SPEAKER_00: First of all, I'd like to thank all the many people that worked so hard in preparation for the candlelight service last evening.
SPEAKER_00: Val Reeves, Val, thank you for your direction.
SPEAKER_00: And the Lord knows how many hours have been put into this.
SPEAKER_00: The adult choirs, the youth choirs, the readers, and so many behind the scenes.
SPEAKER_00: The sanctuary was full last night, and we just thank God for the gathering of God's people to remember what the real meaning of Christmas in Advent is about.
SPEAKER_00: I also just think as I go through so many Advent worship services, the tension that I always feel in Advent.
SPEAKER_00: We sing, we hear songs sung with joy and celebration as the children just sang, and then we sing hymns that remind us that there is this tension.
SPEAKER_00: At least I feel that there's this built-in tension when we think about Advent, because Advent requires of us that we go back and picture what it was like to live in a land of darkness and to live without hope for many of them because they felt the heavy hand of God upon them because of their sins and because of their rebelliousness.
SPEAKER_00: And they lived in exile.
SPEAKER_00: They had hard lives, and that's why they needed desperately hope.
SPEAKER_00: They needed to know that a Messiah would come and rescue them.
SPEAKER_00: And sometimes they believed that and sometimes they didn't.
SPEAKER_00: And so you have these, you have these hymns and minor keys, and you have these hymns and Advent that remind us, go back.
SPEAKER_00: And just imagine what it would have been like before Jesus came.
SPEAKER_00: And yet at the same time we can sing songs and hymns of joy and celebration because he did come.
SPEAKER_00: And we live between the two Advents.
SPEAKER_00: What a precious time to be alive.
SPEAKER_00: Between the two comings of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And because he came the first time, we know that he's going to return.
SPEAKER_00: And we still have some of that tension ourselves, don't we?
SPEAKER_00: Because life is not fully transformed, and we still wait for the new heavens and the new earth.
SPEAKER_00: And that's good.
SPEAKER_00: It's good in Advent to remind us of these things.
SPEAKER_00: My scripture reading this morning comes from Isaiah chapter 40, the first 11 verses.
SPEAKER_00: If you're new with us this morning, we've been going through a series, Advent series, promises of hope in the dark.
SPEAKER_00: And we come to what one more passage in Isaiah's prophecy.
SPEAKER_00: Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.
SPEAKER_00: Speak tenderly to Jerusalem and cry to her that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned, that she is received from the Lord's hand double for all her sins.
SPEAKER_00: A voice cries, In the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
SPEAKER_00: Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low.
SPEAKER_00: The uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.
SPEAKER_00: A voice says, Cry.
SPEAKER_00: And I said, What shall I cry?
SPEAKER_00: All flesh is grass, and all its beauty is like the flower of the field.
SPEAKER_00: The grass withers, the flower fades.
SPEAKER_00: When the breath of the Lord blows on it, surely the people are grass.
SPEAKER_00: The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever.
SPEAKER_00: Get on up to a high mountain.
SPEAKER_00: O Zion, herald of good news.
SPEAKER_00: Lift up your voice with strength.
SPEAKER_00: O Jerusalem, herald of good news.
SPEAKER_00: Lift it up, fear not.
SPEAKER_00: Say to the cities of Judah, Behold your God.
SPEAKER_00: Behold, the Lord God comes with might, and his arm rules for him.
SPEAKER_00: Behold, his reward is with him, and his recompense is with him.
SPEAKER_00: He will tend his shepherds.
SPEAKER_00: He will gather the lambs in his arms.
SPEAKER_00: And gently lead those that are with young.
SPEAKER_00: This is the reading of God's holy and perfect word.
SPEAKER_00: Please join me in prayer as we ask the Spirit to do his work among us and in us this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Father, we do thank you that you fulfilled your promise as you said you would.
SPEAKER_00: You sent your son.
SPEAKER_00: And everything is different because you did.
SPEAKER_00: We thank you, Father, for the first coming of your Son.
SPEAKER_00: We thank you as we look forward to the return to the second coming of your Son.
SPEAKER_00: We'll usher in a new age.
SPEAKER_00: But Lord, we thank you for your word that never fades, that never withers.
SPEAKER_00: We thank you that the one sure thing that we have to stand on and believe in this day is the word of our God, which will stand forever.
SPEAKER_00: Spirit of God, make your word come alive to us now.
SPEAKER_00: We pray in Christ's name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Isaiah is an interesting book, is it not?
SPEAKER_00: It's a long book.
SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of history.
SPEAKER_00: It's a book that we could get lost in.
SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of names of towns and people that we maybe not are so familiar with, but it's a great book.
SPEAKER_00: I heartily encourage you to get well acquainted with it if you have not already.
SPEAKER_00: And as we preach through this book this month of December, I hope that it's just teasing you and just inviting you to get to know the book better.
SPEAKER_00: I love Isaiah.
SPEAKER_00: What a hard ministry he had.
SPEAKER_00: He faced a lot of challenges in his own life because of his ministry.
SPEAKER_00: He had to do some strange things we don't have time to get into, as symbolic of the work of God in his people's lives.
SPEAKER_00: And yet, Isaiah, a brilliant man, Isaiah uses more vocabulary than any other Old Testament writer.
SPEAKER_00: He was a court statesman, as we saw last week, court chaplain, well educated, breadth of knowledge, and we see that come out in so many ways in his book.
SPEAKER_00: And this is a very brief overview, but chapters one through 39, there's a lot of judgment.
SPEAKER_00: We've seen.
SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of focus on sin.
SPEAKER_00: And it's not just Israelites' sin, it's the sin of the nations.
SPEAKER_00: And so in chapters 1 through 39, we see God's righteousness, God's holiness.
SPEAKER_00: God is so holy that the scriptures tell us he cannot look on iniquity without having to do something about it.
SPEAKER_00: And there's two responses in the Word of God when God looks on iniquity.
SPEAKER_00: And he punishes it because he is so perfect.
SPEAKER_00: One of Isaiah's favorite phrases is the Holy One of Israel, referring to God, the Holy One of Israel.
SPEAKER_00: But the second response that God has to sin, after he judges it, there's a second way he deals with it.
SPEAKER_00: He forgives it.
SPEAKER_00: Well, he doesn't actually forgive it.
SPEAKER_00: God doesn't forgive it.
SPEAKER_00: God forgives people.
SPEAKER_00: He forgives sinners who see the judgment, the hand of God over them because of their sin, yet also see a Messiah, a rescuer, a deliverer, Jesus Christ, that He sent so that we will not be punished for our sins.
SPEAKER_00: I'd like to remind you from time to time, there's always new people in this congregation.
SPEAKER_00: God never punishes any sin twice.
SPEAKER_00: You know that.
SPEAKER_00: He never punishes any sin twice.
SPEAKER_00: The punishment for your sin will either fall on you, or the punishment for your sin will fall on Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't fall on both.
SPEAKER_00: That's the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: If it fell on Jesus, it will never fall on you.
SPEAKER_00: Now his chastening hand, that's a different story.
SPEAKER_00: His fatherly discipline, that's something different to correct us, to draw us back in fellowship.
SPEAKER_00: But we see so much of this in the book of Isaiah, especially the first 39 chapters, where we just see God chastising, but even more punishing the nations who have oppressed his people.
SPEAKER_00: You get to chapter 40, and it's like, is this the same movie?
SPEAKER_00: Is this the same book?
SPEAKER_00: Is this the same story?
SPEAKER_00: Well, it is.
SPEAKER_00: But starting at chapter 40, the word is not so much confrontation as consolation.
SPEAKER_00: And we're ready for that, aren't we?
SPEAKER_00: If we've been looking at our own lives, if we've been considering our own sinfulness before God, if we've been looking at the dark places of our lives, we're ready for consolation.
SPEAKER_00: Comfort.
SPEAKER_00: To understand chapter 40, we have to, you have to understand something else.
SPEAKER_00: You have to understand that.
SPEAKER_00: It seems as though God transports them into heaven and he sees what's going to happen.
SPEAKER_00: Not in his current day.
SPEAKER_00: We're not going to go back in that.
SPEAKER_00: We did a history lesson last week, right?
SPEAKER_00: As the Israelites were preparing because they were scared because the evil empire of Syria was coming, knocking on their door, and they were scared and they didn't know what to do, and they were looking for alliances.
SPEAKER_00: Well, that's not what he sees here.
SPEAKER_00: He's looking way down the road, and he sees that the Assyrian threat is going to be stopped, but God is going to raise up another empire, Babylon.
SPEAKER_00: And Babylon is going to be an instrument of God to teach his people another lesson because they just seem to always be straying from God.
SPEAKER_00: And he uses Babylon.
SPEAKER_00: And if you go back and you read Isaiah chapter 39, you understand why.
SPEAKER_00: King Hezekiah did some really stupid things.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, he was a good king for most of his life, but he did some foolish things at the end of his life.
SPEAKER_00: Let me just say something here.
SPEAKER_00: Watch your life wherever you are.
SPEAKER_00: I see time and again in the Old Testament scriptures, people that were faithful to God for many years of their life that didn't end well.
SPEAKER_00: Hezekiah was one of those who really made some big mistakes at the end of his life.
SPEAKER_00: And he should have known better.
SPEAKER_00: God was really good to him.
SPEAKER_00: God used him.
SPEAKER_00: But he did some foolish things, which ended up being used for the Babylonians to come and take over.
SPEAKER_00: And so in 605 BC, they came to Jerusalem and they started knocking down the walls.
SPEAKER_00: They started knocking down the city.
SPEAKER_00: And they took away exiles into Babylon.
SPEAKER_00: And they came back in 597 and they did the same thing.
SPEAKER_00: And they came back finally in 586 and they came back and they leveled the city.
SPEAKER_00: They took all the rest of the whoever is on Jerusalem at that point, and they deport them all to Babylon.
SPEAKER_00: This is what Isaiah saw decades before it happened, because God showed it to him.
SPEAKER_00: It's in this context that we read what is before us this morning.
SPEAKER_00: What Isaiah is saying to them, people of God, the day's coming when you're going to be under the oppression of another nation, not Assyria, Babylon, and you're going to feel tempted to give up all hope.
SPEAKER_00: You're going to want to throw in the towel.
SPEAKER_00: God doesn't really love us.
SPEAKER_00: Look at the way he treats us.
SPEAKER_00: God doesn't really care about us.
SPEAKER_00: Because if he did, how do you explain that we're in Babylon?
SPEAKER_00: You know, someone has said that for the Israelites when they were in Egypt for 400 years, it was harder for God to get Egypt out of the Israelites than the Israelites out of Egypt.
SPEAKER_00: He got the Israelites out of Egypt in one night.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: One night he got them out of Egypt.
SPEAKER_00: But it seemed like it took 40 years to get Egypt out of them in the desert, in the wilderness, because of their unbelief.
SPEAKER_00: This is what Isaiah sees.
SPEAKER_00: He sees people who think by judging their circumstances, God doesn't love us anymore.
SPEAKER_00: God's not taking very good care of us.
SPEAKER_00: And there was a lot of weeping, there was a lot of despair.
SPEAKER_00: Some of the people in Babylon, you know what they did?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, they were really resourceful.
SPEAKER_00: They thought, well, we're not going back home to Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: We might as well just settle in.
SPEAKER_00: We might as well just kind of get cozy up to the gods in Babylon.
SPEAKER_00: Just kind of get enculturated in Babylonian culture and just accept it.
SPEAKER_00: Comfort requires confidence that requires truth.
SPEAKER_00: This morning, the first point is simply the good news is promised by God in the book of Isaiah, chapters 40 to 66.
SPEAKER_00: The good news is promised.
SPEAKER_00: The comfort that was offered in dark times.
SPEAKER_00: Isaiah sees the exile years ahead.
SPEAKER_00: People are saying, God is judging us for our sins.
SPEAKER_00: We're doomed?
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: God is working.
SPEAKER_00: He will have the victory over Babylon, and he will have the victory over the sins of his people.
SPEAKER_00: The message is no longer primarily one of judgment, but comfort.
SPEAKER_00: Look at the text.
SPEAKER_00: What are the first two words you see?
SPEAKER_00: Do you know why words are repeated in Scripture, just like they are in our day?
SPEAKER_00: For emphasis.
SPEAKER_00: Look, just because everything I said the last five minutes is why you read comfort, comfort twice.
SPEAKER_00: They were really down.
SPEAKER_00: Comfort, comfort my people.
SPEAKER_00: Do you understand how precious it is to be able to apply that personal pronoun to you?
SPEAKER_00: Are you God's people?
SPEAKER_00: God has a people, a people that he has redeemed.
SPEAKER_00: And when he says, I bring comfort to my people, don't take that for granted.
SPEAKER_00: Because there's a lot of people on this earth that aren't his people.
SPEAKER_00: Don't take that for granted.
SPEAKER_00: If you're one of God's people, you just thank him again this morning and you praise him.
SPEAKER_00: Comfort, comfort my people.
SPEAKER_00: Speak tenderly to Jerusalem and cry to her.
SPEAKER_00: You know what the Hebrew says?
SPEAKER_00: Speak to the heart.
SPEAKER_00: We had a really good discussion in our session meeting yesterday, the elders talking about this.
SPEAKER_00: Let me let you in on a little bit of that.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible never contrasts the head and the heart.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you are saying, what?
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible is the lips in the heart.
SPEAKER_00: That's why Isaiah the prophet could say, these people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.
SPEAKER_00: When God does a gospel work in your life, not only does he work in your mind, he gives you new information or old information that's like new, he works in your emotions, and he also works in your will, your volition.
SPEAKER_00: Understand that?
SPEAKER_00: So in the Hebrew culture, in the Hebrew way of thinking, we really don't know as much as we think we know.
SPEAKER_00: You with me?
SPEAKER_00: You don't know.
SPEAKER_00: You don't know if your mind is not engaged, if your emotions are not stirred, if your will is not informed, guess what?
SPEAKER_00: You really don't know.
SPEAKER_00: It's just information downloads in your head.
SPEAKER_00: It's this accumulation of all this information, but if it's not going somewhere, you don't really know.
SPEAKER_00: What did I say?
SPEAKER_00: What did Isaiah say?
SPEAKER_00: Speak tenderly to the what?
SPEAKER_00: What was the word?
SPEAKER_00: Heart.
SPEAKER_00: Don't just tell my people more facts.
SPEAKER_00: Don't just tell my people, cheer up.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to, by the Spirit of God, the Spirit of God is going to speak to the hearts of God's people.
SPEAKER_00: And where they are gripped in fear, they will trust.
SPEAKER_00: And where they have been without hope, they will believe.
SPEAKER_00: And where there has been no joy, there will be real gospel joy.
SPEAKER_00: This is the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: Comfort, comfort my people.
SPEAKER_00: Speak to the heart.
SPEAKER_00: It's more than just speaking comfort.
SPEAKER_00: It's God is seeking by the work of his spirit to persuade his people, inviting them to respond to his loving, comforting heart.
SPEAKER_00: It is Zephaniah chapter 3, verse 17.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord your God is with you.
SPEAKER_00: He's in the midst of you.
SPEAKER_00: He's a mighty Savior.
SPEAKER_00: And he will what?
SPEAKER_00: Quiet you with his love.
SPEAKER_00: That's what Martin Luther called the lullabies that God sings.
SPEAKER_00: How long has it been since God has sung to you a lullaby?
SPEAKER_00: I was with some pastors not long ago.
SPEAKER_00: And most of them said, I don't I can't remember.
SPEAKER_00: Pastors.
SPEAKER_00: One of them said, I can't remember the last time I thought about God's love for me and God's delight in me.
SPEAKER_00: These were pastors.
SPEAKER_00: Look, if it can happen to the pastors, it can happen to you.
SPEAKER_00: It can happen to me.
SPEAKER_00: What am I doing?
SPEAKER_00: What am I doing to keep my heart tender?
SPEAKER_00: What am I doing to have my ears open?
SPEAKER_00: Do you see what he says there?
SPEAKER_00: Three different times he talks about a voice.
SPEAKER_00: A voice cries.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 3.
SPEAKER_00: Well, we see the voice really in verse 2.
SPEAKER_00: Speak.
SPEAKER_00: A voice cries.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 6, a voice cries.
SPEAKER_00: We see the voice coming back in the last few verses.
SPEAKER_00: A voice calls out and says, What?
SPEAKER_00: Listen.
SPEAKER_00: You know, sometimes we're just really bad listeners, aren't we?
SPEAKER_00: Don't be nudging, don't be poking your spouse.
SPEAKER_00: You can have that talk later.
SPEAKER_00: But sometimes we're just not really good listeners.
SPEAKER_00: And sometimes we don't listen to him very well.
SPEAKER_00: Because there's all kinds of stuff that gets kind of stuck in our mind about how we think God is or how we think God should be.
SPEAKER_00: And when we get off that track, we're not aware of it much of the time, but our hearts start to shut down.
SPEAKER_00: And we no longer hear the Father singing lullabies over us.
SPEAKER_00: And when that happens, our lives get noisier and busier, and we just feel the anxiety ramping up.
SPEAKER_00: And when that happens, we just feel like we've got to just do something.
SPEAKER_00: And that's just always proof that we uh we're not hearing the father's lullaby.
SPEAKER_00: Because when we hear the father's lullaby, and we hear the father say, comfort, comfort, speak tenderly to the hearts of my people, what happens is we find rest in a new way.
SPEAKER_00: And we find peace in a new way.
SPEAKER_00: And comfort.
SPEAKER_00: You know what we say?
SPEAKER_00: Oh, Father, I know.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I now remember.
SPEAKER_00: I now know in a different way that you have been with me all along.
SPEAKER_00: You've been with me every step of this journey.
SPEAKER_00: We say thank you, Father.
SPEAKER_00: We say thank you, Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you that I have not been punished for my sin.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Jesus, that you took the punishment for my sin.
SPEAKER_00: That's what happens.
SPEAKER_00: Isaiah says the punishment for our sin has been accepted.
SPEAKER_00: Pardoned, he says.
SPEAKER_00: Double for all of her sins.
SPEAKER_00: Think about that.
SPEAKER_00: Double for all of her sins.
SPEAKER_00: Does that make you think in the New Testament when the Apostle Paul said, for when sin where sin abounds, what does grace do?
SPEAKER_00: Superabounds.
SPEAKER_00: That's why we're going to sing joy to the world in a few minutes.
SPEAKER_00: Because we're we're sin abounds, grace superabounds.
SPEAKER_00: And because the Messiah that was promised came.
SPEAKER_00: What if you actually believed this today?
SPEAKER_00: How would it change your Christmas season?
SPEAKER_00: What if you heard God's lullaby today in a different way?
SPEAKER_00: What if you heard the words of Isaiah ring in your hearts and your ears in a new way?
SPEAKER_00: Comfort, comfort my people.
SPEAKER_00: Speak tenderly.
SPEAKER_00: Cry to her.
SPEAKER_00: Her warfare is ended.
SPEAKER_00: Her iniquity is pardoned.
SPEAKER_00: She has received from the Lord's hand double for all of her sins.
SPEAKER_00: And then a voice in the wilderness cries out, prepare the way, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
SPEAKER_00: We talked about highways last night, right?
SPEAKER_00: Highways.
SPEAKER_00: You don't make your highway.
SPEAKER_00: When we go about trying to make our own way through this world, it doesn't go well.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus came to be our highway.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus came to make a way through all the deserts of our lives.
SPEAKER_00: He is the highway.
SPEAKER_00: As we said last night, the tolls are paid.
SPEAKER_00: The restrooms and stops are perfectly located.
SPEAKER_00: He knows exactly where you are on your journey.
SPEAKER_00: He knows exactly what you need on your journey.
SPEAKER_00: And he can give it to you.
SPEAKER_00: But you have to see him in his glory.
SPEAKER_00: You have to see what he's done for you.
SPEAKER_00: You have to see that he's for you.
SPEAKER_00: This is an important point in understanding the text.
SPEAKER_00: When he says in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
SPEAKER_00: Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill shall be made low.
SPEAKER_00: The uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places like a plain.
SPEAKER_00: But you have to understand that primarily he's not referring to you.
SPEAKER_00: Who do you think he is referring to?
SPEAKER_00: Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: These are descriptive words of what needed to happen for Jesus to be able to come and to leave the glories of heaven.
SPEAKER_00: All this was preparation work that the prophets talked about so many times.
SPEAKER_00: Because Jesus is the highway.
SPEAKER_00: I guess you could think of it like this.
SPEAKER_00: There were a lot of mountains that needed to be moved.
SPEAKER_00: There was a lot of construction work, so to speak, that needed to happen for the incarnation.
SPEAKER_00: For Jesus to become our Messiah, the incarnation.
SPEAKER_00: Philippians 2 talks about it more.
SPEAKER_00: They're not calling us primarily to prepare the way.
SPEAKER_00: The way will be prepared for you.
SPEAKER_00: Isaiah 35, verse 8.
SPEAKER_00: Isaiah 42, verse 16, if you want to look at it further.
SPEAKER_00: The way is ready.
SPEAKER_00: The Christmas dinner table is set.
SPEAKER_00: I'm looking forward to the Christmas dinner.
SPEAKER_00: The table has been prepared.
SPEAKER_00: The meal is ready.
SPEAKER_00: Which I've never done.
SPEAKER_00: I've never done that.
SPEAKER_00: But I've watched it.
SPEAKER_00: And sometimes I see my dear wife look like she might need a nap.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you need a nap, right?
SPEAKER_00: When you've been in the kitchen all day.
SPEAKER_00: So that the rest of us can just feast.
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: You aren't making this meal.
SPEAKER_00: You're not preparing this meal.
SPEAKER_00: You're not in the kitchen.
SPEAKER_00: It's all been done for you by him.
SPEAKER_00: Because he left heaven to come to earth.
SPEAKER_00: He prepared the all the preparations were made.
SPEAKER_00: Now what do you do?
SPEAKER_00: You come and sit at the table.
SPEAKER_00: You come and sit.
SPEAKER_00: And you enjoy the meal.
SPEAKER_00: And you say, thank you, Jesus, for the way you feed me.
SPEAKER_00: Because he's the highway.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord's road will be straight, it will be level, and it will be free of obstacles.
SPEAKER_00: God did all of this for us.
SPEAKER_00: We don't build this highway.
SPEAKER_00: The deliverance must come from the outside.
SPEAKER_00: The meal must be prepared by someone else to be enjoyed by us, but prepared by Him.
SPEAKER_00: Now, is there not some secondary application of this to us?
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: John the Baptist came as preparing the way, and John the Baptist said, repent.
SPEAKER_00: Confess your sins.
SPEAKER_00: Look to this Messiah.
SPEAKER_00: Well, that's true.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, we do have to do that in order to enjoy the meal.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know about you, but the more I open up to the work of God's Spirit in my life, and the more I look to Jesus, I do repent.
SPEAKER_00: And I do believe.
SPEAKER_00: And the meal tastes better.
SPEAKER_00: There's a work to be done by the Spirit in each of our hearts.
SPEAKER_00: What's getting in the way of you believing this?
SPEAKER_00: What's getting in the way of you accepting this?
SPEAKER_00: What's getting in the way of you sitting down at the table?
SPEAKER_00: God says, I want you to address that.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to open up to that.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to hear my voice that calls out.
SPEAKER_00: Listen.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you know how Charles Spurgeon was saved.
SPEAKER_00: He went to a little chapel in a snowstorm.
SPEAKER_00: The preacher couldn't make it.
SPEAKER_00: So a deacon who wasn't really a preacher preached.
SPEAKER_00: And all he kept saying from Isaiah was, look up.
SPEAKER_00: Look up.
SPEAKER_00: And Spurgeon said he would, I mean, it was a very small crowd.
SPEAKER_00: He knew that he was the visitor.
SPEAKER_00: Probably stuck out like a sore thumb.
SPEAKER_00: He said, I felt like the deacon's eyes were just boring in on me.
SPEAKER_00: Look up.
SPEAKER_00: Look to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Secondly, the good news experienced.
SPEAKER_00: We must cheer.
SPEAKER_00: We must respond to his voice.
SPEAKER_00: Do not ignore his voice this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Preparing the way.
SPEAKER_00: Is he leveling you?
SPEAKER_00: Do you know what the upheaval of repentance looks like by experience?
SPEAKER_00: Or is that just kind of getting all lost in the busyness of your life?
SPEAKER_00: And all the noises in life?
SPEAKER_00: The good news is intended to be experienced.
SPEAKER_00: Are you experiencing it this morning?
SPEAKER_00: Are you experiencing it in this season of your life?
SPEAKER_00: Are you finding that the good news is getting better?
SPEAKER_00: Are you finding that the meal is just tasting better?
SPEAKER_00: Because you believe that God brings comfort to your life.
SPEAKER_00: He brings good news to your life.
SPEAKER_00: The good news experienced.
SPEAKER_00: Lastly, the good news shared.
SPEAKER_00: Look at verses 9 and following.
SPEAKER_00: Go up on a high mountain.
SPEAKER_00: O Zion, herald of good news.
SPEAKER_00: Lift up your voice with strength.
SPEAKER_00: You know what that means, right?
SPEAKER_00: Don't whisper it.
SPEAKER_00: Lift up your voice with strength means shout it.
SPEAKER_00: Speak loudly.
SPEAKER_00: Lift up your voice with strength of good news.
SPEAKER_00: Lift it up.
SPEAKER_00: Don't fear.
SPEAKER_00: Say to the cities of Judah, Behold, your God.
SPEAKER_00: Behold, the Lord God comes with might, and his arm rules for him.
SPEAKER_00: Behold, his reward is with him.
SPEAKER_00: Now, three times we see the word behold, but you could just as well say, look, look, look.
SPEAKER_00: Look at your God.
SPEAKER_00: Look at your Savior.
SPEAKER_00: He talks about the arm of the Lord in two different ways.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord's arm is very strong.
SPEAKER_00: When the scriptures in Isaiah, Isaiah is the prophet who loves the arm.
SPEAKER_00: He speaks of the arm more than any other writer in Old Testament.
SPEAKER_00: The arm was the symbol of strength.
SPEAKER_00: The right arm was the symbol of strength and power.
SPEAKER_00: What Isaiah is saying is he has accomplished.
SPEAKER_00: He will do everything that you need if you bow before him, if you open up to him.
SPEAKER_00: His arm is strong.
SPEAKER_00: His arm rules.
SPEAKER_00: But look at verse 11.
SPEAKER_00: What else does his arm do?
SPEAKER_00: What else do his arms do?
SPEAKER_00: He will tend his flock like a shepherd.
SPEAKER_00: He will gather the lambs in his arms.
SPEAKER_00: You know you're his lamb, Christian.
SPEAKER_00: How long has it been since you've seen yourself as a lamb?
SPEAKER_00: Do you just see yourself primarily as a shepherd?
SPEAKER_00: Do you see yourself as an old sheep?
SPEAKER_00: Maybe this morning you'll see yourself again as a lamb in his arms.
SPEAKER_00: He will carry them in his bosom, and you know what that means, close to his heart.
SPEAKER_00: That's where he carries his lambs, close to his heart.
SPEAKER_00: He will gently lead those that are with young.
SPEAKER_00: The good news that we need to take in.
SPEAKER_00: And as we take it in, we will take it out.
SPEAKER_00: Go find a high mountain.
SPEAKER_00: Doesn't it sound familiar with what we saw recently in the book of Esther?
SPEAKER_00: Go get a fast horse.
SPEAKER_00: When you understand the good news, and the news is really good to you, you will find a fast horse.
SPEAKER_00: If you're not spreading the good news, hear me.
SPEAKER_00: It's just not that good to you.
SPEAKER_00: When I'm not sharing, when I'm not spreading the good news, it's not as good to me as I think it is.
SPEAKER_00: Do you say, Tom, I I think I think I need to repent.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, go ahead and repent.
SPEAKER_00: Now, I mean, I seriously, now.
SPEAKER_00: That's what I have to do.
SPEAKER_00: If you're not finding a fast horse, if you're not finding a high mountain, his comfort is not reaching your heart as he intends.
SPEAKER_00: You're not hearing his lullaby as he sings.
SPEAKER_00: You're not listening to his voice.
SPEAKER_00: That's true for you, and it's true for me.
SPEAKER_00: Look, I'm just being honest.
SPEAKER_00: This is the way it works.
SPEAKER_00: So, what we're gonna pray this Advent season, we're gonna pray that the good news sounds better than ever.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna pray that the good news reaches us in new ways.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna pray that the good news brings comfort to us where we've not had a comfort.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna pray that the good news reminds us that there is joy in this world because Jesus came.
SPEAKER_00: And I want that joy in my heart.
SPEAKER_00: Don't you?
SPEAKER_00: The good news is shared.
SPEAKER_00: Look.
SPEAKER_00: I am not here this morning to ask you to look at me.
SPEAKER_00: I'm here this morning to ask you to look to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Look at the words on that page.
SPEAKER_00: They're true.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus knows exactly what to do with you this morning.
SPEAKER_00: And he knows what to do with me if we will listen.
SPEAKER_00: If we will come, if we will open up.
SPEAKER_00: He knows what to do.
SPEAKER_00: He's the highway.
SPEAKER_00: He's the dinner.
SPEAKER_00: And he's got a seat at the table for you.
SPEAKER_00: Join me in prayer.
SPEAKER_00: Oh Father, thank you.
SPEAKER_00: We thank you that you fulfilled your promise.
SPEAKER_00: How many times did you say it to your prophets in the Old Testament?
SPEAKER_00: How many times did your prophets say it?
SPEAKER_00: How many times did your people not listen?
SPEAKER_00: But Lord, there were those of your old people of old who did listen.
SPEAKER_00: And there are people today who do listen.
SPEAKER_00: And Lord, we're here this morning to listen to you.
SPEAKER_00: We're here this morning to hear your voice.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Father.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you that you have not stopped speaking to us.
SPEAKER_00: We can still hear.
SPEAKER_00: It's not too late to listen.
SPEAKER_00: And that's why you sent your spirit to unplug our ears that we might be unblinded.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, give us spiritual sight, give us spiritual hearing.
SPEAKER_00: God, please reach our hearts, our minds, our volitions.
SPEAKER_00: May we experience the good news in new ways this Advent season.
SPEAKER_00: In ways that will lead us to praise you with might and strength.
SPEAKER_00: Father, lead us to high mountains where we can share the good news with other people who don't know this.
SPEAKER_00: God, we want to be the bearers of the good news.
SPEAKER_00: So let the good news get better to us.
SPEAKER_00: And Lord, let us share the good news with others.
SPEAKER_00: We pray in the mighty name of your Son Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.