The Wise Men | Student Pastor Zach Hammond

thank you pastor for giving me the opportunity to minister tonight you can be seated i'm going to get our bibles out in just a moment i want to take just a second to again give honor where honor is due i give honor to all of our family my wife my two two boys beckham is about to turn five and hampton's about to turn one and i give them honor i love them this evening but i'll take just a moment to give honor to obviously pastor sister erickson but to give honor to pastor and first lady they obviously don't ask me to do this and don't require this of me but i think to give honor to where honor is due to have led us through now months and months and months of trying days and odd decisions decisions that really when you signed up to be a pastor you never knew you were going to have to make right it was never thought of that you'd have to cancel church you're always looking to just how how can we have church right you're not looking to see how we're going to maneuver numbers and and mark off pews and this is not really one of the things they teach in seminary you know they don't really prepare you for a pandemic so i want to give honor and give thanks to pastor sister carpenter and thank them for leading us through this time with such wisdom and taking us on a journey where i feel like we are stronger where god has guided us and led us throughout this year i'm gonna go ahead and stand to your feet and we'll turn to matthew chapter two and verse number one i was praying the other morning and i was reading through this passage this time of year as we normally do about the birth of our savior as pastor preached this morning so great that he wasn't just a baby but he was the holy child he was the the son the redeemer everything that we needed so we'll look at that same same story which we feel that's fitting and and i i i'm just again i i want to to make that known i feel very heavy to let you know that i'm so thankful to have a pastor and a pastor's wife like we do and i would say that even if they weren't my my father and mother-in-law you know i felt the lord speak the other day um that you know if you don't trust the man of god or the decision and i'm just so thankful that i don't ever have to question the man of god i don't have to have a question does he have my best interests at heart does he have my family's best interest at heart is he is he trying to get me to heaven amen and again i just want to just to stress to you i know we have a great church we have a great great group of people that love our pastor but being around i come from a great pastor's family i don't have any bad taste in my mouth with pastors but when you look around and you see the things going on i'm just thankful for leadership that is faithful that is consistent and so i again i just feel burdened to communicate that and just to thank our pastor and first lady this evening matthew chapter 2 and verse number one now when jesus was born in bethlehem of judea and the days of herod the king behold there came wise men everybody say wise men from the east to jerusalem saying where is he that is born king of the jews they knew what they were looking for for we have seen his star in the east his star they knew who he was they knew what he could do and we've come to worship him they knew what they needed to do unto him they knew who he was they knew it was his star they knew where he was and they had come to do what they knew he deserved they give to come to bring him some worship so when they saw the star they rejoiced with exceeding great joy when they were come and to the house they saw the young child with mary his mother and fell down and worshiped him and they had opened their treasured and they presented presented unto him gifts gold frankincense and myrrh for just a few minutes we're going to speak preach on the wise men the wise men why don't you lay your bibles down let's lift our hands to heaven and ask the lord to speak to us this evening god we praise you thank you for all that you've done for us today god i thank you for ought to move with your spirit this morning tonight god your word that's been preached to us to see this morning god and i pray that tonight god that not by your might or your unto my might or my power but by your spirit o god for without you god we are nothing god i pray that you would speak to us communicate god clearly to us what the spirit has to say lord and we'll give you praise and glory and honor tonight that you're so deserving of in jesus name we pray and everyone said amen why don't you clap your hands to the lord before you're seated this evening and you may be seated thank you for standing in honor of the reading of the word one of the our long-lasting christmas traditions is that the three wise men came from afar they've been given names maybe in some writings some old writings of balthazar melchor and gaspar are they traveling from the far east on camels who visit this infant who lay in a manger and the truth is the bible contains maybe some not all of these details that we believe as being the story of the three wise men coming but matthew doesn't he doesn't necessarily tell us how many they are but that they came from the east east he doesn't mention their names he doesn't provide a whole lot of details about their journey but it has generally been been assumed that these wise men were three in number because of their three gifts that were mentioned so uh nothing in the bible says that they rode a camel however we know that uh necessarily any animal for that matter we know that that was a way of travel and they came by from the east whether they journeyed on camel or foot or however they came they came to see the king of the jews they followed a star and we know that they were they were very educated men they were learned men that were more than likely some would say maybe astrologers of some kind they they didn't find jesus in a manger they matthew says a wise men came into the house not a stable and they found this young child this infant this indicates that the wise men maybe didn't arrive till sometime after the birth of jesus that we see this child in bethlehem and maybe all the way up some would say maybe of two years or sort but that's uh this this journey we see to uh to to to bethlehem to find uh this baby to to see that they they went a long ways to attend what i would just simply call a worship service they understood that jesus was the king of kings to be considered a wise man or a wise woman in this place i think there's a few things that we could learn from these men that journeyed from afar there were 332 old testament prophecies about the messiah that were fulfilled when jesus christ was born that holy child that we preached about this morning mathematician peter stoner said that if you took just eight of these prophecies the odds of a person coincidentally fulfilling all eight would be 10 to the 17th power he if you took the state of texas sister mahoney the state of texas and you spread silver dollars two feet deep across the whole state of texas the whole state then you mark just one of them you marked a silver dollar and you dropped it inside of all those that were spread two feet deep over the state of texas and you blindfolded somebody and ask them to find that silver dollar that you marked that's about the odds of 10 to the 17th power stoner's students at west mount college made the same calculations with 48 pr prophecies that came to it an extreme uh extreme conservative estimate of 10 to the 157th power but we see that when jesus was born that he didn't fulfill eight he didn't fulfill 48 he fulfilled 332 prophecies the fact that jesus fulfilled so many prophecies with a hundred percent accuracy proves that there is a divine author behind the bible first of all and jesus christ is exactly who he says he was the almighty god one of these incredible detailed prophecies was given by the prophet micah at least 500 years before jesus was born and when he foretold the exact birthplace of the messiah micah 5 and 2 says but thou bethlehem ephrata thou thou thou be little among thousands of judah yet out of these shall come forth unto me that is to be the ruler in israel who's going forth have been from an old from everlasting and so this makes it all the more interesting how could an imposter have controlled these minute details concerning the place of jesus's birth two bethlehems existed at this time one was in the territory of zebulon that we find in joshua chapter 19 and verse 15 and the other in judea bethlehem ephrata this town was so small and insignificant that it is omitted from the catalog of towns that we see in judah in judah joshua 15 leaves it out nehemiah 11 25 leaves it out it is just a tiny village john 7 and 42 tells us of all locations in the entire world from a child to be born that was going to fulfill the prophecies that that just it seemingly was impossible to fulfill all 332 in this little bitty town that that the messiah was to come from of all the the everlasting he would have the same attributes of god himself that we see that it's impossible unless it was the truly almighty god that was born in a manger in bethlehem the most frustrating part about everything i just told you and why i just told you what i told you is that all these religious scholars sat around in jerusalem knowing the scriptures in fact many of you of them probably could have quoted all 332 prophecies they knew brother tyler like the back of their hand this is what they did for a living they were they were the scribes they were the ones who knew their ancestors had studied these for hundreds of years matthew two and verse number four we see we pick up right here matthew chap we we opened up in matthew chapter two look at verse number four and when king herod had gathered all the chief priests and the scribes and the people together he demanded of them that christ where christ should be born and they said unto him bethlehem of judea for thus it's written by the prophet and thou bethlehem in the land of judah art not the least among the prince of judah princes of judah and out of these shall come a governor that shall rule my people of israel so get this pagan wise men pagan wise men made a two-year journey some would estimate from the far east to come and worship the lord to come and worship a child only guided by a star anybody you know when you can see stars there's times in our life like maybe today or maybe in the past few months or past few weeks that things got a little bit dark in your life maybe things weren't as clear as they normally are on the workplace or they weren't as clear as they normally are in your family finances or whatever the case may be that we could learn some things from the wise men that we understand when things are dark there's always somewhere to look right we know that the the chief priest here and the scribes who knew all about these prophecies didn't try to travel five miles just to see 332 prophecies and you're five miles from just going down and checking it out i mean you could have been there in what couple days brother luke could have been there in about 15 minutes as much as he runs you know it's not that far we we we could have at least for hundreds of years we've read the prophecies hundreds of years we've been taught that he's coming the messiah the the king of kings the one who's going to govern all of israel is coming to this little town who's just outside of this bigger town and we could at least make a little journey over and just maybe peek in the window what could it hurt you're going to take a day trip down and see if this is really happening but instead we've got some pagan wise men who see a star and they've read the scriptures and they have a desire and a hunger in their heart that says i believe there's somebody that i know who he is and i know what that star means because there's always a sign of a promise but i know what that star is going to lead me to and that star's leading me to a place and when i get in his presence i know that i'm going to need to bring a gift and i'm going to need to pay him some reverence and it doesn't matter how far it is it don't matter if i can only travel at night it doesn't matter what it takes i've got to get over there and see what my ancestors wrote about some wise men young people some wise men looking at what a previous generation wrote and they just saw a star said oh i know what that star means i'm just going to head in that direction oh you got to work at night you may not have all the answers it may not all make sense you may not be able to paint it all out and place sight and you you might even have to sleep while others are up you might have to rearrange your schedule you might have to do some things that aren't normal it might not be the obvious route of the culture but i saw a star that a previous generation wrote about and i just believe that what my grandfather said and what my great-grandfather wrote about that there's something on the other side that's worth traveling oh but i'm not just going to go i'm not just going to come to church to make a previous generation happy i'm not going to just go just because that's what it says but i'm going because i know that on the other side that there's a god that created me there's a god that's going to be my savior there's a god that's come he's not just come for no reason he's come to govern and to rule over me he's come to and when i get there i've got to have something for him there's so many signs of jesus i'll ask you this this is not what we're preaching about tonight but oh what a warning the wise men give us that there can be so many signs of his coming that we might know them all but god forgive forbid we get familiar and things are happening just all around us just five miles away that the the coming of the lord so close so obvious so so clear though we read it we see it but do not be aware of what happened here we have some traveled for miles maybe even pass through the outskirts i know the right person and brother cade i've been around some people that they've had favor in their community or with god they've been very wealthy or been around a few people that's that's maybe maybe you would consider to be famous for this or that and you know they carry quite a burden they carry a burden of knowing in relationships when people walk up to them why do you want to know me what is your interest in knowing me do you want to know me because of my position do you want to know me because of my perks and privileges and my wealth do you want to know me because of the things that i've accomplished or you simply just want to know me as a friend do you truly care about me are you looking to see what you could get out of me a troubling question must constantly be asked of every single one of their relationships of every you know person that has something or accomplished something maybe somebody of authority of power just to say hey hey what is it exactly that you're looking at you know we could see it in the scripture king solomon he was so smitten by the shulamite woman he had to disguise himself and he humbles himself as a shepherd traveled throughout his vast kingdom he fell in love he fell in love and she fell in love with him as a shepherd before she knew he was a king you see this that she loved the shepherd not just the king she loved the person not just the position you can read this love story in the book of the bible the song of solomon the wise men understood that they were not coming to bethlehem to get something but they were coming to give something they understood the principle of scripture you never would come before a king empty-handed you always bring a gift proverbs 18 and 16 says a man's gift maketh room for him and bringeth him before great men so solomon's historic powerful story the wealthy and intelligent ruler must have said to himself many times who will love me more than the things i can give them where are the people who are more interesting interested in touching my heart than sampling out all the splendor of my kingdom who is interested in my needs that's why he fell in love with the shulamite woman i wonder if jesus ever feels that way i wonder if the king of kings ever looks down and says are you coming before me to get something or you have you brought something if we're honest with ourselves how many times do we come to church looking to see what we can get out of it maybe you don't you know get up and get dressed and have the intentions of i'm going to church to get something but you come and you really sit through or you try to process the service and you determine the service's outcome whether you could chalk it off as a good service or a bad service based upon what you get right if we came to service tonight and you really maybe we didn't have any preaching and the services you know just sung a few songs and did did i did i come and bring anything do we perhaps how many times we come empty-handed what does god think tonight at 8 15 when the doors are locked and the lights are turned off at 13 31 william blunt drive what's he truly think is he pleased with what we had to bring today the wise men the tabernacle lays out this perfect plan of worship the wise man knew how to worship still applies to us today it illustrates that you could enter into the outer gates the israelites could enter the outer gates only the priests could enter the inner courts of the tabernacle and only the high priest could enter into the holy place the psalmist david talked about the first two levels he says enter his gates with thanksgiving and then go into his courts with praise be thankful unto him and bless his name thanks for giving would be the the first level of worship because it is dependent upon a question what's god done for me lately many of us can get into his courts because we know god's been this first level of of giving god what we feel like he deserves many people go to then then we go to that next level of praise it's a higher level of worship that takes us further into the presence of god it's not just thanking god for what he's done but it's praising him for who he is we see that god is worthy of praise whether we're having good day bad day whether the finances are good or the finances are bad whether everybody's feeling good or not feeling good whether we understand that right praise no matter the circumstances and i believe we're a church that praises god praise is completely depend independent of your life's circumstances but we see here in the scripture that worship is the highest level because in worship our lives even our physical bodies literally become praise offered to god the only thing necessary for praise is the breath of god psalms 50 and 6 let everything that has breath praise ye the lord everybody can praise him but if you're going to worship him he says revelations 4 and 10 the 4 and 20 elders fall down before him and sat on the throne and worshiped him i beseech you therefore brethrens by the mercy of god to present your bodies a living sacrifice paul says in romans he said if i'm going to worship him there he says he says in revelations 4 11 you're worthy o lord to give to receive glory and honor and power and now it's created created all things for thy pleasure they are and were created we see that this word here in the in the original text in the greeks is proskuneo which they say literally and pastor you'll like this they said that word proscinio means like a dog coming to his master to get down at his feet it literally means to lick the feet of his master he says to worship he says i i can't i'm not just coming with thanksgiving i'm not just coming with praise i'm not coming because of what he's done i'm not coming because of who he is i'm coming to give him not just my breath as a praiser not just my thanksgiving but i'm coming to lay my life down and say god it's worth the journey it's worth whatever i got to do the wise men worship this is the kind of worship that doesn't preserve any kind of dignity it doesn't it doesn't preserve any kind of pride it's un it's uninhibited worship that seems outlandish and people would maybe call wild and it doesn't make any sense sounds like the wise men right how is it that everybody knows but only a few show up how is it that it's written for all to read but some wouldn't travel five miles to give some worship spiritual adolescence plagues the church today as we've grown out of our childlike love for the heavenly father so many young people today i see that you're embarrassed to give god what he truly deserves i see fathers i see mothers i see even possibly those that have been in the church 20 and 30 years you've just become comfortable you've become familiar in his presence verily i say unto you in mark 10 and 15 15 whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of god as a little child he shall not enter therein worship when's the last time you've worshipped god when's the last time you got in his presence and you just forgot where you were at you forgot who is standing around young person you weren't worried if that young little that girl was watching or that guy was watching or that thing was going on outside or you got beyond what was going on at work and you got beyond the turmoil of who maybe was affected by covet and you come in and thought about something other than what's going on on facebook but you focused on the fact that god's in this room and he's come and he's come in a miraculous way he's come through a virgin birth he's come and endured a cross he's coming and doing the two and he rose again and he's proud thronging she literally laid her life at his feet she didn't care what anyone thought of her it was the same with the woman in the alabaster box it was the same with with the blind man who cried out to jesus it was the same in the new testament church and it's the same with you here this evening wise men wise women know how to fall at the feet of jesus there's there's such a uh thing within our culture that that it's it's to me it's now worse than ever before that i know sometimes we talk about how it's easier to mourn with those who mourn then rejoice with those who rejoice it's so much easier to tap into the morning and and suffering connects us we know that we're able to connect to suffering it's much easier to do that than to connect when somebody's getting something that you don't have right but i believe too many times i mean think about it it's happening in your everyday life how many times a day do you text lol or some crying emoji and you're not doing that think about it you're not laughing i mean i literally see people send like this crazy like i know you're not doing that you're at work right you know there's no reality in that but you know what the person on the other side of the phone wants right they want a response they they've they've sent that for some kind of humor so then you send back that easy simple text right it's easy to engage in that that that conversation if you feel like that there's some value in it all of a sudden we're not careful we get in this thing where i love it when people get out of the aisle and i love it when people begin to shout and people get to rejoice and we we we're known we're apostolic and pentecostal we we're known for our exuberant worship and i'm all about that but too many times and we don't really think about it we don't quote it but we say all the time he's turned my mourning into dancing but too many times in scriptures go go go in your your bible app and click that search engine and type in the word laugh if we're not careful we become the the adversaries ushered so many sins and things that we're dealing with even at a governmental level now that just started as something that we simply just laughed at on a tv show but there's too many times where the scripture says i'm going to turn your laughter into mourning there's too many times which i'm going to turn your rejoicing into an altar and i think there's so many things here that we can look in the scripture and i don't have time to dive into all of them when i'm all about praise and i'm all about thanksgiving but i think there's times where god wants to get in to get us into that inner court and he wants to get us on our knees and he went against it gets get our body laid down and presented and we get everything in order and we realize just who he is and what he's come to do and we just fought out in worship and it don't matter what he's done it don't matter how good or bad the day is but i just know that he needs some worship revelations five verse number eight when he's taken the book the four beasts and the four and twenty elders fell down before the lamb having every one of them hearts and golden vials full of odors and their prayers of the saints and they sung a new song saying thou art worthy to take the book and to open the seals thereof for thou was slain and has redeemed us to god by the blood of every kindred every tongue and people and nation only two times after adam and eve take a bite do we see where it's recorded that the angels sing only twice job records it and john sees it here in john in revelations chapter number five the four beasts of the angels we see if you look at it that surround god's throne and such represent this angelic host who if we really look at it and think it and we put all the pieces together this angelic choir to worship god around the throne consistently that's their purpose but we see here that that choir god created man to replace what now he says they look into it look at this first peter chapter 1 and verse number 12 unto the prophets it was revealed and not unto themselves but unto they did minister the things which are now reported unto you and by them that have preached the gospel unto you with the holy ghost sent down from heaven which things the angels desire to look into we see here that there's a choir it says it's a song that the angels cannot sing and i i know we may be looking at this christmas story it says heart the herald angels sing glory to the newborn king oh how i wish that when jesus came that there would have been a choir of angels but i don't see it in the scripture but i tell you where i do see in scripture that john says that there's going to be a trumpet that sounds he came the first time and there might not been a host of angels to worship him but there was three wise men or a host let's say that traveled many miles but i do believe looking at the scripture and we're tying it all together that we have the ability to give god the song of the redeemed in worship we have the ability to fulfill what needs to happen in heaven the vacancy of that song we see that they they they rejoice we see that they they shout but there is a song that the angels are awaiting to sing at the second coming of christ when the holy angels can begin to sing along with you and i amazing grace how sweet the sound it saved a wretch like me that i once was lost oh they can't sing it now but we can worship as the wise men did on that day who knew that the absence of what's in heaven is simply connected from the human heart i want you to stand to your feet they knew who he was and they knew what to do i just wonder this evening as the musicians come and just play softly i don't believe this will be an altar call that we will perhaps run and shout but i do believe the lord spoke to me this evening say i'm just just looking for a worshiper i know there's people in the room this evening if we truly look at our lives that god's speaking to you to say how long has it been since we've come and just got lost in his presence how long has it been since the first time when you received the holy ghost and god overtook you and you knew you were in his presence because i was speaking in another tongue and the holy ghost came over me from the top of my head to the soles of my feet and all of a sudden i felt joy and peace i felt things i never felt before in my life and i i've come to speak to somebody i've come to speak life over this christmas season that don't you dare be one that sit sitting five miles or sitting five rows or just sitting idly behind when oh unto us the king has come oh the holy child has come oh there's a savior in this room and god up in heaven and just looking for a little worship this evening oh he's not looking for an attendance list he's looking for an open heart he's looking for somebody that'll fall at his feet like a dog that comes to his master and says oh god no matter what you've done no matter what my life looks like i've come to present my body as a holy sacrifice pleasing to you i wonder if there's anybody that come i know some aren't physically able to kneel but perhaps you'd come to say god here's my life oh once you begin to worship him come on young person i challenge you how long has it been since you got in the presence of god oh god whatever it takes i just want to get in your presence whatever it takes i just want to feel the power of your spirit oh god god i know god i know i need you god i know what the scripture says come on it's not hard tonight it's not difficult come on i'm gonna ask you just to fall at his feet and open up your heart let's open up your mouth oh god i need you tonight oh god so so don't come on i feel like the lord's gonna move in this place i say the number one reason people don't worship is they feel like they don't have anything to bring and i'm asking you all god wants is an open heart and an open mouth come on if you don't feel like your heart's open won't you begin to repent right now god forgive me come on open up your mouth oh it's greater than gold breaking since a myrrh then i'd give you praise from the abundance of my heart through the through the spoken words oh god i exhaust you oh god oh god come on give the gift come on live that gift up to him i worship you o god with limbs of adoration god i worship you and god two you are me you are worthy ah we give you you are we give you she you are you i should be uh i i am is oh oh all across this place right now i don't know about you but i feel his presence you say when i feel unworthy i feel like i don't have anything to bring angels do something that's very powerful the scripture says they cry holy holy holy it's the whole earth is full of your glory they cried over but here's the powerful thing and you maybe have heard me reference this before but i believe it's such a powerful concept he says they cry one to another for the thorpe they'll say it to to god and cry one to another because because tonight you know if i wanted to speak very highly of brother preston ellard and i know that brother preston brother noah are good friends because they graduated together it would mean something to preston if i went over and told preston preston i'm proud of you and i love you and i believe you're doing great things for god but you know what would be more effective to preston as if i was over here telling noah hey you seen what preston's doing and he's been so faithful he's trying to do things for god it seems like he just loves god so and preston happened to walk by and hear holy holy holy holy holy holy you say why is worship good but corporate worship it's because you say i don't worship for nobody next to you no but i would like to worship loud enough that the person next to me is able to hear me talking about how good that he is that brother or i hope you over here that god can just speak down in a conversation that we're having in worship tonight that rather kill me god's been good to me god's been good to me holy i wonder if without any aid of music for just a few moments at 7 37 on this december sunday night if god could look down and intercept the conversation of the first apostolic church just what do you think he deserves tonight come on that's it that's worship come on that's connecting your heart to heaven oh my god i love you jesus oh god god hear the conversation tonight oh god god you've been so good to me oh lord god you've been good to me thank you a lot and i have a family that serves you a lot thank you my parents would serve you o lord thank you oh let god overhear some worship let god over here some conversations about his goodness now oh oh hello oh holy holy holy holy holy holy let's just let that word run off of our lips tonight holy holy holy holy just let it run off your lips tonight holy holy holy holy there's not a hardly a service goes by without our good apostolic brethren in chile a good apostolic church there in chile that watched the apostolic connection and they have been hit hard with covet and unable to be in church and just recently many of the churches in chile have went back to having service and i watched a little bit online this morning of the apostolic church there in chile and even commented on their their facebook page and and uh obviously i don't unders i don't understand what they're saying but i some of the songs they sing i know them and i sing along with them but tonight it's not just possible it's probable that as we're here in the united states saying holy that our good brothers in chile tonight that are watching are saying holy holy holy holy we've got word that there's there's those that watch us from the middle east those countries there that are permitted to be online so it's possible tonight somewhere in the middle east somebody is saying holy holy holy there's not a continent on this earth to where we haven't got word from someone that they watch the apostolic connection so it's possible tonight that this whole entire globe is alive with people saying in their tongues holy holy holy one more time tonight could we just bathe him not in a request but just bathe him you're holy oh you are holy god you are holy god hey you are holy you're a holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy oh thank god thank god you are holy god there's something about worship just cleanses our hearts something about worship holy that we just leave here tonight and know that we've been in the presence of god i don't think i'll ever look at the wise men again the same they came from hundreds of miles away and the religious scholars live but christ