Awesome, awesome. Well, I am so glad you guys are here with us today as you braved the snow, like I said. That was great. Now, I do have a question though for you. How many of you have or had a two-year-old before? Okay, yeah. So the theological term for a two-year-old is called the terrible twos. That was a Bible joke. Okay, so yeah, so so for me, the twos, my kids, the twos weren't weren't weren't too bad. It was actually for me, it was more like tornado threes when they turned three. How many of you may maybe don't have a two-year-old, but you've been around one, and after being around a two-year-old, you're like, I'm good with having kids. I don't think we need that in my life, you know? So that could be it. So I I got a confession to make. I used before I had kids, I used to be so judgmental to parents who had two-year-olds. I used to see them at the restaurant and their kids are making noise. I'm like, man, what bad parents they are. Man, make your kids shut up. You know, so that was bad, man. Dang, don't judge me. Okay, here you go. But then I had kids, and I recognize, you know, when your two-year-old is out of control, you just start becoming the worst parent ever. You do whatever. Here, take my phone, take candy, I'll buy you a pony, whatever. Just stop making noise. Just stop, you know. But here you go, just stop. Anyways, we're in this Christmas series called The Gift, and we're talking about the gifts the wise men gave Jesus. And you're probably like, Jacob, what does that have to do with two-year-olds? Well, it has a lot to do with two-year-olds because based on many nativity scenes that we see, it looks like the wise men and the shepherds, they all come on the same night. You know, Mary just had a uh a tough night, and then all these people visit her, like she really wants that to happen. But but um, but but actually it didn't really go down that way. The wise men uh would uh when they first saw the star to go visit, they had to travel a great distance with a caravan of people, so it probably wasn't just three wise men, it was probably a little bit more. But they didn't come to see Jesus until he was roughly two years old. They had they had potty training, Jesus. You know, that's that's the Jesus, they had pull-up diaper Jesus. That's what they were they were working with. And so that changes kind of the visual image, doesn't it? Of the wise men bowing down to a toddler. To a toddler. Check this out. Matthew 2 says this when they saw the star, they were filled with joy. And I just want to stop real fast on that sentence. They saw the star and they were filled with joy. I love this because the star represented where the Messiah was going to be, where the Christ was going to be, but they haven't got there yet, but yet their hearts were filled with joy. And I just felt like speaking over some people today. You're going through a dark season, you got some tough things in your life, but keep your eyes focused on Jesus. The situation might not be what you want it to be now, but keep your eyes focused on Jesus, and it will fill your heart with joy, even in the darkest situations in your life. Does that sound good? Okay. Okay. Can I preach a little bit? Okay, okay, okay. Okay, they they entered the house and saw saw the child with his mother, Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasure chests. I like that. They traveled in a treasure chest like the pirates or something. Um, and and they gave him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Now, these are some unusual gifts. These are unusual gifts to give to a toddler. He wants Hot Wheels or something like that. But this is what they give him. They gave him gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Very valuable, very useful gifts, and the gifts also had a symbolic nature to prophesy who Jesus would become. Now, I don't know about you guys, but have you ever received this unusual gift before? You're like, why the heck did someone give me that? That was really weird. Now, I haven't got a lot of them, but I do remember this one time that I did get a very unusual, kind of odd gift. I was uh officiating a wedding. I was officiating a wedding for this couple, and they were super excited to get married, and that's always a good sign. And they they they were super excited, and after I did the ceremony, and after the ceremony, they walked up to me and they were like, Jacob, thank you so much. That was a beautiful message. Thank you for the ceremony, it was wonderful. You just made our day. Here we got a gift for you. And I'm thinking, oh, that's nice. You know, they gave me a little gift, probably a gift card, something to Barnes and Noble, because every pastor needs to read. And so, and so, and so they yeah, so I I opened the little gift bag they give me, and they gave me a shot glass. I don't know what it meant. I don't know what it meant about them, I don't know what they were saying about me. It didn't even come with Jack Daniels or nothing, you know. But that's what I got. That was my unusual gift. That's it. But here you go. So, so the Magi, they come, they give Jesus, toddler Jesus, pull-up diaper Jesus, this gold, frankincense, and myrrh. And today we're gonna talk about this gift of myrrh. Last week we hit on frankincense. Next week we're gonna hit on gold, but today we're gonna talk about myrrh. And I don't know about you guys, but I don't know if you really talk about myrrh in every day of your life. Like, who is myrrh? What's myrrh? Murray? Like, what are we talking about? Um, myrrh is a valuable gum-like substance that's actually used 17 times in the Bible. Occasionally, myrrh would be used kind of as that antiseptic, you know, type thing. But so, so, but why would they give a family? Why would the wise men give this family, this more impoverished family, myrrh? Probably for medical usage, but most likely they gave them this for financial reasons. They could sell it and it would be worth a lot to sell. But here you go. But myrrh, like I said, we see it in the Bible roughly 17 times. Probably the most prominent example of myrrh, other than this, is when Jesus is on the cross. Jesus is on the cross, and they offered him wine mixed with myrrh. And that was to dole the pain, but Jesus rejected that because he wanted to bear the full force and weight of our sins. So he rejected it. More commonly though, myrrh was known as an ingredient to use to embolde the dead. And so, in other words, myrrh would have been used when Jesus gave his life to help prepare his body for burial. So some scholars agree that that this gift represented to us as Jesus as the suffering servant. Jesus as the suffering servant, or another way to put it, as the Lamb of God, as the Lamb of God. And who will who would who would be born to die for the forgiveness of our sins? And so, what I want to do is I want us to take a look at the Old Testament, the He the Hebrew Bible. We're gonna look at the Hebrew Bible today, and we're gonna look at this prophetic message from Isaiah, and he's uh and it's gonna show us how this how the gift of Murrah represented Jesus as the suffering servant. And what does that mean for us, though? What does it mean for Jesus to be a suffering servant? What does that mean for us in our lives today? It means everything. It means everything that the God, the God, get this, the God who made the heavens and the earth, the God that made the sea and all that's in it, that God understands how to suffer. To be human is to suffer. We all go through trials and tribulations, pain and hurts, heartbreaks and things that we just do not understand. And our God is not a distant deity in the sky, but our God is relatable and He understands our suffering. So it has everything to do with us, okay? Here you go. Here now I'm curious, I'm curious, how many of you are football fans in here today? All right, football fans always make noise when they raise their hand. It's a thing. Um, okay, so imagine, if you will, if I had the power to predict what the next Super Bowl will be. Actually, I kind of do have that power because we're seeing it today. We have a preview of the Super Bowl today when the Packers and the Broncos play each other later today. That's gonna be the Super Bowl this year. Okay, anyways. But imagine it would be it would be impressive though if I could predict that the two teams that would be in the next Super Bowl. Imagine though if I could also predict the final score of that game. If you're a gambling person, you'll probably want to be my friend if I could do that, right? Um, so imagine this though. Let's just say, let's just say, for fun's sake, let's just say the world is still here 700 years from now and there's still football. 700 years from now. Let's just say, but imagine if I predicted the two teams that would be in Super Bowl 751, I believe that's what it would be. Imagine, and not only did I predict the two teams, I predict the exact score, and I predicted that AI Tom Brady would be back. No, but imagine if I predicted that, what would that make me? And I got it right. It would make me like a prophet, like no other, right? It would make me so Isaiah, the prophet Isaiah, essentially did something very, very similar to this. He prophesied 700 years before the birth of Christ, a very detailed account of what the suffering servant Jesus would endure on our behalf. And we're gonna look at that for a moment, but first I'm gonna show you the problem, though. I gotta show you the problem. This is our problem. This is all of our problem, it's a very real problem that we have. We have 99 problems. Um then I'm gonna show you the price that Jesus paid for our problem. And Jesus paid that price for our sinful problem so that we could be forgiven and experience eternal life. Okay, so let's start with the problem. Isaiah says it like this all of us, like sheep, have strayed away. All of us, every single word. That that that he the Hebrew word for all of us is everybody. Everybody like sheep has strayed away. We have left God's paths to follow our own. Isaiah says you're like a sheep, and unfortunately, that's not a compliment. It's not, you know, if Isaiah would have said, oh, you guys are all like eagles, you'd be like, okay, yeah, I like that. Everyone's like a tiger, you know. I said, okay, that's good. Yeah. No, no, he compared us to sheep. He said, you sheep. What he's essentially saying is uh we're not the brightest people around sometimes. You know, we we don't make the wisest decision. You know, you can train a lot of animals. Did you know this? You can train a lot of animals, you can train a dog, Paul, you know, that's a good one. You can train a dog, you can train a hamster, you can train an elephant, you can train a pig, and I'll admit it, you can even train cats, even though there'll be no cats in heaven. I'm joking, they might be one or two. Um but you can't train a sheep. You never been to the circus to see the amazing sheep, have you? You never, oh, look at that sheep, look at that trick he does. You know, you never seen it. You can't train, you can't train a sheep. You know, being called a sheep is not a compliment. It wasn't a compliment. We are all like sheep, we have all gone astray. Sheep were basically known for three things. Sheep, they were weak, they were witless, and they were wayward. They were weak, they were witless, and they were wayward. They were weak. Think about the sheep are weak. They're kind of defenseless. These poor little sheep, sheepy things, they can't do nothing. If a coyote or some kind of animal try to try to, a dire wolf, something try to get them. You know, someone comes after a sheep, how can a sheep defend itself? They they can't do nothing. They can't go like they can they don't have magic fangs or something to defend themselves. No, they don't have claws to like to knock off the predators. They don't have an aroma that they send off. So predators don't get them. They just like, oh, take your pick, predator. Give whatever one you can. They're defenseless. They don't have they don't have a good plan. You know, sheep don't huddle, people sheep huddle up and say, just take whatever one you want. So they're weak, but then they're also witless. They're witless. What do I mean by that? In other words, they don't think for themselves. Sheep tend to follow the crowd. Sheep, I actually one time I saw two sheep go out for dinner and they were sitting at the bar, and both of them were just on their iPhones, scrolling. Well, that wasn't sheep, those are real people, anyways. But um, but sheep, they just follow the crowd. They just they just they just do stuff. Here you go. Here's a true story. You can look it up. This is a true story. Okay, in Turkey in 2005, 1,500 dumb sheep fell off a cliff. 1,500 of them. Okay, you say you would think after the first one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, the sheep would be like, hey, maybe we should stop walking towards this cliff. Nope, they all fell off this cliff. Cliff, here's the good news: the first 400 of them died. That's sad. But the rest of them bounced off the other sheep because they made sheep pillows. Okay, that last part may have been a lie, but but uh but it's a true story. This is what sheep do, okay? Yeah, you know, and the prophet Isaiah, he calls us sheep. Again, not a compliment. Sheep are also wayward, they wander, they wander off. Where are you going, little sheep? I don't know. Everyone's going over there. Sheep, where are you going? Where everyone else is buying new shoes. Maybe I need to buy new shoes. Yeah. Sheep, where are you going? Sheep, they just wander away. They go away, which also makes a story, makes the story of Jesus going after the one lost sheep a little bit more powerful because it's powerful that Jesus went after the one. And I'm gonna tell you this, he always goes after the one. Jesus chases the one, he he goes after that one, he picks up that one. But the 99, I like the 99 sheep because they were so familiar with their master, they didn't wander off. And the 99 celebrated the one when it came home. Can LVC be a church that we go after the one and us as the 99 celebrate the one when the one comes to find Jesus? When the one finds hope, when the one finds freedom, when the one finds victory in their lives, can we be the 99 that knows the voice of our father so well that we celebrate the one when they come home? Is that good? Okay, and so so, anyways, anyways, sheep. You don't want me called a sheep. That's what I'm understanding. And when the prophet Isaiah said, We're all like sheep, he wasn't saying, wow. Wow, you're amazing. You're like a sheep. No, he won't say that. He was saying, as everyday people, we need some help, don't we? We need some help. Isaiah continues, he says, all of us like sheep have strayed away when we left God's path to follow our own. Yet, come on, yet, the Lord laid on him the sins of us all. He was oppressed and treated harshly, yet he never said a word. He was led like a lamb to the slaughter. And have you ever been hurt, mistreated, rejected, overlooked, unjustly criticized or misunderstood? Guess what? Jesus understands. Jesus understands your suffering. It continues. He was despised and rejected. The man of sorrow is acquainted with the deepest grief. We turned our backs on him and looked the other way. He he was despised and we did not care. Yet it was it was our weakness that he carried. It was our sorrow that weighed him down. And we thought his troubles were a punishment from God, a punishment for his own sins, but he was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins. He was beaten so we could be hold. He was whipped so we could be healed. 700 years before that ever happened. Isaiah prophesies this. Most of us, we hear the Christmas story and we think, yeah, that was so sweet and holy back then. Back then, for a long time ago. But the question underneath the story is actually, so what? So what? What does a baby born in a manger have to do with the world I'm living in today? What does it have to do with the life that I'm going through right now? Because that baby didn't stay a baby, that baby grew up, he taught us a new way to be human. He suffered, he died, he rose again, and the real invitation is this will we come to him? Will we come to him? What does that mean for any of us? Why do we trust him? Why arrange your whole life around him? Why surrender your habits, your relationships, and your desires and your future to him? Those are the questions that move the Christmas story from an good story to reality, from something you admire to someone you follow. And here's the thing. Here's the thing. Once you actually sit with the magnitude of his suffering and the depths of his love, you can't treat it casual anymore. It can't just be, it kind of goes away from like, I guess I'll go to church every once in a while. I guess maybe I'll sign up for a small group when it's convenient for my schedule. I guess I'll do these things. And it actually begins to change to Jesus paid it all for me. But then all to him I give. All to him I give. And and it's not and it's not, oh I'm just I'm indebted to him, so I'm gonna do these things for him. No, it's because he desires relationship with me, and when I have relationship with my father God, life, life, your life, and my life begins to actually make sense. It actually begins to be a life worth living. It's a life filled with purpose and meaning because, because a life when I understand that the suffering servant suffered for me, that means when I'm in suffering, I'm not suffering alone. That there's purpose even in my pain and my pain. Here you go. So, so so how do we follow him holy, fully with your entire life? I'll try to describe it, but I but I can't I can't even do it justice. But let's start with this. Jesus, he's at the garden. He's at the garden, and this was the place that Jesus wrestled with God, and he had a glimpse of his suffering that was to come. And he said to his disciples, you guys, please, please stay awake. Stay awake. I'm in so much pain right now. You guys stay awake. But they fell asleep. And alone he cries out to God, knowing what's to come. And he says, God, could you remove this cup of suffering from me? And then he fell to the ground. And here this scripture says this Jesus' anxiety levels were so high that sweat, he had, he, he had blood, um, he had sweat drips like like blood that were coming out of his head. Like he was so he, and that's a real that's a real medical thing that could happen to you. You could be so high anxious that you begin to sweat blood. This is this is our Jesus. This he knew the suffering, he knew the cup that he was going to take. It's something is something that you experience under extreme trauma when your blood begins to mingle with your sweat and he falls to the ground. He says, My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. This is how bad it was. Jesus, he He's like, God, can we do it another way? But yet Jesus praised the prayer of surrender. And this prayer, this prayer of surrender that Jesus praised, is a prayer that you and I can pray every day in our lives. We can pray, God, but your will be done, not mine. It's the prayer of surrender. Hey, did you know when you talk to God, you don't have to have a bunch of fancy words? That you don't have to have everything all laid out perfectly. Sometimes it's just like, God, uh, you're in charge, not me. Because it doesn't make sense to me. Jesus says, the surrender prayer, and he prays it. And right after that, one of his own, Judas, betrays him with a kiss. Jesus is arrested, falsely accused, given an unfair trial, sentenced to death by crucifixion. They strip him naked, exposing him to public shame and humiliation. Soldiers press down a thorn, a crown of thorns on his head to mock his kingship. And the beatings begin and again and again, and they whip his back until it's torn open. They strike his face, they take clubs and drive the thorns deeper into his head. And Isaiah implies that they would pull his beard and that his face and his body would be so disfigured that he wouldn't even be recognizable as a human. Then weak, suffering alone. They give him a crossbar weighing roughly a hundred pounds, and they force him to walk roughly 650 yards on a path known as the way of suffering, to be crucified on the cross. And they take the nail seven inches in length and they drive it into his wrists and his feet and they hang him on the cross while his back so bloody, his eternal organs likely exposed, sweeping across the rough, beaten cross. And the only way that Jesus could breathe, the only way he can breathe is to pull himself up. And the only way that he can pull himself up is by using his wrists that have nails driven through it. And it wouldn't be long before his shoulders would be dislocated and his legs would give out slowly and slowly and shamefully naked and exposed as the creation mocks the Son of God. And that was only the beginning. The most painful part was that when the innocent one who had never sinned bore sin, wore sin of the world, became everything vile and filthy and unholy, and he became that, and God in his righteousness and God in his holiness could not look upon sin. And he pulls away the intimate relationship he has with his son. And Jesus cries out in the most agonizing moment, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? And then at that moment, they offer him wine mixed with myrrh. And this could dull the pain. It could dull the pain for a little bit, but Jesus rejects it. He says, No. But then they would use that same myrrh to embolden his body. And then he declares, it is finished. Into your hands. I commit my spirit. And the prophet Isaiah, I want you to get this. The prophet Isaiah said this 700 years before it actually happened. Before this ever took place, he prophetically declared what this child, this innocent one, born of a virgin, never sinned would endure for the behalf of sinful humanity. Isaiah 53 says, unjustly condemned, he was led away. No one cared that he died without descendants, that his life was cut short midstream, that he was struck down for the rebellion of my people. He had done no wrong and never deceived anyone, but he was buried like a criminal and he was put in a rich man's grave. How would Isaiah know that Joseph Aramaeus would give Jesus his grave? How would he know that? Unless it was from divine revelation from God. When he sees all that is accomplished by his anguish, he will be satisfied. And because of his experience, my righteous servant will make it possible for many to be counted righteous. Come on. And for he will bear all their sins. And that's why. That's why him, Jesus, as our great high priest, as our substitute, when God sees you, he sees Jesus. He sees Jesus when he sees you. And just sit for that for a moment. Because the story doesn't start in Bethlehem. It actually reaches back to the Old Testament, back to the moment that we call Passover, where once a year Israel would face the reality of their sin and not in a shame-based way, but in a truthful way. In a truthful way. God's justice would confront the brokenness that was tearing their community apart. And the question underneath is it was, how do you stand in the presence of a holy God when your life is not holy? And the answer was surprising in its simplicity. It was the blood of an innocent lamb. And so a family once a year would choose a one-year-old lamb spotless and unblemished, and they would offer it as a sacrifice, share a meal, and they would put the blood of the lamb on the door frames, on the top, and on the both sides. And when judgment came, it would literally pass over. That's why they call it Passover. Why? Because the household was covered, protected, saved by the blood of an innocent life. A life that was given on their behalf. And if we're being honest, this whole scene is a little strange, isn't it? We don't really understand it. It feels confusing. It feels in even some ways very unfair. But this is how the story works. And God is planting seeds early on, little echoes that point us forward to the cross. Because even in the ancient Passover moment, you already see the shape of the cross. That the blood was poured out for those who did not deserve it. And what separates Christianity from all other world religions is that God will become flesh and he will be pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sin, beaten so we can be made whole. And by his stripes we are healed. There's healing in Jesus. So when you visualize it, these wise men, they offer him myrrh, the substance used to embolde the dead. You understand that God was foreshadowing what was to come. The Lamb of God will be slain for the sins of the world. And Jesus understood this and he prophesied it over himself when he declares in Luke's gospel, and he said, The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, the teachers of the law, and must be killed. And check this out, and on the third day be raised to life. Then, I love this part. I love this part. Get this part. Then he said to them all, Whoever wants to be my disciple, come on. I love this part. This part is so good. Whoever wants to be my disciple, they must. Let me tell you what Jesus did not say. He didn't say, Whoever wants to be my disciple and they pray this prayer, you're just gonna be blessed and have the most prosperous life ever. You're just gonna have so much stuff and things. No, no, he didn't say that. He didn't say, Whoever prays this prayer of salvation, you get to hang out with Jesus in the jacuzzi on vacation all the time. No, no. No, that's not what he said. He said, Whoever believes that I will die and be raised back to life for your sin, they must say to themselves, whoever wants to be my disciple, they must deny themselves, take up their cross and follow me. Like here's the thing, guys. I could preach, like, you know, like, hey man, Jesus wants to make your life best life now, baby. But the best life now is a life that you say, Jesus, because of what you did for me, that you took my place, I lay it all on the line for you. I take up my cross daily. I choose to follow you, I choose daily time with you, I choose to hang out with you, I choose to spend my time with you, God, because you gave it all for me. And that sacrifice, that sacrifice was God saying, I will do whatever it takes to reach them. Because his love for us, his love for us is deeper and wider and higher than we can ever ask, dream, or imagine. So, what does all of this have to do with us? What does it have to do? What is the garden, the agony, Jesus on the cross? What does that have to do with my life? What does it have to do with my stress, my marriage, my anxiety, my secret addiction, my shame, my questions? Well, it has everything. It has everything to do. Because this isn't just a story of something Jesus suffered back then. It's a story of what he's willing to walk with you through right now. That he's with you and for you right now. He suffered with you so you're never alone in your suffering now. He suffered for you so you don't have to carry your guilt or shame another day of your life. He suffered to transform you so that the parts of you that are killing the joy that you truly desire can finally die at the feet of the cross and you can actually live life and life to the fullest. This is not a divine tragedy, but this is divine love. And this is what makes everyday people become followers of Jesus. It's not a hobby, it's not an add-on, it's not something that just helps me feel good when we're all celebrating and standing at grandma's house. No, no. It's God becoming flesh, born of a virgin, whoever sinned, who never sinned, and when we understand that it overwhelms us and it overtakes us, and what did he do? He endured this for you and for your life and for mine, for our lustfulness and for our greed, for when we're hypocrites and when we're judgmental, when we want and when we choose anger over forgiveness. And God sent Magi to give him gold, prophetically declaring that he will be king of kings and lord of lords. Frankincense, that he is our great high priest, that the veil is torn and he gave his life so that we can come boldly before the throne of grace. For a high priest receives us because he understands us and myrrh. And myrrh. That he would suffer. He was suffer. That this child was born to die. And that's why it's called the gospel. Because it's good news, it's good news beyond measure that that our God would do that, that He would send His Son, that He would be crushed for our rebellion, so that by His stripes we will be healed. And because of that, and because of that, today in my life, I can choose joy, I can choose hope, I could choose peace because I serve a God who understands me. And so when I pray to Him, He gets me. When I cry out to Him, He holds me. And when I spend daily time with God, life life begins to make sense. Because He did whatever it took to get to you, and that's beautiful. And that, my friends, that's the gospel. So God, Jesus, Holy Spirit, we thank you, Lord, that you would suffer on our behalf, that you would take our place. Because your love for us, and we can't even wrap our minds around it. We can't even fully comprehend the vastness, the greatness of your love. But we know this, God, that you gave everything. So step by step, Lord, we say we give you everything. We give you our fears, our dreams, our heartaches and pain. And we say yes to you, Jesus. Because often, God, if we're honest, we feel weak. We don't know how to make the right choice. We wander off on our own path. That's like the Holy Spirit is saying. Yet He is always there to receive you back. Always. Always. There is nothing that can separate you from His love. And so God, we receive that today. We receive that nothing can separate us from you. Jesus, thank you for the cross. And thank you that you rose again. Meaning that we can get back up again. If you're in here today and you feel like life has kind of beat you down, man, you just felt you're going through it. Just want to pray this prayer over you. God, restore their joy to get back up again. Restore their strength to fight again. Restore their hope that they have purpose in you again. And though life comes with suffering, Jesus, you pave the way for us to come towards you. So in our suffering, you're with us, you're near us, you're close to us. And so whatever the world throws at us is nothing compared to the relationship that we have in you. So we love you today, Jesus. And we need more of you. In Jesus' name. The church says, Amen. Amen. Come on, let's give God some praise in here today.