[0:00] This is the morning service at Holy Trinity on the 21st of December 2003. The preacher is Paul Dudley. His sermon is entitled Following a Star and is based on Matthew chapter 2 verses 1 to 12.
[0:25] Thank goodness we've got some boys and girls here today. Here comes some more. That's the way. Oh, what a great little group. Now, if you're going to sit up the front up here today, you have to make sure that you don't come up onto the stage, okay?
[0:46] Is that alright? So you just sit there. That would be great. I love Christmas. I love setting up the Christmas tree.
[0:56] Who's got their Christmas tree set up already? Oh, there's a few there. A few parents have got their, yes. There's a few hands waving up there, yes. You've got your Christmas tree. You've got yours too, Emma.
[1:07] Yes, I saw yours. Yours is pretty. We always set up our Christmas tree when I was a little boy. We used to set up our big Christmas tree. They were always really big Christmas trees.
[1:20] But the most fun thing was right at the very end, we'd get a ladder and we'd climb right up to the very top of our Christmas tree. Because that's how tall our Christmas tree was.
[1:31] And we would put our bright, shiny star on top. My, my, my Christmas tree is a big tall.
[1:43] No, it's probably not as tall as mine. Ours is pretty big. Well, it was always so exciting. Who's got their stars on their Christmas tree? There's a few there who've got their stars on their Christmas tree.
[1:55] You might have already put your star on your Christmas tree. But have you ever, ever gone chasing stars?
[2:08] Have you ever gone chasing stars? Oh. Uh-oh. It's a star.
[2:19] Have you ever gone chasing stars? Here comes a star. Oh, here he comes. Look at that.
[2:29] It's a star. Just be careful of the fan there though, star. Otherwise you'll be very easy to catch. There's a star. Stars are such fun things to catch.
[2:44] What you do is you try and sneak up on them perhaps. And when you get close, you try and catch them. Sometimes stars are so high up, you have to try and jump to catch them.
[3:01] Whoop. Whoop. Oh. Who can't catch me? They're just out of reach. They're very tricky things. Hang on. I'll get up on the step here.
[3:13] Here we go. Whoop. Whoop. Whoop. Whoop. Whoop. Oh. Very hard to catch a star. Now, very, very difficult.
[3:27] Sometimes the stars actually hide away. It's very hard to try and find the star. You go looking everywhere for it.
[3:39] It just disappears. Does anyone know where it is? What? What? Where is it? Where? Where? Behind me. There's nothing behind me.
[3:50] Behind the book. Behind the book? It's a very small book. I don't think there's anything behind this book. No, I can't have a look.
[4:01] Have a look. Okay, I'll go and have a look. Behind the table. Oh. I think there's something coming around the other side. No, there's nothing there.
[4:17] Oh. What a funny star. Chasing stars. Do you know, sometimes when we chase our stars, we actually catch them.
[4:32] Whoop. And when we catch our lovely stars, we think they look so pretty and so glittery. But when we get close to them, sometimes they're not as good as we thought they would be.
[4:49] Oh. Oh, dear. What a rude star. Some stars that we try to go and catch, we just never, ever see.
[5:06] I'm out of here. Wouldn't it be disappointing to have a star that you were trying to follow, but you could never get there.
[5:22] You were never able to get what you were trying to get hold of. Very disappointing. But do you know what, boys and girls, you won't be able to see it up there at the moment. Looking this way. Looking this way, Georgie.
[5:33] Do you know, there were some people who followed a star. And that star did not disappoint at all. And I'm going to paint a picture of it for you.
[5:44] Now, who can tell me, these clever children here, when do we see the stars? At night time. That's exactly right.
[5:56] Only when you've got your hands up, don't all call out at once. It's all so exciting, isn't it? It's Christmas time. And that goes with the parents too. No calling out, please. It's hard enough dealing with the kids at the front. Now, sit down there, Josh.
[6:09] At night time, we see lots and lots of stars. Now, I've got some black paint here, so I can try and paint some of the night sky. Now, I'm going to try very hard not to get this on the ground.
[6:21] Who likes doing the paintings? Put up your hand. Don't call out. Put up your hand. I like painting too. So here we go. I'm going to paint some of the night sky. There we go. There we go.
[6:36] Painting away the night sky. Don't tell anyone that yet. Dang it. Here we go. There we go. Nice. Oh, that looks like a lovely black sky.
[6:48] There we go. Now, we'll just paint down here a little bit. And oh, like this. There we go. Who's seen lots of pretty stars?
[6:59] Lots. Oh, there's so many. And you go out at night time, you can see them. And they're so beautiful. I just love looking at the stars. I grew up in the country where at night time you could see lots and lots of stars.
[7:13] And they just sort of twinkle a little bit. And they're so pretty. Well, these men, there were some men back then. They were following a star. But I need to finish off my black sky before I tell you more about them.
[7:25] Here we go. Almost there. There we go. We'll go down here a little bit. Nice black sky. That looks pretty black. There we go.
[7:41] Now, the men who were following this star, they were traveling on a camel. So I think I better paint these people who were following a star.
[7:54] Now, let me just paint them here. Now, let me try and paint a camel. Now, a camel's got a hump. There's the hump on the back of the camel. And they've probably got a big tummy. So let me just paint the... I might even use my big brush for that one.
[8:04] There we go. Nice big tummy on the camel. Now, a camel's got four legs. So let me just paint four legs. One, two, three, four.
[8:15] Do you know, I've noticed that camels have knobbly knees. And sort of two big toes. There we go. And now, the camels also have a big neck.
[8:27] So let me just paint the neck here. There we go. He looks like he's got a bushy tail up on the top there. There we go. A camel and a long nose.
[8:38] I don't think it looks that funny. Oh, you do think it does, Eve. I've noticed Eve, she's nodding there.
[8:50] It does look funny. Okay. Oh, well. It does look like a camel. Oh, thank you. I'm glad some people. Thank you. I'm glad it does for you, Emma. That's great.
[9:02] I'm glad you've got a good imagination like me. There's our camel. And we'll put a person on the back there. There he is. There he is. I'm not sure I'm liking all these little bits of laughing here.
[9:16] Now, here we go. There's the reins there so that we know where the camel's going. Oh, and I forgot something. The tail. There we go. Oh, my camel. Well, there's the camel.
[9:28] These men, they came from a long way off and they followed the star. You can see the star up there. Oh, sorry. I better get it for you then so you can see it. Sorry about that.
[9:38] I forgot about that. There we go. There's the star. And they followed the star in the sky. You see, when they looked at this star, they realized that there was a great king that was born.
[9:51] And they wanted to know what this king was like. They wanted to go and worship this king. So, well, there they are. They're on their camel and they're off to go find the star.
[10:04] Now, I'm going to need some helpers here because we're going to go and follow the star as well. So, I'm going to get all the kids to stand up. The kids could all stand up.
[10:14] And we're looking for where the star is. Can anyone see? Josh has seen the star. Now, we're going to imagine that we're the wise men and women. So, standing up, wise men and women.
[10:26] Everyone get on their camels. You've got your camels there, holding on to the reins. Now, camels tend to sort of bob along like this, okay? So, you've got to bob along as we're going along. And we're going to go up to where the star is.
[10:38] Because we're trying to find out about a great king. So, are we ready to go and find the great king? Well, let me be at the front. Hang on. Okay, ready all my wise men and women?
[10:50] Let's go. Come on, I'll get you up. Can everyone see the star?
[11:00] Yay! Yay! Yay! Yay! Yay! Yay! Yay! Yay! Yay! Yay! Yay! Yay! Yay! Yay! Yay! Yay! Yay!
[11:11] God, okay! Just standing there, all my wise men and women. They came from afar to Jerusalem. And then they came to the king of Jerusalem.
[11:23] That's my king. Oh, there he is. Just what I'm cute. Thank you, king. Now, they came to the king and they said to the king, Oh, great king, we've seen this star and we want to come and worship the king born.
[11:39] Born king of Jews. Do you know where he is? King? I'm king. A little bit funny about this. In fact, the Bible tells us he was the king. Oh, no.
[11:50] That's why I chose him. I'm the king. He didn't want any other kings, so he got his other scribes and people who knew the land very well.
[12:03] And he asked him, where is this king? He's born. And he came back and they said, oh, great king. The king of the Jews is to be born again.
[12:15] And he will be a great slayer. And he will be a great shepherd of his people. Well, the king of the Bible lies and the man spoke of him. Here he comes. He's going to speak to him.
[12:26] Listen to the one he had to say. Go, look for this child. And when you've found him, come back to me so I can go and worship him too. Do you think that he really wanted to worship Jesus?
[12:40] No, he didn't want to be with me. Well, anyhow. All the wise men. Just a moment when we're following the star. Where's the star? We're here to start. Follow me!
[12:51] Follow me! We're here to go. We're going to follow the star. Hang on. Just wait, wait, wait for the star. Here he comes. We've got to follow the star now. Follow me! Follow me! Let's follow the star!
[13:01] Follow me! Follow me! Follow me! Follow me! Follow me! Follow me! Follow me! Follow me! Follow me! And they followed the star all the way to Bethlehem.
[13:22] Sitting on the floor there, boys and girls. They followed the star all the way to Bethlehem. To stop right above where Mary and Joseph and our little baby walk.
[13:39] Now let me just see if I can paint this scene here for you. Andrew, you just turn the side on a little bit. There we go. There's, uh, there we go. There's Andrew. I mean, uh, Joseph.
[13:50] And, uh, here's Mary. And Mary's got the baby. There it is. In her arms there. And there they are. Now they probably had a little manger there. Because that's what they keep the, uh, being in.
[14:03] And there they were. Well, the wise men came. And when they saw the baby, do you know what? They were not disappointed at all. The wise men were not disappointed in the star that they followed.
[14:17] Because it led them to the King of the Jews. The great Messiah. Well, they were so excited that they brought lots of presents. Can anyone tell me what was one of the presents they bought?
[14:31] Gold was one. Do you know, Jack? Uh. Almost got it. Myrrh was one. And frankincense. Smelly perfumes.
[14:43] And great expensive spices. And they brought it to the King. Because he was worth a great amount. Because he was the great King. Wow.
[14:54] Imagine following that star back then. To meet the great King. Do you know, Jesus doesn't disappoint. He didn't disappoint the wise men back then.
[15:05] They gave him great gifts. When you open up your Christmas presents, you might get a toy that might disappoint you. Mums and dads, we all follow different stars. And sometimes they disappoint us too.
[15:19] There are things that disappoint us. But Jesus won't disappoint. You see, Jesus grew up to be a man, as we heard in the song.
[15:30] He showed us what God was like. And he died on a cross. So that we could be God's friend forever. There is nothing that can get in the road of God's promises.
[15:43] King Herod couldn't stop it. The cross couldn't stop God's plans. In us being a part of God's family. Boys and girls, I hope at Christmas time. When you look at the star on the Christmas tree.
[15:56] You remember Jesus. How the star led to Jesus. And how he won't disappoint you at all. And one day when we are in heaven with God.
[16:07] When Jesus comes again. We are going to be so excited about that. It won't disappoint us one little bit. It will be the most fantastic thing.
[16:18] Being with Jesus, the great king. Well, I'm going to pray and thank God that he sent Jesus into this world. So if you close your eyes, I'm going to pray. You'll close your eyes, I'm going to pray.
[16:31] Dear God, we do thank you that you sent Jesus into this world. That he was the great king. That he has not disappointed us. That because of him, we can be your friends forever.
[16:42] And we look forward to that day when we will be with you forever. We do pray that as we remember these things at Christmas. That we will be greatly excited about the future for us.
[16:54] We pray this in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Oh. I bet you you're very excited about opening those Christmas. Presence. Well, let's listen to what the star said.
[17:05] Follow Jesus. Follow Jesus. Follow Jesus. Follow Jesus. Follow Jesus. Oh. Oh, gosh. Oh, dear.
[17:18] Don't follow that star. It could hurt. Boys and girls. Thank you very much for listening to me. You are very good in listening. But do remember to follow Jesus.
[17:30] Because he's the one that won't disappoint. Thank you. Thank you.