Text:\u00a0 Isaiah 35: 1-10<\/p>\n
Last Sunday, Karen and I went to the Christmas Pops concert at the Wells Fargo center.\u00a0 It was great.\u00a0 Even better, we didn\u2019t have to pay.\u00a0\u00a0 Thrivent for Lutherans picked up the tab.<\/p>\n
During the concert we heard a few winter songs like jingle bells.\u00a0 But for the most part we listened to the orchestra play and the choir sing so many wonderful Christmas hymns.\u00a0 At one point I found myself closing my eyes.\u00a0\u00a0 And there for a moment I was able to let everything drift away except for the music and my dear wife.<\/p>\n
I think of other times like that when we are with friends.\u00a0 There can come a moment when we laugh and talk and just plain enjoy each other\u2019s company.<\/p>\n
But how quickly it all returns to my mind and heart.\u00a0 My concerns for people in both congregations.\u00a0 The sick, the lonely, the depressed, those with family problems, those out of work.\u00a0 We\u2019d like to think that this time of year only happy things should come into our lives.\u00a0 But as a pastor, as a police chaplain as a father and husband I know what can come, even at Christmas.<\/p>\n
Yet I also know the One who has come into your life and mine.\u00a0 He comes with so many blessings.\u00a0 The apostle John said it this way:\u00a0 From the fullness of his grace we have all received one blessing after another.<\/span>\u00a0 Well one blessing he gives us is this.\u00a0 Something we can cling to when this world bears down on our heart.\u00a0 Hope.\u00a0 That\u2019s \u00a0what this Word of God is about, hope.\u00a0 Not just hope for a people long ago.\u00a0 But for you and me here and now.\u00a0 The Hope of His Coming, his Advent, and what it means.\u00a0 The prophet says it this way:<\/p>\n \u201cBe Strong, Your God Will Come\u201d<\/b>-He has, He will \u00a0(3,4) \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 In the chapter before this one, the prophet paints a frightening picture.\u00a0 A day to come when all the pent up anger of God against a world of unbelieving rebels will be poured out.\u00a0 The Old Testament land of Edom is held up as an example.\u00a0 You see, from day 1, Edom had been an vicious enemy of God\u2019s people, Israel.\u00a0 But the Lord will always have the last word.\u00a0 Edom\u2019s streams will be turned to pitch, her dust into burning sulfur\u2026it will not be quenched night and day; its smoke will rise forever<\/span>. \u00a0A troubling picture of God\u2019s judgment.<\/p>\n But now we come to chapter 35 and there\u2019s this picture of the desert.\u00a0 I lived in the desert of New Mexico for 8 years.\u00a0 There are just a few weeks during the year when you get all the rain.\u00a0 You can almost hear the ground drink it up.\u00a0 So there\u2019s a lot of brown and not a whole lot of green.\u00a0 God\u2019s prophet Isaiah uses that kind of picture here to help us understand what the Lord\u2019s coming means for us.\u00a0 \u00a0Something so different, so wonderful, so unnatural.\u00a0 Something so full of joy.\u00a0 The desert and the parched land will be glad; the wilderness will rejoice and blossom. Like the crocus, 2 <\/sup>it will burst into bloom; it will rejoice greatly and shout for joy.<\/span><\/p>\n To this hopeless desert of a world., a world steeped in guilt and death, our Lord has come.\u00a0 He came as the Child of Mary.\u00a0 He came as our brother to bring us back to God.\u00a0 He came as our Savior to suffer and die for us.\u00a0 And his coming brings a remarkable kind of joy.\u00a0 <\/b><\/p>\n I witnessed it a few weeks ago up in Windsor.\u00a0 A dear lady asked to speak to us after worship.\u00a0 She recently got some news no one ever wants to hear.\u00a0 Yet from her heart came a joy that is ours no matter what.\u00a0 She knows her Lord and Savior and knows he is with her.\u00a0 And she knows what he has prepared for her that nothing can take away.\u00a0 Be strong, your God will come. He has,\u00a0 He will.<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n He will come.<\/b>\u00a0 Right now our joy is often diluted by the worries and troubles of life.\u00a0 But when we see Jesus our joy will be full. We will praise God with a joy we have never known. \u00a0Picture that day and what will be on our hearts and lips. \u00a0This is the Lord, we trusted in him.\u00a0 And he saved us.\u00a0 Let us rejoice and be glad in our salvation<\/span>.\u00a0 He brings a remarkable kind of joy.<\/b><\/p>\n And he brings remarkable change<\/b>.\u00a0 5 Then will the eyes of the blind be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped. <\/span><\/p>\n 6 Then will the lame leap like a deer, and the mute tongue shout for joy<\/span>.\u00a0 The gospels tell us that when the Lord Jesus came on the scene he went through the land preaching and healing every disease.\u00a0 Remember the words of that blind man the religious leaders questioned about Jesus.\u00a0 He told them.\u00a0 That\u2019s all I know is this<\/span> . I was blind but now I see.<\/span>\u00a0 One more remarkable change that showed what the people said was true.\u00a0 God has come to help his people.<\/span><\/p>\n Well he has come to each of us and brought remarkable change<\/b>.\u00a0 Take the same words we just heard.\u00a0 They describe people once blind, deaf, lame and mute.\u00a0 That was you and me in a far worse way.\u00a0 Blind to the light of Christ.\u00a0 Deaf to God\u2019s Word and calling.\u00a0 Lame with no ability to come to God and Mute, unable to praise God or worship him.\u00a0 But when Jesus came to you and was born in your heart, he brought a remarkable change.\u00a0 I once was blind but now I see.\u00a0 So Be strong, your God will come –He has and he will.<\/b><\/p>\n He will.<\/b>\u00a0 Think of these bodies of ours.\u00a0 With King David, we confess that we were fearfully and wonderfully made.\u00a0 Yet we came into this world infected with something that shows itself in so many ways. \u00a0Sin and its consequences.\u00a0 So medical textbooks are full of all the things that can afflict us. \u00a0Joints wear out and get arthritic, minds get demented or sadly depressed; \u00a0kidneys fail, intestines bleed. \u00a0So I have visited some of you in the hospital and some of you have visited me.\u00a0 Be strong, your God will come.\u00a0 He has.\u00a0 He will.<\/b>\u00a0 And when Jesus comes, guess what?\u00a0 All you wonderful medical folks that work so hard to heal will have to find something else to do.\u00a0 For he brings remarkable change.<\/b><\/p>\n And he puts us on a remarkable path<\/b>.\u00a0 Listen.\u00a0 8<\/sup>And a highway will be there<\/span>; A few verses later Isaiah tells us where that highway takes those who travel it.\u00a0 They will enter Zion with singing; everlasting joy will crown their heads<\/span>.\u00a0 As soon as you hear everlasting, you know what he\u2019s talking about.\u00a0 Zion is heaven here.<\/p>\n But who gets to travel that road? There\u2019s something here that might make us wonder.\u00a0 it will be called the Way of Holiness.<\/span><\/p>\n The unclean will not journey on it; it will be for those who walk in that Way<\/span>;\u00a0 If I look at myself in the mirror of God\u2019s commandments, holiness is not a word that comes to mind. The love I owe my Lord\u00a0 and the people around me is a far cry from what I give.<\/p>\n Yet Jesus has put us on this remarkable path.\u00a0 How can that be?\u00a0 There\u2019s a word here that says it all.\u00a0 The word redeemed.<\/i>\u00a0 Only the redeemed will walk there.<\/span>\u00a0 Well that\u2019s what we are: redeemed.\u00a0 Someone has paid a price to set you free.\u00a0 A bitter and terrible price that you could never pay.\u00a0 A bitter and terrible price paid for you by God himself come in human flesh.\u00a0 He has redeemed you and put you on a remarkable path<\/b>.<\/p>\n Think about that path.\u00a0 When I was young my buddy and I went backpacking upstate New York.\u00a0 We had no tent.\u00a0 We made our own lean-to open on three sides.\u00a0 I remember the first night I spent sleeping along the trail.\u00a0 Sleeping is not the word.\u00a0 The ground was hard and I heard every sound.\u00a0 I was sure it had to be a bear or predator coming to make me his dinner.\u00a0 I had my rifle close by my side.<\/p>\n What about this path we travel? \u00a0Again the prophet paints us a picture.\u00a0 9 <\/sup>No lion will be there, nor will any ferocious beast get up on it; they will not be found there.<\/span> \u00a0That\u2019s a picture of safety isn\u2019t it?\u00a0 We who travel this road are completely safe.\u00a0 What do you mean pastor?\u00a0 Christians suffer all kinds of stuff like everyone else.\u00a0 Go to Egypt where Christians suffer terrible persecution.\u00a0 That doesn\u2019t sound very safe!<\/i>\u00a0 But it is.\u00a0 This is a remarkable path<\/b> we are on.\u00a0 Think about it. On this path, God commands his angels to protect us.\u00a0 And he has promised.\u00a0 Nothing can separate us from his love.\u00a0 Nothing can snatch us out of his hand. \u00a0\u00a0In fact everything that comes our way must serve our good.\u00a0 That\u2019s God\u2019s promise too.<\/p>\n So yes, we lay awake sometimes worried and afraid.\u00a0 We lay awake sometimes because this life hurts.\u00a0 But the Lord has put us on a remarkable path. \u00a0So be strong.\u00a0 Your God will come.\u00a0 He has and we will soon sing those Christmas songs of celebration.\u00a0 And he will.<\/b>\u00a0 Jesus will come again and when he does this path will give way to something else. Listen:\u00a0 Gladness and joy will overtake [us] and sorrow and sighing will flee away.<\/span>\u00a0 Amen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Text:\u00a0 Isaiah 35: 1-10 Last Sunday, Karen and I went to the Christmas Pops concert at the Wells Fargo center.\u00a0 It was great.\u00a0 Even better, we didn\u2019t have to pay.\u00a0\u00a0 Thrivent for Lutherans picked up the tab. During the concert we heard a few winter songs like jingle bells.\u00a0 But for the most part we listened to the orchestra play […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-505","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-advent","category-sermon"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/505","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=505"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/505\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":506,"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/505\/revisions\/506"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=505"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=505"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=505"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nI.\u00a0 He brings a remarkable kind of joy
\nII.\u00a0 He brings remarkable change
\nIII.\u00a0 He puts us on a remarkable path.<\/p>\n