Tradition tells us that there were three wise men. You won't find that anywhere in the Bible if you look in the passage that Frank just read for us. There's no mention of there being three of these wise men, but tradition says there were three. In fact, they even have developed the name for these three wise men. There's Gaspar or Caspar, there's Melchior and there's Balthazar. But the reason that tradition says that there were three wise men is probably because you'll notice in this passage, there were three different gifts. There was the gift of gold, and there was the gift of frankincense, and there was the gift of myrrh. And so it's possible that from that story, we developed not only this idea of there being three wise men, but some have said this may be where we developed this idea of giving gifts at the time of Christmas. Now, I don't know what is on your Christmas list. I don't know what you're hoping to get for Christmas in six days, but I imagine that if someone gave you these three gifts, you would be thrilled. You'd be pretty excited. Now, maybe not so much the frankincense and the myrrh, because you're not even sure what they are or what you're supposed to do with them, but there's gold in the mix, and you would be very excited. But I wonder, even if you got a bar of gold on Christmas morning, would that really meet your deepest desire? Would it? What is it that you most truly, at the core of your being, what is it that you want and desire? You know, something tells me that it's not just getting a hippopotamus for Christmas. Something tells me that it's more than just getting your two front teeth on Christmas morning. In fact, if all you got on Christmas was your two front teeth, you'd probably be pretty upset. Something tells me that if all you got for Christmas, no matter how much you sing, all I want for Christmas is you, that if all you got for Christmas was you, you'd be pretty disappointed, especially when you begin to figure out what that you is really like. It's not what you want for Christmas. It's not what you most need. What is it that you most fundamentally want? You know, at Christmas, if you keep your ears open, one of those Christmassy words that you'll hear over here and over there as you go about your Christmas business is this word, Emmanuel. You've heard it a number of times even tonight, Immanuel. When it's spelled with an E, that's simply just a Latinization, a Romanization of the Hebrew word that's spelled with an I, so don't get confused. But this word Immanuel, what is that, Immanuel? Immanuel is a Hebrew word that means God with us, God with us. And you know, really I think that that hits at what is our deepest, most fundamental desire. It's not to have snow for Christmas. It's not being home for the holidays. It's not even for getting gold in your stocking for Christmas. Our deepest and most fundamental desire is that God would be with us. Now, why do I say that? Why do I say that our most fundamental and deepest desire is for God to be with us? Well, it's not because I went to the mall and I took a survey and all these people I kept talking to at the mall, you know, a majority of them told me that what they really want is the presence of God. I didn't hear that at all. In fact, most people aren't going to tell you that. No, I say that because I know that it's what we were created for. It's how you were designed to work. We were created, we were designed to be in relationship with God. I want you to think of Adam and Eve, you know the story. There's Adam and Eve, they're in the Garden of Eden, and they're created to be in fellowship with God. And it makes sense, doesn't it? That God didn't create you just to forget you. He did not create you to kind of say hi and then walk away from you, but he created you so that you would be in relationship with him. But of course that relationship, that harmony became interrupted, didn't it? Sin got in the way. Sin interrupted the perfect communion that man had with a holy God. And it turned those people who were once friends with God, who once walked with God, it turned them into rebels. It turned them into enemies of God. And we were now in open hostility with God, refusing to live by His direction, refusing to submit to His obedience. I want to do my own thing. Thank you very much. But deep within, somewhere down there, is still that desire to be in relationship with God. But what if What if God did not just leave and forget us? What if he didn't just walk away after man sinned? What if, despite the fact that we were in open warfare against him, what if he chose to continue to interact with this world? What if he chose to interact with this world to the point where he was willing to send his very own son, Emmanuel, which means God with us? You see, if that's true, if God is truly with us, if he is truly Immanuel, then there are two possible responses to him. And both of them are in that passage that Frank just read for us moments ago, the story of the wise men, the magi. There's two possible responses. The first possible response is what I'm going to call the Herod response. The Herod response. King Herod. You remember the wise men? They come to Bethlehem. They've been following this star. They want to worship this king who has come. And when Herod catches wind of it, it says, what does it say? It says, verse 3, when King Herod heard this, he was troubled. Not he rejoiced. Not he said, woohoo, all my greatest desires have been answered. No, it says he was troubled. That's the Herod response. You can be troubled. The thought of the possibility of God being with us, it haunts you. It scares you. It troubles you. You know that you've been in rebellion against this God, and if he's here, like if you're saying he's actually among us, kind of like the wicked Prince John in the Robin Hood stories, when he gets word that the good King Richard the Lionhearted has returned, and he's in the country, and he's at hand, like that, you are worried, oh no, the good king might actually be here. And maybe you'll try to respond violently like King Herod responds and kill any references to Emmanuel in your life. Maybe you'll try to eliminate any references to God or Jesus or the Bible. But you also might respond by simply trying to drown him out. I'm just going to drown him out. I'm going to distract myself with fun and pleasure and pursuits. And maybe I won't have to think about the fact that God might actually be here with us. But then once a year, Christmas rolls around. It's almost like you can't hide from it. You just hear the carols, you hear the songs, you see the displays on the side of the road and you have trouble hiding from the fact that God may actually be among us. But there is a second response. There's a second response. It's what I'm calling the wise men response. There was the Herod response, but there's also the wise men response. How do the wise men respond to the fact that Immanuel is here? They respond with a holy excitement. These guys are ecstatic. They find their hearts yearning for him, and they're filled with anticipation and expectation and longing. In fact, it leads them on this long, long journey. They travel far distances, over vale, over mountain, in order to find this newborn king. They're excited. And when they do find him, what do they do? Verse 11, it says, and going into the house, they saw the child. And what do they do? They fell down and worshiped him. They worship him. They acknowledge him as God. And then it even says that they open up their treasures. And that's where they give him those gifts of gold and frankincense and myrrh. And we think, why would you give that stuff up? But it's a no-brainer for them. They have found what is the greatest possible gift. And so they're willing to let go of what is a mere trifle, gold, frankincense, and myrrh, for this wonderful treasure. How about you? How about you? You know, the Bible is clear that God has come to be with us. And yes, I know that Christ died, crucified, was buried, was resurrected, and then ascended into heaven. And he's not walking amongst us in his human form, but scriptures are clear that God is still among us. God is interacting with this world. And so how about you? You can either reject this God like Herod does, or you can come to Him. You can come to Him. And let me tell you that coming to Him can only be done because that little baby, that little baby Jesus that was born in Bethlehem, He eventually grew up and He went to the cross and He died for your sins, that your sins might be forgiven. And if you have placed your faith in Him as your Lord and Savior, you can come to Him. You can be with Him. You can worship Him. You can experience God with us. It'll meet your most fundamental foundational desires. I guarantee it. So come to Him. And Christian, believer, it's for you too. Come to Him. Come to Him. He's the one that's going to satisfy. He's the one that's going to make you happy. He's going to meet your deepest desires. So come to Him. We're going to sing, in just a moment, these words, come and worship. Come and worship. Worship Christ, the newborn King. But first, let me pray. Lord, we thank you that you did choose to interact with this world. Lord, you could have, when we fell away from you, you could have said good riddance, you could have walked away. but instead in your eternal plan of redemption, you chose to send your son, to send him to this world, that he might die in our place. Lord, how thankful we are for that. And so Lord, we ask that you would help us to come to you. We need you to assist us in that. We feel the inadequacy that we have. So draw us to yourself through your Holy Spirit. We pray in Jesus' name, amen.