The Thrill of Hope – Fall on Your Knees
Intro: EVERYBODY WORSHIPS
“You, my friend are a worshipper.” It doesn’t matter whether you’re a Christ-follower
or not, it is what you do all day long, everyday and everywhere. Now, you may not
even consider yourself the worshipping “kind of person,” but you just can’t help it.
According to acclaimed author Louie Giglio: We are all “wired to worship.” It is in our
DNA. As he unpacks what he means, he describes worship in a new way, a way I
hadn’t heard it described before… he says that “worship is our response to what we
value most.” Take a minute and let that really sink in… “Worship is our response to
what we value most.”
In fact, he contends that worship is so universal… so much just part of who we are,
that worship could simply be called “the activity of the human soul.” So no matter
what we think about God, no matter how we feel about religion… no matter what
kind of household we grew up in… each and every one of us worships.
Now, I’m a realistic kind of guy and realize you may be a bit skeptical still, so let me
provide you with some evidence: Check this out…
Video: “Selfie Crazed College Girls Caught on Camera at a Professional Baseball
Game.” (2 min 3 seconds….needs to be cropped)
Now, we ought not be too hard on these gals, because most of us have had our
“selfie” moments with or without a smart-phone in our hands. Because “we all
worship something.”
Series Recap
You might be wondering why I’m talking about selfies in church on the Sunday
before Christmas. Aren’t we supposed to be talking about mangers and wise men?
Well you see, today we’re continuing our series called The Thrill of Hope, where
we’ve been exploring the lines of a famous Christmas song called “Oh Holy Night” to
see how it describes the night Jesus was born.
We’ve talked about the fact that to be holy is to be recognized as sacred…
consecrated for a special purpose. See this was no ordinary night.
We’ve used lines from this classic song as a springboard to explore the meaning of
Christmas. What makes this night “holy?” What sets it apart from every other night?
And we’re discovering that the reason it’s holy is because it’s the night God changed
the course of everything.
Specifically today we’re exploring the line “Fall on Your Knees.” And our goal for
today is for each of us to meet the ONE worthy of our worship.
Why?
Author and Pastor Tim Keller argues that “Everybody has got to live for something”
and if that “something” is not Jesus it will ultimately fail you for two very important
reasons:
First of all, it will enslave you. When I talk about what we’re worshipping, I am
talking about whatever you tell yourself you just “have to have” or your life will be
absolutely miserable. If anything threatens you attaining this “something” it scares
you and if anyone stands in the way of your getting or becoming whatever this is,
you get extremely angry. And if you fail to achieve it you will find it nearly
impossible to forgive yourself.
And second, even if you do achieve it, it will not deliver the satisfaction you
anticipated.
That last line is really important so let me repeat it… Even if you do achieve it, it
will not deliver the satisfaction you anticipated. Now we might find ourselves
disagreeing, or wanting to argue that that’s not true for us… but let’s be honest…
we’ve experienced it before, haven’t we? Haven’t we wanted that one thing so much,
whether it be a:
 Christmas Present
 Promotion at Work
 Relationship
Only to get it and find ourselves feeling unfulfilled? Feeling let down?
Writer and author David Foster Wallace in a now-famous commencement speech
at Kenyon College said to the graduating class:
“Everybody worships. The only choice we get is what to worship. And the
compelling reason for maybe choosing some sort of god…to worship…is that pretty
much anything else will eat you alive. If you worship money and things, if they are
where you tap real meaning in life, then you will never have enough, never feel you
have enough. It’s the truth. Worship your own body and beauty and sexual allure,
and you will always feel ugly. And when time and age start showing, you will die a
million deaths before (your loved ones) finally plant you….Worship power, and you
will end up feeling weak and afraid, and you will need ever more power over others to
numb you to your own fear. Worship your intellect, being seen as smart, you will end
up feeling stupid, a fraud, always on the verge of being found out. Look, the insidious
thing about these forms of worship is not that they are evil or sinful; it is that they are
unconscious. They are default settings.”
By no means a religious man, Wallace recognized the truth that we all worship and
base our lives on something or someone. A short time after giving this speech, he
took his own life and his parting words to us are pretty terrifying: “Something will
eat you alive.”
Now, you may not want to call that something you obsess over “worship.” But that
is exactly what it is. Why, because “we are wired for worship.” Unfortunately, our
“default setting” since the fall, is to worship the wrong people and the wrong things.
As I mentioned before, in this series we are using the words of Oh Holy Night, as a
springboard to explore the meaning of Christmas. And as the carol says, “Long lay
the world in sin and error pining,” But on this night, Christ Jesus “appeared and the
soul felt its worth.”
On this night the “default setting” that had driven the world into sin and error was
exchanged for a “reset button.” And like the Wise-men who came to worship Jesus,
we ought to “fall on our knees” before Him who alone is worthy. Because of that
Holy Night, our weary world still experiences the “Thrill of Hope” and rejoices.
So, understanding that all of us worship someone or something, the important
question we have to each ask ourselves is what or whom will we worship? When
Satan tempted Jesus with worldly power, Jesus response was: “It is written: ‘Worship
the Lord your God and serve him only”-Luke 4:8 (NIV). And no group of people
exemplified this better than The Wise-men.
THE WORD:
Listen to what Matthew the Gospel writer has to say about those wise men:
“After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from
the east came to Jerusalem and asked, ‘Where is the one who has been born king of the
Jews? We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him”-Matthew 2:1-2 (NIV)
Another one of our favorite Christmas carols starts out with the phrase, “We Three
Kings of Orient are….” Several times I played the part of one of these 3 kings in
church pageants when I was a child. There are just three things wrong with this
song:
 One, they weren’t from the Orient
 Two, they were not kings and
 Three, there may have been many more than three.
Additionally, they were not named Melchior, Balthasar and Kasper until 500 years
later. And it turns out, they also were not at the stable where Jesus was born.
You see just a few sentences later in Matthew 2:11 it says…”On coming to the house,
they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him.”
(Humor) You’ve heard what one woman said after reading this passage of scripture,
right? She said, “Do you know what would have happened if it had been three wise
women instead of three wise men who visited the baby Jesus? They would have asked
directions, got there on time, helped deliver the baby, cleaned the stable, made a
casserole and brought practical gifts.” 
Though we may never know for sure who these men were, from whence they came,
or when they arrived, the Bible still holds them forth as a great model for all who
would search for God and who understand the need to worship Him “only”.
When you hear this story, you may find yourself wondering “Who were these ‘Magi,’
what prompted them to undertake such a long journey and why were they so sure
that someone had been “born king of the Jews?”- v. 2.
Well, the term “Magi” comes to us from the Greek “magos” from which we get
“magician or sorcerer,” or one who is wise in reading the stars. By the New
Testament time Magi referred to a broad class of astronomers and astrologers.
It is commonly believed that they came from Media and Persia or what would be
modern Iran or Iraq. As for why they came, in their words: “We saw his star in the
east”-v2. Now this does not mean they looked Eastward to see this star, but that it
was while they were “in the east” that they “saw his star.”
The star is important because it was commonly believed that stars heralded the
birth of kings destined for greatness. Josephus, a Jewish historian and
contemporary of Jesus, wrote of this expectation when he said: “About this time from
their country should one become governor of the habitable earth.”(Wars of the Jews
6:5,4).
Furthermore, the Prophet Daniel, some 500 years before the birth of Jesus,
pinpointed the time of the Messiah’s coming. Living in the same area as Daniel,
these magi would have been familiar with this prophecy recorded in Daniel 9:24.
So you see they saw this star as proof that the time had come for something truly
important to take place… a king destined for greatness had been born and so away
they went.
MAGI FORCED TO MAKE A CHOICE
So upon seeing the unusual star, tying it to Daniel’s prophecy and the building
expectation by the Jews, the Magi set out for Jerusalem. They no doubt assumed
that this “king of the Jews” would be born in the capital city or Jerusalem.
The Bible says: “When King Herod heard this he was disturbed and all Jerusalem with
him. When he had called together all the people’s chief priests and teachers of the law,
he asked them where the Christ was to be born. ‘ In Bethlehem in Judea,’ they replied
for this is what the prophet has written’ (Micah 5:2)….then Herod called the Magi
secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared”-vs. 3-7.
Now we’ve got to understand, this Herod (aka Herod the Great) was a real “piece of
work.” He is best remembered for rebuilding the temple and many other major
building programs in and around Jerusalem. He was made King of Judea by Rome.
He could be a very generous man but was also insanely jealous and even became
murderous. In fact, he murdered one of his ten wives and his two sons. The Roman
Emperor, Augustus said “It was better to be his hus (hog) than his huios (son). A
stinging rebuke!
But who he was, what he had done and the opulence of his royal palace were
impressive and after all, the wise men had come looking for a king. So it would
make sense that they must have wondered, is he the one? Is Herod this King
destined for greatness?
I mean on the surface, Herod had everything… wealth, power, pleasure… a picture of
worldly success. Our friends from the east could have easily have gotten derailed
and distracted on their search for the true “king of the Jews.”
Just like the wise men could have gotten sidetracked, we too can easily miss the
worship of the only ONE worthy of our worship by our attraction to money, sex and
power.
Giglio, who we referred to earlier, recognizes this and goes on to say, “Sure, not too
many of us walk around saying, ‘I worship my stuff. I worship my X-Box. I worship this
pleasure. I worship her. I worship my body. I worship me!’ But the trail never lies. We
may say we value this thing or that thing more than any other, but the volume of our
actions speaks louder than our words. In the end, our worship is more about what we
do than what we say”-Louie Giglio.
See these wise-men looked past all the glamour, glitter and power and knew this
man was not the One for whom they were looking.
“After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen in
the east went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. When
they saw the star, they were overjoyed”-vs. 9-10.
What Now?
You know, the question I find myself asking is when I hear this story is, how am I
going to respond? How are we going to choose to respond to Jesus in the manger…
to that scene the wise men saw all those years ago?
Just try to put yourself in the shoes of one of those “wise men” in the story… will we
choose to bow down to Herod… to those things we sometimes find ourselves
making of greatest value in our lives? Or will we choose Jesus? Choose to fall on our
knees before him?
If you’re anything like me… whenever I hear questions like that my first response is
“What does that even mean? What does it mean to choose Jesus? To fall on my knees
before him?”
I mean don’t get me wrong… it sounds like something we’re supposed to do, right? It
sounds like something that a follower of Jesus should be doing… but what does it
really mean? How do I do it?
Well, I think the wise men actually give us a pretty great example of what choosing
Jesus looks like. So let’s take a closer look at how these “wise men” responded to
seeing him. In Matthew it says…
“On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed
down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with
gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. And having been warned in a dream not to go
back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route.” (Matthew 2:11-12)
So if we follow their example we see them do 3 things that can serve to help us as
we try to figure this all out.

First, we see them “bow down.” What does it mean for us to practically
“bow down” to Jesus? It means that we need to submit to him. It means that
we should recognize Jesus as our Lord. It means that we press the pause
button on all those things we’re chasing after… all those things we choose to
worship and we recognize that HE is the only ONE worthy of all our worship.
We also have to think about why they bowed down. Well you see this is
actually something we see happen over and over again throughout the pages
of scripture whenever someone encounters the divine… encounters
something of God. It seems like whenever people have a brush with the
divine we immediately see them stop what they’re doing and react with
reverence, awe, and respect.
It happened with Moses when he encountered a mysterious burning bush in
the desert:
“Do not come any closer,” God said. “Take off your sandals, for the place
where you are standing is holy ground.” Then he said, “I am the God of your
father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.” At this,
Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God.” (Exodus 3:5-6)
It happened with Joshua, the man leading the nation of Israel, as they began
to undertake a major military operation:
“Now when Joshua was near Jericho, he looked up and saw a man standing in
front of him with a drawn sword in his hand. Joshua went up to him and
asked, “Are you for us or for our enemies? “Neither,” he replied, “but as
commander of the army of the Lord I have now come.” Then Joshua fell
facedown to the ground in reverence, and asked him, “What message does
my Lord have for his servant?” (Joshua 5:13-14)
And it even happened in the New Testament with the shepherds the night
Jesus was born:
And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over
their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of
the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. (Luke 2:8-9)
So our first takeaway here is that we need to stop worshipping all those
things that distract us from the ONE truly worthy of our worship and “bow
down” before Jesus.

The next thing the wise men do is it says they “worshipped him.” Now,
we mentioned earlier that worship is simply “our response to what we value
most.” So the example of the wise men that we should follow is that they
choose to elevate Jesus above everything else. It’s to make Jesus that thing we
value most. It’s to make the decision to not be distracted by all the glitter of
Herod and instead get to a place where we’re ready to “fall on our knees
before Jesus.”

And the final example of the wise men is that they “give him gifts.” Very
simply for us, that means we should bring him our gifts and treasures. Now
my guess is that not many of us are walking around with frankincense and
myrrh, but each of us have gifts… talents… abilities… and treasures that we
could lay down before Jesus. You see, the wise men weren’t just giving him
gifts out of polite obligation. They didn’t do it because it was the nice thing to
do. Instead, they gave him gifts, because they recognized his value… his
worth… his importance, and the only way they knew to respond was to give
him something in return.
As we prepare to celebrate Christmas with our families and friends… with our
parties and gifts… I want to challenge each of us to follow this incredible example
given to us by wise men who knew there was something special about Jesus.
They showed us what choosing Jesus really looks like. They gave us an example to
follow. So the challenge I want to make to all of us, is to choose to:
 Bow Down


Worship
And give him our gifts.
We
The beauty of this example is that this isn’t something we’re expected to navigate on
our own. It’s not something we’re supposed to just figure out in isolation. If you’ve
been around COMMUNITY very long at all, you’ve heard us talk about how
important our small groups are. And one reason we believe that to be true, is
because we believe we’re meant to live life together… in a community of other
people finding their way back to God.
What’s amazing about each of us individually choosing Jesus is that we’re also meant
to do it together…
 Together, we fall on our knees… as a community.
 Together, we realize that it’s not about me anymore.
 And together, we choose to fall on our knees and worship Jesus.