I know Christmas is this week, and for many it can be a time of joy, awe and excitement. However, for some it is a time of great stress, loneliness, and sadness. Some folks are worried that they got enough gifts, if the gifts were good enough, how to pay the bills for those gifts. For others there is stress about traveling and traffic. Still, for others Christmas is a day of sadness where they will be without a loved one for the first year.

Saints, we have a hope that surpasses all circumstances. As we celebrate Christmas, we are reminded of the reason and focus of Christmas. That our Lord loved us so much that He sent us a Savior, so that we could live in reconciliation with God. So that we could have eternal life, and know that this world is not our true home.

We are reminded that Christmas is not about gifts, trees, egg-nog, parties or travel. Christmas is a reminder of the Greatest Gift ever given. It is a reminder of the love of God that came to us through a miraculous birth in Bethlehem.

This morning we are going to be taking a little break from 1 Peter, and looking at some text from The Book of Isaiah.

With Christmas upon us, we are going to be looking at some Christmas text that announces the coming of Christ. The amazing thing is that our text would announce the coming of Christ around 700 years before His birth.

The prophecy, we are going to read from the Book of Isaiah, brought great hope and joy to a devastated Judah. Living on the other side of the resurrection, we can also read this text and have great hope and joy in knowing that the prophecy of the coming Christ has been fulfilled in Jesus. We can also take great comfort and hope in knowing that He will return and set up his kingdom for all eternity.