(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Amen. Continuing our Christmas story series this evening. So one of the missions of this church is not only to, you know, do the first works, of course, and not only to preach what the Bible says, but it's to, you know, learn and learn about the details of the Bible. We should all be, you know, hopefully being in this church, if I'm doing my job and you're doing your job, we should all know and be very knowledgeable about the Bible. And it doesn't take too much to become pretty knowledgeable about the Bible compared to most people today. I mean, most people, what they know about Christmas could probably be explained by a walk through Walmart, you know, and Brother Phil and I were actually talking about out soloing today that the Christmas decorations today look almost very similar to the Halloween decorations actually with the monsters and dragons. I don't know what a dragon has to do with Christmas, but there was one, so I think it was Christmas decoration. But anyway, we're trying to get an idea, and hopefully when we're done with this series, we'll have a good idea of what the truth is and what the details are about the Christmas story, and you know, maybe we can find some application out of that as well. So this evening, we talked last week, or a couple weeks ago, we talked about in the first series, or the first sermon in this series, we talked about the shepherds, the shepherds that went to visit Jesus. They were there at the birth of Jesus, or, you know, shortly after the birth of Jesus when Jesus was in the manger. This evening, we're going to talk about the wise men. The wise men, another group of people that went and also visited Jesus. And the story of the wise men is found in Matthew chapter 2. If you look down at your Bibles, look at verse number 1 where the Bible 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. So the first thing that I want to point out about the wise men were, these were not Jews. And that's kind of our first clue, and it's going to kind of lead us into the point of the wise men this evening. I don't want to give it away, but these were wise men from the east, the Bible says. Look at verse number 2, saying, Where is he that is born king of the Jews? We have seen a star in the east and are come to worship him. When Herod the king had heard these things, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. And he gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together, and he demanded of them where Christ should be born. So Herod sees these visitors come from the east, these wise men, and he gathers all the Jews, he gathers all the religious leaders, the people that know everything. Basically, you know, this tells you Herod wasn't a very spiritual man, first of all. Okay? I mean, we can learn that. How do you know that? Well, I know that because you have all these foreigners that came from the east that weren't Jews looking for the Christ, looking for the king, looking for the Messiah, because they heard that he was born. Well, how do you think they heard he was born? Well, there were some witnesses there, the shepherds maybe, got the word out, and this word had spread. These men came from the east, and Herod didn't even know. Herod's like, What? So he has all his priests and his scribes come and basically teach him the Bible, and teach him what the Bible says. The wise men from the east knew more about the Bible prophecy and the Messiah than Herod did, is what it boils down to. Look at verse 5. And they said unto him, In Bethlehem of Judea, for thus it is written by the prophet. Because he says, Where? They say it's going to be in Bethlehem. And thou, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, art not the least among the princes of Judah, for out of thee shall come a governor that shall rule my people. Then Herod, when he had privily called the wise men, inquired of them diligently what time the star appeared. And he sent them to Bethlehem and said, Go and search diligently for the young child, and when ye 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. So these men, they come to Herod, who's the king, the king of the area, the governor of the area, they ask him, you know, and he talks to his, you know, his priests and his prophet, his scribes, and they tell him it's going to be in Bethlehem. That's the prophecy. Everybody knew that, that knew what the prophecy were. And he sends the wise men, he's like, Okay, go visit him, go find him. They're basically, they've become his spies to go find the Christ, so I can come worship him. We know that's obviously not the case, as we see later on in the chapter. But the question is, with the wise men, which is what we're focusing on this evening, first of all, we know that they're not Jews. And we know, well, how many, how many are there? How many were there, is the question. Were there three? Because that's what everyone says, that's what everyone thinks. Look at verse number 10. The Bible says, When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy. And when they, they were come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother and fell down and worshiped him. And when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh. So first of all, the reason that people think that there was three wise men is because there's three gifts. Okay, so basically, people think that, you know, look, it makes for a nice nativity scene. You know, three guys with three packages with the bows tied up, right? That's, that's where you get your three wise men. But first of all, these gifts, I mean, they're not even a single thing. They're talking about materials themselves. I mean, first of all, you know, just to pause on the gifts for a minute. Most people think that the gifts had spiritual symbolism or, you know, meaning to them. The gold, you know, symbolizing the kingship of Christ, the frankincense, the, is an incense, you know, that's to represent the deity of Christ. And then the myrrh, of course, is an embalming oil. They actually used myrrh on Jesus's body. It was an embalming oil to symbolize the death that Christ would come through. And I'm not, you know, against that. That's not in the Bible. You have to kind of just infer that, which is, it seems to fit very well. But the thing I want to point out here is these aren't necessarily just three gifts. These aren't three boxes of things. These are three materials. Okay, they're materials that come in some sort of quantities. But look, three kings makes for, you know, a nice figurine or something. Okay, so three presents, three kings, that's where that came from. There's even folklore stories that came out that names the kings and all this type of stuff. But look, that's just not in the Bible. Okay, and I'm going to show you that, you know, we can pretty much assume that there was a lot more than just three people here. Okay, and you know, were they kings in the first place? Look at back at, at verse 11. The Bible says, and they weren't even there at the birth, by the way, they heard about the birth, they went and they visited Herod, then they went, they followed the star and went there. And in verse number 11, it says they came into the house, and they saw the young child. So they're in the house and they saw the young child Jesus, it's somewhere between when you look at the timing that Herod asked about when they heard that he would be born. And then you look at the timing of when Herod the children that Herod killed under two years old, he's Jesus is somewhere between zero and two years old here. That's what we know. Okay, so he's not just born. He's not in the manger. They're at his house. The shepherds are not there. This is a separate event. And we don't know how many there are. Okay, look at verse number 12. And then of course, and being warned of God in a dream that they should not return to Herod, they departed into their own country another way. So another thing is who were these people? The Bible says here, what we've seen so far is it says they were wise men. Where do we get this idea of kings? Or maybe you've heard, you know, the Magi? Have you heard this word before used? So you know, what are these men? And where did these other words, these other names for these men come from? Well, first of all, the original Greek word is where people get, you know, Magi. It's Magi and it's translated in the King James Bible as wise men. So they're wise men. That's what we know from Matthew chapter two. The NIV uses Magi. So there you go. So wise men. That's what we go with here. Okay. So they were wise men. Is kings incorrect? Well, kings is not entirely incorrect. But I want to show you that there might have been kings and wise men here. So look at, turn to Isaiah chapter 60. There's a lot of, there's some prophecies in the Old Testament about this event. I don't want to get too deep into this, but I just want to show you that there are prophecies in the Old Testament about Matthew chapter two and these visitors that came to visit the Messiah. So first of all, actually while you're turning to Matthew or to Isaiah 60, let me read for you Psalm 72 in verse number 10. The Bible says this. It says, the kings of Tarshish and the isles shall bring presents. The kings of Sheba and Seba shall offer gifts. Yea, all kings shall fall down before him. All nations shall serve him. Now a lot of people say that okay, Psalm 72 is David. He's writing the Psalm to his son Solomon. Okay, but you definitely could have a dual prophecy here talking about Jesus Christ. And I'm going to show you that that is the case. This is a dual prophecy talking about Jesus Christ. How do I know? Did you turn to Isaiah chapter 60? Isaiah was a prophet that lived 250 some years after King Solomon and he was during the rule of Hezekiah and he prophesied this about the coming Messiah. This is after Solomon, keep in mind. Look at verse number one of Isaiah chapter 60. Arise, shine, for thy light has come and the glory of the Lord has risen upon thee. For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth and gross darkness the people. But the Lord shall arise upon thee and his glory shall be seen upon thee. And the Gentiles shall come to thy light and kings to the brightness of thy rising. Once again, these are not Jews. The same as Matthew chapter two. Verse number four. Lift up thine eyes round about and see and they gather themselves together. They come unto thee. Thy sons shall come from afar and thy daughters shall be nursed at thy side. Then shalt thou see and flow together and thine heart shall fear and be enlarged because of the abundance of the sea shall be converted unto thee. The forces of the Gentiles shall come unto thee. Verse six. The multitude of camels shall cover thee. The dramedaries of Midian. So a dramedary is a camel. Okay, it's a type of camel. So the dramedaries of Midian. So now we're getting some more clues here. I mean, this is just great. We're getting this prophecy that matches up to Psalm chapter 72, but we're getting more detail. That's the beauty of the Bible. It mirrors itself, but you get more details in all these different accounts. So we have a multitude of camels. So we got three guys and they had a whole bunch of camels. A multitude. They had 50 camels. Three guys. Probably not, right? So they had all these camels. This is a clue that there's more than just three people here. Okay, first of all, three. Let's just forget that number because it's just made up. But if you're reading this and you read the multitude of camels shall cover thee, the dramedaries of Midian and Ephah, and they from Sheba shall come, they shall bring gold and incense, and they shall show forth the praises of the Lord. So first of all, these men in this verse in Isaiah were from Midian and Sheba. So, you know, and it does say that they're kings. So it does say in Psalm 72 and here that they, you know, there's kings that shall come. So either there was kings amongst them, there was kings and wise men, or, you know, the wise men were kings. Either way, there was a multitude of these people. They had all kinds of camels. Look, what I'm trying to get you to understand is they weren't Jews and this was an entourage. This was a lot of people. Okay? And they were from Midian and Sheba. So this kind of blows out of the water, you know, we three kings of Orient, you know, from the Orient. Because the Bible says the East. Everyone's like, oh, okay, right? But no, they're from these specific places, Midian and Sheba. Midian and Sheba is to the southeast of Jerusalem. Okay? It's just to the southeast, meaning it's right across the Sinai Peninsula. It's close. And I'm going to show you, turn to Genesis chapter 25, that there's a reason that it was these people that came. Okay? They were close, but they were, you know, technically it was from the east. It was from the southeast. Okay? The Bible tells us it was from Midian, Ephah, and Sheba. So Midian and Ephah and Sheba are in the southeast of the Promised Land. Okay? Now here's what's interesting about this. You know, so kings is not entirely wrong. Okay? You could say kings. Magi is wrong because that's, you know, that's the NIV translation. That's where that comes from. While these weren't Jews, look at, these were not Jews. These were Gentiles. However, here's something really cool. Look at Genesis 25 in verse number 1. The Bible says, Then again Abraham took a wife, and her name was Keturah. And she bare him, Zimran and Jokshan and Medan and Midian and Ishbak and Shewa. And Joshkan begat Sheba and Dedan, and the sons of Dedan were Assyrian and Latushim and Lumen. Now look, and the sons of Midian, now it goes into this, were Ephah and Ephir and Hanuk and Abada and Elda. And these were the children of Keturah. The point I'm trying to make is that these were not Jews, but they certainly had a historical connection to the Jews. These are long lost cousins, is what these are. So it was the Jews first, and then we went to the long lost cousins first. Okay? You know, after the Jews. So look, they're being, you know, this is Abraham's long lost family that's sort of outside the camp. These people to the southeast that the Bible talks about. Now look, it also mentions in Psalm 72 and also in Isaiah 60 and other places that Tarshish was also another place, which is way off to the west on the other side of the Mediterranean Sea. The point being is we can see that the shepherds came first. They were local. And then we went off to Abraham's relatives, but then we can just say that, hey, look, it was just pretty much people from all over coming to see this event. Okay? Like we said, it was probably quite the entourage. Maybe there were kings and wise men together. Maybe they were the same. But messianic prophecy refers to the visitors as kings. So that's not unbiblical. But they're definitely men of renown. And in Matthew chapter 2, it says they were from the east. We know that from maps of ancient times that it was from the southeast. Lots of camels. This was an event. Okay? So there wasn't three boxes. There was lots of things, lots of quantities of gifts being brought to Jesus. Okay? So the question is that's the story of the wise men, who they were, where they came from, what it was all about. The point is this of this sermon. Why the wise men? Just like we talked a couple weeks ago, why the shepherds? Why the wise men? Turn to Romans chapter 1. Turn to Romans chapter 1. I'm going to show you that the reason for the wise men matches perfectly with God's plan for the gospel. Go to Romans chapter 1 and look at verse number 16. Let's look at the purpose and the plan for the gospel. Romans chapter 1, look at verse number 16. The Bible says, For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. Turn to Acts chapter 1. So the purpose, the plan for the gospel was, I mean, what advantage hath the Jew? Well, the advantage was they got it first. The advantage was they had the oracles of God. They had the word of God. I mean, that's quite an advantage. You have a Bible in your hand today, that's quite an advantage that you have. But when it came to the gospel and the knowledge of the Messiah, another advantage of the Jews was they got the news first. And they got that news through the shepherds. The shepherds visited and they went and they told everybody what they saw. So they saw the news first. Look at Acts chapter 1 and verse number 8. Let's look at the intent for the gospel here. But ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, so in the city, in Judea, in the country, and in Samaria, in the closer country, to the north, and to the uttermost parts of part of the earth. Turn to Ephesians chapter 3. So he's talking you shall be witnesses to me in this order. The witnesses to me will be first in Jerusalem, next in Judea, next next door, next to the uttermost is what he says. Turn to Ephesians chapter 3. But what about the Gentiles? The Gentiles, they were godless. They didn't know any of this. They didn't have the oracles of God. I mean, there was all kinds of in the book of Acts. There's all kinds of cultural problems between the disciples preaching to the Gentiles and bringing the Gentiles. You know, what are we supposed to teach these Gentiles? They're living like a bunch of animals. They don't know how to do anything, you know, and what are we supposed to teach them? And, you know, they're, you know, they're getting saved too. And there's, I mean, there was a cultural clash here. What about them? Look at Ephesians 3.6. Well, the Bible says that the Gentiles, that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs and of the same body and partakers of his promise in Christ by the Gospel. Look, this was always the plan. This was always the plan that the Jews, yes, they had an advantage. They had an advantage that they got it first, that they had the Bible, that they knew the Messiah was coming. They knew who he was coming from. They had all the prophecies of everything, but the plan was always to bring the Gospel to the world, to the Gentiles. The wise men visiting from the east were demonstrating this plan before Jesus' ministry even started. It's just, it's a preview of the plan for the Gospel. As the shepherds came locally, and then you have the wise men coming from all around, from the east, and we see that men came from Tarshish and all over, just like the shepherds. And guess what? Just like the shepherds apply to us, the wise men also applies to us. Because all these witnesses, this model that God lays out in Matthew chapter 2 and Luke chapter 2, look, that's on us now. That is all on us now. Jesus left that entire ministry to us. So we have the responsibility of the shepherds, but we also have the responsibility of the wise men. You're like, wow, that's a lot of responsibility. So, I mean, this responsibility of getting the Gospel to our local Jerusalem, we also have the responsibility of getting the Gospel to the uttermost, is what the Bible is teaching us here, and what we can take away from the example of the wise men. So, I mean, we're to reach the local parts first. We see that, in our case, you know, Fresno, this city, you know, for the first couple years of this ministry especially, that's what we're going to do. We're going to reach the local Jerusalem. We're going to reach our Fresno. We're going to do, you know, what we're supposed to do. But look, missions are part of this mission. Missions are part of this mission. This is the latter stage that the Bible is clearly laying out with this model that it talks about in the New Testament, in Acts, Ephesians, in Romans. But look, missions, here's the thing, missions takes maturity, which is why, you know, it's at the latter stage, which is why it's at the end. But, you know, here's the thing, it takes strength. You know, it takes resources to do missions, and that comes from a strong ministry. So it makes sense that it comes towards the latter part, that it's not just a brand new ministry, we'll just start going to the uttermost. You know, that could be a disaster in many ways. But we first start here, and then we go to the uttermost. So look, if you stay with this ministry, this is on the docket, just so you know. You know, this is on the docket, you know, we'll take you to the uttermost here. We're going to go to the uttermost. It's part of the plan. It's part of the plan. You say, when will that be? Well, one step at a time. One step at a time. But it is part of the plan, just FYI. And the plan is laid out here in the story of the wise men. Now look, taking the gospel to the uttermost, it needs to happen. It needs to happen. It's part of end times prophecy. You say, what could we learn about end times prophecy from the story of the wise men? Well, I'm going to show you that taking the gospel to the uttermost is, remember clues and milestones? Remember that sermon? Taking the gospel to the uttermost is a clue. Turn to Matthew chapter 24. It's a clue, but I can show you how you can tell if something is going on or if that clue is coming true or not. I'm going to show you how we can look at that this evening from Matthew chapter 24 and some other places in the Bible. So taking the gospel to the uttermost is what we're talking about. Look at Matthew 24 verse 14. The Bible calls this out and we call it a clue. I call it a clue. I don't call it a milestone because it's hard to put your finger on this one and I'll explain why. Look at verse 14. And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations and then shall the end come. When ye therefore have seen the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place. Whoso readeth, let him understand. I don't think it's an accident that he brought up Daniel in the very next verse and I'll show you that in a minute. But look, here's what he's saying. He's like, when the gospel of the kingdom is preached, I mean, look, we could know when the end is going to be. Did you know that? We could know exactly when the end is going to be. All we have to do is figure out when the gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations. Well, it's hard to put your finger on that one. It's hard. I mean, could you say that the gospel has been all around the world at this point? I think you could say that. Now, could you say that it could be more thoroughly around the world? Of course. Do you say, I mean, you can't really say that there's a Bible preaching church in every city in the world, can you? Definitely not. There's not even a Bible preaching church in every city in California. You can't even say that. Okay. So look, it's really not definitive. That's why I look at it as a clue and not, you know, a milestone. I could just say that's happened. It's not definitive. That's why. But look, it's something to trend. It's something to watch. It's definitely something to look for. I mean, we could say that the gospel has made it around the world. Yes. But there's definitely not a, I mean, it could definitely be more around the world. Turn to Daniel chapter 12. But I want to show you something interesting. I want to show you something interesting. When we take Matthew chapter 24 and we look at Daniel chapter 12, you can kind of see, look, I love trending stuff. I love trends. I just, you know, trends are my life. But look, in Daniel chapter 12, we get a little bit more information about this situation in Matthew 24. I think, you know, we can use this as a measuring stick, you know, not by the gospel being preached everywhere, but we can trend the way things are going. All right. Now, look at Daniel chapter 12 and look at verse number four. The Bible says this. The Bible says, But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words and seal the book. Even to thine time of the end, many shall run to and fro and knowledge shall be increased. Okay. So now we have some more information here. Now we know that many will run to and fro. That means people are going to travel a lot, right? People are going to travel all over the place. They're going to be going to and fro and knowledge shall be increased. Now, that could mean a lot of things. That could mean knowledge in general. I mean, there's a lot of knowledge out there. There's probably more knowledge out there than a person can really deal with at this point. But when the Bible talks about knowledge, isn't it really talking about spiritual knowledge and, you know, the Bible? Isn't it that the knowledge of the Bible would be increased? When God is talking about knowledge, he's talking about this knowledge. So what Daniel is saying here is that many, you know, at the time of the end, many shall run to and fro and knowledge shall be increased. So we can really take that to be like spiritual knowledge will be increasing. I mean, look, and to increase spiritual knowledge around the world, you're going to have to travel. So Matthew chapter 24 doesn't really give us a point that we can say, okay, it's been around the world, met that point. But Daniel tells us that that spreading of knowledge is going to be increasing. So I once, you know, I once I built this control system and I built this control system that could detect a problem faster than anybody had ever found out how to detect this problem. And the way I did it was everybody was just waiting for this level to be hit. And then they would hit the alarms and shut everything down. What I did was I built this system to just watch for the slope of the line to increase. As soon as the slope of the machine operating became positive, I shut it down. And it's like I could tell the future because I could just tell that the thing was starting to ramp up and I caught it before everybody else did. That's what we're doing here. We're looking at this and we're saying, okay, the gospel has got to get around the world for the time of the end. And Daniel says that it's going to be increasing. Well, I can tell you what, after this year, knowledge isn't really, we hit a downward slope this year. We hit a downward slope. Did we go on the mission strip this year? Are people traveling anymore? I mean, people, I mean, travel has almost shut down. You know, mission strips have shut down. I mean, all these things have drastically slowed down. It's definitely not increasing from the last five years. So we've seen a definite shift in direction of the trends. All I'm saying is I'm noticing this. You have to pay attention. That's why the Bible is telling us these things so we can notice things. That's all. I mean, we're not, I mean, look, maybe it's a data point. Maybe everything just goes back to normal in 2021 and it's just a dip in the data point. We just keep increasing. That's totally possible, but it's something to notice. It's definitely something to take notice. I mean, when you see things like, you know, the airlines, the airlines are not going to let people travel unless they have the COVID vaccine. And then you see that 40% of Americans aren't going to take the COVID vaccine and that those 40% are largely the Christians that will be going on mission trips. It gives you an idea that maybe this to and fro is not going to be increasing. And this knowledge, these people that need to go out and spread this knowledge, maybe, maybe it's not going to increase. Maybe it's going to be a, not a short term thing, but a little bit longer term thing. Just notice, just pay attention. Just watch. Like Mark, you know, like Mark 13 says, Jesus doesn't say, pick a date. He says, just watch. So, I mean, when you look at these news things, like the vaccine, look, first of all, I'm not going to go off on the vaccine again, but here's the thing. The vaccine's an IQ test. Just look at it that way. That's what it is. It's an IQ test. And the 40% of the country who are scared to death of dying of COVID, let them take it. It's an IQ test. Let them take it. It's not the Christians. It's not the Christians. Okay. But look, when you see things like this, you can couple Matthew chapter 24, you can couple it with Daniel chapter 12, and you can see a trend shift. And all I'm saying is, you know, we're not going to predict the end of the world tonight, but I'm just saying, watch, notice, hang out, talk about these things. These are things that we should be paying attention to, because Jesus told us to pay attention to these things. So, I mean, and look, if you want to, you know, really dig into these types of conversations, this is just a side note, you got to come early and stay late, because that's when we really get into this deep stuff. All right. So look, I mean, like I said, I'm not picking dates at the end of the world, but I am noticing things. All right. And maybe it's just a dip, and we keep going back to normal. We've talked many times in this church, late, you know, in the circle talking about, you know, I hope that this is just a dip, and then we can have, you know, just get things back to normal in this country. But, you know, we're paying attention anyway. We're not going to get caught flat-footed. Okay. So look, if it becomes the new normal, that's something to pay attention to. That's all I'm saying. All right. That nobody's traveling anymore. Missions trips are just not going on anymore. If that just becomes the way it is for the next few years, you know, that audit, that's going to pop up some antennas in my head, and in thinking about where we're headed here. It's definitely, you know, a sign, a clue to look for. So pay attention. Okay. So look, signs of the times. That's all I'm talking about. All right. So the wise men, the wise men were a fulfillment of prophecy, for sure. Yes. Okay. From Psalms to Isaiah, they were fulfillment of prophecy, but they were also, you know, the beginning of God's plan for the Gospel. And that's, you know, the beauty of the wise men. So look at, you know, Acts 1, 8. I'm just going to read it to you one more time. But ye shall receive power after the Holy Ghost has come upon you, and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in Judea, and in Samaria, and to the uttermost parts of the earth. The beauty of the Gospel, but the work of the Gospel. You know, the thing is, if it was just for the people in that area, if it was just for the Jews, there wouldn't be much work to do. But it's a difficult thing getting a message out, and getting the Gospel out to an entire world. Imagine the work that that takes. And that work has been going on for 2,000 years, by, you know, brave men and women who've been going out and carrying the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the literal dark corners of the earth. Many of them have given their lives to that mission of the uttermost. You know, I mean, what a testimony for your life to die bringing the Gospel to a dark corner of Africa, or a dark corner of South America, or a jungle in, you know, somewhere. I mean, what a testimony of a life. Talk about the question that I ask people all the time when I'm out soul winning, and they get saved, and it's like, hey, do you want to waste your life? Talk about the opposite of wasting your life. It's just giving your life up to the Gospel, giving up, you know, your comfort of your home, the comfort of your country, and going out and just so you can get the Gospel to people. I mean, it's part of our mission, folks. It's part of our mission. Brother Stuckey, he left this country. Think about that. I mean, I think about, I still think about that all the time. I still tell my wife that. I'm like, I mean, Brother Stuckey, I mean, I love Brother Stuckey. He's like, he's as American as it comes, man. You know, good guy. You know, and just, he just left this country. He just left this country to bring the Gospel halfway around the world to a country that desperately needs it. That not only desperately needs it, but is willing to accept it. That's the thing. That's the thing. You go to these countries like the Philippines, and I'm sure there's many other countries like this where there's many other opportunities, but they don't have it, but if it's there, they'll take it. I mean, the problem we have is the opposite. In the United States, we go out, and we'll go out to neighborhoods like we went today, and we'll have it, and it's right there. Nobody wants it. That's the American problem. The problem there is they don't have it. If someone would bring it to them, they would gladly take it. That's why we have to, I mean, that's why Jesus, that's why Jesus all the time, and I mentioned this a couple weeks ago, but that's why Jesus was just like, I mean, when you put it in this type of context, that this is what Jesus was seeing. Jesus saw the whole world. Jesus saw the whole world dying and going to hell every single day. How many people in the world die every single day? I don't know. It's a lot, I'm sure, but I mean, I'm sure we could go through the stats of how many people die every second, every minute, every hour, whatever, but Jesus saw the whole world. That's why he's like, forget your stupid funeral. Forget your, you know, family that's holding you up that's not going to get saved anyway. He's like, look at the world. He's like, look what's out here. It's like people are dying and going to hell. He's like, all these people need the gospel, and he's like, and he knows that they would accept it. He's like, all they need, because I mean, honestly, if you're not some prideful, arrogant idiot, who wouldn't accept it? I mean, if you're a humble, hard-working person just living and loving your family and just living on this earth, I mean, who in the world wouldn't accept the gospel? But it has to get there. It has to get there. The laborers are few. The harvest is plenty. So the wise men, they heard about this through the shepherds spreading the word at his birth, and they went out, they spread it to the world. Bullock, it still is the plan, is the point that I'm trying to make. It's a model. These shepherds and these wise men, it's a model that's true today, and that we carry forward today. That was the purpose. And they represent responsibilities that have been given to us today. You know, we have responsibilities to Fresno, for sure. And we're taking those, look, we're taking those responsibilities. We are taking those responsibilities to Fresno very seriously here. And we're going to continue to take those responsibilities to Fresno very seriously here. But that is strengthening us. That is getting us ready. That is building this ministry to be strong enough and to have the resources to be able to continue this calling of taking the gospel to the uttermost. That's the model of the wise men. And that's going to be our model too. And we're just going to keep adding and adding until we're just a fierce, worldwide machine for the gospel of Jesus Christ. That's the point. That's the goal. That's the vision right there. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.