"Get Ready”

Get Ready Luke 3:1-6

1. Get Ready For Christmas by allowing God to open you

• Some of the rulers mentioned were certainly not open to God

• Tiberius was an emperor known for his cruelty and severity.

• Pontius Pilate was also renowned for his brutal massacres of the Jewish people

• The family of Herod the Great (Herod, Philip, and Lysanias) were known for their corruption and cruelty.

• Get Ready for this Advent season by opening Your heart to love,

• To open your mind to wonders, open your life to the divine presence.

2. Notice John he went into all the country around the Jordan. Get ready by “going around”

• John was trying to get everybody Ready he preached a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. Be emerged in God

• John invites people to turn around, take a different path, take a path towards Jesus

• Let’s Go Around being a Good News Bearer

3. John says, “Get Ready” by making your ways Straight ( make straight paths )

• Psalmist says lead me God in a Straight Path

• Proverbs 15 :2 but a man of understanding keeps a straight course

• Like the old country song Jesus take the wheel keep me straight

4. Get Ready by allowing your valleys to be filled with salvation

• If you know salvation in all your troubles there is peace

• If we know Salvation, that gives us forgiveness for our guilt

• If we know salvation we have light for our paths

• If we Salvation we have guidance for our journey

5. Get Ready by Accepting the Gifts God Gives us through the Christ Child

• One Gift God gives is Preparation Remember God prepared Mary, God prepared Joseph they allowed God to open them.

• Another Gifts that is given is the gift to wonder The first people to see Jesus were simple, smelly, uneducated men who were occupied with daily tasks, but were not preoccupied with temporal things. Wonder touched their hearts and minds when they heard the angel, and they arose and went to Bethlehem bearing their gift of wonder

• The next Gift I see is the gift of the treasure note the wise men gave the best gifts they gave their best we should do likewise.

• The next gift I see is the gift of Joy spread it all around Over and over again in the gospel accounts of Christmas, you come across the word "joy." It is in the angelic announcement: "Fear not: for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people" (Luke 2:10 KJV).

• The final gift that gets us ready is the gift of Jesus, the light of the world. God began the custom of giving. James 1:17 asserts, "Every generous act of giving, with every perfect gift, is from above, coming down from the Father of lights." So the first Christmas gift given is the gift from God. His present is Jesus, the light of the world. Jesus is the light that shines in the darkness of our lives. For the light of the world, the gift of the Father of Lights, is Jesus.