The Quest For Christ
Lessons from Tobit to The Magi
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good morning buenos dias bienvenido okay I'm trying all right I'm sure I'm trying I really am okay that's enough though good morning if you're new here I'm hung Huss my name is Gene I serve here at C3 Church as your lead pastor and I want to begin by thanking Tony I want to thank him for preaching a really good message he's a talented preacher and indeed a blessing to this church family and amen and a blessing to me and my family because every few weeks he gives us a weekend in unheard of thing and pastoral work but he gives it to me so there are so many people here operative in the body of Christ Tony is one of them thank you thank you thank you Tony mentioned that he liked Marvel Comics or Marvel let's see how old I am right Marvel movies with the MCU is that what it's called I'm using big words right but Iron Man in particular so he made mention of the fact that they have the same first name Tony so people can call him Stark not me exactly I prefer Tony's real superhero name Deputy Johnson he's a real life superhero complete with uniform and shield and so he is a blessing not only to this church but to the community it serves so thank you very much for all that you do for everyone involved okay yes that's perfectly fine yes thank you I'm done embarrassing him I did that last week too because he got mad at me but that's another story never again all right we play we have fun so he got me thinking about things from my childhood that I still like and for me oh I did like Marvel and DC I liked Spider-Man I was a big fan of Spider-Man and even had Spider-Man painted on my wall now that would not be allowed today in my house she's like nope I get away with Bibles and guitars they're all over my bedroom wall that's it so that's that's pretty good I'm doing good very masculine type of room she lives in it so we're good but I thought about it I'm like no not Spider-Man I don't need him on my wall anymore the Underoos that would be embarrassing so if you know you laughed you're that old so anyway anyway no not Spider-Man so I started thinking I'm like what do I still like or what do I do video games I am from the video game generation so I right when they started coming out commercially so this is how old I remember pong and it was just like the square and I was like like all over the screen and you had both the controller and the thing and I had it on a black and white TV that was the spare TV so the kid always gets like the hand-me-down so black and white TV I know what that's like and everything antennas so I remember that then we got to the Atari go to the Atari but in my case it was the Sears telegames version nobody left okay so that's like the knockoff Atari that's what that is but the cartridges still work and so that's what I got I got the Sears version of everything so I didn't get the BMX I got the Sears bikes so that's how it was with me just a little complaining anyway moving on I had the Atari cartridges worked and there was a specific type of game that I came to like which I still liked today I like a good quest game they'd call them like a Sandbox gamer an open world game I like a good Quest though and I like everything about the quest sometimes you'll get these Quest items and you got to use them for a certain thing and I can remember the first quest game that I can remember I'm not saying it's the first one but it was literally Adventure you want to play that game Adventure and it was cool but it was not it was cool for the time because you were represented by this little square that was you and you didn't have hands or anything when you got close to the quest items like the key you you would just kind of be with you and it would stick to you somehow I don't know and it had a dragon but the dragon didn't look anything like the dragon on the box or the cartridge no the dragon looked like a pixelated duck looking for a handout if I'm being honest it was really so now look it up and you'll go wow that's pretty accurate it is but here's the thing it's like a magic about it it would still scare you so it's like a little Dot and like no you're like run away like scroll scroll scroll and the duck is coming so it would be like exciting and then the video games evolved and we got good graphics and they became more complicated so now your quest items would have an effect on you you know do I use this what's it going to be used for later and then you have a carry weight and you can only carry so much stuff unless you have like the special backpack or something like that and whatever and so you have to make decisions there was a lot of thinking you know what could this be used for so that was my favorite Quest items and Quest games I still play them when I have the time so my daughter as she grew up she began playing video games this made me happy I'm like oh there's at least one thing we can do together so we're coming I don't understand anything else you like so anyway she liked them but what was funny is when she first started it was right around the time Minecraft came out and so it was really funny because it's like a regression in graphics you know I was like what you know so I'm like everything like my wife would come out playing a game she's like what are you watching I'm like I'm playing this to me you know it's like this is really amazing the graphic and so I walk in I see this game for the first time and I think did you find my Atari you know like what happened here I thought Mom sold it with the Star Wars toys at the garage sale right I could have put you through college on that anyway literally so quests today we're going to be looking at a Biblical Quest and so let's keep um just at the beginning of this our sense of humor had on just just just throughout the beginnings we we warm up to this topic it's going to get kind of interesting so to recap we looked at so Tony's message then we looked at Esther and along with Esther we looked at Judith now some of you just stay calm stay in your stay in your seats it's going to be okay just stay with me I'll do some explaining what this now brings us to if we're looking at the Bible of the early church is Tobit again some of you stay calm remain in your seats all right if that's not funny to you that's awesome because I really don't have to disclaim or anything but we're going to look at some history today so Talbot is a book that is not in all Bibles now but listen carefully it was a part of the Bible of the early church and remained a part of the Bible for 1800 years of Christian history think about it so a lot of Christians don't regard this as scripture about 40 percent but forty percent of Christians do not regard this as scripture but sixty percent do so it's kind of interesting we'll get there in a second um whatever your standpoint is and that's fine non-denominational church that's it you can be a Christian and believe it scripture or not fine we're not we don't argue about that stuff here we keep the gospel at the center that's the important stuff the other stuff just like the meat sacrifice to Idols if you know your bible really well if you don't don't argue with me anyway until it's a popular story which we can glean lessons from and so that's the point here now if there's a one-room schoolhouse so there's some of you you just don't care you're like right just tell the story you don't have to explain it all right some people don't even read the Bible at all some people do read the Bible some people believe it's scripture and you're going yes we're doing tell a bit some people are like I'm gonna set on fire and so this is really more more for that group I just want to bring you through a process that I went through several several years ago and so I want to kind of take you through a process if you don't care history lesson you're going to learn a little bit of History here it's going to get a little interesting all right so I'll get back to the jokes we're definitely going to get to Jesus today that's where we're going to land the plane there all right but let's just put the history hat on and just be a little open here so I'm trying to come at this for those of you who have been here for a while we're like we know just I'll come at it from a little bit of a different angle to keep you entertained right so here's what we'll do when I was done with Pastor School and I was ordained I continued my studies but I started thinking because I realized that I grew up Catholic and then I came into protestantism I realized that we were saying we were a non-denominational church but we were not we were coming at it from protestantism which is fine there's nothing wrong with that that's great that's where I was coming from but I realized I was we were really just like kind of a mashed of a you know Methodist Baptist church and then when you know uh charismatic people came and yeah we do that too you know it was just this crazy mess but our doctrinal statement was Protestant that's what it was I realized that I'm like huh did anyone ask why like what we're not really non-denominational and so that got interesting I was like we're lying this isn't true so I started by saying okay let me look at what the Bible says church should be and then test everything and so I got really annoying to the leadership right so let's why do we do that why do we do that why do we do that why do we do that and what does it say here and bring everything back to here and I realized and this is not just protestantism this is just every denomination they're not all right I'm like wait a minute that's not biblical and so I started looking at it going through then there was a natural progression because I want you to logic hat now on think about it while they're writing the New Testament they don't have the New Testament it's kind of weird right to think about that the gospels aren't being written as it goes it's within a witness period and I've talked about that very solid very Loctite but it's not there yet so the early church might not even have the gospels and they talk about this and so certain people have First Corinthians and they're they were copying it fervently because they didn't have other letters from Paul so you'd get a letter from Paul Phoebe might bring it in they're like wait and they're like they literally wash off the Papyrus and they'd start copying the letter that's why we have so many copies we have so many early copies and they were diligent they were really careful to make sure they got it exactly right they believed it was the word of God and they were dying for it literally so you start forming the Bible but you realize when you're looking at early church you have to look at the church just beyond the New Testament right because what do they do how did they interpret some of these things and so one of the things that I started to look at and I got really into was Biblical history like what did the Bible look like as the apostles let's just say Jesus saw how what did it look like to them and so if you know me I have a passion for ancient Greek that's why because everything's being read and written in ancient Greek and so I began looking at the Bible of the early church early manuscript copies or early fragments church early church fathers talking about it you know dialoguing between letters and what did it look like so there are two things that now just if you're also coming from a Protestant denomination blew my mind like totally like I couldn't believe it two features one should have been obvious because if you read your Bible from the beginning that is the introduction they tell you some of these things and it's also all over the footnotes all over the place and I'll show you that later the first thing the whole Bible from Old Testament to new is on Greek not Hebrew Greek they believed it to be a superior translation that pointed better to Jesus and indeed you need to read the Greek Old Testament to get certain prophecies about Jesus it's not in the Hebrew that was the first thing okay that's interesting but then I went back to my Bible I was like oh they're telling me that and the whole time so anyway that was the first thing the second thing depending on what copies you were looking at and I was recounting again it's a lot it's 14 to 16 extra books of the Old Testament the New Testament is no different but when you go to the Old Testament and you look at now here's the thing no no be honest with you here here was what some denominations can do to you that's why we're non-denominational they can kind of being honest I was a little brainwashed because think about the flawed thinking here that I'm going to take you through this is what I did and look at the Bible I have in my hand and I'm like okay I'm clearly given the facts like this is what Jesus and the apostles were looking at well they must have gotten to this this is better think think right think though carefully what I'm holding in my hand you know 1500 years they definitely got it right what like Jesus and the apostles did not have it right that's interesting and so it but I wrestled I'm like okay so I started looking through history I'm like well somewhere along the line they must have got to this you know must have figured out you know Jesus you were kind of wrong about your Bible right and I kept looking in here's the thing I got to the 300s same thing 14 to 16 extra books starting to hurt it goes to Latin they retain the old books it's not a Catholic thing Catholics not till 10 54. this Schism so it's all before that Latin 405 Jerome the extra books are there so I kept looking at it this must be a Protestant thing because Martin Luther must have fixed this so I looked at 1560 Geneva they're all in there yes they're English Bibles Matthews as well before the KJV so I get to the King James Bible 1611 King James Bible they're in there uh oh then I did the history Martin Luther said they're good to read he didn't think there was scripture they're good to read he said what this is interesting in fact what I found out was can you put the KJV if it wasn't up yeah so that's that is my 1611 King James Bible there's Tobit right there now it remained in all Bibles until the mid-1800s uh-oh so this is interesting right let's use round numbers Christianity 2000 years old round numbers about what what is that mathematicians for 1800 of that 2000 years all Christians were reading them I would say the majority 90 of Christian Christian history there and there now we talk a Bible study why they're not there's really no good theological reason at all and I've studied this thing like backwards and forwards for many years none there's no reason for them not to be there so I will get into it a little bit later a bit of a dispute got them taken out but logic right let's think about that the Bible redacted so here's another thing that should blow your mind if you're really into theology or you came from where I came from you're not non-denominational yet or you're working your way there open-minded there are references in the KJV and what the references do is when somebody's saying something or someone might be quoting something the translator will give you a reference they'll go this is what they're quoting in the Old Testament perhaps right or this is like that he's saying it again so well this really got me is in the New Testament Luke there are at least two examples in the New Testament there are references to Tobit that's interesting sermon on the plane the translator is not me the translators of the 1611 KJV are saying Jesus has this in mind or he's quoting this from Tobit sits over there probably Midway on the page that's unbelievable the other one will look at he's talking about a wedding Feast where you have to invite the poor and the blind in particular this will get interesting they're saying referencing Tobit kind of interesting so if you come from that background it really is and you know Tony knows this too it's it it's kind of like mind-bending you know because you've been told and then you realize hold on a second you know you've got to arm yourself with the facts and so there's a lot of like I know what I know what I know because someone told me and so everything I'm saying fact check it fact check it open your own Bible vet your sources but look at the facts and you'll see these are just all facts it's interesting so we encourage you here and this is a funny thing and kind of an irony that you know that was an early Christian tradition in protestantism that was the thing right think for yourself that was kind of the point think for yourself read your own Bible don't just do things because someone tells you but over the years I think it just went don't think for yourself just believe what we say implicitly careful right so Christians regardless of where you are I'm done you should take an interest a lot of Christians Pride themselves people Pride themselves and being well well read and educated and able to talk as well interested in classic Works correct so how much more should a Christian be interested in reading a book that was in all Bibles for the majority of Christianity just for the sake of being well read and on that point you're probably going to hear Handel's Messiah you might not even know it but you'll probably hear Handel's Messiah this year he'll be you're on a commercial and he shall reign forever and right so Hallelujah so popular song well handle also put out an album called Tobit so people would have known about this you might have heard of a guy named Rembrandt he painted about the story of Tobit we're going to get to some of these things too so it's a part of being cultured and educated right so look at it that way all right so Tobit placement where it is probably not chronological it gets placed in a bunch of different places I think there's a second Rembrandt there and there you go very famous one uh it gets put sometimes usually around Tobit or Judah or sorry Judith and Esther Tobit is in there in the Bible probably not a fictional story or it's a non-fictional story right so probably not uh someone was laughing because you probably know what happens in the story but the weirder things happen in the Bible so I don't know right but it would be around the time of the Assyrian Exile so I'm going to hop right into toe bit I'm not going to do any of the verses on the screen until we get to a certain point I'll just kind of uh paraphrase the story it's 14 chapters it would take a while if I gave you every single detail I'll give you the points right so Tobit begins kind of like Nehemiah and he's writing the first person he's talking about himself and he takes you all the way back to the split Kingdom so we'll go back in the series a little bit so they have like their Civil War if you remember correctly and so the north you have jeroboam in the north rehoboam that's Solomon's son and he's being punished for Solomon's many sins there's a divided Kingdom ten technically in the north two in the South but we'll get into that a little bit later so Judah South Israel North in Judah they have the temple and that's the appropriate place you got to go if you want to worship three times a year so to take pilgrimages but his tribe naphtali is not doing that so they are worshiping like the the the calf Idol that jeroboam built this one's in Dan there's another one in Bethel he says they're going to dead so his relatives are going and doing the false Worship in Israel jeroboam is making a political move to keep them in the north and not have them go to the South and lose his army or his population whatever so he's doing the right thing so immediately I think of Nehemiah right like not me I was the only one in my tribe who wasn't partaking in that and going to the real Festival so you get this air right out the gate there's a lot about maybe you know the word almsgiving right so it's like kind of a giving to the poor there's a lot of Charity going on he's a very charitable person he takes you up to the time of the Assyrian exile and so this is where he's going to get taken away into captivity he mentions he has a wife his wife's name is Anna and his son's name is Tobias and this is where it starts to get a little confusing because Tobit Tobias and now you're gonna have all these different names and if I get all the names right it's only by the power of the Holy Spirit today because it's very very difficult so they're taken away to Nineveh sound familiar so in a Syrian City now he makes Mansion of this guy Gabrielle who he gives money to so right think about it he's going to be taken away in Exile so it's like 600 pounds of silver she has a lot of money right and he puts it in the care of this guy gives it to him because he's being taken away so now he makes mention that he has a habit of burying the Dead that may sound weird but he takes us back to shamanizer and sneakareb and if you remember the story of Hezekiah he doesn't like the Jewish people and so what a lot of these people would do are these Assyrian conquerors and any of these armies they would kill dead bodies maybe you've seen it in the movies or you'd have these dead bodies you know like crucified along the road or impaled along the road supposed to strike fear in the heart of your opponent that's the idea but what toe bits is doing he's saying oh a Jewish person I have to give them an honorable burial so this is a big thing he likes to do he buries the dead so it goes on and on about this but sinekorib finds out he's okay with his dad or the predecessor but sennacherib comes into Power he doesn't like it he finds out about it he finds out it's Tobit and Tobit has to flee he loses everything essentially he's away from Tobias and now his wife Anna so if you remember the account what happened and it kind of says this during hezekiah's time what happens is the Lord kills 185 000 of them and then he flees he goes away and then his sons kill him so we see that happen here dremelic and shirazer I think his name is so a new uh Assyrian Emperor becomes king Esser Hayden under Esser Hayden Tobit lucks out because his uh nephew a higher car he becomes like some high official I think he's in charge of all the money and so his nephew allows him to come back through him so now he's back and they're celebrating the families we're United everyone's really happy so what happened is he has a feast and I remember this one and he tells Tobias his son go out and find someone who is poor someone who is needy we're going to do this charity we're going to invite them to a feast when we have a feast I believe it's the Feast of Weeks they're celebrating so he's being charitable but when Tobias goes out he doesn't find a poor person he finds a dead body in the marketplace and so so but hears about it and he's going to do his thing so he goes out to bury the dead and everyone's like are you crazy this is what got you chased away in the first place he hides it in his shed he finishes the feast in sorrow he goes out buries the dead again are you nuts like this is what got you chased out of here in the first place but it just shows his character he's going to constantly be very good so comes back in he's tired and he falls asleep in a courtyard what he doesn't know is that there are birds above him and the birds poop in his eyes again not the weirdest thing we've seen in the rest of the story right but still weird and what happens is it blinds him and he's blind for four years now hayakar's nephew takes care of him for a couple years but then he's gone and so now his wife Anna has to work and it brings us to a really funny scene where Anna is selling garments and so to one client she sells a garment and they give her a kid a goat that's an old word for kid a goat as a present she comes in it's like he hears it and immediately accuses her of stealing it and so they have a domestic right so they're going back and forth they have a fight about it and at the end though she wins she rebukes him so now and so there's two paintings that's the Rembrandt there and so now he has a prayer it's like the self-loathing prayer it makes me kind of laugh because it's one of the things he loses an argument but like God I just want to die you know I'm blind it's really funny but it the store has this air of Comedy you know irony and comedy in it and so I just want to die kill me Lord I'm done being blind I'm done with this world so he's praying about this and this is the basic topic of the prayer now like kind of a good movie there's a cutaway scene to a new character right after this and they're going to do similar things it's Sarah Sarah has a different issue every time she tries to get married like on the wedding night this jealous demon as modus comes in and kills the husband that's a problem it happened seven times to this poor girl but she's getting no sympathy a servant of her fathers I believe is making fun of her you husband kill her you'll have no child you should just die and so she's like yes I should she makes a decision to go and hang herself but she decides no I'm my dad's only daughter would send him to his grave right and then he'd be embarrassed and then they'd make fun of me still even in death right so she decides not to but does the same type of prayer but you know what God kill me I'm done with this so that they can't make fun of me anymore that's the point so now it's two characters God hears the prayer so he sends an angel Raphael to help them and he's going to solve it goes through everything he's going to solve the whole thing Well everybody's problems is going to be self so he's sent there to do that all right so Tobit thinks he's going to die he gets to buy us in he gives us big long set of instructions sounds like a lot of Jesus is teaching while you get a lot of those references sounds exactly like it gives them oh treat others the way you want to be treated gives them all these different instructions and so then he says you know what ah the 600 pounds of silver Gabrielle right and uh Rogers I think so go to media and get it Tobias I've never been to Media I don't know how to get there okay go find a traveling companion he does sure enough first person he meets Raphael but he disguises himself he calls himself azarias and doesn't want anyone to know he's an angel there's a back and forth yeah I can get you there goes and meet the dad back and forth with the dad that's very skeptical but finally convinces him yeah I'm one of your Kinsmen it's all good I'm going to take him there and everything's going to be fine so this is the mission to get the money and so here we see they're they're off on a mission they miss artwork and there's a dog and the dog is mentioned very specifically and I believe uh the writer did this very intentionally because a dog is going to represent what friendship companionship loyalty so if you haven't yet identified with the characters if your heart hasn't yet been drawn into the story it will be now I guess dogs I'm a dog person so you know it did for me I was like oh the dog cool you know when you picture the dog like running along right awesome so now we're on a quest with a dog so this is great I'm in love with this story so here we go we're going to see now Quest items so they stop on the quest right and they go to the Tigris River to wash their feet I want to be clean they're going to wash their feet and something that seems strange happens a fish comes up and tries to bite tobias's foot but think about it there's these weird shows that I pass by I don't watch them all the time but I see them from you know like there's people they stick their hand in the mud and was it a catfish comes up and is that am I right you know I'm like that's weird but so it's a thing right the fish will try to bite your hand and that's how you catch it not for me anyway it's just weird right so but that happens it's a real thing Raphael the angel Save the Fish we need it why okay because it's heart liver and gallbladder have medicinal purposes okay save them they salt the fish eat some fish take the Salted fish with them continue on their Journey Quest items so here's the thing though what are they for glad you asked so Tobias asked the question like what's this for and he's lucky he has an angel with him who knows so he's like listen the heart and the liver it can be used to chase away a demon interesting okay and then the gallbladder to cure someone's eyes so no light bulbs yet Tobias you know so not really but then he tells them Raphael tells him about Sarah the girl who was praying and says Ah we're going to make a pit stop there EK batana so you remember that from Judith maybe so we're going to make a pit stop there and you're going to get a wife and The Inheritance and everything just the way the Old Testament worked just sounds strange to us but back then she's kin right so she has to marry you good deal but Tobias is like wait I heard about these seven guys I don't want to be eight right so no I'm scared I'm not doing it and so you're wondering against the reader right like so but he's not getting it and that's intentional and so anyway it'll be fine you'll do it so they finally get to this guy raguel and Edna maybe where the name came from raguel and Edna and they're super nice and everything and they welcome them into steaks remember it's just a pit stop and so they're going to stay there and there's this kind of conversation like Tobias is um he's talking to Raphael like basically you know when are you gonna get again talk to raguel about the daughter like he's excited young man he's like yes it's really weird in the story too it says he fell in love with her before he even meets her he started to fall in love with her you know he's like you picture a young man like oh you know so anyway you know he said he's yeah but the dad overhears and he's kind of like um yeah you're right she's Kinsman but uh let me tell you a story about seven dead guys right so you know and then he's like no no I want to marry her anyway okay so they get the marriage contract done and they're going to do it right so here comes the wedding night but really funny feature in the story before the wedding night and they go out and they dig a grave for Tobias that's a really funny feature in the story they dig a grave from like and and just paraphrasing the wording's kind of like yeah it would be kind of embarrassing if this happens again so we're gonna just dump this body off and like get rid of the shame right so that's really the motivation for doing it okay so it segues to this this uh wedding night what happens is this is kind of like an all-in-one there's a bunch of things happening at once you can see the demon being taken away so he's obedient and he puts the heart and liver on the incense the smoke chases away as modius he goes to Egypt it says specifically but Raphael goes and binds him binds the demon so the next morning they find the young couple and they're alive so everything's really good and so this leads to a two-week Feast but then Raphael is sent to go get that 600 pounds of silver so go get the money I want to get that part of the journey done with the quest finish that part because I got to get back to my parents and so this whole thing there's the parents are worried the parents are worried and it's always back and forth that's what's going on here so now they're headed back with a dog again so that's kind of interesting they mentioned the dog again they get back tendon of a long story short immediately Tobias uses uh the heart and the liver to the gallbladder chased away the demon I probably got that wrong gallbladder chased away the demon heart and liver heals the eyes now I'm doubting myself anyway could be wrong so there it is there's a painting of it I believe it is the gallbladder heals the eyes but what's kind of cool here is it will remind you if you read uh your Bible a lot it reminds you of Paul and acts where the scales come off his eyes it's kind of an interesting little foreshadowing perhaps so that's what happens Rafael he Reveals His identity they're really scared they're like oh it's an angel don't worry everything's fine the angel ascends to Heaven chapter 13 you get tobit's song of Praise we'll go back there in a little bit and then there's an epilogue Tobias dies at the ripe old age of 117. Tobit is a love story which acts as an icon a picture of God's love for us point and it may make you think of John 3 16. God loved us so much also he sent his one and only son so there's a foreshadowing of God and sending his one and only son Jesus as Sarah is saved through this son Tobias likewise we are saved the father sent the son to save us also tobias's bride is seen by some especially in the early church it's like a picture of Christ in his church so this is what a lot of commentators in the early church would say now speaking of brides we're going to get to the New Testament we're going to bring it to Jesus here Luke 20. if you're familiar you have the parable of the tenant Farmers another story Jesus kind of makes up right so if the tenant Farmer's there so they're killing the prophets is the thing and he sends his one and only son and they kill him too gets to another famous question do we pay taxes or not give to Caesar what is Caesar's the Pharisees ask a question in the Sadducees ask a question Luke 20 27 then Jesus was approached by some Sadducees religious leaders who say there is no Resurrection from the dead they posed this question teacher Moses gave us a law that if a man dies leaving a wife but no children his brother should marry the Widow and have a child who will carry on the brother's name well Suppose there were Seven Brothers the oldest married and then died without children so the second brother married the Widow but he also died the third brother married her this continued with all seven of them who died without children finally the woman also died so tell us whose wife will she be in the resurrection for all seven were married to her now what they're getting to is the resurrection so Jesus corrects them on that you're wrong about what you believe about they don't believe in the resurrection this denomination of Judaism they don't believe in it so he's correcting God is a god of a living right so that's the point but on the story does it sound a little familiar this is why a lot of early commentators on it all throughout Christian history will make the note the other way from this Tobit or Tobit to this so there you go some of the scriptures that kind of line up there there's Toba and Matthew Mark it's three times and your Bible happens there in the Gospels the point of the story though is that God will look after anyone who seeks him and observes his laws we can see Tobit doing this Tobit gives us a picture of a family seeking God first and then seeking out these things with God's help right so Tobit sought to restore his fortunes so Tobias was seeking this then seeking a cure right of the quest items seeking a bride Raphael is sent by God to help them and in this way God seeks us it's a picture of God seeking us so it's a two-way street what we're seeing here but here's the thing I'm going to bring up something interesting and then we'll get there it has been said that no one is seeking God now if you know the word well you'll go ah Romans 3. indeed Romans 3 10 as scriptures say no one is righteous not even one no one is truly wise no one is seeking God all if turned away all have become useless no one does good not a single one well Paul is quoting and you can pick it either Psalm 14 or Psalm 53 they're almost identical certain parts of some the beginning and I want to show you Romans 3 did we get that here we go that's a screenshot of my smartphone I just want to make a point that I made earlier it says specifically if you click on the little bubbles or you read the footnotes they tell you Paul is quoting what the Greek version of the Old Testament not the Hebrew so it's right there in front of you the whole time so that point is being made here but here's the problem unfortunately this verse is quoted out of context and coldly to those who want to keep Christianity a hard Country Club to get into no one's seeking God what does that mean when we just hang on that and stop there means we don't have to do worry about evangelism too much we can keep our little inner culture the same right no we don't need to make a Seeker Friendly Church let's keep the hymns you know don't relate to the younger generation this is always the way we've done it for a hundred years right it wasn't the way it was in the early church so the Bible also says we are to seek him and I just put up a whole bunch we did Psalms right so Paul's quoting some so there's a whole bunch of Psalms there right that says we are to be seeking God and also in New Testament Hebrews 11 6 at the bottom and it is impossible to please God without faith anyone who wants to come to him must believe that God exists and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him so what's going on here quickly because this is important but I'll do it quickly because I've done it before in order to understand our Bibles we must understand literary devices hyperbole being one of them talked a lot about this we cannot do everything Jesus said to do literally otherwise you will not be able to read your Bible you will have plucked out your eyes you won't be able to turn pages because you have cut off your hands Bible cannot always be read literally no and so that's one thing hyperbole paradox two seemingly contradictory statements but when looked at in context makes sense I'll show you an example of how the Bible does this immediately and another Verse of the Day problem Proverbs 26 4 don't answer the foolish arguments of fools or you will become as foolish as they are five be sure to answer the foolish arguments of fools or they will become wise in their own estimation anyone anyone you know like I got this and I was like yeah let's try that again right but people just read one verse a day so it's maybe not a problem for you this won't come up like five won't come up for like three years you know what I mean wait which one be sure to none of these no this is not the verse of the day so you never saw it not your problem mine so what's happening here both sides of the coin right we talked about this throughout the series right both sides of the coin there's a time for almost everything Ecclesiastes right so both sides of the coin you have to be able to see that there's a time for everything so a time to argue with some fools and a time to not argue with some fools so whatever I just say more often than not just don't bother with the fools if we go to Luke speaking of a coin go to Luke 15. so right after a parable of the Good Shepherd right seeking out one sheep out of the 99 God's seeking us we get one about a woman in a coin Luke 15 8 or suppose a woman has 10 silver coins and loses one won't she light a lamp and sweep the entire house and search carefully until she finds it and when she finds it she will call in her friends and neighbors and say rejoice with me because I found my lost coin in the same way there's joy in the presence of God's angels when even one sinner repents these are God seeking us right so here's a really good example of how we really need to keep reading we should not interrupt Jesus because as Jesus continues he's going to get to a very famous conclusion and you should be looking at this conclusion in light of the other ones and the other ones in light of this because they're both sides of the coin the two Parables seeking seeking now check this out to illustrate the point further let's say you just started there right you should be going what was the other forget it right so Jesus told them the story a man had two sons the younger son told his father I want to [ __ ] I want my share of your estate now before you die so his father agreed to divide his wealth between the sons a few days later this younger son packed all his belongings and moved to a distant land where he wasted all his money in Wild living use your imagination so we know this story right we call it what the prodigal son I want you to think about something so what happens he squanders all the money right just to let you know if you haven't heard it before squanders the money and he thinks to himself he takes a job like farming but they won't even let him have like the pig food the carob pods so he's like uh I'll just go back to my dad I'd rather be a slave for him and I'm going to tell him father I've sinned against heaven and you forgive me let me be your slave so he goes back and we see a picture of the Father Like embracing waiting for him and welcomes him back has a feast and his brother's a hater but anyway the point here check this out when you start the parable you need to think how does it start yes everyone always has the scene right so when you think of the product you think of the scene of the father like and the boy like running toward him that's a picture you get in your head wait what about the beginning the father lets the Sun go think about it then the sun has to seek the father ah did you see that important this is Jesus's conclusion yes God seeks you but he'll let you go and you'll need to seek him it's up to you to get yourself back to him remember that we are to see God think about it this way more logic if no one is seeking God not even one then everyone is disobeying Jesus Matthew 6 33 seek the kingdom of God above all else and live righteously and he will give you everything you need one point to one more interesting story and it'll make sense because some of you are probably like where's the Advent wreath are we starting that soon we'll get to that tradition later and I'll correct it but anyway just listen okay I'll talk about it in a minute but we'll get there so let's just go to Toby I want to take you to a part of and just trust me you won't go blind if you read it it just we're going to look at it Tobit 13 it's a part of that prayer and he predicts a future for his people a bright light will shine to all the ends of the Earth many nations will come to you from far away the inhabitants of the remotest parts of the earth to your holy name bearing gifts in their hands for the king of Heaven generation after generation will give joyful praise in you the name of the chosen City will endure forever a bright light will shine sound familiar what during this time of year happens kind of like that where there's a light or a star in the sky the people from other nations are coming following to bring gifts for the king of Heaven Matthew 2 1. Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea during the reign of King Herod about that time some wise men Magi from Eastern lands arrived in Jerusalem asking where is the newborn king of the Jews we saw his Stars it Rose and we have come to worship King Herod was deeply Disturbed when he heard this as was everyone in Jerusalem he called a meeting of the leading priests and teachers of religious law and asked where is the Messiah supposed to be born in Bethlehem in Judea they said for this is what the prophet wrote Malachi and you owe Bethlehem in the land of Judah are not the least among the ruling cities of Judah for a ruler will come from you who will be the Shepherd Of My People Israel then Herod called for a private meeting with the wise men and he learned from them the time when the star first appeared he told them go to Bethlehem and search carefully for the child and when you find him come back and tell me so that I can go worship him too right after this interview the wise men went their way and the star they had seen in the East guided them to Bethel him and went ahead of him them and stopped over the place where the child was when they saw the star they were filled with joy they entered the house and saw the child with his mother Mary then they bowed down and worshiped him they opened their treasure chest and gave him Gifts of gold frankincense and myrrh so some translators will Point Tobit to a Matthew quite interesting yeah quick digression before we close during the holiday season so here's the thing and if you've been here for a long time I'm going to make it's going to be short you're gonna hear and go oh no here we go again we don't sing We Three Kings and it isn't because when you sing it you sound like Sam eagle from the Muppets that's not why it's because it's not biblical they're not Kings that's the first problem there's only two kings the evil King Herod and King Jesus in the story their Magi astronomers like like magicians they're not Kings also it doesn't say three kings there are three gifts there could have been like a thousand Magi going so it's just wrong and wrong here's another problem and then I'll finish I'm done I promise all right the manger scene we're going to get to it minds are going to be blown it's going to happen because I'm going to show you how the Shepherds come first and then like two years later the magic icon oops so your remains are seems wrong like someone's like he's killing me something else yes I'm not like the Grinch so here's the thing you can have your pastor said you can have the manger scene you can keep the manger scene just make the magic I do Elf on the Shelf for a little while that's just get them out of there right or keep them in there if you like living a lot so anyway that's the truth so I'm not anti-christmas traditions we have a lot of we have a lot of fun that's three emails we have uh we have a lot of fun and just quick quick quick quick quick mention we love family here at C3 Church and so I realize we have a Christmas tree in the back and so look and here's what I do it doesn't belong here it doesn't belong here nothing nothing but Jesus belongs here does it it doesn't so you see what I'm saying but it can belong in your home and we have beautiful Cafe if you've never been here before we're gonna eat my wife made Thanksgiving after Thanksgiving I paid greatly for it I'm surprised I can talk to you right now so anyway she makes delicious food we have tons of food upstairs come on up there there's games for the kids and then we're gonna have the kids help us set up the tree so I am not the Grinch okay so now we're gonna have the kids do the tree so bring your kids up there let's play there's games so I'm into all that stuff right I have a lot of fun I told you I play Quest video games like I like that stuff but right here this service is for Jesus to sit it's not for the Magi it's not for the Traditions it's not for the Christmas trees or the Advent wreaths all those things came later and they distract us Jesus it's all about Jesus somebody can just say Amen that was where I needed you right all right so what's the point let's boil it down here and then we'll go eat we'll have a feast during this season we must keep in mind that when we show Grace compassion and mercy especially to those who don't seem to deserve it we are not just bringing gifts to those people we are bringing gifts to the Lord that is how we worship right so we're like the Magi in that sense so in our pursuit of the Kingdom the season we must remember that if we have followed and found the light that we are now to be the light for others that's how this works others seeking it so as we ourselves continue to seek the kingdom of heaven we need to be a Guiding Light for the Lost and we shine most brightly through our actions Tony talked about tipping it's just a good starting point right but it's a good thing to think about because it's a situation where you may be tempted to sink someone doesn't deserve my tip he brought this up they don't deserve it in that moment I want to encourage all of you you didn't deserve God's grace and mercy either and this always needs to be right here especially during this season so I see a lot of Christians are out there saying we need to keep Christ in Christmas really well then do what he said right it's not a bumper sticker on a car it's not it's not a Christmas tree Jesus would not have known about Christmas trees it's not about that it's about extending that grace and mercy to others bringing them a gift or like the almsgiving so we need to think about that and see here's the thing and I think he brought this up or I'll attribute it to him anyway when we do that something might happen the person might go why did they do that I think that was a point right why did they do that I did a bad job I treated them poorly yet they tipped me 30 percent what here's the thing what if that question becomes the beginning of that person's quest for Christ think about it people Tony sees it out in the community they're seeking Godly things they are they're seeking and when you treat them like that they see Christ through you right so it's a seed it's a quest item we want people to find Jesus Through us we have a purpose that's it so just remember this your action this season this week could be the very thing that Sparks someone's quest for Christ we pray for you Lord thank you thank you for this church I thank you for all the people in the church allowing us to be a Guiding Light to the community around us and a blessing to those around us and it's just my encouragement I pray that you fill us by the power of your Holy Spirit to be Vehicles instruments of your mercy your grace and your love this season knowing that this is truly how we keep Christ in it I ask these things in Jesus name amen