So good to have you here this morning. And we're continuing in our series in the book of Matthew. We'll be in Matthew chapter 2 this morning, looking at the first 12 verses in Matthew chapter 12. And I know this feels, as we said the last couple of weeks, this feels a little odd. We're in May. These are December sermons, and we're preaching them in May. We're aware of that and how the timing of all that is. But these are important for us to walk. through these passages of scriptures, not just once a year, not just once every few years, not just to sing some songs that we only kind of pull out and dust off and put away again in December, but to walk through this book of Matthew and remind us of what God is doing. Remind us of Christ coming for us. Remind us of God's fulfilled promises to us, of his faithfulness to us, of giving us the thing that we need the most, is his son, and seeing that story unpacked and unraveled in Matthew, and how Jesus comes into the world, as we learned last week, to save sinners, to be Emmanuel, to be God among us. This morning as we look in Matthew chapter 2 verses 1 to 12, we're going to look at the story of the probably not three kings. I'm going to blow out some of your old songs. You're going to have to not sing this song the way you sang it before as we look through this passage. We'll get to that in just a little bit. We'll be looking at the Magi and these men from the east who came to worship this newborn baby. to come to celebrate what God had done. Those outside of the covenant, those Gentiles who came from the East hearing that the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords had been born somewhere in Bethlehem or Jerusalem. And so we're coming this morning to celebrate Christ as the object of our faith in seeing how these wise men from the East knew that Jesus was the Messiah, believed and had faith that he was the one that God had promised, had heard stories from Jews who had come and shared those stories with them, that God was going to come to us. that God was going to send his Son, that God was going to send a Messiah, and that that Messiah had come. And by faith, these wise men journeyed from the East to find this baby, and to worship him, and to find the object of their faith. And this morning what I kind of want to talk through is that the value we place on a goal determines the drive to reach that goal. How valuable we see something at the end will determine how hard we work for that, the obstacles we will overcome for that, the drive that we will have to fulfill that role. Now I'm going to shock you all. I don't know if you know this or not, but you are in the presence of greatness this morning. I am the undisputed 1987 Cub Scout Popcorn Salesman of the Year. Did you know that? That's right. In Convoy, Ohio, nonetheless. It's a big market in Convoy, Ohio, and I sold the most popcorn in 1987. And the reason I did that was not because I was a salesman. It's not because I love going door-to-door. I hated all of those things, but the reward was a bike. And I wanted anything to get that bike. And I knocked on every door on my street. I talked to every old lady I could talk to, everybody at my church. I had my dad go and sell for me at the school. He was a high school teacher there. So I had an in with all the other teachers. A lot of guilt went into those kinds of things. I'll take whatever I can get for that. And I won that bike. I pursued that. I knocked on all of those doors. I went back and forth. I went outside of my comfort zone. That's not me at all as a 10-year-old boy knocking by myself on all of these doors on my street with my retainer in and my list because of my retainer saying, would you like to buy some popcorn please so I can have a bike? and going through all of these things, and to see at the end of that, that I won the bike. And what drove me, what continued to move me forward, was that I believed at the end of the hard work, there was something valuable out there. There was something worth it on the other side of that, that kept me knocking on the next door, and the next door, and the next door, until the bike was mine. And this morning in this story that we see in the Magi is we see them by faith moving through obstacle after obstacle until they receive the reward of their faith. I want to challenge us this morning, if you're taking notes, you'll see kind of my theme for this morning there is that God in his infinite grace has provided for us everything we need for this life and the next. The question is, how do we connect to all that God has provided for us? We connect to that by faith. Faith sees through the darkness and keeps moving forward. Faith that finds satisfaction in Jesus and nothing else. Faith that is given by God, that is sustained by God, that is fulfilled by God. That's Christ as the object of all of this. If you'll look with me in Matthew 2, we'll read the first 12 verses of Matthew 2. It says this, Matthew records under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, 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 have come to worship him. When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled. And 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 among the rulers of Judah. For from you shall come a ruler who shall 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. And listening to the king, they went on their way. And behold, the star that they had seen when it rose went before them, and until it came rest over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they 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. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. God, we give this to you, this moment to you, this space and time to you. It is yours, and we acknowledge that it is yours. This is your word, and we acknowledge that it is yours. Lord, give us a humble spirit. to bow beneath your word, to be changed by your word as it points us to you, as it points us to the grace that you show to us, to the wisdom that you give to us. Give us eyes to see. We ask all these things in Jesus' name, amen. All right, I'm gonna bust your bubble real quick at the top of this sermon, all right? What is the famous song that goes along with Matthew 2? We three kings, that song is wrong. So let's start to it. It's good. It's great. It points to us. But we have the tradition in our hearts that there were three of them, right? Why do we have that tradition? It seems to make sense. We have the tradition of three of them because there were three gifts that were given. And so we assume one gift per person who came. That's not the case. That's probably not the case at all. There was probably a large band of them that came together. They happened to give three gifts that came from them. They were also not kings. They were also not royalty. They were astronomers, basically. Wise men. Magi is the word. They were ones who looked to the sky to see what the meaning of life was and what all of this came from. They were the ones who were the philosophers and the thinkers of the time. They were wise men of the time. They weren't kings. They were coming into this place to see who Jesus was. And so we see the story of this group of people who are coming to worship this newly born king and to offer gifts of worship to this newly born king. This morning I want to share with you three things as we kind of walk through this, what drives us to continue to move forward. What helps us in the darkness, in the storms, in the doubts, and all of those things that help us to continue to move forward? Well, firstly, I want to look at the foundation of our faith. The foundation of our faith. What ultimately drives us, what ultimately helps us to take the next step is the foundation on which our faith is built on God Himself. On who he is, and what he does, and what he has already accomplished is the foundation for our faith. And so we continue to move forward in that. And how do we see the foundation of our faith kind of unpacked in this passage of Scripture? Well first, we see God's proven faithfulness. Taking notes, kind of going along. Point one is that we see our foundation of faith. And then A, we see God's proven faithfulness. That the reason that the Magi came, the reason that they saw the star and followed it and kept following it, is because they had heard stories of the faithfulness of God. And the reason that we continue to move forward is because of the stories of God's faithfulness. Because of Matthew chapter 2 verses 1 to 12. Because we see God revealing His faithfulness in this moment, we can believe and move forward. Look with me at verse 1. It says, Now Matthew is setting the scene here, but in this first verse we see a ton of ways that God is demonstrating his faithfulness in Matthew just stating the facts of Jesus's birth. If you remember how the book of Matthew opens up, that Matthew's point of this is to connect the birth of Jesus back to the promise of David and connect it even further back, back to the promise of Abraham and to see God's faithfulness continuing to move forward until that faithfulness became fruit in the person of Jesus. And what we see in verse one is this connection to the Davidic covenant. Once again, where was Jesus born? In Bethlehem in Judea. Why does that matter? That is David. That is where David is from. That is his place. That is where the king is to come from, from Bethlehem of Judea, from the line of David. What we see in Matthew is that he's unfolding and showing to us the faithfulness of God, that what God promised as we read about in 1 and 2 Samuel, as we read about in all of the Old Testament, that God is faithful to his promises. And this king from David's line has been born exactly where God said he was going to be born. Not in some other location, not hidden somewhere, but in Bethlehem of Judea. We see this connected back, as I said, the verse 1 of chapter 1 goes back not only to David, but to Abraham. We see this connected back to the covenant of Abraham, the Abrahamic covenant. Well, how do we see that in verse 1? We see that these are wise men from the east. What is the promise to Abraham? I will give you a land, I will give you a people, and I will bless you so that you will be a blessing to all peoples. So that all the nations of the earth will be blessed through this promise. Galatians tells us that anyone who has faith in Jesus is brought in to this promise. The promise to Abraham is not just that Abraham's family will be blessed, it's that all nations by faith will be blessed in the same way that Abraham is being blessed. And how do we see God's faithfulness in verse 1 of chapter 2? We see wise men from the east. These are not Jews. These are not natives of Jerusalem. These are not those that can take their physical, biological line back to David and Abraham. These are Gentiles who are coming. These are Gentiles who have heard word of a God in Jerusalem. Several centuries before that, those of Judah and Israel were sent out and were exiled all over the known world. And by grace and by their faithfulness, whoever they came across, they were obviously talking about their God. They were worshiping their God. They were sacrificing to their God. And these wise men from the East heard of this God. And so much heard of this God that they came to find where he'd come in human flesh. The connection to the Abraham covenant. We see God's proven faithfulness in the fulfilled prophecy of all of this. That God is promising again and again for these things to happen and to take place. And they happen every single time. One of the phrases you're going to see in Matthew over and over again in Matthew. Phrases like spoken by the prophet, written by the prophet. It is written. Prophecy is fulfilled. We're going to see those over and over again in Matthew as a demonstration of God's faithfulness. That what he says he will do, he will do. On the grounds of God's proven faithfulness, we can trust him to take the next step. Look down with me in verses five to six. Herod was asking the scribes and the chief priests, what do you know about this king? What do you know about this Jesus? Where was he supposed to be born? Their response to him is 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 among the rulers of Judah. For from you shall come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel. This is the chief priests and the scribes taking from the book of Micah and saying, this Messiah, this king will come to Bethlehem. The least of all the places, the smallest of all the clans, this is where this king is going to come from. And guess where Jesus was born? In Bethlehem of Judea. Exactly how God promised. We see God's proven faithfulness again and again and again. And Matthew chapter 2 is a revelation to us of God continuing to pull his promise forward through all kinds of different people. And where do we see God's faithfulness proven the most? In verse 1. Just two simple words. Was born. Jesus was born. God had been promising for centuries after century, my Messiah will come, your Savior will come, the King will come, the rescue is coming, the Redeemer is coming. And guess what came? Matthew chapter two and verse one, Jesus was born. God's faithfulness came in to the world. What we see from the transition from chapter 1 to chapter 2, a lot happens in chapter 1 to chapter 2. Matthew doesn't stop after chapter 1 of the angels coming to Mary and to Joseph and saying, you will have a baby. How do we see God's faithfulness? The very first verse of the next chapter, Jesus was born. That's not insignificant. That's not something just to pass over. It's not just another baby that was born. Any baby born is a sign of the faithfulness of God. But the baby, the second Adam, the king of kings, the Lord of lords, the promised one was born. How do we move forward? How do we keep understanding what God is doing and stepping forward is trusting that God will do exactly what he says he's going to do. Galatians chapter 4 verses 4 and 5. It says, We see God's faithfulness unfolding in Matthew chapter 2. So my question to you as we read through Matthew 2 is how has God demonstrated his faithfulness to you? How have you looked at your life? How can you look back on your life and see the way that God has unfolded your life? God has been faithful to his promises and to you over your life. It's one of the ways when we're stuck in fear, when we're stuck in suffering, when we're stuck in difficulty, what freezes us from stepping forward is that all we're looking at is forward. All we're looking at is our circumstances. All we're looking at is the obstacle that feels too big to overcome. And when we read Matthew chapter 2, it reminds us that we don't always need to look around us at our circumstances. Sometimes it's best for us to look back. and to see the ways that God has continued to bring us to the point that we're at. To bring us to that point. All of the ways that was an impossible, you thought in the moment, was impossible to pass through those waters, God brought you through those waters. When it was impossible to walk through that fire, God brought you through that fire. When it was impossible to see any way that God was gonna be able to provide, God provided and provided abundantly. In Matthew 2, we see God's faithfulness on display again and again and again. Not only is the foundation of our faith God's faithfulness, but his abundant provisions for us. He provides for us along the way, just as he provided for the wise men along the way on their journey from seeing the star, to journeying to Jerusalem, to having that conversation with Herod, to journeying to Bethlehem, to finding the child there, to getting a dream, and to going off away from Jerusalem. We see God's abundant provisions. Look with me in verse 2. A quick note, as we see in verse 2, we see the faith of the wise men on display. Look at their question. Their question is, where is the king? Their question is not, is there a king? The question is not we've heard rumors, are the rumors true? The wise men come and say, we believe there is a king, show us where he is. The faith of those wise men in the moment and to see God providing for them to get where they need to be. They saw the star when it rose and have come to worship him. God provided what the wise men needed to guide them, to bring them to the point, to show them where he was working. We see again in verse nine, They came into Jerusalem. They talked to Herod. The star kind of went away for a moment. And in verse 9, they went on 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. The star brought them to Jerusalem to have this conversation with Herod and to seek out the king. In that moment, then, the star brought them to the very place they needed to be. What they needed to have the object of their faith, to find the object of their faith, the satisfaction of their faith, Jesus, or God, provided for them in the star. You see in verse 12, this conversation with Herod and being warned in a dream not to return to Herod. God provided this dream for the wise men to not send them back to Herod. We don't know a lot about Herod yet in Matthew. It seems like he's a nice guy so far, right? He wants to worship the king in these 12 verses. It seems like a kind guy. Joe will share with us that next week. Not so much. This was all the ruse to murder this king. This was all the ruse to murder those wise men who would come back and destroy them. And so where this is not at all what God desired in this, but we see these folks coming after the wise men in this way, but God providing a dream for them. That what they needed in that moment, God provided for them. What we need in our moments, God provides for us. In our difficulty, in our struggles, in our lack of faith, in our doubts, and when circumstances are overwhelming for us, God always provides for us exactly what we need when we need it. Every single time. You know how I know that? I know that because again, going back to verse 1 of this chapter, Jesus was born. The thing that I need most in this world is not peace, it's not joy, it's not satisfaction, it's not stuff, it's not a better job, it's not a happy family, it's not the comforts of this world. The thing that I need most in my life is Jesus. I need a rescuer. I need a savior. I need a redeemer. I need one to make me right and to bring me home with God. That is my deepest need. That is all of our deepest need. What does Jesus do for us? He provides our deepest need. The greatest provision that the wise men needed in that moment, being outside of the promise, outside of the covenant, being Gentiles, the thing they needed most was not an earthly sacrifice. It was not more law. What they needed in that moment was not a sign from above, was not the stars to spell out the meaning. What they needed in that moment was Jesus in the flesh. And what did God provide for them? Jesus in the flesh. God's faithfulness to us is proven again and again, the foundation of it, because he has shown himself as true, because he continues to provide for us. And again, the second question, what are ways that God has provided for you? As we see God providing the star for the wise men, providing the dream for the wise men, providing the faith for the wise men, providing for them every step of their journey, how have you seen God provide for you? How has he demonstrated his faithfulness to you through his provision? The foundation of our faith is God's faithfulness, it's his provision, but it's also God's intentional pursuit. God is coming after you. If he is yours, he's coming after you. And nothing will stop him from finding you. And that is a proof of God's faithfulness to us. The foundation for us is that God pursues sinners. God comes after those and reveals himself to those. What do we see again in verse two? They saw the star. Why a star? because they were looking to the heavens, because they were wise men, because they were astronomers, because in that moment, that's what they needed. And who they were, and the uniqueness of who they were, and the journey of their seeking of what God was, and what the universe meant, and what truth was, God pursued them in the way that was meaningful to them, and pursued them in a star. We see God meeting the shepherds. Where did he meet the shepherds? In the field. See the story again, where did he meet Zacharias? in the temple. We see in the story, where does he meet the wise men? In the sky. His intentional pursuit of us shows his faithfulness to us. That he wants us, he wants us to know him. He has provided his son for us. The question again for you is, in what ways has God uniquely pursued you? In what ways does God uniquely come after you? It may be through some great circumstance. It may be some great provision that God has given to you. It may be through suffering. It may be through the difficulties of your life that are uniquely shaped for you to demonstrate, though hard and though difficult, that God is after you. He cares about you. He wants you to be His through His Son, Jesus. We see this in Acts chapter 17, that Paul is giving this sermon in Athens to those who are seeking God. And he says in Acts chapter 17, Yet he is actually not far from each one of us. Where has God found you? Where has God been pursuing you? Maybe it's right here in this moment. Right now in this gym at the YMCA in Perrysburg, Ohio, God is looking for you, is revealing himself to you in a unique way. How has God demonstrated his faithfulness to you by showing he is pursuing you? This is why we go out and share our faith. This is why we go back into the world on a regular basis in all circumstances to all people. We share our faith because God is uniquely working in people's lives to meet them wherever they are. Where it's the grocery store line, or a hospital bed, or a funeral, or a wedding, or in their backyard, or whatever it happens to be, God is pursuing people. And so we can go into those places. We go into those places and proclaim what God has done, so that they might see Him and know that He is not far from them. We have the foundation of our faith and we have the belief that God is faithful, that God provides, that God pursues people, then we can have eyes of faith to move forward. Point number two this morning is the eyes of our faith. How do we continue to move forward knowing that this is who God is? So eyes of faith, how we move forward. First we see is that we see when others don't. When others don't, we see. Look with me in verses three to six. It says, When Herod was king, heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him, and assembly 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 is written by the prophet, And you, O Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah. For from him you shall come a ruler who will be shepherd my people. We see again in verses 7 and 8. The wise men saw when others did not. What we see very clearly here as they're coming is that Herod did not see who Jesus was. Did not recognize who he was. In fact, was threatened by the very idea of Jesus. We see those who had studied the word, those who knew the promises, did not see who Jesus was. Herod looks to them and says, where is he supposed to be born? They told him exactly. He's supposed to be born in Bethlehem in Judea. This is the way it's supposed to work out. They did not see Jesus for who he was. They did not understand who he was, but the wise men saw and continued to pursue by faith. When others don't see, eyes of faith see. When what is plain to us by the spirits working in our hearts, by God revealing himself to us, what is plain to us, those who do not know God, it is hidden to them. that they cannot see. But in those moments when others cannot see, we keep moving forward because God has revealed himself to us. God has shown himself to us. We see that in Hebrews chapter 11 and verse 1. Now, faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. See, Herod saw them as a threat, saw Jesus as a threat. We see in verse 3 that not only was Herod troubled by the thought of a king who might usurp his throne, who else was troubled alongside of Herod? All of Jerusalem with him. Those who have been waiting for Him, those who have been going to the temple day in and out, those who had been hearing the stories over and over again of this Messiah who is to come, heard word of the Messiah coming, and their response was troubled. Their response was fear. Their response was, oh no, we don't know what to do with this. This can't be true. This can't be what God had promised for us all of those years before. We see when others don't. Not only do we see when others don't, but we also see through the veil. We see that through the temporary to the eternal. We see through the things that others might set aside and say, it's not important. It's not, it doesn't matter. And we see those things as vital. Look in verse 9 and 11 of seeing through the veil. After listening to the king, they, the wise men, went on 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. You see, the wise men saw through the veil. Why did they go to Jerusalem first? Because that's where kings are born. That's where the palace is. That's where the temple is. That's where kings reside. That's where Herod lived. They went to there. It seemed to make sense in that moment to go to Jerusalem. Where did they ultimately find their true king? In Bethlehem, in a house. And for many of us, we step into those situations, we see that the wise men saw through that, saw through this minuscule house, saw through this unassuming house, and what they actually saw in the house was a palace. What they actually saw when looking on the house of Mary was a throne room. What they actually saw was this is the place where kings lived. When they walked into the house, what did they see? They did not see a king sitting on a throne. They saw a child, anywhere from six months old, 18 months old child was kind of maybe crawling or running or stumbling around the house. And they walk into this house and see that little infant and say, there is our king. And they fell down and they worshiped the king. They saw with eyes of faith what many had seen for months at this time, that many had seen but not seen. That all they saw was this young couple who had a baby in Bethlehem. All that they saw was these promises, and they didn't see the reality of things coming behind it. We see in 2 Corinthians 4, verses 16 to 18. It says, So we do not lose heart, though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. This light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison. As we look not to the things that are seen, but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are seen are eternal. And those with eyes of faith, those whose foundation is built on God's faithfulness, can see through the temporary to the eternal. And let's be honest, there's a lot of temporary things that are vying for our attention. There's a lot of things that we look at in our world that don't seem to make sense, that seem to be out of character for God. There's a lot of things in our world that we have to push through with eyes of faith to believe that God is behind them, that God is supporting them, that God is around them, and not throw them away. There's a lot of things in this world that we give our attention to and our worship to and our devotion to that are temporary things that feel big and feel important, but are passing away. There were those in Jerusalem who were giving their time and attention and devotion to Herod the king, including those who were waiting for the true Messiah. and missed the true Messiah for looking at power and wealth and things this world has to offer. Those with eyes of faith see through the veil. And finally, those with eyes of faith see ways to obey. How can we trust God? How can we step into this? Obviously, one of the ways that the wise men obeyed is they left their place and followed the star. They did what God asked them to do. They saw the sign, and they continued to pursue that star until it led them to Jesus. We also see in verse 12, the eyes of faith. They come in a dream. God says to them in a dream, Herod is going to kill you. Don't go back this way. He warned them in a dream not to return to Herod, and they went to their own country by another way. They trusted God. They believe that he knew what he was saying. Herod told them, come back, tell me where he's at. I want to worship him alongside of you. Why would you not trust the government? Right? The government tells you a thing. We trust them wholeheartedly. Right, Jay? And everything that we do, we trust. So we don't trust those kinds of things, right? We don't believe those kinds of things. But we see in this that God does something miraculous and fantastic and out of the ordinary and in a dream says, don't go back. What do the wise men do? They don't go back. They see that their goal has been met. They're trusting in God's faithfulness again and again and again, and they see ways to obey. Eyes of faith are looking for ways to trust God, are looking for ways to put our faith into action, and will not be satisfied until our faith is completed. will not be satisfied until the thing that God promised us has been given to us. We continue on that firm foundation. Nothing will keep us from our goal. Finally, with me in number three, we see the reward of our faith. The foundation of our faith gives us eyes to see. The foundation of God's faithfulness and provisions gives us eyes to see to continue to move forward when things don't feel right. And we see finally the reward of our faith. It makes the journey worth it. We see in verse 10. They had just been to Herod. He had told them to go and to come back, and God had revealed to them the star once again to bring them to Jesus. And verse 10 says, when they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy. Matthew can't put it clear enough how joyful they were to see this star again. How happy they were again to see their faith being brought in front of them again to drive them to where Jesus was. It makes the journey worth it. We all know those things when we're driving and we're going along ways and we're driving forever and forever. We're trying to make our ways home. And what brings us joy in the moment after long journeys is seeing those familiar things, right? Those signs that you see, the water tower that you know to be true. When we go to my parents' house and we see the flashing red lights of the windmills, we know that we're close to going home there. We have all of those things. When those things are revealed to us, the reward makes the journey worth it. The tiredness goes away. The frustration goes away. The sadness goes away. It all becomes worth it. We see in Psalm 105 and verse 3, glory in his holy name. Let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice. Psalm 67, four and five says, let the nations be glad and sing for joy. For you judge the peoples with equity and guide the nations upon earth. Let the peoples praise you, O God. Let all the peoples Praise you. It makes the journey worth it. We sing with excited joy. We proclaim God with excited joy. We read the word with excited joy because it's rewarding our faith. Why is it when we go through, we sing songs together, why is that so important for us? Because it's reminding us of the fruit of our faith. It's reminding us of the reward of our faith. It's reminding us of what Christ has done for us. This is why it brings joy to us. Why do we pray? Not for prayer itself, because of the joy that it brings in reminding us of who God is. Why do we read our Bible? Not because we worship our Bible, because it reminds us of the joy that we have in Christ alone. It makes the journey worth it. It makes the hard worth it. It makes the wait worth it when we see the reward of our faith. When God demonstrates His faithfulness to us, it produces worship in us. Verse 11, when the wise men came and they saw the child with his mother, they fell down and worshiped him. that they've been satisfied, their faith has been fulfilled. The thing that they had been promised is there in front of them. All of their journey was worth it and produced in them a response of worship, a knee-jerk response of worship. Everything I have been hoping for has been found in this baby, and I'm worshiping him and seeing him. We see in Revelation, we went through that, we preached through Revelation not too long ago, and we see over and over again in the book of Revelation, when all of history is unfolded, when it all comes to its end, when Jesus sits on his throne and reveals God's purposes and plans, when all who trust in him are brought before the throne, what is the response? Worship again and again and again as we see our faith being fulfilled in Christ. And we see that the reward of our faith shows that it's worthy of our best, that Jesus is worthy of our best. We see the gifts that the wise men gave to Jesus, the gold and the frankincense and the myrrh, giving of what was theirs, giving of their best as a response to this gift, as a response to the reward that was given to them, as a response to the worship was to give them their very best. And with those of eyes of faith, those who have seen God's faithfulness again and again, we are willing to give up anything this world has to get what God has for us. We see that in Matthew chapter 13, Jesus is describing, we'll see this in several weeks, but the kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy, he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. Eyes of faith, those who are trusting in God for the sake of that reward will give up anything this world has to offer to receive the joy, to receive the gift, to receive what God has for us. Our gift, what does God require of us? What is God asking of us? It's not simply our gold and our frankincense and our myrrh, it is our very selves. What does Paul tell us in Romans chapter 12 and verse 1? He says, What do eyes of faith give to God, ourselves, our very being? Everything we have, everything He has given to us, everything that we have, we give to God as a reward, as a thankfulness, as a worship offering to God to show that what He has given to us peels in comparison in this world to receiving Christ, to seeing Him. Any good gift, any provision, any act of faithfulness of God in this world only is meant to point us to the true reward, to point us to the true worth. And so we joyfully give it all up for the sake of knowing Christ, that nothing will keep us from our goal. Nothing will keep us from pursuing Christ because we believe that He is true, that our goal, and no matter what happens in our life, we will get what God offers to us in Christ. Some of you this morning might be in a crisis of faith. Some of you this morning might be a crisis of confidence of, God, what are you doing? Why are you doing it this way? You said you were good. You said you were going to this. You said you were going to provide this. You haven't done it to this point. Some of you have not yet given your lives to Christ. You're still kind of figuring all of this out. You're still kind of measuring your life and saying, is it worth giving up these things that I have? Is it worth giving up these questions that I have for the sake of following after God? Some of you are walking through this right now in this very moment. Some of you took every ounce of your strength this morning just to show up. Just to be here in this space that whatever God's doing in your heart, in your life, feels crushing to you, feels overwhelming to you, feels like you can't take one more step because you feel like the next step is just going to be another defeat, another crisis, another bit of suffering, another unanswered question. My encouragement to you this morning, my challenge to you this morning is in these moments to look at the faithfulness of God. Look at the ways that He has provided, the ways He has shown Himself to you, the ways that He is drawing Himself to you, the ways that He is pursuing you, the things that He is laying into your life to show that He is faithful and true. Look at the ways He has provided through the church and through others. Look not to your circumstances and not to your questions, and look to Christ, to the child running circles around His mother Mary and the house to be worshipped, worthy of our prize, worthy of our faith, worthy of the things that we are giving to Him. It is worth it as we see, as we go through all of these things. Look in Philippians 2, verses 12 and 13. I want to close with this as we think through these promises of God. Paul says, therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now not only as in my presence, but much more in my absence. Work out your own salvation with fear and troubling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. So what's Paul saying? How do I take the next step? Look to God who gives you everything you need to take the next step. Not only does God calling you to take that step, He also gives you everything you need to take that step. So in this crisis of faith, in this crisis of confidence in this moment, look not to yourself, but to God, who is a rewarder of faith, who will give you everything you need to trust, who will give you every provision, will give you everything to pull you to the next step. Look to Him. He will help you along the way. What He has started, He will finish. You see, again in Philippians 1, in verse 6, Paul says this, and I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. What confidence do I have that my faith is worth anything, that my faith will find what it's looking for? It's not in myself. It's not ultimately in my circumstances. It's not ultimately in the stars of my life. It's not ultimately in the gold and the frankincense and the myrrh and the gifts that I can give. What gives me confidence that this journey is worth it, that it's heading somewhere, that it will be fulfilled, is God's faithfulness. What he starts, he finishes. We see God unfolding this story in Matthew for before the beginning of time, from creation and eternity past, God is beginning and unfolding this story. And in Matthew chapter two, in real time, in real space, in real history, with real people, God is unfolding his plan. He is showing that he is faithful to his promises. What confidence do I have that it's worth it to keep showing up? To keep fighting the good fight, to keep having faith, to keep moving forward, to keep trusting God is God's forever faithfulness to us. He has provided us Christ, his very son. Will he not also give us all things? He tells us in Romans chapter eight. If God will not only give us his son, will he not give us every step we need to believe that his son is the true gift? Believe that it's worth the journey. This morning as the music team comes and we ready ourselves for the Lord's Supper, I just want to remind us of why we do the Lord's Supper, of why this is important for us in this moment. It's important for us because the Lord's Supper is a point to us, is a demonstration to us of God's faithfulness. of His provision for us. It is a thing that pulls us forward to say, in this moment, though I'm struggling, though I'm in crisis, I am reminded by the bread and the juice that God has done something miraculous and supernatural and incredible for me. He has done something that I do not deserve. In the same way that the star was assigned to the wise men, drawing them and pointing them to the true Savior, the bread and the juice that we eat and drink is assigned to us, pulling us towards our true gift and the Savior. In the same way that the wise men did not pause and worship the star, we don't worship the bread and the juice. It is a symbol for us, pointing us towards the greater truth, pointing us towards Jesus, pointing us towards the one who has saved us and redeemed us. And we take the Lord's Supper as a reminder to us of the faith that God has given to us. That it's not about me. It's not about my works. It's not about the things that I've done. It's not about my own effort and pulling myself up by my bootstraps. The bread and the juice that we eat and that we drink is a reminder to us that Christ has accomplished it for us. It is His blood that was shed for us, not mine. It is His body that was broken for me, not me. And we celebrate the Lord's Supper as a reminder to us of that truth, as something to fan the flames of our faith, to continue us, to move us forward. What God has already done, He will continue to do. For those of you that your first time here at Covenants, how we take the Lord's Supper is that if you are a follower of Jesus, if your faith has been placed in Christ, if you have followed the star as it would, as God has revealed himself to you and placed your faith and your trust in Jesus as the one who has come to live and to die and to be raised from the dead for you, then we say to take the Lord's Supper this morning, to worship Christ in it, to say thank you for what Christ has done for you this morning. If you have not yet placed your faith in Christ, then we simply ask that you let the elements pass by you. It's not for us to judge. It's not for us to understand your motivations. That's between you and the Lord. But this is a time for those who have placed their faith in Christ to celebrate and worship what all He has done. If you have children this morning, as we always say, we trust parents to make the decisions about what they should be doing with their kids in terms of Lord's Supper. If your kids have not yet made a profession of faith, this is a great way to have a conversation with them, explain to them why you're eating this and why you're drinking this. If they have placed their faith in Christ and we see that in their lives, then give them bread, give them juice, and help them to celebrate with us in this this morning. Our worship team is going to sing a song for us, and I'll come back in a moment,