Preparing For Advent (Part 2: Luke 3:1-7)

Well, good morning. I'm glad that you're here with us.

Thank you for worshiping spending part of your Christmas with us.

If you turn in your bible's turned with me to

Luke chapter three this morning, Luke chapter three, starting verse one.

We're in our series called preparing for Advent, preparing our

hearts for Jesus coming at Christmas. And as we think

about preparing the hearts for Jesus come at Christmas, we

think about preparing our hearts for Jesus coming again. As

we think about Jesus's first coming, it reminds us that

just as he came the first time, he will so

come again in its second coming. You know what Christmas

is just a great time of the year, isn't it.

The decorations that we have, the songs like Oh Holy Night,

and also just the great things that we get to

enjoy this time of the year, like the decorations, all

the great Christmas foods like the peppermint milkshake, a Chick

fil Man, that thing good. I got me one yesterday,

but you can't you know, you don't get it any

other time of years, just say around Christmas. Right, But

there's certain foods that we love around Christmas. There's also

great Christmas time parties where we get to spend with

our family members. We had a party just the other

night with our staff and elders and it was a

wonderful time. Next week we're making plans for my family

to come. We'll have Christmas together and do exchange gifts,

and so there's so many great things that we like

about Christmas. And as I mentioned just the other day,

you know, the Christmas parties are good, the food is good.

But you know, all of this, all the Christmas celebration

will not happen unless there's preparation. Right, the other day,

we had again the staff and the elders came to

our house for a Christmas party, and we told them

the time to be there. We told them what night

and what time to be there. But in order for

that to happen, there's preparation has got to be made.

In order for you to prepare for you're a Christmas party,

in order for you to bear for Christmas for your home,

you got to make preparations. You got to get the

Christmas decorations out of the attic, right, You've got to

go to the grocery store and get the things that

you need for that Christmas dish that you make every year.

You've got to have things ready for your house. And

the same thing for us. As we got ready for

the Christmas party. We want to get all the decorations ready.

We wanted to get the food ready, and so we

had to make sure we went to Sam's. You know me,

I love Sam's. We went to Sam's and got all

the food. But it's knowledge just we got the decorations

ready and we went and got the food that we

needed for that night. We also had to get the

house ready, right, so there's cleaning the house. We got

to vacuum the house, we got to clean the bathrooms,

we got to make sure the table's ready. All everything's

ready for that night. Now you imagine, imagine if I

told the staff and the elders and said, hey, we're

gonna have a Christmas party on Friday night at I

think it was six o'clock, y'all come, But we didn't

get the decorations out. It's gonna be a Christmas party.

We don't going to get the director. We didn't get

the decorations out. Imagine if we we didn't go to Sands,

we didn't go to story. We didn't get any food. Imagine,

we didn't clean the house, the vacuum garbets, didn't clean

the bathrooms, didn't do anything. We didn't get the table ready.

They come knocking on the door at six o'clock. They're coming.

We told them to come, but we're not prepared, right.

I want you to think about that, for it would

seem crazy. You know they're coming. Why would you not

make preparations for their coming? I want you to think

about that into Christian life today, as we think about Christmas,

we are reminded that Jesus came at Christmas, and that

reminder that he came at Christmas is a reminder that

he too is coming again. And if he's coming again,

why would we not today make preparations in our hearts

for him to be ready for when he comes. Our

hearts are ready for his coming, as we've been in

this series. Last week we looked at John the Baptists.

Baptist was called by God to prepare people for Jesus' coming.

We saw that last week in Luke chapter one, as

the Angel of the Lord met Zacharai and his father

and the temple. There he prophesied about Zacharai and what

Zacharai's life would be like. And he said this about

Zacharai and Luke one fifteen through seventeen. And he will

be great before the Lord. He must not drink wine

or strong drink, but he will be filled with the

Holy Spirit. And even from his mother's womb he will

turn away, I mean turn many from the children of

Visual to the Lord, and he will go before them,

and the spirit and the power of Elijah to turn

their hearts to the Father, to the children, and to

the disobedient, to the wisdom of the Just, to make

ready for the Lord. A people prepared as we looked

at John to Baptist's life, and tonight today this morning,

we're going to look at his life again. Last week

we looked at how John prepared people for God's coming.

This morning we want to turn to John chapter I

mean John Luke chapter three. And in Luke chapter three

we see how God prepared John the Baptists for his coming,

and also how he prepared others. Just today, I hope today,

as you think about Christmas, and as you think about

getting ready for Christmas, you think about being prepared for

Christ to come. I want you to imagine today, what

if you knew that on December twenty fifth, Jesus was

not only coming, but he was coming again. Imagine if

you knew on December twenty fifth, eleven days from now,

Jesus was coming again, his second coming. What preparations would

you make in your life to be ready for his coming?

You know he is coming, and he's coming for you.

How would you prepare your heart? How would you prepare

your life today? I want you to see in scripture

how God wants to prepare you for Jesus's coming again.

Would you stand with me? Unlet's read God's word together?

Was read just seven verses of six verses this morning

in the fifth year the reign of Tiberius, the Caesar

of Ponscious Pilots, being governor Judea. Here it be in

the churchyard churchyard of Galilee and his brother Philip the

turkeyard of the region of Attorney Attornium and Trachionius len

the Sanius. I tried to practice those and it just

didn't work out. The turchyard of Abilene, and during the

high priests of anonysing Caiaphas, the word of God came

to john Son, Zachariah and the wilderness, and he went

on to all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming the

baptism of repentance for their forgiveness of sin. And as

it's written in the book, in the book the words

of the Isaiah, the prophet, the voice of the one

crying in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord,

make his paths straight. Every valley shall be filled in

every and he'll shall be made low. The cook shall

become straight, and the rough places shall become level ways,

and all the flesh shall see the salvation of God.

Let's pray together, Father, we thank you Lord for your

word today. Lord, today you want to use your word

to prepare our hearts for your coming. Lord. As we

think about all the things we do to prepare for Christmas, today,

I pray that we would consider how we're preparing our

hearts for you to come again, how prepared or unprepared

we are for your coming. Lord. I pray today that

our hearts would be in tune to your word, that

our hearts shall be in tune to your spirit. And Lord,

today we would listen Lord, for you speaking to our hearts. Lord,

I pray we would consider Lord, how we might prepare

Lord for you to come again. Lord, I pray today

as a body believers, we come together. God, we come

together for one purpose. And Lord has to hear your

voice today. So Lord, I pray that I would decrease

and that you would increase. And God, today, the words

of my mouth and the meditation of my heart would

be pleasing to you, Lord, but it would be your

words that they would hear today. So speak today, Father,

We pray in your name. We pray, Amen, you may

be seated. So we walked through this morning. How God

prepares his people for Christ coming. Number one, God prepares

through dark times. As you see the beginning of this

passage of scripture here Luke is telling us about how

John begin his ministry and the beginning of the passage,

it kind of gives us a historical section to kind

of describe the historical setting of this period of time.

It tells us who was in power at the time.

We see the rant of Tiberius, the Caesar, the conscious

pilot was the governor, and we see Herod was over

the region of galleys. We have different people who are

in power, and these were Roman leaders Roman governors. And

as you look upon this, you probably start remembering. You

hear the names. You probably may remember some of these names.

We know definitely. Ponscious Pilot was the governor Judea. He

was the one who stood over Jesus' trial, So we

know many years of past. Now this is Jesus minister

for three years, so this is the beginning of that.

So we know Ponchious Pilots in place at this time

when Baptists would come in. We also know other names.

Caiaphas there is the one who would hold a Mott

trial over Jesus. Therein a mot trial before the Sanhedrin.

Caiaphas is also the one who delivered Jesus over to

Ponchious Pilot. We also are familiar with another name here,

this name Herod. This is not Herod to Great. This

is Herod of Attemptpitus. And Herod here is Herod Great's son.

If you remember in the Birth heard of a Jesus,

Herod to Great was the one who sent soldiers in

to kill all the children in Bethlehem. You remember that, well,

this is his son, and his son would become over

the region of Galilee. And if you turn with me.

If you have your Bible, it's turned with Mark chapter

six we see this Herod. Herod again is over the

region of Galilee, and this Herod is the one who

would behead John the Baptist. I want you to see

the setting of what happens, and just why Herod would

this Herod who's in power at the time when John

the Baptist begins his ministry, why he would later kill

John de Baptists. I dont want you to see that.

And the Bible says in Mark sixteen, verse seventeen, for Herod,

who had sent and sieged John, bound him for prison

for Herodia's sake, his brother Philip's wife, because he had

married her. For John had been saying to Herod, it's

not lawful for you to have your brother's wife. And

Herodias had a grudge against him and wanted to put

him to death, but she could not. For Herod feared John,

knowing that he was a righteous and holy man, and

he kept him safe and when he heard him was

greatly perplexed, And yet he heard him gladly. Verse twenty

one says been an opportunity to came with Herod on

his birthday, gave a banquet for his nobles and military

commanders and leading men of Galilee. And when Herodius's daughter

came in and danced, she pleased hear it in his guests,

and the king said to the girl, asked me whatever

you wish, and I will give it to you. And

he vowed to her, saying whatever you asked me, I'll

give it to you up to half of my kingdom.

And she went out and said to her mother, what

shaw I ask and she said to and she said

the head of John de Baptist. And she came in

immediately with hase to the king and asked, saying, I

want you to give me at once the head of

John de Baptists on the platter. And the king was

exceedingly sorrow because of his oath and his guests, and

he did not want to break his word, and he

immediately sent the king an executioner with orders to bring

John's head, and he went and beheaded him in prison.

This is the setting on which John begins his ministry.

He sets his ministry up in a political climate that

is opposed to the Gospel, as opposed to truth. These

are Roman leaders. As we see that would eventually have

Jesus killed. This is the leader for Rome Herod, who

would eventually kill John the Baptists. It's interesting if you

look at what John the Baptist did. What did John

the Baptist do? John de Baptist looked that Roman governor

who had married his brother's wife, and he says, it's

not lawful according to the Word of God for you

to marry her. He spoke out against the sin of

those in power at the time, and it eventually led

to all those Scripture tells us that Herod like listening

to John and he did not want to harm him

because he believed he was a holy and righteous man.

He eventually led to him being beheaded. Why because Herodius,

Herod's wife had a grudge against him. You see, I

want you to understand this, and I think Luke wants

you to see this. Luke wants you to read this

and understand who was in power for the historical noting

of the date and time of way which John would

start his ministry, but also for you and ida know

that it didn't. John didn't begin his ministry when everything

was great politically, when the world was acceptant of Christians

and acceptant of Jesus, or acceptant of the Gospel, or

acceptant of what the Bible said about sin. No, this

was a time politically at the time where people opposed

the gospel. Not only did politically did they oppose the Gospel,

but also religiously they opposed the Gospel. Who he notes

in this passage of verse two during the high priests

of Annas and Caiaphas. Not only did politically did they

oppose it. The claimant of the world at that time

was opposed to the Gospel and what God's word says,

but also religiously there's political there's I mean not a

political but there's religious people who were opposed to what

the Bible or what the Gospel was saying at the time.

And Caiaphas would be the one who would oppose Jesus,

who would again sin it him to death, who would

bring him before pilot. The climate was not good. But

yet God in this time, God moves in a time

when it was a dark time. If it's interesting if

you look at the prophecy in verse four about John

the Baptists and Isaiah. He quotes Isaiah. Isaiah as we

look in this passage, had a prophecy about John the

Babtist would come, a prophet would come. In verse four,

it says, and I was written in the book in

the words of Isaiah, the prophet, the voice of one

crying out in the wilderness. You get this sense. We

do know John did begin his ministry in the wilderness. Literally,

that's where he preached his ministry. But it's also a

figurative sense that this is the dark time in the

world's dark time in the world which John began his ministry,

and John preached faithfully in that. I want you to

hear that because many times when we think, when when

God's going to work in my life, or when God's

going to work in the life of our world, or

life of our culture, or life of our community, or

life of our state, life of our world, It'll come

to a time when there's a spiritual revival, when when

the nation is turning to God, and that people are

really are sensitive to Christianity or cistive to what God's

word says. Can I say quite opposite, When Jesus first

began his ministry, when John first began his ministry, it

was in a dark time. And can I say to

you today many of you today, you would say, you

know what, I hear you, pastor, I hear you saying

that God wants to prepare my heart for his coming,

But you don't really know what's going on my life today.

I'm really going through a dark period in my life.

And I would say, I'm not. I don't. It's hard

right now in my life. There's things in my life

that doesn't really honor God. There's really sin, there's really

a dark period of mind, and I just don't know

that really God wants to move in my life at

this time of where I am. Can I say you

say to you today, God wants to shine his light

in the darkest times of our world and also in

the darkest times of your life. That is the time

in which the Lord wants to move in you, and

he wants to move.

In our world.

And so may we be sensitive to say, Lord, I

know today as you're preparing our hearts right now in

our world is we're living in an age and a

time where people are opposed to our belief, they're opposed

to what the Bible says. But for such a time

of this, as God wants to do a mighty work

in the life of our world and the life of

our community, but also in your life. See that today

that God prepares through dark times. I heard the story

just this week of a pastor and his name was

Dylan Novak. You know, I think not only do we

sometimes as we think about dark times, we also think

about that and sharing the gospel. When we want to

share the Gospel with someone, we think we want to

do it in the time, maybe they're more open, or

maybe the wars the world's more open to the gospel,

and that's when I maybe get active. But right now

it's the dark period. People are not open. My neighbors

just really not close. I don't know if I really

want to share the gospel because they've just not showed

that they're open to it. I heard the story of

Dylan Novak. Dylan Novak's a pastor. Actually, Dylan has shared

the Gospel with over two thousand celebrities. It started when

he was fourteen years old. Dylan went to a comic

con and there he as a teenager, he met some

actors and there he began burden. He was reading a

story about an actor who was in a movie, and

in that movie, she was in a Superman movie. And

she was an atheist, and after reading her story, he

got convicted that actors are just like you and I.

He said these words. He really hit me one day

that these celebrities, these people that we admire, these people

I brought so much joy through the years through their

entertainment work, their souls are just like me, just like you,

and they're on their way to even heaven or hell.

Because of that passion, Listen Dylan had a desire to

be the light in the darkness, one of his favorite stories.

In two thousand and three, he went to a event

in Philadelphia and he met Ozzy Osbourne. He had got

a new Believer's Bible and he had it personalized with

Ozzy Osbourne's name on it, and he gave it to Ozzy.

Ozzie actually said that he could He was flipping through

it and reading it a little bit there before him,

and he realized that he could actually understand it. And

he said, I always had trouble with the Bible because

I couldn't understand it. And his son and his daughter

would say over the next few days that that Bible

would not leave Ozzy Osborne's side. He'd read it over

and over. Now we don't know what happened to Ozzy.

Where there's you ever met the Lord. But here's the

point of this illustration. A pastor here, Dylan Novak, believed

that for such a time of this is, no matter

how dark it might be, no matter how dark that

soul may be of person you're trying to share with

your neighbor, your family, your loved one, whoever it may be,

God moves in dark times. God wants to prepare us

in the dark times of our life, and the people

in our community, people around us that we might see

resistant to the Lord. Maybe so for such a time

as right now, God wants to move in their heart.

I encourage you to have that same determination of John

to not say, you know what, it's kind of tough

right now, it's kind of politically tough. Know. John spoke

the truth of God's word even in dark times, and

God moves and God prepares in dark times, which is

in not only how God prepares his people for christ coming.

God prepares through dark times, but also God's prepares through

his word. Look at what the Bible says verse two.

This is in the high priests of Anonia Caiaphas, the

word of God came to John, the son of Zacharia

in the wilderness. The Bible says there that God's word

came to John. And what is that word? We know

exactly what the Lord said to John the Baptist. We

know that word is when John started his ministry. Do

you know that there's a period of time between Malachi,

which is the last book of the Bible, to the

next book of the Bible that we see in the

New Testament is Matthew. We call that a period of

time of years of silence. Do you know between the

end of Malachi the Prophet and the beginning of when

the Angel of the Lord came to Zachariah and we

would begin having the Gospel, Matthew, there was four hundred

years of silence, four hundred years, four hundred years of

not hearing God's voice, four hundred years of silence. And

how did God begin his work, began preparing his people

for his coming? It came simply by God's word coming

to an individual in the wilderness named John the Baptist,

and John the Baptist hearing God's word, and God and

John the Baptist responding in obedience to that word. Can

I say to you today as you think about God,

and how a might you prepare my heart for what

you want to do in my life, How you might

prepare my heart for your second coming for such a

time as this. God wants to do it right wherever

you are. But also God wants to do it through

his word. God speaks to you through his word. Heard

the story of a scholar classic scholar. Scholar's name was

doctor ev Renew. Renew was a translator. He translated books

into English. He actually translated Homer into the English Classic.

A group called Pingling Classic was the I guess the

people who produced it. After he did that, they came

to Renew, he was sixty years old, and said, we

would like for you to translate the Gospels into English. Again.

He was at atheists. He didn't believe in the Lord,

but he had a desire that he might do that.

His son said, of this, he says, it'll be interesting

to see what Father makes of the Gospels. He'll be

even more interesting to see what the four Gospel makes

of my father. Not long after he would do that,

he would be interviewed by a guy named JB. Phillips

about his work of translating the Gospels, and this is

what he said. He said in taking over this translation.

He says, there was an intense desire to satisfy himself

with the understanding what was really the content of the Gospels.

That was really why he determined he would do it.

He said later that after discovering the Greek manuscripts, he

said the whole material was extraordinary alive, and eventually he

would say this. He says, I got the feeling that

the work of reading the Bible changed me. I came

to the conclusion that these words bear the seal of

the sun of God, you know, or neew is onto

something there. It's when we realize that God's word is alive,

and when we get our souls attached to this word.

As we get into God's Word, that's when the word

comes alive and it begins changing God. It prepares us.

I wonder today, as you think about preparing for Christ coming,

how are you in God's Word? Are you reading God's

Word daily? We have great devotionals this year, We've put

out advent devotions just to prepare your heart. How are

you daily? If you only had eleven days before Jesus coming,

I think we would probably be in his word every day.

Don't you so today? How are you allowing God's word

to speak to your heart? Prepare your heart? Prepare you

want you see? Thirdly, God prepares his people for Christ

coming through dark times, but also through his word, but

thirdly through repentance. What did John say begin its ministry?

And verse three it says, and John went through all

the regions around the Jordan proclaiming a baptism of repentance

for the forgiveness of sin. We're going to see a

great length at next coming weeks. It's more about repentance.

But what did John do? As God called him? And

he responded in obedience. His word came to him and

he began his ministry. What did John call people to do?

How did he prepare people for the Lord? He called

them to repentance. He called them to turn from sin.

What is repentance? Remintance means to turn. It means to

turn away from sin and turn to God and find

forgiveness through that repentance. And that's what John said. You know,

as the other week I told you Friday, we knew

people were coming, and so we knew we needed to

get the house ready, not just not just to have

the food ready, but we wanted to make sure how

sure the house was clean. We want to make sure

the house smell good. So we did all those different things.

And it's the same thing in our life. Right, if

we knew Jesus was coming spiritually, if there was things

in our life that weren't clean, every things in our

life that were kind of stunk in our life, you

would say, spiritually speaking, we would want to clean those

things up. We'd want to repent from those things. I

remember a few years ago, it's always this time of

the year that there's little little things kind of slide

in the house. You know what I'm talking about, called mice.

We have a basement underneath the house, and our heating

units underneath our in that basement, and we start smelling

something upstairs and even on the third floor, you know,

second floor in the girl's room, we start smelling a

dead mouse. So I went downstairs, you know, on the hunt,

trying to smell it, trying to smell it, trying to

find it. How you try to find it. Unfortunately, the

only way to try to find it is try to

smell where you smell it. Right, We had some set

out some traps throughout the basement, and I went and

checked all the traps, and no, I couldn't find anything.

And I would go and no, kid, and I'll go

around and I try to smell it, try to smell

where it is, and I promise, this is it, this

is it. And I look all over that place and

they couldn't find it. And so that went on for

about months after months, and finally one day I got

into one of the corner parts of and there behind

something was that little mouse. But the interesting about that

is the stench of that mouse made its way all

the way up to up upstairs and all the way

up to the girl's second floor. It made us all

the way And the imagery in Jonah, you know, the

Bible tells us that Jonah spoke in the time of

a dark time of the nation of Nineveh. There was

sin was rampant in the nation, and God called Jonah

up to go to Ninevah and call out against them

and their sins. And listen to what the Bible says

in Jonah chapter one, Why does God call in dark times?

Why does God's word come in dark toimes? And why

does God call us repentance? Listen in the way he

says in Jonah chapter one. Now the word of the

Lord came to Jonah the sun of Immeatite, and said,

arise and go to Nineveh, that great city, and call

out against it, for their evil has come up before me.

You know, the imagery of that word is their evil

come up to me. It's the idea of the stench

of their sin has left earth, and it's made its

way all the way up to Heaven. And God says, says,

I smell the stench of their sin. Can I say

today that your sin stinks? For Holy God?

And part of our preparing a hearts for Christmas, preparing

a heart for christ coming again, is saying God, there's

some stuff in my life that stinks.

And God, in order for me to get right with

you and find forgiveness of that is God, I need

to repent of it. I need to turn away from it.

And I tell you, if the Lord would come in

eleven days away, I believe we would want to get

rid of the stuff that stinks in our life. I

wondered today, when's the last time you were repented of sin?

When's the last time you just said Lord? Right now,

this in my life is stinks and God, I need

to turn away from it. I need to repent. I

need to find forgiveness. God, I want to be right

with you. Oh the shame would it be on our

hearts before us if the Lord showed up on the

eleventh and there's things in our life that we never

cleaned up, we never repented of it. All the guilt

and shame that would that we would feel today. God

prepares us through repentance. Today, if you hear his voice,

would you repent of the sin in your life that

doesn't honor God? Which see Lastly, God prepares us through

fulfilled promises. The Bible says in verse four that John

in verse three, and he went through all the regions

around Jordan and proclaiming a baptism and repentance for the

forgiveness of sin. And then he Luke says he did

this in fulfillment of promise of a promise or a prophecy.

And then John, I mean Luke, gives us that prophecy.

He says, as it is written in the Book of

the Words of the Isaiah. The prophet as it is

written is referring to what John was doing. John was

preaching in the wilderness. He was preaching repentance, and Luke

is saying, what John w doing, fulfilled what God's word

said through the prophet Isaiah. And then he gives this

that prophecy, a voice of one crying in the wilderness.

Prepare the way of the Lord, make his path straight.

Every value shall be filled, Every mountain and hill shall

be made low, and the crooked shall become straight, the

rough places shall become level ways, and all flesh shall

shall see the salvation of God. What we wants the

writers to see, what he wants you and I to

see the readers to see, is that God fulfilled his promise.

God fulfilled his prophecy. God had a prophecy that a

forerunner would come before Jesus and it would be a prophet.

And he's saying, John, is that prophet. Not only is

John that prophet, but John fulfilled that promise. He fulfilled

the promise that Isaiah. God gave the prophet Isaiah. Why

why does Luke want us to see that? Why does

God wants to see that? The reason Luke wants to

see that reason the Holy Spirit wants to see the

reason God wants us to see that is he wants

us to see that God is true to his word.

God doesn't break his promises. What God prophesied, what God

promised through the prophet of Isaiah. God's I mean Isaiah,

I mean John de Baptists fulfilled that promise. Can I

tell you He wants you and I to see that

his word can be trusted, That he's true, that every

word that he says will come in the past, and

just that as his word came came to pass through

John de Baptists, so can all the promises that he

made can be trusted again? Can I tell you today

God prepares us through fulfilled promises and that his word

can be trusted. And today we can trust his word

and that gives us confidence. When there's a lot of

things in our world we cannot trust to be true,

we can trust God's word to be true. One thing

that we can trust in understanding that just as God

fulfilled his promise about John the Baptist, so will he

feel his other promises? Was the other promises God made.

God made a promise that he would come again, you know,

and John fourteen Jesus made a promise. Was that promise

that he would go to heaven, that he would come again.

In John fourteen three, he says, if I go to

prepare a place, I will come again and take you

to myself that where I am you. Maybe also he

says this also and acts one eleven, He says, mine, Gali,

why do you stand looking to heaven? This Jesus who

was taking up from you in heaven will come in

the same way as you saw him go into heaven.

Can I tell you that they? As we look at

God's word and we see how God's word is true

and God is faithful to his promises, we can believe

his word is true, and we can believe his word

is true, that He is coming again, and we must

be prepared because he doesn't break his promises. So today,

how prepared for you? How prepared are you for Jesus coming?

No matter what period of time it is in your life,

no matter how dark it may be, God's coming, God

wants to work in you. God also wants to work

in the lives of others that you know that are

maybe not where they need to be the Lord. Maybe

today is today that you want to be more faithful

to share the Gospel with people that you know that

are not where they need to be today. God wants

to prepare you through his word, how faithful you are

to the Word of God, reading, studying it, reading, doing

your devotions. God prepares us through repentance, recognizing that there's

things in our life that doesn't honor God and turning

from those. And God prepares us through his faithful, true

Word that He is faithful to his promises. You know,

I think as a pastor, as we're closed this morning,

it's my responsibility as a pastor to make sure you're ready.

I think a terrifying thing for me is that I

would preach in a way and continue to preach, and

you would hear, but you would not heed the warnings,

and you would not be ready. There's a story about

a man. In nineteen seventy six July, I mean thirty

one of nineteen seventy six, there was a flood in Colorado.

It's called the Big Thomas Flood. It was a canyon

of the St. Parks and Loveland, Colorado. It was a

nineteen foot of water that came through the canon there

because of a thumb understorm, and it killed one hundred

and twenty nine people. There. There was a man and

he had studied he was an engineer. He had studied

and he knew the canyon, he knew the dangers of

the river that could rise, and he was watching what

was happening. One day he saw that these there were

signs that this flood may be coming, and so he

went to his wife and he told his wife. He says,

I'm going to go and I'm going to start telling

the people throughout the town. I'm going to start telling

them that they need to get out. And so he

went door to door telling people. He went and he

told his wife. He says, I'm going to leave, and

he says, and I'm going to start telling people to leave.

He says, if I'm not back in thirty minutes, he says,

I want you to climb that mountain without me, and

you take our kids and also go to the hotel

and tell the owner of the hotel and his wife

who were also staying there and their kids to get out.

And they had come with you. The wife tells a

story that after thirty minutes, he didn't show up, and

she start climbing the mountains. Next thing you know, she

looks down and she sees the water coming and its

sweep away a trailway bus. It takes the hotel apart

that she was just in. One hundred and twenty nine

people died, and that was including the hotel owner and

his wife and his kids. The engineer warned them, but

they said, no, I'm good, I'm okay. Don't worry about me.

I'll be fine. I think that's my biggest fear for

you today. And Jesus is coming. This word is true,

his promises are true. He's coming. You may be in

a dark period of your life that you might say,

right now, Pastor, is just not the right time for me.

You might say today, well, you know, Pastor, just not

being in God's word like I should. You might say,

I know there's some sin in my life that stinks.

But I'm okay, Pastor, I'll be fine. Can I say today,

the Lord is coming and I want you to be ready.

I want you to be prepared. So today, as you

hear his voice, you hear his word calling to you. Answer,

as you hear him saying, repent, listen why because his

word is true and his promises are true, and he

wants to forgive, forgiveness to those who call upon him,

and mercy to those who call upon his name. The

Bible says he is faithful to forgive us of our

sins if we ask right. So today, while you hear

his voice, answer you pray with me. Lord. We love you.

We thank you Lord for your word. We thank you

Lord for this passage of scripture. We thank you Lord

for John who lived his life to call people to repentance,

to call people the Lord to be prepared for Jesus' coming.

The Lord, Today, I pray that we would hear your

word just as they heard it from John, that we

would hear your word today and we would answer. Lord.

We respond Lord to your word just as John did.

We repent of the sins that we need to repent of. Lord,

and Lord, we would hold to your promises, Lord, that

you are faithful and just to forgive us of our

sins if we confess them before you. Today, Lord, we

love you. We thank you Lord for today lead us

in this time of invitation. Your name, we pray amen

to