Bob: It is my privilege to bring to you God's word this morning.
Bob: Um, and you can rest your legs, we're not gonna get up for a little bit.
Bob: Um, but what I'd like to do as we begin is to uh settle one of the greatest debates in human history.
Bob: Maybe even the greatest debate in human history.
Bob: It's a debate that resurfaces almost every year around this time.
Bob: It's a debate that divides families at Thanksgiving, it sparks social media battles.
Bob: Some might even call it a national emergency.
Bob: What's the debate?
Bob: When is it acceptable to play Christmas music?
Bob: Now, some start before Thanksgiving, others insist that you must let the turkey fully digest before jingle bells comes out, and there's even those radical, radical pre-Halloween people.
Bob: And if that's you, the door's right there.
Bob: Thank you.
Bob: So let me offer a compromise show.
Bob: Let's just say, let's say December 1st, okay?
Bob: Why?
Bob: Because that's when my mailbox starts filling up with family Christmas cards.
Bob: Now, normally, maybe you're like me, I only get bills, and so on December 1st, my my walk, my my stroll to the mailbox becomes a steady jog, even a run, right?
Bob: And and and some of you, thank you for sending me cards that you sent fantastic cards this year.
Bob: Professional photos, uh, matching outfits, everybody's smiling at the exact same moment.
Bob: I love it.
Bob: Especially the updates, right?
Bob: Here's what the kids are doing now, uh, here's where we traveled this year, here's how everything turned out.
Bob: But but if we're honest, and I imagine this is true if you get cards, uh, we don't just read the card, right?
Bob: We study the picture.
Bob: And and then we whisper to our spouse, wow, wow, the kids look so grown up.
Bob: How did they get how did they get everybody smiling at once?
Bob: Because if we if we've taken a picture, we know that photo right there took work.
Bob: Because there was a moment before the picture when somebody blinked, when somebody cried, when somebody argued on the car ride over, and then somebody refused to cooperate right at the last second, and you had to retake the picture.
Bob: Now, those are the externals.
Bob: Somebody may be smiling, but on the inside, maybe they're carrying grief from the ear that nobody's seen.
Bob: Does any of this sound familiar?
Bob: Right, right?
Bob: This is the the picture is what we want people to see.
Bob: But it never tells the whole story.
Bob: Christmas cards don't show all the moments that happened before the photo.
Bob: And that is the tension that that is something the people of God have always known.
Bob: For those who haven't been with us here on Sunday mornings, we've been studying the book of Isaiah in a series that we're calling Ruin to Redemption.
Bob: And Isaiah, the prophet, speaks to a people who are who look faithful on the outside but are deeply broken on the inside.
Bob: Life was not what they thought it should be.
Bob: And here's the good news of Christmas, though.
Bob: God does not enter the world through curated images, he enters it through real darkness.
Bob: That the sanitized nativity scenes that we often put up don't capture the reality of Jesus' birth.
Bob: Because his birth was humble, it was messy, it was dark.
Bob: Now, tonight, what I'd like to do is take you to a lesser-known passage that I think speaks to Christmas, Isaiah chapter 62, verses 1 to 5.
Bob: And there's a lot of other texts in Isaiah that are more well known at Christmas time, prophecies and so forth.
Bob: Uh, but this one I think directly speaks to a question that many of us carry this time of year.
Bob: And the question is this if God is real, why doesn't my life feel more like the card?
Bob: The card that I sent, right?
Bob: That picture.
Bob: Now, God's people in exile, I imagine, we're asking the same thing.
Bob: And so as we begin, I just want to address two groups of people that are likely here tonight.
Bob: First, if you're a Christian, you you are here tonight because you believe that God exists.
Bob: You believe that Jesus is God's Son, but still at some level you might be confused by life.
Bob: Because you say, you know, I trust God's promises, but my life still feels very heavy.
Bob: And I wonder if I'm somehow failing at faith.
Bob: And so you're tempted when you go to that, take that picture, to put on the spiritual smile, right?
Bob: Well, let me offer you some freedom tonight.
Bob: Faith is not about a polished life, it's trusting God in the darkness.
Bob: Now, second, if you're a skeptic here tonight, and I imagine there's some here at a Christmas Eve service, I know some of you are asking questions.
Bob: In fact, maybe you're here tonight reluctantly because somebody nudged you, maybe even they forced you, they uh they they blackmailed you to come to the service tonight.
Bob: But maybe you came because something inside of you still still wonders about this whole Christmas Jesus thing.
Bob: And your tension with Christmas sounds a bit like this.
Bob: If Christianity, if it's just this beautiful picture, does it hide the harder truth?
Bob: Because life has taught you that prayer doesn't work, faith doesn't change much, and hope feels like denial dressed up with lights.
Bob: Well, Isaiah 62 speaks to both groups, and it answers that question: if God is real, why doesn't my life feel more like the card?
Bob: So let's let's look at the text.
Bob: Let's look at Isaiah 62, verse 1, where the prophet writes, he begins the chapter.
Bob: For Zion's sake I will not keep silent, and for Jerusalem's sake, I will not be quiet, until her righteousness goes forth as brightness, and her salvation as a burning torch.
Bob: Now, as I read that verse, there's there's probably a couple questions that come up in your mind.
Bob: Let me address two.
Bob: First, who is Zion?
Bob: Now, in Isaiah, Zion often points to the new Jerusalem, the people of God, whom he redeems through Jesus from every nation.
Bob: It includes ancient Jerusalem, but ultimately refers to all who belong to Jesus by faith.
Bob: And that matters because apart from Christ, we remain outside God's people and under his judgment.
Bob: And his silence is a sign of that separation.
Bob: So, what does it mean that God does not keep silent?
Bob: Now, in Scripture, silence often suggests abandonment.
Bob: But when God speaks, it signals salvation.
Bob: And that's the good news of Christmas.
Bob: God broke the silence on Christmas night by sending his son.
Bob: Jesus entered the world, took eventually on our judgment on the cross, and then gives us his righteousness so we can shine like a burning torch in the darkness.
Bob: But this gift must be received by giving your life to Christ.
Bob: Now Isaiah also looks forward to the second advent when Christ will return and make all things new.
Bob: The silence is broken, salvation has come, but full restoration is still ahead.
Bob: So what does that mean for us at Christmas?
Bob: Well, one, if you follow Christ, he calls you to shine in the darkness, especially during the holiday season.
Bob: And if you do not believe yet, he is speaking to you tonight, even now.
Bob: He is not silent.
Bob: And some of you desperately need someone to speak into your life, to advocate for you, to remind you that you are loved.
Bob: Because the hardest silence is believing that God isn't speaking at all.
Bob: And Christmas declares that he is.
Bob: Now I've talked with people who've turned from God because he felt silent, especially after a loss or a diagnosis or a relationship that fell apart.
Bob: And the silence hurt more than pain itself.
Bob: My friends, can you see how Isaiah 62 at Christmas is God speaking?
Bob: That the birth of Jesus Christ, God in the flesh, is God's answer to the silence in your life even tonight.
Bob: And he says, Turn to me.
Bob: Now the ancient people of God felt the same way as you saw in that video at the beginning of the service.
Bob: There was 400 years of silence before Jesus came, and horrific things happened in that period of history.
Bob: The people of God were longing for Messiah to come to save them.
Bob: And then one holy night he arrived and ended the silence.
Bob: And that's what one song, my favorite carol, actually speaks to.
Bob: So I invite you to sit and listen, or if you're so moved, to sing as we sing that song.
Bob: Now, O Holy Night is one of the reasons I love Christmas Eve so deeply.
Bob: In fact, I would come to any Christmas Eve service and hear O Holy Night sung.
Bob: Because it stirs something in us.
Bob: It announces that the long silence is over, that the dawn of hope has arrived.
Bob: But some of you walked in tonight feeling nothing but hopeful.
Bob: In fact, you're wondering if all of this, the Christmas, the faith, the worship, if it's just a beautiful idea that people cling to, not something that's actually true.
Bob: And for some of you, life has been so hard this year.
Bob: Again, a diagnosis, a child pulling away, another crushing disappointment, that you've quietly decided you're done believing God can do what He promised.
Bob: And it's right there, into that ache, that Isaiah 62 speaks.
Bob: Look at verse 2.
Bob: The prophet writes, The nations shall see your righteousness, and all the kings your glory.
Bob: You shall be a crown of beauty in the hand of the Lord, and a royal diadem in the hand of your God.
Bob: So in verse 1, God breaks his silence, steps forward to advocate for his people.
Bob: And then it says, He gives us his righteousness so we can shine like a burning torch in the darkness.
Bob: Now, when Isaiah says the nations will see our righteousness, he isn't pointing to our achievements, but to God's restoring work, the transformation that brings him glory.
Bob: And I wonder if that's you tonight.
Bob: Do you need restoration?
Bob: Because God is speaking through his word and he wants to restore you.
Bob: Christmas declares that the dawn of hope has arrived.
Bob: Now, Isaiah 62 also reminds us that God keeps his promises.
Bob: If you go back a little bit in Isaiah chapter 60, God promised to bring light into deep darkness.
Bob: And at Christmas, he fulfills that promise through his son.
Bob: As John's gospel says, Jesus is the true light that enters the world.
Bob: John writes this.
Bob: He says, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
Bob: He was in the beginning with God.
Bob: All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made.
Bob: In him was life, and the life was the light of men.
Bob: The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
Bob: So Jesus, the Word, the one who made the world, stepped into darkness.
Bob: The glory of God came to earth and now lives on in his people.
Bob: And notice this in Isaiah 62.
Bob: He says, God places a crown on his people.
Bob: Now that isn't about fame or status, it's a symbol of the honor God gives to those he has redeemed.
Bob: And because of that, we are called to shine in the darkness of this world.
Bob: Let me give you an illustration.
Bob: Maybe think about it this way.
Bob: In so many films today, if you're a movie fan, the turning point often comes when a character finally realizes who they truly are.
Bob: When someone speaks a new identity over them that changes everything.
Bob: For example, in Encanto, right?
Bob: Encanto, the Disney movie, Mirabel, the main character, spends the whole story believing she has nothing special to offer.
Bob: She feels overlooked, she feels unseen, she feels forgotten.
Bob: But then everything shifts when the truth about who she really is finally breaks through.
Bob: And then she realizes she was treasured long before she could prove anything.
Bob: And what Isaiah is doing is speaking to people who feel exactly like that.
Bob: Unseen, forgotten, convinced they no longer matter.
Bob: And into that darkness, God declares a new identity.
Bob: He says, You shall be a crown of beauty in the hand of the Lord, a royal diadem in the hand of your God.
Bob: And it's in Christ that God speaks a truer word over his people than any darkness ever could.
Bob: At Christmas, God ends the silence, hope has dawned, and now we come to the climax, the gift.
Bob: The gift of a new name.
Bob: Now, when I was a kid, Christmas morning was everything.
Bob: It was the Super Bowl of the year.
Bob: Maybe you kids out there, you can't wait for tomorrow morning.
Bob: You're like, let's get this worship service done so I can get I can get to the real thing tomorrow morning.
Bob: Uh when I was a kid, I didn't care about breakfast.
Bob: I didn't care about matching pajamas as much as my mom did, or family photos.
Bob: That didn't matter.
Bob: The only thing that I cared about was the mountain of presence under the tree.
Bob: Don't feel inadequate, parents.
Bob: My mom was an overachiever.
Bob: The bigger the pile, the more convinced I was that life was good.
Bob: Now I'm an adult, right?
Bob: And that mountain has shrunk dramatically.
Bob: In fact, at this point, most of my gifts are socks from Costco, which to make matters worse, I bought for myself.
Bob: Anybody anybody else out there?
Bob: I'm lucky if I actually get one present anymore.
Bob: And you know why?
Bob: It's it's because I'm independent, right?
Bob: If I need something, I just go get it.
Bob: I've convinced myself I don't need help.
Bob: I'm self-sufficient.
Bob: Now that works when we're talking about Costco socks or Amazon carts, but spiritually, self-sufficiency is a dead end.
Bob: It convinces us we're doing fine.
Bob: It whispers, you can handle it.
Bob: Meanwhile, deep down, especially at Christmas, we feel a longing we can't we can't shake, a restlessness that no amount of productivity, planning, or prime shipping can fix.
Bob: Christmas has a way of revealing what we try so hard to hide, and that's we can't save ourselves.
Bob: We can't save ourselves.
Bob: We're not okay on our own.
Bob: We're lost in need of rescue.
Bob: So what does God do about that?
Bob: Well, let's look at Isaiah 62, verse 2 again.
Bob: Excuse me.
Bob: It says, The nation shall see your righteousness, all the kings your glory, but then he says, And you shall be called by a new name, and the mouth of the Lord will give it.
Bob: So he gives us this new name.
Bob: It's a gift, a gift that lets us shine in the darkness.
Bob: In fact, many of us spend our lives trying to earn our name, to prove we matter, to polish an image.
Bob: But God offers a name you don't have to protect or perform for.
Bob: Scripturally speaking, God's gift of a new name means a fresh start.
Bob: We become a new creation.
Bob: He reshapes us into something he wants now to display to the nations something different, redeemed, restored.
Bob: New names redefine identity, not through circumstances, but through relationship.
Bob: When you know God through his son Jesus Christ, the entire trajectory of your life changes.
Bob: Your outlook shifts, your identity stabilizes, your story is rewritten.
Bob: And notice this identity comes from the mouth of the Lord.
Bob: His silence ends as he speaks a new name over his people.
Bob: And now look what he says in verse 4.
Bob: He says, You shall no more be termed forsaken, and your land shall no more be termed desolate.
Bob: But you shall be called, my delight is in her, and your land married, for the Lord delights in you, and your land shall be married.
Bob: Now, friends, I want you to let those words settle in your soul for just a moment.
Bob: How many of you have ever felt forsaken?
Bob: This year, cut off, overlooked, walking through a desolate place alone.
Bob: Isaiah says the gift of a new name answers that ache.
Bob: Right?
Bob: In Christ, we are not forsaken.
Bob: We are not abandoned.
Bob: Instead, God declares, I delight in you.
Bob: I delight in you.
Bob: But hear me clearly, that delight is not automatic.
Bob: If you're not a Christian, scripture says you are still in rebellion against God.
Bob: That he does not delight in a life of sin or in a heart that refuses him.
Bob: Yet here's the good news of Christmas: He offers his son so that you might be forgiven, rescued, and then adopted into his family.
Bob: And when you come to him through Jesus, that is where you experience his delight.
Bob: Not because you earned it, but because Christ secured it.
Bob: So let me ask, how many of you, if you're a Christian or a skeptic tonight, how many of you struggle to believe that God could actually delight in you?
Bob: Now our culture might accept a distant, generic God, but not a God who knows you personally, who loves you deeply, who rejoices over you.
Bob: Is that a foreign concept?
Bob: This is the heartbeat of the Bible.
Bob: This is what God desires.
Bob: This is why he sent Jesus at Christmas to end the silence, to offer hope, and to welcome you into his family.
Bob: And it's with that in mind that Isaiah ends this section with the image, maybe fittingly, of a wedding.
Bob: He writes, For as a young man marries a young woman, so shall your sons marry you.
Bob: And as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you.
Bob: Now that beginning of verse 5 is kind of odd.
Bob: You might be saying, What's up with that?
Bob: It requires just a brief explanation.
Bob: The phrase, your sons will marry you, refers not to individuals, but to the restored city of Zion that we read about in verse 1.
Bob: In the original language, the word marry means to possess, which communicates that this is not primarily about a state of residence, but about God, God's people corporately belonging to this city.
Bob: And then after the devastation of the exile, the people of Jerusalem felt abandoned.
Bob: They felt unwanted.
Bob: Isaiah prophesies right here a reversal that the returning people will not just return to inhabit the city, they will commit to it with joy and devotion of a bridegroom.
Bob: And ultimately, this imagery points beyond human commitment that just as a groom Rejoices over his bride, God rejoices over his people.
Bob: That our ultimate hope lies not in our own faithfulness, but in God's delight in us secured through Christ.
Bob: And so, friends, I want you to hear that last line.
Bob: That when you give your life to Jesus, when you finally come home, God rejoices over you.
Bob: Now, some of you, you're sitting here tonight and you say, Well, I've never really ever in my life had somebody rejoice over me.
Bob: Instead, I've been cut down by people's words.
Bob: I've felt lonely, overlooked, abandoned.
Bob: In fact, you might be sitting here tonight convinced that no one really cares, that you're on your own, and that you have to save yourself.
Bob: But it's at Christmas that God says, no.
Bob: No, that voice you're hearing, that's a lie.
Bob: I love you.
Bob: I see you.
Bob: I want to save you.
Bob: And if you come to me, I will rejoice over your transformation.
Bob: Now, during his public ministry, as Jesus got older, he used an image to describe himself.
Bob: Do you know what it was?
Bob: The bridegroom.
Bob: The one preparing a wedding feast for his people.
Bob: That's the kind of relationship he desires.
Bob: And the wedding image is really it's really powerful.
Bob: Because when lived rightly, a marriage is a relationship where you are fully known and truly loved.
Bob: Now, years ago, I attended my cousin's wedding and it was scheduled two days before Christmas.
Bob: By the way, I have to note this wasn't the actual picture of the wedding.
Bob: Somebody told me in the first service they were looking for me up here.
Bob: She loved Christmas so much, she wanted her wedding wrapped in the season.
Bob: She was thrilled that she got to have a Christmas wedding, but the rest of the family had mixed feelings.
Bob: You know why?
Bob: It interrupted our plans, right?
Bob: More gifts, more travel, more logistics at Christmas.
Bob: And some people missed the beauty of the moment because they were frustrated by the timing.
Bob: And we can treat Christmas that way.
Bob: Families, don't treat Jesus like an interruption on your Christmas morning.
Bob: Incorporate him in.
Bob: Because what if the birth of Jesus was meant to interrupt our lives and at the same time invite us into something better?
Bob: Yes, following Jesus will interrupt you.
Bob: It will change you.
Bob: It won't make your life easier, but it will give you hope in whatever darkness you face.
Bob: So when you ask if God is real, why doesn't my life feel more like the Christmas card?
Bob: Maybe that's the point.
Bob: That Christmas isn't proof that life is perfect, it's proof that God steps into imperfection.
Bob: And so tonight, you get to choose: will you run toward him or away from him?
Bob: Because Christmas is the moment when God breaks his silence, refuses our abandonment, and gives us a new name.
Bob: And so the question might be reframed this way: what if Christmas isn't asking you to explain everything, but to receive something?
Bob: And Jesus offers to move us from silence to song.
Bob: I would offer this challenge.
Bob: The reason your life doesn't look like the card is because the card was never the promise.
Bob: Jesus was.
Bob: The card is the appearance, but Jesus is the presence.
Bob: The card is momentary, but Jesus is redemptive, and there will be a day when he makes all things new.
Bob: But you might push back and you might ask and say, why does Christmas look so hopeful when my life doesn't feel that way?
Bob: Because Christmas isn't about how life should look, it's about how God meets you where life actually is.
Bob: And that's true today as it was thousands of years ago in Isaiah's time when he wrote this.
Bob: Those who dwell in a land of deep darkness, on them light has shone.
Bob: Now notice he doesn't say that people escaped the darkness.
Bob: He says they're walking in it.
Bob: God shines the light.
Bob: Christmas does not deny the God behind the picture.
Bob: It announces that God enters into it.
Bob: What's the famous announcement?
Bob: For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Bob: And over 2,000 years ago, light entered the world to give us a song to sing.
Bob: And tonight, can we all agree?
Bob: Despite the debates, the Christmas music can flow freely tonight, right?
Bob: That the gift was given, not achieved.
Bob: God came as a child, not a conqueror.
Bob: He came to heal our hearts from the inside out.
Bob: Do you want that tonight?
Bob: In fact, if you've never given your life to Jesus Christ, I want you to hear tonight the story that transcends all stories.
Bob: That before the world was formed, God created it.
Bob: He created you and he created me.
Bob: And though he desires relationship with us, we have rebelled and gone our own way.
Bob: Yet God refused to leave us wandering.
Bob: He sent his son Jesus into the world to rescue us.
Bob: Jesus came as a baby, he lived a sinless life, he died a brutal death on the cross to pay the penalty for your rebellion and for my rebellion.
Bob: And tonight he offers us new life.
Bob: What if Christmas isn't asking you to explain everything, but to receive something?
Bob: And if your heart is stirring tonight, you can respond.
Bob: You can come home to the God who delights to save.
Bob: So, church, I want to invite everybody, Christian or those exploring faith, to pray this with me.
Bob: And if tonight is the first time you mean these words in your heart, this prayer can mark the moment you come home to God.
Bob: So let's pray together.
Bob: Heavenly Father, I come to you because I need you.
Bob: I confess my sin and that I cannot save myself.
Bob: But I believe you sent Jesus, born for us, crucified for my sin, and raised to bring me new life.
Bob: Tonight I receive your gift.
Bob: I turn from my sin and turn to you, Jesus.
Bob: Be my Savior, be my Lord, make me new.
Bob: Thank you for your love and forgiveness.
Bob: My life belongs to you.
Bob: In Jesus' name.
Bob: Amen.