I just want you to think about it. I'm going to be really quick. But when we have traditions of Santa, you know, we have traditions of toys and lights and Christmas trees and shopping, lots of shopping, songs and food and friends over and family and days off. Amen. We got all those traditions, drinking, traveling, money, money, money all the time. And the truth of matter is, is I think that we care more about the traditions than we do the commandments of God. And when it comes to Christmas time, in this time of year, we care more about the traditions of Christmas than we do actual what Christmas is all about. And so therefore I think we can use that perfect scripture that he just said, Jesus said, you do, why do you? Because they said, why do you, your disciples transgress our traditions? And Jesus said, why do you transgress the commandments of God by your traditions? And so therefore, what, when you think about what the commandments of God's, what the commandment of God is, is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul. all your mind and all your strength. So we know that that is the great commandment of God. But what happens during the birth of God, during the time of celebrating the light of the world has come, celebrating the Messiah has come, celebrating that God is incarnate flesh, Emmanuel is with us, we celebrate everything else more. And that's why I want you to think about that, about the commandments of God or the traditions of men. You think about all the shopping, you think about all the presents, all the wrapping, the decorating, oh my goodness, the cooking, and the baking, and the money, and the money, and the more money, and going to debt. See, when you're like my wife and I, we have 25 grandchildren. So we try to get them all something. And some of them get a lot. And some get a little, but we try to get them, that's a lot. And it's six of our children, and we have four great-grandchildren. And so it's like, it really gets bad. So you break the bank trying to get them a present, which is okay. But if you look here, when Jesus said to them, he said, the commandment of God is to honor your father and mother, but you say, well, I gave him a gift, so that's okay. Jesus said, for the commandment of God, saying, honor your father and your mother. And he that curses father or mother, let him die the death. But you say, whosoever shall say to his father or mother, it's a gift, I've given you something, now it's okay. I want you to think about, and I'm talking to me, this message is for me. If it implies to you, good, but it's for me. And what God's saying to me there is that I can send a gift to my great-grandson, I could send a gift to my son and my daughter, I could send a gift and give a money order or give them little cards, gift cards, but the whole year done long, I don't even talk to them. But during Christmas time, I sent him a gift and I think, okay, that's enough. I did my part. And that's kind of like what he's saying about here. The commandment says to honor your father and mother, but you say, as long as you give him a gift and it's okay, then you're fine. And I'll tell you right now, a gift isn't what God wants. God doesn't want a gift on Christmas time. God doesn't want, and just as we can apply it, this is about God, but we can apply it to our lives today, about our traditions and how important it is to us to have the turkey and the ham and the kebabs and how important, it's important to me. and how important it is to have everything wrapped. I am a stickler, like I am traditions. I do not want to know anything I have until Christmas morning. Don't go tell me to open a present, I don't want to. I want to be surprised, I love surprises. You could put everything you bought me in a bag in my office, in my room, my neck, I won't even look in it. I want to be surprised. And so I have traditions in that way that I want to be surprised. But like our daughter said the other day, we were just going to put all the presents unwrapped under the tree. And I yelled, blasphemy, that's blasphemy. And I said, you have to wrap them. That's the fun of ripping the presents open. There's so much fun at Christmas time, isn't there? Like with children opening presents and just the family over and the jingle bells and it's just fun. But when that is way more than the commandment of God, something's wrong. And I just want to talk to you about that real quick. When you think about, we put Christ on the pedestal, don't we? Come on. We put Christ on the pedestal, high and lifted up, but then we worship other things. We put Christ, Jesus Christ is born, but then we worship other things. And that's really what we do because worship comes from your heart. And the Bible tells us that where your treasure is, that's where your heart is. And where your heart is, that's where your treasure is. And for this Christmas coming up, I want, as we talked about this morning, Christ wants the preeminence in our lives. It's gotta be about Him. I mean, it's gotta be about Him. Of course you can have the other things, but when the other things become the idols in your life, more important than Christ. How many times do we give people a card without putting a gospel track in it? Or, you know, people that are lost don't really even have true salvation yet, because we don't talk about it. We don't even want to bring it up on Christmas morning where we're visiting. And I don't care who you are or where you go. If you're a Christian, you are the light of the world there. And you're supposed to shine the light, not on yourself, never on yourself, not on, but on Jesus. And that's what Christmas is all about. You get up in the morning, you should read your Bible with your children. You should sing Christmas songs together. I don't mean frosty, I mean some good godly Christian songs. There's things that we need to do to put Christ back in Christmas, but it comes from in here. And I want you to think about this is that, you know, putting Christ on a pedestal, but then worshiping other things. Worship means this, the word worship means worthiness. Worthiness, he is worthy of all worship, isn't he? He's worthy of all worship. He's worthy of all praise, is He not? That's why we just gave praises for Him. He's worthy of all of our love. And that is what the commandment is, to love the Lord your God with all your heart. And so therefore we should be loving the Lord and loving with Jesus at the birth of Christ, because we know what He did, why He was born. He came to save our souls and He has done that. And He's there to save our family, and our children, and great-grandchildren, and great-great-grandchildren. I plan being around for them. I plan being around for our great-great-grandchildren. I absolutely plan it. And I want them to know that what I'm about. And I want them to know that I'm about Jesus. And I love Jesus, and I love the songs, and I love the cookies, and I love the rapping, and I love all the traditions, but none of that is before Him. And He's got to be preeminence on Christmas morning. It's got to be about Him. I like how some people have a birthday cake, and they come out and they sing happy birthday to Jesus and stuff, just for the little kids. You know what I mean? But forget the little kids. What about the big kids? What about adults? We've got to make this Christmas morning about Him. And I know every day is supposed to be about Him, and it should be. Amen? But I'm just talking about this, how we make our traditions. And what it means by worthiness is, I'm sorry, worship is worthiness. That means the act of paying divine honors to a supreme being, to adore him, a supreme respect to God. You know, come, let us adore him. How can you adore him if you're only giving him a part of your, if you're only giving him a part of your heart? You know, in Matthew two, look over in Matthew two with me, please. Matthew chapter two, starting in verse one, say amen when you're there. I know Tony's there. Matthew chapter two, it says, now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, In the days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem saying, where is he that is born king of the Jews? For we have seen his star in the east and have come to worship him. When Herod the king had heard these things, he was troubled and all Jerusalem with him. And when he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together, he demanded of them where Christ should be born. And they said unto him, In Bethlehem of Judea. For thus it is written by the prophet, And thou, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, art not thou the least among the princes of Judah? For out of thee shall come a governor that shall rule my people Israel. Then Herod, when he had privately called the wise men, inquired of them diligently what time the star appeared. and he sent them to Bethlehem and said, go search diligently for the young child and when you have found him bring me word again that I may come and worship him also. When they had heard the king, they departed. And lo, the star which they saw in the east went before them, till it came and stood over where the young child was. And when they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy. And when they were coming to the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother. and they fell down and worshipped Him. And when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto Him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh. I want you to think about this, is that they gave Him gifts, but they came and they worshipped Him. He was worthy and they didn't know him. He was worthy to them and they didn't understand what he was going to do. Today's three wise men, they left their home afar. We just sang the song, travel afar. And these wise men came from a very, very far place and traveled to find him to do one thing, to worship him. And on this, at least this one day, this one time a year, when Christmas comes, when we're with our grandchildren, and we're with our families, and with our sisters, and our brothers, and our neighbors, and whoever else, let us make sure we honor Him. and worship Him that they know that I worship the Lord. And they worshiped Him in a certain way. And that's what I want to hurry up and get to is that they gave Him gifts. And I want to think about this. If you could right now give the Lord a gift, would you? We buy gifts for all our grandchildren, right? Would we get a gift for Jesus? Would you get it? I mean, come on, I wanna hear from you. Would you get a gift for him? Yeah, I mean, it is his birthday, right? But if you could, wouldn't you get a gift for him? Wouldn't you do something for him? Wouldn't you grab something, bake a cake, an apple pie? I don't care what it is, something for him. Well, the truth of the matter is, is there is something we can give him. And he tells us right here in scripture what it is, gold. frankincense, and myrrh. And these gifts that they gave were acceptable by God that He put it in all the scripture. And as we know, the commandment is to love the Lord your God with all your heart. So gold, what gold represents is pure love. It means love, it means deity, it's from the king, it means deity. But gold means love, pure love. I'll tell you right now, you know what God wants more than anything? Because He commanded, love the Lord your God with all your heart. So you want to give him a gift, why don't you bring him some gold? And why don't you give him all your heart this year? And don't be about Frosty, and don't be about the movies, and don't be about football, and don't be about food, even though all that's nice. But don't let that be the main thing. We have to come and we have to honestly and earnestly offer him a gift. And that gift is gold. It's gold to him. You know what it is? It's love. I don't know about you, but there's nothing greater than love. Nothing. Nothing. When these little children of ours come over and they give me a hug, my day is great. I would rather have the warm hug of a child that loves me, and I know they love me. than anything else. And so what do you think that comes from? It comes from God, Anton. He wants to feel that hug from you. He wants to feel your love. And so therefore gold represents love and represents devotion. Frankincense, frankincense, what is that? Light it up, frankincense burns, you know, that's what it is. You burn frankincense, you light it up and it burns, it's smoke and the smoke rises up and it smells and fills the room with a smell. And that represents praise and the prayer of the people. God wants you to offer him his love and your praise. That's what he wants. The Bible tells us to let everything that had breath, praise ye the Lord. These are commandments of God. You want to bring God a gift, a real gift, give him all your heart, love him, worship him. Honestly, what, you know, Ed got baptized today and God bless him. But there was people in the congregation that had never been baptized. I tried my hardest of real men. I tried, whether it be a guilt trip or whether it be a conviction, but they won't move. And there's people that have been saved, but they're too embarrassed to come up here and get in the water. They're too embarrassed. And what does the Bible say about that? If you're too embarrassed to do something for Jesus, then you certainly don't love him with all your heart. You're not giving him everything. Can I get an amen? So, I mean, that's what true love is, is, you know, when you're in love with somebody in the old days, remember the guy with the guitar outside the window, the girl, and he'd give, you know, like, how embarrassing is that? But you'd do anything for that person, because you love them. So therefore, praise. Turn with me to Revelation chapter five with me. Frankincense is something that God requires. Revelation chapter five, let me know when you're there by saying amen. Tony's always there that quick. Revelation five, look in verse eight with me please. Revelation five, eight, it says, and when he had taken the book, the four beasts and the four and 20 elders, what'd they do? Fell down before the lamb, having every one of them harps and golden vials full of odors, which are the prayers of the saints. And they sung a new song saying, thou art worthy. Amen. Isn't that what it's all about? He's worthy. Isn't that what it's all about? About you can offer God gold by offering him all your love with all your heart, mind, soul, and body. And you can also praise him and offer prayers. Look in Revelation chapter eight. Let's go over a little bit. Revelation chapter eight, look in verse three with me. It says, and another angel came and stood at the altar, having a golden censer. And there was given unto him much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar, which was before the throne. And the smoke of the incense, which came up with the prayers of the saints, ascended up before God at the angel's hand. Amen. And the angel took the censer and filled it with the fire of the altar and cast it under the earth. And there were voices and thunderings and lightnings and earthquakes. God, we can offer God our praise. We can offer him our worship. We can offer him our prayers. Can we or can we not? Come on. I asked you, if you could give God a gift, would you? And everyone said, yeah, sure. I'll go buy him a scarf, whatever. I'll cook him some cookies. No, He's asking for your heart. He's asking for all your love. And at least on this one day, can we start there? The wise men traveled very far distance just to do this one honoring day. Next week, when we celebrate the day of Christmas, and everybody's off, and everybody's having a time with their family, we, we better give him the preeminence. We better pray. We better worship. We better love, because if we don't, nobody will. And if you want to offer, give God a gift, that's what he wants. And you know what he wants? You know what he gets the most honor? When you do it in front of everyone else. Praise the Lord. Praise Him. He's worthy. Amen. In Matthew 26, turn with 26 with me. Verse 12 and 13. I'm almost finished. See, this is what God wants for His birthday. This is what He wants for Christmas. It's what He wants all the time. I'm just playing around with that. Matthew 26, look in verse 12 with me, please. Jesus says, for in that she has poured this ointment on my body, she did it for my burial. You know what that is? That's myrrh. Gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Myrrh is a sweet smelling ointment that's used in burial and sacrifice. Myrrh, gold, love, frankincense, praise and prayer, myrrh. And that's what, look what happens here. It says, and then that Jesus is saying, for in that she's poured this ointment on my body, she did it for my burial. Jesus said this, verily I say unto you, wheresoever this gospel shall be preached in the whole world, there shall also this, that this woman has done to be told from a memorial of her. You tell me He doesn't like the myrrh? He doesn't like the ointment? He doesn't like you mourning and giving love and praise over His death? Let me tell you how much He wants you to think about His death. He said, do this. in remembrance of me. As often as you do it, it's called communion. And we do communion once a month. And it's such an important thing to God that He wants to commune. And He wants you to remember what He did for you. Because we all want to remember our little baby born. But that baby came to this earth to die on the cross and suffer a sacrifice. So when she broke the box on him and anointed him that filled the room with the smell, the whole room was filled with this giant smell. And all the people there, all the apostles and mostly Judas, there's always a Judas around that thinks that's too much. Saying amen out loud, that's too much. Give Him a shout and a praise, that's a little too much. There's nothing too much for God. You can't, come on, you can't out give Him. You can't out praise Him. Is He worthy of all or not? And that's what it's about, the commandments. You don't want to nullify the commandments of God by your traditions. You see, I know me and I love Christmas morning. Actually, my favorite day is the day after Christmas. When everybody's gone and nothing's around, I don't have to do anything. I can sit around and eat kielbasa all day and watch football and eat cookies. So that is my favorite time, because my whole life I've had children. And it's like, you know how it is, it's hectic, right? Any time all the grandkids are running, it's noisy. It's like, oh, well, you're serving, you're working, you're serving. But the day after Christmas, it's quiet. I'm like, ah, this is nice, amen? And I do, I enjoy all of it. I love Christmas, I do, and I enjoy it all. But I'll tell you right now, what God enjoys is when we give him all of our heart, when we give him all of our praise, and when we pour it all out on him. And what I mean by pouring all out on Mer is if you have a heart, If you've been born again and you have a new spirit within you, you have a heart now. He said you have circumcised you in the heart, that means your heart's tender. I'm just being honest, God changes you. He changes you. I remember I hated going to weddings. I hated going to weddings, especially the wedding part. I couldn't wait to get to the reception for the food and the drinking, you know what I mean? And then when I got saved, I'd see Christian weddings and I'd cry like a girl, man. I saw these young kids coming up, never kissed before. pure and innocent. And they get up there and they're saying their vows. I'm crying like a baby. Also, what happened to me? I was a tough guy. I didn't care about this. All of a sudden now my heart's tender to things that are pure and things that are holy and things that are lovely and things that are honest and things that are good. My heart is tender for them. That's what God, He tenderized me. Amen. So if I can be tender for that, And some people are tender over a little kitten or a puppy or whatever it is, you know what I mean? They're all, aww. But how much more should we awe what Jesus did on the cross for us? That that little baby was born for a purpose and a reason to go to the cross, that his flesh, that little baby's flesh that grew into a man by his flesh being beaten by his stripes were healed. By His flesh that was ripped apart, we are redeemed by His blood that was shed from Him. And so all, yeah, and that's what He said. He said, remember me, remember me. And so when we think about Christmas, I think that we should be wise. I think that we should give Him gifts, love, praise and worship, and most of all, myrrh. we should spend time in just, I don't wanna say mourning, but a time in thanking what you did, because that's what this woman did. It was a year's worth of wages that this ointment was so expensive, and she took it all, and it was a worth of years of wages, and she broke the box and dumped it all on Jesus. gave it all to Him, gave it all. She held back nothing. And that's what I want me, I want me to be able to pour it all out on Him. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Lord, for what you did on that cross. Thank you, Father, for sending your Son. Thank you for saving a wretch like me. Thank you for saving my children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Thank you for every single thing that's good. Thank you, thank, pour it all out on Him, amen? Can we do that this year? Can we be like that? I just want to read this to you. But Second Corinthians 2.15 says, For we are unto God a sweet saver of Christ in them that are saved and in them that perish. We are the sweet saver. God has made us priests to offer to Him sacrifices of praise. He wants to hear us praise Him. Ephesians 5.2 says, And walk in love. as Christ also has loved us and has given himself for an offering and a sacrifice unto God for a sweet smelling savor. What does that mean? If we're supposed to be like Christ, we can sacrifice ourselves for other people. We can sacrifice for our wives. We can sacrifice for our children. We can sacrifice for our country. How about we sacrifice for him and just make it all about him? make it all about him Christmas, because it really is. We know it, but sometimes we don't show it. And many of us have unsaved family members. But they know what Christmas is. They know. The world knows what Christmas is about. The world knows. So what we need to do is just turn the spotlight back on that manger scene. Right, Bob? Turn that spotlight back on who it was that was in the manger, that was God incarnate flesh, that was God. incarnate flesh. God so loved you that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believes in him should never perish but have everlasting life. What a wonderful meaning that Christmas really is, amen? So let's do that this Christmas and that's what I wanted and the Lord wanted you to hear today. But gold, frankincense and myrrh, love, praise and worship and remember what Jesus did for us and remember why that baby was born, amen, and give him thanks. And that's what Myrrh really is, is giving thank you, thank you and hugs and worship and love. Amen, can we do that? Amen, let's bow our heads for a word of prayer. Almighty God in heaven, our Father, we give thanks to you and we give you our hearts tonight. And I pray that we can give you our hearts forever. But Lord, I just pray that you would give unto us your spirit and help us to love you more because you're worthy of that. I pray Lord God that you'd help our minds to be renewed and to think on you more and to give you all of our praise and all of our worship because you're worthy of that. And I pray, Lord God, that you can give us the Spirit of Christ, the Holy Ghost, to remind us of the sufferings that you went through. That that baby that was born in Bethlehem, lying in a manger, where we rejoice and we praise and the angels sang. And now it's our turn to sing. It's our turn to give thanks. It's our turn to worship. It's our turn to tell. Go tell it on the mountain. It's our turn to just let everyone know how wonderful you are, how good you are, and what you did for the world, let alone just for us, but for our children and our grandchildren. Let the love of Jesus Christ, let the gold, the frankincense, and the myrrh be given to you this Christmas morn. May this whole week coming up, leading up to Christmas, may it be all about you. May we give out gospel tracts with every card. May we give Bibles out to our friends and to our family and to our grandchildren with their names written on it. Make it special. May we give out, may we be able to read the Christmas story to our families. May we turn the spotlight and give you the preeminence in all things. Lord, thank you for loving us. Thank you for dying for us. Thank you for living in us now. And thank you for coming back to take us away one day. You are awesome. Thank you for everyone that showed up here tonight. Would you please bless them in their own special way, hear their prayers, comfort their hearts, especially at this time, everyone that's lost loved ones, Lord, as we mostly all have. We have that that yearning, we have that sadness. But Lord, I pray you'd send comfort, knowing that the people that we love, you love even more. And I just pray, Lord, one day we'll all be together in heaven, and we'll just worship you in spirit and in truth now, but then face to face. Lord, I pray, bless this week, bless Christmas service coming up, and thank you so much for all you've done in Jesus' name. Amen.