Are you making room for Jesus? In this final talk about four essential prayers, we’re preparing our hearts as His home by praying a power prayer, “Here”. Right now, Is there any room for Jesus in your life? Home? Family? Friendships? When Joseph and Mary went to Bethlehem, nobody welcomed them in because there wasn’t any room… Let’s make room for Jesus, by learning to pray the prayer of availability, Here I am!

TRANSCRIPTION

Good morning. As many of you already know, Sarah and I are expecting our third child on February 20th. Which we’re also excited about, but also very nervous about, because that’s three and three is more than two. So we’re going to be outnumbered. But because of this, because we’ve got this third baby coming, we’ve had to make some changes, and we’re currently in the process of making changes in our home. So the play room that our kids use right now is going to be turned into the nursery. So we’ve got to move things out, move things in, we’ve got to make room, we got to make space for this baby, because this baby is coming.

The Christmas season is not just a day where we celebrate the arrival of Jesus. It’s also supposed to be a season where we prepare our hearts for his arrival in us. So in the Christmas season, it’s not just my wife and I who are expecting a child, everybody is expecting a child. We’re all expecting Jesus, right? This is a season where we prepare ourselves once again to receive Jesus anew in our hearts. And so today we’re talking about this prayer of availability of saying, “Here I am God.” making yourself available for Jesus to come in every day and dwell in you. And it’s a prayer that is difficult at times. Like I said at the intro, but I believe that it’s incredibly powerful.

So right now, is there room in you for Jesus? Is there room in your heart? Is there room in your family? Is there room in your friendships? Is there room in your life for Jesus? You know, when Joseph and Mary… We’re jumping ahead of the story that we’re going to read, but when Joseph and Mary go to Bethlehem, Mary is about to have baby Jesus, and they’re looking for anywhere that will take them in, but nobody has room. No one has availability to receive Jesus. I think often in the Christmas season, we can end up being like the people in Bethlehem. We’re in the midst of Christmas. We’re in the midst of his arrival, but we have not prepared for him.

We’re not ready to receive him when he comes to us, and so in moments where Jesus is saying, “Can I have space in your life?” We don’t have any room because we haven’t made it for him. So we’re going to learn today what it looks like to pray this prayer of availability from Mary, who says to the Angel Gabriel, “Here I am. Let God’s will be done to me.” So let’s pray that prayer before we dive into this scripture. Jesus, here we are. We want to be used by you. We want to be filled by you. But most of all, God, we want to be with you. We want to know you. We want to experience your love, and we want to hear from your words. So God, would you teach us as we submit to your word, speak to us words of life. We pray this in Jesus name and everyone said, amen, amen.

So, if you’d open your Bibles to Luke 1, starting at verse 26-38 it’s on page 879, so pass those Bibles down the row. Make sure everybody’s got a Bible. If not everybody has a Bible then scoot next to the person next to you, and share your Bible with them. We want everybody to be able to see this, and engage with the text. So 1:26-38, page 879. As you’re flipping there, I’ll tell you what we’re going to read. We’re reading again the story where the Angel Gabriel comes to the Virgin Mary and says, “You are going to have a baby.”

And she goes, “Whoa, timeout. IR