Prepare Him Room

Introduction:

As we continue with our worship of the Lord this morning, as we approach God and His word let us take a moment and prepare our hearts to receive what He wants to do inside of us this morning. Remember, we are coming before the LIVING GOD and asking HIM to speak and deal with our hearts when we open His word. We want Him to direct us. We want to see and understand this Word so that we can be changed.

Let’s pray together

2 In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that the whole empire should be registered. 2 This first registration took place while Quirinius was governing Syria. 3 So everyone went to be registered, each to his own town. 4 Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and family line of David, 5 to be registered along with Mary, who was engaged to him and was pregnant. 6 While they were there, the time came for her to give birth. 7 Then she gave birth to her firstborn son, and she wrapped him tightly in cloth and laid him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them.  8 In the same region, shepherds were staying out in the fields and keeping watch at night over their flock. 9 Then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. 10 But the angel said to them, “Don’t be afraid, for look, I proclaim to you good news of great joy that will be for all the people: 11 Today in the city of David a Savior was born for you, who is the Messiah, the Lord. 12 This will be the sign for you: You will find a baby wrapped tightly in cloth and lying in a manger.” 13 Suddenly there was a multitude of the heavenly host with the angel, praising God and saying: 14 Glory to God in the highest heaven, and peace on earth to people he favors!,, 15 When the angels had left them and returned to heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go straight to Bethlehem and see what has happened, which the Lord has made known to us.” 16 They hurried off and found both Mary and Joseph, and the baby who was lying in the manger. 17 After seeing them, they reported the message they were told about this child, 18 and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. 19 But Mary was treasuring up all these things in her heart and meditating on them. 20 The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had seen and heard, which were just as they had been told. This is a story that we are familiar with. This is where our focus will be in just a few weeks as we celebrate Christmas. It is crazy that we are even having this conversation already. We are entering that time of year where everything goes crazy. We go from being Thankful....and rightfully so.... to being crazy busy.... like so busy that we forget this text... up until Christmas eve. So often we go through this season, and we lose sight of what is actually important. I say this year after year, because I want to fight this tendency in our lives as much as possible. I want to keep the real meaning of Christmas before our eyes and hearts because if we are not careful, we get lost in the mess and we do not see the opportunity to worship Christ for who He is. We are so familiar with the story of Christmas that we can lose our sense of awe.

Body: What I am wanting us to do this morning with our time together is fight against this tendency in our lives to be swept away with the Holiday season.