Let’s Get Ready for Christmas...

Welcome....

Psalm 18:1–3 ESV

1 I love you, O Lord, my strength. 2 The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. 3 I call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised, and I am saved from my enemies.

Psalm 18:46 ESV

46 The Lord lives, and blessed be my rock, and exalted be the God of my salvation—

Prayer

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Jerry

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Good morning my friends, what a joy to see your faces today!

This morning I want to take us one a journey, one that many of us are on right now, but not as we suppose...

What are we doing? Well, I think that many of you are trying to get ready for Christmas.

What does that mean? Well you are trying to get the right gifts for all your loved ones, you are trying to plan out the meal and the time you will have together with family and friends.

And honestly, if you realize it or not, this is probably the most important holiday for you as a family.

But what will you do?

How will you prepare for it?

Is your heart as read for Christmas as your are seeking to make the physical plan for your family.

The truth is , its in the heart where the blessing of Christmas is first celebrated. It is a time of worship, love and joy.

So lets begin and make sure we are ready to celebrate Christmas.

So that is the first thought I would share with you today, I would share with you the thought that each day, we should examine self.

Now you might say, really, each day. But yes, you brush your teeth each day, shower, etc… why not make certain that you are right before the Lord.

1 Examine Self....

Examination is an important topic, the meaning refers to a detailed inspection or investigation.

And if we are to consider that meaning in light of our Christian life, we could say ...it is a necessary look at self. What we think, what we say and of course what we are doing day to day.

And just as we would examine other things in life day to day, so as a believer it is necessary to consider our ways. The purpose is to make sure we are living righteously in front of the Lord God.

But let me warn you, there is a great mis-truth we must be careful about, it is living under the assumption that as a christian, we must be ok.

That is an assumption that is dangerous to make… And be honest, this is something we do all the time, we are guilty of making assumptions each day.

We say “this is ok”, we say “what hasn’t worked so it won’t now..”

So it is important to examine self and walk rightly in front of God.

In 2 Cor 13, the Apostle Paul called for believers at Corinth to examine themselves, instead of scrutinizing him or wondering about his mission. Let me share the passage with you.

2 Cor 13:5 5 Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test!

So with that in minds, Examination is a good thing, but we don’t always like it.

You know why? It often tells the truth about our life. We go to the doctor, they are listening, checking, doing some labs and the truth comes back…

Well, the doctor says, the holidays were a little too good to you. This isn’t within range or that..

Or maybe we hear a sound in the car, and we think it is nothing but when forced to go to the garage, we find out we should have looked at it sooner.

And then we are left trying to take the necessary steps in each cast to correct the issue and make it right.

For us as a child of God we are to examine our life and see are we healthy or not..

The word examine there in the Greek “peirazo” means to put yourself on trial.

So if you had to go to court to prove your faith, what would you have or what could you say to prove your life is in Christ?

And then he add a great emphasis on this meaning Paul also says “Test yourselves” The word here “dokimazo” means to examine, to check out..

So it is a call to look deep down, you are not trying to compare yourself to another, no not at all. This is just your life in front of God. What do you have in your life that says you are in Christ, and you are in a right standing.

Well, we can always start with our salvation experience, whether you remember it all or not, you called upon the Lord to enter into your life and save you.

Paul says ...Romans 10:13 “13 For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.””

And then John says in John 1:12 “12 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God,”

So the next step is to examine our life in Christ.

Now if I were to ask you, what should be external marks or points of a Christian life we could possibly narrow done to a few thoughts,

Prayer

Reading the Word

Worship

Do we take time to participate in these activities for the goal of walking with and drawing closer to the Lord our God.

The Word enables us to know the Lord our God more., Prayer allows us time to commune with the Father, speaking to and listening to his voice

Worship allows us the joy of gathering with other believers to ascribe worth too, to worship and give praise and adoration to the Lord our God.

Each of these are important and each has their place in our spiritual walk with the Lord.

But what if our examination brings to mind things that shouldn’t be present in our life?

Well, then we need to do our best to align ourself to the will of God and walk with Him.

So here is our second thought today. In order to be ready for Christmas we might need to have a spiritual alignment.

2 Spiritual Alignment.…

Consider this....your car or truck, it’s important to you. It gets you to and from work, shopping and of course it help you get to the church house.

But, if you notice that your tires are wearing unevenly, you think, oh man, I need to get this checked before it gets any worse.

So you go by the garage to see what needs to be done. And you know, they check some things out, and they come back to you and say.. Well this needs replacing, and then you will need to get an alignment for your car to make sure your tires do not ware unevenly anymore..

An alignment makes sure the tires are facing forward exactly as they should, straight if you will, so that you are riding on the best part of the tire, thus helping insure they last as long as possible. And we want them to last a long time, they are expensive.

What is your course of action then? Well, you need an alignment, and you make sure the works gets done.

Here is a good truth for us today.

Just as we need these things in the physical world, there are times we need the same repairs, adjustments, renewals in our spiritual lives.

What am I saying?

We are living, but we are off center,… We have stopped going down the road in a straight line.

And what does it mean that we have stopped going down the road in a straight line? Well if the straight line is following in God’s footsteps, ways… then to anything else is away from God.

Those things tend to add up to doing what is pleasing to our self.

Listen with me to Paul’s word to those at Philippi. Phil 2:21 ...21 For they all seek their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ.

What am I saying here?

Something has happened, maybe slowly, gradually and we find ourself seeking our desires first...

We are looking for joy, happiness, peace, fulfillment everywhere but where we should…

And listen it isn’t the going things for yourself that is the problem, it is when we are seeking that in place of God, when we have made those things the more important than seeking God and his will...

Well, we tend to wander away as we are going down the road.

And the longer we allow it to be present, well the worse we are.. Just like if you put off getting an alignment for your car, well pretty soon you will need more than the alignment, you will need some new tires too.

It has cost us more than it needed too, all because we allowed it to go on unchecked.

So it’s good for us to check on things. You know from time to time we walk around our car, we look at the tires, we make sure the oil is changed, the maintenance is done… You want the vehicle to reform well.

Well there are checks we need to make of our Spiritual life.

So what can we do? How can we make sure we are ready for Christmas?

We have already touched on one thought, examine our life.

And once we discover anything thing or action that needs to change in our life their are a couple points we can put into practice as we draw closer to God and make our hearts ready for Christmas

If we discover problems, disobedience or sin, we should confess them to the Lord.

We confess our sin… We take our mistakes and we acknowledge them before the Lord.

We speak them, Lord I have done this or that or maybe I’ve not done what I should have… and when we are sincere in our confession. The Lord will forgive us. I John 1:9 says

1 John 1:9 ESV

9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Do you see .. we confess, and He the Father is faithful and just to forgive and cleanse us from our sin, our unrighteousness.

Man, that’s good.

But it doesn’t stop there.

2. We repent with that confession. Repentance is marked by action. Repentance says I have realized I have gone in the wrong direction and so now I am returning to the right pathway. I am making a decisive action to turn 180 degrees and head in the opposite direction. it is not just something we say, it is what we do as well.

I was living away from Christ, but now I choose to live for Christ. Listen to Solomon in the book of Proverbs...

Proverbs 16:3 ESV

3 Commit your work to the Lord, and your plans will be established.

The idea of “commit” in the Hebrew here means to trust. Jerome, one of our early church fathers says “...We are commanded to show him our ways and make our way to him. which are made straight, not by our own efforts but by his help and mercy..”

My friends, when we turn our hearts to the Lord, having made sure our ways are pure… it is there that we experience restoration.

Now just one last thought as we finish this message.

3 Worship...

Our confession and repentance toward God leads us in one direct way. It leads us to worship our Lord and King.

But lets look for a moment and examine what worship is and how we are to participate in it.

So what is worship? Worship is an action, one that flows from deep inside of us,

The standard dictionary tells us that worship means to adore, pay homage to, and ascribe worth to...

For the Christian, we adore the Lord our God, we ascribe worth, literally worship to Him.

One theologian one said “...True worship is essentially internal, a matter of the heart and is rooted in the knowledge of and obedience to the Word of God.”

And please note, worship is something we must be careful about, least we be deceived. Worship is not just lip service or some external ritual… that is a form of godless worship..

Remember, it is a matter of heart. So the condition of your heart will dictate your ability to or not to worship correctly.

The prophet Elijah in 2 Kings 18:21 called on the people to stop wavering between two opinions. You will either worship something false like Baal, or you will worship the Lord our God.

In true worship that comes from down deep in us, we are ascribing worth of our God. Listen to King David as he voice worship in Psalm 77:13 “13 Your way, O God, is holy. What god is great like our God?” Psalm 77:15 “15 You with your arm redeemed your people, the children of Jacob and Joseph. Selah”

And so true worship is the expression of our gratitude and praise for all that God is and all that he has done and will do in the future accord ing to His Word.

The early church met daily in the book of Acts. The worshipped at the Temple in Jerusalem, and in the homes of believers, devoting them doctrine, fellowship, prayer and partaking of the Lord’s table, the Lord’s supper or communion.

And if you look toward the end of the book of Acts, they are meeting corporately, with Gentile believers on the first day of the week.

People get all jacked up all the time wondering why we don’t worship on the Sabbath. Well any good baptist could tell you that was reserved for college football....

No I am kidding… The sabbath day was worship that was uniquely Jewish, and by the time people are worshipping corporately by the end of Acts and at other places in the New Testament, they worshipped on the first day of the week in honor of the resurrection of Jesus.

And here is a great observance, not being Jewish, the Lord never rebuked them for worshipping on the first day of the week. So it continued.

And the New Testament tells us that worship in the church included the singing of psalms, hymns and other spiritual songs, with prayer and almsgiving as we see in Colossians 3:16 and I Tim 2:1-2. Paul says...

Colossians 3:16 ESV

16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.

1 Timothy 2:1–2 ESV

1 First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, 2 for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way.

So we gather and worship and we sing, we pray and we look to the Word of God for instruction, and we follow the Lord’s instruction toward the baptism of believers and observing the Lord’s Supper.

In all of this our goal is to not only remember the redemptive work of Jesus Christ but also to praise and give thanks to God that we are included in his action.

That Jesus laid down His life and took it up again that our sin might be forgiven, and we have the joy of walking with Him because we are now forgiven and included into the family of God, even if by adoption we are the sons and daughters of God.

And we praise him for the sacrifice, for that love and for the redemption that will one day ensure that we are delivered into His presence.

That like the the elders and living creatures in Rev 4 and 5, we will one day bow down and worship the Lord our God and the Son...

So each day, friends, please take the time to worship the Lord our God

But begin each day with the examination of self, make the necessarily alignments, corrections that we might live right and righteous before the Lord and then take time daily and yes corporately to worship the Lord our God.

And this morning the call is to examine your heart and ensure you are prepared for the joy and worship of our Lord at Christmas.

Lets pray