After church, where she had been taught about the Second Coming of Christ, a little girl was quizzing her mother. “Mommy, do you believe Jesus will come back?” “Yes.”“Today?”“Yes.”“In a few minutes?”“Yes, dear.”“Mommy, would you comb my hair?” This little girl wanted to be ready for the coming of Christ. We do too, don’t we?The Advent season begins today, and Advent is all about getting ready for the coming of Christ.We want to Be Ready!

“Be Ready” is a pretty good motto at this time of the year, isn’t it?With the holidays coming, I’m sure that you all have a list a mile long of the things you need to get ready for.And one thing that’s probably on your lists to get ready for during the holidays is company.Company’s coming!So we need to get ready!Do you have company coming this year?Are you ready for them?If someone is going to be visiting you, what do you need to do to prepare?

I am sure there are many things, but let me just suggest these four:First of all, you need to Wake Up!It would be no good if your company arrived and you were still sleeping!Who would let them in?Would they feel welcome?Wake up from your slumber!Secondly, we Take a Shower, right?We want to be clean, and have our hair looking right.Third, of course, you would have to Put Some Clothes On!Preferably good ones.You wouldn’t want to get caught in your nighties or with your “pants down”!We want to be dressed for the occasion.And finally, you need to Clean Your House!You don’t want your company seeing your filthy house, even if it is parents who insist you don’t need to clean.This Advent and holiday season, company is coming, and we want to be ready!

This Advent season, we also look forward to Jesus coming, and we want to Be Ready!Our Bible text tells us those four key preparations will also help us get ready for the coming of our Saviour!First of all, we need to WAKE UP!A 77-year-old man in Palm Harbor, Florida, is a sleepwalker. Have you ever done that? It could be a problem. One day 77-year-old James Currens sleepwalked out of his house, stumbled down an embankment and didn’t wake up until he was stuck in an alligator-infested pond. A neighbour heard him hollering for help and called the police around 5 AM. Mr. Currens was found fighting off those alligators with his cane in his hand. There were 8 to 10 gators. And if he hadn’t woke up he would have been gator breakfast!

Friends, sleepwalking and sleep-living will get you into trouble! But it won’t be alligators! It will be something worse!Our text says: “the hour has come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed.”Mr. Currens’ slumber was a physical slumber which could have led to his physical death.This “slumber” Paul is talking about is a spiritual slumber which leads to spiritual death.Being asleep spiritually means you have no awareness of your spiritual situation or relationship with God.When people are dozing off in this kind of slumber, they carry on in life with little or no concern about the consequences of their sinful ways!They are asleep!And if Jesus comes and finds us asleep, that’s not going to be good!If we don’t care about the price He paid to take all our sins away, and feel no regret for them, or aren’t moved to do anything about our lifestyle, we are basically telling Him that we don’t want Him as our Saviour!As Christians, we believe Jesus has forgiven us.But we still contend with our sinful weakness.Our “eyelids” often grow heavy and we often grow weary in the spiritual battle.But the time when Jesus is coming is always nearer than we think!And we have to be ready!We have to wake up!

TAKING A SHOWER is a great way to wake up!If we are going to be ready for company coming over, we usually take a shower and PUT GOOD CLOTHES ON.This is the spiritual advice our text also gives us for getting ready:“Clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ.”There is a passage in Galatians 3:27 that tells us how that is done:“For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.”

BAPTISM is the “spiritual shower” that we need to wake us up.Showers remove dirt from our bodies.Baptism removes the dirt of sin from our souls.Today was special!We got to see six baptisms!We got to see, in a visible way, the Holy Spirit coming here through water and God’s Word, to work in the heart of each of these children a faith in salvation through Jesus, and a strengthening of that faith!In Baptism, God washes away our sins and strengthens our faith in his forgiveness.In Baptism, God places his name on us and makes us a part of his family!Today we saw six spiritual showers!We saw the Holy Spirit working in the hearts of six of God’s children!What a great wake-up call!Not just for the ones baptized today, but for all of us!As we witness a baptism, we are reminded of our own baptisms, and get to enjoy that clean water of life again, strengthening us and making sure we are wide awake spiritually!

And our baptisms, our spiritual showers, get us ready to be clothed with Christ.When we become part of God’s family through baptism, He clothes us with the perfect robes of perfection of Christ!Now when God looks at us, He sees perfect threads!No dirty, wrinkly, or ratty clothes!Perfect robes!We got a new suit on and it looks good!We are ready for our company!We are ready for Jesus to come!

Wouldn’t it be silly to wear these brand new suits to work or play outside in the mud?Would we be ready for company then?No.So why, after having Christ’s perfect robes placed on us, after being given the credit for his perfect life, would we want to go and live like we did before?Why would we want to go and soil our clothes in the muck and mire of selfishness, sinful desires, lust, greed, and immorality?Is that how we show our guest coming that we care about Him?Is that how we want Jesus to see us when He arrives?No, it isn’t.Let’s take off our dirty clothes, the ones soiled with the stains of our immorality in the darkness of night, and put on the kind of clothes that look good in daylight.The kind of lives that shine brightly to everyone around us.The kind that will make us ready for our Saviour to come.

And finally, let’s CLEAN OUR HOUSE!How do you want your house to look when people arrive?Do you want them to see the empty bottles, rotten leftovers, stained clothes, walls, and floors?Probably not.How do you want your spiritual house to look when Jesus arrives?Do you want Him to see the signs of excess, stains of lust, overindulgence, broken relationships, grudges, disagreements, greed, and selfishness?Not only do these things “make your house dirty,” but they also make your life difficult.Our Lord wants us to put those things aside!To replace that way of living with a clean, “light-filled” kind of living!A lifestyle that we would never be ashamed to let the world see.You know there are days when we don’t want anyone to see our homes, because we have gotten behind on cleaning up after our kids, and our wives would die a thousand deaths if someone came over.Well, as Christians, our goal in thanking God is that we would always live a life that we wouldn’t be ashamed to let anyone see.Let’s make sure our “houses” are clean every day!

Suppose a man is sitting on a tack and is in pain. Along comes a psychologist who says, "The reason you are hurting is rooted in a childhood trauma. You need therapy." Next, a sociologist says, "You’ve got a problem and it is obviously the result of the environment in which you grew up. You need a change of environment." Next, an economist says, "Money is the root of all hurt. Let me help you with your portfolio." Next, a preacher says, "If you would learn to praise the Lord in all your circumstances, you won’t hurt so much." Finally, a little girl comes along and says, "Mister, why don’t you just get off that tack?"Smart girl!Friends, we need to understand the present time in which we are living! Mankind is in deep pain and it’s because of sin! There’s no other way you can cut it.Sin is our problem...always has been, always will be! The pain of sin has infected the whole world and there is only one answer....Get rid of that which is causing you pain and turn to Christ for healing and forgiveness! God doesn’t want us to live in pain anymore than we have to. And sin will make life painful. We need to wake up, clean up our lives and grow up by turning to Jesus!

You see, no matter how dirty our homes and lives have become, no matter what past events fill our closets, no matter how asleep we’ve been, we do have Someone who walked into our filthy world and cleaned it up with his perfectly clean life and woke us up with his messy suffering and death.Jesus has secured salvation for you!He has clothed you with his brand of perfection.Friends, you are forgiven and loved by Jesus!In baptism, He wants to assure you of that!

And our salvation, the day we get to fully enjoy all of that, is nearer than we think!Company is coming, friends!Jesus is on his way!He is on his way to bring us to heaven!It’s Advent!Today a new church year begins.And this new church year brings us one step closer to the Advent of our Lord.Today, we are one year closer to his Advent than we were last year.Today, we are one step closer to Jesus’ coming than we were yesterday.Jesus is coming!He is our company who has shown us how much He loves us.If we love Him back, let’s show that with our lives!Friends, Jesus is coming!Be Ready to receive Him into your home!

Ann Wells, sharing a story with us from her life, said, “My brother-in-law opened the bottom drawer of my sister's bureau and lifted out a tissue-wrapped package. "This," he said, "is not a slip. This is lingerie."He discarded the tissue and handed me the slip. It was exquisite: silk, handmade and trimmed with a cobweb of lace. The price tag with an astronomical figure on it was still attached."Jan bought this the first time we went to New York, at least eight or nine years ago. She never wore it. She was saving it for a special occasion. Well, I guess this is the occasion."He took the slip from me and put it on the bed with the other clothes we were taking to the mortician. His hands lingered on the soft material for a moment, then he slammed the drawer shut and turned to me:"Don't ever save anything for a special occasion. Every day you're alive is a special occasion."

Friends, every day is a special occasion!Don’t save your clean houses, lives, and spiritual clothes for weddings and funerals.Don’t save them for Christmas and Easter.Don’t even save them for Sunday mornings.Every day is a day to dress in our finest and have a clean house that glorifies God.Every day is a special occasion.Every day is a day to Be Ready!Company is coming!And He could be here at any time!Let’s be ready!Amen.

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