Preparing For Christmas

Is there anyone here that would say you or your family goes big for Christmas?

I mean your family does the giant party, You make a ton of food

Maybe this past week you got up on Black Friday and you mapped out all the stores to get all the deals. (anyone at that place?)

Maybe you go hard on making the magic of Christmas

And the truth is if you go big on Christmas then you know it takes a lot of preparation to get everything perfect,

But you know really whenever there is something big there is a lot of preparation that needs to take place.

I mean if you are getting ready to get married you probably are getting marriage counseling and are planning the wedding

If you are moving somewhere you have to prepare by packing before moving

If you are looking to go on vacation there is some preperation involved.

And you know as we begin what we call the advent season (or really which leads into Christmas (or even this series “Let Us Adore Him”).

We are looking at a really big event that takes place and really the focus of advent is actually preparing for this big event (the coming of Jesus coming as a baby) and we know that Jesus has already come, but its also preparing for Him to come again.

And really the passage we are in today is a great passage to kick off our new series because it talks about us preparing our hearts for this big event

And so we are going to be in Romans 13:11-14 and I am my hope is for us to see this event that is getting ready to happen and prepare our hearts for Christ coming.

So we will just be starting in the first couple verses (verses 11-12) and it says this:

Romans 13:11–12 (NIV)

The Day Is Near

11 And do this, understanding the present time: The hour has already come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. 12 The night is nearly over; the day is almost here. So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light.

You know I think this passage is pretty powerful because the person who is writing this passage is a guy named Paul, and Paul is a guy who really lived through a lot. I mean he was tortured, impassioned, and in verse 12 of this passage, He actually says it is night time.

And not that its litterly night time (I mean look out side there is light outside)

But you know He is saying that the world we live in can feel dark.

I mean there are things in our world that can go wrong aren’t there?

The other day I went to Chipotle and they were closed, then I go to McDonalds to get ice cream and there machine is down, then I go to Chickfilla, there machine was also down.

I mean it was dark right?

But you know on a serious note, there are times in our lives that can feel really dark

There is sickness, death happens, there are tradgedies that occur where you loose big parts of your life, friends can betray you, you can feel lonely.

And you get to this place where you say this world just really feels dark, it feels cold, and if I were to be honest I don’t know how I am going to go on.

But heres the thing because while verse 12 says that its night time, it does not just say that, but it actually says that the night is almost over.

In fact in verse 11 it tells us to understand the present time we live in.

Because a lot of times we understand the world and our lives can feel dark, but we forget that there is a light that we can see.

And there is a beautiful thing here

I mean have any of you ever been on a cruise ship?

I mean its fun, but it gets to night time and I dont know if I am the only person out there who feels this way, but a boat in the middle of ocean feels a little scary at night time.

because it is pitch black I mean if it is cloudy out you can almost see nothing!

but heres the thing, because when the sunrise occurs that darkness and scarieness starts to go away, and you see this beautuful glow take place where the darkness is being overcome and light is swallowing the darkness. (show picture)

I mean it is beautiful isn’t it?

And really this passage is saying where we are right now is there is darkness, but we have this hope where the light is coming and even in the darkest situations Christ has come into our world and He can come into the situations we face.

And one day we will get to see the fullness of Him coming where there is no darkness but everything is made right.

And so its a beautiful picture painted in verse 12, but then the second half of verse 12 tells us how there is some preperation that needs to take place in our lives for this light thats coming.

In fact it says set aside the darkness of your life and put on the armer of light, because the season we are in is changing!

I mean we really changed seasons last week didnt we? I think we are technically in Fall, but Michigan is in Winter.

And when we switch to winter there is preperation that takes place

We need to pull out the winter clothes

You go down to the hardware store and buy shovels and salt.

You make sure your gutters are cleaned from the leaves before the snow falls.

True story- a couple weeks ago instead of cleaning the gutters on the church parasonage on the random 75 degree day, I decided to wait until the begining of the snow storm.

But this passage is saying make sure you get ready so you do not end up like your pastor.

But with all seriousness Paul who wrote this is saying you see this light, you might even have this light in you but its time to get ready.

kAnd look at verse 13 because it says this:

Romans 13:13 NIV

13 Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy.

I really like that first part in verse 13 because it says we should be living as if its daytime.

And Paul is referring to daytime as when Christ light has fully come.

So basically he is saying its time to start living like if you were in the daytime or really its time to start living as if you were in heaven.

And this actually makes everything really simple doesn’t it?

because we can think about the way we live as if we were in heaven

I mean everyone picture with me for a second that you are in heaven

its nice and warm outside and everything's great.

But what behaviors or tendecys are currently in your life that you do not picture being in heaven?

If you are have an agressive behavior, do you picutr that in heaven?

If you are divisive, is that something you picture being a part of heaven?

Do you picture lying or gossiping taking place in heaven?

Do you picture greed, Do you picture lust?

Do you picture (Fill in the blank) in heaven

because I can guerentee that when you look at it that way its easy to look at how we are living and go “wow, I really don’t picture that happening, or wow I would live a lot differently.

And Paul even gives examples of things that are just toxic for our lives and really he is just going look this is not where God wants you to be living, because its toxic for you and others and really it is making the light of Christ not shine in you and others are missing His hope because they are seeing a version on Christianity without the light.

And let me just finish up by focusing on verse 14, because look what this says:

Romans 13:14 NIV

14 Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the flesh.

So Paul listed all these toxic behaviors, but then he finishes by giving the alternative.

He says rather than living this way clothe yourself with Jesus.

Basically make Christ the center of your life stop living with all these toxic things and live with your eyes focused on Jesus.

And not just that but do not let those toxic things slip into your life.

In fact earlier Paul even said put on the armer.

And we talked about this last week but there really is a guard we need to have where we do not allow sin to slip into our lives.

Its almost like how last week we decorated our Christmas tree and look at this picture of our tree.

You will notice that there are no ornaments on the bottom half of the tree.

That was not a mistake, because if you ever want your childhood ornaments destroyed invite Liam and Finn to your house.

And so we have learned we will place the ornaments where they can’t be reached.

because a lot of those ornaments are special to God.

And this is really what I want you to get- I know this was a lot, but your life is special- in fact your life is priceless!

And God doesn’t want you to keep living in a way where things just keep getting broken.

Where there is brokenness and pain, but He wants you to live a life where, yeah, sometimes things seem to go wrong, but where you see the light that has come into this world.

And that light is not going to overcome the darkness but the darkness will be overcome by the light.

What does it look like this morning to understand that Jesus has come, but there is a day where He is coming where this light we can see will come in its fullness.

And as we close we will be sining a little bit of an older hymn, called “Come thou Long Expected Jesus” But as we sing this I want you to think what does it look like to be expectant of Jesus coming in my life and what would it look like to prepare for that today?

Let me pray for us and then we will sing this together.