Our Beliefs : Sermons : Sermon Archive - 2004 : November 28, 2004
Prepare Your Hearts for Christ's Coming -- Wake Up!
Advent 1
What is the greatest invention made by man? We might have a difference of opinion on this, of course. Some might say, "fire," while others say, "the wheel," and still another might say, "the microwave oven." But I'm thinking of a device that could give all of those other inventions a run for their money. You can use it every morning. Each morning, when we hear that alarm clock go off, we think to ourselves, "I sure do like this nice comfortable bed and these nice warm covers. I'd like to stay here just a little longer." And then we make use of what may be the greatest invention known to man -- the snooze button. The idea is that you get just a few more moments of sleep, and then you will ready to go. But, just as with fire, there is a dark side to this invention as well. You might hit the snooze button again and again, and sometimes you might find yourself jumping out of bed when you realize that you overslept, and missed a very important meeting.
Today we enter a new church year. The season of Advent means, "coming." Christ is coming. We will meet Jesus at his manger, but also some day when he comes again in glory. How do we prepare our hearts for Christ's coming? How do we make sure we make that meeting? Paul says it very matter-of-factly: Wake up! Don't hit your spiritual snooze button. Wake up! And put on the right clothes to meet him. Put on Christ.
In order to understand why we shouldn't hit our spiritual snooze button, we have to understand who we are. We are saints through faith in Christ, but we live in a sinful world and we still have a sinful flesh. Both the world and our flesh want us to snooze and forget about who we are. The old adage: "You snooze, you lose" applies to all people spiritually. If you have an important appointment that you have to make in the morning, you aren't very likely to hit your snooze button, are you? If you have a job interview at 8:00 a.m., and you sleep in and miss the appointment, you aren't going to get that job. You snooze, you lose your opportunity.
Well, if you snooze spiritually, you lose also. Except snoozing spiritually has much worse consequences. Even though you are a Christian, you can be tempted by the world into seeing something as more important than living your life for Christ. Now that doesn't necessarily mean you have lost your faith, but it means you are going in that direction. If you say to yourself, "One little sin won't matter -- I still have faith, and I'll ask for forgiveness later anyway," then your sinful flesh has just turned you from living your faith, to living just like any other person in this world who doesn't know Christ. Again, you may not have lost your faith by that one sin, but you can be sure that Satan is trying to use that sin to get you further and further into his clutches and he hopes that maybe you will lose your faith altogether. You snooze, you lose.
The Apostle Paul gives some examples of sins that can get between us and our God. He says, "Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy." Notice the list of sins he describes here is talking about how people of the world live: having orgies, getting drunk, being sexually immoral, living it up in wild living. Do you tell yourself, "I don't get drunk all the time; just once isn't going to hurt anything"? Or, "I can't live a perfect life sexually all the time. I admit that I sometimes have improper thoughts about someone I shouldn't. But what is that going to hurt anyone? Everyone else does it anyway"? If we have those kinds of thoughts or do those things, then we are not being any different than the world. Then we are giving in to our sinful flesh. Then Satan has just won another battle for our very souls. He hasn't necessarily won the war for our souls, because that would mean that we no longer have faith and could no longer have faith, but any battle that Satan wins in that war is dangerous to us eternally. But notice that Paul in the same list talks about dissension and jealousy. If we say that we are free from those sins, we're kidding ourselves. Paul is telling you, "Wake up! Don't hit your spiritual snooze button, because then you run the risk of not being ready for when Christ comes."
Not only does Paul want us to understand that we are living in a sinful world with our sinful flesh warring against us every day, but he also want us to understand something else: "The hour has come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed." You can set an alarm clock for getting up at 7:00 a.m. for a meeting at 8:00 a.m., but how are you going to set a spiritual alarm for Judgment Day? We don't know when it's coming, so you can't set your alarm for it. In other words, you have to be awake and ready for it at all times. Paul says that the only thing you can know about when it will come is that it's nearer now than when you first believed. That was 2000 years ago when the Roman Christians first believed (those are the ones Paul was writing to). Now it's 2000 years closer to Christ's coming. Part of being faithful and having faith is being ready for Jesus' return.
Paul tells us the night is nearly over -- in other words, our time on this earth is very nearly ended -- and he says the day is almost here, Judgment Day is right around the corner. So how can we be awake and ready for Christ? The Holy Spirit through Paul gives us the answer: Stop hitting your snooze button, and put on Christ.
I asked earlier what you thought the best invention ever made is. I recently read about some new inventions that are pretty wild. I'm sure you've heard about the patch. Instead of having to take a pill or get a shot, now all you need is a patch. You can get a patch to stop smoking. You can get a patch for birth control. You can get a patch to lose weight or for pain relief. Pretty soon, you'll be able to get a patch for everything. But those aren't the patches I'm thinking of. There's a new patch being promoted now that can give a reading of your blood alcohol level or drug use. Just think of the ramifications. There would be no more drunk airline pilots because their patch would give them away. There would be no more drunk drivers eventually because you could have the ignitions fitted with a lock system that could not be unlocked by someone having alcohol or drugs in their system. That would be great, right? Maybe not. What other hidden things could people discover about you just by putting a patch on you? Maybe they'd find out you have a heart condition, so they don't want to hire you. Maybe there will some day be a patch or implant that you would be required to have to identify you at airports. How about a patch that can show what you're feeling or thinking? "Honey, do I look fat in this dress?" just won't be the same game anymore.
Then it's not too much of a stretch to think of a patch that tells whether you are lying or greedy or lusting. I don't think anyone would like that. Then everyone would know how sinful we are, how dark our thoughts are, how un-Christ-like.
The fact of the matter is, we need to have such a patch. Not for others to see, but for us to see ourselves. We need to see how often we not only do sinful things, but also think sinful thoughts -- how often we hit our spiritual snooze button and don't act as followers of Christ. We need to see how desperately we need a change in our life. We need to wake up, Paul says. But how? We join him when he says earlier in his letter to the Romans: "I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do -- this I keep on doing. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?" We also know the terrible consequences of those sins -- eternal death. Who will rescue me? Thanks be to God -- Christ has rescued me! He did live perfectly according to God's will. And that robe of righteousness is mine when I put it on through faith. The devil will try to say, "No! It's not that easy! Your sins are terrible and horrible and have separated you from God. You are a sinner!" But then God says, "Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." (Romans 8:1) Jesus paid for every single sin of yours, every single time you may have hit your spiritual snooze button.
So whenever we're tempted to push that spiritual snooze button by getting drunk at a party during the holidays, or by letting yourself fall into situations that tempt you sexually, or by quarreling with relatives, or by being jealous of what other people get at Christmas or how big their house is, we need to remember seeing Jesus, bloodied and bruised, and dead on a cross. That's how horrible those sins are. Then we need to see that all those sins are taken away, paid in full by Jesus, never to condemn us again. That's why he died. That's why he rose to assure you of his victory and your forgiveness. That's why Paul can encourage us by saying: "So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy. Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ."
As we enter another Advent season, and as we seek to prepare our hearts to meet our Lord and Savior, we don't need a patch that cures our headache or reduces our appetite. We need a patch that cures our sin and reduces our appetite for sin to zero. That patch is Christ. When you put him on every day by seeing what he has done for you, you will be awake and ready to serve him. You won't want to go back to bed and live a life of sin. You will want to be awake and aware of ways you can serve him in your life. When you're wearing Christ, you are prepared for Christ's coming. "Clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the sinful nature."
We now enter the season of Advent. Christ is coming. Are you ready to meet Jesus? The Son has risen. The day is almost here. Wake up. Put on Christ. Now you're ready. Amen.
