Isaiah 9:1-7 - The Lord's Victory

Let's take our Bible and go to the book of Isaiah Isaiah chapter 9, isaiah, chapter 9.

Isaiah 9 · chapter mention Isaiah 9 · chapter mention

For those of you that are new here, you can turn to page 600 or so, probably right in that area.

You'll get to the front of Isaiah and just flip over a few more pages and you'll find Isaiah, chapter 9.

Isaiah 9 · chapter mention

Few more pages and you'll find Isaiah, chapter nine.

At Christmas time we come together largely to celebrate, and there's no better way to express that celebration than in the songs we sing.

We call them Christmas carols and listen to some of the titles, even one that we sang this morning Joy has Dawned.

But titles like Joy to the World Hark the Herald, angels Sing, christians Awake, salute the Happy Mourn, go Tell it on the Mountain.

Good Christian Men Rejoice O Come All Ye Faithful, joyful and Triumphant.

These titles all speak of celebration befitting this season.

Even the word carol brings an understanding of celebration into it, because the word carol comes through the French language, out of the Latin, which means to dance in a circle.

So to sing a Christmas carol would have originally meant a song of celebration that included movement and dance.

We don't do that so much these days.

We don't dance in circles around our carols, but we sing with the same spirit of celebration, and it's not just the music that fits a mood of celebration.

Our towns and cities are filled with lights and decor.

We drape decorations all over our houses.

We have them here.

Even our clothing is filled with a depth of richness that we don't typically wear at other times of the year.

We'll feast on food in the next coming days that's specially set apart for this time of year.

All of this in celebration as we remember the birth of Christ, who's come into this world to deliver humanity.

And this morning I want us to look at Isaiah, chapter 9, and to feel the sense of jubilation and celebration that comes in this announcement of the coming of our Savior, Jesus Christ.

Isaiah 9 · chapter mention

It's a prophecy in Isaiah, fulfilled, of course, in the life of Christ, as we read the Gospels.

But let's listen to this as we get this picture of the coming Savior.

And the first thing I want us to notice here in chapter 9 is the audience of good news.

The audience of good news, the audience of good news.

At the end of chapter 8, as we were looking at it together last week, we realized that there were people who were not putting their faith in God, who were determined to live their own life of self-will and determination.

And the prophet spoke about those people that they would live under a devastating darkness.

So just back up a little bit into the very end of chapter 8, and you'll see this in verse 19.

When they say to you, inquire of the mediums and the spiritists to chirp and mutter, shouldn't the people inquire of their God?

Should they inquire of the dead?

On behalf of the living, go to God's instruction, and if they do not speak according to this word, there will be no dawn for them.

So here were these people who were looking for answers outside of God.

They were looking to their mystics, to perhaps even their scholars.

They were looking to those who purported that they could communicate with the dead or with the spirits for solutions, and they recognized they were in difficult times.

That's why they were looking for answers outside of themselves.

But as they were looking for these answers, they went to the wrong places.

And where did it leave them?

It left them in the dark.

Verse 21 expresses that They'll wander through the land dejected and hungry.

When they're famished, they'll become enraged and, looking upward, will curse their king and their God.

They will look to the earth and only see distress, darkness and the gloom of affliction, and they will be driven into thick darkness.

You can't help but catch all these dark words.

It's gloomy, it's thick darkness, it's distress, darkness, its distress.

Living a life that rejects God's way and God's word eventually ends up full of emptiness and dissatisfaction, a lack of fulfillment, pangs of longing that turn eventually into anger and even bitterness.

And Isaiah speaks to these people and he's got something to say to this audience and it's a wonderful, wonderful announcement we'll get into, but notice who he speaks to.

Nevertheless, the gloom of the distressed land will not be like that of the former times, when he humbled the land of Zebulun and Naphtali, but in the future he will bring honor to the way of the sea, to the land of the east of the Jordan and to the Galilee of the nations.

The people walking in darkness have seen a great light.

A light is dawned on those living in the land of darkness, of darkness.

Here.

Isaiah speaks in chapter 8 about gloom and humiliation, darkness and death.

But it's not the end of the story.

This isn't the final word to these people that are in this condition.

We can rejoice that Isaiah has more to say to us than just judgment, that God speaks to us also about mercy and not solely about this judgment.

And Isaiah, chapter 9 and verse 1, makes a profound shift away from that judgment toward hope and light.

Isaiah 9 · chapter mention

The Word of God has these wonderful movements as it pivots away from the realities of sin and judgment into the remarkable news of God's activity of grace and mercy.

Just listen to a couple other ones that pivot so strongly as this one Ephesians 2,.

You're dead in trespasses and sins in which you previously walked in the ways of this world, according to the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit now at work in the disobedient.

And we too previously lived among them, in our fleshly desires, carrying out the inclinations of our flesh and thoughts.

And we were, by nature, children under wrath, just as others were also were, by nature, children under wrath, just as others were also.

Gloom and doom, darkness and despair.

Judgment worthy what's the next phrase?

But God, who is rich in mercy because of his great love that he has had for us.

You can't ask for a stronger movement of contrast than that.

The scriptures tell us that God's word isn't just a message of judgment, it's a glorious message of hope.

And to people sitting in darkness, to people sitting in gloom, to people who have been looking everywhere but God for an answer to the things that are troubling their lives.

God comes and says there'll be a message of hope even for you.

Some years ago, when I was a new believer, living up in Plattsburgh, where it's cold up there like it is today here a lot more I was speaking to a lady about her soul and as I was talking she said are you calling me a sinner?

And I said to her I said well, it's not me that's saying that you are.

It's the Word of God.

But if you don't think that you're someone who's disobeyed the Lord, I really don't have much to say to you.

But if you will admit that you are, I've got a lot of glorious things that I can share with you.

You see, the scriptures tell us that Christ Jesus came into this world.

The purpose for Christmas is to save sinners.

I mentioned this at Bonu's dinner party a couple nights ago.

In 2005, the BBC, on one of their radio programs, had a little competition and it was called the Reduced Nativity Competition and they invited callers to call in and to try as best as they could to give a 30-second summary of the nativity Now?

Could you do that with all the moving parts of Herod and the shepherds and you know, the manger scene and the movement of Joseph and Mary and all of that to Bethlehem and the birth of the baby and all these things?

30 seconds, you've got 30 seconds, go Well, the Bible can answer that question in three seconds.

Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.

That's the nativity right there.

Three seconds.

And so the audience of the news that we're about to share is not the audience of the worthy, it's not the audience of the righteous, it's not the audience of the perfect, it's the audience of those who have made the gloom and the darkness, because they have been the ones who have done this right.

So it's a message for us all, because every single one of us have obviously tried to look for answers to life and the problems that we face by not going to God for them.

We thought we've had the ability, we thought our friends have had the answer.

We've looked to others around us, we've gone all sorts of places but to the God who created us, and the result of that has just been the same kind of gloom and darkness and hopelessness that's described here in Isaiah's prophecy To us, to us people in the dark, is this message Now let's look at it To the people living in darkness?

In verse 2, they've seen a great light.

A light has dawned on those living in the land of darkness.

You see, the message that Isaiah is saying is, yes, things are really bad and, yes, we can't save ourselves.

Things are that dark, but there's hope.

But there's hope, there's a sign of deliverance that's on the horizon, that will dawn and dispel this darkness.

It'll be able to penetrate it and it'll be able to eradicate it.

Something's coming that will take all of that away.

The question is what is it?

What is it that will bring this?

Well, isaiah answers that question by talking about a child who is to come, and we'll look at that in just a moment.

But this question of light coming from the darkness penetrated the hearts of the people that Isaiah first brought this prophecy to, and 700 years later, the question kept moving through generation to generation.

What is this hope?

What is this light?

What is this dawning of dispelling the darkness of life apart from God?

Well, we get an answer in the Gospel of Matthew.

Matthew, chapter 4, we get this sort of travelogue about Jesus.

Matthew 4 · chapter mention

Jesus, when he heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew from Galilee, or to Galilee, rather.

He left Nazareth.

He made his home in Capernaum, by the sea and in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali.

Boy, all that's starting to sound a little familiar, sounds a bit like what Isaiah talked about here in verse 1.

And then Matthew gives us a commentary so that it might be spoken through the, so what has been spoken through the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled Land of Zebulun, land of Naphtali, on the road by the sea across the Jordan, galilee of the Gentiles.

The people who sat in the darkness have seen a great light and for those who sat in the region and shadow of death, a light has dawned.

What is Matthew saying?

He's saying this light that's going to dawn, this light that's going to dispel the darkness.

It is the presence of Jesus Christ.

That's what it is, and this is the announcement that's being made, an announcement that the light is going to come.

And Matthew says the light is here, it's here, and I use that term announcement purposefully.

You see, the people sitting in darkness weren't given advice.

They weren't given advice on here's how to dig yourself out of the ditch right.

Seven ways to make your life more peaceful.

Six practices that will give you rest of soul.

17 tips, for it's not that at all.

It's not that at all.

They're given an announcement that the light has dawned.

They're given an announcement that the light has dawned, and this is why in Luke, chapter 2, as we sang together, it says that there were shepherds out in the fields.

Luke 2 · chapter mention

They were keeping watch at night.

Their flocks were there and an angel of the Lord stood before them and the glory of the Lord shone around them light, and they were terrified.

And the angel said don't be afraid, because I've got some great advice for you.

No, don't be afraid, because I proclaim to you the good news that will be great joy for all the people.

It's an announcement, an announcement.

Today, in the city of David, a Savior is born for you, who is the Messiah, the Lord.

And after hearing that, suddenly there was a multitude of the heavenly hosts, the angels, praising God and saying glory to God in the highest and peace on earth to people he favors.

Praising God and saying glory to God in the highest and peace on earth to people he favors.

The light has come and it's an announcement.

Often we think Christianity is just advice.

It's not just advice on how to make your life just a little bit better.

If anybody tries to give you a type of Christianity like that, reject it out of hand.

It begins with this announcement, an announcement that God is actively doing something.

Imagine these shepherds.

If they're sitting there in the hills and they're tending their flocks and there's enemies all around them, the angels come down and say look, let's give you some advice.

What you really need are some military advisors who can help you understand how to put in defensive works and all the trenches and the earthworks that you might need.

They're going to help you sort of get ready, maybe help give you some target practice.

We're going to show you where you can put up all the artillery and you know, as you collect your strength, you're going to need to devise your plans and work out a strategy to protect yourself against this enemy.

And you could see the shepherds if they were just wanting to get advice like that, they'd be taking close notes in order to try to figure out how to operate against the enemy that was coming their way.

But the angels don't give advice.

They give it an announcement, like there would be a messenger who comes casting himself over the hills, running as hard as he can to come to the shepherds and panting and breathing, saying the war is over, the victory is won, the king is conquered, and the joy that erupts from that message is something that vice can never give somebody.

It immediately casts them into the sphere of jubilation and triumph.

And this is what the angels are doing.

They're making a Christmas announcement, not a Christmas advice.

They're telling us that into this dark world, the light of God has come.

Jesus has come to bring the dawn, the dawn that generations of your forefathers have been seeking and longing for and waiting for the day when that child who is given to us will be able to bring this new life to us.

This is the gospel.

It's an announcement.

It's not a statement of advice.

The message the Word of God has to share to us who are in darkness is not how to clean up our life, how to make ourselves a little bit better, how to become worthy for God's presence, how to practice godliness in a way that somehow will make you acceptable to a holy God.

It isn't that at all.

This is the message that we proclaim that God himself has operated against our enemies and the things that have made us an enemy to God, and he's come to destroy the works of the devil, to free us from the bondage of death and judgment and to grant us a presence with Him that is full of joy and welcome.

That's the gospel that whoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved, and Isaiah is giving us a cast in that direction.

Where is this hope going to come from?

This audience of darkness?

This announcement of great news is going to be enacted by an agent, and here I'm going to show you this.

We're going to skip just a couple verses for just a moment, because we'll get back to them for just a moment, because we'll get back to them.

But let's look at what happens here, beginning in verse 6.

This is the agent who will bring this good news A child will be born for us, a son will be given to us and the government will be upon his shoulders.

He will be named Wonderful Counselor, mighty God, eternal Father, prince of Peace.

The dominion will be vast and its prosperity will never end.

He will reign on the throne of David and over his kingdom to establish and sustain it with justice and righteousness from now on and forever.

Back in Isaiah, chapter 7, we've been put on notice to look for a child who would express the truth that God is with the people.

Isaiah 7 · chapter mention

Emmanuel and Isaiah picks up that hope once again here in chapter and talks to us about a child.

A child is going to be born who is given notice to us, to us.

A child is born.

To us.

A son is given Now.

When my grandson was born, royal, and I kind of took it as a to us.

You know, and we're proud grandparents Want to see a picture Right.

It as a to us, you know, and we're proud grandparents Want to see a picture Right.

But we didn't say when they showed up here, to us a child has been born, this is our grandchild, not your grandchild, but this child that's born is to us.

It's not just to the family that this child is born into.

This is a child born to us, given to us and for us, and he presents this child as the king who has been waited for.

And Luke's narrative of the birth of Jesus Christ tells us that this child is the one that all people have longed for.

To us, this child is born, this child who is both human and yet God.

He is a child and yet the Son of God, and these attributes that are spoken about him gloriously speak about that.

He's the wonderful counselor, he's the mighty God, he's the everlasting Father, he's the Prince of Peace.

And just very briefly, let's just walk our way through these names that are given to him.

First of all, the word wonderful means literally not of this world.

It is a very strange Hebrew word, which means that this is speaking about the realms of heaven and of God.

And this one will be that wonderful counselor who will speak about things that are outside of our normal everyday understanding, that is going to speak with a wisdom that comes from God himself, that he's going to tell us things about ourselves and about God and about heaven and about eternity that we can't figure out on our own.

He will be the very revelation of God.

He will speak the very revelation of God.

He will speak the very wisdom of God.

This is why, in John, chapter 7, some of the Jewish leaders talked to some others about why didn't they capture Jesus and bring him with them into their presence, and their answer was no one has ever spoken like this man before.

John 7 · chapter mention

They were captured by who Jesus was and what he had to say.

He's also called the mighty God.

This is a strange name for a child, isn't it Right?

I love my little grandson, but I've never said, hey, you big hunk of mighty God.

He's pretty weak.

He got his first bites a few days ago and his head's bobbing all over the place.

My son's like trying to get the spoon somewhere near that bobbing head.

Imagine saying to a little child Mighty God, he is the one who exhibits the very might of God, and we'll understand how in just a moment.

He's also called the Eternal Father, or the Father of Eternity Exactly, which means he holds eternity in his hands.

The destiny of eternity rests in the palm of Jesus the baby.

Okay, that's what it's talking about.

This is why the Lord Jesus could say that he is the way, the truth and the life, and no one comes to the Father but by him.

Why?

Because he's the Father of eternity.

He is the one who controls the destiny of humanity.

He's also called the Prince of Peace.

Isaiah, chapter 2, tells us that the Messiah who would come would bring God's people together, but he would also bring them together with God's peace, and uses a term which we've all heard, probably shalom, the Hebrew term for peace.

Isaiah 2 · chapter mention

But shalom is more than just a cessation of war.

But shalom is more than just a cessation of war.

It's more than just a quiet bit of meditation near a babbling brook.

It's more than just the stillness of an empty house.

It's not that.

What it means is that there is harmony in every aspect of life, that everything is arranged according to God's purposes, as it was meant to be.

Jesus is the prince of that kind of peace To set us all right, to make us back as we were originally designed At harmony with God, in harmony with each other and in harmony with this world.

His purposes are to be the one who ushers in that kind of harmony, that kind of compatibility to God's purposes.

So not only these attributes, these titles that are granted to this child show us what kind of agent he is, but also direct statements about his rule.

As we look at the ascension of Christ mentioned here, it tells us, before we get the names, that the government will be on his shoulders a heavy responsibility.

Of course, verse 7 shows how successful he is at that.

The dominion will be vast and its prosperity will never end.

He will reign on the throne of David and over his kingdom to establish it and sustain it with justice and with righteousness.

This child will bring back this world into alignment with God, and he will do so by his rule, by his reign.

Gabriel spoke to Mary and seven centuries later from Isaiah's prophecy, said this Seven centuries later from Isaiah's prophecy said this You'll conceive and give birth to a son and you'll name him Jesus.

He will be great and he will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give him the throne of his father, david.

He will reign over the house of Jacob forever and his kingdom will never end.

You see, isaiah here is looking forward, and he's looking forward to this one that we celebrate this week.

Jesus Christ, he's going to establish that glorious throne and rule and reign, and this is why, within the church here, we call Jesus Lord because he is here.

We call Jesus Lord because he is.

The characteristics of this rule are glorious.

First of all, it's going to be limitless.

It's going to expand and expand and expand, and it's going to create the peace that it's designed for.

It's going to be a fulfillment of promises made.

It's going to be one filled with principles of justice and of righteousness that are going to prevail as pillars of his everlasting kingdom.

What a remarkable thing it is.

So here we have an announcement made to an audience of people in darkness about a son who is going to come, a child given to us, that is unlike any of us and is going to do things none of us could ever accomplish.

The question is how do we know this is going to be so?

Isaiah spoke in his prophecy.

How does he anchor it into?

Well, the imaginations of his mind, the I think God spoke to me thoughts?

What is it?

Take a look at the word here.

It says here, at the very end of verse 7, the zeal of the Lord of armies will accomplish this.

Lord of armies will accomplish this.

God pulls out the big title about himself the Lord of the armies, the one who's commander of the universe, the one who reigns over all principalities and powers of the air.

There's no seat higher than his.

What's going to make all of this happen?

God will make it happen.

The birth of Jesus into this world is an announcement of good news that God is acting out his gloriously gracious purposes to bring light into dark places.

Our Christmas hope is dependent upon God and God alone.

How wonderful news.

That is right.

We don't have to be like trying to shoo the darkness away from ourselves.

We don't have to be trying to cut through the gloom that we've cast out because of our behavior.

We don't have to work and try to achieve.

God has come, he's made an announcement and His mighty arm is going to make it happen.

He puts Himself on the line for this and says because I am who I am, you will receive this glorious news.

The writer of Hebrews put it this way in chapter 6.

God has given both his promise and his oath.

These two things are unchangeable, because it's impossible for God to lie.

Therefore, we who have fled to him for refuge can have great confidence as we hold on to the hope that lies before us.

You see, the things that Isaiah prophesies about are realities to those who look to God, who look to the Savior, who embrace the Son, because God said he would do these things.

Now let's back up just for a second.

We skipped over a little portion of this.

We've talked about the audience.

We've talked about the announcement.

We've talked about the agent.

Now let's look at the aspects of this.

We've talked about the audience.

We've talked about the announcement.

We've talked about the agent.

Now let's look at the aspects of this good news that are resulting Verse 2.

Well, we can start in verse 1.

In the future, he will bring honor to the way of the sea, to the land east of the Jordan, to the Galilee of the nations, honor.

In our society, becoming a Christian is counted as shame, and certainly in the Roman era it was counted as shame, in fact, to talk about a Lord Jesus who was crucified would have been an extremely impossible thing for the average Roman.

To accept.

That a God-man would be crucified was horrible.

And there is even a sort of a graffiti remark of one man who was a Christian and someone who was upset that he'd become a Christian, and it showed a half-man, half-donkey, nailed to a cross, and I don't remember the name of the man who became a Christian, but it said that this man was worshiping his God and had an image of this half-donkey half-man on a cross.

That was how shameful this message of the cross seemed to be.

But here we see that when God comes into a life, it's not that at all.

It's to honor and to cause us to be something different, to be able to live our lives in a way that is in alignment with God, and he brings us into a greater and greater degree of that alignment as we go, as the scriptures say, as we behold his glory we looking into that, we find ourselves transformed into the image even of Christ himself.

Things that we once never loved now become the very heartbeat of our soul.

The things that we once loved to death now become odious to us and our lives become more in conformity with our Creator.

And the day is coming when we will be co-heirs with Christ, recipients of the glorious promises of God, and what that will be?

That no one will ever be ashamed.

The scriptures say who trusted Christ?

There will never be at the end of this, boy, did I believe a lie?

There'll never be at the end of this.

What a waste of my existence.

There'll never be a time in which we acted on behalf of Christ and sacrifice where we said, boy, that hurt more than what I'm getting back.

Never, because honor will come to those who believe, not because they're honorable, but because God himself and his mercy has cast honor on us.

But there's also joy.

There's joy.

The people walking in darkness have seen a great light.

A light has dawned on those living in the land of darkness.

You've enlarged the nation and increased its joy.

The people have rejoiced before you, as they rejoice at harvest time.

And as they rejoice what?

When they're dividing the spoils?

Both the farmer and the soldier are pointed to as expressions of that kind of joy.

When the harvest is full and complete and in the barns and security and safety are there for the coming months in which the earth itself cannot produce any fruit, you have an abundance in store to take and to eat at your pleasure and for your strength.

So there's joy at that.

Or there's joy when you're there on the battlefield alive still and your enemy has fled and he's left all of the things behind that were once valuable to him, that are there simply for your taking.

The joy of a successful battle, the joy of a warrior won, coming in and receiving a benefit, that kind of joy, where do we cast our joy?

Toward those images and those pictures?

This is Christmas joy, that kind of jubilation.

We won, the harvest is in, and deliverance.

And here's this, verse 4,.

You've shattered the oppressive yoke, the rod on their shoulders, the staff of the oppressor, just as you did on the day of Midian.

For those of us who don't know our Bible, midian was an enemy of the people of God, you okay?

Is everything okay?

Okay, all right, you okay, is everything okay?

Okay, alright, louisa, is this a medical condition?

Okay, all right, all right, folks, let's pray, shall we?

Let's pray?

Let's pray, father, as one of our steps through this moment.

We pray that you would give, lord, your hand to all who are attending, the kind of care and wisdom that comes from you, lord.

We pray that the 911 call might be heard and received quickly and timely.

We pray your mercy, father.

We pray this in Christ's name.

Amen.

That came to his aid and he's in the hands of those who can take him to where ready aid is able to help him.

It sounds like he's coming back around and yet he still needs to be evaluated.

Yeah, so let me just close off a few thoughts here talking about the joy and the honor.

The reason is given in this passage because an enemy has been defeated.

The Midianites were strong enemies against Israel, so strong that they despaired about over everything.

And it was when God called a man named Gideon to reduce his army down to 300 people and not to carry weaponry but to carry lights and simply to cry out the sword of the Lord and of Gideon, and it put all the enemies of Midian into a fleeing terror.

God intervened in a glorious way.

A victory that this child is talking about, that's going to come, is going to give a joy over that kind of victory.

That's going to come, is going to give a joy over that kind of victory.

You see, each and every one of us have to deal with death and eternity, and it can come in a moment.

It could come even when we're in the middle of church service and we don't know when that hour is going to hit us.

But how wonderful it would be to know that you can look at your enemy called death and know that it's already defeated, know that the presence of god is not a scary place to go into but home.

This is the kind of child that's going to be born, the kind of victory that's going to be won.

Now, at christmas time, a lot of people think well, this is just, you know, another one of those stories that I hear all the time, and we love stories.

Children are captured by them.

We're captured by them even when we're adults.

We love to read stories that start with once upon a time.

Stories that start with once upon a time Because in the telling of those stories we feel a resonation of things within our hearts that we long to have actually happen.

You know, we read about people that come and we want to experience the supernatural and we want to escape death and we want to have a love that's unmitigated.

And we want to experience the supernatural and we want to escape death and we want to have a love that's unmitigated, and we want to let our lives flourish and dream and find the fulfillments of our dreams.

Why do our hearts long like that?

We tell the stories because they connect with those longings within us, but we know they're not real.

That's why we start the stories with once upon a time.

But they resonate within us because we really think life ought to be different than what we experience.

It really ought to be more fulfilling than it is and longer lasting than it is and more full of harmony than it is and richer than it is.

Death shouldn't have to be the end.

Goodbye shouldn't be the final words we give our loved ones.

Evil shouldn't triumph, and we long for a story that will be real.

This is that story.

This is the real story, and it doesn't start with once upon a time.

It starts with, in the city of David, an announcement to real shepherds, in a real field, with real sheep, with real angels, telling them that there's some good news that's dawned into this dark world.

This is Christmas.

It's a story about someone from a different world who's broken into ours.

It's a story about someone who did miraculous things, one who could calm the storm, who could heal people, who could raise the dead.

And yet he was captured by his enemies.

He was tortured by his enemies and he was put to death by his enemies so that he could tell us that there was another enemy that he was going to defeat, and that was death itself, by the resurrection from the grave.

You see, this isn't just another one of mankind's longings put into pen, from pen to paper.

This is a story of God's activity to punch a hole into the real life that we live, to tell us that there is an eternity and that God has come to deliver and bring light into our darkness.

You see, there really is, as some of the stories tell, evil and we're under the enchantment of that evil, but there's a glorious prince, a prince of peace, who's broken the spell of that enchantment and he's going to become ours and we his.

This is Christmas, and for all of us, that is light and hope.

And I pray for all of us here today that we will not only just hear this story but accept the truth of this story, because it really does matter.

Let's pray together.

Father, we thank you for this time shared together.

Thank you for granting us, in the understanding of your word, just how vital the birth of this child is.

And, father, we want to pray for this dear man and his beloved family and, lord, as they have gone to places of care.

We pray that you would envelop them with a peace and assurance that they're in the right hands and they'll be attended to very carefully.

We thank you, father.

We ask that you'd mercifully watch over him, bring him back to a fullness of life and health.

And, lord, thank you for the caring hands of those in the body who are able to rush to his side and help him to walk through this scary moment with him.

Thank you for how you watch over us in all these ways.

And, lord, I pray that as we close off this service and as we look forward to the coming days, that our celebration in song and our celebration around a table with family will be filled with sincere joy that you have brought a Savior, for unto us a child is born and unto us a son is given, and we pray this in Christ's name Amen.