The Warrior of Love: Finding Comfort in the Fullness of God’s Character

[00:05:29] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]:
Welcome to First Presbyterian Church of Mooresville, where our mission is loving God, loving people, and making disciples.
[00:05:34] As we begin our time of worship today, please join me in our call to worship from Psalm 117.
[00:05:39] You can read in your bulletin or follow along on the screen.
[00:05:44] Praise the Lord, all you nations.
[00:05:46] Give praise, all you peoples.
[00:05:49] For the lovingkindness of the Lord toward us is great, and the faithfulness of the Lord endures forever.
[00:05:56] Hallelujah.
[00:05:58] And now please join me in our prayer of invocation.
[00:06:01] Lord God, you have revealed your kindness to all peoples.
[00:06:06] Gather all nations to yourself, that in all the various tongues of the earth one hymn of praise may rise to you.
[00:06:14] Through Jesus Christ our Lord.
[00:06:17] Amen.
[00:06:19] Please stand as we sing our first hymn.
[00:08:23] Amen.
[00:08:24] Let us now affirm our faith together using the Apostles' Creed.
[00:08:28] And I would ask you, O Christian, what is it that you believe?
[00:08:32] I believe in God the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified dead and buried.
[00:08:51] He descended into hell.
[00:08:52] The third day he rose again from the dead.
[00:08:56] He ascended into heaven and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty.
[00:09:02] From thence He shall come to judge the quick and the dead.
[00:09:05] I believe in the Holy Ghost, the Holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting.
[00:09:18] Amen.
[00:09:18] You may be seated.

[00:09:26] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]:
Our lineup is a children's sermon, but I look out and I don't see children, and I don't think our college and high school are really wanting to come forward.
[00:09:35] So we'll continue on in worship.
[00:09:37] I know Dave, his voice is bad today, so we're going to change the anthem to a hymn.
[00:09:41] What number is that?
[00:09:44] Hymn number 219.
[00:09:46] And we will help.
[00:09:48] Dave was going to sing, David was going to sing a solo, but we will now sing together as part of worship.
[00:09:53] Let's continue in worship.
[00:09:54] If they will please stand.

[00:12:12] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]:
you may be seated not too many announcements for us this morning we will resume our usual three services come next sunday but i do just want to affirm you all for coming today i know with all the holidays and the busyness of life it's still good to see people who dedicate time to come to church and for all of us to come and worship and so please um join me now for a moment of prayer
[00:12:42] Heavenly Father, we give you thanks in this time and season of Christmas and as we soon enter a new year.
[00:12:51] We simply honor you and glorify you.
[00:12:55] We thank you for the joy of gifts, the joy of family, and the joy of community and time together.
[00:13:02] and Lord we just praise you as we remember the gift of Christ who came to be like us to save us to redeem us to remind us how loved we are by God so in all this Lord we ask that you join us now in this time of worship in this time of fellowship and gathering and we ask for your blessing upon it please receive our worship
[00:13:26] Receive our presence here and that you would fill this space with your presence, with your peace, with your hope, and with your joy.
[00:13:35] But above all, fill us with your love, Holy Spirit.
[00:13:39] Fill us with the thing of heaven, the thing that unites all believers in the church together, the love of Christ, the grace and mercy of Christ.
[00:13:48] And we're just grateful, Lord Jesus, for who you are and all that you have done.
[00:13:52] This day, Heavenly Father, I lift up this congregation before you and this church.
[00:13:56] Let us pray.
[00:14:26] That there would be your comfort, that there would be your presence in their lives to show them your faithfulness, to show them your power, to show them your compassion.
[00:14:38] Father, I ask that you would have mercy on the weak, have mercy on the lost, on the lonely, on the oppressed.
[00:14:45] Have mercy on us, Lord, when we stray from the path, when we get distracted, when we take our eyes off of you.
[00:14:53] Bring us back, Lord Jesus, to the fold.
[00:14:55] Have mercy on our hearts, on our souls when we fall into sin and our hearts are wayward and we turn to serve ourselves.
[00:15:07] Christ, this is all about how we can serve others and give to others and love others, but we are so quick to love ourselves.
[00:15:15] So I ask and pray for your forgiveness that you would cleanse us and restore us
[00:15:22] As you always do with your wonderful grace for those who turn to you again.
[00:15:28] But I'm thankful, Lord, the whole message of Christmas is that when we were unworthy, when we were foolish and in our sin, you came and you drew near to us.
[00:15:39] So this day, God, I lean on the gospel of Christ that we are redeemed and forgiven in the name of Jesus and that we can experience and enjoy that eternal new life today.
[00:15:52] Father I ask your blessing upon this church that all ministry that happens here that all those who come in and go out would experience your new life today would every single day even in the new year as the years pass that we would all continually experience the joy of Christmas the joy of Emmanuel of God with us the God that is with us every day every morning and every night
[00:16:20] We can lean on the faithfulness of God.
[00:16:25] We pray all these things in the most holy name of Christ and together let us pray that prayer he taught us to pray.
[00:16:31] Our Father who art in heaven hallowed be thy name thy kingdom come thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever amen
[00:17:00] Please stand as we sing our next hymn.

[00:19:46] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]:
Please be seated.
[00:19:53] So this December and part of January, we've been preaching from the lectionary.
[00:19:59] I talked with my children about this and they're like, you may need to explain to the congregation what the lectionary is.
[00:20:05] Does that make sense?
[00:20:06] Have you heard pastors say they have preached from the lectionary?
[00:20:10] There's a three-year preaching.
[00:20:13] I guess the concept is a three-year cycle of Bible readings pastors can draw from to preach.
[00:20:23] And normally on a given Sunday, there'll be an Old Testament passage, a New Testament, a Psalm, and then a Gospel.
[00:20:32] And it goes in seasons.
[00:20:35] So during the Advent season, we've been looking
[00:20:38] In these cycles, in these seasons over a three-year period, the strength of the lectionary is you can find from that global unity.
[00:20:56] There have been Sundays where my family's been at lunch and I've met someone who may be from the Methodist church and they'll say, oh, what was your passage today?
[00:21:04] And sometimes you can discuss, you preached from the same sermon, lectionary, and it can unite the church worldwide through the themes.
[00:21:15] Another strength of the lectionary is you get a holistic approach to Scripture.
[00:21:21] Some of us pastors have a tendency to lean towards some of our go-to, let's stick with the Gospel or your favorite letter.
[00:21:26] This exposes a congregation to the fullness of Scripture.
[00:21:32] And then also, I do think there is
[00:21:35] We as a church mostly preach sermon series and we do try to do Old Testament, New Testament and see how they work together but again there's a richness to that holistic approach.
[00:21:49] Now one of the negatives I've learned from preaching this pattern is that there's a tendency, I've noticed, in the lectionary to skip over
[00:22:01] I don't know the way to put it.
[00:22:03] Uncomfortable passages or verses.
[00:22:08] So this morning as I present to you Isaiah 63 verses 7 through 9, there are three verses that really highlight the tenderness or the loving kindness of God.
[00:22:22] But I noticed this week as I was really studying the passage that
[00:22:28] They skipped over the first six verses of Isaiah 63.
[00:22:32] It's a little more difficult.
[00:22:35] When I was a young pastor, age 35, my first year of preaching, I remember preaching from the lectionary.
[00:22:39] It was Daniel, beautiful passage on Daniel in the lion's den.
[00:22:42] And you see the divine rescue of an angel coming and shutting the mouths of the lions.
[00:22:49] After presenting that sermon, one of the intellectuals in our group, he had an Ivy League education.
[00:22:56] He came up and he said, Dave, why did you skip the tough part?
[00:23:00] I said, what do you mean?
[00:23:01] He said, well, you read the next paragraph, and although Daniel was rescued, the guards were thrown into the lion's den along with their wives and children.
[00:23:09] What's up with that?
[00:23:11] you know and then we had a great conversation and it made me realize that when you preach from the lectionary how important it is to provide context verses 1 through 6 might make some of you uncomfortable but I want to give you the context and the wholeness of what is taking place in this passage it's a terrifying image
[00:23:38] If you have your Bibles, you might be curious right now, you can open up to Isaiah 63, those first six verses, we see a blood-soaked warrior coming from the capital of Edom towards Israel, and he identifies himself as a divine warrior.
[00:23:56] He's announcing vindication, expressing wrath and vengeance, and at the same time a desire to save.
[00:24:04] We see he exclaims victory over the enemy and he describes it in terms of stomping grapes in a wine press.
[00:24:14] Hence the juice splattered garments.
[00:24:20] Then it shifts to the beautiful three verses that we'll emphasize this morning.
[00:24:25] Let me read to you Isaiah 63, the first six verses before we get to our lectionary passage.
[00:24:33] Isaiah 63 verse 1 Who is this that comes from Edom, from Basra, in garment stained crimson?
[00:24:44] Who is this so splendidly robed, marching in his great might?
[00:24:48] It is I, announcing vindication, mighty to save.
[00:24:54] Why are your robes red, and your garments like theirs who tread the winepress?
[00:25:00] I have trodden the winepress alone,
[00:25:03] and from the peoples no one was with me.
[00:25:06] I trod them in my anger and trampled them in my wrath.
[00:25:10] Their juice spattered on my garments and stained all my robes for the day of vengeance was in my heart and the year for my redeeming work had come.
[00:25:20] I looked but there was no helper, I stared but there was no one to sustain me, so my own arm brought me victory and my wrath sustained me.
[00:25:33] I trampled down peoples in my anger, I crushed them in my wrath, and I poured out their lifeblood on the earth.
[00:25:44] That's a terrifying image, isn't it?
[00:25:47] And then it shifts in verse seven.
[00:25:50] So I raise a question this morning.
[00:25:53] In what way can we find comfort in this blood-stained image?
[00:26:01] It's a passage of comfort this morning.
[00:26:03] In what way can we find comfort when there's a bloody warrior coming towards us?
[00:26:11] Verse 7 through 9 will explain and then we'll work through the passage in the fullness of its context.
[00:26:19] I'm going to say a prayer and then I'll read these for three verses.
[00:26:21] Lord, I thank you for the gift of your word.
[00:26:25] I thank you that every stroke of the pen is God-breathed, from Genesis to Revelation.
[00:26:33] Lord, I thank you that you are 100% righteous, you are 100% love, not 50-50, and Lord, through your Holy Spirit, bring this message to life, help us to understand what you're saying, and through that understanding, may we gain deeper confidence in who you are and how you care.
[00:26:54] We pray these things in Jesus' name, amen.
[00:26:57] Now we'll get to the tender part.
[00:27:00] Isaiah 63, 7-9 I will recount the gracious deeds of the Lord, the praiseworthy acts of the Lord, because of all that the Lord has done for us, and the great favor to the house of Israel that he has shown them according to his mercy, according to the abundance of his steadfast love.
[00:27:21] For he said, Surely they are my people, children who do not deal falsely.
[00:27:27] And he became their Savior in all their distress.
[00:27:30] It was no messenger or angel, but his presence that saved them.
[00:27:35] In his love and in his pity he redeemed them.
[00:27:38] He lifted them up and carried them all the days of old.
[00:27:43] This is the word of the Lord.
[00:27:48] Again, I've raised the question, in what way can we find comfort in the blood-stained image when we see this passage in the fullness of its context?
[00:27:57] First point I wanna make is this.
[00:28:00] When we see the fullness of the passage, we also see the fullness of God's holy character.
[00:28:08] It's important for us to understand the wholeness, the fullness of God, every aspect of God.
[00:28:13] He's holy, he's perfect.
[00:28:16] We see in verses seven through nine, it says his steadfast love, we see that part of him, it's exceedingly tender.
[00:28:26] And we find comfort in that.
[00:28:29] We find comfort in verse seven.
[00:28:32] It uses the Hebrew term hesed.
[00:28:36] That's hard to translate that to English.
[00:28:39] Our translation in our Bibles, the Pew Bibles, translates that as steadfast love.
[00:28:46] And I'll do my best to give you a broader sense of the term.
[00:28:49] Hesed, yes, steadfast love, it also means loyal, steady love.
[00:28:57] Love that doesn't waver, it's not fragile, it's not emotional up and down, just a feeling.
[00:29:05] Loyal, steady, it's covenantal faithfulness.
[00:29:10] Love that keeps showing up, you know, in a covenant, even if the other half
[00:29:16] It doesn't show up.
[00:29:19] It's faithful, covenantally.
[00:29:22] It's also kindness that doesn't quit.
[00:29:26] It's love that acts.
[00:29:29] It's deeds, you know, love in action.
[00:29:34] When it speaks here in verse seven of the abundance, the abundance of God's steadfast love, it's very tender.
[00:29:42] It's very reassuring.
[00:29:45] It's the type love you can count on.
[00:29:48] It's God's faithfulness.
[00:29:50] I think Lamentations has the most famous use of that.
[00:29:54] Lamentations chapter three, the steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, yes?
[00:30:01] His mercy never comes to an end.
[00:30:03] It is new every morning, new every morning.
[00:30:05] Great is thy faithfulness, O Lord.
[00:30:08] That's a beautiful passage.
[00:30:11] It's been set to hymns and praise songs.
[00:30:15] The beauty of this type of love, the tenderness of God, is that he's consistent and patient when you and I are all over the map.
[00:30:25] Yes, we can be, he's consistent and he's patient.
[00:30:33] He's gracious and merciful when we show rebellion, when we're disobedient.
[00:30:39] He will be for us
[00:30:41] Be there for us 100% of the time.
[00:30:44] Sometimes when we're compartmentalizing things.
[00:30:47] Yes, I'll share this with God, but this is mine.
[00:30:51] Or sometimes when we forget.
[00:30:53] When facing a battle, we think, Lord, help me through this battle.
[00:30:56] But when we're enjoying entertainment, sometimes we say, God, stay back there in the closet.
[00:31:02] This is my time.
[00:31:06] He always keeps his promises.
[00:31:09] Even when we are unfaithful.
[00:31:13] So the fullness of God's holy character, we got the tender side, his steadfast love.
[00:31:18] Well, God's tenderness does not contradict with his wrath, or maybe I should say it the opposite way.
[00:31:24] His wrath does not contradict his tenderness.
[00:31:30] I mentioned this in my prayer.
[00:31:31] God's justice protects his love.
[00:31:34] God is 100% loving.
[00:31:37] God is love.
[00:31:37] 100%.
[00:31:39] That's the definition of love.
[00:31:41] God also is 100% righteous.
[00:31:47] And his justice can protect his love.
[00:31:52] God hates sin.
[00:31:54] God hates all sin.
[00:31:56] God hates sin 100% of the time and he takes it upon himself to address sin with justice.
[00:32:02] He becomes righteously angry
[00:32:06] We see that in Scripture.
[00:32:09] Righteously angry when the poor are exploited.
[00:32:15] We see through the judges and through the prophets, he's righteously angry when the diseased or those with certain challenges or handicaps are set aside.
[00:32:30] That makes a righteous God angry and he does not sin in his anger.
[00:32:36] He's 100% love, 100% righteousness.
[00:32:40] It's not the Old Testament is the righteous side and the New Testament is the loving side.
[00:32:44] He's 50-50, no.
[00:32:46] He's 100% love in the Old Testament.
[00:32:48] He's 100% righteousness in the New.
[00:32:50] From cover to cover, God reveals himself.
[00:32:53] That's the fullness of God's character.
[00:32:58] So we see this image of a blood-soaked warrior in the first six verses and it's emphasizing God's justice.
[00:33:10] It's a picture of his righteous judgment towards sin and evil and those who have completely rejected him.
[00:33:18] That's one side of God, but it's also a picture of one who protects his children and fights for their salvation.
[00:33:29] We can't neglect.
[00:33:31] We can't just emphasize the God of love and the comfort and the beauty of being nurtured.
[00:33:37] We must, as believers, see the fullness of God's character.
[00:33:42] We don't do our children any service by protecting them from what, there's nothing we need to protect our children from from the fullness of God.
[00:33:51] We don't need to edit the Bible or block out certain things that may seem less palatable.
[00:34:00] His justice, His righteousness is so important.
[00:34:03] It's so central to the story of salvation.
[00:34:10] To you and I finding peace.
[00:34:13] So this bloodstained image not only shows the fullness of God's holy character, it also shows us what God has done on our behalf.
[00:34:23] That vision of the future.
[00:34:24] Now, verse seven tells the reader to look back.
[00:34:30] Look back.
[00:34:33] Isaiah shifts from the image of a blood-soaked warrior to remembering the gracious deeds of the Lord, his praiseworthy acts.
[00:34:41] He emphasizes all the Lord has done for his people, the great favor or the grace shown upon Israel as a nation, God's chosen one.
[00:34:52] and then all of this is according to God's mercy and the abundance of his steadfast love.
[00:34:59] Isaiah recalls the Exodus, it's alluded to in these three verses.
[00:35:05] The Exodus, God delivering Israel from Egypt.
[00:35:11] God's heart was moved by their suffering.
[00:35:15] He became their savior in all their distress.
[00:35:17] He was not distant from the pain of the Israelites.
[00:35:22] He actually entered in.
[00:35:26] There's a phrase here in these verses where he says, Isaiah says, it was not a messenger or an angel.
[00:35:34] You know what he's talking about here?
[00:35:35] You know what he's alluding to?
[00:35:38] There's Exodus chapter 23.
[00:35:42] where it speaks in that portion of scripture of God tells Israel to follow his angel through the wilderness and listen to the voice of this angel.
[00:35:52] You know who that was?
[00:35:54] The pre-incarnate Jesus who entered in in the form of an angel and led the Israelites.
[00:36:04] He carried them through a difficult time as they were being rescued.
[00:36:11] Isaiah is saying, look back.
[00:36:13] Also, Exodus 33, Moses pleads for God's presence and God says, quote, my presence will go with you and I will give you rest.
[00:36:21] We serve a God who enters in.
[00:36:23] He doesn't just feel our pain from a distance.
[00:36:26] He enters into our pain and our suffering and comes alongside and even carries us as he leads.
[00:36:39] Isaiah makes it clear it was not a messenger or angel that was with them, but it was God's presence.
[00:36:46] The angel was Jesus.
[00:36:50] So Isaiah is saying, look back.
[00:36:53] The exodus from Egypt was a shadow of things to come.
[00:36:56] Look what God has done on our behalf in the history.
[00:36:59] Well, now that was roughly 2700 years ago when Isaiah was speaking.
[00:37:08] You and I, as we look back, we not only see his great deeds rescuing Israel from Egypt, but we, this is where it's part of our lectionary, we see this all in light of Christmas, the first advent, yes?
[00:37:27] Jesus not only, God not only understands our pain of a broken world, but he enters in, right?
[00:37:36] What does Emmanuel mean?
[00:37:39] God with us.
[00:37:40] O come, O come, Emmanuel.
[00:37:43] We now can see this in light of the birth of Jesus.
[00:37:46] Now the first advent, Jesus came as a suffering servant, yes?
[00:37:53] And his blood-soaked clothing was his own, correct?
[00:38:00] Look what he did on our behalf.
[00:38:02] He conquered sin and death.
[00:38:06] In a moment we'll look at this passage is about and his garments are stained in a different way but he came as the suffering servant so as Isaiah recalls the exodus we as we look in light of the gospel we can recall not only the exodus which was a foreshadowing of things to come but the coming of Emmanuel the birth of the Christ child so looking back
[00:38:35] To the exodus, looking back to Christmas, we can be encouraged.
[00:38:42] Finally, through a proper understanding of the blood-stained image presented by Isaiah, we can find confidence in what God will do.
[00:38:56] Verses one through six of Isaiah 63 is a vision of the future.
[00:39:04] It's a picture of Christ's second coming.
[00:39:07] It's the day of the Lord.
[00:39:11] It's a day of judgment.
[00:39:13] God is 100% righteous.
[00:39:15] He's coming from Eden, this warrior that's no longer the suffering servant.
[00:39:19] That was the first advent.
[00:39:21] He's now a warrior coming from Edom.
[00:39:22] Edom represented all nations hostile to God, and Basra, the capital of Egypt, the translation for Basra is grape gathering.
[00:39:33] So we see a warrior
[00:39:35] A divine warrior with the blood of judgment covering, splattered, spattered on his robe like people who've been stomping grapes in a wine press.
[00:39:50] This was the blood of judgment versus the suffering servant.
[00:39:54] It also represents victory not only against hostile nations but towards the greater enemy, Satan himself.
[00:40:02] The day of vengeance, which belongs to the Lord alone.
[00:40:06] He's the judge.
[00:40:07] We're told as believers, leave that to God.
[00:40:11] God is judge, vengeance is his.
[00:40:14] We show forgiveness, we show mercy, we pray for our enemies, but there will be a day when we're all accountable.
[00:40:21] A day of the Lord, a day of vengeance, which will bring not only victory, but will consummate the redeeming work of Christ that has already been won.
[00:40:31] He's consummating that victory won through his death on the cross and his resurrection.
[00:40:38] Again, all done on our behalf.
[00:40:41] It's a picture of his second coming of judgment, but he is coming to save his children.
[00:40:48] So it's also a picture of redemption.
[00:40:52] As he comes from Edom to Israel,
[00:40:55] Victory has been won.
[00:40:59] The enemy has been defeated.
[00:41:01] He's coming to save his children and not only the remnant of Israel but those who've placed their faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, Jews and Gentiles alike.
[00:41:15] This warrior is 100% righteous.
[00:41:18] He's 100% love.
[00:41:21] John 3.16, For God so loved the world
[00:41:26] that he sent his only begotten son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have life eternal.
[00:41:34] So what should our response be to this image?
[00:41:40] We see the righteous side, we see the tender side.
[00:41:43] What should our response be?
[00:41:46] One, here's a take home, we should trust him with all of our battles, yes?
[00:41:54] Not only with
[00:41:55] Flesh and blood, but the spiritual battle.
[00:41:57] And so often we try to take things into our own hands.
[00:42:00] We've been told the battle has been won.
[00:42:02] I don't know what your current battle might be.
[00:42:05] Maybe it's something in the mind, maybe it's something spiritual, maybe you're fighting something physical.
[00:42:11] We should trust Him with our battles.
[00:42:14] He alone, He alone finds ultimate, can obtain ultimate victory on our behalf.
[00:42:25] We should also worship him for what he has done.
[00:42:29] He has a proven track record from the deliverance of Israel in Egypt, his saving presence of the pre-incarnate Christ, to his sacrificial death on the cross, securing eternal salvation.
[00:42:46] That's why we lift up his name.
[00:42:48] And folks, sometimes we need to step back on a Sunday morning and take off our critique hats.
[00:42:54] Oh, I didn't really like that voice.
[00:42:56] Oh, I didn't really like that style.
[00:42:58] Oh, I didn't really feel it this morning.
[00:43:01] Worship's not about you.
[00:43:03] It's about him.
[00:43:05] We need to step back.
[00:43:07] We lose sight of that, don't we?
[00:43:09] Worship is about him.
[00:43:11] If you don't like a particular style, just change the posture of your heart.
[00:43:17] Lord, thank you for what you've done.
[00:43:19] I'm here to worship you.
[00:43:23] I'm nothing without you.
[00:43:27] We should worship him for what he's done.
[00:43:30] And the final take home that I wanna emphasize, we should hope in his final victory.
[00:43:36] It's not wishful thinking.
[00:43:38] You know, God, it's a guaranteed promise.
[00:43:40] The Lord is always good to his word.
[00:43:43] It will be a terrifying day.
[00:43:45] We're told to be expectant.
[00:43:48] will come like a thief in the night.
[00:43:50] Christ's return.
[00:43:50] It will be a terrifying day for some, but for those who've placed their trust in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, it's a day where everything will be made right.
[00:44:04] Evil, death, the evil one, Satan, will be conquered.
[00:44:09] There'll be a new heaven and a new earth.
[00:44:14] Things will be made right.
[00:44:17] And we can be comforted by that thought.
[00:44:19] Through faith in Him, you'll be secure.
[00:44:23] Through faith in Him, you have eternal salvation.
[00:44:28] Through faith in Him, actually, victory has already been won, but it will be sealed on that day.
[00:44:34] No more pain, no more tears, no more sorrow.
[00:44:42] So we close this time.
[00:44:44] Let's express hearts of gratitude to the Lord.
[00:44:47] All he's done and all that he's doing and the hope that he presents, that certain hope of what will finally take place.
[00:44:56] Please join me.
[00:45:03] Heavenly Father, we thank you for the comfort and challenge of your word.
[00:45:09] We thank you for the promises that you are always so faithful
[00:45:14] You're a God of faithfulness.
[00:45:17] You do not break your covenants even when we, as sheep, are prone to wander.
[00:45:26] You're faithful when we're unfaithful.
[00:45:29] Lord, we thank you that you're a God that enters in to our lives and to this world.
[00:45:36] You can identify with our pain and our hurt and our sorrow and there's nothing that we have experienced that you haven't.
[00:45:45] We thank you for the gift of your son, Jesus Christ, Emmanuel, God with us, what he has done on our behalf.
[00:45:53] Lord, we thank you for the hope of our future.
[00:45:56] There's some that are mourning loved ones this Christmas, and we have that certain hope that through your son, Jesus, in Christ, they've been made whole.
[00:46:04] In Christ, we will see them again.
[00:46:06] And Lord, there will be that day.
[00:46:11] And we thank you for not sugarcoating it.
[00:46:16] but showing your character in its fullness.
[00:46:17] You're a God of love and you are 100% tender but you're also a God of righteousness and you will make things right.
[00:46:27] And we trust you with that.
[00:46:29] And we worship you for that.
[00:46:32] Lord, as we close out this time, with your strength, we posture our hearts towards you as we close this service and we express our love for you.
[00:46:42] We pray all these things in Jesus' name, amen.
[00:47:34] It's very heartening to look out and see so many of you here.
[00:47:37] This is actually considered one of the down Sundays of the calendar year, and to just have a two-thirds full church and to worship together, what a blessing that's been.
[00:47:45] Thank you for being here, and we're here to glorify him.
[00:47:48] As we leave this place, may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, may the love of God our Father, may the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with each and every one of you, now and forever, amen.