Preparation

God is preparing you to prepare the way for Him (REPEAT THROUGHOUT)

This week as we continue in our Advent series, Journey to Bethlehem, our theme is preparation. We are building off of the prophecy of Isaiah from last week, so I thought we would just start in Isaiah this morning to bridge last week’s sermon to this week. Isaiah 40:3–5 “The voice of one calling out, “Clear the way for the Lord in the wilderness; Make straight in the desert a highway for our God. “Let every valley be lifted up, And every mountain and hill be made low; And let the uneven ground become a plain, And the rugged terrain a broad valley; Then the glory of the Lord will be revealed, And all flesh will see it together; For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.””

We start here because these words would come to fulfillment in Matthew chapter 3 as we are introduced to this week’s character, John the Baptist.

We will look at Matthew 3 here in just a second but first let me introduce you to this John. This John is not one of the 12 disciples of Jesus. This John is not one of the authors of the 4 books in the New Testament that are titled by the name of John.

>Isaiah would prophesy about one crying in the wilderness

>angels to parents Elizabeth and Zechariah

>cousin to Jesus, born just before Jesus also by a miracle

>Mary was still a virgin, but John’s mom beth was old and barren

>When his dad zach said he’d be named John, the people said no one in your family named John

>it didn’t matter because the family name would end with him anyhow

>we will find out that the end of John’s ministry was the beginning of Jesus’

>John would live in the wilderness like a wild man

>baptizing people as they received his preaching to turn from sin

>he proclaimed Jesus

>he baptized Jesus

>then he lost his head in prison because he stood up for what the Bible said about marriage, imagine that. There’s a quick sketch of John but…

Let’s go ahead and look at Matthew chapter 3. Matthew 3:1–6 “Now in those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” For this is the one referred to by Isaiah the prophet when he said, “The voice of one Calling Out in the wilderness, ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, Make His paths straight!’ ” Now John himself had a garment of camel’s hair and a leather belt around his waist; and his food was locusts and wild honey. At that time Jerusalem was going out to him, and all Judea and all the region around the Jordan; and they were being baptized by him in the Jordan River, as they confessed their sins.”

Let’s pray.

Prepare for a test, if you get a bad grade you studied wrong, so i want to talk a little bit about what preparation looks like that will help us in being successful

Preparation starts with identity

I met a lady last week here at church who told me she was the fork lady (if apparently here, her name is Sue Ross). She wraps plasticware for street ministry that we do. I’m sure she has a lot of other great qualities but this is how she thought I might identify her. Now I didn’t know we had a fork lady, but her identifying herself as such was quite memorable to me. Because she told me what she did which is often more important that what people say.

We call the John we are talking about today, John the Baptist or John the Baptizer.

He was named for what he did, imagine being known as a baptizer. There are people that call you the teacher, the manager, the athlete, the mom, the dad, the grandma, the grandpa. John was know for calling others to repentance.

John’s call had been designed, and he had fashioned his life in such a way that no one could question his agenda. Namely Jesus and the gospel message

He wasn’t doing it for mom and dad… they were gone

He wasn’t doing it for wife or kids… never happened

He wasn’t doing it to impress the king… he was too busy condemning his sin

He wasn’t doing it for rank among the religious leaders… because he spoke out against the legalism that existed there.

John the Baptizer’s identity was clear. He had been prepared, and prepared himself to prepare the way for Jesus

God is preparing you to prepare the way for Him.

So your Identity must be tethered to Jesus

Now that we know who JB was, (can i call him JB the rest of the morning, I’m a JB, and if he were alive with it today i think he would be cool with it, but mostly it will save us some time) Now that we know who JB is, the question becomes who are you?

1 John 3:1 “See how great a love the Father has given us, that we would be called children of God; and in fact we are. For this reason the world does not know us: because it did not know Him.”

Preparation starts with identity, and identity begins with you understanding that you are a child of God. Why is this important? Because you’re his child you don’t have to jockey for position, or earn his love. You don’t need to seek out the love of others. Henri Nouwen said I play the prodigal son every time I search for unconditional love where it cannot be found. Without truly recognizing our first and foremost identity is as a child of God we will continue to try to fill the void that exist with things that do not have the capacity to fill such a void. When we wander rather than abiding in our identity as His child, we will struggle move forward with preparation.

LEAVE UP In 1 Peter 2:9 we read “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a Holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light;”

This is a huge identity verse for us.

Because you are chosen you don’t have to contend with critics. They get no say in whether or not God called you.

As His royal priesthood we are to reclaim the lost calling God gave humanity to represent him and rule the world on his behalf. Sounds like something worth preparing for.

As a holy nation our identity is established in being set apart from living in the sinfulness of this world.

As a people for God’s own possession you are again reminded that you belong to Him.

This verse says that we are identified as all these things for what purpose? To proclaim His excellencies, which sounds alot like preparing the way for Him.

Can you truly say this morning that your identity reflects preparing the way for Him?

Preparation precedes influence -

In Matthew chapter 11, Jesus asked the crowds what they went out to the wilderness to see. Someone who looked put together? No. You went out to see a prophet. Jesus knew that there was something about John’s ministry that appealed to the crowds because people then, and people today, don’t sacrifice appearances and reputation for the sake of anything.

There’s something about preparing yourself in that manner that God would you have prepare that causes you attract attention from others. Now I’m not talking about praise or personal gain or reputation. Living out the Christian life will cause you to be separated from the world in such a way that will cause you to get the world’s attention. If you aren’t being influential for the gospel message, there’s a good chance it’s because you look and act too much like the world.

JB made sure that there was absolutely no pretense about what He was doing.

JB was in the business of making himself and others uncomfortable to move them towards the comforter.

JB had emptied himself of material things, he knew the scriptures, he spoke against evil, he was doing the work of God.

Because of these things JB was influential.

The question then is, Do you have a desire to influence others for Christ?

In today’s day and age, the place where we hear the word influencer most often, is when it is part of the phrase social influencer. Which often does not influence society at all. Social influencer is short for social media influencer and the term is used to describe someone who gains larger number of followers online that will look at or listen to what they have to say or endorse. The problem that psychologists have discovered is that often these people in turn are not doing anything at all to influence society because they lack the personality, the leadership skills, or qualifications to make a difference in the actual lives of people. Many people have turned to being a social influencer because it does not require the preparation that God calls for to prepare the way for Him.

It’s ok to have a million followers today, as long as you are ok with having zero tomorrow.

By the time Jesus had stepped into His rightful place as the Messiah here on earth, JB’s influence came to an end.

We are called to be influencers, but not without preparation. Which begs the question, if you have no spiritual influence in the lives of others, have you done, and are you doing the work of preparing yourself as God has called you? If you’re not being influential are you prepared?

Preparation starts with identity, preparation is needed to have true spiritual influence, and this is important because the end goal is understanding that..

Preparation leads to introduction (points to Jesus)

JB’s ministry came to a climax with one phrase. Let’s look at it in John 1:29 All the baptisms he performed, all of the bold speaking against the sins of those in that time, all the living like a wild man in the wilderness, all of it had value but those ideas were only a precursor for the purpose for which He was born which He accomplished here in this verse.

John 1:29 “The next day he saw Jesus coming to him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!”

This morning if you believe you are prepared, the question becomes why aren’t you preparing the way?

Perhaps we can’t get others to behold the lamb of God because we are too concerned with them beholding us.

JB was committed to preparing the way for Jesus to the point of death. When others see you give your life (you probably won’t have to die a martyr, just give your life) When others see you give your life for the cause of someone else it provides a pretty bold introduction to Jesus. John’s whole life pointed to Jesus, what is your life pointing to? Is it pointing to anything?

Jesus asked the people what they went out to the wilderness to see? When people look at you what are they looking for and what will they find? If you have prepared yourself to prepare the way, they will hear what you have to say. They might not like it, but they will be interested and it will influence them.

RESPONSE (INVITE COLTON)

In 2 Corinthians 12:10 we see Paul write “I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in distresses, in persecutions, in difficulties, in behalf of Christ; for when I am weak, then I am strong.” HE DELIGHTED IN THESE HARDSHIPS! CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT?

Paul became comfortable with the fact that being a Christian would be uncomfortable. In the life of JB, he made himself uncomfortable so that Christ would be the focus. He would say in John 3:30 when others wanted Him to keep his ministry and influence going, “He must increase, but I must decrease.” We must decrease so Christ may increase. It seems to me that loss was often associated with the life of the ones that Christ called to do great things for Him. Yet in this life we seem to fight loss to the bitter end… when in the end, all will be counted as loss because it all falls short of the value of knowing Christ. Oftentimes we become irritated with God as seemingly good things in our life are coming to an end, but so much of us coming to an end is what prepares the way for others to receive Christ.

What was written in Isaiah and repeated in Luke 3 must be accomplished. Valleys must be raised up, mountains must be made low, the crooked must become straight, and the rough roads made smooth, because the king is coming and the way must be prepared.

Is your identity founded in the fact that you are a child of God? Just as JB was born to run ahead of Christ, so we too are called to run ahead and prepare others to receive the Gospel message.

Are you influencing others for Christ? He will not hear the excuse that you weren’t important enough to make a difference, because His importance is what makes the difference. If you aren’t influencing others for Christ what preparation needs to start or continue in your life? What material things need to be removed, what high place need brought down, what rough places need smoothed out? What needs to go, what in your life is getting in the way of you preparing the way for Him?

Go before the king to prepare the road.

What in your life needs prepared to receive the king and prepare the way for him to make His way to others? Because at the end of the day it’s all about pointing people to Jesus.

As we move towards Christmas and the arrival and reception of Jesus to the world, how have we prepared ourselves to prepare the way for Him?

Ask you to stand

Sanctuary lyrics - We sang this earlier and we are going to sing it a few times as we respond today. A sanctuary is simply a place of safety or refuge. In this song we ask God to prepare us to be a sanctuary, a safe place or a refuge. To do so you must be pure, you must be holy, you must be tried, you must be true. It is then that you can be a living sanctuary that others can come to, to find Christ. Would those of you who are willing just make your way forward this morning who would come and sing this chorus together as a prayer to the Lord that you desire for Him to prepare you so that you can prepare the way for Him. God is preparing you to prepare the way for others.

What specific challenge are you leaving them with or perhaps pointing them back to advent since no altar call?

Wait then have them hold out hands, can do from seat. Hold out your hands, now flip them over like this (palms down). Everything I once held dear, I count it all as loss. With your hands down will you repeat that prayer to Christ with me. Everything I once held dear… I count it all as loss… Now just take a second and think about what God might be asking you to release.. and we are going to do it one more time and name it? What do you hold dear? Family doesn’t count. What accomplishment, what relationship, what activity, what status do you hold dear. God may not want it to go away but He needs to know that you see it as loss in light of knowing Him. So you might say, Lord the degree i once held dear, the relationship i once held dear, the career i once held dear, the hobby i once held dear, my title i once held dear… I count it all as loss, got it? Repeat after me filling in your own blank, My education I once held dear, I count it all as loss. now palms back up and let’s sing this chorus together prepared to receive what preparation He might have for us.

SING THEN PRAY

Hands out to receive of Him, maybe say lyrics

POST RESPONSE

Casting crowns sings a song called only Jesus, and the chorus says,

I don't want to leave a legacy I don't care if they remember me Only Jesus I've only got one life to live I'll let every second point to Him Only Jesus

Let that be true of you as you leave here today. Let’s be seated

DEADLINES (ISH)

FPU

Foundations

Divorce care even it’s been long ago, taboo, it’s a reality, support for others in the group

Ramona Booth- 50+ (maybe) women only Topic: Child of God.  Home group (Grove city area) no childcare available (HOMES AS GOALS) have a few headed that way

Amber Dutiel- women only. Topic: “Its not supposed to be this way”

Nadine Corlew- women only Topic: Worship “How to worship a king”