Behold: Prepare the Way | Part 1

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Well, good morning, Awakening.

Great to see you today.

Thanks so much for joining us post-Thanksgiving.

Yeah, cool.

Let's see how this is gonna go.

Hey, if you're new, my name's Ryan.

Absolutely thrilled to have you join us today.

We're kicking off a brand new series called Behold, How to Worship the King.

Um, we live in a world where we're just constantly rushing, aren't we?

Moving from one thing to the next, and I think we've forgotten how to slow down, to truly see, to behold.

This word behold means to gaze, to wonder, to look at someone or something until something has been grasped of the significance of that person or thing?

When's the last time you've beheld something other than your phone?

We behold our phone, don't we, all the time.

We behold uh, you know, all the stuff at work and things around us.

But when was the last time we beheld that which was life-giving?

The one who's life-giving.

You know, Christmas often becomes this blur of shopping list, travel plans, packed calendars, and we say we're celebrating the birth of Jesus, but how much space does he really get in our busy lives?

Here's why this is so important.

This is true, and we we experience it, that what you behold, you become.

What you focus on, or said another way, what you worship, what captures your attention and your affection, you become light, even uh become like, even the science of mirroring new on mirror, sorry, mirror neuron neurons.

I'm gonna say that eventually, we're gonna get there.

Like brain science tells us that God has built us deeply to be influenced by what we focus on.

Our brain's ability to imitate the actions, attitudes, and behaviors of we observe, if we're constantly around cynical, critical, negative people, maybe at Thanksgiving, um, we start to become like them.

When we behold love, kindness, compassion, our brains begin to imitate these qualities.

They transform our behavior.

And so if we desire to become more like Jesus, we actually need to ensure that we're beholding him.

That's what we want to do.

How do you move beyond the hurry of the season to truly beholding the one it's all about?

And a question I think we need to ask more often than we do how do you worship the king?

You know, we're in this season of um that the church calendar calls Advent.

And if you're new to kind of church or you're not even sure what that word is means because you've uh no one's ever explained it.

Advent simply means arrival, it means coming.

And for the four weeks leading up to Christmas, the church celebrates the season of Advent, the arrival of Jesus.

There was this long-awaited hope that this Messiah, the people of Israel, longing for a Messiah, which means that word means anointed one or king, that this anointed one, this king would come and he would restore and make all things right.

He would be this, as we celebrate at this time, this wonderful counselor, this mighty God, this everlasting Father, this Prince of Peace, and the government will be placed upon his shoulders.

And at Christmas time, the church takes four weeks to prepare our hearts for the King.

And yet, what happens is we get caught up in the busyness, the lights, the parties, and all the other things going on, good things by the way, mostly.

Or you show up to Christmas Day and you're not even like, it's an event, but I think God has so much more for us.

And so today I want to invite you to rethink what it means to prepare for Christmas.

Not the kind of preparation we typically think about, hanging lights, which I did yesterday, buying gifts, which some are gonna wait until Christmas Eve.

Stressful.

But a soul preparation, a slowing down, a clearing the way, a making space.

It's what we want to do in our services together.

Because the way we prepare our hearts directly impacts our capacity to encounter the presence of God.

And so today, as we talk about beholding, how do we worship the King, we're gonna talk about this idea of preparation.

Because how we prepare, we prepare for all sorts of things, but how we prepare determines our experience.

In the book of Isaiah, you discover uh it has the most prophecies about this coming Messiah.

It's where I just quoted the wonderful counselor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the prophecy of a virgin birth.

And in the book of Isaiah, Isaiah chapter 40, he talks about uh this hope for the people of Israel who are in bondage, they're in exile in Babylon, they're in a hopeless situation.

Isaiah 40 · chapter mention

Has God left us?

Will he ever restore us?

And in this, there's a prophecy of one who would come and prepare the way for Jesus.

We know him as John the Baptist today.

And I want to take you to Isaiah chapter 40, because in this text, we'll discover, I believe, three words that will help revolutionize your Christmas season.

Isaiah 40 · chapter mention

That I believe not only your Christmas, but the rest of our lives, the way we encounter the presence of God can fundamentally change.

If you got your Bibles, would you open up to Isaiah chapter 40, verse 3?

Isaiah 40:3

Isaiah says this there's a voice of one calling.

In the wilderness, go ahead and say, wilderness.

Prepare the way for the Lord.

In the wilderness, prepare the way for the Lord.

Make straight in the desert a highway for our God.

Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low, and rough ground shall become level, and rugged places a plain.

The idea here is that a king is coming.

This is the picture, and what you do to prepare for the king is you would do a whole bunch of road work so that he could make his way smoothly into your city, that there's preparation to be made to get ready for the coming king.

And then he says, This when you do this, when you prepare the way, the glory of the Lord will be will be revealed and all people will see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.

This is ultimately speaking in this fulfillment of John the Baptist, who prepared the way for Jesus, and in it it speaks to us of how do we prepare?

How do we prepare for Jesus in this Advent season?

Three words I believe that will revolutionize your Christmas.

I'm gonna have I'm losing my voice, so I'm gonna have you say stuff with me, okay?

Um, because if if I if I completely go, then you're gonna have to start preaching for me, okay?

So you gotta you gotta know, you gotta know the words.

Three words.

First is wilderness, say it.

Fantastic.

Preparation, that's our word today.

And then expectation.

I want you to notice in the wilderness, prepare the way for the Lord.

In the wilderness, we often think of the wilderness as God's place of punishment.

That he's abandoned us, that he's forgotten about us.

And what Isaiah says is in your wilderness, prepare the way for the Lord.

In the wilderness is often when we feel far from God.

When you feel far from God, would you begin to prepare the way for the Lord?

Another translation of the word wilderness is lonely place, desolute place.

Here's what's incredible is God wants to meet you in the lonely place.

See, I think some of us showed up today and we're in a wilderness.

In fact, I think a lot of us are.

And if we're honest, we might feel like God is far from us, but the truth is God may feel far, but he has never been far from you.

And he wants to meet you, he wants to speak to you.

In fact, this is amazing when we pick up this line in uh the Gospels in the speaking of John the Baptist.

It says this, it's really cool.

It says, and the word of the Lord came to John in the wilderness.

Where did the word of the Lord come to John?

In the wilderness.

When he's by himself, when he's feeling alone, when he's not really sure what this future may hold, when he's thinking he's out of place.

The word of the Lord came to him there, and where you're at, the word of the Lord, he wants to speak to you right where you're at.

Let me ask you, what kind of wilderness are you in?

I think some of us are in a wilderness of loneliness.

61% of this generation say they're lonely.

51% of moms say they're lonely.

36% of Americans across the board say they experience serious loneliness.

We have in a loneliness epidemic.

God says, in your loneliness, I want to meet you there.

Maybe you're in the wilderness of rejection.

Maybe it's a friendship that's fallen apart.

Maybe just we we we just got done with Thanksgiving.

Maybe it's a family.

It could be a parent, a spouse, a kid.

Maybe it's a dating relationship.

Maybe it's work.

That you've been passed by or passed over.

God says, I want to meet you in the wilderness of rejection because I know something about rejection.

Maybe you're in the wilderness of anxiety.

That is the state of our lives today, is it not?

Just generations men called the anxious generation in our space where we feel just completely overwhelmed and anxious.

God says, I want to meet you there.

Maybe you're in the wilderness of uncertainty.

You're a high school student, you're a high school senior, and everybody's asking you, Where are you gonna go to school?

I don't know, leave me alone.

You're a college student, what are you gonna do with the rest of your life?

I don't know, leave me alone.

When are you gonna get married?

When are you gonna have kids?

Should we move?

I don't know, leave me alone.

I mean, but maybe you're just in the wilderness of uncertainty, the future's unknown, it feels overwhelming.

Maybe you're in the wilderness of distraction, where it seems like the urgent just constantly overwhelms the important, the things that you really want your life to be about, but not you're just busy doing stuff.

And did I tell you that today's December 1st?

Yeah, where where did the year go?

We live these hurried, distracted lives.

Maybe you're in the wilderness of loss, and isn't it hard?

The most wonderful time of the year.

It should be the best time of the year, but when you suffered loss, it just reminds you even more of that loss, doesn't it?

Maybe it's a loss of a loved one, maybe it's uh loss of a kid or a friend, maybe it's a loss of a job, the death of a dream.

See, the word of the Lord came to John in the wilderness.

I want you to reframe because for some, you'll miss out on what God's wanting to do because you think God doesn't want anything with you.

He doesn't want to speak to you, and you're like, I'm in the wilderness, I'm wandering, and maybe you're in a wilderness of your own making.

Let's be honest, some of us are there, we just made some bad decisions and we're just kind of going like, you know what?

God wouldn't want anything with me.

And he says, My word is coming to you.

Are you ready?

I want to meet you, I want to speak to you.

I like how Dallas Willard says it.

He writes this He says, The Lord can only meet and bless you where you are.

We so often think we need to be someplace different, somewhere else for God to finally meet and bless us.

He can only meet and bless you where you are, he will meet you where you are, and he will lead you from there to where he wants you to go.

Let me ask you.

What if your wilderness is where God is wanting to meet you?

What if God really wants to meet you personally and powerfully this Christmas season?

Well, if that's true, in your wilderness, then you better start preparing the way for the Lord.

That's what it says.

In the wilderness, prepare the way for the word.

First word of our teaching is what?

Come on, guys.

I we had we had it, we were with.

First word is, second word is preparation.

You must intentionally make room for the king.

You must intentionally make room for the king.

God cannot fill a heart that has no room for him.

God meets you where he's made where you've made room.

Preparation.

The more space you make for God, the more he fills your life.

Here's what's interesting.

We're wandering in the wilderness, so often, many of us, and we don't think God wants anything to do with us, and so we don't ever prepare, and so we're not ready for God to show up and meet us.

He wants to meet you, but you actually need to do some work too.

Um, Thanksgiving, you guys celebrated it, right?

Did you show up or did you host and do zero preparation?

It would be it would be terrible, right?

I mean, you know the old adage, I'm a dad, I say things like this.

Uh you know, if you fail to prepare, you prepare to what?

Fail, yeah.

And we know that with tests, some of us are really good at winging it until you get into like really big stuff and you're like, oh, I can't cram that exam.

But you have to intentionally make room for the king.

This is actually the part where I think many of us miss it in our relationship with God.

Because we're hoping that he'll just kind of like zap us, right?

Maybe not.

That was a little aggressive.

Geez, wow, no, uh, don't zap me.

But but just like God, you just like do it all, you just get my attention.

He's like, you have no room for me.

You've not prepared, you've not done anything that would allow me to move and work in your life.

We live such crowded, busy lives.

If God was to show up and speak and meet, we often miss them, and we often do.

And so, bless you.

How do you make room for Jesus in a crowded life?

I just want to unpack this word prepare in the text.

Because there's a few ways that it is used and translated that gives us a sense of how do we actually prepare?

How do we make space?

How do you actually encounter the King of Kings?

The word prepare means to make ready or suitable, equip in advance for a particular purpose.

It has been translated first to look, like you prepare by looking, to perceive with attention.

You notice or become aware of something.

Um as we were getting ready for Thanksgiving, there was a huge pile of laundry.

There was the bathroom that we have a bunch of teenage boys at our house all the time, so you can only imagine how that bathroom was.

Right.

The first thing we have to do is we have to see and become aware of the things around us and in us.

The problem is we get so comfortable that we often don't see the things in our lives anymore.

We just look at it like, oh, oh, forget about that, Laundry, it's not a big deal.

But if I have guests coming over, I'm gonna take care of it all.

The first thing for us to prepare is we have to look and perceive, look inside.

One of the ways that I often do this is just a simple prayer.

Holy Spirit, would you show me anything in me that's not of you?

Holy Spirit, would you show me anything in me that's not of you?

I want to be able to see it and notice it and recognize, you know what, I gotta deal with that.

I don't want to ignore it anymore.

So to look is the first way we prepare.

The second, this word means to remove, to get rid of, or to take something away.

It's not enough just to notice it.

In fact, we really struggled to get the laundry done this last week.

We noticed it.

But eventually we had to what?

Remove the laundry, do the laundry.

I don't know why I'm going on laundry right now.

Um it means to remove the removal of obstruction.

There's things in our lives that are blocking our relationship with God.

Preparation isn't passive, it's actually about alignment with our heart with His.

Holy Spirit, first, would you show me anything in me that's not of you?

And as He does, then you can the the word is confess.

God, I admit, I admit that my heart attitude.

I admit the way that I responded to Jenny.

I admit those thoughts.

What are some things in your life that are the blocking your relationship with Jesus?

Some of it is just honestly habitual sin that we just allow.

That we go back to time and time again.

Let me ask you, what in your life needs to go?

What's blocking God from moving in your life?

He wants to meet you.

He says, prepare the way.

We look and perceive.

Then we didn't take the process of confession.

Where we go, God, would you deal with that?

I want to remove that from my life.

The third word for prepare is to turn, to direct one's attention or trust towards something.

I turn my attention to the one I'm preparing for.

This is what repentance is.

The biblical idea of repentance.

This is why, honestly, most of us don't experience and encounter the presence and power of God.

We either think we're out of place or we haven't prepared for God to work in the place where we're at.

It's simple.

And all of us can do it this morning, and we can do it all month long.

It will change how you encounter and experience Jesus.

I see this is an issue in my life.

I gotta acknowledge it.

I'm gonna confess it, and then I'm gonna turn my face towards Jesus.

I'm gonna begin to change my direction.

Repentance is a change of mind that results in a change of direction.

I'm gonna begin to adjust my behavior in this direction.

That's what you know the Isaiah's saying.

We're gonna flatten out some things.

We're gonna raise up some valleys.

We're gonna do some work so that we're gonna pave the way for God to begin to move in our life.

First word.

First word.

Second word.

Now here's what's amazing about preparation.

And I think this is why many of us don't prepare.

Preparation always comes with expectation.

Third word.

Right?

You prepare for someone, you prepare for something.

There's always an expectation.

Last week, now this is wild, and I don't get it.

I don't understand it.

This is how life works, but I'm now old enough that my friends' kids are getting married, and my nieces and nephews are starting to get married.

This is I how where I don't get it.

Last weekend, my niece got married in Nashville.

Crazy.

Insane to me.

Now, here's what's interesting about a wedding.

They spent a year in preparation for the wedding.

They, I mean, my brother and sister-in-law spent a lot of money preparing for the wedding.

Why?

Because there was a holy expectation about that day.

That in that day and that moment that they're going to stand before God and these witnesses and the pastor, they're going to declare their love for one another and the sacred celebration.

Two are going to become one.

It's going to be powerful and beautiful.

And their expectation is not only are they going to be two become one, they're going to have this grand celebration with everyone around them celebrating their relationship and love and new life together.

And there's immense and incredible expectation.

See, I think one of the reasons we don't prepare for the king is we don't expect the king to show up.

The problem isn't that we expect too much from God.

I think the problem is we expect too little.

See, expectation, the truth is, you have only scratched the surface when it comes to God.

I mean, scripture tells us that no eye has seen, no ear has heard, just the wonders and greatness that God has for us.

Like you've only begun to scratch the surface.

I don't care if you've been a follower of Jesus for 50 years.

You've only begun to scratch the surface.

There's more of Jesus, there's more of him.

Don't you ever become complacent?

Don't you ever sit back and go, well, I've conquered it, I've arrived, I've you know, climbed the mountain.

No, you haven't.

There is deeper, more beautiful, brilliant, incredible reality, and his name is Jesus.

And would you lean in?

Would you have an expectation that God wants to meet you?

Have an expectation that he wants to speak to you.

Would you raise your level of expectation with him?

Don't lower it, that you would raise it.

Notice what Isaiah says: In the wilderness, prepare the way, and here's what happens, and the glory of the Lord will be revealed.

This word glory in the Hebrew is the word kavot.

This means weight, heaviness.

The glory of the Lord often represents his manifest presence that can be tangibly experienced by his people.

He says, I don't know, I don't, I don't know what you're walking through, what wilderness, but God wants to meet you there, and as you prepare, he will reveal his glory to you.

Right where you're at, right what you in what you're walking through.

Through the heartache, through the pain, through the loss, through the longing, through the hoping.

Says, would you prepare the way for me and I will meet you right there.

I will reveal my glory to you.

May we be a people that expect more of God.

I think one of the reasons we don't expect from God is we're afraid that He'll disappoint us.

Yeah.

I mean, we're watching all kinds of movies right now, right?

And someone's like, this is the best movie ever, it's the greatest.

And you go and see it, and it's fine.

It's fine.

You're like, yeah, no, it was fine.

And you just wish if they hadn't told you how great it was, you probably would have thought it was a really good movie.

But you went in with such high expectations, and as a result, the movie didn't meet those, and you were what?

You were disappointed.

Yeah, it's fine, it's all right, whatever.

And I think that's how it is sometimes with us with God.

That we're like, I don't want to have too high of expectations because I don't want him to disappoint me.

I don't want to be let down.

And so I don't expect anything at all.

You can't have too high expectations of God.

Let me ask you.

Do you expect God to show up in your life?

Do you expect God to meet you this advent season?

Do you expect that the word of the Lord is gonna come to you in your wilderness?

And what would change?

What would change for you if you did?

My prayer for us as we begin this advent season together, church.

Is that we wouldn't miss Jesus.

But we wouldn't take time.

We'd pause.

We'd behold.

That we'd be a people that experience him personally and powerfully.

Because that's what he wants to do in your life.

So, what I want to do as we close, I just want to give you time to prepare.

We're gonna continue in worship.

Would you say that prayer that I pray?

Holy Spirit, would you show me anything in me?

That's not of you.

Would you identify your wilderness that you're walking through?

And then this prayer of faith.

God, I expect you to show up in my life.

As I take steps to prepare, I expect you to show up.

Would you meet me?

Take some time and we'll continue in worship.

We hope you are blessed by this message.

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