We get impatient, seeking after God.
We get impatient, searching for God.
That when we get to Judah, when we get to town center,
we start looking for the thing that makes sense.
Hey, welcome back to the Empower You Daily Devotional.
My name is Marcus.
We're gonna be looking at Matthew chapter two.
My goal for Matthew chapter two
is to be able to bring out two profound truths.
Please understand, we're not gonna be covering
the whole chapter in this one,
but what I do cover, I'm hoping to be able to dissect,
and let's get into it.
Matthew chapter two, starting in verse one.
Now, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea,
in the days of Herod the king,
behold, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem,
saying, where is he who has been born king of the Jews?
For we saw his star when it rose,
and we come to worship him.
When Herod the king heard this,
he was troubled in all Jerusalem with him,
and assembling all the chief priests and scribes
of the people, he inquired of them
where the Christ was to be born.
They told him, in Bethlehem of Judea,
for so it is written by the prophet,
and you, O Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,
are by no means least amongst the rulers of Judah,
for from you shall come a ruler
who will shepherd my people Israel.
Then Herod summoned the wise men secretly
and ascertained from them what time the star had appeared,
and he sent them to Bethlehem,
saying, go and search diligently for the child,
and when you have found him,
bring me word that I too may come and worship him.
After listening to the king, they went their way,
and behold, the star that they had seen when it rose
went before them, until it came to rest
over the place where the child was.
And when they saw the star,
they were rejoiced exceedingly with great joy,
and going into the house,
they saw the child with Mary, his mother,
and they fell down and worshiped him.
Then opening their treasures,
they offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh,
and being warned in a dream not to return to Herod,
they departed to their own country by another way.
And we're gonna stop there,
and the reason why we're gonna stop there
is because the truths I wanna bring out are these.
Number one, we see here that God was able to speak
to these wise men.
Now, in Christian mysticism,
we hear that these three wise men were kings.
We have some theologians who believe
that they were just scholars and astronomers in their time,
but whatever they may be,
we understand this, that they studied the stars,
and God was able to speak to them with a star.
Now, the amazing thing on this is that God,
for almost a century, was not speaking to his people,
and the last time God spoke to his people
was in the book of Malachi.
And then they went 500 years
before hearing anything from God.
And yet, all of a sudden,
God is speaking to Joseph, the father of Jesus.
He's speaking to Mary, the mother of Jesus,
and he's speaking to shepherds in the field,
and he's speaking to wise men.
Mind you, all these people are all in different locations,
and God is speaking to them, saying,
hey, something big is coming.
Hey, I'm about to do something radical
that is gonna shake the foundations of this earth,
and it is coming.
And yet, we see here with these wise men
that they are guided by astronomical phenomenons mentioned
following that they came to an area.
Now, that's from Matthew Henry's commentary,
but what Matthew Henry is saying is this,
is hey, God spoke to them and showed them which way to go.
Now, the question I have for you is this,
what signs and what is God showing you
that you need to listen to?
Unfortunately, these wise men,
instead of following the star
to go exactly where they were supposed to go,
decided that when they came to the city
that it was supposed to be,
and when they came to Judah,
they decided instead to go look to the royalty.
They decided instead to go to King Herod
and to see what King Herod had,
to see where the child was.
Now, what we see is this,
when it comes to faith today,
when it comes to believers today,
we'll listen to God and we'll follow for so long,
but when it comes to a point
to where we feel like it makes sense,
we decide to listen and to do it on our own.
When it comes to a dating relationship,
when it comes to serving God
and being a Christian in the dating world,
we're asking God, God, would you send me a man
or would you send me a woman who loved you?
God, would you send me a man
or would you send me a woman who serves you
and honors you and worships you?
As men, we're like, God,
would you send me my Proverbs 31 wife?
As women, I don't know what type of Proverbs
or Psalm there is to say what we as men are,
but you're looking for a godly King David type man.
And yet when it comes to seeing
that really good looking, really talented person,
we decide in our minds,
oh, that must be who I've been praying for.
That must be who God has set aside for me.
Let's take it out of the dating realm
and let's put it into the occupational realm.
Let's put it into our careers.
We pray and we ask God diligently and feverishly,
God, would you give me the job that provides for my needs?
God, would you send me a job that I can live for you,
but I can still enjoy?
God, would you send me a job that I can go
and I can be myself?
And then we scour and we look hour upon hour on Indeed.
And then when a job comes on
that offers either A, the most money.
Or maybe it gives us the hours that we want, we decide, hey, that must be from God.
Now, the crazy thing is this, whether it's relationally or it's occupationally,
the things that we decide must be from God are things that we're like,
oh yeah, that's something I like, that's something I love, and it usually ends in disaster.
It usually ends with toxicity and it usually ends very unhealthy.
Now, the crazy thing and how it relates to this is these wise men went to King Herod.
They went to a guy who was considered Herod the Great who actually found out was actually pretty
toxic. The very thing he wanted to do was to kill Jesus. The very thing he wanted to do was to kill
this Messiah because he felt that this Messiah who was born was able to rival and to threaten
the very power, quote unquote, that he had. And so many times we see that in our lives when we
decide, oh, this must be from God and we jump in it head on and the toxicity happens. The reason
why we get so offended that things are happening there or the reason why we get so sensitive when
people might be speaking ill of us or we're getting in a fight or we're in our boss's office
day after day being hounded on how we're not doing a good job. We're worried. We're like,
God, I thought this was from you. God, I thought you said that this was a gift from you. And God's
like, no, no, no. I never told you to stop where you were going. You were supposed to keep seeking
and keep searching until I told you this is it. And so the thing I see time and time again,
even in my own life, is we get impatient seeking after God. We get impatient searching for God that
when we get to Judah, when we get to town center, we start looking for the thing that makes sense.
If you've read any in scripture, you'll notice that God doesn't do anything that makes sense,
but everything he does comes to be fruitful and everything he does comes to last.
The second thing I want to bring out is a quote by Charles Spurgeon. He says this,
it has been truly remarked that the shepherds did not miss their way. They came to Christ at once,
while the wise men, even with a star to guide them, yet missed their way and went to Jerusalem
instead of to Bethlehem and inquired at the palace of Herod instead of at the stable where Christ was
born. So when it comes to our walk with Jesus, when it comes to our worship, when it comes to
our Bible reading, when it comes to our prayer, when it comes to our personal devotional life,
a lot of times instead of seeking God and pouring over scripture to see what he has said for us,
a lot of times what we'll do to be able to substitute for that is we'll just throw on a
sermon or we'll just throw on a YouTube video or open Spotify and be able to play worship music.
Instead of seeking God for who he is at the stable, we're trying to go to the palace. We're
trying to go to those mountaintop experiences and our entire walk is built on that. Brothers and
sisters, be very careful. Be very weary that our entire walk with Jesus isn't built on trying to
seek him in a palace when he's away at a stable. Our entire walk with Jesus should be, Lord, even
though this feels dry, even though this feels messy, even though this feels dirty, even though
it can stink sometimes, God, I'm going to seek you because God, I know you're in the midst of all of
that. So please be very cautious and be very weary about how you spend your time with Jesus.
Are you seeking Jesus because you want to seek Jesus or are you seeking Jesus because you want
to feel some type of emotion or feeling or butterflies in your stomach as you're seeking him?
Well, hey, thank you guys so much for joining us today. I really hope that this blesses you. I
really hope that this speaks to you and I really hope it encourages you. Please know that the time
we spend with Jesus is a time where we're able to be able to be poured into by him and we're able
to grow in him. Jesus isn't lurking in the palace. He's not sitting in the palace, but Jesus is
working amongst the stable. Brothers and sisters, I love you guys so much. Thank you for taking
time to listen to this. We'll see you guys next time.