PASTOR JOHN COWLES
FAMILY WORSHIP ASSEMBLY

What’s Missing This Christmas?
Isaiah 40:1-11
THE HOPE OF CHRISTMAS

We need not only a future orientation, but we need to remember what God has done in the past and recognize what God is doing in the present.

BROUGHT US FORGIVENESS!
Isaiah 40:1-2 ESV – Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. 2 Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned, that she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.

God sent Jesus, His only son, at Christmas not to right all the wrongs but to REDEEM all who are LOST.

“…her iniquity is pardoned, that she has received from the LORD’S hand double for all her sins.”

Lamentations 3:21-23 ESV - But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: 22 The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; 23 they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.

GOD WILL

Isaiah 40:3-5 ESV – A voice cries: “In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God. 4 Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level,

Isaiah 40:3-5 ESV – and the rough places a plain. 5 And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”

The Lord is coming. In the wilderness prepare the way of the LORD; make straight in the desert a highway for our God.

Isaiah 40:5 ESV – And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.

Hebrews 1:3 ESV – He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power.

Titus 2:11-13 ESV – For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, 12 training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age,

Titus 2:11-13 ESV – waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ.

Ezekiel 36:26-27 ESV – And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 27 And I will put my Spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.

IT’S A

Isaiah 40:6-7 ESV – A voice says, “Cry!” And I said, “What shall I cry?” All flesh is grass, and all its beauty is like the flower of the field. 7 The grass withers, the flower fades when the breath of the Lord blows on it; surely the people are grass.

Isaiah 40:8 ESV – The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever.

Isaiah 40:9 ESV – Go on up to a high mountain, O Zion, herald of good news;
lift up your voice with strength, O Jerusalem, herald of good news; lift it up, fear not; say to the cities of Judah, “Behold your God!”

1 Peter 1:13b ESV – …set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.