John K. Jenkins Sr - Lessons From Some Wise Men

And when they had come into the house - Matthew chapter 2 , verse 11 says, "When they had come into the house," I am reading the eleventh verse of chapter two of Matthew. When they had come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary, his mother, and fell down and worshiped him. And when they had opened their treasures, they presented gifts to him: gold, frankincense, and myrrh. I want to talk about lessons from some wise men. Somebody say, "Lessons from some wise men." All right, you can be seated.

The Gospel according to Matthew records in these early chapters some of the history regarding the birth of Jesus . The second chapter lays out the fact that some wise men who had followed the prophecies about Jesus understood that he was to be born at a particular place in time. They wanted to know the exact location, and so they were directed and instructed; in fact , they followed a star. They knew by virtue of the prophecy that the time was coming for the child to be born; the Messiah would be coming, and King Herod had inquired about the birth of this so-called King named Jesus .

The Bible says that Herod instructed these wise men to go and find out exactly where the child would be born and where he was. He told them to find the child and come back and report to him so he could worship the child also. The reality of the matter is, he was not going to worship the child; he was going to kill the child. I need to talk about this for a moment because everybody who acts like they're in your corner is not always in your corner. Can I get an amen right there?

But amen is worthy there because you gotta be careful-cuz everybody who pretends to act like they love you doesn 't really care about your well-being. I had to learn that the hard way: that everybody who's with you is not really with you. Everybody who's in your neighborhood, in your vicinity, is not genuinely your vicinity.

And so these wise men, I love these guys . They depart , and let me give you the gist of the story very quickly-in 30 seconds, then I'm gonna come back and look at some pieces of it that I want to examine. They go find the child, present gifts to him, and they have the information about where the child is. But the Bible says in verse 12 that they were divinely warned in a dream that they should not return to Herod . They were going there to find the child with the instructions under the authority of the king, but they were given instructions by a vision, a warning, a dream from God-not to go back and report to the king.

As a matter of fact, the scripture says they departed for their own country by another way. See, some of y'all, I want to talk about this because these wise men did some things that brought them benefit; they ended up going in a different direction . Now, some of y'all's lives have been jacked up, thrown off from the floor up, messed up, and it's about time for you to take a different direction. Look at your neighbor and say, "I'm tired of the way I've been going; I need a different direction."

Let me try that again; I think five of y'all might have said it. Let 's try it again. Go ahead and look at your neighbor and say, "My life is jacked up, thrown off from the floor up; I need to go in another direction." Maybe it's just one person, maybe just four people-I'm preaching to somebody here today who's tired of the way your life has been going and the direction you're headed in. You 're looking for something different; you're trying to find a new direction. You 're tired of the drama, tired of the people you're hanging out with, tired of the way your life is. Tired of the way your marriage is , tired of the way your children are behaving, just tired of life. But God wants to send you in another direction!

We have some lessons to learn from the wise men who got a revelation-a dream from God-that headed them in a different direction . Somebody here today, your 2015 is not going to be the same as your previous years. Yes, it's still going to rain in 2015; it's still going to be our season of rain, amen. We're still going to have rain. I can tell y'all there are so many things bubbling in the arena of the First Baptist Church of Bernard, and there's so much about to break through . I can't quite say about it yet, but 2015 is going to be an incredible year for the First Baptist Church of Bernard. There are some things that are not yet known; I can't disclose it all yet , but God-listen, let me tell you something-God is working.

There 's something stirring in the atmosphere for First Baptist that's going to propel us forward about 15 years. Somebody ought to say something's about to push you ahead about 15 years! I can't wait to tell you about it, but I can't reveal it today . Amen! I feel like jumping and shouting when I think about it right now . Amen! I wish I had somebody who could shout with me, even though you don't know it, even though you can't see it , but you say, "I'm just trusting God with you, pastor." These wise men teach us some lessons about life. I want to take a moment and look at them-they're all in verse 11 right here. Three things they teach us in life .