22 Dec ‘Come let us adore him’ | part three -“i know the trip will be worth it”

Key Verse: matthew 2:1-12

ANNOUNCEMENTS

WOONSOCKET: Construction is underway!

FIRST TUESDAY- We will be having First Tuesday’s starting January 7 – 6:00p prayer and 7:00p worship. NO LIFE GROUPS MEET THAT WEEK, THERE WILL BE NO GUIDE.

ADDING ANOTHER SERVICE IN NORTH ATTLEBORO:: 8:00 AM on Sunday mornings starting mid-January! Quieter service. If you attend Thursdays, please remain attending that service.

Waters Church Facebook Page now has groups set up for each campus and a group set up for Life Groups.

To join the groups, just go to the Waters Church FB page and go to groups and join the ones you want. Make sure you join the Life Group (group) so we can get people interested in joining a Life group. The Heach Coaches and I will be moderating the group and adding topics for discussion.

CLASSES; Baptism class is every 4th Sunday of the Month. at 11:30 / Growth Track runs the first 3 Sundays every month at 11:30 – this is a one and done registrants only need to attend one session / Starting Point runs every 1st and 3rd Sunday at 11:30 – details and descriptions can be found on the registrations which are located under Events on the HUB.

THE FIRST PERSON TO TEXT ME THE NAME OF THE PERSON WHO WROTE “CHRISTMAS DOESN’T COME FROM A STORE, MAYBE CHRISTMAS PERHAPS MEANS A LITTLE BIT MORE? WINS A PRIZE!

It’s Advent season, the coming of Jesus. He came 2000 years ago and He is coming again.  We do not serve a disconnected God.  He left heaven and came to us.  If he came to us, we need to come to Him and worship Him.  Worship is from the word worth-ship.  It means something is worth it in our lives and nothing should be more worth it than our relationship with God.

Matthew 2:1-2 ESV

This was the longest trip for everyone involved.  The Magi were coming to see the new born baby.  Magi were not kings, there were not only three of them, and they were not at the manger scene as they came later to the house months or years after Jesus was born.

Matthew 2:3-11 ESV

This was an 800 mile trip to come to a star to see a man born King of the Jews.  It was a hard trip, on the backs of camels across he dessert.  There long, hard trip was worth it.  When they got there they rejoiced.  Some trips are not worth it, but this trip was worth it!

Ice-breaker question

Q. What trip have you taken that was not worth it and why?

Three reasons it’s WORTH IT to WORSHIP Jesus:

1. God WANTS you.

The most pervasive lie in our country is that God does not want us or is  mad at us.  God sent his Son to a bloody, painful death to make a way for us to come back to Him.  He wants us, he wants to use us, empower us, and do life with us.

Matthew 2:2 (ESV)

Matthew, who wrote this book, was a Jew.  The Jews were God’s chosen people.  The people who were coming to worship Him were not Jews, they were outsiders. Magi’s were part magicians, scientists, astronomers, and astrologists.  Jesus came for them too!

Deuteronomy 4:19 (NLT)

Matthew is the only book where astrologers are mentioned in a positive light.  They didn’t worship the stars, they listened to the stars that led them to the One who made the stars.

Psalm 19:1 (ESV)

God uses heaven and earth to get our attention.

Q. When you look at the universe, what amazes you the most about God? How had the heavens got your attention? 

“Thou hast made us for thyself, and our heart is restless until it finds its rest in thee.” – Augustine.

2. God DOESN’T WANT you to be RELIGIOUS.

Paying our ‘dues’ by coming to church or coming to church because it is a ritual, this is religion.  God does not want religion, he is not a fan of empty religious practices.

Matthew 2:3-6 (ESV)

The Magi made a wrong turn and ended up in Jerusalem. How did they miss this?  It was a fatal miscalculation.  They assumed that the religious center and structure was the pathway to God.  Jesus was not there.  They thought Herod was looking for him, but he wasn’t, he wanted to kill him.  The people told the Magi that He was in Bethlehem, not because they knew him, but because it was written that was where he would be.  The only ones that took the last 5 mile journey from Jerusalem to Bethlehem were the outsiders, the Magi, not the religious people.

You can’t introduce someone to someone you have never met.

Q. How would you describe your relationship with Jesus,  do you find yourself being more ‘religious’ than pursuing a relationship with Him and why(are you just ‘checking’ boxes, are you trying to earn your way to heaven etc.)?

It’s entirely POSSIBLE to be RELIGIOUS and AVOID Jesus.

Matthew 7:22–23 (ESV)

Our religious activity does not get us heaven.

Matthew 21:31 (ESV)

The ones we judge are the ones that know they are bad and  know that they don’t have what it takes to get to heaven on their own.

If our ritual is devoid of a personal relationship with God, what good is our ritual?

John 1:11-13 (ESV)

 

3. God WANTS to FILL you with HIS JOY, HIS WORD and change the COURSE of your LIFE.

Matthew 2:10 (ESV)

When they saw Jesus, they got happy.

We all have moments of sadness but we should have deep down joy.

Psalm 16:11 (ESV)

Q. What path could you have taken had it not been for Jesus (maybe you would have married someone else, not had children etc..)?

Matthew 2:11 ESV

They fell down in worship to Him and have him expensive gifts.  They surrendered.

 

Matthew 2:12 ESV

When someone meets Jesus, they don’t leave the way they came.

Q. What is different about you now that you are a believer and what still needs to change?