Advent 4 Date: December 19, 2010
Theme: Trusting The Sure Thing, The Sign Of The Virgin Birth – Isaiah 7:1-14
(Pastor John Hein)
The Order of Worship: Bulletin
Liturgy: TLH, p 5 ff (Also available on laminated sheet in pew)
Hymns:
TLH 73: Lift Up Your Heads, Ye Mighty Gates
TLH 95: Savior of the Nations, Come
TLH 76: A Great and Mighty Wonder
TLH 85 verses 13-15: From Heaven Above to Earth I Come
Scripture Readings:
Romans 1:1-7 Matthew 1:18-25
Sermon Theme: Trusting The Sure Thing, The Sign Of The Virgin Birth
Isaiah 7:1-14
(1) Now it came to pass in the days of Ahaz the son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, king of Judah, that Rezin king of Syria and Pekah the son of Remaliah, king of Israel, went up to Jerusalem to make war against it, but could not prevail against it. (2) And it was told to the house of David, saying, “Syria’s forces are deployed in Ephraim.” So his heart and the heart of his people were moved as the trees of the woods are moved with the wind. (3) Then the LORD said to Isaiah, “Go out now to meet Ahaz, you and Shear-Jashub your son, at the end of the aqueduct from the upper pool, on the highway to the Fuller’s Field, (4) “and say to him: ‘Take heed, and be quiet; do not fear or be fainthearted for these two stubs of smoking firebrands, for the fierce anger of Rezin and Syria, and the son of Remaliah. (5) ‘Because Syria, Ephraim, and the son of Remaliah have plotted evil against you, saying, (6) “Let us go up against Judah and trouble it, and let us make a gap in its wall for ourselves, and set a king over them, the son of Tabel”; (7) ‘thus says the Lord GOD: “It shall not stand, Nor shall it come to pass. (8) For the head of Syria is Damascus, And the head of Damascus is Rezin. Within sixty-five years Ephraim will be broken, So that it will not be a people. (9) The head of Ephraim is Samaria, And the head of Samaria is Remaliah’s son. If you will not believe, Surely you shall not be established.”‘ “ (10) Moreover the LORD spoke again to Ahaz, saying, (11) “Ask a sign for yourself from the LORD your God; ask it either in the depth or in the height above.” (12) But Ahaz said, “I will not ask, nor will I test the LORD!” (13) Then he said, “Hear now, O house of David! Is it a small thing for you to weary men, but will you weary my God also? (14) “Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel.”
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.