Prepare Him Room / Colossians 2:16-23
Well, church, it is good to see you this week. I hope you’re doing well. If you have a Bible with you, turn to Colossians chapter 2. That is where we’re going to land today just for a brief moment to draw our attention together.
I’m not sure if you are aware or not, but Christmas is indeed upon us. December has crept up on us; it is here right now. The reason I know Christmas is upon us is simply because Home Depot told me so back around September. I was in board shorts and flip-flops, passing a 30-foot gigantic inflatable Santa Claus on my way to the pool supply section, and I caught wind that Christmas was here.
I’ve also caught wind of it through social media. Almost all the feeds I follow are letting me know not only that it’s Christmas, but what it is we love about Christmas. If you’re anything like me—and I realize there are always margins—the vast majority of us enjoy some aspect of the cultural trappings that come along with this time of year. It starts around the time the cups turn red at Starbucks and we move from pumpkin everything to peppermint everything. In that same season, the Christmas music begins—that kind of music some of y’all have been listening to since before Halloween, and you know who you are. Then, obviously, we have the good food, the Christmas cookies, the warm clothes, the fires—all these trappings that make up the season we enjoy, especially here in the West. There is something incredibly nostalgic about this time of year that, for most of us, is unparalleled by any other season.
The Runway of Remembrance
Yet, with all the cultural trappings, we as a church know there is a greater narrative behind the narrative around us, don’t we? We know there is a greater treasure that we get to celebrate this time of year more than anything else. It is greater than walking Christmas Tree Lane, greater than Candy Cane Lane, or whatever lane is out there. There is a greater meaning around this time of year for us that makes it one of the greatest celebrations we have: the remembrance.
In many ways, this season from Thanksgiving forward becomes a runway of remembrance for us. It is a remembrance of the greatest treasure that has ever been given on planet Earth, and that is God Himself—Emmanuel, God with us through His Son, Jesus Christ, who came to save, rescue, and ransom us. For us, this is a special, centered moment where we get to truly understand, reflect on, and remember the sin that separated us from God, and the ransom God provided by sending Jesus to come in that manger as a baby. Jesus ultimately grew up to walk in obedience to the Father, obedient even to the point of death on a cross for us. He has ransomed us from sin, Satan, and death, and has delivered us as adopted sons and daughters into His presence.
We get to celebrate that as a church. We know that is what this season is about. We know this season can be incredibly redemptive if we allow it to teach and train our hearts concerning what our greatest treasure is. But you know as well as I know: it is an all-out fight within our souls to contend for the joy that is in Christ against the narrative competing for our affections all around us right now.
The Super Bowl of Shopping
Let me explain just how difficult this is. Many of you know that last weekend was the Super Bowl of shopping. Was anybody in attendance at that Super Bowl called Black Friday? Over the years, Black Friday has become a love-hate relationship for me. Early on, I was a full participant in this shopping extravaganza. Over the last several years, I’ve really just wanted to stay away from it as much as possible.
However, I was back in Texas last weekend with my family, and I got lured back into—not Black Friday, but Black Thursday. I have two aging parents, a mother and a stepfather, who have been using an original iPad 1 this whole time. They were in the market for a new iPad. Of course, I instantly knew what they were thinking when they saw an ad for a fifth-generation iPad on Thursday for $249 to bring them into the current decade. I instantly started loathing it. My 75-year-old parents didn’t want just one; they wanted two, one for each of them, and that price was only available on Thursday. That’s Thanksgiving! I didn’t want to go, but I decided to do them a favor: “We’re going to go. I’m going to brave this thing.”
So we went to Walmart. Good Lord, help me. I walked in with my 75-year-old parents and my 14-year-old daughter. I was already terrified. I had prayed this up; I felt like I needed body armor because I’ve seen the news stories. When we first walked in, it was relatively calm. I was surprised. They had wisened up and organized lines in different sections. I dropped my parents off at the iPad section, and my daughter and I were just walking around.
Then I heard the bullhorns. It sounded like the trumpets of hell went off. I have never seen anything like it. Everything you’ve ever seen on the news happened right before my eyes. The bullhorn went off, and all those quiet lines turned into mass chaos. All of a sudden, I experienced a phenomenon I had never felt before: social claustrophobia. I pinned myself up against an aisle display, thinking, Oh gosh, what is happening?
I watched people grab 55-inch TVs and throw them into carts that weren’t even 55 inches wide, cramming them in. People were fighting and contending. It was like that scene from Finding Nemo with the seagulls: “Mine! Mine! Mine! Mine!” In the midst of all this, my 14-year-old daughter asked me, “Daddy, what is consumerism? I keep hearing that word.” I just looked at her and said, “Just look around. That’s it. That is consumerism.”
Here’s the deal: I felt an incredible tension within my soul. Half of me was utterly disgusted by the depravity of humanity taking place at the local Walmart. My spirit was provoked, like Paul in Athens in Acts 17, looking at this form of worship.
Acts 17:16 (NASB)
Now while Paul was waiting for them at Athens, his spirit was being provoked within him as he was observing the city full of idols.
Yet, at the exact same time I was railing against this and telling my daughter how wrong it was, I found myself internally thinking, VR goggles are only $15. I wonder if we need that? My parents are getting an iPad; I already have one, but that’s a cheap price. What if I got another one?
I felt that battle within me, and in that moment, I was convinced that Scripture is absolutely true when it tells us about our hearts.
Jeremiah 17:9 (NASB)
’The heart is more deceitful than all else And is desperately sick; Who can understand it?
On one hand, I was engrossed and disgusted by it, and on the other hand, I felt compelled by it. I felt the pull on my affections, trying to convince me that these material things would somehow satisfy the longings of my heart. I felt that tangible weight.
The Battle for Our Affections
The crazy thing is, every marketer out there knows this about us. Anyone who has studied the sociology of marketing knows they understand exactly what products we desire that we think will complete us—at least for the next day. They know what search engines we use, where to place ads, what colors attract us, and what price points will hook us. On Black Friday alone, three billion advertising emails were sent in a single day, alongside nine billion social media ads. Marketers know there is an unmet longing within us, and they leverage it.
They also know how foolish we can be. You might remember the makers of the card game Cards Against Humanity. Back in 2013, they decided to do an anti-Black Friday stunt. Instead of lowering their prices, they raised the price of their game by $5. Their sales spiked because people thought it was funny. In 2014, they decided not to sell the game at all; they sold literal boxes of cow manure for $6 each. Thirty thousand people bought a box of poop within minutes, and it completely sold out! In 2015, they asked people to give them $5 for absolutely nothing in return—no charity donation, just free money. Over 11,000 people gave money, totaling $71,000 for nothing. The following year, they raised $100,000 by asking people to pay them to dig a giant, pointless hole in the ground. We laugh, but it shows how easily our impulses can be manipulated.
Last weekend, 137 million people showed up to shop, spending $682 billion over a four-day period. Surveys show that roughly 65% of people who shopped on Black Friday bought items they otherwise wouldn’t have bought simply because they were on sale. None of this is new. It is all designed to work on our impulses, training us to demand instant gratification for our inner longings rather than waiting for something greater.
The danger is that when we shift our affections, longings, and hopes away from our greatest treasure—Jesus Christ—and fix them on lesser things, disappointment inevitably crashes in. Disappointment leads to despair, and despair turns into depression. Counselors even have a term for it: the “Christmas blues.” They receive specialized training for this season because when unbridled, unrealistic expectations collide with reality, it produces deep sadness, lostness, and loneliness. That is what happens when we settle for temporary shadows instead of fixing our hope on the eternal substance.
Shadows Versus the Substance
Look at how Paul addresses this dynamic in Colossians 2. Writing into a different context, Paul shares a principle that speaks directly to us during Advent. The church in Colossae was striving to center their lives on the supremacy and sufficiency of Jesus Christ. However, false teachers were creeping in, trying to convince them that Jesus wasn’t enough—that they needed external rituals, regulations, and spiritual experiences to attain true fullness.
Paul writes to remind them of the truth.
Colossians 2:16-19 (NASB)
Therefore no one is to act as your judge in regard to food or drink or in respect to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day– things which are a [mere] shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs to Christ. Let no one keep defrauding you of your prize by delighting in self-abasement and the worship of the angels, taking his stand on [visions] he has seen, inflated without cause by his fleshly mind, and not holding fast to the head, from whom the entire body, being supplied and held together by the joints and ligaments, grows with a growth which is from God.
Paul tells them that the world will try to construct religious or cultural narratives claiming our lives are meant for external things. But Paul warns us: even good things, if we are not careful, are ultimately just shadows. Shadows merely point to the greater substance for which our hearts were redeemed. We must hold fast to Christ, the Head, guarding and contending for the joy found in Him rather than letting our hearts drift toward lesser things.
Professor Timothy Paul Jones from Southern Seminary put it this way:
“There is a brokenness in our world that no cart full of Black Friday bargains can fix. There is a hunger in our souls that no plate full of pumpkin pie can fill. And there is a familial longing in our hearts that not even our own extended family can satisfy. What we are truly yearning and longing for is the presence of Emmanuel, of God with us.”
Until we shift our yearnings toward Him, our souls will never find satisfaction.
So the question for us this week is: How do we guard against letting our affections drift this Christmas season, and how do we contend for the joy found in His presence? I want to suggest two practical questions—the same two dynamics of stirring and stealing we explored when studying the church of Ephesus in Revelation.
1. What Is Stealing Your Affections?
The first question requires honest introspection: What is currently stealing your affections away from the presence of Christ?
We have to begin by acknowledging that all of us carry impatient longings to have our deepest desires fulfilled. If we are not careful, we will be easily swayed by things that rob our focus. In The Pursuit of God, A. W. Tozer wrote that our increasing restlessness in life is ultimately caused by living away from God’s presence. When we wander from His presence, our restlessness grows.
What is the greatest threat to your focus on Christ right now? For some, it may be an overconsumption with shopping and materialism that pulls your heart away. For others, it might be an overemphasis on cultural trappings—the Santas, the reindeer, and the secular traditions that crowd out Christ. For many, it is the enslavement to people-pleasing and family expectations. Some of you experienced that at Thanksgiving and are recovering now, only to brace for a relapse at Christmas.
These things may have good and noble elements, but when they are out of balance, they become shadows that steal from the substance of Christ. This has been a personal wrestling match for me. I grew up in a loving, non-Christian home with incredible, off-the-charts Clark Griswold-style Christmas traditions. I have deep nostalgia for those memories. Yet, as I’ve grown in Christ, I’ve realized that the vast majority of those traditions had zero connection to drawing my heart closer to Jesus.
As a father, I’ve had to examine my own home. Have I blindly copied and pasted traditions that pull my children’s affections away from the Savior? In evaluating our traditions, we have three options:
- Receive: Some traditions are good, godly, and point directly to Christ. We can receive them with joy.
- Redeem: Some traditions are neutral or incomplete. We can reshape and redeem them so Christ remains central.
- Reject: Some things, as fun as they might seem, simply rob our affections and distract from God’s presence. Those things we must flatly reject.
What in your life needs to be received, redeemed, or rejected this season?
2. What Is Stirring Your Affections?
The second question is equally important: What will you do this season to stir your affections for Christ and increase your yearning for Him?
Scripture reminds us where true fullness is found.
Psalms 16:11 (NASB)
You will make known to me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; In Your right hand there are pleasures forever.
Did you catch that? In His presence is the fullness of joy—not partial joy, not temporary happiness, but fullness. At His right hand are pleasures forevermore. If that is true, what practical steps can you and your family take to train your hearts to savor Emmanuel?
For me, this requires discipline. I love reading through the birth narrative in Luke’s Gospel, reminding myself that Jesus did not come merely to save me from hell, but to bring me into the presence of God where joy resides. I also use daily Advent devotionals to help anchor my thoughts. This year, I am reading Paul David Tripp’s devotional, Come, Let Us Adore Him. Daily readings serve as guardrails to corral our wandering hearts.
When it comes to family discipleship, I’ve had my share of misfires. Raising five daughters, our early attempts at Advent were chaotic—candles being knocked over, things almost catching on fire, and readings that went completely over their heads. We tried an Advent calendar with chocolate, but every morning quickly became about the candy rather than Christ. Over time, we shifted to resources that built anticipation for Jesus, such as building a nativity scene piece by piece with corresponding Scripture readings.
The word Advent comes from the Latin word for “coming” or “arrival.” Historically, the church has used this season to look back at Christ’s first advent—remembering how Israel waited for the promised Messiah who would rescue us from the penalty and power of sin. In doing so, Advent trains our hearts to wait expectantly for His second advent, when He will return in glory to deliver us from the very presence of sin.
There are fantastic resources available today, such as Marty Machowski’s family devotional, Prepare Him Room. We’ve posted several recommended resources on our church website to help you and your family cultivate worship in your home.
Prepare Him Room
I want to leave you with this quote from Paul Tripp’s Advent devotional:
“In a culture that uses this season to get us to dream about how our lives would be different and made better by possessing a certain material thing, where Christmas has been reduced to a shopper’s nightmare and a retailer’s dream, it is vital to draw our wonder away from the next great toy and toward the wonder of the coming of our great Lord and Savior, Jesus. Take the needed time this season to introduce and invest yourself in the multifaceted glory and grace displayed in the coming of the promised Messiah to Earth: Emmanuel, God with us.”
Church, let us make room for Him. I want to invite our worship team to come back up as we prepare to sing together. We are going to sing one of my favorite Advent hymns, “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel.” As we enter this season, let this song be our genuine expression of longing. Let it declare that our greatest treasure is the presence of Christ. We sing in faith, knowing that He has come, and that He will come again.
Would you pray with me?
Father, we love You. We confess that, like sheep, our hearts are prone to wander. Every day during this season, we feel the tug of the culture and our own flesh trying to convince us that our longings can be satisfied by lesser things. God, would You be gracious to remind us that our fullness of joy is found only in Your presence? Help us to contend for that joy this Advent season. Give us the wisdom to push out what steals our affections, and empower us to pursue the practices that stir our love for You. In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.