GETTING READY FOR CHRISTMAS?
By Wade Martin Hughes, Sr. Kyfingers@aol.com
As a kid we would play Hide and Seek, we would count, then yell...HERE I COME READY OR NOT....
ARE YOU READY FOR CHRISTMAS? What Christmas message are we teaching? What are you really teaching others?
1 Cor. 14:8 For if the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to the battle?
Matthew 24:44 Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not,
the Son of Man cometh.
Mark 14: 37 - 41 And he cometh, and findeth them sleeping, and saith unto Peter, Simon, sleepest thou?
couldest not thou watch one hour?
38: Watch ye and pray, lest ye enter into temptation. The spirit truly is ready, but the flesh is weak.
39: And again he went away, and prayed, and spake the same words.
40: And when he returned, he found them asleep again, (for their eyes were heavy,) neither wist
they what to answer him.
41: And he cometh the third time, and saith unto them, Sleep on now, and take your rest: it is
enough, the hour is come; behold, the Son of man is betrayed into the hands of sinners.
John 14:1-2 Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me.
2: In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to
prepare a place for you.
WE MUST GET READY AND STAY READY FOR THE SECOND COMING OF JESUS!
A. SEEMS WE ARE ALL ON A JOURNEY TO SOMEWHERE SEARCHING FOR SOMETHING. I often refer to how easy we can understand a journey as we see Dorothy trying to return home, where she didn’t appreciate while she was there,we see her journey, but we can’t see we are on a journey?
We need help? Guidance?
Remember the journey in the Wizard of OZ? The METHOD was the YELLOW BRICK ROAD, and it lead to OZ, not the Blue Road, but they had to follow the Yellow Brick Road.
1. THERE WAS SOMEONE WITH ALOT OF QUESTIONS, AND THERE WERE FEW ANSWERS.
The ToDo, Scarecrow, the Lion, the Tin Man and DOROTHY HAD A SERIOUS PROBLEM: Where is the brian? Worry is killing us? I have lost my heart, compassion? How do we get home?
2. HOW DO WE GET TO KANSAS FROM HERE?
We are all getting ready to meet the wonderful Wizard of Oz. The power is within yielding to Jesus.
3. THE JOURNEY WAS LONG AND HAD MANY OBSTACLES.
Wicked witch, snow, fire, fear, flying monkeys,
4. GET READY TO MET THE WIZARD OF OZ?
And now, with the prospect of meeting him in just a few moments, they had to GET READY.
Preparations had to be made in their appearance, if they were to stand before the Great Oz.
4. WHEN THEY GOT THERE THE WIZARD OF OZ COULD NOT SEE THEM.
Reality was reality and there was no hope FROM A MAN
5. THERE IS A GREATER THAN OZ...
Dorothy and her friends had been traveling in search of this someone that could help them.
6. THEIR JOURNEY HAD PREPARED THEM.
The lion had stood up to adversity. The tin man felt sorrow and had a heart.
The scarecrow had used his brains to help.
All Dorothy had to do was click her heels and say THERE IS NO PLACE LIKE HOME!
B. THE KING IS COMING TO US, WE MUST PREPARE TO MEET HIM. WE MUST LISTEN TO THE VOICE...
JOHN 10: 2 But he that enterth in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep.
3. To him the porter openth; and the sheep hear his voice: and he calleth his own sheep
by name, and leadeth them out.
4. And when he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him:
FOR THEY KNOW HIS VOICE.
5.AND A STRANGER THEY WILL NOT FOLLOW but will flee from him:
for they know not the voice of strangers.
Isaiah hears the Voice of the Lord.
The voice tells us to get ready for the coming of the Lord. If we are to be ready for the coming of the Lord, we must listen to the voice.
I. THE VOICE OF GOD IS HEARD IN THE MOST UNLIKELY PLACE.
Isaiah 40:1. Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God.
3. The voice of him that cried in the wilderness, PREPARE YE THE WAY OF OUR LORD,
make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
4. Every valley shall be exhalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low;
and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain.
5 And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together: for
the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.
A. We hear it in the desert, not just in church, God speaks from different platforms, God knows how to get us to listen.
1. God’s people are familiar with the desert and the wilderness seems they had been there before.
2. The desert experience in the Bible is more than just a desert. It is a dry, hot, times of trials.
a. Moses spent time in the desert.
b. David was God’s man, yet the Yellow Brick Road had some strange twist for him, he was forced to flee into the desert from King Saul.
c. Jesus knew what the desert was.
3. The desert is a barren and a terrifying place, green life is absent.
a. It’s a dry place, we have to have H2O to live.
b. It is lonely.
c. Worry, fear, stress, pressure are all part of desert.
4. THE DESERT SYMBOLIZES DESTRUCTION FROM REBELLION, STUBBORNNESS AND SIN.
5. THE HOT DRY DESERT REPRESENTS BARRENNESS.
a.. No fruit, fruitless.
b. Non productive.
c. Lacking
6. YOU MAY FEEL LIKE YOU ARE IN A FOREVER DESERT, BUT LISTEN, THIS SHALL PASS.
a. YOUR DREAM IS GONE, spiritually barren wasteland.
b. Your soul is dry and parched. You are weary in well doing.
c. You feel like you are trapped in the desert.
d. Aimless circles of wandering around and around..
e. We feel so lost or discouraged or confused.
II. God wants you to hear His VOICE AS HE CRIES OUT ...
A. We have to make some preparations
a. This is for us to get ready THE KING IS COMING.
b. They have been captives and slaves, need to prepare a ROAD HOME.
c. We need to get ready!
d. Jesus is coming for a prepared people.
e. Prepare the way for him!
f. Get rid of every obstacle in your heart and in your life that stands in the way of you receiving him.
B. If we hear God, we must repent.
John the Baptist yielded his voice and warned the people to prepared for Jesus Christ John warned, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.”
C. The call warns us today, BE READY, Stay ready, Jesus is comiong soon.
2. Simply put, “to repent” means “to change.”
3. If you knew the President was coming to you house what would you do?
III. Can we HEAR WHAT THE VOICE OF GOD HAS PROMISED TO US? ARE YOU READY TO RECEIVE GOD’S GIFTS FOR YOU?
Ephesians 3:20 Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask
or think, according to the power that worketh in us.
A. We will see God’s glory revealed ...
Joel 2: 28 And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh,
and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions.
29. And also upon the servants and upon the handmaidens in those days shall I pour out my spirit.
B. Jesus Christ is coming, BE READY!
C.There will be no two minute warning.
IV. WHAT ARE WE PREPARING? WHAT ARE WE EXPECTING? ARE YOU SLEEPING?
Mark 14: 37 - 41 And he cometh, and findeth them sleeping, and saith unto Peter, Simon, sleepest thou?
Couldest not thou watch one hour?
38: Watch ye and pray, lest ye enter into temptation. The spirit truly is ready, but the flesh is weak.
39: And again he went away, and prayed, and spake the same words.
40: And when he returned, he found them asleep again, (for their eyes were heavy,) neither wist
they what to answer him.
41: And he cometh the third time, and saith unto them, Sleep on now, and take your rest: it is
enough, the hour is come; behold, the Son of man is betrayed into the hands of sinners.
Christmas is more than just celebrating the coming of the Christ child in Bethlehem. All history hinges on those stable doors.
EMMANUEL --- GOD IS WITH US... we know of His presence among us through his son Jesus Christ.
The people long ago we told to be prepared. Make highway in the desert.
Prepare your hearts through repentance. He’s coming!
V. WHAT YOU LOVE YOU WILL SPEND YOUR TIME DOING! WHERE IS OUR FOCUS?
Many of us spend alot of money and time decorating inside and outside of our homes, and we never prepare our family or our heart.
The hustle and bustle of Christmas can smuther the HOPE of the manger out of our hearts.
Matthew 23:27 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like
whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men’s
bones and everything unclean.”
VI. THE NEXT TIME JESUS WILL NOT BE A BABY IN A MANGER, BUT A KING ON A WHITE HORSE.
Matthew 24:44 Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not, the Son of Man cometh.
VII. JESUS IS GETTING READY FOR US!
John 14:1-2 Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me.
2: In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you.
I go to prepare a place for you.
IX. WHAT SOUND ARE WE SOUNDING OUT? A PREPARED PLACE FOR A PREPARED PEOPLE
1 Cor. 14:8 For if the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to the battle?
His servant, Wade Martin Hughes,Sr. Kyfingers@aol.com
