Christmas 2014 is approaching. I decided that it would be good for us to do an Advent series, a series of three messages leading up to Christmas. And so, what I thought we would do is take the words of some famous Christmas carols and use either a sentence or a phrase from those carols to form the foundation for these three messages.
Now, for today, I want us to use the very well-known Christmas carol, Joy to the World.
Now, you know how this goes. Sing it with me: Joy to the world, the Lord is come. Let earth receive her King. Here we go. Let every heart prepare him room.
And that's what we're going to talk about today. And that's what we're going to talk about today. And that is. Is what we're going to talk about today. All right, you ready?
That's what yeah. We're going to talk about letting every heart, your heart, my heart, prepare room for the Lord Jesus Christ, not just at Christmas, but on every single day of our life. And it also happens that this dovetails with exactly the point of our next chapter in the book of Genesis that we're moving through verse by verse.
So we're going to combine the two into this first Advent message.
So, are you ready?
Okay, and let me say a big hello to all of you around the world watching on our internet campus. We love you, we appreciate you, we're glad you're here. And here we go, Genesis chapter 25.
Now, here in chapter 25, when we pick up, we find that Abraham has died at the age of 175 years old, and Isaac, his son, is now the only surviving link to the promises and the covenants that God made with Abraham. But Isaac has a problem. The problem is, Isaac's wife, Rebekah, is childless. And unless Isaac has a child, all the promises of God are going to fail.
So that's where we pick up verse 21. And the Bible says, So Isaac prayed to the Lord for his wife Rebekah because she was childless. And the Lord answered Isaac's prayer, and Rebekah, his wife, conceived. But the children struggled together inside her, and she said, Why is this happening to me?
So she went and inquired of the Lord. And God told her two things about her inquiry. Number one, verse 23: God says, Two nations are in your womb. You're going to have twins, Rebekah.
Now, remember, Rebekah had not had four sonograms already up to this point. She didn't know she was having twins. This is new news for her. And when the time is going to be, Came for her to give birth, the first came out, the first son, red, with hair all over him, so they named him Esau, which in Hebrew means hairy. And the second one, the second one, his brother, came out with his hand holding on to Esau's heel.
So they called him Jacob, which literally means heel grabber, someone that grabs another person's heel.
Now, there was one other thing that God told Rebekah when she came and inquired of him, not only that she was going to have twins, but look at verse 23. And God said, the older, Esau, will serve the younger, that is, Jacob.
Now, friends, this second piece of information was unheard of in the ancient Near East. In the ancient Near East, the firstborn son was always the preeminent child in the family. It was he who received the birthright, it was he who received his father's spiritual blessing, and yet here God is favoring the secondborn son, Jacob, over the firstborn.
Now, why would God do this?
Well, obviously, because there was something else about these two boys that in God's mind was more important than their birth order. And what was it?
Well, friends, it was their heart. Watch, verse 27.
Now, when the boys grew up, Esau became a skillful hunter, a man of the field, but Jacob was a quiet man staying around the tents. And once, when Jacob was cooking, Esau came in from the field famished. And he said to Jacob, quick. Let me have some of that red stew because I'm famished. And Jacob replied, Well, first sell me your birthright.
And Esau said, I'm about to die. What good is my birthright to me? And so he agreed to sell it to Jacob.
Now, we must understand that in the ancient Near East, the birthright was a spiritual thing. It stood for God's blessing, and for which child in the family God's blessing resided on. No child who cared about God's favor, no child who cared about God's blessing would ever sell or trade away their birthright, but Esau did it for a bowl of soup. And this tells us volumes about Esau's spiritual condition. It tells us that in his heart, Esau had no concern for spiritual things.
He had no concern for the favor of God or the blessing of God. Jacob, however, was different. He wanted God's blessing. He wanted God's favor. And if Esau was foolish enough to give it up, then Jacob was anxious to take it.
Now, do we see this difference between the two boys? Yeah? We see that one of them, Jacob, had a heart that cared about God and wanted God's blessing, while the other one, Esau, could care less. We see this, right?
Okay, now verse 33.
So Esau swore an oath to Jacob, selling him his birthright. Then Esau ate and drank and went his way. And thus Esau despised, the Hebrew means he treated with contempt his birthright. And this is why, in the New Testament, Hebrews chapter 12, the Bible calls Esau a godless person who sold his birthright for a single meal.
Now, let me just show you one other example of where Esau's heart was spiritually. Chapter 28, let's skip ahead a little bit. The Bible says: And Esau, seeing that marrying one of the daughters of the Canaanites displeased his father Isaac. Friends, why would Isaac not want Esau to marry a Canaanite woman?
Well, very simply, because these women didn't know the Lord, and these women didn't love the Lord, and these women would turn his son Esau's heart away from the Lord. But in spite of that, next verse: in spite of that, Esau went and married one. Anyway.
So let's summarize. Why did God favor Jacob over Esau?
Well, because Jacob had a heart that cared about God and cared about spiritual things and cared about God's blessing, and Esau didn't.
Now, that's as far as we're going to go in Genesis 25 because we're going to stop now and we're going to ask our most important question of the day.
So, are you ready?
All you guys on the internet, here we go. When I say three, one, two, three. No, no. One, two, three. Much better.
Thank you. You say, well, Lon, I understand what you're saying here. But how does that relate to me?
Well, remember what we're talking about. We're talking about the great Christmas carol that says, Let every what? heart, prepare him room. And I want to show you one other passage in the Bible that teaches this very same principle: that God is interested more than anything else in our heart. It's back in 1 Samuel 16.
Here in this chapter, God has instructed the prophet Samuel to go and anoint a new king for Israel to replace King Saul, who disobeyed God. And he says to Samuel, Now I want you to go to Bethlehem. And I want you to see a man there named Jesse, and the man I want you to appoint to be the new king is one of his sons.
However, God did not tell Samuel ahead of time which son it was.
So Samuel goes to Bethlehem, he goes to Jesse, and he says to Jesse, Jesse, I want you to bring all your boys in, and I want, because I've got to anoint one of them, bring them all in and line them up. And so I'm sure that Jesse brought them all in and lined them up from oldest to youngest. When I think of this, I kind of think of the Von Trapp family in sound of music. You know, that's kind of what he did. And then the Bible says, verse 6: when Samuel saw Eliab, the firstborn, he thought, surely this is God's anointed.
But the Lord said to Samuel, Do not consider his outward appearance or his height. For I have rejected him.
Now watch. For the Lord does not see as man sees, Samuel. For man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the what? The heart. And I think most of us know the rest of the story.
That Samuel went right down the line with all the boys, going, Lord, is this the one? Is this the one? Is this the one? Is this the one? And God said, No, no, no, not him either.
Uh-uh. And finally, Samuel ran out of sons, and God had said no to them all.
So Samuel turns to Jesse and says, Is this all the sons you got? And Jesse said, Well We got one more. But he's a runt. He's a shrimp. He's just a little kid.
In fact, he said, I didn't even bother to bring him in. I left him out with the sheep. And Samuel said, Go get him. And the Bible says, so Jesse sent and brought him in. Who was this person, by the way?
King David, right. And then the Lord said to Samuel, Rise and anoint him. He is the one.
Now friends, why did God choose David over all of his bigger, older brothers?
Well, for the same reason that he chose Jacob over Esau. Listen, Acts chapter 13, verse 22. Paul says, And after removing Saul, God made David king and testified about him, I have found David, the son of Jesse, to be a man after my own heart. Mm-hmm. Folks, listen, here's the point.
That when it comes to God looking to bless somebody, looking to favor somebody, looking to use somebody for His glory, birth order doesn't matter. Outward appearance doesn't matter. Human talent doesn't matter. Education and money don't matter to God. What matters to God is our what?
Our heart. That's right. Second Chronicles sixteen, verse nine. The Bible says, For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth to show himself strong, watch on behalf of those whose what? whose heart is completely Here's Now, all of that brings us to you and me.
And to Advent And it brings us to the question: how is it really with our heart? and God. I mean, can we honestly say? Is completely His. Can we honestly say that our aspiration in life is to be a man or a woman after God's own heart?
You know, these were the questions God asked me this week. as I was preparing this message. Where's your heart, my friend? Psalm 42, David said, as the deer Pants after the water brook, so my soul pants for you, O God. And the LORD said to me, Lon, is that does your heart do that?
Psalm 63, David said, O God, you are my God. Early I will seek you. My soul thirsts for you. My flesh longs for you. As in a dry and weary land where there is no water.
And God said to Milan, Is that how your heart? Feels about me. And do your actions Demonstrate That your heart feels that way about me? Because you see, friends, I wanted to rise up and say to the Lord, Yes, Lord, that's my heart. Yes, Lord, that's how I feel about you.
Yes, Lord, that's how I want to pursue you. But the second question got me. Lawn. Do your actions. Reveal that that's where your heart really is.
Because how many days do I run out of the house? And never spend time with the Lord. How many days do I wake up and go through the whole day? And never really get on my knees and pour my heart out and seek God. Do my actions really support that my heart's there?
Wow, what a question. And I'll ask you the same question. I mean how much Do your actions reveal? That your heart really wants to seek God like this, that you've really prepared, as the Carol says. You've really prepared room in your heart.
For Christ. You know, I was thinking this week how much time and energy and effort we put into preparing our outside. for success. When we go to college, we go to graduate school, we do continuing professional education, we read the right magazines, we study the right journals, we keep up with the latest trends, we make sure that for our job environment our clothes are right, we make sure before we leave the house our makeup is on just right, we work out, many of us regularly, trying to make sure we look in shape. But what about our hearts, folks?
I mean, do we Read the Word of God. With the same commitment that we read our professional journals, do we pray? with the same intensity. that we work out with at the gym Many of us will get up an hour. or an hour and a half early.
Just to make sure our makeup is on right and our clothes are on right and everything's right. But will we do that same thing to make sure we don't walk out of our house without having spent quality time with God? And what about our children? I mean, we we we drive ourselves ragged. Running our children all over to sports teams and ballet and piano lessons and therapy and tutoring.
And I'm not saying there's anything wrong with those things. I'm asking the question: do we exhibit that same kind of fanaticism when it comes to our children's hearts? Do we read the Bible with them? Do we pray with them at night before they go to bed? Do we pray with them in the morning before they go to school?
Do we have family devotions? Do we help them memorize Scripture? Do we get them to Kids' Quest and Iwana and away to teenage camps? Folks. The truth of the matter is that the Carol says, Let every heart prepare him room.
But how often Do I Prepare room in my heart for everything else. And I give Jesus the leftovers. How many times do you do that? In your life. Have a look.
You say, Lon, I'm crazy busy. I understand that. I'm not picking on you. I understand that. Look, when I was raising our three boys, Brenda and I were, man, I was coaching their Little League teams and their Beybrew teams at the same time.
I had so much baseball equipment in my car, you couldn't get anything else in my car. We tried to go to all of their school events. We tried to be active in their school. And then Jill came along, and suddenly we had to worry about keeping her alive and 911 calls and emergency rooms and sleeping in hospital chairs. And I was pastoring an exciting and active church.
Brenda and I didn't fall into bed every night, friends. Brenda and I collapsed into bed. Every night. You know what I'm talking about. And I know how easy it is.
to give Jesus the leftovers. I understand that. And to get up and say, Well, Lord, I don't have time this morning, but I'll catch up later in the day with you. I'll catch my devotions later. But you know what happens, at least to me, most days I never catch up.
It's just too busy. The day overtakes me, and I never get back to it. And I end up in the evening going to bed and going, Lord, I'm so sorry. Tomorrow, I will not mess up and do this tomorrow, and then I do it the next day. I understand that.
But you know what? This week, I think I'm busier actually now than I've ever been in my life, to be honest with you. But you know what? The Lord said to me this week, Lon, You cannot make it. Like that.
You cannot. The busier you get, The more desperate You need to be for me. And Lon, if you'll give me thirty minutes in the morning. I'll get more done in the other twenty three point five hours for you. than if you take all twenty-four for yourself.
And it's just your foolishness that you don't realize that. And I was like, well, Lord, I do realize that.
Well, You know, the logical question next is, well then why don't you do it? I don't know. I'm human. I'm sinful. I don't know.
But friends, I get what we all face. But listen to me. We can't make it. without preparing room in our hearts for the Lord Jesus Christ. We can't.
And so I want to challenge you. As God has challenged me this Advent season. Lawn You gotta change. You got to make sure when you get up That other things can go by the wayside, but buddy. You hit your knees.
And you s you prepare that time with me. And let me say in closing. That uh Jacob whom God chose. And David, whom God chose, And Ruth and Esther and Joshua and Caleb, whom God chose. Friends, these people were not visitors from another planet.
These people were not different than you and me. The only thing that made them different, listen carefully to me. If you don't get anything else, get this. The only thing that made them different. is that folks, they made a decision.
They decided That above all else, they were going to prepare room in their heart for Jesus every single day. And then. They disciplined their time to make sure it happened. That's what made them different. That's why God loved them.
That's why God chose them. It was their heart. And their follow-through. Friends, we can do this. We can do this.
If we want to. And I can't think of a better time than the Advent season. For us to say, okay, Lord Jesus. You and me, we're making a change. It's not going to be like it used to be.
In the morning, I'm getting up. And Lord, it's with you. I'm not going to face people. till I've been with you. Let's pray together.
Um And with our heads bowed and our eyes closed, I'd like to give you a moment. If you need To make that kind of commitment to the Lord like I do. This is a great place to make it. And if you need his help, And his strength. to carry it out than asking for it.
Why don't you take a moment and talk to the Lord? Lord, I'm reminded of the words of the great old hymn. That says take Time. to be holy. Speak often.
With thy Lord. Abide in him always. and feed on his word. Take time to be holy. The world rushes on.
Much time spent in secret. with Jesus Alone. Yeah. Lord, I can't think of any part of our world that rushes on any faster than Washington. And yet, Lord Jesus.
Give us the wisdom. Mm. Give us the discipline. Give us the heart. God Not to be so carried away with the frenzied pace of Washington.
that we neglect To prepare room in our heart for Jesus every day. Lord, change our lives. Our schedules. Change everything about us because we were here. and sat under the teaching of the Word of God today.
Honor the commitments we've made, Lord, and help us to carry through on them by your power, by your spirit. And we pray this. In Jesus' name. And God's people said, Amen.
