him.

Alrighty. Pray with me.

Father, thank you for today.

Thank you.

God, that you have loved
us and cared for us.

God, that you've called us.

You've offered to us this gift,

this redemption,

this salvation.

God, you've.

You've done everything
to make us yours.

God, help us to receive Jesus.

Help us to receive this gift of redemption
and salvation that you've

offered. We pray it in Jesus's name.

Amen.