Week 1 - The God Who Came Near: Isaiah 7:1-14 (Brian Lowe)

Series: The God Who Came Near
Week: 1
Scripture: Isaiah 7:1-14; 2 Kings 16; Luke 1:26-56; John 1:1; Matthew 1:18-25
Preacher: Brian Lowe

Hark! The Herald Angels Sing

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Welcome to the sermon podcast of Exodus Church, located in Belmont, North Carolina. For more information about our church and the many ways you can be involved, you can go to our website at exoduschurch.com. Now, if you'll take your Bible and turn to three places, OK, we're going to be in Matthew-- I'm sorry, we're going to start in Isaiah 7. And then I want you to put something in Luke 1 and Matthew 1. So Isaiah 7 in the Old Testament, and then Luke 1 and Matthew 1. We're starting our Advent series today called The God Who Came Near. As the Mitchells reminded us a moment ago, Advent is the four Sundays leading up to Christmas. During this time of year, we remember that Jesus came and that he's coming again, and that we live in this time between the times when he is with us. Certainly, he promised that he would not leave us or forsake us, that he would be with us to the end of the age. He is with us, but in his return, he will be with us in a way that is full. And so we wait. We eagerly wait his return. And we are reminded that he came and that he is coming again. And as we start this Advent series called The God Who Came Near, I want us to remember that God coming near is always disruptive. Every time God appears to someone in God's word, it was disruptive. God coming near is disruptive, which is a pretty fitting word for this time of year. This time of year is disruptive. Things are out of whack. Things are different. They're not what they normally are. Our houses are disrupted. Decorations that have been in our attic all year are now all over our house. We've got a dead tree in our house. We had to move furniture to figure out where to put-- like, everything is disrupted. Our schedules are disrupted. We've got end of year work to complete. We've got parties to get to, traffic to fight against. Our schedules are all-- potentially all out of whack as we lead into this year. Our budgets are disrupted. We've had Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Giving Tuesday, Worn Out Wednesday. And if we're not careful, we'll have no money January. Everything's disrupted this time of year, which is fitting that the time of year that we remember that God came near is as disruptive as His coming. So what do we do then? Well, we can kick against the disruption, or we can ask God to turn the disruption into delight. We can kick against traffic and decorating and money and all the things, or we can do what Mary and Joseph did. We can embrace the disruption of God coming near. Mary embraces being a mother of the Son of God. Joseph embraces being married to her and being the earthly father of Jesus. And they get delight when they embrace the disruption. And so my hope today is that we would embrace disruption, that with all the things being different in our lives right now, that we would embrace all those things rightly so that they might lead to delight. To get us there, we're going to start-- Isaiah 7. I'm going to read verses 1 to 14. I'll pray, and then we'll jump into God's Word. Look at Isaiah 7."In the days of Ahaz, the son of Jotham, son of Uzziah, the king of Judah, Rezin, the king of Syria, and Pekah, the son of Remalia, the king of Israel, came up to Jerusalem to wage war against it, but could not yet mount an attack against it. When the house of David was told, Syria is in league with Ephraim, the heart of Ahaz and the heart of his people shook as the trees of the forest shake before the wind. And the Lord said to Isaiah, go out to meet Ahaz, you and Shear-jashub, your son, at the end of the conduit of the upper pool on the highway to the Washer's Field. And say to him, be careful, be quiet, do not fear, and do not let your heart be faint because of these two smoldering stumps of firebrands at the fierce anger of Rezin and Syria and the son of Remaliah. Because Syria with Ephraim and the son of Remaliah has devised evil against you, saying, let us go up against Judah and terrify it, and let us conquer it for ourselves, and set up the son of Tabeel as the king in the midst of it. Thus says the Lord God, it shall not stand, and it shall not come to pass. For the head of Syria is Damascus, and the head of Damascus is Rezin, and within 65 years, Ephraim will be shattered from being a people. And the head of Ephraim is Samaria, and the head of Samaria is the son of Remaliah. If you are not firm in faith, you will not be firm at all. Again, the Lord spoke to Ahaz, ask a sign of the Lord, your God. Let it be deep as Sheol or high as heaven. But Ahaz said, I will not ask, and I will not put the Lord to the test. And he said, hear then, O house of David. Is it too little for you to weary men that you worry my God also? Therefore, the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. Let's pray together. Lord, thank you for your word. Thank you for the privilege of gathering in this time to look at it, and so that we might see wonderful things from it. Lord, we are in a time of year that is disruptive. There's just a lot going on, lots to think about, lots to do, lots to capture our attention. Even in this space, lights and trees and ornaments and wreaths and all those things, Lord, we are in a time where things are different and perhaps disruptive. And so, Lord, I pray that you would capture our attention in the midst of all the disruption, and that you would turn disruption to delight. Lord, I pray that you'd use your word today to show us how we might do that, to show us how we might turn all these disruptions into things that point us to the delight that we find in Christ alone. And so, Lord, as we gather around your word today, would you give us eyes to see, would you give us ears to hear, and would you give us hearts that are receptive to and responsive to your word? And we pray this in Christ's name. Amen. So our big idea is this, that God coming near is disruptive. And when we embrace it, we find delight. So two points today, God descends, God comes down, and God disrupts. We'll start with God descends. Now, our focus is going to be primarily on verse 14. We're going to get there in a moment. But the immediate context of this verse is pretty fascinating. At this time, God's people are divided into two kingdoms. You have Israel, the northern kingdom, and you have Judah, the southern kingdom. And in verse 1, we see that there is a new king in Judah. His name is Ahaz. He's Ahaz, son of Jotham, son of Uzziah. He's king of Judah. Now, we learn from other places, primarily 2 Kings 16, we learn that he is a young king. He was 20 years old when he assumed the throne. We also learn that he's not a good king. 2 Kings 16 says that he followed the ways of Israel, which means that he was sacrificing to false gods and to idols. It also says that he sacrificed on the high places, that he worshiped at the high places. In other words, he's an idolater. He's worshiping false gods while he's trying to lead God's people. In fact, in 2 Kings 16, we learn that he burned his son as an offering to a false god. So he's not a good dude. We also learn that the king of Syria and the king of Israel are planning an attack, but that attack has not yet begun. Now, in verse two, it says that Ahaz and the people hear about it and they're scared. It says, "The heart of Ahaz and the heart of his people shook as the trees of the forest shake before the wind." So they hear this is coming. They know that it's imminent and they are afraid. So God sends Isaiah to tell them, among other things, not to be afraid in verse four and to be firm in faith in verse nine. More on that in a moment. But Ahaz does not wait on the Lord. Rather than waiting on the Lord and his deliverance, Ahaz reaches out to another king. His name is Tiglath-Pileser. He's the king of Assyria. We hear about that in 2 Kings 16 where it says this."So Ahaz sent messengers to the king of Assyria saying, I am your servant and your son." Now, what's interesting about that is he's king of God's people. He's king of the kingdom of Judah. He should be going to the God of the Bible saying,"I'm your servant, I'm your son." Rather, he goes to this other king. He says, "I'm your servant, I'm your son." And then he says this, "Come up and rescue me from the hand of the king of Syria and from the hand of the king of Israel who are attacking me." And then it says, "Ahaz also took the silver and gold that was found in the house of the Lord in the treasuries of the king's house and sent a present to the king of Assyria." So Ahaz, the king of Judah, rather than trusting the God of his people, goes to this other king and says,"Hey, I need you to protect me and here's money that belongs to God and I'm gonna give it to you." Well, God, rather than just opening his wrath on this man, he extends grace and he descends through the prophet Isaiah in verse three. It says, "Then the Lord said to Isaiah, go out to meet Ahaz, you and your son, at the end of the conduit of the upper pool on the highway to the Washer's Field. And say to him, 'Be careful, be quiet, do not fear, do not let your heart be faint because of these two smoldering stumps of firebrands.' At the fierce anger of Rezin in Syria and the son of Remaliah." And so God sends Isaiah, he sends Isaiah to Ahaz and he says, "Look, tell Ahaz, don't be afraid, don't be worried." And then he describes these two kings as smoldering firebrands. Like, you know, when you've had a fire in the backyard and there's a couple of little stumps that didn't quite burn. Like just these little throwaway things, God says, don't be afraid of them, don't be worried about them. And then he offers Ahaz a sign in verse 10. In verse 10, it says, "Again, the Lord spoke to Ahaz,'Ask a sign of the Lord your God, let it be deep as Sheol or high as heaven.'" So God comes to him and he sends, first he sends Isaiah and then he offers Ahaz an opportunity to pray. And he says, "Hey, look, ask me for a sign." It can be as big as you can imagine. It can be as big as the deepest thing you can know, Sheol. It can be as high as the highest thing you know, heavens. And so he says, "Look, ask me for a sign, ask me for a big one." And Ahaz, the guy that's gone to this other king and used God's money to get his protection, says to God in verse 12, "I will not ask, I will not put the Lord to the test." So he's willing to humble himself to this king and pay him money, but he's not willing to humble himself before God and ask for help. Ahaz refuses to ask, he refuses. And so then Isaiah responds to him in verse 13, and he said, "Hear then, O house of David." Now, Ahaz is a representative of the house of David, but Isaiah uses this term house of David to help us understand that what's coming in verse 14 is bigger than Ahaz. It's about all the house of David. It's about God's promise for the whole world here."Hear then, O house of David, is it too little for you to weary men that you weary my God also? Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign." God said, "Look, I'm not gonna wait on you to ask. I'm just gonna give you a sign." And then we see what the sign is."Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel." Now, we're gonna talk about that sign specifically for just a moment, but I want us to see how God relates to this rebellious, sinful king,'cause it's good news for rebellious, sinful people like us. He speaks to and comforts him in the midst of his trouble. He offers a sign that encourages him. He invites the rebellious, sinful king to pray. He gives the rebellious, sinful king what he needs even when he doesn't ask for it. Do you see the kindness of our God? Do you see the kindness of our God toward this guy that took God's money and gave it to this king to protect him instead of praying? And when God said, "Hey, you can pray to me," he says, "Oh, no, no, I can't pray to you." Do you see the kindness of our God here? It's good news for Ahaz. It's good news for us, because so often, when things get difficult, rather than pray and bring it before the Lord, we so often think,"How can I network?"How can I use my resources?"How can I make this happen?" Instead of, "How can I run to God for help?" Ahaz tries to work his networks and use his resources to get this figured out, and God says, "Just ask me. Pray." God descends. He descends through the prophet Isaiah. He descends through an invitation to pray, but he descends primarily in verse 14 through this prophecy. Look at verse 14 with me. It says, "Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel." Now, this is the sign that was given to the house of David. This verse is quoted again in Matthew 1, Matthew telling us that Jesus' birth is the fulfillment of Isaiah 7 verse 14. And in this sign, there are three miracles, okay? There's the virgin birth, the incarnation, and Immanuel, God with us. Let's start with the virgin birth. The first part of the sign is that a virgin shall conceive. Now, moms and dads, I'll let you work this out over lunch, okay, but I gotta talk about some stuff, all right, and I'll be appropriate. Virgins don't conceive. Virgins don't have sons. It takes a mom and a dad to make a baby. Specifically for our age, it takes a biological female and a biological male to have a baby, okay? That's how that works. Now, some have tried to say that this passage is not teaching a literal virgin birth, and they point to the translation of the word that the word means young woman. They use that to cast doubt on the virgin birth and the truth of the Bible. Well, there are three responses to that. The first one is the Hebrew word here refers specifically to a maiden, which was a young woman who was unmarried and sexually chaste, thus virginity would have been assumed. Second response to this false teaching is that the second thing is that the way the Septuagint, which is a Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible that was primarily used in New Testament times, so this Greek translation chose a word that means a woman who has not known a man, known there meaning like biblical know, okay, showing that they understood what Isaiah was getting at, and that translation was done 200 years before Jesus was born. The third response to the idea that Isaiah 7 verse 14 is not really teaching that a literal virgin conceived a child is the way Mary responds to the angel in Luke chapter one. Flip over there with me. Flip over to Luke chapter one. Look at verse 26. It says, "In the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph." We're gonna talk about betrothal and Joseph in a moment. So there's a virgin betrothed to Joseph of the house of David, and the virgin's name was Mary."And he came to her and said,'Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you.' But she was greatly troubled at the saying and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be." Can you imagine this moment for her? This angel appears greetings highly favored one, and she's like, whoa, what is going on here? Verse 30, "And the angel said to her,'Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God, and behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great, he will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David. He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end." So this angel appears to Mary, tells her she's highly favored, tells her that she's gonna have a baby, that she's gonna conceive a baby in her womb, and Mary says this, "How will this be, since I am a virgin?" Most of your Bibles have a little four next to that word virgin, and underneath at the bottom, it will say, literally translated,"Since I do not know a man." The angel says, "This is what's gonna happen." Mary says, "I've not done what's necessary for that to happen." And so when we read in Isaiah 7 verse 14 that a virgin shall conceive, it means a virgin shall conceive. And that idea of a virgin doesn't mean just a young woman, it means a woman who has never known a man. Now, I understand that your lost friends and neighbors are not coming to you saying,"Would you please explain the virgin birth to me?" But what I also understand is that every day we live in a world where our faith in the Bible is attacked. And so we've got to know and understand why we should believe what the Bible teaches, because everything the Bible teaches is true and without error, every bit of it. And so when you're wondering, should I believe this? And you get all this stuff, maybe from college, maybe from a friend, maybe from whatever you're on on social media, you hear all these things of reasons why you should not trust the Bible, you've got to be prepared to give an answer for the hope that you have. And so part of the sign is a miracle of the virgin birth. And if the Bible teaches it, it's teaching it as true without mixture of error at all. And so the first miracle is the virgin birth. Second miracle is the incarnation. A virgin will conceive and bear a son, and his name shall be called Immanuel, which is God with us. This is a miracle. Virgin birth's a miracle. Incarnation is a miracle. God becoming human without ceasing to be God is a miracle. That the eternal God, John 1 verse 1 says,"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." This eternal God who has always been, the eternal Word who has always been, John 1 verse 14 says, "The Word took on flesh and dwelt among us." God became human without ceasing to be God. It's a miracle. And this God-man is one God, one person with two natures, fully human. He slept, he ate, he got tired, he laughed, he cried, he had emotion, he learned, he grew in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and man. Fully human and fully God. He forgave sin, he stopped storms, he healed people, he raised the dead. And so God descends, a virgin conceives, and a virgin bears a son. This son is fully man so he knows our struggles. He's fully man so he can take our place. He's fully God so he can bear God's wrath for us and save us from our sin. Three miracles, virgin birth, incarnation, third miracle is Immanuel, God with us in verse 14."The virgin shall conceive and bear a son,"and his name will be called Immanuel." Now in Isaiah 7 verse 14, we don't get the explanation, but in Matthew 1, Matthew says,"which means God with us." This is the third miracle, that God could be with his people without destroying them in his wrath. All the promises of the Old Testament pointing to this truth. The promises to Abraham that God would be with his people, the promises to Moses that God would be in the midst of his people, the way the tabernacle and the temple pointed to God being in the midst of his people, all that pointing to Jesus, Immanuel, God with us, who's with his people. Immanuel, God with us, is a miracle. Not just that God could become man, but that God could be with us. One of my favorite hymns, one of our favorite Christmas carols says it this way."Christ by highest heaven adored, Christ the everlasting Lord." This is speaking of Christ eternality. That highest heaven adored him. He is everlasting Lord."Late in time behold him come, offspring of the virgin's womb." Mary, he was conceived in Mary. She gave birth to him. Then the next part of this stanza says,"Veiled in flesh that God had seen, hail the incarnate deity, pleased with us in flesh to dwell." Now another version says,"pleased as man with men to dwell." I love that line. He was happy to do it. Pleased, pleased with us in flesh to dwell, Jesus, our Immanuel. God descends. He descends first through the prophet Isaiah to Ahaz. He descends through the privilege of prayer, drawing that rebellious, sinful king to himself. He descends himself in the fulfillment of this prophecy. Jesus, born of a virgin, becoming a man, born as Immanuel, God with us. God descends. And then when God descends, he disrupts. He disrupts. Now we think that Christmas time's disruptive for us. Imagine Mary and Joseph. Let's think about them for a moment. Think about Mary. Flip back to Luke 1. Can you imagine the disruption? Can you imagine the physical realities that she's about to face? Most scholars think she was 13 or 14. Can you imagine? Think about a middle school girl that you know or care about having a baby. Can you imagine the disruption for her body, her tiny little womb holding the child of God? Think of the emotional disruptions, preparing to be a mom. And not just a mom, but mom to, you know, the son of God. The son of the most high. Talk about mom guilt. I mean, can you imagine facing the looks and quiet comments of others? Maybe that's why she went to spend time with Elizabeth to get away. The relational realities. Can you imagine her telling her parents? So mom, dad, I'm gonna have a baby. And this baby is from God. Can you imagine her telling Joseph, her betrothed? This man that loves her, that's already sacrificing for her, going to him and telling him this news. Any of them could have had her stoned for presumed unfaithfulness and bringing shame on the family. Any one of them could. God coming near was disruptive. It was disruptive. We'll look at Luke 1 again. The angel comes to her and Mary says the question again."How will this be since I'm a virgin?" In verse 34. Then the angel responds in verse 35. The angel answered her,"The Holy Spirit will come upon you. The power of the most high will overshadow you. Therefore, the child to be born shall be called Holy, the son of God. And behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son." And this is the sixth month with her who was called barren"For nothing will be impossible with God." Mary says, "How's this gonna happen?" The angel says, "God's gonna do it and nothing's impossible with him." And then she responds in verse 38."Behold, I'm the servant of the Lord. Let it be to me according to your word." God coming near, Jesus being born was incredibly disruptive for this girl. And listen, we're not Catholics here. Like I wanna be very respectful in what I'm about to say. We disagree with what Catholics teach about Mary in a variety of ways, but we don't wanna run the other way and think that Mary wasn't anything at all. Like she was a faithful woman who said, an angel appears to her and says,"You're gonna have a baby." And she's like, "Okay. Sure, let it be done to me according to your word." Like, do you see like the faithfulness of this woman? She embraces the disruption of being the mother of the son of God. And that disruption leads to delight in verse 46. It says, "And Mary said, 'My soul magnifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God, my savior. For he has looked on the humble estate of his servant. For behold, from now on generations will call me blessed. For he who is mighty has done great things for me and holy is his name.'" Do you hear her prayer? Do you hear her humility, her faithfulness?"He's remembered my lowly estate" and "He who is mighty has done great things." She embraces the disruption that leads to delight. Now think about Joseph, flip over to Matthew 1. Think about how Joseph's life is disrupted. Look at verse 18, it says,"Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way when his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph." Now, betrothal was perhaps a step above engagement. Joseph would have given a dowry to Mary's family to secure her hand in marriage. He would have been working to gather resources for the whole first year of their marriage. He would have been working to build a place for them to live, probably connected to his father's house. John 14, when Jesus says,"In my father's house are many rooms. I go to prepare a place for you." That's how a Jewish husband would speak to his betrothed."I go to prepare a place for you." So Joseph is doing all these things. And then Mary comes to him. Before they came together, now that means what it sounds like. Okay, that means what it sounds like. Before they came together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. And her husband, Joseph, wait, wait. She was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. So Joseph is doing all this stuff, and his betrothed says,"Hey, I need you to know I'm pregnant. And God's the father." And can you imagine what he's walking through? Verse 19, "And her husband, Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly." Look, I don't wanna cause trouble. We need this to be over. I'm gonna let you kind of do your thing, and I'm gonna get on about my life. Incredibly painful for everyone involved. Incredibly painful, verse 20. But as he considered these things,"Behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, 'Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son. You should call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.'" And then verses 22 and 23, we learn that all this was to fulfill the verse we started on. Verse 24, "When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him. He took his wife, but knew her not until she had given birth to a son, and he called his name Jesus." So like Mary, Joseph embraces the disruption. We get the fulfillment of prophecy. We get Jesus' sacrifice for sin. And Joseph gets the delight of obedience. God descends, God disrupts. And when we embrace the disruption, we find delight. That's how we apply this today. Embracing the disruption leads to delight. Let's start with the silliness of the season. As we think about how embracing the disruption leads to delight, let's kind of think about just the silliness of the season. We're kind of doing life around Christmas and doing all the things. I'm sorry, hey guys, the next slide. If you could put that one up there, thank you very much. So if we can think about all the silliness that we have to deal with around Christmas time. All the things that are disruptive, all the things that can be frustrating, all the things that can just get on your last nerve. You're trying to get past this intersection down here, and all these people that have no idea how to get into McAdinville are clogging all of 74, and you're just trying to get to wherever you're going down around Franklin Square. All that can just be disruptive. Well, what if, what if in that moment, rather than being frustrated, we said, you know what, Lord? All of them are gonna drive by a sign that says Merry Christmas. All of them are gonna see the name of Christ tonight. So Lord, number one, would you help them learn how to drive? Number two, would you somehow ransom their hearts tonight?'Cause all the world is caught up with celebrating something adjacent to the birth of Jesus. Now, all the world's not celebrating Jesus. Some of the world's celebrating Amazon, right? But all the world is celebrating something adjacent to Jesus. And so what if all that distraction and disruption, we just ask the Lord to bring people to Him? What if, as we watched everybody just get consumed with the commercialization of this next four weeks, we said, Lord, Lord, would you just capture them? Would you just capture people for your name? As they see Christmas somewhere, would they, would you just somehow use that to capture them in a radical way? Perhaps that's the way the disruption could lead to delight. Now to more serious matters. God's nearness is always a disruption. It was a disruption for Mary, it was a disruptive for Joseph. God's nearness is disruptive for us too. Listen, if you're not yet a Christian, you need to know that being saved is disruptive. It's gonna cause you to confess sin, it's gonna cause you to repent of sin, it's gonna cause you to submit to Jesus as Lord and Savior of your life, which means you've gotta surrender and submit to Him as Lord. It means you've gotta confess that you've sinned and fallen short of His glory, that you've rebelled against Him, that you've run from Him rather than to Him, and that you rightly stand under His wrath. And that you need Jesus who came to take away our sin. That can be disruptive. It's disruptive to our pride, it's disruptive to our faith, it's disruptive to our sense of religiosity. It can be disruptive. Surrendering to Christ is disruptive. Surrendering to Him as Lord every day and every moment is disruptive. We have to acknowledge I'm not Lord, I'm not boss, I'm not in charge of the world. Jesus is Lord. And we bow our knee to Him. And when we embrace that disruption of Jesus as Savior and as Lord, we find the delight of forgiveness. We find the delight of peace, peace from God and peace with God. When we embrace the disruption that Jesus is our Lord and Savior, when we embrace that, we find this delight that our souls were made for. And so my hope for us is that we would be like Mary and Joseph and so many others throughout history who have embraced the disruption of God coming near. Because when we embrace that disruption, we find delight. Jesus embraced disruption for us. I was reminded this morning of Hebrews 12. Jesus emptied Himself of His privileges to take on the pain of human existence. He humbled Himself in obedience to go to the cross to pay for human sin. He sacrificed Himself to take on the penalty of sin. He embraced all that disruption. And Hebrews 12 says that He did that for the joy set before Him. Jesus embraced disruption, the disruption of the incarnation, the disruption of the cross, the disruption of all those things. He embraced that, why? For the joy set before Him. He embraced it for delight. And so my hope for us over the next four weeks and all of our lives into eternity is that we would embrace the disruption that God's nearness creates. That we would embrace the disruption of surrendering to Him as Savior and Lord, that we would embrace the disruption of drawing near to Him so that we might find the delight that our soul craves. Let's pray to that end together. Lord, thank You for Your kindness to us. Lord, thank You for Your love for us, that You would prophesy to a world of rebellious, sinful people, that You'd prophesy and fulfill this prophecy to a world of people who were running from You, that the Virgin would conceive and bear a son and He would be called Immanuel. Lord, in the midst of all the things that could disrupt us about our lives this next four or five weeks, Lord, I pray that You would capture us, that You'd give us the grace to embrace all of these disruptions in a way that could give us just so much delight in You, and that we would be a people who are so filled with hope and joy and peace that comes from surrendering to You. Lord God, thank You that You came near. Thank You that You came near as a baby, that You are near to us now, and that one day we will get to be near to You in a way that is full and forever. Lord, would You give our hearts hope as we eagerly await that day. We pray all these things in Christ's name, amen.