Sermons

Introduction:

As people of God we want our Christmas to be more than a secular holiday. So during Advent we study the prophecies and promises of God that prepared for the coming of the Christ. In history, God used prophets like Isaiah to help people recognize Jesus, the Messiah, when he arrived in Galilee. Now in our worship, God uses the Scriptures to plant holy longings in our hearts. God seeks to give the body of Christ the desire to participate in our Lord's coming into the empty spaces and dark places of human life today. During our preparations for a Christmas of spiritual change and personal restoration let us use this worship time to examine God's dream of peace, the depth of our need for God's kind of peace, and the way God's peace is coming into the world in our times. All this is shared with us through Isaiah's vision of the human community God desires into being. Isaiah will help us understand the depth of God's longing. The scripture and our corporate worship today will help us experience such a knowledge of God's heart that we can find the satisfaction and security we need for life. That first Christmas night God sent the angels to sing of "Peace on Earth." May we find new meaning in that gospel of peace and hope when we hear it again this year.