The Call to Comfort and Prepare
PASTOR PHILLIPS' SERMON
Wednesday, December 15, 2004
Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
Please pray with me. Heavenly Father, we come to you tonight. We gather here in your name in your house to hear your Word. Open our hearts and our minds by your Holy Spirit that the message from your Word will move us, shape us, and mold us to be your servants here on this earth. Bless us in Jesus' name. Amen.
The words of Isaiah come to us again from a place of pain and suffering, a place of torment, a place where comfort is needed. So God gives these words to the prophet Isaiah, “Comfort, comfort, my people. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem .” Whenever you read in the Old Testament, the Old Testament having been written in Hebrew, whenever you read in the Old Testament a word repeated, the point is emphasis. That's a common rule for Hebrew. Comfort, comfort. God's heart is going out to His people. He is aware of their suffering. He is tuned into what's going on, and He is sending His prophet Isaiah to comfort those people. When it says, “Speak tenderly to Jerusalem ,” literally in the Hebrew, it says, “Speak to the heart.” A lot of times in our conversations, we talk in ideas and theories and superficial conversation. That's not what God's talking about here. That's not what He's calling us to do. He's saying, “Speak to the heart.”
Isaiah calls us in these words to comfort people around us and to prepare or make clear or make smooth the way of the Lord. It reminds me of when I lived up on the edge of Lake Superior in Minnesota . The highway along that lake was known for being treacherous. There were many accidents where people went off the road into the lake and crashed and things like that. While I was there, they were using explosives to straighten that road. It took away the danger. It took away those sharp turns where you come around and might loose control. The road was made straight, and it was better for everyone.
God is calling us to do something similar but in a spiritual way tonight. He wants us to clear the way for the Lord, to clear the way for the people around us to come to know him, to clear the way between God and us. And the first thing we have to do is ask what kinds of things are in the way between God and people? What kinds of things are obstacles or barriers for people in their relationship with God. What kinds of things have turned people away from God? I made a list, and the list is not total. It is not complete. There may be other things you can add, but these are the things that came to my mind, things that cause barriers between God and us: 1) Sin. Pretty quick we get that one; 2) Pain; 3) Anger; 4) Ignorance, simply not knowing God; 5) Fear, afraid that God in heaven is somehow angry with you; 6) Despair, a sense of hopelessness in your life where you just feel like there is no point in anything; 7) Wealth. Sometimes our stuff, our possessions can be a hindrance to us in our relationship with God; 8) Poverty. The very opposite might be true. We're so overwhelmed with our difficult circumstances that our focus is on ourselves and our needs rather than on our God who provides. The last one I have on my list is 9) Pride. If we are arrogant, self sufficient, and proud, there is no way we can come to God. That's a huge obstacle between God and us. So as you and I are heeding the call of Isaiah to reach out to people, to comfort them, and to prepare the way for people to come to know the Lord, we have to find out what is the barrier between God and them? Sometimes it's obvious. Sometimes it takes some time to figure that out.
The first thing we're going to talk about, though, is the way to God is prepared through repentance. And this begins with us. We search our own hearts and our own lives and say, “Is there something between God and me? Is there something I'm holding onto that's keeping me from being able to pray or to worship or to read my bible? Is there something in my heart, something that shouldn't be in my life?” A good model for repentance comes to us in Psalm 51. I'm not sure if you know the history behind Psalm 51, but this is King David writing. Don't be too impressed, because he's a sinner just like you and me. He fails just like you and I do. He was tempted by the same things you and I are tempted by. Sometimes he was successful. Many times, he was not. But he was still God's servant. And, in his repentance after he had committed a horrible sin of adultery with Bathsheba, he turned away from his sin. He repented, and these are the words he wrote: “Have mercy on me, Oh God, according to your unfailing love, according to your great compassion. Blot out my transgressions. Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. Against you and you only have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight. So you are proved right when you speak and justified when you judge. Surely, I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me. Surely, you desire truth in the inner parts. You teach me wisdom in the inmost place. Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean. Wash me, and I will be whiter than snow. Let me hear joy and gladness. Let the bones you have crushed rejoice. Hide your face from my sins, and blot out my iniquity. Create in me a pure heart, Oh God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit to sustain me.” Repentance clears the way between our Heavenly Father and us. It's so beautiful. God guarantees that whenever we turn to Him and confess our sin, He is always faithful and washes us from all unrighteousness.
The second way we're going to talk about tonight of preparing the way for the Lord to come is through love or acts of kindness. One of the things I've learned over the years, and you've heard this expression many times, people don't care how much you know until they know how much you care. They don't want to hear all these wonderful explanations or advice or counsel until they know you really care about them, and then their ears are open. Their hearts are open to what you have to say. I believe that's really important for us as Christians to live the love of Christ in our words and in our actions. And it's not easy. It's a struggle, but I believe that's the most powerful witness, the first thing people see. Not what we hear, but what we do. Our acts of kindness, I believe, can actually prepare people to hear the gospel.
Ephesians 4:32 says, “Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.” Many times I've taken mission teams to Honduras , and this is the way we approach the Honduran people. Oh, they have a variety of needs, physical, emotional, spiritual but we first deal with the physical needs. Because if you just start talking to somebody about God and they have no interest in what you have to say, it's just going to be a waste of time. So we start out by offering free medical help. We have doctors and nurses that they can come in and see and get medicine and treatment and be examined, and they get free medicine from us. We have dentists and dental assistants that we work with. People come in. Everybody there has dental struggles and needs help. There's no other place they can go. So when we set up our little clinic in a local church, the line just goes as far as you can see. People coming desperately for the help you have to offer. We also help them with glasses. We have eye doctors that come with us on the trip, and we have an auto refractor, which takes a picture of their eye and describes the correction needed and then we give them free glasses. Some of these people have never had corrected vision. They've always seen poorly, and when you see their face light up the first time they can see clearly, it's amazing. Sometimes we'll have an older person come in and hasn't been able to see for 15 or 20 years and you give them glasses and they say, “Now I can read my bible again,” it's so gratifying to see their response. I've seen children with a tooth pulled and a mouth full of gauze say, “Gratias.” We're like, “We just pulled your tooth, and you're thanking us?” Most kids wouldn't be saying thank you at that point. But they know you're there to help.
And then every person who comes through our little clinic hears the gospel. They sit down one on one with an evangelist, which could be you. It's just a normal person telling the gospel. And I start out like this. I say, “Estamos aquí demostrar el amor del dios a la gente de este país.” I just said, “We're here to show the love of God to the people of this country.” And they just melt and you give them the gospel. And they go home with peace and comfort.
These are things we've done in other places but we can do things here, too. We don't have to travel to some other country, although that's a powerful experience. We can do it right here. And what I'm kind of learning the name on the news they call the Des Moines area “The Metro,” south of the Metro, north of the Metro, so I'm kind of getting into that talk. We can do stuff right here in the Metro. We can do all kinds of things. We had the Christmas tree out there. That wonderful bible study group organized the giving of gifts. What a wonderful ministry. What a great time to impact someone's life, to know they can count on people at Gloria Dei, Christians to reach out with love.
I saw on the news about homeless shelters. It was amazing to me that many, many people in homeless shelters are teenagers. I never knew that. I always thought it was people who had lived quite a while and they'd gone through life's ups and downs and now they're in a down, so they're in a homeless shelter. But many people are teenagers, very young. Crises pregnancy centers where young women or even older women who are pregnant and scared and hear loving words of encouragement and counsel to guide them through this difficult time. Food and clothing banks. Neighbors helping neighbors. There is no end to the list. When that first snow storm comes, go on down the street to that elderly couple and shovel their driveway. Let them wake up to hear you scraping away out there. And when they start holding the $10 bill out there or something, just say, “No, no, I'm not here for that. I just want you to know that we're here for you and we love you. I'm glad to have you as a neighbor.”
But perhaps the most important place for us to do acts of kindness and to show the love of Christ is within our own homes and in our own marriages and parenting relationships. I think that's the hardest place. That's where the rubber really hits the road. I was a single pastor for a long time before I got married, and I'll tell you it's not so hard to be a pastor on Sunday and a pastor whenever somebody sees you and a pastor when you're teaching a bible class or something. But when you have little girls and a wife at home, you have to be a pastor there too. You can't turn it off when you go home, 24 hours a day. That's the hardest thing is to be Christlike even in your home. I think that's the biggest challenge, but I think it's the most important place because you set a real important role model for other people to see.
Those things prepare the way for the Lord, those acts of kindness and love. Think of it: If you're not much of an example as a parent but you claim to be a Christian, how willing do you think your children will be to be like you and to believe what you believe? Kind of sobering, isn't it?
Finally, the most specific way to prepare the way for the Lord is to give people the gospel, actually sharing the words of salvation. John 3:16 is the famous passage that we all know: “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.” Romans 10:17 says, “Faith comes through hearing the message of Jesus Christ.” And everyone here from the littlest to the oldest knows this message. That's what God is calling us to speak. When He says, “Comfort, comfort my people,” that is the ultimate comfort that anyone can receive when they come to know Jesus as their Savior.
Let's pray. Heavenly Father, you have given us a variety of ways that we can prepare the way for the Lord. First in our own hearts as we repent and come clean with you and let you wash us and cleanse us and restore us in our relationship with you. Then through our acts of love, which soften the hearts of people around us so they desire to know you as well. And finally, through your word of forgiveness, that through faith in Jesus all our sins are forgiven and we have the guarantee of eternal life. Bless us, Lord, this Advent season, this Christmas season, to prepare the way in Jesus' name. Amen.
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