As we get closer to the end of the year what are you looking forward to?
School finishing.
Holidays.
Christmas Day.
Presents.
Family get togethers.
The prophet Isaiah in chapter 11 lays out a picture of something that all followers of Jesus Christ can look forward to.
Listen again to a few verses of Isaiah chapter 11.
As I read this again think about what images comes to mind.
The wolf will live with the lamb,
the leopard will lie down with the goat,
the calf and the lion and the yearling a together;
and a little child will lead them.
The cow will feed with the bear,
their young will lie down together,
and the lion will eat straw like the ox.
The infant will play near the hole of the cobra,
and the young child put his hand into the viper’s nest.
They will neither harm nor destroy
on all my holy mountain,
for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD
as the waters cover the sea.
In that day the Root of Jesse will stand as a banner for the peoples; the nations will rally to him, and his place of rest will be glorious.
Is that something worthwhile looking forward to?
Eventually when Jesus comes again,
everyone and everything will be living together, peacefully.
And throughout Advent we are not just preparing to get together with family,
or even to celebrate the coming of baby Jesus at Christmas.
If that is what our Christmas preparations are all about then we will miss out.
There is something far more important than Christmas day to prepare for.
Advent is also about preparing for Jesus’ second coming.
It is the time when we will experience Jesus completing his work .
And this includes the images of Isaiah chapter 11 being real.
It is important to remember that Jesus will come again.
And when he comes again he comes to judge the living and the dead as the Nicene Creed and 1 Peter says.
Now something for you to think about;
Are you living with this in mind?
Are you living your life with the fact that Jesus will come again to judge the living and the dead?
Last week our texts orientated around us being ready!!
This week we are encouraged not just to be ready for Jesus to come again but to repent in preparing for Jesus!!
This is not a popular word for many people.
I am yet to hear of a congregational call paper say, we are looking for a pastor who will call us to repent.
Many people would prefer to come up with excuses or reasons why they acted in ways contrary to God’s will than consider repenting.
But remember this;
no matter how good your excuse is,
or how viable you think your reason is for acting and living contrary to God’s way.
When Jesus returns it will not wash.
Jesus is not interested in your excuses or reasons.
He is interested in your repentance.
So what is repentance?
Repentance requires you first to listen to God.
Remember it is God who sets the standards, not you.
The place to find God’s requirements is in scripture.
And the simplest statement of God’s requirements is the phrase Jesus gave us.
It is the phrase our parish has adopted as the mission statement.
That phrase is we should love God and love others as we love ourselves.
That is the foundational point for our entire life.
Everytime we fail in that area, we have sinned.
Everytime we don’t live up to that statement we have sinned.
So the statement from scripture of loving God and loving others as yourself should be central to everything you do.
All your actions, words and thoughts should be measured on this statement.
Everyday this week I am encouraging you to examine your day
and in your prayer time to ask God where I have not shown love to Him or to others,
ask yourself that same question.
Now God’s word originates from scripture,
however it is not the only place we receive it.
Often God puts people in our life to share God’s word,
and at times they may say hey you need to repent.
Usually they don’t say it that way.
Often they say things like we should, or you should.
For instance recently I read of a story of a congregation.
This congregation was a fairly orderly congregation.
Recently some homeless people had been gathering and resting in their grounds.
One day one of them asked the pastor, about opening the church hall when the weather was bad and allowing them to have a coffee.
Immediately the pastor replied that this was probably not possible.
However the next day when discussing the instance with an elder.
The elder simply commented is that something God calls us to do.
In that instance the pastor realised he had been called to repentance.
When someone suggests something why not view these people as a blessing.
View these people as little John the Baptists.
They are trying to help us get back on the right track.
The right track with God.
Identifying problems are important.
Running away from them or hiding them is dangerous and unhealthy for our future.
Because sin is always an obstacle in our relationship with others and God.
And if we have an obstacle with someone else,
then there is an obstacle between us and God.
So as you reflect on your relationship with God and with others
and identifying the problems that exist.
Don’t try to excuse them away, simply identify them.
If you need a tool to do this consider the ten commandments and Luther’s explanation to each of the commandments.
However there is some Good News.
Repentance with Jesus does not just stop with seeing where there are problems in your life.
If that was the case we would still be stuck here.
When John the Baptist came all he could do was say,
Hey get ready, repent!!
He could do nothing more than encouraging people to acknowledge their sin.
However he pointed us to someone who could do something miraculous with our repentance.
He pointed us to Jesus.
Repentance with Jesus involves handing these issues and problems over to Jesus.
Allowing Jesus to deal with them.
Listen to what John says will happen when Jesus comes
He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. 12 His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire.
In other words Jesus will do the purifying.
Jesus will deal with the sin in your life.
And he does this in two ways.
One is forgiveness.
He will remove the problem sin brings to your relationship with God.
Secondly Jesus is there to help you deal right now with that sin and how it affects your relationship with others and God.
Repentance as I said earlier is about allowing God to speak to us regarding particular sins.
Repentance is not just about saying sorry, and doing nothing about it or repeating the sin time and time again.
Repentance involves listening to God, seeking his help, allowing God to direct you in His ways.
Repentance involves being active in restoring any hurts you may have caused.
Repentance is about allowing God’s attitude and approach to life to become your approach to life.
This doesn’t mean we will be perfect,
Unfortunately some people expect life to be like this
We sin.
We seek forgiveness.
We seek God’s help.
and then they expect to be perfect.
However guess what?
When one sin is dealt with often another pops in.
Or sometimes we relapse.
It may take time…
So a life of repentance involves constantly listening to God and allowing God to observe and comment on your life.
It involves allowing God to influence you in all things and in all situations.
And as we do we begin to sense God’s kingdom being present not only as some future event, but His kingdom begins to be among us.
So let us now take the opportunity to confess our sin, seeks God’s forgiveness and help
