Light To Point The Way Series

“May I help you?” Sometimes those are the most welcomed words I could hear, in the right situation. Sometimes, I really want to hear them…

It’s usually in a grocery store the size of the moon, and I’m wandering around looking for something that I’ve never had to find before. Or, I’m in Crimson Ridge, not really sure why I’m even in there in the first place. Or, I’m visiting a hospital, and I’ve managed to go back down on different elevators, to the wrong floor, and at the end of the hallway where I’m headed a sign says something like “Hospital Personnel Only.” Nope. Can’t go there!

So, on a good day, if I wander around with a confused look on my face long enough, someone in the know might say to me, “Do you need help finding something?”

Yes! Yes, I do! What tipped you off, the desperate expression on my face, or the fact that I just passed by here for the 4th time now? Yes. I need help. I need someone who knows something to point me the right direction, or, better yet, to walk with me to where I need to go.

Then, when I’m out and about, and I pause long enough to look at peoples’ faces, or actually to strike up conversations with them, I see there are a lot of people who are in that very spot in life. Lots of them are looking for something they haven’t found yet, and, many of them aren’t even sure what it is they’re looking for. Some aren’t sure why they’re here at all. Some have a destination in mind, but along the way they taken a wrong turn or two, and now they find themselves hopelessly lost in places where they didn’t mean to go.

We’ve all been there in one sense or another. It’s just that there’s a difference between being unable to find the reconstituted lime juice in Woodman’s and unable to find what you ought to do about your marriage that’s coming apart or how to raise your strong-willed child who’s about to become a teenager or how to deal with your reoccurrence of cancer.

And then you wandered into CCC on the Sunday before Christmas. Maybe that’s not the norm for you, but you did it, and there were people there who seemed like they really care. There was singing and worship together, different than anything you see anywhere else. Then this guy got up, talked about life lived for Jesus, and all of this together gave you a glimmer of hope. Maybe, just maybe there is something here that can help point you the right direction.

You’re not the first. No, you’re not alone. In fact, you’ve probably been staring other people in the face who are in the very same place you are. They may not appear to be hopelessly and aimlessly wandering, but they could use some pointing in the right direction.

What if someone could point you to the thing you are looking for most in life? What if you suddenly were given some indicator…

That’s the backstory to the guys usually referred to as “The wise men.” There’s a title used for them, so, I’m going to toss it to you this morning and suggest you learn it and impress or bother your friends with it. It’s “Magi.” Without further ado, let’s read everything the Bible has to say about them, in 12 verses.

Matthew 2:1-12

After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem 2 and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.” 3 When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. 4 When he had called together all the people’s chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Messiah was to be born. 5 “In Bethlehem in Judea,” they replied, “for this is what the prophet has written: 6 “ ‘But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for out of you will come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel.’” 7 Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared. 8 He sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and search carefully for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him.” 9 After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen when it rose went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. 10 When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. 11 On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. 12 And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route.