(Audio)
Brothers and sisters:
You know the time;
it is the hour now for you to awake from sleep.
Advent is not the time for carelessness or laziness. It is a time of joyful preparation. It calls for loving and attentive readiness of heart and mind.
Therefore, stay awake!
For you do not know on which day your Lord will come.
Many of us live in a way which allows our sins or the lies of the enemy distract us. They possess our minds in such a way that we are not ready to receive the LORD when he comes into our own lives with his grace and presence. The good news is that we can be ready. We can be awake in such a way that the day of the LORD's coming won't catch us off guard. We can live in such a way that enemy does not and cannot steal our focus.
Let us then throw off the works of darkness
and put on the armor of light;
The works of darkness are so-called because when they are directly exposed they are revealed in all of their corruption. Only because we allow them to stay hidden, even from our fully conscience thought, do they survive. In this season of remaining awake and vigilant let us turn up the lights. Let us expose and cast out the darkness that hides within us.
But put on the Lord Jesus Christ,
and make no provision for the desires of the flesh.
We get used to the way things are. We get comfortable with whatever normal means for us. But advent is a season of progress and of growth. We are should not allow routine or status quo to lull ourselves into inaction or stagnation. We are divided internally and divided from one another. But the LORD comes with his peace.
They shall beat their swords into plowshares
and their spears into pruning hooks;
one nation shall not raise the sword against another,
nor shall they train for war again.
The LORD comes with his own light to cast out the darkness and to awaken us to new life.
O house of Jacob, come,
let us walk in the light of the Lord!
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