Text:\u00a0 Isaiah 40:3-5,9<\/p>\n
3<\/sup> A voice of one calling: 4<\/sup> Every valley shall be raised up, 5<\/sup> And the glory of the Lord will be revealed, 9<\/sup> You who bring good tidings to Zion, I remember seeing a Christmas tree.\u00a0 It must have taken days to decorate.\u00a0 It was awesome.\u00a0 Yet it was so full of decoration that I wondered out loud- Is there a tree in there someplace? <\/em>The Christmas tree was all but obscured by the decorations.<\/p>\n Now don\u2019t get the wrong idea.\u00a0 My theme is for today is NOT let\u2019s see the tree<\/strong>!\u00a0 But think of the picture. \u00a0Is it possible that we can do the same with Christmas?\u00a0 \u00a0Are we about to hang so many things on these days before Christmas\u00a0 that we can hardly see it?\u00a0 Will we allow the clutter and trappings of this season to block out what God wants to bring to our hearts and lives?<\/p>\n When someone important is coming you get ready.\u00a0 This is a time when we get ready.\u00a0 The church calls it Advent which means coming. \u00a0Christmas is coming.\u00a0 How are we getting ready.\u00a0 What are we getting ready for?<\/p>\n If you ask most people about being ready, you hear about trips to the mall.\u00a0 You\u2019ll see anxious looks about getting the right gifts and preparations that still need to be done.\u00a0 Are the lights up?\u00a0 Even pastors and vicars allow the anxiety of deadlines overshadow what\u2019s all important.<\/p>\n What are we missing?\u00a0 What should we be getting ready for?\u00a0 Think about it.\u00a0 What do we see happening over and over that first Christmas?\u00a0 What do you see again and again breaking out at the coming of Christ our Lord and Savior.<\/p>\n Think of the angels.\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Luke 2:13,14 <\/sup>Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God<\/strong> and saying, 14<\/sup>\u201cGlory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n Then the shepherds.\u00a0 Luke2: 20 <\/sup>The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising<\/strong> God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told<\/span>.<\/p>\n Then that senior citizen of the kingdom, Simeon, in the temple.\u00a0 Luke2: 28 <\/sup>Simeon took him in his arms and praised God<\/strong>\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n Then those mysterious men from the East called Magi:.\u00a0 Matthew 2: 11 <\/sup>On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Do you see where God\u2019s Word is pointing us?\u00a0 This season of Advent is about getting ready. And one thing we want to get ready for is this.\u00a0 That our hearts be ready to worship<\/strong>, worship at Christ\u2019s coming whether it be his coming at Bethlehem or that day when he comes again in the clouds.<\/p>\n Here God\u2019s prophet helps get us ready.\u00a0\u00a0 Long before our Savior\u2019s birth he points ahead to that time we shall soon celebrate.<\/p>\n So:\u00a0 It\u2019s Advent:\u00a0 Get Ready to Worship To a people held captive in a far away place, would come exciting news.\u00a0 9<\/sup>You who bring good tidings to Zion, go up on a high mountain. You who bring good tidings to Jerusalem, lift up your voice with a shout, lift it up, do not be afraid; say to the towns of Judah, <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cHere is your God<\/span>!\u201d \u00a0They would spend years in Babylon as a defeated people.\u00a0 But they were to remember this great promise.\u00a0 God would come.\u00a0 He would roll up his sleeves, bring down their captors and bring his people home once more.\u00a0 It would look like one King of Persia had merely conquered the king of Babylon.\u00a0 That\u2019s how it looks in the pages of history.\u00a0 But they were to remember whose coming would make it so.\u00a0 Here is your God!<\/em><\/p>\n It must have been wonderful to see God remain true to his Word.\u00a0 To see wicked Babylon brought down.\u00a0 Those that had burned their temple to the ground.\u00a0 To hear that decree by the Persian king, you can go home.\u00a0 You can resettle your towns.\u00a0 You can rebuild your temple.\u00a0 Go in peace.\u00a0 Wow.\u00a0 That must have been great.<\/p>\n Yet that was just a small step on the way to an Advent far more wonderful.\u00a0 These words from Isaiah pointed to a far greater coming.\u00a0 They point to people in a far worse situation. Every one of us.\u00a0 It\u2019s one thing to have to live in a place you don\u2019t want to.\u00a0 It\u2019s another to live your life without God and without hope.\u00a0 That was you and me.\u00a0 That\u2019s where we are on our own.\u00a0 Held captive by a heart that drenches us with guilt.\u00a0 That thumbs its nose at God or just plain ignores his ways.\u00a0 Each of us has our own story to tell, don\u2019t we?\u00a0 But it comes down to this.\u00a0 All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God<\/span>.\u00a0 (Rom 3:23)<\/p>\n What to do with such people?\u00a0 What would you or I do?\u00a0 From the distant past came a promise that points each of us to one certain Child born long ago.\u00a0 We\u2019re getting ready to celebrate his birth.\u00a0 Here is your God! <\/strong> Those words point to baby Jesus.\u00a0 Emmanuel.\u00a0 God with us.\u00a0 Here is your God come not to bring down on our heads what we surely deserve.\u00a0 Here is your God come as your brother to save you from what you deserve.\u00a0 Here is your God who would die for you.\u00a0 Here is your God who comes to you now in his Word with the Father\u2019s love and forgiveness.\u00a0 Here is your God who comes to us dying sinners with hope.<\/p>\n So what are you doing this season?\u00a0 What are we going to fill our hearts and lives with these next few weeks?\u00a0 Stressful preparations, frantic shopping or travel.\u00a0 Will this season leave you once more feeling empty and spent. Or maybe you come to this season with something already in your heart.\u00a0 Something sad or painful that has come your way.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know but I expect there is at least one of you that is hurting right now.<\/p>\n Well whatever it is for you, whether you are down or distracted.\u00a0 It\u2019s Advent:\u00a0 Get ready to worship.<\/strong> And why?\u00a0 Friend, remember who\u2019s coming<\/strong>.\u00a0 So prepare the Way.<\/strong><\/p>\n 3<\/sup>A voice of one calling: \u201cIn the desert prepare the way for the Lord; make straight in the wilderness a highway for our God.4<\/sup>Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low; <\/span><\/p>\n the rough ground shall become level, the rugged places a plain. <\/span><\/p>\n People understood that picture.\u00a0 When a king planned to come to a town, he would often send someone ahead to spread the word.\u00a0 The people would then go to work on the road leading into town.\u00a0 You wanted to make it as easy as possible for your king.\u00a0 You didn\u2019t want his horse to step into some big pothole and break his leg.\u00a0 That would not be good.<\/p>\n But the one coming to his people in Babylon was more than just a king. He is the Lord.\u00a0 Well the Lord needs no road to travel on.\u00a0 So this is not about filling potholes and improving a road in what is now Saudi Arabia.\u00a0 It\u2019s a voice that called for God\u2019s people to prepare a different way – the road to their hearts. To get ready to welcome his coming to set them free from Babylon.<\/p>\n Yet when that happened these same words were not yet fulfilled.\u00a0 For the day would come when God would send one certain voice to call out in another desert \u00a0– the desert of Judea.\u00a0 He was to go before the Lord Jesus. \u00a0We know him as John the Baptist. He carried out his ministry a long time ago but his words still speak to us today.\u00a0 Prepare the way of the Lord.<\/strong><\/p>\n You see, if we\u2019re getting ready to worship Him it\u2019s wise to survey that road to our hearts.\u00a0 What do we find this morning?\u00a0 What condition is it in?\u00a0 \u00a0Has that road become washed out with carelessness or neglect of God\u2019s Word?\u00a0 Have we let it get overgrown with drinking, or lust instead of love, or just plain self-indulgence that never is happy or content? \u00a0It leaves you empty.\u00a0 Believe me, I know.<\/p>\n Or is that road crooked with sins that we need to repent of?\u00a0 \u00a0What have we let come between us and the Lord?\u00a0 A grudge that we refuse to let go. \u00a0A selfishness that refuses to give and be generous to others.\u00a0 A heart that can\u2019t see our desperate need for God\u2019s forgiveness.\u00a0\u00a0 John calls out from the desert to each of us.\u00a0 Prepare the way. <\/strong><\/p>\n For it\u2019s Advent: <\/strong>It\u2019s time to get ready to worship<\/strong>.\u00a0 With the angels, the shepherds, the Magi and dear Simeon.\u00a0 For the stuff of this season cannot fill your heart. It cannot give you hope.\u00a0 But He can.\u00a0 The one who came as a Child.\u00a0 The one who will come in glory.\u00a0 The one who comes to us in his Word and his Supper with forgiveness and life.\u00a0 Here is your God!\u00a0 He is coming.\u00a0 Get ready to worship.<\/strong> Amen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Text:\u00a0 Isaiah 40:3-5,9 3 A voice of one calling: \u201cIn the desert prepare the way for the Lord; make straight in the wilderness a highway for our God. 4 Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low; the rough ground shall become level, the rugged places a plain. 5 And the glory of the Lord will […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-289","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermon"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=289"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":290,"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289\/revisions\/290"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=289"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=289"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=289"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n\u201cIn the desert prepare
\nthe way for the Lord;
\nmake straight in the wilderness
\na highway for our God.<\/p>\n
\nevery mountain and hill made low;
\nthe rough ground shall become level,
\nthe rugged places a plain.<\/p>\n
\nand all mankind together will see it. For the mouth of the
\nLord has spoken.\u201d<\/p>\n
\ngo up on a high mountain.
\nYou who bring good tidings to Jerusalem,
\nlift up your voice with a shout,
\nlift it up, do not be afraid;
\nsay to the towns of Judah,
\n\u201cHere is your God!\u201d<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>I.\u00a0 Remember Who\u2019s coming
\n<\/strong>II.\u00a0 Prepare the way<\/strong><\/p>\n