Preparing For Advent

Do you have your Bibles of your turn with me

to Luke chapter one. This morning we're going to start

in verse thirteen in just a moment this morning, we're

kind of preparing for Advent. The title of my sermon

is preparing for the word advent is a Latin word.

It means coming. And as we prepare for Advent, we're

preparing for Jesus to come. The first Advent was Jesus

coming in a manger, God in the form of a man,

Jesus our Savior, coming upon this earth. And as we

prepare for Advent, we prepare for Christmas. We're a reminder

when He first came. But also this, I would say

this is practice right as we prepare for Christmas every year.

This preparation that God, we're preparing for you to come

at Christmas is a practice for us preparing for Him

to come again. You know, Jesus is coming back, and

just as he came Christmas, Jesus is coming again in Christmas,

the season of Christmas and the season of Advent.

As we say God.

And we want to prepare our hearts for you to come,

we're just practicing saying God, we want to prepare our

hearts for you to come again.

Amen.

And so this morning as we come to Advent, that's

what we want to do. We want to prepare our

hearts for Jesus to come. There's one thing we can

expect in this life, and we can expect that Jesus

is coming again, just as he came the first time.

You know, there's things in our life that we can expect,

like Jesus return.

But there's things in our life we can't expect, things that.

Happen in our life, and there's just no way we

can prepare. We can know that they're coming. This week,

we were sent off by our NC Baptists. Most of

you know that I'm on the board for North Carolina

Baptist Convention. I'm on the executive committee. So they asked

me to go to Nashville for e r LC State

Ethics Meeting. So a lot to that won't go to

that for today, but they sent me to that. So

Brandy and I left Wednesday. It was Thursday Friday, so

at Nashville's eight hour drive. So we took off on

Wednesday and we get on the way to Nashville and

got a little red light that pops up on my

car check engine light flashing. We're halfway there, and I

was like, oh, no, you know something's wrong. And so

we get there, the car breaks down. At breakdown, we

make it, but we I realized that something's not right

and I didn't want to drive another eight hours back

with something wrong with the car, so we had to

take it to shop and look at getting that work done.

The very next day, we get a phone call from Chloe.

Chloe was watching the house and kind of house sent

for us Mom and Dad. We opened up the refrigerator

and the lights are on, but there's nothing cold in

refrigerator or in the freezer. We lost everything in the freeze, refrigerator,

in the freezer, everything was spoiled. And then on the

Saturday where we're on the we get back yesterday and

and of course we'll have your groceries and so there's

nothing to cook.

So Brandy and I decided.

We go get pizza, and so ordered Domino's and I

went and got some groceries on the way, and I

had all the groceries in this new cart we got

that was supposed to help us with our groceries, and

had the groceries in the little cart, little basket. If

we the pizza land on top, and as I'm walking

in the house, if I'm lying, I'm dye, that cart collapses.

I dropped all the groceries in the yard.

The pizza slid out of the box onto the grass,

and we took it inside.

Brandie was pulling leaves off the bottom of it. I mean,

so it's just one of those things, you know, you

can't excuse.

There's things that you can unexpected, things that happened and

you cannot pre bear. You just don't know those things

are coming. As we come to Luke chapter one, we

meet an individual and his name is Zachariah. He has

his wife name Elizabeth, and Zachariah in this passage day

encounters something that he was not expecting.

He was selected. He was a high priest or.

He was a priest, and he was selected to go

into into the temple and to the holy part of

the temple, not the Holy of Holies, but just outside

of that they would offer incense, and he was selected

to offer incense that day. This was a once in

a lifetime You would never do this. There were so

many priests. Only once in your whole life would you

ever be selected to go in to offer incense.

And this was his day.

He were going in and he was burning the incense

and he goes in to offer that before the Lord,

and there and as he offered it, there was an angel.

His name was Gabriel. He's frightened. He was not expecting

to actually see an angel. And so today we see

him encounter something he wasn't expecting. No, it was he

didn't expect to see an angel. But he also something

else happened that day he wasn't expecting. The angel told

Zachariah that Elizabeth, Zachariah's wife was to be, was pregnant

and that she was going to have a son. And

his name is John. You see, life, in our life,

we encounter things that we don't expect, right, but God

is so good that he prepares us. How did God

prepare Zachariah and Elizabeth. He sent an angel to prepare

them for something that was coming. And his name was

John de Baptists. You know, in my life I had

a pastor and you've heard me tell the story before.

His names Precher Gerry Phillips. And one thing I love

about printigeriy I was right. I was seminary is my

first church I served full time and he was in Conway,

South Carolina. It's he could Grow Baptist Church and pre

Tigeria was a senior pastor there. I was called to

be the student pastor. And when I got into that church,

it was new church, new full time ministry.

I remember Prechergery.

Knew that in serving in ministry there's things that were

going to happen, things that I wouldn't expect. And so

pregy Gery lived his life, he kind of lived his

ministry to how to help me prepare for things that

I would not expect in ministry. I'll never forget when

I first got to the church and Prechergery told me,

he says, Jonathan, I want you to be prepared that

for something that you may not expect. And he says

church members are going to try.

To divide me in you and I was like, what

do you mean.

He says, there are going to be church members who

are upset at me, and they're going to come to

you and try to divide you against me.

And I said, no.

Way, Preacher Jerry, There's nobody's going to do that. Nobody's

going to come and try to say things about you.

Nobody's going to try to turn me against you. And

I wasn't there six months and a church member at Christmas,

right after a Christmas service came to me, I need

to tell you something about that preacher, the things that

he's doing.

And he was exactly right.

But in that story, I want you to understand, Preacher

Jerry understood it was his role to prepare me for

things that were coming. As we come to this passage scripture,

John the Baptist lived his life trying seeking to prepare

some people for something.

What was that something that was coming? His name was Jesus.

John the Baptist lived his whole life seeking to prepare

people to be prepared to be ready for Jesus's coming. Today,

I want you to think about, how do you live

your life like John de Baptist, like Preacher Jerry, in

such a way that I want my life to to

prepare people for something that I know that is coming,

and his name is Jesus. Here there's many things in

this life that are unexpected. There's unexpected car trouble, there's

unexpected refrigerator trouble, there's unexpected trouble with our help, there's

unexpected trouble with relationships, there's unexpected trouble at work, there's

unexpected trouble with our children. These things are going to happen.

But there's one thing we can expect this life, and

that is Jesus is coming again. We can expect his advent,

his second coming, and we should live our life in

such a way knowing, Listen, Jesus is coming again to

rescue us from this life of trouble.

And I want to lead.

I want to live my life in such a way

that I prepare people for Jesus is coming again. You know,

when Jesus coming again. For those who are believers, he's

going to come rescue them from this life of trouble.

But for those who are unbelievers, Jesus coming again, he's

coming in judgment. He's coming to separate them in eternity,

in hell. And I want to live my life to

prepare people for Jesus' advent. Amen, I want you to

look today as we look at John. I want you

to look at how John lived his life to prepare

people for Jesus's coming. And I want you to ask

yourself today, Lord, how am I living my life to

prepare people for your coming, for your advent, for your

second coming.

Lord.

I want to live my life to prepare people for

you coming again. Will you stand with me. Let's read

on God's word, Luke, Chapter one. We're going to start

in verse thirteen words, just going through seventeen. This morning,

the Bible says, this is a word of the Lord,

and the Angel said to him, don't be afraid, Zachary,

for your prayer has been heard. And your wife Elizabeth,

will bear you a son, and you shall call his

name John. And you will have joy and gladness. And

many were joys at his birth. For he will be

great before the Lord. And he must not drink wine

or strong drink. He'll be filled with the Holy Spirit,

even from his mother's womb. And he will turn many

children from Israel to.

The Lord their God.

And he will go before them in the spirit of

the power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the

father's to children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of

the just. To make listen this to make ready for

the Lord, a people prepared.

Let's pray together.

Lord, We love you, We thank you Lord for your word.

God.

You've called all of us here as believers in Jesus,

believers in You, that we will live our life to

prepare others for your coming again. So, Lord, I pray

that you would use the words that you spoke through

your messenger, the Angel to Zachar Ay. May you use

that word today to be the word that we hear,

just as zach ar I heard it. May we hear

your word. May we be moved by your word today

just as he was. And God, may you May you

turn our hearts to you today. May you turn our

hearts to be obedient Lord to your word, to follow

your word, to live in in accordance to your word. Lord,

I pray today, just as John prayed that I would decrease,

that you might increase today, Lord, that the words of

my mouth and the meditation of my heart's will be pleasing.

Lord to you, Lord, use Lord your word today and

use me as your messenger, just as.

You use Gabriel. Lord. We love you. We thank you

Lord for this morning. Your name. We pray, Amen, you

may be seated this morning.

I want is to see how John prepares us for

Jesus coming. First, we see John prepared us or prepare

others through a life of service, through a life of service.

The Bible kind of.

Begins as we look at the passage again here this

morning here John, as I mentioned that he was going

into the temple. Oh, he has this incense. He's going

to burn this sacrifices the once in a lifetime thing.

He probably think this is my one shot. Wonder, I'm

going to go into this temple and offer this incense.

It's going to be standard procedure. He goes in and

there's an angel. It's like nothing he'd ever expected. He

sees the angel, and then something happens the angel. As

we read here in verse thirteen, the angel first addresses

John's fear, I mean John Zachariah's fear. The Bible says,

the angel said him, do not be afraid Zachariah. We

understand in verse twelve there that as he sees the angel,

he is full of fear.

He's afraid.

None of you and I, none of us, have ever

seen an angel. Can you imagine if you would, naturally,

you would be afraid, We would all be afraid.

John was here's fearful.

As you know, as you go into the Holy of Holies,

and if you study church history and the Old Testament history,

you understand that as you went into the Holy holies,

you were understood to go into the presence of God.

When they went into the Holy holies, which was only

once a year. This is not where John is. They

would actually tie a rope to the priests. They would

he would wear a garment of robe that would have

tassels and bells. So when when the Holy holies, if

he wasn't right with God, he would be struck dead

and they would pull his body out.

So that's why they attached a rope.

So it was very important for you to be right

before the Lord before you went in to offer something

to the Lord. And so Zachariah going in, he's thinking, hey,

I think my heart's right on. I don't think there's

any unconfessed sin. He sees this angel, he must thought,

this is it.

I'm a goner. And so he was full of full

of fear.

And immediately the angel recognizes that and he speaks peace

to him. It's his very same imagery you see Thomas.

You remember Thomas when doubt he doubted, Jesus appeared to

him in the room and he said peace Thomas. It

seems the same imagery. He knows that Zachariah's trouble. The

first words of him is to speak peace to calm

his fears. Don't you know today, wherever you are, no

anxiety you're facing today, Whatever trouble you're facing today, the

Lord knows, and the Lord wants.

To speak peace.

He wants to bring peace into your heart and over

your anxiety. We see that in this passage. But don't

you the next part it says, don't be afraid, Zachariah,

for your prayer has been heard. It's interesting here, what

is the prayer that John's been praying? John's been praying?

Not John?

I keep saying that John is the child, Zachari is

the father. What is the prayer that Zachari has been praying?

Zacharai has been praying for a child. If you read

previously up to verse five through seven, it kind of

gives us a buyer of Zachariah and his wife Elizabeth.

Zachariah and Elizabeth we're bearing. Scripture describes them as a

righteous couple. What does that mean? That means they live

the holy life. Scripture describes a blameless in all their

deeds and their observance of the law. They they lived

by God's word, we would call them godly. They are

a godly couple. They they love the Lord, and they

lived according to God's word. But that doesn't mean that

just because you're a godly person, just because you love

the Lord, just because you follow God's word, doesn't mean

that you're not going to face unexpected things. What was

the unexpected thing for Zacharia and Elizabeth?

She was bearing?

Scripture tells us in that bio they weren't able to

have children. I love this passage scripture. Do you know

that in this passage we see that they're bearing, but

it doesn't stop Zachariah from praying. Do you know in

America today, statistics tells us at one in five will

struggle with infertility.

In our world.

That one of the hardest things that we know people

in our congregation.

Imagine our congregation, our side.

Of twenty percent of people within our congregation will struggle

with in fertility. It's a dark place, hurts, it's painful

for her, for him, or heard his testimony just this

week and the conference I was one of the professors

that worth leading. It talked about him and his wife

and how they struggle with infertility, and he talked about

personally as a man, how he.

Felt like something was wrong with him.

I love that, Zachariah, even though there's been years where

they can't have children. Zachari continues to plead with the Lord, Lord,

you know our brokenness. Lord, and the Bible says, listen

to this, as Zachary. As the Angel speaks to Zachariah,

he says to Zachariah, don't be afraid. But verse thirteen,

he says, not only don't be afraid, your.

Prayers have been heard.

Can you do you know today God's people that God

knows your brokenness. God knows your pains, and God hears

your prayers today, The Bible says, he hears their prayers.

But then he answers their prayer. Listen to these your

prayers been heard, and your wife Elizabeth, will bear you

a son, and you shall call his name John.

God heard their prayers.

After in verse fifteen starts describing this John and what

his life will be. And over the next few weeks

we're going to be looking at John's life and how

he lived his life to prepare people, and how he

did that, the methods by which he did that. But

just today it kind of gives us a glimpse of

what John's life is going to be. First, John's life

was a life of service. He lived his life in

service to the Lord, and this passage described that.

Listen to.

He describes what John's life will be like. In verse

fourteen says, you'll have joy and gladness.

And many were joys at his birth.

You can imagine the joy after being barren for so

many years.

God opened up her.

Her body to be able to have children. And when

they have that child, to imagine the rejoicing that had.

But the Bible says, and only they were joys. The

scripture says, others were a joice, and why will they joye?

Verse fifteen describes for.

He will be great before the Lord.

He'll be great.

This term is in the heat I mean in the

Greek is. This is a term for a great greatness.

The Bible tells us and Luke seven that Jesus described

John the Baptist as someone was great.

Jesus described.

John the Baptist as being one that was greatest above

all women, who I mean born of women? It says this,

And Luke seven eight, I tell you, among those born

of women, none is greater than John. Yet the one

who is leased in the kingdom is greater than him.

He says, of all the men born of a woman

of this earth, there's none greater than John.

That's what Jesus says. He was great.

But notice in this passage where did his greatness come from?

Listen to this in verse fifteen he describes, for he

will be great.

Listen to this before the Lord.

I love this because this greatness in John didn't have

anything to do how great he was in the eyes

of his peers, or his friends, or his family members,

or those at his workplace, or his buddies that he

hangs out with. His greatness was before the Lord. That

means in the eyes of the Lord, John was great.

And where did John's greatness come from? John's greatness came

from his service to the Lord.

Why was John so great?

Because John lived his life in service to the Lord.

Malachi tells us that, by the way, did you know

there's so many these prophecies and scriptures about the coming Messiah,

But there's also prophecies about the John the Baptist, And

Malachi three to one tells us the prophet prophesied there

were one who would become before the Lord, and Malachi

three one says, behold, I will send my messenger, and

he will prepare the way before me. And the Lord,

whom you will see, will suddenly come into his temple,

and the messenger of the Covenant in whom you will delight, Behold,

he's coming, says the Lord of Hosts. Malachi had a

prophecy that before Jesus would be born, another would be born,

and he would be described as the messenger of the Lord,

who would go before Jesus and prepare the way, and

John the Baptist would live his life and fulfillment of

that word. So much so, Jesus in Luke chapter seven,

verse twenty seven, quoted Malachi and says, that is John

the Baptist. You see, John the Baptists lived his life

in service to the Lord, lived his life to prepare.

The way for the Lord.

You know, many times, if you think about you and

I today, we think about serving the Lord, and you say,

you know, a pastor understand you're trying to leave me

today and understanding what God's word may call me, that

I might live my life and service to the Lord.

And you might think, well, how could I do that?

Maybe I would serve as a teacher at church here,

or maybe I would serve on the greeting team.

Or maybe our ser with the children. Maybe I serve

with the.

Youth, maybe I serve with the young adults. Maybe I

serve in some capacity. Maybe I serve it in somewhere

in our community. And you might think about that, and

you might say, well, that means I've got to make

some time out of my schedule to serve the Lord.

That means I'm gonna have to do some extra work

outside and may have to prepare they have to do

different things. And then I've got to do things that

make me uncomfortable. Maybe as a Greeeder, I have to

talk to people I've never met before. It may means

that if I am a teacher, it may have to

prepare a Sunday school lesson or prepare a growth group lesson.

That may mean to have to change a dirty diaper.

And who, man, you.

Start talking about stuff that's that just sounds like a lot.

And so many times when we say I know pastor

God wants to use me to prepare for Jesus is coming,

but it's just gonna ask a lot. It adds to

the busyness of my life. And to be honest with you,

if we're really, really honest, many times we just say no,

because really it just seems messy.

It's messy changed in the dirty diaper. It's messy.

Dealing with conflicts and people arising their life and trying

to help lead them and disciple them through that. It's messy.

Trying to prepare a Sunday school lesson and trying to

wrestle through scriptures just messy. It complications of our life

and mantimes. We just don't want to get our hands dirty.

Heard the story of a man one time, and there's

a little child that fell in the river and they

were drowning. Man saw them, the child drowning, and he

jumped into the river and he saved this child. It

was kicking and screaming. It was desperate for life, and

so it was wrestling. It was hard, the river was cold,

and he got wet. He had swim clothes on. He

just got messy. And they asked the man after he

saved the child, why did.

You do it? Why did you do it?

He says, because of the right thing to do, and

someone had to do it. You know, the Bible says,

Jesus says listen in Mark ten forty five, For even

the son of Man came not to be so, but

to serve to give his life as a ransom for many.

Aren't you glad today? As you were born into this

world and you are the Bible says, we're all sinners

and falling short of the glory of God. And our

sin what's the constants of our sin is death? And

what's the consequences of that?

Hell?

Aren't you glad that Jesus didn't look down from heaven

and say, you mean you want me to become a man?

You want me to live on that earth sinless? You

want me to go to the cross and diw on

the cross for their sins? Well, that seems awful messy

to me. I tell you what, I'll sit this one now.

Aren't you glad that Jesus came to serve his life

as a ransom for your sins? May we as returned

for what Jesus has done for us, Say Jesus, I

want to do what I can to serve you with

my life and to serve others, that I might lead

others to Jesus.

Once you see for.

Zachariah and for John to Baptist. Here in this passage,

he scripture described prophesied as through the Angel that he

would prepare others through the life of service, but he

also would prepare others through a life of discipline. Notice

this passage scripture he non describes that he will be

great before the Lord and his service to the Lord,

but it also explains what John's life will be like.

His life is going to be different. How is his

life going to be different?

It describes this in verse fifteen, he must not drink

wine or strong drink, and he must be filled with

the Holy Spirit, even from.

His mother's room.

He describes that as John to Baptist would take a

calling of abstinence, he would have stained from alcohol his

entire life. We understand this if you if you study scripture.

This restriction was a restriction for priests as they perform

their duties. We see that Leviticus nine. But also there

was this more permanent restriction. It's called the Nazarite vow.

We see Sampson would take this vow, and it would

be a vow to abstain from alcohol for their entire life.

That's what he's referring to here and this Nazurit vow,

and this vow that we see priests would take would

be a vow of to set apart to be holy

for the Lord, to.

Live his life as holy to the Lord.

We see this same calling upon Samuel and on Samuel eleven,

and here John is going to be one who prepares

others through a life of service, but also prepare others

through a life of discipline. You know, as the believers

in Jesus Christ, listen, not only we are to serve

others in our life, live our life and service to

others to prepare people for Jesus coming, but also we

to live our life a life of discipline. You know,

the Bible says that you and I sure to be

disciplined in our our our way of life, and that

means that we were not to live we're not to

look like the world. Our lives is to be different,

set apart. That takes discipline. That means there's things that

are that you can do, but doesn't mean that you

should do. You understand that. I remember one time what

they say confession is good for your soul. I mean,

I was a young pastor. I was telling you about

the time where I was with Preacher Jerry. I was,

I was serving there and again I was just out

of seminary and and I would try to build relationships

with students. And one of the ways I did that

was coach volleyball, as I've done here, And I was

coming to volleyball at the time at Christian School that

brain was working at, and and trying to build relationships

with teenagers there. And again I was just write out

a seminary and one day in practice we were talking

about something and as I'm accustomed to do, I quoted

a movie and the players did not know the movie,

and I said, oh, you've never seen that movie, and

you know now, and so I told them what the

movie was.

Now, I want to.

Pause for a second and say, for especially for our

younger generation, I came from the time of called VHS.

You know what VHS tapes are in DVDs. VHS was

first and then DVDs. That means if you wanted to

watch a movie, you had to go to a store

called Blockbuster, and they had a VHS tape that you

would check out, and if you didn't check out, they.

Charge you over and over and over and over.

But if you were to watch a movie, you had to,

you know, you get a blockbuster and you rented the movie,

and you know it's VHS tapes and then later it

was DVDs.

Right, But that's how you watch movies.

You just didn't go online and pull up any movie

on Netflix or whatever it is, YouTube or you know, you.

Had to go check it out.

And then your other option to watch movies was through television,

cable television, right, and we had cable. But if you

watched a movie through cable or through television, that edited

the movie, right, They filtered, they filtered the language, all

the bad things out of the movie. And the movie

I reference was not a movie I'd ever seen through

checking out the movie VHS.

It was a movie I've seen on TV. So I

told them the movie, didn't think anything about it. The

next I think it was, you know, that week. The

next week, Mom comes up.

She says, hey, I just want to let you know

we saw that movie that she told the students about.

And in my fate, I felt every bit of blood

just rush out of my body because I realized as

soon as she said that that there was inappropriate things

in that movie that TV had filtered out, but that

means they went and checked it out at Blockbuster said

there was no filtration system, and I was horrified. I

remember backing up like, batter, I've never seen it. I've

never really seen the DVD. I've never seen those, but

I know there's things bad in there.

She was like, you know, And I felt so humiliated.

And I tell you that story because in that moment,

God used that to say, Jonathan, your life has got

to be different, and that means not watching movies that

I know could cause one of these teenagers to stumble.

I was mortified that day because I knew I was

the result of allowing a teenager to see and hear

things they should not hear.

And so for my life I had to live my

life in.

Such a way that I was disciplined to say, there's

certain movies I'm not gonna watch.

Can I watch them? Yes, I can watch them. I'm

an adult. But should I watch them?

Know? And it's not just for my holiness, but also

for the holiness and the calling of leading students and

adults to the Lord. I don't want anything in my

life listen to this. I don't want anything in my

life to lead someone away from Jesus. I want my

life to lead people to Jesus. And I want to

ask you today, if, as God's he wants to use

your life to prepare people for Jesus, is there anything

you're in your life that's.

Leading people away from Jesus? And I want to ask

you a very tough question today.

Are you willing to be disciplined enough to say, you

know what, I can do this, but I don't need this.

And I don't need this, not just for my own benefit,

but I don't need this because I don't want it

to lead someone else away from Jesus. And I'm willing

to be disciplined enough to say I'm getting rid of

this in my life. I'm getting rid of this in

my life because I don't want it. I don't want

my life to lead anybody away from Jesus.

I want to lead them to Jesus.

I want you to see. This was how John prepared

us for Jesus's coming. He prepared us through a life

of service, he prepared us through a life of discipline,

but lastly he prepared us through a life of evangelism.

The Bible says here that Lola John would serve the Lord,

and he would serve to lead people to Jesus. But

he would live a life of discipline, who stay ai

from things that he would not, So he would not

anything in his life would not lead people away from Jesus.

But lastly, listen to this verse sixteen says, and he

will turn many of the children of visual to the

Lord your God. He will go before them, and the

spirit before him, and the spirit and the power of

Elijah that's alluding to He was the prophet that would

prepare the way for Jesus.

That was alluding to Malachi.

And listen to this, and to turn the hearts of

the fathers to their children, and the disobedient to the

just of the just, to make ready for the Lord

a people prepared. John would live his life a life

of evangelism, a life of proclaiming that Jesus had come.

That Jesus was the Messiah. He would preach repentus and.

Call people to turn their hearts away from sin and

turn them to Jesus. He called on people to turn

away from sin. He lived his life consistently calling people

even so far and we're going to look at that.

Even the king. He would call him to.

Repent of his sins and turn to Jesus. You know,

we are live our lives of service. We are live

a life of discipline. But we are live a life

of evangelism. It's not just we are to do lifestyle

evangel Have you ever heard of that lifestyle evangelism? That

means that people are going to look at our lives

and see Jesus in us and want to know Jesus.

That's important.

Yeah, that's very important that we live a lifestyle a

lifestyle evangelism that people see Jesus in us. But it's

not just enough that they see it in us. They

must hear it from our voices. Turn away from sin,

turn to the Lord.

Can I ask you today?

The Lord is calling you to live your life to

prepare people for Jesus's coming again. To do that through

a life of service, Do that through a life of discipline.

But do that by telling others about what Jesus has

done for you and what he can do for them.

Do you do that? Think about that always?

You heard me say a friend of mine pastor friend

of mine, Dean Hermann, used to say, God didn't save

you you for you to keep it to yourself. God

saved you that you might share your salvation with someone

else owned about that for you today. The reason you

have breath in your lungs today is because God left

you on this earth that you might lead others to Him,

that you might tell others about what Jesus has done

for you to turn people's heart to the Lord.

Are you doing that today?

Heard a story of a man and he had this

beautiful apple tree in his backyard, and he loved apples.

But he noticed his neighbor had never had an apple,

so he took the apples to start throwing them at him.

I mean, that's not what he did.

He started thinking, you know, why not I invite my

neighbor to my house. And at the house, why why

not make a really good apple pie and share that

apple pie with him? So he did that invited his

neighbor into his delight that not only enjoyed the pie,

but it created a friendship. You know, just like that

story you have. Scripture says you have tasted and seen

that God is good. You've tasted and seen that Jesus

is good. You've tasted and see what it's like to

have forgiveness, what it's like to have a relationship with Jesus.

You've tasted to see that in your brokenness in your

life when unexpected things come, Jesus here here, I mean,

here's in Jesus' answers. Why would you not want to

share that good news with someone you love? Why would

you not want to share that to them? You know,

we're to live our lives to prepare others.

For Jesus coming.

We do that through service, we do that through discipline,

but we do that through the life of evangelism telling

others about what Jesus has done for us.

I want to close with this.

You know, most of you know that in August, our

youngest we sent off to college. You know, and I

know many of you can relate to this. But as

we prepared to send our girls out, I would know

only just say for a Caroline, but also for Chloe.

When we prepare for them to leave the nest or

leave home for college, one of the things we really

wrestled with is were they ready?

They're ready?

Reality is God. God has entrusted Brandy and I with

two children, Chloe and Caroline. And God gave us those

children that we might prepare them for life. So we

want to be faithful to fulfill that responsibility. Therefore, we

try to make sure they had everything they needed for

life and food and get home. We wanted to make

sure they had the education they needed. Thankful for BCA

and providing that strong academic education, but also faith and discipleship.

We made sure they had a good church family. So

thankful for you as a church body, and how you

not only loved me and you loved Brandy, but you

loved our children. We blessed by having those two things.

But it doesn't end there, does it.

It was so important for us.

And not only did we send them to a good

Christian school, No, we send them to a good church.

We had to live it at home.

They had to see that mom and dad were not

there to boss them around, but mom and dad were

there to serve them. Mom and dad were there to

live a life a discipline that we lived our life different.

And what Daddy says in the pulpit was the same

Daddy that's at the home, same Mama that's at home,

you know. And at the end, as we got ready

to send them off, we asked ourselves, did we do enough?

Are they?

Were they ready? And we carried the weight of this.

Listen to this, that we knew it was our responsibility.

God had given them to us to prepare them to

live a.

Life for the Lord. Can I tell you today.

Listen to me, God, it was not only our responsibility

as parents to prepare them for this life, but God

gave them to us as parents to prepare them for

Jesus coming again, and to make sure they're ready not

only for life, but when He came again, they're ready

for Jesus. That's not only my responsibility.

Listen to this.

That's not only my responsibility for Chloe and Caroline, but

that's my responsibility as your pastor, for you and your soul,

to make sure you're ready. So I lived my life

a life of service to the Lord. I live my

life a life of dispone where staining from things and

making sure my life is not lead is not leading

you away from the Lord, but leading you to the Lord.

I live my life a life of evangelism, trying to

call people to Jesus.

But listen, that's not just a role for a pastor.

That's the role for every church member here, every believer

in Jesus Christ. We have a responsibility to live our

lives to prepare others for Jesus is coming.

Because there's many and things in this life.

We cannot expect car breaking down, refrigerators breaking down, not struggling,

having children and fertility. But there's one thing we can

prepare for, and that is Jesus is coming again.

I ask you today, are you ready? Maybe you're here today?

In reality, is that Jesus came today, you would not

be ready. You've never put your faith in Him as

the Lord and savior. Today, listen today as a day

of salvation. I'd love to pray with you in our

time in invitation of how you can put.

Your faith in Jesus.

You come to him as he's calling you today. But

listen for you, others who are believers today. How are

you living your life to prepare others for Jesus to

come again? Are you living a life of service to him?

Are you living a life a discipline? How are you

living a life of evangelism? It is our responsibility.

Will you pray with me?

Lord? We love you, God, We thank you Lord for

your word today. God, we thank you Lord of Christmas.

Reminds us of your first coming, But God, it prepares

us for your second coming.

Lord, I pray today.

That we would evaluate our life and how we are

living our life to prepare others for your coming again.

Lord, I thank you, Lord for your word. Today. I

thank you Lord for the power that's in it. Lord.

I pray that as you speak, as your Holy Spirit

is spoken to me, it's spoken to others.

Lord.

May we not resist Lord your word, but may we

surrender Lord to.

You Today, Lord, we love you.

We thank you Lord for your calling upon us. We

thank you Lord that you hear our prayers.

Today.

I pray for the broken. I know there's people here

today they're facing unexpected things, and today I pray that

just says Zachariah cried out to you, Lord, I pray

they will cry out to you and know Lord that

today you hear and God you answer. So Lord, I

pray they would call out to you today and they're suffering. Lord,

I pray that there'd be those today would commit their

life to serve you, Lord, commit their life to discipline.

That they might lead others to you.

They will commit their life to say, Lord, I want

to live a life that would just tell people about

what you've done for me.

Lord. However you lead us Lord today, may.

We respond Lord your calling upon us. Lord, we love you,

your name, We pray Amen.