WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:07.000 Isaiah 40 verses 1 to 11 and Gloria is going to come and read it for us. So Gloria, over to you. 00:00:11.080 --> 00:00:12.580 Good morning church. 00:00:14.900 --> 00:00:17.859 Isaiah 40, 1 to 11. 00:00:18.760 --> 00:00:21.379 Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. 00:00:21.940 --> 00:00:28.699 Speak tenderly to Jerusalem and proclaim to her that her hard service has been completed, 00:00:28.699 --> 00:00:37.179 that her sin has been paid for, that she has received from the Lord's hand double for her sins. 00:00:37.979 --> 00:00:42.659 A voice of one calling in the wilderness, prepare the way for the Lord, 00:00:43.219 --> 00:00:47.000 make straight in the desert a highway for our God. 00:00:47.799 --> 00:00:52.980 Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low. 00:00:52.980 --> 00:00:58.359 The rough ground shall become level, the rugged places a plain. 00:00:58.700 --> 00:01:05.060 And the glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all people will see it together. 00:01:06.180 --> 00:01:08.400 For the mouth of the Lord has spoken. 00:01:09.680 --> 00:01:12.000 A voice says, cry out. 00:01:12.700 --> 00:01:14.540 And I said, what shall I cry? 00:01:15.540 --> 00:01:21.980 All the people are like grass, and all their faithfulness is like the flowers of the field. 00:01:21.980 --> 00:01:28.719 The grass withers and the flowers fall, because the breath of the Lord blows on them. 00:01:29.359 --> 00:01:31.100 Surely the people are grass. 00:01:31.880 --> 00:01:37.480 The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God endures forever. 00:01:37.480 --> 00:01:43.280 You who bring good news to Zion, go up on a high mountain. 00:01:43.980 --> 00:01:48.840 You who bring good news to Jerusalem, lift up your voice with a shout. 00:01:49.439 --> 00:01:50.260 Lift it up. 00:01:50.640 --> 00:01:51.640 Do not be afraid. 00:01:52.340 --> 00:01:57.500 Say to the towns of Judah, here is your God. 00:01:57.500 --> 00:02:01.060 See, the sovereign Lord has come to power. 00:02:02.019 --> 00:02:04.640 And he rules with a mighty arm. 00:02:05.180 --> 00:02:10.159 See, his reward is with him, and his recompense accompanies him. 00:02:11.259 --> 00:02:13.360 He tends his flock like a shepherd. 00:02:14.039 --> 00:02:18.759 He gathers the lamb in his arms and carries them close to his heart. 00:02:19.439 --> 00:02:22.639 He gently leads those that have a young. 00:02:23.360 --> 00:02:24.360 Praise the Lord. 00:02:24.360 --> 00:02:25.360 Amen. 00:02:27.760 --> 00:02:28.360 Thank you, Gloria. 00:02:28.440 --> 00:02:30.440 Let's pray together as we come to look at God's word. 00:02:30.520 --> 00:02:30.860 Let's pray. 00:02:35.200 --> 00:02:39.660 Father, we want to pray and just ask for your help now as we come and look at your word. 00:02:41.720 --> 00:02:48.620 I'm really conscious that I have nothing to offer, but you have everything, Lord. 00:02:49.940 --> 00:02:51.140 Please speak to us. 00:02:51.140 --> 00:02:53.680 Words of comfort and joy and peace. 00:02:54.360 --> 00:02:55.580 We need you, Lord. 00:02:55.700 --> 00:02:56.680 We long to hear you. 00:02:57.340 --> 00:02:59.620 We ask for your help and the work of your spirit. 00:02:59.780 --> 00:03:00.480 In Jesus' name. 00:03:00.940 --> 00:03:01.240 Amen. 00:03:04.700 --> 00:03:10.980 I think we have to say, don't we, that despite all our best efforts in life, 00:03:10.979 --> 00:03:18.859 in one way or another, most of our lives are, to some extent, uncomfortable, aren't they? 00:03:20.359 --> 00:03:25.439 For some of us, we've perhaps only experienced the discomfort of this world in quite small ways. 00:03:25.439 --> 00:03:29.560 Maybe just a broken dream or a disappointing exam result or something like that. 00:03:29.560 --> 00:03:40.699 But the truth is, if you live long enough, that's all you really have to do is live long enough and your life will be disrupted by the discomfort of our broken world. 00:03:40.699 --> 00:03:43.959 Marriage breakdown. 00:03:43.960 --> 00:03:44.960 Family chaos. 00:03:44.960 --> 00:03:45.719 Family chaos. 00:03:46.300 --> 00:03:50.219 The death of parents, siblings, spouses, children. 00:03:51.800 --> 00:03:53.439 Sexual and physical abuse. 00:03:53.580 --> 00:03:54.460 Unemployment. 00:03:55.340 --> 00:03:57.860 Unshakable depression or anxiety. 00:03:58.379 --> 00:03:59.580 Schizophrenia, even. 00:04:00.300 --> 00:04:01.460 Guilt for past sins. 00:04:01.620 --> 00:04:02.060 Loneliness. 00:04:02.860 --> 00:04:04.520 Chronic pain from physical illness. 00:04:04.719 --> 00:04:05.460 Persecution. 00:04:05.740 --> 00:04:06.100 War. 00:04:06.560 --> 00:04:06.900 Hunger. 00:04:06.900 --> 00:04:15.060 It seems, doesn't it, that at Christmastime, those sorts of things come much more clearly into our focus, don't we? 00:04:15.060 --> 00:04:20.199 It is the discomfort of this life which comes to the fore at Christmastime. 00:04:20.199 --> 00:04:23.259 It's the absence of comfort that you feel profoundly. 00:04:24.000 --> 00:04:29.740 I was speaking to a friend on the phone this week, a dear friend, who was just telling me about what's going on in his family life 00:04:29.740 --> 00:04:33.780 and the trouble that his adult children are in, in various different ways. 00:04:33.779 --> 00:04:39.539 And it just seems like right now, as you come up to Christmas, it is particularly acute. 00:04:40.679 --> 00:04:50.559 As you know that the people who you're going to be sitting around that Christmas table with are not comfortable people, but uncomfortable people. 00:04:51.599 --> 00:04:53.179 It's hard to pretend, isn't it? 00:04:54.000 --> 00:04:59.399 And as you come to Isaiah 40, and we're going to spend the next three weeks in Isaiah 40 in the build-up to Christmas. 00:04:59.399 --> 00:05:06.539 As we come to Isaiah 40, what you find is that Isaiah knows exactly what that discomfort is like. 00:05:07.319 --> 00:05:12.399 His world and our world are not that different, despite the fact there's, you know, over 2,000 years in between them. 00:05:13.319 --> 00:05:17.319 In the verses that precede our chapter, if you look up at chapter 39, 00:05:17.319 --> 00:05:24.240 Isaiah had just been telling King Hezekiah that Judah itself was going to be carried off into exile in Babylon. 00:05:25.180 --> 00:05:32.019 And the king, the treasures of his kingdom, and the people would be dragged off to this foreign city and nothing would be left. 00:05:32.740 --> 00:05:43.980 You know, he's saying to them, listen, in your future, King Hezekiah, lie invasion, genocide, robbery, human trafficking, hunger, poverty, destitution. 00:05:43.980 --> 00:05:47.500 All of those things are coming your way, says Isaiah. 00:05:48.340 --> 00:05:50.060 Discomfort. 00:05:51.600 --> 00:06:00.860 And then, in chapter 40, verse 1, God says, comfort, comfort my people. 00:06:02.040 --> 00:06:09.360 And what you've then got in these first 11 verses of chapter 40 are essentially four comforting voices. 00:06:09.360 --> 00:06:14.280 It's four comforting voices that speak words of comfort to the people. 00:06:14.920 --> 00:06:22.060 So let's just work our way through those four voices, not verses, four voices, and see what they have to say to us today as well. 00:06:22.280 --> 00:06:23.560 So the first voice is this. 00:06:24.199 --> 00:06:27.040 The first voice is tender words about forgiveness. 00:06:27.220 --> 00:06:28.139 Tender words about forgiveness. 00:06:28.220 --> 00:06:29.319 That's in verses 1 and 2. 00:06:29.319 --> 00:06:38.079 There's been the perennial problem in the book of Isaiah, and we're landing right in the middle of it, so let me just kind of cut some corners and tell you what's been going on. 00:06:38.079 --> 00:06:52.039 The perennial problem in the book of Isaiah is that the discomfort, the brokenness that the people of God are facing is, to a large extent, the result of their sinfulness, their wickedness. 00:06:52.199 --> 00:06:57.360 The chaos and the discomfort in their world was nothing more than what they deserved. 00:06:57.360 --> 00:07:09.939 Now, that's not to say, and this is important, it's not to say that each individual Israelite got proportionally the discomfort that they exactly deserved because of what they had personally done wrong. 00:07:10.000 --> 00:07:10.699 That's not what it's saying. 00:07:11.060 --> 00:07:19.240 But that in general terms, the discomfort of the nation of Israel was a result of their rebellion against and their rejection of God. 00:07:19.240 --> 00:07:27.060 The pain of exile, the conquest of their nation, the destruction of the temple that's to come, the humbling. 00:07:27.720 --> 00:07:35.019 All of that is, if you like, and it says it is a work of God, but it is a strange work of God in the book of Isaiah. 00:07:35.019 --> 00:07:40.599 This is an unusual work of God in bringing judgment on his people. 00:07:41.599 --> 00:07:49.539 The unbending goodness of a holy God meets the sinful rebellion of his people and comes discomfort. 00:07:50.899 --> 00:07:57.939 In other words, the harsh reality is that there can be no true comfort unless there is divine forgiveness. 00:07:57.939 --> 00:08:01.379 That's the thing that's been set up in the book of Isaiah. 00:08:02.040 --> 00:08:06.759 You can't have comfort unless you have forgiveness. 00:08:07.800 --> 00:08:14.420 And that's really ultimately why lots of the things that we turn to for comfort ultimately don't really deliver. 00:08:15.560 --> 00:08:25.240 You know, you find, don't you, that the comfort of a new place to live or a new job or a new TV or even a brilliant holiday, 00:08:25.240 --> 00:08:32.820 none of those really bring the kind of comfort that we desire because, well, they're over all too soon. 00:08:34.799 --> 00:08:36.080 I don't know whether you're on Instagram. 00:08:36.480 --> 00:08:39.480 It's probably a really terrible thing to be on, so I'm not recommending that you go on it. 00:08:39.519 --> 00:08:41.000 It's kind of like a poison, isn't it, Instagram? 00:08:41.000 --> 00:08:48.940 Anyway, but one of the people who I follow on Instagram is this guy who is driving a truck from Widness all the way to Australia, right? 00:08:49.000 --> 00:08:55.120 So he's driving, and he's always putting up reels of what he's doing, and so you get to follow him on what he's doing, right? 00:08:55.120 --> 00:09:00.320 He has, he's just driven through China with his dog and his fiancee and her dog, right? 00:09:00.379 --> 00:09:01.720 It's amazing what they're doing. 00:09:02.240 --> 00:09:05.299 But the thing that they keep talking about is what? 00:09:06.139 --> 00:09:07.379 What's coming next? 00:09:08.039 --> 00:09:10.379 You see, there's a strangeness to it, right? 00:09:10.500 --> 00:09:16.419 That despite being on essentially a holiday longer than anybody I know has ever been on holiday before, right? 00:09:16.899 --> 00:09:20.480 Despite that, the only thing that they can really think of is that there is a day coming, 00:09:20.519 --> 00:09:22.259 and it's not very far away when it comes to an end. 00:09:23.139 --> 00:09:26.039 And then we're going to be uncomfortable again until we can find something else to do. 00:09:27.139 --> 00:09:36.759 And Isaiah will tell you that the reason that you never achieve comfort in a holiday, a TV, a new place to live, a sofa, a hot chocolate, a piece of cake, whatever it is, 00:09:37.080 --> 00:09:40.659 is because there is no true comfort without divine forgiveness. 00:09:40.840 --> 00:09:45.740 Because the discomfort of our world is there because of God's judgment. 00:09:46.279 --> 00:09:50.539 We're facing punishments from an unrelentingly holy God. 00:09:50.539 --> 00:09:55.379 And so the first voice in our passage says this, verse 2, 00:09:55.539 --> 00:10:00.799 speak tenderly that her hard service has been completed. 00:10:00.959 --> 00:10:01.559 This forgiveness. 00:10:02.639 --> 00:10:04.419 Literally there, the word is warfare. 00:10:05.480 --> 00:10:10.059 Not so much the warfare with the surrounding nations, but with the God to whom she belongs. 00:10:10.779 --> 00:10:14.639 The hard service because of your sin is over, Israel. 00:10:15.439 --> 00:10:16.519 God's people, it's over. 00:10:17.240 --> 00:10:17.939 How so? 00:10:17.940 --> 00:10:19.560 Well, look at the end of verse 2. 00:10:19.640 --> 00:10:21.680 She's received double for all her sins. 00:10:22.400 --> 00:10:24.420 You might read that and go, well, that seems a bit harsh, doesn't it? 00:10:24.440 --> 00:10:24.880 Why double? 00:10:24.980 --> 00:10:26.640 Why not just once over? 00:10:26.900 --> 00:10:29.360 It doesn't mean double as in twice for her sins. 00:10:29.440 --> 00:10:36.760 It means the exact kind of double off, you know, like a stunt double or doubling over a piece of paper. 00:10:36.759 --> 00:10:40.860 So she has received exact punishment for her sins. 00:10:41.179 --> 00:10:43.220 The exact double for her sins. 00:10:43.360 --> 00:10:44.779 So her sins have been paid for. 00:10:46.220 --> 00:10:52.919 Now, of course, for Isaiah's listeners and first readers, this news points to the time of the end of their exile. 00:10:53.799 --> 00:10:56.580 He says, listen, there will be a time when you will be brought back from Babylon. 00:10:57.399 --> 00:10:59.200 The conquest will be over. 00:10:59.319 --> 00:11:01.059 You'll be able to return to the promised land. 00:11:01.059 --> 00:11:06.599 But still, the truth is, in the Old Testament, this comfort of forgiveness never really gets delivered. 00:11:07.859 --> 00:11:14.139 There is a sense in which God's people, from this point onwards, really, are always in exile. 00:11:14.519 --> 00:11:20.239 They never get back into God's place properly until the arrival of the Lord Jesus. 00:11:20.240 --> 00:11:26.759 God the Son, arriving in human flesh, to do what? 00:11:27.779 --> 00:11:29.259 Provide forgiveness. 00:11:30.180 --> 00:11:31.759 Through his death on the cross. 00:11:32.279 --> 00:11:35.100 The one who came, as we were singing, as the second Adam. 00:11:35.480 --> 00:11:39.100 The one whose righteous death stands in for Adam's selfish life. 00:11:39.360 --> 00:11:40.680 For our selfish life. 00:11:40.960 --> 00:11:43.460 So that those who trust in Christ, you can say, can't you? 00:11:43.740 --> 00:11:47.060 Your hard service is being completed, not by you, but by another. 00:11:48.000 --> 00:11:49.320 Why? How so? 00:11:49.320 --> 00:11:52.560 Because Jesus is your exact double. 00:11:53.220 --> 00:11:54.100 Your exact double. 00:11:55.140 --> 00:11:56.020 Fully man. 00:11:57.140 --> 00:11:58.560 Perfect in every way. 00:11:59.300 --> 00:12:00.540 Standing in for our sin. 00:12:02.120 --> 00:12:06.080 Now, I know that for most of you, probably, this morning, what I'm telling you is old news. 00:12:06.120 --> 00:12:07.240 You've heard this many times before. 00:12:07.340 --> 00:12:09.020 Oh, wow, I came to church, they talked about forgiveness. 00:12:09.640 --> 00:12:11.660 Well, I expected that. 00:12:12.300 --> 00:12:15.580 But I want to make sure that you hear this voice really clearly this morning. 00:12:15.580 --> 00:12:27.080 Because, listen, comfort flows into our life in the proportion to which we will listen to these words of forgiveness and grace and mercy. 00:12:27.080 --> 00:12:33.500 Not just one time when we become a Christian, but all the time, over and over and over again. 00:12:33.500 --> 00:12:36.960 Let me try and put it as simply as I can. 00:12:36.960 --> 00:12:49.840 In the midst of our discomfort, surrounded as we are by the brokenness and discomfort of our world from our own sin, from the sin of others, there is somebody who can bring you and me complete forgiveness. 00:12:49.840 --> 00:13:01.620 There is one who can wipe away all of our guilt, not through exacting a price from us, but through bearing the punishment himself, the exact double of our sin, Jesus Christ. 00:13:02.360 --> 00:13:07.519 And knowing that, hearing that, means that true comfort can be ours through him. 00:13:08.680 --> 00:13:15.160 Because this news means that God can look on us with love and mercy. 00:13:15.159 --> 00:13:26.500 God, in his unrelenting holiness, cannot but show us grace, mercy, kindness, love, because we've received the exact double for our sins. 00:13:27.159 --> 00:13:32.459 It doesn't matter whether you think you're smashing the Christian life or whether you feel like you're bumbling along or clinging on by your fingertips. 00:13:32.459 --> 00:13:37.299 Because Christ has paid for our sins as the exact double, so there's nothing to fear. 00:13:37.299 --> 00:13:52.139 I've been in pastoral ministry for quite a long time, and there are many things that I still have to learn, and I'm a slow learner in lots of ways, and I depend on you to teach me many things. 00:13:52.259 --> 00:13:58.879 But this is one thing I have learned, is that Christians live lots of their life with a low-level guilt. 00:13:58.879 --> 00:14:10.240 That's how many Christians, me included often, we are robbed of assurance and joy in our Christian lives, because we listen to this voice that says to us, 00:14:11.039 --> 00:14:13.480 You're not really good enough, are you? 00:14:14.259 --> 00:14:17.139 You're not really good enough to call yourself a Christian, are you? 00:14:17.779 --> 00:14:21.820 Are you really good enough to be with the Lord's people on a Sunday morning? 00:14:22.480 --> 00:14:24.879 You don't work hard enough. You don't know enough. 00:14:25.419 --> 00:14:26.980 Look at all those things that other people know. 00:14:26.980 --> 00:14:31.039 I'm sure they've read their Bible all the way through, probably more than once. 00:14:31.440 --> 00:14:34.019 You know secretly that you've never read Leviticus, don't you? 00:14:36.320 --> 00:14:40.019 Well, if that's you this morning, let me tell you as clearly as I can. 00:14:40.100 --> 00:14:41.019 Hear this news. 00:14:41.879 --> 00:14:46.259 Whatever you've done, there is mercy to match in Jesus Christ. 00:14:46.879 --> 00:14:52.360 However deep you've fallen, however far you've wandered, however little you understand, however much you doubt, 00:14:52.800 --> 00:14:55.259 Christ's death is sufficient for every sin. 00:14:55.259 --> 00:14:57.039 Warfare is ended. 00:14:57.819 --> 00:14:59.080 Hard service is over. 00:14:59.279 --> 00:15:00.179 Comfort is yours. 00:15:00.460 --> 00:15:01.759 Iniquity is pardoned. 00:15:01.759 --> 00:15:04.939 You know this, don't you? 00:15:04.980 --> 00:15:08.139 Because you've experienced it just on a human level that forgiveness is really brilliant. 00:15:08.399 --> 00:15:15.399 I don't know whether you've had a fallout with a friend or something or a family member. 00:15:16.500 --> 00:15:20.120 And you've come to them and said, listen, I'm really sorry. 00:15:20.799 --> 00:15:22.240 I'm really sorry for what I said. 00:15:22.240 --> 00:15:25.879 And they look at you and say, I forgive you. 00:15:25.879 --> 00:15:31.220 And then there's like fresh air comes into the rooms in there and it's brilliant. 00:15:31.480 --> 00:15:34.200 All of a sudden it's like, oh, wow, that's great. 00:15:36.039 --> 00:15:37.059 Tension is gone. 00:15:37.919 --> 00:15:39.179 And that's it here, right? 00:15:39.299 --> 00:15:45.740 But on a cosmic level from God himself, Jesus is the forgiving husband, the generous friend, 00:15:45.740 --> 00:15:49.879 the one who moves towards you in love and kindness as you confess your sins. 00:15:50.259 --> 00:15:54.100 And he says to you, comfort, comfort. 00:15:54.860 --> 00:15:56.860 There's an exact double for your sin. 00:15:56.860 --> 00:16:01.560 And if you're not a Christian this morning and you've never heard that before, can I say to you, 00:16:01.639 --> 00:16:05.399 if you've never experienced this kind of comfort of forgiveness, 00:16:06.440 --> 00:16:11.980 then the best you've ever experienced of comfort in this world is mere distraction from the discomfort, 00:16:12.700 --> 00:16:13.720 but not a solution. 00:16:13.980 --> 00:16:18.300 There is only one double for your sin and it's Jesus Christ. 00:16:19.840 --> 00:16:25.019 Years and years ago, I was helping a group of students do door-to-door work in their campus. 00:16:25.019 --> 00:16:30.419 So we're going knocking on doors of student residences and inviting them to come to some events 00:16:30.419 --> 00:16:32.500 that the Christian Union at their university were running. 00:16:33.500 --> 00:16:34.519 I knocked on this one door. 00:16:35.139 --> 00:16:36.360 This young man answers the door. 00:16:36.980 --> 00:16:39.659 And I said, you know, oh, we're here from the Christian Union. 00:16:39.740 --> 00:16:42.240 We're just inviting people to come to some events. 00:16:42.379 --> 00:16:44.059 I just wondered whether you might be interested in coming. 00:16:44.840 --> 00:16:46.659 He said, oh, no, I don't want anything to do with Christianity. 00:16:48.019 --> 00:16:50.460 I said, oh, you know, do you know something about Christianity? 00:16:50.620 --> 00:16:51.600 You've been to church. 00:16:51.759 --> 00:16:52.919 Would you have called yourself a Christian? 00:16:52.919 --> 00:16:54.720 He said, oh, yes, all of those. 00:16:55.019 --> 00:16:56.500 I've rejected all of it. 00:16:57.079 --> 00:17:00.799 And it turns out that someone in his family had died of cancer. 00:17:01.819 --> 00:17:04.660 And so he said, listen, I've seen suffering. 00:17:04.819 --> 00:17:08.019 And so I just don't think I can believe in the God of the Bible anymore. 00:17:08.859 --> 00:17:12.200 And I said to him, so how has that been? 00:17:13.420 --> 00:17:17.579 You know, since you rejected God because of the suffering in the world, 00:17:18.119 --> 00:17:23.079 have you found comfort and peace, joy, maybe somewhere else? 00:17:23.079 --> 00:17:25.079 And he paused for a moment. 00:17:25.139 --> 00:17:30.939 And I think probably in a sort of divine moment of honesty, he said, I haven't. 00:17:31.819 --> 00:17:32.759 I haven't. 00:17:32.759 --> 00:17:43.000 And that's because comfort is only found in the forgiveness of the Lord Jesus Christ in the midst of the suffering of our world. 00:17:43.599 --> 00:17:45.500 It's the only place that we can find it. 00:17:46.180 --> 00:17:49.039 Comfort, comfort, says the first voice. 00:17:49.140 --> 00:17:51.839 Second voice, shout about a certain plan. 00:17:52.480 --> 00:17:53.519 Look down at verse three. 00:17:53.519 --> 00:17:54.680 Let me read it to you again. 00:17:55.259 --> 00:17:58.559 A voice of one calling in the wilderness, prepare the way for the Lord. 00:17:59.079 --> 00:18:02.180 Make straight in the desert a highway for our God. 00:18:02.680 --> 00:18:04.500 Every valley shall be raised up. 00:18:04.819 --> 00:18:06.680 Every mountain and hill made low. 00:18:07.079 --> 00:18:08.660 The rough ground shall become level. 00:18:08.799 --> 00:18:10.119 The rugged places are plain. 00:18:10.440 --> 00:18:12.440 And the glory of the Lord will be revealed. 00:18:12.639 --> 00:18:14.720 And all people will see it together. 00:18:14.879 --> 00:18:16.639 For the mouth of the Lord has spoken. 00:18:16.640 --> 00:18:24.060 Now, if you'd been reading through the book of Isaiah and had come to this point, you would read that and think these are quite similar to chapter 35. 00:18:24.560 --> 00:18:30.300 Because in chapter 35, we are told that there is a day coming when the exiles will return to the promised land. 00:18:31.460 --> 00:18:32.700 There's going to be a highway. 00:18:33.380 --> 00:18:41.520 But actually, as you read the verses more closely, you realize that actually the comfort here is not that the people themselves are returning to Jerusalem. 00:18:41.519 --> 00:18:44.740 The traveler in these verses is not the people. 00:18:44.920 --> 00:18:46.879 The traveler is God. 00:18:47.779 --> 00:18:49.779 God is coming to his people. 00:18:50.779 --> 00:18:55.539 Mark's gospel takes up these words and says that John the Baptist is the voice crying out. 00:18:55.940 --> 00:18:59.119 He is the one making level the way for Jesus' arrival. 00:18:59.720 --> 00:19:02.940 Which means these verses are brilliant ones to be looking at, aren't they, at Christmas time? 00:19:02.940 --> 00:19:09.259 As we remember the birth of Jesus Christ and the eternal divine son taking on weak human flesh. 00:19:09.660 --> 00:19:12.779 John the Baptist coming before to make level, to make the way. 00:19:14.340 --> 00:19:17.600 The verses hint, though, don't they, even beyond the first arrival of the Lord Jesus. 00:19:17.799 --> 00:19:21.279 Because they talk of a time when all people will see the arrival of the Lord. 00:19:22.080 --> 00:19:24.340 A day when the Lord will be revealed to the nations. 00:19:26.380 --> 00:19:27.960 Now, all of that is really important. 00:19:27.960 --> 00:19:32.880 It would be worth spending some time thinking about the detail of all that and how it all fits together. 00:19:33.000 --> 00:19:37.100 But the main focus of these verses is not so much the detail of the plan. 00:19:38.140 --> 00:19:42.120 The main focus of these verses, I think, is the certainty of the plan. 00:19:42.440 --> 00:19:46.420 So it's not so much the details of it, but the solidness of it. 00:19:46.519 --> 00:19:47.920 The reliability of it. 00:19:48.400 --> 00:19:49.559 Scan through the verses again. 00:19:49.620 --> 00:19:50.140 Let me show you that. 00:19:50.539 --> 00:19:52.740 The highway is made straight in verse 3. 00:19:53.039 --> 00:19:54.360 The valleys are raised up. 00:19:54.420 --> 00:19:55.779 The mountains are made low. 00:19:56.100 --> 00:19:57.779 The uneven ground is leveled out. 00:19:57.779 --> 00:19:59.539 The rugged places are made a plain. 00:20:00.460 --> 00:20:04.420 In other words, the point is, there's nothing going to stand in the way of this happening. 00:20:05.299 --> 00:20:09.240 There are no obstacles that are going to prevent the arrival of the Lord. 00:20:09.920 --> 00:20:11.960 All obstacles will be removed. 00:20:12.659 --> 00:20:15.259 And why is this the case? 00:20:15.359 --> 00:20:18.079 Why is the plan so solid and so certain? 00:20:18.559 --> 00:20:22.220 Well, verse 5, because the mouth of the Lord has spoken it. 00:20:22.279 --> 00:20:22.779 That's why. 00:20:22.779 --> 00:20:26.839 This is then the second voice of comfort. 00:20:27.000 --> 00:20:30.359 There is a certain plan, an unstoppable arrival of God with his people. 00:20:30.759 --> 00:20:34.759 And you know because God has said it. 00:20:35.180 --> 00:20:35.940 God has said it. 00:20:38.099 --> 00:20:40.099 Let me try and give you a physics lesson. 00:20:40.839 --> 00:20:43.879 I'm not brilliant at physics, but let's have a go. 00:20:44.359 --> 00:20:45.160 Let me ask you a question. 00:20:45.160 --> 00:20:46.879 What is faster? 00:20:47.259 --> 00:20:49.799 The speed of light or the speed of sound? 00:20:49.799 --> 00:20:54.019 Oh, my goodness. 00:20:54.419 --> 00:20:56.500 We are really in the remedial physics class. 00:20:57.599 --> 00:20:57.960 Light. 00:20:58.319 --> 00:20:59.480 Yeah, is that what you're going to say, Mark? 00:21:03.119 --> 00:21:03.559 Light. 00:21:03.680 --> 00:21:08.960 So when you watch fireworks, yeah, you see the firework and then you hear the firework. 00:21:09.299 --> 00:21:14.379 When the thunder and lightning comes, yeah, you see the lightning and then you hear the thunder. 00:21:14.879 --> 00:21:15.259 Why is that? 00:21:15.460 --> 00:21:18.779 That's because the light is traveling to you faster than the sound. 00:21:18.779 --> 00:21:21.500 Yeah, so you see the light first and then you hear the sound. 00:21:22.480 --> 00:21:23.059 Oh, look, there you go. 00:21:23.119 --> 00:21:23.579 You've put them up. 00:21:24.059 --> 00:21:25.139 I was going to ask whether anyone knew. 00:21:25.519 --> 00:21:28.879 Light travels at 670 million miles an hour. 00:21:30.160 --> 00:21:32.680 And sound travels at 767 miles per hour. 00:21:32.740 --> 00:21:34.980 So there's quite a big difference between them. 00:21:35.220 --> 00:21:36.359 But here's the thing, right? 00:21:37.059 --> 00:21:41.500 When it comes to theology, when it comes to the Bible, the opposite is true. 00:21:42.039 --> 00:21:46.759 In the Bible, yeah, sound travels faster than light. 00:21:46.759 --> 00:21:47.960 That's what Mark was thinking of, right? 00:21:48.039 --> 00:21:48.940 That's right, isn't it? 00:21:48.980 --> 00:21:49.119 You see? 00:21:49.500 --> 00:21:52.119 In the Bible, sound travels faster than light. 00:21:52.180 --> 00:21:58.119 In other words, you hear God's plan before you see God's plan, right? 00:21:58.299 --> 00:22:03.200 Because God speaks of his plan and then you see it accomplished. 00:22:04.019 --> 00:22:08.259 In other words, if you want to know what's happening, you need to listen. 00:22:08.259 --> 00:22:12.319 And then you will see later as it comes to pass. 00:22:13.819 --> 00:22:19.759 And so just like when you watch fireworks, when you see a firework, how do you know that 00:22:19.759 --> 00:22:21.119 you're going to hear a firework? 00:22:21.420 --> 00:22:24.900 Well, you know because those two things essentially are happening together, aren't they? 00:22:25.319 --> 00:22:29.099 It's just a delay because of where you are proportional to it, yeah? 00:22:29.099 --> 00:22:34.319 So you know that when you see the flash of lightning, you will hear the thunder, yeah? 00:22:34.359 --> 00:22:37.019 Because the thunder is going to come because the lightning was there. 00:22:37.099 --> 00:22:39.240 And so those things are inextricably linked. 00:22:39.279 --> 00:22:40.240 You can't divide them. 00:22:40.439 --> 00:22:44.359 You can't have a flash of lightning and no thunder because they come together. 00:22:44.779 --> 00:22:46.779 And because you've seen one, you will hear the other. 00:22:47.599 --> 00:22:49.959 Exactly the same in Christian theology, but the other way around. 00:22:50.539 --> 00:22:53.619 You know that you will see the accomplishment of God's plan. 00:22:53.719 --> 00:22:55.419 You will see it. 00:22:55.420 --> 00:22:55.779 Why? 00:22:56.400 --> 00:22:58.000 Because you've heard it. 00:22:59.279 --> 00:23:03.860 And God speaking his plan is the same as him doing his plan. 00:23:04.400 --> 00:23:06.840 God never says something and it doesn't happen, right? 00:23:07.980 --> 00:23:09.420 I say that all the time. 00:23:10.000 --> 00:23:14.779 When the children were smaller and you said, right, we're going out, put your shoes on, 00:23:15.180 --> 00:23:16.120 what would happen? 00:23:17.259 --> 00:23:18.759 Absolutely nothing, right? 00:23:19.820 --> 00:23:22.000 It's the same, isn't it, in every family, right? 00:23:22.259 --> 00:23:24.980 Put your coat on, nothing happens, yeah? 00:23:24.980 --> 00:23:33.940 But God, when God says, I'm coming in the person of the sun, I'm arriving to save, you hear it. 00:23:34.039 --> 00:23:34.880 How do you know it's going to happen? 00:23:35.680 --> 00:23:37.860 Because everything God says will happen. 00:23:38.500 --> 00:23:41.480 Those things go together, even if there is a delay between the two. 00:23:41.480 --> 00:23:53.220 So back in Isaiah 40, we're being told that faith is about believing God's word before you see it accomplished. 00:23:53.220 --> 00:23:56.000 And it says there's comfort in that. 00:23:56.799 --> 00:23:57.700 Comfort, comfort. 00:23:57.900 --> 00:23:59.019 Listen to the plan. 00:23:59.380 --> 00:24:02.240 There is an unstoppable plan and nothing can get in the way. 00:24:02.759 --> 00:24:04.779 The plan was that Christ would come. 00:24:05.440 --> 00:24:07.240 The plan is that Christ will come again. 00:24:08.120 --> 00:24:09.140 God has said it. 00:24:09.500 --> 00:24:12.519 And there won't be any mountains that are so high that they can stop him. 00:24:12.579 --> 00:24:14.880 There won't be any rough ground that will slow him down. 00:24:15.339 --> 00:24:16.500 Christ will come again. 00:24:16.500 --> 00:24:17.500 There won't be any rough ground that will come again. 00:24:17.500 --> 00:24:18.500 Comfort, comfort. 00:24:18.720 --> 00:24:19.700 You've heard the plan. 00:24:19.980 --> 00:24:20.779 It's unstoppable. 00:24:21.019 --> 00:24:21.920 You will see it. 00:24:22.220 --> 00:24:23.180 You will see it. 00:24:23.960 --> 00:24:27.940 There is a day, brothers and sisters, when we will see the Lord Jesus. 00:24:30.059 --> 00:24:31.599 Third voice of comfort. 00:24:31.940 --> 00:24:33.740 Words that last when we die. 00:24:33.839 --> 00:24:34.819 Verses six to seven. 00:24:36.079 --> 00:24:40.420 Verses six and seven are literally in every Christian funeral liturgy, aren't they? 00:24:40.980 --> 00:24:43.740 I've read them aloud at lots and lots of funerals. 00:24:43.860 --> 00:24:45.080 But what is the comfort here? 00:24:46.220 --> 00:24:48.120 It's not the comfort that we die, is it? 00:24:48.140 --> 00:24:52.340 All people are like grass and all their faithfulness is like the flowers of the field. 00:24:52.440 --> 00:24:56.060 The grass withers and the flowers fall because the breath of the Lord blows on them. 00:24:56.560 --> 00:24:57.820 Surely the people are grass. 00:24:58.220 --> 00:25:01.800 The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of the Lord endures forever. 00:25:03.060 --> 00:25:04.360 Where's the comfort in those verses? 00:25:04.779 --> 00:25:06.440 The comfort is not in the fact that we die. 00:25:07.440 --> 00:25:09.300 That's written, isn't it, all the way through those verses. 00:25:09.400 --> 00:25:09.900 We die. 00:25:09.900 --> 00:25:11.300 We are just like grass. 00:25:11.440 --> 00:25:12.700 We are just like fading flowers. 00:25:13.140 --> 00:25:14.660 God kind of breathes on them. 00:25:14.720 --> 00:25:16.660 Just a gentle blow and they're gone. 00:25:17.720 --> 00:25:19.180 There's no comfort in that on its own. 00:25:19.960 --> 00:25:23.580 I think this is one of the big lies, isn't it, about that whole assisted dying bill. 00:25:24.560 --> 00:25:28.519 That there's an idea that death itself might bring comfort. 00:25:29.920 --> 00:25:33.840 But actually death and its presence in our world is a horror, isn't it? 00:25:34.500 --> 00:25:36.940 It's a horror of God's judgment against our sin. 00:25:37.480 --> 00:25:39.080 Death is very, very unnatural. 00:25:39.079 --> 00:25:40.720 It's not what we were made for. 00:25:40.720 --> 00:25:43.480 It's come as a consequence of our sin. 00:25:43.480 --> 00:25:47.079 And it comes as God breathes judgment on us. 00:25:47.079 --> 00:25:49.759 So there's no comfort in that. 00:25:49.759 --> 00:25:50.940 And actually we know that, don't we? 00:25:50.940 --> 00:25:55.079 When we face the death of a friend or a relative, we know even if they were suffering, and in 00:25:55.079 --> 00:25:59.200 some senses the immediate death brings a release of that suffering, there is a sense in which 00:25:59.200 --> 00:26:01.240 you know that there's no comfort in that, don't you? 00:26:02.539 --> 00:26:05.019 It's one of the most uncomfortable realities of our world. 00:26:05.019 --> 00:26:08.180 And actually that's true, isn't it, for us. 00:26:08.379 --> 00:26:09.519 It doesn't matter how old we are. 00:26:10.039 --> 00:26:13.119 There is a moment when we will die unless Jesus comes before. 00:26:14.180 --> 00:26:16.859 It doesn't matter whether that day is 10, 20, 30 years from now. 00:26:16.900 --> 00:26:18.079 It will come. 00:26:18.160 --> 00:26:21.019 And we know that the time between now and then will go as a flash. 00:26:21.160 --> 00:26:21.960 We're just grasped. 00:26:22.079 --> 00:26:23.940 We come up quickly and we go down quickly too. 00:26:24.740 --> 00:26:26.879 It doesn't matter whether you're fit and healthy. 00:26:26.880 --> 00:26:31.740 And that means, doesn't it, there's no comfort in any of those things that you can do before 00:26:31.740 --> 00:26:32.420 death, right? 00:26:32.760 --> 00:26:39.020 Because there's no comfort in being particularly strong or being married or being a parent because 00:26:39.020 --> 00:26:40.420 all of those things just pass away. 00:26:41.280 --> 00:26:44.740 You will only find temporary relief in those things, not lasting comfort. 00:26:45.600 --> 00:26:51.140 But Isaiah says there is something in our fading world that lasts forever, and it is what? 00:26:51.820 --> 00:26:52.880 The word of the Lord. 00:26:52.880 --> 00:26:58.120 But, cries out Isaiah, he shouts, doesn't he? 00:26:58.180 --> 00:27:00.240 The word of our God will stand forever. 00:27:01.320 --> 00:27:05.660 In other words, listen, you want something, don't you, that you can hold onto in life and death. 00:27:05.860 --> 00:27:08.820 Something that will take you through this life and into eternity. 00:27:09.380 --> 00:27:11.360 And it's no one in this room. 00:27:11.500 --> 00:27:13.340 It's God himself. 00:27:13.640 --> 00:27:14.540 The word of God. 00:27:15.100 --> 00:27:17.600 The God whose words come first and actions certainly follow. 00:27:17.680 --> 00:27:18.900 That is solid and lasting. 00:27:18.900 --> 00:27:26.019 Listen, I think more than maybe any other time of year, this sort of, the fadingness of 00:27:26.019 --> 00:27:29.019 the grass of this world is really apparent to us, isn't it, at Christmas? 00:27:30.060 --> 00:27:35.200 I know that for people in this room and for my own family, there will be an empty chair 00:27:35.200 --> 00:27:37.800 at the Christmas table this year that was full last year. 00:27:37.860 --> 00:27:40.259 There was someone there, and they're not with us now. 00:27:41.019 --> 00:27:42.040 A loved one who's missing. 00:27:42.960 --> 00:27:45.720 And I know in our family we will miss the absence. 00:27:45.720 --> 00:27:48.680 Where's the comfort in the midst of those tears? 00:27:49.839 --> 00:27:52.500 Where can you cling to in a world where people pass away? 00:27:53.519 --> 00:27:55.500 Well, you can hear a word that lasts forever. 00:27:56.380 --> 00:28:00.339 A living word who came on the paths made straight by John the Baptist. 00:28:00.980 --> 00:28:05.579 A living word who died on a cross and rose victorious three days later. 00:28:06.140 --> 00:28:08.220 A word that says, I'm returning one day. 00:28:08.220 --> 00:28:14.600 And that is where to find comfort, because that word will not let you down in life or death. 00:28:16.559 --> 00:28:17.759 I don't know whether you've thought about this. 00:28:18.039 --> 00:28:21.160 If this is true, then how does comfort come to me as a Christian? 00:28:22.039 --> 00:28:24.519 How do I receive comfort as a Christian? 00:28:24.940 --> 00:28:25.940 Really simple, isn't it? 00:28:27.259 --> 00:28:27.660 Listening. 00:28:28.200 --> 00:28:29.500 That's how you receive comfort. 00:28:29.900 --> 00:28:30.279 Listening. 00:28:30.900 --> 00:28:31.640 God speaks. 00:28:31.860 --> 00:28:33.000 Jesus is the living word. 00:28:33.000 --> 00:28:36.000 And we find comfort, solace, hope and joy in listening. 00:28:36.920 --> 00:28:39.559 Not just so much to me on a Sunday as I preach. 00:28:39.779 --> 00:28:43.240 But actually as we listen to the voice of God. 00:28:43.880 --> 00:28:44.940 As he uses me. 00:28:45.119 --> 00:28:46.440 As he uses you. 00:28:46.519 --> 00:28:47.539 As you open a Bible. 00:28:47.700 --> 00:28:49.059 As he speaks to you by his spirit. 00:28:49.180 --> 00:28:50.400 As you open God's word. 00:28:51.140 --> 00:28:51.900 Day by day. 00:28:52.079 --> 00:28:53.059 Week by week. 00:28:53.420 --> 00:28:54.839 Through the tears of loss. 00:28:55.420 --> 00:28:58.019 It is something that extends through death and into eternity. 00:28:58.019 --> 00:29:03.079 Listen, if you are particularly distressed and troubled and grieving. 00:29:03.839 --> 00:29:04.639 Can I encourage you? 00:29:04.759 --> 00:29:05.400 Read the Bible. 00:29:06.259 --> 00:29:07.200 Listen to God's word. 00:29:07.339 --> 00:29:10.000 Here you have something that will last forever. 00:29:11.400 --> 00:29:13.799 Fourth and final word of comfort from these verses. 00:29:14.039 --> 00:29:14.599 Good news. 00:29:14.740 --> 00:29:15.400 God is with you. 00:29:15.480 --> 00:29:17.180 This is what we were looking at with the children, isn't it? 00:29:17.220 --> 00:29:18.180 Verses 9 to 11. 00:29:19.220 --> 00:29:23.099 In lots of ways, I think you're sort of scaling the heights in Isaiah 40. 00:29:23.099 --> 00:29:27.279 You've come through these great heights of God's forgiveness for you. 00:29:27.319 --> 00:29:31.079 About his unstoppable plan of an unshakable, never dying word. 00:29:31.179 --> 00:29:34.139 But in many ways, I think the best is still for last, isn't it? 00:29:34.179 --> 00:29:34.419 Here. 00:29:35.199 --> 00:29:36.819 You see, forgiveness is good, isn't it? 00:29:37.119 --> 00:29:39.459 But on its own, it's not actually that brilliant. 00:29:40.359 --> 00:29:44.699 If forgiveness just leaves you with a blank slate before God and nowhere to go. 00:29:44.959 --> 00:29:46.719 It's not actually that much help. 00:29:47.399 --> 00:29:49.719 An unshakable plan is great in our shaky world. 00:29:49.719 --> 00:29:52.579 But it very much depends on what that plan is, doesn't it? 00:29:53.480 --> 00:29:58.359 And here then is this final voice that we need to hear that is the end goal of that plan. 00:29:58.740 --> 00:30:01.740 The end to which forgiveness is given to us. 00:30:02.279 --> 00:30:04.059 Listen to what Isaiah says. 00:30:04.159 --> 00:30:04.799 What does he say? 00:30:04.980 --> 00:30:05.740 See, verse 10. 00:30:06.119 --> 00:30:08.299 See, the sovereign Lord comes with power. 00:30:09.079 --> 00:30:10.419 He rules with a mighty arm. 00:30:11.039 --> 00:30:14.119 See, his reward is with him and his recompense accompanies him. 00:30:14.619 --> 00:30:16.439 He tends his flock like a shepherd. 00:30:16.799 --> 00:30:20.579 He gathers the lamb in his arms and carries them close to his heart. 00:30:20.579 --> 00:30:24.079 He gently leads those that have young. 00:30:25.759 --> 00:30:27.579 This is the ultimate comfort, isn't it? 00:30:27.720 --> 00:30:30.119 It's not just that your sins can be forgiven, though that is brilliant. 00:30:30.240 --> 00:30:32.839 It's not just that God's plan can be trusted, though that is fantastic. 00:30:32.839 --> 00:30:40.299 It is that the forgiveness that you experience from God, the plan of God in Jesus Christ, is to bring you to him. 00:30:40.879 --> 00:30:42.319 For him to gather you up. 00:30:43.339 --> 00:30:46.039 God's son comes as a shepherd. 00:30:47.000 --> 00:30:49.179 It's a picture, isn't it, of closeness and care. 00:30:49.759 --> 00:30:52.339 Of God coming near to live with us. 00:30:53.119 --> 00:30:55.779 And as we close, it's worth just chewing on this for a while, isn't it? 00:30:56.399 --> 00:31:02.779 You see, this is a totally unique thing for a Christian in the face of the discomfort of this world. 00:31:04.099 --> 00:31:06.779 You know, I said about knocking on the door of that student, he said, 00:31:06.859 --> 00:31:09.579 I'm not going to believe in God because there's so much suffering in our world. 00:31:10.319 --> 00:31:14.859 Listen, the suffering in our world is not a contradiction of the God of the Bible. 00:31:15.279 --> 00:31:15.859 You know that. 00:31:16.119 --> 00:31:18.519 It's not come to God and you'll never have any more suffering. 00:31:18.740 --> 00:31:19.859 That's not it, is it? 00:31:19.859 --> 00:31:24.419 Actually, the message of the Bible is that you can know God in the midst of the suffering. 00:31:26.879 --> 00:31:32.819 Our culture believes, doesn't it, that the discomfort in our world is essentially just sort of purposeless fate. 00:31:33.259 --> 00:31:35.799 If you've got no God, that's what you've got to believe. 00:31:36.079 --> 00:31:39.899 It's just like bad luck if bad stuff happens. 00:31:40.939 --> 00:31:49.000 And so comfort in that view of the world is by doing as much as you can as far as possible to ignore all problems and trouble. 00:31:49.000 --> 00:31:51.880 Or go to extreme lengths to try and avoid it. 00:31:52.640 --> 00:31:54.700 Why do you think the gyms will be full in January? 00:31:55.220 --> 00:31:55.339 Right? 00:31:55.599 --> 00:31:58.339 Because people are trying to avoid the bad luck, aren't they? 00:32:00.200 --> 00:32:04.859 You know, those in our world think that discomfort in the world is sort of like a karma kind of thing. 00:32:04.960 --> 00:32:06.460 Bad things happen to bad people. 00:32:07.099 --> 00:32:14.700 So comfort for them is trying really hard to be good as far as you're possible, to ever deserve suffering. 00:32:15.000 --> 00:32:16.440 Some Christians live like that, don't they? 00:32:16.440 --> 00:32:18.660 But Isaiah says something very different. 00:32:19.420 --> 00:32:24.180 The discomfort in our world, says Isaiah, is much more complex than any of those simple formulas suggest. 00:32:25.000 --> 00:32:27.640 And so their offers of comfort are ultimately too shallow. 00:32:28.720 --> 00:32:34.779 Discomfort comes in our world because we're in a world that is messed up by our sin and the judgment of God. 00:32:34.779 --> 00:32:44.059 And true comfort is only found in knowing the presence of God with us, of knowing God and experiencing the God who made us and to whom we belong. 00:32:45.000 --> 00:32:50.940 The God who in the person of the Son took on human flesh and died in our place before rising again and ascended into heaven. 00:32:50.940 --> 00:32:58.059 That God, in the person of the Spirit, comes and dwells with us as comforter. 00:32:59.160 --> 00:33:01.980 Gathering us to God the Father, God the Son, God the Spirit. 00:33:02.140 --> 00:33:05.259 Holding us, leading us like a shepherd does his sheep. 00:33:07.440 --> 00:33:13.840 Tim Keller, who passed away a few years ago, wrote a book called Walking with God Through Pain and Suffering. 00:33:13.839 --> 00:33:18.019 In his book, he tells the story of a woman called Emily. 00:33:19.039 --> 00:33:20.619 Emily was happily married. 00:33:20.759 --> 00:33:22.359 She had four children. 00:33:22.519 --> 00:33:26.639 She was living in what she described as her dream home with a job that she loved. 00:33:27.099 --> 00:33:29.000 Everyone in her family was happy and healthy. 00:33:29.639 --> 00:33:33.139 And then out of the blue, her husband announced that he was leaving her. 00:33:33.959 --> 00:33:34.779 She was shocked. 00:33:35.399 --> 00:33:36.199 She sobbed. 00:33:36.299 --> 00:33:38.000 She begged him not to leave. 00:33:38.119 --> 00:33:40.019 She told him that they could work it out. 00:33:40.019 --> 00:33:48.180 But instead, what he decided to do at that moment is he woke the children up and he told them that he was leaving and he left and he moved out. 00:33:50.619 --> 00:33:56.319 When Emily wrote her story, it's about six months after her husband has left. 00:33:56.440 --> 00:33:59.200 She's trying to come to terms with what happened. 00:34:00.139 --> 00:34:04.519 Her husband is being difficult and is being difficult, especially with the children. 00:34:04.519 --> 00:34:11.300 The children themselves are depressed and angry and confused that the 14-year-old is finding it particularly difficult. 00:34:11.980 --> 00:34:14.420 The dream house that they were living in had to be sold. 00:34:15.079 --> 00:34:16.099 Emily has lost her job. 00:34:16.179 --> 00:34:18.739 They're not sure where they're going to move or what they're going to be able to afford. 00:34:20.179 --> 00:34:21.539 And then she writes this. 00:34:23.000 --> 00:34:23.920 She says this. 00:34:24.179 --> 00:34:26.920 I've never had a big tragedy in my life. 00:34:27.420 --> 00:34:29.179 I've never really had to depend on God. 00:34:29.179 --> 00:34:32.859 I mean, sure, I prayed and I saw God work, but not like this. 00:34:33.839 --> 00:34:38.059 I never had the need to rely on God to truly just fall and rest on him. 00:34:39.339 --> 00:34:45.639 When I needed God's comfort, the image in my head was me clinging to Jesus and him hugging me. 00:34:46.599 --> 00:34:48.839 My image now is completely changed. 00:34:49.739 --> 00:34:55.059 My image now is just me, collapsed, and him carrying me. 00:34:56.019 --> 00:34:58.299 And it's awesome, she said. 00:34:59.179 --> 00:35:01.579 That's Isaiah 40 verse 11, isn't it? 00:35:02.579 --> 00:35:03.799 The comfort of the gospel. 00:35:04.379 --> 00:35:07.719 It's not that you're clinging on to Jesus and he's kind of dragging you along. 00:35:08.399 --> 00:35:14.619 The comfort of the gospel is that you are completely collapsed into his arms and by his spirit he is carrying you home. 00:35:16.359 --> 00:35:16.819 Forgiven. 00:35:17.359 --> 00:35:17.879 Absolutely. 00:35:18.259 --> 00:35:19.539 Yes, fully and finally. 00:35:19.659 --> 00:35:21.379 A complete double for your sins. 00:35:21.639 --> 00:35:23.679 Mercy to match everything that you've done. 00:35:24.259 --> 00:35:25.539 An unstoppable plan of God. 00:35:26.159 --> 00:35:27.419 Absolutely unstoppable. 00:35:27.420 --> 00:35:29.720 You have heard it, you will see it. 00:35:30.420 --> 00:35:34.119 Trusting in an eternal word that lives longer than our short lives. 00:35:34.300 --> 00:35:34.780 Absolutely. 00:35:35.079 --> 00:35:37.900 Something to cling on to in the temporary world that we live in. 00:35:38.920 --> 00:35:41.480 Walking through life alone, not at all. 00:35:42.059 --> 00:35:45.760 Rather carried along in the arms of a saviour who loves us. 00:35:45.760 --> 00:35:48.580 Comfort, comfort, comfort my people. 00:35:49.460 --> 00:35:50.180 Says the Lord. 00:35:51.400 --> 00:35:52.960 Let's just have a few moments of quiet. 00:35:53.440 --> 00:35:56.180 You can pray in your own heart and reflect on what we've seen. 00:35:56.700 --> 00:35:58.020 And then we will sing together. 00:35:58.020 --> 00:35:58.100 Amen. 00:35:58.099 --> 00:36:28.079 Thank you. 00:36:28.099 --> 00:36:35.139 Heavenly Father, we thank you for these great words of comfort. 00:36:36.400 --> 00:36:43.980 We thank you for the comfort of forgiveness, of an unstoppable plan, of an eternal word. 00:36:45.579 --> 00:36:56.079 And thank you, most of all, for the comfort of knowing that we're in your arms, carried close to your heart, being brought home to be with you. 00:36:57.059 --> 00:37:13.400 And Lord, in this Christmas time, as we reflect on the arrival of your son, the Lord Jesus, in human flesh, help us, we pray, as we listen to that message, to grow in certainty that we will see its fulfillment in Christ's return. 00:37:14.519 --> 00:37:18.619 Grow us, we pray. Bring us this comfort and joy. 00:37:18.619 --> 00:37:21.440 In Jesus' name. Amen. 00:37:21.839 --> 00:37:22.179 Amen.