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CPS: Prepare your heart for the Lord.
Introduction
We are starting a new sermon series in the Gospel of Mark.
Mark’s Gospel moves quick.
He will say something happened, then immediately something else happened.
This will be an interesting series to go through.
We also have something happening at the end of this month called Seek Week.
We do this every year around this time.
Seek Week is a time when we slow down for fasting and prayer, and seek out the Lord for the new year.
It will be a time when we prepare our hearts for the Lord.
You might think it strange to say that you can prepare your heart for the Lord.
Think of a fire.
Now I can’t create the fire.
I can do things to spark the flame, but I can’t create the flame itself.
What I can do is create an environment where fire will most likely occur.
What do you mean?
Well, I can find a dry area.
I can lay down some tinder or dry twigs, maybe that are doused with lighter fluid.
I can nestle them up together on the dry ground.
Then I can get some dry wood and put it around, leaving some space for oxygen to go through.
Then we get the match, and strike it.
In the same way that you can create an environment for a fire, the Bible describes ways we can prepare our hearts for the Lord.
We will see that in the first chapter of Mark.
Open up to Mark 1.
Scripture Reading
Pray
Much of this first chapter introduces us to a man named John the Baptist.
He is talked about in all four Gospels.
His main purpose was as a forerunner for Jesus.
His ministry prepared the hearts of the people of Israel for the coming of the Messiah, Jesus.
From his ministry, there are a few things we can learn about preparing our own hearts for the Lord.
One of the ways that we can prepare our heart for the Lord is this,
Prepare your heart for the Lord by submitting to God’s truth.
John the Baptist spoke truthfully about himself and his mission.
Look at Mark 1:7:
John says a couple of things here.
First,
Mark 1:7 “One who is more powerful than I am”: John has a tremendous self-understanding of who he is in the grand scheme of things.
At this point, John is at the height of his baptismal ministry, and he is self-aware of his ministry position.
He is saying, “You think I’m powerful, because of the messages of repentance that I am bringing, and all of these people who are responding to the message?”
Look at what else he says:
Mark 1:7 “I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the strap of his sandals”: This is the most menial position of a slave in Israel, to stoop down and untie the strap of sandals.
From John, “I am not even worthy to be the servant of the one who comes after me!”
John is someone who has prepared his heart with truth.
He is beginning from a place of humility to the one who comes after him.
He exists, his purpose is for the more powerful one to come.
In John 5:33, Jesus described John as someone who “testified to the truth.”
John the Baptist testified to the truth despite the personal cost to himself and to his ministry.
John’s Gospel tells us a story about some of the disciples of John the Baptist, who started complaining about Jesus’ ministry.
In John 3, some of the disciples of John the Baptist went up to him and complained that Jesus was baptizing more people than he was.
Look at how John the Baptist submitted his life and his ministry to God’s truth.
Look at John 3:27-30:
I love how he has prepared his heart for the Lord.
He is ready for the coming of the Messiah.
You can hear it in his words.
John 3:29 “The groom’s friend, who stands by and listens for him, rejoices greatly at the groom’s voice.”
This is really important, don’t miss this: There is a joy in knowing who you are and whose you are.
When you prepare your heart with truth, you are engulfed in a reality that you are not your own.
Paul said in 1 Cor.
6:19-20 “You are not your own, for you were bought at a price.”
Christian, when you submit to the reality of who you are in Jesus, you will be able to say with John in John 3:30 “He must increase, but I must decrease.”
We need to constantly be reminded of this in our ministries and in our lives.
We are not building personalities or our own kingdom.
We are here to do the work God has called us to do in proclaiming the kingdom of God to our community and our city.
When you prepare your heart and submit to the truth, there is joy in knowing who you are and whose you are.
There is one kingdom that matters, and its not my own.
He must increase, and I must decrease.
Sometimes submitting to truth is hard.
Truth shines a mirror on ourselves and the world around us.
Sometimes that means standing up to a culture that is rebellious and arrogant against the truth of God.
John the Baptist did that in his ministry.
In the first century, the respected people in Jewish society were the religious elite, the Pharisees and the Sadducees.
There were differences between those two groups, but they were looked up to in Jewish society.
You wouldn’t dare speak against them.
But John the Baptist was not afraid to submit himself to the Lord and take a stand on the truth of God.
He was able to see through what the culture said was right, and instead expose the lies to the truth of God.
Look at how he responds to these Pharisees and Sadduccees in Matt.
3:7-9:
John the Baptist was a truth-teller.
Now, I don’t recommend you go home and start calling your family, or go to your co-workers, and start calling them a “Brood of vipers.”
But what is John saying?
“You say you follow God.
Well, don’t just talk a good game.
Show it with your life!
Don’t think that God owes you something.
Instead, prepare your heart, and submit to God’s truth.”
This kind of heart, the kind of heart that is prepared with truth, can say, Mark 1:7 “I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the strap of his sandals.”
Lord, I am not worthy.
There is nothing that God owes me.
Instead, my life and my heart needs to submit to his truth.
It can be hard not to think of ourselves as the center of the universe.
We think that people can read our minds.
Why?
Because we think, “Well, this is important to me, so they must obviously understand that.”
The problem is the other person is saying the same thing!
Couples will play this game.
The wife will say, “Husband, where do you want to eat?” The husband, thinking this is a real question, says, “Oh, I want to eat BBQ.”
The wife then says, “Nope.”
The husband is confused.
So he says, “Well, what about a hamburger?”
The wife says, “Nope.”
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