Christmas: Presence > Presents [Part 3] God With the Seeking

1) The seekers God draws may surprise you.

• They see a sign first, not a sermon. God uses what they know to draw them to what they don’t know.
  God will find a way, even when there seems to be no way.
  
  

2) Half-hearted religion resents what wholehearted seekers rejoice in. (Matthew 2:3,16; Micah 5:2)

• The contrast: the ones far away move their whole lives; the ones next door won’t walk six miles.
  
  
• Bible knowledge without obedience grows a hard, religious heart. (James 1:22)
  
  

3) Seeking ends in surrender, not some vague spirituality.

• Worship means bowing and bringing, not just feeling.
  
  
• Gold – has been considered the most precious of metals and the universal symbol of material value
  and wealth. It was also a symbol of nobility and royalty. Pointed toward Jesus as King.
  
  
• Frankincense – was a costly, beautiful-smelling incense that was used only for the most special of

occasions. Origen, the great church father, suggested that frankincense was the incense of deity.

• Myrrh – was also a perfume or incense, not quite as expensive as frankincense, but nevertheless valuable. Mixed with other spices it was used in preparation of bodies for burial, even Jesus’ body. Pointed toward Jesus’s humanity.
  
  
• When Christ is King, your path, your priorities, and your plans change. (Jeremiah 29:13)