Love
Notes
Transcript
[LAUNCH VIDEO]
Announcements
Good morning. Welcome to Southern Hills Baptist Church. Thank you for joining us today.
If you are a first-time guest with us, you will find a Connection Card in the pew rack in front of you. We would appreciate it if you would fill that out and place it in the offering plate. That gives us a record of your visit and allows us the opportunity of reaching out to you this week to answer any questions that you might have.
Online giving is available at our website, southernhillsbc.com. By clicking on GIVE, it will take you to our giving page where you can easily give by electronic check or credit card. You can also give during our offertory time or in the box at the info table. If you are a guest, please know that we do not expect you to give. Our members and regular attenders provide for the ministry of the church.
LOTTIE MOON UPDATE: We are in week 3 of our Lottie Moon Christmas offering. Again, this is a special offering that we do once a year for our International Mission Board. I hope that you have spent some time praying for our international missionaries this month. The SBC goal for 2025 is $21M. Our goal, as part of the 47,000+ churches, this year is $21,000. So far, we have raised almost $15,000, so we have about 30% to go. If you have not given yet, please pray about what God would have you give toward the IMB as we seek to make Jesus known in every nation.
See bulletin for Calendar Updates
If you are a guest with us, know that this is our weekly Family Worship service. Our children will remain with us for the entire service. We do have a nursery available for children under 4 just down the hall if you would like to use it.
Please stand as I read our Call to Worship. We will be doing a responsive reading from Psalm 63. I will read the words in White and we will all read the words in Yellow.
Call To Worship
O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you;
my soul thirsts for you;
my flesh faints for you,
as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.
So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary,
beholding your power and glory.
Because your steadfast love is better than life,
my lips will praise you.
So I will bless you as long as I live;
in your name I will lift up my hands.
My soul will be satisfied as with fat and rich food,
and my mouth will praise you with joyful lips,
when I remember you upon my bed,
and meditate on you in the watches of the night;
for you have been my help,
and in the shadow of your wings I will sing for joy.
Opening Hymn
Advent Reading & Prayer: Southwick Family
Song #1
Offering & Prayer
Song #2 (Hark the Heralds Angels Sing)
Lord’s Supper
Please be seated.
(beat)
What does “Hark the herald angels sing” mean? Of course, we all know what angels singing is all about. But, hark and herald aren’t words we often use often in conversation. To hark means to “listen up,” or “pay attention.” The songwriter is calling our attention to the herald angels—that is, the messenger angels who are about to proclaim something in song. Now, of course, this is redundant because a herald is a messenger and angel means messenger, but I guess sometimes you have to find the right amount of syllables to fill out a line in a song.
So, what is it that these messengers of heaven are proclaiming? What is it that we should pay attention—or harken ourselves—to? It is the announcement of the coming of the promised Messiah. It is the fulfillment of prophecy and the culmination of the Advent. The Promised One has come to reconcile sinners back to their holy God.
The messengers in the song then call mankind to respond in joy and join the chorus of heaven as they praise the name of the One True God. And consistent with the Messiah’s true God nature, the angels call us to give glory to the newborn king just as we would to God Himself. For Christ would come as the everlasting Lord of all things and redeem all of creation to the glory of God the Father.
These heralds are proclaiming to us the truth of the gospel—the good news of Jesus. They are calling us to take up our place amongst their number and join in the choir who boldly proclaim the truth of the Redeemer. Jesus has come in the fullness of time. The first Advent is over. But the second Advent continues as we wait for Him to come again. As we wait, we spend this time of communion each week reflecting on His sacrifice that brings us back into relationship with the Most High Creator God.
We’re going to continue our reading about Jesus from the book of Mark. Today we will continue in chapter 15:
And they compelled a passerby, Simon of Cyrene, who was coming in from the country, the father of Alexander and Rufus, to carry his cross. And they brought him to the place called Golgotha (which means Place of a Skull). And they offered him wine mixed with myrrh, but he did not take it. And they crucified him and divided his garments among them, casting lots for them, to decide what each should take. And it was the third hour when they crucified him. And the inscription of the charge against him read, “The King of the Jews.” And with him they crucified two robbers, one on his right and one on his left. And those who passed by derided him, wagging their heads and saying, “Aha! You who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself, and come down from the cross!” So also the chief priests with the scribes mocked him to one another, saying, “He saved others; he cannot save himself. Let the Christ, the King of Israel, come down now from the cross that we may see and believe.” Those who were crucified with him also reviled him.
At this time, I am going to have our ushers come forward. If you are a follower of Jesus, in that you have accepted Him as Savior, bowed to Him as King, and been baptized in obedience to His commandment, we invite you to participate with us. In just a moment, we will pass the plates. Please take a piece of bread and a cup and hold it until we take together.
Pass
Instruction from Jesus: Read Luke 22:14-20
And when the hour came, he reclined at table, and the apostles with him. And he said to them, “I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. For I tell you I will not eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.” And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he said, “Take this, and divide it among yourselves. For I tell you that from now on I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.” And he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.
Prayer of Blessing on bread and cup
Song #3
Pastoral Prayer
World - Nigeria attacks
Country- Flooding in Washington
State- Corridor Church, Milford
City- People drawn to Jesus at Christmas
SHBC- Prepare us for 2026
Introduction
We are wrapping up our Advent series this week which we have called Waiting with Isaiah. So far, we have covered 3 of the topics of Advent, or the waiting period, for the coming Messiah.
First, we covered Hope, where we found that even in the midst of dark times, even when the line of David would falter, hope would remain in a coming anointed One. This Messiah would arise from the roots of Jesse as a shoot grows out of a stump and would restore not only the throne, but creation as a whole.
Then, we spoke of Peace, where Isaiah shared the words of God to speak of One who would come and clear the way by building a highway for the loyal children of Yahweh to walk as they made their way to the Mountain of God. He said that the Messiah would bring revival to the people and restore all of creation to its proper ordered design.
And last week, Pastor Atreju spoke of Joy. We found that joy is not an emotion that is to be felt by God’s imagers, but the proper response of thankfulness to God for all that He has done. Joy is not found from a single drink from the fountain of forgiveness, but joy is built as we continually draw from the water of life that the Messiah offers. And as we accept and acknowledge God’s grace that comes from that living water, we respond to Him with thankful hearts.
Hope, peace, and joy abide in Jesus. But, Paul tells us that the greatest gift that He brings to us is Love.
[TITLE SLIDE]
This week we will speak of Love. Love is one of the most commonly misunderstood concepts that we have in the West. For most Westerners, the modern understanding of love is simply emotion. To love is to feel affection for another person. Most of the time, that affection takes the form of romantic interest beyond a mere sexual attraction.
But the kind of love that the Bible speaks of is more like the way we speak about loving our family. There, within our own family dysfunction, we find it easier to separate love from like. Love takes on a form that is more dutiful. There is a felt need to love a family member out of loyalty and obligation. Ultimately, love is something that we are choosing to give to them, and it is less influenced by our emotion than it is by our felt belonging to that family.
The Apostle Paul often spoke of love. In fact, he ranked it as the highest of Christian virtues. In 1 Corinthians 13–which we should get to towards the end of next year–he personifies love as something that encapsulates all of the fruit of the Spirit. Love is patient and kind and selfless. And love will endure through every circumstance and each wave of emotion. It is not conditional on outside factors, but is resolved by the choice made within the free will of a human being. It is a choice that is grounded within a covenant to another person or group of persons. This is the type of love that is required for marriage and fraternal brotherhood and in the body of Christ—His church. It is the type of covenant love that we receive from God and He expects in return.
This is that hesed love that we spent much of this year talking about. It is modeled after God’s loving loyalty to us, within which He gives us mercy and grace and kindness even when we are at our most undeserving. And it’s God’s hesed, or loving-kindness, that we will be looking at today as we close out our Advent series.
If you have your Bible, please turn with me to Isaiah chapter 54. Today’s passage comes within a portion of Isaiah’s prophecy that is focused on the coming Messiah. It is this portion of scripture that is renown for speaking of God’s promise of salvation to His people and the establishment of the suffering servant role that the Messiah will assume.
And it is just after this prophecy of the suffering servant that Isaiah records these words of God. Look with me. Isaiah chapter 54, starting in verse 1:
[MAIN PASSAGE SLIDE x6]
“Sing, O barren one, who did not bear;
break forth into singing and cry aloud,
you who have not been in labor!
For the children of the desolate one will be more
than the children of her who is married,” says the Lord. (/)
“Enlarge the place of your tent,
and let the curtains of your habitations be stretched out;
do not hold back; lengthen your cords
and strengthen your stakes.
For you will spread abroad to the right and to the left,
and your offspring will possess the nations
and will people the desolate cities. (/)
“Fear not, for you will not be ashamed;
be not confounded, for you will not be disgraced;
for you will forget the shame of your youth,
and the reproach of your widowhood you will remember no more.
For your Maker is your husband,
the Lord of hosts is his name;
and the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer,
the God of the whole earth he is called. (/)
For the Lord has called you
like a wife deserted and grieved in spirit,
like a wife of youth when she is cast off,
says your God.
For a brief moment I deserted you,
but with great compassion I will gather you. (/)
In overflowing anger for a moment
I hid my face from you,
but with everlasting love I will have compassion on you,”
says the Lord, your Redeemer.
“This is like the days of Noah to me:
as I swore that the waters of Noah
should no more go over the earth,
so I have sworn that I will not be angry with you,
and will not rebuke you. (/)
For the mountains may depart
and the hills be removed,
but my steadfast love shall not depart from you,
and my covenant of peace shall not be removed,”
says the Lord, who has compassion on you.
Here, God speaks to His bride and tells her what is about to take place. He says that she will pay a price for her unfaithfulness, but that hope will remain because of His great love for her. Let’s dig in and see how this plays out.
[POINT 1 SLIDE]
Disgraced (v 1)
God says that the Southern kingdom of Judah, here described as the remnant of Israel, God’s bride, will be disgraced for her unfaithfulness to Him. Look back at verse 1:
[PASSAGE SLIDE]
“Sing, O barren one, who did not bear;
break forth into singing and cry aloud,
you who have not been in labor!
For the children of the desolate one will be more
than the children of her who is married,” says the Lord.
As we enter this passage, remember that Isaiah has just finished prophesying about the salvation of the people of Israel by the promised suffering servant. And so, God starts this new section by commanding His people to “sing,” or rejoice, for their coming salvation.
He then begins to remind them of their unfaithfulness and to explain to them about what is about to come to pass. He is encouraging them to endure the consequences of their sin because He has something better planned for their future.
He calls Judah—the remnant of Israel—the “barren one.” And He goes on to say that the “children of the desolate one will be more than the children of her who is married.”
Why is God calling Israel, who is described in the OT as His bride, barren? Did they not grow from one family to thousands upon thousands? Did He not promise Abraham to make his offspring as abundant as the stars?
It boils down to faithlessness. The fact that—during Isaiah’s time—Israel was no longer producing sons and daughters who were faithful to Yahweh, meant that they could not produce viable offspring. As Paul will make clear in the New Testament, Abraham’s descendants wouldn’t just be the physical offspring of the Patriarch; they would be those who inherited his heart and his loyalty to God.
At the beginning of verse 1, God described Israel as His barren wife. But then He goes on to say that the desolate woman will be more fruitful than His barren wife. So, how should we parse who the desolate woman is? For that, let’s jump back a few chapters to Isaiah 50:
[SCRIPTURE SLIDE]
Thus says the Lord:
“Where is your mother’s certificate of divorce,
with which I sent her away?
Or which of my creditors is it
to whom I have sold you?
Behold, for your iniquities you were sold,
and for your transgressions your mother was sent away.
Israel—the barren wife who refuses to produce faithful offspring—will be divorced by God and disgraced because of her infidelity. These children that she is having belong to the gods of the nations, for they have turned away from Yahweh God. Israel has introduced generational curses to her family, and thus will be sent away as a divorcee cursed by the barrenness of reproducing only unfaithful offspring.
[PASSAGE SLIDE]
The “desolate” woman in chapter 54, then, is the same remnant of Israel, only post-divorce. God is telling Israel what is to come. He is comparing Israel now, as the barren wife, to what they will be in the future, the desolate woman. Because of their unfaithfulness, they will be sent away and exiled from the land as an unfaithful woman with a certificate of divorce would be.
But, even though they will be disgraced and sent into the wilderness in exile, He offers them hope. In fact, He commands them to sing in joy for their redemption to come.
[POINT 2 SLIDE]
Redeemed (vv 2-8)
There is hope in the spoken word of God. God doesn’t just speak in judgment. This idea of a wrathful God in the Old Testament and a compassionate God in the New Testament is pure bunk. God’s love for His human creation moves Him toward stepping into the story of humanity to bring redemption, for they cannot repair what has been broken on their own. And we see this theme of God redeeming His people throughout the entirety of the Biblical text.
Here in Isaiah 54, God is promising the remnant of Israel that restoration will come. And not just in restoring His people to the land of Israel. It’s much bigger than that. Instead, He promises to redeem all things, which will bring His people blessings beyond anything they can hope or imagine.
God continues speaking of this promised redemption in verse 2:
[PASSAGE SLIDE]
“Enlarge the place of your tent,
and let the curtains of your habitations be stretched out;
do not hold back; lengthen your cords
and strengthen your stakes.
For you will spread abroad to the right and to the left,
and your offspring will possess the nations
and will people the desolate cities.
In the Ancient Near East, the matriarch and her young women were responsible for erecting and maintaining the family tent. Here, God is telling the disgraced and desolate woman to make her tent bigger, for “you will spread abroad” in every direction. He is going to help her to produce faithful offspring by redeeming her once and for all.
Well, how far will this tent spread?
How big is God’s promised blessing to this redeemed family?
He says that her offspring will be so numerous that not only will they fill the desolate cities of Israel, but they will possess the nations. Just as the barren woman had been, the nations have not produced any viable offspring who are loyal to the Almighty Creator God. Their cities lie in spiritual ruin and have been dedicated to those who call themselves gods.
But, Yahweh will redeem the cities of Israel and the nations by redeeming His wife and teaching her offspring faithfulness. At some point in the future, God’s family, which will come through the redeemed woman, will cover all of the earth. She and her offspring will possess the desolate nations and bring them into submission to the Creator.
God continues speaking to the barren woman in verse 4:
[PASSAGE SLIDE]
“Fear not, for you will not be ashamed;
be not confounded, for you will not be disgraced;
for you will forget the shame of your youth,
and the reproach of your widowhood you will remember no more.
For your Maker is your husband,
the Lord of hosts is his name;
and the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer,
the God of the whole earth he is called.
God says that her redemption will be such that she will forget her shame and disgrace. God will wipe away her memory of life without her husband. She has wandered away in infidelity as a young and immature spouse, but God will restore her in spite of her disloyalty. Consequence will come, but when she learns to grieve her sin, redemption will follow.
Just decades before Isaiah spoke to the Southern kingdom of Judah, Hosea had become a living illustration of this same idea as he prophesied to the Northern kingdom of Israel.
God called Hosea go to find a prostitute and marry her. Look at Hosea chapter 1:
[SCRIPTURE SLIDE]
When the Lord first spoke through Hosea, the Lord said to Hosea, “Go, take to yourself a wife of whoredom and have children of whoredom, for the land commits great whoredom by forsaking the Lord.”
Think about this. God calls a prophet, who should be one of the holiest people in the land, and tells him to go and find one of the most unholy women and marry her.
Hosea can’t be thrilled with this assignment that God has given him. But he obeys. He finds a prostitute and marries her. He gives her sustenance and protection, shelter and love. And yet it is not enough for this woman. In her innate selfishness, she wants more than this one holy man can give her.
She misses the attention of other lovers and the money and power that come from preying on the sexual desires of others. So, she returns to her life of whoredom. She goes back to the life that she knew before. She desires the fleeting thrill of sin and danger over that of safety and security.
But God doesn’t allow Hosea to let her go without a fight. In chapter 3, God tells Hosea to go and buy her back from another man. He redeems her with silver and raisin cakes. And then he takes her home to their children and begins to woo her back.
God uses Hosea as a living prophecy of what will happen to Israel. He is called to do this in front of the whole community. But, God doesn’t just speak through Hosea’s actions. He gives him words to speak as well. Look what God says about Israel through Hosea in chapter 2:
[SCRIPTURE SLIDE]
And I will punish her for the feast days of the Baals
when she burned offerings to them
and adorned herself with her ring and jewelry,
and went after her lovers
and forgot me, declares the Lord.
“Therefore, behold, I will allure her,
and bring her into the wilderness,
and speak tenderly to her.
God will punish his wife for her infidelity. But, after she endured the consequences of her sin and repented, He will come to her and woo her back by offering redemption. This is exactly what is happening here in Isaiah 54. The remnant of Israel has turned her back on her husband and chased after other gods, desiring the embrace of casual lovers who can offer her nothing of worth.
God continues speaking in our passage:
[PASSAGE SLIDE x2]
For the Lord has called you
like a wife deserted and grieved in spirit,
like a wife of youth when she is cast off,
says your God.
For a brief moment I deserted you,
but with great compassion I will gather you. (/)
In overflowing anger for a moment
I hid my face from you,
but with everlasting love I will have compassion on you,”
says the Lord, your Redeemer.
God says that He had cast her off and sent her away as a divorced wife—He had deserted her—but He will be moved by His compassion for her and come bring her back into His embrace.
Just as Hosea did, He will allow His wife to experience the natural consequences of her sin, but His love is such that He will not leave her there. He will remove His presence and His hand of protection from her, but He will come find her and redeem her when her time of disgrace is complete.
And this is exactly what we see Him doing in the preceding chapters of Isaiah as He speaks of the coming Messiah. The Messiah will come to draw Israel back to God, calling them to obedience and redeeming them by suffering in their place.
I want to read for you what God says about the promised Redeemer in the 15 verses that precede our passage:
Behold, my servant shall act wisely;
he shall be high and lifted up,
and shall be exalted.
As many were astonished at you—
his appearance was so marred, beyond human semblance,
and his form beyond that of the children of mankind—
so shall he sprinkle many nations.
Kings shall shut their mouths because of him,
for that which has not been told them they see,
and that which they have not heard they understand.
Who has believed what he has heard from us?
And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
For he grew up before him like a young plant,
and like a root out of dry ground;
he had no form or majesty that we should look at him,
and no beauty that we should desire him.
He was despised and rejected by men,
a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief;
and as one from whom men hide their faces
he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
Surely he has borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows;
yet we esteemed him stricken,
smitten by God, and afflicted.
But he was pierced for our transgressions;
he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
and with his wounds we are healed.
All we like sheep have gone astray;
we have turned—every one—to his own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.
He was oppressed, and he was afflicted,
yet he opened not his mouth;
like a lamb that is led to the slaughter,
and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent,
so he opened not his mouth.
By oppression and judgment he was taken away;
and as for his generation, who considered
that he was cut off out of the land of the living,
stricken for the transgression of my people?
And they made his grave with the wicked
and with a rich man in his death,
although he had done no violence,
and there was no deceit in his mouth.
Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him;
he has put him to grief;
when his soul makes an offering for guilt,
he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days;
the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.
Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied;
by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant,
make many to be accounted righteous,
and he shall bear their iniquities.
Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many,
and he shall divide the spoil with the strong,
because he poured out his soul to death
and was numbered with the transgressors;
yet he bore the sin of many,
and makes intercession for the transgressors.
The Promised One will endure all of this for the barren and unfaithful wife, so that after she has endured the pain and hardship that come from the consequences of her sin, that she may be united once again with her faithful and loving husband.
It is God’s love for His people that moves Him to such extremes. Why would a husband take back a wife who is unfaithful and abusive and will abandon him at any opportunity for excitement? Why would God offer her compassion after her unfaithfulness?
It’s because He cannot do anything other. It is God’s nature to love His creation. Love is part of His character. In fact, the Bible says that God is love. He pours out His loving loyalty to His people, despite what they have done. He is always active, always chasing, always wooing, always redeeming—because that is what love is. That is what love does. That is who God is…
It is because God always acts in love that He is the ultimate covenant-keeper.
[POINT 3 SLIDE]
Covenant (vv 9-10)
God not only gives hesed to us, He is that loving loyalty because He cannot do otherwise. To covenant with another person is to image the way that God engages in relationships. He has created and covenanted with His human creation, and that covenant cannot be overcome by the introduction of sin. He will woo His wife back by offering her safety and security once more. He will give her compassion. We’ll close here with verses 9 and 10:
[PASSAGE SLIDE x2]
“This is like the days of Noah to me:
as I swore that the waters of Noah
should no more go over the earth,
so I have sworn that I will not be angry with you,
and will not rebuke you. (/)
For the mountains may depart
and the hills be removed,
but my steadfast love shall not depart from you,
and my covenant of peace shall not be removed,”
says the Lord, who has compassion on you.
His love will continue through sin, through unfaithfulness, through abandonment. For it is a steadfast love. It cannot be moved by circumstance.
God was calling His people to understand and rest in His love. Consequences were coming for their unfaithfulness, but He was teaching them how to see hope and find peace and joy even in the midst of trial.
God loved them completely. He wouldn’t even wait for them to fix themselves and work their way back to Him. In fact, they couldn’t even if they wanted to. He would redeem them and call them back to Him. He would wipe the slate clean and simply ask them for love and faithfulness in return.
It wasn’t about being perfect. It was about giving their hearts to the only One worth giving it to.
Application
We have the benefit of looking back and seeing how all of this played out. The prophecies of Hosea and Isaiah were fulfilled. God removed His presence and His hand of protection from both Israel and Judah. Israel was destroyed and scattered to the wind. Judah was conquered and exiled to Babylon.
And it was there, in Babylon, where a few faithful men cobbled together the law and the prophets and learned to rest in the hope of the Promised Messiah.
Jesus came as that Messiah 2000 years ago. God came to earth and lived as a man and died in our place to offered us the redemption that was promised in Isaiah 54. All who believe that Jesus is the Messiah and become faithful to the covenant by giving Him loyal love are healed by His stripes.
The faithful church of Jesus is the remnant of Israel. We have been wooed back away from the false love of foreign gods and into the loving embrace of the One True God. We stand as the Bride of Christ, the redeemed desolate woman.
And God has called us to expand the tent. For as we fulfill the mission to build His church, we are wooing unfaithful human imagers of God back to their loving husband. And with every wandering soul who returns to faithfulness, the tent grows a little bit more.
As God’s imagers, we are called to reflect His love to Him and His creation. Give God your complete faithfulness. Put your selfish desires to death and give yourself to covenanting with your Creator—the One who loves you and gave Himself to win you back.
How will we demonstrate our love for Jesus this week? As we celebrate His birth and wait for His return, how will we sacrifice ourselves for the kingdom? I encourage you to move beyond praise and into action by sharing God’s love and imaging Him well.
If God is love and we are called to image God and be transformed into the image of Jesus, who is the visible image of God, then our character must become love as well. We must live it. We must breathe it. We must exude it. And others must see it coming from us as we go about our daily lives.
[PREVIEW SLIDE]
Invitation
For those of you who have not recognized Jesus as Savior today, I invite you to see Him for who He is. God, who came down in the form of man, to redeem humankind.
For those who recognize Jesus as Savior, but haven’t bowed to Him as Lord, I invite you to do so today. He is more than Savior; He is the rightful King over all of creation. He has defeated the enemies of God and commands those who are loyal to the kingdom. And He has called you to surrender your loyalty to sin and give Him your allegiance.
Will you believe? Will you give up all that you desire for the desires of the One who created you and pursued you and love you? Or, will you keep walking your own way, bound for desolation and ruin?
I plead with you to bow to King Jesus this morning. He offers you hope and peace and joy and love. And of the kind that you won’t find anywhere else.
CLOSE IN PRAYER
CLOSING HYMN
Join us for Christmas Eve 5:30 PM
CONGREGATIONAL BLESSING
