He is Lord

Mark 1:1-8

Introduction: I wonder what comes to mind this morning when we hear the word preparation? What types of things do we prepare for? If we grew up playing sports, we spent all week preparing to play. In school, preparation means studying for the big exam. If we are trying to lose a few pounds we might try something called meal prep at the beginning of the week where we make all of our meals in advance in hopes that it will save us time, perhaps money, and hopefully a few calories. I was walking through the house yesterday and looked at Allison and said, do you realize we are hosting parties at our house the next 3 Saturdays? We better get prepared.It is easy to be distracted this time of year by the preparations for what is coming. We clean the house to prepare for guests. We purchase gifts for upcoming celebrations. We take photos for the perfect greeting cards, which must be mailed at just the right time in order to find themselves in places of honor on friends’ mantels in time for Christmas.

Advent and Preparation: If Jesus is coming again what are we doing to prepare our hearts and lives for Him? It seems maybe an odd thing to us – this idea of preparing for Jesus – but in our text this morning that is exactly the call that John was declaring in the wilderness to the children of Israel. He was pointing the people away from himself and toward the coming of a Messiah. He urged them to be ready, to make straight paths for him, because the Messiah would be coming soon.

Let’s look at the text together this morning. SLOW

TEXT: Mark 1:1 The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. 2 As it is written in Isaiah the prophet: "BEHOLD, I SEND MY MESSENGER AHEAD OF YOU, WHO WILL PREPARE YOUR WAY; 3 THE VOICE OF ONE CRYING IN THE WILDERNESS, 'MAKE READY THE WAY OF THE LORD, MAKE HIS PATHS STRAIGHT.'" 4 John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 5 And all the country of Judea was going out to him, and all the people of Jerusalem; and they were being baptized by him in the Jordan River, confessing their sins. 6 John was clothed with camel's hair and wore a leather belt around his waist, and his diet was locusts and wild honey. 7 And he was preaching, and saying, "After me One is coming who is mightier than I, and I am not fit to stoop down and untie the thong of His sandals. 8 "I baptized you with water; but He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit."

PRAYER

Santa’s coming, preps all night, 3 matches we hit a putt on the last hole, girls made fun of how excited I got. John was crazy about Jesus. The people were waiting for something, but John was here to show them this was no little thing, and called for a little extreme excitement. Honey, camels skin, dirty crazy… oh santa, no Santa…

I. The people had been waiting a long time for the promised Messiah.

a. They needed to remember who THEY were and who the Messiah was promised to be:

i. Jesus is the One who will baptize them with the Holy Spirit.

This is a great thought for us to consider as we have baptized 6 people over the last 3 weeks and are baptizing more next week. The 2nd chapter of Joel tells us that in the day of the Lord, He will pour out His Holy Spirit upon all of mankind. To say that He would pour it out upon all of mankind speaks of a very high availability of the Holy Spirit does it not? When we talk about really pouring something out, we are usually referring to something that is very excessive. John is saying it’s been so quiet for you for so long that because I’m sharing a message of the Lord you think that I am the one, so I just want to remind you that it’s not about this water I’m baptizing you with now, but instead this water is symbolic of the Holy Spirit that is going to follow around the footsteps of the one whom you are getting ready to meet, and just as you have come up from this baptism here soaking wet, He wants your entire heart, mind, soul, and body to be saturated with His Holy Spirit. John would go on to say…

ii. He is the one whose sandals I am unworthy to untie.

John is saying here, you think I’m someone important? (Pose the question) Church, do we find ourselves thinking we are someone important sometimes? John is equating himself to someone who is not even worthy to be a servant of Jesus. We say that we agree with John but our actions show otherwise. Our thoughts of ourselves above all other things show who we think we are. I know I’ve been quoting him a lot but Francis Chan says through our social media we have entire pages like facebook that are centered around ourselves, where we post our pictures and people, things or accomplishments that we want to be associated with. It’s as if we are continually carrying around a trophy case, and with each update we hold it up in front of all our followers to remind them of how great we are. The word selfie is one that our 4 years old know well, and our budgets and calendars are so full we can barely fit God in, when He is supposed to be the center of them. While I would love to be counted as one who would bow to wash his feet, I fear that our lives might more accurately reflect the disciples arguments about who would be the greatest. We are so unworthy of Him, yet I fear our actions portray a viewpoint THAT GOD is hardly worthy of us. (REPEAT) John said I don’t even deserve to tie Jesus’ shoes…

Transition: Both we and those present for John’s message that day need to gain a new perspective…

II. A reordering of lives and perspectives needed to take place in order for them to fully embrace who Jesus was.

a. Their preconceived notions about how God was going to show up were being challenged. They hoped for someone who would free them from political oppression, but then John started talking about baptism by the Holy Spirit.

EVERYTHING… EVERYTHING about Jesus’ arrival represented a paradigm shift of how God was going to relate to us moving forward. In the Old Testament, the people experienced God as a divine commander-in-chief that abolished their enemies and helped fight their military battles. While some may have seen His coming as less than what they hoped for, the perspective of God that they held as a military general and conqueror should be adapted to a spiritual battleground that did not simply overcome military opponents, but rather brought victory over the dominions of evil that kept them enslaved to sin and the flesh. Rather than preparing themselves to overcome the enemy of their time and culture that oppressed them, they would now need to re-order their lives to overcome the enemy of their soul. Embracing Jesus meant embracing love, embracing mercy, and embracing kindness rather than putting an emphasis on preserving their physical well-being by means of weapons and undermining government.

They were not prepared because they had not prepared correctly, so how do WE change that today as we wait for Him?

III. We also can forget to prepare for the Lord. How often do we consider the small or perhaps large shifts that need to take place in our lives for us to have the right perspective to embrace Jesus?

a. The people were listening to a message in the wilderness: Our writer Mark today seems to be using the language of wilderness rather intentionally as a metaphor for life before the Messiah. This wilderness hardship may have left them cynical, weary, and worn – just like it would probably leave us.

b. In our areas of wilderness, we can be cynical or doubtful that God is still faithful.

While many of us could relate to these attitudes that can leak in during wilderness seasons, I thought this week of how God’s presence was always a reality in the wilderness. He spoke to Moses on the back side of the wilderness. He manifested Himself as a visible fire and a cloud when they were wandering in the wilderness. He called Jesus and Paul to the wilderness to speak more clearly with them. I wonder how many times our wilderness experiences could or should be interpreted as times where God wants us to get to a place where we can see or feel nothing else except for His presence? Could it be that He is simply waiting for a shift in our perspective to bring the message of hope that we so desperately need in our lives?

c. We often can be so consumed by our preconceived notions about how God is going to work, instead of allowing God to show up in unexpected ways.

we get so smart for God Job born before me hung stars moon and sin, heaven o hell where I keep the rain or snow, he enen speaks of the constellations as people, can you loose orions brlt, call down lightning or thunder

God will let you know what He is doing in your life when and if you need to know. (REPEAT) In the meantime, it is simply our job to acknowledge that He is Lord. In spite of our perceived negative circumstances, He is Lord. In spite of our view about how we think things should be, He is Lord. In spite of persecution and tragedy, He is Lord. When we think that we have control of the situation in our life, WE… NEED… TO… REMEMBER… THAT… HE IS LORD!

Invite Team:

Conclusion: Jesus wants to be not just the one who was promised but the actual Lord of our lives, which means a preparation must take place on our end. We must be willing to leave the wildernesses of our lives and the places where cynicism and doubt have taken root. We must expect that, just like God showed up in unexpected ways in the form of Jesus, God still shows up in unexpected ways in our lives. We must humbly say, like John, that we are unworthy to even untie Christ’s sandals and yet still remain confident that we are asked to come. This preparation of our hearts and minds can help us this season and throughout the year to remember that, while Christ already came, Christ continues to come each day into our lives as we invite him. Christ continues to want to speak truth to the world, and we, like John, can declare the Word of the Lord and continue to make straight paths for him.

ARE YOU EXPECTING GOD TO SHOW UP IN YOUR SITUATION? Oh sure Pastor of course I am, amen! BUT HOW ARE YOU PREPARING? Jacob did a great job last week talking about how we shouldn’t fear God’s coming but be ready to show Him we’ve been working. God always shows up. In fact He’s already working in your situation. Are you willing to re-order things in your life, so you can see Him working as He truly is?

no expectation without preparation, work it…

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