A Time For Preparation
Pastor Steve Evans
December 2, 2018
Faith Assembly
Preparation is underway!
• We are officially in the countdown to Christmas
• It’s hard to avoid all of the clichés about not knowing where the time has gone and the fact that this year is nearly over.
• I for one cannot believe that it’s December already!
• Time really does fly!
• We are not simply in the “Holiday Season,” and I’m not sure if you’re aware or not, or if you have readily identified it as such or not be, we have also entered into a season of “preparation.”
• Tell the truth, how many of you went “Black Friday Shopping” this past week?
? Was it fun?
? Be honest! Did it get physical?
• Why did you do it?
• Was it not part of your preparation?
• Let’s be honest most of what we’ll do for the next few weeks will be in preparation for December 25th!
• We’ve decorated the house; the stockings are hung by the chimney with care… We’ve purchased the gifts; or at least begun. Strategies are in place for visiting families and making sure that we can fit in all of our obligations.
• So, how are you doing on your preparation?
• Are you off to a good start?
• Have you started at all, or do you procrastinate?
• I'm sure that there are some of you who are almost done.
• I’m sure that there are some of you who will wait until the last minute as well!
Preparation is essential
• If we are seeking a career, we would choose a course of education that will prepare us for our experience in the field.
• If we are participating in something of an athletic nature, we choose a form of exercise that will prepare us for the test that lies ahead.
• If we need endurance, we train for endurance.
• If we need strength, we do strength training.
• If we're going to cook a dish, we must collect the ingredients. We have to prepare the ingredients
• There are few things in life that we do that doesn't require some degree of preparation.
• We prepared to come to church this morning.
• We will prepare to go to work tomorrow
• We even prepare to go to bed.
• It seems like the greater something’s significance in our lives, the greater the amount of preparation required.
Failure to prepare
• It's been said that failing to prepare is preparing to fail.
• There's a sad reality that I have observed in my life and that is that there are people who will prepare for a great many things and are successful at a number of things, but life in general, not so much.
• They can earn a living, but they don't know how to live.
• Their careers are flourishing but their homes are failing.
• Their portfolio is growing, but their personal life is languishing.
• I simply want to share with you that you not only need to be prepared for a great many things in this life. You need to be prepared for life!
• There are a lot of places you can get to by accident.
• I'm sure if you were to take a poll there are a lot of people who would testify that they never intended to be where they are today.
• Most places that people aspire to be requires preparation.
A simple story
• I want to share with you a story from the Christmas narrative that I pray will underscore in your mind the principle of preparation and will hopefully give light to its true source.
• It's one of my favorite parts of the story surrounding the birth of Christ but it seems many times that this particular part gets buried beneath the shepherds, wise men and angel choirs.
• It is found in Luke chapter 2 and if you will turn with me there, we will begin reading at verse 22 about a man named Simeon.
• When the time came for the purification rites required by the Law of Moses, Joseph and Mary took him to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord (as it is written in the Law of the Lord, “Every firstborn male is to be consecrated to the Lord” ), and to offer a sacrifice in keeping with what is said in the Law of the Lord: “a pair of doves or two young pigeons.”
Now there was a man in Jerusalem called Simeon, who was righteous and devout. He was waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was on him. It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he had seen the Lord’s Messiah.
Moved by the Spirit, he went into the temple courts. When the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him what the custom of the Law required, Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying: “Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you may now dismiss your servant in peace. For my eyes have seen your salvation. (Luke 2:22-29)
The Life of a man
• We have before us in this narrative a man whom the Bible declares to be devout and righteous, he was anointed of God and had the Spirit of God upon Him. A good man!
• A man with a promise
• The day of the fulfillment of His promise
• I wonder what that day felt like to Simeon
• Did he wake to a new day like every other or did he have a feeling that something special was about to happen?
? I think He did
? Luke records, “He was moved by the Spirit and went into the inner courts.”
• But what I do know is that this man had waited for years for this promise to be fulfilled and every good Jew would have brought their child for purification as required by the law, so this man had seen many couples come forward to present their children to the Lord in dedication.
• Luke says that he took this one child in his arms and in a moment, he knew, and he said, “Lord, You can now let me depart (the Greek means literally to ‘let die’) in peace for my eyes have seen your salvation.”
? In this moment he realized that he wasn’t going through another religious tradition
? In this moment he realized that this was not just another rite of passage.
? In this moment this man recognized the salvation of the Lord.
? He realized that things were about to change
? And at his advanced age realized, having recognized the salvation of God, that he was prepared for the next step in his life which would quite possibly be to die.
• Please allow me to simply say today that there are a lot of messages going out in our world today concerning the true way to heaven, but the message of Christ and others who were moved by the Holy Spirit of God says until you have recognized the salvation of Almighty God through Jesus Christ you are not prepared to leave this world.
? Simeon was a good man, but he wasn’t ready
? Simeon was a devout man, but not ready.
? It wasn’t until he beheld the salvation of the Lord for himself that he could declare, “I am ready.”
? Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. (John 14:6)
? Peter declares in Acts 4:11-12, “Jesus is "'the stone you builders rejected, which has become the cornerstone.' Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved."
Death is a part of life
• I can almost sense in this place that I am being dismissed by some as irrelevant to your life’s situations because at the current time death is not what you desire to be preparing for nor is it the most pressing need in your life right now.
• In fact, there are many of you who are at an age that you are still impressed with a feeling of immortality, but what you’d really like to know is not how to be ready to die, but how to be prepared to deal with life.
• Believe it or not the answer to how to live is found in this one’s preparedness to die because his confession in that moment was not “take me now Lord” but “I am ready.”
• Upon recognizing the salvation of the Lord this man was ready for whatever came next even if it meant death.
• Death is not the end of life; death is a part of life
• Death of this physical body is merely a transition of life from the temporal and earthly to the eternal.
• You are going to live somewhere forever.
• The point I want to impress upon you today is that if you are truly prepared to live then you will be prepared to die, and you are not prepared to die until you have prepared to live.
• You will never succeed at being everything or anything that God has planned for you to be until you have come to the point of recognizing God’s Salvation through Jesus Christ for your own life and submitting to His Lordship.
• Are you prepared to live?
• Have you been to Jesus for the cleansing power?
Are you fully trusting in His grace this hour? Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb? Are you washed in the blood? In the soul cleansing blood of the Lamb? Are your garments spotless? Are they white as snow? Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb? Are you walking daily by the Savior’s side? Do you rest each moment in the Crucified? When the Bridegroom cometh will your robes be white? Will your soul be ready for the mansions bright, lay aside the garments that are stained with sin, and be washed in the blood of the Lamb; There’s a fountain flowing for the soul unclean, O be washed in the blood of the Lamb!
The Ultimate Preparation
• I don’t want to know today how your attendance record is, if things are right between you and God your church attendance will take care of itself.
• I don’t want to know how devout you are; if you are truly saved, you’ll set your mind to be devoted to the things of God.
• I don’t want to know how much Scripture you can quote because if you truly love God, you’ll hide that word in your heart that you might not sin against Him
• What I want to know today is, “are you born again?” Have you recognized God’s salvation for your own life?
• Have you died to self to live for Him?
• I want to tell you that if you’re not living for God, if you don’t know Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior then you are not only ill prepared to die, you are tragically ill equipped to live.
Conclusion
• God had made Simeon a promise
• God has made you a promise.
• God wants to prosper you and give you a future and a hope.
• God doesn’t want life to be torment for you, but He desires that you rest in His salvation
• If you are willing and obedient you shall eat the good of the Land
• Are you prepared?
• To receive the promise of God
• To release your life to Him
• To live For God?
