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00:00:00 sad things said can you imagine today Christmas Eve Sunday tomorrow Christmas day today got a list tomorrow also go to listen sermon so I today make the sermon short okay so that you all don't have to w got to listen to too many sermons ah all right so uh remember this is some of the stuff that um you get with good Growers and do try to support them this is the Taja tribe don't know whether an is with us here an is helps us in our chyos ministry and this is so when you look at it it looks like a traditional you know campong
00:00:49 like you know funeral then you see what they do after that and then you begin to notice something quite familiar and then you realize is a Christian funeral so here's one thing quite fascinating about it no and what the Taja tribe has managed to do is to keep their culture and yet honor God and there's something about Christianity being perceived as a western faith and today text I want to really pick up a little bit of this even in their marriages have you noticed that uh they keep their traditional gown they don't have the the
00:01:28 white and the black so one thing about Christianity really being being seen as a western religion and I want to maybe pick up a little bit today as we look at the story of the Three Wise Men and this is a fascinating story because this a story about people who are non Jews and the context here is about foreigners So today we're really talking about the Foreigner in our midst so uh it's a fascinating story that has uh gotten U much interest so let's come before the Lord in prayer and Lord we ask this
00:02:02 morning I speak humbly not with human wisdom Lord but with wisdom that comes from you from the fear and trembling of lips and holy spirit anointing and power become broken not with human smartness Lord I I I I need to really pray for this for I have the temptation to come up here and and go in my strength so as you break me and I come humbly in Jesus name we say this amen I want to try something different today uh you know this is a Bible a Bible have you noted I never bought a Bible very long not good H so today we try
00:02:43 something different there'll be no Bible verses up here today all of you read your Bible can can okay so book out your Bible Matthew Chapter 2 if you're a visitting in our midst and you don't know what is Matthew or what just type in the word Matthew 2 two you will take you to a link called Bible Gateway and so today we will try to read scripture ourselves now what I'm going to do is I'm going to take you first to Matthew 1 and you look at Matthew 1 the first word you see is the genealogy of Jesus right
00:03:20 you some very boring how many of you have done a sermon on this this Papa that Papa or the grandfather grandfather grandfather you read half he also sleep so the first thing you ask yourself who is interested in genealogy Luke has a genealogy but Luke's genealogy is in chapter 3 when you start the book off on the genology you got ask what's so important and then you come to a heading in verse 18 the birth of Jesus Christ and then there's no story about manger love Angels love instead what guy that
00:03:51 repeats itself fulfillment of the prophecy so let me give you a few things first the book opens with the genealogy two Matthew is very fond of talking about prophecies being filled and of course Matthew is very famous on the sermon of the mount which is really about what about the law so ask yourself a question which particular group of people very fascinated about geneologies about prophecies being fulfilled and the law Jews so Matthew is very much written to a Jewish audience it presumes you understand Jewish background now let me
00:04:36 explain a bit about Old Testament we'll go into a little bit of this when you read the Old Testament certain phrases are used as trigger words I'll explain it as you go on and then the text makes sense I that this story becomes quite strange because the three wise men is a Sunday School Story number one the Bible doesn't tell you got three why do we say three because they brought gifts three types of gifts number two then got Nam m kaspa b one look like male one look like Indian one looks like Persian I mean and of course the The
00:05:13 Legend is they came from all over the world hey during their time no WhatsApp on you know you cannot be whatsapping a guy from India hey are you are you going to go to Jerusalem and whats a guy from from from Europe it doesn't make sense so the story has been quite distorted to become like a fantasy story three white old man write this cam like that like that go and see and then this star signing Hallelujah over this manger and then they give the gift and then they all go back it's a bizarre story but the text is deeper than that
00:05:47 so I want you to try to look at the nuances of the text and then you begin to understand why this is such a powerful story this story fascinates people people study about where the star came from was it a comet this and that so we're going to go right into the text right Matthew Chapter 2 if you Bibles with me so today we're going to read the Bible after Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea during the time of King Herod and this chapter has lot historical basis Magi from the East came to Jerusalem and
00:06:21 asked where is the one who has been born King of the Jews we saw his time in the East and have come to worship Him the word is is repeted twice all right for you it means nothing to a Jew the word is means a lot of thing first Magi Matthew doesn't bother to explain it meaning you begin Matthew trying to say he assumes the audience know it so you got to ask yourself where would a Jew understand the word Magi in the Old Testament it gives you a clue now let me give you the word East the first time you see the
00:07:03 word East is Genesis 3 when Adam and Eve are expelled from the garden where was the entrance block east side you know you can ask why West why not North why not South we have no idea East and then you have the story of Cain when Cain went out after he was banished he went East and what did he do he built cities and do you know the story of the Tower of Babel where do you think the tower was north south east bre it was East so East is a motive that says the enemies of God so straight off you're a Jew you're reading
00:07:44 it m guy from East W bad news oh people come to create trouble so that's the first impression all right now here is where is more interesting and Peter brought up just about captivity and Exile and if you look again just chapter one at the entire genealogy you find that uh Matthew uses the Exile twice verses 11 and 12 is important to him he shifts and mention the genealogy in Babylon so the exile to Babylon is important here's a map of Babylon to Jerusalem or Judea where is Babylon east south north west east
00:08:30 is so Matthew opens up this section by saying something ominous now who are these Magi it is ma mag whatever it doesn't make sense that one was from India one was from Europe it doesn't make sense very likely they are pans what are parans parans are the descendants of the Persian Empire and now you begin to see a little bit you really began to understand because Magi is a Persian word now give you a little bit on the pon Empire the pon Empire is the biggest empire that fought Rome 35 years before the writing of this 40,000
00:09:14 soldiers under General cres went into part and they got their behinds kicked really hard by the partan the parans are ferocious and so the the Empire imploded but the parans are very likely the Magi this is speculation and very likely is this it doesn't make sense three old men carry go carry FR C you get robbed you know so very likely this was a big contingent there were a few wise men and there was an armed guard carrying Treasures that is the more correct historical reading of it now we come to the star we saw his star
00:09:55 in the east and again if you follow a bit of Persian history it goes all the way back to Babylonian and Babylonians to Persians to parans all had a deep fascination with astronomy so the most likely situation they looked up they saw something and they came all right that's the background what they saw we don't know was it a comet was this a whatever we don't know I think it's a spiritual star all right I I'll tell you why the next line they say is even more inflammatory where is the one born king
00:10:34 of Jews hey you pan you know what's your business it's like a guy from India going to China and say where is the king of China what you go back you B India so parans come and ask born king of Jew he's not saying the one that was made king of Jews by the Romans h we know you're a vessel State we know that your your so-called King was installed by Roman you a colony born King Of jws Who though you ask yourself how did they know it means they had access to documents the next line is even more insulting toward Jew I've come to
00:11:23 worship Him and Matthew uses the word the Greek word for worship here is used 10 times 12 times in Matthew and make no mistake the Greek word used here is the same when Matthew uses it to reference God so try to imagine that these guys entered Jerusalem and they just go asking around where the one born king of Jews we come to worship him and you are a Jew born king of Jews worship him he's God you are from the East right that's the kind of IM you have so very likely they are people who came descendants or took on
00:12:06 from Daniel because the Persian king Daniel as you know Daniel studied astronomy and he was a magi he was the chief Magi under Nebuchadnezzar and so he kept his writings and the pan Empire had whole of it I mean this is bit speculation meaning and this is very fascinating H these are foreigners who had hold scripture that is the point you people here got NIV ESV got all sorts of Bible no it like saying there's this African tribe far away who had a few pages of the Bible and they look at the pages they saw a sign and
00:12:49 then they traveled thousands of miles that's the context and yet it's not sufficient the star took the only to Jerusalem you know in in the Sunday school version is like there a star and then they walk they follow star the star is like a beacon or like grab you know not grab like like your like your ways and then and then the star suddenly goes over the manger then the light come on Hallelujah that's not true the star talk them to Jerusalem that means when they arrived at Jerusalem they didn't know
00:13:21 where to go that's the point of the text that's why they say where is the one so look at verse three when King Herod now that's a play here where is the one born king of Jews when King Herod who is King Herod he's King of the Jews right he's actually a puppet King but he's the king of the Jews heard of this he was Disturbed and all Jerusalem with him okay I want you to pick this up a little bit all right and here again we want to see a bit of contrast the East is where the enemy comes the Persians the Babylonians
00:14:00 and so the enemy the descenders of the enemy come did they come to attack you no they come to worship your king the Persians in the past the Babylonian denounce the Jews now do they come to denounce the Jews no they come to worship the king of the Jews that's the point of the text and now we have King of the Jews Herod all right and again this really goes into archaeology because the herodian dynasty comes from here let me give you a little bit of history there are three competing sex in Judaism there is the
00:14:31 judeans there the Samaritans and the Adomian an eduman is an adomite he's an half Jew meaning he's got a chip on his shoulder you know like neither here neither there so history shows you he's trying very to prove he's a pure Jew so he's very famous for his architecture projects so haris Temple is very famous now when you look at this because this is going to come out later where should people like all these foreigners be they should should be at a gentile Courtyard you you you stay outside then he created
00:15:05 a woman's Courtyard even more der woman now woman got menstruation you stay there only men can go inside this is history yeah so three foreigners come they want to worship god oh you go to the temple you sit outside I King of the Jews that's the context right so let's go on now when he had called together all the people's Chief priests and teachers of the law he asked them where the Christ was to be born verse 5 in Bethlehem in Judea the reply for this what the prophet had written but to you Bethlehem the land of Judea by no means
00:15:43 least among the rulers of Judah will come out a ruler who be Shepherd Of My People Israel this is Micah chap 2:5 so now everybody knows you heard this whole of Jerusalem was Disturbed foreigners come and they have discovered the Messiah he's in Bethlehem how far is Jerusalem to Bethlehem 9 miles how far is paa to hear probably 3,000 miles so the what Matthew is saying now that you know you should join them and just take a few days journey to Bethlehem but what do the teachers of the law do nothing that's the
00:16:28 point so you have magy who traveled thousand of miles and they didn't have all the information it got them to Jerusalem you got Scholars who had the NIV Bible ESV all the commentaries to find it out and you need N9 months to get off their ass to go to to Bethlehem and they don't do anything about it that is how Matthew is putting the story then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out the exact time the St appeared he sent them to Bethlehem and said go and make a cat careful search for the child as soon as
00:17:00 you find him report to me so that I may go and worship him and we know the story is a lie now the history of Herod is very famous Herod has an identity problem he's very insecure he is King of the Jews no one else not this AER called Jesus Christ and history tells you he was so insecure he killed his own wife and his own sons that does do a Wikipedia search on is very famous so this guy like to kill people to keep the throne so what happen later on with the massacre at Bethlehem is very fitting to
00:17:36 history now this one is interesting H and I want to see whether you know your Old Testament all right and I'll give you a hint if you know your Exodus you will pick this up after they heard the king they went on the way and Matthew say this the star they had seen in the East went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was now Stars don't do that even if this is Legend nobody's that stupid Matthew is deliberately saying something which is Supernatural let me ask you a question the star went ahead where have
00:18:16 you heard that phrase before especially in the book of Exodus exactly Matthew is intentionally referencing but what Matthew is saying is this in The Exodus text this the the pillar of fire the cloud went ahead for who for Persians for Babylonians for paans for who for the Israelites now the star is going ahead for who for Persians paans Babylonians or asle Africans sians Iranians Iraqis that is what he's trying to say he's actually it's a very insulting text you know you're a Jew you read it how dare you write this the star
00:19:03 not for the Jews no that's the point let's go on all right and then we see how the star gets even more insulting the story when the they saw the star they were Overjoyed on coming the house they saw the child where his mother Mary and to me this is the center most insulting part of the text if you're a Pharisee and they bowed down and worshiped him Gentile you know you know you want to worship go to Temple clean yourself up the first church was in the house or a manger and the first recorded worship
00:19:47 not Jews foreigners whose descendants were enemies of the Jews that is the irony of the text how dare you Worship in the house which is filthy with poor people you know even a Jew and they Bow Down and Worship Him let's go on then they opened their treasures and presented him with with a toy Transformer with a Lego set with baby sh shakers ABC book you get when I'm going with this right you see very likely at this point Jesus is 2 years old I'll tell you why the text tells you 2 years old under you
00:20:42 you give them this La why are you giving them a baby cannot a small kid has no use of gold French and sign and M M now then people go into speculation they say gold is King French is God m is the death that's speculation if you read it in the Old Testament context where in what one setting alone do you see go Frankenstein and M come on and that's again Exodus where the Tabernacle the Tabernacle has come in the person of Jesus Christ the word became flesh that is the story of the Magi not this Disneyland story of three Omen walking
00:21:35 with a star that goes out and Sh lines on a maner that's rubbish is an inversion story let me go on and I'll tell you how he Nails it even more all right when they had gone and you read here you can see gold French sign you can read it and me were all used in the Tabernacle they were used in the priest they were used to anoint they were used in the in the building that we use in all the objects so Matthew is intentionally bringing up Tabernacle Temple language or Sacred Space all right verse 13 when they had
00:22:09 gone an angel the Lord appeared to Joseph in the dream oh sorry before that verse 13 12 after having me warned and dream not to go back to Herod they return to the country by another route and this is the part where we need to continue a lot of people don't read the rest of this but it's important when they go Angel the Lord appear to Joseph Dream verse 13 get up he said take the child and his mother escaped to Egypt this why Jesus is the first political Refugee that's the truth stay there until I tell you for Herod is
00:22:37 going to search for the child to kill him because Herod is insecure this is historical so he got up took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt where he stayed until the death of Herod and now Matthew talks about the second fulfillment prophecy and it was fulfilled when the Lord said to the prophet out of Egypt I called my son that's Hosea 11 but you see in Hosea 11 the Israelites are in bondage in Egypt that's the context here Egypt is a place of refuge and out of Egypt he will call
00:23:15 Moses and now someone greater than Moses will come out of Egypt and that will be Jesus so that's really another inversion all right now he Nails it even further on if you go on all right and then this is the disturbing part when Herod realized that been out withed by the Magi he was Furious he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and the vicinity who were 2 years old and under this guy is very brutal well he killed his wife he killed his son so this fits the historical narrative in according
00:23:45 with the time he had learned from the Magi and then the third prophecy then what was said to the Prophet Jeremiah Was fulfilled and this one is fascinating this is from Jeremiah a voice is heard in Rama weeping and great morning and then Rachel is used Rachel weeping for children and refusing to be comforted because they are no more now remember the genealogy early on picks up the Babylonian captivity twice now this flips it on his head you see in Jeremiah it is the foreigners who is killing the Jews you
00:24:24 know but now it is the King of Judea killing the Jews the voice is heard in Ramah weeping Rachel weeping in Jeremiah the Babylonians come and destroy Jerusalem the Fulfillment of Prophecy is one who is called the King of Judea a Jew of Jew kills newborn babies there's another sight reference here who in the Old Testament in the book of Exodus killed small children men boys faraoh but now it is not faraoh it is a Jewish King so when you see it back and you look at the whole context Matthew is telling you a
00:25:20 story where you have the foreigners who were enemies and all of this doing the right thing and the Jews who got exess say to everything doing the worst so let me give you a few key lessons H the text is about following the star Matthew is setting you up for the rest of the chapters and there is one key theme in the Book of Matthew and it is this follow me in the same way a group of magy just on a star and on some very selected by Torah which they probably didn't complete took a risk to go thousands of miles to see a baby this is
00:26:13 The Narrative of the Bible in Matthew 4 come follow me he tells to Peter Andrew at once they left never say let me check my calendar just like the wi they left further down he saw Matthew tax collector very rich you know follow me at once he got up you see where we're going with this Matthew is painting to you what it means to be a Christian he starts off with the story of the Magi he carries the same theme over and what you and I got to ask our now is you sit here you say well I'm a Christian I ask you
00:26:56 why are you Christian I come to church Ma I accepted Jesus in my heart Jesus died for my sins I tied I do this I do that I say the sinners prayer have you noticed none of this are in the text the idea of a Christian being someone who accepted Jesus in their heart I will tell you is not a Biblical idea I can sit there that's called converting somebody that's called changing religion there's one definition of what a Christian is and it's in this word follow me I want you to build this a bit and for the Magi to take that journey is
00:27:41 a dangerous journey and so in the third there many references to follow me Matthew but this particular one is where it really means what it means to be Christian then Jesus said to disciples whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves to take up the cross and follow me imagine the magy wise men in paa that mean they Rich they can goal you know high ranking D my life is very setad I got my gods I'm probably Zur storian I see this I'm going to tell people around me I'm going to get up on
00:28:12 the camera and go thousand miles to enemy territory Rome and PARTA at a war you know by the way I'm going to worship this baby people say you Gila what's in it for you nothing that's the point and you when you read this you keep asking yourself are you a Christian that's what Matthew trying to say and why do I have to do this and he tells you this in Matthew 19 truly I tell you to renew all things with the son me sits on the throne you followed me Gentile Jew pans Persians Oria Indians pakistanis you will sit on a throne
00:28:52 judging who the 12 tribes of Israel wow that's really insulting to a Pharisee so here's the big idea the big idea is this how willing are we to leave the Comforts we know the life we're familiar with because being a Christian is about following Jesus this is the big idea I want to just give us today you know this is a very I mean all the young millionaires don't know this about I'm a genx guy this is when there was a time where there was no K-pop you know when people wrote real music you can sto me outside
00:29:30 all you JZ and B now this is fascinating album because it's called the Joshua Tree the name already implies certain things all right and one of the most famous songs they wrote you never never play this song when you're sitting for an exam or you lost your car keys it's called what I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For very famous song never play this when you're panicking and you lose things now what's fascinating about this song is the last stanza I believe in the kingdom come then all the colors will bleed into one
00:30:09 All Nations pan Persians Indians Africans bleed the one but yes I'm still running you broke the bonds you lose the chains you Carri the cross of my shame you know I believe it but the last line is fascinating but I still haven't found what I'm looking for so I read a Christian magazine take on this he said you know what Evangelical Christianity like to preach triumphalism oh I found Jesus Hallelujah I accepted Jesus in my life oh hallelujah hallelujah then tomorrow you lose your job you get cancer you
00:30:45 fight your wife what's it how's that going for you so the song is very real it's very real because if you are honest a lot of us are like this and so today the the the Bible is telling you what does it mean to follow Jesus especially when things get hard and I'll give you what it really means for me here is a man who knew what it was to carry the cross and follow Jesus you know when I prepared this I was thinking of the wife because Susanna called a friend of mine and some she tells me up to now
00:31:30 they don't know where the husband is if there's ever somebody who the word I still haven't found I'm looking for is the Widow of Raymond Cole and yet in her deeper struggle she would say this I believe it so today if you're struggling and suddenly there's a disconnect between your talking to you the m guy text opens up the rest of it let me just finish up quickly soon what did the M guy really understand the birth of Jesus why is it today I ask you to bring the Bible because I think I'm not trying to
00:32:14 be judgment very often we we feed so much the sermons are becoming like T talks you know you come you fold your hand put like like my fath or ticket for movie you know listen listen listen Okay quite good today not very good you see what is a good sermon A good sermon isn't that you laugh I thought it's a good sermon A good sermon actually makes you go and read the Bible I think that's what I just begin to realize and the word becomes alive to you how did the Magi come to find Jesus the star brought
00:32:45 them to Jerusalem they consulted a group of teachers who discovered it was in Bethlehem Through the Bible but these teachers didn't believe in it that's what that's the irony of the text they say yes Micah 5: 2 is in Bethlehem but they did not go to Bethlehem so sometime the best sermons you hear here are the most boring terribly no illustration I you cannot tahan but you went back and you read the Bible so let me ask you this I don't need to know everything to follow Jesus I just need to know enough and the
00:33:23 thing with all of us we have checked this one you know uh let me give you example in honesty have you noticed I have never preached on hell I have never preached on hell why because I struggle with it I believe hell is eternal separation with God I struggle with the idea with some calvinist say God is equally just if hell is a burning Lake of Fire and you are going to burn it forever and ever I join the ranks like Billy Graham CS Lewis John's thought who cannot reconcile that with scripture that's why
00:34:02 I do not preach it because I'm still searching for the truth some of you have other struggles you say if God is so right how does he allow bad people to suffer some of you say if God is so good how are people in China a long time ago they never heard Jesus all go to hell now this is interesting story because you have three foreigners or four foreigners coming for Persia do you really think they understand theology you think they are reform they have reformed theology they Calvin is the m probably don't understand much the M
00:34:33 only know one thing this is God I Came To Worship Him and by that admission they are in the Kingdom that's very powerful I believe God is good I believe you cannot preach something you're not convicted of and I will not until I get there one day I hope to preach about hell but I will still follow Jesus so I want to I want to pick it to those of you who struggle with Doctrine and don't let someone force it down your throat just say I don't know and search you see Christianity is like this you're going on the road and slowly
00:35:07 the truth comes out more and more right and slowly God reveals himself why did the teachers of the law not go to Bethlehem well because of this those who are near often do not see and those who are far do so I'm going to give my first offensive story today yeah and I taken from love you know I I I speak at second service second service not many people second service the crowd only he on you know so once and I say this in love there was this guy SED here the whole place was empty he was sitting like that
00:35:43 he was basically sitting like that drink my whole sermon he was doing this if you're doing it now I'm not judging you H I can't see here but he was sited there and the whole place empty was like a spotlight him I was sitting here could see see him you know years ago I get very you're very offensive to me you know but I'm telling you that day I felt deep love for him you know what he was doing he did that he did that he did that the end he stood saying hallelu hallelujah and then he B he had just done his religious
00:36:18 Duty do you really think that was god- honoring why did the teachers of the law not go because they thought they had everything they had the law but what they had done is they had replaced the law with ritual so let me tell you this this is a warning in love the Bible says Christians are people who follow Jesus you can repeat any Mantra do any ritual say Jesus in your heart you can play your handphone here I'm not here to judge you you want to play your handphone you know what the best place to play it sitting outside there outside
00:36:56 people I'm not judging you because outs they cannot see Ma you just put it down here and play nobody see M but I wanted to say this when you play your handon and play games doing service and you tell yourself you're doing a religious duty is a very dangerous thing because you're convincing yourself you're a Christian you really think you're letting God speak to you the magy allowed unbelieving Scholars tell them to go to Bethlehem and here the word of God is being preached to you you don't want
00:37:28 want to listen you know God is saying just for 40 minutes once a week listen to the sum and please it's not trying to guil trip you I really want to say this in love so let me end with my main point sometimes in life you got to stop you got to pause and you got to look up oh that's bad exes in that sense but I want to ask you especially if you're messed up and I will tell you most of us are quite messed up we just don't admit it our messing up could be families Finance medical we come to church we
00:38:14 smile and I would I would say even as a brother when things went really really really bad and I don't want to don't need to give you graphic you can talk me privately one of the best things I did get on my knees God are you there the idea of looking up is a motif I lift my eyes to the hills to the Stars why the hill because the temple was at the hill it is a reference to the Sacred Space of God for where does my help come from my help comes from the the Lord who made Heaven and Earth I want to just close and challenge
00:39:05 this as the or asle team prepare themselves and uh before I bring them up I just want you to just ask yourself if you are in a difficult time today is just a simple lesson are you following Jesus do you have boxes you need to take off before you follow him if you do you need to pick yourself up and this is what John mentioned that day he said item four unknown is where the spirit talks to you but you look at item two blind spot what the person does not know by themselves but what others know who are these people who can tell you
00:39:49 this it is the church so pause and let me just close you one you you know where is the star today the function of the star was to bring people to Jesus and I tell you the star today is the church so I like to end with the closing word of Matthew Matthew begins with follow me but it ends with therefore go and go to where to paa to Persia to Iran to Pakistan to the comp of our or asle settlements to Taja Indonesia and your job and my job is to collectively shine to bring the nations in and I cannot do it alone you cannot
00:40:46 uh let me just close one illustration there was this movie I saw about a boat where the boat was shipwreck not shipwreck was hiding towards Island and then the Light Tower gave up and he couldn't get to the Light Tower he couldn't get to the couldn't get to shore so one person put on the light of his car cannot see him another guy p on his light the moment 100 people p on the light the boat goes there you know I'm a sinner you're a sinner we are we all got a lot of crap in our life but if each one of us shine in a small little way
00:41:20 people will come and God is not asking too much God is asking little things like I give you one simple thing after service today would would you say hello to our or asle friends would you say hello to someone who is not of your same color would you pray for people whom you do not know and together you will shine and the Nations will come and so today God is saying follow me and then he's telling you therefore go and it is my prayer at the end of service you will do that i' like to invite s sister Jaya up she's uh our or
00:42:01 asle from Guam musang she's going to sing us two songs she composed and I pray that you will be edified the song that she's preparing is taken from Psalm 8 1-4 masm B laan and verse 1 to 4 and uh bu [Music] to to [Music] com yeah to toan [Laughter] but [Music] [Laughter] [Music] [Music] [Laughter] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] by for [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] oh this me [Music] [Music] [Laughter] [Music] [Music] long the [Music] [Music] [Music] the is [Music] the for [Music] [Applause]
00:46:33 [Applause] [Music] [Music] is [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] my as the worship get and Lord God as we prepare our hearts for the final worship song The Story of Mag reminds us that your word goes out to the Gentiles that all the Gentile Nations will come and we ask that we lord as a church will be that star that will shine for our Pakistani brethren in our midst for the Nepali in our midst for the Mayan Mari in our midst for the African in our midst for all Filipinos in our midst for the Mandarin congregation for
00:48:03 the English Cantonese congregation for the Malay congregation for the for the Filipino congregation Lord the nations are here the tribes are here and this morning your blessings came to the Nations but the Jews who had the word did not look up so as we prepare ourselves to sing this closing song we search our hearts we ask are we just a church goer or are we a person that follows Jesus Lord we may not know everything but we know enough we humble ourselves this morning repent of our sins we pause we look up
00:48:44 and we say Lord where does our help come from our help comes from you so we come oh Lord broken we come Unfaithful we come hurting we come bitter we come frustrated because we still haven't found what we looking for but yet we will come and we are on this journey together until we see you face to face in Jesus name we say Amen Let us sing this as a song of response right Church may I invite you to rise As we sing a response song Oh Come Oh you unfaithful come we can unstable come no you are not
00:49:49 alone oh come baren and waiting ones of pray come see what your God has done Christ is [Laughter] born Christ is born Christ is born for you [Music] Oh Come bitter and broken come with ears unspoken come taste of his perfect love Oh Come guilty and hiding one there is no need to run see what your God has done Christ is Bor Christ is born Christ is born for you Christ is born Christ is born Christ is born for [Music] you he's the lamb who will G slain for a paron his promise is peace for those who
00:52:05 believe he's the lamb who was GI slain for a paron his prise is peace to for those who uh we're going to do something something a bit different I want you to sit down um the service is actually over I want us to I'm going to do a closing prayer but I'm going to challenge you of this the service is over we pray you can live but as as Mings you may just want to sit there and worship God you know what I mean let's not be so structured in this I would just do a closing prayer if you're going to leave
00:52:53 you leave quietly what did the wise men do they saw Jesus and they worshiped amen and one thing we need to ReDiscover in this church is Wonder just to be quiet to come broken and just say God you are God so I'm just going to uh close means going to sing very quietly you can quietly exit you can sit and enjoy God's presence wouldn't that be great and then if you feel L you come in front we here we'll pray for you if not enjoy the presence of God have you ever tried that I'm just going to close in prayer
00:53:34 and you can leave then Ming will sing the leaders will be in front you can come you can kneel you can let us pray for you you can sit where you are but enjoy the presence of God worship Him your king let us close in prayer and when the me guy saw Jesus they were overjoyed and they worshiped him Lord very often as evangelicals we have made our faith a cble faith we know our Doctrine we can exite we can do expository preaching but we forget how often it is just to come [Music] broken there's only one requirement to
00:54:26 come we must be willing so Lord this morning we are Unfaithful some of us are living in sin some of us are hurting some of us have [Music] doubts but we still come we Bend our knees and we look up and we say where does our help come from my help comes from the Lord so Lord for all here who are weary and heavy laden [Music] Come All You Who struggle us all you who are lost seek all you who are just so tired of church knock let us have this moment of silence to enjoy and and God is in our midst Lord
00:55:44 Hallelujah Lord we want to feel you we want to experience you we want we want to know you're real lord Jesus Son of God who came to die for our sins come as man take us as Sinners that we who are near who have everything in our midst are very often very [Music] far and so Lord we close this service now we ask you speak to every hurting heart every broken person everyone who struggles and that they be filled with awe and that your presence goes with them and as the star when before the Magi we ask oh
00:56:37 Lord you go before us as we journey through life and we say this in jesus' name the service is over if you want to leave do it very quietly for the Lord is in our midst quietly leave Ming will continue to sing to you have nothing come he is the offering come see what your God has done Christ is born Christ is born Christ is born for you o Christ is born Christ is born Christ is born for you he's the lamb who was given slain for a pardon his promise peace for those who believe he's the L who was
00:58:07 given slain for a Parton his promisees peace for those who believe [Music]
