"Mamma" said a little child, "my Sunday School teacher tells me that this world is only a place in which God lets us live a while, that we may prepare for a better world. But mother, I do not see anybody preparing. I see you preparing to go to the country, and Aunt Elsie is preparing to come here; but I do not see anyone preparing to go there. Why don’t they try to get ready?"
Preparation. Everyone enjoys the finished product, the nicely iced cakes and finished pastries. The finely served dinner, the beautifully built home, the well raised family. How many enjoy the preparation, the work that went into the finished product?
Mark tells us there is a time of preparation before the reality of anticipation, before the appearance of the Lord Jesus Christ. "I will send my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare the way." In Exodus 23:20, God sent an angel ahead of the Israelites to prepare the way to the promised land, in Mark 1:2, we read God sent a man to prepare the way to the promised one.
Lets be honest with ourselves tonight, for the most part we don’t like the preparation work. We would rather take be on the trip than packing for it. We would rather be living in the house than building it. We would rather be in revival than preparing for it.
Life requires preparation, and it is in the preparation we will either become win or lose. It has been said that all is well that begins well.
I want to look at three areas of preparation. They come from Bob Rotella’s book, Golf is not a game of perfect where he points out the pre-shot preparation of Tom Kite and then I want to relate them to your Christian life.
Kites pre-shot routine is this: (1) Assessment: "Am I evaluating correctly?" (2) Alignment: "Am I lined up correctly?"
(3) Attitude: "Am I visualizing correctly?"
Lets look at Assessment and answer some questions for ourselves. God told the children of Israel that he was sending a messenger ahead to prepare the way. And John came with that message. We need John’s in our lives to point the direction for us, pastors, teachers, parents, friends.
Tom Kites assessment includes...
Finding the target Assess the distance factor the wind--trajectory and Selecting the club -- decisiveness is critical. And for each of us, to make it to a higher level we need to ask this question so we can find the target: 1. Where do I need to Go?
The way to answer this is to 1. Seek God’s will 2. Know your heart.
3. Find your gifts 4. Ask your friends 5. Seek the opportunities set before you.
2. We need to ask, How far out is my goal? John the Baptist came to prepare the way but when he began he had no timetable for when the Lord would come. I like what St. Francis of Assisi said, "Start by doing what is necessary; then do what is possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible."
3. For you to go to the higher level, you need to ask, what are the conditions?
Read Luke 14:28-32
The situation will determine the strategy you will use in getting to a higher level.
4. What will it take to get there?
To reach the goal set before you, there are three P’s you are going to need.
1] Preparation: and this comes through the preparation within you.
2] Process: following a strategic process before you
3] People: surrounding yourself with great people.
After a period of assessment, then comes the alignment, and you need to ask, Am I lined up correctly? I have 10 questions to rate yourself on your alignment from 1-10, 1 being the lowest, and 10 the highest.
1. Do I practice my spiritual disciplines in a consistent manner?
2. Is my family in good shape
3. Am I free from financial pressure?
4. Do I get enough physical rest and exercise?
5. Do I have clarity on God’s calling and am I obediently pursuing it?
6. Have I established replenishing patterns in my life?
7. Have I surrounded myself with "eagles in my area of ministry or work?
8. Have I experienced my "train wreck" yet?
9. Have I prioritized my ministry to complement my spiritual gifts?
10. Do I have prayer partners to provide essential support for me?
Finally, what is your attitude? Maintaining the right attitude is easier than regaining the right attitude. Lets look at a couple of attitude indicators.
1. What is your attitude about yourself? When it comes to believing in themselves, some people are agnostics. Consider John the Baptist, would he had been successful if he did not believe in himself, that he was called of God to prepare the way? If he had not, we would never had known his name.
2. What is your attitude about your situation? Positive thinking will not let you do everything, but it will let you do anything better than negative thinking.
To thank God after the miracles is gratitude
To thank God before the miracle is attitude
3. What is your attitude concerning the people around you? Do you believe the people around you will help lift you to a higher level. It is wonderful; when the people around us believe in us, but it is more wonderful when we believe in them. It becomes contagious.
So let me make this practical for us tonight with a few preparation principles.
1. You are preparing today. You are in preparation whether you know it or not. The question is, what for? Success or failure? Understand this about success. Success is a Daily thing, not a destination thing. Champions do not become champions in the ring. They are merely recognized in the ring. Their becoming happens in their daily routine. The only preparation for tomorrow is the right use of today.
Joe Frazier said, "You can map out a fight plan or a life plan. But when the action starts, you’re down to your reflexes. That’s where your roadwork shows. If you cheated on that in the dark of the morning, you’re getting found out now under the bright lights."
2. It is better to prepare than to repair.
Those who have done carpenter work know that it is better to measure twice and have to only saw once. Preparation far exceeds the amount of time that you are actually in a performance, but repairing takes even longer.
3. Preparation today gives confidence for tomorrow.
4. Preparation today gives success tomorrow. Benjamin Disraeli said, "The secret of success in life is for a man to be ready for his time when it comes."
JFK said, "The time to prepare the roof is when the sun is shining."
Successful preparation in any endeavor begins with knowing what you want. Then you will go to the right places; find the right people; ask the right questions; and pay the right price.
John the Baptist came to prepare the way for Jesus. Each one of us have been called to prepare the way for Jesus as well. Let me ask in closing, how is your preparation for life? Are you involved in repairing a lack of preparation? Perhaps you are here and you are okay, you have it down. Then you can come along side someone who is repairing. You might not have been able to answer all the question, or scored as well as you know you should, so tonight, I close with the alter of preparation, a place for you and God to come and kneel down and do some business.
