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let me ask you a question what do you think the wise men and you and me have in common I've been thinking a lot about my lesson I'm going to give today titled what happens when you follow a star and find a stable what happens when you have high expectations I mean this is a majestic star and we followed it for days and then to have it stop and shine on a Cow Shed you talk about disappointment disappointment is the the gap between expectation and reality and the thing that we have in common with wise

men as I was kind of working on this tweaking this lesson earlier this morning I thought to myself well there are things that we could say we have in common with the wise men for example um we all have stables in our life every one of us have had times in our life where our expectation was high and we found a stable we found a Cow Shed we thought I was looking for something bigger I was looking for something better so let's look at the stable in the wise men's lives and then apply it to

ourselves after Jesus was born in Bethlehem Village due to territory this was during herod's kingship a band of Scholars arrived in Jerusalem from the East and they asked around where could we find and pay homage to the new king of the Jews we observed a star in the Eastern sky that signaled his birth brought a pilgrimage to worship Him when the word of their inquiry got to Herod he was terrified and not Herod alone but most of Jerusalem as well Herod lost no time he gathered all the high priest and religion scholars in the city

together and asked where's the Messiah supposed to be born they told him Bethlehem Judah territory the prophet Micah wrote it plainly it's you Bethlehem in judah's land no longer bringing up the rear from you will come the leader who will Shepherd rule my people my Israel Herod then arranged a secret meeting with the scholars from the East pretending to be as devout as they were he got them to tell him exactly when the birth announcement star appeared then he told them the prophecy about Bethlehem and said go find this child leave no stone unturned and

as soon as you find him send word and I'll join you at once in your worship instructed by the king they set off then the star appeared in the same star that they had seen in the Eastern skies and it led him and it led them on till it hovered over the place of the child they could hardly contain themselves they were in the right place they arrived at the right time they entered the house and saw the child in the arms of Mary his mother overcome they kneeled and worshiped him then they opened their

luggage and presented gifts gold frankincense myrrh in a dream they were warned not to report back to Herod said he worked out another route left the territory without being seen and returned to their own country think about the surprise and the disappointment of the wise men who took this incredible journey knowing that the star was significant that that they were going to see the new king of the Jews think about how when they lost the star they wondered what what has happened and their go to Jerusalem thinking obviously there's going to be a new king

of the Jews it will go to King Herod we'll go to the Palace because that's where the king would be born only to find that the king wasn't born in a palace think of the joy they had when they kind of took their Journey towards Bethlehem and again saw the star and the Hope again of we're going to be able to see the king of the Jews and and then think think of what happened when they got to the Cow Shed the stable certainly there had to be some conversation I mean as they were outside

the stable don't you think they looked at each other and said there's something not right about this it's it just doesn't fit it's I mean a cane a kid wouldn't be born here wow do you see these wise men had such great hopes and they came and found a stable and the difference between wise men and most of us is they take disappointments and turn them into Divine appointments they take something that was small and insignificant and they find something that is huge and very significant they find something that is quite disappointing and find out

that it is incredibly enlightening and how do we do this how do we like the wise men how do we in our stable experience because every one of us in this room we have a stable story I've got stable stories in my life every one of you if I had time to come off the stage and if we could walk around or we could have conversations every one of you could talk about stable stories in your life where you had high hopes and then they were dashed you had an opportunity and it vanished it was

kind of like we were set up and then we were set down so let me give you three things that wise men do that every one of us can do it and and let me ask you a question before I give you these things how many of you would like to be oh forget wise men from a wise person huh how many like to be wise yeah I'm just looking at you okay how many of you wish the person that beside you would have raised both hands because they just desperately need oh my gosh wouldn't

it be wonderful if they could get some wisdom okay okay so look at your neighbor and say to them at this moment take good notes and you can become wise go ahead and tell them that okay in fact you can say them this is so important to me I'll take notes for you so how do we turn disappointments into Divine appointments number one wise men look for God in the stable let me talk to you about God perspective now God perspective is what we as Christ followers should have a god perspective is the ability to

see God in every situation it's the ability to to see him in the palace but it's also the ability to see him in a stable because when I look for God in every situation guess what if I look for him in every situation I find him there we see what we're looking for there's a difference between looking at something and looking for something I'm not talking about looking at I'm talking about looking for you see when you look at you can be a very casual Observer when you look for you're very insistent and intentional in

seeing God we see things not as they are we see things as we are how we view things is how we do things if I could do anything for any of us I would help us to have what I call a a god perspective the ability to look at the stables in our life and see God in every situation to look at something but to look for something let me give you examples Jews Joseph as a young brother he looked at the mistreatment of his brothers they mistreated him he looked at the mistreat but while

he was looking at how he was being mistreated he was looking for the god who gave him the dream in fact at the end of his life he would say to his brothers you meant it for evil but God meant it for good how would he know that because in his stable experience he was looking for God in it look at job as he sees the total loss of his family as he sees that he's looking at loss of family loss of possessions he's looking at those things but he's looking for God to give him

strength that's why he could say the Lord gives the Lord takes away blessed be the name of the Lord how can he say that he can say that because he's looking at what's happening to him but he's looking for God in every situation look at David who lives in a dark cramped cave he's looking at the cave that he's living in as he's a refuge but he's looking for God as he quotes the Psalms Paul is looking at prison bars as he's writing letters of encouragement to the Saints how can he do that how can

he be surrounded by prison bars how he's in a stable how can he do this because he's looking at his surroundings but he's looking for God in his surroundings even when the wise men when they came to the scholars in Jerusalem isn't it interesting they were looking at the prophecy they were looking at the scripture but they were not looking for the king it's possible to even be in God's word and miss him where the wise men they were looking for the king here's the problem here we go when we are looking at our stable

the stable that's our circumstances sometimes they're not what we want them to be sometimes we're disappointed when we're looking at the stable but we're not looking for God in the stable we have a challenge we have a problem so when we look at our stable experiences our difficult experiences we have to ask ourselves I know I'm looking at this situation it doesn't look good I don't even like it but it's okay because I'm looking for the god in the stable that's the that's what let's just put this away when you come up to your stable

experience don't walk away from it don't look at it oh my gosh that's not what I wanted that's not what I said I'm out of here don't don't don't don't let your disappointments cause you to lose the treasure in the stable and by the way while you're thinking about it when you when you when you see you're stable don't walk around it no no don't don't say well you know I I'm disappointed but I don't understand what's happening so I think I'll just kind of I'll hang close to it I'm not going to go into

it but maybe if I just kind of hang close to it I'll understand it after a while listen when you have a stable don't walk around it don't walk away from it and by the way when you have a stable experience don't wait on it don't don't hang back and say well it's not what I wanted so maybe I'll give God an opportunity to come and change it you've already missed it he's in the stable he's in the stable you're waiting on him you're waiting on him and he's not knocking at the door he's on

the inside you're missing it I loved our worship this morning it was all about a God that doesn't fail us it was all about a God that can be tested it's all about a God that's already been proven I love what Todd said a little bit earlier the fact that if he never gave us anything else the rest of our life we're already incredibly indebted to him listen to me very carefully don't walk away from the stable walk in it don't wait walk in it go there how many of you have had at least two

or three Stables in your life this year come on now here's the question not have you seen and have Stables we all have to I have Stables you have Stables All God's Children got stable that's not the question what separates us and helps us to be wise is how many of us when we saw the stable instead of walking away from it instead of being disappointed by it looked for God in the stable wow don't miss her you want to put God before you and you want to put the stable behind you but most people

do the opposite they put the stable before them and they put the put God behind him you see immature Christians they only see God when things are good Yeah well yeah God's good God's blessing isn't God amazing now he opened up that parking place for me oh that's just amazing what God does mature Christians see God not only in the good in the palace but he's they see him in the stable the bad the mature Christians really understand and they see the big picture it's nothing is more limiting than when we try to fit God

into our expectations what's the most limited thing I can do is to plan for God you know God I you know we when we pray don't we plan for God because he's so busy we not only have our prayer requests but we give him suggestions come on how many of you have ever helped God come on talk to me we all help God we all well God you do you know like yes I mean you're so busy let me here's two thoughts there and God said oh thank you I I had no idea how I

was going to handle that and until you came along you see what happens is that most of us we want a God to fit our expectations just to be careful if you have a God that fixed your expectations your God is too small because the god that we serve is Way Beyond anything that we could ever ask believe think consider it within our life wow I've had December disappointments back in 1978 Margaret and I had gone through 16 months of adopting a little boy and we were going to receive him at Christmas and the very

first of Christmas I was speaking at a large staff Retreat and had a call and in between speaking I answered the phone and I found out that we weren't going to get this boy that we'd been for 16 months planning on and already prepared the house forward and we lost him we just lost him and and I remember Margaret and I go into a side room and kind of like a green room and crying and holding each other and and then I go back out and I had to talk to the pastors again and continue

to the conference and it was a stable I we had already expected and and and we lost it little did we realize that our son Joel was going to be born three months later the young man that we just spent Thanksgiving week in with in Virginia with his three children and his lovely wife and family and had so much joy and uh don't miss this don't miss this in life we connect the dots we can connect the dots Looking Backward but we can't connect them looking forward that's why trust and obedience is essential in our

Christian walk it doesn't make sense on the front end the Stables don't make sense don't try to make don't try to make sense of the stable don't even try to explain it away in fact embrace the stable embrace it in your heart we were born for Stables yeah we got bad news the first of December and we lost a boy and in March we got great news we got the boy that God had for us wise men what do they do wise men very carefully they look for God in the stable number two wise men

offer their best to God look at the scripture verse here they entered the house and saw the child in the arms of Mary the Mother overcome they kneeled and worshiped him then they opened their luggage and presented Gifts of gold frankincense and myrrh now let me just say this this were these were some fine Christmas presents okay this is not a I mean it's not bad you know what did you get for Christmas well got some gold frankincense got some you know not not this is this is not a bad Christmas now let me give

you the Temptation here's the Temptation don't miss it when we come to a stable in our life something that disappoints us it's not what we expected the tendency is for us not to give our best when we're disappointed there's a tendency for us to kind of withhold not like we're trying to be nasty it's just kind of like well wow that wasn't what I expected and so and so we began to pull back when I was when I was watching today and listening to Todd Julie talk about the Christ's birthday offering I thought to myself

what a beautiful opportunity I have as a member here what an opportunity we all have to bring our first Christmas gifts to Jesus I I love this I I love this Margaret and I have been practicing this for almost 40 years now of our married life when we're we're just been married maybe a dozen years when all of a sudden it hit us that the first gift every year that we should give is not to each other but we should give it to Jesus and and and then what I love is how we do it

here is is we give it we bring it to the church you literally then distributes it to hurting people and people that Jesus loved and died for around the world I mean they don't even keep it they're like a river that we just bring it and then it's gone it's out and it's they're not like a reservoir they're not hoarding it but think of the wise men when they came to that stable I mean honestly I would have been tempted would you have been tempted I would have been tempted at the stable to say wow

I don't know if we ought to put Gifts of gold in a Cow Shed what let's do here's why we'd normally celebrate Christmas we go outside the stable and say look I've already got these gifts let's exchange them among ourselves hey let's have a gift exchange okay oh I hope I get the gold part you know what I'm saying so we're outside and we're having this gift Jesus is on the inside then we're giving gifts to each other that's kind of warped only deluded Christians could do something like that no no when they came to

that stable they said they were so overcome because they saw God in the stable that that they gave they're very very best I I have another stable story along this lines when I was when I was making my change from pastoring of 20 years to to going into what I do now and kind of leaving the church water going into the secular world this was a this was a real challenge for me I had the 10th largest church in America I was written up in a book on the most influential Church in the country and

and and I for 25 years I've been pastor and all of a sudden I don't I'm not I lost that identity and now I'm gonna now I'm going to you know I'm going to write and speak somebody said what do you do well I I write oh good that's nice I speak well I do a little that myself you know so I was talking to God about my stable I I mean I I was leaving my Palace I haven't lived in San Diego everybody knew who it was we had the most influential Church in Southern

California we're the last Church in in California any church to be able to buy over 100 acres and that's another story to build it it was I'm leaving and and I'm going to something small so I'm talking to God about you know I I don't mind serving I just don't like small foreign I want to serve in a grand way and God gave me this incredible little poem it's it's it's it's on your screen don't miss it it's called Little places father where shall I work today as my love flowed warm and free and he

pointed out a tiny spot and he said attend that place for me and I I answered him quickly oh no not that well no one will ever see no matter how well I do my work not that little place for me the word he spoke then it wasn't Stern he answered me tenderly Bethlehem was a little place and so is Galilee that's God's way of telling me shut up stop complaining you can't moan and Lead at the same time get over it get over it and one of the things I did as I got over

it is I made a commitment to privately serve 10 leaders that I admired and I made a commitment that I wouldn't even tell him I was going to serve them I would just be available if they needed me and I so I'm serving these people they don't even know I'm serving them I'm just I'm just serving them and they just think I'm really a nice guy and I'm a good friend and one of the people that I made a commitment to serve was our own founding Pastor here Tom I made a commitment to serve he

didn't have a clue honestly he still doesn't but that's that's issues I can't help you with and explain he did have a clue but I was just doing my best to serve him I'd come down when you were small and I talked to him about church growth and Leadership and and I just served him and we we were in Africa doing some stuff together and he told me that he was a little flat plateaued he wanted to see the church kind of be spiked up but I could still remember we were outside by a a

pool in the hotel in the afternoon before before the evening session I said Tom I said you know what if you want me to Market and I would maybe move down there and if you want me to I I'll every once while teach for you if you'd like that you just think about it and pray about it and he didn't pray at all I'm never say anything like it he just grabbed a hold of me like I was a recruit for a football team or something there was no prayer there was no talking to God

he didn't even discuss it to the Lord I don't even think the Lord knew about it now I'm leaving my identity and everything I'm in the stable of the unknown and look God was in the stable and look at us today and where we are because of that stable experience isn't it beautiful wow the third thing that wise men do is wise men when they come to the stable they change direction in their life it it the stable changes them look at the scripture again in a dream this is after they had worshiped the Lord

they were warned not to report back to Herod so they worked out another route and left the territory without being seen and returned their own country in other words this experience even changed the direction the direction of their life just just one more quick stable story I mean you've got hundreds we all have stable stories the question is Doc do we have stable Stories the question is do we see God in the stable don't miss this don't miss it so I'm still very young in my Ministry and I've had an invitation to to go to

the University of Illinois and speak to almost 20 000 college students and they wanted me to challenge them to answer the calls to full-time Christian service and I was so excited about the invitation and it was bigger than anything I'd ever done and more Grand than anything I'd ever done and so I worked real hard on the sermon and and I'll have to tell you I developed a phenomenal sermon yeah I mean it was really good and I polished it and kept polishing it and finally the day came went to Urbana literally the day afternoon

before I was supposed to speak to this huge crowd of kids and talk to them about full-time service God spoke to me well I'm just working on that sermon getting it ready I can hardly wait God said John by the way I don't want you to preach that message now this was a stinking stable what what do you mean God I want to show up without you all I want you to do is go out on stage and look at those kids and say I know God's already been talking to you in this two-day conference

and you're ready to answer the call and if you want to go into full-time Ministry I want you to come forward and to give put your ID cards on the stage he said really that's all I want you to do and I said oh God you don't understand you don't understand have you have you taken time to look at this message God awesome yeah I've looked at it John I I don't need don't need it don't need you just do what I say now I would like to tell you that I said oh thy sermon

herareth but this servant heardeth but didn't doeth and I could still remember walking out on stage almost 20 000 kids and trying to preach a message that God asked me not to preach it was the most devastating humbling horrible experience of my communication life for three minutes I stabbered and got up there and tried to say things and they weren't coming out right finally I just looked at the kids and said you're seeing a living example of Disobedience to God he didn't want me to preach this message but I wanted to preach this message he

wanted to receive Glory but I wanted to receive Glory and you're going to have to forgive me and I'm going to tell you now what God said to me and I shared with those kids what God said to me and they began to break out an Applause they began to weep they began to come forward 2300 students answered the call to full-time Christian Ministry that night everywhere I travel there is not a month in my life that goes by I don't have somebody to look at me and say I was at Urbana and I came

forward and answered the call to preach that night thank God they never called me Jonah foreign but that experience literally changed my life do not miss this the stable experiences in your life are good for all of us because God is in the stable when you go into the first when you go to the Book of Genesis in Genesis chapter 15 it's so interesting there's a phrase that opens up that chapter it says after these things now God has been in the last three four chapters has been taking Abraham on this incredible journey to be

the father of Nations and he's taking him on the secret and it says after these things and so when you open up chapter 15 of justices after these things you've got to say well I got to go back to see what these things are and after these things met after what things after after Abraham had lied about Sarah saying that he was he was a sister instead of his wife after there was a famine after he had family troubles and problems and squabbles and issues with lot after going years without children that were promised to

him so that he could be a father of a Nation after all of these things and finally Abraham is coming to God and he got to say he said God is the deal still on I mean let's talk god how can I become a father I don't even have a kid and and by the way I can't my life's getting been filled with Stables my life has been filled with things that were disappointing and and I've never really been where I expected to be and I never kind of done what I expected to do God

is the deal still on and after Abraham was looking at the Stables of life God takes him outside and he shows him the Stars the sermon is what happens when you follow a star and find a stable with Abraham God said you've been in the stable too long I want you to look at the I want you to look at the stars listen to me we cannot we cannot connect the dots looking forward only backward we could not connect the Stables we could not connect the Stables looking forward we can only connect the Stables of

our life Looking Backward so if we cannot connect the Stables of our life looking forward what do we need to do we need to have the god perspective as I spoke in the early part of the lesson we need to see God in every stable when I had a beautiful friend who literally his wife was going to deliver a child their first child she died his wife died in childbirth and the child died too lost it all I spent some time with him and he looked at me and said John here's what I've said to

myself a thousand times God is too good to be unkind it's too wise to be confused if I cannot Trace his hand I can always trust his heart we all we all have stables in our life that's not the question the question is do we see God in the stable on all the campuses pastors you can come forward and you can have prayer with each one of the campuses now but I'd like to pray with you how many of you raise your hand and say John I've learned something today what I've learned is that I've

got to see God in my stable and you just raise your hand I got to see God in the stable I got to see God in the stable I I've been I've been looking I've been looking at the stable way too long I've been looking at the stable but I haven't been looking for God bless you Todd Julie let's just pray with this word father we thank you for this word today that has reminded us that you are in the middle of every situation that you're waiting for us there even in the places that seem

disappointing in life and we all have those things gotta we are sorry for the times we've looked around the stable we've been disappointed to even go in the stable we felt frustrated in the stable moments of Life today we're reminded that you're there and I pray that you'd open our eyes spiritually to see you more clearly to see what you want to say to us give us ears to hear I pray for those that find themselves in that stable situation even today this morning I pray that you would bring revelation of yourself I pray and

as we continue to pray with every head bowed if you're here today and you would say um Todd I I need to find God personally I need to have that relationship with him that will help me find peace in the middle of whatever I'm going through my friend is only found in a relationship with God not in religion not in joining a church but in a relationship but if you don't have that relationship today with God Jesus came that's what Christmas is all about to bring us into right relationship and I'd like to pray with

you and if you would say Todd I I need to get my relationship with God right this morning if that's you I'm going to pray this prayer but if you would say Todd include me in that prayer right where you're seated we just raise a hand up and just say yes that's me yeah hold it up high let me see it all across the room all the way in the back yeah yeah those of you online okay we're going to pray this together out loud if those of you with your hands up this is your

prayer today so you prayed a little bit louder after me just pray this say dear Lord Jesus I need you in my life forgive me of my sin for going my own way today I turn my life over to you you are my Lord and my savior and I will follow you the best I know how for the rest of my life Jesus name I pray amen