Preparing Our Hearts for the Arrival of Christ

So we're starting this brand new series here today and it's called Arrival, The Arrival. And the premise behind this is the King is coming and we need to prepare a few things in our lives. And it's King Jesus, our King, my King, the one we sang about, the one I serve. And today I kinda need your help. Could I use your help here today? I want you to imagine something that you get a haptic vibration on your smartwatch or your cell phone and you get this text message from God. And this text message says, Jesus is coming to your house this Christmas. [00:34:37] (42 seconds)


But it's gotta be something like this, right? Maybe we could introduce him to some Italian food because he's Jewish. He's probably doing lamb kabobs, lamb chops. But maybe we'll do this. The glorios, we go to the hill. Maybe we can grab some stuff, get some things. I don't know, maybe we could go to the corkscrew. Maybe I could get him a bottle of Sicilian red wine or maybe we don't need to. These are our friends who own the corkscrew in the front row. Because why? He could turn water right into wine. So maybe we don't need to touch that. [00:36:09] (35 seconds)


You're going to make a list. You're going to check it twice. You're going to go around that house and you're going to go, oh my, Jesus is showing up. And what I'm describing to you in this funny illustration with a bit of play on words is this is Advent. This is Advent. This is the stuff we're talking about. And here's the definition of Advent. It's preparing our lives to welcome King Jesus. That's all it is. And if you're a Christian and the Christian calendar of things, Advent starts December 1st for all of us. [00:37:56] (31 seconds)


And our goal is to, as a church and what we've kind of been talking about, we've kind of been talking about, we've kind of been talking about, we've kind of been talking about from the last series to this series is our challenge was very simple to you. And we've had two things going on this whole time. It was show up and open up. That was the easiest thing we've had. Show up, come to church, try two weeks in a row, try three weeks in a row, not putting anybody down. But this stuff really does make a difference, doesn't it? [00:39:02] (25 seconds)


The life of Mary teaches us so much, but I want to focus on this how factor. So get away from, yeah, she had the baby. Yeah, there was some things going on, but I want you to look at how she did this and then how she did this as a teenager. So a little background on Mary. Let's take a Mary's master class. Let's do a one -on -one. So who is she? She's a teenager. She's engaged and betrothed to this guy, Joseph. [00:45:08] (27 seconds)


Mary was greatly troubled at his words. We all would be as well. And we wondered what kind of greeting this might be. But the angel said to her, what? Do not be afraid. Mary, you have found favor with God. You will conceive and give birth to a son. And you are to call him Jesus. That's great. The angel took all the heavy lifting of naming the child. Verse 34, watch this. How will this be? Great question, Mary. [00:47:03] (35 seconds)


Offering God your plan, and this is going to go against every emotion, every idea, everything that is normal to your human life. Offering God 100 % of your plans is the best life you can live. Boy, that's a good one. Even a better place for an amen here at church today. I don't know if you know about this. The secret sauce to all of it is going God here. It's not my plan. It's not my will. It's not what PJ wants. It's what you want. [00:50:25] (31 seconds)


What's the problematic thing you have in your life? What difficult people are you facing or going to face at the Christmas table? What's the challenge? What's the trial? What's the challenge? What's the challenge? What's the challenge? What's the challenge? What's the challenge? Tell God, offer it. Mary's this teenager. She's going through it. She says, I didn't ask for this. She looks up. She says, you know what? This is a lot going on. This is unusual. None of my friends are dealing with this. [00:54:01] (29 seconds)


Mary's character exceeds our emotion and she offers it up. And I wonder if we headed into Christmas this way. Preparing room, thinking, pondering, offering, not paying attention to people, not paying attention to words, not paying attention to God. I'm going to pray. I'm going to pray. I'm going to pray. I'm going to pray. I'm going to pray. Here's everything I have. Here's everything I have. How different would Christmas be this year? [00:57:01] (24 seconds)


I love the ending of this story. If you're asking how, believe the Holy Spirit is with you on this journey. Do not go by feelings. Do not go by just a Sunday sermon. But watch how she concludes all this stuff. Are you ready? She says to the angel at the end, okay, let it be to me according to your word, not my will, but your will be done. And here's what is so amazing to me. [01:03:41] (27 seconds)


live this life of surrender. It's simple to say, but the reality is if you give God everything you're trying to control, your life gets infinitely better. Proverbs 16 .3 says this, before you do anything, put your trust totally in God and not in yourself. And then every plan you make will what? Succeed. If you want to live this supernatural life that Mary lived and you want God's kingdom to run through your life, it's this simple thing. [01:05:25] (30 seconds)