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Muskegon SDA Church

Jason Sliger

Wise Examples

Oh, Father in heaven, we thank you that we can be partners together in this great work that you have laid upon our shoulders.

And Father, we rejoice with heaven because of the new family members that we have.

And Lord, We pray again a special blessing to be upon them and their family.

Let their light so shine, dear Lord, that others may be attracted by what you are doing in their lives.

And Lord, may the rest of us continue to be faithful to you as we let our light shine as well.

Bless our time together, Lord, as we spend a few moments studying your word, for we ask it in Jesus' name, amen.

It's 2006, and I was finishing a seminar, I finished a seminar in Ashland, in Appleton, Wisconsin.

And I had 3 days between that seminar and my next seminar.

And there was only 1 place that I wanted to be during those 3 days because in a couple of months I was about To unite my life with my dear wife and so for those 3 days I decided that there's nobody else that I wanted to be with than with my best friend, who was my fiance at the time, and later on became my best friend.

The only thing was, is that Midori at the time lived 800 miles away in Wichita, Kansas.

It's amazing what love will do to you, isn't it?

So as soon as I could, I had my car packed and I was ready to go.

And I hit the road as soon as I finished my obligations and I drove nonstop.

Now you have to understand something, at that time when I traveled, at 9 o'clock I stopped for the evening and I got a hotel and slept for the night.

Well I only had 3 days and I wasn't going to let, spend some of that time in a hotel.

So I just booked it all day and all night and I pulled in in the early morning and I spent those 3 days with the person that, the only person that I wanted to spend that time with during that time.

Then I jumped back in my car and did 900 miles to my next meeting in northern Wisconsin and I didn't mind a bit.

Because I knew that I was going to be spending time with somebody that meant a lot to me.

And you know, this is the time of the year where we oftentimes take trips.

We might go to another state or another part of our state.

We move around because at this time of the year, we want to be with those that mean something to us.

Maybe you're not going to be traveling this year.

Maybe there'll be people who are traveling to you.

But there's a lot of movement at this time of the year, people moving, people traveling, people going from various places, catching flights, whatever it is, because they want to spend time with people who mean a lot to them.

Christmas season is a good time for that, when families come together and enjoy time, spending time together.

Mothers travel long distances to see their children.

Daughters travel long distance to see their mothers.

Grandchildren are brought to the grandparents' house.

I remember when I was a kid, all of the happy memories in my grandparents' home.

And in just a couple of days, we're gonna be traveling down to Kentucky to go see my family for the Christmas holidays, moving around because there's somebody special that we're going to spend time with.

You know, the Bible records a story that took place many years ago about a group of men who traveled a long distance because they were in pursuit of spending time with someone that meant a lot to them who they hadn't even met at the time.

Different people kind of theorize where these men came from.

All we know is that they came from the East.

Some say it may have been as far flung as China.

We don't really know, so we don't know how long their trip was, but we know given the means of transportation at that time, you know what the means of transportation was at the time?

We know given the means of transportation at the time, it was a long and slow trip that took place night after night after night after night.

Popular culture tells us that there were 3 of them, but the Bible doesn't name the number.

We simply call them from the Bible, the wise men.

The wise men were driven by a curiosity to find out where this king that they had read about was born and they wanted to meet him.

Go with me in your Bibles, you should be already there from your scripture reading, to Matthew 2, verses 1 and 2.

Bible says this, now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem, saying, where is he that is born King of the Jews?

For we have seen his star in the east and are come to worship him.

You know, it reminds me of another trip that took place back in the time of the Old Testament.

You remember, he's the father of faith, Abraham.

The Lord asked him to take a trip to go someplace.

Abraham didn't know where he was going, but he knew that God was calling him to go somewhere.

And this great father of faith decided to obey the call of God in his life.

And just like Abraham, these 3 Gentile men, what some think of as 3, or these Gentile men heard the calling of God in their life and they were driven to go and find out where he was who was born King of the Jews.

They were driven by a reverent curiosity to see this God, this God child that had been predicted to has been born.

They found this prophecy, this ancient prophecy and some ancient scrolls as they searched, They were wise men, they were astrologers, they were interested in the acquisition of knowledge.

And as they paged through and thumbed through the scrolls of sacred writings, they found an Old Testament prophecy that seemed to indicate that there would be the coming of a Messiah or a child king.

That prophecy was in Numbers 24, and verse 17, you can jot that down in your notes.

The Bible says this, it's an Old Testament prophecy given by the prophet Balaam.

There shall come a star out of Jacob, and a scepter shall rise out of Israel.

As the wise men saw the star in the night sky, they were acquainted with the heavenly bodies.

And as they looked, they noticed that this star was different than the other stars.

And this prophecy seemed to indicate that there could be the coming of the promised 1.

In fact, inspiration tells us that they also had dreams that confirmed this curiosity.

The Holy Spirit was leading these men to go in search of Jesus, their God.

In verse 2 of Matthew chapter 2, we actually find the only words recorded in scripture that the wise men spoke.

Is it too far to say that their words would be wise as well.

But if they're wise men, their words must have some level of wisdom within them.

So let's take a look at these wise men and these wise words here in verse 2, just for a moment here and see what they were actually saying For in the first part, they ask this question, where is he that is born King of the Jews?

And then they cite what it is that is encouraging them, for we have seen his star in the East.

And then thirdly, they set a good example that they have Come to do what?

Where is He that is born King of the Jews?

You know, I find it interesting, the wise men did not ask if the Messiah had been born.

They were asking the question, Where is he?

And they came to the group of people who should have been the only group of people that would have known the answer to that question.

For the Jews had been entrusted the sacred oracles of God, the over 350 prophecies of scripture that indicated the coming of the Messiah.

They had that, they read it, they memorized large portions of that.

And here the wise men come and they ask this question, where is he that is born King of the Jews?

The question implies that they themselves were not Jews, for if they were, they would have said, where is our king who has been born?

But no, they say, where is he that is born king of the Jews?

It's stunning to me as I read this story that God had to use Gentile men to remind his people that the Messiah had been born.

The people who had been entrusted with the truths of the Bible, God had to bring these Gentile men from a far distance who traveled over the dusty plains, over desert, over hill, over valley, through rivers.

Wise Examples

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