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Gifts of Christmas1. The Gift of Preparation Dan Bidwell, Senior PastorIsaiah 40:3-5; Mark 1:1-8, 14-15 Tuesday 29 November, 2022 How many observe Christs birthday! How few, His precepts! O! tis easier to keep holidays than commandments.- Benjamin Franklin - If we get too caught up in the traditions, expectations, gifts and good cheer of Christmas, we could well be missing the reason for the season and begin to worship the very things that point towards Christ, not Christ himself- Illuminate Advent - I want to start the sermon today by saying that Ive had a breakthrough this year. An achievement in my level of adulting. I confessed in my Christmas eve sermon last year that I had not done any Christmas shopping until a few days before Christmas. This year there will be no confession. I started my Christmas shopping early! There are two kinds of Christmas shoppers, according to statistics. There are those who start early. 28.8% of Americans start their Christmas shopping in November. (Im proud to say that was me this year Courtesy of Black Friday and Cyber Monday, I bought one gift for one of my children. It arrived and hopefully come Christmas well remember that we purchased this little gift!) So 28% of us start our Christmas shopping in November. And then there are those of us who leave our Christmas shopping until the week before Christmas. Can you guess how many Americans leave their shopping until the last minute? 62% of us! (Im sure thats when Ill end up doing the rest of my shopping) And then there are the brave 7% who wait until Christmas Eve. ~ Christmas is one of those times of the year that takes lots of preparation. Aside from the gift shopping, theres the Christmas tree, and the decorations, maybe the Christmas lights on your house. And then there are the family logistics. Where are you spending Christmas day? Who is cooking? What are you cooking? Perhaps the kids are flying in from interstate. Or your parents. Then you have to work out whos staying at your house. Do you have enough towels, and sheets? There can so much to prepare! But thats the nature of the season. Thats advent for you. Advent is the season of getting ready, the season of waiting. A season that is focused on the arrival of that special day, the arrival of your guests, the arrival of your family, the arrival of a time of celebration. And so today, I want to focus on the gift of preparation. The gift of getting yourself ready for the special season thats coming. And not just the gift of preparing for your family celebration, but the gift of preparing for the arrival of Jesus. Because (of course) there is no Christmas without Jesus. So why dont we pray that God would help us to be prepared for everything that advent brings? Our heavenly Father, will you speak to us today as we open the Bible? Will you teach our hearts to be prepared for the arrival of Jesus? Will you open us up to his presence in our lives, and will you help us to make room for Jesus this Christmas? Speak to us now, in Jesus name. Amen Well, I can hardly believe its December already. But I am excited. The Board and I have spent months planning and praying and preparing all of the events that we have on the church calendar this holiday season! We want Christmas to be a time of celebration for us as a church, a time of celebrating Jesus and the gift he is to us. But we also want our friends and neighbors to join the celebration. And so weve carefully curated our Christmas program so that youll feel confident to invite your loved ones to any of the events on offer, as well as any of our regular Sunday services. Our mission as a church is to share the hope of Jesus in the Napa Valley and beyond. So thanks for being part of the mission I love what God is doing already through you and your prayers. So keep praying, keep inviting, and well trust God with the rest! Now lets get into the Bible. December is traditionally known as advent. The four Sundays leading up to Christmas are all about getting ready for the advent, or the arrival of Jesus. And to help us get ready this year, well be thinking about four different Gifts of Christmas. Thats what were calling our Advent series Gifts of Christmas. Gifts that will keep our focus on the reason for the season. Gifts that will point us to Jesus. And todays gift is The Gift of Preparation. 1. Preparing for glory Before I went into the ministry, I was a school teacher for a number of years. And I remember one year we got news that the school would receive a very important visitor the Governor General, who is the most senior government officer, even above the Prime Minister. The GG is the Queens representative in the Australian parliament. Anyway the Governor General was scheduled to visit our school to present a prestigious award to a student. It was only a 15 minute visit, but the protocol for those 15 minutes amounted to almost three months of work for the staff member who coordinated the visit. She had to provide plans and drawings and maps that showed where the town car would park, where the exits and fire escapes were situated. She had to measure the number of steps the GG would take from his car to the Theatre where the presentation would take place. She had to provide guest lists and seating charts and the names of dignitaries for the reception line. The school had to provide round the clock extra security in the days leading up to the visit, and then we had federal agents on site sweeping the buildings and grounds. We were all ready and then at the last minute the GG got called away to State business, and somebody far less recognizable came to do the job. It was months of preparation for the arrival of a dignitary. For Gods people, it was years of preparation, years of waiting for the arrival of not just a human dignitary, but one shrouded in the glory of the Lord himself. Look at Isaiah 40 with me: 3 A voice of one calling:In the wilderness prepare the way for the Lord;make straight in the desert a highway for our God.4 Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low;the rough ground shall become level, the rugged places a plain.5 And the glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all people will see it together.For the mouth of the Lord has spoken. (Isaiah 40:3-5) Isaiah was writing some 700 years before the birth of Jesus, at a time when half of Gods people were in exile. Sent out of the promised land because of their sinful disregard for the Lord. But even in the midst of their sin, God sent the prophet Isaiah to speak these words of comfort to his people in their distress. (v3) Prepare the way for the Lord. Make a highway in the desert because the king is coming. You can imagine what it would have been like when the Assyrian armies had turned up to capture the northern tribes of Israel. Hundreds of thousands of soldiers marching in step through the desert, the clouds of dust rising as the columns advanced, their footsteps the rhythmical drumbeat of impending doom.Those ancient armies were terrifying. But this prophecy speaks of an even greater king, an even greater victory to come. So earth-shattering that the landscape is literally rearranged, with the mountains sinking and the valleys rising so that all the earth becomes like a plain. And (v5) that is when the glory of the Lord will be revealed and all the people will see it together. Can you imagine how good it must have been to hear that prophecy while Gods people were still in exile? This wont last forever, is what it promises. Prepare the way for the king. Prepare for the day he returns. Prepare for his glorious return. A day when all the people, everyone in the whole world, will see the King unveiled in glory and power and majesty Are you good at waiting? Im not very good at waiting. When I was a kid, I was always the one who would lift up the gifts under the Christmas tree, and shake them and try to guess what they were. When I was about 10, I actually woke up in the middle of the night on Christmas Eve and snuck downstairs and unwrapped one of my presents. I remember it was a tennis racket and I probably could have guessed what it was just from the shape. But you dont think about that when youre 10. Waiting for Christmas is not that hard, because you can count down the days. But what about waiting when you dont know the end date? For Gods people, they had these words of Isaiah with them for almost 700 years before they came to fulfilment. And those 700 years werent always easy. More armies came, more people were taken into exile, the temple was destroyed and then the voice of God was silent for almost 400 years You might be going through a period of waiting right now, and you dont know when it will end. Perhaps youre waiting for God to show up but you havent heard his voice. Perhaps youre waiting for his glory to be revealed but right now all you see is immoveable mountains and the deepest of valleys Part of preparing is waiting. But when God speaks, he will always do what he said he was going to do. Even if it feels like youve been waiting forever Gods glory will appear. 2. Prepare your hearts At the start of 2015 I ran the furthest I have ever run. Just over 21km, 13.1 miles, the same distance as a half marathon. You might guess from my physique that I am not naturally gifted for running. Im gifted at eating, but running I have to work at that. Anyway I ran those 13.1 miles as part of my training for a half Ironman triathlon just a few weeks later, when I would have to run the same distance after a 1.2mi swim and 56mi bike ride. The race was great I finished, I didnt set any records but it was a good personal achievement. And I even did a bit better the next year. But so much of triathlon is about preparing your heart. You spend months working on the capacity of your heart to pump blood around the body. If you havent trained enough, on race day you are found out. There is nowhere to hide when you have to keep pushing for hours and hours. The state of your heart is revealed when race day arrives. And the same will happen on the day the glory of the Lord appears for all to see. The state of our hearts will be revealed on that day, and there will be nowhere to hide. So lets go back 2000 years, to the voice of one calling in the wilderness. Another prophet, this time the cousin of Jesus himself. Born just months apart, their mothers had both been visited by angels who told them about the role they would play in fulfilling Isaiahs prophecies. John the Baptist would become the voice calling in the wilderness, the messenger announcing the arrival of Lord The beginning of the good news about Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God, 2 as it is written in Isaiah the prophet: I will send my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way3 a voice of one calling in the wilderness,Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him.4 And so John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 5 The whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem went out to him. Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River. (Mark 1:1-5) Johns ministry was not about preparing a highway for the Lord. It was about preparing hearts for the Lord. His whole message was about checking the state of your heart. You see, the arrival of the glory of the Lord means we need to get our hearts right. [PAUSE] No sinful heart can stand before the holiness of the Lord. We must check our hearts before we meet God. (And Im going to talk more about how Jesus helps with that when we open next weeks gift) But for now, look at Johns preaching. He preached a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. Repentance. The key to repentance is turning our hearts back to God. The trajectory of sin leads us away from God, but repentance leads us back to him. And we see that repentance in the people who flocked to John the Baptist (v5). People from all over Judea and Jerusalem went out to John, confessing their sins, and getting baptized this symbol of being cleansed, and reborn, and rededicating their lives to God. John was asking people to prepare their hearts for the glory that was to be revealed And he speaks the same message to us today. Isaiah, John the Baptist, and Jesus too, theyre all speaking the same message to us today. Listen to Jesus first sermon, in Mark 1:14-15 (on your handout) 14 After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. 15 The time has come, he said. The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news! (Mark 1:14-15) Jesus wants us to prepare our hearts, because the kingdom of God is near. He wants us to repent, to turn back to God. And I love how Jesus finishes. Its not just repent. Its not just fire and brimstone. Jesus says you can believe the good news, which is that when you repent, God will bring forgiveness into your life. God will make your heart ready for his kingdom. This is good news for everybody who believes it. Do you believe it? Have you had that John the Baptist moment where you. Confessed your sins, and repented and dedicated your life to God. Perhaps it was the day you were baptized, maybe youve never been baptized. We would love to help you make that public commitment, if its something that the Holy Spirit is leading you to do. Perhaps a small step is to take communion today, maybe for the first time. A little step to say, Jesus I want to trust in you, I want to eat at your table in the kingdom, I want you to deal with my sin. Perhaps youre not ready for that I encourage you to stay on the journey. Come and get a coffee with me and tell me your concerns. Or sign up for our 3 week course in January called Explore. A place to keep thinking through what this good news of Jesus is all about. You can find more information on our website under Ministries and Explore Groups. But we all need to prepare our hearts for God. 3. Let every heart prepare him room At my house weve been listening to Christmas music since October. And one of my favorite songs is Joy To The World. (Great new version by Phil Wickham well be singing next week in church). The line that sticks with me from Joy To The World is there on your sheets: Joy to the world, the Lord is comeLet Earth receive her KingLet every heart prepare Him room Let every heart prepare him room. I love that idea of making space for Jesus in our hearts. Its such a practical image. Preparing room for Jesus is like preparing for the arrival of a special guest. We get things ready, and we tidy up for them, just like we do at Christmas for our families and friends. How much more should we get ready for Jesus! Let every heart prepare him room. So here are my three practical tips for making room for Jesus in your heart this holiday season. 1. Make room for Jesus during the preparation. As you think about all the things you need to prepare for the holidays, put Jesus on the list. Literally, if youre a list person, put him on the list, so that you deliberately plan to give thought to Jesus this month. Its so easy to let Jesus slip off the radar when youre busy shopping and cleaning, so youll need to be deliberate. - You could look for an advent devotional. There are some great books you can buy, or devotionals you can read online. Ive just finished one called Illuminate Advent it was 10 days about making sure your Christmas shines a light on Jesus, not just on the festivities. - You could buy or make an advent calendar, with a Bible verse a day. - You could read all the nativity stories in the Bible again. Whatever you do, the idea is to be deliberate. You literally have to make room for Jesus in your mental preparation, otherwise it will never happen. And that would be a missed opportunity. 2. Make room for Jesus during the busy season December is one of the busiest months in the calendar for most of us. And we often find ourselves pushed and pulled with all the demands on our time and attention. And again, it can be easy to say: Ill get back to Jesus when the craziness of Christmas dies down. Ill have more time for him in the New Year. Do you know what? In reality it never gets less busy. There will always be demands on our time and attention, and so we need to be deliberate every day to make room for Jesus. And this season of all seasons this holiday that is all about the birth of the king and the arrival of Gods glory, this should be the one that makes us focus on the reason for the busyness. So how do we make room for Jesus during the busy season? I think we need to make a commitment to continuing the spiritual practices that we do throughout the year. Keep coming to church. Keep reading your Bible in the morning. Dont let Jesus get pushed out by other demands. 3. The hardest one of all: make room for Jesus in your family traditions. I want to say this carefully, because I know from personal experience how hard it can be to be a Christian when your extended family doesnt share the same understanding of faith. It is difficult, and I get that. But heres what Id like to challenge you with. Id encourage you to consider how you can gently and respectfully make room for Jesus in your family traditions. Because when you gently and respectfully bring it up with your family, youll be making a powerful statement about your own hearts conviction, and the importance of Jesus in your life. How might that conversation go? - Maybe its asking if it would be alright to say grace at the Christmas table. Broach it with your kids, or your parents before the day, so that they are prepared. And if you get to pray, keep it short and sweet and filled with love and grace and mercy. - What about going to church at Christmas? Mom and I would love for you to come to church with us at Christmas, but we understand if youre not comfortable with that. But were planning to go, and the service is only an hour, so we hope you can respect our wishes. - And if they dont want to pray or come to church, then you should respect their wishes also. That shouldnt stop you praying for them privately, that maybe next year they would be more open At the end of the day, we do all this because we know that one day Jesus will return. Hell come back in person. Because Jesus is not just a story or a tradition. Hes a king who will bring Gods kingdom on the day when his glory appears. And you dont want to be caught unpreparedWatch at: https://youtu.be/zsr_FFxBdgI File Downloads: https://dq5pwpg1q8ru0.cloudfront.net/2022/12/21/04/19/16/19e52512-3963-45b4-9cac-910c13e784df/12.4.22%20%20Sunday%20Sermon%20Transcript.pdf