We continue with our series, The God of the Christmas Story, by discovering how God is a God of Invitation.

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OC Church of Christ

We started a series a couple weeks ago

called the God of the Christmas story.

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And so what we've been doing for

the last couple of weeks is trying

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to, uh, really extract can we learn

something about God as we see and

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discover or review the well known tale

of the Christmas story of Jesus birth.

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And so we've been looking

at God through this story.

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And so the first week we saw

how God is a God of hope.

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And then we saw God is a God of mystery.

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And the famous line, God

works in mysterious ways.

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And so today we're gonna be talking

about the God of invitation.

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The God of invitation.

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Let's pray.

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Father, thank you so much for allowing

us to worship, allowing us to encourage,

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allowing us to see, uh, not only

the next generation, but the now

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generation, God, as they get a chance

to, uh, share, uh, with all of us

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their heart and their faith in Jesus.

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And God, we pray right now as we look

into the scriptures that you will speak.

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To us father.

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I pray and I know I'm excited about this

topic I pray God that your word will

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resonate with every single one of us

whether it's the first time Inside of

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a church service or we've been around

for 30 40 plus years God, I pray that

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your word will minister to us today.

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May we walk away encouraged in

our faith, strengthened in our

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faith, and in high pursuit of you.

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In Jesus name, Amen.

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Uh, I have a friend, uh, in college.

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His name is Charles.

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And, uh, he's one of my, my, one

of my good friends in college.

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And after we, after I became a

Christian, we stayed close, but, but

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we really kind of went different paths.

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And for the last several years, we've been

reconnecting, me and two other friends.

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But last year, he invited me and

my family to a Christmas party.

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And so we went to this Christmas party,

thinking it was just a little something.

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Little, you know, little

something, something.

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And we go, and they rented out

this place, and it was plush.

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And it was awesome.

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I mean, there was, there was

like legit games and contests,

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food all over the place.

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And my family was like, wow,

the Stephensons must be rich.

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And I was like, well, I don't

know if they're rich, but they

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did put a lot of money into this.

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And so we had a great time.

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And so then this year, we were

hopeful to get an invitation again.

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And so a couple weeks ago, Karina

was like, Hey, uh, has Charles

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sent that invitation to you yet?

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I was like, you know what?

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He hasn't.

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Man, did we, did we mess up last year

and get, you know, get put off the list?

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And then the other day,

he sent me that text.

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I said, Karina, we got it.

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And she was like, yes.

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And then the kids were like,

yes, we're going again.

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And so the whole family is

fired up about this invitation.

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And we're gonna see how

God is a God of invitation.

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But his invitation is even better than

my boy Charles and his Christmas party.

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And so if you can turn with

me over to Matthew chapter 2.

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And so, to give us some context,

Matthew was a, uh, an apostle of Jesus.

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He was a follower of Jesus.

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And he wrote this letter and his

audience is primarily those who had

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come from Jewish faith and now to the,

the, the, the Christian faith, where

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they believe that Jesus is the Messiah.

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So he's writing to a Jewish audience.

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So that's really important for us to

pull out the nuggets that are available

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when we read the book of Matthew.

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And so in Matthew chapter

two, we'll go ahead and read.

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It says.

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And Jesus was already born.

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Again, we studied Matthew chapter

1, uh, in the last two weeks.

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So we're gonna do, uh, finish up

chapter 2 this week and next week.

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And so it says, After Jesus was born

in Bethlehem of Judea, during the time

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of King Herod, Magi from the east came

to Jerusalem and asked, Where is the

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one who has been born King of the Jews?

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We saw his star when it rose

and have come to worship him.

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When King Herod heard this, he was

disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him.

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When he had called together all the

people's chief priests and teachers

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of the law, so these are all the

religious leaders, He asked them

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where the Messiah was to be born.

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In Bethlehem, in Judea, they replied.

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For this is what the prophet has written.

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But you, Bethlehem, in the land

of Judah, are by no means least

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among the rulers of Judah.

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For out of you will come a ruler

who will shepherd my people Israel.

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Then Herod called the Magi secretly and

found out from the, found out from them

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the exact time the star had appeared.

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He sent them to Bethlehem and said,

Go and search carefully for the child.

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As soon as you find him, report it to me,

so that I, too, may go and worship him.

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After they had heard the king, they

went on their way, and the star

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they had seen when it rose went

ahead of them, until it stopped

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over the place where the child was.

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When they saw the star,

they were overjoyed.

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On coming to the house, they saw

the child with his mother Mary, and

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they bowed down and worshipped him.

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Then they opened their treasures

and presented with gifts of

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gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

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And having been warned in a dream not

to go back to Herod, they returned

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to their country by another route.

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We'll stop right there.

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Did you see it?

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Did you see the God of Invitation?

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And so we'll break this down some real

quickly here so that we can see this God

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of invitation in the Christmas story.

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But first I want us to look at this

magi and this will help us out here.

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We've all, we're all familiar

with the three kings or the three

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wise men and this is where that,

this is where this comes from.

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And it says there were magi from the east

who saw a star and came to worship him.

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When I had this, uh, uh, uh,

discovery, this little nugget, it

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just blew my mind and I felt like

I have to share this part with you.

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And so as you see this,

these are magi from the east.

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So these were probably Some wise men,

some, some priests or astrologers from

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East, probably being Babylon or Persia.

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So that's a good distance from

Jerusalem in the nation of Israel.

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And it says that they're probably

devoted to interpreting signs,

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again, probably practicing astrology.

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And it says they saw the star, then

they came and they worshipped him.

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Now here's what's incredible,

and you see the God of hope,

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you see the God of mystery, and

you see the God of invitation.

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Because, see, here, here's the thing here.

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About 550 years Prior to Jesus's birth,

when God's people had been exiled from

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their homeland and were now living

amongst the Babylonians and then

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the Persians who conquered Babylon.

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There was a prophet, a man who

spoke the word of God named Daniel.

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And many of us are familiar with

the story of Daniel and the lion's

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den, or his homeboys that go down

in the lion's den, the fiery pit.

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There you go.

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Alright.

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So, we're familiar with this,

but Daniel had prophesied.

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About the coming Messiah in Daniel

chapter 9, verses 24 through 26.

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Now here's what's incredible, is

that again, God's people, many

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of them come back to Jerusalem.

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And so at least 500

plus years has gone by.

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But we know at least some of the Jews

must have stayed in the area after

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exile or returned throughout the years.

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But we also know that Daniel, the

prophet, had major influence on

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the Babylon, Babylonian and Persian

empires and in their government.

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And so what we can, and a lot of scholars,

what we can deduce from this is so cool

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is that what happened is that these

guys, because there again, they're not,

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they're not part of the nation of Israel.

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These aren't Jews who are following

Yahweh, the God most high, but yet

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they see a star and they say, That must

be the sign for the king of the Jews.

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How did they come to that?

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Again, this influence from Daniel

and some of these folks, excuse me,

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some of these Jews throughout the

year, had it influenced 500 to 600

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years prior, so that these magi would

then have a divine revelation that

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something profound was taking place.

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And so you see God planting seeds 500,

600 years later for the revelation

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of the gospel message and of Jesus.

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You see the God of hope, the God of

mystery, and the God who's inviting.

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And so, regardless of how it came about,

their acknowledgment and worship of the

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Messiah was a divine miracle of grace.

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And here's the thing, God isn't

putting a stamp on astrology, he's

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not saying, oh yeah, that's okay.

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What he is revealing in this.

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Is that God has a method and a desire and

a tendency to meet people where they are.

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So they're not worshiping God in

the correct form, but God met them

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where they were to call them to him.

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This God of invitation.

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And so God revealed the birth of a

king and the gospel message to non

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Jews, which are called Gentiles.

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So most of us probably in

this room are Gentiles.

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And so that's the main thing we can

see here that Matthew wanted to include

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in his story to a Jewish audience

is that, guess what, the birth of

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the Messiah was a worldwide event.

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It was going to have an impact that

was going to be worldwide because it's

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extending beyond the borders of Israel.

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Church, do you understand

what I'm saying here?

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And he's saying something else is that the

Messiah was going to come through Israel.

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But he was going to be

a gift to all nations.

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He was going to be a gift to all people.

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It wasn't a segment of people

that God wanted to redeem.

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He wanted to redeem mankind.

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And so this reveals that the gospel is a

message of hope for people of all nations.

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Because God is calling all people

to an eternal relationship with Him.

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And so God invited these Magi, God

had invited the Israelites, and God

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still continues to invite people to

an eternal relationship with Him.

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And so there's God of invitation.

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Cares for all souls and invites all

human beings to his eternal kingdom.

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So what does that mean

today, brothers and sisters?

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It means that God invites

the rich and the poor.

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God invites the black, white, red,

brown, yellow, and everything in between.

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God invites men and God invites women.

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God invites the religious

and the non religious.

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God invites the criminal

and the goody two shoe.

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God invites the liberal

and the conservative.

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Ooh, did he say that?

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Yes, I did.

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You mean he invites the red wing,

the right wing and the left wing?

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Yes, and everything in between.

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God invites the straight

person and the homosexual.

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God invites the weak and

God invites the strong.

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God invites the educated and the dropout.

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God invites the white

collar and the blue collar.

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God invites the foreigner

and the resident.

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God invites the citizen and the immigrant.

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God invites the American and the Russian.

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God invites that gang member and that CEO.

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God invites the doctor and the prostitute.

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God of invitation invites all.

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God invites you, he invites me,

the person sitting next to you.

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Yes, me, you, your mama,

and your cousin too.

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The God of invitation invites all

because he's the God of invitation.

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The question is, will you

accept his invitation?

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And that's what I believe

our response to this is.

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Is to accept.

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The invite to accept his invitation

by seeking a relationship with him.

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Jesus is for all who will receive him.

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You know, you can accept,

reject, or neglect an invitation.

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You can accept an invitation, you can

neglect one, or you can reject it.

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The Magi, they accepted.

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While the religious leaders

in Herod, they didn't.

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Herod rejected.

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We'll find out next week.

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Herod is actually trying

to kill the baby Jesus.

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The religious leaders, they neglected,

they hear about this and what they do.

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They stayed put while the Magi

went to go check in on the baby.

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You see, they neglected the invitation.

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I know some here and some online,

we've rejected God's invitation.

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We said no, but here's the thing.

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This God of hope, this God of

mystery, this God of invitation

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is inviting you today.

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Some of us in here, we've neglected,

we've heard, maybe have some knowledge.

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But maybe we haven't

really committed to Jesus.

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The God of invitation

is inviting you today.

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I want to encourage you to make

a decision to accept today.

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By getting help on how to get, how

to properly accept God's invitation.

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If you're visiting with us either online

or in person, and you sense that the Lord,

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the Spirit is, He's knocking on your door.

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He's, He's been trying to

invite you whether it's been

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months, years or this moment.

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I want to encourage you.

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To set up a Bible study, to see

how do I accept this invitation?

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What does that mean?

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Or if your friend or family member asks

you and they invite you to a Bible study,

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I want to encourage you to say yes.

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You know, the other

response here is to join in.

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You know, join God in inviting

people to his eternal kingdom.

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Again, for the Jewish audience to see

from the book of Matthew, it was that

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the gospel is for the whole world and

every single type of person in the world.

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And so that invitation is still today.

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And so the proper response to the

God of invitation is to accept his

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invitation and then join him in inviting.

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Right now we're going to take communion.

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I want to read Matthew

chapter 2 verse 11 again.

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The emblems represent Jesus body and

his blood that was sacrificed for us

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to have an opportunity at salvation.

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And in Matthew chapter 2, well,

many of us are familiar with this,

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but the Magi, they came gifts.

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And these gifts were gold,

frankincense, and myrrh.

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And so I'm sure some maybe

caught this at the beginning, but

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most of us probably caught this

after the resurrection of Jesus.

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But these things are symbolisms, and

we see the symbolism in their gifts.

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One, the gold was for royalty,

and that was given for a king.

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Frankincense had to deal more

with religious rituals, so it

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was for the priest, for God.

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And then myrrh, the symbolism there was

for the sacrifice for our salvation.

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Because myrrh was actually used when Jesus

was on the cross to offer him relief.

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And then it was used And the wrapping

of his body as he was put in the tomb.

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So we see Myrrh was actually at

the tomb and it was at the cross.

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And so this symbolism helps

us see that Jesus is the King.

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He is the highest priest who allows us

to have a relationship with the Father as

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he mediates and intercedes on our behalf.

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And then we see again the

Myrrh, which represents the

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sacrifice for our salvation.

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Hallelujah.

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For the God of invitation.

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Let's go to God in prayer.

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Father, we thank you so much for your

invitation to a relationship with us.

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We thank you that you

invite us through Jesus.

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We thank you that we can respond

to your invitation by turning and

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putting our trust in faith in Jesus.

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And God, we're so grateful, those of

us who have made that decision, to know

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that we stand in a right relationship

with you and your eternal kingdom.

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And we have eternity to look forward to.

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And Father, I pray right now that

we will, uh, uh, remember Jesus.

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We will remember his birth, but we

will remember that you are the God

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who cares so much to invite us to

your eternal treasure in heaven.

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We praise you.

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We love you.

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In Jesus name.

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Amen.