Episode 1608: Seeing the Light

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Scott Maderer: [00:00:00] Thanks for joining me on episode 1,608 of the Inspired Stewardship Podcast.

Kim Hamer: Hi everybody. I'm Kim Hamer and I wanna challenge you to invest in yourself, invest in others, develop your influence and impact the world by using your time, your talent, and your treasures to live out your calling. You have the ability to support your person dealing with grief, and one way to be inspired to do that is to listen to this the Inspired Stewardship podcast with my friend Scott

Scott Maderer: Maderer.

See, it turns out we're also better lookers when we're in community, when we're reminded, when we're. Motivated by others and hear the message from others, and that is the opportunity [00:01:00] to really make this year better. Then last, welcome and thank you for joining us on the Inspired Stewardship Podcast. If you truly desire to become the person who God wants you to be, then you must learn to use your time, your talent, and your treasures for your true calling.

In the Inspired Stewardship podcast, you will learn to invest in yourself. Invest in others and develop your influence so that you can impact the world.

In today's spiritual foundation episode, I talk about Matthew chapter two verses one through 12. I share how we can be guided, but we have to look for the guide. And I also talk about how often we get in our own way of seeing the way. Matthew chapter two verses one through 12 says, in the time of King Herod, after Jesus was born [00:02:00] in Bethlehem of Judeo wise men from the east came to Jerusalem asking Where is the child who has been born King of the Jews?

For we observed his star at its rising and have come to pay him homage. When King Herod heard this, he was frightened in all Jerusalem with him and calling together all the chief priest and scribes of the people. He inquired of them where the Messiah was to be born. They told him In Bethlehem of Judea for So it has been written by the prophet and you Bethlehem and the land of Judea are by no means least among the rulers of Judea.

For from you shall come a ruler who is to shepherd my people Israel. The Herod secretly called for the wise men and learned from them the exact time when the star had appeared. Then he sent them to Bethlehem saying, go and search diligently for the child, and when you have found him, bring me word so that I may go and pay him homage.

When they had heard the king, they set out and there ahead of them with the star that they'd seen at its rising until it [00:03:00] stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw that the star had stopped, they were overwhelmed with joy. On entering the house, they saw the child with Mary, his mother, and they knelt down and paid him homage, then opening their treasure chest.

They offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they left for their own country by another road.

You know, I don't know about you, but this time of year, the, the beginning of the year is always really interesting. There's all sorts of ads and messages that come all over. There's ads for fitness equipment and gyms and storage solutions and things to do to organize your house because it seems to be the time to get organized and get in shape.

We all want to hear that we're looking good this time of the year, whether that's physically, whether that's organizationally, we [00:04:00] set these resolutions and times we're going to be doing things to get this year better, to make it ready to go. It seems to be an obsession for some people or a necessity for others, but culturally it seems to drive us more and more all the time.

That's one of those topics that we could talk about a lot of the time, but I want to talk about it in a different way. We also often when we have people that will tell us something like, you know, I'm trying to go to the gym because I wanna look better, but there's another way of being a good looker.

It's almost a stereotype that men will look at things and miss the obvious, right? The opening, the refrigerator, looking for the mustard that's right there in front of them, and until their wife or someone else comes along, they can't find it because despite the fact that it's right there in [00:05:00] plain sight, they're not good lookers in a different way.

When you lose something, can you find it? That is also about being a good looker. And a lot of times it depends on what you're looking for and why you're looking for it. And in this week's passage, we have all sorts of messages about the wise men, the good lookers of the Bible. What's interesting is this story is in Matthew, but the Luke story has a different version yet again, and we always want to try to make things fit.

Luke says nothing of the wise men, and Matthew says nothing of the shepherds or the manger. It's like they're telling completely different stories, and maybe they are, or maybe they're emphasizing different parts for different reasons. Who knows? There's a lot of speculation and wondering, and what would it be like if we had been there?

What would we have [00:06:00] seen? What would we have not seen? How much time has elapsed between the Angel and the Shepherd and Luke, or now with the Wise men? There's different versions. Sometimes up to two years have passed in some historical studies of this, depending on what they assume. Based on what Herod did after the wise men left, they think the slaughter of the innocence, which we talk about in another reading happened later because he talks about killing children under the age of two.

Maybe that's why he asks the wise men, when the children when the star had appeared so that he would have the right age. But Herod in this story is also not a rational person. He seems to exercise power and go to a extreme extremes. So who knows how much time has passed? It could be [00:07:00] a long time. It could be less than we think, but some sense of time has happened because Mary and Jesus have moved from a stable into a house.

Maybe Joseph's family has finally come around and welcomed them in. Maybe something else happened, who knows. But for Matthew, the emphasis and the element that he's drawing attention to is that the lookers were good lookers and found what they were looking for. They were maybe in danger of losing their way, and that's why they visited Herod.

Maybe it was just because they were foreigners in a foreign land, and that's what you did. But when they were following the Star, they were doing great, but then they stopped to talk to Herod and all of a sudden things aren't so good. We need to be good lookers. We need to look where God is leading. God leads.[00:08:00]

There was a star. No one was responsible for it, but God, we don't create our own stars. We don't have to lead ourselves in the darkness. The Bible says there's light available, you just have to look for it, and then we have to follow it, and yet sometimes we don't. We have a decision to make. We have the power to choose to follow it or not.

God doesn't want puppets. God wants followers. He wants relationship, and God keeps leading where we decide to go. He's not forcing us. If we decide to follow, he'll show us. When they stop and ask Harod, they're confused. But when they leave the star again shows them where to go. Not what Herod said, what the star shows.

When you look up, you can find the guide. It's easy or at least simple to [00:09:00] think of it that way. But it's not easy because we trust in our own strength, we trust in our own resources. We trust that we can pull it all together rather than relying on God who's there to help. We have to follow the decision to lift our eyes in community and in relationship with others and with God.

See, it turns out we're also better lookers when we're in community, when we're reminded, when we're motivated by others and hear the message from others, and that is the opportunity. To really make this year better than last. Thanks for listening.

Thanks so much for listening to the Inspired Stewardship [00:10:00] Podcast. As a subscriber and listener, we challenge you to not just sit back and passively listen, but act on what you've heard and find a way to live your calling. If you enjoyed this episode, do me a favor. Go over to facebook.com/inspired stewardship and like our Facebook page and market that you'd like to get notifications from us so that we can connect with you on Facebook and make sure that we're serving you to the best of our abilities with time and tips there.

Until next time, invest your time. Your talent and your treasures. Develop your influence and impact the world.